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Wimbledon is disappearing in the rearview mirror quickly as the Aug. 6 start date of the tennis competition at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro bears down on us.Here are five things we learned at Wimbledon that, looking ahead, promise to make the action this summer spectacular -- and unpredictable.1. Serena Williams is poised to make Big HistoryAt the start of Wimbledon, a string of question marks still followed her name. Williams wiped them out with a commanding performance. She equaled Steffi Graf as the leader in Open era (starting in 1968) Grand Slam singles championships by securing No. 22. Now in her sights: Margaret Courts all-time record of 24 Grand Slam?singles titles.But Williams has set herself up for an achievement that may have even greater historical resonance. No tennis player, male or female, has won more than one Olympic gold medal in singles. Graf came close, with a gold in 1988 and a silver in 1992. Williams could add a second singles gold as well as a fourth in doubles (partnered with sister Venus). That would certainly make her one of the all-time great Olympians.2. Andy Murray upsets the Big Four applecartThe Big Four may be imploding. Closing quickly on age 35, Roger Federer wasted perhaps his last best chance to win that one more Wimbledon he has alluded to. Rafael Nadal is hurt -- again -- and sounding increasingly pessimistic about his future.Once the bottom member of the Big Four by a significant margin?(behind Federer, Nadal and Novak Djokovic), Murray has been in all three Grand Slam finals this year (he lost to Djokovic at the Australian and French Opens). Djokovic has been to two, failing at Wimbledon.At 29, Murray is acting and talking like hes just approaching his peak, and he has renewed his highly successful relationship with supercoach Ivan Lendl. Everyones time comes in different stages, Murray said after beating?Milos Raonic in the Wimbledon final. Hopefully mine is yet to come.3. The future of the womens game remains wide openBy reaching her second Grand Slam final of the year, 28-year old German Angelique Kerber showed that none of the highly touted young women of the WTA are ready to make a serious run at the top ranking. The most disappointing failure at Wimbledon was that of French Open champ and No. 2 seed Garbine Muguruza. She lost in the second round to Jana Cepelova, saying she had insufficient energy. No. 7 seed Belinda Bencic pulled out of her second-round match with a wrist injury.American women were particularly disappointing: Coco Vandeweghe failed to take advantage of her recent form and a great draw and lost in the fourth round; No. 18 seed Sloane Stephens fell just short against Svetlana Kuznetsova?in the third round;?and No. 9 seed Madison Keys lost in the fourth round to No. 5 Simona Halep -- just the kind of player she can and must sweep out of her path if shes headed for the top.4. The British are in a renaissanceGreat Britain seems to be waking from its big sleep as a tennis power, and it probably all owes to Murray and his exploits, starting with his Wimbledon win in 2013.The British have some good young players, led by Kyle Edmund, Johanna Konta?and Heather Watson. Edmund is just 21 but already No. 67 in the ATP rankings. He lost to Adrian Mannarino in the first round at Wimbledon. Konta, 25, lost a three-setter in the second round to Eugenie Bouchard. Watson lost a 12-10 heartbreaker in the first round to Annika Beck, but she went on to win the mixed doubles. Great Britain also was the dominant force in the wheelchair game, with Gordon Reid winning the mens singles.Ill remember this forever, Watson said after she won the mixed with Finnish player Henri Kontinen. Its been a dream of mine since I was a little girl to be a Grand Slam champion. I would take anything, singles, doubles, mixed doubles. Yeah, Ive got one of those now. I mean, Im just really happy.As Arthur Ashe often said, A rising tide lifts all boats. Expect more young British players to come out of the pipeline.5. Wimbledon needs a final-set tiebreakerThe miserable weather, play stoppages and backlog of matches that forced play on Wimbledons ordinarily silent middle Sunday underscored how silly the refusal to institute a final-set tiebreaker is. Jo-Wilfried Tsonga had to win three matches in four days, including a 19-17 third-round victory over?John Isner, to reach the quarterfinals (where he fell to Murray).Most players ESPN.com spoke with at Wimbledon like the idea of playing a tiebreaker in the final set at some point (Federer floated the idea of 12-all). Those 19-17, 22-20 and 14-12 fifth-set scores just seem to belabor a point and, in terms of generating excitement, cant compare with a tiebreaker.The ITF took the plunge and adopted the final-set tiebreaker for Davis Cup. Wimbledon should follow suit. Milt Schmidt Jersey . 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CLEVELAND -- As the losses pile up, the pressure builds.The Minnesota Twins havent won in two weeks and manager Paul Molitor senses his team is close to breaking.Its been a long week, Molitor said after Minnesota dropped its 13th straight, 8-4 to the Cleveland Indians on Wednesday night. We need to try to find a way to win a game at some point to just lighten the load. Its getting heavy. Guys are getting on the edge a little bit.You can feel it. Its building.Corey Kluber struck out a season-high 11 and notched his seventh straight win for the Indians, who pushed the Twins within one loss of tying the club record.Unbeaten since July 3, Kluber (15-8) allowed three runs and six hits in eight solid innings to tame the Twins, winless since Aug. 17. The right-hander is 7-0 with a 1.94 ERA in his last 10 starts.The Twins skid is the lengthiest in the majors this season, and also the second-longest in team history. They also lost 13 in a row in 1961 and 1982, when they dropped 14 in a row.Molitor has been on both sides of streaks. The Hall of Famer was with Milwaukee in 1987, when the Brewers opened the season with 13 consecutive wins.We got to 20-3 and then we lost 12 in row so we gave them all back, he said. We won 13 at the start, which was pretty cool, but you dont want to go from 20-3 to 20-15. It was tough.So is this stretch for the Twins, who dropped to 49-84 -- the worst record in either league.Brian Dozier hit his 32nd homer and Max Kepler connected for his 16th for the Twins, who rallied in the ninth by loading the bases with two outs against rookie Perci Garner, making his major league debut. Clevelands Bryan Shaw came on and threw a wild pitch to score a run before striking out Dozier for his first save.The Twins packed up afterward and headed home to begin a four-game series against the Chicago White Sox.I think Ill be relieved once we get a win, not because one guy hit a home run, Kepler said. I just want to wwin right now.dddddddddddd Its tough. This is the first time Ive experienced it. Its not easy mentally or physically on any of the pitchers or the hitters.Carlos Santana and Roberto Perez homered off Pat Dean (1-5), and Jose Ramirez hit a two-run double during a five-run fifth as the AL Central-leading Indians swept the three-game series.For seven-plus innings, Kluber had little trouble against the ALs worst team. The 2014 Cy Young Award winner, who followed up an 18-win season by losing 16 last year, struck out four of the first six batters and carried a 7-1 lead into the eighth, when Dozier tagged him for a two-run homer.The Indians chased Dean in the fifth, when Perez homered, Santana hit an RBI single, Ramirez doubled home a pair and pinch-hitter Lonnie Chisenhall delivered a sacrifice fly off reliever J.T. Chargois.Keplers 418-foot shot to straightaway center tied it 1-1 in the third. It was Keplers 11th hit -- and sixth homer -- against Cleveland this season. He homered three times at Progressive Field on Aug. 1.The Indians took a 1-0 lead in the second when Abraham Almonte pulled a two-out RBI double inside the bag at third.DOZIERS AUGUSTDozier finished the month with 13 homers, one shy of the team record for homers in any month. Harmon Killebrew hit 14 homers in June 1964. Dozier batted .302 in August and had 24 extra-base hits.TRAINERS ROOMTwins: OF Danny Santana will likely miss the remainder of the season with a sprained left shoulder. Santana got hurt last weekend when he collided with teammate Robbie Grossman in Toronto. Molitor said Santana needs more than a month to recover and the team intends to shut him down rather than rush him back.UP NEXTTwins: Ervin Santana, the subject of trade rumors in recent days, will open a four-game series at home against the Chicago White Sox. ' ' '