Category: Sport

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Sunday/ Carlos wins in Rome 🎾

Congrats to Carlos Alcaraz (22, 🇪🇸), winning the Italian Open today, against his old nemesis and world No. 1 Jannik Sinner (23, 🇮🇹).
The score was 7-6 (7-5), 6-1.

Here’s Matthew Futterman writing for The Athletic:
In one sense, this was one of the most predictable outcomes of the season. Sinner entered the tournament coming off a three-month anti-doping ban. Alcaraz, the Roland Garros champion who grew up on the red clay of Spain, had won the Monte Carlo Masters, reached the final in Barcelona, and then taken the Madrid Open off to nurse an injury. He came to Rome ready and rested, while Sinner arrived understandably not match tough enough to live with the player with whom he has split the last five Grand Slams.

Still, over the past 10 days, Sinner had played some of the most scintillating tennis of his life in front of an Italian crowd that wrapped him in their arms and powered him to a frightening level. He met the newly elected Pope Leo XIV one day. The next, he played what was statistically the best match of this season and the last on the ATP Tour, in annihilating Casper Ruud 6-0, 6-1.

The Italian Open champion with his trophy.
[Posted on X @alcarchive]
Here’s a few stills of the Alcaraz forehand. (The comments below are all mine, and I hope I describe the Alcaraz forehand more or less accurately.)
Alcaraz uses a semi-western grip, which is a popular grip on both the men’s and women’s tours— but one which I was not taught as a junior tennis player.
We used the “greet the tennis racket” grip (the continental grip), which is a fundamental grip also used for serves, volleys, and overheads.
[All stills made from a video clip by the TennisTV streaming channel]

It’s all in the timing, split-split-second timing. This is not golf with a stationary ball. That ball comes in at 80 mph, sometimes, and Carlos is in position, and now whipping his arm around, and rotating his upper body.
The racquet head meets the ball way out in front of his body, and this picture makes it look as if the strings are vertical or even angled up a little bit ..
.. but no— a rotation in the wrist and jumping up from the clay enables him to brush the racquet face completely over the ball, giving it a fierce topspin.
The ball is flying back. The completion and follow-through of the whip shows that the side of the racquet head that hit the ball is now facing completely down.
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Wednesday/ tennis in Marrakech 🎾

The clay court season (April to June) in men’s tennis has started with ATP 250 tournaments (smaller tournaments) this week in Houston, Texas, in Bucharest, Romania, and in Marrakech, Morocco.

Here is Nuno Borges (28, 🇵🇹) being interviewed after beating the Belgian Raphaël Collignon (23, 🇧🇪) in a closely fought match on the red clay in Marrakech. It ended in a third set tie-break in which Borges iced out Collignon 7-0, though.

Afterwards the announcer addressed the remaining spectators in French.
A bit of history [from Wikipedia]: The French conquest of Morocco began with the French Republic occupying the city of Oujda on 29 March 1907. The French launched campaigns against the Sultanate of Morocco which culminated in the signing of the Treaty of Fes and establishment of the French Protectorate in Morocco on 30 March 1912.

There is a 1977 song by Mike Batt, The Ride to Agadir, from the album Schizophonia, about the Rif War— an armed conflict fought from 1921 to 1926 between Spain (joined by France in 1924) and the Berber (Amazigh) tribes of the mountainous Rif region of northern Morocco.
I must have played The Ride to Agadir a hundred times or more, while driving in my car in the late 80s and early 90s.

Lyrics: The Ride to Agadir

We rode in the morning
Casablanca to the west
On the Atlas mountain foothills leading down to Marrakesh
For Mohammed and Morocco
We had taken up our guns
For the ashes of our fathers and the children of our sons
For the ashes of our fathers and the children of our sons

In the dry winds of summer
We were sharpening the blades
We were riding to act upon the promise we had made
With the fist and the dagger
With the rifle and the lance
We will suffer no intrusion from the infidels of France
We will suffer no intrusion from the infidels of France

We could wait no more
In the burning sands on the ride to Agadir
Like the dogs of war
For the future of this land on the ride to Agadir

Though they were waiting
And they were fifty to our ten
They were easily outnumbered by a smaller force of men
As the darkness was falling
They were soon to realize
We were going to relieve them of their godforsaken lives
We were going to relieve them of their godforsaken lives

We could wait no more
In the burning sands on the ride to Agadir
Like the dogs of war
For the future of this land on the ride to Agadir

We rode in the morning
Casablanca to the west
On the Atlas mountain foothills leading down to Marrakesh
For Mohammed and Morocco
We had taken up our guns
For the ashes of our fathers and the children of our sons
For the ashes of our fathers and the children of our sons

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Friday/ tennis in the desert 🎾

Happy Friday.
I’m watching tennis from the Indian Wells Open/ BNP Paribas Open.

World No 1 Jannik Sinner (23, 🇮🇹) is not playing— he is serving out a controversial 3-month suspension from tennis for a failed doping test (it’s complicated).
On top of that, the men’s tournament has lost its top seeded player today. Dutch No 1 Tallon Griekspoor (28, 🇳🇱) took out Alexander Zverev (27, 🇩🇪) 4-6 7-6 7-6.

Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz (21, 🇪🇸 ) will play his first match tomorrow.
Dark horse and still-at-it Novak Djokovic (37, 🇷🇸) is back and is probably the other favorite to win this year.

That’s Damir Dzumhur (32, 🇧🇦) from Bosnia-Herzegovina playing against Frances Tiafoe (27, 🇺🇸). Tiafoe looked like he would lose the first set, but came from behind to take it 7-6. And after being behind 1-5 in the second set, he took that set in a tie-breaker as well. 
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Monday/ a break in the bluster 🌬️

It was a blustery, rainy day here in the city (high 53°F/ 12°C), but there was a bit of quiet at 5 o’clock, which allowed me to go for a walk.

The pickleball courts at Pendleton Miller playfield on Capitol Hill were all soaked ..
.. but right next door some little leaguers were engaged in that team sport with the sticks with nets on. As I looked on, I could not for the life of me remember the name of the sport 😁.. thought about it as I walked, feeling my mind reach for it, only to have it slip away. I refused to look it up, got home and sat at the kitchen counter, and doodled a few words on paper: water polo .. hockey .. fuss ball .. foley .. polo .. lacrosse! got it 😚.
Lacrosse is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century.
The French Jesuit missionary Jean de Brébeuf saw Huron tribesmen play the game during 1637 in present-day Ontario. He called it la crosse, “the stick” in French. The name seems to be originated from the French term for field hockey, le jeu de la crosse.
[Source: Wikipedia. The picture is titled ‘Ball Players’ and the artist is George Catlin]
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Saturday/ scanning for the sun 🌇

I celebrated the end of the deep-freeze weather here in the city by walking down to the Melrose Avenue overlook of Interstate 5 late this afternoon.
The high today was 44°F  (7 °C).

On Melrose Avenue, with Interstate 5 below.
On the left is South Lake Union with Seattle’s downtown behind it; look for the Space Needle in the middle; and then Queen Anne hill with its broadcast antennas on the right.
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Superbowl Sunday 🏈

Headlines from the New York Times.

Congrats to the Philadelphia Eagles with their victory over two-time defending champion Kansas City Chiefs.
I thought it was a dullish, one-sided game, though.

As for the half-time show that featured rapper Kendrick Lamar: it was mystifying—  the way pretty much all rap music songs are to me.
I don’t understand the words, the references or the message, of most rap songs. Oh well.

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Tueday/ go Ben! 🎾

It was a disappointing day for Carlos Alcaraz fans (me): he lost his quarterfinal match against Novak Djokovic.

Ben Shelton (22, 🇺🇸 ) is playing against Lorenzo Sonego (29, 🇮🇹 ) tonight— Wednesday in Australia— in another quarterfinal match. He is up by one set to none, and should win. Go, Ben!

Ben Shelton checking in with the chair umpire at the changeover, probably asking ‘Are you OK?’ Shelton’s return from Sonego’s serve hit the side of the umpire’s chair. (You don’t want to get hit by a tennis ball from these pros. Shelton delivered 144 mph serves, and can blast back a ground shot at 90 mph. )
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Monday/ watching tennis 🎾

It was Martin Luther King Day here in the United States.
Also, I heard that a new— old— president of the United States was inaugurated today.

My TV remained switched off though .. and I will only turn it on for Netflix and Australian Open tennis the rest of the week.

Happening right now: American Tommy Paul (27) is battling* Alexander (Sacha) Zverev (27, 🇩🇪) in the first of the four quarterfinal matches. Paul lost the first two sets 6-7 and 6-7, but is up 2-1 in the third set.
*Paul’s outfit makes me think of a GI Joe action figure!
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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]