US Open Update, how Serena can lose #1 ranking and more!

by Sports
Photo: BBC Tennis

Germany’s Angelique Kerber has a chance to knock Serena Williams from the top of the tennis rankings.

Serena will not only need to reach the US Open Finals to remain at #1, but if she meets Kerber she will also have to beat her. 

Photo: wtatennis.com

If Serena wins the US Open she would not only pass the monumental 22 Grand Slam title wins, but also be tied with Steffi Graf for the longest stay at #1 (186 weeks).

Currently, Serena surpassed Martina Navratilova for the most Grand Slam match wins and is now equal with Roger Federer’s mark for the men. Amazing.

If Aga Radwanska wins the Open she can also be #1.

If Serena continues to win as well as her sister, Venus, they are on a collision course to meet in the Semi-Final.

Can Serena come out on top this time around with all of the pressure mounted against her again?

Roberta Vince who pulled off what was considered to be the biggest upset in Sports last year, beating Serena in the Semi-Final of the US Open is through to the Quarterfinals (QF) on the other side of the draw from Serena. She has dropped just 1 set so far in the tournament.

She could meet Kerber on her side of the draw who is also through to the QF after beating Kvitova. 

Upsets so far for the Ladies?

Caroline Wozniaki just upset Madison Keys (#8) in straight sets. 

World #3, French Open 2016 winner, Muguruza was sent home in Round 2. 

Defending Champ, Lepchenko was defeated in Round 3. 

Matches to be played today for the Ladies?

Simona Halep (#5), Radwanska (#4), Serena (#1) and Venus (#6), should be playing their Round 4 matches today.

What’s happening with the Men?

Photo: bbc.com

Novak Djokovic is through easily to the Quarterfinals, as well as Tsonga and Monfils.

Andy Murray, Wawrinka, Nishikori and Juan Martín del Potro should know their fate for the Quarterfinals today.

Juan Martìn del Potro is one to watch as he seems to be making quite a comeback.

Upsets so far?

Rafael Nadal was defeated by Lucas Pouille in 5 sets and has failed to reach the Quarterfinals for the 3rd straight year.

Wimbledon 2016 Finalist, Milos Raonic was out from the 2nd round. Veteran John McEnroe is no longer his Coach after Wimbledon possibly because of a conflict of interest since McEnroe is a commentator on ESPN. Looks like the change hurt him.

Juan del Potro beat David Ferrer (#11) in the 3rd round.
 

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The Weekend in Sports! US Open Finals, Mayweather retires & more!

by SportsWhat's Hot

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US OPEN TENNIS

Suga called it! Congratulations to Flavia Pennetta and Novak Djokovic, the 2015 US Open Champions!

The more experienced, Pennetta won her first singles Grand Slam title on Saturday in 2 sets, 7-6, 6-2, defeating the woman responsible for the upset of the year, Roberta Vince.

The Men’s Final with World no. 1, Novak Djokovic vs no. 2, Roger Federer was delayed by 3 hours because of rain but definitely worth the wait. Note that there will be no more delays next year because there will be indoor options.

Djokovic has won his 10th Grand Slam title and 2nd US Open. 3 this year except for the French, where he was a finalist! Amazing season. He won physically and mentally with the crowd against him in 4 sets, 6-4, 5-7, 6-4, 6-4. Well deserved.

The match was epic! Both players were a bit nervous in the first set. Djokovic was the more relaxed player, but had a nasty fall in one of the early games, then lost his momentum. He got it back and played well to win the first set, where Federer was very tight. The commentators said it was a messy first set for Roger.

Roger looked more like himself in the 2nd set, using a lot of variety to even sets, 7-5. That set was an hour long!

Djokovic regained control and took the 3rd.

In the 4th set, Djokovic was up 5-2 to serve for the match, but Roger wasn’t finished just yet. Roger broke his serve and held for it to go to 5-4. Djokovic had some big serves in the last game and after 3 hours and 20 minutes, Djokovic hit a massive serve that Roger sent long to seal the deal for Djoko.

Roger is clearly the People’s Champion. Djoko had to hit deep to win most rallies or serve big to win points. A few well executed lobs worked in his favour as well. Roger said he is very pleased with where his game is at and we will see him next year.

After losing the 1st set, he was already at a disadvantage to make up physically in the 2nd, then try to overcome the excellence of Djokovic in the 3rd at his age and current fitness level. He looked fitter than Wimbledon but he has more work to do. Kudos to him though for helping to make the match so entertaining. You know it was epic when Djoko jumped up into the stands afterwards and shouted, ‘This is Spaaaaarta!’ with members of his box. Suga thinks this is probably his best and most meaningful win of his career so far. Well done Djoko.

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BOXING

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Floyd ‘Money’ Mayweather has hung up his boxing gloves, going out with a win by a unanimous vote over Andre Berto to retire undefeated 49-0. It was a good fight. Much more entertaining than the most hyped and marketed fight in history, the Mayweather-Pacquiao fight earlier this year. Props to the referee for denying Mayweather Barney hugs and there was less running, but more dancing. No joke. Mayweather actually did the running man during one of the rounds. He enjoyed himself. He displayed his quickness and agility off the ropes, as he is known for. Besides a very low, direct blow to Mayweather from Berto (for all the abused women out there!), it was a fairly clean fight. Finally we saw some upper cuts! Yes! Both boxers lost their footing during the fight, but it was in the last round that Mayweather piled on the right hooks and upper cuts, weakening the knees of Berto. But Berto recovered quickly and put up a good fight.

What did Mayweather and Berto say after the match? Well Mayweather explained why he was retiring. He said he is almost 40, been fighting for 19 years and has been a World Champion for 18 years. He believes he has accomplished everything, having broken every record there is, so there is not much left in the sport of Boxing for him. He is happy to leave the sport with all his faculties, something he has mentioned before, that clearly was a concern for him. He also mentioned that he has done a lot of charity work, which the media never mentions, for instance, feeding the homeless. He of course closed with, ‘Money don’t make me, I make money. I am the best at boxing’.

The defeated, Andre Berto said Mayweather was slippery. He had a lot of speed and was real crafty, using a lot of little things to keep him off his rhythm. He was asked about an exchange between them during one of the rounds and Berto explained that he basically said, ‘Here I come. I am here to fight.’ Berto said he pushed it to the limit but he fell short. He was asked if he thought Mayweather was the best ever. There was a pause and unclear shout from the crowd. Thankfully he kept it real and said Mayweather is ONE OF the best ever.

FOOTBALL: Barclay’s Premier League

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It’s not looking like a good year for Chelsea. They continue to dig a deeper hole with a 3-1 loss to Everton. The other big sides, Arsenal, Manchester City and Manchester United were all victorious. Arsenal with a 2-0 win over Stoke City, Man City beat Crystal Palace 1-0 and Manchester United beat Liverpool 3-1!

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Why did Serena’s quest for Grand Slam History end yesterday and more!

by SportsWhat's Hot

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Huge upset on the Women’s side of the draw yesterday at the US Open. Last year it was on the Men’s side with Marin Cilic and Kei Nishikori knocking out Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer in the Semi Finals. Now, Novak Djokovic defeated the Defending Champion who has been plagued with an ankle injury during the tournament, Marin Cilic easily in 3 sets with a 6-0, 6-1, 6-2 victory. Federer defeated Stan Wawrinka easily with a  6-4, 6-3, 6-1. Wawrinka has not shown his usual fighting spirit this Open. So it will be a Djokovic-Federer final tomorrow at 4pm ET. It has been a few years that Roger has made it to the US Open final, but he surely looks better than how he was at Wimbledon this year. He has started to run more and looks fitter, but still 80% of the Roger Federer we know aka Fed Express so Suga has Djokovic for the win in an entertaining match.

Now for the ladies! It was expected to be a Williams-Halep final. First of all, Flavia Pennetta (26) upset young, world #2, ‘ jalepeño’ Simona Halep in 2 sets! 6-1, 6-3.  Suga did not see that match but one would think that after that marathon of a Quarterfinal with Victoria Azarenka, Halep would have been exhausted.

Then Serena’s quest for Grand slam history ended dramatically yesterday to an UNSEEDED 32-year-old that looks like 60, Roberta Vinci whose odds were 300 to 1! Wow. What an anti-climax! What happened?! Drake? No, just kidding. But you never know. Serena played relatively well, but was not consistent. With a 6-2 start in the 1st set she probably thought she was safe. She was crushed in the second and looked like she recovered in the 3rd, breaking Vince early, going up 2-0. But it all went downhill from there. She had a lot of unforced errors and just could not maintain focus and settle her emotions. Vinci capitalized on every opportunity she got. She played the match of her life and was pumped! After winning a long rally at a pivotal moment in the 3rd set, she put her hand to her ear to the crowd, then raised both hands saying something like yessss! Look at me! Applaud me! Check that moment out here.

I thought Serena would steam roll her for that but Serena just could not answer. Vinci had a flurry of powerful forehands setting up Serena for an open court and frequently went to the net with effective drop shots. Then the inevitable happened, Vince finishing Serena in a LOVE GAME, 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. Steffi Graf can prepare to hand over the Championship trophy to Serena another time. All preparations can go back into storage. It will be an all Italian final at 3pm ET today with the oldest players in a women’s major final combined, as Pennetta is 33.

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Well done Roberta Vince for pulling off one of the BIGGEST upsets in history and showing that even towards the end of the road or your career, anything is possible if you keep fighting. She said it was the best moment of her life.

See Vinci’s hilarious post match interview here:

Pennetta with a lot of experience, has already won the Australian Open Doubles title in 2011 and is well rested after just a 2 set match vs Halep. After Vince used all the gas her tank, it is likely that Pennetta may win, but Suga supports Vince for the win. Afterall it’s sports. As we witnessed yesterday, anything can happen. Good luck to her in the final. With an upset victory like that, it would be even sweeter to go all the way.

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The Reggae Boyz are through to the next round, Venus says Serena is the best ever and more!

by SportsWhat's Hot

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With a goal in the 89th minute after many successful time-wasting tactics by Nicaragua, Simon Dawkins secured a place for Jamaica in the Semi Final round of the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying game with a final score of Jamaica 2: 0 Nicaragua. Thanks also to Darren Mattocks who scored a goal in the 13th minute, which started to get Jamaica out of debt. Mattocks displayed a valiant effort throughout the entire match. Jamaica needed 2 clear goals to win and the Reggae Boyz accomplished just that. Well done. I wish I could say the same about the commentators on FLOW Channel 100 though. They probably put Jamaica to sleep, making some miss the 2nd goal. The same thing was said about every 5 minutes in a different way, CNN style. Though debatable, for Suga, there were a lot of dull aka boring moments in the game, especially in the 2nd half where it looked for a moment like the Reggae Boyz gave up, but the commentators could have done better. They even closed the curtains on the Reggae Boyz until World Cup 2022 with about 15 minutes left in the game, which is A LOT in football time. Shame on them and extremely poor coverage.

They will now join Costa Rica, Panama and Haiti in Group B. Haiti, who was also in a knock out round, beat Grenada to advance. How does the rest of the CONCACAF World Cup Qualifying 4th round look?

Group A: Mexico, Honduras, El Salvador, Canada

Group C: United States, Trinidad & Tobago, St.Vincent and the Grenadines, Guatemala

So the Road to Russia continues!

US Open

Serena Williams won 6-2, 1-6, 6-3 last night in a 98- minute long Quarterfinal versus her sister, Venus Williams. It seemed much longer for them and it wasn’t easy for Serena at all compared to their match up this year at Wimbledon, where it took Serena only 2 sets to win. Serena’s face looked like she was in emotional pain for the entire match. Since they are both power hitters and servers, rallies if any, only lasted about 3 or 4 hits and nobody knows Serena’s serve better than Venus.

Serena closed out the match with an ace and Venus whispered in Serena’s ear that she was very happy for her. Very sweet exchange and embrace afterwards.

Serena will move on to play the unseeded Italian, Roberta Vinci in the Semi Final this Thursday, continuing her quest to complete a Calendar Grand Slam and even Steffi Graf’s 22 Grand Slam titles in the open era.

Serena now leads Venus 16-11 in head to head Grand Slam matches and has won 7 of the last 8 meetings.

See why Venus says Serena is the ‘best ever’ here:

http://es.pn/1K7Ppem

The men’s side of the Quarterfinals was also pretty exciting yesterday with a 5 – setter from Cilic and Tsonga, where Defending Cham, Cilic prevailed 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 6-4. Marin Cilic will meet Novak Djokovic in the Semi finals.

Djokovic who continues to look good defeated Feliciano Lopez in 4 sets, 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, 7-6. Do you know that he gets his sneaker company to shave down the bottom of his tennis shoes so that he can skid more. It has been noticed he gets to balls that are usually out of reach for most players, by skidding over to them during the open. Interesting stuff.

Today’s action at the Open includes:

Ladies QF:

Kvitova vs Pennetta

Halep vs Azarenka

Men’s QF:

Wawrinka vs Anderson

Federer vs Gasquet

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This Day in Sports!

by SportsWhat's Hot

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We will witness our favourite sibling rivalry in Sports again with ‘Sister Sister’ action between the Williams sisters at the Quarterfinals of the US Open at 7pm ET/6pm Jamaican time. 

There is clearly a lot more on the line for Serena, but it would surely be nice to have Venus move on to the Semi Finals as well since she may not have this opportunity again. Bitter sweet, but as Serena said on Sunday, ‘At least one of us, a Williams, will be in the Semi Finals, so that’s good.’

May the best sister win!

Image: www.jamaicafootballfederation.com
Image: www.jamaicafootballfederation.com

The Reggae Boyz had a disappointing loss versus Nicaragua at the Office at the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica last Friday night, with the final result of 3-2. The Reggae Boyz were behind by as much as 3-0 and fought hard in the end to score 2 goals. This now gives Nicaragua the edge over Jamaica on aggregate in the 2nd Leg tonight at 8:30pm, Jamaican time, which will also be a knock out round to continue on the Road to Russia. Jamaica will have to score 2 clear goals above Nicaragua in order to WIN and keep their dreams, as well as Jamaica’s dreams alive. If they score 1 goal above them, for a scoreline of 3-2, that would mean we have tied on aggregate, facing more than likely overtime and penalties if necessary. With a scoreline less than that, we can kiss our dreams of Russia goodbye.

The  Reggae Boyz will be without Giles Barnes, who due to previous joint and tendon issues, cannot play on Nicaragua’s artificial surface. Upston Edwards has taken his place. Jamaica’s Captain, Rodolph Austin is also questionable since he is dealing with personal priorities to access a visa to continue his professional career in Scandinavia. Can’t blame him. If unavailable, Coach Schaefer said Adrian Mariappa could Captain the team and Andre Clennon is a possible substitute for the game depending on how he performs in their training session.

So there is a lot of work to do and they have to stay completely focused.

*Flow Jamaica Limited will have live and exclusive broadcast of the match on FLOW 100.

All the Best to the Reggae Boyz!

ENJOY!

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US OPEN starts Today! Can Serena Williams finish her mission?

by SportsWhat's Hot

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The US Open starts today in New York. Serena Williams will look to complete the Calendar Slam, that is, winning all 4 Grand Slams in 1 Calendar year. This was last accomplished by Steffi Graf in 1988.

She has already completed her ‘Serena Slam’ after winning Wimbledon this year, by holding all 4 Grand Slam titles at once, since she won the US Open last year.

Serena is also chasing Steffi Graf’s 22 Grand Slam titles, the most in the Open era. She currently has 21. So this year, the US Open is a BIG DEAL to Serena.

Suga wishes her the best and will follow and update her progress in the tournament.