novak is still on track in his quest for a maiden olympic medal (photo credit: AFP)
tennis: spain’s rafael nadal struggled in his opener against 71st ranked potito starace of italy, their match going three sets. however, in the match featuring compatriot david ferrer against serbian janko tipsarevic which lasted two sets, the players were grinding out each point and it took several long rallies and several minutes to conclude one game. rafa’s match featured several of his service games at love while starace struggled on his serve. i’m saying that rafa, though he played a deciding set, did not get as tired as ferrer or tipsarevic did. (incidentally, tipsy won his match against ferru) in other tennis news, ana ivanovic and lindsay davenport remained the tour’s biggest withdrawals, neither hitting a ball in any singles match. i have yet to read if jelena did play or not. switzerland’s roger federer won handily in his match against russia’s dmitry tursunov; same with serbia’s #1 novak djokovic triumphing over american bobby ginepri. britain’s newly crowned masters champion from last week’s cincinnati, however, fell in two sets to the inspired lu-yen hsun of taiwan. wimbledon semifinalist upset agnez szavay, sania mirza withdrew due to wrist injury, and the williams sisters won their opening matches against their hapless opponents. so far, all is swell in tenis land for this tennis fan. it’s a pity murray bowed out but at least my big three are still in the mix.
andy murray crashes out of the olympics round of 64 (photo credit: AFP)
diving: youngest olympian tom daley of britain and partner blake aldridge finished 8th out of 8 finalists in the 10-m synchronised diving event, bowing to superior chinese, russian, german, and american diving duos. colombo’s young pair made a delightful dark horse showing, moving up to as high as 6th after 6 rounds.
phelps celebrates after his team snares gold in the 4×100-m freestyle (photo credit: AP)
swimming: michael phelps continues his quest for 8 gold medals, snaring his second with team USA in the 4×100 meter freestyle relay, pipping the puffed up french quarted by 8 hundredths of a second. this came one day after he took his first gold medal in the 400-m medley, setting a new world record in the process. phelps has to thank compatriot jason lezak, who at 32 was the team’s oldest swimmer, who lunged for the wall at the last minute, edging out france’s anchor man alain bernard in 3:12.23. 2 heartbreaking losses were to be had, however, by phelps’ compatriot katie hoff, who missed out on gold in the 400-m individual medley and the 100-m freestyle, both times pipped at the last second, once by australian stephanie rice and the second time by british rebecca addlington. my eye’s on kirsty coventry of zimbabwe, who has already won a silver medal in tge 400-m individual medley and broke the world record for the 100-m backstroke in her semifinal heat earlier today.
my eye’s on kirsty coventry of zimbabwe (photo credit: SI)
gymnastics: anna pavlova of russia is my sentimental favourite to win the all-around women’s individual gold but team usa’s shawn johnson, the diminutive power-packed american from des moines, iowa, is tagged by pundits as having the biggest chance to take gold given her unwavering consistency across all events. compatriot nastia lukin is a strong contender as well and personally, i prefer nastia’s style of gymnastics, characterised by aesthetic grace and artistry, over shawn’s mary-lou-retton-workmanlike quality.with a name like hers, it comes as no wonder to discover that nastia’s father was a former olympian medallist from russia who is now the assistant coach to team USA. think back to 1984 when bela karolyi, nadia comaneci’s coach from rumania, coached his amercian ward retton to the overall title. (nadia is my all-time favourite gymnast, scoring the first perfect 10 in the 1976 montreal olympics)
nastia lukin, daughter of a former olympian four-time medallist, has the pedigree to dazzle the world with her grace and technique (photo credit: eurosport)
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