Currently, during an exciting West Indies four-day cricket tournament lies an impressive line up of international cricket series. We have just witnessed the end of the West Indies vs Ireland and India vs Australia series. At present, England is opposing South Africa in an absorbing test series with the 'pommies' leading 2-1. Meanwhile, Zimbabwe is locked in battle with Sri Lanka and the West Indies Under-19 team is making us proud of their exploits in the Under-19 Cricket World Cup in South Africa.
Still to come in the next few days: the powerful India squad has moved across to New Zealand for a full series of all game formats and Pakistan will play Bangladesh in a series of T20 games. Cricket fans will have a vast selection of games they should look at. Spoilt for choice?
In football, the European leagues are in full swing and with the Champions League resuming in 3 weeks, our football fans must be licking their lips; and locally, the Pro League is underway. Hopefully, we see some quality football and coach Fenwick can identify some exciting local talent for the Soca Warriors.
But with all things happening in those two sports, it is our tennis fans who must be extremely excited with the start of one of the 4 grand slams in the tennis world. The Australian Open served off last Monday and will climax with the final at Melbourne Park on February 2nd.
As Melbourne is 15 hours ahead of us here in T&T, it means our real tennis fanatics may well be ruining their sleep patterns and remaining awake at 2, 3 or even 4:00 am to take in the action. The question is - who will win the Men's and Women's titles this year? The big three, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer (the local favourite?) have dominated men's tennis for well over 15 years and you can certainly put your money on at least one of these three in a final. However, it appears the next generation of tennis stars are not only getting closer in terms of mentally believing they can defeat the icons in the tennis world, but they are winning games against them with some scintillating tennis. Austrian star Dominic Thiem and talented Greek Stefanos Tsitsipas contested the ATP final at the last tournament in 2019 and I expect 2020 would be an interesting year on the men's circuit. Somehow, I anticipate there will be new names on the various trophies for the grand slams.
Nadal, Djokovic, and Federer are still ranked one, two and three in the world respectively; with Daniil Medvedev (Russia) Thiem and Tsitsipas filling in the fourth, fifth and sixth positions. We all know that on the day, it is who plays the more aggressive tennis and has the right mental attitude that pulls one through. There is no second chance if you lose. All three icons are in their thirties - Nadal 33, Djokovic 32 and Federer 38. You have no choice but to admire them, especially given that they are somehow still able to strike fear into the hearts of their opponents. But, it must be even more difficult year in year out to maintain their fitness levels; their technical ability is not in question so how do you maintain a high level of fitness when you have 21 to 26 years old opponents all around you? Spare a thought for Roger Federer - what a superb athlete this man is. You may recall that in the 2016 Australian Open semi-finals at age 34, he suffered a torn meniscus and underwent knee surgery and all the tennis commentators said he was finished, he would never come back as the same player. But, as the saying goes, class is class and form is temporary. Not only did he come back, but he won the Australian Open in 2018 and reached the Wimbledon final last year. The man is just pure poetry in motion on the tennis court but at 38, I can't see him adding to his phenomenal 20 grand slam titles.
I suppose the big question is, who will win it? I guess I will sit on the fence and play it safe and say either Nadal or Djokovic but also, keep an eye out for players of the new generation as they are hungry for success.
Turning to the ladies, another 38 years old will hold the spotlight. Serena Williams is seeded number 8 in the tournament and not only has she had to deal with motherhood, but she has been plagued by shoulder and knee injuries over the last few years. Despite these setbacks, when fit, she was still able to reach two Wimbledon and two US Open finals in 2018 and 2019 albeit losing all four. She won her first tennis title last week in three years since giving birth to her daughter. Can she finally equal Margaret Court's 24 grand slam titles since being stuck on the lonely figure of 23 since 2017? If Serena stays fit she may well do it at 38 years young. The women's game has grown tremendously with some real power hitters and much of that credit has to go to Serena. With the likes of local Aussie Ashleigh Barty, Karolina Pliskova, Naomi Osaka (my favourite) and Simona Halep, there is no longer a fear factor of Serena but rather a mutual respect factor and having lost to Osaka and Halep, they will be oozing with confidence with the belief that they can defeat her again.
Two players that have won 12 grand slams between them - Venus Williams (7) and Maria Sharapova (5) seem to be past their best and will have to decide on their futures as both were knocked out in the first round.
Whoever you choose to support, we should see some high-level quality matches. As the saying goes, life is like a game of tennis; the player who serves well seldom loses. Enjoy!
Editor's note: The views expressed in this column are solely those of the writer and do not reflect the views of any organisation of which he is a stakeholder.