Sports City Line

The shadow of last year’s final between Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer looms large over Wimbledon 2009. The greatest match of all time they called it. How do you top that? Well, we may never know as news reports say that Nadal may not compete in this year’s event. See our Tennis page for details.

The Carolina Hurricanes are preparing for another comeback after being unable to rally in the NHL’s Eastern Conference final.

Two days after their magical playoff run ended, the Hurricanes cleaned out their lockers on Thursday and management conducted exit interviews - with the focus on a repeat performance next season.

“There’s no reason why we can’t be in the same situation next year with the same team,” goalie Cam Ward said. “Everybody’s gotten a taste of what it takes, for the guys that haven’t been in the playoffs. For the guys that were in the playoffs, it was just another taste of how much enjoyment we had (in 2006).

“Falling short is never fun,” he added. “A lot of guys are going to be working extremely hard this summer to do whatever it takes to get ourselves ready for another great run next year.”

And what a run it was this year for Carolina.

The Hurricanes seemed destined to miss the playoffs for a third straight year, then streaked through March and April to claim the East’s No. 6 seed. They appeared done in each of the first two rounds, then went on the road and rallied to win back-to-back Game 7s.
See our Hockey page for more…

Serena Williams huffed and puffed her way into the second round of the French Open on Tuesday, ending a run of four straight defeats in the process.

Williams needed nine match points to finish off the brave challenge of Klara Zakapalova, winning one of the best matches of the tournament so far 6-3 6-7 (5/7) 6-4.

The little-known Czech had looked down and out when she trailed by a set and 5-3 but she saved five match points in the second set before winning it on a tie-break and then came back from 5-2 down in the decider before finally slipping to a narrow defeat.

Williams, the champion at Roland Garros in 2002, came into the match having lost her last four matches, three of them on clay, with her last win coming back on April 2.

She soon set about ending that miserable run and took the first set comfortably enough.

Zakapalova, who had beaten Williams during her barren run in Marbella last month, raced into a 3-0 lead in the second but the American struck back to reel off five games in a row.

At that stage the game looked up for the Czech but she dug deep to hold in game nine, saving five match points, much the delight of the Court Suzanne Lenglen fans.

She had produced some impressive tennis and continued to raise her level as she traded with the powerful Williams from the back of the court, despite giving away almost 3st in weight.

Her determination earned further reward when Williams double-faulted in the following game to make it 5-5.

A tie-break followed and in it Zakapalova moved 6-2 ahead. Williams saved three set points but was then left wrong-footed on the baseline and found herself in a final set.

The alarm bells must have been ringing when Williams was broken in game three of the decider and then fell 40-0 down.

But Zakapalova failed to make it 3-1 and was also unable to take another break-point opportunity in Williams’ next service game.

Williams duly broke and at 5-2 looked home and hosed.

Yet there was still drama to come as Zakapalova saved three more match points at 3-5 and then broke serve again to make it 5-4.

But when serving to level up at 5-5 the world number 100 finally wilted and after two hours and 25 minutes on court, she sent a forehand wide to give Williams a hard-fought victory.

The second seed will play Virginia Ruano Pascual in the next round.

The Belmont Stakes takes place this year on Saturday, June 6th.

ESPN is reporting that Rachel Alexandra owner Jess Jackson said he was uncertain Monday morning of the Preakness champion’s status for next month’s Belmont Stakes after the filly worked out at Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky.

Rachel Alexandra worked half a mile in 50 seconds and galloped out a fifth furlong in 1 minute, 4 seconds, an unspectacular time on a sloppy track for the star filly, who won the Kentucky Oaks by 20 1/4 lengths on May 1 before beating Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird by a length in the Preakness.

Mine That Bird trainer Chip Woolley backtracked on his demands for a Monday commitment from Calvin Borel, the jockey who guided both horses to their championship runs.

“We’re going to hold off naming a rider for for a few more days, out of respect for Calvin and them,” Woolley said. “We’re going to give them a little more time.”

Jackson said if Borel decides to go with another mount, Robby Albarado would ride Rachel Alexandra. Albarado is Jackson’s regular A-list rider who rode Curlin to great riches and fame.

Mike Smith rode Mine That Bird in the Preakness but has a conflict and will not be available for the Belmont.

Borel, wearing a Rachel Alexandra cap, and his agent, Jerry Hissam, met with Jackson early Monday. Hissam said they would have “no comment at this time” as they came out of Asmussen’s barn.


Triple Crown for Borel?
It is not possible for a horse to win the Triple Crown this year, but it is possible for jockey Calvin Borel; he won both the Kentucky Derby (on Mine that Bird) and the Preakness Stakes (on Rachel Alexandra) this year. To date, it is not certain which beast he will ride on June 6th.

See our Belmont Stakes Page for full details.

Possible Belmont Stakes Contenders

Silk	Horse	Owner	Trainer
	Charitable Man	Mr. and Mrs. W. K. Warren Jr.	Kiaran McLaughlin
	Chocolate Candy	The Craig Family Trust	Jerry Hollendorfer
	Brave Victory	Robert LaPenta	Nick Zito
	Dunkirk	Mrs. John Magnier, Michael B. Tabor, and Derrick Smith	Todd Pletcher
	Flying Private	Robert C. Baker & William L.  Mack	D. Wayne Lukas
	Luv Gov	Marylou Whitney Stables	D. Wayne Lukas
	Mine That Bird	Double Eagle Ranch & Buena Suerte Equine	Bennie Woolley Jr.
	Miner’s Escape	Robert LaPenta	Nick Zito
	Mr. Hot Stuff	WinStar Farm	Eoin Harty
	Rachel Alexandra	Stonestreet Stables and Harold McCormick	Steve Asmussen
	Summer Bird	Kalarikkal K. and Vilasini D. Jayaraman	Tim Ice

After the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness is one of the biggest races in the US racing calendar. The Preakness Stakes is a Grade I stakes race 1-3/16 mile (1.91 km) thoroughbred horse race for three-year-old horses, held on the third Saturday in May each year at Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, Maryland. Colts and geldings carry 126 pounds (57 kg); fillies 121 lb (55 kg). The Preakness Stakes has been termed “The Run for the Black-Eyed Susans” because a blanket of Black-eyed Susans (Rudbeckia hirta), the state flower of Maryland, is traditionally placed around the winner’s neck.

This year’s Preakness Stakes 2009 taks place on Saturday May 16. For more info. see our Preakness Stakes page.

Opening Day of the 2009 MLB Baseball Season has come and gone and began with the time-honored tradition of Cincinnati’s Findlay Market Parade, the 90th edition a little cold and a little damp, but red and white all over, same as it ever was.  See our baseball page for full details.

UFC 96 takes to the octagon from C olumbus, Ohio on Saturday. For the second fight in a row, no title belt will be on the line. However, the co-main event is much more enticing than that of UFC 95 so I suppose it will be worth having to pay to watch this card.

There are many solid fights on this card but the co-main event is really the only two stand out fights. The fight between Shane Carwin and Gabriel Gonzaga is absolutely huge for the UFC for a multitude of reasons.

The biggest reason is that Shane Carwin (along with Cain Velasquez) is the heavyweight division’s great new hope.

Carwin has never been off the prelim card, let alone been part of a co-main event at a UFC PPV. Gonzaga has been in front of crowds like this before and fought against some of the best heavyweights in the world—once for a title. It will be interesting to see how Carwin reacts.

The UFC has pegged Carwin as the next big thing. He has the size and potential to be a true challenger in the division. He has had two tune-up fights to get ready for this moment.

The question is: is he ready?

The main event is essentially a title eliminator. Unfortunately, it only works that way for one of the participants. Jackson and Jardine should be a solid scrap, but this fight is all about Jackson.

If Jackson wins, he gets another shot at the title. If he loses, Jardine will most likely get passed over by Lyoto Machida. This match-up still rubs me the wrong way to a certain extent, but it should be an entertaining fight so I can’t say I won’t enjoy watching it.

Wherever the fight goes Gonzaga is going to have to take a lot of risks to win this fight.

This is another very tough fight to call. I think the result will ultimately come down to whether or not Carwin is mentally and emotionally ready for this. I’m going to go out on a limb again and pick Carwin to win by TKO in the third round.

This should set up Carwin nicely to be about two fights away from a title shot. Gonzaga won’t be in danger of losing his contract but this would be a significant blow to his hopes of a title shot any time soon.

Here are the SportsCityLine Fight previews:

Quinton Jackson v. Keith Jardine: Jackson is 29-7, 4-1 in the UFC, with 21 wins by stoppage. He is a wrestler with good boxing and heavy hands. Jardine is 14-4-1, 6-3 in the UFC, with eight wins by stoppage. He is a kickboxer with some grappling ability.

This fight looks closer on paper than it really should be. I think Jackson has the advantage wherever the fight takes place. Jardine’s only advantage is his unorthodox style that I’m sure Jackson is preparing for diligently.

Jackson has the better hands, the harder hands, and the ability to control where the fight takes place. If Jardine is smart he’ll use leg kicks early and often in the hopes that Jackson didn’t learn his lesson from the Forrest Griffin fight.

I can’t fathom a scenario where Jardine wins, unless Jackson is not mentally prepared for this fight (which is highly unlikely after watching his last fight).

For those reasons I’m picking Jackson to win by KO in the first round.

Shane Carwin v. Gabriel Gonzaga: Carwin is 10-0, 2-0 in the UFC, with all 10 wins by stoppage. He is a wrestler with heavy hands. Gonzaga is 10-3, 6-2 in the UFC, with all 10 wins by stoppage. He is a BJJ artist with developing Muay Thai and is also very powerful.

This is a very intriguing match up. Normally Gonzaga can bully his opponents around even though he doesn’t have technically-superior wrestling. This fight could be totally be controlled by Carwin, who is bigger than Gonzaga and has superior wrestling.

If Carwin takes this fight to the ground Gonzaga has the BJJ to still compete. And if Carwin decides to keep the fight on the feet I think Gonzaga has the technically superior striking with enough power to end the fight.

My pick for fight of the night goes to Shane Carwin v. Gabriel Gonzaga. My pick for submission of the night goes to Shane Nelson. My pick for KO of the night goes to Quinton Jackson.

This should be interesting. Hope you enjoy the fights! Stay tuned to Sports City Line for all the updates.

February 21st (Saturday), 2009 At The Chevrolet Center, Youngstown, OH

(PPV) Kelly Pavlik (34-1) vs. Marco Antonio Rubio (43-4-1)

(For The Ring Magazine World Middleweight Championship)
(WBC and WBO Middleweight belts)

World middleweight boxing champion Kelly Pavlik (34-1, 30 knockouts) is defending his title against Mexico’s Marco Antonio Rubio at Youngstown’s 7,000-seat Chevrolet Centre.

Pavlik will enter the ring four months removed from his lopsided non-title loss at 170 pounds to Bernard Hopkins, a masterful performance in boxing and defense by the 43-year-old Hopkins that diminished Pavlik’s star in the eyes of many fight fans.

Pavlik, however, said being from Youngstown has ingrained in him to “keep hope and work through it. You always struggle through things living in northeast Ohio, you gotta put it behind you. That’s the most important thing I’ve learned from [the Hopkins loss].”

The Pavlik-Rubio fight will be televised on pay-per-view as a doubleheader featuring former weltertweight champ Miguel Cotto’s fight against Michael Jennings — Cotto’s first bout since his July title loss to the now-disgraced Antonio Margarito.

At Madison Square Garden, New York City, NY
Miguel Cotto (32-1) vs. Michael Jennings (34-1)
(The Ring Magazine #2 Welterweight vs. Unranked)
(WBO Welterweight belt)

Michael Jennings has warned American boxing fans to be prepared for a surprise when he takes on Miguel Cotto at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.

Their fight for the vacant WBO welterweight title has been written off as a mere launchpad for Puerto Rico’s former two-time champion Cotto (32-1, 26 KOs) to regain a belt after losing the WBA version in an epic 11th-round stoppage by Antonio Margarito last summer.

Little-known Englishman Jennings (34-1, 16 KOs) has never fought outside the United Kingdom, or at this level, before while Cotto, three years his junior at 28, will be entering his 14th straight world title bout.

See our Boxing page for more…

WBA welterweight world champion Antonio Margarito faces ‘Sugar’ Shane Mosley on Saturday night at the Staples Center, L.A.

 Margarito’s knockout win over Puerto Rican Miguel Cotto last July has taken the Mexican to a new level of recognition amongst the boxing fans.

“Without a doubt,” agreed Margarito, “you know everywhere I go now it seems like I’m coming up to people, everybody wants my autograph, everybody wants to take a picture with me. I think it is more people coming up to me and I think you can see that reflection on my popularity with the way the tickets are selling. I think without a doubt I’ve taken another step in my career.”

See here for full story…

UFC93, The first UFC event to be held in Ireland, will be on Saturday, January 17th 2009 at a sold-out O2 in Dublin.   The Main event features UFC middleweight champion Rich “Ace” Franklin versus former PRIDE middleweight champion Dan “Hendo” Henderson.  Another major fight will be Mark Coleman vs Mauricio “Shogun” Rua. All in all it should be an event worth watching. For American UFC Fans, the event will be broadcast live on PPV at 3PM ET, or it will be replayed at 10PM ET. Here are all the details with the full fight card:

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