Though I consider myself a bonafide feminist, I must admit that I rarely follow women’s sports. I just find men more powerful and thrilling. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t want women to have the same opportunities and compensation for equal work.
Which brings me to Serena Williams. No doubt there are those who are secretly and openly gleeful at her loss in the US Open semifinals to the appropriately named Roberta Vinci. Some of these gloaters are racists. But many others either don’t like her or are sick of the media overkill that trailed her quest to become the first woman since Steffi Graf to achieve a calendar-year Grand Slam – a quest that also died with Vinci’s victory. ...
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Read MoreWith the US Open drawing to a close this weekend, we turn our attention to the resumption of the Davis Cup competition with several stars, including Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal, in play for their respective countries.
One star on the sidelines for Australia is trash-talking, break-taking, umpire-arguing, racket-throwing, crowd-criticizing, sock-changing Nick Kyrgios, who’s been left off his country’s Davis Cup team to work on “personal development.” Translation: He’s been sent to the time out corner. Indeed such is his status as tennis’ reigning bad boy that former reigning bad boy Bernard Tomic – he of the motorcycles, lap dances and fistfights – has been pressed into service for the saucy Aussies. ...
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Read MoreWell, God has finally dropped everything else, and the planets have aligned (including my beloved little Pluto).
The New York Times has finally bit the bullet and done it: It’s running a piece on Novak Djokovic in the Men’s Style section Friday.
That must really have killed The Paper of Record (which could also be called The Paper of Roger Federer). Apart from the inexhorable Serena Slam watch, The Times’ US Open coverage has been much Roger, much of the time. The Gray Lady is like a royalist longing for the Stuart Restoration, just waiting for the once and future king (that would be Feddy) to rid the world of that Cromwellian imposter (that would be Nole) and assume his rightful title as US Open/Wimbledon/French Open/Australian Open champ and eternal No. 1. (And how fascinating is it that one of Nole’s Peugeot commercial echoes this meme?)
But the Nole article by David Shaftel, who apparently interviewed Nole during the Rogers Cup, is titled “Novak Djokovic is No. 1, Like It or Not.” And we know that for The Times, the answer is Not. ...
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Read MoreAndy Murray went down to Kevin Anderson in four sets on Labor Day evening at the US Open. You knew this one was going to be trouble, because Andy had already had a match in which he was down two sets and had to rally and the chances that he could do it twice were not good, plus Anderson was the one who took Novak Djokovic to five sets at Wimbledon.
He’s a big guy with a big serve, and guys like him can upset the more complete players in the earlier rounds of a Wimbledon or a US Open, where a serve counts for a lot and where luck, let’s face it, counts for everything. ...
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Read MoreWell, Rafael Nadal is out of the US Open (again) and Tim Tebow is out of the NFL (again). As a fan of both, I’m sorry to see them go but not surprised.
Rafa was up to two sets and 3-1 in the third against Fabio Fognini (yes, I know, Who?) in the third round of the Open Friday night into Saturday morning when, depending on your viewpoint, Rafa lost it or Fabio staged a fab comeback. ...
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Read MoreAfter the highs of June (American Pharoah winning the Triple Crown) and July (planet Pluto, Novak Djokovic defending his Wimbledon title), August has been a bit of a dud for me, with AP losing to Keen Ice at the Travers this past Saturday and Nole losing the Rogers Cup (to Andy Murray) and then the Western & Southern Open (to Roger Federer). ...
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Read MoreTwo terrific matchups in Round 1 of the US Open, which begins today – Andy Murray versus Nick Kyrgios and Rafael Nadal versus Borna Ćorić.
But really it’s the battle of the two temperaments and Rafa versus his recent past.
Not for nothing is “A star is” Borna known as “Baby Nole.” That range, that return, that poise – all at 18. He’s already beaten Rafa (at Basel in October) but really, it’s more than that. For Rafa’s it’s got to be like looking in a mirror at when it all began to unravel for him, back in 2011. ...
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