Sports
Tennis usually passes the torch. Carlos Alcaraz is running away with it
WIMBLEDON — This wasn’t a torch-passing. It was more like a torch-grabbing, followed by a sprint around the bend and then another mile or two down the road.
Last year, Carlos Alcaraz beat Novak Djokovic by a whisker in the Wimbledon men’s final, taking advantage of a few rare errors from the now 24-time Grand Slam champion to win an up-and-down five-set saga that lasted nearly five hours.
He snuck away with that title. On Sunday, he hammered and danced and drop-shotted his way to a second consecutive Wimbledon men’s singles title. This was a 6-2, 6-2 7-6(7-4) drubbing of Djokovic and his surgically-repaired right knee, on a court the Serb has mostly owned for more than a decade.
When something happens twice, it ceases to be an accident, ailing knee or not.
A deteriorating joint is the sort of thing that a 37-year-old champion who has played professional tennis for 20 years has to deal with.
Alcaraz had Djokovic contorting himself throughout the final (Henry Nicholls/AFP via Getty Images)
It’s bad luck. It’s also life in the tennis twilight, as so many others who have gone through it can attest. It’s the sort of slow dying of the light that gives a player such as 21-year-old Alcaraz — a generational talent who plays with a joy so many other players yearn for — the chance to grab a torch and run away with it, lighting up the sport.
For the better part of a decade, Djokovic has been the dominant player. Even last year, when Alcaraz nicked him on Centre Court, it was the lone stumble in one of his greatest seasons. He won Grand Slam titles at the Australian, French, and U.S. Opens; he won the season-ending Tour Finals; he had a No 1 next to his name in the rankings at the end of the year for a record eighth time.
All at 36 years old.
But he is 37 now.
And in seven magical weeks, beginning in Paris in late May and ending Sunday on the most famous court in the sport, Alcaraz made all that look like the last great chapter in the most decorated and accomplished career in the modern era of tennis, which began in 1968.
Djokovic may yet rise again. He did plenty of rising at the All England Club over the past two weeks, when few would have even tried. He should be as good as a a 37-year-old fighting to keep his body in tune can be, by the time he defends his U.S. Open title in New York at the end of August.
Forget all that for a minute, though. With this win, Alcaraz joined one of the most exclusive clubs in men’s tennis. He became the rare player who can win on the slow red clay of Roland Garros in June, then repeat the trick on the slick grass of SW19 in July.
Rod Laver. Bjorn Borg. Rafael Nadal. Roger Federer. Djokovic. And now Alcaraz. That’s it in the Open Era. With an extra chair on the end, they can fit in a booth at one of the pubs in Wimbledon Village.
Alcaraz holds the Wimbledon title for the second consecutive year (Aaron Chown/PA Images via Getty Images)
“A huge honor to me,” the Spaniard said, as he clutched the winner’s trophy in the late-afternoon sun. “Huge champions.”
Then, he said he isn’t one of them yet. He still has a lot of work to do.
He is off to a very good start.
Djokovic called Alcaraz’s win “inevitable”, after 12 days in which the Serbian had made his surgeon, and the physical therapist who guided his rehabilitation from a meniscus operation on June 5, look like true masters of the trade. By the time he dispatched Lorenzo Musetti on Friday to cruise into his 10th Wimbledon final, and 37th Grand Slam final, he appeared to be floating across and up and down the court, as though the surgery had happened in the distant past.
In recent years, he had won Grand Slam titles with tears in an abdominal muscle and a hamstring. At Wimbledon today, he was on the verge of doing it less than six weeks after a knee operation.
Then, however, Alcaraz appeared on the other side of the net.
This was not the nervous, first-time Wimbledon finalist who 12 months ago lost the first five games of the final before somehow recovering from that early blitz. Alcaraz is no longer some boy wonder, and on Sunday he was a man with a championship to defend and a chance to put the sport in a headlock.
Alcaraz slid this shot over the net for a winner (Julian Finney/Getty Images)
“He was better than me in every aspect of the game,” Djokovic said. This final may have an asterisk, one that may grow larger if Djokovic returns to being the player he was before knee surgery, or even a figment of that player. For now, it is an assessment without blemish. “Movement. He was striking the ball beautifully. From the very beginning, he was better.”
Djokovic served first. A dozen minutes later, he was still serving, fighting with everything he had to win what is so often the meaningless first game of a match. Back and forth they went, through seven deuces and five chances for Alcaraz to break.
Alcaraz unleashed his first outrageous shot of the day midway through those 12 minutes, a scorching forehand down the line with Djokovic rushing the net. Djokovic didn’t even bother turning his head. It’s the shot that Alcaraz lands when he is feeling his magic.
Djokovic’s chest was rising and falling between points, his panting audible from 250 feet away. No wonder he was a half-step late to catch up with a volley, the ball dipping below the net before a furtive backhand swish of his racket sent it into the mesh. Then he sent an easy forehand sailing wide. He put himself in a hole — a hole he would spend the next 135 minutes trying to dig himself out of.
Alcaraz dragged Djokovic all over a court he has made his living room (John Walton/PA Images via Getty Images)
Afterwards, he thought back to last year’s epic five-set loss.
“We went toe-to-toe,” Djokovic said, with a mix of pride for having gotten so far so soon after his surgery, and resignation about how dramatically the dynamic had shifted in 12 months. “This year, it was nothing like that. It was all about him. He was the dominant force.”
It’s something everyone is probably going to have to get used to, if they haven’t already.
Jannik Sinner of Italy, the 23-year-old Australian Open champion, remains the world No. 1, because of the complicated formula the sport uses for its rankings. Alcaraz is likely to be back there before too long. Plus, no matter what the rankings say, the Spaniard is now the sport’s alpha dog, a four-time Grand Slam champion with a game that is still developing. He is capable of tennis acrobatics that he relishes almost as much as does winning – and sometimes more. He does plenty of both.
“Shotmaker” doesn’t do the flair of his game justice. Alcaraz is a shot creator, a player who has to always be innovating and improvising, pushing the limits of what he can do with a racket and ball.
After muffing three championship points on his own serve, Alcaraz had to reset to push the final set to a tiebreak and ward off Djokovic one last time.
As he rushed the net, Djokovic fired a ball at his shoelaces. Alcaraz skipped up and dipped the top of his racket to the grass. Somehow, he made the ball spin just over the net. He tried to fight off a grin as he walked back to start the next point, shaking his finger at the crowd.
Alcaraz’s finesse in the front of the court made a huge difference (Frey/TPN via Getty Images)
Then he cracked a 120mph second serve like those three match points had never happened, and then it was the tiebreak and then it was deja vu from Paris. Alcaraz climbed into the stands once more, joining a clump with his team, a three-way embrace with his parents, and then the longest hug of all with Juan Carlos Ferrero, the former world No 1, his coach and tennis father since he was 14.
He knew what he had pulled off, as he rose into the rarefied air of the French Open-Wimbledon double club, ready to sink into another year as the champion of the most important tournament in the sport.
He’s on the road to where he wants to go, still emerging while already a star.
“It’s good for tennis to have new faces,” he said.
Especially him, the brightest new face of all.
(Photos: Getty Images; design: Dan Goldfarb)
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Former ESPN broadcaster Keith Olbermann once again incited backlash on social media Wednesday after he called late legendary college football coach Lou Holtz a “legendary scumbag” in an X post on the day Holtz was announced dead.
“Legendary scumbag, yes,” Olbermann wrote in response to a clip of Holtz criticizing former President Joe Biden in 2020 for supporting abortion rights.
Olbermann received scathing criticism in response to his post on X.
“You’re a scumbag that needs mental help,” one X user wrote to Olbermann.
One user echoed that sentiment, writing to Olbermann, “You’re the real scumbag here. Lou Holtz had more class, integrity, and genuine decency in his pinky finger than you’ll ever show in your lifetime.”
Another user wrote, “You’re a grumpy, lonely, Godless man. All the things Lou Holtz was not.”
Keith Olbermann speaks onstage during the Olbermann panel at the ESPN portion of the 2013 Summer Television Critics Association tour at the Beverly Hilton Hotel July 24, 2013, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images)
Olbermann has made it a pattern of sharing politically charged far-left statements that are often combative and ridiculed on social media, typically resulting in immense backlash.
After the U.S. men’s hockey team’s gold medal win, Olbermann heavily criticized the team for accepting an invitation from President Trump to the State of the Union address. Olbermann wrote on X that any members of the men’s team who attended the event were “declaring their indelible stupidity and misogyny,” while praising the women’s team for declining the invitation.
In January, Olbermann attacked former University of Kentucky women’s swimmer Kaitlynn Wheeler for celebrating a women’s rights rally outside the U.S. Supreme Court during oral arguments for two cases focused on the legality of biological male trans athletes in women’s sports.
Former Notre Dame football coach Lou Holtz listens before being presented with the Presidential Medal of Freedom at the White House in Washington, D.C., Dec, 3, 2020. (Doug Mills/The New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“It’s still about you trying to find an excuse for a lifetime wasted trying to succeed in sports without talent,” Olbermann wrote in response to Wheeler’s post.
In 2025, Olbermann faced significant backlash after posting (and later deleting) a message on X aimed at CNN contributor Scott Jennings, that said, “You’re next motherf—–,” shortly after the assassination of conservative influencer Charlie Kirk.
Holtz was a stern supporter of President Donald Trump, even saying in February 2024 that Trump needed to “coach America back to greatness!”
Near the end of Trump’s first term, shortly after former President Joe Biden defeated him in the 2020 election, Trump awarded Holtz with the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the highest civilian award of the United States.
After Holtz’s death was announced Wednesday, several top GOP figures paid tribute to the coach on social media.
Those GOP lawmakers included senators Tommy Tuberville, R-Ala.; Todd Young, R-Ind.; Tom Cotton, R-Ark.; and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.; representatives Greg Murphy, R-N.C.; David Rouzer, R-N.C.; Erin Houchin, R-Ind.; and Steve Womack, R-Ark.; and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis; Indiana Gov. Mike Braun; U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon; and Rudy Giuliani.
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Lou Holtz, former Notre Dame football coach, addresses the America First Policy Institute’s America First Agenda Summit at the Marriott Marquis July 26, 2022. (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc)
At the time of publication, prominent Democrat leaders have appeared silent on Holtz’s passing, including prominent Democrats with a football background.
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, who worked as an assistant high school football coach; Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., who was a recruiting target for Holtz in 1986 as a college prospect; Rep. Colin Allred, D-Texas, who played in the NFL; and Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Ill., who played football for the University of Illinois, have not posted acknowledging Holtz’s death.
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Sports
Stephen A. Smith called Zion Williamson a ‘food addict,’ is now feuding with the Pelicans on social
Williamson has been listed as 6-foot-6, 284 pounds since New Orleans selected him out of Duke with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2019 draft. His weight and fitness level have been regularly criticized, and the amount of time Williamson has missed because of injuries hasn’t helped (including all of the 2021-22 season following offseason right foot surgery).
After playing only 30 games last season because of a left hamstring strain and a lower back injury, Williamson reported for 2025-26 looking trim and in shape. He told reporters that he and Pelicans trainer Daniel Bove had come up with a strategy to address his fitness while rehabbing his hamstring and that he stuck to it.
“I haven’t felt like this since college, high school,” Williamson said at the time, “where I can walk in the gym and I’m like just, ‘I feel good.’”
Williamson has played in 46 of the Pelicans’ 63 games this season, already the third-most games he has played in his seven NBA seasons. In a recent interview with ESPN’s Malika Andrews, Williamson addressed how the past criticism affected him mentally.
“I would say the most difficult point was when I missed my third year with a broken foot, and there was a lot of criticism on my weight, my care for the game, etc.,” Williamson said. “But … while people were saying what they’re saying — and everybody’s entitled to their own opinion, it is what it is — I’m in Portland rehabbing, not knowing if my foot’s gonna heal, and it was frustrating. It was very frustrating.
“I was low. I was really low because I just wanted to play basketball. I just wanted to play the game I love, but every time you turn the TV on, every time I check my phone, it was nothing but negative criticism, man. At the time, it did a lot, like I said, it did a lot, but it was a blessing in disguise, and I learned from it and I grew from it.”
Sports
ESPN analyst Paul Finebaum questions Trump’s college sports reform meeting as potential ‘circus’
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President Donald Trump will host a White House roundtable regarding college athletics reform later this week.
The panel is expected to include prominent coaches, college sports and pro sports league commissioners, and other professional athletes, according to OutKick.
The group will meet March 6 to examine solutions to key challenges, including NCAA authority; name, image and likeness issues (NIL); collective bargaining; and governance concerns.
President Donald Trump holds a football presented to him during a ceremony to present the Commander-in-Chief’s Trophy to the US Naval Academy football team, the Navy Midshipmen, in the East Room of the White House on April 15, 2025 in Washington, D.C. (BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP via Getty Images)
The meeting Friday will include big names like Nick Saban, Urban Meyer, Adam Silver and Tiger Woods. Trump has been adamant about “saving college sports,” even signing an executive order setting new restrictions on payments to college athletes back in July.
However, ESPN college analyst Paul Finebaum, who has previously hinted at a congressional run as a Republican, remains a bit skeptical.
“The easiest thing, guys, is just to say this is ridiculous,” Finebaum said to Greg McElroy and Cole Cubelic on WJOX. “And I read the other day, ‘Why is Nick Saban going?’ Why is anybody going? The bottom line is this. If something doesn’t happen very quickly, and I mean in the next short period of time, we’re talking about weeks, not years, then this thing could blow up.
“However it came about, I’m in favor of. The question now becomes, with some of the most powerful people in Washington in the same room, including the most powerful person in the country, can anything get done, or will it be a circus? Will it be just another show?”
U.S. President Donald Trump shakes hands with former Alabama Crimson Tide football coach Nick Saban as Trump takes the stage to address graduating students at Coleman Coliseum at the University of Alabama on May 01, 2025 in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Trump’s order prohibits athletes from receiving pay-to-play payments from third-party sources. However, the order did not impose any restrictions on NIL payments to college athletes by third-party sources.
A House vote on the SCORE Act (Student Compensation and Opportunity through Rights and Endorsements), which would regulate name, image, and likeness deals, was canceled shortly before it was set to be brought to the floor in December.
The White House endorsed the act, but three Republicans, Byron Donalds, Fla., Scott Perry, Pa., and Chip Roy, Texas, voted with Democrats not to bring the act to the floor. Democrats have largely opposed the bill, urging members of the House to vote “no.”
President Donald Trump looks on before the college football game between the US Army and Navy at the M&T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, Maryland, on Dec. 13, 2025. (Alex WROBLEWSKI / AFP via Getty Images)
The SCORE Act would give the NCAA a limited antitrust exemption in hopes of protecting the NCAA from potential lawsuits over eligibility rules and would prohibit athletes from becoming employees of their schools. It prohibits schools from using student fees to fund NIL payments.
Fox News’ Chantz Martin and Ryan Gaydos contributed to this report.
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