Sports

If you’re going to poke tennis’s still-reigning bull, prepare for the horns

Published

1 year ago

July 16, 2023

Novak Djokovic gets up after slipping and falling while attempting a return to Carlos Alcaraz in men’s singles final at Wimbledon on July 16. Alcaraz beat Djokovic.Alberto Pezzali/The Associated Press

A few minutes before the Wimbledon men’s singles final began on Sunday, a great ripple went through the stand. Someone told someone who told someone else that they’d seen Brad Pitt.

Apparently, he was nearby. Sitting somewhere just ahead of us.

“Sunglasses,” someone said.

“Blue shirt,” said someone else.

On either side of me, two tabloid journalists began taking random photos of the crowd and then expanding them on their phones to furiously examine the backs of heads. Nope. Nope. Not him. Nope.

One of them was texting with her photographer. Her final had already begun.

“Are you on Brad Pitt duty, too?” she said.

No, no, not me. I’m just here waiting on history. For the next five hours, it would slowly, and then suddenly, arrive.

Carlos Alcaraz beat Novak Djokovic 1-6, 7-6 (6), 6-1, 3-6, 6-4. It was Djokovic’s first loss on Centre Court in more than a decade.

It was a match of uncommon attrition. Just one example – the fifth game of the third set took 26 minutes to play. Other, lesser players can finish a set in that much time. You half expected these two men to slowly make their way to the net, drop their tools and begin hitting each other. It never grew heated, but it still managed to seem close to violence.

There are two ways to look at this signpost encounter.

The most obvious is that Novak Djokovic was deposed as tennis’s dominant force.

Would the Djokovic of five years ago have romped in the first set, as he did on Sunday, and then allow Alcaraz to reel him back in? Would that Djokovic have tried to chop down one of the posts holding up the net when things started to go sideways in the fifth? Would that Djokovic be seen bent over, using his racquet as a crutch, after long points late in the match?

Probably not.

The other way of looking at it is that now Djokovic is dangerous again.

He hasn’t had a lot to worry about since his best frenemies drifted out of the game. With Roger Federer gone and Rafael Nadal on hiatus, there wasn’t anyone to put a real fright in him.

The entire world’s bottled-up pandemic hysteria was enough to knock Djokovic sideways for a few months there, but that couldn’t stop him from winning whatever he was allowed to enter.

Lacking enemies of quality, Djokovic devoted himself to winning over the crowds. They’d loved Federer and still loved Nadal, but those two were gone. Now it was his turn.

On Sunday, we saw how poorly that has gone.

The crowd wanted very little to do with Djokovic from the off. By the end of the first set, he’d begun bantering with them. When he felt he wasn’t getting enough credit, he would applaud himself. When he upset them by winning points, he’d blow them kisses.

There was a moment late in the match when Djokovic decided to give himself a little mental-health break by screaming at the chair umpire for a few moments. Over what? Over nothing. This was a rest disguised as a strop.

In the middle of it, the crowd began to jeer him. All the fun had drained from Djokovic now. He stopped what he was saying and stared at them with barely concealed contempt. It was the look that said, ‘After all I’ve given you, this is what I get back?’

In the end, he reminded us of his many great attributes – an unwillingness to submit, tempered with grace.

He has never been charismatic, but it is difficult to think of any great athlete who has ever been as cordial.

If I’d spent a day of my life being booed for supplying one of the great sporting entertainments in recent memory, I might be a little peevish in my remarks immediately following it. But not this guy.

“Good afternoon everyone,” he started. “Not so good for me. But good for Carlos.”

The crowd tittered. They only really like him in London when he’s being sportsmanlike to someone they prefer.

Djokovic played it perfectly. He praised Alcaraz. He promised to be better. He admitted that he’d had his own share of luck.

“Maybe I should have lost a couple of finals that I won,” Djokovic said, specifically referencing his legendary last final on this same court against Federer in 2019. “So maybe this is even-steven.”

Djokovic had the crowd in his hands now. Too late to do him any good, they were falling under his sway. When he began to weep after seeing his children in the stands, they were fully in his thrall.

But history has proved that Djokovic can never maintain these connections. It’s hard to say what it is about him. Maybe it’s the dominance. Nobody roots for a robot.

If so, a little of that came off him on Sunday. For the first time ever, you looked at him and thought, ‘Maybe he’s gotten old.’

He’d said earlier in the tournament that his age, 36, is the new 26. Nice thought. But it isn’t. On the back half of 30, any athlete who runs around for a living is fighting a rearguard action with his own body. How many tennis players have dominated – not just won things, but dominated – at this age? Until Sunday, just one – Djokovic.

But whether he wants to or not, he has entered his lion-in-winter phase.

What took a hit on Sunday wasn’t Djokovic’s reputation or his legacy. Those remain unassailable.

What Djokovic lost was his aura of invincibility. Until the last point, you really didn’t think this guy would allow himself to be beaten. But he did.

Most opponents will still be terrified when he lands in their half of a draw. But there is now at least one who need never fear him. Once one guy has your number, the buzzards are never far behind.

When Federer lost that shine near the end, it became hard to watch him. You found yourself perilously close to pitying him.

Djokovic isn’t anywhere close to that point. Had a couple of small moments gone differently on Sunday – the second-set tiebreak in particular – this match might’ve been a walkover rather than a loss.

What would we be saying then? That he was the greatest of all time. That there was no stopping him.

What should we be saying instead? That tennis acquired a couple of new rules on Sunday.

The first is never sit beside Brad Pitt if there are cameras around (RIP Guy Ritchie).

The second is if you’re going to poke tennis’s still-reigning bull, prepare for the horns.

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Washington Capitals 3-2 win ends Dallas Stars’ winning streak

Published

3 hours ago

October 18, 2024

Anne Joseph

WASHINGTON (AP) — Tom Wilson, Dylan Strome and Taylor Raddysh scored to help the Washington Capitals end the Dallas Stars’ season-opening winning streak at four with a 3-2 victory Thursday night.

Wilson’s goal was his third in three games, Strome his second of the season and Raddysh his first since joining the team in free agency last summer. Charlie Lindgren made 22 saves as the Capitals wrapped up this early homestand with back-to-back wins.

The Stars fell from the ranks of the league’s unbeaten teams despite a short-handed goal by Colin Blackwell and one at even strength from Jason Robertson. Rookie Oskar Bäck set up Blackwell for his first NHL point.

Casey DeSmith was screened on two of the three goals he allowed on 26 shots.

LIGHTNING 4, GOLDEN KNIGHTS 3

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — Nikita Kucherov scored the winning goal with less than a minute to play just 1:27 after Brandon Hagel had tied it and Tampa Bay rallied to beat Vegas.

Kucherov’s second goal of the game with 55 seconds left was his sixth of the season.

Janis Moser had a goal and two assists for the Lightning, who remain unbeaten. Andrei Vasilevskiy made 22 saves.

Brayden McNabb, Pavel Dorofeyev and Ivan Barbashev had goals for Vegas. Adin Hill turned aside 21 shots.

Jack Eichel, with two assists on Thursday, now has 10 points this season in five games and reached reached double-digit points faster than any other player in Vegas history. He is the 10th U.S.-born player to accomplish the feat.

After Barbashev put Vegas up 3-2 early in the second, Hagel pulled Tampa Bay even at 3 with 2:22 remaining in the third.

BLUE JACKETS 6, SABRES 4

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Kirill Marchenko and Mathieu Olivier each had a goal and an assist and Daniil Tarasov made 21 saves to help Columbus to a win over Buffalo.

Yegor Chinakhov, Adam Fantilli, Zachary Aston-Reese and Damon Severson also scored for Columbus, and Zach Werenski added two assists.

Ryan McLeod, Owen Power and JJ Peterka scored for Buffalo, and Jiri Kulich added his first NHL goal. Devon Lev stopped 19 shots for the Sabres (1-5-1), who have lost two straight road games and five of their first six overall.

CANUCKS 3, FLORIDA 2, OT

SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — J.T. Miller scored 2:09 into overtime and Vancouver got their first win of the season, beating Florida.

Teddy Blueger and Quinn Hughes had goals for Vancouver, with Kevin Lankinen stopping 26 shots.

Anton Lundell got his fourth goal in the last three games for Florida and Jesper Boqvist also scored for the Panthers, who got 30 saves from Sergei Bobrovsky.

Florida remained without forwards Aleksander Barkov (lower body) and Matthew Tkachuk (illness).

DEVILS 3, SENATORS 1

OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Jacob Markstrom stopped 30 shots and lost his shutout bid in the final minutes as New Jersey beat Ottawa.

Erik Haula, Nathan Bastian and Paul Cotter scored for the Devils, who won for the third time in four games and improved to 5-2-0.

The Senators, who were coming off an 8-7 overtime victory against Los Angeles on Monday, struggled to beat Markstrom.

Brady Tkachuk was the only scorer for the Senators, beating Markstrom, with a power-play goal with 65 seconds remaining in the third period.

Anton Forsberg, making his second straight start and hoping to rebound after getting pulled Monday, made 32 saves in the loss.

Haula opened the scoring early in the second period and Bastian added a short-handed goal, giving New Jersey a 2-0 lead after 40 minutes. Cotter scored midway through the third.

RANGERS 5, RED WING 2

DETROIT (AP) — Artemi Panarin had his eighth career hat trick and New York rolled to a victory over Detroit.

Panarin became the first Rangers player to have multiple points in the first four games of a season. He scored twice on the power play. Vincent Trocheck also had a power- play goal and assisted on all of Panarin’s goals.

Jonathan Quick made 29 saves in his season debut. Victor Mancini also scored.

The Rangers have won the last five meetings, including twice this week. New York had a 4-1 home victory over Detroit on Monday night.

Moritz Seider and J.T. Compher scored for Detroit. Red Wings goalie Cam Talbot was pulled in the second period after allowing five goals.

KINGS 4, CANADIENS 1

MONTREAL (AP) — David Rittich made 26 saves a night after being benched in the second period in Toronto, helping road-weary Los Angeles snap a three-game losing streak with a victory over Montreal.

Los Angeles improved to 2-1-2 on a season-opening, seven-game trip necessitated by arena renovations.

Rittich rebounded after allowing four goals on 14 shots in a 6-2 loss to the Maple Leafs. Alex Laferriere, Mikey Anderson, Andreas Englund and Adrian Kempe scored.

Justin Barron scored for Montreal (2-3-0). Sam Montembeault stopped 28 shots. He made a save on Kevin Fiala on a penalty shot.

BLUES 1, ISLANDERS 0, OT

ST. LOUIS (AP) — Joel Hofer made 34 saves and assisted on Jake Neighbours’ goal at 2:04 of overtime in St. Louis victory over New York.

Hofer had his second career shutout in his and the team’s second overtime victory of the season.

Philip Broberg carried the puck into the New York zone and made a centering pass to Neighbours for the winner.

Islanders goalie Ilya Sorkin made 29 saves.

Blues defenseman Nick Leddy sat out because of a lower-body injury, the first game he has missed this season. Leddy played in all 82 games last season.

OILERS 4, PREDATORS 2

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Brett Kulak scored twice and Connor McDavid added his first goal of the season to lead Edmonton to a victory over reeling Nashville.

Jeff Skinner also scored and Calvin Pickard made 25 saves for the defending Western Conference champion Oilers, who have won consecutive games after beginning the season with a three-game skid.

Filip Forsberg and Jonathan Marchessault scored and Juuse Saros made 32 saves for Nashville (0-4).

Forsberg’s goal midway through the first period gave Nashville its first lead of the season. That lasted less than six minutes before Kulak tied it.

Kulak sealed it with an empty-netter in the final minute for the defenseman’s first career two-goal game.

BLACKHAWKS 4, SHARKS 2

CHICAGO (AP) — Tyler Bertuzzi and Nick Foligno each scored a power-play goal, and Chicago beat San Jose.

Taylor Hall and Jason Dickinson also scored for Chicago. Connor Bedard and Teuvo Teravainen each had two assists.

Hall, who missed most of last season because of right knee surgery, put the Blackhawks in front 4:20 into the first period. It was Hall’s first goal since Nov. 5 and No. 267 for his career.

Tyler Toffoli and Fabian Zetterlund scored for San Jose, which trailed 3-0 early in the second. William Eklund and Mikael Granlund had two assists each.

The Sharks dropped to 0-2-2 under Ryan Warsofsky, who was promoted to head coach in June.

Petr Mrazek had 20 saves for Chicago, and Vitek Vanecek made 23 stops for San Jose.

KRAKEN 6, FLYERS 4

SEATTLE (AP) — Eeli Tolvanen, Jordan Eberle, and Shane Wright scored three goals in less than three minutes in the second period and Seattle held off a Philadelphia rally in a victory.

Tolvanen’s goal broke a 2-2 tie at the 14:57 mark. Eberle made it a two-goal game with a goal at 17:44. Eight seconds later, Wright scored to give Seattle a three-goal lead.

Jared McCann tied the game at 2-2 with the first of Seattle’s four second-period goals.

Cam York and Jamie Drysdale scored to pull Philadelphia within 5-4 in the third period, but Oliver Bjorkstrand responded with a goal to push Seattle’s lead to two with just over five minutes left in the game.

Scott Laughton scored twice for the Flyers in the first period, while Brandon Montour scored one in for the Kraken.

Chandler Stephenson had an assist in his 500th NHL game. Seattle’s Philipp Grubauer had 21 saves.

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Canada’s Dabrowski, New Zealand’s Routliffe out of Japan Women’s Open after walkover

Published

13 hours ago

October 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

OSAKA, Japan – Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and New Zealand’s Erin Routliffe are out of the Japan Women’s Open tennis tournament.

Spain’s Cristina Bucsa and Romania’s Monica Niculescu advanced to the final on Thursday by way of walkover.

The fourth seeds were supposed to play the top-seeded Dabrowski and Routliffe in the semifinals.

Bucsa and Niculescu will next face third-seeded Ena Shibahara of Japan and Laura Siegemund of Germany in the final.

Dabrowski and Routliffe defeated Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Eri Hozumi in the quarterfinals 6-2, 6-4 on Wednesday to advance.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 17, 2024.

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Sports

Mountain West commissioner says she’s heartbroken over turmoil surrounding San Jose State volleyball

Published

13 hours ago

October 17, 2024

Anne Joseph

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mountain West Conference Commissioner Gloria Nevarez said Thursday the forfeitures that volleyball teams are willing to take to avoid playing San Jose State is “not what we celebrate in college athletics” and that she is heartbroken over what has transpired this season surrounding the Spartans and their opponents.

Four teams have canceled games against San Jose State: Boise State, Southern Utah, Utah State and Wyoming, with none of the schools explicitly saying why they were forfeiting.

A group of Nevada players issued a statement saying they will not take the floor when the Wolf Pack are scheduled to host the Spartans on Oct. 26. They cited their “right to safety and fair competition,” though their school reaffirmed Thursday that the match is still planned and that state law bars forfeiture “for reasons related to gender identity or expression.”

All those schools, except Southern Utah, are in the Mountain West. New Mexico, also in the MWC, went ahead with its home match on Thursday night, which was won by the Spartans, 3-1, the team’s first victory since Sept. 24.

“It breaks my heart because they’re human beings, young people, student-athletes on both sides of this issue that are getting a lot of national negative attention,” Nevarez said in an interview with The Associated Press at Mountain West basketball media days. “It just doesn’t feel right to me.”

Republican governors of Idaho, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming have made public statements in support of the cancellations, citing a need for fairness in women’s sports. Former President Donald Trump, the GOP nominee in this year’s presidential race, this week referenced an unidentified volleyball match when he was asked during a Fox News town hall about transgender athletes in women’s sports.

“I saw the slam, it was a slam. I never saw a ball hit so hard, hit the girl in the head,” Trump replied before he was asked what can be done. “You just ban it. The president bans it. You just don’t let it happen.”

After Trump’s comment, San Diego State issued a statement that said “it has been incorrectly reported that an San Diego State University student-athlete was hit in the face with a volleyball during match play with San Jose State University. The ball bounced off the shoulder of the student-athlete, and the athlete was uninjured and did not miss a play.”

San Jose State has not made any direct comments about the politicians’ “fairness” references, and Nevarez did not go into details.

“I’m learning a lot about the issue,” Nevarez said. “I don’t know a lot of the language yet or the science or the understanding nationally of how this issue plays out. The external influences are so far on either side. We have an election year. It’s political, so, yeah, it feels like a no-win based on all the external pressure.”

The cancellations could mean some teams will not qualify for the conference tournament Nov. 27-30 in Las Vegas, where the top six schools are slated to compete for the league championship.

“The student-athlete (in question) meets the eligibility standard, so if a team does not play them, it’s a forfeit, meaning they take a loss,” Nevarez said.

Ahead of the Oct. 26 match in Reno. Nevada released a statement acknowledging that “a majority of the Wolf Pack women’s volleyball team” had decided to forfeit against San Jose State. The school said only the university can take that step but any player who decides not to play would face no punishment.

___

AP college sports:

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