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Daily Bagel: Inside the combination of Sloane Stephens and Paul Annacone

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4VtpE2E50I The Daily Bagel is your dose of the interesting reporting, writing and quipping from around the Internet. • Video:
Courtney Nguyen|

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4VtpE2E50I

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

• Video: TennisTV selects their top five ATP matches of the season.

• Peter Bodo looks at the intriguing combination of Sloane Stephens and Paul Annacone.

Coaches often must be adept at amateur psychology, even with the very best players. [Pete] Sampras had a tendency to want to beat guys at their own games, but Annacone always wanted him to go out and dictate with that explosive game -- “Show them that you’re Pete Sampras and they’re not.”

Stephens needs a measure of that sort of support; every player does, and more often more than you might think. Yet I don’t see Stephens as a player who needs a lot of stroking. Drama queen? Yes. Needy? Not so much. Annacone would not make a very good Svengali, so it would be a good thing if his charge didn’t expect him to be one.

In fact, the things Stephens most seems to need are the ones Annacone is good at providing. Those include a sound, practical grasp of strategy and tactics. Given Stephens’ degree of power, she’s been a very instinctive player -- to her detriment, I think. She’s often been too content to react to what her opponent is doing, rather than taking charge. And she’s suffered some puzzling lapses of concentration.

• A phenomenal tennis quiz put together by Canada's Tom Tebbutt. Good luck!

• Juan Martin del Potro has been named Argentina's Sportsman of the Year for the second time in his career.

• More year-end nostalgia: The BNP Paribas Open blog puts together their fan awards.

• The ATP finishes its countdown of the biggest comebacks of the season.

• No Australian Open comeback for Jelena Dokic.

• Andy Murray is the overwhelming favorite to win the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year, but he won't be attending the ceremony. Apparently this is a big deal.

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Courtney Nguyen
COURTNEY NGUYEN

Contributor, SI.com Nguyen is a freelance writer for SI.com, providing full coverage of professional tennis both on and off the court. Her content has become a must-read for fans and insiders to stay up-to-date with a sport that rarely rests. She has appeared on radio and TV talk shows all over the world and is one of the co-hosts of No Challenges Remaining, a weekly podcast available on iTunes. Nguyen graduated from the University of California, Irvine in 1999 and received a law degree from the University of California, Davis in 2002. She lives in the Bay Area.

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