New Sports: August 2011

Sunday, August 28, 2011

city chiefs kansas city

Yes, I know I am about five days late on this. But I am the only writer on the Draft Day Suit staff that gives a shit about Kansas City sports, so you will listen when I have the microphone dammit!

Ahem.

Anyway, thanks to my fine friends in Cincinnati (specifically Carson Palmer for ripping San Diego’s defense a new asshole), my beloved Chiefs have locked down the AFC West division title. And man, does it feel good! Not only have we made the playoffs for the first time since the 2006 season, but we actually get to host a playoff game at the new Arrowhead Stadium. Double bonus!

When this season began, I wouldn’t have even dreamed that we would be playoff bound let alone division champs. Hell, I was shooting for an 8-8 record and just a bit of progress in the playoff direction. To say I am surprised and thrilled would be an understatement. But with all this excitement comes a tad bit of worry. And what worries me the most? Indianapolis is still in the playoff picture.

If you aren’t familiar with Chiefs’ most recent playoff history, lemme pull you up to speed. Three of the last four playoff games the Chiefs found themselves in just happened to be against the Indianapolis Colts. How many of the three did the Chiefs win, you ask? ZERO. It’s basically the same old story each time. The Chiefs show up, Peyton Manning confuses them with shiny things, and we lose. Period. Point. Blank.

So, with the Colts needing a win this weekend, all I can do is one thing and one thing only. Well, actually two things. First? Drink beer. That always helps any situation. Second? Cheer on the Tennessee Titans, of course. So, here’s to you, Tennessee. Please, please do me a solid and kick some Colt ass this weekend. The entire Kansas City area will forever be your friend.

gonzalez carlos

At 24, Gonzalez could be part of the MVP discussion for years to come after hitting a robust .336 in his third full season in the majors with 34 homers, 117 RBIs and 26 stolen bases in 34 attempts. Car-Go hit .380 with 26 dingers and 76 RBIs in 74 games playing in the thinner air at Coors Field in Denver.

Votto, on the other hand, was a more imposing batter away from Cincinnati's hitter-friendly Great American Ball Park (.349 average to .297 at home) with fairly even homer/RBI production — 18, 56 at home and 19, 57 on the road.

He ranked in the top three in 11 offensive categories — leading in six, including on-base percentage and slugging percentage (.600) — finished top five in 15 categories and top eight in 18.

Votto also reached first base in a career-best 41 consecutive games from May 15 to July 3 — the longest streak for a Reds batter since Pete Rose reached in 48 straight contests in 1978.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

Victoria Azarenka Her career high and current ranking is World No. 4

Viktoriya Fiodorovna Azarenka, also known as Victoria Azarenka (Belarusian: Вікторыя Азаранка, Russian: Виктория Фёдоровна Азаренко; born 31 July 1989 is a Belarusian professional tennis player. Her career high and current ranking is World No. 4, which she first achieved on 9 May 2011. She became the highest-ranked Belarusian player ever, surpassing Natasha Zvereva by one spot.

Azarenka has won two mixed doubles Grand Slam titles – 2007 US Open with Max Mirnyi and 2008 French Open with Bob Bryan. She has won seven singles titles, including the Premier Mandatory Sony Ericsson Open in 2009 and 2011 and has made one Grand Slam semifinal appearance at the 2011 Wimbledon Championships and another five quarterfinal appearances overall.

Contents

* 1 Personal

* 2 Tennis career

o 2.1 2005

o 2.2 2006

o 2.3 2007

o 2.4 2008

o 2.5 2009

o 2.6 2010

o 2.7 2011

o 2.8 Criticism

* 3 Career statistics

* 4 References

* 5 External links

Personal

Her move to Scottsdale from Minsk, Belarus was aided by National Hockey League goalie Nikolai Khabibulin and his wife, who is a friend of Azarenka's mother.

Tennis career

2005

In 2005, Azarenka won the Australian Open and US Open as a junior and was named the ITF Junior Girls World Champion for that year, the first player from Belarus to do that. She also won her first ITF title in Pétange, Luxembourg in the same year. In Guangzhou, China, she reached her first pro-level semi-final, winning three qualifying rounds and defeating Martina Suchá and Shuai Peng in the main draw before losing to eventual champion Yan Zi.

Victoria Azarenka

Daniela Hantuchova tennis player to have won the mixed

Daniela Hantuchová Slovak pronunciation; born April 23, 1983 is a Slovak professional tennis player. She turned professional in 1999 and had her breakthrough year in 2002, when she won her first Tier I tournament and ended the year in the top ten.

She is currently coached by Larri Passos. Her WTA Tour mentor in the "Partners for Success" program was Martina Navrátilová, who was her doubles partner for a brief period in early 2005. As of August 22, 2011, Hantuchová is ranked World No. 22 in singles.

In 2005, she became the fifth female tennis player to have won the mixed doubles title in all four Grand Slam tournaments during her career.

Contents

* 1 Personal life

* 2 Career

o 2.1 2002

o 2.2 2003

o 2.3 2004

o 2.4 2005–2006

o 2.5 2007

o 2.6 2008

o 2.7 2009–2010

o 2.8 2011

* 3 Career statistics

* 4 Endorsements

o 4.1 Product endorsement and equipment

o 4.2 Video games

* 5 Achievements

o 5.1 Team achievements

o 5.2 Special achievements

* 6 See also

* 7 References

* 8 External links

Personal life

Hantuchová was born in Poprad, Czechoslovakia (now Slovakia) to father Igor, a computer scientist, and mother Marianna, a toxicologist.

When her parents split up in 2003, Hantuchová's performances temporarily worsened. At Wimbledon that year, she failed to convert several match points and was seen weeping on court. She also suffered from a weight problem during this period. She was suspected of being anorexic but denied this.

Hantuchová speaks three languages (Slovak, English and German), and was trained as a classical pianist. She is thought to be a perfectionist and puts a lot of pressure on herself during her training. She qualified for university in Slovakia but deferred it to pursue tennis.[citation needed]

She appeared in the 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition alongside Maria Kirilenko and Tatiana Golovin in a pictoral entitled Volley of the Dolls.

Daniela Hantuchova

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

roger federer slam the field at the U.S. Open

Federer, Sharapova hope to slam the field at the U.S. Open

It may not have the name cachet of Wimbledon or the grueling clay surface of Roland Garros, but the U.S. Open has an even greater intangible: New York itself.

"(It's) just a great feeling coming back to New York," says Roger Federer, the former World No. 1 who won five consecutive U.S. Open singles titles from 2004 to 2008. "Honestly, I liked it from day one. It was just one of those tournaments I right away fell in love with -- just the buzz and the energy over there. Sure, it was a bit overwhelming at first. I kind of always liked to play there.

"(It's) difficult with the wind, humidity, the city behind it, the whole deal," he continues. "Having to deal with that was quite interesting. Every time the U.S. Open rolls around, I'm very, very excited."

The season's final Grand Slam event gets going Monday, Aug. 29, from USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y. (with coverage airing over the next two weeks on ESPN2 and CBS), and the sport's best -- including World No. 1's Novak Djokovic and Caroline Wozniacki, plus Rafael Nadal, Maria Sharapova and Federer -- will take to the hard-court surface in search of the singles titles won last year by Nadal and Kim Clijsters.

Sharapova, who won the title here in 2006, has experienced a career renaissance after being hampered by inconsistent play and shoulder problems that ultimately required surgery. After falling as low as No. 126 in May 2009 (and finishing 2010 at No. 18), the 24-year-old Russian native had a successful clay-court season this spring, culminating in a semifinal loss to Li Na in the French Open. She then went on to Wimbledon and didn't lose a set in making it to the final, where she was upended by Petra Kvitova in straight sets.

She comes into this tournament ranked fifth, riding a wave of good feeling from her performance in London.

"To be honest, it's still nice to come home with a nice plate, so I was glad I didn't come home after Wimbledon empty-handed," she says. "To have that moment where you're walking out in the final stage of Wimbledon, even though you didn't leave with the big trophy, you know, gives me a great and tremendous amount of confidence that I've been doing something right in the last few months and I've been getting better.

"I think I always like to let the game talk," she says, "instead of saying, 'OK, I'm feeling better.' Everything is going well. I'm pretty realistic about my results. I always feel like the more matches you win, the ranking is always going to take care of itself."

Like Sharapova, Federer has faced questions about his abilities since falling from the top ranking he held from 2004 to 2008. Currently ranked third behind Djokovic and Nadal, he has experienced stretches of inconsistent play in recent years and hasn't won a major since the 2010 Australian Open. And earlier this month he turned 30, an age considered ancient in tennis.

Still, the 16-time Grand Slam champ is confident in his abilities and intends to prove it in Flushing.

"Do I approach tournaments differently?" he says. "Well, maybe a little obviously. I think when you win 90-95 percent of your matches, you go into a tournament slightly more confident. Other than that, there's not a huge change because I know my abilities. I don't want to say I'm overconfident, but I also know what I can do and I also know ... my limits. Hopefully that allows me to play the best tennis I can each day.

roger federer

Brian Kendrick and Paul London Reviews

Paul London & Brian Kendrick One of the last good tag teams that the WWE had when their tag division was beginning it’s downward spiral was these guys. It was after London had a decent tag team run with Billy Kidman, leading to a rivalry between the two before Kidman was fired and when the WWE finally decided to ditch the whole crap that was Kendrick’s “Spanky” nickname. The two held on to the tag team titles for a solid year before they lost the belts to a team that looked like something the movie “Grease” puked up in Deuce & Domino. Then there was the draft which split up London and Kendrick that lead to London eventually being shown the door and though he had a brief singles run as “THE Brian Kendrick,” Kendrick followed suit months after he started that gimmick.