Sports Fact & Book Rec of the Day 1/31/2012

1/31/2010:
Roger Federer extends his record of Grand Slam tournament singles victories to 16 by defeating Scotland's Andy Murray, 6-3, 6-4, 7-6 in the Australian Open final in Melbourne. Murray is bidding to become the first male from Great Britain to win a major since Fred Perry took the U.S. championships in 1936, and the first of either sex since Virginia Wade won at Wimbledon in 1977. Federer falls behind 5-2 in the third set before battling back to force the tiebreaker. He then claims the last three points of the tiebreaker to win 13-11 and take the championship. It's Federer's fourth Australian title following wins down under in 2004, '06, and '07. Murray will reach the finals of the 2011 Australian Open and will lose 6-4, 6-2, 6-3 to Novak Djokovi.

Birthdays:
Jackie Robinson b. 1919
Hank Aguirre b. 1931
Ernie Banks b. 1931
Camille Henry b. 1933
Nolan Ryan b. 1947

MEMORABLE MEMOIR

“I was in awe of my father then, and saw that he was a man and I was not, that he knew something and I knew almost nothing; and I was afraid I would never be a man like him.”
Ian Frazier’s “remarkable history of an unremarkable family” (The New York Times Book Review) is both an unusual, moving childhood memoir and a detailed panorama of an ordinary Midwestern family from colonial times to the present. It’s an elegant, well-researched, and compelling story from a former Harvard Lampoon staffer who writes travelogues and comedic books. Try Dating Your Mom to see his lighter side.

FAMILY, by Ian Frazier (1994; Picador, 2002)