The Daily Bagel is your dose of the interesting reporting, writing and quipping from around the Internet.
• Another day, another Hot Shot from Rafael Nadal. He's become quite the master of that no-look lob.
• Must read stuff here with some great observations here from Michael Joyce (Maria Sharapova's former coach and hitting partner) about the state of Sharapova and Caroline Wozniacki's games.
"If Caroline’s dad is the coach it might be [a] problem because you can’t go in there and really help her if her dad has the final word on everything. That’s one thing about Yuri [Sharapova] that people don’t realize is that Maria always had good coaches. Yuri liked to hear he was the coach in public, but he was letting me work with her all the time. You see Wozniacki’s dad running down on the court. Yuri never ran down on the court, Sometimes you would see him yelling down at Maria, but half the time he was telling her what I had told him to say.”
And what would Joyce tell Wozniacki if she asked? The same thing he told Sharapova. "Take more responsibility for herself because at the end of the day, no coach is going to matter when it’s 5-5 in the third set. That’s on you.”
• Here's a happy and smiling Victoria Azarenka after defeating Shahar Peer 6-1, 6-2 on Wednesday night. Less than an hour later she withdrew citing a shoulder injury.
• Toni Nadal thinks his nephew is "manic".
"Once he told me about a movie 'Mission Impossible,' and said, "Who is more manic than the protagonist (Tom Cruise)? And I said, 'Like you.' And he replied: 'No, no.' When you do things over and over without realizing it you are manic. He has told me many times he can stop it and I have told him to. I like things logical. It does not affect his game, but if you need that to play well, we [are headed the wrong way]."
• Be sure to read Bruce Jenkins' thoughts on Madrid, which include an explanation from Tennis Channel as to the paucity of WTA coverage.
• Bulgarian tennis player Dimitar Kutrovsky has been banned for two years after testing positive for a banned stimulant.
• The tennis Avengers. Rafa as Loki? What?
• Billie Jean King threw out the first pitch at a Phillies game.
• Non-tennis: It's been very windy in Rome. Here's a gallery from The Big Picture on wind.
See or read something that you enjoyed and want to share? Feel free to email or tweet us links to pieces from around the Internet that may have slipped past our radar.