SI

Daily Bagel: Players and their baggage

The Daily Bagel is your dose of the interesting reporting, writing and quipping from around the Internet. • Video: Andy Murray gets grilled by Hacker T. Dog. •

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

• Video: Andy Murray gets grilled by Hacker T. Dog.

• Tom Perrotta of The Wall Street Journalgets to the bottom of a serious question: What in the heck is in all those bags players drag on court?

Shoes, shirts, a skirt or three, energy drinks, protein powder, a half dozen rackets, hats, snacks, socks, sweatbands, grips, bandanas, bandages, even spare underwear: There's so much gear in tennis these days that players are hauling an extra bag to the court.
At Wimbledon this week, the lawns are littered with bags. Giant bags, small bags, plain bags, colorful bags, bags that look sturdy enough to hold a bowling ball.

...

"It's unbelievable—it's like they're packed for a week," said Chris Evert, the former No. 1 who is at Wimbledon as an ESPN commentator.

• Sandy Harwitt reports that Sloane Stephens has split with coach Paul Annacone.

• The All England Club has banned "colored knickers," as they call them around here. From Alix Ramsay:

• Carl Bialik of FiveThirtyEight crunches the numbers on players who qualify for Slams.

• USA Today's Doug Robson on players who go to college before turning pro.

Novak Djokovic conceded a point to Radek Stepanek during the No. 1 seed's second-round victory on Wednesday.

• Men's Journal: Is Milos Raonic the future of tennis?

• Men's Journal also profiles Stan Wawrinka.

• Non-tennis: Stoppage time and soccer's strange rules.


Published
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.