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Joined January 2014
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"Not bad for a number two driver" - Mark Webber
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He puts up amazing statistics every night, the box score of an MVP but you just feel that he isn’t as “valuable” as Durant or Lebron when it comes to crunch time and putting the team on his back to get the win.
Does Kevin deserve any MVP Love?
Hit the nail right on the head here…of course the transition of the BBL from Foxtel/Austar is going to improve the ratings because it is more accessible to the general public, however the fact that we are just coming off an Ashes series where Australia played dominating, entertaining and “get ready for a broken ——- arm” cricket has reignited public interest once more where we are getting record test match crowds and kids drawing mo’s on their faces.
Thanks to Twenty20, cricket is now more popular than ever
It’s becoming a bit of a revolving door when Hughes gets a run in the test team…
He plays a few tests, the selectors drop him and cite that he needs to go and iron out his technique in Sheffield Shield. Consequentially he scores an absolute mountain of runs to get picked again, only to be dropped and told to do the same once more in a continued cycle. To be honest, his problem at international level may be that he lacks the confidence to score runs because of the consistent pressure he must feel on his place in the side.
I was very disappointed in the selectors after he was dropped in England, sure he only scored 83 runs in four innings, and 81 of those were scored in the first innings of the first test, however if we look at the context of that score and his partnership with Agar, it dug Australia out of a massive hole and clawed us back into the game to put Australia in a position to actually have a shot of winning the first test.
That being said, he certainly hasn’t been able to live up to his true potential at test level and translate Shield form into international runs. It’s a tough situation the selectors face because he is a young player with the pure talent, domestic runs under his belt and previous test experience to warrant being selected and go on to have a solid test career. But there is always going to be the elephant in the room that he has been dropped five times previously because of a failure to make runs.
Given current form, as highlighted above, surely he needs to be rewarded with a ticket to South Africa, maybe not in the starting XI, but at least to play a few tour matches (I assume we are playing some). I feel that he can eventually leap the hurdle at international level and go onto to be a consistent fixture in the Australian test team. but it’s hard to say whether this will be a reality as eventually the selectors will grow tired of his shield success not translating into test runs.
Have the selectors turned their back on Phil Hughes?
I’m a big Federer fan and I want to see him win more Grand Slams, but this article is definitely correct, 2013 is where we significantly noticed that Roger is slowing down against guys like Nadal, Djokovic and Murray because they have amazing power through their ground strokes and obviously the younger legs allowing them to move around the court like nothing we have ever seen before.
I still think that Federer is competitive and relevant at Grand Slam level and can beat guys outside of the ‘Big Four’, making Quarter-Finals and the occasional Semi-Final but obviously with the decline in ranking, he would need a miracle to beat Nadal, Djokovic and Murray at the same slam. Now I’m not saying he can’t beat either of these players, but I think that he would need something like an injury, to draw Ferrer, or meet a top player on a bad day whilst playing his absolute best tennis to have a shot at winning another Grand Slam given his rankings and the draws he is likely to receive.
Will Roger Federer bounce back?
Although he did breakthrough and win the US Open in 2009, it feels as if the extensive amount of time he spent out of the game with injuries has left him playing in the shadow of what he could have become with such an impressive game and amazing potential. It’s because of this that I believe that he is one of the most underrated players on tour despite being consistently ranked in the top 10.
Many people say that guys like Tsonga, Berdych or Ferrer are most likely to break the dominance of the ‘Big Four’ but surely it has to be del Potro and I think that this has become more evident over the past year, especially with his great run at Wimbledon, pushing Djokovic in the semi-final despite not being at 100% with his knee.
Like Adam said above, he is staying healthier and moving around the court more freely allowing him to unleash his deadly forehand and this has looked really impressive in his build up to the Australian Open, where let’s face it, he steam-rolled Bernard Tomic in the Sydney final. On that note, I believe that with his win in Sydney, according to the live rankings at http://live-tennis.eu/, del Potro leapfrogs Ferrer and Murray into 3rd spot, which is a career high and obviously puts him in good stead for future Grand Slam draws if he can hold his place.
Considering Rafa’s end to the 2013, it’s a shame that del Potro has drawn him as a possible quarter-final opponent. Nadal was dominant and rightly so, he blew everybody off the court and I think everybody expects no different this year. However, I suppose if Juan Martin is going to win a Grand Slam in 2014, (which I think he is a big chance of doing so if he plays his best) he will have to beat the best players like Nadal.
Can Juan Martin del Potro win another Grand Slam title?
Sure, his statistics were nothing special and performances probably don’t warrant the Botham comparisons this early in his career, but if you consider them in the context of how abysmally England played during the Ashes and on the other hand, how amazingly well Australia did, it’s easy to see that he is a bright young prospect for English cricket. I say this because I think that Ben Stokes showed enough on this tour, on an embattled and defeated team that he has the heart, skill and ability to play test cricket as a high quality all-rounder, maybe not as good as Sir Ian, but good enough to hold down a spot in the side for a long time to come.
Debunking the Ben Stokes myth
Have to agree with the aforementioned comments here, Adam Scott’s Masters win, ultra-consistent season and domination of Australian events surely deserves to rank on par, or even above many of the five which were pointed out.
In terms of “defining” moments, I think that it was so significant because the Masters win vindicated his ‘choke’ at the Open Championship in 2012 and helped him leap a major mental hurdle, instantly transforming him as a player. Ever since, his confidence has sky rocketed and now he is playing the most consistent and dominant golf of anybody in the world, only soured a tad by his close loss to Rory in Sydney.
Five defining moments of Australian sport in 2013
Makes you wonder why it continues to be held in mid-January, obviously a few of the stadiums have roofs and this helps a bit, but as we have seen today, if extended sets/5 sets aren’t enough of a drain already, how is it safe for the players, and how does it affect their ability to recover properly when they are playing in temperatures of 35-40+ for a number of days.
Heat policy in effect at Australian Open