open Page 69 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Your College Football Early Games Open Thread
It's the first big college-football Saturday of the season. Yay. No. 18 Ohio State, which lost its The in a haze of Tresselmanic scandal, plays Akron at noon (ESPN). Also at noon on the WWL, No. 23 Auburn hosts Utah State (2) and Northwestern visits Boston College (U)....

Wonder If This TCU Fan Still Wanted Some Loving After His Team Blew A Gigantic Comeback
Your morning roundup for Sept. 3, the day that Dragon Con's Comic Book Babes Costume Contest becomes an Elvira-hosted reality in Atlanta. Got any stories or photos for us? Tip your editors....

An Instructional Video On How To Pretend To Hit A Forehand Like Rafael Nadal
This is cool, if you're a tennis player/fan, or just a fellow lefty who believes in the general supremacy of lefties. Rafael Nadal hits his forehand with an average topspin of 3,200 RPMs, which is more than any human to ever play the game of tennis. The New York Times explains how he does it. [NYT]...

Presenting A Great Point From Novak Djokovic's U.S. Open Match Against Some Guy Tonight
At the end of this crowd-rousing point tonight at Arthur Ashe Stadium, No. 1 seed Novak Djokovic was four games away from a triple-bagel win (6-0, 6-0, 6-0) over Carlos Berlocq. Novak would drop the next game — earning Berlocq some crowd adulation — and another before closing his foe out, but he a...

Your College Football Kickoff Open Thread
College football is back and badder than ever—well, actually, probably back with its usual badness—and that means it's time for your All The Games Are Horrible But, Like, Three of Them Opening Long Weekend....

Holy Balls Christina McHale Is Ripped Too
Photographer Paul Frederiksen points out that Marion Bartoli's opponent, 19-year-old American Christina McHale, also has a Hulk arm. What deserves credit for this phenomenon? It may just be that the backhand shot is especially flattering to muscle definition—or it may just be that the rest of the wo...

Gael Monfils Took The Tennis Trick Shot To A New Level Today
Monfils and Juan Carlos Ferrero are currently deadlocked in the second round at the U.S. Open. Ferrero took the first set, 7-6 (5), Monfils took the second at 7-5, and Ferrero is up 6-5 in the third. Monfils, though, got the psychological (and bullshit) advantage with this trick shot early on....

Holy Balls Marion Bartoli Is Ripped
France's Marion Bartoli had a great run at Wimbledon back in June, but she and her Incredible Hulk arm are done at the U.S. Open already. She fell 7-6, 6-2 to 19-year-old American (yes, American! Alert the youth revivalists!) Christina McHale in the second round today. Perhaps she cut back on le pro...

Ernests Gulbis, Latvian Tennis Playboy, Says "Everybody Should Spend A Night In Prison" And Learn A Lesson
The New York Times has a story today on Ernests Gulbis, who defeated Mikhail Youzhny at the U.S. Open yesterday. Gulbis has decided to start living clean and serious at age 23, and this makes us sad. He is capable of so much more debauchery, and so many more hungover early exits. Yet now he's lookin...

Venus Williams Drops Out Of U.S. Open
Three days into the U.S. Open, Venus Williams has withdrawn from the tournament, saying she suffers from pain and fatigue caused by an autoimmune disorder called Sjogren's Syndrome....

Tennis Players Awkwardly Navigate The Post-Match Kiss
Gael Monfils beat Grigor Dimitrov in the opening round of the US Open last night, 7-6 (4), 6-3, 6-4, and then met at the net for the most awkward kiss since middle school. (Although it is certainly possible that it only seems that way to unsophisticated Americans like us.)...

Serena Williams Cannot Really Recall That Line Judge Incident From "Like, Two Years Ago"
Remember that time at the 2009 U.S. Open, when Serena Williams told a line judge she was going to shove a tennis ball down her throat? Of course you do. Everyone remembers. Except for Serena....

The Officeworker’s Viewing Guide To The U.S. Open
There is no excuse for anyone to miss a single serve of tennis or a single Sasha Vujacic hair toss at the U.S. Open this year, unless he or she is employed, disinterested, or has basic life responsibilities that might keep one from watching every hour of a two-week long sporting event. But! Just in ...

Tastes Like Sugarpova: Deadspin's 2011 U.S. Open Preview
For two weeks every year, hardened New Yorkers become prissy tennis fans, and Queens—not the Bronx—becomes the sports capital of the Big Apple. You could argue that the U.S. Open is, perennially, the biggest sporting event in New York, with the possible exceptions of the '94 Rangers-Knicks run and 2...

Your NFL Preseason Football Open Thread
Three games tonight. Carolina visits Cincinnati at 7 p.m. eastern. Cleveland heads to Philly a half hour later. And, Washington plays in Baltimore at 8 p.m....

Your Monday Night Football Bears-Giants Open Thread
We are still ready for some football. Bears, Giants, Tirico, Jaws, Gruden, all of that. But no Osi. 8 p.m., ESPN....

Your Cowboys-Chargers Open Thread
We are, in fact, ready for some Sunday night football. Or whatever the relevant NBC song is. Game's on NBC, 8 p.m., Collinsworth, Michaels, perhaps even Deadspin chronicler Andrea Kremer. And Rivers, Romo, all of them, at least for a half. That's something....

There's Always A Silver Lining To A Serena Williams Injury
"Despite the injury, Williams said she may now attend her celebrity friend Kim Kardashian's wedding this weekend to [Nets] basketball player Kris Humphries. 'Now that I have time I probably will,' said Williams. 'I hadn't thought about it.'" [Yahoo]...

Your Yankees-Red Sox Open Thread
Trying something a little newish here: Any of you want to talk about Sunday Night Baseball, Yankees-Red Sox? These are the two best teams in the AL, playing a rubber game to determine who'll win the series and lead the East. Freddy Garcia against Josh Beckett. 8:05 p.m., ESPN, Fenway Park, all of th...

Your MLB TRADE FUCKING DEADLINE Open Thread
We've covered Beltran-to-the-Giants, and the considerably more important Fister-for-Furbush trade....