Shamelessly plugging the day-job, <a href=”http://news.ft.com/cms/s/32a6ed7a-4c5b-11d9-835a-00000e2511c8.html” target=”_new”>here is my tennis 2004 review on FT.com</a>. (Actually, I probably can’t reproduce it here due to copyright and all that.)
Category: Sport (Page 19 of 24)
<B>Personality of the year: Andrew Flintoff.</B> Forget all that BBC stuff. As a sports personality, Freddie is on another level. He is a personality in every sense – a character, a laugh, a serious competitor, an entertainer. His play is exhilarating. He contributes with both bat and ball. Freddie’s record over the past 18 months is not just superb in a statistical sense, but he has lifted England to another level. His confidence seems to have infused into the team. He plays cricket for his mates, and for his country, with real pride. Easily the sports personality of the year.<br /><br /><B>One-off performance of the year: Danny Williams.</B> Even a washed-up Mike Tyson is a pretty formidable prospect. All those face-tattoos, and the thought that you might not leave the ring with all your ears would be enough to scare most fighters off. Danny Williams is no champion heavyweight. The phrase “journeyman” could have been invented for him. But his performance against Tyson, whilst not boxing at its best, was still the performance of a lifetime. <br /><br /><B>Overall performance of the year: Roger Federer.</B> 2004 was, with the exception of the Kuerten match at the French Open, perfect. 11 titles, including 3 slams, 3 masters and the season finale. And not one of his rivals came close to beating him. Only Agassi took him to 5 sets. Hewitt, Roddick and Safin were his nearest challengers, and they were given a pasting. He made the game look ridiculously easy, and did it all without a coach. <br /><br /><B>Flop of the year: Paula Radcliffe (plus a mention for David Beckham)</B> Why hadn’t she run the Marathon course before? What was she doing? Why did she even try the 10,000? Radcliffe went from our big medal hope to a great British loser in the space of a few days. it was embarrassing. Perhaps there was a medical reason. Perhaps she should take steroids like most of the others. If she finishes her career without an Olympic title, it will be a massive pity. The other big flop has been Beckham. He had a mediocre Euro 2004 (as did many so-called Gallacticos), and keeps missing penalties. Sloppy.<br /><br /><B>Comeback of the year: Paula Radcliffe.</B> So, another marathon. A tight race and a sprint finish. All eyes on Paula – will she even make it to 20 miles without a little cry? As she pointed out herself, it doesn’t make up for the Olympics, but it’s a damn good victory in it’s own right. A lot of pride was restored in that race. Perhaps Beijing may turn out ok.<br /><br /><B>Slump of the year: Tiger Woods.</B> No-one is scared any more. Woods hasn’t won a major title for ages, and isn’t number one in the world. He is by no means an ordinary golfer, but neither is he setting the standards for the rest.<br /><br /><B>Retirement of the year: Nasser Hussein.</B> Talk about a way to leave. 103 not out, at Lords, hitting the winning runs in a test match. I can’t think of a better retirement in sport, except for Pete Sampras at the US Open of 2002. Nasser always played the game on his terms. England’s new found resolve and winning mentality is mostly his work. It was fitting he should leave the game on his terms as well. <br /><br /><B>Team of the year: Arsenal.</B> They may have lost their invincible aura, but Arsenal’s 49-match run makes them the team of the year by a country mile. The quality of football was at times better than anything that observers could ever remember. Chelsea may have stolen their title by May, but Arsene Wenger’s team has set the standards that other teams will be aspiring to for several years<br /><br /><B>Celebration of the year: Kelly Holmes.</B> the moment when she realised that she won the 800m was pure joy and I defy anyone not to get hairs standing on end, even just watching the replay. Wonderful. <br /><br /><B>Newcomer of the year: Andrew Strauss (plus a mention for Mark Cueto).</B> The step up to international sport is supposed to be a big one. Well, Andrew Strauss hasn’t noticed. Three centuries in his first eight tests, a stack of runs and hardly a soft dismissal in sight. He has made it all seem so easy. The ashes will be a real test, but by then he should have already amassed 1000 runs and a few more centuries. Mark Cueto has also slotted into the rugby team with such ease that Ben Cohen must be kicking himself. Tries against South Africa and Australia were taken with confidence and aplomb. Fantastic start.<br /><br /><B>Pointless effort of the year: Brian Lara.</B> 400 not out might be a wonderful score, but when the series is dead and buried it’s a bit late. Nice for your average, though. <br /><br /><B>Tantrum of the year: Indiana Pacers basketball team (plus a mention for Arsenal).</B> Fans may give you stick, but they are paying your wages at the end of the day. Don’t punch them. Even if they do chuck Gatorade at you. Arsenal could also learn about keeping their cool. Pizza? It just sounds like a squabble at a children’s party. Grow up.<br /><br /><B>Emotional display of the year: Matthew Pinsent. </B>Four golds, one heck of a close race, a lot of tears. <a href=”http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/39981000/jpg/_39981290_pinsentceremony203.jpg”>Enough said, really</a><br /><br /><B>Drug cheat of the year: Greek sprinters Kostas Kederis and Ekaterini Thanou. </B>Skipping the tests was one thing, but the whole motorbike crash setup was even worse. If you are a cheat and you get caught, face the music. Do your time. Blame the system. Let us all have a chance to see you squirm. Note to Marion Jones – you’re next.<br /><br /><B>Surprise of the year: Greece football team, European Championships.</B> Where the hell did they come from? Sure, tournaments can throw up freak results, but they beat France, Portugal (twice) and The Czech Republic. That’s no fluke. It shows what you can do with belief, a will to win, and the realisation that your opponents are human. Too many sporting matches are over before they begin due to inferiority complexes. Greece were a triumph of playing to your strengths. If your opponents are skilful, deny them space. If they want to play a passing game, break it up. If they lack height and muscle, attack through set-pieces.<br /><br /><B>Manager of the year: Jose Mourinho.</B> Close call with Wenger, but having delivered the Champions League to Porto and shot off to Chelsea, he never asked for time to gel the team. Instead, he called himself “The special one”, has not been fazed by Ferguson or Wenger, and for that I think he is manager of the year. Priceless. Plus, Chelsea will win something big with him very soon, probably this year.
Go nocturnal! Run London! <br /><br />Nike’s relentless cheerfulness about their Run London events is infectious. The promotional material looks so good. It’s all fun and smiles and you start to think about lots of happy people working out together, loving the fresh (ha – it’s London – fooled you) air and eating sensibly and you think “Yes, I want some of that”.<br /><br />For just �25 you get: A GoNocturnalRunLondon t-shirt (worth �30 – you’re quids-in already!). And 10% off any running kit in the month or so leading up to the race. And you get to be part of it. Take part! Do it! Don’t be so lazy! Give us the money!<br /><br />So you do. Or, at least, I did. As did several others. 30,000, in fact. That’s �750,000 straight to the corporate Mammon that is Nike. OK, so they have to put the race on, which must cost a bit. They have to close the roads, pay for stewarding and staff, promote and generally sort it all out. But let’s not be fooled by that t-shirt you get “free”. It costs them next to nothing. And another thing. It is NOT fashionwear. We were given the brightest neon day-glo yellow item. Horrid, just horrid. Never wear that again. It went straight in the bin after the race.<br /><br />The start was simply awful. Imagine shuffling about in a wet car park on a November evening with 6,000 other people while on a stage two utter morons “miked-up” and wearing black Nike top-to-toe plus some dappy girl jump about shouting at you to keep warm to shitty dance music. “Let’s clap those hands. Knee’s up! This side, shout YEAH!”. Christ. The crowd drift about, looking for leadership. It feels like we are about to be borded onto trains and shunted off to hell. We are all branded, after all.<br /><br />Finally, when the run starts after going through several holding areas, it feels like a prison break. Run away! Thousands of yellow lemmings dashing towards a cliff. 1k goes by in a flash. 2, 3, no problem. Near Tower Bridge they pump out music which lift the spirits. Or it could, if they weren’t playing Oasis – a band that really have that fitness ethos. Fags and booze, anyone? Then they play Radiohead. I love Radiohead, but it’s hardly workout music, now, is it? <br /><br />7, 8, and 9 Ks are fine. Then it’s the finish straight. Over the line, and… oh. We all seem to be standing in a dark, muddy field with no direction. No-one knows where to go. I find myself in the obligatory foil nappy with a tacky medal around my neck. There are some burger stalls in the distance, but I think those are for the spectators (or the lazy fat people, whichever you prefer). There are two people in a feeble protest holding signs: “Nike Sweat-shop run”. <br /><br />The signs to the tube are terrible. It’s as if after giving you all the help in the world to get you on this damn run, Nike want you to get utterly lost and demotivated. Go home. No foil nappies on the tube. See you next year. On the tube, a man asks “So, which charity was the run for?”. A woman looks back at him. “It wasn’t for charity. It was for Nike.” I could feel the shame.
Lots of cliches will be thrown about after another close loss – brave hearts, 15 heros etc. Just in case you missed it, they just lost by a point to New Zealand after a 2 point loss last week to South Africa. Sure, it’s gutting, but the lesson is that to win matches like this, you need that killer instict and belief to finish the job off. England had it in the World Cup final. Wales had the chance with a lineout close to the NZ line with minutes left. And they couldn’t do it. <br /><br />Worryingly, in the post-match interview, Colin Charvis used the phrase “bounce-backability”. Twice. Someone really should stop this kind of sporting linguisitc barbarism.<br /><br />England, however, seem to have it back. Beating the boks by 32 to 16 was huge, not least as SA wanted to get the tour back on track after losing to Ireland. But England played with a pace and intensity that has been lacking for the last 10 months. Martin Corry looked like the modern #8, and with Lewis Moody and Joe Worsley in form the Back-Hill-Dallaglio vacancies are getting filled. And Hodgson was very good. This bodes well for the next world cup. We have young players who are learning how to win against the big nations.
Let’s leave England’s walloping of Canada to one side – it was a nice way to introduce some new caps to the side – and focus on the other big internationals from this weekend.<br /><br />Ireland have rightly grabbed the headlines with the excellent victory over South Africa, a win that really should put them up in the world-force category. No more should we talk of Ireland in that plucky-boys-like-a-beer-odd-victory-now-and-then patronising way. They are a big bet for the 6 Nations. <br /><br />But another match that sneaked in without much hullabaloo was France-Australia. Given the words before the Ire-SA game, fair enough. But France basically stuffed the Aussies. 27-14 is a big margin. Plus, France don’t have a good recent record against Australia. This is a big, big win. <br /><br />With the World Cup having gone North, the big Southern 3 like to claim that they are still the business. New Zealand, for one, are always bleating about being the best team in the world, but without the trophy to back it up. Well, with weekends like this, the balance of rubgy power seems to have shifted. England need to do their part next weekend.<br /><br />If only Italy had beaten New Zealand…
At times like these, when the electoral process goes to shit and neo-cons rule the earth, it’s time to give yourself a little lift and focus on the more frivolous things in life. Like sport.<br /><br />However, things seem fairly bleak at the moment. It’s all managerial merry-go-rounds, players on coke, meaningless champions league games and tennis is fizzling badly. The run to the masters year end final has been pretty dull. Perhaps the autumn rugby internationals will give us something to get stuck into.<br /><br />The interesting story is South Africa. Their team has changed massively in the last year, going from bully-boy thugs to a proper team in no time at all. Credit to the coach, Jake White. If his team can do the hoome nations clean sweep, it will be a big achievement. I almost hope they do. England will be on a hiding to nothing if they don’t get it right.<br /><br />On another note, my first visit to Highbury last weekend was an interesting experience. For a team of Arsenal’s stature, the ground is just tiny. No wonder they are moving. But I worry that the new ground might have the Wembley effect on the team. When Arsenal tried playing their Champions League games at Wembley, they lost most of the time. Unless the Ashburton Grove ground gets the atmostphere going and the players can connect to the fans like they clearly do now, Arsenal could suffer new stadium syndrome. Southampton had it, Man City had it. Don’t bet on the gunners getting the 2006 title.
Ion Tiriac, who is the nearest thing in tennis to Don King, has blasted Federer for not playing his Madrid event. See my blog below, Masters of nothing and you will get the picture. His various quotes are classic Tiriac – unthoughtout, shooting-from-the-hip nonsense. You can see what I mean:<br /><a target=_new href=”http://www.channelnewsasia.com/stories/afp_sports/view/113250/1/.html”>Here</a> and <a target=_new href=”http://sport.guardian.co.uk/tennis/story/0,10069,1336057,00.html”>here</a><br /><br />So, big Ion is pissed off. But suggesting that players be deducted prizemoney for no-shows is frankly silly. His comparison that Schumacher doesn’t stop racing after winning the Championship is redundant. Schu us contracted to Ferrari to enter each race. Federer is NOT contracted to the ATP to play every event. <br /><br />But the Madrid event will be remembered for the ballgirl-models fiasco. If Tiriac hadn’t so comprehensively shot himself in the foot with that sub-porno stunt, then a few more people might take his views seriously.
Arsenal. Love their football. Thank God they don’t lose that often, as they seem to react like stroppy teenagers whose big sister has borrowed their clothes and records and mum doesn’t care. Temper temper.
It’s tough when couples split up. And it must terrible when it is reported in the papers. But even worse is when all the headlines are horrifically bad puns. So, no more Lleyton and Kim. I don’t want to speculate on their relationship, but the headlines… Jesus. Here we go:<br /><br />End of love all as Clijsters and Hewitt reach break point.<br />(the Guardian – 2 puns in there, well done subs)<br /><br />Break point for Clijsters and Hewitt<br />(The Scotsman)<br /><br />Singles again for Lleyton and Kim<br />(NewsInt.au)<br /><br />Doubles team of Clijsters-Hewitt now just singles after breakup<br />(Kansas City Star, clearly not as punchy as News Int)<br /><br />Hewitt and Clijsters call game over on romance<br />(Sydney Morning Herald)<br /><br />Courtship off for Hewitt, Clijsters<br />(The Statesman)<br /><br />Love match between Clijsters and Hewitt hits rocks<br />(The indy)<br /><br />Ace Lleyt and Kim split<br />(The Sun, typical that they have to call him “Lleyt”. Is there no name they won’t shorten?)<br /><br />Lleyton loses his No.1<br />(Brisbane Courier Mail – a bit more poignant, that one)<br /><br />… and a whole bunch of variants using Love match, game and break to get the tennis references in. Just go to <a href=”http://news.google.co.uk/news?q=hewitt+clijsters&hl=en&lr=&sa=N&tab=nn&oi=newsr”>Google</a> to see the list.<br /><br />However, the weirdest has to be<br /><br />It’s splitsville for Clijsters and Hewitt<br />(Houston Chronicle) <br /><br />”Splitsville”?
Tennis has always had a bit of a problem generating meaningful tournaments outside the slams. There are those awful weeks where three events are on, with the top 60 players scattered around the globe and hardly an interesting match in sight until perhaps the semis.<br /><br />So. What to do? Well, the ATP created the Masters Series. They were the nine big events outside the slams (not counting the 8-man end of season event) and they had more money, more prestige than other events. But still this wasn’t good enough. So, in their wisdom, the ATP changed the ranking system. When introducing the Champions Race, they decided that the Masters events were an essential part of a players’ ranking. In other words, skip Monte Carlo and those points are bust.<br /><br />Problem solved. Nine events that no player (top or otherwise) could afford to miss. Better matches. More revenue. Everybody’s happy.<br /><br />Well, the Madrid Masters will go down as the event that blew that theory off court. Of the top 10, let’s see who is missing, shall we? Federer (1, tired), Roddick (2, elbow), Hewitt (3, personal), Coria (4, not sure), Moya (6, injured I suppose), Gaudio (8, whatever). Those six don’t seem to worried about missing out on the ranking points or prize (ahem, appearance) money.<br /><br />Tim Henman is top seed, which is nice for him, but he is hardly the biggest name in tennis. Lest we forget, he is yet to reach a Slam final. <br /><br />But the real worry is the gimmicks. Using leggy models as ballgirls smacks of utter desperation. As if no-one is going to notice that Federer isn’t there. Welcome to a new sporting low.
