Congratulations to Novak Djokovic, who finally won the French Open on his 12th attempt, defeating Andy Murray 3-6, 6-1, 6-2, 6-4 Sunday at Roland Garros in Paris.
“It’s a very special day, perhaps the biggest moment of my career,” Djokovic said in French to the Parisian crowd. The win made him the eighth man in tennis history to complete the career Grand Slam and the third man, behind Don Budge and Rod Laver, to hold all four Slam singles titles at once. (Budge and Laver, of course, did it in a calendar year, Laver twice – the last time 47 years ago.)
Murray, who has played his friendly rival since their junior days and is a week older, was classy in defeat. “This is his day today,” the No. 2 seed said. “What he’s achieved in the last 12 months is phenomenal.” ...
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Read MoreKings and presidents die, and nobody cares, Muhammad Ali once said. But Joe Louis died, and everybody cried.
Are they crying now for Muhammad Ali, who died Friday in Scottsdale, Ariz. of complications from Parkinson’s disease? No doubt.
Boxers are perhaps the most poignant of athletes, for in a sense, they absorb the blows for the rest of us. Boxing, the novelist Joyce Carol Oates observed in her nonfiction work, “On Boxing,” is “America’s tragic theater.” ...
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Read MoreWell, experts like Joe Drape and aficionados like Thomas DeChiara will be rooting for Exaggerator – the Andy Murray of Thoroughbred racehorses. But I’m sticking with Nyquist for the Preakness Stakes Saturday at Pimlico Race Course in Maryland (5 p.m., NBC), where the forecast is for rain.
That shouldn’t bother Nyquist. You gotta love a horse that simply will not let anything or anyone get in front of him for too long, a horse that has the will, the sheer grit, the heart to propel himself to the front of the pack. Some animals – some people – simply must be first. ...
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Read MoreRoger Federer’s out of the French Open with continuing injuries, and already the Mark Antonys are out in force to praise and bury Caesar.
No Fed fan here but, as with Mark Twain, reports of his (tennis) death are greatly exaggerated. Federer will never retire, because being a player on the ATP tour – as opposed to what John McEnroe calls the old fogey’s tour – is at the core of his identity and because Feddy fans, including The New York Times, would have a nervous breakdown. Already the planets are spinning backward with Novak Djokovic’s name being thrown into the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) ring. ...
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Read MoreAnyone want to make a bold prediction for this year’s Triple Crown races? Win, lose or draw, the undefeated Nyquist is a star. (We’d say more – except we don’t want to jinx the bay beauty’s chances in the Preakness Stakes May 21 and the Belmont Stakes June 11.)
OK, so we think he has Triple Crown/superhorse potential as well as the ability to develop an Affirmed/Alydar rivalry with Exaggerator. There’s a lot of the gritty Affirmed in Nyquist. And a lot of Seattle Slew as well.
But you don’t have to wait until the Preakness for your equestrian fix. The Old Salem Farm Spring Horse Shows in North Salem are underway. ...
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Read MoreJust when I said that Nyquist reminded me of Seattle Slew, lo and behold some of the experts come along and agree. Like Slew, Nyquist is dark, underrated and a prodigy, becoming a champ at 2. Like Slew, Nyquist came into the Kentucky Derby undefeated. And like Slew, Nyquist has captured the Derby, the first jewel in the Triple Crown and now moves on to the Preakness May 21.
There are those like Thoroughbred aficionado and art collector Thomas DeChiara who see the hard-charging Exaggerator’s second-place Derby finish to Nyquist as a kind of Affirmed-Alydar rivalry. Could be. Alydar is the only horse in history to finish second in the three Triple Crown races, always to Affirmed, who succeeded Slew as Triple Crown champ in 1978. But for Affirmed, Alydar would’ve won the Triple Crown. ...
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Read MoreWith so much happening in the world of politics, this blog has been neglecting one of its passions – sports and, specifically, tennis.
Well, no longer.
The sports pages today are full of a stratospheric Novak Djokovic, who in winning the Miami Open Sunday passed Roger Federer as the all-time ATP earnings leader with more than $98 million. Yowza.
But that’s just the beginning. The win made him the career leader in ATP Masters 1000 titles, with 28, and the first player to win the difficult double of Indian Wells and Miami four times. It also enabled him to extend his streak of consecutive weeks as No. 1 to 92.
Miami was also Nole’s 63rd title, moving him past coach Boris Becker with 714 wins. (By the way, 714 was the number of home runs Babe Ruth hit lifetime.) ...
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