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Ryan Callahan scored for the fifth time in four days and defenseman Ryan McDonagh snapped a second-period tie to lift the New York Rangers to a 3-2 victory over the Washington Capitals on Sunday.
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The United States completed a 5-0 rout of Switzerland in the Davis Cup on Sunday, with 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and John Isner winning closing singles matches.
Euro Roundup: First-place Manchester City won 1-0 at Aston Villa on Sunday on Joleon Lescott's goal in the 63rd minute, maintaining its two-point lead over Manchester United in the Premier League.
Tessa Worley of France fought off gusting winds to win a second consecutive World Cup giant slalom Sunday in the Andorran Pyrenees. Overall leader Lindsey Vonn was more than a second behind and finished eighth.
Robins: It’s the Year of the Dragon on the Lunar calendar, and this Chinese influence could extend to it also being the year of the Pekingese on the green carpet at the 136th Westminster Dog Show on Tuesday.
ReutersServing up some tears
Once the rain delay ended, it didn’t take very long for the first set to finish. The Bulgarian closed out the set at love with Serena making four consecutive errors in the game. During the changeover, the Serena we all know and love, the Serena who is most often “Attitude with a capital A” wiped away tears.
While Serena denied that she had a bit of a brief cry out there, she wouldn’t deny that the outcome of the first set disturbed her dearly. When she gets upset she usually just tries to hide it. She didn't do too well hiding her feelings today, another sign of how badly she wants to win a second French Open trophy.
When she came back out, she dropped her first service game in the first game of the second set, but slowly started to work out a way to turn the match into a win. But I can assure Serena fans it wasn’t an easy task. Serena's serve was just not behaving as the weapon it tends to be. Certainly the slow clay was taking some of the sting out of Serena’s serve, but for someone lauded for their serve, she just didn’t look confident with the shot.
Serena, herself, didn’t understand what was going on with the serve. She said that unlike before the Australian Open, when she probably only served a bucket of balls in practice, she has been concentrating on her serve coming into Roland Garros. And while that didn’t seem to show on Sunday, she’s hoping that all the extra serving practice will work to her advantage later in the tournament.
Williams started to pull her act together in the second set, cutting down on her unforced errors. And she seemed to get the point that it would be best to play to Pironkova’s forehand, which would translate to playing to Pironkova’s weakness.
Choosing the right strategy
Serena is definitely fitter than she was in Australia earlier in the year when she won her eighth career major. Being in better shape should enable Serena to do the things she needs to do to conquer the clay and her colleagues, who would like nothing more than to ship her home early to Palm Beach.
I can suggest to Serena one thing, for sure, trying to win a slugfest with all these clay-court specialists is not going to get the job done. Serena can't keep surviving on the red clay if she’s determined to play 12-to-14 shot rallies on every point. She needs to come into the net, place a few drop shots, and remember to employ a few sliced backhands to get her magic to work.
Serena did use a drop shot and a slice backhand towards the end of the match and it worked well for her on those points. Serena said she has a short memory immediately after the match. I’m hoping that it’s not too short because she needs to remember that drop shot and slice backhand for the next match because mixing up her shot selection is her best ticket to staying around at this major
She faces a potential fourth-round showdown with top-seeded Justine Henin, also a winner on Sunday. To many observers these two are the top contenders to win in Paris. But Serena can't get caught looking ahead. She has business to take care of and every effort of hers on the clay has to be wisely strategized and well executed. She is driven and determined to take this French Open, and despite a bit of a stumbling start, her passion to win this major is still in place, unaffected by a Sunday she'd just as soon forget.
The United States completed a 5-0 rout of Switzerland in the Davis Cup on Sunday, with 19-year-old Ryan Harrison and John Isner winning closing singles matches.
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Wesseling: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for AFC teams.
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Silva: Each NFL team enters the offseason with a series of pressing needs. Sometimes a team can address them all, sometimes they ignore them all. But if a team's smart, they'll listen to us. These are the most crucial aspects for NFC teams.
