Daily Bagel: Serenity now at the Open

The Daily Bagel is your dose of the interesting reporting, writing and quipping from around the Internet.

• Video: A CNN video from last year about Victoria Duval, who charmed us all in her straight-set loss to Kim Clijsters on Monday night. The now 16-year-old talks about the effect of the Haiti earthquake on her family. Worth watching.

• There is a little bit of peace and quiet at the U.S. Open. This New York Times piece takes you there:

Tucked into a far corner of the United States Open grounds, away from the autograph hounds clustered by the practice courts, away from the plaza filled with television sets and thousands of fans, there is a lawn. A small, worn, crowded, sun-kissed lawn. But, still, a lawn.

Stand there long enough, and tennis’s most important people will pass by.

Mostly, this lawn belongs to the players and their families and support staffs, along with the occasional interloper — journalists, sponsors and security guards. This lawn, sometimes called the players’ garden, serves as a warm-up area, a meeting place, a sanctuary, a relaxation chamber, a tanning bed and, oddly, a smoking section.

• Sam Stosur did a dance after her second-round win. If you don't have the Stosur Shuffle running on your desktop all day, you're better than me.

• Nice contrast here between Clijsters' buoyant farewell and her ex-fiance, Lleyton Hewitt, continuing to fight for glory:

Not quite as pleasant as Clijsters, Hewitt has apparently mellowed since the summer of 2001, when he brought a blizzard of scorn upon himself by calling for the removal of a black linesman for what he seemed to say was favoritism of James Blake, an American of mixed-race parents. Judging by the reception he received Wednesday, the incident has long been forgiven, and in some cases forgotten. “Got a lot of support out there,” Hewitt said. “I was able to feed off it.”

• The much-reported story of the ATP boycotting the Australian Open seems debunked by now, but that won't stop Sergiy Stakhovsky from continuing to issue threats:

Ukrainian Sergiy Stakhovsky, one of the most outspoken players and another new member of the players' council, believes anything is possible. "He (Tiley) may be very, very, disappointed," Stakhovsky said. "I can't tell you (if he will be). I think he can be. "Why do you keep calling it a boycott? A hundred guys can be, literally, ill. They can be injured, all of them. Why not?"

• Not surprisingly, those men who have come back to win matches in five sets this week are big fans of the best-of-five format:

• Victoria Azarenka has signed a deal with Citizen watches.

• You can watch Clijsters' last press conference (at least in singles) here.

Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade

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