Bagel Bites

Bagel Bites: My voice is my passport

This is a 'Sneakers' reference.

Courtney Nguyen

Courtney Nguyen

— 5 min read
Bagel Bites: My voice is my passport
Photo by Parabol | The Agile Meeting Tool / Unsplash
  • Previously on The Bagel: I called Serena a liar.
  • Didn't see this one coming: Anastasia Potapova will play for Austria starting next season. The 24-year-old Russian posted on Instagram that her citizenship application has been accepted. Make that two Russians who have announced a switch in the off-season, after Kamilla Rakhimova announced a switch to Uzbekistan.
  • Editor's note: I wrote that before this happened.
  • HUGE respect to Caroline Garcia, who says she turned down over $250,000 from a gambling company. "I don't want Tennis Insider Club to contribute, even indirectly, to a system that is creating addiction, destroying lives, and turning athletes into targets every single day. Betting companies spend millions in sponsorships because they work. They move attention, they change behaviors, they normalize gambling. Be we don't want our community to be pushed in that direction. This isn't a moral crusade. I'm not judging anyone who bets casually. Or athletes who are sponsored by betting companies. I'm simply choosing what we want to stand for, and what we don't want to amplify. Our mission is to tell real stories from inside tennis, inspire people, and grow the sport in a way that's healthy for athletes and fans. Taking betting money would point us in the opposite direction. And if we want athletes to trust us enough to be vulnerable on the podcast...to share their fears, their doubts, their mental health battles...then we have to show them that we choose values over money. $270K is a lot. But building something long-term, honest, and good for the sport is worth more. We'll find partners who believe in that vision – and who want to grow with us, not exploit the pressure athletes already face." Needless to say, do what you can to support the Tennis Insider Club podcast by following, subscribing, signing up for their newsletter, and, of course, listening. (Instagram)
  • Let's watch some ATP Hot Shots:
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WE ARE PAOLINIIIII WE CARRRRY THE FLAAAAMEEEEE (i'm so sry i had to)

  • Stefanos Tsitsipas' mom gave a lengthy interview in Russian and it is worth a Google Translate. The upshot: Stef's back is feeling better after going to a specialist in Germany, but they won't know how good it is until he starts his pre-season this month; his relationship and breakup with Paula was tough and his mom was surprised by its emotional toll on Stef; she was the brains behind bringing in Goran, but Stef needs his dad; after taking a break from each other, Apostolos has seen the error of his ways and Stef has matured and become more assertive. (Sports.ru)
  • This part was interesting:
"You see, Stepa's style of tennis isn't based on pushing himself to the limit. And that's exactly what any coach would suggest. His on-court routine is more sophisticated. He requires a gentler, but more effective, workout. Dad was famous for never finishing a practice without polishing some element of Stepa's game.
"I'm not saying this because I'm his mother. I'm a tennis fan first and foremost. And when Stepan played at his best, it reminded me of a symphony. The music begins, builds, continues, and ends just as beautifully. His best matches were like that.
"Then he accumulated a load—mental and emotional—and it became difficult for him to maintain this particular style of tennis. But that's the point of his game.
"It's the forehand that helped him maintain that entire symphony and develop his game around it. His serve in his prime. Although, you see, it cost him an injury—meaning it wasn't perfect.
"The serve is the one thing everyone struggled with and failed to achieve great results. This tragedy, the inability to improve the technical execution of the serve, may be connected, incidentally, to Apostolos's lack of knowledge. Perhaps. After all, he's not a professional player, but an academic coach; he's been through all the stages of training."
  • Um....she's rad:

"Pavel, understand, this is my son. For me, he's the ideal tennis player because I've invested so much time and soul into him. But every player has a ceiling. It used to seem like Stepan had more promise. But then players like Sinner and the magician Alcaraz came along—his coach is always very pleased when I call him a magician. And against them, many of my weaknesses show up.

"Look, Zverev is ranked number 3 in the world. But is he really third in the world? Does he deserve that spot? His game sometimes falls apart so badly it's simply impossible."

  • And here is on being iced out from the team – reminder....one of Stef's parents played professional tennis and it wasn't Apostolos. And when it was just her with him in Dubai, et voila:
"There's an important nuance that actually affected the relationships within the entire team. They decided that Yulia's opinion was hers, and we had our own. And this reflected in the game.
"I'm not saying that if I'd been more involved, Stepa's game would have become flawless in every aspect. No. But I could have improved it by at least 2-3 percent. His victory in Dubai this year is proof of that. He arrived there completely shattered. Before that, he'd been knocked out in Doha by Medjedovic, who was playing the rest of the game on one leg.
"And so, after all this, he comes to Dubai. We'd agreed six months earlier that I'd be there—it was the only tournament on his winter schedule I wanted to attend. And there, I had to be the first to get him out of his disarray.
"And we got him back on track. In the final, the importance of his backhand—in the sense that it helped him win points—was at its highest in his career. You can imagine the work that went into it in a short period of time to get him into the right mental state. There were crazy swings the whole time: 0:40 down on serve, a hidden match point to save [in the quarterfinals against Matteo Berrettini]. And he held his own.
"You'd be surprised, but even after this, not all members of his team drew any conclusions. Even after this.
"In general, I've encountered mild sexism like this on the ATP tour. I have."
  • I'm away this week but I'll be back next week to start gearing up for the start of the season. Or maybe I'll just play video games on Twitch. The world is our oyster.

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