Daily Bagel: Serena 'never going to stop'
The Daily Bagel is your dose of the interesting reporting, writing and quipping from around the Internet.
• Video: Welcome back, Venus Williams. She busted some moves in Toronto with "Spandy Andy," who might be mistaken for Redfoo's cousin.
• Serena Williams, who turns 32 next month, seems intent on playing for a long time.
"I was talking to (my sister) Venus the other day and I said I am never going to stop," she said.
"I just love this sport so much and we were just practicing. It's just so fun. I'm having more fun than I have ever had."
• Monica Seles took the court with Genie Bouchard for a doubles exhibition against Venus and Serena on Monday.
• Last week was an eventful one for Olga Puchkova. She beat Sloane Stephens in straight sets at the Citi Open, then was defaulted in her next match for hitting a line judge. Puchkova says it was an accident. Then again, so did David Nalbandian.
• The ITF says tennis' biological passport program is up and running.
• John Isner, Mardy Fish, and Andrea Petkovic say tennis' anti-doping regime is already a strict one.
• Andy Murray says he's feeling back to normal after a short vacation after Wimbledon.
• Ben Rothenberg of The New York Times looks into the disparate treatment of the men and women at the Citi Open.
Donald Dell, a Hall of Fame tennis agent and a group president of Lagardère Unlimited, a sports management firm that puts on the Citi Open, said in an interview last year that he did not view it as a typical combined event.
“I don’t say it’s a combined event; I say it’s two events playing in the same week,” Dell said, adding that the women’s event was added to the men’s in 2012 to compensate for the hit the men’s field would take because of the concurrently run London Olympics. In 2011, the women’s event took place in College Park, Md.
“A combined event connotes — which I think is unfair to the men — like we’re an equal-prize-money tournament,” Dell said. “We’re not. And there’s no sense in trying to say that.”
Dell flew to Miami to meet with the ATP Player Council before the 2012 event to make certain the ATP knew that there was no intention to encroach on the men’s event by bringing in the women. Dell also met with Stacey Allaster, the chief executive of the WTA, to discuss the arrangement, and the WTA signed off on it.
“The men get a priority on the practice courts, and we told the women that going in,” Dell said. “There’s no secrets here; we don’t have a secret game plan. It’s been all transparent.”
• Matt Cronin on Sam Stosur's late decision to take a wild card into the Southern California Open. A week later, she was the champ.
• Isner says Juan Martin del Potro is a favorite to win the U.S. Open. Del Potro says Isner is a favorite, too. You know, if everyone keeps throwing that word around, it's going to lose its meaning.
• Bonus Video: Here's Alexandr Dolgopolov rapping at the Croatia Open players' party. Something tells me he's practiced in front of a mirror more than once.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HXZvIgtDrI&feature=player_detailpage&t=79
