And it was amazing.

I feel this is the way of the Tennis Gods repaying me for the utter disaster that was the Holy Slam in 2009. Being there and having to deal with my baby Rafa‘s loss to the devil incarnated was a quite traumatic experience. But you know what they say: that everyone has a bit of evil in them (Do people say that? Or did I just make that up?). Today, the devil won. AND I LOVED EVERY SINGLE SECOND OF IT.

The match was high-level and competitive. Soderling was bashing the ball like there was no tomorrow, making Federer play defensive. I have a feeling that if the Swiss had gotten more first serves in (I didn’t even check the stats), the match could have gone differently. Soderling was really pouncing on those second serves. Hitting backhand and forehand winners all over the court. In the end, he held tight to those crucial breaks and got the match.  That was some superb tennis from him.

I’d put the devil as the second biggest contender for the title now. It’s funny how he wasn’t even having a good clay season and, yet, he comes to Paris and pulls of the biggest upset once again. Even with the crowd heavily against him (stfu, Frenchies).

Federer’s loss means that if Rafa takes the title, he’ll go back to the number one position. This slam just got a lot more interesting.

*cue to instrumental music*

We’re now getting ready for the EPIC exhibitions coming up. In Abu Dhabi, we have this amazingly strong field + Wawrinka.

Play begins on the 31st and this is how the three days will exhibition work.

If you ask me, I’d say they should give Byes to the semifinals in all tournaments Rafa plays. Ahem.

But the exhibition I’m really, really excited to is, the one and only, Hopman Cup.

*cue to even more instrumental music*

Hopman Cup always brings the hilarity to tennis courts. This year, we had the super siblings Safins getting all the way to the final and being hilarious while doing so:

In 2007, we had, well, Dmitry Tursunov.

This year, here’s the full list of the teams:

So excuse me if I have high expectations of Team Russia this year. I’m hoping Igor will shown a bit of personality on court. Maybe he’ll deserve his own title instead of “Kiri‘s boyfriend”. But, hell, aren’t the teams just AWESOME this year? Let’s put aside the EPICNESS that is Russia for a second here and focus on the others. Sabine + Kolschi? Baby Pusher + Ace boy? Dream Australian Team? Sorana Banana + Romanian dude? LAURA ROBSON + ANDY MURRAY? Why yes, I am excited.

How about a HOPMAN CUP POLL? Fun y/y?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Amazing.

@dylan0024, we’d love to have your wise words published on Fierce Tennis again.

The boy annihilated the third seed, Tommy Robredo, in two easy sets, 6-0 6-2. NGHH PICO. Now he plays Sodermort in the final. Hey Pico, let’s make those swedes cry as they listen to ABBA, shall we? :DDDD

This post gives me the excuse to post this cute picture of him and Delpo: