Spotlight shines on Canadian tennis aces, but dims on NFL pre-season
Credit to Author: Gord Kurenoff| Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2019 22:47:42 +0000
It’s Labour Day Weekend — Week 12 of 21 in the CFL — and we’re reminded of the rivalries that truly define three-down football in Canada.
The Winnipeg Blue Bombers are in Regina Sunday to face the Saskatchewan Roughriders (noon start), while on Monday the Toronto Argonauts travel to Hamilton to face the Tiger-Cats (10 a.m.) and the Edmonton Eskimos visit the Calgary Stampeders (1:30 p.m.). Not sure if Montreal vs. Ottawa or the B.C. Lions against anyone will ever match up to the traditions on display this weekend.
Meanwhile, fans craving for pennant race fever may be shortchanged this September. Unless the Washington Nationals keep it close in a National League East that the Atlanta Braves currently lead by 5½ games, only two of the six divisions in Major League Baseball are truly shaping up as barnburners.
Were it not for the wild cards, only the NL Central (St. Louis and Chicago within 1½ games) and AL Central (Minnesota and Cleveland within 3½) are red hot races. Yet that again proves the value of the wild-card pathways that keep additional markets engaged for the stretch run.
Going into September, there are just seven clubs in pennant contention and up to 10 realistically chasing wild cards.
In women’s golf, Brooke Henderson didn’t win her second consecutive CP Women’s Open, but she found ways to entertain a nation going into the final round of play last Sunday in Newmarket, Ont.
Tying for third is nothing to sneeze at one year after becoming the first Canadian to win the domestic title since 1973. The fact she did it despite the intense glare of media, sponsors and fans is all you need to know about how mentally strong, talented and professional the 21-year-old from Smiths Falls, Ont. is. She turns 22 on Sept. 10 and is already the all-time Canadian leader in tour wins at nine.
It only took her five years to overtake Sandra Post, George Knudsen and Mike Weir — all with eight wins apiece.
Yet there is nothing more bullish this week than Canadian tennis in general, and flag-bearers Bianca Andreescu and Denis Shapovalov in particular. Andreescu has a realistic path to the US Open semifinals — if not beyond — and Shapovalov is basking in the afterglow of impressively dispatching his close friend and top-ranked Canadian Felix Auger-Aliassime in the opening round.
Both give TSN some much-appreciated Canadian content going into the middle weekend of the fourth and final Grand Slam major on the calendar. Add in 16-year-old phenomenon Coco Gauff, 37-year-old icon Serena Williams and intrigue among the big three in men’s tennis and it could be a spectacular final week in Flushing Meadow.
If you were looking for the tipping point that rendered the NFL pre-season the most meaningless among the big four North American sports — at least in terms of entertainment value and fan interest — it might be now.
The Los Angeles Rams are only one example of teams not using any of their key starters in August. The poor product put on display this past month will only give the NFL more ammunition to revisit its clear desire to negotiate an 18-game regular season and reduce the pre-season to two games.
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