How could he be if he was in attendance at Euro 2024 all the way in Munich?
With Serbia’s tournament chances on the line against Denmark on Tuesday, the country flew in Djokovic, arguably the greatest athlete in the small nation’s history, to try and rally the troops. After Djokovic practiced earlier in the day, further addressing his health for Wimbledon will have to wait for now.
Given Djokovic’s legendary status amongst his countrypeople, having him around is not a bad bet at all:
Pre game talk with our National Team coach Dragan Stojković Piksi. This game has to be our for the taking!
Barring a win over Denmark with impossible on-paper odds, the Serbians will likely be done in Euro 2024. Having Djokovic around as a good-luck charm really might swing those odds.
It has been quite the month of June so far for tennis sensation Iga Świątek. The 23-year-old Polish star won her third straight French Open on June 8, losing just one set through the entire tournament. Świątek is the world No. 1, occupying that top spot for over 100 weeks now.
On June 13, Świątek was in attendance for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour show in Liverpool. The incredibly talented tennis pro is a longtime Swiftie, proclaiming folklore and evermore her favorite albums. On top of finally getting to see the show, Świątek got an extra bonus treat as the 14-time Grammy winner hand wrote a note to her and had it delivered to her VIP tent.
“I’m dead” Świątek tweeted with a selfie of her holding the note. “Yes, I cried many times during the show. Yes, it was incredible. You are amazing @taylorswift13.”
Imagine making a last-minute decision to play and walking away with a championship.
With her new No.2 world ranking in sight, Coco Gauff didn’t let a tough loss in the French Open singles tournament dim her light. She just decided to casually go out and win the doubles tournament with Katerina Siniakova — a choice she made just TWO DAYS prior to the event.
Coco Gauff continues to be one of the most impressive players in all of tennis, and her latest feat proved why she is simply one of the best. Coco did not have the greatest end to her run on the singles side of the French Open. She made the final four but lost a heartbreaker to Iga Swiatek in straight sets. Nevertheless, she still had her doubles tournament to look forward to.
Coco not only made it to the championship, but she and Katerina Siniakova won the whole thing. The best part might not even have been their tournament run, which was incredibly impressive. Gauff revealed that she had no plans to play in the doubles tournament. Two days prior to play, she decided to give it a go with Katerina. WOW.
Here’s what Coco told the French Open crowd post-match:
“First, thank you, Katerina, for playing with me.We decided…two days before the tournament started to play together. It was very last minute. I wasn’t planning on playing doubles. So, thank you for asking me to play.”
Good morning, Winners! Thanks so much for tapping in with the Morning Win today. We appreciate you for taking the time here.
For the bulk of his career, Novak Djokovic has been superman on the court. He’s played through nagging injury after nagging injury. There was a time we thought his wrist would sideline him. Nope. Maybe that sore elbow? Nuh-uh. How about an abdominal injury? It’s fine.
He’s always been able to power through and come out on the other side victorious. That’s why how he got to where he is today. That’s why he’s arguably the greatest tennis player of all time.
Seeing him go down with a torn meniscus on Tuesday at Roland-Garros was a shock to the system.
He injured his right knee during his French Open match with Francisco Cerundolo. He played through the pain and won, but it’s unclear if any further damage was done. ESPN reports he will reportedly undergo surgery on Wednesday.
This makes the all-time Grand Slam leader’s future murky in both the long term and the short term.
Djokovic will miss Wimbledon, which begins July 1. There’s hope he’ll make it back for the Olympics, which is a big deal for him but he’ll be less than two months removed from a knee surgery at 37-years-old. We’ll see.
That’s exactly why his long-term outlook is questionable, too. He’s 37 years old! He’s still incredible, but it already felt like he lost a step this season when he lost to Jannik Sinner in the Australian Open earlier this year. He’ll lose his No. 1 ranking to Sinner, who now has a good chance at winning the French Open with Djokovic sidelined.
It’s hard to forecast how this will go for Djokovic. But it’s around this age when all the greats begin to struggle. We’ve seen how it’s gone for Rafael Nadal with injuries. Roger Federer was marred by injuries late in his career, too. Tennis is a grueling game. It takes a lot and it’s hard to do for such a long time.
Djokovic has been tough. He’s also been really lucky. At some point, that luck was probably going to run out.
I hate to say it, but there’s a good chance we’ve reached that point here.
JJ Redick plays it coy
(Photo by Jamie Schwaberow/Getty Images)
All signs seem to point to JJ Redick becoming the Lakers head coach after he finishes calling the NBA Finals with ESPN this year. The Athletic’s Shams Charania reports that LA is “zeroing in” on Redick as the guy.
Redick, though, is not giving any hints. He appeared on the Gojo and Golic show and said his focus is on the NBA Finals. That’s it and that’s all.
"My focus is on the NBA Finals. In terms of Shams, that will be addressed once the season is over. I'll just say that." @jj_redick addresses the elephant in the room — the rumors of the Lakers' interest in him as their new Head Coach pic.twitter.com/6OwYnG5iHQ
“My day-to-day right now is consumed with calling games, the 19 different podcasts I feel like I have, my obligation to all of our partners. So, my focus is on the NBA Finals. In terms of Shams [Charania], that will be addressed once the season is over. So, I’ll just say that.”
That’s a great answer from JJ. On one hand, yeah, it definitely sounds like a guy who is headed for LA after this season is over. On the other? There’s plausible deniability there! We’ll just have to wait and see.
But let’s not kid ourselves here. This is happening. The two names that came up the most in the Lakers coaching search have been Redick and Ty Lue. One of those dudes just signed an extension with the Clippers. The other is still offering up boilerplate answers to speculative coaching questions. The math isn’t that hard to do here.
The Chicago Sky rookie got two back-to-back technical fouls and an ejection for … seemingly nothing? Reese appeared to tell the official that a call was BS initially, which she got an initial tech for. But then she immediately got another one for simply waving the official off.
“While it’s possible she also said something to anger the ref after the first call, this is still an absurd way for Reese to be thrown out of the game … especially after, y’know, that whole hard foul situation went down over the weekend between Sky guard Chennedy Carter and Indiana Fever rookie guard Caitlin Clark.”
Be better, refs. Please. I’m begging you.
Quick hits: Please stop talking, Pat McAfee … An awesome Mariners rally video … and more
Iga Swiatek is enjoying so many lovely bagels lately.
To say Iga Świątek loves playing at Roland-Garros would be a massive understatement. In fact, with the Polish world No. 1’s latest dominant win over Markéta Vondroušová on Tuesday, Świątek has now firmly established one of the greatest runs we’ve ever seen in women’s tennis.
Just days after recording a dominant double bagel over Anastasia Potapova — a bagel is when a set finishes 6-0 — Świątek did it again to Vondroušová during their first set. That means Świątek has now recorded an unfathomable three bagels during the second week of a major.
It is something only nine women have ever done, with Serena Williams in 2013 being the only other star to have achieved it since 1989.
That is positively mind-boggling:
Iga Swiatek is just the 9th woman in the Open era to record three (or more) bagels in the second week of a major. Only Serena Williams had done so since 1989. pic.twitter.com/sNnaUuXqCA
None of this dominance is particularly surprising from Świątek. In her young career, the French Open has turned out to be the Polish player’s bread and butter. Świątek is vying for her third straight singles title at Roland-Garros and her fourth win in five years. Talk about a dynasty.
Next up? The world No. 3, Coco Gauff, in the semifinals. If Świątek somehow records a bagel and beats Gauff convincingly, well, it might be time to start a well-earned coronation.
Coco Gauff is dancing her way to the final four at the 2024 French Open, and it’s one of the most wholesome things you’ll see all day.
Coco has been cruising, taking down opponents with relative ease. But on Monday, the No. 8 ranked player in the world, Ons Jabeur, gave Coco a challenging task. Ons came out in the first set, clicking on all cylinders and was up 2-1 in the second set before the 20-year-old staged a furious comeback to win the match.
The win catapulted Guaff into the final four players at the French Open. It made her the youngest player since Maria Sharapova to reach three or more consecutive women’s Grand Slam semi-finals. To celebrate, she continued the tradition of players dancing at the venue after they’ve won with the most wholesome video.
Iga Swiatek really outdid herself during Sunday’s French open match.
When you’re the world No. 1 like Iga Swiatek, it can seem like there’s nothing all that notable to accomplish. Even when you make incredible comebacks, the expectation was that you were supposed to win in the first place anyway.
But Sunday’s fourth-round 2024 French Open win was a marvel even for the best women’s tennis player in the world.
In defeating Russia’s Anastasia Potapova, Swiatek really flexed her muscles. The 23-year-old Polish star won the match 6-0, 6-0 in 40 minutes (!) and lost just a total of 10 points to advance to the quarterfinals. It was the shortest match of her already illustrious career by far.
That is absolutely astonishing, especially at this level of world-class tennis.
Iga Swiatek after beating Potapova 6-0 6-0 in 40 minutes to reach Roland Garros QF:
“I was just really focused and really in the zone.
— The Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) June 2, 2024
Swiatek’s performance was so dominant that it even shocked Coco Gauff, the current world No. 3. Gauff — who also advanced to the quarterfinals — had expected Swiatek to quickly dispatch her opponent. But not that fast!
You know you’re doing something right when you’re even taking aback your elite peers with your play. It’s worth noting that should Swiatek and Gauff both advance again, they can meet in the quarterfinals next Thursday.
As for Swiatek, the Polish star is pursuing rare air. With another French Open title, the two-time reigning champion would become the youngest woman in the professional era to win four French Open singles titles. Swiatek is an astounding 32-2 Roland-Garros since her debut at the tournament in 2019.
What a mind-bogglingly good match from Iga Swiatek and Naomi Osaka.
Iga Swiatek, the world’s top-ranked tennis player, and Naomi Osaka might have played one of the most stressful second-round matches at the French Open fans have ever seen, and they loved every minute of it.
After a very tight first set that Iga won 7-6, Naomi stormed back to take the second set 6-1 and eventually went up 5-2 during the third set with a match point in sight.
That’s when Iga turned up the heat and WENT SCORCHED EARTH. She fully lived up to her “queen of clay” moniker and forced Osaka into some errors that eventually cleared a pathway for her to win the match with a 7-5 deciding set.
The match was such an amazing chess match that Naomi Osaka — who is returning from having a baby and showed impressive endurance — received a standing ovation from the crowd.
— Elena Rybakina Fan page (@ElenaRybakina2) May 29, 2024
Well done to both @iga_swiatek & @naomiosaka on an enthralling 🥎 match this evening @rolandgarros It was a pity one had to lose but fabulous to see Naomi back playing at top level. .Hopefully Iga you will have easier opponent in next round & good luck for rest of tournament https://t.co/fNpGyZr7gp
What an unbelievable match. Osaka definitely should’ve won, but Swiatek is just too good. Just great to see competitive WTA Tennis! Osaka should be one of the favorites for the next two majors! https://t.co/fuatsX5Xkx
“He’s coming to us from a really great program in Belmont and we are looking forward to helping him reach his goals in his last year of college tennis.”
Cruz is a native of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and has one year of college eligibility remaining He holds a UTR ranking of 12.64.
𝗪𝗲𝗹𝗰𝗼𝗺𝗲 𝘁𝗼 𝗥𝗼𝗰𝗸𝘆 𝗧𝗼𝗽
Ian Cruz will join the squad for the 2024-25 campaign!
Don’t mind us. Currently watching this on an endless loop.
An announcer read off tennis legend Rafael Nadal‘s 14 French Open titles ahead of his first-round match on Monday, and fans absolutely loved it.
Rafael Nadal is known for his impeccable skills during any tournament played on clay. But the French Open’s clay courts might truly be what sets him apart. Per Roland-Garros, his overall record on clay is an astounding 112-3. Additionally, Nadal’s 97 percent winning percentage is the best by any player at a single Grand Slam tournament.
So, it’s not shocking that a French Open announcer read off every single title at the tournament that Rafael Nadal has won during his career. The moment was so sneaky good and will give you goosebumps. WHEW.
OMG!!! I will never see anyone capturing that many titles in a single event. Thank you, Rafa for giving me the lifetime opportunity to see a never achievable feat. Blessed to see such amazing work!
