By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
WIMBLEDON, England -- Venus Williams was in the stands nervously clutching her hands. Younger sister Serena was on Centre Court grabbing a place in a Wimbledon final for a seventh time in 11 years.
"No way," was Serena's response when told of the numbers. "I was working so hard. I really wanted it."
Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
WIMBLEDON, England -- Everyone seems to have a label here. They've decided Serena Williams is the "Warrior Queen,'' and her opponent in this country with an imperial history, Victoria Azarenka, naturally is being called "Queen Victoria.''
Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com
WIMBLEDON, England -- These may be the All England Championships, but we pause more than a moment on America’s birthday to offer praise for Serena Williams, an American Beauty.
Waking up the echoes and smashing home the aces, she has become last U.S. player remaining in singles.
© RealClearSports 2012
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
WIMBLEDON, England -- They call it Manic Monday here. Think of it as a tennis version of March Madness. Everyone remaining is scheduled in a fourth-rounder. The next thing you know, a favorite is defeated, and the survivors are tiptoeing to the quarterfinals.
As Serena Williams will be. As Maria Sharapova will not be.
Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to The Los Angeles Times
WIMBLEDON, England — The way Maria Sharapova was talking, discussing her French Open victory last month as opposed to her Wimbledon loss Monday ("I'll have that for the rest of my career"), it was easy to think of the film "Casablanca."
"We'll always have Paris," Humphrey Bogart says in that familiar line. So will Sharapova.
Copyright © 2012, Los Angeles Times
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
WIMBLEDON, England -- It happened three days ago to Rafael Nadal. It almost happened two days ago to Roger Federer. It seemed to be happening Saturday to Serena Williams, a star losing to a lower-ranked opponent on the All England Tennis Club's Centre Court.
Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
WIMBLEDON, England -- The great ones manage to find a way, which in part is the reason they are great. Roger Federer seemed destined to follow Rafael Nadal out of Wimbledon in this unpredictable first week but instead remains a factor and one of the favorites.
Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved.
By Art Spander
Special to the Los Angeles Times
WIMBLEDON, England -- The match began under the blue sky of a humid English late afternoon. It ended in the Twilight Zone.
A kid from the Czech Republic who never even had qualified for Wimbledon before now, a kid who is ranked 100th, stunned the tennis world by defeating one of the game's all-time greats, Rafael Nadal.
Copyright © 2012, Los Angeles Times
By Art Spander
Special to Newsday
WIMBLEDON, England -- All Lukas Rosol wanted was to play respectably. "So I don't lose 3-0,'' he said. He played spectacularly. He played Rafael Nadal right out of Wimbledon in an upset of enormous proportions.
Rosol, 26, is ranked 100th in the world. Nadal, 26, an 11-time Grand Slam winner, is No. 2 and was trying for his third Wimbledon title.
Copyright © 2012 Newsday. All rights reserved
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com
WIMBLEDON, England — It always comes down to money, doesn't it? Whether you're A-Rod or some kid just drafted into the NBA or a relatively successful and - herein lies the issue - relatively unknown tennis player named Gilles Simon.
Fame usually brings wealth. Wealth often brings fame. Everybody wants more of both, which is the reason there are holdouts and lockouts and player strikes in team sports, and there is jealousy in individual sports, such as tennis.
© RealClearSports 2012
By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner
In only a few days, the season has improved dramatically for the Giants. Baseball joyfully provides for such rapid swings of success and emotion.
As opposed to the sport that matters most here in England, soccer, or as they call it, football.
Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com
WIMBLEDON, England — There’s no DL, disabled list, in tennis. As Venus Williams said once, if you’re play you’re not hurt, if you’re hurt don’t play. But what if you want to play and you’re unable?
Any athlete is beholden to his or her body, and so always there are worries and fears. And pain.
© RealClearSports 2012
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com
WIMBLEDON, England — The response was a fusion of philosophy and defiance. A champion never concedes, which is why she is a champion. For a decade, Venus Williams, a queen here in a land of royalty, unquestionably was a champion of grace and grandeur.
Now, in one of those awful twists of fate, Venus has been stricken by an autoimmune disease named Sjogren's Syndrome, which has sapped her strength and stolen her brilliance.
© RealClearSports 2012
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com
OAKLAND, Calif. — He still needs a translator, which is our problem, not his. That so far Yoenis Cespedes is limited to Spanish in his conversations or interviews doesn't matter when he steps to the plate. The bat proves multilingual and very effective.
Cespedes is the Cuban defector whom the Oakland Athletics signed to a four-year, $36 million contract in February. He has had a strained hand muscle and a strained hamstring, which made some people wonder about his body. They don't have to worry about his baseball.
© RealClearSports 2012
By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner
It has to end sometime, doesn’t it, this Tim Lincecum agony? There have been pitchers who mysteriously lost their accuracy or their speed, Steve Blass back in the ’70s, Rick Ankiel not so long ago, but they didn’t win two Cy Young Awards. Then again ...
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com
Maybe the federal government will figure it out now. Lawsuits are like sporting events. The team with the talent, the high-priced guys, invariably wins. Meaning in this situation, the opposition.
Author and onetime sports writer Paul Gallico told us long ago that while the battle isn't always to the strong and the race to the swift, it's still a good way to bet.
© RealClearSports 2012
By Art Spander
For GlobalGolfPost.com
SAN FRANCISCO -- When you get tired walking around San Francisco, someone said, you can always lean against it. Ah yes, the city of hills, thrills and three-put greens.
Copyright 2012 Global Golf Post
By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner
Tiger Woods didn’t have a chance. Either did Jim Furyk or Graeme McDowell. Or Ernie Els. Not at Olympic Club.
Not on the Lake Course. Not in a U.S. Open.
Copyright 2012 SF Newspaper Company
By Art Spander
Special to The Oregonian
SAN FRANCISCO -- His round and tournament were over, so Casey Martin shifted from player to spectator.
An hour and a half after completing the second round of the U.S. Open, he walked to Olympic Club's first hole, the one atop the San Andreas Fault, and stood nearby as Tiger Woods began his round.
© 2012 Oregon Live LLC. All rights reserved
By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com
SAN FRANCISCO — Phil and Bubba? Bit players in this drama. Cameo roles. The Magnificent Three was in truth a Majority of One. The first round of the 2012 U.S. Open on Thursday became the domain of Tiger Woods.
In three days the whole tournament may belong to Tiger Woods.
© RealClearSports 2012