🎾 All Hail Alcaraz

Hello there, it's Tuesday, 13 September. We don't mean to alarm you, but we are entering a new age of human civilisation. A very small, a very concentrated part of human civilisation centred around the game of professional tennis. There's no more Serena Williams. We haven't seen Roger Federer for a year. Rafael Nadal is busted. Ash Barty has retired. Novak Djokovic won't get vaxxed. But tennis appears to be in safe hands with the brightest of young talent on show at the US Open, and maybe the best of the lot won the men's title.

⏱ 1,370 words = 6 minutes

👀 The old fella's still got it.

THE MAIN GAME

🎾 Alcaraz escapes from New York with a grand slam

Remember the name 'Carlos Alcaraz'. There's a very good chance you'll be hearing it for the next 15-20 years dominating world tennis.

The score: Carlos Alcaraz beat Casper Ruud 6-4, 2-6, 7-6(1), 6-3 to win the US Open men's singles title.

Golden points: There was more than just a real shiny trophy up for grabs in the men's US Open final yesterday. Both players we going for their first grand slam title and the winner would become the new #1 men's player in the world.

• It was a shootout between 2 of the best young guns on the circuit - Spain's Alcaraz is 19yo, Ruud from Norway is 23yo, so this was the youngest grand slam men's final of the Open era since the Pete Sampras-Andre Agassi US Open final in 1990.

• And tell ya what, these guys turned it on for the final. Alcaraz came out strong to win the 1st set, then Ruud fought back to level it up and had 2 set points in the 3rd set.

• But Alcaraz saved both set points, won the tie-breaker and then ran away with the 4th set to win his 1st major title.

• He's the youngest men's grand slam champion since fellow Spaniard Rafael Nadal won the french open in 2005, just a couple of years after Alcaraz was born. Feel old yet?

• The win means Alcaraz is the new men's world #1 player and is the youngest player ever to get there. At 19y 130d he took the record off our own Lleyton Hewitt, who got to #1 at the age of 21y 268d back in 2001. Still not feeling old?

• Not to be a party pooper, because this is one heck of an achievement, but a guy named Novak Djokovic didn't play 2/4 grand slams this year, and the one he won didn't earn him any ranking points. It's gonna be fun to see Djokovic and Alcaraz battle it out next year.

The stat: We've already given you a few but how's about this one: Alacarz spent 23.67 hours on court, the most by any men's player at a grand slam since 2000. He had to win 3 5-setters to make the final and 2 of those matches finished after 2am local time. If you don't feel old yet you gotta feel tired for Alcaraz.

What's next: There's no rest for incredibly talented. Alcaraz is heading home to Spain and more specifically Valencia where he'll be playing for Spain in the Davis Cup round-robin stage. Australia plays France on Thursday night in Hamburg, Germany.

QUICK SINGLES

🏎 Motorsport: Will Power sums up all his... willpower to win his 2nd IndyCar title. Aussie Power claimed a record-breaking 68th pole position in the final race of the IndyCar season on the weekend and then safely finished in 3rd to win his 2nd title, 8 years after his 1st. He says wise words from his wife gave him the belief he could win and now he's got a giant trophy to show for it.

⛳️ Golf: Shane Lowry wins "one for the good guys". The "one" he's talking about is the BMW PGA Championship he won by one shot over Rory McIlroy and the "good guys" are the players that didn't defect to the Saudi-backed LIV Golf. Lowry beat 17 LIV players on the weekend and made it pretty clear he didn't want them double-dipping between the DP World Tour (formerly European Tour) and their own LIV Tour. As we all know, you can't double dip a chip.

⚽️ Football: 3 more English Premier League matches have been postponed. We already knew Brighton's match against Crystal Palace was postponed because of rail strikes but overnight we learned that Sunday's Manchester United-Leeds and Chelsea-Liverpool matches have been postponed as well. The Queen's funeral is set for Monday and police from all over the country are being called in for the event in London, so there won't be enough police at those matches to go ahead.

🏉 AFL: Collingwood is going small for their huge match against the Swans. A month ago the Magpies lost to the Swans at the SCG, which is exactly where Saturday's AFL preliminary final will be played. So to get used to the smaller dimensions of the SCG, the Pies have adjusted their own practice ground to mimic what they can expect this weekend.

LEFT OF FIELD

🎈Ballooning: If there's a sport, there's a world championship, and that scientific law applies to hot air ballooning. 4 Aussies - Anton Kerr, Andrew Robertson, Nicola Scaife and Edward Saunders - will compete at the 2022 Hot Air Ballooning World Championships in Slovenia starting later this week. More than a hundred hot air balloons will take off at the same time and the aim of the game is to complete tasks. What that involves is dropping a weighted marker onto a target on the ground, it usually looks like a big X and it's all about judging the conditions and accuracy, not so much speed. The world champs run every 2 years but haven't had it since 2018 because of the pandemic. Nicola Scaife is a 2-time women's world champ and you'd recognise Anton Kerr's balloon - it's green with a giant boxing kangaroo on the side inspired by Australia's 1983 America's Cup win. Carn you Aussies!

📽 Highlight reel: Tom Brady might be drinking from the Holy Grail because he keeps producing epic plays at 45yo. Check out this terrific touchdown throw to Mike Evans in Tampa Bay's win over Dallas yesterday. Brady's decision to unretire looks like a good one so far. He chose... wisely.

📸 Photo finish: Not a bad place for a bit of beach volleyball at the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics.

THE POLLING BOOTH

Monday's result: 54.69% reckon the Panthers will win the comp this season.

WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

• 🏉 10:15am - NFL - Seahawks v Broncos - CenturyLink Field, Seattle - Foxtel, Kayo

All times AEST

THE MANAGER'S OFFICE

If you want to kick a goal for us, all you gotta do is share the Sport Today newsletter to your mates to help us grow. Even if you kick a behind that helps us too. Boot to ball is what we're after here. You know what we mean? Great! Thanks for the support.