Roger Federer's Gillette Trick Shot Not as Good as His Real Ones

(Aug. 20) -- About 3 million people have watched Roger Federer's William Tell moment. As part of an ad campaign for Gillette, in what was designed to look like an unscripted moment, Federer serves a tennis ball across a room and it knocks a bottle off the top of a film crew member's head. Then Federer repeats the trick.

Federer, who is looking to win the U.S. Open and his 17th Grand Slam in the next few weeks, has been coy when asked about the stunt. "Yeah. Well, there's a lot of debate at the moment, you know," Federer said. "You know how it is with magicians. They don't tell how their tricks work, you know."

Especially because magic isn't really magic -- it's an illusion, orchestrated optical trickery. And that's what this Gillette ad is. Can I prove it? No. But if Federer's serve was actually that accurate, it wouldn't have failed him in last year's U.S. Open, when he lost to Juan Martin del Potro in the finals.

Pointing this out doesn't diminish Federer's skills or the cleverness of Gillette's ad. And fortunately there are plenty of spectacular shots that Federer has hit in the course of his professional career that surpass the ones he didn't hit for Gillette. Here are five of the best:

1. For my money, this shot, an overhead off an overhead, against Andy Roddick at an indoor tournament in Basel, Switzerland, is the best shot Federer's ever hit.

2. This is another stylish example of winning a point -- this time the victim is Tim Henman, Federer's good friend, at the U.S. Open.

3. As for serving, here's an amazing second serve that kicks over Nicolas Kiefer's head for an ace.

4. A wonderful passing shot off a lob that Andreas Seppi follows into the net at the Australian Open. (Embedding disabled by request, sorry.)

5. An even better one against Novak Djokovic in the U.S. Open semifinals.