Hot-screensaver

Yo, it’s time to witness two of the world’s greatest ever tennis players take on each other. Roger Federer against Pete Sampras in what is touted as the Clash of Times! I reached Malawati Stadium early and still had plenty of time to check the place out. This time the place was packed with tennis fans and some Federer fans were seen taking photos with Federer himself. See below…

OK lar, this wasn’t Federer in person, but he’s as big as the real one. Haha… Anyway, it’s pretty warm outside and nothing much to see apart from heaps of people and some luxury Mercedes cars. Not sure why the heck did they display Mercedes here. We checked in and was surprised to see that they actually scan your tickets with a mobile device to make sure they were not forged tickets.

This time we were prepared. We had our dinner early before we came here… so no more expensive Haagen-Dazs for dinner… RM10 a cup. Anyway I couldn’t stand the temptation to see other chicks taking those creamy ice creams and had to buy one in the end. Haha…

As expected, some cultural and Malaysian performances prior to the game, exactly the same like what we had in the Nadal vs Gasquet game. This time we also had winner of 1st season of Malaysian Idol, Jaclyn Victor singing for the overwhelming crowd.

I enjoyed her songs although I couldn’t see her clearly. Couldn’t get a good shot of her also… don’t like my old Sony DSC P10. Perhaps it’s time to get a better digital camera… good for events such as this one. Just thinking only.

The stadium was about 95% packed this evening, obviously very good turn out rate as compared to two nights before. The MC, Mahadzir Lokman ushered the two players into the court at about 8:30pm and introduced them to us… He praised how many grand slams Pete Sampras had won in his career and how much prize money he had gathered in winning those matches.

Let’s cut the story short. The games progressed pretty well. Pete Sampras was still amazingly good despite that he has already retired for so many years. It was great to see this all time tennis great play again, in front of so many supporters and in front of yours truly!!! Can’t really describe the feeling. He was pretty humorous too, making fun of his muscular bicep, and arguing when a good ball was called out.

Roger Federer on the other hand was as cool as always. Didn’t show any emotions and just played his usual game. He obviously didn’t win the exhibition match easy as both of the winning sets went on to tiebreaks. Federer came out winning, 7-6, 7-6. Really a hard fought match, I would say much better and more anxious to watch than that of Nadal vs Gasquet.

This was actually their 2nd stop. The first was played in Seoul, South Korea on 20 November, 2007 where Federer won with a more convincing 6-4, 6-3 score. If you missed these two matches, you have another chance. Go to Macau! They will play at Venetian Macau Resort, Macau, China, on 24 November, 2007.

Before that, let’s enjoy some videos of the Shah Alam match before we end today’s post.

The players walked into the court. The crowd was overjoyed that they could finally see their idols!

See how Pete got the better of Roger, in style!

Pete, still very strong and steady!

By the way, Che-Cheh was there too… but not sure which corner was she at. Didn’t get to say “hi” to her. Friend, let’s go to Melbourne for Australian Open next year, shall we?

Tags: pete sampras, roger federer, tennis