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The mother of all comebacks for the Nadal eclipses Federer’s…
The mother of all comebacks for the Nadal eclipses Federer’s…
The three greatest tennis players of this millennium — and arguably of all time — have contrasting personas and styles. But what Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, and Roger Federer have in common is winning Grand Slams when they’ve been all but written off. That’s what great champions do.
Federer had not won a single Grand Slam title for five years when he beat Nadal in five sets in the 2017 Australian Open final. Djokovic had a two-year hiatus after winning the Australian and French Opens in 2016, losing in early rounds at Grand Slam events. Then he beat Nadal 10-8 in the fifth set of the 2018 Wimbledon semifinal and went on to win the title.
The mother of all comebacks for the Nadal eclipses Federer’s…
Nadal’s feat in winning his year’s Australian Open final rivals what Federer did to him in 2017 or even goes one notch higher on the jaw-dropping scale. Both champions were 35 years old and playing against younger opponents, after coming off six-month injury layoffs. Nadal even had a break from practice in December when he was down with a Covid attack.
So it wasn’t a surprise that the computerised win predictor at the Australian Open put the odds of Daniil Medvedev beating Rafael Nadal in the final at 64-36 at the outset. That became 96-4 after Medvedev won the first two sets. The Russian world No.2, who had stopped Djokovic from becoming the first man to win a 21st Grand Slam title in the US Open final a few months earlier, looked set to do the same to Nadal at the Australian Open.
Read More: Here’s the reason Stefan Kozlov Apologized to Rafael Nadal After…
Even to human analysts, the year’s first Grand Slam event on a hard court could at best have been a warm-up for Nadal ahead of the French Open, where the clay courts are his favourite surface. The surgical procedure to ameliorate his chronic ankle injury, after his loss to Djokovic in last year’s French Open semifinal, hadn’t been fully tested yet. He appeared ginger on his feet in the early rounds, and adopted a riskier approach to keep rallies short, much like Federer had done in his comeback year in 2017.
Nadal dropped only one set in the first four rounds before his first big test in the quarterfinals against the Canadian upstart, Denis Shapovalov, who had beaten the Olympic gold medalist and world No.3 Alexander Zverev. It was Nadal’s five-set victory over Shapovalov that drew attention to a real possibility of him being the first to break the tie with Djokovic and Federer.
The mother of all comebacks for the Nadal eclipses Federer’s…
Djokovic had caught up with Nadal and Federer when he won his 20th Grand Slam title at Wimbledon last year. It was widely expected he would pull ahead of his arch-rivals, being a year younger than Nadal, and in prime form. But he lost to Medvedev in the US Open final and then got deported from Australia for refusing to be vaccinated against Covid, losing the opportunity to defend the title he had won back-to-back in the previous three years.
Can we expect more from him? We probably can, with Roland Garros beckoning, where he has won an incredible 13 French Open titles. The lower bounce and slower courts will suit him better, although it remains to be seen if he will be able to slide in retrieving shots with as much facility as earlier, given his dodgy ankle.
Read More: Rafael Nadal has explained his decision to enter the…
His main challenger is likely to be clay court specialist Stefanos Tsitsipas, who lost to Djokovic in last year’s final after being two sets up. Djokovic too may be back to defend his title, if he can resolve his vaccination issues.
Federer followed up his 2017 comeback in the Australian Open with a Wimbledon title and another Australian Open title the following year. Djokovic had a dream run in 2021 with three Grand Slam titles after his comeback at Wimbledon in 2018.
So, the chances are that Nadal will have more Grand Slam titles before he’s done. Djokovic can still push him for the record. Federer, who turned 40 last year, appears out of the race. But you can never say with these three champions.
Max Verstappen has once again claimed that he is the target of ‘British bias’ in the media after watching the fallout from his battle with Lando Norris. The three-time world champion’s defending was criticised by a number of drivers, including Lewis Hamilton.
Verstappen and Norris shared a titanic battle at the Circuit of the Americas last weekend, but the flashpoint came at Turn 12 as the Dutchman deployed a signature tactic, lunging deep into the corner to get to the apex first before running both himself and his title rival off the road.
Norris opted to keep his foot in and overtook the Red Bull driver around the outside, although this decision landed him a five-second time penalty that dropped him back behind Verstappen in the general classification. This sparked a major debate with other drivers – Hamilton included – calling for the FIA to take action and outlaw this style of defending.
Verstappen has been frustrated by this debate. Quizzed by Viaplay in Mexico on whether he’d like to see the rules changed, he replied: “No, not really. But I have the wrong passport.” Asked if he was referring to a British passport, he confirmed as much.
“Yeah, it’s the wrong country, on that aspect… with complaining” he replied. “I love my passport but on that aspect, I should have had a different passport, actually.” The Dutchman also complained of ‘British bias’ earlier this season following comments made by Adrian Newey.
When asked about the debate surrounding Verstappen’s on-track conduct, former title rival Hamilton was quick to point out that the Dutchman has been employing these tactics for some time, dating back to their no-punches-pulled fight in 2021.
“It’s always been a grey area, that’s why he’s got away with it for so long,” Hamilton explained ahead of the Mexican Grand Prix. “They probably need to make some adjustments for sure.
“Also, we do have inconsistencies through rulings, weekend in, weekend out, obviously depending on which years it is. I mean, as a sport, we do need to level up on all areas and if you look at other global sports, they have full-time refs, for example, and I’m sure that wouldn’t be a bad thing for our sport.
“I experienced it many times with Max, you shouldn’t be able to just launch the car on the inside and be ahead and then you go off and still hold your position. So, they need to definitely work on this.”
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$200M Jeff Gordon teams up with Chase Elliott and Co. to decode the HMS driver behind the “Don’t judge me” old tweet
Hendrick Motorsports vice chairman Jeff Gordon teamed up with Chase Elliott and other HMS drivers in a lighthearted fun exercise for fans where they attempted to solve the mystery behind an old tweet from their current driver.
The anonymous tweet reads, “Don’t judge me, but I can’t wait to see the new twilight movie haha,” and it’s believed to belong to one of the HMS’s driver lineups, which includes Elliott, Kyle Larson, William Byron and Alex Bowman.
Jeff Gordan, who has a net worth of $200 million (according to Celebrity Net Worth), and HMS drivers tried to guess, but none of them were correct. Bowman and Elliott named Byron, while Byron went with Elliott, but it was Larson. He accepted that it was his tweet in 2011 and revealed that he likes Catherine Hardwicke’s Twilight movie.
HMS shared the video of the fun investigative activity on Instagram with a caption:
“Hold on tight, spider monkey”
Watch the Jeff Gordon and HMS’s guesses below:
https://www.instagram.com/reel/DBjQ7EzP3A7/?utm_source=ig_embed&ig_rid=e5182e01-3688-440a-ae00-0bf669973e15&ig_mid=01331E07-1F15-4C86-B3DB-7587302F0125
Three out of four HMS drivers are still in contention for the 2024 NASCAR Cup championship. Larson and Byron are in good position in the playoffs points table, with 35 and 27 points above the cutline.
However, 2020 Cup champion Elliott is in danger of getting eliminated from title contention, as he’s 53 points behind the cutline heading to this weekend’s Homestead-Miami race.
In an interview with NBC Sports earlier this season, Jeff Gordon spoke about the competition between their two best drivers, Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott, for the regular season championship. Gordan wanted to see both top drivers perform well and race aggressively against each other while maintaining sportsmanship in their chase for the regular season title.
However, neither Larson nor Elliott won the championship; it was Tyler Reddick who clinched the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series regular season championship. Speaking to NBC Sports, the four-time NASCAR Cup champion Jeff Gordon said:
“I think it’s pretty clear at Hendrick how we expect teams and drivers to race against one another and how they’ve got to go and compete not only against their competitors but against one another.
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“Kyle Busch is an a**”: Brad Keselowski publicly chastised his fierce NASCAR rival in front of over 150,000 spectators
Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski birthed one of the fiercest rivalries in NASCAR. The duo had multiple run-ins throughout their careers, but the seed of their feud was sown at the 2010 Xfinity Series race hosted by the Bristol Motor Speedway. In the aftermath, Keselowski publicly castigated Busch in front of over 150,000 fans during driver introductions.
Busch kicked off his Food City 250 from third place in his #18 Toyota while Keselowski began in 13th. However, as the 250-lap battle inched closer to its conclusion, the then-Penske Racing driver held the domination while the former #18 Joe Gibbs Racing driver fought hard for the lead.
After struggling to overtake for nearly a dozen laps, Busch, with 31 laps until the checkered flag dropped, lunged ahead of Keselowski, only to be wrecked from behind and lose the spot again.
However, the JGR driver quickly retaliated and spun out Keselowski’s #22 Dodge. The move propelled the #18 Toyota to the victory lane while the Penske driver fell from a potential win to settling in 14th place.
The bitter feeling inside Brad Keselowski surfaced during the Bristol Cup Series race driver introductions the following day. After Kyle Busch introduced himself, his fierce rival took the mic and blasted Busch with his “a**’ comment.
“Brad Keselowski, driver of the Penske Racing Dodge. Kyle Busch is an a**,” he said.
However, when asked why he slammed Busch, Keselowski said that Juan Pablo Montoya challenged that he can’t call the JGR driver an “a**”. It’s worth mentioning that the crowd’s roar on the Penske driver’s introduction notched 104.2 decibels.
“Sometimes you just don’t like a guy”: Kyle Busch publicly slams Brad Keselowski during their 2017 title fight
The bitter rivalry between Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski was such that both made unapologetic comments about the other from time to time. Despite the latter publicly extending an olive branch to the former in 2015, their relationship remained sour.
Max Verstappen addresses ‘British bias’ at Mexican GP after Lewis Hamilton put-down
$200M Jeff Gordon teams up with Chase Elliott and Co. to decode the HMS driver behind the “Don’t judge me” old tweet
