Silence is golden

The women's singles tennis tournament in London is down to two players now. Top-seeded Ash Barty easily dispatched 2018 champ Angie Kerber, and Karolina Pliskova (pictured) took three sets to upset the 2-seed, Aryna Sabalenka.

The Plsikova victory was doubly satisfying for me. First of all, I won 91 cents on a dollar bet. But more importantly, we are done listening to Sabalenka's blood-curling screams whenever she swings at the ball. You would think the genteel folks at Wimbledon would put a decibel level on player shrieks, but they don't.

Barty and Pliskova will play for the title tomorrow. Neither has been anywhere near the finals at Wimbledon in their careers. It should be interesting.

Today we get down to brass tacks on the men's side. Denis Shapovalov, the 22-year-old Canadian sensation, must take his medicine against the prohibitive favorite from Day 1, Novak Djokovic of Serbia. The other, more interesting, semi-final matchup pits unseeded Pole Hubert Hurkacz against Italian Matteo Berrettini. On paper, Berrettini should win, but picture Hurkacz at this point. In his last two matches, he has defeated Daniil Medvedev and Roger Federer, on grass and on consecutive days. On that kind of roll, he must think he can beat anybody in London. Certainly anybody named Matteo.