Athlete Of The Week

There was a time when there was a poll on goprincetontigers.com.

Each week, there would be a new question, and fans could vote. At one point, it was used to select an Athlete of the Week. There would be a few candidates, and then there'd be a fan vote.

At some point, some member of the water polo team figured out how to rig the votes, so any water polo player would end up with a few million votes. After that, the poll became more of a general question.

You know who would make a great Athlete of the Week for this past week? Novak Djokovic. 

TigerBlog found himself watching a lot of the last two men's matches of the French Open, first Friday afternoon when Djokovic took out Rafael Nadal in an epic semifinal and then yesterday, when the Serb defeated 22-year-old Stefanos Tsitsipas in five sets to win his 19th major.

He also became the third player ever to win all four majors at least twice each. The other two were Rod Laver and Roy Emerson, one of whom was once in the backseat of TB's 1988 Volkswagon Rabbit while another tennis Hall-of-Famer, Cliff Drysdale, was in the front. 

It's a good story. 

Meanwhile, back at Djokovic, he looked all the world to be wiped out early on, as he dropped the first two sets to Tsitsipas, who is 12 years younger. Djokovic had to be suffering from the after-effects of such a rough semifinal, and he hardly looked like he had the energy to make the big comeback after dropping the first two sets.

Instead, it all turned on a dime, when Djokovic broke Tsitsipas in the fourth game of the third set, after Tsitsipas held off four break points. On the fifth, though, Djokovic finally cashed in, and it was basically over after that. There was just a sense during that game that the winner was going to win the whole thing and that's what happened.

Oh, and to those who wrote that the Djokovic-Nadal match was the greatest ever, it wasn't. It wasn't even the greatest match involving Nadal, not after his 2008 Wimbledon final win over Roger Federer in just under five hours. And that doesn't even take into account matches like Borg-McEnroe in the 1980 Wimbledon final and the Connors-Krickstein in the 1991 U.S. Open.

One thing TB could not for the life of him figure out is why top-seeded Djokovic played third-seeded Nadal in the semifinals. Shouldn't the top seed and third seed been on opposite sides of the draw? They are in every other tournament TB has ever seen in any sport ever.

Still it was a great weekend of tennis. And Djokovic's performance was epic. Even the water polo people would have approved.

As for the Princeton Athlete of the Week, that honor belongs to Obiageri Amaechi. Yes, she was the only Princeton athlete to compete this past week, but she certainly made the most of it.

Amaechi qualified for the NCAA track and field championships in the discus after her performance at the regionals, and she competed Saturday afternoon in the final in Eugene. While there, she earned second-team All-American honors, making her a two-time All-American in the event.

As a freshman, she earned first-team All-American honors, when she finished seventh at the NCAAs. In that year, her seventh-place throw sailed 54.16 meters.   

This past Saturday, she did not match her placing from 2018, as she did not advance out of the first round of three throws. Interestingly, though, her throw that earned her 13th place, and second-team honors, was further than the one three years ago, going 54.83.

She also is the Princeton- and Ivy-record holder at 57.95, which she did during the 2019 Heps championship that she won. 

Amaechi was a von Kienbusch Award finalist this year, and she had a great career at Princeton. It was great to see her earn All-American honors.

The NCAA track and field championships are always the final event of the academic year for Princeton. This academic year, obviously, was different than any of the others that have preceded it.

Here's to a "normal" 2021-22.