The Daily Bagel is your dose of the interesting reporting, writing and quipping from around the Internet.
• Video: Racket smashes, tweeners, grunting and complete and utter anarchy. The writers for ABC’s Happy Endings squeeze every tennis cliché into this three-minute montage of a mixed doubles match between friends cued, as every sporting event should be, to Kenny Loggins’ Playing With the Boys.
• New York Rangers goaltender Henrik Lundqvist is wearing a new helmet for the NHL playoffs and he decided to salute the Swedish sports legends who came before him. Of course, that includes tennis’ own Bjorn Borg.
The Daily Bagel is your dose of the interesting reporting, writing and quipping from around the Internet.
• Video: Highlights from Christian Harrison’s 7-6 (4), 6-1 win over 127th-ranked Steve Johnson at the Tallahassee Challenger on Tuesday. It was the biggest win of the 18-year-old’s career. Harrison is ranked No. 378.
A number of elements probably are at work in this radical makeover, starting with one that may not be so obvious. Sharapova was obliged to undergo shoulder surgery and miss ten months ending in May 2009. She has four major titles, but the only one she’s won since that lengthy hiatus was the French Open, in 2012.
I get the feeling that Sharapova consciously or unwittingly hit the “reset” button on her career during all that time off. She certainly returned to tennis with (quite naturally) greater maturity, an undiminished work ethic, a measure of doubt and anxiety that must have enhanced her determination, and perhaps even a new appreciation for chance to play professional tennis. All this suggests that she’s learned a thing or two about patience—and is there a greater virtue when it comes to doing the dirty work than getting good on clay?
The Daily Bagel is your dose of the interesting reporting, writing and quipping from around the Internet.
• Video: Highlights from Monica Seles’ first Slam title, beating Steffi Graf 7-6, 6-4 in the 1990 French Open final. The two would eventually split their Slam final meetings 3-3, though Seles led 3-1 before her stabbing.
• Today marks the 20th anniversary of the day Monica Seles was stabbed while sitting on a changeover in Hamburg. Here’s a roundup of some of the good pieces on the event.
The Daily Bagel is your dose of the interesting reporting, writing and quipping from around the Internet.
• Video: Goran Ivanisevic and Stefan Edberg played an exhibition match in Stuttgart, Germany, this week as part of the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix. Has Edberg aged a day? Doubtful.
• Sugarpova comes home: Maria Sharapova will fly to Moscow on Monday to launch the candy brand in Russia.
“When I moved to the United States, I was about 7 years old, and I went to a movie theater and found a huge collection of gummy candies,” Sharapova said in a phone interview, speaking from Los Angeles on Saturday, a day after her 26th birthday. “I’d never seen anything like it in Russia. I was fascinated by the idea, and the first thing I thought was: ‘I can’t wait for my friends to see something like this!’”
The Daily Bagel is your dose of the interesting reporting, writing and quipping from around the Internet.
• Video: A very cool animated clip of the late David Foster Wallace talking about his young tennis career.
• Mardy Fish lost to No. 103 Ruben Ramirez Hidalgo 2-6, 6-2, 6-4 at the Savannah Challenger on Tuesday. Fish was playing his first match since a third-round loss to Jo-Wilfried Tsonga at Indian Wells on March 12, his debut tournament in 2013 after being out since the U.S. Open because of a heart condition. The 31-year-old American has also accepted a wild card for next week’s Tallahassee Challenger.
The Daily Bagel is your dose of the interesting reporting, writing and quipping from around the Internet.
• Video: The ladies are in Stuttgart, which means it’s time to revisit the moment Maria Sharapova and Victoria Azarenka bumped shoulders in the final last year. Sadly, Azarenka opted to skip Stuttgart this year.
