Donald Young-Another Reason I'm Watching The US Open

Y'all know I'm keeping up with my fave tennis playing siblings and I play the game myself when I can find an opponent. 

While flipping through the TV channels yesterday I stumbled across a men's US Open match that grabbed my attention because of the young tennis playing brother in it.

He is 22 year old Donald Young, Jr.  He was born in Chicago to tennis playing parents and was considered a tennis prodigy.  The left handed Young was at one time the number one ranked junior player in the world but has had an up and down career since turning pro in 2004.   

I got to watch him finish off the third set in front of a raucous partisan crowd as he beat 24th seeded Argentinan Juan Ignacio Chela in straight sets 7-5, 6-4, 6-3 to move on to the US Open men's singles fourth round   It also marks the first time since 2003 that four American men have reached the fourth round and the deepest that Young has gone in a Grand Slam tournament. 

Young's next match is a clash with tournament 4th seed Andy Murray of Great Britain. .If Young survives that match he'll play the winner of the John Isner-Gilles Simon match in the quarterfinals.  

He's also on the same side of the US open bracket with Spain's Rafael Nadal.   

But the question many tennis fans are asking is are we finally seeing the birth of an American men's tennis player who can challenge the dominance of the European superstars like Nadal,  Federer and now Djokovic?

Only time will tell.

2011 FIBA Americas Tournament Gets Underway

We are less than a year away from the start of the 2012 London Olympic Games, and the qualifying to see who gets those coveted spots in the Olympic basketball tournament next summer is happening as I compile this.   

Since the USA men won the 2010 FIBA world title in Turkey last summer and qualified for the Games in the process, they and Coach K get the luxury of watching everybody else on the planet play as they take their time deciding who will be on the USA Olympic roster when the tournament tips off on July 28.

But everyone else who wants to be in London besides the defending Olympic champion and FIBA world number one ranked USA and host nation Great Britain will have to play their way into one of those nine remaining tournament spots. 

FIBA Africa Champion Tunisia pulled off a huge upset against perennial African champ Angola 67-58 on Sunday to punch their first ever Olympic basketball ticket. The silver medalist Angolans and bronze medalist Nigerians will get a final opportunity just before the Games commence to qualify at the FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament July 2-8 in which the final three spots in the men's tournament will be up for grabs.

Speaking of spots up for grabs, the FIBA Europe Championship gets started in basketball mad Lithuania today and runs until September 18 with two Olympic berths for the taking and their third, fourth, fifth and sixth place finishers heading to the Qualifying tournament.    

The USA handling its basketball business also meant we didn't have to play in the FIBA Americas Championship like we had to do in 2003 and 2007 to qualify for the Athens and Beijing Olympics.  That ten team tournament started yesterday and will run through September 11 in Mar del Plata, Argentina.

The 2004 Olympic champion and 2008 bronze medalist Argentinians have every intention of making the home folks happy by taking one of those spots for themselves..

So why am I'm paying attention to this tournament if the USA isn't involved in it?   I'm paying attention because I want to see who will be playing in London next summer. Like the FIBA European Championship, there will be NBA players participating with their national teams. 

Sixteen NBA ballers will play for seven of the ten national teams participating in this tournament.  The way the NBA lockout negotiations are going, this might end up being one of those rare opportunities to see NBA players dribbling on somebody's court.


The tournament draw was held back on January 27 and in Group A we have the Dominican Republic, Brazil, Venezuela, Cuba and Canada.  Group B is comprised of FIBA number three world ranked Argentina, Puerto Rico, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Panama    

In case you're wondering Canadian readers, Team Canada starts FIBA Americas Group A play in a few hours with a game against the Tiago Splitter led Brazilians, then on September 1 faces the Dominican Republic and its trio of NBA players in Al Horford, Charlie Villanueva and Francisco Garcia.   Canada then plays Cuba on September 2 and finishes up group play September 3 with the Grievis Vazquez led Venezuelans

But one thing that puzzled me was why isn't Tristan Thompson, Corey Joseph or Dwight Powell playing on this squad?


The group play phase will run through September 3 with top four teams in each group going to the quarterfinal round and playing against each other which will run from September 5-8.  

After the quarterfinal round the top four teams will proceed to the knockout round on September 10-11 to determine who gets the two Olympic berths alloted to the Americas    The third, fourth and fifth place teams in the FIBA Americas Championship will play in the Olympic Qualifying tourney next summer

Should be interesting to watch.

TransGriot Note: Corey Joseph is playing on the Canadian FIBA Americas squad.

The 2011 IAAF Athletics World Championships Start Today

The 2018 Winter Olympics wasn't the only major international sporting event the Koreans grabbed.   Another one they successfully bid for and won was the 2011 IAAF World Championships that start in Daegu today and run through September 4.

Athletics is what the rest of the world calls track and field, and the Monaco based International Association of Athletics Federations is the governing body of the sport.  The championships are held biennially so they don't step on the prestige of the Olympics being the ultimate event in the sport of athletics. 

The next IAAF World Championships will take place in Moscow from August 10-18, 2013 and in Beijing's Bird's Nest Stadium in 2015.

In the IAAF worlds all the sports we know and love from the sprint and distance races to the field events will be contested by men and women international teams in Daegu.

Yes, they'll be passing gold, silver and bronze medals out too.  They'll also be televised by many networks around the globe, including Universal cable here in the States which concentrates on Olympic and international sports.     

Speaking of the Olympics, since we are less than a year away from the 2012 London Games, by watching the championships being contested here,  we fans of the sport will get some of our things that make you go hmm questions answered leading up to the Olympic athletics competition next summer from August 3-12.

Who are the up and coming athletes in the sport?  What athletes that we have seen over the last few years that we thought were done are making comebacks?   Will the athletes who are having stellar seasons this year continue their winning ways and parlay that season long excellence into world championship medals?  

Conversely, will the athletes who were having a subpar year suddenly take inspiration from being on the big international sporting stage and put it together?  What athlete who wasn't on the world's horizons will have the breakthrough performance that makes them an international household name and a potential medal favorite in London? 

Is Jamaica's Usain Bolt still the world's fastest man?  Can Caster Semenya overcome the drama she's undergone since her surprise 800m championship win in Berlin in 2009 and defend her title?

In Caster's case, I sure hope so.

The answers to those sporting questing question will be revealed as the 2011 edition of the IAAF world championships gets started