Category: Sport

From the New York Post by reporters Chris Harris, Bridget Reilly, Anna Young and Shane Galvin:
The “entitled” jerk who seemingly snatched a hat autographed by tennis star Kamil Majchrzak from a young boy at the US Open has been identified as a Polish millionaire.  (My note: I edited out his name).
Majchrzak, fresh off his victory over ninth seed Karen Khachanov when the incident unfolded Thursday night, confirmed his identity to The Post on Saturday and said he was initially oblivious to the now-viral snafu.
“Obviously it was some kind of confusion,” the tennis pro said, adding that the millionaire sponsors his tennis federation in Poland.

Happy Friday.
It’s Labor Day weekend here in the United States— the unofficial end of summer.

There was plenty of action on Day 6 of the US Open. Ben Stiller and Steve Carell were seen in the stands today.
Coqodaq is an upscale NYC restaurant that serves Korean-style fried chicken and champagne from a location in the lower bowl concourse of Arthur Ashe Stadium.
Reportedly one of the most sought-after food items at this year’s Open, is their chicken nuggets garnished with caviar ($100).

On day one of the 2025 tournament, 2021 champion Daniil Medvedev provided a signal example by inciting the crowd to delay his match against France’s Benjamin Bonzi for six minutes — while he was down match point. A photographer walked onto the court between Bonzi’s first and second serves. Umpire Greg Allensworth ruled that Bonzi should get a first serve. Irate, Medvedev approached Allensworth’s chair, whipping up the crowd to boo and chant. After berating Allensworth, Medvedev returned to the baseline. Bonzi got ready to serve. The crowd didn’t stop.

– Matthew Futterman writing for The Athletic in the New York Times, saying that the Medvedev incident is a signal example of the complete absence of tennis etiquette at the US Open

What also happened— after Medvedev had lost the first-round match against Bonzi in five sets on Sunday— is that he smashed his racket on the court and against the bench that he sat on. Still enraged and not satisfied with the damage to it, he went on and smashed the broken frame for a few minutes more, to smithereens.

By the way: Medvedev was fined AUD 76,000 ($49,000) in this year’s Australian Open for smashing a tennis net camera in the first round, and for unsportsmanlike conduct in the second round.

Poor Amanda Anisimova (age 23, 🇺🇸) suffered a ‘double bagel’ defeat against Iga Świątek (24, 🇵🇱) in today’s Wimbledon Women’s Singles final. 

Anisimova struggled with her serve, and made way too many unforced errors. She skipped practice on Friday because of fatigue and felt pain in her right shoulder while warming up before the match.

From BBC.com/ sport:
The rarity of a 6-0 6-0 score line in a final underlines Swiatek’s dominance.
This is the first 6-0 6-0 win in a Grand Slam final since Steffi Graff (19, 🇩🇪) beat Natasha Zvereva (17) in just 34 minutes at the 1988 French Open.
It is the first time it has been done in a Wimbledon final in the Open era, which is when tennis became professional (1968).
In 1911, Dorothea Lambert Chambers (32, 🇬🇧) beat Dora Boothby (29, 🇬🇧) by the same score line— but that was in the challenge match era, where the defending champion played just once.

Day 7 at Wimbledon is done.
Defending champion Carlos Alcaraz (22, 🇪🇸) is still on track, with a great win today over Andrey Rublev (27): 6-7 (5-7), 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

Alcaraz will play Cameron Norrie in the quarterfinals on Tuesday.
Norrie (29, 🇬🇧) is British, and was born in Johannesburg, South Africa.

“Difficult to accept now because I had lots of chances, but this is the good part of the sport ..
Also today it got me the sad part, no? But, you know, if you watch only the sad part, you’re never going to come back.”

– Jannik Sinner after his heart-breaking defeat against Alcaraz

Congratulations to Carlos Alcaraz for defending his 2024 French Open title successfully.
It was an epic match, that saw Alcaraz face down three match points in the fourth set: trailing 3-5 and 0-40 (on his serve).
But no, Alcaraz won three points in a row, won the game, went on to win the fourth set tie-breaker.
Fifth set goes to a 10 point tie-breaker, and Alcaraz plays flawlessly to run up a 7-0 lead. 7-2, 8-2, 9-2, 10-2. The championship is his.

The Rolex clock showed 5 hours 29 minutes when it was finally over.

Congratulations to Coco Gauff for winning the French Open.
It had been a decade since an American had won this title (Serena Williams, in 2015).

The year’s toughest tennis tournament* is underway: the last of the clay court season, the French Open at the Stade Roland Garros in Paris.

There is a sensational new youngster on the men’s tennis scene (no, not Carlos Alcaraz)—João Fonseca from Brazil, all of 18 years old. 

*It’s a Grand Slam tournament, so the 128-person draw requires the champion to win 7 times. The matches are best of 5 sets (best of 3 in non-Slam tournaments), and the clay makes the ball slower and bounce higher, so the rallies are longer.

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.

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.

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.