1) It’s Australian Open time, so a trip down random memory lane: 1976 and the battle of the moustaches; Pete Sampras goes two sets down to Jim Courier, breaks down in tears after being reminded of his coach who had just been diagnosed with cancer, comes back to win; before 1990 nobody had been disqualified from a grand slam since 1963 – then John McEnroe got a bit testy; at 4-6, 0-4 down in the 2002 final against Martina Hingis, things didn’t look good for Jennifer Capriati – things picked up after that; and a quick reminder that Serena won this last year, without dropping a set while two months pregnant.
2) Alabama stunned Georgia in overtime to win their fifth college football national championship in nine years. But arguably, for center Bradley Bozeman, the highlight of the night was proposing to his girlfriend amid the celebrations. He isn’t the only one to capitalise on a victorious moment in recent times: the Astros’ Carlos Correa got down on one knee after winning Houston’s first World Series, junior linebacker Deion Pierre went for a more musical approach with the help of his Samford team-mates, Chinese diver Qin Kai proposed to silver medalist He Zi during a women’s diving medal ceremony at the Rio Olympics – the Games also saw Brazilian rugby sevens player Isadora Cerullo receive a proposal from her girlfriend Marjorie Enya. Just remember sports fans, it doesn’t always go to plan.
3) Jofra Archer takes a world class caught and bowled, umpire (wearing cap cam) takes evasive action, turns head to big screen to see what happened.
4) Singing sports people is a well worn theme, yet there’s something wistful in former Dynamo Kyiv goalkeeper Mykhaylo Mykhaylov crooning a Russian Yesterday back in 1988. Meanwhile, it feels like Bulgarian Olympic ski cross hopeful Nikola Chongorov is setting himself up for a certain amount of post-race scrutiny by naming his band Nick Chongi and the Smokers.
5) Fan takes half-court shot, misses, takes shirt off … misses again.
6) Football’s version of the old ‘one horse-sized duck vs 50 duck-sized horses’ question: three Japanese internationals face 100 schoolchildren.
Our favourites from last week’s blog
1) Marcus Mariota leads the Titans to an unlikely NFL playoff success by completing a TD pass … to himself.
2) A collection of Lev Yashin’s best saves.
3) More dawdling darts, courtesy of Connie Daniels.
4) This guy. Blimey.
Spotters’ badges: TheCedarRoom, whobroughtoranges, BlackCaesar.
