Australia may catch the attention of the sporting world forthe next couple of weeks or so, including today. The Australian Open of tennis began in thevery preliminary rounds on January 10th, and having finished the Qualifiersyesterday, today begins the Round of 128. Play continues for the next twoweeks, until reaching the finals on the weekend of January 27th and 28th. In other words, stay tuned for updates inthis space in two weeks time. Australia also hosts cycling's first UCI event of the year,even if the cycling season doesn't really begin until the one day classics inMarch. Riders of the 18 teams of the UCIpro peloton (World Tour Teams), as well as the wild card invited team of UniSA-Australia, will take part in the Santos Tour DownUnder, January 16-21. The race will takeplace in six stages, in and around Adelaide, and riders will ride just over 500miles (800 kilometres) before the big finish next Sunday. TeamSky, while on a training ride, was pulled over by the local constabulary fortraffic violations the other day. Otherviolations have also been rumoured for this team, which formerly has alwaysheld itself forth as a paragon of dope free virtue. Apparently not everyone is pleased to have thecycling world take over Adelaide for the Tour Down Under.
Australia is also still hosting The Ashes tour, with Englandhoping for revenge, after having lost the possibility to take home the Ashes due to poor Test Match showing (yes, technically the "Ashes Tour."). Revenges is a wicket best served cold, andEngland has a real chance as a series of One Day International (ODI) matchesbegins today at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds. Thrashed in the Ashes and nowfacing the world champions on their home turf, England's prospects in theone-day series in Australia may appear bleak, but instead experts sense thatEngland may be coming into their strength. England's 50-over side have plenty of reasons to believe they cansucceed where their Test counterparts failed when the five-match one-day seriesstarts today at the Melbourne Cricket Grounds. The ODI squad will play the next two Fridays and Sundays, in Brisbane,then Sydney, then Adelaide and then Perth. Although England's Tour of Australia will officially wrap up then,Twenty20 International players will remain, for February's Trans-TasmanTri-Series among England, Australia and New Zealand. In the United States, in Professional Football, the NFLDivisional Round continues today with the Jacksonville Jaguars visiting thePittsburgh Steelers, and the New Orleans Saints visiting the MinnesotaVikings. We're sure all the teams feelthat second best is not good enough. The Steelers (13-3) entered the season as one of thefavorites to reach the Super Bowl. OnOctober 8th, they lost big to the Jacksonville Jaguars, but are confident atthis rematch. Should they win, theywould be the second team from Pennsylvania to advance in the playoffs, Jacksonville win, it would be a landmark infranchise history. Pittsburgh All-Prowide receiver Antonio Brown is expected to play after missing the final 2½games of the regular season with a left calf contusion. Brown practiced allweek, though he was sent home on Friday because of an illness. Brown caught 10 passes for 157 yards in thefirst meeting with Jacksonville and his return means all of Pittsburgh's"Killer Bs" will be ready to go. The temperature is forecast to hoveraround 17 at game time, which may give the northerners an advantage over thetropical Floridians. Minnesota will host the game to the farthest north thisweekend, at their new stadium in Minneapolis. Frigid temperatures will not be a problem for either team, however,since the Vikings stadium is marvelously climate controlled. The last time these teams played in the postseason, Brett Favre was playing for Minnesota, and the Saints felt theydeserved a win, having survived Hurricane Katrina, etc. They certainly did win, with the help of the league and their referees, but this win and their savage attitude caused the Saints to be investigated, and to be sanctioned for injury bounties played to players. . Minnesota's Defense is second to none, butNew Orleans benefits from the strong playing of Drew Brees and other greatoffensive players. The Vikings havereactivated Sam Bradford but his status is unclear on Sunday. -- Posted By Rex to SR at 1/13/2018 11:46:00 PM -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "omnisport" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/omnisport. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
