Great book!

A few days ago, my colleague Rafa Ramos told me about Andre Agassi’s book: Open, an autobiography. I have to say that Andre Agassi wasn’t one of my favourite players, but Rafa insisted saying that the book was worth it and that it was a very interesting story. I thought, then, that maybe I would give it a chance.

Days later, Rafa opened his backpack and took out this book and he gave it to me. He said it was a present for me. Even though I was reading another book that Rafa recommend me long time ago: A Short History of Nearly Everything of Bill Bryson, I decided to make a pause and start reading my new book.

I read the first pages in the plane when we went to London and I continued when we got back. Once I was back in Barcelona, I couldn’t leave the book. The story of Andre Agassi is great! He starts saying that he hates tennis! One of the best players of the last years, number one of the world and he says that he hates tennis? I couldn’t believe it.

Since the first page, the book catches your attention: his father trying to build a champion after failing with his older brothers and sister, his experience at the Nick Bollieteri’s academy, his hair problem, his behavior, his wins, his defeats, his mentality… And, of course, his career as one of the best tennis player who won eight Grand Slams, the Davis Cup or a gold medal in the Olympics.

As I said, I wasn’t very keen on Agassi even tough, as he got older, I did start to like him. Obviously, he had talent but, in the other hand, he was forced to play a sport maybe he would have never chosen. In the end, he became a great tennis player and a nice guy who won the respect of all of his rivals. And, as Rafa said, he has a happy ending marrying the woman he always wanted to: Steffi Graff.

The biography of Andre Agassi is a great book. You see how a great champion is built and all the episodes he has to overcome to achieve all the success he did. If you can, don't miss the opportunity and read the book.

Great Valverde!

As I wrote before in my blog I am a great fan of cycling. This Sunday, Ponferrada held the UCI World championship where some of the best cyclists of the moment took part. I really enjoy watching this race because it is usually very exciting and it is one of the best shows of the season.
 

I was following the race since I got up thanks to Twitter and different websites. Of course, I listened to the radio and I was able to watch the last kilometres, where, normally, the race is decided.

Experts said that if somebody wanted to surprise the bunch there had to be movements in the last climb. But the Polish Michal Kwiatkowski was cleverer and he decided to attack downhill.

Some of the top tried to reduce the gap he made: Nibali, Purito but it was Alejandro Valverde who did the best movement. However, it was too late because the Polish was going for the gold, while his pursuers didn’t get to a real understanding to catch him and only Gilbert tried to help his team mate Van Avermaet.

 

Finally, Kwiatkowski won the gold medal, Gerrarnas got the silver and Valverde won the bronze. The Spaniard did it again and won for fourth time in a row a medal for the Spanish National team. It wasn’t a very hard circuit and he did his best. He nearly got silver and he won other important cyclists like Gilbert.

 

I think that the cycling fans haven’t been fair with Valverde. He has won many stages in the best races, got six medals during his career in the world championships, this year he was third in the Tour of Spain and fourth in the Tour of France. Maybe he will never win the Grande Boucle, but all the success he has had during his career is incredible.

 

Some people say that sometimes he is not intelligent and that doesn’t make the best decisions in the crucial moments, but you can’t ignore all his victories. It is incredible all the wins he has had and I really think he deserves to be in the list of best cyclists of the history of Spain 

 

PS: The UCI world championship was amazing but I can’t finish without pointing out the performance of the Kenyan athlete Dennis Kimetto, who run the Marathon under 2h 3 min. And the fans of golf also enjoyed the fight between Europe and the United States in the Ryder Cup.

Rafa Nadal, the best

I am a real fan of sports. I have always liked them. I imagine that, in a way, I admire those sportsmen, who are able to do things I can’t. I have dreamt a lot of times with being an Espanyol’s football player in a derby, a tennis player winning Roland Garros or an athlete winning the gold medal in the Olympics. As I said before, I know I will never have the chance, but dreams are still free.

I remember when I was younger, that I admired a Miguel Indurain a lot. He was a Spanish cyclist who won, for the first time in history, five consecutive Tours of France. He was incredible and an example for everybody. Probably, he was one of my first idols and he made me love a so exciting sport as cycling.

However, I think I have found a better sportsman than Miguel Indurain: Rafa Nadal. A few days ago, Nadal won his ninth, yes his ninth, Roland Garros. Nobody has one so many Grand Slam in a row and  he also has been able to win one of the big four in the last ten years. I really admire Nadal, I love seeing him play, his effort, his ambition.

At the start of the season Nadal arrived to the Australia Open final. He lost against Wawrinka because a back injury. When the clay season started, he surprised us loosing in one of his favorite tournaments, Montecarlo, against David Ferrer. In Barcelona, he didn’t do better but in Madrid he was able to win despite Nishikori effort. In Rome, again, he got to the final but he lost against Djokovic.

As usual, a lot of people started to say that he was finished, that Djokovic will win easily his first Roland Garros and that Rafa wouldn’t get very far. Again, Rafa showed everybody that he is a number one; the best. He arrived to the final winning Murray or Ferrer and still some people thought he would lose against the Serbian. When the first set went for Djokovic, in all the forums you could read that the tournament was for Nole. But, again, they were wrong.

Nadal played his best tennis and finally won Djokovic in four sets. Once more, he showed everybody that he is one of the best tennis players ever and that he is the king of clay. I thing he is an example and a lot of people should take him as one. Maybe he is not the player with more talent, but he never ever fails; he always does his best.

What I admire more from him is that he keeps on fighting. He has his life resolved, plenty of money but he likes to win, he doesn’t get tired. I think this is something everybody should take note. The way he plays, he runs, he fights… we all should take example. Obviously, we will never become super champs as him, but in our lives it will be very good to make an effort as he does playing. Probably, everything would work better.

My basketball team

One of the things I liked more when I was younger was playing basketball. For the few boys that we studied at Salesianas it was the only sport we could practice. I think most of us would have preferred to play football, but the school didn’t give us the option. And, after so many years, I don’t regret because basketball has been one of the best things in my life. I remember the first match we played. It was against the Jesuitas de Caspe. We lost 69-29 I think, but, as they say in Spanish, we ‘won in the offices’ because they only had five players and you need seven in the minutes. I also remember I scored the first two points of my team; a team that became really good through the years. We were in 6th year and we finished that League winning the championship. We won for about 40 points in the final. We were a terrific team. It was easy to play with my actual friends like Marc o Albert and others like David, Jordi, Miguel, Pedro, Jaume, Pepe or Héctor. I remember training and the matches and I miss it, because playing in a team is something special and you learnt a lot of things. I also remember my coach Sergio Albors, he taught us everything and he built a great team. He had bad temper and once he got annoyed after a match that we won 59-2 (they only scored two free throws points). He said we did terrible! Another day he said we were not doing anything, running... We were sweating terrible! We look each other thinking that he was mad. He always tried to get the best of us and I think he did quite well. I also remember the last two matches we played. We had new teammates like Julio, Emilio, Jordi de la Mata or Emilio. We played the final of the school league and we lost that match. We could have won, but a teammate lost the ball in the worst moment. It was our last official match. We tried to carry on, but it wasn’t possible. It was a shame that the school didn’t do an effort, because I think we could have done well and it would have been good for everybody. That team met a year later to play the last match. We all got together to remember Iván, one of our friends who died in October the 16th of 1999. One day I will write about him, but not today. It was a sad day. Basketball has been my sport.  Now I play football with my friends (Marc and Albert are still there after 26 years) and we have fun, but those days in the school, training, playing, loosing and winning where one of the best of my life. Basketball is a great sport and many times I miss not playing it, however, sometimes in your life you have to step forward. I will never forget those days; they bring me great memories and I think all of my teammates will always remember our basketball team.