Carlos Sastre Wins Cycling’s 95th Tour de France

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On Sunday, July 27, 2008, in Paris, France, Carlos Sastre of Spain won the 95th Tour de France. Tour de France is the most famous cycling tournament in the world where cyclists compete in bicycles on a 3,500 kilometer trip with 21 stages around the country of France with the finishing line in Paris. The 95th Tour de France was held from Saturday, 7-5-2008 to Sunday, 7-27-2008. Sastre is the 7th Spaniard to win the Tour de France. Cadel Evans of Australia takes second place and Bernhard Kohl of Austria takes third place.

Padraig Harrington Repeats Golf’s British Open Championship

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On Sunday, July 20, 2008, at Royal Birkdale, Southport, England, Padraig Harrington of Ireland defended his Golf British Open Title by winning the 137th British Open. Harrington won the Open by 4 strokes ahead of Ian Poulter of England. Harrington received the Claret Jug trophy for a second straight year.
The British Open lasted from July 17-20, 2008. The British Open also known as the Open Championship is the third tournament in a PGA Grand Slam season. Harrington won $1,498,875 for first place, Poulter won $899,325 for second place. Henrik Stenson of Sweden and Greg Norman of Australia tied for third place, both won $509,618.

2008 World Series of Poker Main Event Delayed Until November 9, 2008

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On Tuesday, July 15, 2008, at the Rio Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada, the final 9 of 6,844 players in the $10,000 buy-in No-Limit Texas Hold’em, 2008 World Series of Poker (WSOP) Main Event were left. Due to a change in the WSOP Main Event tournament to allow broadcasting on ESPN, the Final table will be delayed until November 9, 2008. The final 9 players will also be known as the “November Nine”. The November Nine will play at the Rio’s 1,500-seat Penn & Teller Theater. Each of the 9 players have secured at least $900,000 in winnings. The first place prize will be $9.1 million. 666 players cashed in the event out of a prize pool of $64,333,600.
The official chip count and seating assignments for the 2008 November Nine:
1· DENNIS PHILLIPS, 53, St. Louis, Missouri, 26,295,000

2· IVAN DEMIDOV, 27, Moscow, Russia, 24,400,000

3· SCOTT MONTGOMERY, 26, Perth, Ontario, Canada, 19,690,000

4· PETER EASTGATE, 22, Odense, Denmark, 18,375,000

5· YLON SCHWARTZ, 38, Brooklyn, New York, 12,525,000

6· DARUS SUHARTO, 39, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 12,520,000

7· DAVID RHEEM, 28, Los Angeles, California, 10,230,000

8· CRAIG MARQUIS, 23, Arlington, Texas, 10,210,000

9· KELLY KIM, 31, Whittier, California, 2,620,000
The final nine will play for a total of $32,633,446, with the following pay schedule:
1st Place: $9,119,517
2nd Place: $5,790,024
3rd Place: $4,503,352
4th Place: $3,763,515
5th Place: $3,088,012
6th Place: $2,412,510
7th Place: $1,769,174
8th Place: $1,286,672
9th Place: $900,670

American League Wins MLB 2008 All-Star Game 4-3

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On Tuesday, July 15, 2008 at Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York, the American League (AL) won the MLB 2008 All-Star game 4-3 versus the National League (NL). Minnesota Twins Justin Morneau scored the game winning run from third base on a sacrifice fly. The 79th MLB All-Star game was the longest All-Star game in MLB history. It lasted 15 innings. At 4 hours and 50 minutes, it was the longer than the previous longest All-Star game in 1967 by an hour and equaled the previous high of 15 innings. The 2 teams combined for 27 hits (14 by the AL, 13 by the NL) and left an All-Star record 28 runners on base.
The American League extends its unbeaten All-Star streak to a record 12 games. This victory secures the American League’s home-field advantage in the World Series, the sixth consecutive year since MLB began using the All-Star game to decide the World Series’ home-field advantage.
Boston Red Sox right fielder, J.D. Drew was named the All-Star Game MVP. Drew homered, reached base 4 times and made a catch at the wall to win the MVP award.
This was the fourth and final time that the All-Star game was hosted by Yankee Stadium: 1939, 1960, 1977, 2008. The game was played in front of a sellout crowd of 55,632 baseball fans.

Justin Morneau Wins 2008 Homerun Derby

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On Monday, July 14, 2008, at Yankee Stadium in Bronx, New York, Justin Morneau won the 2008 Homerun Derby. Morneau overcame Josh Hamilton’s first-round record 28 homeruns to win the Homerun Derby in the final round by 5-3.

The Last All-Star Game At Yankee Stadium

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Major League Baseball’s 2008 All-Star game will be hosted on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 by Yankee Stadium, Bronx, New York at 7pm est. The 2008 Homerun Derby will start on Monday, July 14, 2008 at 8pm est.

The historic Yankee Stadium built on April 18, 1923 and renovated in the 1970’s will be torn down after the 2008 baseball season. 85-year-old Yankee Stadium currently seats 56,936 fans. The 26 World Series Titles, New York Yankees, will move to a new stadium in 2009.

Rafael Nadal and Venus Williams Win Tennis's 2008 Wimbledon Open

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On Sunday, July 6, 2008, in Wimbledon, England, No. 2 ranked 22-year-old Rafael Nadal of Spain won the 2008 Men’s Wimbledon Open Title against No. 1 ranked 26-year-old Roger Federer of Switzerland in 5 sets 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5-7), 6-7 (8-10), 9-7. The match lasted 4 hours 48 minutes which made it the longerst Wimbledon Men’s Final. Nadal won both the French Open and Wimbledon titles in the same year, this was last done by Bjorn Borg in 1980.

On Saturday, July 5, 2008, in Wimbledon, England, No. 7 ranked 28-year-old Venus Williams of USA won the 2008 Women’s Wimbledon Open Title against her No. 6 ranked 26-year-old sister Serena Williams of USA in straight sets 7-5, 6-4. This was Venus Williams’ fifth Wimbledon singles title. This was the seventh contest of the sisters in a Grand Slam final. Venus Williams won $1.47 million for the 2008 Women’s Wimbledon Title, the same as the Men’s tournament.

On Saturday, July 5, 2008, later in the day after their Women’s Finals match, the Williams sisters also won the 2008 Women’s Wimbledon Doubles Title against Lisa Raymond of USA and Samantha Stosur of Australia, 6-2, 6-2. The Williams sisters won $448,000 for the double's title.

Inbee Park Wins 63rd Women’s Golf US Open

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On Sunday, June 29, 2008, at Interlachen Country Club in Edina, Minnesota, Indee Park of South Korea won the 63rd Women’s Golf US Open. 19-year-old Park becomes the youngest woman to win the Women’s Golf US Open. Park is the fifth player in USGA history to win a U.S. Girls’ Junior and Women’s Open.
Park won $585,000 for winning the Women’s Golf US Open Title. The U.S. Women’s Golf Open is one of the grand slam tournaments in the LPGA Tour.

Spain Wins Soccer EURO2008

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On Sunday, June 29, 2008, in Austria-Switzerland, Spain won the soccer Euro2008 with a score of 1-0 versus Germany. Fernando Torres scored the winning goal. This is Spain’s second Soccer European Championship win. Spain won the European Championship 44 years ago in 1964.

Quarter-Finals:
Germany wins 3-2 against Portugal
Turkey wins 3-1 on penalties against Croatia
Russia wins 3-1 against Netherlands
Spain wins 4-2 on penalties against Italy

Semi-Finals:
Germany wins 3-2 against Turkey
Spain wins 3-0 against Russia

Finals
Spain wins 1-0 against Germany