🎾 Serena's Swan Song Starts

Good morning, it's Monday, 29 August. We're back for another week and the number you need to remember today is 9. Max Verstappen won his 9th F1 GP of the season, Liverpool and Celtic scored 9 each and 9 rhymes with Aussie cyclist Jay Vine. Hopefully this newsletter is at least a 9 out 10 but we'll let you be the judge. Enjoy!

⏱ 1,434 words = 7 minutes

👀 Goal of the season already?

THE MAIN GAME

🎾 Major season closes with the US Open

It's the last tennis major of 2022, can't hold anything back now!

Golden points: 13 Aussies are in the men's and singles draws at Flushing Meadows this year - 10 men and 3 women - but it's all gonna be about Serena Williams in her last event before retirement.

• We'll get to Serena in a sec. The good news for Aussie tennis fans is at least 2 Australians will progress to the 2nd round because we've got 2 all-Aussie 1st round matches.

• Nick Kyrgios plays best bud Thanasi Kokkinakis and James Duckworth plays Chris O'Connell, so it's a win-win, unless you're the loser.

• Ajla Tomljanovic is the top-ranked Aussie in the women's singles draw. She's got a potential 3rd round match with Serena if they both make it there.

• Which is gonna be tough because Serena, playing in grand slam #78, has world #80 Danka Kovinic in the 1st round. If she wins, she'll then likely play #2 seed Anna Kontaveit. So it ain't easy, but she'll have 99.99% of the crowd behind her.

• If she does bow out early, Serena can focus on the doubles because the US Open has given her and her sister Venus a wildcard into the women's doubles. They know a thing or 2 about grand slam doubles - they've won 14 trophies together.

• Great Britain's Emma Raducanu and Serbian Novak Djokovic are the defending singles champions, but Djokovic won't be there because of his vaccination status.

They said it: "It’s still business. She still wants to play, she still wants to win, when she walks on the court she wants to be focused — so this is the moment now for her to do that, like all the other moments, and then when that moment is over, then the next moment will be here," Venus says her little sister has come to play... and win.

Watch it: Channel 9, 9Now and Stan Sport is where you can watch the US Open this year. The time zone ain't too back with the big matches at night starting at 9am AEST.

QUICK SINGLES

🏎 F1: Max Verstappen wins the Belgian Formula 1 Grand Prix. An engine penalty meant Verstappen started 14th on the grid but it didn't matter because by the end of the 1st lap he was in 8th and then he had the lead by lap #18. He avoided a big collision between Lewis Hamilton and Fernando Alonso early on to win his 9th race of the year and take his lead to 93 points in the driver standings.

🏏 Cricket: Australia starts the summer of cricket in style. Forget the fact it's August, winter and FOUR footy codes are still going, Australia's men's cricket team beat Zimbabwe by 5 wickets in a one-day international in Townsville yesterday. Young gun allrounder Cameron Green was player of the match for his 5-33 with the ball and Steve Smith took a terrific catch. It's probably too early to call it the catch of the summer and not because it's actually still winter but because there are still about a million matches to be played.

🏏 Cricket: The picks are in for the 1st ever BBL Draft. Hard-hitting English batter Liam Livingstone will forever be known as the BBL's inaugural #1 draft selection after he was taken 1st by the Melbourne Renegades last night. Overall, the draft went smoothly with the 8 clubs all saying they're happy with how the night went and who they drafted. Big names like Andre Russell and Faf du Plessis were overlooked but there were surprise picks like 18yo Afghan spinner Izharulhaq Naveed. Here's the full list.

🚣‍♀️ Paddling: Jess Fox can't stop winning. Fox won her 4th consecutive World Cup gold medal in the kayak and gold in the extreme kayak event (she also won bronze in the canoe) in the race meet in Pau, France this weekend. It means she'll likely be the overall world champion in the kayak and extreme kayak after next week's event in Spain, making her a 10-time world champion. You better believe that's a paddlin'.

🚴‍♀️ Cycling: Australia has another new cycling star. First it was Jai Hindley in the Giro d'Italia, then Simon Clarke and Michael Matthews in the Tour de France and now it's Jay Vine in La Vuelta. Vine has won 2 stages of La Vuelta, aka the Tour of Spain, since Thursday to complete an incredible climb from an amateur cyclist in 2019 to Grand Tour stage winner 3 years later. He's next to no chance of winning the event overall, but he could take home the spotty jersey as King of the Mountains. Awards don't sound much cooler than that.

⚽️ Football: Liverpool put NINE past Bournemouth. Liverpool needed a win after 2 draws and a loss to start the English Premier League season and boy, did they get a win. The Reds beat Bournemouth 9-0, the equal-biggest EPL victory, and moved from 16th to 8th on the ladder. Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp called it a "perfect afternoon" while his opposite Scott Parker said 'it was the toughest and most painful day he's experienced'. It must be contagious because Celtic won 9-0 over Dundee United overnight.

LEFT OF FIELD

🏉 NFL: A key member of the Baltimore Ravens suffered an injury scare in a pre-season match yesterday. It's not quarterback Lamar Jackson nor is it GOAT kicker Justin Tucker. It's Poe, the Ravens mascot. A half-time mini football match between a team of mascots and a Baltimore youth team was meant to be fun and entertaining. And it was until Poe got sacked and didn't get up. He had to be carted off the field and things didn't look good. But Poe returned in the 3rd quarter (we're not sure who was in the outfit) so hopefully he'll be right for the season-opener against the Jets in 2 weeks.

📽 Highlight reel: The AFLW is back and it started with a bang. Plenty of great action in the opening weekend but not much beats this sensational goal from Aisling McCarthay that put West Coast on track for a comeback victory.

📸 Photo finish: Dunno if you heard but Shaquille O'Neal aka Big Aristotle aka Shaqodile Dundee aka Black Kangaroo has been in town. PM Anthony Albanese gave him a South Sydney Rabbitohs jersey and Shaq aka (DJ Diesel) wore it to one of his gigs. Gotta say it suits him.

THE POLLING BOOTH

Friday's result: 57.14% say there's still a place for one-day cricket.

WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

• ⚾️ 9:00pm - MLB - Cardinals v Braves - Busch Stadium, St. Louis - Foxtel, Kayo

• 🎾 1:00am (Tuesday) - Tennis - US Open - Flushing Meadows, New York - Channel 9, 9Now

All times AEST

THE MANAGER'S OFFICE

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