The epic battle between two tennis superstars Sunday morning is what sparked ESPN to write a feature story on the event.
The lead to the story begins, "Novak Djokovic ripped off his shirt and let out a primal scream, flexing his torso the way a prize fighter would after a desperate, last-round knockout.", which includes the "who" and "what" of a traditional news lead. Also important, the story sets the scene of triumph, as they describe the emotions shown by Djokovic after he had just won the match. By using a detailed analogy, the lead opens with something deeper than just the facts from the match.
It was clear that the writer of this story went away from a hard-news lead because the act of Djokovic ripping his shirt off in celebration was too juicy to pass up. The writer uses detail to capture the attention of the reader, but also lets us know the result of the match at the same time.
The more detailed lead serves as a connector toward a deeper meaning than the simple facts of the event and its' result.
Luke: Good job on the blog. Keep up the nice work. GG