Daily Bagel: Players' best memories
The Daily Bagel is your dose of the interesting reporting, writing and quipping from around the Internet.
• It's always exciting when tennis makes SportsCenter. It's less exciting when they choose to focus on the tantrums, as they did in the video posted above. But my favorite part of the video package are the tournament issued Reebok Pumps worn by the umpire getting berated by Jimmy Connors. Classic.
• On a similar note, Scoop Malinowski compiles some players' funniest on-court memories. Yung-Jan Chan's account of a doubles match where one of her opponents was hit by shots from all four players (yes, including herself) on the court is my favorite.
• As Stacey Allaster announced in Istanbul in October, the WTA has secured a deal with PERFORM to handle the non-North American digital rights for WTA tournaments. The deal could double the exposure of WTA events via multiple digital platforms. I'm interested to see how this deal plays out. Will it dilute the value of the WTA's TV rights down the road? If so, we could be looking at a landscape wherein WTA events are primarily available online. I'm all for more exposure, without a doubt, but we'll have to see how this unfolds.
• Nick Bollettieri thinks Caroline Wozniacki's game is too predictable to win a Grand Slam. As for her new partnership with coach Ricardo Sanchez, Bollettieri seems to think Sanchez has the patience of a saint. "Anyone who has managed to work with Jelena Jankovic for long time deserves a medal—it’s not easy to be with her." Tough words about his former Academy pupil.
• Rafael Nadal looks back at 2011 and his series of losses to Novak Djokovic. "I failed in our first match at Indian Wells, where I should have won because the match was up to me at all times, until I started to play very badly. If I had won that match it would have lessened the anxiety in many other [matches]." Nadal's assessment sounds about right: In some matches he didn't play well enough from start to finish, and in other matches he played well throughout. Either way, he just couldn't get past Djokovic.
