By Dave James
July 2nd 2009 @ 12:59am
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Majestic Federer storms past cannonball Karlovic
Five-time Wimbledon champion Roger Federer reached his 21st consecutive grand slam semi-final on Wednesday with a majestic 6-3 7-5 7-6 (7-3) dismantling of giant Croatian Ivo Karlovic.
Federer, bidding for a sixth All England Club title and a record 15th major, will now tackle either German veteran Tommy Haas or Serbian fourth seed Novak Djokovic for [...]
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![There’s been some interesting sporting experiments in recent years: Nadal and Federer playing on a half-clay, half-grass court; the ICC World XI playing Australia in a Super Test and three one-day internationals; and the golfing obsession of seeing how the best females would go on the men’s tour.
They didn’t really prove much.
We already knew [...] Benjamin Conkey: Let’s test today’s champions using yesterday’s equipment](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/giggs-football-immortality-th.jpg)
![First of all, let’s get something straight: FIFA’s apparent back flip on who can bid for the 2018 World Cup hosting rights has nothing to do with Australia and everything to do with Europe.
The world governing body aren’t just shafting Football Federation Australia, they are leaving everyone outside of the European power base in the [...] Davidde Corran: Time to get serious about our floundering World Cup bid](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/03/malaysian-fly-ointment-rudd-salisbury-mccallum-th.jpg)
![With England due to face Australia for the 8th time in one-day internationals in the past few weeks – and the 15th time in all cricket in three months – it seems an approapriate time to pour petrol on the fire of debate that is surrounding the 50-over game.
The problem, certainly from where I’m sitting, [...] Alec Swann: One day cricket is a case of familiarity breeding contempt](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/ecb-forces-one-day-cricket-james-hopes-th.jpg)
![Only 7,677 fans attended the Brisbane-Sydney clash at Suncorp Stadium on Sunday. The average for that fixture is almost 25,000. It’s a huge drop off, one that can be attributed to the controversy over the price of tickets, but also highlighting several important lessons about A-League crowds.
What the disappointing drop in crowd numbers highlights is [...] Adrian Musolino: Accepting some home truths about A-League crowds](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/which-chants-acceptable-th.jpg)
![After the much-maligned coverage of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, Channel 7 continues to annoy sports fans by delaying its Australian Open night session’s coverage into key states. It’s just another example of how the Free to Air (FTA) networks continually miss the fundamentals of getting sports coverage right.
Queensland, WA and SA viewers have had [...] Adrian Musolino: Free to Air TV still ruining live sport](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/02/serena-williams.jpg)
![At the beginning of October, Cricket Australia announced that the old state second XI competition would be replaced by a new Under-23 competition focussing on the development of spin bowlers. What was formerly known as the CA Cup would henceforth be known as the Futures League.
The Futures League will promote aggressive cricket by default, [...] Brett McKay: Australia’s spin future in a league of its own](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/australias-spin-future-hauritz-th.jpg)
![Bugger this. Time to deal with the big issues. Is it just me or has there been an explosion of photos of sportsmen in cafes over the last few years?
It seems weird that every Saturday I find myself in a café staring at a photo of an athlete in café. It’s like one of those [...] Steve Kaless: Why are sportsmen always photographed in cafes?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/willie-mason-th.jpg)
![By the time you read this, fulltime will have been called on another Europa League match day. 48 teams, 24 games and big names like FC Sheriff. Oh.
Talking about ‘spin doctors’ has already gotten me into trouble this week, but it would take a pretty talented one to put a positive spin on this [...] Davidde Corran: Is Europa League UEFA’s second best or worst competition?](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/10/is-europaleague-UEFA-th.jpg)
![Casting an eye over the A-League over the past month or two, what is becoming abundantly clear is that the teams that are using technique and mobility in the front third are the ones playing the most fluid and effective football.
You only have to look at the top of the table to see how [...] Tony Tannous: Technique and mobility up front are all the rage](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/technique-mobility-up-frontrudan-ognenovski-reinaldo-th.jpg)
![There was jubilation this week as I flipped over the newspaper to find the words “troubled footballer”, “nightclub” and “urinate” co-located in a sentence! It was the perfect opportunity to bust out a team that a couple of mates and myself have selected and re-selected many times over the years.
With its genesis in some [...] Andrew Jones: The Nitespots XI, part one](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/craig_gower-photo-th.jpg)
![Football is increasingly becoming more and more defensive. The distance between lines has been shortened, space is becoming more and more squeezed, and 4-2-4 has become 4-5-1.
At the 1954 World Cup, an average of 5.38 goals were scored per match. Fifty-two years later at Germany 2006, that had dropped to 2.31.
The financial imbalance [...] Davidde Corran: Football isn’t a red card game](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/rename-epl-gpl-patrice-evra-th.jpg)
![It’s a hard life being a die-hard fan. The disappointments far outweigh the triumphs, even though any fan will tell you on the day of victory that it was all worth it. Still, it all got too much for one Hawthorn fan on Saturday night.
Perhaps with the final hopes of a Hawk dynasty disappearing [...] Paddy Higgs: Despite fan’s frustration, Mitchell’s attitude refreshing](http://www.theroar.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/despite-fan-frustration-sam-mitchell-th.jpg)



