Wimbledon's Men's Semifinals were the big morning/early afternoon action today as well as some Women's World Cup but unlike the highly entertaining Jo-Wilfried Tsonga-Novak Djokovic match, the Japan-Mexico match was over before it started as the Japanese wiped out the Mexicans 4-0. Djokovic fought the energetic Frenchman Tsonga all morning. Djokovic took the first set in a very entertaining tiebreak then dominated the second set 6-2 before Jo-Willy woke up. Tsonga tried again to come back from 2 sets down against a top 3 player, but could only manage 1 set in his favor winning the third in an even more exciting tiebreak. Djokovic after having 2 match points in the 3rd set tiebreak, battled back and easily broke Tsonga to start off the 4th set and finish him off 6-3. Final score: 7-6 (7-4), 6-2, 6-7 (11-9), 6-3. Djokovic will be named the World's Number 1 player next week after his win in the semis here in England regardless of his result in the final on Sunday. In the early afternoon England's great hope Andy Murray took on current World Number 1, Rafael Nadal in the other semifinal. The first set was very entertaining but no breaks of serve occurred until Murray led 6-5 and finally broke Nadal's serve to take the first set 7-5. Nadal fought back and easily rolled Murray in the 2nd and 3rd set 6-2 in each to really take control of the match. Murray's mental toughness left him after the excellent first set and it looked like the weight of the entire country's hopes bogged him down once again. Murray did however give a good fight in the 4th but Nadal was too strong, winning it 6-4. Final score: 5-7, 6-2, 6-2, 6-4. Concurrent with the tennis match, the English women's soccer team who also had high pressures of their own from back home took on New Zealand in an almost "must win" situation after Japan's domination earlier in Group B. The English looked sluggish in the first half and gave up an easy goal to go down 1-0 at the half and it took until the 63rd minute for the English to find the tallest player on the pitch, Jill Scott, in the air to equalize the game. After the momentum swung they added another goal in the 81st minute to really cement their place in the knockout stage.
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| Above: Novak Djokovic Scream- tennisnow.com and Jill Scott Celebrates-theinternational.co.uk |
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| CC Sabathia Celebrates- NYdailynews.com |
Yesterday was a light day in baseball games wise but boy was it full of headlines and fantastic performances. 9 games went on, with 6 of them being day games, and once again the day saw 2 shutouts. Both the Red Sox and Yankees each won, the Sox 5-2 over the Phillies and Yanks 5-0 over the Brewers. Jon Lester got his 10th win of the season by pitching 7 shutout innings allowing 2 opposite field hits, walking 2 and striking out 5 to avoid the sweep. CC Sabathia was at his best form again for the Yankees throwing 7 2/3 shutout innings allowing 6 hits, 2 walks while tying his career high with 13 strikeouts. The win was the 11th of the season for Sabathia and completed the sweep of the BrewCrew. The other shutout of the day was in Houston believe it or not and Wandy Rodriguez led the Astros to a 7-0 win over the Rangers behind 7 shutout innings while only allowing 4 hits and 3 walks while striking out 4. Matt Cain threw 7 beautiful shutout innings for the Giants allowing 4 hits, 1 walk and striking out 6 but go no help offensively as the Giants fell to the Cubs 5-2 in 13 innings at Wrigley. Justin Verlander on the other hand got a little offense and stymied the red hot Mets offense holding them to 1 run (solo HR by Daniel Murphy) over 7 innings while striking out 6 in the 5-2 win to avoid the sweep. One other excellent pitching performance to note was in Oakland. Chris Volstad of the Marlins threw 7 innings allowing 1 unearned run, 7 hits, 2 walks while striking out none to earn the 5-4 win. My fantasy team yesterday compiled 22 innings pitched allowing 1 earned run for a 0.41 ERA while earning 3 wins with a 1.05 WHIP as well.
Biggest Winner of the Day: Aces of Staffs- CC probably earned the solo nomination here but seeing as I hate the Yankees I'll only include him with a bunch. CC Sabathia, Justin Verlander, Jon Lester, and Wandy Rodriguez all lived up the their "ace" billing yesterday with dominating wins, allowing 1 run over 28 2/3 innings between the 4 of them. (1 run was that Murphy HR off of Verlander.)
Biggest Loser of the Day: I think this has to be the Giants. The San Francisco Giants squandered a gem of a performance on the mount by Matt Cain as I had previously said. Cain left after 7 with a 1-0 lead. Brian "The Beard" Wilson then unceremoniously blew the game giving up a solo HR to Aramis Ramirez in the bottom of the 9th. The Giants had numerous chances to take the lead in extra innings but it went 10 1/3 innings without getting a hit before Pablo "Panda" Sandoval launched one for a solo HR and 2-1 lead in the 13th inning. But once again the Giants blew it, allowing a Darwin Barney RBI single to tie it up and a 3-2 2 out 3-Run Home Run by Geovany Soto to win the game 5-2. As the announcers said on MLBTV... this one is going to smart for the Giants.
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