Bagel Bites: We did it.

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: I dipped my toe.
• A few years ago, I was in New York for the US Open and trekked my way out to Green Point to go to a famous pen and paper store called Yoseka. Very cute space, well curated, and I was looking to forward to memorializing my trip by picking up my first "fancy" fountain pen. I had done my research and had a few specific pens in mind, but the store was so busy that day that trying to get some help – I really didn't know much about the pens and the process of buying one at an actual brick-and-mortar store meant I was a bit at a loss. So I was just picking up random pens and doodling to kill time, in hopes that a staff member might free up to help me, when I picked up a green brass pen that was HEAVY. Every other pen I had held in my hand up to that point had been light resin or plastic, but this slim green pen felt like a paperweight.
• I was intrigued and delighted when I uncapped it, took it for a test drive, and really liked how it wrote. When I saw the box, I knew this was the pen I was walking out with that day.

• The pen isn't called "The Weight of Words", but I loved the idea of this heavy pen serving as a reminder of, well, the weight of your words. If you're unfamiliar with the concept of weight in a writing instrument – whether it be pen or pencil – the heavier the pen, the more quickly your hand is likely to get fatigued, but the more control you have over your strokes. The lighter the pen, the easier it is to write, but your strokes might go flying all over the page.
• A heavier pen might be better suited to cursive writing, where there's minimal lift but more long, deliberate strokes. . A lighter pen better for print or kanji, where quick, short, precise strokes are needed. The trick is finding the balance that works for your writing style. Or having multiple different pens for every writing style, occasion, and mood.

• Why am I telling you all this? Because when we just type all day, we don't really sense the literal or figurative "weight" of words, right? Like, it's easy to pound out 500 words on a computer. It's less easy to write out 500 words on paper. And because of that friction, we tend to choose our words more precisely and carefully when we go analog. The frictionless digital word feeds our recklessness. We just....say shit. Cuz it's easy.

• And so now here we are: I complained about Sincaraz being possibly maybe kinda boring and now Carlos is out of the clay swing, including Roland Garros. The wrist injury he picked up in Barcelona has ruled him out of his two-time title defense.

Reigning two-time champ Carlos Alcaraz out of French Open due to wrist injury

Carlos Alcaraz won’t play for a third successive French Open title due to a right wrist injury. Alcaraz has posted on X on Friday that neither will he appear in the preceding Italian Open in Rome where he also won last year.

AP NewsUpdated [hour]:[minute] [AMPM] [timezone], [monthFull] [day], [year] Leer en español

• To quote Discord Carrie: "Time for everybody complaining about Sincaraz to apologize as we witness the alternative."

Carlos Alcaraz’s absence leaves Jannik Sinner alone at the top for the rest of the clay swing | Tennis.com

Can anyone—Arthur Fils? Novak Djokovic? Rafael Jodar?—join him there?

Tennis.comSteve Tignor

• Madrid's Week 1 has seen its fair share of – ok, probably unfair share – withdrawals and upsets – Ben Shelton, Alex De Minaur, and Elina Svitolina going out in their openers was not the best – but it all does set us up for one super fun teenage battle on Sunday night: Joao Fonseca vs. Rafael Jodar.

• Iga Swiatek said she was feeling light on her feet again when she spoke to reporters before Madrid, but unfortunately against Ann Li, she was also feeling lightheaded. She looked out of breath and unwell in her pre-match practice on Saturday and ultimately retired down 3-0 in the third due to illness. After the loss, she told reporters something was going around amongst the players, and while she did not want to get into the gory details of her symptoms, it sounded a lot like a gastrointestinal issue (that's my speculation). It's just the second time she's ever retired from a match, though weirdly, both instances have now come on clay. The first was against Rybakina in Rome.
• Marin Cilic also had to withdraw on Friday due to food poisoning. THAT WON'T STOP ME FROM EATING ALL THE JAMON THO. LET'S SEE HOW THAT WORKS OUT FOR ME.

• Of course, with all the withdrawals at yet another big tournament, the discourse has once again turned to the usually futile attempt to diagnose the problem. What is it about the pro tennis tour that these injuries keep mounting up? And is the answer anything more complex than (1) it's a grueling 11 month season, (2) tennis is played at an absolutely absurd physical level now compared to 10 years ago let alone decades before that, and (3) these two very obvious answers just not being sexy enough to satisfy people.
• In case I didn't completely telegraph my opinion in that framing, I pretty much agree with this take from Jessica Schiffer: "Carlos Alcaraz is one of the best players in the world who naturally plays more often. He’s bound to get hurt sometimes! Trying to extrapolate that his wrist injury is somehow symbolic of the larger uptick in injuries is just silly. We can’t blame the tours every time someone gets hurt now—I think the calendar needs tweaking but this is also just how sports go." (Twitter)
• You need not look very far to see that this overall uptick in injuries isn't tennis specific. From the ACL-epidemic in women's soccer and basketball, to the NBA's struggle to keep its stars healthy, the answer just seems obvious: players are forced to be fitter and faster than they have ever been and playing at a more dynamic and faster pace than their respective sports have ever been played. All because the leagues/tours are also working them to death to extract as much value out of them as possible.

About pain and other ailments

“What wound did ever heal but by degrees?” - Othello (William Shakespeare)

Finite JestAndrea Petkovic

• If late-stage capitalism is tearing every other industry apart based on the exact same gambit of extracting maximum value from workers by treating them not as "humans" but as "human resources", why would sports be any different? Sports explains the world, right? The inverse is also true. And as it is in the world, the solution is the system itself has to change.

• Coming into this season, Naomi Osaka and Aryna Sabalenka had played each other just once. And that was eight years ago. Now we'll get a second meeting in 2026 in the Round of 16.
• Tumaini Carayol takes a look inside the tennis locker room – NO NOT LIKE THAT – in a very entertaining piece. (The Guardian)

“The worst thing about sharing a locker room is seeing someone, knowing they played, but not knowing how the score went,” says Gauff. “You don’t know what mood they’re in. I always find that hard to navigate.”

• Indeed, Coco. My personal experience of standing in a common area after matches – can very accurately be summed up thusly:

• In more news: Portia Archer has stepped down as WTA CEO, which seemed to take everyone by surprise. Archer came to the WTA from the NBA less than two years ago. At the time, it felt like she was set to take over entirely for a departing Steve Simon, but with all the reorganization happening with the WTA and WTA Ventures, the scope of her role never seemed as clear as it was when Steve was Chairman and CEO.

• So on one hand, the news wasn't completely surprising to me, but on the other hand the manner in which the news was dropped certainly was. According to the WTA's press release, Archer stepped down on April 20th, but the release wasn't sent until April 22nd. Most glaringly: there was no quote from Archer herself, which...weird? And every player I've spoken to here in Madrid was certainly surprised by the news.

Swiatek leads players’ surprise as WTA head Portia Archer quits after two years

WTA chief executive Portia Archer shocked players on the tour after emailing her resignation this week, less than two years after she was appointed

The GuardianTumaini Carayol

• So...just a lot of questions, the answers to which I have no doubt will come over time.
• Leylah Fernandez absolutely lit up when she got to to talk about Pep Guardiola and Man City. (The Independent)

• YEEEEEEEP: "In WNBA’s money era, players should know a bigger platform means a brighter spotlight." (The Athletic)

Wednesday morning at the Indiana Fever media day, a reporter asked Aliyah Boston to share about her offseason. She did, succinctly and politely, while keeping a lid on the details.

She volunteered how she had gone home and trained five times a week. She touched on her time playing for the Unrivaled league, smiled to herself while briefly reminiscing about a trip to Barbados, and hastened to her conclusion that her break was all a “grind.” Two questions later, someone else inquired where those “home” workouts had taken place. A harmless follow-up, seemingly, but judging by Boston’s reaction, it was as though she had been asked to reveal her Social Security number and bank account PIN.

“Oooo,” Boston purred. “You in my business.”

The tone of her voice suggested exaggeration for comedic effect. Boston, a star in the WNBA, could’ve been kidding. After all, vibes run high during these softball sessions known as media days, as reporters across all sports willingly tee up the friendliest of queries. However, the roll of her eyes and deliberate glance away from that reporter suggested annoyance. Boston reflexively ducked as if this particular line of interrogation had sailed in high and tight.

Quick, someone call the Dallas Wings’ public relations staff. Because if the player with the richest total salary in league history objects to a question like that, then it’s going to be a long season.

• And cc: ATP and WTA players, who I do think are actually quite good about this stuff – if anything, they'd all much rather talk about the unserious fun stuff than actual forehands and backhands, which is a separate complaint I have – so maybe I'm actually directing this more to their agents and handlers, who seem to have so little trust and belief in their players' ability to handle anything more than glazing sponcon fluff.

• Great piece from Reem Abulleil on tennis' deal with the devil: betting companies. It's a whole lotta "can't have their cake and eat it too" with a side of "if you pay us it's ok though". (The National)

The ATP said it does not disclose confidential financial terms, but that “revenues generated through ATP’s data agreements are shared equally between players and tournaments, and reinvested into the sport, including prize money, as well as player benefit programmes such as the ATP Player Pension.”

Jessica Pegula understands the mass appeal of betting and says sports gambling “is a big part of American culture”.

“We've had this discussion with other players before … you see these betting sponsors come in, but we're the ones taking the abuse, whether you win or lose, it just depends on who they're betting on,” the world No 5 told The National.

“And we're playing like every week. So it's every single week that we have to monitor that. And I know the tours have set up some process to filter out those comments, but it's not quite foolproof, so I think that's still an issue. I unfortunately don't think it's something that's going to go away. So I think we just need to find some sort of balance with it, where the players feel like they're getting something out of it.”

• Speaking of SportRadar though: I literally thought this was the business model so I don't know how this is now news to their shareholders lol:

Sportradar’s share price falls after reports claim it had links to hundreds of illegal gambling sites

The betting and data company Sportradar has relationships with hundreds of illegal operators including several that appear to operate in Iran and Russian-occupied Crimea, a report alleges

The GuardianMatt Hughes and Rob Davies

• According to People Magazine, Taylor Fritz and Morgan Riddle broke up. (People)
• Really good piece that is about politics but is just applicable to sports journalism: When influencers replace journalists, that is called "propaganda". (Texas Monthley)

• Speaking of influencers: Stupid. (Consequences of Sound)
• I regret to inform you that the Yahoo Tennis hub is a completely unusable mess since they clearly decided a few months ago to just flood the zone with click-bait aggregator content that – shocker! – misleads, misrepresents, misreports, misstates, just....miss. It's such a shame, given how well curated it used to be.

• Another really good piece from Joon Lee for Vice:

• I obviously have written for OPEN and Second Serve so consider that my full disclosure here: LOOK AT THESE BEAUTIFUL TENNIS PUZZLES. Just because I'm biased doesn't mean I'm wrong. (The Second Serve)

• Bop of the day: Speaking of barricades...