Daily Bagel: Happy holidays from WTA
The Daily Bagel is your dose of the interesting reporting, writing and quipping from around the Internet.
• A joyous holiday present from our friends at the WTA: Maria Sharapova sings Jingle Bells, Agnieszka Radwanska raps and Petra Kvitova actually says two words more than she needs to.
• "We need to build a stronger female coaching workforce because we need more women working, at all levels, but particularly at a younger age when there’s a lot of traveling to be done with the younger players and the soft skills that women bring that men don’t always bring when they’re working with young girls." Given the sometimes uneasy relationship that can develop between male coaches and younger female players, Judy Murray's logic here makes some sense.
• What does the future hold for Hopman Cup? This report from the The Age reveals that the ITF has been paying hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines to the WTA in order to secure top-flight talent like Caroline Wozniacki and Petra Kvitova, both of whom would otherwise be obligated to be available for the WTA's Brisbane tournament.
• This Q&A with Sam Stosur is both intentionally and unintentionally hilarious. My favorite exchange:
Q: "If you were singing karaoke, what song would you pick?"
A: "I wouldn’t. I would run far away."
I truly believe her.
• In evaluating Andy Murray's 2011, Peter Bodo thinks the devil is in the details. Take a step back and you find Murray wasn't as disappointing as some may think.
• I bristle a bit at the way Australian newspapers tend to write about women, but this piece offers some good insight into Ana Ivanovic's current mindset and perspective on her struggles: "Looking back, it would've been better to just take a month off and get away from it all rather than try over and over and over again. All you can do is learn and realize from your mistakes. I've also done many good things and I can't let myself forget about those." In other Ivanovic news, she's split from her physio Scott Byrnes.
• Jonathan Scott at Tennis.com offers his take on Margaret Court's anti-gay comments. "Margaret Court holds a great record, as well as some repulsive personal views. She must also be held accountable. The tongue is a rudder, steers the entire ship of the self. Those are not my words; they hail from Court's own Bible."
