Category: Sport

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Saturday/ at the mall 🏪

There is a little Christmas market in the Tyger Valley Shopping Centre, still open for a final few days.
It’s good that it is indoors: day-time highs here were 35°C and 34°C (95°F and 93°F) on Wednesday and Thursday, and 30°C (86°F today).

The Christmas market on the lower level of the food court in the Tyger Valley Shopping Centre. The jumbotron screen (top left corner) showed what was happening in the first of two cricket tests between South Africa 🇿🇦 and Pakistan 🇵🇰.
And what happened today in the first of two cricket tests between South Africa and Pakistan that is underway in Centurion in Gauteng Province?
From espncricinfo.com:
“The first Test match at Centurion is tantalisingly poised after Pakistan took three wickets in nine overs to leave South Africa wobbling at 27 for 3, still 121 runs away from the 147-run target that seals a win, as well as a place in the 2023-25 World Test Championship [WTC] final.
After South Africa had bowled Pakistan out for 237, they needed a fairly comfortable 148 to secure victory, but an unerring spell of accurate medium-fast bowling from Mohammad Abbas and Khurram Shahzad was well rewarded. Aside from Aiden Markram, the South Africa batters were somewhat timid in their approach to the last few overs of the day, while Abbas and Shahzad targeted the pads. Abbas brought one to jag back in sharply into Tony de Zorzi for the first breakthrough.”
Update Sun 12/29 [From espncricinfo.com] “South Africa have qualified for the World Test Championship (WTC) final after beating Pakistan by two wickets in a high-drama encounter at SuperSport Park. Set a modest but challenging target of 148 to win, they were 99 for 8 just before lunch and it was left to Kagiso Rabada and Marco Jansen to score the remaining 51 runs in a tense ninth-wicket stand against a Pakistan attack with their tails up.”
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Saturday/ The Netherlands 🇳🇱 vs. Italy 🇮🇹

The 2024 Davis Cup* final is tomorrow.
The Netherlands is playing in the final for the first time ever, and have their work cut out for them against Italy.
Italy won the Davis Cup in 1976 and 2023, and was the runner-up on six other occasions.
This year they have the world No 1 on their team: Jannik Sinner.

The Dutch team: Tallon Griekspoor (singles), Botic van de Zandschulp (singles), Jesper de Jong (singles), Wesley Koolhof (doubles), Robin Haase (doubles)

The Italian team: Jannik Sinner (singles), Lorenzo Musetti (singles), Matteo Berrettini (singles), Andrea Vavassori (doubles), Simone Bolelli (doubles)

Update Sun 11/24: Congrats to Italy for winning the Davis Cup. They retained their title, defeating the Netherlands 2–0 in the final.

*The Davis Cup (founded in 1900) is the premier international team event in men’s tennis. It is organized by the International Tennis Federation and contested annually between teams from over 150 competing countries, making it the world’s largest annual team sporting competition. [From Wikipedia]

On Friday in Malaga, Tallon Griekspoor (pictures below; stills from the tennischannel.com streaming service) battled back to defeat Jan-Lennard Struff, 6-7 (4), 7-5, 6-4, in a fast-paced showdown to send his nation through against Germany in the semi-final.

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Wednesday/ Rafa retires 🎾

Rafael Nadal’s storied tennis career ended Tuesday with Spain’s quarterfinal exit from the Davis Cup. The 38-year-old is walking away after winning 22 Grand Slam titles and two Olympic gold medals and posting 1,080 wins in tour-level singles matches.

“You never want to get to this point,” Nadal said in Spanish following Tuesday’s matches vs. the Netherlands in Málaga, Spain. “I’m not tired of playing tennis. The body has reached a point where it doesn’t want to go on, and I have to accept the situation. I feel privileged to have extended my career longer than I expected.”
—Cindy Boren and Glynn A. Hill reporting for the Washington Post

Headline and picture from the Washington Post. The doodles are mine. 🤗
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Friday/ indoor pickleball 🥒

Five amigos played a little pickle ball at the Sandman’s Courts in Columbia City.
It was 52 °F (11 °C) outside when we started— not too frigid for playing outside, but we have come to like the indoor courts with their clean lines and bathrooms right by the courts.

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Sunday/ the US Open concludes 🎾

The results of the US Open 2024 are in.
Men’s Singles:
Jannik Sinner (23, 🇮🇹 ) def. Taylor Fritz (26, 🇺🇸) 6-3 6-4 7-5.
Women’s Singles:
Aryna Sabalenka (26, *) def. Jessica Pegula (30 🇺🇸) 7-5 7-5.
*Lives in Florida but is from a country involved in the invasion of Ukraine.

It was great to see American players in the final, but in both cases it would have been a surprise if they had managed to best their opponents.

The beautiful people were out in full force, and here is the other Taylor, Taylor Swift, arriving at the US Open today with beau Travis Kelce.
[Still from video clip posted on X @usopen]
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Tuesday/ a tearful goodbye 🥲

I’m making the decision to stop. I’m very happy with that. No injury, no nothing. Okay, I decided to because I’m tired, because I’m feeling like I cannot be the competitor I’ve been before.
– Diego Schwartzman, talking to a reporter

Diego Schwartzman (32, 🇦🇷) bid the crowd a tearful good-bye after his 7-6, 2-6, 2-6, 1-6 loss against Gael Monfils (37, 🇫🇷) on Monday. He will be playing his last tournament in Buenos Aires in February.

From atptour.com: It will bring to a close a memorable career in which the Argentine has won 250 tour-level matches, competed in the Nitto ATP Finals in 2020 and ascended to No. 8 in the PIF ATP Rankings.

Images are stills from ESPN’s coverage of the US Open

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Sunday/ the US Open starts 🎾

The year’s last Grand Slam tennis tournament starts tomorrow in Queens, New York.

Congratulations to the 16 qualifiers.
There were 128 men and 128 women competing for the final 16 slots, respectively, in each of the 2024 US Open singles draws.
Even if you lose in the first round of the main draw, you are awarded $100,000 for your efforts— a lot of money.
If you are a young professional player just starting out, you play in so-called futures tournaments offering $10,000 to $25,000 in prize money for the winner.

Li Tu (28, 🇦🇺) qualified for the main draw with a good win over Jesper de Jong (24, 🇳🇱):
3-6, 6-1, 7-5, after saving two match points. Lesssgooooo (let’s go) says fellow Australian tennis player Thanasi Kokkinakis in the comments on the right. 
Tu has had the bad luck to draw world No 3 Carlos Alcaraz (21, 🇪🇸) for the first round of the main draw, though. They will play on Tuesday in Arthur Ashe Stadium.
[Screen shot is from l.tu96 on Instagram] 
Update Tue 8/27: Tu lost against Alcaraz, but took the second set: 2-6, 6-4, 3-6, 1-6.
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Sunday/ au revoir until ’28 👋

I confess that I fast-forwarded through some (okay, most) of a recording of the three hours of the closing ceremony of the 2024 Games.

I liked the Golden Voyager and  the mummies— and was that a spry 62-year old Tom Cruise ‘sky diving’ into the arena to receive the Olympic flag, and take it to  Los Angeles on a motorbike? (Yes, it was).

Arthur Cadre as Golden Voyager performs at the closing ceremony of the Olympic Games at the Stade de France in Paris.
[Photo by Sven Hoppe/​Deutsche Presse Agentur]
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Sunday/ the photo finish 📸

Only 0.005 sec (five thousandths) separated the gold and the silver in the 100 meters men’s final today.

“Forget the feet, it’s the clavicle,” explained NBC’s Mike Tirico on what determined the winner. The thin red line drawn from Noah Lyle’s 🇺🇸 (third from the bottom) indicates that he gets the gold.
Gold Noah Lyles 🇺🇸 9.79
Silver Kishane Thompson 🇯🇲 9.79
Bronze Fred Kerley 🇺🇸United States 9.81
4 Akani Simbine 🇿🇦 9.82
American sprinter Noah Lyles celebrates after winning the gold medal in in the men’s 100-meters final at the Paris Olympics on Sunday in Saint-Denis, France.
[Photo by Martin Meissner/AP and posted on npr.org]
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Wednesday/ the dream is over 🥹

The superstar Spanish pairing of Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz lost on Wednesday afternoon, as the U.S. pair of Austin Krajick and Rajeev Ram bounced the big-name duo in straight sets, 6-2, 6-4.
-Ryan Phillips writing for si.com

Team USA 🇺🇸 (far end) squares off against Team ‘Nadalcaraz’ 🇪🇸
Reported by James Hansen from The Athletic: “We’re not doubles players,” said Alcaraz. “If you hesitate a little bit, it’s not easy. We’ve only played together a few times, and it made a difference.”
Picture from Getty Images (published on https://www.nytimes.com/athletic)
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Monday/ a little bit of rain ☔

This is the driest day on the calendar for our region*— but there was a little bit of steady rain around the city this morning.

*When looking at daily averages for 79 years of records at the Seattle-Tacoma airport weather station.

The tennis courts/ pickleball courts at Mount Baker Park this morning.
And hey! look at the neon-powder blue paint lines that the city put on for pickleball.
[Thanks for Steve K. for the photo]
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Saturday/ team Nadalcaraz 😘

Here’s Carlos Alcaraz (21, 🇪🇸) and Rafael Nadal (38, 🇪🇸) in their red shirts.
The unseeded team from Spain are off to a great start with a 7-6, 6-4 win over Maximo Gonzales (41, 🇦🇷) and Andrés Molteni (36, 🇦🇷) , seeded 6th, today.

Nadal was a surprise torch bearer during the opening ceremony.
He won Olympic golds in singles in 2008 and in doubles in 2016, and is scheduled to play in the first round of singles on Sunday against Hungary’s Marton Fucsovics (32, 🇭🇺).

‘An emoji for Nadalcaraz?’ asks Alcaraz this tweet on X.
[Picture by Clive Brunskill/Getty Images]
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Friday/ the boat party on the Seine 🥳

Well, I watched some of the Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony this morning as it happened.
The Eiffel Tower must have been spectacular to see during the light show.

As for other parts of the ceremony, I suspect it was a challenge for the choreographers to pull all the pieces together to make for compelling TV viewing.
The rain certainly did not make it easier, least of all to the camera crews that needed to keep the rain drops from their lenses and from getting into their expensive equipment.

The Eiffel Tower emitted beams of light during the climax of the opening ceremony. [Photo by Daniel Berehulak/The New York Times]

‘At Trocadéro, opposite the Eiffel Tower, where the Universal Declaration of Human Rights was signed in 1948, Mr. Macron awaited the athletes before a crowd that donned ponchos and huddled under umbrellas in the unrelenting rain. He told the French newspaper Le Parisien this week that he had felt some “vertigo” as the Olympics, a decade in the making, were set to begin’.
– Roger Cohen reporting from Paris for the NYT

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Sunday/ congrats to Spain 🇪🇸

Wimbledon 2024 is in the books, as is the Euro Cup 2024.
It was a good day for Spain in the international sports arena.

First Carlos Alcaraz ( (🇪🇸, 21 yrs old) won his second Wimbledon title in straight sets over Novak Djokovic (🇷🇸 , 37).
The score was 6-2, 6-2, 7-6(4).
Shortly after that, Spain 🇪🇸 beat England 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 2-1 in the Euro Cup 2024 Final.

Posted by Bastian Fachan @BastienFachan on X.
Rod Laver (🇦🇺, 85) won 11 Grand Slam singles titles and remains the last man to win all four of the  biggest tournaments in the sport (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, US Open) in a single calendar year (1969).
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Tuesday/ here’s Wimbledon 🎾

Wimbledon 2024 is underway.
The world’s top tennis players are resplendent in their bright whites (no colored attire allowed), and their pimple-soled white grass court shoes.

On Monday, reigning Wimbledon champion Carlos Alcaraz (🇪🇸, 21) took on qualifier Mark Lajal (🇪🇪, 21), and came out on top in straight sets 7-6(3), 7-5 and 6-2.

I was wrong about Djokovic (🇷🇸, 37) : he is in fact playing, with a knee brace (he had meniscus surgery on Jun. 6). In the first round he took out Vit Kopriva (🇨🇿, 27) with ease, 6-1, 6-2, 6-2.

Here are Alcaraz and Lajal, deadlocked at 6-6, and in the first set tiebreaker.
There is no kitchen* in tennis.
You can go right up to the net— as long as you have the reactions of a cat, and especially so if your opponent is up there as well.
Alcaraz does (have the reactions of a cat), and got his racquet on this hard ball from Lajal. It went up in the air, though, and Lajal put it out of his reach on the next shot.
That made it 3-3 in the tiebreaker, but then Alcaraz took four points in a row to close out the tiebreaker 7-3.
*A zone by the net from which volleying is forbidden
[Still from highlights of the match at wimbledon.com]
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Sunday/ taking the crown at Queens 👑

Tommy Paul (🇺🇸, 27) played spectacular tennis today in London to beat Lorenzo Musetti  (🇮🇹, 22 ) in the men’s final of the 2024 Queen’s Club Championships.

The qualifying tournament for Wimbledon starts tomorrow, and the main tournament starts Jul 1.
Carlos Alcaraz (🇪🇸, 21 ) is the favorite to win the men’s 2024 Wimbledon crown —even though he was not at his best here; he lost in the quarter-final at Queens, against Jack Draper (🇬🇧, 22).
Novak Djokovic (🇷🇸, 37) had knee surgery just two weeks ago— and I don’t believe he will play.
Rafael Nadal (🇪🇸, 38 ) has already confirmed that he will not play at Wimbledon this year, so that he can better compete in the 2024 Olympics.

That’s a king-sized trophy, for sure!
Tommy Paul will see his ATP (Association of Tennis Professionals) ranking improve to No 13 come Monday, making him the new top US men’s player on the circuit.
[Post from Queen’s Club Championships on Instagram]
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Friday/ playing indoors 🥒

Although the weather was perfect for pickleball today, we had a reservation for the Sandman’s Courts in Columbia City.
We liked the clean surface and well-marked lines a lot.
The selection of background music was excellent and played at just the right volume 🤗.

The amigos played at Sandman’s Courts in Columbia City today.
The facility has two pickleball courts. This one has clean lines, and the other pickleball court has equally clear pickleball lines but also basketball courts lines painted on it.
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Wednesday/ pickleball— now also inside 🥒

The amigos played a little pickleball today.
The courts at Mt Baker playground were full today, and we went to Beacon Hill playground instead.

The courts at Beacon Hill playground have beautiful new surfaces and lines.
These courts are just a little more exposed to windy conditions than the ones at Mt Baker playground.
There was a sign up on the fence at Beacon Hill courts, advertising this indoor space in Columbia City, and we went to take a look at it afterwards.
This facility is called Sandman’s Courts— a converted warehouse that now has two beach volleyball (sand) courts, on the far end, and these two pickleball courts.
Yay! Now we can play in rain or shine, rough or fine weather.
These are not free the way the courts at the public parks are— $30 an hour in the daytime for these indoor courts.
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Sunday/ cricket on Long Island 🏏

They roared at every big play, shouting and waving signs and flags. They ate South Asian food sold at the concession stands, jumped, chanted, high-fived with fellow supporters and — after a bit of rain — soaked up the sunshine on a historic day at the usually quiet park.

“It was electric,” said Chandu Talla, an India fan and entrepreneur from Tampa, Fla., who came to the match with his son Aryan, a high school junior. “We paid $2,500 per ticket and no regrets,” he added. “It was a dream come true to see India here.”
– David Waldstein reporting for the New York Times, from a temporary stadium for 34,000 set up in the grassy southeastern corner of Eisenhower Park in Long Island.

The temporary stadium was built in 3 months for the biannual T20 Cricket World Cup match between perennial archrivals India and Pakistan. India started slow but came back strong to win, 119-113. [Picture from the online edition of New York Times].
The stadium in East Meadow, N.Y., was built in 100 days and will be taken apart after the tournament. There are three more matches scheduled in New York, with the final one on Wednesday between India and the United States. The stadium will then be dismantled and the pieces sent out to other sporting events around the country.
[Photo by Yuvraj Khanna for The New York Times]

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Friday/ a new rivalry 🎾

There is a new rivalry in men’s tennis: between Jannik Sinner (🇮🇹, 22) and Carlos Alcaraz (🇪🇸, 21).

The rivals met today in the men’s semi-final of the 2024 French Open.
It was a see-saw match that had Alcaraz emerge the victor after trailing two sets to one: Alcaraz 2-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Alcaraz leads Sinner by 5 wins to 4 in their head-to-head matches so far.

On Sunday, Alcaraz will play against Alexander (Sacha) Zverev ( 🇩🇪, 27) in the final.
It will be the first French Open men’s final without Rafael Nadal or Novak Djokovic since 2009.
It’s the first without Nadal, Djokovic or Roger Federer since 2004.

Update Sun 6/9: Alcaraz outlasted Zverev to won his first French title: Alcaraz 6-3, 2-6, 5-7, 6-2, 6-2.

The shadows are starting to creep over the red clay inside the Philippe Chatrier Stadium at the Roland Garros grounds.
It’s the fifth and final set, almost 4 hours into the match.
Sinner is rapidly running out of time to catch up after losing his serve early in the set. (Alcaraz is about to go up 4-1.)
Here, Alcaraz had just served hard into the far corner, drawing Sinner out sideways for the return.
The return was short.
Alcaraz lifted up his racquet as if to hit, but then cut under the ball for a surprise dropshot that kissed the top of the net, wrong-footing Sinner, and out of reach.
[Still frame from Tennis Channel streaming video feed].