Lee Hammel, tennis legend, dies at 87

Lee Hammel

Lee Hammel, who would have turned 88 on Nov. 19, passed away last week of natural causes at his Salt Lake County home after fighting an illness at length.

It was found that University of Utah law professor Scott Matheson, Jr., played tennis at East High where Hammel coached tennis and taught social studies.

Matheson reflected Tusdy, “I played No. 1 singles on the team Lee coached, he would post the team rankings on his classroom door and he always listed himself as the No. 1 player. And he was. I could never win a match against Lee. He was one of those guys who rarely made a mistake.” Matheson was among many tennis supporters who believed Hammel and his wife Ruby were a

Roger Federer getting old?

Roger Federer losing his edge?

Does it seem Roger is losing his edge.  He has endured much, achieved much, tolerated much and delivered much this season. Do you think he can continue to have the weight of the tennis world on his shoulders, this is Roger Federer, not superman.

The day after his painstaking 5th consecutive triumph in the US Open last month, Roger Federer talked about how he had not felt stronger and fresher for a long time (yeahh…..) – that he believed the old invincibility (not quite) was flowing back. The chirpy champion looked as if he could have slipped straight into his tennis gear and played a few more sets.

Federer spoke, too about the period at the beginning of the year when he was not feeling at all chipper, about the glandular fever that had affected him and how he had worried about how he should tell the world that he had been suffering from it without any of his words sounding like an excuse for the semi final loss to Serbia’s Novak Djokovic at the Australian Open and the first round defeat in Dubai to Andy Murray. When Federer said yesterday that he might not play again this year, it was not that much of a shock, because his twin aims for 2009 are to regain his No.1 ranking from Rafael Nadal and collect a couple of grand slam titles so that he can overhaul Pete Sampras’ tally of 14, from which he is currently one removed. This is no time to flog himself to death.