Mixed weekend for Irish sport stars but King Rafa reigns supreme once again in France

                                                    From golf to cricket and football to boxing, the Irish had their fingers in a lot of sporting pies. Not the kind of pies that this armchair fan is most fond of, but in Ohio and in Wales, in Lord's, Skopje and Cardiff this Irish sports follower had plenty to chew over last weekend. However, the sports headline of the weekend must be Rafael Nadal’s tenth Grand Slam and sixth French Open win at the tender age of only 25 over his great rival Roger Federer at Rolland Garros on Sunday last. Whatever may be said by those with 20-20 hindsight vision, his victory was by no means a foregone conclusion. He had been beaten twice by Novak Djovkovic in two clay court finals leading up to the French, in Madrid and Rome and his shaky 3-2 win over big serving John Isner in the first round only gave credence  to those who questioned whether his veneer of invincibility on the clay was beginning to lose its polish. He got better with each game however and when he comfortably beat both Robin Soderling and Andy Murray 3-0 in the quarter and semi finals respectively it looked as though rumours of the King’s demise had been greatly exaggerated. In this blogger’s opinion though, the fact that it was Federer that he faced in the final and not this years form player Djokovic, was a huge boost for the Spaniard. While Federer still oozes class, only dropping one set on the way to the final, it appears as though Nadal has the mental edge over the Swiss man. They have met each other on eight occasions in grand slam finals with Nadal winning six to Federer’s two. Indeed those two are both at Wimbledon and were back in 2006 and 2007. Since then, the Spaniard has beaten Federer in the finals of the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the French Open twice. Djokovic won this year's Australian and last years US Opens and if he is able to beat Nadal in two consecutive finals on the Spaniard's favourite surface then the Serb could be the real threat to the world number one in the coming months.

                                            In the women’s section China’s Li Na defeated defending champion Francesca Shiavone of Italy. Both Li Na and Rafael Nadal picked up cheques for €1.2 million. While I appreciate that viewing figures worldwide for the women’s final may have been greater than the men’s this year (because of China’s huge population), this is the exception and certainly not the rule. Women’s tennis is nowhere near as gripping as it used to be, when Navratilova and Graf were in their pomp or when the Williams sisters bothered to compete in all of the Slams and not just Wimbledon. However, even if it was as entertaining as the men’s, the fact is that women simply do far less work than the men. On the way to her maiden Grand Slam Li Na played 16 sets and spent 727 minutes on the court. Compare that to Nadal’s 24 sets and 1258 minutes of game time and it’s clear that Nadal is clocking in for over eight hours more yet going home with the same pay. If women want equality in terms of remuneration well then I think it’s time that we went back to ‘equal pay for equal play.’

                                              Back to matters closer to home and on both sides of the Atlantic, two Irishmen, Rory McIlroy and Graeme McDowell had given themselves every chance of capturing the Memorial and the Celtic Monor titles respectively after their opening two rounds. McIlroy shot an opening -6 round of 66 and followed it up with a solid level par 72 to leave himself in a strong position going into the weekend. However, rounds of 71 and 68 were not enough to see him to victory, finish in fifth on -11, five shots off the winner, Steve Stricker. Graeme McDowell, on the other hand, had a much more spectacular fall from grace. After opening with promising rounds of 67 and 68, he moved spectacularly backwards on what the pros term ‘moving day’ with a dreadful 81 on Saturday. He salvaged some pride with a closing 71 but the damage was done the day before and he finished in a tie of thirtieth. Sweden’s Alexander Noren won by two shots. The 28 year-old had showed good form at the start of the year and in recent weeks had begun to recapture that form so it was no surprise to see him win his second tour title with his consistent driving and iron play.

                                                Eoin Morgan got the nod ahead of Ravi Bopara for England’s three match test series against Sri Lanka and last weekend he vindicated the selectors’ faith in him with an entertaining knock of 79 off 128 balls that included 10 fours and 2 sixes at the home of cricket. Having only faced 19 balls in England’s emphatic win in Cardiff a few days earlier, this was the Rush man’s chance to shine and he looked his usual unruffled self as he put on a century partnership with England wicket keeper Matt Prior. Morgan probably won’t get much of a chance in England’s second innings as they will look to declare early and try and repeat the Cardiff victory but if Morgan can repeat his first innings total in the final test in Hampshire then his place in England’s test team should not come under question for some time to come, particularly given that Kevin Pietersen is bang out of form and the  spotlight of scrutiny will soon be blinding him unless he can come up with something big in the next three innings.

                                                 Giovanni Trapattoni’s Machiavellian tactics paid off for him once again as Ireland kept up their push for automatic qualification to Euro 2012 with a largely forgettable 2-0 win over Macedonia in Skopje on Saturday night. It would appear as though Trapattoni sends his team out with no interest in ball retention and instead is happy to let the opposition have the ball for long periods believing that good defensive organisation on Ireland’s part will prevent goals being leaked. This is evidenced in previous group games, most notably against Russia at home and indeed against Scotland in last weeks Carling Cup match. Russian gave Ireland a footballing lesson in the first hour at the Aviva last October and were 3-0 up before the hour mark. Ireland did get back into the game through a Robbie Keane penalty and then Shane Long pulled another back shortly after that but it was a case of Russian complacency rather than Irish ingenuity that allowed Ireland to be flattered by a 3-2 losing scoreline. At least that night Ireland had 46 % of the possession as opposed to the 41 % that they enjoyed against both Scotland and Macedonia. Scotland missed a hatful of chances last weekend and, Goran Pandev aside, Macedonia patently lacked any real threat in the final third. Having said that, Macedonia did miss a penalty after Ireland has gone 2 up early in the first half and that was only thanks to a deflected shot and an unbelievable bit of generosity from the Macedonian centre half that allowed Robbie Keane to bag a brace and allowed Ireland to gain a valuable three points but the problems still remain. Ireland were missing Doyle, Duff and Dunne and it was a pretty makeshift back four that was employed on Saturday night with Darren O’Dea partnering John O’Shea at the centre of defence and Stephen Kelly and the evergreen Kevin Kilbane on either side of them. There looked to be serious communication problems between O’Dea and O’Shea, as both struggled to pick up the runs of the elusive Pandev. This confusion at the back led to O’Shea giving away the penalty that crashed off the bar and but for Given’s quick reflexes, denying Pandev from close range, it could easily have been 2 apiece at half-time. Granted, Macedonia never really looked threatening in the second half but allowing a team 59 % possession leading to 14 shots at goal, 5 of which were on target, is a dangerous precedent to set. With stiffer tests in the offing, most notably Slovakia in September, surely Ireland must learn that it is much easier to show some impetus and retain the ball than slog for 90 minutes in the hope that the opposition don’t have the cut and thrust in front of goal that the Russians quite clearly had last September.

                                                 Cavan’s Andrew Murray was fighting for the vacant European Lightweight title against Welshman Gavin Rees in Cardiff last Saturday night. Murray was undefeated leading up to this fight but Rees is a former light Welterweight world champion and Murray was very much the underdog going into this one. Rees was well on top in the opening rounds and was showboating in the fourth and fifth, with his hands by his sides, seemingly toying with Murray. To his credit Murray never wavered and from the sixth, the favourite looked as though he was running out of puff. Unfortunately for Murray, while he is undoubtedly technically sound, he lacks any real punching power and the Judges unanimously agreed that Rees had done enough in the earlier rounds to secure victory.

                                                 Well that’s it folks, my take on last weekend’s sporting action. Feel free to leave comments (positive or negative) underneath. I’ll be back next week with some more probing insights and remember “you’re simply the best.”

                                   Kevin Walsh lives in North Dublin and is an avid sports fan.