Daily Bagel: Serena on clay for Fed Cup, match-fixing and Tunisian tennis
The Daily Bagel is your dose of the interesting reporting, writing and quipping from around the Internet.
• Has the Tunisian Tennis Federation struck again? MalekJaziri retired with a 6-3 lead in Montpellier citing an elbow injury. He and his partner Marc Lopez also withdrew from doubles. He was set to face an Israeli in the next round of both. Reminder: Tunisia was banned from Davis Cup for one year for ordering Jaziri to forfeit a Challenger match against an Israeli. Just a few weeks ago at the Australian Open, Jaziri became the first Arabic player in 11 years to make the third round of a Slam.
• In other unsavory tennis news: Did Russia's Denys Molkanov tank a match with match-fixing implications? This is a great write-up not just on the specific instances of that match, but on how to spot fixed matches.
Mouratoglou explains Serena's mental strength, more post-AO mail
• Serena Williams is already in Argentina hitting on clay for this weekend's Fed Cup tie. Madison Keys (leg) and Varvara Lepchenko (illness) have been replaced by CoCo Vandeweghe and Taylor Townsend. Venus Williams is also available for the tie.
• Serena sits down with The New York Times after her big win in Melbourne.
• The ITF has released its 2014 doping report.
• Novak Djokovic wants to sit down with Andy Murray to relieve any tension caused by their Australian Open final.
• Always a must-read from The Grandstand: Tennis players chat on Facebook about Djokovic's Australian Open win.
• Do you miss Grand Slam tennis already? Probably not as much as this guy:
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZm6RwukFCc]
• With the Australian Open in her pocket, is Serena poised for a Grand Slam run in 2015?
• Maria Sharapova is documenting her journey from Melbourne to Krakow for Fed Cup. It's quite entertaining.
• The Serena-Sharapova Australian Open women’s final drew a 0.7 overnight rating on ESPN early Saturday morning, while the men's final drew a 0.5 overnight rating.
• Fed Cup Zone ties are underway, which paves the way for our favorite awkward video of the day: Michelle Larcher de Brito loses her match to Tsvetana Pironkova on an umpire overrule. As she argues with the umpire, Pironkova is left just standing there until she finally barges in to shake the umpire's hand and call it a day:
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YB50FkSz7P0&feature=youtu.be]
