In certain kinds of positions, the computer sees so deeply that it plays like God. | | | | Garbine Muguruza is the Wimbledon champion.
(Clive Brunskill/Getty Images) | | | | | | “In certain kinds of positions, the computer sees so deeply that it plays like God.”
|
| |
| | rantnrave:// ROGER FEDERER is timeless. He's sent FATHER TIME back on his heels and into his corner. His career is fantastical. How else can you describe it? Sunday, at WIMBLEDON, Federer won his 19th GRAND SLAM title. His eighth Wimbledon. It's remarkable. He went nearly five years without a Slam before this season. Hadn't won one since 2012. He's got two in 2017 now, at 35 years old. Tennis players aren't supposed to win Slams at that age. Federer especially. RAFA NADAL was supposed to have passed him by. Then NOVAK DJOKOVIC. ANDY MURRAY had his turn atop the field. Federer was getting older and supposedly losing ground by the year. Yet, here he is again. Djokovic seems lost. He's battling injuries and whatever else during an unexplainable slump. Nadal is still the master on clay courts but has won only one slam on other surfaces since 2010. Murray is the top-ranked player in the world but bowed out early at Wimbledon. Federer has always been more like an artist. An athlete with the grace of a ballerina. Watching him is like seeing a painter work. We are witnessing history. Federer, more than any other tennis star of this generation, allows us to enjoy it in the moment. He admits his shortcomings. His game isn't based on brute force. He is a virtuoso... VENUS WILLIAMS couldn't match Federer. But her run to the finals was the best part of the tournament. GARBINE MUGURUZA is a budding star. She has two slams on her resume. If SERENA and Venus ever retire (let's hope not), Muguruza could be one of the faces of the sport. While Venus' loss could share the headline, don't forget to give Muguruza her due. She's a Williams sisters slayer, beating Serena in the 2016 FRENCH OPEN final and Venus Saturday... Writing an epitaph for CHUCK BLAZER isn't easy. He was a criminal who lived large and a key federal witness who helped bring FIFA's corruption into the light. As his life began to crumble, Blazer became soccer's anti-hero. SportsSET: "The Man Who Helped Take Down FIFA"... The OLYMPIC CHANNEL is here. Will enough people want to watch Olympic sports outside of Olympic years to make it viable?... JULIA "HURRICANE" HAWKINS is the next USAIN BOLT... RIP BOB WOLFF and MARTIN LANDAU. | | | - Mike Vorkunov, curator |
|
|
| Writing an epitaph for Chuck Blazer isn't easy. He was a criminal who lived large and a key federal witness who helped bring FIFA's corruption into the light. As his life began to crumble, Blazer became soccer's anti-hero. | | |
|
| Phil Knight, former chair and CEO of Nike, tells the story of starting the sports apparel and equipment giant after taking an entrepreneurship class at Stanford and teaming up with his former track coach, Bill Bowerman. Together (and with the help of a waffle iron) they changed how running shoes are designed and made. | | |
|
| Eric Thompson was a high-jump prodigy with an Olympic future well within his reach, until one failed drug test locked him in a battle with doping authorities that ultimately changed his life. | | |
|
| The 35-year-old, eight-time Wimbledon champ isn't the same player he was a decade ago. He's better. | | |
|
| Muguruza is now the only player to have beaten both Serena and Venus Williams in Slam finals. | | |
|
| "The first time you win, nobody picks you. The last time you win, nobody picks you. You just have to pick yourself." | | |
|
| The Rubik's Cube was briefly the best-selling toy in history when it first debuted in the 1980s. Since then it has fallen out of fashion and been reborn in a variety of styles and formats by a devoted community of puzzle-solvers. | | |
|
| Kudos to Pawtucket, Rhode Island, for doing stadium financing right. | | |
|
| Mike Tirico replaces Bob Costas for NBC’s Olympics coverage, but he insists “I’m not famous” and is uncomfortable with questions about his background. | | |
|
| Even Roger Federer has trouble explaining his renaissance. But here he is, a Wimbledon champion for an eighth time. | | |
|
| Washington Nationals star Bryce Harper plays the game with passion and flair, often to the chagrin of opposing fans. His future free agency is already creating sparks. | | |
|
| Kansas State’s Scott Frantz’s revelation he is gay shows the culture has changed in football. If gay players can feel safe in the melting pot of the locker room, it also has implications well beyond those walls. “We’ve got to stop talking about football, particularly big-time football, as though it is homophobic and its coaches and players are homophobic,” Outsports.com co-founder Cyd Zeigler said in a phone interview. “They are not. They’re not. It is a lie. You can’t say that any more.” | | |
|
| 'Where I come from -- not a lot of fighters would come from there,' Sam Crossed says. 'Because why would you get punched in the head for a living if you don’t have to, you know what I mean?' | | |
|
| We all knew the buildup to the Floyd Mayweather and Conor McGregor fight would feature posturing and hyper-masculine aggression -- but it's quickly devolved into bigotry and misogyny. espnW's Sarah Spain asks: Are these people deserving of our admiration? | | |
|
| Former baseball teammates and coaches remember what Deion was, and what he might have been (if that pesky Hall of Fame football career hadn’t gotten in the way). | | |
|
| Garbiñe Muguruza was happy to abide by habits imposed by her stand-in coach Conchita Martínez during Wimbledon fortnight but the new champion vows to be her own woman from now on. | | |
|
| How four underdogs from the mean streets of phoenix took on the best from m.i.t. In the national underwater bot championship. | | |
|
| NFL rookies are victims of deflated first contracts that make them a steal for their teams. | | |
|
| Authentic Brands, which also owns Muhammad Ali and Marilyn Monroe, values dead celebs on their social media presence and the spending power of their fans. | | |
|
| Forget the gimmicks of trying to pitch at Coors Field. The Rockies are proving that success at Coors Field means accepting the beast and surviving it. | | |
|
| © Copyright 2017, The REDEF Group |
|
|
