Daily Bagel: Highlight shot of Rafael Nadal's win over Roger Federer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lITUJJk2muE
The Daily Bagel is your dose of the interesting reporting, writing and quipping from around the Internet.
• Video: How good was Rafael Nadal in his 6-4, 6-2 win over Roger Federer on Thursday night? Good enough to slide into this forehand winner.
• Matt Wilansky for ESPN.com looks at Thursday night's match and wonders how much longer we'll be watching the Nadal-Federer rivalry.
We've spent so many years dissecting game plans and shot-making and turning points between these two. So much time parsing each match, each set. This one, though, spoke less about the current state of their respective games than it did about nostalgia and cherishing what's left of these glorious, insatiable battles.
• Some interesting points raised by Peter Bodo on the idea of incorporating Indian Wells as an actual fifth Slam. Where does it say there can be only four?
As fond as I am of the majors, I can’t think of anything game-related that calls for those four tournaments to be the “crown jewels” of tennis—other than tradition. It’s not like, say, the Super Bowl, or the World Cup, a pair of events that are supreme in a truly relevant way: They determine an indisputable champion in their respective sports. That can’t be said of any of the majors.
Also, the four majors no longer reflect the geopolitical realities of tennis to nearly the same degree they once did. They just happened to be the tournaments that were in the right place at the right time—and with the right leadership—as the game evolved. You tell me why Paris, and not Rome, Madrid, or Frankfurt, ended up hosting the clay-court major.
• From the Telegraph, Andy Murray says his mother, Judy, won't be gunning to replace Roger Draper as CEO of the LTA anytime soon.
“She won’t be doing that job,” Murray said with a broad smile. “There are a lot of great people in British tennis and none of them see eye to eye. None of them speak to each other.
"I think if everyone got in a room and actually was mature about it and gave their opinions and put them across, I think they could come up with pretty good solutions.
• Steve Tignor looks at Tomas Berdych, who's set to take on Nadal in the semifinals Saturday.
