I love Roger Federer

I would love to have been a professional sportsman. No surprise there.

Had I been one, I'd have wanted to be bloody good.

And I've wanted to be flair, not merely a functional player who got results.

But I'd also want to have conducted myself on and off the court in the right way. So no McEnroe temper, no Gazza idiocy, not a shallow playboy (any premiership footballer), no endorsing anything that will pay me money like Tiger and I'd like to have enjoyed it, had a smile on my face when I played and realised that I was bloody lucky.

Roger Federer is everything I would have like to have been. I could have coped with being Swiss-they make Toblerone after all. He's humble, unbelievable to watch and in terms of domination of his sport, only he and Tiger Woods bear any comparison at the current time. There is a good chance that both will retire and be acclaimed as the best their sport has ever seen. I think Federer is locked on for that; Woods has a little way to go.

I don't normally enjoy sporting dominance. I like the romance and unpredictabilty of sport, which means I'm probably more a fan of losers than winners-Jimmy White rather than Hendry, Henman rather than Sampras; or players who should have won more than they did, but didn't have the iron will of Lendl-Seve, Greg Norman, Boris Becker; and those that are just in fairy tale land-Kelly Holmes, Jimmy Glass and so on. I'm not sure I've ever taken a dominant player or team to my heart before (aside from the European Ryder Cup team); I don't remember cheering for a side, whom no one can think how to beat. Federer lost to two players last year (Murray and Nadal), he's been in every slam final since the he lost to Nadal is the semi of the 2005 French. The French in 04 is the last time he didn't make at least the semis of a slam. In the last 3 years he's lost 15 times; he's won 247 times. In two of those losses he held matchpoint, in another he was 2 sets up in the final against Nalbandian, even though he was injured and was only playing because he felt the end of year Masters Cup should have the world no 1 there. It should be boring by now. It isn't to me.

I hope Federer wins every slam this year-he deserves it.

He won last night, which means he is through to tomorrow night's semi, which I have a ticket for. I am stupidly excited. I fully expect to see him despatch Roddick in straight sets (even though Roddick beat Federer in the warm up at Kooyong when Federer decided to play serve-volley for a change) and I expect to savour every moment.

While speaking of inspirational people, John is now in Melbourne. To celebrate the 5 hours sleep he has had in the past 2 days, we went out last night, had pizza and had to leave 2 bars at closing time. And it's only just begun........