THREE straight come-from-behind victories. Two in tennis. One in basketball. All happening in 48 hours or so on the global stage. OMG!
First was Naomi Osaka’s conquest of Victoria Azarenka last weekend to win the U.S. Open women’s tennis crown. Next was the Denver Nuggets’ 111-98 stunner over the Los Angeles Clippers, dodging the bullet in the NBA West second round series. And third was Dominic Thiem’s disposal of Alexander Zverev to snatch the U.S. Open men’s tennis title.
Osaka, 22, rallied from a 1-6 opening-set loss to defeat Azarenka, 31, rediscovering her aggression and fierce focus in completing a 6-3, 6-3 comeback.
Osaka’s win—her second U.S. Open crown after defeating Serena Williams in the 2018 U.S. Open final—marked the first time since 1994 that a first-set loser had emerged champ. Arantxa Sanchez Vicario did it first 26 years ago in upsetting Steffi Graf.
After flinging herself onto the ground, Osaka, also the 2019 Australian Open winner over Petra Kvitova to win three of the last seven majors, said: “I’ve always wanted to see what they (other champs) saw. For me, it was really an incredible moment. I’m really glad I did it.”
The Nuggets trailed the Clippers by 16 points at the half and 18 at the 8:20 mark of the third quarter, 73-55.
Then Denver dropped a 13-0 run to close in at 72-73, sustaining the lung-bursting bounce back into the fourth quarter as the Nuggets completed a crippling 59-30 salvo in the final half to forge a Game Seven on Wednesday (PH time), preceding Game One between Miami and Boston in the East Finals.
As to how Thiem, 27, stole the $3-million top prize from Zverev, his 23-year-old best friend from Germany, was of fairy tale stuff.
Down two sets, Thiem thumped thigh cramps in the fifth-set tiebreak to win, 2-6, 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 7-6 (8), and become only the second Austrian Slam champ after Thomas Muster captured the 1995 French Open.
In his speech, Zverev cried, perhaps pained still by his failure to convert championship points twice that was aggravated by his two double-faults in the fifth-set tiebreak. OMG!