Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic can’t win for trying

July 15, 2015

You would think that for two people who had reached the pinnacle of their profession, the world would be their oyster.

But no, no, things didn’t work out that way for Serena Williams and Novak Djokovic though it’s certainly not for lack of effort on their part.

Holder of the Serena Slam (all four Slam titles at once), Serena will no doubt win the US Open that begins on Aug. 29 and succeed Steffi Graf by capturing the Grand Slam (the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open) in one calendar year. She will be remembered as one of the greatest, if not the greatest, to play the game. Simply put, there is Serena and there is everyone else ...

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It’s Pluto(palooza) time

July 14, 2015

Vive la France and vive Pluto.

Tomorrow, July 14, Bastille Day (alias the Frenchy Fourth of July), New Horizons spacecraft will do its Pluto flyby. NASA TV will have a live broadcast from 7:30 to 9 a.m. EDT. But here’s the thing: We won’t know if the flyby has been successful – or if the probe, which looks like a grand piano wrapped in gold and silver foil, has hit debris and exploded – until 8:53 p.m. EDT when we get our first bit of data. We’ll get our first look at Charon, Pluto’s rival moon, at 7 a.m. EDT Wednesday, July 15. (Remember that Charon in Greek mythology is the ferryman who delivers the dead to Hades, or Pluto, lord of the underworld, so it’s all good in terms of keeping our mythological ducks in a row.) We’re also going to get a gander at Hydra, another of Pluto’s five moons. (And another Greco-Roman mythological reference: The Hydra was the seven-headed monster Herakles, or Hercules, had to battle.) Then at 3:25 p.m. Wednesday, finally, it’s Pluto time, with the little planet that could showing us its heart. (No, Pluto, we heart you.) ...

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Pluto is ready (or not) for its close-up

July 9, 2015

On July 14, NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft will fly by the former planet known as Pluto. Already, the spacecraft is sending back pictures that have scientists “drooling,” which is a bit like calling Marilyn Monroe a dumb blonde and then collecting every MM photo you can.

You see, back in 2006, a fraction of the members of the IAU (International Astronomical Union) voted to demote Pluto to dwarf status. (Something about size and crossed orbits and not owning its Kuiper Belt neighborhood, etc.) So even though tiny Pluto has five moons, it was out.

This did not sit well with the kind of Earthlings who champion the oppressed or are tiny themselves (card-writing schoolchildren, especially those who had to memorize “My Very Educated Mother Just Served Us Nine Pickles,” or some such to remember Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto.) ...

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Sail away, sail away, sail away – ‘The Stylish Life: Yachting”

July 7, 2015

In my debut novel “Water Music,” the four gay athletes at its core explore their relationships during a vacation on Mykonos, the home of tennis player Alex Vyranos.

Alex is the son of a man who has made a fortune working for an Onassis-style shipping tycoon. At one point, Spyros Vyranos lends his son a company yacht, the Semiramide, to pilot his three friends to the neighboring isle of Delos, birthplace of Apollo. Spyros has warned Alex that the Semiramide is not a toy. He doesn’t want him drinking and sailing He doesn’t want the four winding up on TMZ.

Of course not, papa, Alex remembers telling him as he takes a swig of Dom Perignon at the wheel of the Semiramide, feeling all the power, freedom and escape that a yacht has to offer. ...

American Pharoah to be a Jersey Boy

July 6, 2015

It’s official: American Pharoah’s next race will be the $1 million William Hill Haskell Invitational Aug. 2 at Monmouth Park on the Jersey Shore.

“We want to do right by him, so he comes first," owner Ahmed Zayat, himself a Jersey Boy (by way of Teaneck), said. "He's told us he's happy. He's gained weight back. He's been paraded, literally, from coast to coast, and Bob (trainer Baffert) said we need to go back to work. I want to maintain my promise to the fans that if he's healthy he will continue to run, and that's what we're doing..."

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Whither Rafael Nadal?

July 5, 2015

Another Wimbledon, another Rafael Nadal loss in the early rounds to a low-ranked serve-and-volleyer who’s destined to be a trivia answer in the Who did Rafa lose to? category. Dustin Brown this year, Nick Kyrgios the year before, Steve Darcis the year before that and Lukas Rosol the year before that. Except for Kyrgios, who has a mouth on him, none of these players is ever going to be a champ.

But Rafa is – was. What has happened to him? Is it age? (He’s 29 but then, Roger Federer’s 33.) His very physical game? A new racket? Loss of confidence and his famous mental toughness? All of the above? ...

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When danger lurks across the net

July 2, 2015

Disturbing story on the front page of The New York Times’ July 1 edition about the stalkers whom female tennis players face, among them a guy after No. 3-ranked Simona Halep – I see no reason to give him publicity here by naming him – who became increasingly hostile after seeing a rumor that she was to marry.

It was interesting to read the accompanying comments, which as usual were all over the place, with some pointing out that male players also have crazy fans, that these women are better protected than the average woman, etc. ...