Plauderecke » st Mrazek. It was Lees sixth of the season and fifth i

NEW YORK -- It was on a US Open practice court where, if you were especially intuitive, there were signs last year that Serena Williams was headed for an unhappy ending to her quest of completing the seventh calendar-year Grand Slam in the history of the game.It wasnt necessarily what she did that day, tossing and serving for well over an hour -- first from the deuce court, then from the ad and over to a different court for more of the same.It was more of what drove her there and the purposefulness with which she marched over directly after her match. Williams would later admit to being nervous during her eventual second-round victory against the 110th-ranked player in the world, a match in which she would squeak out a first-set tiebreaker 7-5, after committing eight double faults and 26 unforced errors in the opening set.She would close the match out 6-3 in the second; the match point was not accompanied by anything close to the shrieks heard that afternoon but rather utter silence, a disgusted look and an eye roll. She later characterized it as not one of my happiest moments.At that point, Williams was already tired of the questions and seemingly tired of the grind. Tired of being tired. She even all but demanded that any inquiries with the words Grand Slam in them cease. And when she lost in a semifinal shocker to Roberta Vinci, the 43rd-ranked player in the world playing her first career Slam semi, Serena blew through a four-minute news conference and left the grounds.You could hardly blame her. But back in the second round here Thursday against 27-year-old American Vania King, Williams mood was decidedly different.I think Im more relaxed, for sure, Williams said this earlier this week.While not exactly operating under the proverbial radar, Serena is trying to win just her second Slam in a row after prevailing at Wimbledon and only trying to surpass Steffi Grafs record of 22 career majors.And while King is an 87th-ranked wildcard who succumbed to Serena in their only previous meeting, 6-1, 6-0 in 56 minutes in the 2014 US Open, you suspect Williams opponent, as always, has very little to do with the outcome.While Serena is still dealing with a shoulder issue that had her going for placement rather than speed on her serves in her 6-3, 6-3 first-round win over Ekaterina Makarova, there is considerably less emotional weight on both shoulders this year.In 2015, Williams played 17 three-setters going into the Open in 10 tournaments, plus two rounds of Fed Cup; she won 16 of those three-set matches. This year, there have been five three-setters in seven tournaments, including the Olympics. She lost that third-round encounter to 20th-ranked Elina Svitolina in straight sets on Aug. 9, her last match before New York.Even with the shoulder concerns, Williams was asked, is this US Open already a more pleasant experience?I was going for something that no one has done in a really long time, she said of last year. Yeah, it didnt end wonderful for me or the way I wanted it to end. But it was all I could do. Thats all I could do.While the three-set victories were a testament to her competitive toughness, the off-court battle turned out to be a considerably tougher one. After the 2015 Open, she cited a broken heart from her loss to Vinci in addition to other injuries and subsequently announced she was withdrawing from three tournaments, including the WTA Finals.Williams coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, said the motivation just wasnt there, and it was the only sensible decision. And this year, while Serena, who is weeks short of her 35th birthday, said she would have preferred to play more coming into the final Grand Slam of the year, she is trying to be optimistic.There is nothing we can do about it, she said. You just have to make the best of every single opportunity. Thats all I can do now.Usually, thats more than enough. Cheap Jerseys Free Shipping . With Parker having a quiet game for once, Nicolas Batum and Boris Diaw provided the scoring as France won its first major basketball title by beating Lithuania 80-66 on Sunday. It was a victory that ended a decade of frustration for Parker and a talented French generation, which lost the final against Spain two years ago and took bronze in 2005. Cheap NFL Jerseys China . Sgt. Eric ONeal says most of the arrests at Monday nights game were for public drunkenness, though one person was taken into custody on suspicion of trying to steal a seat from the stadium. https://www.wholesalejerseys2020.com/ . Having already announced that the race will start May 9 with three stages in Northern Ireland and Ireland and finish in Trieste on June 1, the rest of the route was unveiled Monday. China Jerseys . Clarke was injured while practicing on the Doha Golf Club range after the pro-am on Tuesday. The Northern Irishman arrived at the course on Wednesday hoping to start, but after hitting a few balls on the practice putting green Clarke advised officials he was not fit to play. Wholesale Custom Jerseys . Vokoun departed practice on Saturday morning after discovering swelling in his thigh. He was taken to a local hospital where the clot was revealed. The club announced the surgery following a 5-3 exhibition loss to the Columbus Blue Jackets. NEW YORK -- Detroit coach Jeff Blashill liked the way his team bounced back after a tough loss against the defending champions the previous night and a difficult third period in which the Red Wings twice gave up the lead.Danny DeKeyser scored 1:02 into overtime to give Detroit a 4-3 victory over the New York Islanders on Sunday night.Mike Green scored twice and Henrik Zetterberg had a goal and an assist to help the Red Wings improve to 4-1-2 in their last seven games. Detroit was coming off 5-3 loss at Pittsburgh on Saturday in which the Penguins scored four times in the third period to rally.I was happy overall, Blashill said. Obviously you get leads and then you give them up, you dont want to do that. Theyre a good team, too, and theyre going to push as well. I thought our guys stayed with it even after the times we gave up those goals. We had real good bounce-back shifts, I thought. That was real important.Peter Mrazek stopped 32 shots to improve to 3-0-2 in his past five starts.On the winning goal, Thomas Tatar brought the puck into the offensive zone on the right side and sent a pass to DeKeyser in the middle. He fired it past Halak on the blocker side.I jumped up in the play, they had a guy changing and I beat him up the ice, DeKeyser said, and Tats threw it over to me and it went in. It was a good feeling.Anders Lee, Johnny Boychuk and Josh Bailey scored for New York, which had won a season-high three straight. Jaroslav Halak finished with 30 saves.It was a game we really needed the two (points) and take advantage of a team on a tough back-to-back, Islanders captain John Tavares said. Some good things, but still room for improvement and obviously we need the results.Detroits Frans Nielsen had an assist while facing his former team for the first time since leaving the Islanders for a six-year, $31.5 million deal with the Red Wings last summer. The 32-year-old Danish center, selected by the Islanders in the third round of the 2002 draft, had 119 goals and 230 assists over 10 seasons in New York.Zetterberg gave the Red Wings a 3-2 lead with 6:54 remaining, deflecting Jonathan Ericssons point shot past Halak on the goalies glove side for his sixth of the season. The veteran forward leads the Red Wings with 19 points.The Islanders tied it 2:33 after Zetterbergs goal. Dennis Seidenbergs shot was stopped by Mrazek, and as the puck rolled to the right side, Bailey and Tavares both whacked at it, with Bailey getting credit for the ggoal.ddddddddddddThe Islanders trailed 2-1 after two periods before Boychuk tied it 1:52 into the third. Casey Cizikas sent the puck toward the net, it rolled around the boards and DeKeyser tried to clear it. But the puck went to Boychuk, who fired it past Mrazek for his fourth of the season and second in three games.Green nearly had a third goal less than 5 minutes later but it was overturned on a challenge by Islanders coach Jack Capuano for goalie interference by Detroit center Luke Glendening.Green gave the Red Wings a 2-1 lead with 5:20 left in the second period, taking a pass from Thomas Vanek and beating Halak in the top right corner. It was Greens sixth of the season and his first multi-goal game since his first career hat trick against Ottawa on Oct. 17.Green credited the win to his teams increased effort after the previous nights loss.We raised the bar a little bit and if we continue to do that, well be good, the veteran defenseman said. We played well. Its just a matter of keeping that compete level up.Lee got the Islanders on the scoreboard first 5:16 into the game on their first shot on goal as he took a centering pass from Cal Clutterbuck and wristed it through a couple of defenders and past Mrazek. It was Lees sixth of the season and fifth in the last six games.Green tied it with 7:07 remaining in the first on a one-timer off a pass from Nielsen.About 2 minutes later, Islanders defenseman Travis Hamonic received 17 minutes of penalties for fighting Detroits Steve Ott. After Tavares was hit in the face by a high stick from the Red Wings Drew Miller, Ott came in and hit Tavares as he backed away and held his face. Hamonic took exception and fought Ott and received instigator, fighting and misconduct penalties.Game notes Nielsens assist was his ninth of the season and it gave him 15 points, second on the team behind Zetterberg. ... The Red Wings scratched D Ryan Sproul and LW Thomas Nosek. ... The teams play twice more, both at Detroit, on Feb. 3 and Feb. 21. ... Bailey had a point for the fifth straight game and has seven points in his last seven games.UP NEXTRed Wings: At Winnipeg on Tuesday night in the finale of a three-game trip.Islanders: Host the crosstown-rival Rangers on Tuesday night in the middle game of a three-game homestand.---Follow Vin Cherwoo at www.twitter.com/VinCherwooAP ' ' '