LAURA ROBSON - SUPER STAR !

After her dramatic victory over Kim Clijsters in the 2nd round of the US Open, it would have been natural to be prepared for a disappointment when Laura Robson took on the 9th seed, Li Na, in the 3rd round.  Any such preparation would have been wasted.

 

The super-cool 18 year old won the first set 6-4, lost the second on a tie-break and, despite a bit of questionable umpiring, won the third 6-2 to book a place in the 4th round, the first British woman to get so far in a Grand Slam event since 1998. At the end, China's Li Na looked thoroughly fed up and barely acknowledged her opponent when they met at the net, a massive contrast with the good grace shown by Clijsters.

 

As with her previous match, this was a contest that Robson won and not one that her opponent lost. In fact, it would have been easy for her to have faded away after the disappointment of losing the second set tie-break, but she was having none of it. It was Robson who put huge pressure on Li's service early in the 3rd and eventually broke her opponent's spirit, breaking serve twice and winning the last 4 game; she needed only one match point to seal the biggest win of her career to date.

 

Next up will be the reigning champion, Australian Sam Stosur. Without doubt, Robson has shown that she has the ability to give Stosur a real run for her money and Stosur knows it; it will be tough but if she plays as she has been, and keeps that wonderful temerament of hers, Robson can win this one too.

TIME FOR PARALYMPIC FARCE TO STOP.

At the risk of being considered something unholy, I have to say that the nonsense that is the 'Paralympics' really is farcical.

 

I do not decry the efforts and performances of those with assorted disabilities who strive to be the best that they can, but the manner in which disabled sport is categorised makes the whole notion of an Olympics for the disabled ridiculous. Arguments over the precise categorisation of competitors arise regularly, with some medals undoubtedly hanging on the outcome of decisons by categorisation committees, or whoever it is who determines these things. The use of ever more sophisticated technology renders true comparisons between performances impossible and adds to the overall confusion.

 

These games have a vast number of medals available in order to cater for the vast range of categories into which competitors are placed. There must be some events in which there are only a handful of entrants, making the chances of any one of them gaining a prized medal much better than in others, and certainly much better than in the real Olympic Games.

 

This nonsense has gone much too far and needs to be scaled back.

ROBSON ON THE BRINK OF GREAT THINGS.

Watching young Laura Robson in action against Kim Clijsters in the US Open it was tempting to think that we have finally found a top class female player to take on the mantle once worn by Virginia Wade and Sue Barker.

 

Over the years, there have been a few British women who've threatened to come good, most notably Jo Durie, Annabel Croft and Sam Smith, but none has ever quite made it to the top. However, Robson seems a cut above these and last night beat one of the best players of recent years fair and square. Kim Clijsters gave her all and played well, but Robson  matched her stroke for stroke and point for point. There was nothing flukey or lucky about this vistory - Robson was simply the better player and refused to lie down in front of the Clijsters steamroller.

 

Clijsters had already made it clear that this would be her final tournament and Robson effectively brought her career to a premature close; the Belgian star had clearly hoped to play at least another match or two, but it was not to be. Nonetheless, she accepted defeat with the good grace for which she has always been renowned - a smile, a few kind words and a wave to the crowd who have come to love her. Without doubt, one of the nicest people ever to grace a tennis court. 

 

As one career came to its conclusion, another could easily be about to really take off. At just 18 years old, Robson is already the youngest player in the top 100 of the womens' rankings; she is tall and powerful and her mixed doubles run at the Olympics in partnership with Andy Murray was more than adequate testimony to her temperament and ability to deal with big occasions. One has the feeling that this girl is headed for greater success than British womens' tennis has known in many years.

 

Robson's 3rd round opponent in the US, Na Li, will know that she's got a real fight on her hands.

NO EVIDENCE SO ARMSTRONG MUST BE GUILTY

One really does wonder what is going on in the world of cycling.

 

Lance Armstrong, the most successful road racer ever, is to be stripped of all of his titles and medals says the US anti-doping agency. That they do not have the power to strip him of anything except trophies won in US sponsored events seems to have passed them by. They also seem to be unconcerned by the absence of any tangible evidence that Armstrong ever used banned substances and by Armstrong's continued denials of wrong-doing.

 

It appears that the US agency's decision will be ratified by the World body and that Armstrong will, ultimately, be deprived of his assorted honours, on no real evidence whatsoever. As far as I have heard, the case against him is based on the statements of various of his ex-colleagues who have claimed that they were all on drugs so he must have been too. I haven't heard that any of these self-confessed cheats have been banned from competition and it seems that the whole weight of the US agency's outrage is being thrown at Armstrong alone.

 

What the man has done to deserve this treatment is a mystery. He has been pursued for more than a decade and yet no concrete evidence has been found. He has, finally, decided that he's had enough of the constant fight and will fight no more, but nonetheless has maintained his innocence. He has been found guilty simply because he no longer wants to continue a fight that has disrupted the lives of his family and friends for years.

 

If this is American justice, thank the Lord that I'm in England.

TIME FOR PIETERSEN TO GO FOR GOOD.

Hearing of Kevin Pietersen's latest antics, one can only despair.

This man had the ability to be a truly great cricketer but, in common with so many other sports' 'stars', he took too much notice of his own press coverage and reached the stage where he believed himself to be bigger than his game. His eventual downfall was inevitable.

His sojourn as England captain was a disaster, though not entirely of his making; his appointment was typical of junior school teams where the best player automatically becomes captain regardless of his aptitude for the job and was surely not what is expected at the highest level in the game. The England management of that time has a lot to answer for.

In recent months Pietersen has upset almost everyone in the cricketing world including, most recently, his teammates. His behaviour has been unacceptable and his cricketing abilities surely cannot save him this time. Cricket is a team game and everyone has to have the same motivation and loyalties; Pietersen clearly does not share the same attitudes as his erstwhile colleagues and he should now be sidelined. There are plenty of talented younger players in the wings who will be more than happy to give their all for England while keeping their egos under wraps.

BRITAIN'S OLYMPICS GET BETTER BY THE DAY !

Notwithstanding my general disapproval of the grotesquely excessive cost of, ludicrous level of importance given to and horribly politicized nature of the Olympic Games, I cannot do anything but marvel at the achievements of the British competitors.

Over the years, probably along with many other Britons, I've become used to our athletes being sporting losers but, in recent times, this seems to have changed. While we still seem to have a number of weak areas, we are now the leading nation in the world for cycling and rowing, very close to being so in sailing and making huge strides in many other sports.

The unbelievable heroics of Saturday took British sport to new levels and looked impossible to repeat; how wrong. Sunday saw Andy Murray gain revenge for his Wimledon defeat by not only destroying the world's greatest ever tennis player, Roger Federer, to win Gold, but also win silver in the mixed doubles together with the precocious Laura Robson. They were joined in the 'medal-rush' by sailors, Ben Ainslie, Iain Percy and Andrew Simpson, gymnasts Louis Smith and Max Whitlock, Ed Clancy in the Omnium cycling event, and Christine Ohoruogu narrowly missing out on retaining her 400 metre title. In contrast to the weeekend, Monday was a bit of a disappointment with only 3 medals being added to GB's haul, although 2 of these were Gold - Jason Kenny in the cycling sprint and the showjumping team winning Britain's first Gold in the event for 60 years. They were joined on the podium by the perennial Beth Tweddle who seems to have carried British womens' gymnastics single handedly for ever; her bronze was the least she deserved after a glittering career.

Was it possible that the balloon was deflating and the best had been seen ? Don't be silly !

On Tuesday, it was the turn of the amazing Brownlee brothers to win Gold and Bronze in the triathlon, surely the most strength sapping event of all,. Then it was the Dressage team matching their showjumping colleagues and winning an astonishing Gold, followed by more success for our sailors with Nick Dempsey taking Silver in the windsurfing. Still the medals flowed and it was in the velodrome that the day reached its zenith with youngster Laura Trott winning the womens' omnium, Victoria Pendleton being forced to accept 'only' Silver in the womens' sprint behind her perennial rival Anna Meares, and finally Chris Hoy refusing to yield and winning Gold in the mens' Keirin. This was Hoy's sixth Olympic Gold and makes him Britains' most successful ever Olympic competitor. Even then there was more to come and the day ended with Robbie Grabarz taking a rather unexpected Bronze in an otherwise low-key high jump competition. This last medal of the day took Britains' total so far to 48, one more than in Beijing and the most since the first London Olympics in 1908.

And there's still 5 days to go !

ENNIS, FARAH AND SO MANY MORE DO BRITAIN PROUD !

On an extraordinary day for British sport, the dreams of some of our greatest performers were finally fulfilled.

On the Thames at Eton Dorney, the mens' coxless four maintained an amazing record and continued to follow in the footsteps of Steve Redgrave and Matthew Pinsent, winning Gold without ever looking like not doing so. Almost immediately after this expected triumph came an unexpected one, with Sophie Hosking and Katherine Copeland destroying the field to win Gold in the womens' lightweight double scull; this pair have been rowing together for only a very short time but their assurance on the water denied their inexperience. Their win was the third for the British womens' team, following those of Heather Stanning and Helen Glover in the womens' pair, and Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins in the heavyweight double scull, and being the first wins ever for British women in the Olympic games.

Zac Purchase and Mark Hunter were unable to defend their lightweight double scull title being pipped for Gold by the Danes but, when attention swithched to the velodrome, the womens' 3000m pursuit team of Joanna Rowsell, Laura Trott and Dani King produced an astonishing ride to break the world record for the sixth event in a row and come close to catching their rivals in the Gold Medal race. Three Golds and a Silver, and the evening's athletics yet to come.

Even before the athletics got under way, we had another piece of drama as Andy Murray and Laura Robson won through to the final of the mixed doubles and a certain Silver Medal. Their win over the German pairing of Kase and Lisicki was hard fought and well deserved and leaves Murray with the prospect of playing 2 finals in quick succession, with Roger Federer waiting for him in the mens' singles.

But then it was the athletics. The evening started slowly, with everyone waiting for the big events; the final event of the womens' heptathlon and then the mens' 10,000. The wonderful Jessica Ennis was already an almost certain champion after some terrific performances earlier in the competition, the fastest ever 100m hurdles in a heptathlon and personal bests in the 200m and javelin. Just after 9 o'clock she set out on the 800m and, in true Ennis style, beat the field to be crowned as the best female all-round athlete in the world. For good measure, she also broke her own British and Commonwealth records and ran-up the 12th best score ever, those scores having been achieved by only 4 athletes.

While Ennis was enjoying her moment of success and leading her fellow competitors on their traditional lap of honour, Greg Rutherford produced his Gold Medal winning leap in the long jump. To say his success was unexpected is probably an understatement, but it was only one fine jump in a good series and, again, the win was a well-deserved culmination to years of dedication. Within not much more than another 30 minutes, Mo Farah hit the front in the 10,000 metres and led the field through the tape to win yet another Gold for his country and cement his place in British athletics history; never before has a British male won an Olympic distance race.

What a day, what a night. Today, Sunday, there will be more medals to celebrate as Andy Murray goes for double Gold in the tennis and our sailors start to compete for Gold in their final medal races. So far, it's been an amazingly successful story for British competitors; can it possibly continue ?

BBC TEAM GET A RASPBERRY

Watching the amazing performances of so many great athletes, one has to wonder why the BBC feels it necessary to inflict upon us the inane and often irrelevant and misleading commentary of such as Paul Dickinson, Claire Balding, Barry Davies and others, as well as the imbecilic banter of Rob Walker and excrutiating 'post match' interviews conducted by Phil Jones.

These people seem to have little idea as to their jobs and seem hell bent on talking tripe and puerile nonsense. Why do we have to put up with them ? 

WIMBLEDON REPEAT FOR MURRAY AND FEDERER

Following Roger Federer's astonishing victory over Juan Martin Del Potro and Andy Murray's surprise success against Novak Djokovic, the Olympic Mens' tennis final will be a repeat of the Wimbledon final.

In the Grand Slam final, Murray started well but was eventually beaten by the Swiss machine; will Sunday be different ? Today, Federer showed unbelievable tenacity to win a deciding set 19-17; can he be beaten ? Both men are on a mission, but which one will triumph is something we will only discover on Sunday.

SO WHO ARE THE BRITS ?

As Britain prepares to glory in the success of its Olympic competitors, I've just heard a discussion on the radio about the validity of some of those who are representing us.

Many years ago, it was the norm that athletes representing a country would have been born there or, at least, spent the bulk of their lives there; long term immigrants were acceptable, gaining a specific nationality after a few weeks in the country and then appearing in that country's colours was not. Today things are very different.

Many athletes from Kenya and Ethiopia now appear in the colours of other nations, having appeared for their home country only a short time ago. Similarly, the UK seems to have been operating a programme designed to attract as many foreign athletes as possible and to fast track them into 'Team GB'. It is claimed that some of these, such as the triple jumper Yamilé Aldama who hails from Cuba via Sudan, are genuine immigrants and fully entitled to UK citizenship and, hence, to represent us in international events; others, such as Tiffany Porter, an American who appears to have become British purely to enable her to compete in the Olympics, clearly have little if any loyalty to Britain and should not be representing us.

Sadly, in these days of big-money sport, anything goes. Athletes swap nationality as often as some people change their socks, with only their own glorification in mind. Some, perhaps such as Aldama who is married to a Britain, may well have more right to wear a British vest than others, but it makes cheering on 'Our Guys' much more difficult.

Mo Farah has lived here for most of his life and is a 'True Brit'; I'll cheer him on and prey that he can bring home at least one gold; as far as Tiffany Porter goes, I really couldn't care less what she does and I'll be cheering on the great Aussie hurdler, Sally Pearson. Aldama leaves me in a bit of a quandry as her background is a bit of a mess. Having originally represented Cuba up to 2000, she then married a Scot who subsequently found himself in prison for drug trafficking. Aldama sought British citizenship but was initially rejected; she then looked for another country to represent and chose Sudan, for whom she competed at the 2004 Olympics and 2005 World Championships. In 2010, she was finally granted UK citizenship and has competed for us ever since. It is tempting to believe that the facts she is a world class triple jumper and the London Olympics were on the horizon were a major contibutor to this change of heart by the British authorities, which makes one think that citizenship is not quite the prize that it's cracked up to be. Anyone can gain it if national pride might be enhanced.

It is not just athletics which is tainted by this cross-border trafficking on sportsmen and women. Cricket is a particularly dirty area in this regard, with a raft of South Africans having moved to England and Australia over the years. Tennis has also been subject to this type of traffic, as has Rugby Union and, no doubt, many other sports. I could never get very excited about the exploits of Greg Rusedski or Tony Grieg, Alan Lamb or Lennox Lewis, whose career was really developed in Canada even though he was born here. The worst aspect of this manipulation of nationalities is that it often denies opportunities to home grown talent who simply cannot compete with the already experienced overseas stars; compare the performances of our Premier League and National football teams if you don't believe me.. 

I have nothing against excellence in sport and will cheer on the best, I just don't think we should try to make jingoistic capital out of buying in that excellence. Ultimately, it is a self-defeating strategy.