Grande Finale

With the US Open finishing today the final of Queens club and the end of the first week at Euro 2008 I want to reflect on what has been the beginning of an unbelievable summer of sport.

I'll start with Cricket and start of the one-day series between New Zealand and England. New Zealand ranked third in the world in ODI's are certainly the favourites and the beating that England have received on there own turf by some sides gives them extra optimism. The win in the 20/20 international will mean nothing going into the 5-match series and i fully expect New Zealand to win by 2 or 3 matches. England are side in transition at this level and have never grasped this part of the game. Sorting out there openers will be of main concern to Peter Moores, the inclusion again of Luke Wright puzzles me. He struggled in the 20/20 world cup, and in other ODI's I think the step up for him is to high. For me Strauss and Bell are the pair for me. It will also be a case of whether the 3-way bowling attack of Stuart Broad, Ryan Sidebottom and James Anderson can bring there test from into the 50 over game, something that they have yet to do and something I think will take time to develop. A comfortable New Zealand win for me over the 5 match series with England still looking for improvement.

Next to Rugby and a tour that from the outset looked like a disaster waiting to happen has started in impressive manner for a youthful England side. New Zealand who are in transition themselves scored four tries on there way to a 37-20 victory, but England's performance to restrict the All Blacks to only four tries and to score two themselves i think can be held in high accolade. This performance has set up the series nicely and even though I do expect New Zealand to win the next match I reckon England can nick the three game to finish 2-1 in the series. However one criticism I do have of this tour is how close it was to the and of the regular season. May 31st was the Premiership Grand Final and barely two weeks later England are in new Zealand playing there first match. there should be at least some rest bite for these players who now seem to be playing 12 month seasons, how are they expected to play with any quality when there tired from playing for there club. The same accusation has been played at footballers as well, but even they would have has more of a rest than the Rugby players have. If England are expected to play well then they need the RFU to protect them and give them every chance of doing well.

Queen's has always been built as a warm up for Wimbledon and a chance for players to get used to grass before the big major. However I think now Queens is becoming its own tournament not just one for warming up for Wimbledon. This year shows that more than ever. The top four seeds for the competition all lie in the top eight in the world and all make up the semi-final line up. Rafael Nadal was just to good for reigning champion Andy Roddick, who will have to wait another year to win a record breaking fifth Queen's title. Novak Djokovic is the other finalist after blitzing past David Nalbanian. The two met in the semi-final of the French open, but it will be interesting to see the two winners of the first two opens off there favourite surface against each other with a title in sight. I think Nadal's form is ridiculous at the moment and he should make short work of Djokovic, maybe in three sets this time but still with the dominance he has shown all year.

We see it all the time in team sports players rushing back from injury to play in major tournaments or matches and never being able to re-capture there form or make a proper impact. Not often however do we see this happen in individual sport. Players are usually very sensible in deciding they aren't fit enough to compete. Tiger Woods have strolled around the US Open this week with an obvious limb and is clearly in some pain and not 100% fit for this tournament. But like every great professional he has got on with it and as he always does played himself into contention so much so that he leads with the final round remaining. Everyone knows that Woods always win's major's that he leads going into the final round. Wouldn't it be ironic that if his misjudgement of playing in this tournament actually denied him of an unlikely title. I think he will hang on but England's Lee Westwood won't make it easy for him.

Last but not least we have come to the half way stage in the European Championship of 2008 and after what was a slow start the tournament has really come to light. Holland have been the most impressive of the nations after overwhelming both Italy and France and strolling into the last eight. Portugal and Spain have also made there way through with a little less grace but still they look dangerous. Surprise packages have come from Croatia, who look set to top group A ahead of Germany and Russia who are preparing for a showdown with Sweden to who will qualify with Spain in group D. My players of the tournament so far are spread across all of the nations that have impressed me. Wesley Snidjer of Holland, Galasek or Czech Republic, Aurthur Boruc of Poland, Zhirkov of Russia and Senna of Spain. Others have done especially well but these are the men that have stuck out for me. Next week is likely to be very exciting and with a start studied last eight it could be a thrilling last two weeks of this championships, who said it wouldn't be good without England if anything it's even better.