The Olympics opening ceremony is tomorrow, tennis starts up on Saturday and the US Open isn’t until the end of August. That means this past week has been devoid of genuine competition and rife with frivoulous “stories” (See John Mcenroe and Serena Williams). Among the pop culture blog fodder however, there has been legit breaking news, intriguing human interest stories and lively debate. Here were the stories that stuck out to us at MTL.
Sad news: Stan Wawrinka has pulled out of the Rio @Olympics because of a back injury.
Get well soon, @stanwawrinka! pic.twitter.com/z37fr5JTA2
— Tennis Photos (@tennis_photos) August 2, 2016
Some of the more disappointing news of the week is that Stan Wawrinka had to withdraw from the Olympics with a back injury. With Wawrinka’s absence that means that 5 of the top 10 seeds from the men’s side of the draw will no be present in Rio. I am however, calling BS on his apparent “back injury”. Let’s be honest, when Stan heard that his BFF Roger Federer wasn’t going to be playing either it was only a matter of time before Stan dropped out as well. What’s the point of winning Olympic gold if you can’t do it with your homie.
Johnny Mac is in his late 50’s but you’re more likely to see out and about on the tennis court playing an exhibition match or grinding it out on the Champions Tour than wasting away behind a commentators desk. In other words, he’s still in great shape. He showed off his youthful side by throwing the most lethal ceremonial first pitch of all time this past week at the Yankees and Mets Subway Series match-up. See for yourself.
John McEnroe’s first pitch at Mets game tonight is one of the best first pitches ever thrown pic.twitter.com/7g2MUzyt92
— Darren Rovell (@darrenrovell) August 2, 2016
Leander Paes has 18 career mixed doubles and doubles Grand Slam titles but maybe most impressively he’ll be competing in his 7 Olympics for India. CNN’s feature on Paes this week explained how Paes is the first tennis player to have competed in seven Olympic games, the 1992 Olympics being his first. Paes won a bronze medal at the ’96 Atlanta Olympics for singles but surprisingly he has yet to win a medal in doubles. Paes is one of the greatest doubles players of all time and continues to defy the odds at the age of 43. Truly remarkable.
The US Open is finally getting with the times by unveiling their shiny new retractable roof. No longer will we have to wait for a prime time match-up because of rain, and it only took 2 years and $150 million to make it a reality. When they were demonstrating the new roof this week it closed without a hitch but took three tries to get it back open. Classic.
The less said the better. I’ll let Serena’s hips do the speaking.
