A few headlines from the week so far:
– Tennis: Roger Federer may lose his No. 1 ranking after losing to Robin Soderling in the French Open quarterfinals, ending an amazing streak of 23 straight Grand Slam semifinal appearances. SI’s Jon Wertheim grapples with the ramifications.
Serena Williams is trying to hold off Samantha Stosur at the moment. Stosur beat Justine Henin, ending her streak of Roland Garros wins at 24.
– Poker: Mike Mizrachi outlasted little-known Russian Vladimir Schemelev and eliminated his own brother at the final table to win the Poker Players Championship at the World Series of Poker.
– Olympic sports: Shooter Matt Emmons is USA TODAY’s Olympic Athlete of the Week (I’m no longer involved in making that pick), which gives us a chance to revisit his colorful biography. In the 2004 Olympics, he won gold in one event and was on track for gold in a second before firing his last shot at the wrong target. A Czech Republic shooter came up to offer a few words of sympathy and wound up marrying him. They were the cute love story of the 2008 Olympics, where she won gold and he won silver. He was once again on track for gold in his second event when he had another last-shot misfire. I’ve talked to him twice — before the 2004 Games and after that 2008 misfire. He figured something good would follow that misfortune just as it did in 2008, and sure enough, he and Katy had a baby girl eight months later.
No, I’m not a jinx when it comes to pre-Games interviews, even though I also interviewed Lindsey Jacobellis before Torino.
Duresport.com 