Political issue stalls Swiss Indoors' Main Court renaming for Roger Federer
The Swiss Indoors in Basel is trying to rename its Central Court after Roger Federer, who will seek his tenth title in his hometown tournament later this year in October. There has been some political issue lately that did not allow the authorities to change the name. In an interview to Express, Basel councillor Martina Bernasconi said: “The main arguments have been that Switzerland and Basel only honour dead people. And that Federer is a brand and he wants money. He is the most popular ambassador of Switzerland. Because he speaks the Basel dialect, people have a high identification with him. He was Born in Basel and lived 16 years in this town, visited the school and his first tennis club was Old Boys Basel. He married (wife Mirka) here and his parents live in Basel. All over the world, he is well known, so he is really popular, not only as a sportsman.”
Meanwhile, tennis analyst Catherine Whitaker analyzed Federer's win over John Isner in the Miami Open final: "He said, ‘It's going to be like a penalty shootout, I love watching big servers.’ Federer loves everything, he’s just high on life. When I read those quotes when he said ‘I love watching big servers even more than I like watching long rallies.’ You just don’t know what’s going to happen it’s like a penalty shootout’, I just got too excited about it all.”
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2KoLGSe
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