Sports
Brandon Holt, Tracy Austin’s Son, Wins a Spot in U.S. Open Main Draw
Tracy Austin put her fingers to her head, then buried her face in them and, lastly, raised two fists to the sky with a triumphant smile. It was not fairly as exuberant as her celebration when she gained the U.S. Open for the primary time in 1979. However it was fairly shut.
Her son Brandon Holt had simply gained his third qualifying match by beating Dimitar Kuzmanov, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3, in a rain-delayed match that required practically six hours to finish and examined Holt’s psychological focus. The win, in his first qualifying occasion for a Grand Slam match, ensured Holt a spot in the principle draw of the identical match his mom gained twice.
After successful the match, Holt, 24, shook fingers together with his opponent, then went over to the bleachers on Courtroom 11 and gave his mom a hug and a kiss.
“They are saying the hardest match is the final spherical of qualifying for a serious,” Austin stated. “I’m simply so happy with him to maintain his composure by means of all of that.”
By “all of that,” Austin meant the 2 rain delays the gamers endured within the third set, the primary coming with Holt main, 4-2. Over an hour later, they have been again on court docket however just for a couple of minutes. Holt had match level on his serve, when rain fell once more, prompting groans from followers who had gathered to observe the conclusion of a terrific match in steamy situations.
Holt was just one level away from successful, however he and Kuzmanov had to return indoors for greater than an hour once more. Holt held a bonus, receiving texts of encouragement and recommendation from a former world No. 1 participant.
Ranked No. 296 on the earth himself, and on the verge of the most important win of his life, Holt was so relaxed that he fell asleep throughout the second delay, worrying for a second that if he didn’t get up, he might be defaulted. He made it again in time and required solely two minutes to shut out the match, as a number of hundred followers cheered whereas Holt hugged his mom after which his father, Scott Holt, lengthy after the match had begun.
Holt will quickly study who his subsequent opponent will likely be in the principle draw, wherein even a first-round loser will earn $80,000 — greater than Holt has made all 12 months, to date.
“It’s a lot completely different watching him play than enjoying myself,” Austin stated. “I’m simply so nervous, now. I’m frazzled. Six hours. That’s a very long time to be nervous.”
Austin, who gained the U.S. Open in 1979 and 1981 by beating the legends Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova (and elevating her arms over her head in celebration as she skipped to the online to shake fingers), isn’t Holt’s main coach. She is a hitting accomplice at occasions, in addition to a supervisor, a tactical guide and a faithful fan. She is going to advise her son on his schedule and seek the advice of together with his coach on coaching occasions, strategies and techniques, and he or she usually feeds balls to Holt on court docket.
“On a regular basis,” Holt stated. “In the course of the pandemic, we hit day by day. She nonetheless warms me up. She gained’t miss one ball I hit again. Actually, not one. And if she does, she will get so mad.”
However Austin harassed that Holt got here to tennis on his personal, discovering a love for the sport and the competitors simply as she did. It was largely his factor, she stated, and although she was supportive, she left it largely to him and his coaches, particularly when he was a teen. Extra just lately, Holt, who performed on the College of Southern California, has matured sufficient to take extra of Austin’s sage recommendation and training.
“I’m not tremendous nice at listening to my mother,” he stated. “She’ll inform you that, too. However I’ve gotten loads higher at it.”
Including to the general pleasure of the day was a heavy dose of reduction. There was a time, just a few months in the past, when Holt fearful that he would possibly by no means play competitively once more, after a critical hand harm final 12 months threw his profession into jeopardy. In April 2021, he started experiencing extreme ache at the back of his proper hand. It will not dissipate, and medical doctors have been confounded as to its supply.
“I had each scan identified to medical science,” Holt stated. “However nobody might determine what it was.”
With no different clarification, medical doctors decided that they wanted to rule out extra probably critical points. They finally found a benign tumor nestled amongst his tendons and bones. Dr. Steven Shin, a hand specialist who has labored with Stephen Curry and Drew Brees, delicately eliminated the tumor after researching the uncommon process, Austin stated. But when something had gone unsuitable, particularly with the bone, it might have been catastrophic when it comes to tennis.
“My profession was on this physician’s fingers,” Holt stated. “I used to be very fearful. I couldn’t even run 10 yards with out feeling my pulse pounding in my hand. However the surgical procedure went rather well, and I haven’t felt one little bit of ache since.”
Holt was not allowed to select up a racket for about 5 months, after which he used a half-size racket to hit foam balls together with his mom solely 10 occasions a day, which steadily elevated till he made his return to aggressive tennis in January, ranked No. 924.
In simply eight months, he has moved up greater than 600 spots, enjoying totally on the higher stops of the challenger circuit. He confirmed sufficient promise that he was granted a wild card into the qualifying match of the U.S. Open, the place he gained all three matches within the most three units.
“I don’t really feel like I’m enjoying to my full potential,” he stated. “That is my first 12 months. I haven’t had a number of alternatives but, however I really feel like my degree is excessive sufficient to play with a number of these guys. Hopefully that is just the start.”
Sports
Duhatschek: Carson Soucy's cross-check to Connor McDavid's face was reckless. What will the NHL do?
So, for most of Sunday night’s game between the Vancouver Canucks and Edmonton Oilers, there were two parallel narratives — one on the ice, one on social media.
On the ice: How Vancouver was badly winning the goalie battle, rookie Arturs Silovs, playing exceptionally well (and much better than his Oilers counterpart Stuart Skinner). Silovs stopped 41 of 44 shots. He was the absolute difference maker in a 4-3 Vancouver win, which gave the Canucks a 2-1 series lead in the NHL’s Western Conference semifinal.
On social media: How referee bias was working against the Oilers, who were not getting their fair share of the calls, from the refereeing tandem of Chris Rooney and Graham Skilliter.
But in the end, the dirtiest play of the night came once the final whistle had blown; and Silovs had made one final stop to win the game in regulation.
Connor McDavid was behind the net, jousting with Carson Soucy. Soucy cross-checked McDavid, and McDavid slashed him back on the pants. It wasn’t much — or until Soucy’s defence partner, Nikita Zadorov joined the fray. As Zadorov cross-checked McDavid from behind, causing his knees to buckle, Soucy cross-checked him in the throat.
Carson Soucy catches McDavid with a cross-check after the final buzzer 😳 pic.twitter.com/Gf03SqgE0l
— B/R Open Ice (@BR_OpenIce) May 13, 2024
That hit definitely crossed the line.
Yes, playoff hockey is intense. Yes, teams generally can’t leave well enough alone once the final whistle blows because these are best-of-seven series, and once Game 3 is over, the posturing for Game 4 begins.
The Canucks will be lucky, however, if they get to Game 4, with Soucy in the lineup.
A cross-check to the face, like the one he delivered, took punishment to another level. In the end, Soucy did get a minor penalty assessed at the buzzer, which is completely inconsequential if the NHL doesn’t follow up with supplementary discipline.
NHL playoff hockey is of course a different animal than the regular season. Some players are just built for it — Zadorov is a case in point. Zadorov — acquired from the Calgary Flames in a trade earlier this season — was added because of his size and willingness to play a physical game. At times, his regular-season play was erratic. But in the playoffs, and especially in this series against the Oilers, he’s been a powerful, intimidating force.
At one point in Sunday’s game, he finished a check on Evander Kane, which knocked Kane into the Edmonton player bench. Not content with simply driving Kane right off the ice surface, Zadorov followed up with two more pushes to ensure he stayed there. That earned him a roughing penalty. Still, it didn’t end up costing the Canucks a thing because the Oilers were themselves dinged for a bench minor, for retaliating from the bench.
The Canucks acquired Zadorov just for these playoff moments — he understands that in playoff hockey, someone needs to play the role of the villain for Vancouver, because if no one does, then the McDavids and Leon Draisaitls will eventually make you pay.
Zadorov can also be crafty about it. Presumably, he understood his blindside postgame cross-check to McDavid was just borderline enough to escape further NHL justice. So thinking strategically.
Soucy, on the other hand, got carried away with the last response. You just can’t cross-check someone across the throat, at any moment in time. The NHL’s player safety department has been eerily quiet thus far in these playoffs, even as officiating controversies rage from game to game and series to series.
The fact that it was McDavid on the receiving end of that double-barreled cross-check adds further fuel to the fire. Remember, less than three years ago, a popular narrative was how McDavid couldn’t get a break from the NHL referees — that statistically, he drew very few penalties, considering his skill level, his ice time and his production.
The controversy came to a head in November of 2021, at a time when McDavid was second in the league in scoring but only 57th when it came to drawing penalties. And this after he’d gone an entire playoff the year before without drawing a penalty call — unimaginable really, considering the way he plays.
When McDavid commented on that finally, he was called out by none other than John Tortorella, who was then between coaching jobs, working as a broadcaster for ESPN. Tortorella advised him to “honestly, just shut up. Stop talking about it.”
It almost seemed as if McDavid, because he had an overdrive that mere mortals couldn’t match, took more punishment than warranted because he was so good.
In time, the moment passed, and the controversy faded.
There is sometimes a perception that the NHL goes out of its way not to protect elite players, because it might show favoritism. This of course is nonsense. Players only ever want one thing from the referees — consistency, as much as possible, from shift to shift and period to period and game to game.
In other words, the same treatment for journeyman players as for the stars of the game. But consistency has to cut both ways too. You can’t ignore what happened here, just because this was McDavid, getting manhandled. What Soucy did was reckless and dangerous. A suspension almost certainly has to be coming. If not, what is already a rowdy Oilers-Canucks series has a real chance of descending into real mayhem.
(Photo: Paul Swanson / NHLI via Getty Images)
Aaron Rodgers’ New York Jets regular-season debut lasted all of four plays on a Monday night to start 2023.
In 2024, Rodgers will likely be back playing on a Monday night when the Jets head to Levi’s Stadium to play the San Francisco 49ers to start the season. It will be Rodgers’ first game since he tore his Achilles in that fateful game against the Buffalo Bills.
Aaron Rodgers of the New York Jets runs onto the field with an American flag for the Buffalo Bills game at MetLife Stadium on Sept. 11, 2023, in East Rutherford, New Jersey. (Ryan Kang/Getty Images)
New York went with Zach Wilson as the starting quarterback for most of the 2023 season. The team did its best to try to make the playoffs but fell short at 7-10.
In the offseason, the Jets traded Wilson to the Denver Broncos and added Tyrod Taylor to back up Rodgers. The team added wide receiver Mike Williams as another piece to the offensive puzzle. New York also signed offensive linemen Tyron Smith and Morgan Moses for added protection.
The 49ers had heartbreak of a different kind.
Aaron Rodgers of the New York Jets looks on from the sideline before the Buffalo Bills game at MetLife Stadium on Sept. 11, 2023. (Ryan Kang/Getty Images)
SEAHAWKS’ KENNETH WALKER SAYS NBA PLAYERS WOULDN’T HAVE EASY TRANSITION TO NFL: ‘IT’S THE OTHER WAY AROUND’
Brock Purdy had the 49ers in the lead for most of Super Bowl LVIII against Kansas City, but Patrick Mahomes led the Chiefs to a comeback victory for their second consecutive title
Additionally, the 49ers lost linebacker Dre Greenlaw as he suffered a torn Achilles during the game. In response, the team signed linebacker Leonard Floyd from the Buffalo Bills in the offseason.
Brock Purdy of the San Francisco 49ers runs onto the field for Super Bowl LVIII against the Kansas City Chiefs at Allegiant Stadium on Feb. 11, 2024, in Las Vegas. (Ryan Kang/Getty Images)
At this point, too, San Francisco still has wide receivers Deebo Samuel and Brandon Aiyuk on the roster. One of those players could be traded between now and the first Monday night game of the season.
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City Section
BASEBALL
Tuesday’s schedule
(All games at 3 p.m. unless noted)
Division I
First round
#17 Westchester at #16 South Gate
#18 Franklin at #15 LACES
Division II
First round
#17 Sun Valley Magnet at #16 Van Nuys
#20 Stella at #13 Fremont
#19 Los Angeles at #14 Rancho Dominguez
#18 SOCES at #15 Grant
Division III
First round
#17 Animo Venice at #16 Downtown Magnets
#20 Central City Value at #13 Community Charter
#19 Animo Robinson at #14 Triumph Charter
#18 CALS Early College at #15 L.A. Jordan
Wednesday’s schedule
(All games at 3 p.m. unless noted)
Open division
First round
#1 Granada Hills, bye
#9 El Camino Real at #8 Narbonne
#12 Sun Valley Poly at #5 Sylmar
#4 Bell, bye
#3 Carson, bye
#11 Cleveland at #6 Legacy
#10 San Pedro at #7 Taft
#2 Birmingham, bye
SOFTBALL
Monday’s results
Division I
Quarterfinals
Garfield 7, Bravo 0
San Fernando 5, Verdugo Hills 1
Granada Hills Kennedy 4, Eagle Rock 0
Palisades 5, L.A. Marshall 1
Division II
Quarterfinals
Chatsworth 3, Franklin 1
Sylmar 10, Taft 2
L.A. Wilson 9, North Hollywood 7
Marquez 7, King/Drew 5
Division IV
Quarterfinals
Fulton 15, L.A. Leadership Academy 5
Tuesday’s schedule
(All games at 3 p.m. unless noted)
Open division
Semifinals
#5 El Camino Real at #1 Granada Hills
#3 Carson at #2 Birmingham
Division III
Semifinals
#9 VAAS at #4 Bell
#11 Sotomayor at #2 Narbonne
Division IV
Semifinals
#5 LA University at #1 Community Charter
#11 Fulton at #10 LACES
Wednesday’s schedule
(All games at 3 p.m. unless noted)
Division I
Semifinals
#4 San Fernando at #1 Garfield
#15 Palisades at #3 Granada Hills Kennedy
Division II
Semifinals
# 12 Sylmar at #1 Chatsworth
#3 L.A. Wilson at #2 Marquez
Southern Section
BASEBALL
Tuesday’s Schedule
(All games at 3:15 p.m. unless noted)
Semifinals
Division 1
Huntington Beach at Corona
Harvard-Westlake vs. Orange Lutheran at Hart Park, 6 p.m.
Division 2
Arcadia at Hart
Ayala at Moorpark
Division 3
St. John Bosco at South Torrance
Beckman at Los Alamitos
Division 4
Culver City at Camarillo
St. Francis at Ontario Christian
Division 5
Oxnard Pacifica at Santa Monica
Chino Hills at Chino
Division 6
Diamond Bar at Village Christian
Colony at Rancho Mirage
Division 7
South El Monte at Buena Park
Oxford Academy at Lancaster Desert Christian
Division 8
San Bernardino at Orange County Pacifica Christian
Azusa at Edgewood
SOFTBALL
FINALS
At Barber Park in Irvine
Friday
Division 8
Hesperia Christian (18-5) vs. Jurupa Valley (19-12), 10 a.m.
Division 6
Ganesha (21-0) vs. Viewpoint (17-2-1), 1 p.m.
Division 4
JW North (17-13) vs. Paraclete (29-2), 4 p.m.
Division 1
Orange Lutheran (21-3) vs. Garden Grove Pacifica (26-2), 7 p.m.
Saturday
Division 7
Oxford Academy (25-5) vs. Eastside (22-10), 10 a.m.
Division 5
Liberty (22-6) vs. Cerritos Valley Christian (17-6), 1 p.m.
Division 3
Etiwanda (27-5) vs. King (19-9), 4 p.m.
Division 2
California (28-3) vs. Gahr (18-10), 7 p.m.
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