Daily Bagel: Carlos Rodriguez on coaching Li Na
The Daily Bagel is your dose of the interesting reporting, writing and quipping from around the Internet.
• Video: Who doesn't love some ATP Hot Shots to start their day?
• USA Today sits down with Carlos Rodriguez to talk about his new coaching relationship with Li Na. So far, so good. She won her first title in more than a year in their first tournament together in Cincinnati:
I say to her, "For the moment you have to learn how to drive this (points to heart) with this (points to head)." Because when the opposite happens, it's a real disaster. When your feelings and your heart on the court drive this (points to head again), you don't see the road. I think she's very clever and smart -- she knows why I'm here.
• Welcome back, Andrea Petkovic. She talks with Nick McCarvel for TheNew York Times while preparing for her first tournament since April, in New Haven, Conn.:
During her back injury, she talked through the frustrations with a sports psychologist (“my mental guy”), but after her ankle injury, she wanted to think things through on her own. “I wanted to be alone with my thoughts.” Petkovic said. “I felt like it was a process that I had to go through on my own that just needed to happen. No one else could direct it; it just needed to happen. All this being down and being without energy, not wanting to wake up in the morning.”
• The Tennis Space asks @PseudoFed to list his 10 best moments in history. Oreos. Who knew?
• The NCAA sets forth its support of its proposed changes to college tennis:
Student-athlete well-being is the rationale behind the change. Under the current format which remains in effect for the upcoming season, a player competing in the team, singles and doubles could conceivably play 12 consecutive days. “It can be grueling to participate in all three portions of the championship,” said Cathy Beene, committee chair and associate athletics director Georgia Southern. “Our focus is to make the tournament better. We feel we can do that by shortening the format and the duration of the championships.”
• Pete Bodo breaks down the wild-card entrants for the men and women at the U.S. Open.
