Wimbledon 1st Round round-up and an MLB team's injury woes run rampant
The Thursday morning edition of "Two things to know before 2 AM" is here!
Welcome back, everyone - I hope you all are sated from a lengthened Fourth of July weekend. I am writing an abridged Snippets today, covering only two sports and two headlines, as we have reached the summer sports doldrums. The NBA off-season has died down. The NFL is on its annual July summer vacation. The MLB is nearing the All-Star Weekend. The only major storyline right now is Wimbledon, as that major is just about wrapping-up its first round of play. The sports news will pick-up in a couple of weeks, as the women’s soccer World Cup begins and NFL training camps across all 32 teams start across the United States.
So, let’s get started:
1) 2023 Wimbledon 1st Round Update and 2nd Round Preview
After a rain-soaked couple of days to wash-out and postpone a majority of the first round matches on both the men’s and women’s draws, we have now vaulted into the second round of competition. Ten men’s matches and seven women’s matches will wrap-up their first round postponed games today, in the meantime.
To get you all caught up with the progress, there has been six upsets on the men’s side, as (11) Felix Auger-Aliassime, (13) Borna Coric, (23) Roberto Bautista Agut, (24) Yoshihito Nishioka, (27) Daniel Evans and unranked John Isner all were defeated over the past several days. FAA’s loss is the most shocking, as the Canadian struggled against American Michael Mmoh; all three initial sets went into tiebreaks (7-6, 6-7, 7-6), until Mmoh exhausted FAA and won the fourth and final set 6-4.
Speaking of five-set matches - the best first round men’s match has to be the duel between (5) Stefanos Tsitsipas and unranked Dominic Thiem. The two battled for nearly four hours on Court No. 2 in a match that was postponed from Tuesday to yesterday afternoon. Tsitsipas slogged his way to a 3-6, 7-6 (7-1), 6-2, 6-7 (7-5), 7-6 (10-8) win against the former 2020 US Open champion. The Greek gets no rest, as he gets to face none other than 36-year old Andy Murray this afternoon (12 p.m. EST) in the second round.
Other notable men’s second round matches include:
(7) Andrey Rublev vs. Aslan Karatsev
(8) Jannik Sinner vs. Diego Schwartzman
(16) Tommy Paul vs. Milos Raonic - upset alert! (in my opinion)
(20) Tomas Etcheverry vs. Stan Wawrinka
As for the women’s draw - we have had seven upsets, and two in the top-10. The seven tennis players that were shown the exit were: (7) Coco Gauff, (8) Maria Sakkari, (15) Liudmila Samsonova, (18) Karolina Pliskova, (24) Zheng Qinwen, (27) Bernarda Pera, and (31) Mayar Sherif.
The first round match of the women’s draw was between unranked Sofia Kenin and the aforementioned Coco Gauff. The former 2020 Australian Open champion (Kenin) gave her fellow American Gauff everything she had and some more, taking the first set 6-4. The most striking fact against Gauff was noted by the ESPN commentators during her own 6-4 second set win - that she has only won three matches (out of 30 when dropping the first set. That third set weariness showed, as Kenin dominated the final set, 6-2.
Some notable women’s second round matches include:
(5) Elena Rybakina vs. Alize Cornet - upset alert! (in my opinion)
(14) Belinda Bencic vs. Danielle Collins
(20) Donna Vekić vs. Sloane Stephens
(28) Elise Mertens vs. Elina Svitolina
2) Angels’ injury-riddled season gets substantially worse over one weekend
Please give your closest Los Angeles Angels’ fan a hug - virtual, or in-person. Yet again, for the umpteenth straight season, the injury bug has bitten them, and hurt their three stars all in one 4th of July weekend. I have not seen a team hit this hard by injuries since the 2021 Baltimore Ravens, when this AFC North team saw at least a dozen starters go on the season-ending Injured Reserve list.
I was perusing through the r/baseball subreddit yesterday, and saw this post, as to how bad life is like supporting the Angels this season:
To recap what happened over this extended Fourth of July weekend:
Outfielder Mike Trout hurt his wrist on a swing of a foul ball in the eighth inning of Monday’s road game against the San Diego Padres - turns out, Trout suffered a a wrist fracture on his non-throwing hand, sidelining him anywhere from four-to-eight weeks
Perpetually injured third baseman Anthony Rendon fouled a ball off his knee/lower leg in Tuesday night’s nationally televised game against the Padres and did not return - Rendon was walking on crutches after the game, but is considered day-to-day for now
Pitcher and designated hitter Shohei Ohtani, who gave up a season-worst five runs Tuesday as a pitcher, was taken out of the game after re-aggravating a blister and will not pitch in next Tuesday’s All-Star Game
Yes, the latter two injuries are more of the minor variety, long-term, but the Angels are using their third and fourth string players at a variety of positions right now. Their starting catcher in Logan O’Hoppe, who had a hot start to the season, is still on the 60-day injury list with an injured shoulder and is just ramping-up his return. First baseman Gio Urshela suffered an fractured pelvis a month ago and is done for the season. The second baseman in Brandon Drury is also on the IL since Sunday with a shoulder contusion. Neto is on the 10-day IL with an oblique and is just starting to swing a bat.
This one Redditor, u/HeyIm_William, said it best:
That will do it for this Thursday edition of my Snippets.
Stay tuned for my weekly MLB Power Rankings - the last prior to the MLB All-Star week.
Until next time, signing off.