1st Down: Carlos Alcaraz is into the US Open semis. But you’ll have to wonder just what the condition of the teenager will be after his wild marathon of a quarterfinal on Wednesday (and early Thursday) against 21 year-old Jannik Sinner. The match went all the way until 2:50 AM, going 5 hours and 15 minutes as Alcaraz won 6-3, 6-7 (7), 6-7 (0), 7-5, 6-3 to book a place in the semis. He will now take on American underdog Francis Tiafoe in the last four while Casper Ruud and Karen Khachanov will meet in the other to determine the final.
2nd Down: The Big 12 might be set to lose Texas and Oklahoma soon, but that doesn’t mean the conference is just going to roll over and die. According to Commissioner Brett Yormark, they intend to stay alive by expanding westward. He stated such while visiting with future conference member Cincinnati, saying that they’d love to land a school that is nationally known and strong in both football and basketball. Some rumors had linked the Big 12 to form a partnership with the Pac 12, but for now those talks seem to be off the table. If they are indeed off, then one or the other could ‘steal’ teams from the other, virtually guaranteeing the end of one of the storied conferences.
3rd Down: Russell Wilson always had his sights set on becoming the Denver Broncos’ quarterback, but that didn’t mean that other teams weren’t interested in bringing the former Seattle Seahawks QB on board. Reports state that three teams inquired about hauling him in, with Washington, the New York Giants, and the New Orleans Saints being those teams. Wilson, however, according to the sources, was only intent on going to join John Elway and co.’s team, canceling out any potential play for those teams. Each of those teams have question marks at the position, so it makes sense that they attempted to rectify that by signing one of the league’s best.
4th Down: The first round of play in the UEFA Champions League group stage is in the books following Wednesday night’s eight games, and there were some very notable ones that took place across the European continent. One of the biggest was Liverpool’s 4-1 loss away to Napoli to being the campaign in the competition they reached the final of last term. Piotr Zielinski scored twice for the hosts on a ground where they’ve had much success against their visitors. Elsewhere, Robert Lewandowski made his UCL bow for Barcelona by scoring a hat trick as his team dominated Viktoria Plzen 5-1 at home. Tottenham won 2-0 thanks to two late-ish Richarlison goals while Bayern Munich went to Milan to gather a 2-0 result away to Inter.
