Bagel Bites: Bad News Bears

Internet ephemera from the tennis world and beyond. Have something you want to include? Join the Discord  – we have a really nice and active community growing there – or hmu on Bluesky.

• Previously on The Bagel: It's called Fashion.
• The first marquee match of the tennis season went to a seemingly resurgent – early days, I know – Maria Sakkari, who held off Naomi Osaka in the first set to win 6-4, 6-2 in a little over 90 minutes to help Greece beat Japan 3-0. (ATP)
• Oh, and congrats Sak on the engagement! She and her fiance Konstantinos Mitsotakis are very adorable.
• In the earlier tie, Argentina white-washed Spain 3-0. (ATP)
• After the loss, Naomi told reporters she's been under the weather for the last few weeks and hopes to be 100% by the Australian Open. That all pretty much matches the eye test. She looked sluggish and rusty, but spurts of awesomeness. She's a bit undercooked. (ESPN)

"I have been dealing with some health stuff, so I'm kind of just happy to be out here right now," Osaka said. "It's not serious, but I'm not operating at the percent that I want to be operating at, which kind of sucks, because I had a really good offseason so I thought I was going to do really well here."

Osaka, who advanced to the US Open semifinals last year, said she thinks she is nearly finished with the illness.

"I'm at the tail end of that but still not amazing," she said. "I'm just trying to get better every day. I had a cough, a runny nose, like all that nasty stuff, so hopefully it goes away before the Australian Open."

• Arthur Fils is a no-go for the Australian Open. The signs were there, as he had quietly withdrawn from the lead-up events he entered. The Frenchman has not played since Canada and explained the decision and gave an update on his recovery from a stress fracture in his back in a YouTube video. It's worth watching, as he gives a lot of insight into the injury:

• Punto de Break transcribed the key parts here. (Punto de Break)

"I'm not truly worried, as injuries are part of athletes' lives. I'll take the time needed: I'm 21, I still have around 10 to 15 years of career ahead, this is not a sprint. I'm much more cautious medically now: I've started working with a nutritionist, who is with me 24/7 and has prepared a specific plan for each day of the week. It's a detailed plan with everything I need to eat and when to eat it." The goal? To reduce my weight and lower the body fat percentage, ultimately leading to better physical fitness, less stress on the body and, thus, reduce the likelihood  of back injuries.

"Everything is regulated now. I've lost a lot of weight. I'm also working with chefs, people who know about cooking, adding many new voices to grow my project. I think I'm on the right path now, so I must continue along it." Hence, the goals for this 2026, despite this initial setback, are clear: to achieve the objectives Arthur has always believed in. "I know I can do better than I have already done. With all the effort I'm putting in, I know I can win big tournaments, better than the ATP 500s I've already claimed. My goal is to go all the way in all tournaments; I know I can, and now I must prove it to myself. I always said I want to be the world number one and win Grand Slams: now, after what I've experienced, there's a greater meaning behind that statement."

• Ok, enough bad news. The good news: Venus Williams has taken a wildcard into the Australian Open and is set to play in Melbourne for the first time since 2021. Whoo hoo! (ESPN)
• Katie Boulter has hired Mike Joyce. (BBC)

• Patrick Mouratoglou thinks Jo-Wilfried Tsonga would not have beaten the Draper-Rune-Ruud-Shelton-Fritz group of today and Gilles Simon said GET OUTTA HERE WITH THAT MESS. (Twitter)
• I agree with Gilles, but I just want to make a broader point: It is absolutely CRAZY the retconning that the sport is doing right now with respect to the Non-Big 4 Top 10 era of the 2000s. It just feels like people are trying to belittle the Tsonga-Ferrer-Berdych-et al group in order to try and bolster the bona fides of the current Non-Big 2 and I find that to completely fail the eye and smell test. Y'all: Tsonga BEAT peak Big 4. Be serious. That generation of Have-Nots had Grand Slam champion talent. I'm not sure this current group has built that resume yet.
• If there's one thing Yevgeny Kafelnikov always has, it's opinions. But he's Tien-Hive so we allow. His refusal to take this bait was incredible work. (Clay Tenis)

– Who could be “the third man”: Joao Fonseca, the currently injured Holger Rune, someone else?

– Rune is off my radar. We need to look at someone like the American kid Michael Chang is coaching now: Learner Tien. He could be that player. Fonseca too. If they listen to their coaches, they have a very bright future.

• After watching Day 1 of United Cup, this was my main takeaway: I absolutely love the light-up netposts that signal an out ball and I hope over the next few years this becomes standardized across all tour-level events. This is massive for fans and players who are hearing-impaired:

• Day 2 of the United Cup sees action in both Perth and Sydney, with a total of four ties. In Sydney, it'll be Belgium vs. China and Australia vs. Norway. De Minaur vs. Ruud would be worth staying up for. In Perth it'll be France vs. Switzerland and defending champion United States vs. Argentina. Rinderknech vs. Wawrinka could be a fun one there. (United Cup)
• In Maya Joint THE GOAT news: She's a bit sick. (WTA)
• Hello to all the new subscribers! If you want to join a fun tennis community that's more than ready to nerd out again in the new season, come join our Discord. Also, keep a lookout for some Twitch streams over the next weeks.