FIFA Ballon D'Or

É hoje a entrega do Prémio de Melhor Jogador do Mundo, entre outros, pela FIFA relativamente ao ano de 2012. Como sempre, muito se fala sobre os possíveis vencedores e como tal também deixo aqui a minha opinião sobre o assunto.

Antes de mais, julgo que o terceiro nomeado devia ser o holandês Robin van Persie. RVP fez uma grande temporada de 2012, tendo sido o melhor marcador da Premiership, saindo depois por muitos milhões de euros para o Manchester United - que, apesar de não ser de todo fã do clube, é um dos melhores do mundo e o provável vencedor do campeonato nesta temporada. De facto, agora que penso nisso, gosto mais do United este ano por causa do van Persie.

Sim, o Iniesta fez uma grande temporada. Mas o que teve de novo este ano exatamente? Foi campeão europeu de seleções, título que já tinha ganho, e julgo que foi mais decisivo no Mundial 2010 do que agora na Polónia e na Ucrânia... Tanto que em 2010 também foi nomeado para o Prémio, obviamente (deixando de fora Wesley Sneijder que para mim era o vencedor, mas isso já lá vai).

Nomes como Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Radamel Falcão, Andrea Pirlo ou mesmo o Neymar também mereceriam estar hoje na Gala da FIFA mas penso que Robin van Persie foi o 3º melhor jogador da temporada na temporada passada.

Passando à atribuição da Bola de Ouro em si; penso que deve ganhar o Cristiano, por uma questão de critérios. Levou o Real Madrid a ganhar o campeonato, algo impensável com um Barcelona desta categoria, além de ter feito um bom Europeu. O Messi foi Bota de Ouro e bateu o recorde de golos num ano? Okay, mas em 2011 o CR7 também foi o melhor marcador na Europa e o prémio foi à mesma para o argentino... Nas últimas duas Bolas de Ouro do Messi, disseram que ele tinha ganho porque o CR7 não tinha ganho nada coletivamente, mesmo tendo ganho uma Bota de Ouro; agora é altura de usar os mesmos argumentos e dar o prémio ao português. Como disse o Mourinho, é impensável o Messi ter quatro e o Ronaldo só ter uma!

Por falar no Mourinho, estou mesmo convicto que o José merece o seu segundo prémio em três anos de Treinador do Ano.

Primeiro, não percebo porque lá está o Guardiola; parece-me mais uma nomeação para "prémio carreira" pois o catalão é indubitavelmente um dos melhores treinadores do século XXI mas não ganhou nada de especial no ano passado e em Maio saiu do Barça. Jurgen Klopp ou Roberto di Matteo merecem muito mais, na minha opinião.

Depois, o Vicente del Bosque merece a nomeação mas tal como no caso do Iniesta, o que é que ele fez de novo? Ganhou o Europeu sim, mas já tinha ganho o Mundial em 2010 e se nessa altura não venceu o Prémio - perdendo para... Mourinho - será nesta temporada que derrota o treinador campeão espanhol?

Eu não defendo os tugas só porque são tugas, como fazem muitos portugueses recorrendo muitas vezes ao fanatismo. Pessoalmente não gosto do Mou e do CR7 como pessoas; porém, são excelentes profissionais e espero que daqui a umas horas tenham os respetivos prémios nas mãos.

Pronto, parece que venceu o Messi e o Del Bosque. Perdeu a piada ver as Galas da FIFA, ganham sempre os mesmos. Não que não mereçam, mas há outros que num ano ou outro podem ter sido melhores mas mesmo assim não chegam lá. Pessoalmente acho que o Mou se está a cagar para isto, agora o Cristiano deve estar bem lixado de novo... Parabéns ao ano dele, acredito que ainda vai ganhar a segunda um dia.

É tudo. Cumprimentos,
Pedro Mendes

Bom 2013!

Antes de mais, bom 2013 a todos! Podia estar aqui a cair em lugares-comuns - e também a dizer que não vou cair em lugares-comuns para depois acabar por fazê-lo, como vi numa mensagem de Natal que recebi -, mas apenas tenho a dizer para quem ler que hoje é só mais um dia. Não é preciso começar um novo ano para mudarmos a nossa vida, mas se vos faz feliz pensar assim então força; o que conta é a intenção!

Ora bem, estive a pensar sobre o Uspeti e acho que vou mudar o formato do blog neste ano. Quando o criei, a 1 de Julho de 2011, cheguei ao final do ano com cerca de 2000 visualizações de página; neste momento, volvido um ano, o contador de visitas marca pouco mais de 3500 - ou seja, nos primeiros seis meses de vida do Uspeti, tive mais 500 visitas do que nos restantes doze meses.
Assim sendo, estou a pensar em alargá-lo para mais temas; deixará de ser só de ténis e passarei a falar, também, de outros temas que me interessam como a atualidade mundial, críticas a livros que costumo ler, investigações científicas (visto ser a minha área de estudos) e até mesmo outros desportos que sigo com regularidade.

Portanto, é isto que tenho para dizer. Para ser sincero, não me interessa muito ter milhares de visitas aqui no blog; tenho-o mais para escrever o que me apetece, pois normalmente liberto-me e relaxo com a escrita. Mas é claro que gosto que o pessoal siga os meus textos e espero que os achem interessantes.

Já agora, votem na sondagem aqui ao lado sobre a vossa opinião sobre o blog.
Cumprimentos e boas entradas,
Pedro Mendes

2012 WTA Season Review

In this Christmas Eve I realized I still didn't write in Uspeti about women's tennis season, so here it goes my brief review - that'll be quite extended, as it always ends up going.

January started with Caroline Wozniacki  in the top-ranking for the second year in a row, and many tennis experts were predicting the nearly unavoidable rising of Petra Kvitova to the #1. 

However, Wozniacki did lose the first place but for the Belorussian Victoria Azarenka; by starting the year winning in Sidney, Vika moved next week to Melbourne where she clinched her first Grand Slam title and her move for the top-ranking for the first time by crashing Maria Sharapova 6-3 6-0 in the finals. The 23 year-old would continue her winning streak taking Doha and Indian Wells title in the following weeks, right before falling to Marion Bartoli in Sony Ericsson Open, on late March.

On clay court season, the season's GOAT remained in Eastern Europe but it was time for an ex top-ranked to be back on great titles. Maria Sharapova started the mini-season by defeating the #1 Victoria Azarenka in Stuttgart's final, and then lost in Madrid's blue clay for the eventual champion Serena Williams before taking the Internazionali BNL D'Italia in Rome next week, on red clay again.

Masha would reach Roland Garros with zero losses on "common" clay and with Serena's astonishing loss in Paris' first round, the only player who defeated the Russian in 2012 clay season, Sharapova had her way open for reaching her first final of the French Open. There, she defeated the surprisingly Italian Sara Errani to complete her Career Slam - becoming the first player in Open Era to have a Career Slam with only 4 Major titles - and being back to #1 four years later.

Next week in Wimbledon, both Azarenka and Sharapova had high expectations for winning their second Grand Slam title of the season but it was said Serena Williams was working hard after her loss in French Open 1st round four weeks later; it was time to check her out, and we can in this season review define a 2012 season before and after Serena.

It wasn't easy for Serena to win her seventh title in All England Club. She had to turn up her 3rd round match versus the Chinese Jie Zheng after losing the first set in tie-break and then finally taking the third one only after sixteen games. She'd lose another set on next round vs Shevdova, and after defeating Azarenka in two sets nearly nobody doubted Serena would really be back to great tournaments and it became clearer with Sharapova's loss vs Sabine Lisiciki in 3rd round.
In the final, Serena would have to face one of the toughest players on the circuit when at its best: Agnieszka Radwanska. The Polish have reached Wimbledon with only four matches lost for players not named Victoria Azarenka, and she was able to win a set in Wimby's final. However, in the decisive, Serena proved her shape improvement by losing only two games (after dropping one in the opening set and seven in the following one) and won her 7th Wimbledon title, exactly two years after her last Slam title. For Radwanska, it meant her rising for the 2nd place - a victory would have put her in the top-ranking. And after Sharapova's loss, Azarenka was back for the first place and she would not lose it again in 2012.

In late July, three weeks after Wimbledon's tournament, it was time for the Olympics. The tennis world already knew Serena was close of her best shape, but I don't think anyone predicted what happened in London'2012: the North-american defeated four ex/current world top-ranked players - Jankovic, Wozniacki, Azarenka, Sharapova lost to Serena, joining Urszula Radwanska and the ex-number 2 Vera Zvonareva -, dropping only 17 games in the whole tournament (less than 3 per match!) to win her first Gold medal in singles and becoming the first player ever to complete the Golden Slam in both singles and doubles. Sharapova left London with the Silver Medal after winning just one game(!) in the final match, completing her Silver Slam, and Azarenka won the Bronze after taking the Gold in mixed pairs.

On August, we were back to the United States for the US Open Series. The Rogers Cup was won by Petra Kvitova and next week on Cincinnati it was Li Na's time for winning her first WTA title since last year's victory in Paris. Kvitova would win her second title of a disappointing season in New Haven the week before US Open, and then it was time for the last Major of the season.
Some people were asking themselves about Serena's shape after the Olympics; she didn't compete in many tours and in Cincinnati she had lost to Angelique Kerber in quarter-finals, her first loss since Roland Garros (and also her last till the end of 2012). Once again, the younger of Williams' sisters proved the world wrong again.
On her road to the final, she just dropped 19 games in six matches, defeating Ana Ivanovic in quarter-finals and then Sara Errani in the semis. The final would be played versus Victoria Azarenka, the world top-ranked; the best possible final, in many's opinions.

Serena started winning the first set by 6-2, right before being surprised by a over-motivated Azarenka who won the next one by the same result. In the decisive, with the crowd on fire cheering for both women, Serena felt the pressure of taking the trophy after last season disappointing loss versus Samantha Stosur in that same stadium; Vika did served it out, but the North-american screamed louder (which is tough as hell!) and clinched her second Major title of the season!

Serena would not compete until Istanbul Championships, two months after. In the meantime, Nadia Petrova would win her first title in season in Tokyo and Azarenka was back on victories by taking Beijing and Linz titles on the following weeks.

In the last week of October, it was time for WTA Championships in Turkey's most important city in Europe. Once again, Serena reached the tournament with many doubts upon her head; she was only seen few days before the tournament and didn't play an official match since Flushing Meadows.
Yup, you guessed it right; the North-american won again the title, this time losing more games than in US Open but without a single set lost. After defeating Azarenka in the first Round Robin match, she'd defeat Maria Sharapova in the final by 6-4 6-3 for elevating her 7th trophy in 2012. For Masha, it meant her third final lost in the past five tournaments, and for Vika the fact she did the semi-finals assured her the top-ranking in the end of the season.

On the next weeks, Czech Republic would win the Fed Cup for the second time in a row and Nadia Petrova won in Sofia the "Masters B", defeating the former #1 Caroline Wozniacki.

That's all. Merry Christmas!
Pedro Mendes

2012 ATP Season Review

It's time for reviewing last season's top moments in ATP World Tour. Once again I write these posts in English hoping to get more views, specially on Twitter.

Well, the season started with Novak Djokovic as world's top ranked and the Serbian didn't disappoint in Melbourne on the first Major of the season. By defeating Andy Murray in a five-setter outstanding tennis match in semis and then clashing Rafael Nadal in their third Slam final in a row - this time in five sets, which meant Nole had played 10 sets in about three days to get his second consecutive AO title and third in his career -, Novak "Nole" Djokovic started the year in the best possible shape.

Next, the World Tour moved to USA where the first two Masters 1000 events of the season took place in California (Indian Wells) and Miami. It would be time for players like John Isner to confirm their potential - and eventually reaching the top-10 -, thus reaching the final in the BNP Paribas Open where he'd lose to Roger Federer.
Next week in Miami, the Sony Ericsson Open took place and Djokovic - who had lost his first match of the season in Dubai semis, vs Andy Murray - successfully defended his 2011 title by defeating the British in the final match. Hard-court season was nearly ended and we were back to European clay courts.

Starting in Monte Carlo, Rafael Nadal won this first M1000 event on clay and history was written. The King on Clay became the first player ever winning the same tournament for eight times in a row; personally, it also meant his first win versus Djokovic after seven matches lost in a row. This victory would psychologically mean a lot, as long as it led Nadal to another great clay court season (after losing in Madrid and Rome last year against the world number one). Rafa won again in Barcelona and then in Mutua Madrid Open an awkward tournament took place; the event manager decided to try a different surface, the blue clay, and many players such as Nadal and Djokovic lost early in the draw and created huge controversy about the surface. Roger Federer didn't give a shit about it and ended up defeating Tomas Berdych in the final, winning his second M1000 of the season and the second in Spain's capital after 2009 victory.
Next week, it was time for the Internazionali BNL D'Italia in Rome. The final match was once again between Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic, the two top-ranked, and as I mentioned earlier the Spaniard was now a lot more confident than the previous year and defeated Nole to win his third title on clay. Bring us the French Open!

Roland Garros started in late May, and just like in the previous season tennis world was expecting to see if Novak Djokovic already had what's needed to win in Paris.
The point is, he may have. But when you have Rafael Nadal competing in the biggest clay event of the season, you can barely have a chance - Roger Federer won in 2009 not specially due to his clay abilities, although he's also a good clay-court player, but due to Robin Soderling's epic win in 4th round versus an injured Nadal. This year, Nole have finally reached the final but Nadal was on the other side, so... Although I believe that if the rain wouldn't come up to delay the final Djokovic could have done better, the Serb had his chance last year when he was mentally stronger than everyone in every surface but had never challenged Rafa in Paris because Roger Federer showed up in the semis to put Djokovic out of the tournament. That's it, Nadal ends clay court season with four titles, one more than in the previous season, and Djokovic goes to grass with no titles since Miami.

In mini-grass court season, it started with David Nalbandian kicking an umpire's leg to lose a Queen's Club final he was actually taking the lead. At the same time in Halle, Federer reached once again the final but this time Tommy Haas wanted to show the world he was not done yet and defeated the former five-times champ. David Ferrer would also win a tournament during the preparation for Wimbledon, in Den Bosch, his first ever on grass that would make him the ATP player with more singles titles in 2012.
Wimbledon started with a huge upset; in the 2nd round, the two-times champion Rafael Nadal lost in five-sets to Lukas Rosol, exiting a Major tour in the second round for the first time since 2006. This would also mean the last time Nadal would step on a tennis court in 2012, as long as he got injured in his misfortunated knee - the diagnosis would conclude he suffered from Hoffa's Syndrome.
The tournament would obviously go on, providing Andy Murray a great chance for finally reaching the final match in his country's Slam event, and the British did reach the decisive match where he found the six-times former champion Roger Federer that had defeated Djokovic previously in the semis. Murray started to win the first set, his first one in four Major finals, but couldn't avoid Federer's seventh title on Holy Grass. This title, Roger's first Slam since Melbourne'2010, would also mean his comeback to the top-ranking and eventually becoming the player with more weeks spent as #1 ever.

As long as we are in 2012, Olympic Games tennis tournament was a reality and it would take place in the same Wimbledon grass. The final was a rematch of previous month one - Federer reached it by defeating Del Potro in an epic battle with 36 games in the decisive set, and Murray defeated Djokovic by a double 7-5. But this time, Murray gave no chance to the best tennis player ever and just lost seven games to win his most important title ever; for Federer, the chance of getting a Golden Slam ended there - although he says he's thinking in Rio'2016. The Bronze medal came to Del Potro, that was so close of reaching the final but did put his hard feelings away to defeating Djokovic, 2008 Bronze's medallist.

Afterwards, it was time to go back to USA. Toronto and Cincinnati hosted the next two Masters 1000 events of 2012 and as in 2011, Nole reached the final match on both - winning the Rogers Cup, his first title since March, but losing again in the decisive of Western and Southern versus the now and again world number one Roger Federer.

Late August came, and the 2012 US Open edition as well! With Rafael Nadal out of the way, Murray knew he needed to reach the final in order to move to the third place of the ranking. The problem: Roger Federer, five-times champion, was in Murray's half too.
Or at least I thought it was a problem. In the quarters, Federer played Berdych in the quarters on night season where he had never lose a single match but this time it was different and Berdych scheduled a clash versus the Great-Britain #1. Murray defeated the Czech and met the current champion Djokovic in order for fighting for his first Major title after four lost finals.
I wasn't rooting for anyone specially; Nole is my fave but Murray deserved a Slam so bad. He started taking the first two sets, then Nole woke up to tie the clash at 2-2 but a physically clever Andy Murray was ready for playing a decisive set and taking his first Grand Slam tournament ever.

With no more Majors to play, it was time for Asian hard-court season. Many players won titles in the biggest continent in the world but Nole was probably the best one, by winning in Tokyo and then the Masters 1000 of Shanghai - in an epic final where he needed to save 5 match-points versus Andy Murray. The top-ranking was very close of returning again to the Serbian, and it virtually became a reality when Roger Federer didn't successfully defended his home town title - Juan Martin del Potro revenged his loss in the Olympics - and then withdrew from Paris.
Paris, the place of BNP Paribas Masters, the last M1000 event of 2012. With Nadal out of the courts and Federer resting for World Tour Finals, both Djokovic and Murray had her chances of taking the trophy but surprisingly lost in the 1st and 2nd round, respectively - Nole won the first 8 games of his match versus Sam Querrey but then ended up losing, and then Muzz didn't convert match-points versus the qualifier Jerzy Janowicz who would eventually reach the final. In the decisive match, however, David Ferrer wanted to end Janowicz fairytale in the City of Lights and the veteran Spaniard finally won his first Masters 1000 event.

It was the time of ATP World Tour Finals. The top-3 and Juan Martin del Potro naturally reached the semis, and poetically the last match of the ATP World Tour was played by the only two players who have occupied the top-ranking in 2011. Novak Djokovic spent a lot of time in the final trying to turn the set up to his side, but after another lesson of mental strength he defeated Roger Federer by 7-6 7-5 to win the last title of the season and confirm his status of world number one for the second year in a row.

The season couldn't end without the Davis Cup final. In Prague, the Czechs could defeat Spain by 3-2 - and Radek Stepanek became the national hero after so many years - and became the first National Team ever winning Hopman, Fed and Davis Cup in the same season. Also the ATP Challenger Tour Finals were once again played in São Paulo, giving the Italian Guido Pella his most important title of his career.

And that's all. Soon I'll also talk about WTA 2012 season, if you're still able to read such a extended text.
Cheers,
Pedro Mendes

Final da Davis Cup

E assim acabou 2012 com a final da Taça Davis em Praga. Após a temporada WTA já ter terminado há duas semanas, com a final da Fed Cup (também na capital checa), e depois do final das ATP World Tour Finals de Londres, hoje foi disputada a 100ª final da competição mais importante de seleções a nível masculino e termina assim a temporada de 2012 em termos tenísticos.

Foi uma final muito renhida, que eu nem sempre tive oportunidade de acompanhar mas fico satisfeito com os encontros que pude ver. De um lado, a seleção da casa República Checa que perseguia a sua primeira "saladeira" desde a desintegração da Checoslováquia - haviam ganho juntamente com a Eslováquia em 1980, no tempo de Ivan Lendl; do outro lado da rede, estava a habitual seleção espanhola, que perseguia a sua quarta Davis Cup em cinco anos (tirando 2010, ano da célebre vitória de Novak Djokovic e companhia, Espanha vinha desde 2008 confirmando cada vez mais a sua ascensão como principal potência do ténis masculino). De facto, em 2009 os dois países já se haviam defrontado, com os checos a sofrerem uma copiosa derrota na terra batida de Sevilla.

Porém, este ano não se passou assim. A final era em Praga, em piso rápido (rapidíssimo, como disseram os espanhóis), e Espanha partia sem a sua principal figura, o antigo número um mundial Rafael Nadal - Rafa é quase imbatível em terra batida, mas mesmo noutras superfícies é sem dúvida superior a qualquer outro espanhol; além disso, Alex Corteja deixou no país vizinho Feliciano Lopéz, que se diz ser o especialista espanhol em pisos rápidos (pessoalmente, acho que ele não é especialista em coisa alguma) e levou antes Nicolas Almagro, nº11 mundial mas extremamente inconstante mesmo em terra batida.

Porém, nem tudo estava mau do lado espanhol; o valenciano David Ferrer estava na comitiva, motivadíssimo após um ano de sonho (terminou a época com 76 vitórias e sete títulos, mais do que qualquer outro tenista) e com o seu primeiro evento Masters 1000 da carreira "no bolso", conquistado há duas semanas em Paris em... piso rápido. A dupla espanhola também era à partida de classe mundial, sendo formada por Marcel Granollers e Marc López, recem-vencedores do Masters de Londres, mas sem experiência nesta competição, como se viu.

Já a equipa da casa, partia em teórica desvantagem em termos individuais mas com muita vontade. Os tenistas que jogariam em singulares eram o nº6 do mundo Tomas Berdych e o nº37 Radek Stepanek, este último antigo oitavo tenista mundial. Já o jogo de pares seria jogado pela dupla Ivo Minar e Lukas Rosol, conhecido pela derrota imposta a Nadal na segunda ronda de Wimbledon e que foi também o último encontro do espanhol da temporada. Na prática, a dupla de pares foi formada por Berdych e Stepanek e acabou por resultar em cheio, tal como havia resultado na meia-final diante da Argentina - e Stepanek já tinha vencido o Open da Austrália 2012 em pares.

Passando à final propriamente dita: o primeiro encontro, David Ferrer vs Radek Stepanek, não vi e vim depois a saber que o espanhol havia vencido em três sets apesar da luta do veterano tenista checo. Nada de surpreendente, considerando a recente forma de Ferrer e o declínio de Stepanek nesta sua fase da carreira. Achava que a final se ia decidir nos encontros do Berdych e no par, e parcialmente acertei.

Nesse segundo encontro, Tomas Berdych derrotou Nicolas Almagro em cinco sets num encontro muito disputado, eles que já no Australian Open desde ano haviam protagonizado um episódio polémico - Almagro atingiu Berdych com uma bola na rede e no final do encontro o checo recusou cumprimentar o espanhol.  Na sexta-feira, Berdych podia ter fechado em quatro mas o Almagro ainda forçou a negra antes de ceder o ponto para o empate; "pase lo que pase", só no domingo se saberia o vencedor.

Sábado foi dia do jogo de duplas. Como já referi, a República Checa anunciou uma dupla diferente da prevista para o encontro de pares e, após terem perdido o primeiro set, Tomas Berdych e Radek Stepanek venceram o encontro e punham o seu país a apenas uma vitória do título da Taça Davis!

Hoje, domingo, foi o dia das decisões. Pensava que seria Tomas Berdych a decidir a vitória no seu encontro contra David Ferrer, mesmo sabendo da boa forma do espanhol, mas parece que me enganei. O checo simplesmente não esteve ao nível necessário e o valenciano a jogar assim só perde mesmo para os tenistas do Big-Four, seja em que superfície for (menos em terra, onde se pode perfeitamente bater de igual para igual com o Djokovic e o Federer). Em três sets, David Ferrer vencia o encontro e dava a Nicolas Almagro a hipótese fechar a final a favor de "nuestros hermanos".

No 5º encontro, Almagro não contava certamente com um Radek Stepanek inspiradíssimo. O veterano checo, muitas vezes mal-amado pelo público e imprensa, mostrou a todos os críticos que a República Checa podia contar com ele e numa exibição bastante boa - longe da perfeição mas não muito longe -, o marido da antiga tenista Nicole Vaidisova venceu em quatro partidas e deu ao seu país a tão aguardada Taça Davis.

Acabou por ser uma derrota um bocado amarga para os tenistas espanhóis que jogaram singulares; David Ferrer venceu os seus dois encontros sem perder qualquer set e Nicolas Almagro esteve mais de sete horas em campo para perder os seus dois embates. Foi uma justa vitória checa, e ainda bem que assim foi para quebrar um pouco a hegemonia espanhola...

Com este resultado, a República Checa vence a sua primeira Taça Davis enquanto nação independente e torna-se no primeiro país a vencer na mesma temporada a Hopman Cup (torneio de início de ano de seleções), a Fed Cup e a Davis Cup. Nestas conquistas, os heróis das finais acabaram não por ser Tomas Berdych e Petra Kvitova - ambos nº1 checos e presenças recorrentes no top-10 mundial - mas sim Radek Stepanek e Lucie Saforava, habituados a viver na sombra de Berdych e Kvitova em tempos recentes.

E é tudo. Cumprimentos,
Pedro Mendes