aid. Its going to be a hard-fought battle and they have been pl

This is time of season when under-the-radar players have ample opportunity to make up ground in the rankings or establish some momentum heading into the next year.For Caroline Wozniacki and a couple of precocious ATP stars, they did both. Here are a few notable items that resonated with our cache of tennis writers this past week:@CarlBialik: A month ago, Caroline Wozniacki had a career résumé most players would envy: 23 career titles, two major finals and 67 weeks at No. 1 (more than Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova, Kim Clijsters and Venus Williams).But Wozniacki had never beaten two top-10 players in two successive tournaments. Now she has, with two such wins on her way to the US Open semifinals earlier this month and two more on her way to the Tokyo title last week. The championship gave Wozniacki 24 career titles.There was no particular reason to expect Wozniacki to create career highlights heading into the US Open. She was ranked 74th in the world and hadnt reached a quarterfinal in six months and hadnt beaten a top-10 player in 11 months. Further, she hadnt won a tournament in 18 months.But Wozniacki was starting to feel healthy again, and her good form coincided with her best major, where she reached the final in New York in 2009 and 2014.Now Wozniackis comeback is on an accelerated schedule. She beat Samantha Stosur in Wuhan on Monday -- the Danes fifth top-20 win in a month after scoring just one in the prior 11 months. Wozniacki could return to the top 20 herself with a few more wins.Win another title this week, Wozniacki has a chance to qualify for the WTA Finals. The last time she got there, in 2014, she won three matches and came within two points of upsetting Serena Williams. Wozniacki might be playing even better tennis today.@ptbodo:?Lucas Pouille did some fair racket work this past weekend. He won the first ATP Tour title of his career at Metz, France. In the final, he knocked off Dominic Thiem.Pouille was playing against a generational rival -- and a player in Thiem who, with justification, has always been more highly touted. Thiem already has four ATP titles this year alone.Pouille is the No. 2-ranked player in the under-23 category behind Nick Kyrgios. And while his game isnt as flashy, it is no less explosive. And Pouilles temperament is in an entirely different league. Hes savvy, self-controlled and good under pressure.Growing up, Pouille admired Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. I didnt copy the way they played, Pouille told the ATP communications staff. But I tried to emulate their attitude on the court and their mental strength.Pouille demonstrated those qualities as he made the quarterfinals at the last two majors of the year. At Wimbledon, he knocked off Juan Martin del Potro. At the US Open, he upset No. 5 Nadal in the fourth-round.The win against Thiem was Pouilles fifth over a top-10 opponent this year -- and his 30th overall. Pouille did benefit from a home-court advantage of sorts: French players have won Metz seven of the past eight years.@mattwilansky: Its not easy to create buzz this time of year on the tennis circuit, but Alexander Zverev did just that Sunday. One of the highly touted up-and-comers, Zverev upset US Open champ?Stan Wawrinka?6-2, 3-6, 7-5 in the final of the St. Petersburg Open.Zverev, a flashy 19-year-old from Germany, has been the centerpiece of a next generation of stars. Hes 6-foot-6 with an stout all-court game. At No. 24, hes the youngest player in the top 50. His triumph Sunday was his first career title.Talented as Zverev is, his win has to come as a major surprise given his red-hot opponent. Wawrinka had been riding a 10-match winning streak, which included his run in New York. The Swiss, arguably the best big-game player at the moment, had won his past 11 finals.Even more stunning, Wawrinka was up 3-0 in the final set before succumbing.Zverev summed up his performance succinctly and accurately afterward, telling the media: This victory is something special.@natkinESPN: It speaks to Andy Murrays character that he is already thinking about his legacy while in the prime of his career. Aside from trying to win more titles, Murray told the British media he will try to leverage his weight in bringing an ATP Tour 250 event to Glasgow, where he launched an annual charity exhibition event at the SSE Hydro last week.This comes as a slice of good news, as Murrays mother, Judy, has voiced concerns, saying Scotland is failing to capitalize on the buzz and opportunity created by her two sons.Just ￡800,000 is allocated to Scotland from the Lawn Tennis Associations ￡64 million annual budget, a paltry amount given how much Andy and Jamie Murray -- both three-time Grand Slam champions in singles and doubles, respectively -- have contributed to highlighting the sport.More tennis courts must be built in working-class areas of Scotland -- there are none in the east end of Glasgow for instance -- or the risk of losing the next generation of British tennis talent is high. Cheap Atlanta Braves Jerseys . 10 Texas Rangers jersey for one last time. Young formally announced his retirement Friday after returning to Rangers Ballpark, his baseball home for all but the last of his 13 major league seasons. Cheap Braves Jerseys Authentic . MLS Commissioner Don Garber and Miami-Dade County Mayor Carlos Gimenez also will attend the session, which was announced Monday. The league has discussed placing its next two expansion teams in Miami and Atlanta. http://www.cheapbravesjerseys.com/?tag=cheap-tom-glavine-jersey .Y. - Free agent outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury, fresh off winning the World Series with Boston, reached agreement with the rival New York Yankees on a seven-year contract worth about $153 million, a person familiar with the negotiations said Tuesday night. Cheap David Justice Jersey . Just as Montreal was settling into the first full working week of a new year, the Impact announced the appointment of their new head coach. Cheap Braves Jerseys .com) - Yankee Stadium is the home of the Bronx Bombers, but on Sunday afternoon it will open its gates to host the latest addition of the Hudson River Rivalry. RIO DE JANEIRO -- There was a calm, relaxed atmosphere at the final practice for the United States womens basketball team.Maybe its because injured guard Sue Bird was able to participate. Or maybe because many of the players have been in this position before -- a win away from another Olympic title.I understand its a gold-medal game; weve approached it like any other game, said Bird, who has helped the U.S. win the past three golds at the Olympics. At the start of this entire month, every single practice and game we approached it like it was a gold-medal game. Todays no different.The Americans will play Spain on Saturday in search of a sixth consecutive gold. Spain is already guaranteed its first Olympic medal in womens basketball.It looks like the U.S. will have Bird back for the title game. She missed the semifinal win over France while she was recovering from a sprained right knee capsule. She said she felt much better Friday and it showed. After taking part in practice, Bird went through a hard workout to test the right knee.She stopped short of saying she definitely would play Saturday.I cant give you an answer for tomorrow, Bird said, smiling. I can be happy with the way things have been going. Long term is great, short term is getting better.Bird said the pain is down to about a one or two out of 10. But she isnt going to push it if she doesnt feel comfortable and has the utmost confidence in her teammates if she cant play.Im not going to be dumb about it. Our team isnt built around one person, its built around 12, she said. As they showed yesterday, it doesnt matterr whos out there; we have a really good team.dddddddddddd. Im not going to do anything stupid.Coach Geno Auriemma, who has worked with Bird for four years at UConn and now eight with USA Basketball, said the decision is up to Bird whether she plays.Shell wake up tomorrow morning and tell us how she feels and well go with that, he said.The U.S. dominated Spain in the preliminary round, winning by 40 points. The Americans also beat Spain in the 2014 world championship title game. Still, the U.S. isnt taking anything for granted.They are really, really good, Diana Taurasi said. Its going to be a hard-fought battle and they have been playing really well since we beat them.The test for Spain will be to do what no team has been able to do in Rio: put together a full game against the U.S. France trailed by four at the half on Thursday and still lost by 19.The Americans have won 48 consecutive games, a streak that started in 1996. Theyve won the seven games in Rio by an average of nearly 40 points and are putting up 102.3 points a contest -- just a hair behind the record set by the 96 squad.Saturdays contest will be the last Olympic game for Tamika Catchings, who is retiring at the end of the WNBA season next month. Bird and Diana Taurasi have also hinted this will probably be their Olympic finale as well.Thats the elephant in the room that no one is talking about, Taurasi said. Were really focused on the game at hand and not what lies ahead after that. ' ' '