Sports records were broken, trophies were won, and series of new superstars came on the scene around the globe.
LAWN TENNIS
Pete Sampras’ long standing record of 14 grand slam titles came to an end when Roger Federer won the Wimbledon title in United Kingdom. It was his 15th Grand slam title. Andy Roddick lost a hard fought battle in the finals.
Earlier in the year Nadal took over the world number one crown from Federer which hurt him. As champions don’t waste time in accepting the challenge, Federer before the yearend was world number one again showing his class. His long unquenched thirst of claiming the French open title was gratified this year. It also silenced his critics about his clay court title. Del petro won the U.S open at the flushing meadows centre court in United States of America. It helped him in secure the title of the best Argentinean athlete of the year.
The tennis fraternity was shocked when the legendary Andre Agassi in his book “OPEN” stated that he had used a performance enhancing drug called ‘Crystal Meth’ during the 1997 season. The book increased in sales but lowered his respect.
The final grand slam of the year (U.S OPEN) grabbed the headlines for two reasons:
1) The comeback of Kim Clijsters and winning the title.
2) The outburst of Serena Williams with a lineswoman will not be easy to forget during her semi-final match.
In spite of all these Serena finished the year as number one woman in the ranking charts.
FORMULA ONE
As expected the year of 2009 was full of surprises after few alterations in the rules and regulations. Indeed it turned out to be a year to remember.
The year had a new entrant in the form of Brawn grand prix team. It came about as team Honda was no longer a Formula One team. It won the first race of the season with Jenson Button in the driver seat. He finished the season with six first position finishes. The team had a fairytale run as they won the constructors championship with 172 points, and Button eclipsing the driver championship with 95 points.
The Hungarian grand prix will be difficult to be erased from people’s memory as one witnessed a major accident when Felippe Massa had been hit on the helmet while racing in the circuit by a spring that had come out of a Brawn grand prix car to which he was trailing. He thus crashed his machine on a pile of tyres.
Michael Schumacher was requested to fill in Massa’s shoe for the remaining of the season. It later turned out to be unsuccessful as he found himself unfit for the challenge after test driving the Ferrari car.
The year ended on a fitting note when Schumacher declared that he would be driving for McLaren Mercedes for the year 2010.
FOOTBALL
The world’s most awaited event, the “world cup” 2010 finalists have been finalized through some tough qualifying rounds. Some well known football playing nations failed to qualify. Croatia, Turkey, Russia, Saudi Arabia, just to name a few. The event is expected to be a humdinger.
The 2009-10 seasons saw some huge mega bucks being spent by top domestic clubs on their targeted players. Christiano Ronaldo, kaka, Benzema were all bought by Real Madrid from different clubs.
Manchester city too spent lavishly inspite of the Global recession. Players like Abedayour,Santa Cruz, Barry were brought into their squad. Manchester United is defending their title this season. Till date they have been trailing Chelsea by two points.
In Spain, the la liga has been a fight between Real Madrid and Barcelona with the latter winning the coveted title in 2008-09 season. The fight is on between the same two sides for the elusive title during 2009-10 seasons. In Germany, Bayern Leverkusen, Schalke 04 and Bayern munich are the strongest teams to lift the title In 2009-10. In Italy, Inter Milan seems to be the hot favourite to seal the authority in the championship.
Henry’s handball during a match against Republic of Ireland became a talking point as it lead to the ouster of Republic of Ireland from 2010’s big event, the World Cup in South Africa.
India also had a reason to smile as the national team was automatically selected for the next Asia Cup owing to their victory in the Nehru cup 2009.
ATHLETICS
Lightning indeed struck twice in the year 2009. The man with the golden feet, Ussain Bolt broke his own world record in IAAF world championships, 2009 at Berlin in 100 metres and 200 metres. He was clocked at 9.58 seconds and 19.19 seconds in 100 and 200 metres respectively.
His “bow and arrow” style of celebration has become a common sight since winning gold medal during the Olympic Games, 2008. He also received the “best Male Athlete of the year”, and Sanya Richards “best Female Athlete of the year” by his amazing runs in the 400 metres at Brussels in 48.83 seconds.
The Women pole-vaulter Isinbayeva, known to break her own records surprised the world as she failed to win a medal in the World championship. She, later in Zurich cleared 5.06 metres breaking yet another record of her own. She won a Gold medal.
The commonwealth games preparation was declared ‘unimpressive’ as they were not meeting set deadlines. The organizing committee has promised the higher authorities of hosting a good Commonwealth games in Delhi.
Rio De Janerio was declared to be the host of the 2016 Olympics shocking Chicago and Madrid, who were the favourites to host the mega buck event.
CRICKET
The award for the “choker” team 2009 goes to India following their dismal display during the Champions trophy and also the Twenty20 World Cup. The country was brimming with the hope that the team would fare well enough to applaud but it was not to be. The absence of Virender Sehwag and Zaheer khan was truly felt as they were not in the team owing to their injuries. India salvaged some pride as M.S.Dhoni and Gautam Gambhir won best player of the year in One Day International and Test cricket respectively.
Pakistan on the other hand outclassed all other teams to lift the twenty20 World cup. It was a much needed win for them after the terrorist attack on the Sri Lankans at Lahore. It was for the 1st time that the terrorists targeted cricketers. The Australians dominance in world cricket is on a decline, though still their performance in the year was decent enough with a major Champion’s trophy in their cabinet. South Africa, Australia and India were the best teams of 2009. New Zealand, Sri Lanka and West Indies had a mixed bag of a year.
After a long hue and cry the IPL 2009 (Indian Premier League) had to be shifted to South Africa as the Lok Sabha election and the IPL matches were clashing. It was a huge success in South Africa where the stadiums were chock-a-block with energetic spectators. The Deccan chargers turned out to be the winner. It was for the first time that the top cricket clubs from the best cricket playing nations fought in India for the prestigious Champions league Twenty20. It was the brainchild of Lalit Modi, also the architect of IPL. New South Wales from Australia won the inaugural edition.
The year also ended on a sad note for India when the Kotla pitch in Delhi was declared to be unfit for playing so the Test match between India and Sri Lanka had to be abandoned in the 1st day itself.
GOLF
Tiger Woods, one of the richest sportsperson had come into public eye as news began to spread around the world over his relationship with different other women. The world woke up with this news in utter dismay. Many of his sponsors also ended their sponsorship deals with him, like AT& T and Accenture, Gillette etc.
Tiger Woods had a pretty good year in the golf course. He finished of the year with a ranking of No. 1. The 4th ranked English player from England, Lee Westwood was declared the European player of the year which he had previously won in 1998 and 2000.
FEW IMPORTANT EVENTS SCHEDULED FOR 2010
The year 2010 will be a challenge for all those champions as they have an additional pressure to stay at the top. Some of the most awaited events of the year 2010 are World Cup (Football) at South Africa, the Commonwealth games in Delhi, Lawn Tennis Grand slam Majors etc.
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