Daily Bagel: Miami ticket sales down without Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9ZUIx_9gyI

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

• Video: Players tell Andrew Krasny who would play them in a Hollywood movie. I'm relieved Victoria Azarenka said Blake Lively. Been thinking that for years.

• Ticket sales for the Sony Open are down a bit without Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal, as the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reports.

PHOTOS: Players, dolphins at Miami Seaquarium

• Must-read piece by Amy Fetherolf of The Changeover on the perplexing trend of pitting the WTA against the ATP.

When players trade breaks in a WTA match, it means they’re playing poor quality tennis. When the men do it, it’s just a toughly contested match between great returners.

When Petra Kvitova cries during a match, she’s a “tear-stained drama queen.” When Andy Murray cries after the 2012 Wimbledon final, it’s a “revelation,” showing his love for the sport.

When Serena Williams comes back and dominates the WTA Tour after a long injury absence, it’s an “indictment” of every other woman on the WTA Tour [.]

When Nadal comes back and immediately reaches four finals, winning three of those, including his first Masters 1000 event on his worst surface after a long injury layoff, it’s good for tennis.

• Doug Robson of USA Today Sports has a nice profile of Sascha Bajin, Serena Williams' hitting partner and close friend.

She has also pushed him to the edge of quitting on more than one occasion — once in the middle of a warm-up.

"There were moments where she was like really mean and like nasty," he said. "That gets tough."

He's learned that Williams simply needs to let off steam, but says in the end it pays off. Their relationship solidifies. Her success continues.

"I told her always like, Look, I'm the only man, let it out on me, whatever it is, I can take it," he says.

Their loyalties run deep. He has passed out drunk next to her in bed. She knows the most intimate details of his life.

"She knows more about me than my own mother," he smiles.

• More on Serena in the Miami Herald. Interesting tidbit here when she was asked about her friendly rivalry with Azarenka.

Cordial as their rivalry might be, make no mistake. Williams has not lost her killer instinct.

Asked which players other than Azarenka pose a threat to her, Williams immediately jumped in: “I didn’t call her a threat. I wouldn’t use that word. That’s your word. There are other good players, but I wouldn’t call them threats.”

• That Novak Djokovic is one bendy dude.

• Non-tennis: A New York Times profile of Kilian Jornet Burgada, the most dominant endurance athlete of all time.

PHOTOS: Red carpet at Sony Open player party

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