Tennis

Bagel Bites: Let's touch grass

Breathe in. Breathe out. Breathe in. Breathe ou--HOOOOOOOONK HOOOOOOONK HOOOOOOOOOOOONK

Courtney Nguyen

Courtney Nguyen

— 10 min read
Bagel Bites: Let's touch grass
Photo by Sarah Abbey / 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.

  • Did you watch the Stars of the Open hit-and-giggle last night? It was nostalgic and entertaining. I got to relive all my feels of seeing Andy Roddick and Juan Martin del Potro on a court again – OH THE FEEEEELZ – but most importantly, I got to fall off my couch laughing at the 9-all point in the match between Flavia Pennetta and Flavio Cobolli, and Elina Svitolina and Gael Monfils. The whole match is worth watching, just for Flavia's constant scolding of Flavio lol.
  • But here is the 9-all point. Pure cinema:

flavia is the best.

  • True story, I'm not even kidding: I'm kind of a low-key Taylor Fritz stan these days. Dude is doing everything he possibly can to be the best he can be and you have to respect that. To quote the great Victorian poet Jack Chaddington Draper, "I don't know why it's a crime to be locked in." (The Athletic)
  • The Forbes list of the Highest-Paid Tennis Players in 2025 dropped today. Carlos and Jannik lead the pack, with Coco as the highest-paid woman at No.3 with $32.7 million, out-pacing Novak at No.4.
    • Per their reporting, Aryna and Iga both make the same off court ($15 million), which is pretty impressive gap-closing by Aryna – though I wonder how much of that was actually based on the core endorsement contract itself vs. performance bonuses for being No.1. (Forbes)
    • Zheng Qinwen makes more in her off-court endorsements than Fritz and Tiafoe combined. That's crazy!
    • For the first time since she won her first US Open, no Naomi on the list. Also, no Raducanu.
    • As always, take these numbers with a huge grain of salt. It's not like the reporters can audit the contracts or ask for proof. You're pretty much relying on what agents are saying...which...caveat emptor! But with most of these players being under the same agency (IMG/WME) I'm a little bit more inclined to believe how those specific players line up.
  • Relatedly, here are the WTA No.1 scenarios in NYC: "If Sabalenka doesn’t reach the quarterfinals in New York, Swiatek or Gauff could move to No. 1 by winning the title. But if Sabalenka makes the quarterfinals (430 points), she would lock down the top spot regardless of other results." (WTA)
US Open draws are out
Spent 20 minutes thinking of a clever headline and NOPE!
Forty DeuceCourtney Nguyen
  • I love that Andrea Petkovic includes an audio read of her posts. This week, she wrote about her experience watching the mixed doubles. (Finite Jest via Substack)
What I liked most about the Casper/Iga pairing is how Casper seems to understand Iga’s quirks. Her shadow swinging and the nervous energy she gives off, the intensity and the hiding her face under the hat in certain moments. For regular Finite Jest readers, it’s not a secret that I, too, have a weakness for Iga and it was so lovely to see Casper being a comfort to her, making her feel safe and seen and what do you know, all of a sudden Iga relaxed and some of the quirks disappeared. Casper Ruud seems to take people as they are and we could all learn from him.
While Casper seemed to be a comfort to Iga, Jess Pegula seemed to be the rock in the relationship in team Dragula. Jack gives off something slightly neurotic (hey, you fit right in, Jack, welcome to New York). Maybe it’s the Britishness and the whole repressing-your-feelings-at-all-times-to-be-polite-thing, maybe I’m projecting, but Jess grounded the pairing and made Jack calmer. Or so it seemed at least. Either way, it was lovely to watch.
"I don't really feel like I'm playing great tennis. At times, I am, but I feel very up and down, kind of sloppy, which I don't like. It really bothers me. I'm kind of a perfectionist, so I don't like having to say that," said Pegula, whose parents own the NFL's Buffalo Bills and NHL's Buffalo Sabres.
  • From Discord Grey: DASHA ON CBS MORNINGS!
Something about Jannik that was interesting is catching him in some more unguarded moments. He actually just seemed like a good hang. I don’t think he comes off that way in a lot of his public-facing stuff. I really got the sense that this is a guy who sort of resents the part of his job that’s having to do all the meet-and-greets, the influencer-ification of a modern-day athlete. I don’t think he’s into that. But it was cool to see those few moments where you could get an unguarded reply to a question and he would reflect on his own life. I thought he was pretty chill and insightful, and not nearly as mechanical as he sometimes seems on TV.
With Carlos, one interesting thing was he really does turn it on a lot. You wonder what he’s like in these more mundane moments of his life, but then I went to this thing he was doing for a sponsor and I see him walking around in a hallway, chatting up random people. I do feel like there’s a unified theory of Carlos that is accurate, where he actually is just this fun-loving, extremely gregarious and extroverted guy. I was hoping to complicate this picture, but I have no evidence to the contrary. This dude is so happy.
  • Get your copy of Changeover next week! If you're going to be at the US Open on Aug. 25 or 26 and you're taking the 7 train in, there will be a bookstand set up on the bridge. Giri will be selling and signing! Details at the bottom of the Defector piece. (Bookshop.org)
  • From Discord Carrie: Iga Swiatek throwing a medicine ball is oddly mesmerizing:
But Rune’s variable results against lower-ranked players continue. “My problem is not beating those guys,” he says of Alcaraz and Sinner. “My problem is being consistent in going deep in every tournament to get a chance to play them more often because I feel like that’s where I raise my level. It’s very clear that when Carlos and Jannik play each other they raise their level. You push each other like crazy and this is a very exciting element of the sport. So having a good head-to-head against them, and also in the beginning against Novak Djokovic when he was on top, makes me know I can do it. It’s just about delivering it consistently.”

the challengers music lol

  • He should come back next week and shoot a similar spot about how New York has become too expensive for the working class. You know, like the actual US Open.

I don't care about the Cracker Barrel logo. I don't care about Sydney Sweeney's jeans. I don't care what a Labubu is. I just want you to have healthcare, food, and a safe place to sleep at night.

— Toussaint Egan (@thesaintoftous.bsky.social) 2025-08-21T23:29:32.006Z
  • From Discord tjc05: Watching Aoi Ito cook is pure meditation:
  • Petra might be ready, BUT I AM CERTAINLY NOT. The best player to never be ranked WTA No.1. (The Guardian)
“It’s my personality, probably, that I didn’t win more,” Kvitova, 35, says on the eve of the US Open. “I think I had a talent. Maybe I could work a little bit more, but then, on the other hand, I think maybe it will kill my talent or my mentality.
“I think I could [have won more]. But what can I do? I played in the final of the Australian Open [in 2019], I lost to Naomi Osaka when she played incredibly in the third set. There are always a few question marks in the number of grand slams. Being world No 1, that’s what I’m missing. Probably that’s the thing I would love to have. But if it’s not happened, it’s not happened. It would not give me a better life or make me happier.”
  • To understand the pure camp of Botic Van De Zandschulp, you need to get a sense of his range. He can do this (Reddit) and he can also do this:

never a reaction, always a bob

  • Should we be worried that Novak was wearing his elbow sleeve just to throw out a ceremonial pitch? (Twitter)
  • Sidenote: Did you know that "baseball" in Dutch is "honkball"? Incredible language.
Buy me a cup o' joe at Ko-fi!

Well he's got that going for him! h/t Discord Carrie

  • From Discord Alina MadeInRO: "Iga and Daniil: the duo we didn't know we needed. Chapeau, Technifibre!" (Twitter)
  • WE HAVE AN INDONESIAN IN THE US OPEN MAIN DRAW!!! Congrats to Janice Tjen, who has been tearing it up on the lower levels this year. Sad it had to come at the expense of the Legend Aoi Ito:
  • Court 17 After Dark is where it's at, you heard it here first. (Twitter)
  • Have you guys seen SHATTERED GLASS? The 2003 movie starring Hayden Christensen and Peter Saarsgaard about the true story of Stephen Glass, the dude who made up fake stories and got them published in The New Republic? You should. (Wired)

this iconic advertising copywriter named Kathy Hepinstall Parks died over the weekend and I wanted to share something from her website I thought Bluesky would like

— amy brown (@amybrown.xyz) 2025-08-22T14:20:40.546Z
  • When Hong Kong Cinema Ruled the World. What a time it was. (Vulture)
  • I never thought of it this way: Yes, the AIDS epidemic wiped out an entire generation of artists and thinkings. But as Fran Leibowitz says below, it also wiped out an entire generation of connoisseurs, and we feel that just as much:
  • And following that train of thought: we're seeing a very similar thing happen with respect to the demise of a vibrant, protected, artistic community and the absolute death of media literacy and criticism. And that will also be felt for decades to come.
  • For real: SHUT THE FUCK UP at the movie theater. People really just do not know how to act in public anymore and it's time we just start yelling at them. Laugh, scream, gasp all you want! That is fine! But a movie theater is NOT your goddamn living room. It is INSANNNNNE to me that this needs to be said! (Twitter)

As the US Open is set to begin, a polite reminder of a very important sports rule:

  • I'll be doing some livestreaming during the US Open over on Twitch. Follow me there at pandaxprs12 to get notifications when I go live. You can also join our growing Discord to chat with me and other fans during the tournament, suggest links for the Bagel Bites, and just have a general fun time.
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