The Sports Review

Rafael Nadal is trying to extend his tennis streak to several tournaments. That would be the streak of missed appearances. He has missed quite a few of the tournaments where he usually is the strongest player, possibly moving so far that he might lose his world #1 status. He wasn’t able to defend his Wimbledon this week and it’s just been announced that he will miss the Davis Cup July 10-12. The cause of all this is that he is suffering from knee tendinitis, a condition I know myself. This seems like it must be a really bad case, because it’s essentially kept him out of everything for most of this year. This has allowed Roger Federer an unbelievable chance to go on a winning streak and take some more Grand Slam titles without having to play Nadal.

The Phoenix Suns have sent Shaq off to the Cleveland Cavaliers yesterday. The Cavs are really looking to get themselves back into the playoffs and hopefully continue to be one of the best teams in the country right now. O’Neill has been one of the best centers in the game for many years now and hopefully he will be able to continue to do well with Cleveland. With Shaq and LeBron, this team might finally be able to get themselves into the Finals again, and hopefully give LeBron the first championship of his career. There had been a lot of discussion that he might move to another team that can provide him with worthwhile players to back him up. But that doesn’t seem necessary anymore and we’ll see what happens this next year!

CC Sabathia seems to be injured. He left in the second inning of yesterday’s game against the Florida Marlins and he will be evaluated in the meantime. At the beginning of the second inning, the Yankees’ trainer came out to watch him carefully. He then gave up a big hit and they ended up taking him out. He has some tightness in his arm, so it might not be as bad as we might otherwise think. It’s not clear yet, but he’s just day-to-day. This means he might miss some game time, but it might also mean that he will stay out for now and then come back in time for his next start. We’ll keep you posted, although if you’re a big follower of the Yankees, you’ll know right away.

Rafael Nadal, the defending champion of Wimbledon is being forced to quit the tournament this year, because his knee tendinitis hasn’t settled down yet. He’s hoping to make it back for the US Open or another competition, but Wimbledon is out. The London tournament begins next week and he hasn’t played in a rather long time, but it was still going to be a kind of comeback tour for Nadal. Unfortunately, it’s not going to work out for him this year and this clears the way for perhaps another Federer win. There are a lot of possibilities for how this is going to play out, especially with so many other players who can really win a match or two. Federer isn’t unbeatable, but whoever takes him on really has to be on his game!

Brett Favre is getting back into his normal routine of maybe-yes, maybe-no about whether he’s going to play the coming year. He has been waffling about playing football each year for the last 4 plus years. He’s considering coming back again. He wont be with the Jets or with the Packers. The main place that he seems to be considering is the Minnesota Vikings, where he has had several conversations and worked with a few trainers. The team needs a real QB, but one that will stay just for a couple years? He accidentally referred to the Vikings as “we” a couple times on an interview last night and wanted to attend some formal training with them to check on his recently operated-on arm. It’s going to be a rough year for the Packers if he comes to the NFC North to play them twice this year.

Last night, the LA Lakers took on the Orlando Magic in game 4 of the NBA Finals. This time it was much closer than anyone had anticipated, but Derek Fisher was able to get his team into Overtime with a fantastic shot with just a few seconds left. Similarly, in overtime, he hit yet another impressive three pointer, helping the Lakers to a 99-91 win. It’s looking more like the Lakers are taking this series by storm because the Magic just don’t have the kind of overall defense that they’d need to take the Lakers down. They had a defense that can stop one man when they took on LeBron James, but they can’t catch Kobe and all these other players at the same time. Here come the Lakers and it looks like they’ll win it all again. For such an exciting 2009 Playoffs, the Lakers winning seems like a boring end.

Tiger Woods won the Memorial Tournament yesterday with a great final round, including to concluding birdies, to give him one of his few wins this year. The majority of the year, he has been struggling to play consistently, but for every major challenge that people throw his way, he seems to be able to get better. He’s finally hit it in this last tournament, and he’s looking to be on the “upswing”. On the other side of the Atlantic, Roger Federer won the French Open over the weekend, giving him his own rare 2009 win, after being out with injuries for awhile and having trouble taking on Nadal in previous years. These two players are trying to keep themselves going well for the rest of the year so they can start breaking some records.

The NFL in 2009 is going to be an exciting world. There have been some big changes and some more shifts that will make us wonder what’s coming next. New England is, of course, part of the main news, with their best guy, Tom Brady, apparently on his way back into the clubhouse for 2009, putting the team back in the discussion for playoff contention. The Cardinals look like they will be decent again this year, as do the Pittsburgh Steelers. Other moves include the trade of Matt Cassel to KC and Jay Cutler to Chicago. There are a lot of teams that remain in rebuilding mode, but there are others that are really going to push hard. The Colts may have a place in the playoffs again too, for example. It’s going to be an exciting year and you shouldn’t miss it. Get your NFL tickets today!

Phil Mickelson, who announced that he would be out of the PGA Tour for the foreseeable future, will be coming back to the game for a few tournaments. His wife has cancer and he wanted to be there with her during her treatment, or at least to make sure that the treatment got off to a good start. Since her surgery has been pushed back for few weeks or a month, he decided that he will be coming back for the St. Jude Championship in Memphis and also in the US Open in New York state. People really like him as a golfer and as a person, so we can expect that many fans will be there in New York to see him go for a championship. Meanwhile, Tiger Woods and his wife have added their sympathies to Mickelson’s wife’s situation and everyone hopes for the best.