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Daily Bagel: Novak Djokovic goes back to roots to rediscover mojo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzNtj8BjOoc 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=wzNtj8BjOoc

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

• Video: Presenting, The Gulbis Dance, the newest move coming to a dance club near you.

• USA Today's Douglas Robson on how Novak Djokovic went back to his roots in Serbia to rediscover his mojo, which has been lacking this season.

After losing 10-8 in the fifth set in the quarterfinals to eventual Australian Open winner Stanislas Wawrinka last month in Melbourne, Djokovic recognized he needed not only to regroup but also to reconnect with his roots.

So he collected his fianceé, Jelena Ristic, his parents, and a few close friends for an impromptu skiing trip to Mount Kopaonik, where his parents met and once ran a pizza restaurant and where he first struck tennis balls.

He had not returned in several years. "I feel like going back there gives me that sense of identity in a way," he told USA TODAY Sports in an interview last week. "This is a very special place in different ways for our family."

• It's time to drop Grigor Dimitrov's "Baby Fed" nickname as Tennis.com's Jonathan Scott writes.

To be blunt, I am Baby Fed up. There is Roger Federer -- sleek, balanced, and graceful. And then there is the relative upstart, Grigor Dimitrov, who often comes across as decidedly unbalanced, even when he hits fantastic screaming shots; unsure of his footing; and bipolar in his results. So we have the icon who launched a thousand (or five thousand) David Foster Wallace words, Federer. And we have Dimitrov, scamperer.

Thus, as the nickname Baby Fed goes, let's be done with it already. I thought this was the case months ago when Dimitrov said publicly that he willed its ouster. And rightfully so, for it continues to place undue pressure on him. And it shows.

• Billie Jean King is frustrated that the men don't hire female coaches.

• John Isner, a huge Carolina Panthers fan, tweeted his disappointment over the team's cutting wide receiver Steve Smith.

• These GIFs prove that Jiri Vesely really needs to work on his overheads.

• Here's an update on the construction at Wimbledon.

• The USTA announced that the Fed Cup playoff between the U.S. and France will be held in St. Louis.

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Published | Modified
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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