Stan Wawrinka is a Swiss professional tennis player and currently world No. 3, which is also his career-high singles ranking. He first attained this ranking on January 27, 2014 as a result of winning his first Grand Slam event, the 2014 Australian Open. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, Wawrinka won a gold medal for Switzerland in the men’s doubles event with partner Roger Federer. Wawrinka’s powerful backhand has been described by John McEnroe as “the best one-handed backhand in the game today.” Wawrinka was born on March 28, 1985.
I was happy to see Wawrinka finally win a Grand Slam tournament this year. He joined Juan Martín del Potro (who won the 2009 U.S. Open) as the only men not named Federer (17), Nadal (14), Djokovic (6) or Murray (2) to win a Grand Slam title since 2005. I hope Wawrinka does well at the ongoing 2014 Wimbledon.
Dominika Cibulková is a Slovak professional tennis player. She is currently ranked No. 10 on the WTA Tour. Known for her quick and aggressive style of play and diminutive height, she has won four career singles titles. Cibulková has reached the quarterfinals or better of all four Grand Slam tournaments. The most notable achievement of her career to date was a finals appearance at the 2014 Australian Open. Cibulková became the first female Slovak to reach the championship round of a Grand Slam. She was born on May 6, 1989.
After the retirement of Kim Clijsters in 2012, I was looking for a new favorite women’s tennis player to root for. I can’t cheer for the insufferable shrieking banshees of women’s tennis (e.g., Sharapova, Azarenka, Serena Williams), as I am somewhat inclined to agree with tennis great Martina Navratilova that grunting or screaming during play “is cheating, pure and simple.” Some women’s players I like include Sloane Stephens (WTA no. 18), Australia’s Samantha Stosur (WTA no. 17) and Canada’s Eugenie Bouchard (WTA no. 13), but Dominika Cibulková is my favorite. Happy Wimbledon!
Steve Nash is a Canadian professional basketball point guard who has played for the NBA’s Phoenix Suns (1996-1998; 2004-2012), Dallas Mavericks (1998-2004) and Los Angeles Lakers (2012-present). In the 2004-05 season, Nash led the Suns to the Western Conference Finals and was named the league’s Most Valuable Player (MVP). He was named MVP again in the 2005-06 season and missed out on a third consecutive MVP title to former Dallas teammate Dirk Nowitzki in 2006-07. Nash has led the league in assists and free-throw percentage at various points in his career. He is ranked as one of the top players in NBA history in three-point shooting, free-throw shooting, total assists and assists per game.
Dirk Nowitzki is a German professional basketball forward for the NBA’s Dallas Mavericks. He was chosen as the ninth pick in the 1998 NBA Draft and has played 16 seasons for the Mavericks. Nowitzki led the Mavericks to 13 NBA Playoffs (2001-2012; 2014), including the franchise’s first Finals appearance in 2006 and only championship in 2011. He is a 12-time All-Star, a 12-time All-NBA Team member, and the first European player to start in an All-Star Game. Nowitzki has been named NBA Most Valuable Player (2007) and NBA Finals MVP (2011). He was born on this day in 1978.
Kawhi Leonard is an American professional basketball small forward for the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs. He played college basketball at San Diego State University (SDSU) and was selected with the 15th overall pick in the 2011 NBA draft. Yesterday, Leonard won the 2014 NBA championship with the San Antonio Spurs and was named the NBA Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP). At 22 years old, he was the third-youngest to win the Finals MVP, behind only Magic Johnson (who won in both 1980 and 1982). Leonard was born on June 29, 1991.
Kawhi Leonard is my wife’s favorite NBA player. Tim Duncan is her second-favorite player. She became a Spurs fan after watching parts of the NBA Finals in 2013, and again in 2014.
Maurice Sendak was an American illustrator and writer of children’s books. He became widely known for his book Where the Wild Things Are, first published in 1963. Born to Jewish-Polish parents, his childhood was affected by the death of many of his family members during the Holocaust. Sendak’s works include In the Night Kitchen and Outside Over There, and illustrations for Little Bear. He was born on this day in 1928 and died on May 8, 2012.
Tony Parker is a French professional basketball point guard for the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs. He played for two years in the French basketball league before being selected by the San Antonio Spurs in the 2001 NBA Draft. Parker helped the Spurs win three NBA championships in 2003, 2005 and 2007—and was the 2007 NBA Finals MVP. Employing his pace and high field goal percentage to great effect, Parker has been named to six NBA All-Star games. He was also named the FIBA EuroBasket 2013 MVP following his team’s victory over Lithuania in the gold medal game. Parker is also a music artist with his own music album TP.
Manu Ginóbili is an Argentine professional basketball shooting guard for the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs. Hailed as one of the finest international players to grace the NBA, he plays a high-tempo and intense game. He is one of only two players, along with Bill Bradley, to have won a Euroleague title, an NBA championship and an Olympic gold medal. Ginóbili spent the early part of his basketball career in Argentina and Italy, then joined the Spurs in 2002. He made his debut on the Argentina national team in 1998, and helped win the gold medal during the 2004 Olympics.
My wife is not into sports, but she has developed a passing interest in tennis and the NBA because I will sometimes watch a major tournament match or playoff game. For a long time, she called the San Antonio Spurs “the Ginóbilis,” since Manu’s bald spot and noodle-like body maneuvers made him the easiest player for her to recognize and remember. She became a Spurs fan after watching part of the NBA Finals in 2013, and plans to watch the Spurs play the Miami Heat in the NBA Finals again this week.
Chris Bosh is an American professional basketball power forward for the NBA’s Miami Heat. He was selected fourth overall by the Toronto Raptors in the very competitive 2003 draft class that included future NBA superstars LeBron James, Dwyane Wade and Carmelo Anthony. Bosh won a gold medal at the 2008 Olympics and, two years later, reunited with James and Wade on the Miami Heat. Miami Heat’s “Big Three” have since reached four consecutive NBA Finals. Bosh is a nine-time NBA All-Star (2006-2014) and a two-time NBA champion (2012-2013). Despite leaving the Raptors four years ago, the Internet still compares Bosh’s appearance to that of a velociraptor.
Note: The first game of the 2014 NBA Finals is on Thursday, June 5.
Gale Sayers is a retired National Football League (NFL) player who played as a running back for seven seasons (1965-1971) with the Chicago Bears. Known as “The Kansas Comet,” Sayers is a member of both the Pro Football Hall of Fame and the College Football Hall of Fame. His friendship with fellow Chicago Bear Brian Piccolo (who was diagnosed with testicular cancer) was the basis for the 1971 movie Brian’s Song. He is a successful entrepreneur in the information technology field and an active philanthropist. Sayers was born on this day in 1943.
Irena Sendler (née Krzyżanowska) was a Polish nurse/social worker who served in the Polish Underground during World War II, and as head of children’s section of Żegota, an underground resistance organization in German-occupied Warsaw. Assisted by some two dozen other Żegota members, Sendler smuggled some 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto and provided them with false identity documents and housing outside the Ghetto, saving those children during the Holocaust. The Nazis eventually discovered her activities and tortured her, but she managed to evade execution and survive the war. Known as “the female Oskar Schindler,” late in life she was awarded Poland’s highest honor for her wartime humanitarian efforts. Sendler was born on February 15, 1910 and died on May 12, 2008 at the age of 98.
Note: Sendler was reportedly a candidate to receive the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize, but that honor was awarded to Al Gore and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) instead.
Katharine Hepburn was an American actress of film, stage and television. Known for her headstrong independence and spirited personality, Hepburn was a leading lady in Hollywood for more than 60 years and received four Academy Awards for Best Actress—a record for any performer. In 1999, Hepburn was named by the American Film Institute as the greatest female star in Hollywood history. In the middle of her career, Hepburn found a niche playing middle-aged spinsters, such as in The African Queen (1951), a persona the public embraced. Three more Oscars came for her work in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner (1967), The Lion in Winter (1968) and On Golden Pond (1981). She remained active into old age, making her final screen appearance in 1994 at the age of 87. She was born on this day in 1907 and died on June 29, 2003 at the age of 96.
Grace Kelly was an American film actress and Princess of Monaco as the wife of Prince Rainier III. After embarking on an acting career in 1950, at the age of 20, she appeared in New York City theatrical productions and more than 40 episodes of live drama productions broadcast during the early 1950s Golden Age of Television. She starred in films from 1953 to 1956, including Dial M for Murder, Rear Window and The Country Girl (in which she gave a deglamorized, Academy Award-winning performance). She retired from acting at the age of 26 to marry Prince Rainier and enter upon her duties in Monaco. She retained her American roots, maintaining dual U.S. and Monégasque citizenship. She was born on November 12, 1929 and died on September 14, 1982.
Chris Paul is an American professional basketball point guard for the NBA’s Los Angeles Clippers. Since being selected in the 2005 NBA Draft by the New Orleans Hornets, Paul has been an NBA Rookie of the Year (2006), a seven-time All-Star, an All-Star Game Most Valuable Player (MVP), and a multiple-time All-NBA and All-Defensive team honoree. He has won two Olympic gold medals with the U.S. national basketball team. On August 21, 2013, Paul was elected the National Basketball Players Association president. He was born on this day in 1985.
Note: After LeBron James and Kevin Durant, CP3 is probably the third-best player in the NBA right now. Honorable mentions go to Steph Curry, Derrick Rose (if he ever gets 100% healthy again), Anthony Davis, Blake Griffin, Russell Westbrook, Paul George, Kevin Love, Joakim Noah, Dwight Howard, James Harden and Carmelo Anthony—in some order. Oh, and maybe Kobe Bryant?
Marshawn Lynch is an American football running back for the Seattle Seahawks of the National Football League (NFL). Lynch played college football for the California Golden Bears, where he became the school’s second all-time career rusher. In the NFL, he has been named to the Pro Bowl four times and most recently helped the Seahawks win Super Bowl XLVIII. Nicknamed “Beast Mode,” Lynch is perhaps most famous for his 67-yard “Beast Quake” touchdown run during the NFC wild-card game in 2011 in which he broke nine tackles and threw a Saints cornerback to the ground with one arm. Lynch was born on this day in 1986.
Elizabeth II is the constitutional monarch of 16 realms of the 53-member Commonwealth of Nations (the “Commonwealth”). She is also the head of the Commonwealth and the Supreme Governor of the Church of England. Upon her accession in 1952, Elizabeth became head of the Commonwealth and queen regnant of seven independent Commonwealth countries (since expanded to 16 realms). She is the longest-lived and, after her great-great grandmother Queen Victoria, the second longest-reigning British monarch. Now 88 years old, Elizabeth was born on this day in 1926.
Maynard James Keenan is an American progressive metal singer, songwriter, musician, record producer, winemaker and actor. He is best known as the lead singer of the multi-platinum rock bands Tool and A Perfect Circle. Keenan has released four studio albums with Tool, and three with A Perfect Circle. In 2003, he created Puscifer as a side project and has subsequently released two studio albums. He has also performed improvisational stand-up comedy and ventured into acting. Keenan currently owns Merkin Vineyards and the associated winery, Caduceus Cellars, and also partly owns Stronghold Vineyards, all of which are located in Arizona. He was born on this day in 1964.
Warrior (born James Brian Hellwig) was an American professional wrestler, who wrestled most famously under the ring name the Ultimate Warrior. He was best known for his appearances in the World Wrestling Federation (WWF, now WWE) from 1987 to 1996, as well as his stint in World Championship Wrestling (WCW) in 1998. Warrior died last week, on April 8, 2014, at the age of 54. Over the preceding three days he had been inducted into the WWE Hall of Fame, appeared at WrestleMania XXX and made his final public appearance on Raw.
Note: I never followed the WWF closely, but I do remember junior-high classmates discussing rumors of how the Ultimate Warrior had died in 1991, and was secretly being portrayed by a new wrestler—thus the drastic change in his appearance (shorter, blonder hair and a smaller physique). It seems he was always Hellwig though. Shrug.
Mary Pickford was a Canadian-American motion picture actress, co-founder of the film studio United Artists and one of the original 36 founders of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. During the silent film era she became one of the first great celebrities of the cinema and a popular icon known to the public as “America’s Sweetheart.” She was one of the Canadian pioneers in early Hollywood and a significant figure in the development of film acting. Pickford won two Academy Awards in her lifetime, one for Coquette (1929) and one in 1975. She was born on this day in 1892.
Jackie Chan is a Hong Kong actor, action choreographer, comedian, martial artist, singer and stunt performer. In his movies, he is known for his acrobatic fighting style, comic timing, use of improvised weapons and innovative stunts. He is one of the few actors to have performed all of his film stunts. Chan has been acting since the 1960s and has appeared in over 150 films. An operatically trained vocalist, Chan is also a Cantopop and Mandopop star, having released a number of albums and sung many of the theme songs for the films in which he has starred. He was born on this day in 1954.
Note: Chan was the only child of Charles and Lee-Lee Chan and reportedly spent 12 months in the womb before being removed surgically at 12 pounds in weight. This can’t be true, unless it somehow is.
Stan Wawrinka – No. 755
Stan Wawrinka is a Swiss professional tennis player and currently world No. 3, which is also his career-high singles ranking. He first attained this ranking on January 27, 2014 as a result of winning his first Grand Slam event, the 2014 Australian Open. At the 2008 Summer Olympics, Wawrinka won a gold medal for Switzerland in the men’s doubles event with partner Roger Federer. Wawrinka’s powerful backhand has been described by John McEnroe as “the best one-handed backhand in the game today.” Wawrinka was born on March 28, 1985.
I was happy to see Wawrinka finally win a Grand Slam tournament this year. He joined Juan Martín del Potro (who won the 2009 U.S. Open) as the only men not named Federer (17), Nadal (14), Djokovic (6) or Murray (2) to win a Grand Slam title since 2005. I hope Wawrinka does well at the ongoing 2014 Wimbledon.