Basil - Railways to Roger Pt. 2

Roger's Town - Basel, Switzerland

Back in Europe for the clay-court season, I was returning back to the USA after meeting Rafael Nadal at his hometown and academy.

To make the journey complete I decided to book a detour to see Switzerland again, after the great holiday experience the previous Spring at the Sechseläuten or Sächsilüüte weekend festival.

Read Railways to Roger - Part 1: Zurich, Switzerland

Visiting Basel via train from Zurich

To complete this European tennis tour, let's go make a tennis pitstop to visit Roger Federer's hometown in Basel!

From here, you can see both Germany and France at the same time!

This is an all-important city for loyal fans of Mr. Roger Federer. Between tournaments, he often flies home to Switzerland to practice and spend time with his family.

Basel Bridge Seal

Just before Madrid, he spent some time prepping with his team to prepare his body for the clay season.

Maestro's Magic

His peers describe him as a funny/silly guy who's still a child at heart. More importantly, he's a very decent, humble human being.

Switzerland's shining superstar - the role model for tennis.

Just like Kei Nishikori from Japan, Roger is a global brand ambassador for Uniqlo.

Swiss Indoors - ATP 500 Event

If you can come here in the Autumn, around October, you can also visit the Swiss Indoor 500 Championships. Roger was once even a ball kid here!

   

The architecture and history of this city are amazing. You will see a lot of German influences around the town center.

Swiss-German is the language most commonly spoken here. But one can get by with English easily here, too - the Swiss are very multi-lingual!

Laver Cup

Later in the year, Roger welcomed the world to Geneva. Just one of many beautiful cities to visit and explore while in Switzerland.

To lend his support in America, he was nice enough to come by during his recovery to support his friends here in the USA for 2021. Flying to Boston unannounced, he surprised everyone during that Laver Cup.

In his final pro match, he played doubles with his greatest rival and friend, Rafael Nadal.

It was a very emotional ending, filled with tears of joy and sadness. But Roger could go out on his own terms, in his own time, in his own way. Tennis will always remember his career and personality fondly.

At the London 2022 Laver Cup, the Big 4 played together for the last time

See Switzerland and Travel with Tennis

I encourage tennis fans to plan a trip to Europe.
Witness the beauty of the country and explore new continents.
Combine your love of tennis and travel together! I show the way.

Why should we make our cages bigger?
When we can make this world smaller.

Perhaps you, too will meet Mr. Federer in the Swiss Alps!
Hope to see you at the mountaintop. Bon Voyage!

Tennis and Travel:
'Tis not the mountain we conquered, but ourselves.

Railways of Roger - Part 1: Zurich - Swiss Spring Snowman!

On the way to the Monte-Carlo tournament in 2018, I purposefully took a long layover in Switzerland.

After the Road to Rafa series, I created this article to start the "Railways to Roger" series. It seemed an appropriate introduction to those new to Federer's country.

A new book just released: Footsteps of Federer (March 2021) takes you through Switzerland. Rafa was pretty happy with visiting Zurich when Roger was the tour guide at the "Match for Africa".

For tennis fans, it's the perfect opportunity to take a short hop on the train transfer from the airport to the city center. You can be in the city within 15 minutes!

I can highly recommend this layover for anyone flying through Europe on Luftansa or Swiss Air (great lounge!). Aim to take an extended layover (at least 4 hours) if you want to check out Zurich. Even if you just are at the airport, I always find great souvenirs and authentic chocolates to share back home with my students and friends.

 

A stroll near Lake Zurich will allow travelers to cross several of the bridges displaying the beautiful architecture and history of this city. The swans like to come out to join the humans around lunchtime.

The tourism center is right inside at the corner of the train station. It can provide you many other ideas and sights to see on the map. The city center is very walkable with many shopping choices. One can even charter a boat tour down the river.

Spring Festival Holiday

As fortune would have it, I arrived during a National Holiday known as Sechseläuten or in German: Sächsilüüte. Usually on the 3rd Monday in April, it consists of a parade of horses and flower floats to welcome the arrival of Spring after a cold winter.

Böögg the Snowman

The climax of the parade is a giant bonfire built under a mega-sized snowman filled with explosives! The snowman is affectionately named Böögg. The horses ride in giant circles around it until it becomes engulfed in a huge pyro display. Plenty of fire safety precautions are taken to keep the flames from getting past the inner ring

As tradition has it, the quicker and bigger the explosion of Böögg, the sooner the Zurich citizens should expect a warm arrival of summer. It is the equivalent of our Groundhog's Day in the USA.

This is a celebration of the end of Winter and the start of Spring in Switzerland.

Sechseläuten_2010_-_Böögg (Explosion)
By Roland zh

Children's Parade Day - Kinderumzug

The Sunday before the holiday is when the Children's parade (Kinderumzug) takes place with the kids and horses all dressed up. Flowers are given away to the men of the parade as part of the tradition.

HD photos and video clips of my Zurich trip on Google photos.

Documentary: Battle of the Alphorn or Alpine Horns

With more time I would take a day trip to Interlaken and another to Lucerne.

Mount Titlis is a great glimpse of the Swiss Alps if you cannot take a helicopter ride around the Matterhorn. The layover should give tennis fans an opportunity to explore ideas on future returns.

The next Spring in 2019, I returned to Switzerland for a stopover visit to Basel - the home of Roger.

Stopover from Europe to North America:
I was on my way back to America after visiting the Rafa Academy in Mallorca, Spain.

It was an opportunity to do some training with Rafael Nadal, Uncle Toni, and one special WTA guest Naomi Osaka.

Preparing for the French Open after Barcelona, even Casper Ruud and team train here as his second tennis home.

The island offers adults, seniors, and kids plus families all something to enjoy. The beaches, windmills, old castles, and plenty of traffic circles!

Review: Rafael Nadal Academy Visit

Federer beats Djokovic! Perfect prediction...

Check out my prediction I made 2 days ago...Fed in 4 sets, with 2 tie-breaks:
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20110601151859AAyRcvV

I'm going to go with Federer for the win:

1) Federer was the last man to beat Djokovic
2) Djokovic has not played a match for 4 days because of the walkover, and might be over-confident and under-prepared
3) Federer has much less pressure to win than Djokovic, who needs this win to keep his streak alive and Fed has nothing to lose really.

I'm going to say Federer in 4 sets with 2 close tie-breaks...

Source(s):

www.JCtennis.com (from Rolland Garros)

• 2 days ago

Nadal and Federer in Miami SF's (First Rematch in the USA after 6 years!)

Update:
The match-up looked very much one-sided, unfortunately. Commentators compared it to a heavy-weight title fight with a 2nd round KO. The court surfaces that Federer has the edge on may now be limited to indoors and perhaps grass (for lower bounces). Nadal's high kicking groundstrokes to his backhand seem to be too much for Fed to handle.

His forehands were not bad, but also did not do enough damage to Nadal's defenses. In the end, Roger made around 40 unforced errors the whole match, perhaps going for too much when he was behind in the score.

BNP Pairbas at Indian Wells behind the scenes

Indian Wells Photos available at: https://www.calitennis.com/

TennisWorld Magazine Interviews Roger Federer

TennisWorld Article by David Cox
http://www.tennisworldusa.org/An-interview-with-Roger-Federer-articolo163.html

"Roger Federer sweeps into the suitably grand settings of London's Marriott County Hall Hotel. ....striding through the elaborate dining hall he still exudes class and sophistication. The word suave was almost invented for Federer, he eases seamlessly through multiple languages at press conferences and possesses the kind of aura which reduces even the most experienced journalist to hushed whispers and reverence...."

Tennis Stars "Rally For Relief" in Australia

Tennis superstars including Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, Clijsters, Stosur, and many other friends of the Aussies gathered together on Sunday afternoon in Melbourne for a special exhibition tennis event.

In one day alone, over $1.5 million was raised for the victims of Australia's flood disaster: WTA | News | Latest News | Stars Rally For Relief

Rafa plays for Immortality - G.O.A.T.

In my opinion, a victory on Sunday for Nadal will offically anointment him as the disputed G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time). Nadal has called this US Open his most important slam left.  If he wins on Sunday...he is the Greatest Ever.

Rafa is a more complete player - here's why:

Federer (career slam himself at age 27)...but Nadal gets it at age 24!


Nadal already has achieved:

• the Olympic Gold medal in singles
• the most ATP Masters Shields of any player in history
• winning multiple Davis Cup championships for Spain
• won both the Wimbledon and French Open back-to-back in the last 2 out of 3 years
• a better than 2:1 winning record against Federer
  
• has defeated Federer in all Grand Slams finals (except US Open) - Roger has NEVER beaten Rafa at French Open

Federer - US Open practicing the Tweener Shot!

Image by JCTennis.com via Flickr

Photo Evidence that Federer DOES in fact practice his tweener shots!! So Fed has tried this a couple times now successfully and hit the winner.

I think he likes hitting trick shots / magic shots. His favorite player was Fabrice "the Magician" Santoro, who was famous for his two handed forehand slices which Roger admits to admiring.

Watch his reaction in the Gillette commercial when he does the "William Tell" tennis shot. He loves a good magic show I can tell.

He likes to impress the fans with something unexpected. But I personally would not trust ANYONE to serve at my head - not even Roger! =)

Rafael Nadal ties Guillermo Vilas' all-time record of 53 consecutive wins on clay

VAMOS, RAFA!!

With this win in Rome over Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal now ties Guillermo Vilas' all-time record of 53 consecutive wins on clay.

Amazing 5+ hour Master Series Finals victory for the Spainard.
6-7 (0-7), 7-6 (7-5), 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (7-5)

I really like the shoe color change (Yellow/Blue) on his Nike Breathe Free III's. I think I'll try to exchange my NBF II's for a pair. His wicked topspin loops and unmatched foot speed are a feat of unparalleled athleticism against any opponent.

Rome Final Highlights on YouTube