Bagel Bites: Rumblings.

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: Who even remembers?
• Yes indeed, Deuce Fans, it's been awhile. My near-month-long blogging sabbatical wasn't really all that intentional, it just kind of happened. Part of it was just life, which is good! I hit up the inaugural SF Stationary Fest, which was super fun and nice hangout weekend. I nearly finished PERSONA 5. I've seen a lot of extended family, was housesitting, and caught up on a load of anime – JUJUTSU KAISEN SHOULD JUST BE 60 EPISODES ABOUT MAKI ZENIN LIKE WHAT ARE WE DOING.

• Part of it was also, frankly, being a bit overwhelmed by current events.
• But part of it was also an overall sense that not much was REALLY happening from a storyline perspective – the players who are dominating on both sides of the ledger are continuing to do so and the list is a very short one: Aryna, Jannik, Elena, Carlos, Jess continue to do so. The chasing pack behind them continues to chase, with marginal gains every week.

• The more interesting stories, as they usually tend to be in tennis, concern the struggles. Carlos Alcaraz how has a very real injury cloud hovering over him after he picked up a wrist injury in his Barcelona opener and ultimately withdrew. He's also withdrawn from this week's Madrid Open, and while Roland Garros is still five weeks away, everyone is now wondering if his participation there is in question. He is has some tests lined up this week that should shine a light on the actual severity of the situation. (BBC)

• Carlos' potential absence from the clay swing would open the door an interesting possibility: Jannik has already won the first three Masters 1000s this year, having swept the Sunshine Double and easing past Carlos in their first meeting of the year in the Monte Carlo final. Early days, yes, but......WOULDN'T IT BE CUH-RAZY IF JANNIK WON ALL NINE MASTERS THIS YEAR??? All of a sudden, I find myself incredibly vested in this nascent storyline. The most anyone has ever won in a season is six by Novak in 2015. (Wikipedia)
• On the women's side, Iga Swiatek is always the talk of the town during the clay season but this year is obviously a bit different. After announcing her split with Wim Fissette after Miami, Iga headed to Mallorca to train with Francisco Roig and Rafael Nadal, which is a pretty cool thing given her famous love for her idol and this famous Instagram video, which she posted in her teenage years:

• With Roig has her new coach, Swiatek has zoned into trying to become the "brick wall" she was when she was younger. That's not to say she wants to go back to that pure gamestyle – as Iga pointed out on Monday at her Madrid Media Day, the game has evolved well past that being a singular winning style – but having a Spaniard in her ear to realign her game to be one that can comfortably rely on patience and physicality to break her out of the rash decision-making she feels undid her last year can only be a good thing.

Swiatek ready for Madrid after ‘best practice weeks’ with Roig and Nadal - Mutua Madrid Open

Change is never easy; but when it comes with a set of common goals and some wisdom from a lifelong idol, it can quickly become something exciting rather than

Mutua Madrid OpenNacho Encabo

• And "realignment" is really the key word here. Iga has known for a while now that the balance had tipped too far towards early-strike aggressiveness. It's something that Fissette tried to address as well. The old habits will still creep in, but she's happy with what she's seeing on the practice courts.

"I feel like I've been doing a lot of closed patterns, and the rallies in my practices were kind of short when sometimes I really needed to feel solid," Iga said on Media Day. "You need to have this feeling in your head that you're not going to miss a ball. I feel like this Spanish style of coaching really helps that because Spanish players are really fighting for every point and being ready for long rallies as well. That's why I feel like we have the same goals as Francis. I feel like after these practices in Mallorca, I I've been able to not make any rash decisions. For example after I play the sixth or seventh shot in the rally, which I kind of did for the last year. Also the decision-making needs to change if you need to be more of a grinder and sometimes not take as much risk if you don't need to."

• In many ways a victim of her own success, Iga was quick to acknowledge her trademark intensity can get in her own way. Take her legendarily good footwork for example.

"I feel like I started moving a bit too hard, sometimes even being a bit too low instead of having a smooth rhythm with my footwork and sometimes making unnecessary steps and that cost me also energy. Francis is more about me staying high on the court and not leaning too much forwards or backwards, because movement starts all of that. If you're leaning forward then it means your legs didn't really go towards the ball. I feel like I've been a little bit unstable in the last couple of months, maybe the footwork hasn't been perfect. He's really focusing on that and it's really been helping."

Swiatek saves three match points to beat Sabalenka for first Madrid title

World No.1 Iga Swiatek captured her first Mutua Madrid Open title in dramatic fashion, saving three championship points to beat No.2 Aryna Sabalenka in the final on Saturday.

Women's Tennis Association

• Madrid has always been Iga's toughest clay-court tournament, though she will always have the euphoric memories of her three-championship point saving effort to edge Aryna in 2024. She comes in off a three-set loss to Mirra Andreeva in the Stuttgart quarterfinals last week, a match where she looked outstanding until....she didn't.

• As for what's the what in Madrid, it's another ATP Masters/WTA 1000 that has seen a flurry of withdrawals. Obviously Alcaraz will be sorely missed, but here are some more marquee names who won't be suiting up: Novak Djokovic, Amanda Anisimova (wrist), Taylor Fritz, Karolina Muchova (wrist), Frances Tiafoe, Sebastian Korda, Jack Draper (knee), Emma Raducanu (viral illness), Maya Joint, Barbora Krejcikova, Sara Bejlek, Giovanni Mpetshi Perricard, to name a few.

Madrid draw: What is Sabalenka’s path to a fourth title at the Caja Mágica?

Following her clinical run through the Sunshine Double, Aryna Sabalenka transitions to clay to defend her crown against Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina and a stacked field in the first clay-court WTA 1000 of the year.

Women's Tennis AssociationWTA Staff

• Aryna is going for her fourth Madrid title, a feat that would make her the most decorated WTA champion of the tournament. This is her first tournament since besting Coco to sweep the Sunshine Double in Miami. Her chief rival on the year, Elena, comes in off her title run in Stuttgart, where she beat WTA 1000 CHAMPION IN 2026 KAROLINA MUCHOVA in the final. The other big early clay court title went to Jess in Charleston.
• Pending qualifiers and lucky losers being placed, it's a pretty quiet early two rounds for the women. I'm intrigued by Townsend-Boulter, with the winner to play Pegula.

Katie Boulter is thriving while fellow Britons are ill or injured

While Jack Draper and Emma Raducanu’s absences from the Madrid Open raise questions about the state of British tennis, Katie Boulter’s impressive return to form offers a respite.

Yahoo SportsSonia Twigg

• The second round could have a few enticing match-ups on paper: Swiatek-Kasatkina, Osaka-Osorio, Sabalenka-Stearns, Venus-Baptiste, Paolini-Siegemund, McNally-Mboko, Siniakova-Townsend. But the big action will (hopefully) come later in the second week.
• I do think the WTA's famous "depth" has gotten a big shallower at the start of this season. The action outside the Top 20 has felt a lot softer than in years past. That's not necessarily a bad thing if it means the business end of the tournament features recurring rivalries and match-ups among the tour's elite, which is what we've seen so far. But it does mean the first three rounds often feel like soft opens, which used to always be the case for the ATP in the Big Four era, but less so on the WTA. So this is a new feeling for me!

• As for the men's draw, I will just say this: "Let's see what is coming." Jannik overtook Carlos at No. 1 with his win in Monte Carlo, and he's atop the draw. Sinner is playing Madrid for the first time since 2024 – he was still serving out the final days of his suspension last year – and has yet to make it past the quarterfinals here. But this is 2026 Jannik and he's a pretty tough dude to beat at this 1000s huh? To quote Jack Nicholson in A FEW GOOD MEN: "Who's gonna do it? You? You, Lieutenant Weinberg???" Could it be Tommy Paul? Andrey Rublev? Arthur Fils? I'd love to see him play Fonseca again, though. That Indian Wells match was so fun.
• There are some fun potential second-round matches: Hurkacz-Musetti, Tsitsipas-Bublik, Opelka-Shapovalov, Dimitrov-Tien, and Monfils-Cobolli would be fun.

• Revisiting this early-April piece from Carole Bouchard on the Much Ado About Nothing of Sinner's "slow" start to the season. (The Tennis Sweet Spot)
• Quick glance at the ATP and WTA Race Rankings and a few standout notes:
  • The WTA Top 5: Sabalenka, Rybakina, Pegula, Svitolina, Muchova
  • The ATP Top 5: Sinner, Alcaraz, Zverev, Medvedev, Shelton
  • Coco Gauff currently at No. 8, Iga Swiatek at No. 10.
  • Arthur Fils at No. 6 is amazing.
  • Rafael Jodar (No. 22) is less than 30 points behind Learner Tien (No. 21).
  • Taylor Fritz is at No. 23; Casper Ruud at No. 33
  • Jasmine Paolini is at No. 36.
  • At No. 71, Taylor Townsend is two spots ahead of No. 73 Naomi Osaka.

I’m Begging You All to Let Black Women Do What They Want With Their Hair

Enough with Coco Gauff’s campaign controversy.

Marie ClaireDanielle Jackson

• Please note: NOBODY BEATS WTA 1000 CHAMPION KAROLINA MUCHOVA SEVEN TIMES IN A ROW.
• The French Open won't be adding backstage cameras this year. Good! (The Athletic)

“They need to have a private area so we won’t change on that stance,” Mauresmo said.

“And we will not add cameras. This is the position we’ve decided to take, and we have taken this position for a few years. We want to maintain this and not change on that ground. This is for the service to players.”

• Rafael Jodar is having one hell of a season. Now he returns to his home tournament. (ATP)
• Side note: I absolutely cannot wait for Arthur Fils' matches at Roland Garros.
• Here's the ATP's preview of Madrid's storylines.
• Jamie Murray has officially retired. (ATP)
• Marketa Vondrousova is facing a suspension of up to four years for refusing a doping contr0l officer's visit to her home. She is not currently suspended, but has not played since Adelaide. (Tennis.com)

Marketa Vondrousova says ‘mental and physical stress’ led to anti-doping charge

Former Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova is charged with refusing a doping test by the ITIA in an incident the Czech player said happened as she had “reached a breaking point after months of physical and mental stress”.

BBC SportMandeep Sanghera

• I think if you get mad when someone hits an underarm serve against you, then everyone should be allowed – nay, encouraged – to make fun of you for being soft until such time that you provide incontrovertible proof that you are not, in fact, soft. (The Athletic)

What is confidence?

And how do we keep it?

Finite JestAndrea Petkovic

• The Athletic takes a comprehensive look at the WTA's impending exit from Saudi Arabia.

“Obviously, we have all the Slams and stuff like that which are amazing, but I do feel like the ATP Finals seems a little bigger,” Pegula said.

“Because it is really tough, you’re playing against the best players of that year and to win that is a really big deal. But I think, marketing-wise, it gets a little lost still. I know it’s a long year, it’s hard to keep up, and sometimes at the end of the year, maybe people check out a little as fans. But I think it’s really important that we continue to grow that.”

• Personally, I just hope wherever the WTA Finals lands, that the tour actually puts in the resources that it once did – but has not for the last five years – to treat the season-ending championships as the "crown jewel" that it used to be. There's no denying that the sheen and perceived prestige of the event has suffered since Covid, for reasons that were both not within the tour's complete control (a pandemic, poor weather, financially strapped promoters, wars), and some that were entirely self-inflicted. You simply cannot, as the governing body, treat a tournament that pays out one of the biggest prize money checks in all of tennis as an afterthought. It's literally YOUR event.

• In the days of Istanbul, Singapore and Shenzhen, the tour went all in on storytelling around the WTA Finals, starting the "Race to the WTA Finals" discussion around mid-season and ramping it up through to the end. The conversation and coverage in the lead up was intentional: if the WTA didn't treat the Finals as worthy of coverage from its own channels, what chance did it have convincing anyone else? And what chance did you have of convincing a new generation of tennis players that its prestige was on par with the Grand Slams? Treating the WTA Finals as a floppy appendage, an end-of-season annoyance, not only does a disservice to the tour, the players, its sponsors, and its fans, but it also spits in the face of tennis history. Be better.
• This whole Monte Carlo merchandising debacle is pretty incredible. (Hard Courts)

The Unwritten Rules of Celebrity Podcasts

How Hollywood built a press machine out of friendly conversations, discreet edits, and the tacit understanding that no one is going for the jugular.

L.A. MaterialAmy Kaufman

• Very cool to see Owen Lewis on Jannik Sinner in n+1.
• I've been very obsessed with this Wikipedia guessing game. (Catfishing.net)

Attack on Titan, an endless cycle of hatred

In this analysis of Attack on Titan, we take a look back at a story that highlights the cycle of hatred and revenge.

Point'n ThinkBrian Le Duigou

• It's been fun to revisit ATTACK ON TITAN, an anime I loved immensely the first time around before just being super mad by the end of it. But now that I've had distance, I rewatched the last few seasons and have decided I'm actually super cool and totally into the upshot being Eren being a complete moron and that being the whole point. And yes, the point of it all is that empire is evil, which....seems pretty apt to revisit right now.

In the Belly of the Beast – Spectre Journal

Aaron Boehmer reflects on the aesthetics of war and empire in relation to Hajime Isayama’s Attack on Titan.

Spectre JournalAaron Boehmer

For over a decade, Attack on Titan has soared as one of the most globally successful anime series—and one of the most politically misunderstood.³  Most alarmingly, the series has been claimed by the online far right.⁴  Members of fascist forums embrace its mythos of racial destiny, citing the story as the “revival of National Socialism” and “one of the most redpilled shows,” all while posting anonymously under a Nazi flag.⁵ 

On its surface, Attack on Titan recounts tales of survival, purity, and righteous violence in ways that—absent critical thinking—are attractive to the right. Moreover, creator Hajime Isayama has provided no indication that the story is trying to say anything to the contrary. “Being a writer, I believe it is impolite to instruct your readers the way of how to read your story,” he says.⁶  In the shadow of Isayama’s silence, Attack on Titan has been used by its far right enthusiasts to spread white supremacy. 

To Isayama’s credit or not, the actual story of Attack on Titan is far different from the one that has been coopted by fascists online. Rather than a far-right fantasy, the story offers a grim indictment of the racial state, a meditation on the manufactured consent of genocide, and a gruesome and nuanced portrayal of war as everyday capitalist logic rather than its exception. In this way, while it might open with the dystopian plot of a world where towns are pillaged by monstrous Titans, Attack on Titan is not about monsters, but about how empires make monsters. The system is the true monster, producing and reproducing a cycle of continuous violence. 

• Bop of the Day: For no particular reason whatsoever, let's listen to The Strokes.