Bagel Bites: Set your heart ablaze

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.

• Previously on The Bagel: NOMNOMNOMNOM
• Italy is back in the Billie Jean King Cup Final in Shenzhen. They'll wait for the winner of USA-GB. The rain has continued in Seoul so that schedule is all backed up, but the weather is looking clear for the weekend.
• Meanwhile over at Laver Cup...idk:

• I truly think these Rolex mini-docs are great. Here's the new one on Zheng Qinwen (click cc for English subtitles):

• Claire Liu's Substack essay from May is making the rounds again for obvious reasons. (Finding Claire-ity on Substack)

Like every time I’ve been mistaken for Ann Li or Carol Zhao or Danielle Lao or any other Asian tennis player. Or when I went to the ITF World Junior Tennis Finals to represent the U.S. and someone called us the “Oriental team” because two out of three of us were Asian. Or when a tennis player started calling me “Sai Sai,” because there was another Chinese tennis player with that name and I guess we’re all the same. Or more recently, when the tournament staff couldn’t find my check-in folder, kept pointing to a different Asian name and joking, “Pretty close though, huh?”—only to find out it was mine, just mislabeled.

I know there will always be stereotyping, bias, and prejudice. One of the qualities I genuinely admire in Chinese culture—and many other Asian cultures—is the quiet strength that comes with putting your head down and getting to work. No matter what’s in front of you, no matter the resistance, if you stay focused and push forward, you’ll get there.

But that doesn’t mean every hardship is necessary.

• Andrea Petkovic is right. Dudes really care about their hair. (Finite Jest via Substack)
• Speaking of good dude hair, a Redford Roundup here, here and here.
• Also speaking of good dude hair: Yikes?!? I was unaware that Jannik was getting the Naomi treatment. (AP via Yahoo)
• My actual goat Lina Khan was back with Pablo Torre explaining surveillance pricing, which is pretty damn relevant to all of us:

• I'm so stupid. I have always been an inverter and I never really understood why that was but, yes, I did grow up playing flight simulators.

• From Discord Carrie: The Great Rivalry that...isn't. (Second Serve)
• Aryna's insane tiebreak record has been the difference this year. (Reddit)

• Jemele Hill leads a discussion on the future of women's sports:

• What is the culture that made you say culture is for you: Tennis makes an appearance on Las Culturistas in Matt Rogers':

• Congrats to Shapo and Miriam! (ATP)
• C0ngrats to Dasha and Luke! (AAP)
• A billionaire appeared on CNBC:

• Much love to the Golden State Valkyries, who made the Bay Area proud. From Discord Grey: Head Coach Natalie Nakase's final press conference is a must-watch for substance, but also for form. At the end, she went row by row to shake the hands of every reporter. That shit matters. Well played, in every way.

• Blogs will be sporadic over the next few weeks. I'm headed to China for three weeks and my days are gonna be way too full with work to be sitting at my desk reading and culling links. But I'll try and get something up when Beijing slows down a bit in Week 2.
• If you want to help keep me in the loop, join the Discord and recommend some good reads there.
• Be good, be safe, be loud, everybody.
• Downloaded for my flight: