Bagel Bites: Packing my bags

Internet ephemera from the tennis world and beyond. Have something you want to include? Join the Discord or hmu on Bluesky.

• Jess Pegula is a class act always and there's a reason why, low key, she might be the most universally beloved and respected player in the WTA locker room these days. Fantastic effort to pick up Title No. 9 and she put on a masterclass in the final to beat Iga. Her backhand slice was a gamechanger all match and her court coverage and anticipation was outstanding. I like her draw at Wimbledon. We'll see!

• As for Iga, there's no way she walks away from Bad Homburg without a boost. By doing something she's never done before – making a grass-court WTA final – she ends her 12 month final drought and made great strides on a surface she keeps saying – jokingly or not – vexes her to no end. Back to No.4 in the WTA Rankings and No.3 in the Race. That's a good week's work. (Instagram)

• What did I say? Maya Joint the GOAT! Saves four match points in unreal fashion to edge out Alex Eala in Eastbourne to win her second WTA title of the year. Seriously, watch the highlights, especially from the third-set breaker. (YouTube)
• Immigration is good. Just ask Tennis Australia, who poached Maya Joint (USA) and Daria Kasatkina (Russia) this year. Incredible moves, mates. (Tennis Australia)
• Taylor Fritz takes care of business to take home his FOURTH Eastbourne title. He's going to force them to erect a statue.

• Tallon Griekspoor takes Mallorca. Such a mercurial talent. He's so good. Just not all the time. Unfortunately for him, he's got a quick turnaround. He'll play Jenson Brooksby on Monday.
• Jannik Sinner says it's nbd but it's still super wild he fired two members of his fitness team the week before a Slam and doesn't even have replacements immediately lined up? (AP)

• Here's Reem's Wimbledon Week 1 preview. (The National)
• The always lovely Sasa Ozmo has a must-read interview with Gilles Simon and while a lot of people are gonna get mad about his quotes...he's 96% correct:

“Remember, Roger was the most loved player, maybe ever. And most fans didn’t like Rafa when he showed up. But they started liking him more when Novak came on the scene. I’m 100% sure of it. Rafa became more appreciated once fans started comparing him to Novak instead of Roger.” (Clay Magazine)

• Yoooooooo Qinwen gave Carlos a Labubu????? HAHAHAHAHA amazing. (Reddit)
• Sounds like Dan Evans needed to talk:

"To start losing, it’s scary at the end of the day to know sometimes you’re not good enough. It’s not an easy thing in sport to not be good enough."

• There are absolutely things that should be revisited and revised in both the ATP and WTA commitment system – "commitments" is the biz lingo for "mandatory tournaments". And credit to Iga for continuing to bang the drum. But this wire stor rubs me the wrong way because, once again, a player said something and so the quotes have been reported. Ok. But there's zero interrogation or explanation of the situation, and that's a disservice to the issue at hand because no one exactly knows what we're talking about here. "There is no point for us to play over 20 tournaments in a year." No one is going to disagree with that. But...do you? Like, is there a top player that's played more than 20 events? I assume Iga is just rounding up, but she usually hovers around 16-18 events and that includes BJK/Olympics. And it's not Iga's responsibility in this moment to give everyone a primer on the WTA commitment rule – journalists can get that info directly from the publicly available WTA Rulebook or ask a tour spokesperson – but if it's that interesting of a comment, isn't it worth follow-up questions, either in that press conference itself or (if you're out of time) another day? Stuff like "Can you give an example of when the mandatory schedule impacted you the most?" or "What is your alternative solution?" or "The mandatory system has led to a more consistent product that has lead to better prize money and broadcast deals – are you willing sacrifice the gains for more autonomy?"
• And of course, the reflexive counterargument is "Well, you don't have to play anything. You can just take a zero-pointer and rest. It's not like you're banned from tour if you miss a mandatory." There's merits to all these arguments, but if there has been a good faith reporting into the actual rules, how they've changed over the years, the philosophy behind them, and their impact on players – and by that, I mean the general player body, not just the top players – I haven't seen one. My bad if I missed it. But I'd love to see one. Please someone write one! Don't make me do it. Let me enjoy my employment for a little bit longer.
• Hopefully these come in handy soon: A Redditor created logs of The Greatest Women's finals and The Greatest Men's finals. Incredible work. Fingers crossed we get to add to the list in two weeks. (Reddit)

• Speaking of which, should I try and set up a group watch after Wimbledon?
• The ATP's fancy feature on Andrey Rublev is out. Whatcha think? I'll always support high-effort productions like this. We don't get enough of it anymore. (YouTube)

• I'll be offline for the first week of Wimbledon so take care of yourselves, folks. Drink lots of water, be disciplined with your sleep schedule, and in the event of a rain delay, maybe take the time to deep clean your hot water kettles. Some of y'all do not do that and, I'm sorry, but the deposits and scum are gross. Make it your annual Wimbledon tradition. Lord knows everyone seems to just loooooooove tradition.
• I watched MATERIALISTS and loved it – possibly more than PAST LIVES which I know is blasphemy – but I've had the Japanese Breakfast song in my head for the last two weeks:

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