Novak Djokovic is on the cusp of winning it all at Wimbledon after tearing his knee up a month ago

This is For The Win’s daily newsletter, The Morning Win. Did a friend recommend or forward this to you? If so, subscribe here. Have feedback? Leave your questions, comments and concerns through this brief reader survey! Now, here’s Mike Sykes.

Goooood morning, folks! Welcome back to the Morning Win. Thanks so much for rocking with us today. We appreciate you giving us a bit of your time.

We’re partying like it’s 2008 again, apparently.

Novak Djokovic came into Wimbledon playing on a torn meniscus. The prevailing thought was, “Man, it’s nice to see him out there, isn’t it?” Now it’s, “Hey, uh, can he actually win this thing?” Day after day the answer seems to keep gravitating toward yes.

Djokovic just advanced to a record-tying 13th semifinal at the tournament after Alex de Minaur withdrew due to a hip injury. Djokovic gets a breezy advance to the final four.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the bracket, Jannik Sinner lost to Daniil Medvedev in five sets on Tuesday, eliminating the world’s No. 1 player from the tournament. But now, after just getting by Sinner, Medvedev will have to play Carlos Alcaraz — the world’s No. 3 player. The bracket couldn’t have broken any worse for him.

Or, rather, it couldn’t have broken any better for Djokovic, who will see either Taylor Fritz (No. 13) or Italy’s Lorenzo Musetti (No. 25) in his semifinal matchup. No opponent should be overlooked — especially with how Fritz has been playing lately. But there’s no question that this is an easier path for Djokovic, who almost didn’t even play in this tournament because of his knee.

We’re a long way away from Djokovic winning it all here, but if he does? It’d be one of the greatest accomplishments of his already illustrious career. He’s already shattered the career Grand Slams mark. Him doing the impossible here would just be another feature in his GOAT cap.

Hate him or love him, this dude is great. There’s no denying that.

Messi and Argentina make the Copa Finals

Speaking of no denying, Lionel Messi and Argentina have landed a spot in the Copa América Finals after a 2-0 win against Canada. The Cinderella story is over courtesy of the GOAT.

Messi scored in the 50th minute of this match, putting to bed any questions about a miracle comeback for Canada in the late minutes of the game. It also happened to be Messi’s first goal in the tournament and might be the last ever in his Copa career.

Here’s Cory Woodroof with more:

“As Argentina faced off in the semifinals against a red-hot Canada team, Messi found the perfect lane to boot the ball in from a fair distance from the net.

It’s Messi’s first goal in the tournament, making this yet another edition of the Copa América where one of the greatest soccer players of all time registered a goal.

While we’re not sure if this is Messi’s last run with Argentina in the Copa América, we’re sure this excellent goal to give the team a 2-0 lead will be a special one for Messi and Argentina fans.”

Argentina will see a tough side in the final, with either Uruguay or Colombia advancing. But if they win the final, they’ll have won two back-to-back Copa titles with a World Cup sandwiched in between. That’d be an incredible feat with Messi steering the ship the entire way.

Did I mention the old men were running things again?

Oceans 11, but make it sports

This might be the wildest story you read today. Three guys pulled off a not-so-elaborate heist of $2 million in memorabilia from a stand run by Legacy Cardz at a sports card expo in Dallas.

Legacy’s owner, Ashish Jain, published footage of the caper. The three guys in hats distract his staff while a guy in blue snatches the briefcase.

Here is the best footage I have at the moment. In this video my team (the two african american boys with the afros, and the guy in the bright lime sweater in the back) Were carefully distracted by the 3 people you see in hats showing their phones. pic.twitter.com/ZNs3StGLjC

— Jay (@cardzzzzz4u) July 8, 2024

The thieves knew precisely which briefcase to snatch. There were reportedly 170 cards inside, per The Athletic, including six 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle cards and two 1948 Leaf Jackie Robinson.

This is wild. It almost feels like something you’d see in a movie — like all the Ocean’s movies, except for its sports instead of casinos.

There’s a $70,000 reward for information on the theft out there.

Quick hits: A list of things older than Lamine Yamal … WNBA Power Rankings … and more

— Lamine Yamal is an absolute star already … but he’s just 16 years old! Here’s Robert Zeglinski with a list of things that are older than him.

— Meg Hall has her latest WNBA Power Rankings out for you with Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese absolutely hooping.

— Here’s Meg again with the heartwarming moment that Jayson Tatum and A’ja Wilson discovered they were cover athletes for NBA 2k25.

— Rece Hinds is giving us absolute MOON SHOTS with the baseball bat. Here’s Charles Curtis with more.

— Jack Gohlke is back in NBA Summer League. Tell Kentucky to watch out. Here’s Cory Woodroof with more.

— And here’s Cory again with everything you need to know about the Receiver docuseries coming up on Netflix

Thanks so much for reading, folks! We appreciate you giving us your time today. Check back in for more tomorrow. Peace!

-Sykes