RealClearSports: Tsonga Ready for His Biggest Moment

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

WIMBLEDON, England -- A door closes, and another opens. Change is the constant in sport, indeed in life. The familiar merges with the unknown, forcing us to consider the future even as we wistfully think about the past.

Tennis has changed. Wimbledon has changed. Roger Federer exits for a second straight year after a quarterfinal, and we wonder once more whether his time has passed.

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011

Yahoo! Sports: Sharapova’s comeback continues—she's in Wimbledon final

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange

WIMBLEDON, England — Yes, there were doubts for Maria Sharapova. You undergo an operation on your right shoulder, the one with which you serve a tennis ball, the one with which you made your reputation, and the demons fly, taunting and teasing.

The imperfection. The impatience. The disappointment as defeats mount and skeptics question.

"I set myself certain goals," Sharapova said ...

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Copyright © 2011 The Sports Xchange. All Rights Reserved.

SF Examiner: Blame game over for Zito, for now

By Art Spander
Special to The Examiner

Goodbye, June. Hello, Barry. The idea (blush) the Giants, figuratively had gone south when in actuality they went east across the Bay Bridge? Sorry.

Journalists, like infielders, botch easy ones. Make that E-C, as in error, columnist.

Oh ye of little faith. Oh me of little faith.

Read the full story here.

Copyright 2011 SF Newspaper Company

Yahoo! Sports: Federer in denial after his shocking collapse

By Art Spander
The Sports Xchange

WIMBLEDON, England — It wasn't as much what happened, Roger Federer losing at Wimbledon, but the way it happened — Roger Federer for the first time in his career defeated after he had taken the first two sets of a match in a Grand Slam tournament.

Unprecedented. Never before in 178 Slams. Or as the delightfully disbelieving young man who stunned Federer, indeed stunned all of tennis, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, would sigh, "Unbelievable."

Read the full story here.

Copyright © 2011 The Sports Xchange. All Rights Reserved.

RealClearSports: The Moment Arrives for Fish

By Art Spander
For RealClearSports.com

WIMBLEDON, England — The opportunity was here at last. All those years and finally, almost when it was time to say goodbye. Mardy Fish was able to tell us hello.

"I've never been past this spot in a grand slam,'' he confirmed, as if anyone needed confirmation. The chance of his tennis lifetime had arrived.

A quarterfinal at Wimbledon, the oldest of tournaments ...

Read the full story here.

© RealClearSports 2011