Daily Bagel: Novak Djokovic, Li Na win Laureus Sports Awards
The Daily Bagel is your dose of the interesting reporting, writing and quipping from around the Internet.
• Novak Djokovic has won Laureus Sportsman of the Year. Djokovic won Wimbledon and finished the season at No. 1 in 2014.
• Li Na was in Shanghai to receive the Laureus Academy Exceptional Achievement Award, honoring her historic career. Watch her receive her award here.
• From the BBC: Petra Kvitova says it was her coach's idea for her to take a break and skip Indian Wells and Miami.
• I do a podcast with Ben Rothenberg called No Challenges Remaining. We just recently recorded our 100th episode and the interviews with Jelena Jankovic, Ernests Gulbis and Andrea Petkovic are must-listens. Just skip to their interviews. You won't find a group of better personalities in sports.
• As the ATP looks to be moving towards a crackdown on fan-generated GIFs and Vines, a good roundtable chat on the micro-media that is driving sports fandom today. Tennis needs to get with it.
• The field at the Aegon Championships is shaping up nicely.
• Interesting thoughts from Mary Carillo on how social media simply adds to the outsized pressure on breakout stars:
"If it's more noticeable now [when young players are struggling], it's likely because everything is more noticeable now," said Carillo, a Tennis Channel analyst. "Social media brings a lot of attention and fame, but it also brings snarky, unhealthy commentary into their lives. I wish they didn't care so much about what strangers think of them. I was very happy to hear Sloane say during Indian Wells that she was getting rid of the haters—she unfollowed about a thousand people trying to turn down all that negative noise."
• Hot Shot Gael Monfils: "Oh, stop it!"
