A first time

There's always a first time for everything.

I remember the first time I had sex. It seemed like an eternity ago. It feels like I've been doing it for a very long time, when in truth, most of the time it took place in my head.

Then there was the first time when I dived into the sea. I even played Uno underwater, and stayed below for almost an hour.

And James Blake has never beaten Roger Federer before. He has now, in the quarter-finals of the Olympics games. The No. 8-seeded Blake, a first-time Olympian at 28, was the lone U.S. male to survive the first round of singles. He had won only a single set in eight previous matches against Federer.

Roger Federer has never won an Olympic gold medal in the men's single tennis before. He won't now, no thanks to Blake. Come to think of it, he has never won any medals before in the Olympics. This is his third Olympics. He lost in the semifinals in Sydney 2000 while four years later, was ousted in the second round in Athens.

Winning the gold is one of his targets for this year. He has one more left, which is to retain the US Open he won last year.

But with the kind of slump he's in, it will be a tall order.

Come August 18th, Rafael Nadal will replace him as the new world number one. Nadal made it to the semifinals of the Olympics, and he will be facing Novak Djokovic next. Winning the gold will just be an icing to the cake to the great year he had so far. Winning the French Open, Wimbledon, becoming the world number one, and a gold medal. Perfect year.

Federer still has a chance to make amends in the doubles. He and Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland advanced to meet Mahesh Bhupathi and Leander Paes of India in the quarterfinals. But if he played like he did today, there is little chance of him getting a medal at all in Beijing.