Sinner and Alcaraz meet again

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🚨 Headlines

⛳️ Scottie wins again: Scottie Scheffler won the BMW Championship on Sunday to provide him 5+ victories in back-to-back PGA Tour seasons. The solely different golfer to perform that over the previous 40 years? Tiger Woods (six occasions).

🏀 Sue will get a statue: The Seattle Storm unveiled a bronze Sue Bird statue exterior their residence enviornment on Sunday, making the legendary level guard the primary WNBA participant to be honored in that method.

⚾️ Brewers streak snapped: Milwaukee’s magical 14-game profitable streak (franchise file) came to an end on Sunday with an extra-innings loss to the Reds.

🏈 Kaepernick doc scrapped: Spike Lee’s docuseries on Colin Kaepernick is no longer moving forward at ESPN. This comes on the heels of the NFL buying a ten% fairness stake within the community.

🏁 Byron clinches title: William Byron clinched the NASCAR Cup Series regular season title with one race to spare. The prize? 15 extraordinarily useful bonus factors that he’ll carry by the primary three rounds of the playoffs.

🎾 The Big Two meet again

Sinner and Alcaraz shake hands after their epic French Open final earlier this year. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images) — Sinner and Alcaraz shake arms after their epic French Open last earlier this 12 months. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP by way of Getty Images)

Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz will face off this afternoon within the last of the Cincinnati Open. Because after all they’ll.

Run it again: Sinner and Alcaraz are simply the third duo this century to meet within the last of 4 consecutive massive occasions (i.e. Grand Slams and Masters 1000). The different two? Roger Federer vs. Rafael Nadal in 2006 and Nadal vs. Novak Djokovic in 2011.

Head-to-head: Alcaraz holds an 8-5 benefit within the all-time series, together with a 2-1 file within the three finals comprising this historic streak.

Italian Open (May 18): Alcaraz def. Sinner, 7-6, 6-1
French Open (June 8): Alcaraz def. Sinner, 4-6, 6-7, 6-4, 7-6, 7-6
Wimbledon (July 13): Sinner def. Alcaraz, 4-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-4

The Big Two: It wasn’t that way back that Djokovic, Federer and Nadal dominated the courtroom because the Big Three, profitable a mind-boggling 66 of 80 majors from 2003-23. And whereas Sinner and Alcaraz have a methods to go earlier than getting into that territory, their reign because the Big Two no less than warrants being talked about in the identical breath.

Sinner has been ranked No. 1 for 63 consecutive weeks since first touchdown there final June, and enters at present’s last at 31-3 on the 12 months, together with a 26-match win streak on onerous courts.
Alcaraz, who’s been ranked no worse than No. 3 since Sept. 2022, has gone 53-6 this 12 months and seeks his Tour-leading sixth title of the season.
And most significantly, no less than from a historic perspective: They’ve mixed to win the final seven Grand Slams in a row, and 9 of the final 12.

Further studying: “Changeover,” a brand new e book by creator and Defector Media co-founder Giri Nathan that examines the Sinner-Alcaraz rivalry and this new period of males’s tennis, comes out tomorrow.

🎓 Michigan case exposes NCAA’s fragile authority

(Scott W. Grau/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) — (Scott W. Grau/Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Images)

The NCAA ruled on the Michigan sign-stealing scandal on Friday, hitting the Wolverines with a sequence of fines, suspensions and different sanctions however stopping wanting punitive penalties equivalent to a postseason ban or vacated wins.

From Yahoo Sports’ Jay Busbee:

For no matter hardship the NCAA’s penalty will trigger Michigan — a number of new T-shirt slogans in Columbus, some barely postponed redecorations to some stadium luxurious suites — the bigger fact is that this: the Michigan case has revealed how fragile the NCAA’s authority is now.

In its report launched Friday, the NCAA indicated particularly that as a result of severity of the violations and Michigan’s standing as a repeat offender, “a postseason ban is required in this case.”

However, just some strains later, the report notes that “a postseason ban would unfairly penalize student-athletes for the actions of coaches and staff who are no longer associated with the Michigan football program. Thus, a more appropriate penalty is an offsetting financial penalty.”

That’s it proper there. The NCAA is not hammering colleges with program-wrecking postseason bans, it is simply serving them with payments. And given the huge assets pouring into the sport now, that is not a punishment that may go away a mark.

There’s no love misplaced between the NCAA and Michigan, and the NCAA swung as onerous because it realistically may on the Wolverines. But the penalties will hit with all of the drive of a well-swung pillow.

Bottom line: The days of the NCAA carpet-bombing an athletic division into submission (see: SMU) seem like over. The recreation has grown too massive for its regulators to control.

Read the full story.

🌎 The world in pictures

"Good game." (Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos via Getty Images) — “Good game.” (Daniel Shirey/MLB Photos by way of Getty Images)

🇺🇸 Williamsport, Pennsylvania — The Mets beat the Mariners, 7-3, on Sunday within the eighth annual Little League Classic. Then got here a proud Little League custom: postgame handshakes.

How cool is that this? Cal Raleigh wore a chest protector that featured photos of all his Mariners teammates as Little Leaguers.

Everyone at Anfield took part in a minute of silence for — Everyone at Anfield took half in a minute of silence for “DJ20,” No. 20 Diogo Jota. (Michael Steele/Getty Images)

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Liverpool, England — The defending Premier League champions honored the late Diogo Jota and his brother André Silva forward of Friday’s season-opening win over Bournemouth, with similar tributes held all through the soccer world all weekend.

Opening weekend recap: Arsenal beat Man United, 1-0, at Old Trafford; Man City shutout Wolves, 4-0, behind a brace from Erling Haaland; Full scoreboard.

🇵🇱 Chorzów, Poland — Kishane Thompson (9.87 seconds) held off Noah Lyles (9.90) within the 100m at Saturday’s Diamond League meet, exacting a small measure of revenge after Lyles beat him by 0.005 seconds final summer time to win 100m Olympic gold.

Near world file: Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon won the women’s 3000m by virtually 30 seconds with a time of 8:07.04, the closest anybody has ever come to breaking Wang Junxia’s world file of 8:06.11 set in 1993.

🇨🇦 Vancouver — The Storm beat the Dream on Friday at Rogers Arena within the first WNBA regular-season recreation ever performed in Canada.

Plenty extra to return: The Toronto Tempo will debut subsequent season because the WNBA’s first Canadian franchise.

🇨🇳 Beijing — Yes, that could be a robotic kickboxing one other robotic throughout the 2025 World Humanoid Robot Games, which is an actual factor that went down this weekend.

We’ll go deeper on this tomorrow.

🏈 The evolution of a scorebug

Above: Fox’s new NFL scorebug, which was unveiled on Sunday night time.

Below: The first incarnation of the Fox NFL scorebug (1994-96).

Journey by time: Fox scorebugs over the years

📊 By the numbers

Chimaev throws du Plessis. (Geoff Stellfox/Getty Images)

👊 529-45

Khamzat Chimaev obliterated Dricus du Plessis on Saturday night time in Chicago to say the 185-pound title at UFC 319. Just how lopsided was this combat? Chimaev landed 529 strikes. Du Plessis landed 45.

🏈 28-team bracket

Big Ten and SEC executives have had discussions a couple of 28-team College Football Playoff bracket that includes seven computerized bids for every of them, 5 every for the Big 12 and ACC, two for the very best Group of 6 applications and two at-large choices.

⛳️ 18 years previous

Georgia teenager Mason Howell capped a productive summer time earlier than his senior 12 months of highschool by winning the U.S. Amateur at The Olympic Club in San Francisco. Howell, 18, is the youngest U.S. Amateur champion since Byeong Hun An received at age 17 in 2009.

🎓 $300 million reward

Kansas Athletics has acquired a $300 million gift from donor David Booth, believed to be among the many richest within the historical past of faculty sports activities. Booth, a graduate of Lawrence High School and KU, already has his identify on the soccer stadium.

📺 Watchlist: Monday, Aug. 18

Washington beat Cincinnati, 38-33, in Week 3 last season. (Ian Johnson/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images) — Washington beat Cincinnati, 38-33, in Week 3 final season. (Ian Johnson/Icon Sportswire by way of Getty Images)

🏈 Bengals at Commanders | 8pm ET, ESPN

Two groups with championship aspirations face off in a particular preseason version of “Monday Night Football.”

🎾 Cincinnati Open, Finals | 3-6pm, Tennis Channel

No. 1 Jannik Sinner vs. No. 2 Carlos Alcaraz (3pm) within the males’s last, adopted by No. 3 Iga Świątek vs. No. 7 Jasmine Paolini within the ladies’s last (6pm).

More to look at:

⚽️ Premier League: Leeds United vs. Everton (3pm, USA) … Opening weekend concludes beneath the lights at Elland Road.
⚾️ MLB: Reds at Angels (9:38, FS1) … Cincinnati trails New York by one recreation for the third and last Wild Card spot.
⚾️ LLWS: Day 6 (1-7pm, ESPN) … South Carolina, Nevada, South Dakota, Connecticut, Aruba, Chinese Taipei, Venezuela and Japan take the sphere.

Today’s full slate.

⚾️ MLB trivia

Pete Crow-Armstrong and Michael Busch celebrate after defeating the Pirates at Wrigley Field on Sunday. (Luke Hales/Getty Images) — Pete Crow-Armstrong and Michael Busch have fun after defeating the Pirates at Wrigley Field on Sunday. (Luke Hales/Getty Images)

The Cubs (70-53) won their 70th game of the season on Sunday, making them the sixth staff to achieve that mark.

Question: Can you identify the opposite 5 groups with 70+ wins?

Answer on the backside.

🍿 Baker’s Dozen: Top performs of the weekend

Watch all 13.

Trivia reply: Brewers (78-45), Blue Jays (73-52), Tigers (73-53), Dodgers (71-53), Phillies (71-53)

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