The women’s Final Four are crowded with top seeds and familiar faces. There are the reigning champions, No. 1 Stanford seed; the season-long favorites and top overall seed, South Carolina; an ascendant program with deep runs on its résumé but no title (yet) in No. 1 seed Louisville; and a Final Four fixture, No. 2 …
Women’s Final Four: South Carolina, Stanford, Louisville, and UConn Remain Read More »
Tennis’s minor leagues are still a major challenge. The latest evidence arrived on Tuesday in Marbella, Spain, where Stan Wawrinka and Dominic Thiem, two of the game’s biggest achievers, launched a dual comeback at a low-level Challenger Tour event. Neither had played in far too long, and neither won a set against players ranked outside …
Comebacks for Wawrinka and Thiem Will Have to Be Continued Read More »
Last July, a group of tall and excited teenagers gathered in a conference room in Canberra, Australia, to watch the NBA draft on television. As the technical director of the NBA Global Academy, Marty Clarke was responsible for getting them out of class on a school day so they could watch as a former teammate, …
How Australia Became an NBA Point Guard Pipeline Read More »
On a warm August night in 1961, Ted Williams, the “Splendid Splinter” who had finished his Hall of Fame baseball career the year before as the last hitter to bat .400 in a single season, strode to the plate before an overflow crowd at Municipal Stadium in Waterbury, Conn., To face a young softball pitching …
Joan Joyce, Dominant in Women’s Softball, Is Dead at 81 Read More »
Paris St.-Germain has dominated domestic competition for nearly a decade, its team strengthened annually by the signings of expensive stars from around the world. But the title it covets most, the Champions League, remains elusive. That description applies, of course, to the Paris St.-Germain men’s soccer team. But it also fits the club’s handball team, …
At PSG, Champions League Frustration in a New Game Read More »
When Mike Pellitteri started flying his private plane in 2013, it was easy to find a spot to park it. But over the past decade, hangar space has become sparse, so Mr. Pellitteri, a general contractor, has joined an increasing number of developers who have never worked in aviation before: He’s building hangars himself. Private …
More Private Jets Take to the Skies, Creating Gridlock on the Ground Read More »
WICHITA, Kan. – Olivia Cochran sat most of the first half with foul trouble. She reacted incredulously when what she thought was a clean block was whistled as a foul, and she played the final five minutes of Monday night’s game knowing that one miscue would foul her out for good. But when No. 1-seeded …
Louisville Clinches the Last Spot in the Final Four Read More »
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. – There were, after all these years, reasons to doubt the Connecticut women’s basketball team almost all season long. There were the injuries and the gutting losses to unranked teams, the near-collapse last week during the NCAA tournament and the head-spinning sense that a program with 11 national titles had somehow been diminished …
For UConn, a Rougher Path Than Usual Still Leads to the Final Four Read More »
JUPITER, Fla. – Adam Wainwright remembers precisely where he was on that sad December morning when the best hitter of his generation left the St. Louis Cardinals. “I was on the golf course, on hole No. 4 at Frederica Golf Club at home when I found out that he had signed with the Angels, ”said …
The table was set for a moment of family triumph. Venus and Serena Williams were dressed and seated for the grand occasion on Sunday night, and Will Smith, who had played their father Richard with uncanny similitude in the movie “King Richard,” was poised to win the Oscar for best actor. But then, as so …
Will Smith Owned the Williams Sisters’ Story Onscreen. Then He Stole Their Moment. Read More »