Sport

Roger makes a racquet

WHEN Lance Armstrong told us it wasn't about the bike, we wanted to believe him. Yet, when Rory McIlroy changed clubs at the start of last year, people were quick to claim this was the source of all his ills. It was about the clubs.

Sporting fandom can be fickle. With Armstrong, we were right to believe him. The title of his first autobiography told us it wasn't about the bike, and work is surely under way on a third instalment called It was about the blood transfusions and the vast array of performance enhancing drugs, not to mention the years of bare-faced lies (catchy title, I'm sure you'll agree).

Rory, meanwhile, is beginning to find some of the form that had previously taken him to the top of the golfing tree. The constant discussion about the Nike clubs is starting to tail off. Yet at the Australian Open last week, all the talk was about one man and his equipment - Roger Federer, and his new racquet.

Listening to the discussion prior to his quarter-final against Andy Murray, you could have been forgiven for thinking Federer had somehow amassed 17 Majors playing with a table-tennis bat he had nicked from the local youth club in Basel.

Speaking of racquets, one lady who certainly knows how to make one is Maria Sharapova, and she joined the Swiss slickster on Tuesday evening's Game, Set and Mats on Eurosport where the host was quizzing the former world number one about his new piece of kit. "It's five square inches bigger, so it gives you a bigger sweet spot," mused Virginia Wade ahead of the Murray game, while Greg Rusedski day-dreamed about overhead-smashing Saturn down to earth with Federer's new racquet (above). Eventually the time came for the big reveal. Had Federer really unlocked a Smash Court Tennis-style cheat that allowed him to play with a huge, novelty racquet?

Out they strolled - Federer first - then off came the cover. Hold on, what on earth is that?! It looks like... is that... a tennis racquet, pretty much exactly the same size as used by everybody else on tour?

Get the hell outta here Roger, you crazy, neutral, fence-sitting Swiss cat. And you know what else? He can still play tennis with it too.

And while play got under way, co-commentator Chris Bradnam temporarily forgot himself - and the bat chat - to reprimand a few late-comers into the Rod Laver arena "Put down your wine glasses and keep quiet," he said, tut-tutting not because he was angry, but because he was disappointed.

On court, Roger set about his business from early doors, standing around the baseline licking an ice-cream and firing off a few texts while his magic racquet did all the work. "There's a few extra horsepowers on that racquet," noted Mats Wilander. "Vroooooooommm, vrooooooommmm, nayyyyyyy," he didn't add.

Murray had no answer and, even when Federer let him win the third set - just to give himself a bit more time to prepare for Jim Courier's post-match interview - the Scot was still unable to penetrate the Swiss guard as Fed wrapped up a handy fourth set.

Maybe it is about the racquet after all.