RIO DE JANEIRO -- The spectators told Monica Puig they believed she could win Puerto Ricos first Olympic gold medal in any sport, providing a soundtrack of Si se puede! -- Yes, we can! -- during the Rio de Janeiro Games womens tennis final.She could. And she did.The unseeded and unheralded Puig capped her run of upsets with the biggest one of all Saturday, overpowering No. 2 Angelique Kerber of Germany 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 to become the Olympic champion.I did hear everybody saying, Yes, you can! Yes, you can! Yes, you can! I kept repeating it inside myself: `Yes, I can! Yes, I can! Yes, I can! Puig said. They really helped me believe and just showed me they were there for me, whether I was going to win or lose.Puigs father told her he believed, too, emailing the lyrics to the Puerto Rican national anthem a day earlier, just in case they would come in handy.And so, as the strains of that song echoed around an Olympic arena for the first time, and Puerto Ricos red-white-and-blue flag was raised to the highest level during a medal ceremony for the first time, Puig remembered what Dad had written.She recognized plenty of the words as fans belted them out.She just couldnt join in the joyous chorus, for a simple reason: too many tears.If I wouldve stopped crying, I probably would have started singing, Puig said afterward, smiling at the thought. But I couldnt. I was choking up the whole time.A 22-year-old born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, and now based in Florida, Puig is also the first woman representing her country to earn a medal of any color. When she finished a tense closing game -- saving six break points and converting her fourth match point -- she flung away her racket and went over to collect a flag she paraded across the court.I couldnt really believe what just happened, she said. It was such an amazing moment.Gigi Fernandez, who is Puerto Rican, won two Olympic womens doubles gold medals in tennis, but did so while representing the United States.Im particularly happy for Puerto Rico, Fernandez said in a telephone interview from Connecticut. All the hurt that people felt, all the anger people felt because I played for the U.S., I couldnt be happier.Puig had shown promise in the past, reaching the fourth round of Wimbledon as a teen in 2013, but she hasnt been that far again at any major.Also notable about Puig: She is the first unseeded woman to win the singles title since tennis returned to the Olympics in 1988. Ranked 34th, she added her surprising win over Kerber -- a German who won the Australian Open and was the Wimbledon runner-up this year -- to those she picked up in Brazil against two other past major title winners, Garbine Muguruza and Petra Kvitova.Earlier Saturday, Kvitova earned the bronze for the Czech Republic by beating Madison Keys of the United States 7-5, 2-6, 6-2.Kvitova called her medal one of the best things that happened in my career, definitely.Clearly, Puig felt the same.And she played attacking tennis full of powerful shots that seemed to rattle the counter-punching Kerber.Puig smacked a down-the-line backhand -- her 18th winner to that point, 10 more than Kerber -- for a break that gave her the opening set.During the ensuing changeover, Kerber was visited by a trainer, standing on the sideline while her lower back was massaged and manipulated, before heading to the locker room for a medical timeout. Kerber said later that bothered her from the outset, but it wasnt why she lost.She played her best tennis and one of her best matches in her career, for sure, Kerber said. I tried everything.---Follow Howard Fendrich on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HowardFendrich---AP Sports Writers Jon Krawczynski and Tim Reynolds contributed. Cheap Bill Russell Jersey . What general manager Dave Nonis called "short and productive" negotiations ended with Kessel signing a US$64-million, eight-year contract on Tuesday. Cheap Celtics Jerseys Authentic . And follow TSN.ca right through Deadline Day for all the updates. From Pierre LeBrun While Anaheim GM Bob Murray said earlier this season he was not going to trade Jonas Hiller despite the fact hes an unrestricted free agent on July 1, some sources have told TSN Hockey Insider Pierre LeBrun that Murray might be willing to move another goalie. http://www.cheapcelticsjerseys.com/ . McCarthy, a player who played some games in the second tier for Wigan at the start of this season, would go on to shine inside Evertons midfield, outplaying the man he was brought in to replace, on one of the grandest stages in English football. On Saturday, it was fitting that Manchester Uniteds most recent dagger into the chest was delivered by Frenchman Yohan Cabaye, a wonderfully gifted central midfielder who put on an outstanding effort for Newcastle at Old Trafford. Cheap NBA Jerseys . Pettersen, winner of last years Evian Championships, had nine birdies and three bogeys, holding off a series of challengers led by Marion Ricordeau of France. The second-ranked Norwegian made her season debut after missing the LPGA Tours opening event last month in the Bahamas because of a shoulder injury. Cheap Celtics Jerseys . Parker had 26 points and eight assists and San Antonio beat Toronto 112-99 Monday night. "We won that game because of Tony Parkers aggressiveness," Spurs coach Gregg Popovich said. "His juice; his aggression all night long. In our latest roundup of cards from Hearthstones Mean Streets of Gadgetzan expansion, we start to get farther into one of the major themes: cards that buff other cards in-hand. While these types of buffs arent completely new -- the rarely-played Mistcaller buffed all cards in your hand and deck -- the focus on this type of effect is.Why hand-buffing cards? They enable a longer game, rather than cards that enhance the games tendency to become Curvestone (playing cards mainly because they fit a mana curve). Its not explicitly a catchup mechanism like pure control decks like to have, but it does give an opportunity to defer value to later in a synergistic, possibly exploitable way, perhaps taking midrange decks away from the tempo style. Will it work? The jurys still out.Maybe there will be a Murloc-heavy deck in the upcoming meta after all? When Finja came out, I was a little skeptical. While I still am, the Blowgill Sniper is a reasonable inclusion into such a deck. The base statline of 2/1 is unimpressive for two mana, but Murloc decks only have a single card that does direct damage when being played, as opposed to buffing an existing minion on-board, Corrupted Seer. Sometimes you need that little ping and if there is a Murloc deck, its not likely to be one of the easy ping classes. Elven Archer can ping for one, but for one more mana you get the extra point of health and the oh-so-important Murloc synergy.If Murloc decks become a thing for Paladin outside of the bursty Anyfin-type hybrid decks, Grimscale Chum will likely make that cut. A one-mana 2/1 isnt that bad in itself, just unimpressive, but the Murloc synergies and the +1/+1 make up for it. Youll usually have a minion in your hand if you play this and if you topdeck this card, if youre topdecking with a Murloc deck and havent sealed the win, youve probably already lost anyway.I like cards like Dirty Rat for two primary reasons. First, I like anti-aggro tools and Dirty Rat, like our dearly departed friend Deathlord, is a high-health, early-game Taunt with a significant downside in return. Against an aggro deck, youre unlikely to be pulling a large cost minion from your opponents hand, which is why Deathlord worked in the first place.And secondly, I like cards that reward paying attention and understanding the meta and your opponents hand. How many cards they mulligan and evaluating your ability to remove certain cards they may have are key to determining whether you want to be playing this card. And its not a card thats going to be good in all metas or with all classes.A 2/4 for four mana is a pretty poor stat configuration, but if the card has a really solid effect, it will be playable in competitive play. Keeper of the Grove was one such card, before it was nerfed to a 2/2. Is Dispatch Kodo one? If buff decks turn out to be strong enough, the upside of this card makes it playable. Just a 3/5, deal three damage card would be bonkers with a single in-hand +1/+1 buff. An old Keeper of the Grove that doesnt silence but is a Beast is almost good enough for less aggressive Hunter decks, simply because of the value of a ping to a Hunter. Even if it doesnt make a deck, youll see it in Arena because Stormpike Commando, a five-mana 4/2 that does two damage, is sometimes around and this card is better.I happen to think we will see that Hunter buff deck, in a large part because of Rat Pack As-is, Rat Pack isnt that much worse than Haunted Creeper (two-mana 1/2, summon two 1/1 spiders) or Infested Wolf (four-mana 3/3, summon two 1/1 spiders) and both of those cards are popular inclusions. But buffing this card instantly gets insane and as its a deathrattle, not a battlecry, so you can even buff this with a Houndmaster, which is already in Hunter decks. Earlier-revealed cards like Trogg Beastrager are suddenly looking better.Once upon a time, there was a terrible card named Cobra Shot, which for five-mana, did three damage to a minion and three to the enemy hero. Now, tuurn Cobra Shot into a minion that can do that as long as it stays alive and you have a very good Hunter legendary.dddddddddddd Its only a single point off vanilla five-mana stats (11 points) and here you want it to be heavier in health so that you can clear the board and smOrc in the same turn.Plus, its a gangster gorilla, so I think I wouldve liked this card even if was unplayable.Charge cards have been endlessly problematic to balance for Blizzard, with the majority of the nerfs in Hearthstones history involving cards with Charge mechanics that were too powerful for their mana cost. In recent expansions, Blizzard has been introducing Charges that are very expensive or have significant conditions, as an attempt to balance this mechanic.Here we have three, related cards that reflect this philosophy, the Tanaris Hogchopper, Spiked Hogrider, and the Leatherclad Hogleader. Not only does this reflect a continued bit of care with Charge but from the art, a in-depth knowledge of the Mad Max universe.Are the cards playable in Constructed? Id have to say no, especially for two of them.The big daddy, the Leatherclad Hogleader, appears to exist only as a break-glass-in-case-of-emergency option if suddenly very greedy Control decks start oppressing the meta. Against a Renolock or a Control Priest, this card may be playable. But at the times at which your opponent doesnt have six or more cards, which is the vast majority of Hearthstone games in the games history, its just a worse Boulderfist Ogre, who never sees play in top-level tournaments. Goblin Sapper never worked and this one wont either, though youll sometimes see it in Arena.Tanaris Hogchopper is also likely a card youll see in Arena as four mana 4/4s see play in Arena and you do get into topdecking battles late in the game with pure Control decks hard to assemble. But in Constructed? Nope.Spike Hogrider might be the exception here. One of the nice things about the card is that the Charge is gained by Battlecry, which means you dont have to actually remove an enemy taunt using this minion (though you can if you choose to). 5/5 for five isnt as good a statline as it used to be with the emergence of 5/6 minions at the same cost and I think in the end it wont see Constructed play, but one has to at least consider it before rejecting it. Like Tanaris Hogchopper, youll see this card in Arena.I think Smugglers Run will see play in a variety of Paladin decks. First off, you have the aggressive aggro-token Paladin decks that people will at least attempt to build because of the buff cards that have been released so far. And you also have a benefit to Control Paladin, which frequently doesnt have anything better to do in early turns as the one-mana secrets are only really good if you get a bunch of those for free.The Grimestreet Protector is a one of the few tools that Control Paladins have got that doesnt do an even better job pushing an early-game Paladin style. Grimesteet Protector starts off missing three points of stats from a vanilla card, but the Taunt has value -- you occasionally saw non-dragon decks play Chillmaw, a Taunt with the same stats, even without NZoth to resurrect it laster -- as does Divine Shield. I think this card sees play in Control Paladin decks, even one that eschews the other buff cards.Surprisingly, with more than half of the set now unveiled, Abyssal Enforcer is the only Warlock class card to be released. And its a good one, so long as you dont plan on trying to play this in Zoolock. Hellfire has long been a staple of Handlock/Renolock decks, a four-mana card that has the same effect as this Battlecry. So this is like Hellfire that comes with a three-mana 6/6, which is an absurdly good statline. As such, this will be a staple in late-game Warlock decks and given that its a Common, youll see this in a lot of Warlock Arena decks. ' ' '