The NBA Finals And The French Open
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We’re in the midst of the NBA Finals and the San Antonio Spurs and New York Knicks are doing exactly what you would hope for, giving the audience a battle royal that is to be admired for its intensity, tenaciousness, and fight.
What more would you expect for these two teams fighting for the world championship?
Unlike the legendary Celtics-Lakers collisions in the 80’s which I had the honor of covering, these games actually go down to the wire. Few may recall that in those Bird-Magic-Kareem-McHale confrontations, the games themselves were rarely close, only the series results. One team would impose its will on the other, winning by as much as 18, 20, 25 points. But back and forth they’d go.
But this one, with two more games to be played this week, is a fight to the finish every time.
There might have been closer individual game scores during the Michael Jordan title era, but the Bulls were always the favorites and their opponents the definite underdogs. They weren’t on an even scale as the Spurs and Knicks.
Home court, so often played up as a difference-maker has been non-existent thus far, with the Knicks taking the first two in Alamo-country, and the Spurs coming back to win an actual must game on Monday in raucous Madison Square Garden. The championship-starved fans of the City were hungry to get to the brink of the kill by taking an insurmountable 3-0 lead, but it wasn’t to be. Perhaps they rebounded with finally a home court triumph to go up 3-1, pretty close to dagger-time. Only you, the readers and listeners know that by now, but the duel goes on and it’s been a beauty. One thing about the home court, good teams are not intimidated but spurred on by enemy fans. They simply want to go out and shut them up.
The stars of the current series, Victor Wembanyama, the 7’5” (really) giant for the Spurs, and the 6’2” (generous) Jalen Brunson have delivered dramatically, but from game to game, others who make up the supporting cast, including those coming off the bench, have contributed key baskets, defensive stops, and all the rest that go into a team game.
With games Wednesday and Saturday to be played, let’s see whether the Spurs game 3 win was just a delay for a Knicks crown, or a message that this one is headed for the distance.
While the NBA Finals move along, the second grand slam of the tennis season became history as the French Open, played on the red clay of Roland Garros in Paris provided more than a few unanticipated events.
The men’s and women’s championships has to always be the biggest moments, but in this year’s tournament, the most attention-getting stories happened long before the finals were played.
With Spain’s Carlos Alcaraz sidelined with a wrist injury, it appeared his constant rival for #1, the world’s current top player, Jannik Sinner of Italy would sail to victory and chalk up, not only the fifth Grand Slam of his career, but a career Slam adding the French title to the other three he’s won. How many times have we seen sure things in sports dissolve before our very eyes?
But in the second round he fell to the world’s 56th ranked Juan Manuel Cerundolo of Argentina. When the collapse occurred was even more bizarre. Sinner captured the first two sets and led 5-1, needing only to win his serve to dispatch his opponent handily.
But the one nemesis he has, besides Alcaraz, and the one he has not been able to overcome is handling the heat, where cramping up, feeling dizzy and being low on energy has destroyed his game. Sinner lost the third set and had nothing left in losing the last two 6-1, 6-1.
Ultimately the championship was won by 29-year old Alexander Zverev, who had been knocking on the door for years, but had unable to beat both Sinner and Alcaraz when it counted. Zverev beat first-time finalist Flavio Cabolli of Italy in five sets. It wasn’t the Italian player the fans had expected to see in the finals.
There was equal shock on the women’s side as well. World #1, Aryna Sabalenka fell prey to the Paris winds when she lost 10 straight games in her quarter-final en route to a crushing defeat to Russia’s Diana Shnaider.
The eventual champion was another Russian Mirra Andreeva, who knocked off Poland’s Mara Chwalinska in straight sets.
Chwalinska had to qualify just to join the field, so her march to the final was one of the true highlights.
There are two questions coming out of the French Open. With the big names out the way, how significant was it for Zverev, not the most popular player on the scene, and for Andreeva to each win their first Grand Slam?
My answer is nothing should take away from either of their achievements. They could only control what they could control. And they obviously aced that exam.
The other question revolves around the injured Alcaraz, and the vulnerable Sinner, both still very young. They are without doubt the world’s best tennis players. But going forward, each of them will have to learn to handle the physical problems that prevent the domination of their sport. How and if they find a solution will determine whether they can be the next chapter to the incredible era of Djokovic, Federer, and Nadal.
Wemby gets it done
Finally a Grand Slam win
Same story for the Women
