The US Open final will be dominated by two teenage women who have taken the tournament by storm. Emma Raducanu and Leylah Fernandez have stunned the tennis world with their respective march to the final, and this will be one of the most anticipated matches for women’s tennis in years.
Both also happen to be beautiful and charismatic which will only add to the hype.
Raducanu has been the more dominant of the two, but also has the more improbable run to the final. She was ranked 150th in the world and had to go through qualifying to get into main draw. In only her second major, she hasn’t lost a set yet in the tournament.
The NFL season is finally here, and things are somewhat back to normal with fans heading back to stadiums and Tom Brady defending another Super Bowl championship.
Tonight’s opening game has the Dallas Cowboys visiting the Tampa Bay Buccaneers as heavy underdogs. The line has been bet up to Dallas plus 10 on BetUS.com as more money flows towards the defending champs.
Tampa brings back most of its roster, so many are bullish on their prospects. Meanwhile, Dallas has gone through more drama this spring with the Dak Prescott shoulder injury. Dak enters the game with no preseason reps and he hasn’t played since last season’s devastating ankle injury.
This is a tough one to pick for the first game of the season. It makes sense that the line has been bet up. There are so many question marks with the Cowboys, including the fact that Zach Martin won’t be playing. But this is a huge spread with an explosive team like Dallas as the underdog. Consider placing bets for fun, but this one seems like a tough pick.
It was quite a weekend for college football, as many of us who love the game saw the crowds return and bring back the magic of the game. Yes, we still have issues with this top-heavy sport with Alabama and a few other dominant teams, but the traditions, crowds and games themselves make this an irresistible sport. No, NIL won’t ruin it. It will just continue to evolve, and likely in a better way.
As for the games this weekend, Ohio State and Minnesota kicked things off on Thursday night, as the Gophers came out to play and made things interesting for the first half. The Gophers have a monster offensive like in front of star running back Mo Ibrahim, and the Buckeyes have a young defense that clearly needs some more time to gel.
Meanwhile, C.J. Stroud was making his first start at quarterback and struggled in the first half. He had trouble throwing accurately on the run and couldn’t consistently get the ball to Ohio State’s talented receivers. That changed in the second half as Ryan Day schemed the receivers open and Stroud hit them in stride. The Buckeyes showed how Chris Olave, Garrett Wilson and the rest of the Buckeye receivers will torch opponents all season. And they have running backs as well, as Miyan Williams and true freshman TreVeyon Henderson both scored on long touchdowns.
I’m not a fan of penalty kicks deciding a soccer game, let alone an entire tournament. But that was exciting! It was one of the more dramatic penalty shootouts in soccer history, as Italy completed its comeback to win the Euro Championship over England.
19-year-old Bukayo Saka missed the decisive penalty kick after Italy’s Jorginho had a chance to win it with the final kick, while Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho also failed to convert. Rashford and Sancho were late substitutions just minutes prior to the end of extra time, calling into question the strategy of putting players immediately into a penalty situation with no chance to get into the feel of the game.
England took an early lead in the second minute, stunning the Italians, who then began a relentless assault in search of the equalizer. They finally found it in the 67th minute when Leonardo Bonucci tapped in a rebound shot.
This was another crushing defeat for England, while also representing redemption for Italy, one of soccer’s biggest powers that somehow failed to qualify for the last World Cup. Roberto Mancini resurrected the Italian side by finding a way to bring a more joyful and aggressive approach to a side that had become too cautious and unimaginative. This was quite a return to glory for Italy in a tournament filled with excitement. We can hardly wait for the World Cup next year!
Few predicted we’d see the Phoenix Suns in the Finals versus the Milwaukee Bucks, so we’re in new territory in predicting the Finals result. Most sportsbooks have Phoenix favored, but the lines and odds fluctuate depending on the reports on the health of Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The latest reports have Giannis playing in Game 1, so now the spread is tightening a bit for this first game.
Aside from this health issue, much will depend on Chris Paul. He has a history for getting hurt at the worst time, so anything can happen in this series.
It’s frankly one of the more interesting matchups in years given all the uncertainty, so enjoy the show and we’ll see who pulls it out.
