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 Sports
 The Rap
Join me here every Monday for a weekly review and analysis from the world of sports. From the NBA to the NFL, with a little of everything in between, one of the most comprehensive sport reports on a single page.
Bob Cohen - PVNN
| | Sunday's Players Championship was Sergio Garcia's first win in three years. (Robert Beck/SI) | | |
Tennis is kicking into high gear in anticipation of the French Open that begins at the end of May. The men and women both played big tournaments this week. The men played the $3.5 million Italian Open on clay and the women played $2.1 million Qatar German Open in Berlin also on clay.
Of course the top seeds on the men's side were Federer, Nadal and Djokovic, as has been the case in every tournament the three have played in. But Federer was beaten in the quarterfinals by unseeded veteran Radek Stepanek of the Czech Republic in two tiebreaks, 7-6, 7-6, and Nadal was defeated in the 2nd round after receiving a bye in the opening round. Unseeded and fellow Spaniard Juan Carlos Ferrero made easy work of Rafael in his big upset, wining 7-5, 6-1 and proceeded to lose in the next round. Djokovic was the only one of the Top 3 in men's tennis to survive and reach the semis and he did it having his opponent retire. Andy Roddick, seeded 6th, and unseeded Stepanek and Wawrinka were the four to reach the semifinals.
The semifinals were strange for the men as Andy Roddick had to retire in the 1st set with an injured back after trailing 0-3, giving unseeded but improving Swiss' Stanislas Wawrinka a free pass to the finals to face Novak Djokovic who also won when Radek Stepanek retired due to a wrist injury while trailing 0-6, 0-1. Djokovic lost the first set 6-4, but won the final two sets to defeat the improving Wawrinka 6-3, 6-3. Wawrinka who was ranked 27th coming into the tournament will now be ranked 10th.
The men already started the Masters Hamburg Open played on clay and yes the top three seeds are Federer, Nadal and Djokovic.
In the women's tournament the top seeds were almost all playing and Justine Henin was seeded 1st, Ana Ivanovic, 2nd, and only Sharapova sitting this one out after a tantrum she threw towards the press. Henin, having a tough year after being so dominant in 2007 was ousted early again, losing in the 3rd round to 13th seed Dinara Safina in 3 sets, the last a 6-1 drubbing. Ivanovic and 7th seeded Elena Dementieva are the only Top 10 to make it to the semifinals. Dementieva upset Ivanovic 6-2, 7-5 and faced Dinara Safina in the finals. Safina lost her 1st set 6-3, and then stepped it up to take the next two sets 6-2, 6-2 for an impressive championship.
The NBA playoffs, the Lakers and Utah are tied 2-2, with each victory coming on the home court. Boston leads Cleveland 2-1 with all victories coming at home, New Orleans and San Antonio are tied 2-2, again with each victory coming at home, and Detroit leads Orlando 3-1, thus far one Detroit victory has been on the road. In the playoffs thus far home court advantage has been phenomenal.
In the NHL playoffs, teams have reached the conference championships. Top seeded Detroit crushed 5th seed Dallas 4-1 at home in the opening game of the Western Conference and followed with a 2-1 victory to take a 2-0 series lead. The Eastern Conference had 2nd seeded Pittsburgh at home defeating 6th seeded Philadelphia 4-2 and again 4-2 to take a 2-0 lead. The NHL also is taking full advantage of home ice.
In baseball, Lance Berkman of the Houston Astros has become the best overall hitter thus far in this early season. Berkman had a hot week and is now 2nd in batting at .386, 2nd in home runs with 12 and 1st in RBIs with 35. His 39 runs scored are the best in the league, his on base % of .468 is 2nd and his slugging % of .788 leads all players. Berkman also has a league leading 15 doubles to add to his 12 homers. He has 16 base hits in his last 20 AB. His bat alone is responsible for Houston's winning record of 21-17. Are we talking Triple Crown? MVP? It is a long season, but for now we will track his progress. In other news, 42 year old Greg Maddux reached a pitching milestone when he won his 350th game Saturday night; the 9th pitcher to accomplish the feat.
In golf, there was still no Tiger as his injury heals, but on the women's tour we had Lorena Ochoa, the pride of Mexico competing in Virginia, and her 1st round 6 under par 64 was bested only by Annika Sorenstam who shot 64 and Mhairi McKay who shot a blistering 63. McKay is a tour veteran from Scotland who has never won in 209 career tournaments. Michelle Wie played in her 1st LPGA event since February and although her drives were booming, she didn't know where they were going and shot an opening round 75, 12 strokes off the lead.
Annika followed her strong start with a 5 under 66 and is 12 under par and led Lorena by 3 strokes at the halfway point as the two best golfers in the last decade seem to be battling for the tour victory. Wie did better on Friday with a 71 but missed yet another cut by 4 strokes. The 3rd round has Annika shooting 2 under to go to 14 under and a 3 stroke lead. Lorena shot an uncharacteristic 3 over leaving her at 6 under and another near impossible task of picking up 8 strokes on the final Sunday against her foe trying to make a stand for a two female golf race in 2008.
It appears to be a two woman race this year as Sorenstam shot 5 under Sunday and 19 under for the tournament, winning by 7 strokes as Ochoa finished 12 behind at 7 under par. The LPGA Tour has played 11 tournaments thus far in 2008. Lorena Ochoa was won 5 titles, Annika Sorenstam has won 3 and Paula Creamer has won 2.
The playoffs began in the Mexican Soccer League Premier Division 2008. With the best teams getting early byes, the teams that qualified played during the week. San Luis defeated Pachuca Wednesday night 1-0 and Atlas and Necaxa tied 1-1 Thursday. Saturday San Luis looked to advance to the next round but lost to Pachuca 2-1 leaving the two game series tied at 2 goals apiece. Pachuca scored the wining goal in the final minute of play. On Sunday Atlas and Necaxa tied 0-0. Necaxa and San Luis will move into the next round of the playoffs that consists of 8 teams and will continue this week. |
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