Gary Lemke reflects on the weekend’s sporting action as Max Verstappen won again, Ons Jabeur continues to fly the African flag at Flushing Meadows, Brad Binder endured a close shave and more!
Verstappen doesn’t impress Wolff
Max Verstappen took 15 laps to get past the red Ferrari of Carlos Sainz, much to the disappointment of the hopeful home fans at Monza, but that’s all they were – hopeful. Once Verstappen surged into the lead, he was never threatened and went on to win the Italian Grand Prix, ahead of Red Bull teammate Sergio Perez.
It now puts the Dutchman in uncharted waters. The first driver to win 10 grands prix in a row – Sebastian Vettel won nine, Michael Schumacher seven and Lewis Hamilton five – the Dutch star is unbeaten since April and has 12 wins from 14 races this season.
But perhaps the biggest takeaway from the predictable outcome of the Italian GP was the reaction by Mercedes’ Toto Wolff. “I don’t know if he cares about the records. It is not something that would be important for me. It is for Wikipedia, and nobody reads that anyway,” the German said. Tut tut, Toto. You’re better than that.
Promoted clubs set to struggle in the Premier League and the wheels come off at the Bridge
The goals were flying in from all angles and distances in the Premier League at the weekend, with 41 from 10 games, an average of 4.1 per game.
Only two teams in the entire division were unable to score – Chelsea at home to Nottingham Forest and Aston Villa away to Liverpool. No one has any idea what is going on with Chelsea, who now have one win from four games, and that came against promoted Luton Town, who have lost all their three games so far.
It’s going to take a lot for Luton to stay up, even judging from this early stage, and wouldn’t be surprising to see all three promoted clubs – Sheffield United and Burnley are the other two – going straight back down.
Jabeur flies the African flag
We’re into the second, and final, week at the US Open at Flushing Meadows and while there is an air of inevitability among the men, the women’s section is a little more unpredictable.
Two headline results this weekend were the defeat of world No1 Iga Swiatek, who lost the third set 6-1 in losing to Jelena Osapenko, while 19-year-old Coco Gauff saw off former world No1 Caroline Wozniaki in a generational clash.
Africa’s hopes again lie with Wimbledon finalist Ons Jabeur, who takes on China’s Qinwen Zhang for a place in the quarter-finals.
Binder’s close shave
There was a frightening crash on the opening lap of the Catalunya MotoGP in Barcelona when world champion Francesco Bagnaia narrowly escaped serious injury when run over by South Africa’s Brad Binder.
Bagnaia flipped off his bike and Binder was unable to prevent his KTM from running over the legs of his rival. “On the exit of the second corner, I didn’t see a thing. Until I saw Pecco and his bike in the middle of the track.
Then I clipped something on his bike. I was shaking trying to miss him, then I clipped his leg, or something. It’s every rider’s worst nightmare. To see someone there is scary but to be the one who hits them is even more shit, to be honest.”
Clearly shaken, Binder returned to the restart, but a technical issue forced him to retire.
South African bowlers wilt against Aussies
A couple of shopworn excuses came out after the Proteas slumped to a 3-0 defeat in their T20 series against Australia, including a young squad and lack of recent game time.
In truth, it was men against boys as the Aussies toyed with the home side at Hollywoodbets Kingsmead. In all three games, they would have got over 200 runs if they’d batted out their 20 overs, which highlights where the hosts’ main deficiency was.
You can’t go for 10 runs an over against and hope to beat high-quality opponents. And, although there’s a year to go until the T20 World Cup, South Africa seem way off the pace in this format.
They should be better in the 50-overs ODI format against the Aussies – especially as Kagiso Rabada and Anrich Nortje inject a bit more pace into the squad – but mentally they start on the back foot.
