ISU Bengal

Issue date: 8/27/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: MCT

Among all the newsmaking stories that took place this summer, like Dr. Bruce Ivins and his attempts to carry out anthrax attacks in 2001, the unpredictable race for President between Barack Obama and John McCain and the major pollution crisis in China, the sports world has still managed to make a little noise during our break. Here are some of the top headlines for the summer:

Kicking off the summer was the French Open in Paris at the Stade Roland Garros on May 25. The tournament featured both a male (Rafael Nadal) and a female (Ana Ivanovic) player ranked second in the world winning their respective single's titles. On the men's side, the Spaniard Nadal dismantled top-seeded Roger Federer in straight sets (6-1,6- 3, 6-0). Nadal failed to surrender a single set the entire tournament. On the women's half, sexy sensation Ana Ivanovic defeated Dinara Safina for the women's title. The 20-year-old Serbian earned the number one seed in the world, after defeating third seeded Jelena Jankovic

The 2008 UEFA European Football Championship (Euro Cup), hosted by Switzerland and Austria, was a 16-team soccer tournament that took place this past June. Spain became only the second team in the history of the tournament (France 1984) to win all of its group matches and the championship. Aside from Spain's dominance over the field, Turkey was the other big story. The Turks had three unprecedented comeback victories against Switzerland (a goal in the final minute broke a 1-1 tie) the Czech Republic (overcoming a 2-0 deficit by scoring three goals in the final 15 minutes) and they countered Croatia's overtime goal to send the game to penalty kicks winning 3-1.

Hallmarking the US Open was Tiger Woods, sinking the lengthy birdie putt on the eighteenth hole at Torrey Pines that forced a playoff with Rocco Mediate. Woods only needed one hole to take the championship and affirm his global icon status. What was even more remarkable about Tiger's epic 14 major championship was that he achieved it on a bad left knee. He was later forced to miss the remainder of the season after having ACL surgery.

The Green Bay Packers ended the long and repetitive drama with their future hall of fame quarterback, Brett Favre, on Aug.7, after trading him to a different green, the New York Jets. The long time Packer retired after the 2007 season, following yet another failed attempt at a second Super Bowl title. Favre's 16 seasons in Green Bay wouldn't be enough for Favre to call it quits for good as he announced a comeback in early July. The Packers would offer Favre 20 million dollars to stay retired, while declaring that Aaron Rodgers would be their starting quarterback. However, the former Southern Mississippi Golden Eagle thought differently. Favre will take one more stab at a second Super Bowl, with tight end Bubba Franks, a huge target he also had in Green Bay for eight seasons. Along with a decent running game, the expectations for the New York Jets this season are extremely high.

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