dinsdag 12 april 2011
Parenting, Part II: Talk to teens about alcohol
Parenting, Part II columnist addresses parental worries and gets a teen's view as prom and graduation season looms.
Man United, Barca advance to Champions semis
MANCHESTER, England (AP) -- Manchester United moved into the Champions League semifinals by beating English rival Chelsea 2-1 on Tuesday night, and Lionel Messi scored his team-record 48th goal of the season to advance Barcelona with a 1-0 victory at Shakhtar Donetsk.
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Wolfsburg climb out of drop zone
Wolfsburg climbed out of the bottom two in the Bundesliga with a late point against Eintracht Frankfurt.
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Rafael Nadal's Monte Carlo: The Birth of a Tennis Legend
It was one of those moments of good fortune, when the laptop was almost closed, the Skybox almost put to sleep, the day turned over to something more useful.
It was, after all, a mere filler in the broadcasting schedule at the end of a decent afternoon’s tennis from Monte Carlo.
But it became instead a moment of hesitation, of curious interest, of captured attention.
And it revealed the moment when the career of the one of the world’s great athletes was launched, when a slender, passionate young man stepped up to the line and walked into tennis history.
It was the spring of 2005–the centre court at Monte Carlo–Rafael Nadal.
At one end of the court stood the Argentine, Guillermo Coria, who had reached No. 3 in the world only the year before and was the title-holder in Monte Carlo. Coria had also reached the final of this Masters in 2003, and had some experience with the young player he was facing.
He had met Nadal, in 2003, at this very event and had beaten him, 7-6, 6-2, but the fresh-faced 16-year-old had still done well to take out Karol Kucera and Albert Costa.
Now 18, Nadal was also on a really hot streak. He had started to win titles—Costa Do Sauipe and Acapulco—and very nearly beat Roger Federer in a five-set thriller of a final in Miami. But the previous week’s Valencia had been less impressive: Perhaps the youngster was running out of steam.
If that was in Coria’s mind, he was very soon disabused. Nadal rushed to a two sets lead, 6-3, 6-1. In 2005, the finals of Masters events were still best of five and so they played on.
Coria was thrown a life-line in the third, which he won, 6-0 and at this point, the commentary team began to talk of Nadal’s tiredness, of his need to hold onto the fourth set or the match would slip from his grasp.
Little did they understand the significance of the player blossoming before their eyes, nor the transition that tennis was making in the shape of this athletic force of nature.
The Nadal of 2005 looked, in all kinds of ways, very different from the assured 24-year-old who stands at the top of his sport today.
It was the early days of the pirate pants and sleeveless shirts, when Nadal embodied youth and rebellion and breaking the mold. No one looked like Nadal, dressed like Nadal or strutted like Nadal: He was a breath of fresh air, a shot in the arm and a shock to the system.
This was, though, the days before Nike—or the teenager’s corner—had ‘tailored’ the baggy, shapeless shirt into what would become the shoulder skimming, chest clinging, arm boasting version that was Nadal’s signature look. Yet already, the raw material was there in spades: the burnished, glowering looks, the unshaven jaw, the straggling, drenched locks and the biggest left arm in tennis.
The world’s love affair with this extraordinary bundle of muscle and passion started right here and as the fourth set reached 4-4, the crowd roared their approval of both players.
Coria remained pugnacious and resilient, determined to break down his less experienced opponent.
Nadal dug deep to find those essentials that still underpin his game today: a massive lassoed forehand, a wide swinging serve to the outside of the ad court, an urgent defence of every point, a will to win unmatched by any competitor in the game.
From deuce, he fiercely held serve to lead 5-4. For possibly the first time—though certainly not the last—Peter Fleming in commentary remarked: “What a fighter…that point was just about guts and determination.”
Coria continued to give no quarter and held his game to love. Nadal stepped up to the line with barely a pause—just three bounces of the ball—and played out a perfect game of cross-court top spin and angles that gradually drew errors from Coria.
Now leading 6-5, Nadal took on the “look” that he still does in key moments. His body tenses, almost twitches, with extra energy, the brow furrows and he pounces on every shot thrown at him.
With Coria serving to save the match, Nadal hurtled to the net to pick up a drop volley at full stretch to bring up two championship points. He then chased down another drop shot to make an outright forehand winner and fell to the clay to celebrate his first Masters title.
Since that day, no one has beaten Nadal on a Monte Carlo court. He has won six successive titles and it’s hard to see who will stop him taking a seventh next weekend.
Yet while that 2005 Masters was the first step to a historic run at this historic tournament, it was also the first Masters in a record-breaking total of 18.
Most significant of all, it launched Nadal into his most successful year in tennis. He was unbeaten for the remainder of the clay season, winning Barcelona, Rome and the French Open and, after the grass season, continuing his run in Bastad and Stuttgart. Indeed, he lost just one match on clay out of the 49 he played—the loss coming in the quarterfinals of Buenos Aires at the start of the season.
Along the way, he added the final of Miami and the titles in Toronto, Beijing and Madrid (then an indoor hard court Masters), reaching a grand total of 11 titles for the year.
He began 2005 at No. 50 in the world and by early March, he was at 30. In April, it was No. 17, in May No. 7, by June No. 3 and by July No. 2, where he stayed—his way blocked by Federer—until August 2008.
Still only 24, Nadal continues to cut a special figure unmatched by any other player, still roars his passion with the same intensity, still has the same “guts and determination” that Fleming found so compelling back in 2005. Alongside all this, he remains as popular as ever and as admirable a champion as any sport could wish for.
It was just a moment of dead airtime, but it was one inspired choice of tennis recapitulation: the moment that a great career took its biggest step in Monte Carlo.
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Colt McCoy: Eight Predictions for His 2011 Season
In 2010, things didn't exactly go according to plan for the Browns in terms of their use of Colt McCoy.
The third-round draft pick and quarterback of the future wasn't even supposed to play during his rookie season. This was supposed to be a year of learning by observation for him, a time to watch from the bench as Jake Delhomme and Seneca Wallace taught him how to be an NFL quarterback by example.
But thanks to untimely injuries to both Delhomme and Wallace, McCoy's season of observation from the sidelines was not to be, and he was thrown right into the fire just six weeks into his rookie year, against uber-talented, hated rival Pittsburgh, no less.
It wasn't exactly the way anyone would script it for their team's brand spanking new, fresh-out-of-college quarterback, but football has a nasty way of forcing you to play the hand you're dealt.
So it was for McCoy who, considering the adverse circumstances under which he made his debut, actually did a darn good job in his rookie effort for the Browns. There were some pleasant surprises in what he showed on the field as well as some major letdowns, but all in all, it left Browns fans feeling pretty good about their future under McCoy at the close of the season.
There are probably more surprises in store from McCoy in 2011, some good and some bad, but here are eight predictions for the Browns' young gunslinger that should be pretty safe to bank on.
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Joe Lemire: Rangers need to take special care of Hamilton
Josh Hamilton, last season's AL MVP, is hurt again, this time with a broken right arm. Joe Lemire says it's time the Rangers got serious about keeping the hard-playing Hamilton healthy.
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Champions League preview: Tottenham v Real Madrid
Real Madrid are expected to rest several stars for their Champions League second leg clash against Tottenham on Wednesday.
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Caroline Wozniacki Proves Yet Again Why She Is the No. 1 Player
In a week where many of the top women rested from tournament play and prepared themselves for the clay season, world No. 1. Caroline Wozniacki was on the clay court and once again defied her skeptics and added another title to her already blistering resume.
The 20-year-old Dane beat Elena Vesnina 6-2, 6-3 and made 26 winners to go with just 10 unforced errors in the Charleston final.
Those are impressive stats. But what is perhaps even more impressive is the fact that she even played after playing three gruelling hard-court tournaments after the Australian Open.
Apparently, Charleston asked her to join as they were short on top names and she agreed.
Last year, she injured her ankle in the Charleston semis, and her entire clay and grass season were affected by it. This year, she battled through some close matches and came out on top every time it looked as if she was down.
She did it against Yanina Wickmayer and was heralded by former Wimbledon champ Virginia Wade for being able to turn in a winning mode and make her opponents insecure of their own game.
What Wozniacki does well is she is solid, able to play better defence that almost any woman on tour and lets the other player hit that extra winner time and time again.
She has the mentality of a winner and has added quite a bit of aggression to her game. The recent final with 26 winners to 10 errors tells that story.
Moreover, she is better than most at varying her game according to her opponent. When aggression is needed, she has that and will happily use it as we saw a few tournaments back when she had to make her matches short as she was playing ill. We saw it again against Jelena Jankovic, when Wozniacki knew she had to take the game to her in order to win it.
Her forehand used to be a liability that opponents would go after, but they can't do that anymore. While not yet being a world class forehand, she does strikes winners with it now and it rarely breaks down.
Her results for the 2011 campaign has so far earned her three titles, a runner-up, a semifinal in the Australian Open where she fell after holding match points against Na Li, a fourth round loss in Indian Wells and a lost opening match in Sydney, her first tournament of the year.
Does it get much better than that?
Well, if you're Novak Djokovic, then yes. Both not if you are playing on the WTA.
Meanwhile, her closest rival in the ranking, Belgian Kim Clijsters, has injured herself while dancing at her brother's wedding. She is expected to be sidelined until the French Open and is not even sure to be ready for that.
Clijsters is already 1,800 points behind Wozniacki, who towers the ranking with almost 10,000 points. The second-closest rival, Vera Zvonoreva is another 300 points back.
Neither Wozniacki, Zvonoreva or Clijsters had good clay seasons last year, so they were all expected to pick up points. With Clijsters sidelined, the top ranking seems to have narrowed to a two-women race with Caroline in the driver's seat.
Unless Zvonareva pulls some really big results on her least-favoured surface and Wozniacki suddenly starts losing early (last six tournaments: semi, win, final, win, fourth round, win), Wozniacki is bound to stay No. 1. until after the French Open.
Caroline Wozniacki has been No. 1 for 27 weeks now, which puts her at No. 10 on the list of players who've been No. 1. the longest. All the players ahead of her are multiple slam winners. And aside from No. 9 Amélie Mauresmo at 39 weeks and No. 8 Lindsay Davenport, they are all 5-plus slam winners.
Do we really imagine Wozniacki will stay the only slamless person in this company?
Wozniacki's critics like to point out that you can't be a true No. 1. without winning a slam. They also like to point out that she has losing records to quite a few of the other top players and has never beaten the Williams sisters, Clijsters or Justine Henin.
But the latter really begs this point. Clijsters is the only one she has met after her game matured and after she made the No. 1. She lost to her in three sets at the Tour Finals and 10-8 in the third set super-tiebreak at an exhibition match.
Do we really expect a teenager to beat 7-plus slam winners like the Williams sisters and Henin and hold it against her when she merely manages to make the matches close?
Until this spring, she was also down 0-4 against Jelena Jankovic. Now she is 2-4. Until the US Open, she was down 0-2 against Maria Sharapova. Now she is 2-2.
The improvements are evident and there to see for all, yet the focus keeps being on that elusive Slam.
But let's consider that she has only played two Slam tournaments as a non-teenager and only two Slam tournaments as the No. 1 seed. Kim Clijsters won both and deservingly so.
The slam will come. It is no longer a matter of if, but a matter of when. After all, Kim Clijsters went two years from being No. 1 to winning her first slam, losing a few finals in the process.
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Ancelotti: Blues need to believe
Ancelotti: Blues need to believe
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Parenting, Part II: Talk to teens about alcohol
Parenting, Part II columnist addresses parental worries and gets a teen's view as prom and graduation season looms.
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NFL: No attempt to keep players from NFLPA draft event
NFL spokesman Greg Aiello on Tuesday said there is no effort on behalf of the league to discourage incoming rookies from participating in the ...
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Diouf, Bougherra escape bans
Rangers pair Madjid Bougherra and El-Hadji Diouf have escaped bans after their behaviour during a heated Scottish Cup final loss to Celtic.
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Wolfsburg climb out of drop zone
Wolfsburg climbed out of the bottom two in the Bundesliga with a late point against Eintracht Frankfurt.
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La Liga: Real Zaragoza 2 Getafe 1
Real Zaragoza moved three points clear of the La Liga relegation zone with a valuable 2-1 win over Getafe on Monday.
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Ferguson calls for United front
Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson wants his team to unite under pressure for their Champions League quarter-final against Chelsea.
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New US owner for Arsenal
US businessman Stan Kroenke has gained a controlling interest in English giants Arsenal.
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Jenn Sterger: Is Sterger's Interview a Sign of More Trouble for Favre?
Jenn Sterger Gives ABC Interview About Favre Scandal, But Could it Be a Sign of More Trouble For Former Quarterback?
Jenn Sterger, the former sideline hostess-turned T.V. personality, has finally given her side of the story regarding the Brett Favre scandal.
For those who don't remember the story, Favre sent Sterger illicit photos and messages in 2008, when both were under the employment of the New York Jets.
Sterger spoke to ABC's George Stephanopoulos for a Good Morning America segment that aired today, detailing her feelings throughout the recent incident.
"I didn't want anything to do with it. That's the thing," Sterger said. "I didn't want anything to do with it in 2008, I (didn't) want anything to do with it in 2010. I still don't want anything to do with it now. The only reason I feel like I have to give this interview is ... for me. For my family. This has nothing to do with Brett Favre. It doesn't. I just want people to know me. And to know that I'm not a gold-digger. And I'm not a home-wrecker."
Sterger's interview sheds even more light on what has been one of the bigger stories of the last 12 months, but it also begs a question: could her statements mean more trouble for Brett Favre?
Favre has already been slapped with a fine from the NFL, and been subjected to frequent scrutiny over the course of the year, and he's the defendant in a lawsuit from two massage therapists who worked for the Jets in 2008. They claimed that, like Sterger, they were the victims of unwelcome sexual advances from the veteran quarterback.
For more on Sterger's interview, be sure to check out Jenn Sterger: Interview Airs Today, Will She Ever Rebuild Her Career?
The good news for Brett is that he has retired from the NFL. No matter what Sterger told viewers in the interview (which wound up being little we didn't already know), the NFL couldn't levy any more punishment against the future Hall of Fame inductee.
But, what about that lawsuit? Sterger essentially details how she knew the texts were from Favre, and provides the kind of history the plaintiffs could use to prove that Favre was guilty of harassing them as well as the former sideline hostess. Her interview could wind up costing Favre quite a bit of money, as well as damaging his reputation, right?
Fortunately for the quarterback, Sterger isn't one of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit, meaning the interview probably won't have much impact. The former sideline hostess doesn't talk about the massage therapists, and her statements pertain only to her interaction with the quarterback.
In the end, it's hard to see Favre getting in more trouble because of what Sterger said, mostly because he can't get in more trouble than he's already in.
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