Good Morning! Today is Monday, July 15. Here’s what happened over the weekend in the world of sports.

TENNIS

Barbora Krejcikova is a Wimbledon champion! The Czech beat Jasmine Paolini in the finals on Saturday 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 for her second career Grand Slam title in singles. Krejcikova had won just seven matches all year before winning the seven matches required to hold the winner’s trophy. This is also the seventh consecutive year with a new women’s Wimbledon champion.

On the men’s side, Carlos Alcaraz defended his title from a year ago, taking down Novak Djokovic 6-2, 6-2, 7-6. The young Spaniard gave a masterclass in grass court tennis, showing off his incredible speed, power, and skill. Alcaraz is just the sixth man all-time to win the French Open and Wimbledon in the same year. Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner have won each of the Grand Slams so far in 2024- could this be the first year since 2002 that Djokovic, Nadal, and Federer don’t register a single Grand Slam win? It appears we have officially entered a new era.

SOCCER

Sunday was a glorious day for Spain. After Carlos Alcaraz won Wimbledon, he rushed to go watch his compatriots take on England in the finals of the Euros. Alcaraz was not disappointed. Nico Williams broke the 0-0 deadlock just minutes into the second half, and Spain had a one goal lead. The Brits fought back as substitute Cole Palmer rocketed one into the corner. However, the best team throughout the tournament found a way to win once again. Substitute Mikel Oyarzabal was just barely onside for the game-winner in the 86th minute, and timely Spanish defense (check out the play of the weekend) proved enough for the victory.

Things got off to a much rougher start in the Copa America. The game was delayed over an hour due to problems with fans rushing the stadium and attempting to break in. It was another in a long list of fan-related issues that the tournament organizers have faced, making some wonder in the infrastructure is in place for the World Cup to come to America in two years.

Once the game began, the big story was Lionel Messi. The greatest player of all-time was forced to leave the 0-0 game due to a nasty ankle injury. In what may be the last international game for the superstar, you could see the emotion on his face. Luckily for Messi and Argentina, Lautaro Martinez came up with a game-winning goal in the 112th minute. Argentina held on to beat Columbia 1-0 for their second-straight Copa America win.

MLB

We’ve reached the all-star break! But before we catch our breaths and re-evaluate the standings, there’s one last weekend of games to recap. Let’s get to the highlights:

• The series of the weekend comes from Baltimore, where the Orioles hosted the New York Yankees. The Yankees won game one on Friday, but tensions were high when the benches cleared following an Orioles player getting hit in the head with a pitch. The Yankees won Saturday as everyone cooled off. But Sunday’s game is a candidate for game of the year. Yankees rookie Ben Rice hit a three-run homer to give New York a 5-3 lead in the ninth inning. In the bottom of the ninth, however, the Orioles scored three unearned runs off errors, highlighted by this baffling misplay in the outfield for a walk-off victory. The Orioles and Yankees play again in September, don’t worry.

• Despite Shohei Ohtani hitting his 200th career home run, the Dodgers dropped two of three games in Detroit. The Tigers came up with back-to-back walk-offs, including this slightly embarrassing one for LA on Sunday. To make matters worse, Yoshinobu Yamamoto joined the ever-growing list of injured Dodgers starting pitchers. No team needs a break more than the pre-season World Series favorites.

• The first ever “inning of the weekend” award goes to the St. Louis Cardinals, who put up a nine-spot against the Chicago Cubs in the first inning of their game on Saturday. It was a pretty awesome 20 minutes for a neutral observer like myself. Ultimately, the rivals split their four-game set.

• A lot of guys hit home runs on Sunday, but two hit more than anyone else: Oakland Athletics outfielder Lawrence Butler and Colorado Rockies first baseman Michael Toglia hit three dingers each. A pretty good day at the ballpark, if you ask me.

• Milestone alert! Jose Altuve moved into fourth all-time in home runs for the Houston Astros. Angels reliever Ben Joyce threw the fastest pitch of the season at 104.5 MPH. And Bryce Harper has now hit a home run against all 30 big-league teams. Congratulations!

GOLF

What a finish at the Scottish Open! After an incredible final stretch with multiple players in title contention, Scottish golfer Robert MacIntyre won the tournament with a clutch birdie putt on the final hole. You can see MacIntyre’s masterpiece in the top plays section (below).

On the women’s tour, Ayaka Furue was five under on the last five holes to win her first major championship. The 25-year old from Japan eagled the last hole to secure her victory.

NOTEWORTHY NEWS

We begin with a couple of items from the NBA… first, Jalen Brunson became the most popular man in New York, agreeing to take over $100 million less than expected on his contract extension in order to help the Knicks sign other players. Denver Nuggets first-round pick Da’Ron Holmes tore his achilles in Summer League action, which will force him to miss the upcoming season. And finally, remember the mid-season tournament? Well the NBA announced the groups for next season– you can look at them in case you want to be the only person who remembers what’s going on next October when the NBA Cup starts again.

Five days after Minnesota Vikings rookie cornerback Khyree Jackson was killed in a suspected drunk-driving accident, Vikings wide receiver Jordan Addison was arrested on suspicion of a DUI. The talented second-year man is supposed to be a key piece of the Vikings offense.

History was made in two major big ways at last night’s MLB draft. Travis Bazzana from Oregon State became the first Australian to be selected in the first round, after he was chosen by the Cleveland Guardians first overall. And for just the second time ever, three players were drafted from the same school in the top ten picks, as Chase Burns (2), Nick Kurtz (4), and Seaver King (10) were all selected out of Wake Forest. The draft continues with rounds 3-10 tomorrow.

TOP PLAYS OF THE WEEKEND

8 and 7: We begin with two plays from the Copa America third-place match between Canada and Uruguay. Luis Suarez stunned the Canadians, tying the game with this goal in the final moments. But the goal of the game is from Canadian Ismael Kone, who produced this beauty. 

6: Might this technically be a not-top play? I’m going to look at it from the Giants perspective because a walk-off little league home run is pretty awesome.

5: I’m honestly not sure how I found this goal, but the Columbus Crew’s Cucho Hernandez struck this one from way downtown.

4: As promised, here’s Robert MacIntyre’s tournament-winning birdie putt. 

3: Teamwork at it’s finest! You won’t believe this catch from the Cleveland Guardians.

2: Lorenzo Musetti shows off a magical one-handed backhand in his semifinal match against Novak Djokovic.

A pretty easy selection for NUMBER ONE this weekend. You have to see this game-saving “heads-up” play:

If there is ever an end-of-year compilation of The Remix top plays, I guarantee you this will make it onto the list. Championship-winning defense should always be celebrated.

TODAY’S BIG GAMES (all times Eastern)

MLB: Home Run Derby, 8 PM on ESPN

• People will talk about how there’s a new format, or debate if Pete Alonso should be back in the derby for like the hundredth time, but basically this is the same it’s always been: eight sluggers hit baseballs really far as many times as they can. Just sit back and enjoy the show.

Thanks for reading! Have a great Monday