Flumesday.com - Federer Beats 'Nadar', Rules Shanghai

Federer Beats 'Nadar', Rules Shanghai
I realize that writing about the Shanghai Masters Cup is not normally the sort of thing that gets posted here on Sundays but hey, it was a rough weekend. I was in no mood to write a top ten list. I stayed up all night Saturday to watch Michigan lose to Ohio State and, needless to say, my Sunday was dark. The only things that gave me any kind of joy this weekend was the double cheeseburger I had delivered to my house today and the Roger Federer-Rafael Nadal Masters Cup match I went to on Saturday night. I won't bore you with the details of the match, but I will say that Roger Federer won and that he's is a monster and I don't think I've ever seen anyone so dominant before in men's tennis. He also looks a lot like Quentin Tarantino. Something noteworthy about the Federer-Nadal match is that in China, Nadal's name is pronounced Na-DAR. And I'm not just making fun of Chinese people, it's actually his Chinese name. His name is three Mandarin characters: NA-DA-ER. He had a big Chinese introduction when he walked onto the court that ended in a resounding "NA-DARRRR!" It's funny enough when r's and l's are mixed up, but it's much funnier that the Chinese changed the name to "Nadar" so that they wouldn't be mispronouncing it every time they say it. So every time a Chinese fan yelled in support of the Spaniard, they shouted, "Ret's Go Nadar!" Sunday, Federer made short work of American James Blake (in Chinese: "buh-luh-kuh") 6-0, 6-3, 6-4 to claim his 3rd Masters Cup title. The Chinese woman next to me referred to Blake as the "black tennis player." The Chinese fans really appreciate the tennis and provide a rowdy attitude during the matches that you don't get at Wimbledon or Flushing Meadows. As my friend Kristin wrote, "here is a sport structured so that spectators can show off their manners and social class. Couple this tradition with the Chinese, notorious for their lack of any Western concept of propriety, and you have a real show."

•Herald Tribune: Federer Tops Blake in Shanghai