It turns out that Roger Federer's tennis isn't always beautiful to watch. Facing Ivo Karlovic, the giant Croatian, Federer was forced like everybody else to flail and lunge, often futilely, at those high-kick, 136-mph serves.
The difference is that Federer guesses better, flails better, and that when he gets it right he generally does just enough with the return to win the point. And so Karlovic, who hadn't been broken in 80 service games, was broken in just his second service game of the quarterfinal, which basically destroyed whatever intimidation factor he owned.
Karlovic tried a bit of everything after that. He put on sunglasses. He took them off. But in the end, Federer's tennis is a force of nature; the 6-10 Karlovic's is a freak of nature. The points were ridiculously short. The games and sets flew past, and very soon this painful spectacle was done in less than two hours, 6-3, 7-5, 7-6 (3).

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Michael Jackson is about to rock the U.S. album charts.Nielsen SoundScan's sales numbers won't be released until Wednesday morning, but industry prognosticators indicate that three of Jackson's albums -- "Number Ones," "The Essential Michael Jackson" and "Thriller" -- each sold around 100,000 copies last week. The sales tracking week ended at the close of business Sunday night.

To compare, Jackson's entire catalog of solo albums sold 10,000 in the week ended June 21. Jackson, 50, died of cardiac arrest on June 25.

The aforementioned titles will be the top three albums on Billboard's Top Pop Catalog chart, and Jackson may lock up between six and nine slots in the tally's top 10.

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Germany coach Joachim Loew says he isn't impressed with the training facilities being offered in South Africa ahead of the 2010 World Cup.
Loew visited South Africa during the Confederations Cup along with assistant Hansi Flick and national team manager Oliver Bierhoff.

"We don't need to have worries that the stadiums won't be ready or that the infrastructure will produce problems," Loew was quoted as telling Kicker magazine on its Web site Monday. "The stadiums are in a very good condition."

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Grace Rwaramba, who worked for Jackson for 17 years, claimed Jackson became outraged when his mother and sister tried to intervene — and that Jackson's home was dirty and disheveled, according to a report published Sunday in the London Times.

“I had to pump his stomach many times," Rwaramba said in an interview that appeared in the newspaper. "He always mixed so much of it. There was one period that it was so bad that I didn’t let the children see him.”

Rwaramba reportedly said Jackson never paid for a housekeeper — and that she often had to put the children's personal expenses on her own credit card, the newspaper reported.

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Maybe it was the strident hum of the omnipresent Ellis Park vuvuzelas, but this was a Brazilian performance that missed several beats. So much for samba rhythm.In all fairness, Brazil were due a prosaic performance and there will be relief that they got this pedestrian effort out of the way before Sunday's Confederations Cup final meeting with the United States. That South Africa matched, indeed surpassed Brazil for chunks of the game was not something anyone anticipated.
Such was the dearth of creative moves on offer from a team responsible for ten goals in three group games, you would have been excused for wondering if Dunga had made radical alterations. In fact the only switch was an enforced one with Luisao replacing the injured Juan, whose tournament is over.

For most of this semi-final, Brazil huffed and puffed on the rutted Ellis Park playing surface. No one seemed to have the energy or even the inclination to change things. But then on 82 minutes, Dunga made the change that was to have a profound impact on the game's course.

By replacing left-back Andre Santos with a naturally right-footed player in Dani Alves, the Brazilian boss could have been accused of placing a square peg in a round hole. Yet here was a player with a point to prove to his manager. Maicon's return from injury had relegated the swashbuckling Barcelona full-back to the bench. Looking fresh and motivated, Dani Alves ultimately fired home the free-kick with 2 minutes of normal time remaining that, rather harshly, consigned the gallant host nation to defeat.

But while Dunga is entitled to take credit for the timely introduction of the Barca man, it's not unreasonable to ask why he didn't revitalise the team earlier. It's not fanciful to suggest that Elano and Alexandre Pato would have given more invention to the cause than the ineffectual Ramires and Robinho.

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I wasn't planning on resuscitating this blog until September, but with news this huge, I'll gladly make an exception. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced today that it will name 10 Best Picture nominees next year instead of five. Yes, that's right: TEN Best Picture nominees! "After more than six decades, the Academy is returning to some of its earlier roots, when a wider field competed for the top award of the year," said AMPAS president Sid Ganis. "The final outcome, of course, will be the same—one Best Picture winner—but the race to the finish line will feature 10, not just five, great movies from 2009." In the '30s and '40s the Academy recognized between 8 and 12 Best Picture nominees each year.

Several groups, like the Broadcast Film Critics Association, National Board of Review, and the American Film Institute, have already been listing 10 best films of the year instead of five. And with the Oscars now doing the same, I'd say this could really help the chances of some more commercially popular films, which are often edged out of the running by typical "Academy films" like The Reader or Frost/Nixon. Certainly The Dark Knight and WALL•E would have made a top 10 Academy list this year—will we now see Up and Star Trek on the Oscar ballot?

Talk about tests: After reaching the Confederations Cup semifinals in unlikely fashion, the reward for the U.S. soccer team is a matchup Wednesday with top-ranked Spain.
"The team is on a high for sure," U.S. coach Bob Bradley said Tuesday. "From a football standpoint, it's a great challenge but we couldn't be more excited for this chance."

The United States is 0-3 against Spain, losing 3-1 in the first round of the 1950 World Cup, 2-0 in a 1992 exhibition at Valladolid and 1-0 in an exhibition on June 4 last year at Santander, when Xavi Hernandez beat backup goalkeeper Brad Guzan with a low shot in the 79th minute.

"They have less pressure. They have nothing to lose. For them, it's a positive that we assume the title of favorite, the responsibility and the pressure," Spanish midfielder Xavi Hernandez said. "We assume the mantle of favorites but it won't be an easy match. Not at all."

Spain, the European champion, has set an international record with 15 straight victories and will be trying to stretch its unbeaten streak to a record 36, breaking the mark set by Brazil from December 1993 to January 1996. Brazil's streak includes a loss on penalty kicks to Uruguay in the 1995 Copa America final, which is considered a tie in FIFA's records.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Landon Donovan | Tim Howard | Bob Bradley | Carlos Bocanegra | Fernando Torres | Brad Guzan | David Villa | Federation Internationale de Football Association | Carles Puyol | Xabi Alonso | CONCACAF | Luis Aragones | Xavi | Joan Capdevila | United States men's national soccer team | Vicente Del Bosque "A big part of playing them is not getting frustrated because you don't have the ball," Landon Donovan said. "The other side of that is trying to put them under pressure. That's our goal, and if we can do that we have a chance."

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Disappointment was etched on his face once again, but the lines did not run so deep this time for Phil Mickelson.

He lost another U.S. Open and contributed once again to his own demise in the final frustrating holes at Bethpage Black, finishing tied for second for a record fifth time behind an unknown named Lucas Glover. No storybook finish. No more roaring crowd of loving supporters, who had followed him during a soggy week on Long Island but seemed to leave when he did. Defeat is always an orphan.

Yet losing didn’t carry the same sting this year. The hurt was still there, but life intervened a month ago with real pain, not sporting pain. It brought him the kind of pain that carries with it real fear, not sporting fear.

One seemed more unlikely than the other, that the United States would win by three goals and that Italy would lose by three goals Sunday in the Confederations Cup.But the highly improbable became the inevitable when the previously struggling Americans defeated Egypt, 3-0, and, against long odds, advanced to the semifinals of the eight-team tournament. They will play Spain, the European champion, on Wednesday.

In an energetic and entertaining game, played with desperate inspiration, persistence and optimism, the United States advanced on the tie breaker of total goals scored after Brazil defeated Italy, 3-0.

“I can’t imagine many times something like this has happened,” Landon Donovan, the American captain, said.

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Rafael Nadal withdrew from Wimbledon on Friday, three days before it begins, becoming only the second men's champion in 35 years to decline to defend his title.
"When I start a tournament like Wimbledon, it is to try to win," the No. 1-ranked Nadal said, "and my feeling right now is I'm not ready to play to win."
A subdued Nadal spoke at a news conference at the All England Club where he beat Roger Federer in the epic 2008 final.
He announced his withdrawal after losing to 18th-ranked Stanislas Wawrinka in an exhibition in London.
"Today was the last test. I didn't feel terrible but not close to my best," said Nadal, who called it "one of the toughest decisions of my career."

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