The Catcher in the Rye (Pg. 157-214)

Summary
Holden goes home to see Phoebe. She's sound asleep but he's still afraid his mother who has really good hearing, will hear him.Phoebe informs him that they are out, but will come home soon.  He tells her he got kicked out of school again, so she gets upset with him and refuses to talk to him.  He explained to her about all the phonies at the schools he went to and how they all sucked.  He recalls James Castle who was locked up in his room by his own classmates and committed suicide by jumping out his window. Then he tells her that he doesn't want to be some hot shot lawyer or anything, except the catcher in the rye. The catcher in the rye was the kid who played outfield and he would have to catch all the kids running towards the edge.  After his parents come home, he sneaks back out and decides to go to one of his teacher's house. Holden needs a few dollars to get on the train so Phoebe gives him her Christmas money causing him to cry.
He arrives at Mr. and Mrs. Antolini's house after they had a party.  Holden engages in a conversation with Mr. Antolini and tells him about him being kicked out again.  He tells him about an oral expression test at Pencey and how you would be graded based on how many people yelled out "digression" as you spoke.
This chapter is also very significant as Salinger shows the message of his novel through Mr.Antolini's lectures he's about to give Holden.
He encourages Holden to continue school and that he's on a "terrible fall". He shares his philosophical views with Holden, trying to comfort him. Holden didn't really hear a single word considering he was so tired, so he and Mr.Antolini fixed his bed and went to sleep.  Not too long after, Holden wakes up, feeling a hand on his head and finding out it's Mr. Antolini's.  Holden is paranoid that he tried to do something "flitty" and frantically leaves the apartment.

In the morning, Holden walks through downtown, feeling "Christmasy". He didn't know what to do. Then suddenly he gets this idea to just travel west and forget about his life here.  He would live in a log cabin that doesn't allow phonies.  But he thought he would leave Phoebe a good-bye note first.  He left a note with the main desk of the school to give to Phoebe which read to meet at the museum.  He tells Phoebe about his plan, and she gets upset and starts crying.
Holden tries to comfort her and asking her to be reasonable. He knew she would follow him regardless of what she said so he starts heading towards the zoo. After they went past the zoo, there was a carousel in the park that Holden knew she would like. They make up there, and he is convinced to stay. Honestly. It starts raining, and Holden doesn't tell us any more than that other than not to talk about somebody or else you'll just miss them even more.

Quote
"And I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff- I mean if they're running  and they don't look where they're going I have to come out from somewhere and catch them. That's all I'd do all day.  I'd just be the catcher in the rye and all" (Salinger 173)

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Other than the quote explaining the reason behind the title, I thought it's significance in how much it showed about Holden's view.  He says he was always the tallest so he would play in the outermost part of a rye field.  He is still pondering about preserving his childhood and the innocence of it. He wants to protect it, which explains him wanting to just catch kids that were running to close to the edge.

The Catcher in the Rye (Pg. 122-157)

Summary
Holden arrives at the theater early, and as usual is surrounded by "phonies" he can't help but to comment about.  There are all types of girls around him who he tried to picture with another phony guy.  Sally also arrives a little later, and Holden tells her he got tickets to the Lunt's which she finds "marvelous".  They head down to the show and in the cab, Holden tells he loves her and is serious, but Sally thinks he is just being friendly.  After the show, Holden is displeased with it because the actors looked a little cocky and goes on to say that "If you do something to good, then after a while, if you don't watch it, you start showing off. And then you're not as good any more.".

Holden recalls that during an intermission, Sally sees somebody she knows and starts talking to him.  He thought the whole conversation between the two was nauseating since they acted as if they knew each other their wholes lives after not seeing each other for so long. Holden thinks he's a phony because he's wearing a checked vest indicating he's from an Ivy League school.  Sally introduced them, his name is George.
They then go ice-skating in Radio City. After a while, they go in to the bar and get something to drink. They have a conversation about what they think about school and graduating to marry a phony after. Then suddenly, Holden gets an idea. He asks Sally to accompany him to drive up to Massachusetts and Vermont, spend all his money, get hitched, and then try to figure out his life from there. Sally doesn't go along with it and disagrees with Holden about the "marvelous places" they can go before they finish college. Holden tells her there won't be either, but it's because then they'll be working in big office buildings. He starts to get mad and calls Sally a "royal pain in the ass" which he regrets later and when she won't accept his apologies, he leaves.
Holden starts thinking about Jane again and remembers one the guys she dated, Al Pike. He remember Jane dating him because he had an "inferiority complex" which still doesn't mean he's not a "bastard". No one picks up when he tries to call her so instead he calls Carl Luce, a senior at the Whooton School when Holden was there as a freshman. Carl Luce was the smartest person in Whooton according to Holden. Carl tells him he can't have dinner with him but he'll have a drink with him around 10.

So until then, Holden goes to the movie theaters.  He walked in while the show was going on, and it had actors rollerskating.  It was some kind of Christmas show Holden thought Jesus wouldn't like.  Though, he'd probably like the guy playing the kettle drums. After that, the picture starts. It's about a a man who loses his memory, meets  a girl who publishes his book and love each other. Then the man's original lover sees him and brings him  back to his family, leaving the other woman by herself. Holden thought he would puke but found the woman sitting next to him even more distasteful since she cried over the movie but didn't let her grandson leave to go to the bathroom.  The movie made Holden think about war. His brother went to war and Holden thought he must've felt bad since he had to stay in the Army for so long with all the phonies in there. If there was ever another war, Holden volunteered for it.

Holden is meeting Carl Luce at the Wicker Bar and there are usually 2 French women who perform there. The phonies there would get a really big kick out of it.  The bartender was also a phony.  He was like Ernie, he wouldn't talk to you unless you were also really famous.
Carl Luce finally arrives at the bar and Holden recalls how much of an expert Luce was of sex.  He also knew every homosexual in the United States and scared his classmates by saying they could turn into one overnight. However he hates talking about his own personal sex life, which is what holden asks about next. Then he asks him whether or not he was going out with anybody at the moment. Luce tells him it's a Chinese woman from Shanghai, which confuses Holden. So he explains to him that eastern philosophy on sex was much more "satisfactory". Holden starts asking questions and picking at them. Luce suggests to him that he should see a psychoanalyst to straighten things out with his life. Whooten has to leave and Holden still thinks he's the smartest guy.

Holden stays at the bar and plans on getting drunk.  He watches Valencia, another singer perform and tells the bartender to give her a message.  He never did, so he decides to call Sally. He's drunk and tells her he promises to trim the tree with her.  He staggers in the bathroom to wash his face and sits near the radiator in there. He leaves finally, and walks towards the park.

He finds out he's nearly broke, and while he's walking he drop the record he bought for Phoebe which he gets depressed about.  It was really cold out and Holden thought he would get pneumonia and die which made him start thinking about Allie.  He didn't like the thought of being buried and surrounded by other dead people. He also wouldn't like the fact there would hoards of people at the funeral. He remembers visiting the grave one day with his parents and it starts to rain. They drive away but Allie has to be underground and sitting which bothers Holden a lot.  Holden has no where to stay for the night and nothing better to do so he decides to surprise Phoebe by going home.

Quote
"I said no, there wouldn't be any marvelous places to got after I went to college and all. Open your ears. It'd be entirely different. We'd have to go upstairs in elevator with suitcases and stuff. We'd have to phone up everybody and tell 'em good-by and send 'em postcards from hotels and all." (Salinger 133)

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This is Holden's response to Sally after she says that they can get married and go to marvelous places after they go to college. I thought Holden is losing it because before this he wanted to go to marvelous places. Right after this he also calls her a "royal pain in the ass" which is a not something you would say to someone you loved which he said he did. But this quote is another argument about the pleasures of not being an adult and how going to college would take that away. It is a childish view, I guess but then again his thought process is a little irrational considering he's also 17.

The Catcher in the Rye (Pg 80-122)

Summary
While in the cab, Holden starts a conversation with the driver about the migration of ducks and fish in the pond.  The driver starts getting irritated and Holden stops talking about it fearing he would drive the taxi into pole. When Holden gets to Ernie's, he has to wait to be seated and sees Ernie playing the piano and people trying to get a glimpse of Ernie of playing. Holden thought the entire place was phony from Ernie's playing to the people going crazy over it.  He knew Ernie is a good piano player but thought adding the extra ripples was phony. When he is finally seated, he is given this small table behind a pole, next to a couple he thought were having a boring conversation.  Then Lillian Simmons, whom Holden knows since she is friends with his brother, sees Holden and starts talking with him.  She invites him to go with her and her date, a Navy guy, to go with them somewhere. Holden lies and tells them he has other things to do, and leaves.
Instead of taking another taxi, Holden walks 41 blocks to his hotel, and starts fantasizing the situation he would have with he guy who stole his gloves and says he does not really care when he loses stuff as much as other people. The more he thought about it, the more depressed he got and considered getting a drink.  He is supposed to be a really good drinker and can hide it like this one situation where he and Raymond Goldfarb drank a pint of Scotch and he gets wasted while Holden had to force himself to puke. He goes back to his hotel and in the elevator, some guy is offering him sex from a prostitute. He agrees to a "throw" for 5 dollars and waits in his room for the prostitute.  Then he tells us, he has never had sex before even though he had multiple opportunities too because he never knew when a girl wanted him to stop. He gets dressed up waiting for her, and when she finally comes, he does not know what to do.  Her name is Sunny and makes herself comfortable and starts asking Holden how old he was.  Holden wants to talk instead and tells her about his fake operation. Sunny thinks Holden won't pay her so Holden gives her 5 dollars and she tells him it was 10 and leaves to get Maurice, the guy who offered Holden sex.
After she leaves, Holden starts thinking about Allie again and how never got sore over Holden not letting him go with him to play.  Then he starts telling us about how he's an Atheist and how he never liked the Disciples.
A few moments later, Maurice confronts Holden about the 5 dollars he owed him.  Holden refuses to give Maurice the $5 and Maurice continues to pressure him. Then Holden insults him and Maurice finally hits him and Sunny takes the $5 from his wallet and they leave. After they left, Holden had another fantasy of him finding Maurice in the elevator again and he shoots him 6 times in the stomach.
Next morning he arranges a date with Sally Hayes who he got a letter from  couple years ago. She is interested in theater and knew a lot about it, and Holden still thought she was stupid. He checked out of his hotel and went to Grand Central Station where he checked his bag into a safe box. He meets these nuns while he's eating his breakfast. They are carrying these cheap suitcases because it reminded him of Dick Slagle who had cheap suitcases compared to Holden's sophisticated ones, and did not want to get a "goddamn inferiority complex" about it. He found out they were English and history teachers who were nice but kept on reminding him of some kind of superiority, like how he ate bacon and eggs while they had toast and coffee. They started talking about Holden's English curriculum.  Holden contributes $10 to them and they all go their own ways.

After breakfast Holden still had a few hours to burn. So he decided to go the park for a little bit.  He stops by a record store and buys "Little Shirley Beans" for Phoebe. Then he sees this family coming from church and a little boy who Holden thought was very innocent humming the song "If a body catch a body through the rye". He buys the tickets for the shows that Sally would like because they seemed to be sophisticated and dry. He thought actors were phonies and never really liked the shows either. After that, he goes to the park and hopefully find Phoebe there.  He finds one of Phoebe's schoolmates and tells him she would probably be at the museum.  Holden starts reminiscing about his childhood and how he used to the museum with the school. As soon he passes by it, feels like going in, but remembers his date with Sally.

Quote
"The best thing, though, in that museum was that everybody always stayed right where it was. No body'd move. ...Nobody's be different. the only thing different would be you. Not that'd you'd be older or anything. ... You'd have an overcoat on this time" (Salinger 121)

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I thought this quote was another reflection of his views on retaining childish elements and being who you are.  He thought the sculptures represented his views on change, which he didn't like.  Also, not mentioned in my quote, but in the summary, was how he felt about the boy who was humming "If a body catch a body through the rye". Salinger has an innocent child just being himself sing this song to also show Holden trying to preserve child-like behaviors. It's also a cool reference to the title.  

The Catcher in the Rye (Pg 39-80)

Summary
Stadlater comes back from his date with Jane.  He is unsatisfied with the composition Holden wrote, so Holden rips it up since Stradlater didn't appreciate it.  They start talking about the date and Holden starts getting irritated.  Then he randomly takes a swing at Stradlater in the bathroom hoping the toothbrush in his mouth would cut his throat open, but misses.  He ends up on the floor after Stradlater punches him back and is pinned to the floor.  Holden repeatedly calls him a "moron" and he knew people like Stradlater would get annoyed.  Stradlater gets off of him with a warning, and leaves to go to Ackley's room.
Ackley is asleep when Holden goes over and lies to him saying he fought for Ackley's honor. Ackely falls back to sleep and Holden can't stop thinking about Stradlater's date with Jane.  Holden knows Stradlater can pretty much get any girl he wants because of his technique to show he was both sincere and and nice. Then he decides that instead of leaving Wednesday, he was going to leave that night and come back refreshed. He was going to take the train to New York and book a hotel. He packs his stuff and leaves with the money his grandmother sends him for his birthday four times a year.
On the train, he usually buys four magazines and a ham sandwich and could usually read through all tghe magazines but tonight he felt different. A lady boards the train and Holden finds out she's the mother of one of his classmates, Ernest Morrow.  He introduces himself as Rudolf Shmidt, the school janitor, but says he's a student there. He starts "shooting it" which was him basically feeding her crap about Ernest who is the complete opposite of how he's describing him. He lies to her saying he was having an operation to remove a tumor in his brain and she tells him to visit them in the summer,
He got off at Penn Station and wants to call someone but can't because everyone is just going to get him in trouble somehow or he can't reach them.  He checks into the Edmont Hotel and calls it crumby.  From his window he can see the other side of the hotel and other people's rooms.  He sees a guy dressing as a woman and in another window he sees a couple squirting water on each other.  He said he doesn't understand sex that well but he does have his ideas about it. Then he remembered he had the number of a woman in the area that a friend gave him from Princeton.  So he calls up Faith Canvendish and says he wants to meet up with her but never got to.
He thought about his sister who he really cares about and tells about her personality. Next he goes down to the club Lavender Room and see three women and starts dancing with one of them. He starts to like one of them and tells them Gary Cooper just left which bummed her out. They stopped dancing, took their drinks, and left.
Holden remembers being with Jane and how they used to play tennis and golf. Holden is a really good golfer and once almost made it into a movie clip.  He said to never kid a girl you liked and he never used to joke around with Jane which made it uncomfortable for him later on. To stop thinking about her, he takes a cab down to Greenwich Village to Ernie's to listen to him playing the piano.

Quote
"I told him to stop off on the way to the can and give Mrs. Shmidt the time. Mrs. Shmidt was the janitor's wife. She was around sixty-five" (Salinger 45)

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I found the quote really funny but it reflected how Holden was still immature about resolving conflicts. The short sentences also added to the humor. 

The Catcher in the Rye (Pg 1-39)

Summary
Holden Caufield is the narrator and starts off by telling a short autobiography, though he says he isn't going to tell his "whole goddamn autobiography or anything".  He is giving a description of his life, mentioning his brother D.B. who is a successful writer.  He really starts with the day he left Pencey Prep. He did not meet the requirements of the school and is expelled.  He remembers watching the football game but because he has no interest in it, he goes to Mr. Spencer, his history teacher.
At Mr.Spencer's house, Holden is consulted by Spencer about his situation in life. Holden does not know what he wants to do with his life and is uninterested in school and this reflects on his reports about Egyptians which he wrote a very brief description of and adds a note saying he simply didn't not care and it was alright for Mr.Spencer to flunk him. This will be Holden's fourth school he is transferring from, and feels like he will disappoint his parents.
Holden calls himself a liar after lying to Mr.Spencer to leave the lecture.  He goes back to his dorm and starts reading Out of Africa and then starts talking about his classmate Ackley who he finds irritating. Stradlater comes in shortly and and Ackley hates him, but Holden does not have much of a problem with him other than him appearing to be clean but in fact, is unhygienic. Holden is irritated when Stradlater asks him to write him a paper in order for him to go on a date and realizes the irony that even though he is leaving, he's still doing work for others.
On Saturday, Holden spends his night with Mal Brossard to see a movie.  He invites Ackley along knowing he doesn't have anything to do. When they come back, Holden finishes writing the essay for Stradlater and mentions the death of his brother Allie four years ago.  That night he slept in his garage and punched out all the windows.

Quote
"Life is a game, boy. Life is a game that one plays according to its rules." (Salinger 8)

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I felt this quote foreshadows Holden's growth throughout the book because right now he's kind of like a loser with no idea what to do with his life.  He's questioning the people around him, and he sounds like he feels out of place in his world.  I think soon he will understand that "life is a game that one plays according to its rules" is saying that he will have to be like everyone else to live his life happily, even if he questions conforming.

The Roger Federer Story: Quest for Perfection (Pg 97-155)

Summary
Adding to his grief over his previous losses was the death of his long time coach, Peter Carter.  During his stay in South Africa where it was normally a vacation spot for him to relax, there was news across South Africa of his death on August 2, 2002. He died in a car crash.  Federer got the news while playing in the Tennis Masters Series event in Toronto, and was absolutely devastated when he heard this.  Although Federer had already lost, he was still playing doubles and wore a black armband in honor for his late coach.
After his death, Federer lost all his focus and could not find enjoyment in the game anymore.  He withdrew from several events to try and regroup himself. He attended Carter's funeral which was his first funeral ever.  However, he did not just sulk but saw this as a opportunity to rest and since he did not play all that much lately, he was fresh for the rest of the season.  The Davis Cup was coming up and dedicated to the team's former coach, Peter Carter.  They won and soon Federer's confidence came back to him.  His goal by the end of the year was the Master's Cup in Shanghai which only allowed the top eight players in the world.  He was ranked No.10 at the time and with his victory Vienna he secured his place in the Master's Cup.
The Masters Cup was  round robin with the eight qualifying players paired in two round-robin groups of four.  Federer considered Agassi as a favorite and Juan Carlos Fererro as the runner up but proved to be wrong when Agassi was defeated.  Federer got to the semifinals where he faced Leyton Hewitt who was No.1 at the time.  His record against Hewitt was not the best and even though Federer put up a good effort, he could not beat him and lost 5-7, 7-5, 5-7.
When 2003 started, Federer made it a goal to win a Grand Slam tournament.  At the Australian Open, which is the first Grand Slam of the year, he got past the first three matches without losing a set but met David Nalbandian who Federer had a losing record against.  He lost in five sets, but later went on to win the next 16 out of the 17 matches he played.  The next two Slams met with similar results except he seemed to have gotten worst, losing in the first round of both the French Open and Wimbledon, both where he was the favorite to win. He was 22 at the time and 5 years into his professional career.

Quote
"He showed that he was a player who could not pull out a match even though he was not playing his best tennis." (Stauffer 102).

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What I found interesting about this trait Federer had was that it also showed in other players who later became the best players in the world.  Lleyton Hewitt is an example since he was never as talented as Federer but worked really hard and could pretty much win on determination alone.  Federer knew he was not playing his best but persisted and it's showing the stages that all champions go through which is making his place in the world after beating Sampras, going through the emotions and maturing after being on tour, winning consecutive small tournaments, and eventually win a Grand Slam after a slump.

The Roger Federer Story: Quest for Perfection (Pgs 68-97)

Summary
Wimbledon was Federer's favorite tournament. He won the junior title in 1998 but had yet to win as a professional.  He entered the tournament with pretty good results from the clay court season by going as far as the quarterfinals in Monte Carlo and beating No. 2 Marat Safin allowing him to move onto the third round of the Italian Open. He ended the clay season at the French Open with his best Grand Slam results yet reaching the quarterfinals.
Federer entered his third time into Wimbledon ranked No. 15 in the world.  He got past the first round with an easy win over Christophe Rochus with a 6-2, 6-3, 6-2 victory followed by another victory in the second round against well known Xavier Malisse. He finally defeated Jonas Bjorkman and this put him in the draw of 16 for the first time.  On the day of his quarterfinal match, it was unseasonably warm and for the first time, Federer was stepping onto Centre Court. Little did he know that he would be playing Pete Sampras, the leader at the time of Grand Slam titles with fourteen Grand Slams under his belt.  The stage was set.  Surprisingly, Federer had no qualms about himself that day and walked onto the grass confident, looking for a win. After a grueling three hours,  and forty-one minutes, Federer drove a return down the line, and everyone that was watching became speechless as Sampras watched it go past him. Time stood still for Federer, and as soon as he was able to take it all in, he fell to his knees and cried tears of joy.  He beat Sampras 7-6(7), 5-7, 6-4, 6-7(2), 7-5 at 7:20 PM. Surely, he was on every newspaper by the next day and was bombarded by the media. Unfortunately, his semifinal match against Tim Henman, Britain's No.1 player, met with defeat.
Federer was plagued with injuries after, injuring his hip muscle and developed shin splints. He spent his 20th birthday in Biel to undergo physical therapy, and there he found Michael Lammer, a rival from his junior years.  He did not return until the end of the US Open and from there his ranking just fell, finishing the year as No. 13.
Federer decided that he had to learn discipline on the court which was keeping him back from reaching the top ten.  he went into Hamburg with little expectations and won his first round match. This feeling of liberation was a relief to him.  In the finals, he had no trouble defeating Marat Safin, and won his thrid ATP Masters event. This brought his ranking up into the top ten for the first time.

Quote
"After three hours and 41 minutes of play, he slammed a forehand return of serve for a winner on match point to close out a 7-6(7), 5-7, 6-4, 6-7(2), 7-5 victory." (Stauffer 78)

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This was obviously the biggest win of his entire life.  He just took out the biggest man on the tennis scene as an underdog and went from a lowly tennis player to what some would call the next greatest champion.  This not only denied Sampras the chance to repeat history with five consecutive Wimbledon titles, but was also a significant milestone in his career.  After this win, he did not have to try and get lucky to be invited to ATP events but were actually requested to join.  No one has beaten Sampras for the last 5 years and then comes Federer who was actually lucky to make it to the main draw, and surprises the entire tennis world.

The Roger Federer Story: Quest for Perfection (Pgs 35-68)

Summary
With Federer's junior career coming to an end, he has yet to reach the number one and is trying to end the year being the best of all juniors.  The best juniors receive better contracts from sponsors and get more wild card entries into tournaments.  Just before making his ATP debut which is the men's professional tennis, Federer won the Wimbledon junior singles championships and received a wild card entry into the Swiss Open in Gstaad, a relatively local ATP tournament as it is in his country despite being ranked 702 in the world.  His first round match was against Tommy Haas, who was ranked 41 in the world and was also rising in popularity on tour.  However, at the very last minute, Haas withdrew and instead Federer played Lucas Arnold who was ranked 88.  Federer lost and his first experience with the professionals showed how different juniors are from the professionals.

At 17, with a ranking of 878, he achieved his greastest breakthrough by advancing to the quarterfinals of the tournament in Toulouse, France, his best record yet in an ATP match. For his good showmanship of skills, he was invited to the Swiss Indoor, a prestigous tournament with a history many epic matches between legends.  Federer's first round opponent was Andre Agassi, one of the highest ranked players there and to no one's surprise, he beat Federer giving up only 5 games.  On December 21, 1998 Federer finally made it to number 1 in the International Tennis Federation's world junior rankings with the Orange Bowl, one of the biggest events in the junior tennis calender.

Quote
"He charmed spectators with dynamic displays of the most diverse strokes and with his virtuoso onslaught. He seemed to posess infinte potential-but he nonetheless repeatedly lost to inferior opponents. ."(Stauffer 44)


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I thought this quote made Federer sound like he had so much potential even he had no idea what to do with it.  This showed that Federer was a diamond in the rough and just needed some polishing.  I like this quote because I can relate to this since I can't seem to get around pushers who are essentially a wall and just gets the ball back every time, but when its against someone who hits the ball, I somehow play a lot better even though the shots made from an opponent is much harder to return.

The Roger Federer Story: Quest for Perfection (Pgs 1-35)

Roger Federer is the "greatest player that has ever lived" and it shows in the numbers both in the number of trophies and his ranking.  He is a professional tennis player from Switzerland, not a particularly known for its tennis players, but Federer climbed in the rankings and achieved the number one spot and became the best in the world.  To this day(or rather to 2007 which is the year the book was published), he has tied Pete Sampras with the same number of Grand Slam titles, the four biggest tournaments held each year, held the number one position for the longest period of time, and is the all-time leader in earnings.

Roger's quest for perfection started as a child at the age of 4 when he was still very young and unexperienced, but had tremendous athletic ability and showed enormous talent, always being very active in sports.  However, he did not take losses very lightly, he would cry almost undoubtedly and frequently threw his racquet, all just pretty much bad sportsmanship. The weird thing is, as he would get older and mastered several strokes, when he would win a point, he was not satisfied because he did not win the point "perfectly" and often cursed at himself.  He played tennis at the Old Boys Tennis Club and would tell everybody he was going to be number one. Soon this passion for that number one spot became an obsession.  He, 3 other boys, and 4 girls were chosen out of etire group be part of a training program at the National Tennis Center at Lake Geneva.  This would be one of the biggest steps he made towards his goal.   As a junior, he was a menace on the court with his tennis skill  but also his rambunctious behavior which led him to cleaning bathrooms for a a week because he threw his racquet, slicing right through the brand new curtain.

"In his first tournament competition at the age of eight, he lost his first serious competition 6-0 6-0, although, according to his own estimation, he didn't play all that badly"(Stauffer 18)

I felt this quote brought Federer back down to earth. As someone who thought he followed Federer throughout his career, I can't even fathom The Greatest losing with such a score, it would usually be the other way around these days though, of course.  In fact, he lost a whole lot more than this as a junior and it's just really ironic. I guess this proves he's still human, or rather was a human before he became an android without losing written in its memory drive.

(First blog post, be gentle) :)