2013 Review

To call this a review makes it sound too authoritative.

Instead here’s a highly personal, selective, subjective Hornby-style list of my favourite sporting events I saw live this year, in chronological order:

1. Man U 1 Real Madrid  2, Uefa Champions League round of 16. Modric.

2. Barcelona 4 Milan 0, UCL round of 16. Messi.

3. Wales v England, 6 Nations rugby. A close contest was expected, but Wales ran away with it in the end

4. Uefa Champions League final (Bayern Munich v Borussia Dortmund) Robben wins a big final

5. Froch v Kessler super-middle world title. A ring war.

6. Djokovic v Nadal, French Open semi-final. If Nole hadn’t fouled the net…

7. Murray v Verdasco, Wimbledon QF. Comeback

8. Sabine Lisicki v Agnieska Radwanska, Wimbledon SF. Great variety with net play, lobs, drop shots & 9-7 in the final set.

9. Djokovic v del Potro, Wimbledon SF. Best match of the tournament.

10. Wimbledon Final, Murray v Djokovic. The final game alone, the tension was nearly unbearable.

11. Mo Farah’s last lap sprint, 10k final, World Championships

12. San Francisco 49ers 42 Jacksonville Jaguars 10

13. Nadal v Federer, SF, ATP World Tour Finals. I was courtside for the two GOAT contenders.

14. Man City 6 Arsenal 3. My team got whopped, but in a cracking game

The Winning Habit

No Rugby Union team in the professional era had gone through an entire season unbeaten, until the All Blacks denied Ireland with the final play of their game in Dublin. It seemed to me that their final try was inevitable. They had the composure and  technique  to keep going through the phases and  popping the passes until they breached the line.

Seb Vettel shares the winning habit, & he matched Ascari’s record of nine wins on the spin after comfortably winning at Interlagos . Vettel’s total domination is probably the reason the FIA has proposed the last race of next season should carry double points, a suggestion which has attracted widespread derision.

Rafa Nadal has been the man of the year in tennis. He has made an astonishing comeback from a seven month layoff, winning the French & US Opens and finishing with a 75-7 win-loss record. Djokovic was not far behind though, with a 74-9 tally. The Serb had the last word, beating Rafa in the final at the O2.

Comeback of the month :  the New England Patriots, down 24-0 at half-time to Super Bowl  favourites Denver Broncos, but squeaked through 34-31 in overtime.

Performance of the Month

The All Blacks.

Legends

Serena Wiliams finished 2013 with an awesome 78-4 W-L record, her best stats ever. Her shock loss at the 2012 French Open, her first ever 1st round exit from a major, galvanised her to start working with coach Patrick Mouratoglou. Since then she has consistently dominant on the tour, whereas in the past she often saved her best only for the Slams.  

Similarly, Sebastien Vettel has been totally dominant in F1, as he retained the world title with 3 races to spare. He will surely surpass Schumacher’s record of 7 world titles. 

The ageless Bernard Hopkins continues to give hope to those who fear that their physical capabilities will inevitably diminish with advancing years. The 48 year old Philadelphian shrugged off an opponent 18 years younger as he defended his IBF light-heavy title. 

Performance of the Month 

Hopkins.

Maturing with Age

Modern advances in conditioning, diet, and training methods mean some athletes can now compete at the top level well into their thirties & beyond.

I’ve posted on this before, thought it was quite recently, but a trawl of the archive shows it was a 2008 vintage.

http://ronstersramblings.blogspot.co.uk/2008/04/no-country-for-old-men.html

Anyway, that post used boxers as an example of athletes disproving  the ‘over 30’ rule. This month  Floyd Mayweather put on another exhibition, schooling  Canelo Alvarez. Mayweather,  36, conceded 13 years to his previous unbeaten opponent, plus 15 pounds on fight night, but was far too slick for the Mexican.

Chris Horner, 41, was the oldest starter of the Vuelta but became the oldest man ever to win a cycling Grand Tour. The previous record for oldest tour winner was 36.

There were thrilling sprint finishes in two endurance events, the Great North Run (Bekele v Farah) & the deciding event of the men’s Triathlon world series (Gomez v J Brownlee).

Rafa Nadal continued his brilliant, unbeaten hard court form this year, winning his second US Open title.

Performance of the Month

Horner.

Honourable mention:

Wilson Kipsang set a new world best today for the marathon, he completed Berlin in 2:03:23

Mo at the Double

There were several stand-out performances at the World Athletics championships. There was Bolt, of course, who did the sprint treble (100, 200m, 4x1 relay) again. Tirunesh Dibaba continued her record of having never lost a competitive 10k race, & is now 11 for 11. The devastating kick finish is now a Mo Farah trademark, and he used it twice as he had to dig deep  to complete the 5 & 10k double. Bekele is the only other man to have done the ‘double double’ at both the Olympics & worlds.

Rafa Nadal’s awesome form continues. He won two Masters titles on hard courts in August, including on the fast courts of Cincinnati, which is supposed to be his weakest surface. His only blip has been Wimbledon, with a staggering 11 finals & nine titles this year.

Performance of the Month

Mo Farah.

Honourable mentions:
Nadal.
Katie Ledecky , successor to Becky Adlington as the long-distance swimming queen. She set 2 world records and won 4 golds at the worlds.

Rule Britannia

2012 was a high point for widespread British sporting success. 2013 is not shaping up too shabbily either. The Lions, Murray, Froome, the Ashes, Justin Rose. Hamilton got in on the act on Sunday at the Hungaroring.

Andy Murray has not been doing too badly lately. 2012 Wimbledon runner-up. Olympics singles gold, & mixed doubles silver. US Open champ. Runner-up Australian Open 2013, & now Wimbledon champ. Famously the gap since Perry won was 77 years. There aren’t many title droughts in sports to beat that. Two of the longest are in baseball: the Chicago Cubs haven’t won the world series since 1908, & it took the Red Sox 86 years to lift the so-called ‘curse of the Bambino’.

It pains me to say it, but with recent results Federer  looks finished as force as the top level. He has lost to players ranked outside the top 50 in three straight events. It’s even possible, if his current poor from continues, that  he may not qualify for the year-end top eight finals.

Chris Froome dominated the Tour de France. Only on the last Alpine stage did he concede time to his major rivals. His Sky team slowed up behind the peloton on the Champs Elysees to cross the line together, losing 40 seconds, otherwise his margin of victory would have exceeded five minutes. Froome showed his class both in the time trials and the mountains.

After  three  rounds at the Open an Englishman topped the leaderboard, but a certain Californian lefty claimed the claret jug. Mickelson has never been ranked world no. 1, but that’s due to playing in the same era as Tiger Woods, having been in the year-end 2^nd spot four times.

Performance of the Month

Harsh not to give it to Murray for ending that long wait, but Froome shades it.

Honourable mention:
The Lions for that rare series win.

Vamos !

Rafa Nadal enhanced his credentials as the greatest ever on the red dirt with an eighth Roland Garros title. Even the most die-hard fans of Bjorn Borg would find it hard to disagree now. Nadal was seriously troubled in the first two rounds but produced his best when it mattered, & the epic semi-final v Djokovic was my sporting highlight of the year so far. 

Serena Williams is on ominous form, on her weakest surface was taken to three sets only once, by Kuznetsova. 

It’s difficult to choose for performance of the month between Rafa & Serena. Rafa edges it for the epic semi-final win over Djokovic. Since I drafted this Rafa blotted his copybook with the loss to Darcis in the first round of Wimbledon, but still… 

At Wimbledon, with all the top seeds falling, it seemed to be the end of an era. It was the first Slam with both Federer & Nadal in the draw that neither made the third round.

The Confederations Cup saw another great run brought to an end. An inspired Brazil took energy & inspiration from the Rio roar to thump the mighty Spain three-nil and again upset the form book. 

After Justin Rose won the US Open, it surprised me to realise that it was so long since an Englishman (Faldo)  last won a major. With Scots, Ulster, & Irish winners having been celebrated in recent years, it didn’t register that there was a barren spell for the English. I remember Rose’s stunning debut at the Open as an amateur. Famously he struggled with the burden of expectation after turning pro, missing 21 straight cuts.  

Performance of the Month 

 

Nadal. 
 

Honourable Mentions:

Rose.

Brazil.