Federer, Hot Dogs, and the Wimbledon Gentlemen’s Final

By Ted on Saturday, July 4, 2009
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First observation out of the gate, as the wet bun dribble is still fresh on three-time Hot Dog Eating Champion Joey Chestnut's chin -- the Chestnut vs. Kobayashi feud has become a second coming of Federer vs. Nadal. One dude straight owned the other for years -- Kobayashi over Chestnut, Federer over Nadal -- and then gradually, the tables turned. (Secondary element is that Nadal was always better than Fed on clay surfaces, much like Chestnut had a few specialty eating devices in which he could beat Kobayashi, i.e. funnel cakes. Secondary side note -- have you ever tried to put down two funnel cakes at a street fair? It's dicey. Try several pounds of it in 10 minutes.)

On this holiday weekend, the spotlight now switches from hot dogs to elite British people on immaculate grass courts -- the Wimbledon Gentlemen's Final on Sunday morning. You should go watch it at Playwright's Bar near Herald Square, which will be opening at 9am for the event. The final, if ya didn't know, is the aforementioned Federer versus Andy 'I have a pretty hot wife and a good serve but overall haven't won a ton of events' Roddick. Nadal dropped out of the tournament due to injury. As a semi-direct result, Federer will (likely) beat Roddick and surpass Pete Sampras for the most major championships won in a career.

If you're following this math, Kobayashi = Federer and Chestnut = Nadal, right? So Chestnut's first win was kinda like 2008's Wimbledon final, an epic battle that a book has already been written about. If you're a hot dog fan, you can only hope Chestnut gets injured and we return to a period of Kobayashi dominance, setting up a classic battle when both are seemingly at the top of their game. For tennis, this could happen as early as this August's U.S. Open. For competitive eating, it may be next summer at the corner of Surf and Stillwell.

If you were wondering about Roddick's wife, by the way --