Roger Federer took out Andy Roddick over the weekend, to notch his fifteenth major championship, and Nike put together a pretty cool ad to honor the accomplishment. Here is the spot featuring the likes of Michael Jordan, Tiger Woods and John McEnroe....

I don't know what it is with Sports commercials lately, but they've been popping up all over the place. Gillette's latest effort, which debuted on the big screen at Yankee Stadium today, features it's three pitchmen (Tiger Woods, Roger Federer, and Derek Jeter) walking through New York City ala John Travolta in "Saturday Night Fever". Here's your first look....

Pretty entertaining, and certainly much better than the last couple of commercials from Gillette. Now try to get that song out of your head for the rest of the night.

Now far be it from me to poke fun at a Tournament that is trying its hardest to let people know it's right around the corner, but when you employ Don King and the WWE to do so....I have to comment. The U.S. Open is getting underway today, but the past few weeks have been rather interesting in the way of PR for the matches in Flushing, New York.

First up was Nike's campaign hyping the potential final matchup of Nadal v. Federer. The Swoosh decided to turn the potential meeting into a pseudo-weigh in for the two Tennis stars and even brought in Don King to do what Don King does. Hype. Via the Telegraph....

King, speaking exclusively to The Daily Telegraph, revealed his “delight” at being called up to promote one of the greatest sporting rivalries on the planet. “You had the 'Thrilla in Manila’, you had the 'Rumble in the Jungle’ now we have the 'Grapple in the Apple’. We gonna take it to the moon. They try to pretend to be friends. But they’re no kin and they’re gonna bend. They got to be competitive.”

King, getting into character, insisted in his idiolect that the US Open would be “free of trickeration”. Tennis may never be the same. But nor would boxing have had some of its most memorable nights without the genius of King.

As annoying as King is, that's pretty clever and that poster is pretty spot on. You would think that "stunt" was enough, but oh no, they weren't done there. "Hey, Let's try to use the most obvious avenue to cross promote the Tourney. Why of course that's the WWE!"



Well then.....that was special. The collaboration between WWE and the U.S. Open isn't anything new, but I think it's safe to say that having a wrestler jump off a judges chair onto a tennis player is taking it to another level.

'Apple Grapple' brings a gleam to Don King's eye (Telegraph)

See how long it takes you to figure out who the person doing the voice-over is....

Oh Snap! No he didn't!!!

(posted by OMDQ)

We know who was better on the tennis court today, but here's another question: who makes better wristwatch commercials?





My vote is for Nadal. Yes, he required Pau Gasol's presence for that extra little comedic boost, and yes, the entire thing was in Spanish, but there's something about a guy getting hit in the face with a basketball that transcends language.

It's good to know that with everything going on in the world - war, famine, genocide, global warming - God is still able to keep his sense in humor.

Case in point: Roger Federer.

Look at this objectively. Federer is not only handsome and intelligent, he also happens to be unbelievably good at tennis. Like "in the running for all-time great" good. Assuming he also takes out the trash, does laundry, and gives good back rubs, he might just be the perfect man (even without those qualities, my wife would leave me for him in about three seconds).

So what does God do after creating Federer? He pauses for a moment, giggles to Himself, and sets the mold for Rafael Nadal.

Has any other great, otherwise unbeatable player ever found himself in a situation similar to the one Federer is in with the French Open? Imagine taking the New York Yankees teams from the 1920s - Ruth, Gehrig, Lazzeri, six American League pennants and three World Series titles in eight years, just an awesomely dominant team - and putting them in the 1980s American League. They would still be a great team that won 100 games a year and beat up on just about everyone in their path, but they would also have to go into the Metrodome and face the Minnesota Twins at some point, an otherwise good team that became almost unbeatable at home.

Like those Twins, Nadal is good on all surfaces. Not the best, not an all-time great, but good. Put him on clay, however, and forget about it. He's practically untouchable.

If I'm Federer, here's my plan: build an exact replica of Roland Garros Stadium, especially the surface, and practice on it as much as possible. Get comfortable on it. Then watch every single match Nadal has ever played on clay. Every one. Learn his tendencies, find his weaknesses. Obsess over it a little bit. Go into France in 2008 knowing that you have every angle covered. Then, do your best to beat Andy Roddick, Nikolay Davydenko, or whoever else makes the final, because you know that if you prepare that hard for Nadal, he's going down in the first round.

The point is this: Federer has won Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the Australian Open about 37 times each. Another victory or two in each venue won't make much difference. But if he can devote himself to clay, to walking off the surface at Roland Garros next year as the winner rather than the runner-up, he can solidify his argument for being the greatest tennis player of all-time.