Form is Temporary

Roger Federer: An Apology

In my post of 12 July I had dared to suggest that Roger would never win another Grand Slam. In the US Open final Monday against Murray, he was back to his imperious best. On this form, he could match Sampras all-time record of 14 Slams as early as January in Melbourne. The runner-up was the first Brit in a Slam final since the Gregster in 1997(L to Rafter, also at the US).This has been Murray’s breakthrough year. He had never gone beyond a Slam fourth round before this year, but then reached the quarters of Wimbledon. He then beat Djokovic twice, including winning TMS Cincinnati, and beat Nadal for the first time to reach the final at Flushing Meadows, taking him up to no. 4 in the world rankings. Murray has all the ingredients-talent, guts, focus & fitness- to reach, & win, more Slam finals in the future.

Serena Williams regained the no. 1 ranking by becoming champ again (beating Venus in the quarters). The Williams sisters seem to have been around forever, so the tendency is to become blasé about their achievements, but they have now won 16 Slam singles titles between them (the US was Serena’s 9th). Arguably they are the most successful sporting siblings ever, though you could also make a case for the Charlton brothers or the Waugh twins.

Olympics review

So many highlights to pick from. Apart from the obvious candidates, Phelps & Bolt, my personal faves: Lezak overhauling a body length deficit in the last 50 in the 4x100 free relay. The GB rowing four overhauling the Australians in the last 250 m. Amazing final lap sprints from the Ethiopian men & women in the 5 & 10 k track races. From a British perspective, the ‘sitting-down’ sports exceeded expectations, but the underperformance of the athletics is a worry. The athletes need to raise their level or there will be a lot of finals at 2012 with no home representation. However, the Team GB result to finish fourth in the medals table was a fantastic achievement, behind only the superpowers (China, USA, Russia)