NYT Connections Sports Edition #496: Today's Hints and Solutions

Each day, a small grid of sixteen words invites players to find the hidden order beneath apparent chaos — a ritual that blends sports knowledge with linguistic intuition. The New York Times, through its partnership with The Athletic, has extended its puzzle tradition into the domain of fandom, asking people not merely to recall facts but to sense the invisible threads that connect them. Today's edition, number 496, moves from the simplicity of aquatic verbs to the quiet complexity of tennis surnames with missing letters — a reminder that meaning often hides just one step behind the obvious.