Bagel Bites: Tiger tail.

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.

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• Previously on The Bagel: I love 50 Cent.
• Loading up this Bagel with all the extras. I'm not sure I'll be around for the next three days, so I'll catch up with y'all when the dust has settled next week!

• Aryna Sabalenka played the best match, arguably, of her entire season and she's into her fourth straight US Open final. The three-peat is on, as well as a statement to the world as she vacates the No.1 ranking.

• Then came Elena Rybakina breaking through the Coco Gauff defense to book her spot in her first US Open final and, like Aryna, second major final of the year.

• And so it will be No.1 vs. No.1 on Saturday, as the Grand Slam season begins and ends with Aryna and Elena battling it out on a hard court. It's a great opportunity for Elena to cement her status at the top of the game.
• BUT AN EVEN GREATER CHANCE for Aryna to say nah, we all know who the real No.1 is. Cuz mind you, if Aryna wins here, she will have four titles on the season (one Slam, two 1000s, and 1 500) to Elena's two (one Slam, one 500).

• Regardless of Saturday's result, the year-end No.1 ranking is going to dominate a lot of the discussion through the end of the season. If Aryna wins, Elena will leave with the No.1 ranking but Aryna will be No.1 in the Race.
• Remember, Elena has a lot of points to defend on the back-end of the year – 2,475 (!!!) to be exact, due to winning the WTA Finals, Ningbo, and playing an otherwise full Asia schedule. Aryna made the WTA Finals final, but otherwise only played Wuhan after the US Open, where she made the semifinals.

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• From Giri Nathan: The US Open is us. (Defector)

 It is not scandalizing to learn that America's biggest tennis tournament is a shrine to conspicuous consumption. And the good parts of the U.S. Open are still life-affirmingly good. My eyelid, like yours, might twitch when I read that Craig Tiley, the recently installed CEO of the United States Tennis Association, wants to make the tournament more like "tennis Disneyland," but I don’t know if the organizers are necessarily at fault for the present malaise. The Open appears to be drawing in more fan interest than ever before, which falls in line with the USTA’s mission statement of growing interest and participation in this country. If there’s a problem here, it might merely lie in mankind. At the intersection of broader disconcerting trends—everything is phone, everything is gambling, and nobody knows how to be around each other in public—lies the 2026 U.S. Open.

• Mulligan: As pointed out to me by Discord Carrie, I have twice now said that Taylor Fritz was in the US Open final last year. In my hollow defense, last year was...a blur.
• Speaking of Taylor Fritz, dude got home, opened up ChatGPT and cranked out an essay:

• "I'm sorry to tell you that you are in fact illiterate" is a banger.
• Tumaini Carayol is perfect on the historic semifinal between Frances Tiafoe and Ben Shelton. (The Guardian)

While women’s tennis has witnessed the successes of a long line of top black players, Monfils and his retired compatriot Jo-Wilfried Tsonga were, for so long, the standard bearers for black players in men’s tennis. In the same year that the 40-year-old Monfils will finally bow out, the new generation of black men’s players have consolidated their positions at the top of the sport.

Last month, the Cincinnati Open featured two black players competing in a Masters 1000 final for the first time as the 22-year-old Frenchman Fils overcame a year of injuries to defeat Tiafoe and win his first big title. Fils’s victory was preceded by Ben Shelton’s triumph at the Canadian Open in Montreal.

It took three weeks for the Fils v Tiafoe final to be eclipsed by an even more significant match between two black players. Tiafoe and Shelton will compete against each other in the US Open semi-finals on Friday night, with the winner becoming the first black man since Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at the 2008 Australian Open, and the first African American man since MaliVai Washington, the 1996 Wimbledon finalist, to reach a grand slam final. The victor will then attempt to become the third black man to win a grand slam after Arthur Ashe and Yannick Noah. Along with last year’s semi-finalist Félix Auger-Aliassime, there will be four black players inside the ATP’s top 11. The status commanded by Monfils, who never reached did not reach a major final, plainly underlines how important this moment is for future generations of black tennis players as well as themselves.

• This shot of Michelle Obama after Coco Gauff played one of her signature defensive masterclass points is perfect:

Michelle

[image or embed]

— CJ Fogler (@cjzero.bsky.social) September 10, 2026 at 8:07 PM

• There's a Thai BL show called MATCH POINT. (Soompi)

New Thai BL “Match Point” is about the heated rivalry between a star tennis player and a talented art student. They’re on different paths, but their endless efforts to one-up each other eventually land them on the same tennis court, competing against each other.

• OK fine, I'll say it: I think it's really weird that every single gay TV show or movie or book that's being made about tennis all involve the men when the WTA IS RIGHT THERE. OPEN THE SCHOOLS. KNOW YOUR HISTORY. WHAT ARE WE EVEN DOING.
• And before you start lecturing me, trust me, I KNOW the why. Straight women and gay men are a big market and boy do they love watching hot guys kiss.
• Good stuff from Owen Lewis here, boots on the ground at Tennis Coachella. (Defector)

This, I suddenly realized, is what tennis is all about. Zheng's happiness looked so pure—all surprised pleasure, rich gravy on top of an already successful comeback tournament—that I could hardly stand it, and I welled up a bit. If only every match could produce this kind of joy, with no thought of the next match in two days. Keys was off the court before the cheers for Zheng faded.

I didn't notice that sweat had soaked the back of my shirt until I got up to leave. On my way back to the media center, I heard someone shout, "I need a clear path!" It was a train of four security guards enveloping Iga Swiatek, who was next up against Marie Bouzkova. Iga passed within two feet of me, wearing headphones and a dark purple cap, looking down almost blankly, so focused that she seemed in a meditative trance. I decided that she was perhaps less socially inclined at the moment than Alvaro Alcaraz a few nights ago, and kept walking to the media center to talk to anybody who would listen about the best comeback of the year.

• Matthew McConaughey explains his love for tennis on the Jimmy Fallon Experience (52s mark):

• Matthew Futterman joins Pablo Torre Finds Out to discuss his reporting on the tight ties between the financial elite and tennis, and why that's not necessarily a good thing:

• Jason Gay tells tennis-heads to go touch grass and he's right. (WSJ)

It’s the city that never sleeps—why should tennis? 

Uh…OK? How many 3:30 a.m. finishes have you attended at Yankee Stadium? 

I appreciate the romance. New York remains a restless town where you can get a steak dinner and a tattoo of Joey Ramone with Joe Franklin etched on your back, long after quitting time. The subway is 24/7 theater. You can crawl out of a bar at dawn. There are amateur bike races that start in the dark at 5:45 a.m. It’s zany. 

But Alcaraz vs. Shelton isn’t a corned beef sandwich at an all-night diner. It’s a marquee showcase for a sport that needs every bit of U.S. attention it can get. And it got buried like a Tom Snyder sit-down with Buddy Hackett. 

• A lot of newer tennis fans probably aren't aware of Larry Scott's history and impact in tennis, specifically women's tennis. So I'm glad one of the OGs, Doug Robson, went long on the man who's advising the players against the machines. (LA Times)

It’s far too early to know whether Scott can turn the players’ newfound leverage into lasting change. Tennis has a long history of confronting big issues only to kick them down the road unresolved.

“Tennis is very fractionalized in a lot of ways,” said Jessica Pegula, the top-ranked American and No. 3 seed at the U.S. Open, in pre-tournament remarks. Pegula, who also is a representative on the WTA Players’ Council, added that “getting everyone on the same page is a step forward.”For Scott, the advisory council is the ultimate structural play. He has long argued that tennis’ fragmented governance holds the sport back and once envisioned himself leading a combined men’s and women’s tour. He sees the council not merely as a vehicle for larger checks, but also a way to force lasting cooperation between the Grand Slams and players and improve overall welfare.

• Tom Kershaw reports that Carlos Alcaraz has split from the group of top players who have pushed the Grand Slams for prize money increases. Kershaw speculates that Alcaraz's comments during the US Open, that he intends to take longer breaks during the season because "it's impossible to play them all", was a warning shot at the ATP calendar. (The Times)

Those concessions represented considerable progress for the player group, which has been advised by the former chief executive of the WTA, Larry Scott. However, it is understood that Alcaraz’s long-time representative, Albert Molina, informed the group that the seven-times grand-slam champion would not be a part of the campaign going forwards shortly before the US Open.

A meeting of 15 player representatives involved in the campaign was then held two days before the start of the year’s final grand-slam in New York, but Molina was conspicuously absent from the summit.

Alcaraz’s decision is undoubtedly a setback for the group, with the Spaniard’s star power unmatched in the sport despite the recent dominance of his great rival Sinner. It is understood Alcaraz’s camp are more concerned with the running of the ATP Tour as complaints mount over the congested schedule and the extended 12-day Masters 1000 tournaments.

Zheng Qinwen Survived A Near-Death Experience At The U.S. Open | Defector

Given that tennis is effectively professionalized, legalized psychological torture, a choke and an epic comeback often go hand-in-hand. Take, say, when Zheng Qinwen faced Madison Keys at the U.S. Open on Saturday. Zheng won a match in which she was down 6-1, 6(3)-7, 5-1 and had to save a match point on her opponent’s serve.…

DefectorKathryn Xu

• It's not often - in fact EXTREMELY EXTREMELY RARE – to see a player do victory-tour-like media rounds while the tournament is still ongoing. Then again, Alex Eala is an extremely rare player:

• Eala won't be flag-bearer for the Philippines at the Asian Games, opting to prioritize preparation for the Singapore WTA 500. (Manila Times)
• On that topic: With Eala skipping the China Open to play the Asian Games, I looked into the WTA Rule Book to see what the penalties will be. Since the Asian Games constitute an event opposite Beijing, she will receive a $10,000 withdrawal fine and a zero on her best 18 ranking (a.k.a. a zero-pointer). She has the opportunity to appeal the withdrawal fine.
• I still think there should be an exemption for national team duties. For many countries, prioritizing your national team is how national heroes and icons are made. It's a huge marketing opportunity for the player, one that the WTA and future tournaments will benefit from.

Two forehands, no backhands: meet the US Open’s fascinating ambidextrous experiment

The 16-year-old junior from Denver is treating the tennis world to a wildly unorthodox style – and proving it’s much more than a parlor trick

The GuardianAndrew Lawrence

• Everyone is an armchair tournament referee, and I tend to roll my eyes 99% of the time I see people complain about who got put where and at what time on any given order of play. So I'm glad that Ben Rothenberg got to go into the room where the order of play is made. Once you see how the sausage is made, you are way less inclined to see errors where errors do not exist.(Bounces)

• Preach:

• Context:

• And while we're at it:

• A former Levi's executive is the woman behind the transphobic XX-XY company. (Mother Jones)

Sey, the founder of XX-XY Athletics, a sportswear startup that openly calls transgender people’s identity a “lie,” has spent the last two and a half years stoking the flames of the national panic over trans athletes. A former marketing executive at Levi’s, Sey was now running a company that produced viral video ads showing young female athletes pleading for others to defend them against a looming transgender threat. Meanwhile, Sey and the brand offered cash rewards to athletes who boycotted matches against trans athletes or spoke out against them—incidents that fueled right-wing outrage cycles. And it gave endorsement deals to students willing to denounce trans teammates or competitors.

• I love Father John Misty and I'm not afraid to say it. (Stereogum)

Realistically, as a man I am more qualified than you to tell you the ways in which I am radically inferior to every other life form on Earth or elsewhere. Let me explain (at the risk, I know, of going a little “woke bro”): You see, at the dawn of the typographical age, we males, cursed with a right hemisphere orientation, decided that our weaknesses (symbolic thinking, intuition, empathy, etc) were weakness in general. So instead of doing the unthinkable, namely: deferring to anyone else’s vision of the world, we made the way we see things law, and then we wrote them down on traditionally masculine substances like stone, marble, etc, so anytime things got a little fuzzy, we could just mindlessly recite our laws, and in case anyone said, “Hey, that’s just some shit you wrote down!” we’d invent a God (a MALE one) and say, “Hey, don't look at me! He said it!” and that was that.
So, look, along those lines I know it’s a little ironic, not too mention hypocritical, for someone who obviously knows better, to declare (“declaring” being clearly symptomatic of entitlement) from the tower of the patriarchy that Nice As Fuck (aka NAF aka Jenny Lewis, Tennessee Thomas, and Erika Spring aka The Tame Guys) is objectively the best all-female band in the last 25 years (like that should even matter, you know, do you describe RADIOHEAD as an “ALL OPPRESSOR BAND NO YOU DON’T”) so I just won’t. I won’t blatantly man-splain their musical DNA, play spot-the-influence, or condescendingly take you by the hand and patiently reduce their sound to a bunch of “if blank hetero-married blank and then blank subjugated her sound to blank’s sound for the sake of maintaining the relationship”’s (classic), and go on to tell you – so you, presumably, never have to actually listen to it for yourself and (God-forbid) draw your own conclusions which would naturally be that NAF sounds like if the Clash made Rumors and King Tubby produced it.

• I really want to go to Taipei. Between the food and the stationary, I think I would be in heaven. HSIEH SU WEI HOOK ME UP GURL.

• Barry Melrose was Professor Hockey for me, a teenager who was confused as to why there was a new NHL expansion team in SAN JOSE CALIFORNIA. RIP to a legend. A great piece from Greg Wyshinski. (ESPN)

The second time I saw Melrose was in Bristol, the day before a hockey summit with my co-workers. I was staying at one of those hotels that had the fresh chocolate chip cookies in the lobby. As I'm checking in, I see this lumbering figure out of the corner of my eye going for one of the cookies. It was Barry. And he was wearing ... shorts.

I can't begin to explain to you how jarring this was. I didn't know Barry wore anything but a suit. Heck, I wasn't all that convinced he actually had legs after all these years. Seeing him in shorts was like seeing a character in a theme park lift up their giant plush head for a sip of water. The illusion was broken. Cool as he was, Melrose was just another hockey-obsessed guy looking for a late-night cookie. Which was part of the magic: The coolest guy on television was also sneakily one of its most affable personalities.

• Bop of the Day: 2026 US Open anthem.