Changing of the Royal Guard at Buckingham Palace happens every other day during the winter months and Sunday was one of those days. Last time I tried to see this event it happened to be Veterans, or as it’s called here, Remembrance Day and nothing happened. Yesterday though, the changing of the guard did occur, but I found out that unless you are glued to the fence nearest the palace all you see is the top of the guards’ heads. So I ended up just seeing the soldiers marching and heard the music. The palace is very impressive and so are the parks around Buckingham Palace…Green Park and then on the far end, Hyde Park, which is huge and a nice oasis in the middle of a big city.

After viewing the changing of the guard, and  a late lunch, I walked along the Thames, then took a boat to the 02 to see the World Tour Finals for the men. The Bryan brothers were playing doubles and Federer was  playing Berdych in singles! The Bryans lost; they had a tough time holding serve, and were broken 5 times in two sets. Mike played pretty well, but Bob was staying back on his serve all night and was off. They lost to Bopanna from India and his Romanian partner.

After a break, Federer came out and lost about 8 of the first nine points, double faulting to break himself, but then he found another gear and won 12 of the next 16 games. He sliced and diced Berdych to death, dropshotting him so much I’d say he was practicing for the seniors tour! Then he pulled out the SABR (Sneak Attack by Roger) which didn’t work at all.

After the match, Fed was presented with the Stefan Edberg Sportsmanship and the Fan Favorite Awards. The latter should be renamed the Roger Federer Fan Favorite Award!