Monzanator

Ahead of the Round 4 qualifying second leg game between Legia Warsaw vs Slavia Prague the Czech club issued a note to its fans about not wearing club colors and not insulting God & the pope while hanging around Warsaw @hckošice

I do wonder if Elvira Oeberg is set to break out as a reliable podium threat and race winner next season? Two Oeberg sisters in Top 5 WC overall next season?

Sheesh. That's so 1960s/70s BS. Don't tell me she can't make more money being an elite moguls athlete. The sport itself isn't exactly loaded with new talent every season so she could have been a Top 10 athlete and medal contender for many years. Very strange.

Today's result from Sweden (women's roller ski national champs sprint). Maybe there is some hope for the cross country convert?

Canadian's alpine skiing has completely tailed off in the recent decade. Makes U wonder if all the skiing hopefuls target freestyle events straight away. I'd assume women's moguls would be in better shape but guess there is no replacing the Dufour-Lapointe clan? Whatever happened to Andi Naude though?

Paula Badosa moves into QF after a win over Elena Rybakina and plays Karolina Pliskova. Meanwhile Jil Teichmann takes out Naomi Osaka in three sets. Osaka needs to stop being a celebrity and actually focus on her primary job. Obviously she will still soak up all the money but it's a terrible loss overall.

No athlete got the US visa to attend the Eugene DL meeting. Must be some wider political/clerk problem since Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova complained she didn't get a visa either and had to withdraw from Cincinnati tournament. She might get one for US Open though.

Varvara Lepchenko (tennis) has been provisionally suspended today (andrafinili & modafinil). She's 35yo so probably tried to stiff-arm Father Time

Aryna Sabalenka can be annoying at times (and very loud) but she offered a nice handshake after losing to Paula Badosa in Cincinnati R2 just minutes ago.

[hide] Preliminary Round August 20th - August 26th, 2021 10 Nations, All Nations from Group A and 1st, 2nd and 3rd from Group B will qualify for the Quarterfinals Group A Date & Time (GMT -6) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 August 20th 2021, h. 16:00 Canada 2 Finland August 20th 2021, h. 19:30 Switzerland 5 United States August 2st 2021, h. 16:00 ROC 2 Switzerland August 22nd 2021, h. 16:00 Canada 3 ROC August 22nd 2021, h. 19:30 Finland 1 United States August 24th 2021, h. 12:00 United States 3 ROC August 24th 2021, h. 16:00 Switzerland 4 Canada August 25th 2021, h. 12:00 ROC 3 Finland August 26th 2021, h. 12:00 Finland 4 Switzerland August 26th 2021, h. 16:00 United States 1 Canada Group B Date & Time (GMT -6) Nation 1 T1 T2 Nation 2 August 20th 2021, h. 12:00 Czech Republic 3 Denmark August 21st 2021, h. 12:00 Germany 5 Hungary August 21st 2021, h. 19:30 Denmark 3 Japan August 22nd 2021, h. 12:00 Hungary 5 Czech Republic August 23rd 2021, h. 12:00 Germany 4 Denmark August 23rd 2021, h. 16:00 Japan 2 Czech Republic August 24th 2021, h. 19:30 Hungary 2 Japan August 25th 2021, h. 16:00 Czech Republic 1 Germany August 25th 2021, h. 19:30 Denmark 2 Hungary August 26th 2021, h. 19:30 Japan 2 Germany Top 3 Place 1st Place 2nd Place 3rd Place Nation [/hide]

Well, don't expect much joy after winning one game. If you don't like Giorgi then you must truly hate Karolina Pliskova Or maybe it's Sakkari that causes all this drama?

Allen wins 3-2. No handshake in the end (obvious given their history). Evans should have won it 3-1 but wasted two big opportunities in the fourth frame.

Mark Allen plays his ex-partner Reanne Evans now...

Yes, I don't see how Shia Muslims could support Sunni Muslims here at all. That's one split of Islam the so-called Western democracies have never understood and probably never will.

Almost every player on tour has had icy handshake one way or another. Some of them more often than others (Yulia Putintseva or Jelena Ostapenko come to mind). Giorgi is by no means a standout in that regard.

She's not rude, she simply doesn't show much emotions on court. Like never. Probably very shy to show up in public. Even her interviews are limited to minimum, it's like she wants to get away from the attention as soon as possible. I know she gets negative vibes due to her father who annoys a lot of people but it's not on her at all. I watched all her WTA Katowice finals live in the arena and in the Cornet final like 90% of the audience was cheering for her. She was far & away the most popular player not named Radwanska back then.

The first and obvious question here - how will the downhill course look like? Lake Louise or Bad Kleinkirchheim? Don't tell me they'll have a huge turn so late in the run? (at 3:00 in the video). That could send some people flying...

The only thing missing is Berrettini winning US Open now

She's done it! Biggest title of Camila Giorgi's career! She beats Karolina Pliskova 6-3 7-5 to win the Canadian Open (I forgot the sponsors' name since it's not Rogers Cup anymore ). What a summer for Italy, ESC, Euro 2020, Olympics haze and now even WTA follows suit! I haven't been this happy since like 2016 when it comes to women's tennis!

Joao Almeida has won Tour de Pologne. Matej Mohoric and Michal Kwiatkowski round out the podium.

Guess things are moving fast, Kabul has fallen basically two days after my last post. Politico was right, all that US money spend (ultimately wasted) for 20 years and Taliban needed 20 days to take over the country. Well done! Another spectacular failure of US warfare politics. The ghosts of Vietnam are alive and doing just fine!

Don't look now but Camila Giorgi is into the Montreal final! She beats Jessica Pegula in three sets and books the biggest final of her career vs Karolina Pliskova. What a week this has been!

Out of nowhere Anna Kielbasinska becomes the 2nd fastest woman at 400m in Polish history. She run 50,38 in La Chaux-de-Fonds today That's 0,03 faster than Swiety-Ersetic's PB. Only Irena Szewinska's old WR 49,28 is better.

Camila Giorgi beats Cori Gauff and advances into Montreal SF! And she even smiled on court!

Brentford - back in English top division for the first time since 1947 - beat Arsenal 2-0 on opening day of the 21/22 season!