On a day of many records, this past Sunday will live long in the memories of sports followers – and, pundits.
Rory McIlory nearly won a sensational title yet lost the Abu Dhabi Championship in dramatic fashion to Pablo Larrazabal by the most painful of margins –a shot. Actually, we can scratch out the one-shot lose and, posit that he could have won by one-shot if he had not been penalized two-shots in round three.
Most weekends (aside the summer months of inaction) serves football fans several moments of magical moments. And, so it was this weekend. Arsenal won; Man City kept up its chase but the tale of the weekend involved two Africans: Adebayor, Sheyi and, Eto’o Samuel.
Adebayor, Sheyi , the much maligned Togolese striker is, honestly, a misunderstood figure. He was banished to the reserves by Tottenham Hotspurs’ former manager, Andres Villas Boas and, often takes a beating from the press but under Tim Sherwood, he has blossomed. He caught up with Arsenal’s legend, Dennis Bergkamp premiership tally of 87 goals.
This Premiership weekend, though, belongs left, right and centre to Eto’o Samuel. The most decorated African footballer added more records to his stellar collection: 1st Chelsea player to score a hat trick against Manchester United in 60 years; 1st player to do so when Manchester United were defending champions and, the player that scored all the goals for Chelsea in the iconic 100th premiership win of Jose Mourinho.
But all the above records and defeats pales in comparison to what came out of the Australian Open: Serena Williams has been beaten!
It was a bit shocking when 14th seed Ana Ivanovic dumped top seed Serena Williams out of this year’s Australian Open. If there was any doubt that Serena would not lift another singles grand slam title this January, it would have been so little considering her beautiful run of form and the fact that Ivanovic had never won more than four games in a set against Serena in four meetings.
2013 was a year that Serena would always remember fondly because of her 11-title haul with two grand slams inclusive and her 25-match winning streak which doubles as her second longest of her very illustrious career.
Serena had hoped 2014 would be one which she could achieve a calendar-year grand slam and it very much looked so much like she was going to equal the records of Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova or even move one closer to Steffi Graff’s haul of 22 grand slams. Those lofty dreams have ended- for now, at the feet of the former French open winner, Ana Ivanovic.
Why Serena has not won an Australian Open title since 2010 defies reason.
Last year the world no.1 lost in the quarter-finals to fellow American player Sloane Stephens who many have tipped to succeed Williams when she eventually bows out. Two years ago, it was the same ill-fate from injuries that befell Williams when she was also dumped out by Ekaterina Makarova.
Though news had filtered about Williams suffering from an unspecified injury when she pulled out of the doubles with her sister and looked out of sort at the start of her encounter with Ivanovic and when her coach and partner, Patrick Mouratoglou carried her bag on court.
One thing is clear though, injuries have not been fair to Williams at the start of every calendar year starting with the Australian Open but at 32 years old, her career is at its dawn. However, Williams is still expected to come back even stronger and she has always demonstrated that kind of strong mental toughness.
The Australian Open used to be a ground where Williams found success, fame and fortune with 5 grand slam titles out of her 17 but now, it has become a haunting ground and one that quickly brings her back to reality check any time she ends the season on a high.
For Williams and her partner cum coach, all the focus will now be on the remaining grand slams for 2014 and it would be good to see her get back to winning ways as she tries to further print her name amongst the greats of the game, but for now, that is on hold.
