pot Page 5 - Sports News, Headlines & Highlights

Roger Federer Is Out
Following several close calls—needing five sets to beat the unseeded pair of Frances Tiafoe and Mikhail Youzhny in the tournament’s first and second rounds, respectively—Roger Federer is out of the U.S. Open, falling to Juan Martin del Potro tonight. ...

A Letter To Juan Martin Del Potro From A Guy Who Gave Up Too Early
QUEENS, N.Y.—Sir, I am sorry that I missed your U.S. Open tennis match on Monday evening. I missed it because I saw the first two sets and you looked dead in the water, an expression I’d assumed was about fish until looking it up last night and learning it had to do with boats. Anyway, down 6-1, 6-2...

Mariners Trade Four Prospects For David Phelps, Believe In Themselves
Mariners GM Jerry Dipoto is feeling bullish about his team, judging by the medium-interesting trade he made today for reliever David Phelps, which will send four low-ranked prospects to Miami....

Juan Martin Del Potro's Injury Might Take Him Out Of Wimbledon
There are many ways to describe Juan Martin del Potro: owner of the most devastating forehand in the sport, winner of a Grand Slam at age 20 after beating near-peak Roger Federer, and the dude with the largest heart on tour. But you could hardly describe him as healthy. Years of wrist issues sent hi...

Juan Martin Del Potro Comforts Sobbing Opponent Who Had To Retire During Match
Nicolás Almagro, a 31-year-old, former top-10 tennis player from Spain, sobbed on the court after he was forced to retire from his second-round French Open match today against Juan Martin del Potro due to a knee injury—the same injury that caused him to withdraw from a match against Rafael Nadal la...

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. ...

Juan Martin Del Potro Earns His Best Win Of The Year
One of 2016's best storylines was the resurgence of Juan Martin del Potro, a U.S. Open winner who sank below No. 1000 during his long absence from the tour to deal with wrist injuries. But his ascent slowed this year, as the 28-year-old Argentine, whose No. 34 ranking still grossly undersells his ta...

Grigor Dimitrov Thoroughly Ruins His Racket
Grigor Dimitrov lost to Juan Martin del Potro, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 at the Italian Open today. He hit some nice shots in a disappointing first-round exit, but saved his finest technique for this two-part racket devastation: First the spike, then the bare hands....

Would You, Personally, Kill Assad?
The modern world is full of people who love to proclaim that they would have killed Hitler. Okay, sure, sure. But what would you do now? ...

Nike Drapes Its Athletes In A Mess Of Green Puke
Roger Federer rolled right through Juan Martin del Potro in the third round of the Miami Open, 6-4, 6-3. It was what you’d expect: forehand winners aplenty on both sides; Fed giving the big guy no absolutely no time to ease his way into the point; Delpo proving that he still can hit the crap out of ...

The Quarter Of Death Is Shaping Up At Indian Wells
INDIAN WELLS, Calif.—Juan Martin del Potro is a teddy bear with a heavy brow and a shotgun forehand, and when he gets mad in public, apparently, he hugs whoever happens to be around. Because he is a professional tennis player that person is usually a line judge. That’s what he did in a fit of rage t...

The Best (Of Who's Left) At Indian Wells
INDIAN WELLS, Calif.—When you touch down in the desert in the middle of March, they pretty much know why you’re there. They plant a big-ass screen right at the arrivals gate and the tennis players loom nearly life-sized. That’s how it was possible to know, within 15 minutes of landing, that Andy Mur...

The Indian Wells Men's Draw Is One Big Clusterfuck
Today, out in the Coachella Valley, the Indian Wells Masters will begin. It’s the highest-profile tennis tournament in the world after the four Grand Slams, dropping a fat bounty of 1000 ranking points on its winners. Everyone in the tennis universe should be excited, except for Serena Williams and ...

Novak Djokovic Gets The Best Of Juan Martin Del Potro, Who's Still Missing Something
The last time these two matched up, last August at the Rio Olympics, they delivered the best tennis storyline of 2016: Juan Martin del Potro, rising from the dead after two years of surgeries to both wrists, upsets a Novak Djokovic who’d then had a vice grip on the No. 1 spot for two whole years. Th...

Frances Tiafoe, America's Best Young Prospect, Is Getting Closer To Stardom
Frances Tiafoe, the best American teen in the men’s game, hasn’t taken down any giants yet, but every few months he gets quite close. Back at the U.S. Open, he took literal giant John Isner to a fifth-set tiebreak, and last night in Acapulco, the 19-year-old took Juan Martin del Potro to a third-set...

Soccer Fan Takes Ball Square In The Face
A spectator at yesterday’s Porto-Feirense Portuguese league cup match learned the hard way to never look away from the match, even for a moment....

Juan Martin Del Potro May Not Play The Australian Open
The resurrection of Juan Martin del Potro was one of the quiet joys of 2016. He’d been out of the game for two years, he’d sunk lower than the No. 1000 ranking, and his wrists seemed like they’d never again be capable of bashing those flat, unforgiving groundstrokes. Yet somehow he snagged a silver ...

Connor McDavid's Anger Shows The NHL's Concussion Protocol Working Like It Should
When a league’s concussion protocol works like it’s intended, players will get mad. There’s no way around it. Connor McDavid, the Oilers’ young star, was yanked off the ice after hitting his head in last night’s home loss to Minnesota, and he was pissed....

Juan Martin Del Potro Ends Comeback Year With Broken Finger, Trophy For Argentina
Juan Martin del Potro slogged past Croatia’s Marin Cilic in five sets on Sunday to help Argentina take the Davis Cup. Somehow, he beat the world No. 6 despite breaking a left pinky while trying to catch one of Cilic’s serves in the deciding set. He wasn’t the only one to suffer from an errant Cilic ...

Kei Nishikori Cuts Short Juan Martin Del Potro's Comeback Run
The recently exhumed Juan Martin del Potro—now equipped with functional wrists and his first title in 2 years—saw his seven-match win streak severed by Kei Nishikori today at Swiss Indoors Basel. 2016 has been a dope comeback year for the 28-year-old del Potro, but all this playing (and winning) may...