Murray, top men in quarterfinals; women up for grabs
For all of the tumult in the French Open women’s draw and the unfamiliar names filling the quarterfinal slots, the men’s tournament has been much more about the usual suspects: Andy Murray, Novak Djokovic, Stan Wawrinka and, of course, Rafael Nadal.
The No. 1-seeded Murray, a three-time major champion and last year’s runner-up at Roland Garros, and No. 3 Wawrinka, whose own trio of Grand Slam trophies includes the 2015 French Open, moved into the quarters with ho-hum, straight-set victories Monday.
While three of the winners in women’s fourth-round action Monday — No. 2 Karolina Pliskova, No. 3 Simona Halep and No. 5 Elina Svitolina — are highly seeded, none of the eight players left in that field has ever won a Grand Slam tournament.
And they’re all well aware.
“Everyone knows who remains in the draw,” said Svitolina, who was two points from losing before coming back to beat 290th-ranked Petra Martic 4-6, 6-3, 7-5. “It’s a big opportunity.”
There’s a lot more experience and hardware among the remaining men.
There’s Murray and Wawrinka on the top half of the bracket. On the bottom half, No. 2 Djokovic, the defending champion, and No. 4 Nadal, seeking a record-extending 10th title in Paris, would set up a showdown in the semifinals with one victory apiece Tuesday.
“Looks like one of the top four guys” is going to end up grasping the champion’s Coupe des Mousquetaires, seven-time major titlist John McEnroe observed.
He added that he thinks “quite probably” the semifinals will be No. 1 vs. No. 3, and No. 2 vs. No. 4.
Sure looks that way at the moment.
Murray was barely tested in the fourth round, beating 21-year-old Karen Khachanov 6-3, 6-4, 6-4. Wawrinka had only a bit more trouble, eliminating the last Frenchman, No. 15 Gael Monfils, 7-5, 7-6 (7), 6-2.
Next for Murray is a match against No. 8 Kei Nishikori, who got past a slow start to defeat Fernando Verdasco 0-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-0. Murray’s headto-head record against Nishikori is 8-2. Wawrinka, meanwhile, is 11-2 against quarterfinal opponent No. 7 Marin Cilic, who was leading 6-3, 3-0 when Kevin Anderson stopped because of an injured left hamstring.
June has arrived, and the NBA Finals soon will be over. Real soon, I’d say. That means rosters soon will start to change. The NBA Draft is June 22, and the free agency period starts July 1. So today we start out series on NBA payrolls and the contract status of every player in the league. By division, we’ll look at each team and its salary flexibility. Salary information courtesy of basketball-insiders.com.
Today, we start with the Thunder’s Northwest Division:
Oklahoma City Thunder
Russell Westbrook $28.5M, Steven Adams $22.5M, Victor Oladipo $21.0M, Enes Kanter $17.9M, Alex Abrines $5.7M, Kyle Singler $4.7M, Doug McDermott $3.3M, Domantas Sabonis $2.6M, Josh Huestis $1.5M.
Jerami Grant
$1.5M.
$1.3M.
Roberson.
Semaj Christon
Andre
Taj Gibson, Nick Collison, Norris Cole.
21st. $110M. Tight. The team’s core is locked up, which is good, but OKC has little salary space, which is bad. The Thunder is firmly between the projected salary cap ($101 million) and the projected luxury tax ($121 million), and that’s without keeping Gibson or Roberson or adding newcomers.
Portland Trailblazers
Damian Lillard $26.2M, C.J. McCollum $24.0M, Allen Crabbe $19.3M, Evan Turner $17.1M, Meyers Leonard, $9.9M, Maurice Harkless $9.7M, Al-Farouq Aminu $7.3M, Ed Davis $6.4M, Noah Vonleh $3.5M, Jusuf Nurkic $2.9M, Shabazz Napier $2.4M, Jake Layman $1.3M.
Pat Cannaughton $1.5M, Tim Quarterman $1.3M.
Ezeli.
20th, 26th.
$132.9M. Ouch. The Blazers are well above the luxury tax threshold, with few apparent moves for relief, and a roster that just went 41-41. Portland will have to improve internally.
Utah Jazz
Festus
15th,
Rudy Gobert $21.2M, Derrick Favors $12.0M, Alec Burks $10.8M, Joe Johnson $10.5M, Dante Exum $5.0M, Trey Lyles $2.4M, Rodney Hood $2.4M, Joel Bolomboy $1.3M,
Gordon Hayward
$16.7M.
Boris Diaw $7.5M, Raul Neto $1.5M.
George Hill, Shelvin Mack, Jeff Withey.
30th. Joe Ingles.
24th,
$65.7M. Excellent shape, but Hayward must be re-signed and Hill was a huge piece of the Utah puzzle, too.
Denver Nuggets
Kenneth Faried $12.9M, Wilson Chandler $12.0M, Darrell Arthur $7.5M, Jameer Nelson $4.7M, Will Barton $3.5M, Emmanuel Mudiay $3.4M, Jamal Murray $3.4M, Gary Harris $2.6M, Juancho Hernangomez $2.1M, Malik Beasley $1.7M, Nikola Jokic $1.5M.
Danilo Gallinari
$16.1M.
13th. $55.2M. Promising. The Nuggets have plenty of cap space and some good young players at low salaries.
Minnesota Timberwolves
Ricky Rubio $14.25M, Gorgui Dieng $14.1M, Nikola Pekovic $11.6M, Andrew Wiggins $7.6M, Cole Aldrich $7.3M, Karl-Anthony Towns $6.2M, Kris Dunn $4.0M, Nemanja Bjelica $3.9M, Zach LaVine $3.2M, Tyus Jones $1.5M.
Jordan Hill
$4.2M.
Mike Miller
Roy
Mason
Shabazz Muhammad, Omri Casspi.
Brandon Rush, Adreian Payne.
seventh. $75.1M. Solid. Minnesota has a bunch of young talent at moderate salaries. The Timberwolves are where the Thunder was in 2009. Trouble is, the T-Wolves have been there for three years.