Bagel Bites

Bagel Bites: Fallout Boy

I write sins not tragedies.

Courtney Nguyen

Courtney Nguyen

— 6 min read
Bagel Bites: Fallout Boy
Photo by Stephen Harlan / Unsplash

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.

  • And another wild split: Naomi Osaka is leaving Evolve, which just seems like an existential conundrum. Ben Rothenberg says he's hearing she and her main handler, Alex Boston, will go back to IMG, the agency she left with her agent Stuart Duguid to start Evolve. (Bounces via Substack)
Buy me an eggnog at Ko-fi!
  • Stan Wawrinka joins the growing list of players who have announced 2026 will be their final season. He did so by really leveraging that Twitter Blue 10K character limit. (Twitter)
  • Forbes dropped their Highest Paid Female Athletes List, which Coco Gauff also tops. But one thing that stood out is this observation on the ratio between salaries/prize money and marketing/sponsorships:
The gap is partly attributable to marketing opportunities, which tend to be more plentiful and more lucrative for male athletes than for women. This year’s top 20 men made an estimated $674 million off the field, more than three times the women’s $212 million. The bigger divide, however, is on the field, with salaries, bonuses and prize money. Between the NFL, MLB and the NBA, 82 male athletes this season exceeded Gauff’s total earnings with their playing wages alone, according to contract database Spotrac.
Given that reality, 72% of the top 20 female athletes’ income this year came off the field. For the men, the ratio is almost exactly flipped, with 71% of their total from salaries, bonuses and prize money.

PAY YOUR RENT.

  • Reem Abulleil caught up with the STILL CRIMINALLY UNDERRATED AND OVERLOOKED BY EVERYONE EXCEPT DANIIL MEDVEDEV Learner Tien at the ATP Next Gen Finals in Jeddah. Learner experienced a lot of firsts in 2025 but the one thing still on his bucket list: take on Carlos. (Arab News)
“I think it was slightly overwhelming sometimes,” he said. “But on the other hand it was also very exciting, just because I’ll only be going to those places for the first time this year.
“So I was trying to enjoy it as much as possible. Some of the weeks were tough. just because I was losing some weeks and then I go to another place that I wasn’t that familiar with, and maybe I’d lose again. I wasn’t super used to being away from home that much. I also wasn’t used to losing that much in some parts of the year.
“So I think, week to week, sometimes it was tough just managing everything. It felt like a lot. But looking back, it really wasn’t as scary as it felt sometimes. And so I almost wish I enjoyed some of those weeks a bit more than I did.”
  • Andy Roddick does a very funny thing during the discussion of Grand Slam Prize Money Negotiations in Served's 2025 recap. And there's a good discussion of the media rights issues, but with copyright policing being handed over to AI – have you seen the WILDLY INCORRECT strikes being issued against creators on YouTube lately – there's zero chance it will ever be policed less:

WE HAVE TO GO BACK

run don't walk

A data analytics company used by World Number One Aryna Sabalenka, Ons Jabeur and the Japanese Tennis Federation has been acquired by a high-tech, futuristic firm that uses AI for everything from predicting injuries to nutrition science in sports.
Sabalenka has employed Melbourne-based Data Driven Sports Analytics (DDSA) since 2020 for scouting opponents, strategy, AI ball tracking and 3D analysis of both her game as well as that of her opponents. DDSA will now be bought by the larger sports tech firm Orreco, which has been backed by billionaire Mark Cuban. (Tennis Connected)

always side-eye 'but the free market' people

  • There's a big investigation into match-fixing going down in France, with three French players having already been arrested. (BFMRMC)
  • Interestingly, Beatriz Haddad Maia has used a special ranking (30) to enter Adelaide. She played as recently as Seoul in September, so the SR wouldn't be related to long-term injury. This could be the first use of the WTA's new Fertility Protection Special Ranking:
The new rule means players can now take time away from professional tennis for a fertility protection procedure such as egg or embryo freezing and safely return to competition with a protected ranking. Eligible players will receive a Special Entry Ranking (SER), which can be used to enter up to three tournaments, based on the 12-week average of their WTA Ranking from eight weeks prior to the start of their out-of-competition period.
  • I reached out to the WTA to ask for confirmation and got this statement: "The WTA does not disclose players’ personal or medical circumstances. Any use of a special ranking is managed in line with WTA rules, and players choose how and when they may want to share personal information." That's entirely understandable and, frankly, the correct policy. This is obviously a player's private health matter. But it does create a tricky administrative situation where the math may reveal the fact itself.

absolutely rate-inducing

  • Ricardas Berankis announced his retirement on Instagram. He was a hot prospect as a junior and became the first (and only?) Lithuanian to crack the Top 50. He won Eddie Herr, Orange Bowl and US Open juniors, and reached Junior No.1. But he never reached the heights of all that promise due to injuries. (ATP)
  • The ATP announced it is instituting a safeguarding policy which will mirror the work the WTA has done. (AP)
  • Hard Court has a deep-dive on Wilson, the brand that has been completely rejuvenated into a must-have fashion brand over the last few years. At a time when the other big brands have been roundly disappointing, all hail and props to a legacy brand stepping up and winning. (Hard Court via Substack)

1000 times YES and this applies to [waves hands at]

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