Speaker 1: Danielle the d Animal and Yannick Swegy Sara.
Speaker 2: Hi everyone, and welcome to the Rene Stops Tennis Podcast.
Speaker 2: We are live and in person in New York City.
Speaker 2: We have just finished a lovely Easter Sunday in my
Speaker 2: backyard whilst watching the men's final, and I am joined
Speaker 2: by once again my great friend Andrea Pekovich. Peco, what
Speaker 2: a great weight you were down in Miami. So first
Speaker 2: of all, give me just your thoughts on being down
Speaker 2: there and what it was like and scoop the.
Speaker 1: Scoop, give me this, give me all the tea spilled
Speaker 1: the tea. Well, first of all, thank you for having
Speaker 1: me over for Easter. I would have been all alone
Speaker 1: and you invited me. It's a really nice of view.
Speaker 1: I came all the way from Brooklyn to Manhattan and yeah,
Speaker 1: so I arrived. Unfortunately, my flight to was scheduled during
Speaker 1: the women's final, which was really unfortunate. I know, so
Speaker 1: you have to recap that for us the highlights yesterday,
Speaker 1: but I couldn't see that. But all in all, it
Speaker 1: was good vibes. The tournament looks much better the first
Speaker 1: year when I played the Miami Open out in hard
Speaker 1: Rock Stadium it used to be in Kibiskane. It was
Speaker 1: literally in a parking lot. It was not nice. The
Speaker 1: gym was in the basement, the courts were in the
Speaker 1: parking lot. It looked terrible. You were surrounded by concrete.
Speaker 1: There was no protection from the wind. It's always windy
Speaker 1: in Florida, so it was kind of a mess. Now
Speaker 1: the tournament looks great. They have all these stands outside.
Speaker 1: The courts look beautiful. They have trees, they have palm trees,
Speaker 1: so now the site looks really good. And the outside
Speaker 1: courts were packed, packed, pack packed. But for some reason,
Speaker 1: the stadium court during day sessions was always kind of
Speaker 1: empty and that was really unfortunate. And during the night
Speaker 1: it was great. It was packed. The atmosphere was amazing
Speaker 1: all over the side. If you saw the crazy Andy
Speaker 1: Mark match that lasted three hours and twenty five minutes
Speaker 1: or so, you would have seen that was the vibe
Speaker 1: on the outside court. So you had that atmosphere just
Speaker 1: on stadium court. During the day sessions. For some reason,
Speaker 1: there was something off and something missing. That was the
Speaker 1: only little knock that I had, and that was unfortunate.
Speaker 1: Other than that, it was really fun being there. They
Speaker 1: really they made the best that they can, considering that
Speaker 1: it's still kind of in a parking lot. And now
Speaker 1: you have all The one thing I will say that
Speaker 1: was that is kind of weird. You have all it's
Speaker 1: like surrounded by the skeleton of the Formula one. So
Speaker 1: you see bits and pieces of where the track either
Speaker 1: is or is going to be, with stands that haven't
Speaker 1: been you know, deconstructed, that are.
Speaker 3: Still up, but not in the full glory.
Speaker 2: Oh, isn't it coming to Miami soon?
Speaker 1: It's coming soon. Yeah, so you have it's not fully
Speaker 1: built yet, but you already see bits and pieces and
Speaker 1: it's like being surrounded by another sport event, but by
Speaker 1: the skeleton.
Speaker 3: That was the only thing that was a little strange.
Speaker 2: Well, you've got that, and then you've got the actual
Speaker 2: stadium is the actual Miami de So you.
Speaker 1: Have two sporting events surrounding one sporting event that is
Speaker 1: happening at the time.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it'd been almost it'd be nice if they almost
Speaker 2: built another stadium there, specifically for tennis.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, it is like a cool I mean, you've
Speaker 1: been there. You've been there. It's like for some it's
Speaker 1: unfortunate because it is a football stadium. If you are
Speaker 1: in a seat, in a bad seat, you can be really.
Speaker 3: Far away from the tennis court.
Speaker 1: But the atmosphere is kind of cool because the players
Speaker 1: are all Now they've built the restaurant and the players
Speaker 1: lounge onto the grass like onto the football field. Basically
Speaker 1: they have an indoor players lounge as well, but they
Speaker 1: have sofas there with ten so the players are hanging
Speaker 1: out on the grass more. They're right there at the
Speaker 1: stadium course, So it's like a cool thing to be there,
Speaker 1: you know, you can you can sense it feels much
Speaker 1: more like a tournament. Before it really felt like a
Speaker 1: completely disjointed animal where you were like are we playing
Speaker 1: a tournament here or are we just appearing for an exhibition?
Speaker 1: That was kind of strange. Now they made a great
Speaker 1: they made a great effort in having it feel much
Speaker 1: more organic. So there is a good thing that it's there.
Speaker 1: But you know, you see the other sporting events kind
Speaker 1: of imposing onto the tennis at all times.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, I think ideally it would be great to
Speaker 2: have an actual stadium down there, like actually built for tennis.
Speaker 2: Just because we're talking about suites, right, you make a
Speaker 2: lot of money from suites. You make a lot of
Speaker 2: money from bringing clients into the tennis. For example, at
Speaker 2: the tennis at the US Open, you know, you go
Speaker 2: into the suites, it's the Emirates suite, it's the AMX suite,
Speaker 2: it's the Rolling Suite, it's the ESPN Suite, It's all
Speaker 2: of the stuff. Right So there the suites is so
Speaker 2: far from the court, it sort of feels a little disjointed.
Speaker 2: So I think what they're doing is amazing, and I
Speaker 2: think trying. But I think ideally if they could build
Speaker 2: a separate stadium for the actual center court, I think
Speaker 2: that would make it better. But anyway, listen, as you said, look,
Speaker 2: the players were all said how happy they were. The
Speaker 2: only player that was not happy was rude. He was
Speaker 2: rude to the umpire. He was just like, listen, he
Speaker 2: was not that rude. He was actually a He was
Speaker 2: as rude as someone from his country can be. But
Speaker 2: he was basically like bitching about the being able to
Speaker 2: go off the court. Because the courts are so far
Speaker 2: from the main area. The outside court, you've got to
Speaker 2: like get a golf cut basically take you there and
Speaker 2: back that there's a designated spot I'm sure for the
Speaker 2: outside courts to go to a trailer probably and it's
Speaker 2: not air conditioned, they don't have towels, that don't have water,
Speaker 2: and he was a little upset about that. So I
Speaker 2: don't blame him in that regard. But look, as I said,
Speaker 2: I'm know James Blake, who's a former player, and if
Speaker 2: you've ever been a former player, you know exactly and
Speaker 2: not only a former player, but a high ranked former
Speaker 2: player that would probably expect things to be a little
Speaker 2: bit nicer. So I'm sure he's trying his best to
Speaker 2: sort of accommodate the players. And as you just said,
Speaker 2: they're doing their best down there.
Speaker 1: They are doing the best. It's a little bit unfortunate.
Speaker 1: If they were single tournament in the middle of the calendar,
Speaker 1: I think it would be less glaring the differences When
Speaker 1: you come from Indian Wells, however.
Speaker 2: You're coming from the best tournament of the year, where.
Speaker 1: A stadium and a tennis site was built with exactly
Speaker 1: that in mind. We want to have one of the
Speaker 1: biggest tournaments here. How can we make it the friendliest
Speaker 1: for fans and players alike. That's what you can tell
Speaker 1: that the site was built for. And then coming to
Speaker 1: something where you have to make do with what you
Speaker 1: have is just it's hard for James to deal with.
Speaker 2: You're right. If Miami is played in July, it would
Speaker 2: probably be, oh, this is great. We love it here
Speaker 2: and it's Miami, and you got a lot of being
Speaker 2: done in Miami, going to the beach, you know, playing golf. Like,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of things that players can do anything.
Speaker 1: I have to say, players love Miami, especially male players.
Speaker 2: Wonder why, yeah, I wonder, I wonder why. We'll let
Speaker 2: you think about that, viewers and listeners. I just want
Speaker 2: to shout out to a gentleman that came up to
Speaker 2: me on the street here literally around the corner from
Speaker 2: my apartment, grabbed my arm and he said, I love you.
Speaker 2: I love your podcast. So whoever that gentleman was, you
Speaker 2: didn't give me your name, but you know exactly what
Speaker 2: I'm talking about. You're on basically twelfth and third and
Speaker 2: you came up to me. So thank you, sir for
Speaker 2: coming in and grabbing my arm. And for anybody out
Speaker 2: there that notices me or Pecko, we always are very
Speaker 2: happy and to hear those comments. But anyway, let's get
Speaker 2: into it. Let's start with the women. First of all,
Speaker 2: do we want to talk a little bit about what
Speaker 2: Sabalanka went through the last couple of weeks. Let's start there. Look,
Speaker 2: it's been a tough month for her. She has not
Speaker 2: played well over the last month since when in the
Speaker 2: Austrain Open, we thought that she was going to just
Speaker 2: knock everybody out of the park the way she played
Speaker 2: at the u Strain Open. But she has really struggled.
Speaker 2: You have to wonder this situation with the we're assuming
Speaker 2: ex boyfriend, because the rumor was that she broke up
Speaker 2: with him.
Speaker 1: She confirmed it on Instagram that they were no longer
Speaker 1: together when the tragedy happens, So.
Speaker 2: You wonder how much that was also happening prior to
Speaker 2: him coming. And you know what happened in Miami happening,
Speaker 2: how tumultuous things were happening in her personal life, maybe
Speaker 2: affecting her on the court in the Middle East, then
Speaker 2: in Indian wells, and then of course Miami was just
Speaker 2: I didn't even know how she was able to function
Speaker 2: that week. I mean, even if you broke up with someone,
Speaker 2: if you feel you would have to feel any kind
Speaker 2: of sense of responsibility for maybe what he did, which
Speaker 2: is crazy because you have no control over what somebody does,
Speaker 2: but that would have to have weighed on her mind,
Speaker 2: There's no question, and it's just a tough week for her.
Speaker 3: I was super tight, and she was wearing the hat.
Speaker 1: She never wears a head and she so low, super low,
Speaker 1: So you could see that she wanted some protection, but
Speaker 1: she also wanted to play and wanted to honor her commitment.
Speaker 1: And I think also she probably felt somewhat safe on
Speaker 1: the court where she doesn't have to think about it
Speaker 1: or she has to think about other things. I can
Speaker 1: imagine that that is something that can give you relief
Speaker 1: for a few hours at least, I hope. And you
Speaker 1: know what I had. I can't fathom what Arena went through.
Speaker 3: I had.
Speaker 1: I wrote about it in my previous sub stack a
Speaker 1: little bit. I had sometimes private struggles that nobody knew about,
Speaker 1: and it was hard to function just knowing it yourself,
Speaker 1: but being out there in the public eye and everyone
Speaker 1: knew what happened. Everyone is speculating. Everyone is like, just
Speaker 1: a breakup.
Speaker 2: We're talking like the guy killed himself. Yeah, Like it's
Speaker 2: not like, oh you know, yeah, it's a breakup, or said,
Speaker 2: you know, he had a fight with her. This is
Speaker 2: a tragedy, absolute tragedy. Yeah, and a you know, a
Speaker 2: very I don't even know how to describe, like someone
Speaker 2: doing that to themselves, you know. And yes, everybody knows
Speaker 2: about it. And you can't just hide, like you said,
Speaker 2: when something's happening in your own personal life, you take
Speaker 2: it home with you, you go back to your hotel.
Speaker 2: But nobody's talking about it to you. Everybody knew about
Speaker 2: this story. So it's not like she could hide and
Speaker 2: be like, hey, how's it going. She couldn't even lie
Speaker 2: and be like, hey, it's great. She was just like
Speaker 2: they're like.
Speaker 3: Oh, I'm so sorry. Yeah, yeah, everyone.
Speaker 1: I will say. What was really nice to see and
Speaker 1: witness was how the tennis world, and we are all
Speaker 1: egotistical creatures in this world, but the tennis people really
Speaker 1: gathered around the arena. I saw a lot of them
Speaker 1: going up to her, hugging her, you know, being there
Speaker 1: for her. The WTA made it possible for her to
Speaker 1: start a day later. She didn't have to do press
Speaker 1: like whatever was in that power to help her and
Speaker 1: protect her and give her some kind of support, which
Speaker 1: is impossible to support somebody, but just somehow, in the
Speaker 1: smallest ways that you have. I felt like the tennis
Speaker 1: world was doing and trying that, and that was nice
Speaker 1: to see that we are able to gather around our
Speaker 1: peers in times of need, at least seemed like that
Speaker 1: from my perspective being around the side, that was nice
Speaker 1: to see. But yeah, incredible, and I just hope that
Speaker 1: she has the support system around her to deal with it,
Speaker 1: whether that be professional help or family and friends.
Speaker 3: And hopefully we will see her smile very soon. Again.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's hope, because you know, we love her personality
Speaker 2: and everything. And as I said, that's not on her
Speaker 2: what happened, and I hope she knows that. But listen, also,
Speaker 2: you know, another person.
Speaker 1: And maybe we should also say condolences to Constantines. There
Speaker 1: was yeah, family and friends and everyone around him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we saw him a lot.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, part he was part of the tennis world.
Speaker 1: You know, he was part of the tennis world. So yeah,
Speaker 1: it was a big shock, and I think it kind
Speaker 1: of overshadowed the first not overshadowed, that's the wrong word.
Speaker 1: It was on everybody's mind in the first week of
Speaker 1: the Miami Open for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because you know, you realize and that's one of
Speaker 2: the things We'll get to Danielle Collins in a second.
Speaker 2: But one of the things that she's spoken about a
Speaker 2: lot of late is that there's so many bigger things
Speaker 2: happening outside of the tennis world, and she's become very
Speaker 2: well adjusted as a human being and realizing that, and
Speaker 2: you see it on the court from her. But I
Speaker 2: want to wait in talking about Danielle. I want to
Speaker 2: talk about some of the players that really have been
Speaker 2: struggling on Schubert again, just struggling on the hard court.
Speaker 1: I know.
Speaker 2: Look, her favorite surfaces are coming up, clay grass. She
Speaker 2: always plays well on them. We were worrying about her
Speaker 2: last year, and then she won Charleston and then she
Speaker 2: you know, played great and made the finals of Wimbledon again,
Speaker 2: et cetera. But still it's what's going on.
Speaker 1: Well, I was calling a match that was at the
Speaker 1: same time, so I couldn't really see her. She lost
Speaker 1: to Avannisian in the third set. I will say Avnissian
Speaker 1: is a very dangerous player in the sense that she
Speaker 1: is a counterpuncher and she uses your pace. And I
Speaker 1: felt for a while that Onnce is lacking clarity on
Speaker 1: the court, and she is somebody that has the game
Speaker 1: to be the counterpunchure because she can slow the game down.
Speaker 1: She has different sorts of variety in her game. But
Speaker 1: if you lacking clarity, the thing you do is hit hard,
Speaker 1: hit flat, hope that it goes through. And it's the
Speaker 1: worst thing you can do against Avensia. And granted I
Speaker 1: didn't see the match, I wonder what you think about aunts.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, same thing. I just think that she's
Speaker 2: lost the clarity and the confidence in what she's doing. Look,
Speaker 2: I think I'll assess more about her tennis after Charleston
Speaker 2: that she won last year. If she doesn't do well
Speaker 2: that week, then you start thinking, okay, what's going on.
Speaker 2: And obviously she plays great on clay, so well, I'm
Speaker 2: not as concerned about her yet, but certainly it's a
Speaker 2: disappointment because she has not done well for a while now.
Speaker 1: So she's in a really tough section. Though she is awaiting,
Speaker 1: so she has a buye in the first round of
Speaker 1: Charleston and she's awaiting the winner of Danielle Collins and Paula.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's wrong.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And this is what happens so often in tennis.
Speaker 1: You lose confidence, you lose a few matches a future
Speaker 1: go wrong, and all of a sudden, it seems like
Speaker 1: everything goes wrong. Yeah, like everything conspires against.
Speaker 2: Get a bad draw, get a bit of an injury,
Speaker 2: et cetera, et cetera. So yeah, we'll see. But as
Speaker 2: I said, well, we'll make it a suspend more so,
Speaker 2: I think after on her favorite service, Yeah, on her
Speaker 2: favorite services. Also, Rebekna coming back. She's look had these
Speaker 2: emotional ups and downs and the sickness and whatever it is,
Speaker 2: but she came back, battled in this tournament battle to
Speaker 2: get to another final. Got to give her a lot
Speaker 2: of credit. But I did tweet out, And I know
Speaker 2: I'll get in trouble for this because I've given him
Speaker 2: shit in the past about you know, his negativity and stuff.
Speaker 2: But her coach. If I had a coach, when I
Speaker 2: looked over and I was missing my best shot and
Speaker 2: she was struggling with her backhand, like that's her best
Speaker 2: shot by far. If I look over and my coach
Speaker 2: is gesturing on a regular basis and showing, you know,
Speaker 2: the people, he has a tendency to talk to everybody
Speaker 2: in the player's box. I don't know why he wants
Speaker 2: to tell them all what's happening and what she's doing
Speaker 2: wrong or what she's doing right, or when it's good.
Speaker 2: And I remember the Ustralian Open when she got that
Speaker 2: match point against when she lost to blink Over, and
Speaker 2: I remember there was one match point, maybe her sixth
Speaker 2: match point or something, and they all started laughing in
Speaker 2: the box because they were like, Okay, this is it.
Speaker 2: Now we're finally going to win, right And they all laughed.
Speaker 2: They were all laughing in the box, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: never in my fing life, as a coach or as
Speaker 2: a player, am I laughing until the match is over.
Speaker 2: And I remember thinking that, I'm like, why are you laughing? Like, yeah,
Speaker 2: chances are she's probably gonna win the next point, but
Speaker 2: chances are she might not. So you can't. You cannot
Speaker 2: have these emotional ups and downs on a tennis court.
Speaker 2: And then to look over in the final when she
Speaker 2: was struggling a bit and he's gesturing with her back
Speaker 2: with the backhand, like showing I'm moving my arms like
Speaker 2: gesturing a backhand if I'm having a problem with my backhand,
Speaker 2: And I look over and my coach is gesturing with
Speaker 2: a backhand. I'm like, I fucking know, I know I'm
Speaker 2: missing it, Like, why do you need to keep I
Speaker 2: want to look over and see my coach go, you
Speaker 2: have the best backhand in the world. You got this,
Speaker 2: you got this. I remember with Sam, for example, she
Speaker 2: would miss some forehand returns and she said to me
Speaker 2: one time, she goes, don't tell me too much with it.
Speaker 2: Just tell me you got this. You've got this, And
Speaker 2: that's all you want to hear in these very stressful
Speaker 2: moments that you got this. You're great, You're gonna be okay.
Speaker 2: I don't want to look over and see my coach
Speaker 2: gesturing and basically letting everybody in the entire stadium know, yeah,
Speaker 2: I miss in my backhand and it's shit today. Like,
Speaker 2: I don't know how she does it. I don't know
Speaker 2: how she deals with the negative coming out her way.
Speaker 2: But my god, it doesn't help. It does not help.
Speaker 2: But I give a credit because God, she keeps her
Speaker 2: shit together because of it, because she's such a great player.
Speaker 2: But I just keep thinking, God, if she had someone
Speaker 2: on the side just being super positive with her, maybe
Speaker 2: she would win a match like that. Maybe she would
Speaker 2: dig herself out of a hole. I don't know.
Speaker 1: Well, she definitely played the match of the tournament. It
Speaker 1: was the best f women's match I've seen in a
Speaker 1: long time. I think it was the match of the
Speaker 1: whole year as of now. Elena rebeccinham Maria Sakari, Oh yeah,
Speaker 1: what in the world. They were hitting the crap out
Speaker 1: of the ball. They were playing so well, they were
Speaker 1: serving well. It was like next levels.
Speaker 3: It's not like.
Speaker 1: Tennis from the future or something. And I was like,
Speaker 1: oh my god. And the same day, the same day
Speaker 1: on Tennis Channel, Prakash called sacchary as the winner and
Speaker 1: and I normally agree with him, and I said, ah,
Speaker 1: and I don't like they can't be contrarian, so I
Speaker 1: normally just go with it whatever. But I really felt
Speaker 1: like tane I was going to win, and I said,
Speaker 1: I have to be a contrarian here and disagree. I
Speaker 1: think Rebecca I will win. And I was never this
Speaker 1: nervous during a match because I just hoped I was
Speaker 1: going to be right.
Speaker 2: And I was, yeah, that was next level.
Speaker 3: That was insane.
Speaker 2: And you know when two players like that, they were
Speaker 2: both very liked on the in the locker room, very
Speaker 2: liked onto There's not one player that could say something
Speaker 2: bad about either of those two players. They're both great kids,
Speaker 2: they both worked their asses off. They they're just good kids.
Speaker 2: And they battled and they walked to the net, and
Speaker 2: the way they shook hands and the way they looked
Speaker 2: at each other was almost like that was a great match.
Speaker 2: It was, No, that was a great great I think
Speaker 2: the best match of the year.
Speaker 1: I think it was as of now, I think it
Speaker 1: was obviously the and the other great match was again
Speaker 1: Rebucca with the blink over.
Speaker 3: That was the drama of it, right.
Speaker 1: The quality was not as high, but the drama of
Speaker 1: a thirty eight minute tibreak is insane. I forgot about that, yes,
Speaker 1: but how could I quality wise from first point to
Speaker 1: last for three almost three hours, two hours fifty one
Speaker 1: or whatever it was was absolute insanity. But it sapped
Speaker 1: a lot of energy of Elena. She played all all
Speaker 1: tournament long. She played these two and a half hour
Speaker 1: matches two hour forty. She was sick and anyone, so
Speaker 1: she couldn't really practice for a few days, so she
Speaker 1: was struggling. And then when she found her stride against
Speaker 1: Madison Keys, she looked really good, so such clean hitting,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh, she's going to win this tournament,
Speaker 1: she looks like so good, and then the match against Sakkari.
Speaker 2: Yeah, was like, it's just next level.
Speaker 3: It was next level. It was so good, but it
Speaker 3: took a lot of out of her.
Speaker 1: But even if it hadn't, she faced somebody in the
Speaker 1: final that was on a mission.
Speaker 2: On a mission. Before we get to Danielle, though, can
Speaker 2: I just I teeted you, I texted you. I don't
Speaker 2: need to tweet to you. I texted you about Yeah.
Speaker 1: I don't give my number to Renee. We have a
Speaker 1: podcast together, but she doesn't have my number.
Speaker 2: Madison Keys's got to be the most frustrating person in
Speaker 2: the world to coach. And I say this with total
Speaker 2: respect and love for Madison Keys because a great kid,
Speaker 2: an amazing hitter of the tennis sport, like nobody hits
Speaker 2: the ball harder and bigger. But boy or boy, she
Speaker 2: frustrates me because in the biggest moments in both sets
Speaker 2: against Rebarkina, Rabekenna would hit a great return down the
Speaker 2: middle of the court or deep into the court, and
Speaker 2: Maddie Keys is trying to hit an inside out or
Speaker 2: down the line, forehand or backhand off of that shot
Speaker 2: and missus it wide and It's like, oh, the two times,
Speaker 2: the times that she lost her serve, all she has
Speaker 2: to do is think that's a great return coming at me.
Speaker 2: I've got to rip this down the middle of the court.
Speaker 2: Like I cannot go to the line, I cannot hit
Speaker 2: over the high part of the net. I've got to
Speaker 2: be disciplined and go back cross court or through the middle. No,
Speaker 2: not Madison. She tries to hit the hardest shot in
Speaker 2: the history of tennis off the most important points. I
Speaker 2: don't get it. I don't get White. I mean, at twenty,
Speaker 2: you get it, right, because you know twenty as a teenager,
Speaker 2: you just a dummy, right, You just make the dumbest decisions.
Speaker 2: But now your Grandslam finalists, multiple Grand Slam semi finals,
Speaker 2: multiple Grand Slam quarter finalists, You've got to figure out
Speaker 2: a way to hit those balls in the court. And
Speaker 2: I don't understand how she hasn't figured that out yet.
Speaker 1: Well, Maddie was injured. We give her dad. She had
Speaker 1: the shoulder injury in the first few months. Because I
Speaker 1: really liked what I saw during during the US series
Speaker 1: last year, and she had a sneaky good year. She
Speaker 1: won Eastbourne, she played quarters in Wimbledon. She played Semis
Speaker 1: at the US Open, so she had a sneaky good
Speaker 1: year and in the US Series Fratangelo, her fiance Bjorn,
Speaker 1: he started coaching her and I could see a difference,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh my god, she's finally listening,
Speaker 1: so I will give her dad. So let's give her
Speaker 1: a few more weeks to adjust with the injury. She
Speaker 1: hasn't played it. She has only played three four.
Speaker 2: Met former champion of Charleston.
Speaker 1: But she's nowhere near as frustrating as Caroline Garcia, the
Speaker 1: most frush at She is the best server on the wtator.
Speaker 1: I'm not just throwing it out there. Her and Rebeckena
Speaker 1: are on position one and two in every single serf department.
Speaker 1: So first percentage points one, second percentage points one, service
Speaker 1: games one, they exchanged one and two in every single department, right,
Speaker 1: So her and Rebeckena are statistically speaking, the best servers return.
Speaker 1: Garcia is ranked outside the top hundred. I swear to god,
Speaker 1: we were looking at these stats. It was Martina Navratilova,
Speaker 1: me and I don't remember who, and we was looking
Speaker 1: at these stats and we couldn't believe our as she's
Speaker 1: ranked one hundred and four in return stets on first
Speaker 1: serf points one and she's ranked ninety seven ninety seven
Speaker 1: on second return points one for the last six months.
Speaker 1: And she refuses to take a step back. She refuses
Speaker 1: and against the In the match against Danielle Collins, give me,
Speaker 1: she won only one single point on the Danielle's first serf,
Speaker 1: one single point the entire match, and her coach before
Speaker 1: that point that she won, her coach got up and
Speaker 1: screamed at her.
Speaker 2: What do you scream?
Speaker 1: Go back a step putah, go fucking back, take a
Speaker 1: step back. She took a step back, she made the return,
Speaker 1: she won the point, and then she went back to
Speaker 1: the baseline and lost the next twenty seven points on
Speaker 1: first serf that Danielle played. And I just if you
Speaker 1: are if you are standing there and you're winning matches, sorry,
Speaker 1: and you're winning points, and you're ranked in the top twenty,
Speaker 1: and this is the way you play, more power to you.
Speaker 1: But you're a top twenty player who can barely make
Speaker 1: a return game. You have to ask yourself, what is happening.
Speaker 2: That is crazy. That's a crazy stat Thank you for that.
Speaker 2: And you know, if you're coach and you're seeing that,
Speaker 2: and you're saying that to a play and they're not
Speaker 2: responding to it, like, oh, maybe I should change my
Speaker 2: positioning on the return, or maybe you should try something different.
Speaker 2: Then you don't deserve to matches because why have a coach, Like, honestly,
Speaker 2: that's just crazy. Anyway.
Speaker 1: The thing with her is that, and I said it
Speaker 1: a few times. The thing with her is and I
Speaker 1: think that's her problem. She still wins matches because, as
Speaker 1: we just mentioned, she's one of the best service in
Speaker 1: the world, and if she somehow gets to a break
Speaker 1: point and her positioning is threatening and somebody serves a
Speaker 1: double fault, she will win the match because she serves
Speaker 1: so well that it's really hard to break her. And
Speaker 1: you will see she wins oftentimes matches six four sixty four,
Speaker 1: one break each. You know. However, the problem is this
Speaker 1: type of player has never gone further than quarterfinals in
Speaker 1: a Grand Slam tournament. Why is that, or maybe she
Speaker 1: made semis at the US Open ones, I'm not sure,
Speaker 1: but why is that? She should have had five Grand
Speaker 1: Slam titles. And the reason is if you play this
Speaker 1: high risk of a game during a fortnight of a tournament,
Speaker 1: a major tournament, is two weeks long. You will have
Speaker 1: a bad day and other players w on a bad day,
Speaker 1: and Garcia loses every single time. And that's why she's
Speaker 1: never won a Grand Slam, because with the talent she has,
Speaker 1: she should be a multiple major tournament.
Speaker 3: Or at least have one.
Speaker 1: One. Yes, but I think that's her, that's her problem
Speaker 1: because on a seven days you saw it. You can
Speaker 1: catch lightning in a bottle in seven days. And then
Speaker 1: when she plays well, she's done it. She's done it
Speaker 1: because she's yes, because she I mean she won Cincinnati
Speaker 1: from Qualis and it was like she was serving so
Speaker 1: and that's the thing. She saw the ball so big.
Speaker 1: She was in such high confidence you couldn't break her, right,
Speaker 1: and so when you can't break her, she will break.
Speaker 3: You at one point.
Speaker 1: But it's such a high risk game that if you
Speaker 1: do have a bad day, it's really hard to win
Speaker 1: a major tournament. And I think this is the standard
Speaker 1: I'm putting to Garcia. I'm not putting a standard of
Speaker 1: a random top twenty player. I think she should be
Speaker 1: a major tournament winner and she isn't. And it frustrates
Speaker 1: me because you were talking about frustrating players, because I
Speaker 1: do think if she could just she doesn't even have
Speaker 1: to be top ten in the return games one because
Speaker 1: she's such a good server.
Speaker 3: It's enough. If you're forty.
Speaker 2: Five, I think you're annoyed because you were such a
Speaker 2: great returner and your serve let you down sometimes that
Speaker 2: you would have given your left arm or maybe a
Speaker 2: left pinky, because you need your left arm to hit
Speaker 2: you're two hand to have her serve.
Speaker 1: Well with both of that's absolutely true, and with both
Speaker 1: with Madison Keys and Curly and Garcia, they are five
Speaker 1: hundred times more talented than I ever was, and so
Speaker 1: I had to do everything right. And then it frustrates
Speaker 1: me to see these players who don't do everything right
Speaker 1: but are still better than I ever was because they
Speaker 1: have more talent, and it's unfortunate. But in tennis it's
Speaker 1: a meritocracy. You either have talent or you don't.
Speaker 3: You can't.
Speaker 1: I can't magically, I can't create a magic potion and
Speaker 1: drink it and become the best tennis player in the world.
Speaker 1: I did the best I could, and I'm proud of that.
Speaker 1: But I never had there and some times when I
Speaker 1: watched I was like if I had an ounce of
Speaker 1: their talent. I would have been the number one player
Speaker 1: in the world for ten years because I had to
Speaker 1: do everything correct in order to keep up with the
Speaker 1: best in the world, even for a little bit of
Speaker 1: a short period of time. You know.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, anyway, so let's get to our girl, Danimal Danielle,
Speaker 2: we call her Danielle Collins. How great was those ten
Speaker 2: days for daniel Collins?
Speaker 3: Iconic?
Speaker 2: She speaks to hell the last three years, four years,
Speaker 2: the endometriosis, the rheumatoid arthritis, She's got lots of issues
Speaker 2: going on order immune disease, like you know. She won
Speaker 2: the Australian Open, and something that I thought was interesting
Speaker 2: yesterday she thanked the crowd she lost. She literally the
Speaker 2: longest speech of all time. But we'll get to that.
Speaker 2: But she lost in the Austraian Open. And I was
Speaker 2: there for that match courtside working and I think four
Speaker 2: or five maybe seven people well it were screaming for her,
Speaker 2: and she had this little band of guys as well,
Speaker 2: so she probably had about fifteen people cheering for her,
Speaker 2: and then the rest of the fifteen thousand people were
Speaker 2: cheering for Ash Party And every time Ashbarty would win
Speaker 2: a point, it was like the roof when it's the
Speaker 2: loudest I've ever heard rod Labor Arena. Ever, then Daniel
Speaker 2: Collins would doing a point it was crickets, like, I've
Speaker 2: never heard a stadium so quiet. Because Australians are pretty
Speaker 2: we're parochial, but we're also very fair. It's kind of
Speaker 2: like the English.
Speaker 3: It's like a great sports country.
Speaker 1: They know how to respect sports people like I always
Speaker 1: say it as an example, when you have an uncourt
Speaker 1: interview with a player. In every other country, people just
Speaker 1: leave because they want to see other matches. Australians always,
Speaker 1: like every single person stays for the uncourt interview.
Speaker 3: It's insane.
Speaker 2: Yeah, we like our sports and we're fair, but that
Speaker 2: Australian Open was different, so unfair. And you know, look,
Speaker 2: I don't blame it's austray And Open and it was
Speaker 2: ash party and it's the first time Australiana won for
Speaker 2: thirty years or something so or more and so I
Speaker 2: get it. But she must have felt so amazing playing
Speaker 2: that final yesterday because the crowd were going bonkers for
Speaker 2: her and it was so nice for here for her
Speaker 2: to hear. She grew up three and a half hours
Speaker 2: drive up the West Coast of Florida in Saint Petersburg, Florida.
Speaker 2: Not wealthy, very poor, family busting her ass. Went to
Speaker 2: college because she probably had no means really to go
Speaker 2: on the tour, and it's very expensive to be a
Speaker 2: tennis player. She goes, she plays college, she dominates in college,
Speaker 2: she plays great, she changes colleges, like she's had a
Speaker 2: bit of a interesting way to get into professional tennis.
Speaker 2: Then she comes out in the Townis tour and does
Speaker 2: pretty well, like plays well, and she's got that attitude
Speaker 2: and hotspone that come on then the whole thing. And
Speaker 2: then I feel like she had that the sickness and
Speaker 2: the you know, issues with the surgery, with the endeme traces,
Speaker 2: and then when I saw her play in the last
Speaker 2: few years, she didn't have that same fire. And I
Speaker 2: spoke to her about it, and I think she realized
Speaker 2: that she didn't want to be seen like that on
Speaker 2: the tennis squad anymore, or seeing like this, you know,
Speaker 2: hot head and sort of loud and brash American and
Speaker 2: all this stuff that can come with Daniel Collins of
Speaker 2: five years ago. And I think she's kind of like
Speaker 2: got really calm on the court, and I think it
Speaker 2: hurt her in some ways, but I think it's taken
Speaker 2: her a long time to get to the point and
Speaker 2: that you could see it here where she still had
Speaker 2: the fire, but she was super calm the whole time.
Speaker 3: She was incredible.
Speaker 2: Yeah, until the last game when then we saw danimoll
Speaker 2: come out where she was like scream in her box,
Speaker 2: like talk to me, and then she's like shut up,
Speaker 2: sit down. It was like they didn't know whether to
Speaker 2: stand up, whether to sit down, whether to cheer for her,
Speaker 2: whether to not say anything. It was classic, and it's
Speaker 2: it's something as a tennis player we both knew because
Speaker 2: we were both pretty volatile on the court, or we'd
Speaker 2: get fired up where you're like, it's got nothing to
Speaker 2: do with your players box. It's just you're so stressed out.
Speaker 3: You just need to let it out on somebody.
Speaker 2: And you're the one. You're the people sitting there, so
Speaker 2: you're gonna cop it. And it was classic Danielle Collins
Speaker 2: last game and she hits the most amazing backhand cross
Speaker 2: got to win the match, and she just played unbelievable, believable.
Speaker 1: She lost the first set of the tournament and then
Speaker 1: she didn't lose more than three games until the final
Speaker 1: per set. It was like she was a less Yes,
Speaker 1: she was a level above every single person against curling
Speaker 1: Garcia too. Like even in the rallies, like in the
Speaker 1: beginning we were saying, oh, you know whose forehand can
Speaker 1: hold up better? Because both us struggling on the forehand.
Speaker 1: Danielle was overpowering Garcia over the backhand side and that's
Speaker 1: really hard to do.
Speaker 2: Is probably one of the greatest back ins ever.
Speaker 1: It's unbelievable. But she was just like the thing was
Speaker 1: she When she has a bit of time, she's always incredible.
Speaker 1: But even on like the quick hard shots that I
Speaker 1: played with a lot of depth and flat when she
Speaker 1: can be a little late because she has these big swings.
Speaker 1: She was seeing the ball so early she was there,
Speaker 1: she smacked it right back and then she had this
Speaker 1: really nice little change of rhythm. Not that she plays
Speaker 1: with the change of riddom, but she has this little
Speaker 1: angle with the back hand, so sometimes she would just
Speaker 1: go like whoops with the flick of the wrist and
Speaker 1: cross gourd.
Speaker 2: That I don't know so many big service don't use
Speaker 2: it enough. She was using the body serve more than
Speaker 2: any player I've ever seen over the last couple of years.
Speaker 2: She played it unbelievably well against against Alexandrova. She served
Speaker 2: that serve one hundred times like Alexandrover, couln't get out
Speaker 2: of the way. And for anybody out there that has
Speaker 2: a player serving to your body, take a half a
Speaker 2: step back, just half a step back. It makes the world.
Speaker 1: You say there to Caroline, Carol, she did the same
Speaker 1: against her. And the thing with Danielle's surface and it's
Speaker 1: interesting because she can also serve kick, but she has
Speaker 1: a great slize and the way she serves the body serf,
Speaker 1: she hits it as hard as she can, but with
Speaker 1: a tat bit of slize, and so you think you're
Speaker 1: in place, but then it moves just into your right tip.
Speaker 1: And if you play tennis and imagine a ball coming
Speaker 1: to your right hip, you cannot do anything. You can
Speaker 1: move out of the way to hit a backhand, and
Speaker 1: the forehand you're so close to your body you can't swing,
Speaker 1: and you always give a short ball. And if you
Speaker 1: give Danielle a neutral ball, the toast.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's actually a serve. It was one of
Speaker 2: my best serfs. I love Danielle and I serve pretty similarly.
Speaker 2: I love the flatty like pancake flat serve. When I
Speaker 2: was serving at my best, I could hit the slider
Speaker 2: pretty well, and I love the flat one. But then
Speaker 2: I used to hit this and I hit the body
Speaker 2: serve a lot under pressure because I could smack it
Speaker 2: as hard as I could and I knew.
Speaker 1: And sorry to interrupt you, this is really important if
Speaker 1: you listen to Renee, but also listen to me. If
Speaker 1: you are going for a body serf, you have to
Speaker 1: hit it because the one thing you want you want
Speaker 1: what you want to do with a body serf, you
Speaker 1: want to jam the other person. So if you just
Speaker 1: slice it and they have the time to take a
Speaker 1: step back and hit it, you're dead. So that's why
Speaker 1: I take an example in Renee and in Danielle. You
Speaker 1: have to hit smack the ball. When you hit Buddy.
Speaker 2: Snacket, I love to hit that shot because I either
Speaker 2: got a mistake off the return, which a lot of
Speaker 2: these girls, in particular on the forehand, a lot of
Speaker 2: the girls don't like to hit that one. Or I
Speaker 2: got a short ball and for me, as somebody was
Speaker 2: serving and volling and coming in, I got a ball
Speaker 2: that was high. Often and also that it was very
Speaker 2: hard for them to hit a winner, just a straight
Speaker 2: up winner. Unless you don't hit your spot on the
Speaker 2: server or you don't hit it hard, then you're a
Speaker 2: bit dead. But it's a serve that I think she
Speaker 2: used beautifully all week. And Alexandrova, who took out Eager
Speaker 2: She Ontech, who we didn't even talk about, I mean, Ego,
Speaker 2: that was just anyway. There was too many other people
Speaker 2: to talk about. But certainly, you know, coming off of
Speaker 2: winning Palm Springs and then losing early, she's going straight
Speaker 2: onto the clay. She's going to be fine. But so
Speaker 2: that's why we're sort of didn't really talk about her
Speaker 2: very much. But I just want to give so much credit,
Speaker 2: so much kudos to Danielle because to finish that match
Speaker 2: off the way she did, and to hang in there
Speaker 2: in that last game because it was she was up
Speaker 2: thirty love and she kind of got a bit tired
Speaker 2: on the forehand. She had a short poin and she
Speaker 2: hit it straight to Rebuccina and they gone down a
Speaker 2: break point and that's when all the drama started. But
Speaker 2: just well done, Danielle, Like well done. She's going to
Speaker 2: retire at the end. Of this year, and a lot
Speaker 2: of people keep asking why why, you know, especially now
Speaker 2: they're going to be like, why would you retire? Are
Speaker 2: you playing great's? She has two very chronic diseases and
Speaker 2: in some weeks you talked about it in Austin, she
Speaker 2: like just fell apart. Yeah, because her body fell apart.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean yeah. I was calling Austin and we
Speaker 1: were like, oh, Danielle Collins is winning this tournament. She
Speaker 1: was so much better than everyone. She was playing well,
Speaker 1: she had won a lot of matches already, she was
Speaker 1: playing well in the Middle East, and then she wakes
Speaker 1: up on quarterfinals or even I think second round, and
Speaker 1: she had a flare up and you could just see
Speaker 1: she was in pain. She didn't sit down on changeovers.
Speaker 1: Her back was hurting, then her hip was hurting, then
Speaker 1: her knees were hurting, and she ended up retiring I
Speaker 1: think in the in the quarterfinals, or maybe not really
Speaker 1: playing at her best. And that's what happens. And the
Speaker 1: thing is with that. I never had an autoimmune disease,
Speaker 1: thank god, but I know a few of my friends
Speaker 1: who have it, and it SAPs you mentally and energetically
Speaker 1: because you wake up every morning and I had chronic
Speaker 1: knee pain, which was obviously not the same but similar
Speaker 1: in the sense that I woke up in the morning
Speaker 1: the first thing I did was not like, Oh, I
Speaker 1: have to pee. I would wake up and test my
Speaker 1: knee and be like, oh okay, Oh today's bad today
Speaker 1: I can't practice what I planned, or oh great today
Speaker 1: I can practice. And that times a billion is what
Speaker 1: an autoimmune disease as a tennis player or as an athlete,
Speaker 1: as a pro athlete, where you're like, can I practice
Speaker 1: this week? Can I play this week? Or will I
Speaker 1: be in bed for the next five days? And that's
Speaker 1: just horrible, And it's septs you mentally and energetically and emotionally,
Speaker 1: just the ever questioning can I do it or can
Speaker 1: I not do it? And so I think that's part.
Speaker 1: I think that she never mentions it in that way,
Speaker 1: but I do think that's part of what she wants.
Speaker 2: To get pregnant. And there's all this sort of stuff that. Look,
Speaker 2: the bottom line is I'm so happy for her that
Speaker 2: she now can walk away from this game. Maybe at
Speaker 2: the end of the day, maybe she'll change her mind,
Speaker 2: She'll have found some magic potion that helps her. You
Speaker 2: know on a weekly basis, I don't know. But if
Speaker 2: she does retire at the end of this year and
Speaker 2: puts her rackets down at thirty thirty one years of age,
Speaker 2: gets you know, married, has kids, whatever, and is happy,
Speaker 2: good for her that she was able to say, you
Speaker 2: know what, I was a pretty fucking good tennis player,
Speaker 2: and look how well I played, made a finals of
Speaker 2: a Grand Slam, and I won a w taen one thousand,
Speaker 2: and not just a random w teen one thousand, not
Speaker 2: like a Gudalahara where like two people go sometimes and
Speaker 2: play like no offense to Maria Sakari who won that
Speaker 2: last year, but like everyone was no there was barely
Speaker 2: anyone there. Everybody played Miami.
Speaker 1: And beating Elena Rebuccina in the final exact a Grand
Speaker 1: Slam champion, all.
Speaker 2: The players she beat through the whole tournament was fantastic.
Speaker 2: So Danielle, we're giving you a fist pump a well
Speaker 2: done because.
Speaker 1: And I have to say one more thing about her personality.
Speaker 1: I always liked her because what I liked about her
Speaker 1: is she was very authentic and very true to herself.
Speaker 1: And this is what I want to circle back to.
Speaker 1: When Daniell came on tour, she was not well liked,
Speaker 1: neither by players nor by fans, and now she has
Speaker 1: icon status. And that's just my appeal to people and
Speaker 1: to tennis players who come on tour, but generally really
Speaker 1: as people that sometimes the others have to come around
Speaker 1: to you if you are true to yourself, That's what
Speaker 1: I mean. Like in the beginning, people were like taken
Speaker 1: aback because she was loud and yelled in your face
Speaker 1: and wanted to win and was feisty. Now everyone likes
Speaker 1: her and all the fans there is so much outpouring
Speaker 1: love for her because she always remained true to herself
Speaker 1: and people will come around when they see that's who
Speaker 1: you are, and you go girl, and.
Speaker 2: You know, look, she has definitely calmed down a lot
Speaker 2: on the court, there's no doubt about it. And I
Speaker 2: think she's matured in that way. But she also came
Speaker 2: out of playing college and you look at Peyton Sterns,
Speaker 2: who's going to take over from Daniel as far as
Speaker 2: the same sort of personality, and it's they've come out
Speaker 2: of college and constantly, if you've ever gone to watch
Speaker 2: a college match, they're constantly yelling and screaming at one another,
Speaker 2: Go five, go four, like y, you know whatever, Go Gators, go,
Speaker 2: you know, game cocks, go.
Speaker 1: Just go watch a college match. Like the first time
Speaker 1: I saw that, I was dying of laughter because after
Speaker 1: every point it was like fifteen all and the teammates
Speaker 1: would jump off the bench and run on the court,
Speaker 1: and I was like, what is happening here? This is
Speaker 1: the atmosphere they come from, And so of course you're
Speaker 1: going to bring that to the tour and be surprised
Speaker 1: that the others are not doing that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, especially when you're a really good player in college.
Speaker 2: So you're like, well, this is what wins me matches.
Speaker 2: And I think she's learned through the last few years
Speaker 2: that oh I don't need to necessarily be like that,
Speaker 2: but what she needed to be was karma, and that's
Speaker 2: what has.
Speaker 1: Won the combination right now in Miami was the perfect
Speaker 1: combination of you heard the legendary commands, like I venture
Speaker 1: to argue that there was one against Garcia that was
Speaker 1: maybe the all time number one where she like did
Speaker 1: an half ivanovitch lifting the knee up and then a
Speaker 1: half like pulling back the phils and yelling commands. So
Speaker 1: there was like a lot of things mixed milanched into one.
Speaker 1: It was so beautiful. I loved it. But with the
Speaker 1: calmness in between, yeah, right, and if and she found
Speaker 1: the perfect mixture for herself where she has the feistiness
Speaker 1: but also a certain kind of zen within her.
Speaker 2: And one thing to remember if you are raising a
Speaker 2: tennis player, or you listen to this podcast and you
Speaker 2: want to aspire to be a professional, if you're a
Speaker 2: feisty person like Danielle Collins, like I was, like you were,
Speaker 2: you know, on the court, remember to use those moments
Speaker 2: to change the atmosphere of a match, right, Because when
Speaker 2: Danielle Collins maybe you know, it's kind of calm, calm,
Speaker 2: come and then goes come on that one time. As
Speaker 2: an opponent, you're like, oh shit, right, So use those
Speaker 2: moments of feistiness at the right time because it can
Speaker 2: influence a match big time. Right. So just and never
Speaker 2: lose sight of who you truly are. You don't want
Speaker 2: to lose who you truly are when you're playing a
Speaker 2: tennis match, but you want to control the controllables. And
Speaker 2: also if getting upset is hurting you, then that's a
Speaker 2: bad thing. But don't lose the feistinness when it matters,
Speaker 2: and that's a big lesson that I think Danielle's leaned
Speaker 2: through the year. So well done to Danielle Collins. I'm
Speaker 2: super super happy for her. All Right, let's flick over
Speaker 2: to the guys. I mean, come on, yan Nick Sinner.
Speaker 2: He just destroyed Gregor Demetrov today. But before we get
Speaker 2: to that, ol Choraz losing to Gregord Dimitrov. How happy
Speaker 2: are we for Gregord Demetrov? Before we get to Gregole,
Speaker 2: Let's talk about Andy Murray a little bit though, because
Speaker 2: you know, unbelievable a couple of matches that he played,
Speaker 2: that three hour twenty match and then he ended up
Speaker 2: losing to Marshak mahuch. This guy is unbelievable. Then his
Speaker 2: ankle's fucked up. Now he's hoping obviously to try and
Speaker 2: get back from Wimbledon, because I think that's going to
Speaker 2: be the last time we see him on the tour.
Speaker 2: He's sort of really saying now that this is it,
Speaker 2: but how many how much do you just love this guy?
Speaker 2: And when he won that match prior to losing the
Speaker 2: one he did, I said, this is why he still plays.
Speaker 2: He goes out and he's throwing his fist in the
Speaker 2: air and he's jumping in the air and the crowd's
Speaker 2: going crazy for him. I just you can't not admire
Speaker 2: the guy. And hopefully he's back with this ankle injury
Speaker 2: now for Wimbledon.
Speaker 1: I think he will be. I mean, it was super unfortunate.
Speaker 1: He twisted or rolled his ankle and two ligaments are torn.
Speaker 1: So he will be out for a few weeks. But
Speaker 1: hopefully it's not a ligament injury that requires surgery, because
Speaker 1: that can take you out three months. If it's not
Speaker 1: that bad, he can get away without a surgery and
Speaker 1: he might be even back in five six weeks. Actually
Speaker 1: I had it once where a tour where a tour
Speaker 1: two and I was back after five six weeks. When
Speaker 1: I did all three, I had to have surgery and
Speaker 1: it was like a whole ordeal.
Speaker 3: So let's hope it's not that.
Speaker 1: But what I will say from a fan perspective, I
Speaker 1: was in Miami when Andy Murray played. All the courts
Speaker 1: were packed and the atmosphere always rang all over to
Speaker 1: the stadium court where we were like, oh what is it? Oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: Andy Murray is playing. Fans know what they get when
Speaker 1: they buy an Andy Murray ticket. They get a great
Speaker 1: tragedy and somebody will die at the end of a match,
Speaker 1: and most of the times it's Andy Murray unfortunately, or
Speaker 1: his fans or one of his fans, and it's unfortunate,
Speaker 1: but it's true. And so that's why it's like the
Speaker 1: discussion of first of all, his ranking is good enough
Speaker 1: to not need Wildcats anymore, but the discussion of not
Speaker 1: giving Andy Murray Wildcats like that is the one ticket
Speaker 1: I would buy as a fan. I will get a
Speaker 1: guaranteed four hour match no matter what happens, and somebody
Speaker 1: will like cry, count.
Speaker 2: Me in, count me in, count take my money for
Speaker 2: Andy Murray. Every single time. We love you man, get
Speaker 2: back hopefully healthy. As we said, we want to see
Speaker 2: the best Andie Murray we can see at Wimbledon, because
Speaker 2: I have a feeling that might be the Swan song
Speaker 2: that he sales out onto and it would be fantastic
Speaker 2: to see him do well there, and so we're just
Speaker 2: we're thinking of you, Andy and hopefully you're back as
Speaker 2: strong as ever for those tournaments. Actually something that we
Speaker 2: did forget and I know we're flipping that to the
Speaker 2: chicky babes, but Cocoa Golf. Again, like we've sort of
Speaker 2: talked about this a little bit, but you know, since
Speaker 2: since the US Open. Look, she played a great match
Speaker 2: of the ustral And Open and that was definitely the
Speaker 2: match sort of other than the rebekin a blink over
Speaker 2: the drama.
Speaker 3: There was the drama.
Speaker 1: Quality wise, there was quality was great. The quality between
Speaker 1: golf and Zabalenka was the best match of the women's tournament.
Speaker 1: You want to say right at the Australian Open.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yes, it's at certain points in that match. But
Speaker 2: she has been struggling and you know, we've talked about
Speaker 2: peer Reba, his influence over her on the forehand in particular,
Speaker 2: he was working really hard. We've talked about it before.
Speaker 2: How Brad you know, doesn't really want to change too
Speaker 2: much about that. But the thing that I'm really yes,
Speaker 2: the forehand, the forehand, we can talk about the foehound
Speaker 2: till we're you know, old and buried, but it's the
Speaker 2: second serve for me that she's struggling with. So there
Speaker 2: is there are certainly two things that are glaringly giving
Speaker 2: her problems that other players in the top ten in
Speaker 2: the world do not have those glaring except Gussie's return
Speaker 2: of sef But Gusia, you know, has this great serving
Speaker 2: motion and wins most of her service games. Was Coco,
Speaker 2: I just don't know what's going to happen anymore. She's
Speaker 2: gonna double She's gonna double fault ten times match, and
Speaker 2: that's giving away two or three games on your serve.
Speaker 2: If you're not returning unbelievable, you're gonna lose those matches
Speaker 2: against the types of players. So Coco has got to
Speaker 2: figure out something with the second serve. The motion is
Speaker 2: a disaster.
Speaker 1: It wasn't this bad. It wasn't as bad as it
Speaker 1: was in Indian Wiles. But still she hit only three
Speaker 1: double faults against Carol and Garciana three three set match.
Speaker 1: The only thing that was a little bit concerning to
Speaker 1: me was she the first two sets were actually amazing
Speaker 1: against Caroln Garcia. Carolyn was playing incredible in the first set.
Speaker 1: She was just so aggressive, taking the balls early, rushing
Speaker 1: Coco and Coco without and we have we have the
Speaker 1: microphones in the boxes so we can hear what they
Speaker 1: are saying, and Bratt was not saying much. And Coco
Speaker 1: on her own figured out that she has to play differently.
Speaker 1: She didn't have any depth, especially on her forehand. And
Speaker 1: in the second set she started we had the stats,
Speaker 1: she started playing ten inches higher. I don't know in inches,
Speaker 1: but the centimeters. It was like ten centimeters higher. Then
Speaker 1: in the first set, and what does hight do? Height
Speaker 1: gives you depth, and all of a sudden she won
Speaker 1: six to one or six to two the second set
Speaker 1: really easily. And then what was And this is what
Speaker 1: I admired about Coco's game always. She reads tennis incredibly,
Speaker 1: She's so smart, she has such high tennis like you,
Speaker 1: and she's able to adjust. And that's what being a
Speaker 1: tennis player is. You constantly adapt. You adapt to new conditions.
Speaker 1: Every week, you adapt to new playing styles. Then you
Speaker 1: beat somebody, then you play them the next week they
Speaker 1: have changed their game. You have to adapt again. So
Speaker 1: what you are as a tennis player is basically somebody
Speaker 1: who consistently has to adapt and change and grow and
Speaker 1: do something differently. And Coco is the master of it.
Speaker 1: She's so good at it. And of course she's a
Speaker 1: word we talked about and all we talked about her
Speaker 1: being an incredible competitor, in my opinion, one of the
Speaker 1: best on the tour. Maybe the best with Caroline Bosniaki.
Speaker 1: But in the third set against Garcia, she went back
Speaker 1: to playing flat and that was so strange to me,
Speaker 1: especially on the forehand side, because that's the one thing
Speaker 1: we talked about it many times. When she has the
Speaker 1: height on the forehand, it's really uncomfortable to play her.
Speaker 1: I've played her multiple times because on the one side
Speaker 1: she hits the ball and on the other it jumps
Speaker 1: over your shoulder and you're like, ah, what do I do?
Speaker 1: And that was really strange to me because normally she's
Speaker 1: so good in reading the game, and there she kind
Speaker 1: of lost clarity in that third set. That was the
Speaker 1: only observation I had. I have no reasoning or I'm
Speaker 1: not I don't have any consequences out of it, but
Speaker 1: that was interesting to me to witness because we have
Speaker 1: the stats and we saw that she went back to
Speaker 1: the first set again in terms of height over the net.
Speaker 2: Yeah, so well, she'll be aware of that next time.
Speaker 2: But anyway, I wanted to throw that in there because
Speaker 2: you know, these are the big names in the women's
Speaker 2: game that didn't have the tournaments, So do.
Speaker 1: You want to talk about the ego as well? Or no?
Speaker 2: I mean, listen, it is what it is. She lost
Speaker 2: to a big hitter and she kind of freaked out a.
Speaker 1: Little, and it is we talked I don't know if
Speaker 1: we talked about this, but it's talked about all the time.
Speaker 1: It is so hard to win a Sunshine double, and
Speaker 1: because basically are playing two Grand Slam tournaments in a
Speaker 1: row more or less. A little bit it's a little shorter,
Speaker 1: but it's still a lot of tennis. And you hit
Speaker 1: a wall and sometimes you are lucky that you scrape by,
Speaker 1: and then for semis and finals you are there again.
Speaker 3: But oftentimes you hit a quarter.
Speaker 1: Yes, you hit a wall in quarters there like fourth
Speaker 1: or last sixteen quarters, you hit a wall. And if
Speaker 1: you're not lucky with the drawn, you play somebody that's
Speaker 1: on fire, like Ega played with Alexandrova or Coco played
Speaker 1: with Garcia, you will be out.
Speaker 3: And that's the problem.
Speaker 1: If you overcome these somehow luckily, then of course for
Speaker 1: semis and finals you'll be there, and you're the.
Speaker 2: Better player in most times. Ega is the better player
Speaker 2: in those semis and finals. Right, But speaking of a
Speaker 2: double Sunshine double, Alcaraz who looked unbelievable, but the courts
Speaker 2: suit Alcaraz and eager in Palm Springs so much because
Speaker 2: of the grittiness of the court. Then you go to Miami.
Speaker 2: It's faster, the balls are different, it's humid, it's it's
Speaker 2: just very different commission conditions. And like Lindsay Davenport just
Speaker 2: won Indian well so many times because she's from California,
Speaker 2: she used those conditions, could never do well in Miami.
Speaker 2: Same thing. So but Alcaraz, I mean, Greg God, Demetrov,
Speaker 2: how happy are we for that guy? I mean, he
Speaker 2: played unbelievable. He played so good against Alcarez. It was
Speaker 2: like just.
Speaker 1: Against against against That was even crazier to me because
Speaker 1: of the he had lost the last seven matches against Veref,
Speaker 1: So that was even crazier to me than the Alkoraz thing.
Speaker 2: There's a little bit of stuff there with them.
Speaker 1: Well, and and di Mitev said it against al Karaz,
Speaker 1: he kind of had no choice. It was like, I'm
Speaker 1: playing right now at this moment, you India, Well, so
Speaker 1: I played the most inforum player here. I have to
Speaker 1: do something special and it forced him but to do
Speaker 1: it again.
Speaker 2: A day later he lost the second set against Verev.
Speaker 1: Yes, and he choked in that second set, well, he
Speaker 1: had five to four, he was six four five four
Speaker 1: love thirty and he missed two four hands in the
Speaker 1: bottom of a net.
Speaker 3: I'm sorry, that's a choke.
Speaker 1: And you can say that now because he managed to
Speaker 1: win the third set and he didn't choke even a
Speaker 1: little bit.
Speaker 3: But he choked in that second set.
Speaker 2: He choked those points and he played a very tectically
Speaker 2: tactically terrible yeh tiebreak. And I don't know what happened,
Speaker 2: but all of a sudden he started playing every ball
Speaker 2: to the back end of Zev and he has the
Speaker 2: ability with a slice back end. He has the ability
Speaker 2: to hit the slice down the line. So as somebody
Speaker 2: who hit a slice a lot when I played, if
Speaker 2: you hit hard to my slice, I could slice it
Speaker 2: to my one handed backhand. It's very hard to run
Speaker 2: over there and hit that one hand back and against
Speaker 2: a two hander when they were like dominating you on
Speaker 2: that side. But the ability to be able to hit
Speaker 2: a slice back in like an ash party and just
Speaker 2: go book and hit slice down the line, then you're like,
Speaker 2: where did they go? They run over? Zverev's like six
Speaker 2: foot six to run over on his weaker side, He's
Speaker 2: always going to hit that back cross court to Grigor's
Speaker 2: best shot. It's like, why isn't he doing that? All
Speaker 2: of a sudden, He's like China slice back cross court,
Speaker 2: cross court again. I'm like, oh my god, you're going
Speaker 2: to his best shot. And then Zverev just controlled every
Speaker 2: single point in the backhand, and then in the third
Speaker 2: set he just played smarter again, played played the forehand.
Speaker 2: Oh my god. The break point where the ball hit
Speaker 2: the tape when he came into the net and he
Speaker 2: fell down and he made that on that is one
Speaker 2: of the shots of the year. To break it would
Speaker 2: be one thing if it was like fifteen or whatever,
Speaker 2: because listen, I've had balls come off the net and
Speaker 2: you know, I mean I made money from hitting reflexes
Speaker 2: at the net. So for me, it wasn't like, oh
Speaker 2: my god, but trust me, I was on the ground
Speaker 2: on that one because the import of that point when
Speaker 2: it hit the tape and he fell on the ground
Speaker 2: to make the shot, it was that was one of
Speaker 2: the shots.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean there were so many things adjacent
Speaker 1: to it that you don't see when you just see
Speaker 1: the shot. It was the first time in two hundred
Speaker 1: and sixty weeks that he was back in the top ten.
Speaker 1: It was the first time in eight years or whatever
Speaker 1: that he beat two top five player back to back.
Speaker 1: It was the first time in five thousand years that
Speaker 1: he made a Master's one thousand finals, and so there
Speaker 1: were so many things on the line and that moment,
Speaker 1: so it's not just the ball hits the tape goes
Speaker 1: up and you're reacting to it. It's like, if I
Speaker 1: make this, I'm winning the smash and all this like
Speaker 1: red tail comes with it of it out.
Speaker 3: Yeah, so incredible, well.
Speaker 2: Like so calm, so great. I'm so happy for this year.
Speaker 1: He was serving so well because his second serve is
Speaker 1: kind of shite, and he was serving really well, and
Speaker 1: he had a few, very very few where you could
Speaker 1: tell the old second serve was coming out where he
Speaker 1: just puts it in. It was like sixty eight miles
Speaker 1: an hour, and I was like, I can run faster
Speaker 1: than that. But but generally speaking, ninety five percent of
Speaker 1: the tournament, Grigo was serving so well. And not only
Speaker 1: he doesn't have he has a great serve, but he's
Speaker 1: not the fastest serve on tour, but his spots that's
Speaker 1: the almost like Roger Federer's.
Speaker 2: And that's the difference. And that's the difference. We've talked
Speaker 2: about it before we talked about al Choraz. Jim Coreers
Speaker 2: said that, you know, Alcaraz's biggest like downfall is the
Speaker 2: fact that he doesn't spot serve as well as the
Speaker 2: top guys, like you know obviously how Roger served, how
Speaker 2: Sinner is serving now, how you know all the big
Speaker 2: service is Vera. When he hits his first servey in,
Speaker 2: it's like it's spot serving, it's so good, whereas Alcaraz
Speaker 2: is about a foot from the sideline, whereas these guys
Speaker 2: are serving one inch.
Speaker 1: From the side.
Speaker 2: And Gregor that's where Greg got. But also I feel
Speaker 2: like Grigor's changed his forehand a little bit. And I
Speaker 2: give Jamie Delgado, his coach, a lot of credit because
Speaker 2: they've been together now for a couple of years and
Speaker 2: Jamie sort of oscillated between Andy Mut and Grigor and
Speaker 2: then so Jamie's with him all the time now, and
Speaker 2: I just give him a lot of credit. And he
Speaker 2: looks to me like he's changed something a little bit
Speaker 2: on his forehand, and as good as his forehand before was.
Speaker 2: I feel like there's something with the take back that
Speaker 2: looks a little bit different. And I think he's just
Speaker 2: playing with so much confidence now and I love it.
Speaker 2: And he comes into the net as much as anybody,
Speaker 2: and he's so good and he's fast, and he just
Speaker 2: understands how to move forward and I am here for
Speaker 2: it and.
Speaker 1: I love him. The biggest difference that it is to
Speaker 1: him when he's playing well and not well. And I've
Speaker 1: always said it when people come up to me like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, do you know Grigor Dimitrov, He's like
Speaker 1: baby Federer? And I was like, yeah, with the difference
Speaker 1: that Roger plays on the line and Grigor plays twenty
Speaker 1: feet behind the line. He looks like he plays like Federer,
Speaker 1: but it's like Federer.
Speaker 2: And also the serve, Yes, but he used to go
Speaker 2: in because I went, it's funny that you said that,
Speaker 2: but I went one time at the Austrain Open. I
Speaker 2: sat side on the baseline right so right where the
Speaker 2: tournament director sits, there where Craig Tyler sits. I sat
Speaker 2: there one time to watch him play, and I'm like,
Speaker 2: and I think he played Roger. So I was like,
Speaker 2: what is the difference between these guys serfs? Because they
Speaker 2: do similar action, like the whole thing, and I was like, oh,
Speaker 2: it's so obvious. Roger would land first and second serve
Speaker 2: about I would say, a good two to three feet
Speaker 2: inside the baseline. So when he's hitting his serf, heat
Speaker 2: is going for it, and he is, you know, the
Speaker 2: confidence that he has to get inside the baseline and
Speaker 2: stay there and then maybe get back. You could see it.
Speaker 2: And then as Grigor was serving, particularly the second serve,
Speaker 2: even the first serve, he would go up and hit
Speaker 2: the serve and as he came down he was landing
Speaker 2: on the baseline, on the baseline or maybe an inch
Speaker 2: inside the baseline. I'm like you, that is terrible. You
Speaker 2: have got to be inside the baseline hitting your serfs.
Speaker 2: Look at all the great serfs. Look where Arena would
Speaker 2: finish inside the baseline. He was going It was almost
Speaker 2: like he was going up hitting and coming down and
Speaker 2: going backwards.
Speaker 3: Yes, but I know why.
Speaker 1: You know why, because he was afraid to take the
Speaker 1: balls on the rise. He needs time, and that's why
Speaker 1: he would revert back and be trying. Yes, and because
Speaker 1: he's so fast he could get away with it. Now
Speaker 1: he's not Roger playing on the line, but he's playing
Speaker 1: many more shots closer to the line, and he tries
Speaker 1: to take them on the rise, and it looks like
Speaker 1: they've been working on it. He's quick up to the
Speaker 1: short balls. That's why it's also easier for him to
Speaker 1: come to the net because yes, so he has really
Speaker 1: I think the main difference in Grigo's game from when
Speaker 1: he's not playing well to now when he's playing really
Speaker 1: well is he's much closer to the baseline. He takes
Speaker 1: many balls on the rise, and so.
Speaker 2: And he comes in and you know what it is,
Speaker 2: He's finally using his speed in the right way, which
Speaker 2: is forward, not parallel. And so I decide twenty feet
Speaker 2: behind the baseline and just going, look, I'm really fast.
Speaker 2: I'm gonna run this down because he's not that guy. Look,
Speaker 2: it's one thing for Rafa or Medvedev to be twenty
Speaker 2: feet behind the baseline because they're counter punching.
Speaker 1: And then they step up on the bank and they
Speaker 1: don't have a one handed back and they don't have one.
Speaker 1: I mean, you had a one handed back in the
Speaker 1: fertile back you stage. Yeah, it is for your backhand,
Speaker 1: yeah for sure. Yeah, show your slice. If you try
Speaker 1: to hit a slice and you can't get him twenty
Speaker 1: feet behind the back. You have to float it and
Speaker 1: if it floats, the guys will kill it. But now
Speaker 1: he's taking it on the rise. He's taking the speed
Speaker 1: of the opponent, and he's like Stefie Grafted or Roger
Speaker 1: Best example, he's like fucking slicing it. He's not floating it,
Speaker 1: he's slicing it. And now even the guys who have
Speaker 1: good hands, they're like, oh, I have to go really
Speaker 1: underneath it, and you would see them four hands slice
Speaker 1: it back because it's so sharp. The way he hits it.
Speaker 1: It's just jeff it, yeah it. But he's really improved,
Speaker 1: like tremendously. It's not like one two aspects. They are
Speaker 1: like four aspects in his game, from serf to positioning
Speaker 1: to slicing to fourhand and all of that helps him
Speaker 1: organically come to the net more often where he was
Speaker 1: always good. And the combination of that is why he's
Speaker 1: deservedly in the top ten again and if he can
Speaker 1: continue this way, will be a contender at the biggest
Speaker 1: tournaments every single time. You do not want to have
Speaker 1: him in your drop absolutely.
Speaker 2: I think the key is because he's being a little
Speaker 2: bit more aggressive with his where he's standing on the
Speaker 2: baseline and how he's playing is that it's allowing him
Speaker 2: when he tries to get into the net and get
Speaker 2: these guys who are out of position, He's able to
Speaker 2: take three steps, maybe four, and be in a really
Speaker 2: good position at the net, whereas before he would have
Speaker 2: to take six steps because he was so far behind
Speaker 2: the court and try and hustle his way into the net,
Speaker 2: and these guys would pass him. I was a fuck,
Speaker 2: can't I can't keep coming in? Yeah you can, but
Speaker 2: you've got to start here, not way back there. So
Speaker 2: I think that's the difference, just his position in the court,
Speaker 2: he's hitting his back end. I think he's absolutely physically
Speaker 2: stronger than he was going through that long COVID situation,
Speaker 2: which we talked about already on the pod. So I
Speaker 2: think everything is falling into place perfectly for him, and
Speaker 2: I would love to see him make a Grand Slam final.
Speaker 2: I would love to see him have that opportunity again.
Speaker 2: Do I think he can beat the Sinners and Alcorazm's
Speaker 2: and Grand Flam Final over best of five? I don't know.
Speaker 2: I don't want to ever say no against anyone, because
Speaker 2: lightning in a bottle could happen. But I just love
Speaker 2: to see him make another Master's one tho thousand final
Speaker 2: because he deserved it so much this tournament. But my god,
Speaker 2: best player in the world right now. I know alcaaz
Speaker 2: one in Indian Wells, but I think there was something
Speaker 2: going on with Sinner a little bit in the final.
Speaker 2: And I also think that court is perfect for him.
Speaker 2: For alcoraz in Indian Wells, I think this court is
Speaker 2: more indicative of the US Open. I think Sinner is
Speaker 2: the absolute favorite to win the US Open and Wimbledon,
Speaker 2: and possibly at Wimbledon. I actually think the US Open
Speaker 2: maybe even faster than Wimbledon believed because the grass is
Speaker 2: so slow now and hard underneath, so it bounces high.
Speaker 2: But my god, Yanick Sinner, I mean he smoked Medvedev.
Speaker 2: I know Medvedev was tired because guess what, everybody, Yes,
Speaker 2: I love that you keep tweeting as this shitty draw
Speaker 2: once again. He is second on like almost every match.
Speaker 2: I think when he plays in the day now, he
Speaker 2: must be like, what's that up there? Oh, that's the sun,
Speaker 2: because the guy plays late every time, which doesn't help
Speaker 2: him when it comes down to playing the Yanick Sinners
Speaker 2: of the world or the alcaraz Is in the seventies
Speaker 2: and finals, but he gets a shitty schedule every time.
Speaker 2: But he got smoked smoked, I mean by Sinner and
Speaker 2: then Sinner smokes Grigot in the final. The guy is
Speaker 2: playing unbelievable and you cannot have a nicer guy winning matches.
Speaker 2: We're so lucky in tennis with these players we are.
Speaker 1: We are so I Yanick Sinner first of all, Swaggy Sinner,
Speaker 1: He's gotten a little swag to him.
Speaker 3: Good for him. Like I supported.
Speaker 2: Yannick Centronet Center, I fully.
Speaker 1: Support Swaggy Cinner. And the reason for that is a
Speaker 1: boy has become a man, and a man is now
Speaker 1: dominating the tennis world and the man's name is Swaggy
Speaker 1: Sinner and I'm here for it. So that's one number one.
Speaker 1: The other thing I will say is coaching matters.
Speaker 3: Darren K. Hill is a great coach.
Speaker 1: The reason why I say this I called the match
Speaker 1: against Greek Spor, who was playing absurd tennis. Yanick was
Speaker 1: not doing many things wrong. It was just that one
Speaker 1: day and gree Greek Sport can play. He has big serve,
Speaker 1: he can come to the net, he has a huge forehand.
Speaker 1: He was not missing his backhand. He has like he
Speaker 1: doesn't care. You can tell he's already put Novak one
Speaker 1: time to the brink of a loss at the Paris
Speaker 1: one thousand Masters indoors, so he knows how to play
Speaker 1: the big players. And he came out there and his
Speaker 1: backhand is weaker, and Yanick was attacking the back end,
Speaker 1: but it was not breaking down. He was just holding
Speaker 1: fast a set and a half and the rain came.
Speaker 3: He walked off.
Speaker 1: Until then Greek Sport had won eighty six percent of
Speaker 1: first and second serfs. He was serving out of the
Speaker 1: out of his ass, to be honest, and they come
Speaker 1: back and all of the sudden it drops to fifty percent.
Speaker 1: I'm like, hmm, I wonder why. I see Darren k
Speaker 1: Hill the next day and I'm like, Darren, did you
Speaker 1: tell Janick to cover the white surf and then? And
Speaker 1: Darren was like yes, but he got aced twice down
Speaker 1: the middle. I was like, huh, that's okay because we
Speaker 1: have the stats and I showed him.
Speaker 3: And he was like, oh my god. Yes.
Speaker 1: And so even though Jannick got aged twice down the
Speaker 1: tee because he was covering the sly serf. More it
Speaker 1: changed the complete out come of the match and him
Speaker 1: having the trust in Darren k Hill number one be
Speaker 1: being able to execute it, because that's a whole different story.
Speaker 1: You can I can cover whatever I want. If Greek
Speaker 1: Spore hits a serve at me, I can stand there.
Speaker 1: I won't return it, you know. So it matters to
Speaker 1: be able to execute number two and number three. He
Speaker 1: remained calm. He recognized and this is what I always
Speaker 1: tell people when you are losing, there is one single assessment.
Speaker 1: You have to make one single assessment. Am I doing
Speaker 1: something wrong? If the answer is no, wait for it,
Speaker 1: wait it out? Or is the other one And that's
Speaker 1: the second assessment. Is the other one playing really really well?
Speaker 1: And I have to accept it and continue to do
Speaker 1: my thing and hope that it ends. And that's what
Speaker 1: Yanick did. He waited it out and it broke down
Speaker 1: and Yanick won six to one in the third and
Speaker 1: after that I was like, this guy's winning the tournament
Speaker 1: Swedish center, or.
Speaker 2: Am I standing too close to the baseline on return?
Speaker 2: If my name is Caroline Gusia, So you're right, and
Speaker 2: you said it in the commentary. Actually when he was
Speaker 2: playing Greek School because I was watching that much, and
Speaker 2: you said sometimes you just have to wait it out
Speaker 2: when you're playing again. It's one thing if you're playing
Speaker 2: against Novak, yes, of course, and he's killing you because
Speaker 2: he's hitting the service spots. You can't get a free
Speaker 2: point on return because he's never missing one, and blah
Speaker 2: blah blah.
Speaker 1: Well that's the first assessment. Am I doing something wrong?
Speaker 1: As like am I tactically maybe? Like, first of all,
Speaker 1: am I just playing bad? And you can't do anything
Speaker 1: except for try better? But am I doing tactically something wrong?
Speaker 1: And if the answer is no, this is the match
Speaker 1: panere you prepared. I know this is his weakness and
Speaker 1: it's just not weakening today, then you have to continue
Speaker 1: and wait it out.
Speaker 2: And you'll hear coaches often say I've said this many times.
Speaker 2: I'm sure you said it many times to yourself in
Speaker 2: your own head. It's just like you yell to your player, just.
Speaker 3: She can't keep it up.
Speaker 1: That's like so many times my coach told me, like
Speaker 1: she can't keep it playing out of her ass ye.
Speaker 2: Like if someone said, you know, if you know that
Speaker 2: this person hits her forehand, cross caught you know eighty
Speaker 2: five percent of the time every single match, and then
Speaker 2: all of a sudden she's hitting seventy percent down the
Speaker 2: line off the forehand and she's making every one of them,
Speaker 2: and you're like, what the fuck. She's like, don't worry
Speaker 2: under pressure, and that's the key. Under pressure, they will
Speaker 2: always do what they always do, and that's the bottom line.
Speaker 2: And if they don't, that's what you say.
Speaker 1: Two go.
Speaker 2: And sometimes as a coach, Darren will understand this, when
Speaker 2: he got Ace twice down the tee, you go, too good,
Speaker 2: that's too good. You made him or her hit the shot.
Speaker 2: They don't want to hit under pressure, and if they
Speaker 2: can do that, that's when you can actually as a player,
Speaker 2: believe it or not, because it sucks to lose every time,
Speaker 2: but when you know that someone has beaten you with
Speaker 2: their weakness because it was too good, that's some time
Speaker 2: you can walk away and go the fuck, that was
Speaker 2: just too good.
Speaker 1: And that happens once a year maximum, maybe twice a
Speaker 1: year dead and this is what happened to Ega against Alexandrova.
Speaker 1: That's what happened to her. Unfortunately it happened twice. This
Speaker 1: Moscova and Australian open, but that a lower ranked player
Speaker 1: or for amateurs at home, somebody that you know that
Speaker 1: you're better than normally. You know that happens once or
Speaker 1: twice a year where you're like, accept too, just you
Speaker 1: just did it. I gave you everything I could and
Speaker 1: normally it breaks down. Today it didn't. And if Yannick
Speaker 1: had lost this match, everyone would have been like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, what's happening to Janick Cinner? But every single
Speaker 1: person watch the match would have been like Greek sports man.
Speaker 3: For him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, and I said, the.
Speaker 1: Worst is he would probably have lost the next round
Speaker 1: two and three and people and Probablemic would have come.
Speaker 2: I mean, it was kind of like blink over at
Speaker 2: this straight and open, you know, played the match of
Speaker 2: her life and then lost the next day. But listen,
Speaker 2: here's the bottom line. Yanick Sinner without question is the
Speaker 2: best player in the world right now on the men's side.
Speaker 3: There he did a little look a little tired today.
Speaker 2: For sure, it's normal. He's you know, the amount of
Speaker 2: great plays he beat in a row, and he played
Speaker 2: late and yeah, so there's no question. But Yanick Sinner
Speaker 2: without question is the best player in the world currently
Speaker 2: on the men's Tour. I know Alcarez one last week,
Speaker 2: but this guy has started the year winning the Australian Open,
Speaker 2: winning you know in Europe indoors immediately afterwards, and one
Speaker 2: of the things that I know I talked to Darren
Speaker 2: about after he won the Strain Open was he was
Speaker 2: immediately saying, yep, he's playing great, it's awesome. We just
Speaker 2: have to keep him focused on the next and wanting
Speaker 2: to keep winning. And congratulations to not only Darren, but
Speaker 2: who's his other coach? I always forget his name, the Italian, Yes, exactly,
Speaker 2: see see.
Speaker 1: They twenty two, I mean twenty two and one boyfriend
Speaker 1: is twenty two and one SWEGI Center this year.
Speaker 3: That tells you all.
Speaker 2: And he lost arguably to a guy that's could possibly
Speaker 2: win ten Indian Miles titles with al Karaz and so well.
Speaker 1: And we said, we commentated on this before. The difference
Speaker 1: right now before between Carlos and Sinners when they play
Speaker 1: each other, it's a lot of form of the day
Speaker 1: plus conditions and current calls. Though Carlos still has matches
Speaker 1: where he doesn't play his best and Yannick doesn't have those.
Speaker 2: He plays great all the time.
Speaker 1: Yes, he plays great all the time, and I repeat
Speaker 1: myself against Greeks, but he also played He maybe didn't
Speaker 1: play great, but he played good.
Speaker 2: He didn't play bad. There was no there is no
Speaker 2: exactly he's bad.
Speaker 1: And Carlos still has these bad matches.
Speaker 2: And I think, and I want to go back to
Speaker 2: the women just for one second before we end this,
Speaker 2: someone like a Rebackina who's coming off injury, injuries and
Speaker 2: sicknesses and all this sort of stuff. And she didn't
Speaker 2: play great, right, She was missing her backhand quite a bit,
Speaker 2: which doesn't happen. She wasn't acing all over the place.
Speaker 2: You know she's going to be I think she's the
Speaker 2: absolute favorite to win Wimbledon. In my opinion. I think
Speaker 2: she's the player to beat there this year. So if
Speaker 2: you're going to put on an early bet from Wimbledon,
Speaker 2: I would put it on rebarking because I think she's
Speaker 2: going to be really, really tough to beat there. And
Speaker 2: I just think the women's game is so healthy right now,
Speaker 2: and the men's is being dominated essentially by two guys
Speaker 2: in al Karaz and Sinner and Novak will be back,
Speaker 2: we know that for sure.
Speaker 3: And with the split with Goran and split with Goran.
Speaker 2: I mean, Novak's had splits now with his management company
Speaker 2: as Matt two managers that the two Italian husband and
Speaker 2: wife that were his agents forever, got rid of them
Speaker 2: at the start of the year, had a new team
Speaker 2: in place. Now Goran's gone. There's definitely something tumultuous happening
Speaker 2: in Novak Djokovic's life. I don't know what's going going on.
Speaker 2: And the cryptic tweet that he put out about Goran,
Speaker 2: you know this and that, and then he would be
Speaker 2: like he might not think about that way in a bracket,
Speaker 2: like in a parenthesis, sort of like a sly little
Speaker 2: passive aggressive comment about Goran, like I was. I read
Speaker 2: that like you wanted this, But clearly Goran was not happy,
Speaker 2: because I could just just from the tweet. I don't know.
Speaker 2: I haven't spoken to anybody. I'm you know, I could
Speaker 2: be talking completely out of my ass, But there's certainly
Speaker 2: something that's going on in that camp that's very tumultuous,
Speaker 2: and I don't know what it is. You might know
Speaker 2: more than me because you're so being connections. But there's
Speaker 2: something that's certainly not going right in Novak Djokovic's world
Speaker 2: right now, and so look, he's always bounced back from stuff,
Speaker 2: but he's also not getting any younger, so it's getting tougher.
Speaker 2: And these guys are getting better Yannick Sinner al KaAZ,
Speaker 2: they're not going away, so he's gonna have to come
Speaker 2: back and be at his best. Obviously, Rafa is going
Speaker 2: to hopefully come back and play some decent tennis on
Speaker 2: the clay before he goes off into you know, Mayoca
Speaker 2: Land and Sales. The season doesn't play tennis anymore, So
Speaker 2: we've got a lot to look forward to with this
Speaker 2: clay court season coming up here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I am fucking here for it.
Speaker 2: Me too, Me too.
Speaker 1: The only thing I will say what drives me insane,
Speaker 1: especially when I do watch the Rebeckna versus Soccery matches,
Speaker 1: that these our top five women are almost never playing
Speaker 1: each other.
Speaker 2: Yeah, because they keep losing.
Speaker 1: Yes, so every time like Soccery right now, in this
Speaker 1: during the Sunshine Double, she was a top five player.
Speaker 1: She was top five before, She was number three ranked
Speaker 1: player in the world before. Like when she plays this way,
Speaker 1: she's a top five player. She was a top five player. Rebecca,
Speaker 1: now we all know, is a top five player. They
Speaker 1: play each other and it's incredible level, Coco GoF and
Speaker 1: Sablenka at the Australia.
Speaker 2: That's what you want.
Speaker 3: It's incredible.
Speaker 1: They never play each other. How is this possible? It
Speaker 1: never We've had ten tournaments this year and we had
Speaker 1: two matches with top five women played each other. How
Speaker 1: is this possible? As you said in Germany, this outburst
Speaker 1: is me as a tennis fan. This is me as
Speaker 1: a tennis fan, not as a tennis expert, not as
Speaker 1: a former tennis player, as a tennis fan, because every
Speaker 1: time I see these matches, I'm like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: I'm like, this is the best thing ever.
Speaker 2: So this is what you want before we end this pod,
Speaker 2: because it's been a long one. You want the top
Speaker 2: women playing against each other more more often, okay, because
Speaker 2: we want these great matches and we want to see
Speaker 2: Novak back playing at his best. We want to see
Speaker 2: Rafa back healthy, playing some good tennis on the clay.
Speaker 1: And we want that the Animal to keep up.
Speaker 2: Her and we want the Animal to keep it going
Speaker 2: this year because she is always fun to watch and
Speaker 2: I love it and I was here for that last
Speaker 2: game was so Daniel Collins and I was here for it.
Speaker 1: And you know, what I'm also looking forward to. We
Speaker 1: didn't talk a lot about her, but we talked a
Speaker 1: lot about her during the Indian Wells episode. I'm excited
Speaker 1: to watch Ego and Clay again because I know that
Speaker 1: some finds her boring. I mean, I don't understand it
Speaker 1: because I feel like she's similar. And Erotics said it
Speaker 1: on his last podcast. It's a great podcast, by the way, Surf,
Speaker 1: not that you go away from us. You can listen
Speaker 1: to two podcasts at the same time.
Speaker 2: But but I mean, we're both profession we're all professionals.
Speaker 2: Really should.
Speaker 1: But he said it, really, he said it fantastically about Novak.
Speaker 1: Djokovic was explaining his game, like how it feels to
Speaker 1: play him and what he does and why it's so
Speaker 1: tough to play him, and he was saying that the
Speaker 1: way he plays doesn't maybe his genius doesn't maybe fully
Speaker 1: present itself to an untrained eye, but to a trained eye,
Speaker 1: to somebody who has played on this level, it's like,
Speaker 1: what this guy is doing is incredible. And Ega to
Speaker 1: me is similar in that regarded to an untrained eye,
Speaker 1: people will be like, she's the best in the world.
Speaker 1: But if you've played before, you're like motherfucker. Is she
Speaker 1: good and Clay is just her best. And so I'm
Speaker 1: excited to see her on Clay again because it's just
Speaker 1: when I watch her, I get actually goosebumps. Now I'm like,
Speaker 1: this is what I wished I could do. Yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: this is what I wish I could do, like the
Speaker 1: forehands from the center of the core, open flattism, just
Speaker 1: the like I'm excited for that to get.
Speaker 2: She does have to, I think, keep working on the surf.
Speaker 2: That's the one thing we talked about the life that
Speaker 2: you know, she's got to have to me, She's got
Speaker 2: to take away that pause in between the take back
Speaker 2: the TakeBack.
Speaker 1: Can she hire you just for service.
Speaker 2: Maybe just for sake eager.
Speaker 1: Not for service in a sense that you service herce
Speaker 1: tea in the border.
Speaker 2: But I would love to just help that service motion,
Speaker 2: There's no question about it. But I am available, eager.
Speaker 2: I know Daria listens to the podcast. She's actually quite
Speaker 2: a long listener to our podcast Sports Psychologists, So so
Speaker 2: I am available. I'm available for servs and volleys for anybody,
Speaker 2: you know, just throwing that out there. All right, guys,
Speaker 2: thank you so much for listening to our podcast. It
Speaker 2: was a long one, but we've had two or three
Speaker 2: four great weeks of tennis. The Sunshine Double is over.
Speaker 2: Congratulations to Danielle Collins and of course Yannick Sinner, well done.
Speaker 2: You're You're just two of my favorite people, so it
Speaker 2: was great to see you win. And also daniel Collins
Speaker 2: has been mentoring three young tennis players. And it's just
Speaker 2: little things like that that you don't know about Danielle.
Speaker 2: You kind of look at her. You either love her
Speaker 2: or you hate her. But I hope you love her
Speaker 2: because she's worth loving.
Speaker 1: And so is Yanick Sinner, Danielle the Animal and Yannick
Speaker 1: Swergish Sinner.
Speaker 2: And nobody has a tattoo inside their lip like Danielle
Speaker 2: Collins does.
Speaker 3: I didn't know that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, my god, I have savage. She's a savage. She's
Speaker 1: an akon and a savage.
Speaker 3: Yeh.
Speaker 2: We love her, So congrats to both. All right, guys,
Speaker 2: we will see you on the clay courts. We can't
Speaker 2: wait for it. Of course, Peko can't wait to see
Speaker 2: Eager crushing in on the clay as well. So everybody,
Speaker 2: thanks for listening to us again, and you'll hear from
Speaker 2: us real soon. Somewhere bye bye
Speaker 1: Fet