Bagel Bites: It's gettin' hot in here

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Weekend Warriors: Teenage Wasteland

• We're 48 hours(ish) away from the start of the Australian Open – reminder: SUNDAY START – so let's get some minor housekeeping out of the way:
• Saturday's Finals are set for Adelaide, Auckland and Hobart:
  • Adelaide WTA 500: Mirra Andreeva vs. Victoria Mboko (12:30pm ACDT)
    • Well this is a fun battle of the WTA's highest-ranked teens, and we get it just two weeks into the new season! Mirra's done well over the past two weeks to reset things and wipe away the bummertimes that were the post-Indian Wells months of last year. She made the quarterfinals of Brisbane last week and now she's into her first final since that back-to-back WTA 1000 run 10 months ago.
    • The 18-year-old World No. 8 will get her first look at 19-year-old World No. 17 Mboko, who continues to prove that last year's Montreal run was no fluke. Despite some heavy strapping to her knee, she knocked out Madison Keys in three sets in the quarterfinal and came two more three-set wins earlier in the tournament over Anna Kalinskaya (8-6 in the 3STB) and Beatriz Haddad Maia.
    • Mboko has now made the final of three of her last eight tournaments (not counting United Cup, for reasons), and she won those first two: Montreal and Hong Kong. I mean, if we want really slice it, she's made the final or better at her last two single-elimination tournaments: Hong Kong and Adelaide.

• Adelaide ATP 250: Ugo Humbert vs. Tomas Machac (following women's final)
  • The quest continues for Alejandro Davidovich Fokina. Still chasing that first ATP title, the Spaniard was upended by Humbert 6-3, 5-7, 7-6(4) in the semifinals. A win would give the Frenchman his ninth ATP title.
  • Machac and his adjustable hemline clawed back to beat Tommy Paul 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 in the semifinals to make his first final since winning Acapulco last year.
• Auckland ATP 250: Sebastian Baez vs. Jakub Mensik (NB 2:00 pm NZDT)
  • In Sebastian Baez vs. America, Baez leads 4-0. The Argentine has blitzed the American squad in Auckland, beating Emilio Nava, Jenson Brooksby, top seed Ben Shelton, and Marcos Giron to make his 12th ATP final. Mensik scored two solid wins over Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard and Fabian Marozsan to make the final.
• Hobart WTA 250: Iva Jovic vs. Elisabetta Cocciaretto (1:00 pm AEDT)
  • You know, it wasn't that long ago when the only two teenagers in the WTA Top 100 were Coco and Mirra.Flash forward and there are now five in the Top 60: Andreeva, Mboko, Jovic, Joint and Valentova. No. 88 Sara Bejlek could join them soon.
  • Iva Jovic is the third WTA teen contesting a final this week. The 18 year old continues her surge up the rankings, which she kickstarted last summer on the North American hard courts. Just a few weeks after making her Top 100 debut last June, she qualified as a lucky loser and advanced to the third round in Cincinnati. A month later she came through a busted – sorry, but it's true – draw to win the WTA 500 in Guadalajara to soar into the Top 40, and the results have stayed consistent. Her last four events: Wuhan R16, Austin 125 SF, Auckland SF, and now the Hobart final.

• Sunday: Australian Open Day 1
  • Here's your Day 1 OOP.
  • Two quick rants: First, why they won't just post the standard scheduling grid that lists all the matches on one to two sheets of paper is beyond me. Please, tell me who the F**K wants a FIVE PAGE OOP. Second, while I can appreciate the service and convenience of automatically converting the start times into a person's local time, YOU HAVE TO PROVIDE AN OVERRIDE OPTION to display it as a tournament's local time. This rant basically circles back to the first rant: POST THE STANDARD GRID AS A PDF.
  • I swear to GOD if this PDF thing is the thing that radicalizes me...

• Things that make you go hmmmm...: Danilovic-Venus, Cerundolo-Zhang, Bublik-Brooksby, Raducanu-Sawangkaew, Alexandrova-Sonmez, Putintseva-Haddad Maia, Vondrousova-Baptiste.

• Nice piece from Tumaini Carayol on Felix Auger-Aliassime's first visit to Togo when he was a teenager. (The Guardian)
• Francisco Lindor – yes, of the New York Mets – was in Coco Gauff's press conference in Melbourne. Just a really confusing sentence, but true! (WTA)
• It's the talk of the town, so why not: Here's Coco on Heated Rivalry. (Tennis.com)
• No seriously, do NOT tell Iga Swiatek her path to the final lol. (Tennis.com)
• Always good to see an Owen Lewis byline: Here he is on Jannick ahead of the Australian Open. (The Athletic)
• Daniil Medvedev is trolling himself now, and I think that's a very good sign. (Independent via Yahoo)

“I usually say that my goal is to play good tennis. That's the most important. When I play my best tennis, I can win titles, I can win grand slams, I can be in final of grand slams, Masters 1000s, and all this.

“But now my goal is to win a second title somewhere in the city where I already won. It's a clear goal. I'm saying it out loud. I'm not sure to achieve it, but I'm going to do my best to try to do it. Here we're in Melbourne, so I hope to get to 23 before I get a second somewhere.”

• Elder care: This Australian Open initiative where top pros do a hit-and-giggle with geriatrics is really sweet:

• Looking ahead at the Melbourne forecast and Week 1 is looking...not hot (complimentary):

• Thankfully, it looks like the air quality is improving after last week's bushfires. (ABC)
• The pros were very nervous during the 1 Point Slam. (AP)
• Sven Groeneveld is back on the WTA Circuit. For the noobies, Sven is one of the most stories coaches on the WTA Tour, having worked with Monica Seles, Ana Ivanovic and Maria Sharapova, just to name a few. More recently, he worked with Taro Daniel, Bianca Andreescu, and Botic van de Zandschulp.

• TIL Sven's daughter was 2023 Miss Universe Indonesia.
• Here's Frances Tiafoe's Australian Open kit from lululemon. (SI.com)
• Emma Navarro has left FILA to sign with Free People's FP Movement brand. (Vogue Business)
• Here's the Served Bracket Challenge. I'm going to do mine live on stream either Friday or Saturday. Follow me on Twitch for notifications.
• Alex de Minaur has a new vlog up:

• I'm still not entirely convinced on these athlete vlogs. I understand them coming from a place of ambition, of wanting more eyes, but vlogs only work if they offer a level of transparency and personality that most pro athletes just aren't willing to (or can't) provide. Because yes, you're a pro athlete, but when it comes to this content space you're competing with the same stuff everyone else is: viewers' prolonged attention. Do I, the viewer, want to spend 11 minutes watching your video or would I rather spend it watching something else, like 10 minutes of Connor Eats Pants roasting people who deserve it, or the full music video for Meatloaf's "I Would Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)":

• I think that's why Dasha's is the only one that has really cut through the noise so far and leveraged the long-form format in a meaningful way. Yes, they're long, but in an authentic way. They're polished but self-indulgent, curated but with an edge of mess, and they've always felt authentic. Her vlog is the Real World New York, with the cast just earnestly living their lives. The rest are going to feel like every Real World after that, with casts too self-aware, in on the joke, and performative. I have the sneaking suspicion that a vast majority of these vlogs will met with "should have been an Instagram reel" by fans. Short and snappy viral content just sets the players up for more success! But we'll see!
• And while we're tangentially on the topic, let me be an old-head here: 99.9% of players would get more exposure if they redirected the same amount of time and energy they burn on their personal channels and use it to instead sit down for longer interviews with journalists and broadcasters. Because whether you like or not, journalists and broadcasters still have incredible influence in how your story is packaged and told, and if that's not the clout you're chasing then you're chasing the cheap clout. Drying up access because you think you can do it yourself has not proven the best plan for a many. It might make your job (and the job of people around you) easier – but don't make me tap the sign again:

• A good American field is shaping up for the Houston ATP 250 in March: Tommy Paul, Ben Shelton, and Frances Tiafoe are all confirmed so far, along with Learner Tien and Alex Michelsen. I've heard nothing but good things about this event (March 28-April 5) so if you're in or around Houston, give it a look. (Men's Clay Court)
• The Dallas ATP 500 in February is looking very strong and fun: Ben Shelton, Taylor Frtiz, Casper Ruud, Grigor Dimitrov, Tommy Paul, Learner Tien, Denis Shapavolov are all entered. Also entered: Frances Tiafoe, Alejandro Davidovich Fokina, Flavio Cobolli, Gabriel Diallo, Jenson Brooksby, Sebastian Korda, Marcos Giron, Marin Cilic, and Adrian Mannarino. The Dallas-Fort Worth area is fun. It'd be a good vacation tournament if you're itching for live tennis. (Dallas Open)
• Rotterdam has given Stan Wawrinka a main-draw wild card.
• The Body Serve Boys are back after a much-deserved "off-season" with two great episodes:

• A NYT Newsletter linked to this Dutch Oven, and friends, I'm obsessed. (Goldilocks):

Joana Avillez Dutch Oven by Goldilocks

Limited edition 6-Quart Dutch Oven made in collaboration with illustrator Joana Avillez. Ships free.

Goldilocks

"When Minsuk Kim, a co-founder of the kitchenware line Goldilocks, discovered that artwork could be crisply applied onto the brand’s enameled cast iron Dutch oven, he and his co-founder, Jessica Sheft-Ason, launched a series of limited-edition artist collaborations, most recently with Kim’s longtime friend Joana Avillez, known for her whimsical line drawings. (For the first Dutch oven artist collaboration two years ago, the Maine-based printmaker Anastasia Inciardi designed a series of tomatoes from hand-carved linoleum stamps.) “I’ve always loved Joana’s work, so we let her do whatever she wanted,” says Kim. Avillez came up with a Dutch oven inspired by Portugal’s blue-trimmed Alentejo bungalows and her parents: Her mom collects miniature house figurines; her dad, the family chef, was from Portugal. “The idea that something hot is inside the pot, which is also the house, is so intoxicating to me,” says Avillez. “If you push the lid to the side and let the steam out, it’s like a chimney.” Avillez’s pen-on-paper tableau — scanned, printed, applied by hand and fired onto the surface of the pot — extends to the back."

• Jannik going to the net more would be fun. (ATP)
• We'll see how Carlos' new serve looks tomorrow. (ATP)
• A very sweet interview with soon-to-be GirlDad Casper Ruud. (ATP)
• H/t to Discord Roberto:

• A fun and interesting interview with Jess Pegula during the off-season – a player who, btw, is proof of the idea that if you open yourself up for access, do loads of interviews, take questions on, give meaningful insight and condor, you can shape how you are covered and grow your brand organically:

• Game recognizes game: Love the recognition of Anna Blinkova – "Blinky" – and her pure heart and work ethic:

• Long-time followers know that if there's anything I hate, it's defending Roger Federer. But here I am clocking in for duty because I don't understand why the hell people are mad at Roger for this:

• If that triggers something in you, then you are that person who hears "I like pancakes" and responds "OH SO YOU HATE WAFFLES THEN."
• That's it for now, folks. Just a reminder that it's going to be a long two weeks so please do take some time to touch some grass – figuratively for many of you, as it is the dead of winter. Yesterday I went to the cinema for my own double-feature of NO OTHER CHOICE and MARTY SUPREME. It was fun to be the only girl in a theater full of film bros.

• NO OTHER CHOICE ruled (it's so funny). MARTY SUPREME was not for me, which I kind of knew going into it, but it's a really well-made film and nearly everyone I personally know has loved it. It hits a lot of the same notes as CHALLENGERS and INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS (one of my all-time faves) but the way that it differs is pretty much everything that is not my vibe. But it's a very good movie!
• I've got a ticket for HAMNET tonight, but we'll see if I feel emotionally ready for that or not. Might have to reschedule that one lol.
• Last movie thought: I feel like people really blew right on past BUGONIA and THE PHOENICIAN SCHEME this year, both absolutely outstanding.
• Want some fun folks to talk through your feelings during the fortnight? Join the growing pandaxprs Forty Deuce Discord community! Just head to the #hangout or #matchchat threads.