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Speaker 1: You're listening to the Weekend Sport podcast with Jason Fine

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Speaker 1: from Newstalk ZEDB.

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Speaker 2: And so to the ASB. In fact, they've just lost

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Speaker 2: a third wicket. Just as I speak, they've just lost

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Speaker 2: a third wicket. Sam Constance is out so in further

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Speaker 2: trouble Now Australia thirty five for three More details on

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Speaker 2: that coming up to the Tennis ASB Tennis Classic. Top

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Speaker 2: seed Madison Keys knocked out by fifth seed Clara Towson

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Speaker 2: in the quarterfinals a short time ago. The Danish fifth

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Speaker 2: seed held her nerve in a second set tiebreak for

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Speaker 2: a six to four, seven to six win. She will

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Speaker 2: play American Robin Montgomery in the first semi from three

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Speaker 2: this afternoon. It also means Tauson could play three times today.

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Speaker 2: She's had her quarter finals, she's got the semifinal, and

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Speaker 2: she's also in the semi finals of the doubles. It's

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Speaker 2: a busy old day for her. Americans Katie Volnett's and

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Speaker 2: Alicia Parks currently playing the last of the singles quarter

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Speaker 2: finals before the semis a bit later on. You can

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Speaker 2: watch ASB Classic Women's semi finals live on Sky Sport

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Speaker 2: one and stream on Sky Sport Now from around two

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Speaker 2: forty five this afternoon and Sky Open we'll also have

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Speaker 2: free to air coverage of the first semifinal from three

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Speaker 2: this afternoon. Let's bring in the former New Zealand Davis Cup, representative,

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Speaker 2: director of the Lavy Tennis Academy, and expert analysts during

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Speaker 2: Sky Sports coverage of not only the women's tournament, but

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Speaker 2: the means tournament to follow, Sebastian. Sebastian, thanks for taking

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Speaker 2: the time. The last of the quarterfinals, Let's go there,

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Speaker 2: Alicia Parks Katie Volnets. Can you compare and contrast these

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Speaker 2: two players for us?

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Speaker 3: Yeah, no, definitely. I mean, look, first of all, I

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Speaker 3: think the tournament sourfar has been really entertaining. I think

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Speaker 3: obviously there's a lot of big seed up front, former

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Speaker 3: Grand Slam champions. They got knocked out quite early, so

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Speaker 3: it really opened up for a few other players who

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Speaker 3: ofstin don't get the chance to play in a semi

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Speaker 3: final or a quarter final of this level. I've really

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Speaker 3: enjoyed watching both Volinettes and Parks. Actually they bring very

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Speaker 3: different game styles. Vily NEETs is much more of an

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Speaker 3: jack CounterPunch a type player, and Parks is really a big,

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Speaker 3: powerful server and is trying to take her initiative as

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Speaker 3: soon as she can, So I think it'll be a

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Speaker 3: really interesting matchup. It's very hard to pick. I think

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Speaker 3: that Parks has probably got a little bit too much

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Speaker 3: for power if she is firing, but Vollinatz has just

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Speaker 3: been really, really relentless on everything. It'll be really interesting

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Speaker 3: seeing how this goes.

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Speaker 2: You mentioned the fact that we lost a few of

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Speaker 2: the bigger names earlier in the week. We almost lost

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Speaker 2: Naomi Osaka yesterday too, didn't we She was a set down,

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Speaker 2: came back to beat Haley Baptista sixty seven six one

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Speaker 2: sixty two. How have you assessed her performances across the week?

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Speaker 3: Look, I think I think she's actually been performing really well.

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Speaker 3: She obviously hasn't played a lot of tennis in the

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Speaker 3: last few years. This is her first match since September,

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Speaker 3: so for her to come through three rounds against some

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Speaker 3: tricky opponents that weren't necessarily the highest rank, but they're

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Speaker 3: still players with some matches under the belt is always

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Speaker 3: a good feeling. I think the first set of the tournament,

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Speaker 3: she played exceptionally, won't really really set a high standard

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Speaker 3: of play and then she's been able to get through

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Speaker 3: the next ones. I think first set against Baptiste probably

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Speaker 3: had a few too many ERA, isn't it. Baptista has

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Speaker 3: got a really difficult game. Star was able to mix

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Speaker 3: it up with some slices and hit a few great

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Speaker 3: passing shots. But then she recovered really well and was

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Speaker 3: playing really well at the end. And I know she

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Speaker 3: was stoked with that one as well.

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Speaker 2: We know less, I guess about Robin Montgomery. The US

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Speaker 2: left hand are currently ranked outside the top one hundred

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Speaker 2: in the world. What have you liked about her? Tell

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Speaker 2: us a bit about her game.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, look, I think we're going to see plenty more

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Speaker 3: of her in the future. She's a real big she's

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Speaker 3: a real big hope for American tennis. She's a huge

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Speaker 3: left handed serve. She can swing it left right, she

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Speaker 3: can do anything with it, and she's got a really

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Speaker 3: good head on her shoulders. I think she's going to

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Speaker 3: be pally a top fifty player by the end of

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Speaker 3: the year. I wouldn't be surprised if she's in the

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Speaker 3: top twenty in the next year. So again, it's another

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Speaker 3: player that we're able to see before they make it.

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Speaker 3: I think Auckland has attendancy in really finding these stars

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Speaker 3: before they become stars, so I've been really enjoying her match.

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Speaker 3: I think that whoever she plays later on will be

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Speaker 3: really interesting.

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Speaker 2: Surely Osaka and Montgomery would be favorites for the semi five,

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Speaker 2: and was given the facts of Bastian, they heaven't have

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Speaker 2: to play today. The Rhine delay helps them, doesn't it.

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Speaker 3: It definitely does. It definitely does. Having said that, if

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Speaker 3: those players managed to get their matches done reasonably quickly,

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Speaker 3: they might not have too much tennis in their leagues.

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Speaker 3: Sometimes playing in the conditions on the day, if it

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Speaker 3: doesn't get you too tired, it is actually an advantage.

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Speaker 3: So look, I would say in theory they should have

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Speaker 3: an advantage, but it doesn't necessarily mean so the other

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Speaker 3: players will have to be waiting around little day. Hopefully

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Speaker 3: we don't get too many showers coming through today, but

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Speaker 3: it could be a long day. So look, it's really

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Speaker 3: anyone's match. I think at the end of the day

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Speaker 3: will just come down to those who really compete the

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Speaker 3: best and able to play tennis and big points.

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Speaker 2: How much of a disappointment was it to see Lulu

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Speaker 2: Sun eliminated so early.

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Speaker 3: Look, I think I think as a key we obviously

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Speaker 3: would have loved to see her play more in the

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Speaker 3: center court. I know that she's obvious had an incredible

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Speaker 3: year last year. She's had some big performances, but the

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Speaker 3: reality of tennis is you don't win every week. Obviously,

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Speaker 3: we've seen her quarter final run at the at Wimbled

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Speaker 3: and we've all seen some other big results she's had.

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Speaker 3: But the rest of the year players do end up

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Speaker 3: losing a lot of matches first and second round, so

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Speaker 3: it's not incredibly surprising. But obviously, as a Kiwi and

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Speaker 3: as a real marquee player for the event that we'd

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Speaker 3: love to see her go far.

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Speaker 2: Do you still predict that she will have a big

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Speaker 2: twenty twenty five even given what you've said. You're right,

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Speaker 2: you know you don't win every week, But have you

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Speaker 2: seen enough from Lulusun over the last twelve months or so.

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Speaker 2: Let's not forget she was only a qualify here last year.

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Speaker 2: Have you seen enough from her to suggest that she

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Speaker 2: has has more gas in the tank in the next

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Speaker 2: few years?

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Speaker 3: One hundred percent. I mean, look, she's got a really

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Speaker 3: big game style. She can hit a powerful ball, so

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Speaker 3: she can now hit a lot of players on tour

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Speaker 3: again at the end of the day. The way the

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Speaker 3: ranking system works is you don't have to win matches

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Speaker 3: every week. You just have to really peak at the

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Speaker 3: big ones. She's going to have a lot of points

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Speaker 3: to defend at Wimbledon, but she's got plenty of time

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Speaker 3: until then to really wrap up the points. She'll be

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Speaker 3: playing the lasts series now, should be getting a lot

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Speaker 3: of opportunities to compete against higher ranked players. And she's

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Speaker 3: still relatively young. I mean, she's only I think twenty

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Speaker 3: two to twenty three, and she's just firing up the ranking,

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Speaker 3: so I would be surprised if she didn't at least

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Speaker 3: get top fifty or maintain top fifty by the end

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Speaker 3: of the year, and then I'd really hope to see

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Speaker 3: her back here next year as one of our top seeds.

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Speaker 2: And you alluded to it slightly before as well, around

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Speaker 2: the standard of the week. If you were, you know,

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Speaker 2: to recap the tennis that you've seen, if you know

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Speaker 2: spectators are turned up, they'd be relatively happy with the

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Speaker 2: value for money they're getting.

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Speaker 3: One hundred percent. I mean, look for me, for me,

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Speaker 3: the match of the week, well, one of the matches

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Speaker 3: the week was probably the Ale versus Sloan Stevens match.

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Speaker 3: Early on we had some really other great matches with

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Speaker 3: Sophia Kennon and Clarotos and those were not necessarily the

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Speaker 3: biggest Thames in the drill, but the matchup just created

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Speaker 3: some incredible tennis. So look, I think watching pass lives

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Speaker 3: and really up twice like we're able to do it

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Speaker 3: as spig basic is just an experience that it's almost

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Speaker 3: one that you don't get anywhere else, to be honest.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, no, I mean I know that the intimacy of

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Speaker 2: the of the spectators and the players is a real feature.

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Speaker 2: Just befo before you go, obviously we cross over now

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Speaker 2: or we start to cross over. Qualifying underway for the

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Speaker 2: men's tournament with the round one main draw proper starting

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Speaker 2: on Monday. I'm no doubt you've had a look at

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Speaker 2: the at the men's draw. Are you excited about the

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Speaker 2: tennis you'll see in the week A hit from the men.

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Speaker 3: One hundred percent. I mean, look, every year we get

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Speaker 3: some amazing surprises. This year we've got some really very

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Speaker 3: very strong young players coming to Auckland, probably Giovardi, chi Perry,

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Speaker 3: karrave Is one player who's just I mean, he's incredible,

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Speaker 3: he's big, care ofous, he's big for just this week

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Speaker 3: loan in Brisbane. So to have a player like that

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Speaker 3: coming to Auckland, we'll just be really exciting. Person. No,

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Speaker 3: I'm looking forward to seeing my finness back in action

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Speaker 3: in doubles. He's got a new partner, Nicola mctitch, who's

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Speaker 3: performed really well here in the pass and then we've

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Speaker 3: also got Marcus Daniel will be hanging up as rackets

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Speaker 3: at the end of the tournament, so there's plenty of

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Speaker 3: keys to support and I'm sure there're this in great

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Speaker 3: tennis coming up.

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Speaker 2: Brilliant to get your analysis, Sebastian, thanks so much for

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Speaker 2: joining us across New Zealand this afternoon. No thank you, No,

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Speaker 2: thank you, Sebastian and Sebastian Levy. He's part of the

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Speaker 2: sky Sport coverage of the asp Classic, both the women's

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Speaker 2: and the men's tournament. The ASB Classic Women's semis live

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Speaker 2: on sky Sport one and streaming on Skysport Now from

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Speaker 2: just before three this afternoon. Sky Open will also have

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Speaker 2: free to air live coverage of the first semifinal from

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Speaker 2: three this afternoon.

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Speaker 1: For more from Weekend Sport with Jason Fine. Listen live

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Speaker 1: to News Talk ZEDB weekends from midday, or follow the

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Speaker 1: podcast on iHeartRadio