Bagel Bites: Door closed. Door opened.

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• It's time to clear some space for 18-year-old Canadian Victoria Mboko. She was outside the Top 300 in January and has compiled an astounding 47-9 record across all levels. She started the year playing ITF 35Ks and won 20 consecutive matches to snag four straight titles. A few months later she was into her first WTA 125K final in Parma, where she lost to 125 Queen Mayar Sherif, and subsequently qualified for her first Grand Slam main draw at Roland Garros and made the third round. Then she got into Wimbledon as a lucky loser and casually beat Magdalena Frech.
• Mboko's 47th win came on Thursday night in her home tournament of Montreal, where she ousted Marie Bouzkova 1-6, 6-3, 6-0. That came two days after beat Sofia Kenin in straight sets for her first Top 30 win. She's into the fourth round to face... World No.2 Coco Gauff. Mboko took her to three sets in Rome earlier this year.

• UPDATED: Hooooooly crap. Mboko beat Gauff in straight sets and then saved match point to beat Elena Rybakina to make THE FINAL. She's guaranteed to leave Montreal in the Top 40.
• Carole Bouchard went long with Mboko earlier this month. (The Tennis Sweet Spot, subscription required)

So many firsts this year, does it feel unreal to her, or does that somehow feel the way it should be? “Everything starts very new for me. So when I experience that for the first time, I say, ‘Oh, that's incredible.’ But I think I'm getting used to it, you know. As I go, I’ll get more and more used to it.”

• She seems like a very sweet kid:

• Mboko already made the locker room take notice as early as this spring. Watch the first minute of Paula Bodosa's interview at Tennis Channel after holding off the young upstart, winning 7-5 1-6 7-6(3), in Miami:

• As one Canadian teen rises, another former prodigy exits. Genie Bouchard bowed out with her head held high and with her competitive fire blazed firmly on her sleeve. Her reaction throughout her post-match retirement ceremony was both stoic and emotional, and I saw some folks speculate that there might have been some internal conflict about her retirement decision, given her level against Belinda Bencic, who was a Wimbledon semifinalist just a few weeks ago. Here's what Genie said after the match:

"My sister said she started a petition with fans in the crowd, and everyone signed it, so now I have no choice but to rescind my retirement," Bouchard said, smiling. "But there's a lot of hard work that goes into tennis. It was great to be able to perform well, but it's such a tough life of sacrifice and hard work.

"I've given so much to tennis, and it's given me so much, but I do feel ready to move on from that and do other things in life, but I will forever be grateful for what tennis has given me."

• Before Bianca Andreescu stormed onto the scene, it was Bouchard who put together the greatest season any Canadian woman had ever had on the WTA Tour. And while she became a lightning rod for all the Anna Kournikova punchlines in later years, much like the unfairly maligned Kournikova, Bouchard's 2014 season is one any player would dream of achieving even once in their career. At 19 years old and ranked outside the Top 30, she made the first of three Grand Slam semifinals that year in Melbourne. Then she casually reached the Final Four at Roland Garros. And then a few weeks later, she stormed her way into the Wimbledon final without dropping a set, beating future champions Simona Halep and Angelique Kerber along the way.
• How did Bouchard do it? She did it with, frankly, pure and uncut moxie. Bouchard's technique was probably not everyone's favorite. Not to make it all about Canada, but her backhand looked more like a slapshot at times. But she held that baseline and swung out with pure grit. And she certainly injected some spit and fire into the Top 10, firing off verbal volleys at ease while letting backlash wash past her without any concern. I'm sure there's a thinkpiece waiting to be written about how Genie was tennis' first true "influencer" in the social media era. Her follower count moved the needle.
• Who knows what Bouchard's career looks like if she doesn't slip and fall at the US Open a year later?
• Bouchard's most iconic match, for me, was a loss. Her 2014 Roland Garros semifinal against her (former) idol Maria Sharapova was one of the most thrilling matches I've ever witnessed. Sharapova fought her off to win 4-6, 7-5, 6-2, You can see some highlights here.
• Of course, Genie's most iconic match, in actuality, was probably her win over Sharapova years later during the former No.1's return after her doping suspension. How bou dat?

• Never forget the ancient texts. It wasn't Hot Wings levels of spicy but it was pretty spicy!
• Yes, Coco Gauff is having some serving issues this week in Montreal. She struck a personal-high 23 double-faults in a three-set win over Danielle Collins in her opener. She hit another 14 in another three-set win over Veronika Kudermetova on Thursday.
• Here's the always perfect Andrea Petkovic, who is in Montreal, on why we might be seeing some error-laden tennis this week:

If you have wondered why some of the matches haven’t been up to par in terms of quality, particularly in the first few rounds - we’ve seen double faults en masse, we’ve had unforced errors in bulks - well, what the clay to grass change is in surface is the Slazenger to Wilson switch in tennis balls. From the heaviest to the lightest within days and not only that, while the Slazenger ball fluffs up when it gets played the Wilson ball (unless it’s very humid) becomes almost bald. So, from having full control over where shots are going with the Slazenger and potentially having to go down in string tension to ensure you have enough depth against the best in the world, you now struggle to keep a grip on your serve, groundstrokes and, of course, your sanity. Once the sanity is gone, the good tennis is right there with it, following sanity like a loyal puppy. (Finite Jest via Substack)

• Yes, this is an issue that Coco needs to resolve. But also: she's winning. Surely we can all agree that tennis is not synchronized swimming. There is no artistic component. Gauff is spotting multiple games to her opponents and still winning. And so long as she's still scrapping like hell to win, I'm not all that worried. Here's how Matt Futterman put it:

After Gauff’s similarly tenacious French Open win over Sabalenka, the world No. 1 intimated that she lost the match more than Gauff won it. Sabalenka later apologized for a point of view that still holds sway over what makes tennis “good”: that the first-strike, aggressive, attacking player should be the best. But movement and the ability to flip defense to offense are increasingly the difference-makers at the top of the WTA Tour, something Sabalenka, who has developed her squash-shot slices and front-court variety in the past year, knows better than anyone. Quality is a moving target — especially when the ATP Tour-owned Tennis TV is labeling a passive 52-shot rally between Alexander Zverev and Adam Walton as “the highest quality.” (The Athletic via Yahoo)

• Here's that 52-shot rally, by the way. You be the judge, but I've seen WTA rallies get dragged for less — and by less I mean doing way more:

• The Wiktorowski Era started with a win. Naomi Osaka saved two match points to beat Liudmila Samsonova in Montreal. And it sounds like she's already got a bit of her swagger back. (NBO.com)

“It’s definitely really cool, and it makes my opponents think a lot because I do feel like they think maybe they should hit a winner because if they don’t, I will.”

• End of an era: The legendary Sally Jenkins joins the big names taking a buyout at the Washington Post. She'll be writing once a week for The Atlantic. (Awful Announcing)
• Tennis is absolutely brutal. Just ask Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. (Tennis Grandstand)
• The brutality of the sport is precisely why Casper Ruud felt compelled to send Iga Swiatek a public note of support after her 6-1, 6-1 loss to Coco Gauff in the Madrid semifinals this spring. I asked Ruud in Toronto about what compelled him to send the note and what he's looking forward to when the two unite for the US Open Mixed Doubles in a few weeks:

Casper on Iga

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• This is super interesting from AnnaK_4ever on Twitter: Ranking the degree of difficulty of every ATP and WTA title run this year by average rank of the three highest-ranked opponents defeated:

• We are so cooked: The author of a Men's Health article on Luka Doncic just straight up relied on Google AI Summaries which was – shocker – flat out wrong. (Twitter)
• We are so cooked 2: I fucking hate it here:

• We are so cooked 3: No really:

• Leylah Fernandez wasn't happy with her scheduling in Montreal. She asked for the night session match on Day 3. But according to the pre-determined match schedule plan – the last slot for Round 1 matches was late in the day session and Round 2 was set to begin in the night session. In other words, Leylah got the latest start she could get. (AP)

"WTA protocols mean first-round matches need to be completed before second-round matches are played, ensuring fairness to all players," Tennis Canada said in a statement. "Given Leylah won the title in Washington on Sunday, she was not able to arrive in Montreal until the early hours of Monday morning. As a result, the WTA made the decision to play her opening match in the latest possible first-round slot."

• Even for a pretzel, Daniil Medvedev is working through a lot of kinks as he fights to find his best hard court game for the summer. But this breakdown of his returning prowess on hard courts is very good. (ATPTour.com)
• One quick note about this: If you are willing to forgo the wonderful Toronto nightlife, there is a tournament option to stay much closer to site. Also, in fairness, here is a rebuttal. (Tennis.com)
• Not everyone is mad these days. Nice write-up and photoshoot with Carlos Alcaraz. (FT.com)
• Y'all this is great:

• From Discord Carrie: Ichiro Suzuki is the goddamn best. My goat. My favorite Ichiro story: I flew up to Seattle with my sister in hopes of watching the then-magnificent Oakland (RIP) A's clinch the AL West against the Mariners. For the first time ever, we bought outfield tickets — we're usually 3rd base line gals – and sat second row behind the right field wall. First pitch, Ichiro takes Barry Zito yard right over at us. To quote the best character in Anora: Toosh. (Defector)
• Arthur Fils really choosing violence. (Reddit)
• Veronika Kudermetova is married. (Reddit)
• The US Open is I don't know. (NY Post)

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