This past weekend was one of the more lively ones of the summer when it comes to sports news. We had new champions crowned at Wimbledon, a familiar face back on top at the Scottish Open, big NFL signings, and more. Now, let’s recap the action:
VONDROUSOVA, ALCARAZ CLAIM THEIR FIRST WIMBLEDON TITLES
Saturday morning, Marketa Vondrousova became the first unseeded woman to win a Wimbledon trophy after defeating Ons Jabeur 6-4 6-4. A year ago, she was an injured visitor at Wimbledon with a cast on her arm. Now, she’s a champion. After the match she had some wise words to describe her journey and what it took for her to get to this point:
Damn right Marketa. Tennis is in fact crazy.
Now, if you want to talk about crazy tennis, the men’s finals match on Sunday between Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alcaraz was one of the better matches you will ever witness. The four hour and 42 minute war was the third longest final ever, as it took Carlitos all five sets to put away the Serbian. This would’ve been Djokovic’s fifth Wimbledon title in a row (8 total), and with the loss, his hopes of the first calendar Grand Slam (for both men and women) since 1980 have evaporated. Though he smashed a racket mid match, nobody has been humbler in a loss.
Let’s talk about the new champion, Carlos Alcaraz. This guy is straight out of a videogame. He is quick, decisive, and deadly. At just 20 years old, he has cemented himself as the number one ranked player in the world, even while the GOAT is still competing in the top three. When Djokovic retires, Carlos will run the show for a long time. Even though Alcaraz only has two under his belt at the moment, I think there is no question that the Grand Slam record of 23, held by Djokovic and Serena Williams, is in serious danger.
RORY MCILROY TAKES HOME THE SCOTTISH OPEN FOR THE FIRST TIME
Throughout all of the LIV drama, Rory has been so close to a win, so many times. Yesterday, he was finally able to climb the mountain again and win the Scottish Open. This comes at a perfect time, one week before the Open Championship, where he’ll be looking to claim his fifth major of his career.
A win at this year’s Open would be extra special. Last year at the 150th Open, Rory finished two strokes back after entering the final round as the sole leader. He also hasn’t won a major since 2014, and LIV star Brooks Koepka just passed him in total major wins after his performance at the PGA Championship. No doubt, Rory will be swinging with a chip on his shoulder this upcoming weekend, and this win in Scotland shows that he’s in perfect form to take home his fifth major.
Before I move on to the next topic, one thing that does need to be talked about is the botch job that the PGA Tour and ESPN committed on the broadcasting side of the Scottish Open. It was impossible to find the game on TV, and ESPN+ cut the coverage immediately after Rory tied it up on 17!
I could not be less happy with ESPN+ at the moment, and this was the last straw. Coverage is only available in specific regions, you still have to pay for pay-per-views, and there are commercials on literally everything. Also, I should not be paying for a service that gives me a thirty second ad to watch a clip that is 20 seconds long. ESPN and Disney are getting too greedy, and they are ruining the sports viewing experience because of it.
DEANDRE HOPKINS TO THE TITANS
Mike Vrabel beats out Bill Belichick and manages to lure DeAndre Hopkins to Nashville. Do I blame DHop? Absolutely not. I wrote a blog a couple of weeks ago drooling over the city of Nashville, and I still believe it is one of the most fun places on the planet. The Titans organization is a different story though. In recent years, they have been the place where veteran receivers like Julio Jones go to die.
Also, if I’m not mistaken, DHop said that his main priorities for a team are 1 – A good QB, 2 – A solid defense/contending team, and 3 – a good GM that would pay him. The only thing that he got out of these three when joining the Titans was the money. Tannehill isn’t that guy, their defense was ranked 15th last season, and they hired a new GM this year.
Somebody please explain this to me because something is just not adding up. All I can think of is that we must have really blown his visit to Boston since he chose Tennessee.
Final note: why didn’t the Titans just pay AJ Brown last year?
NY JETS CHOSEN AS HARD KNOCKS TEAM THIS YEAR
This news broke over the weekend, and I couldn’t be happier. Jack will cover this topic in depth in tomorrow’s blog, but I wanted to throw this in here because I am very excited to see the Rodgers situation unfold.