Baby got backhand

It's one of the sports-crazy times of year, for sure, with all sorts of televised games competing for our attention. Except University of Oregon football, that is, if you're an "Xfinity" subscriber. In a deliciously ironic situation, the U of O games are being blacked out locally, because the Ducks' new meal ticket, the Big 10 Conference, is currently engaged in a fierce urological competition with Comcast. Having gleefully contributed to the destruction of the Pac 12 Conference, perhaps the Ducks deserve this.

But I wouldn't be watching college football this weekend, anyway. Right now my boob tube hours are reserved for professional tennis at the United States Open in New York – the last of the four "Grand Slam" events for 2024. In the singles competitions, they're down to a dozen men and a dozen women as of this morning. It's been going all week, and won't be over until next weekend.

Ther have been a lot of upsets already. All three men's Olympics medalists pooped out within three rounds. The cosmic man child, Carlitos Alcaraz of Spain, won only a single match in the Big Apple. Defending champ Novak Djokovic of Serbia and Lorenzo Musetti of Italy won only two apiece. The temperamental Andrey Rublev of Russia lost to Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria (pictured) in three tantrum-plagued sets. 

On the women's side, American phenom Coco Gauff's summer from hell continued. Last year’s tourney winner, Gauff bowed out yesterday in the third round, defeated by USA colleague Emma Navarro. Other familiar names such as Emma Raducanu, Naomi Osaka, Madison Keys, and Elena Rybakina all took early powders as well.

So who's left? For the men, the leading contenders at this point are Jannik Sinner, the redhead from Italy, seeded first; the moody Sascha Zverev of Germany, seeded fourth; and lanky, likeable Daniil Medvedev of Russia, seeded fifth. Sinner and Medvedev are still in the Round of 16; Zverev has made it into the Round of 8. Three men from the United States are still standing: Taylor Fritz and Frances Tiafoe in the Round of 8, and Tommy Paul in the Round of 16. It is mathematically possible (but not likely) that all three Yanks could show up in the tournament semi-finals.

There's a bit of a cloud over Sinner these days because of a recent doping violation, supposedly from some "healing spray" that his coaching team, now partly fired, applied on him. I suspect there are some hard feelings on the part of other players that Sinner's being let off the hook without serious consequences by the powers that be.

Speaking of losing the popularity contest, on the women's side Iga Swiatek of Poland is still favored to win it all. A fair amount of negative chatter about her has been surfacing lately, too. And if she doesn't take the crown, the screaming Mimi from Belarus, Aryna Sabalenka, probably will. That pesky, perky Jasmine Paolini of Italy may still make trouble for people, though, and watch out for the Russian Diana Shnaider. As the Commodores used to say, "She's a brick... house." 

Representing the Stars and Stripes, along with Navarro, is Jessica Pegula. In theory, the two of them could meet in the finals, but in reality, either will be lucky to win another match. The Olympic gold medalist, Qinwen Zheng of China, faces Sabalenka next in the Round of 8.

The New York crowd has been its usual rowdy self, and you have to feel sympathy for whichever foreigner is playing an American at any given time. The tourney is over by the old World's Fair grounds in Queens, but a lot of the cheers are strictly Bronx.

I've got lots to do this time of year, but I can't help keeping one eye on the Open. I hate to see the sun set on the tennis season, and by extension, on summer.