Sports Ladder (4th - 10th August)

UP - Rory McIlroy - Not a bad week for the young Northern Irishman as he effectively creates an own era for himself. The returning world number one has always had the talent to be the best golfer in the world but has never strung together a run long enough to claim this title. However, after his third consecutive tournament victory, two of these being majors, McIlroy has set himself aside from the rest of the golfing world and become the very best. We are now well and truly in the McIlroy era.

UP - Arsenal - 'Specialists in failure?' Jose Mourinho will be eating his words this week as Arsenal brushed Manchester City aside to win their second trophy in less than three months. It was a commanding display against the League Champions from a side who have been the laughing stock of the top end of the Premier League for so long.. As cliched as it sounds, that FA Cup victory really may open the floodgates for Arsenal and I see them as genuine title champions this year, not just contenders. Wenger certainly knows what he is doing.


UP - England Cricket - We won again! Two weeks in a row! Actual legitimate victories! This time by a whole innings! Insane! No more words are even needed!

UP - Venus Williams - This week must have felt so very pleasing for the eldest Williams sister. For years she has disappeared, cowering in the shadow of her dominant younger sister. Serena has been the number one ranked player ranked female for well over a year now whilst Venus has toiled with injuries and dropped well down in the rankings. However, this week Venus claimed her first triumph over her sister since 2009 and made the final of the Rogers Cup in the process. Unfortunately she lost but we'll ignore that part.

UP - Howard Webb - Referees get a lot of bad press. Most weeks on Match of the Day they are hounded by Linekar and the gang as well as most of the neutrals for poor errors all over the park. This week though, Manchester United, the Premier League mourned the loss of one of its greatest assets in Howard Webb. The veteran became the first of Louis Van Gaal's summer clear out  referee retired from his 25-year career to spend more time with his family. All jokes aside, Webb will be sorely missed.

DOWN - Mark Robins - Football sackings have become a bit of a joke in recent years. Managers fired before Christmas, given no time at all to implement their ideas and no time to at least try and implement some sort of recovery. Mark Robins decided that getting fired ten games into a season was too mainstream though, opting for the more ridiculous choice of leaving after ONE game of the new season. Huddersfield were spanked 4-0 by a rampant Bournemouth side which left Robins out of a job. My head was buried so deep in my hands at this ridiculous news.

DOWN - Andy Murray - After failing to retain his Wimbledon title it looks like Murray doesn't fancy retaining his Sports Personality of the Year award either. Another quarter-final exit in this weeks Toronto Masters sees the Brit make absolutely no ground on his rivals and continue to languish in a mediocre ninth in the world rankings. Despite the appointment of Amelie Mauresmo as his coach, little has changed for the Brit and it looks to be his worst year for a very long time on the court.

DOWN - Legia Warsaw - Picture the scene. 6-1 up on aggregate in the third qualifying round of the Champions League. Absolutely cruising. No way for the opposition to come back. So naturally the thing to do is bring on a player who is potentially ineligible to play with just three minutes to go. Another head-in-hands football moment as Warsaw saw themselves thrown out of the Champions League for this rookie mistake. Never underestimate the importance of paperwork.

DOWN - Bernie Ecclestone - The big, or should I say, little man at the head of Formula One made a bit of a tit of himself this week when he decided that the best way to sort out a bribery trial would simply be to buy his way out with an effectively legal form of bribery. Ecclestone was on trial for bribing a company he favoured to buy a stake in F1 and got out of the trial by paying a 100 million Euro buy-out. If that doesn't scream 'guilty' then I really don't know what does.

DOWN - Tiger Woods - Topping this weeks Sports Ladder was Rory McIlroy and his new era so it seemed only fitting to put his predecessor rock bottom after another week to forget. On a generous Valhalla course, Woods looked barely a shadow of his best, finishing on Friday after failing to make the cut by six shots. Plagued with injuries and still not looking focused after his off-the-course personal problems, the era of the legendary Tiger Woods is well and truly over.

Cilic Continues Rankings Rise

Marin Cilic continued his fine run of form with his second title in three weeks as he claimed victory at Delray Beach. The Croat added this victory to his Zagreb title two weeks ago and a runner's up spot in Rotterdam last week to rise four places in the rankings to 25. Cilic will be looking to push back into the top 20 following a disappointing second half of last year.

Elsewhere Ernest Gulbis rose to a career high eighteenth following victory in Marseilles this weekend. Gulbis claimed his fifth ATP title with a 7-6(5) 6-4 victory over local favourite Jo-Wilfried Tsonga who did not move this week.

In fact it was a quiet week at the top of the men's rankings with no movement inside the top ten. Kei Nishikori was a big loser though, dropping five places to twentieth whilst a strong showing from Pablo Andujar reaching the Rio Open semi-final sees him rise six places to 34th. Andy Murray will be wary of Andujar's form after being drawn against him in the opening  round of this week's tournament in Acapulco.

A first round appearance in Marseilles pushed promising young Brit Kyle Edmund into the top 300, whilst it was a quiet week elsewhere for the British boys. The girls also had a quiet week with neither Laura Robson or Heather Watson taking part in any competitions. Nor will they be playing this week as Robson continues to recover from a wrist injury whilst Watson retired in a qualifying match in Brasil.

The women's rankings saw more change at the top than the men. Despite losing in the first round to Ana Ivanovic, Angelique Kerber rose two places to 6th whilst Simona Halep followed her in rising two places to 7th. Petra Kvitova's lack of action meant she dropped from 6th to 9th whilst a quarter-final showing from Jelena Jankovic was not enough as she fell one place to eighth.

The Dubai champion, Venus Williams celebrated a fantastic week with a fifteen place rise to move back inside the top 30 at 29th; only her second WTA title in four years. The other big mover inside the top 100 was the Japanese first seed, Kurumi Nara. Her maiden WTA victory in the Rio Open catapulting her fourteen places to 48th.

Published on SEaT Capital.

Sports Ladder (26th August - 1st September)

UP - Dan Evans - It finally looks like Evans might be maturing into a top 100 tennis player. After a third round run at the US Open which included knocking out Kei Nishikori and Bernard Tomic, both established top 100 players, Evans will be looking to push on. After his controversial past he will have gained a lot of fans this week.

UP - Women's Ashes Team - Following on from the success of the men's team a few weeks ago, the women stepped up and matched them, with a 12-4 points victory over Australia. With English Cricket on a high at the moment we all look forward to the third Ashes event of the year during Christmas as the men take on the Aussies down under.

UP - Men's Eight (Rowing) - For the first time in the history of the World Rowing Championships, England walked away with gold in the Men's Eight category to top off a great week for British Rowing. This victory took us to third in the overall medal table with three golds and five bronze medals.

UP - Chris Mitchell - A record breaking week for Chris Mitchell who became the first one-armed man to complete a race around the TT track on the Isle of Man. It is an extraordinary story for the man who lost the use of his arm during a motorcycle accident in 2001, as he finished in 11th place in the 20-strong field.

UP - Papiss Cisse - After his bizarre summer sponsorship incident, Cisse has certainly boosted support amongst Toon supporters after hosting a BBQ for young fans. The youngsters were treated to a tour of his house, some home-cooked food, FIFA Tournaments and games of pool. That is certainly one way to win back your fans.

DOWN - Romelu Lukaku - Poor Romelu Lukaku. After a fantastic season last year he has to suffer with being behind Fernando Torres in Chelsea's pecking order. As if to further his misery, this week he missed the vital penalty in the European Super Cup meaning that meant Chelsea missed out on their first potential silverware of the season.

DOWN - Venus Williams - For so long it was the 'Williams Sisters', now it looks more likely to be Serena and 'the other one'. Venus has not won a Grand Slam in 5 years whilst Serena has won seven in that time and will certainly be a contender for a fair few to come. After her third consecutive US Open second round exit, Venus' time could soon be up.

DOWN - US Open - Once again the US Open has come under scheduling criticism, this year from our very own Andy Murray, who had to wait until the night session on the third day of the tournament to play his first match. It seems to happen every year and something really should be done as some women had played two rounds of tennis before Murray had played one. Blushing Meadows!

DOWN - Gareth Bale - So as I write this, history's most inevitable event has finally occurred as Bale leaves for Madrid but it has not been a good week for the Welshman. His unprofessional approach to this transfer led to him nearly getting fined for failing to show up to training. What's the best way to get transferred away from a club? Annoy the people stopping you from leaving obviously. At least the saga is finally over.

DOWN - David Moyes - Oh dear David. Still no summer signings of note (sorry Varela), a 1-0 defeat to rivals Liverpool and #MoyesOut sprawled all over twitter. Moyes needs an expensive day of shopping tomorrow to ease the mindset of many United supporters. Look on the bright side though, at least he doesn't have the World's fastest man out to get him...