Daily Bagel: A revealing look at Sloane Stephens' personality
The Daily Bagel is your dose of the interesting reporting, writing and quipping from around the Internet.
• Must read: This Elle magazine profile of Sloane Stephens. Setting aside all the oversharing about gynocology and birthday gifts, it's a revealing and interesting take on Stephens' detached personality. She does herself no favors in this one.
She sits down at a conference table and begins to autograph a stack of visors, flinging each one across the room like a Frisbee as she goes. “I’m not signing those wristbands, I hope you know,” she announces, breaking the awkward silence that has settled over the room. Soon, Stephens declares she’s done. “I’m not signing any more. There’s not that many kids in the world.”
When I ask in the car on the way home what gifts Sock has given her thus far in their year-plus relationship, she says, “Pretty much anything I want.” Then she volunteers that though she and rival Caroline Wozniacki wear earrings with the same size diamonds, Stephens “paid way less” for hers, which are “almost perfect” stones. “[Wozniacki] got ripped off.” As for her education, “I got the college experience without going to college. I don’t miss it. When my friends are like, ‘I’m going to class,’ I’m like, ‘I’m going to take a nap.’ ” While the reporter in me might be expected to consider it a score to witness this kind of unscripted attitude -- an inside look at the real Sloane! -- I feel a mix of discomfort and skepticism. Discomfort because her behavior triggers memories of my own selfish adolescent moments, and skepticism because I don’t fully buy the cartoonish brattiness. It seems like some kind of unconscious ploy to put people at a distance, to keep expectations low.
• Is Roger Federer reversion to serve and volley tactics a sign of things to come?
• ATP and WTA teenagers making a splash this week: 17-year-old Alexander Zverev is into the Hamburg quarterfinals, and 16-year-old Ana Konjuh is in the Istanbul quarterfinals.
• Video: Here's a look at Zverev, a former junior No. 1, beating Mikhail Youzhny on Wednesday:
• Sara Tomic defends her brother Bernard: "Everyone thinks my brother’s a tool — he’s actually a good guy."
• John McEnroe's son was arrested for cocaine possession.
• Good interview with Andy Roddick, who's playing against James Blake in a legend exhibition match at the Connecticut Open in August. Also, in this interview about the Connecticut Open, Roddick reveals his favorite fast food meal.
• Non-tennis: Stuart Scott's speech at the ESPYs will make you cry.
