Here are our highlights of 2022 and our most eagerly anticipated sporting events in 2023.
SPORTING HIGHLIGHTS OF 2022
David Pávek: It would be the easiest choice to pick the World Cup in Qatar. The entire thing, honestly, if we forget the massive, human rights-hating elephant in the room. From a purely sporting standpoint, it had everything. Beautiful, thrilling matches, upsets, a lot of interesting stories including THE story of Lionel Messi finally winning the trophy in a final for the ages.
That would be the objective no-brainer. But these are supposed to be a bit more personal, I believe, so I will go with something that touched me even more.
I don’t remember that much from childhood (not that it was that long ago), but I do remember spending every weekend at my grandmother's place and (after my cartoons had finished, obviously) watching tennis with her. Most of the time, there was this guy called Roger Federer playing. It was he who made me love the sport. For most of the time I have followed tennis, he was there and he was amazing.
His retirement was a massive spectacle. Maybe not from a sporting standpoint - he lost his last singles match to Hubert Hurkacz, then had more than a year-long break prior to the memorable doubles match alongside Rafael Nadal - which he lost too. But this event was never about his win-loss record, was it?
It was a wonderful goodbye to one of the best in his (or any other) sport, and it was a beautiful, if painful, reminder to my generation that the idols we have followed for at least a decade are slowly leaving the scene.
The image of Roger Federer with Rafael Nadal, rivals for their entire careers but friends for life, sat next to each other, holding hands and crying is, to me, one of the best sports pictures ever, and a memory I will hardly ever forget.
Joshua Donaldson: England’s Test Match Success. The year didn’t start well for the England men’s cricket side in test matches. They followed a 4-0 series loss to the old enemy Australia with a tragic defeat in the Caribbean at the hands of the West Indies.
This led to a root-and-branch reset of England’s red ball side. A time to look in the mirror and reassess a structure in malaise. Captain Joe Root and coach Chris Silverwood were replaced by Ben Stokes as captain and former New Zealand captain Brendon McCullum as coach - cut from the same cloth of entertaining cricket, of panache and style.
Since the pair have been in place, England have won nine of their 10 tests, an incredible feat, but the way they have gone about it has been revolutionary.
They have played attacking cricket normally seen with the white ball rather than the red one, chased down high totals in fourth innings and allowed their squad to play with freedom and without pressure. They are changing the face of test cricket in front of our eyes and if you haven’t already, it’s time to check in for the ride.
Tolga Akdeniz: I have a few moments that immediately spring to mind. Roger Federer’s final match alongside Rafael Nadal at the Laver Cup was a spectacular and emotional end to the Swiss maestro’s career, and the tears afterwards showed the everlasting impact the man will have on tennis. The image of the two great rivals - and friends - side by side and in floods of tears will be etched in my mind for as long as I live.
The Lionesses winning the European Championships was a fantastic moment for everyone in England and must have been an especially spine-tingling experience for the fans watching at Wembley. The triumph raised the profile of women’s football as a whole in the country and will have a long-term impact on the future of the sport.
Lionel Messi winning the World Cup and that final was, of course, a historic moment and I could have easily picked that. But for me, what is undoubtedly my sporting highlight of 2022, is another tennis occasion.
Rafael Nadal clinching what was at the time a record-breaking 21st Grand Slam title, by beating Daniil Medvedev in one of the best Grand Slam finals of all time in Melbourne.
The Grand Slam race has been a thrilling one for pretty much over a decade, with Nadal, Novak Djokovic and Federer slugging it out for supremacy. Federer had always led the race, but the other two have slowly chipped away at his lead. Nadal’s victory at the Australian Open meant he finally surpassed Federer, and was ahead for the first time, with Djokovic now realistically the only man to compete with him.
But there were many more layers to that Australian Open victory. The Spaniard missed the whole second half of 2021 with a foot injury that is still plaguing him now. He barely had any match practice going into the first Grand Slam of the year in January, and no one knew how his body would hold up. Not to mention, he had only won the Australian Open once, the least out of all four Grand Slams. He has notoriously struggled there, while also coming agonisingly close on two other occasions to winning a second title.
So the fact that he went on to win the tournament, in the fashion he did in the final, was a sporting miracle. When it was all over, no one could quite comprehend what they had just seen. Was this a weird fever dream, were we being filmed for a Hollywood movie, or some sort of prank?
Nadal overturned a two-set deficit, while also trailing 2-3, 0-40 in the third set, to complete for me, the greatest comeback in tennis history, and one of the most electrifying and astonishing comebacks I have ever seen in any sport. The atmosphere contributed massively too. It was like a football match. Every point won by Nadal was treated like a goal had just been scored in the last second of a Champions League final. It was jaw-dropping.
So the victory itself, in terms of overtaking Federer, was a moment in history. But the comeback itself summed up everything good about Nadal. His indomitable spirit. The greatest fighter in the sport. But as well as that, it represented the journey he had been on in the few months prior. His foot injury had left him contemplating retirement. He was down and out. But he battled as he has done throughout his entire career on court. It was the best comeback in tennis history in more ways than one.
Oh yeah, the final also took place on my birthday. Bonus points for that!
Michel Jreissati: It is a no-brainer for me to pick my favourite sporting moment of 2022, it was one that the football gods decided to leave until the very end of the year to bless the whole world with: Argentina’s World Cup triumph.
Now, being half-french it would’ve been incredible to witness France become only the third country to win back-to-back World Cup alongside the competition’s royalty in Brazil and Italy, a feat that last took place over 60 years ago.
To also see Kylian Mbappe score a hat-trick on such a stage as well, becoming only the second ever in history to do so, you can only expect that such a heroic performance would be accompanied by jubilant celebrations but instead, it was bitter disappointment.
Nevertheless, and as cheesy as this will read and potentially controversial: my team lost yet football won. The divinity of this game decided to lend favour to its most faithful servant and worshipper: Lionel Andres Messi Cuccitini. The boy from Rosario, as some had said, ‘completed’ football and it felt only right to happen because it was.
Despite the tears of getting so close yet not enough, I felt a grand comfort that the game I fell in love with was still beautiful after all as the Argentine captain lifted the golden trophy and gazed at it like a newborn child.
Pat Dempsey: Australia’s FIFA World Cup run. I chose this not just because I am Australian and it was Australia doing well on the world stage but because of how it transpired and what it represented.
I will be the first to put my hand up and say that, as a Socceroos fan, I had written Graham Arnold’s side off completely before the World Cup in Qatar. They had a poor qualifying campaign, some fitness issues in the squad, seemingly no world-class players to choose from and, worst of all, a very tough group!
Despite now regularly qualifying for World Cups, before Qatar, Australia hadn’t won a game at the tournament for 12 years and hadn’t progressed past the group stage in 16 years.
What the Socceroos went on to achieve by winning two matches, getting out of the group, and then battling until the last moment against the eventual winners Argentina, proved me and all their other doubters wrong. What’s more, they reignited football in Australia with a much-needed flicker of hope for the future.
It was a true underdog story that captured the hearts of global football fans and Australians alike. They surprised us all with their performances and that’s purely credit to them for their hard work, spirit, determination, and application, in spite of moans and groans from back home that they were just there to make up the numbers.
It’s cheesy to say but the Socceroos made me believe. And what are sports for if not that?
MOST ANTICIPATED EVENTS IN 2023
DP: I’m going to go to tennis again, but forgive me if I’m a little too liberal with the word ‘event’. Because I am honestly looking forward to the entire season.
This might be the last year when the torch is finally passed from the big three of Federer, Nadal and Djokovic (in any order you like) to a new generation led by the likes of Carlos Alcaraz, Casper Ruud, Felix Auger-Aliassime or Holger Rune.
There are so many players in the top 20 of the ATP rankings who are 25 and younger and are still going to get to their peak. If Alcaraz is world number one at the tender age of 19, it’s almost scary to think how good he can get in the upcoming years.
But I’m looking forward to their rise just as much as I want to see Nadal and Djokovic continue in the best way they can. Especially with the latter being able to play Grand Slams in countries where he was previously not allowed to.
Over on the WTA side, I’m very curious if the young number one Iga Swiatek can continue her dominance over her more experienced challengers. And, being Czech, I am going excited about following our talented players in their fight for the top 10, especially as Petra Kvitova (Flashscore ambassador, coincidentally) seems to be on her way to a brilliant comeback to the sport’s spotlight.
JD: Tyson Fury vs. Oleksandr Usyk: The Heavyweight boxing division has been simmering away for the last few years. The trilogy of fights between Deontay Wilder and Tyson Fury were all classics and since then, Fury has held onto the WBC heavyweight title for two years.
On the other side, Anthony Joshua was ruling the roost until he was usurped by the diminutive Oleksandr Usyk, who won both bouts on points.
Now it has set up a mouthwatering contest in 2023 between the unorthodox as well as outspoken Fury and Usyk, who could not be more different as boxers and personalities.
The fight is slated for next year, with Fury’s promoter, Frank Warren, suggesting before Christmas that they will be each other’s next opponents. The fight itself will be fascinating with two polar-opposite styles, but there is the prospect of the winner unifying the belts for the first time since Lennox Lewis in 1999. Whatever happens, history will be made.
TA: It has to be The Ashes. Australia have held the Ashes since 2017, and England will unquestionably want to regain the famous urn on home turf. After being battered 4-0 in Australia at the start of the year, England have gone on a remarkable transformation, as Josh has already mentioned above.
It’s not completely fair to say that England are yet to be tested by a top bowling side, because South Africa, India and New Zealand are definitely no mugs. But England’s ultra-attacking brand will be coming up against their toughest test by a country mile when Pat Cummins’ side roll into town.
A bowling quartet of the skipper himself, Josh Hazlewood, Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon is fearsome, with Cameron Green also very handy. Scott Boland is someone who has racked up remarkable numbers in Australia too.
It is going to be so intriguing and captivating to see England’s batters take on arguably the world’s best fast-bowling side. Will they be able to continue going at a run rate of six an over, or will Australia find a chink in their armour?
MJ: Now the other half of my identity speaks up as we look forward to the second part of the season. The Africa Cup of Nations, a treasured competition I enjoyed following when I was younger for no other reason than my home country, Egypt, had been the only dominant force for many years.
However, that has now changed. The quality of the Egyptian side has not prevailed in Africa like in the times of the Golden Era. Several sides have risen up, competed and lifted the cup and Egypt’s seven stars are being tailed by the rest of the continent.
The 2023 AFCON (postponed) will be decidedly exciting as it follows a historic World Cup for Arab and African countries and to see them all clash with such momentum will be unprecedented.
A strong Tunisian side, that granted didn't get past the group stage but managed a solid victory against runners-up France, will be one of the contenders. AFCON Champions Senegal who got to the Round of 16 and got knocked out by a strong English side will be looking to defend their first star.
And then of course there's one of World Cup history’s greatest underdogs, Morocco. The side that defied all the odds in getting past a challenging group stage, defeating Belgium, knocking out both Spain and Portugal by outlasting and outplaying them, only to finally depart the tournament in fourth place following a defeat to former champions France with a side plagued by injuries with legs that were probably not expecting to run that far.
PD: The 2023 Rugby World Cup. One of the major international sporting spectacles that await us in 2023 is the next Rugby World Cup to be held in France in September and October. Despite a corruption scandal currently rocking the French Rugby Union and slightly souring the lead-up, it promises to be one of the best and most tightly contested Rugby World Cups in memory.
Hosts France are currently purring and playing scintillating rugby. The world’s number-one-ranked side, Ireland, are up there with them as the other European favourite for the tournament. Neither of those two nations have ever won a World Cup, which is an exciting proposition on its own.
Defending champions South Africa can never be written off. Nor can New Zealand, whose usually invincible All Blacks are having a bit of a wobble in form, which actually evens the field out quite nicely.
There isn't much at all between those top four nations as we’ve seen in recent battles between them. Unfortunately, because of the way the draw has fallen, only two of them can make the semi-finals as they are set to criss-cross in the quarters.
Aside from the typical top dogs being very evenly matched, the other key takeaway from international rugby in recent times is that the lesser rugby nations have been getting stronger and stronger.
In 2022, we saw first Argentina beat New Zealand and then Japan run them very close as well. We witnessed Italy beat Australia for the first time and then, even more surprisingly, Georgia beat Wales in Cardiff.
It all goes to suggest that the gap between the traditional rugby powerhouses and the emerging nations is narrowing as professionalism broadens. This tournament could well offer up a few surprises and is sure to be one of the most competitive ever. I can’t wait!
