Djokovic At the ToP of the World

A special columnist piece from Zubair Aslam.

As another year of tennis came to a close, it was the ATP world tour finals, held at the O2 arena, London, that would decide the player with the last shout, after a dramatic year of ups and downs.

It was a thrilling climax, with all the big names going head to head, and it was Roger Federer against Novak Djokovic, who was looking to maintain his superb run he started in 2011. The world number one had beaten seventh seeded Juan Martin Del Potro in the semis, whilst Rafa Nadal took an early exit. 17 time grand slam winner Federer succeeded against Andy Murray, who in the US open earlier this year won a long awaited first Grand slam, after winning Olympic gold in the summer. Both these achievements should take some pressure of the Brit, and he will be even stronger heading into next year.

Back to the action, and the top two ranked players in the world provided a full three-set thriller. Djokovic won a tight first set 7-6, and though defending champion Federer responded with an 8-6 victory in the second, ultimately it was the Serb who came out on top, taking the final set 7-5, and once again proved to be unstoppable.

That's it for this year, but we look forward to the next, where the competition will be higher than ever, and as always, we'll have to see who is on form and can take the majors, and if others in the top ten rankings can spoil someone's party and make a name for themselves.

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Under the Trance of Lance

The weeks of scrutiny have culminated to Lance Armstrong being stripped of his 7 consecutive Tour de France titles as well as being banned from professional cycling.Armstrong  was granted the honour  of having run the "Greatest doping system the sport has seen", and has subsequently left his "amazing "sporting legacy to be eliminated from sporting history.The man has plunged from a hero and icon to being seen as some a scum of the sporting world.Not only have the people turned away from Armstrong,but so have his sponsors with RadioShack,Nike and Oakley all dropping Armstrong's sponsorship deals.

The real issue is Armstrong may be the most in/famous cyclist ever and has been stripped of all of his titles.But why has such a strict line been take with other cyclists found to be doping such as Jan Ullrich ,Alexandre Vinukourov and Alberto Contador. Contador is currently still cycling and is expected to finish well in the 2013 Tour de France while Vinukourov managed to surprisingly win the Olympic road race.What action will be taken against these riders and or will action even be taken?

Contador next to Bradley Wiggins at announcement of 2013 Tour de France
Getty Images

The MO-tivation of Farah

After the general view of the the best ever Olympic games,we will have a closer look at Mo Farah Olympic champion of the 5000m and 10000m races.The national hero and possible sport personality of year is not even in fact British but born in the African nation of Somalia.The young Mohammed Farah moved to London at the tender age of eight with little proficiency in English.Being found to be a strong  runner like many from the African continent and took part in junior athletics competitions.His first Olympic experience was in the 2008 Beijing games where at 25, Farah did not make it to the 5000m final.This relatively early disappointment provided an urge to perform better in future competitions and ultimately the London 2012 games.

Mo Farah in a Virgin ad campaign
Credit:Virgin

In 2011 Mo's career began to lift reap rewards with Farah breaking the 5000m European indoor record in Birmingham.Later in the world championships in Daegu ,Farah took gold in the 500m and silver in the 10000m.In the run up to the 2012 Olympic games was one of Team GB's gold medal hopes.As expected he delivered winning both the 5000m and 10000m races at Stratford which he celebrated with the iconic Mo-bot ,a celebration created on panel show League of Their Own by Claire Balding.With his Olympic success Farah is seen as Great Britain's best ever runner and a contender for Sports Personality of the year, however he faces a tough challenge in beating Bradley Wiggins, Tour de France winner and gold in time trial to the top spot.With many sponsorship deals to come for the great runner expect to see more of Mo on your TV screens.

Double Dutch

In the fourth  game of the European Championships,Denmark have conquered the Dutch with a 1-0 win.The goal from Michael Krohn-Deli gave the Danes the win in a game where many chances where not converted to goals.Denmark played defensively for most of the game and let the Netherlands do the attacking.Luck was on Denmark's side many Dutch shots hitting the post and even a handball from Christian Poulsen that they got away with.

The Portugal Germany encouter seemed equally matched and also was a one goal win to the Germans. Much of the time the ball did not get to Portugal's main man Cristiano Ronaldo and their closest attempt on goal came from defender Pepe who's shot bounced on the goal line.German many lots of chances and were rewarded by Mario Gomes' header into goal.

Much more Euro action to come with Italy and  Spain playing today.
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Kolkata conquer Chennai

In an action packed final the Kolkata boys stole the match from Chennai.From a pitch with poor spin,that even Spin king Narine made his worst figures with and economy rate of 9.25; the Chennai top order made a respectable total of 190,with Suresh Raina making a brilliant 73 off 38 balls.With the wicket of Gambhir in the first over the Kolkata looked to be out.But determined batting from Bisla and Kallis kept KKR on the run chase.On reaching the same run position in the 18th  over Kallis was out,leaving Shakib Al Hasan to end the game with Manoj Tiwary.Shakib sneaked a boundary of the nineteenth over leaving Kolkata needing nine to win.With 2 singles,followed by two fours from Manoj Tiwary,the Knight Riders sealed the game.

The Knight Rider played much better throughout the tournament but both teams had chances to win the game.
A brilliant IPL final with Kolkata finally rewarded,but Chennai have a chance at revenge in the Champions League in September.

IPL Champions 2012