ale Page 163 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Roger Federer Still Smokes Everyone On Grass
He looked bad, then he looked fine, and then he looked exactly how you you would want to look when you are holding a racket and standing on blades of grass. Beating the world No. 66, 29, 134, and 38 is one thing—beating Alexander Zverev, maybe the only player in the field who currently seems destine...

Thoughtful Humpback Whale Delivers Some Fish To New Jersey Fishermen
Get a load of this humpback whale, sending inches of seawater and a few fish into this vessel, and me into cardiac arrest:...

Krushing The Krusher's Nuts
The first thing I did when I got to Vegas was put a bet on Sergey Kovalev. It seemed like the right thing to do at the time. You might say, “How could you bet against Andre Ward? One of the most polished pound-for-pound fighters in the world? An Olympic gold medalist? A world champion at two differe...

Chris Sale Strikes Out 10, Gets Only Extra-Base Hit For Red Sox, Still Loses
Chris Sale pitched seven shutout innings against the Phillies before giving up just one run in the eighth. He allowed five baserunners over his complete game. He struck out 10. He got the only extra-base hit of the game for the Red Sox (and the first of his career), in the form of an eighth-inning l...

White Sox Batter Attempts To Reach Base Using Novel Technique
Why the Chicago White Sox claimed Pittsburgh Pirates infielder Alen Hanson off waivers last week and then added him to their roster remains unclear. Hanson, 24, hit .205/.239/.261 in parts of two seasons in the National League; his minor-league record doesn’t suggest he has much to offer at the plat...

JaVale McGee Is Now A Guy With A Championship Ring
Before the Golden State Warriors signed him, JaVale McGee was a big joke. The 7-foot center had spent his career collecting alley-oops, losing track of his defensive assignments, and committing all manner of horrifying blunders. McGee played well enough for the Nuggets in one playoff series to earn ...

Jelena Ostapenko Wins French Open For First WTA Tour Win Ever<em></em>
Jelena Ostapenko earned her first WTA tour win in a big way: by dispatching Simona Halep 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 today in the French Open final. The Latvian is the first unseeded French Open women’s champion since 1933....

Meet Jelena Ostapenko, The Birthday Girl Who Could Win The French Open Out Of Nowhere<em></em>
Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko had quite the day, and quite the last two weeks. The unseeded world No. 47 has booked a spot in the French Open final with a three-set win over Timea Bacsinszky of Switzerland—oh, and she turned 20 years old today. Led by the on-court presenter, the crowd serenaded her with...

The Weirdest Part Of Jalen Rose’s Sitcom Was The Fictional ESPN
You may have already seen the best part of the pilot episode of the sitcom Jalen vs. Everybody. The clip, which surfaced earlier this week, featured a fictional meeting between Jalen Rose and Kobe Bryant....

With Her Attitude Adjusted, Simona Halep Makes Incredible Comeback To Reach French Open <em></em>Semis
Simona Halep, the world No. 4 whose participation in the French Open was questionable right up until the start of the tournament due to an ankle injury, played the match of her life against Elena Svitolina in the quarterfinals, coming back from a huge deficit to win in three sets....

Alex Honnold's Ropeless Ascent Of El Capitan Is Nerve-Wracking And Historic
Rock climbing is a brutally simple sport. Whether you’re on a bouldering wall, a granite face, or an actual mountain, the line between success and failure is plainly clear. You have to reach the top of whatever you’re attempting to summit or you’ll fall in the process....

The Time Ted Leonsis Invited Me Over To Show How The NHL Is In The Tank For The Penguins
In March 2010 Ted Leonsis asked me to meet him. I didn’t know him personally, but from the Capitals and Wizards owner’s very public persona he seemed like a nice and interesting guy, especially compared to other owners in the D.C. market. He didn’t say what he wanted to talk about, though I figured ...

Alexander Zverev And Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Go Down In Big Upsets
Both the superstars in utero—Alexander Zverev, fresh off his first Masters title, and Nick Kyrgios, dealing with a hurt hip—drew tough first-round matchups. One flamed out while the other sailed through in straights, but the results reversed expectations: if you couldn’t identify the very frustrated...

Let's Do The Ovechkin Trade Dance Again
Would the Capitals actually trade Alexander Ovechkin? Here’s GM Brian MacLellan with a roundabout but not particularly subtle way of saying “Make me an offer.”...

President Of Belarus Calls National Hockey Team "Absolutely Spineless" For Missing World Championship Playoffs
Alexander Lukashenko, the president of Belarus, wasn’t happy with the national hockey team’s performance in the recent world championships. He has no qualms about letting people know that. ...

Injured Rugby League Player Miraculously Healed Once Punches Start Being Thrown
Today’s English rugby league championship match between Oldham Roughyeds and Rochdale Hornets ended in fisticuffs sparked by a head injury to Rochdale’s Danny Yates—a blow levied by his own teammate’s elbow, left a visible hematoma on Yates’s skull, but one that didn’t keep the scrum-half from enter...

On The Women's Side, The French Open Is Anyone's
If the men’s winner of the French Open is a certitude—Rafael Nadal looks like a lock for his 10th title at Roland Garros—the women’s side is the opposite. Featuring an injured Simona Halep, the triumphant return of Petra Kvitova, Serena Williams off somewhere growing a human, no Maria Sharapova (co...

These Players Will Not Beat Rafael Nadal: A Largely Pointless French Open Preview
We’re going to proceed on the assumption that Rafael Nadal will (literally) sink his teeth into the French Open trophy, as he has nine times since 2005. ...

Touch The Trophy
Sidney Crosby is maybe the most polarizing superstar the NHL has ever had. (I admit to being a big-time Crosby stan, but I really don’t understand the other side of it. If you can’t appreciate rare greatness, well, what the hell do you even watch sports for?) But I hope we can all come together and ...

Chris Sale's Double-Digit Strikeout Streak Is Over
Tonight, for the first time in six weeks, Chris Sale did not appear to be a hyper-effective strikeout-generating android. Instead, he simply seemed like your ordinarily effective strikeout-generating cyborg. That’s all to say that after eight straight games of 10 strikeouts or more, he finally falte...