Daily Bagel: Who ARE these people?

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....
• Which mixed doubles team is this and why is it Jack and Jess – sadly, Jack had to withdraw from singles today due to his arm injury:

• From Discord KC152: Matt Futterman on Jannik Sinner. (The Athletic)

[His mother] had promised to come if he ever played a final in Europe, though she finds it so stressful that she prefers to watch on television. After he dropped the first set in his semifinal against Tommy Paul at the Italian Open, she had to leave the stadium.

Sinner says he has pleaded with her to maintain her perspective, which is really his. It’s just a tennis match, he tells her. The worst thing that can happen is that he loses. They still get to live this unbelievably fortunate existence the next day.

It’s the sort of message the parent is supposed to deliver to the child, not the other way around. In some ways, the French Open loss may have been the exact kind of exposure therapy his mother needed.

From Discord Carrie: Just as the new generation has seemed to universally adopt her tried and true groundbreaking "be the brand" business model, Maria Sharapova is evolving. Also she's launching a podcast soon. (NY Times)

She is not a face of Moncler; she is a member of the board. Her reality TV role was as a guest judge on “Shark Tank.” In January, rather than going to the Australian Open, she went to the World Economic Forum in Davos. She has been sharing her opinions about women and leadership. And this fall she will enter the podcast fray with “Pretty Tough,” a new show from Vox Media in which she will interview female power players of all kinds about their experiences — and how being perceived as aggressive, spiky and blunt, all words often used to criticize women, can actually be an asset.

• I see a lot of interviews with this guy named Jay Shetty – Michelle Obama, Joe Biden, Novak Djokovic, Naomi Osaka to name a few – and I genuinely had no idea who he is. But I'm always sus of anyone who has a resume like his, so I googled. And OF COURSE Coffeezilla had a video and The Guardian had a loooooong article:

• Anna Kalinskaya for Flaunt.
• The story behind Coco Gauff's US Open kit. (SI.com)
• There's no link to the original article, so take it all with a grain of salt, but apparently Borna Coric has put a deadline on his comeback. (Reddit)
• Rajeev Ram responds to that Mardy Fish tweet: "It is really strange. The guy who, and rightfully so, positions himself as the mental health advocate, taking shots at another player who is a compatriot from behind akeyboard. No matter what I might think personally about somebody I can't see myself personally doing that in a million years. I hope he's ok. I don't think he is ok if he's doing that kind of thing. I hope he finds a way to get better from that. It is what it is." (The Changeover Podcast via YouTube)

• Daniil Medvedev's fine was honestly lower than I was expecting? (ESPN)
• Brain only know tennis and oontz oontz. (Reddit)
• Emma Raducanu is trending up and looking very good, y'all. (Tennis.com)
• Amanda Anisimova Has Already Won. (NYMag)

The solitude of tennis is hard enough on tender psyches. (“I was born a sensitive person in general, so that makes everything harder.”) but there were other, significant stressors behind the scenes, too. Anisimova doesn’t yet want to discuss the specifics of what she experienced, or when, but she acknowledges that she “did not have an easy childhood at all”: “I feel like if I really explained my story, a lot of people would be absolutely shocked at the events in my life,” she said.

• Tennis is great! (The Atlantic)
• From Discord Carrie: Emma Navarro x Talenti is giving "Maybe she's born with it, maybe it's gelato" energy. I really thought Emma would be in trouble against McNally but nope! She's easily through to Round 3 to either play Krejcikova or Uchijima. Doing well to defend her semifinal points so far. (YouTube)
• From Discord Harlan: Ben Rothenberg got a quote from Victor Barber. (Bounces on Substack)

Coco, think of John Mulaney!

Can we please go back to two days.

Forty DeuceCourtney Nguyen

• Mr. Beast was super mad about the Rolling Stone list of 25 Most Influential Creators of 2025 and I had to laugh because I absolutely knew about Caleb Hearon waaaaaaaaay before I even knew what a Mr. Beast was and frankly, THANK GOD. Mr. Beast sucks. Here's Caroline Kwan on it all, and her point about what defines "influence" is very important, especially in tennis, where all of a sudden we are getting absolutely bombarded by credentialed "influencers" and "content creators" – is it actually effective marketing:

• Indonesia's Janice Tjen lost to Emma Raducanu in the second round on Wednesday, but she leaves New York having ended Indonesia's Grand Slam drought – first Grand Slam main-draw win for the small nation since 2003 – AND with a check for over $150,000 AND everyone is comparing her game to Ash Barty's AND she got The Athletic to write about her. That's a very successful two weeks of work! (The Athletic via Yahoo)

• REPLACE THE KIPLING QUOTE WITH THIS. (Reddit)
• Tennis [handshake emoji] Golf. (AP via Yahoo)

“They’re both individual sports and, as an athlete, you want to be competitive at anything you do,” Korda said. “There’s a lot of challenges in golf, and as tennis players, we kind of love problem-solving. That’s a big part of our sport: figuring things out.”

That's what lured Pegula back to the course. She's been playing since she was young, but had one of those rounds last year that makes even passionate golfers put away the clubs.

“I had a meltdown and I was like, ‘This isn’t helping me,’” Pegula said.

• Billie Jean Bling is incredible. (CNN)

• Venus Williams ain't done! She'll play doubles with Leylah Fernandez. (AP via Yahoo).
• Ayan Broomfield – who you may recognize as being the most hype Frances Tiafoe supporter in the box – has a really nice interview with Hailey Baptiste (who plays Naomi Osaka next) for Tennis Channel:

• Aryna Sabalenka's personal vlog has pretty good production values. (YouTube)
• I'm sorry, but if we're going to be inundated by "content creators" and "influencers" in this sport, why can't one of them do this but for tennis? (Nicole Rafieee on YouTube)

• From Discord Grey: If the Golden State Valkyries make the WNBA playoffs, they might not be able to play the games at the Chase Center. Why? GODDAMMIT ROGER FEDERER WHY DO YOU PERSIST IN HAUNTING MY LIFE IN SUCH WAYS. (SF GATE)
• Taylor Fritz talks about his League of Legends love and gaming in general. Respect! (Insider Gaming on YouTube):

• I am sitting here watching the slow drip of Best of Five play out and that reminds me: A few weeks ago I was talking to a few tennis reporters and we were all brainstorming what a tennis mercy rule could look like. And friends, I have decided that Grand Slam tennis needs a mercy rule and that mercy rule is called BEST OF THREE SETS.
• And on that note, I have decided this is the perfect tennis format: Best of three sets with a 10-point tiebreak (not seven) in the first two sets if needed, and the final set should be played out, no tiebreak (i.e., win by two). The longer tiebreaks take some of the "randomness" out of the first two sets, you still get "long" matches except now they're long not because of format but because the result is still truly up for grabs. There remains no better drama than playing out a final set, and it will yield the fairer result. It is absolutely insane to me that we let ONE MATCH – Isner-Mahut – take this fundamental feature away from the game.
• Let me know your thoughts. I'm not kidding, I think think this is a perfect system that addresses everyone's concerns. TELL ME I'M WRONG. YOU CAN'T. BECAUSE I'M NOT.

• The third round is set for the Top Half of the women's draw and Bottom Half of the men's draw:

• Join our growing Discord to chat with me and other fans during the tournament, suggest links for the Bagel Bites, and just have a general fun time.
• Congratulations for making it this far! Good news: I'm out of pocket for the next four days so barring anything CUH-RAZY, you'll get a bit of a break from me. Possible light Bageling – a 6-4, 6-0 scoreline in Swiatek speak – but otherwise, see you on Monday!