Daily Bagel: According to Facebook, Americans love tennis the most
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgN-Yb_cvwA
The Daily Bagel is your dose of the interesting reporting, writing and quipping from around the Internet.
• Video: Before he retired from his second-round match, Jo-Wilfried Tsonga played this crazy rally against Ernests Gulbis on Wednesday. But Tsonga must have thought he was playing in an exhibition -- why else would he not put the ball away when given multiple opportunities?
• From Mashable: Facebook shows Americans love tennis the most.
• Let the Roger Federer postmortems begin. Here's Greg Couch of FoxSports.com on the 17-time Grand Slam champion's surprising loss to Sergiy Stakhovsky,.
I know the narrative now will be to look back at his career, maybe to write somewhat of an obit for him. He has won 17 majors, and he is possibly the greatest ever.
I’m just not ready. I want to wring out the last drops of his greatness. He seems to want to hang on to 2006.
This is the truth: Federer is still a way better tennis player than Stakhovsky, especially here, at Centre Court, Wimbledon. He’s also better than Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, who beat him at the French Open. He’s better than the others who have beaten him the past few years in majors, too, such as Tomas Berdych and Robin Soderling.
These guys are blasting balls at him with modern rackets while he stands back there like an 8-track tape player. The fact that he still usually beats them is just testimony to his greatness. But he is giving them an advantage.
• PseudoFed blogs about why he chose to lose in the second round.
I made a lot of perplextions as the day went on. Staff informed Me that everybody was withdrawing from the tournament and, being the team player that I am, I thought these were new rules created by the ATP and AELTC ( All England Law, Tennis and Croquet Clubs). I promptly decided to lose. I want to make the confirmations that I don’t have an injury, nor did I do the slippings over and show My undergarments like Maria Sugarpova, I just decided to lose because I thought this is what we were all doing. As you can imagine, well, you can’t imagine because you’ve never done it, so I will tell you. During a match you have no idea what is happening in the world. So it was only after the match that staff promptly advised Me that not everybody was playing the withdrawals game.
I made the shocked faces for eleven minutes. It’s a bit like attending a Strip Poker party and you ending up naked very quickly holding onto your GOATlings before realizing everybody else is playing Bridge. You feel betrayed, cheated and cold.
• The BBC's documentary on Andy Murray is a must watch. If for no other reason than to see Murray choke up when talking about the school shooting at his elementary school in Dunblane when he was a child and seeking comfort with his dogs.
• Congratulations to former WTA No. 2 Vera Zvonareva, who got her degree in International Economic Relations.
• ESPN.com's Kamakshi Tandon looks at the post-Serena Williams generation. There's a lot to like.
Although [Madison] Keys and [Sloane] Stephens are currently the U.S.'s chief Grand Slam-winning hopes in a post-Serena WTA, the numbers suggest they will not lack compatriots in the draw. There are currently nine Americans in the top 100, more than any other nation. Serena, perched at No. 1, naturally leads the group. But most of the others are rising young players in their teens or early twenties, all at or near their career-high rankings.
