Speaker 1: Okay. Wow, I'm thankful that we didn't get what Caitlin
Speaker 1: just said on the podcast slightly well you would have
Speaker 1: edited out anyway. Hi everyone, Welcome to the Renee Stubs
Speaker 1: Tennis Podcast. It is Wow, what a week of tennis.
Speaker 1: We had what well ten days. We had a blackout,
Speaker 1: We've already talked about that. We had some surprises, we
Speaker 1: had some WTF moments. Wow, Yeah, we had some crazy,
Speaker 1: crazy time. So let's get into it. Let's talk a
Speaker 1: little bit about Let's start with the Let's start with
Speaker 1: the men, or should we start with the ladies.
Speaker 2: We have so much to say about the ladies. Usually
Speaker 2: let's leave them.
Speaker 1: Oh you want to just table the men's No, no.
Speaker 3: No, let's leave the women's for a rare instance of
Speaker 3: us prioritizing the men and talk about the men. Okay,
Speaker 3: which was such a fun and unexpected final. Yeah, for
Speaker 3: two reasons.
Speaker 1: Number one, Alchoriz wasn't there.
Speaker 3: Alchoriz wasn't in it, which, yes, probably him and Sinner
Speaker 3: not being in the draw after you know, Alcrest pulled
Speaker 3: out and obviously Sinner's making has come back this.
Speaker 1: Week in win a match.
Speaker 2: Novak is at Sea.
Speaker 3: Yeah, and we had two unexpected finalists in the form
Speaker 3: of Jack Draper, who is really exciting and I can't
Speaker 3: wait to talk about.
Speaker 2: And also casperud who a couple of.
Speaker 3: Years ago would not have been a surprise surprise finalist,
Speaker 3: but this year has struggled, struggled and has really for
Speaker 3: the last like two years or so, struggled to talk
Speaker 3: about his own mental health struggles, which I think, you know, again,
Speaker 3: as we say often on this pod, like good on you,
Speaker 3: good on you, thank you for talking.
Speaker 2: About that sort of stuff.
Speaker 3: It is useful to obviously understand, and I think it
Speaker 3: does change the dynamic around the athletes. But yeah, Casper Rude,
Speaker 3: like exciting to see him back at the top at
Speaker 3: least especially you know of the clay court season in
Speaker 3: this Madrid final. What did you make of the men's
Speaker 3: draw in total to get these two.
Speaker 1: Finalists, Yeah, I think what was is someone like Jack Draper,
Speaker 1: for example, who has already won a Masters one thousand.
Speaker 1: So when you think about that, that in and of itself,
Speaker 1: you've got Jack's you know, one thousand already this year.
Speaker 1: He's so young, and then you look down the other end,
Speaker 1: like Kaspar Rude, who's made two Roland Garris finals and
Speaker 1: and yet has never won a Masters one thousand, which
Speaker 1: is kind of crazy when you think about.
Speaker 2: You mean two rolling finals and he has open finals.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2: He has been to the highest level of the end,
Speaker 2: but he's never won a Master's one.
Speaker 1: Thousand, never won a Masters one thousand, So you think, well, what,
Speaker 1: what the hell, dude. But it also makes you realize,
Speaker 1: like how special it is to win a Master's one thousand.
Speaker 1: And you think about the greats like Novak and Roger
Speaker 1: and Rafa and how many Masters one thousands they want
Speaker 1: throughout their career. It's not easy to do. So look, clearly,
Speaker 1: our Karaz is not there, sin Theer's not there. That
Speaker 1: helps not gonna lie. I mean, these guys are the
Speaker 1: dominant two figures on the men's tour of the last
Speaker 1: couple of years. But it was really nice to see.
Speaker 1: I mean, he obviously like battled his way through to
Speaker 1: the final, and a lot of it is mental, you know,
Speaker 1: a lot of it is lot he'd lost a little
Speaker 1: bit of his Like I don't know, when you lose
Speaker 1: your confidence, it's really hard to get it back. And
Speaker 1: I have to say this, I loved that he put
Speaker 1: out that message on Twitter to eager Yeah.
Speaker 2: Agree.
Speaker 1: I thought that was so classy of him to say, listen,
Speaker 1: you know, I love watching you play and like, you know,
Speaker 1: everything's going to be okay kind of thing, because he
Speaker 1: probably felt the same way over the last twelve months
Speaker 1: is that, you know, everyone was talking about him not
Speaker 1: being good anymore and he's outside of the top ten
Speaker 1: and you know he's only a clay guy and blah
Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah. So you know all these players
Speaker 1: that you think are you know, not human because they
Speaker 1: don't take all of this on. It's not true. They
Speaker 1: take all of it on. And you know, you say, well,
Speaker 1: don't look at social media. Well, okay, you don't necessarily
Speaker 1: have to look at social media. It's pretty easy to
Speaker 1: fucking pick up on shit that's being said, either on
Speaker 1: that tour or around the.
Speaker 3: World because the press tends to follow it up where
Speaker 3: it'll be a narrative that becomes self reinforcing, which is like, yeah,
Speaker 3: you know, even if you're not on social media, if
Speaker 3: you're you're not trying to listen to the critics and
Speaker 3: you're trying to stay in your positive bubble, you'll get
Speaker 3: asked a question, like, hey, exactly, you know, Naomi Osaka,
Speaker 3: we you know this is your worst surface. Everyone's talking
Speaker 3: about it on Twitter, and it's like, well, that's a
Speaker 3: press conference, Like is that a nice or responsible thing
Speaker 3: to do to sort of confront a player that way?
Speaker 2: I would argue not. I'm not sure that's really journalism either.
Speaker 3: So I think you can't help but be in the moment,
Speaker 3: and obviously we'll talk to the circumstances that inspired Casper
Speaker 3: Rud's tweet to send to Egosh Fiantek in her pretty
Speaker 3: one sided loss to Coco when we talk about the
Speaker 3: women later, But yeah, wof, But Casper Rude, like, you know,
Speaker 3: he doesn't have a massive, massive arsenal of weapons, so
Speaker 3: he really does have to rely on like confidence four
Speaker 3: and his forehand was big this weekend. I was actually
Speaker 3: gonna sort of mention the fact that he looks like
Speaker 3: he was a little bit more of an offensive version
Speaker 3: of himself than somebody I was used to watching, even
Speaker 3: a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2: Maybe that's just.
Speaker 3: Me because I forgot what he's played like, but it
Speaker 3: also felt like he was taking the initiative a little
Speaker 3: bit more, which against a player like Dreeper who does
Speaker 3: you know, his massive size and he has a big
Speaker 3: arsenal himself. Like you, I felt really happy that Casper
Speaker 3: rud was taking the initiative and was a very aggressive
Speaker 3: player at that final. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I mean one of the things that I noted, you know,
Speaker 1: when I was watching the match, because sometimes I don't
Speaker 1: watch them, and I watched them back later on. I
Speaker 1: watched both of those matches live, and I have to say,
Speaker 1: like when I was watching the match, look, he started slowly,
Speaker 1: clearly got broken early in the first set, and then
Speaker 1: you know, he managed to I think Jack got a
Speaker 1: little bit tight towards the end of that first set,
Speaker 1: and then it was interesting after the first set when
Speaker 1: Jack and I put it out on the socials, when
Speaker 1: Jack was like, I'm done, I'm dead. You know, he
Speaker 1: was so pissed off at himself after losing that first set,
Speaker 1: which is never a great sign when you're basically yelling
Speaker 1: out that I'm dead, Like you don't want to say
Speaker 1: that to someone like Casper who's going to grind you down.
Speaker 1: But at the same at the same time, he was
Speaker 1: letting out frustration. But I think it's a it's probably
Speaker 1: a it's probably something that his coaches or people will
Speaker 1: tell him, and you don't see it on network television
Speaker 1: because if you're watching the network, it's on the commercial. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So you don't see him unless they talk about it
Speaker 1: after right, unless they say, oh well actually, and somebody
Speaker 1: who works in television you can say to you. I
Speaker 1: can say to my producer, hey, can you show him
Speaker 1: on the changeover? It's talking like that.
Speaker 3: And I just want to call that up because I
Speaker 3: so much wish that they would say that a lot
Speaker 3: of times if I'm watching a match live, meaning like
Speaker 3: I'm there, or if I'm watching it on the World Feed.
Speaker 1: Were you watching on the world feed or were you
Speaker 1: watching on network?
Speaker 2: I only watch on the.
Speaker 1: World Okay, So it'd be interesting for our listeners out
Speaker 1: there who were watching it on the network. And one
Speaker 1: of the reasons I'm not watching it on the networks
Speaker 1: because for some reason, my fucking tennis channel on Spectrum
Speaker 1: here in New York does not work. Like it just
Speaker 1: does not work. It's either it's either pixelating or not
Speaker 1: working or it's frozen. Interesting, So I have to go
Speaker 1: onto my tennis channel app onto my television to watch it.
Speaker 2: I only watch on the app.
Speaker 1: Yeah, watch a network but often I do prefer something.
Speaker 3: I will say the Tennis Channel, who interestingly, they just
Speaker 3: got a new CEO, which I shall portend interesting things
Speaker 3: hopefully for the network.
Speaker 2: But I think on the whole the app has.
Speaker 3: Been a really really great experience, and the app has
Speaker 3: gotten a ton better, and the app has been stable.
Speaker 3: And so you know, we are the first to criticize certainly, yeah,
Speaker 3: certainly the first anything the WCA, certainly, you know, the ATP,
Speaker 3: A lot of this stuff, you know, the PTPAS sort
Speaker 3: of maybe well intentioned but baffling lawsuits, you know, like
Speaker 3: it's just you know, I think, if if anything, you
Speaker 3: can kind of just to be honest.
Speaker 2: And so for me, I do have to say.
Speaker 3: The Tennis Yonal app itself has gotten a ton better.
Speaker 3: But you're right, I watch it on the world feet
Speaker 3: and I just don't want to bring that up because
Speaker 3: so much of what makes watching tennis interesting is not
Speaker 3: just the point play, it's the context. Are screaming at
Speaker 3: their box or they did they smash eighteen rackets on
Speaker 3: the changeover? Did they have a lengthy monologue? Did they
Speaker 3: have a dialogue like Bubliic did with Muhammed.
Speaker 1: That was just hilarious it was hilarious. It was public
Speaker 1: who this year was this year? When he's like, hey,
Speaker 1: Mohammed Remo used to get to the cortus. It was
Speaker 1: so easy.
Speaker 3: You're like, the men's tennis depth is great, what a
Speaker 3: great insightful you know.
Speaker 2: Muhammedlanda is just like all right, but sure.
Speaker 3: Whatever, But like, there's so much interesting stuff that tells
Speaker 3: you about the players, their mindset, maybe what's happening the
Speaker 3: dynamic in the match.
Speaker 1: It's better to watch it on the app.
Speaker 3: And not only is a better watch on the app,
Speaker 3: but I think if you are a network broadcaster taking
Speaker 3: a minute to do what you just said, which is like, hey,
Speaker 3: have this teed up for when we go back from
Speaker 3: a commercial, because I want to talk about a little
Speaker 3: bit more because there's something interesting to unpack here.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well listen. I mean that's one of the things
Speaker 1: that I I really try and do when I commentate,
Speaker 1: and in general, I'm very perceptive of what's happening on
Speaker 1: the court because little things like that do tell a
Speaker 1: story that you don't now imagine if you came back
Speaker 1: and just started playing the match again and showed none
Speaker 1: of that of what Jack Draper did on the Chaine.
Speaker 3: Out and then if Jack Draper loses eight points in
Speaker 3: a row by netting it in the bottom, you're.
Speaker 1: Like what, well, yeah, you're like, wow, how did that happen?
Speaker 1: You're like, well, let me show you. So I think
Speaker 1: that's also another thing about being court sided, Like as
Speaker 1: a court side commentator, I'm very aware that's the things
Speaker 1: that I'm told as a court side commentator is al, wait,
Speaker 1: we can't necessarily see things all the time in the booth.
Speaker 1: But that's also another thing about being on site, right,
Speaker 1: is that you you know, often when you're calling a match,
Speaker 1: you can see the player from the booth and you
Speaker 1: can see things happening if you're caught side, But if
Speaker 1: you're in a booth stuck in Santa Monica, which Tennis
Speaker 1: Channel are most of the time you're in a booth,
Speaker 1: you're not seeing that. So you don't even know that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: So it would have been interesting to see if they
Speaker 1: even picked up on that on Tennis Channel in general.
Speaker 3: Yeah, as a post the World Feet, I was gonna
Speaker 3: say one of my favorite Renee subs is is the
Speaker 3: court side renee stubs. I mean, I know they like
Speaker 3: to use you in the booth and at the desk
Speaker 3: a lot because you're so good at it, but like
Speaker 3: the court side renee stubs.
Speaker 2: Is the is for me the most fun because you're
Speaker 2: always like leaning close to the microphone and like it
Speaker 2: gets the like I'm always feeling lean too close.
Speaker 3: No, but I feel like I'm getting some kind of
Speaker 3: like insider information because you're like, well, here I am
Speaker 3: down to and I just heard this screaming from the box.
Speaker 3: You know, Like it really adds to the experience as
Speaker 3: a spectator, which is like, oh, I'm here with somebody
Speaker 3: and it's almost like I'm there.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: I think the one thing I wasn't planning on talking
Speaker 3: about this but I was really excited to see it
Speaker 3: is during the Lorenzo Mussetti Jack Draper semifinal, which Lorenzo
Speaker 3: Mussetti man because we'll just talk about his amazing album.
Speaker 1: Can we just talk about that? Could be the you know,
Speaker 1: likelihood of the best looking match on what's a lot
Speaker 1: of good listen coming from you and me? True, Like
Speaker 1: there's a lot of good looking man out there. I mean,
Speaker 1: arguably you've got Rude who's a very good looking guy,
Speaker 1: him back oat Mill Stallion and you know Jack Drap Baumasetti.
Speaker 1: I mean good looking fellas it's to say.
Speaker 3: Lorenzo Messeeti, especially because he was wearing that EPC ESX kid.
Speaker 3: Much controversial feedback has that kid received, But for me
Speaker 3: is any plus?
Speaker 1: You like him with the shorter hair.
Speaker 2: I like him with the shorter hair, and I like
Speaker 2: him with the shorter shorts.
Speaker 1: Oh see, the whole thing was you know how I
Speaker 1: felt about the shorter shorts. Yes, I've been asking for
Speaker 1: the shorter shorts forever and a day because I want
Speaker 1: to see the guy's cords. Because I want people to
Speaker 1: understand how strong they are in the legs because their
Speaker 1: upper body. Most tennis players will not be strong with
Speaker 1: the bodies he rexes up. Yeah, because you have to
Speaker 1: have flexibility and all the things. But you don't want
Speaker 1: to be too heavy up top because you're running a lot.
Speaker 1: But but going back to the.
Speaker 3: Match, wait wa wait, But the reason I brought up
Speaker 3: to Lorenzo Messeeti jack daper match was not to talk
Speaker 3: about their legs or how good looking they were. It
Speaker 3: is that Tennis TV, which is a subsidiary of ATP channel,
Speaker 3: had for a minute and was sharing on their social
Speaker 3: media a camera angle that went not only behind Jack
Speaker 3: Draper or learn Zubi SETI court side so you could
Speaker 3: see the ball, but it also tracked sideways to watch
Speaker 3: the point as it unfolded. The speed, the spin, the movement,
Speaker 3: the dynamics.
Speaker 2: Like it was great.
Speaker 3: And I think tools like that, whether you want to
Speaker 3: show a whole match like that or not, help explain
Speaker 3: to people who are not able to appreciate it from
Speaker 3: a tennis a bird's eye tennis camera angle where it
Speaker 3: just looks like pingpong, how hard it is and how
Speaker 3: fast the ball is traveling and how much court they
Speaker 3: have to cover and in what way. So I just
Speaker 3: want to shout that out because it was so good.
Speaker 3: I want I've been complaining about it for years and
Speaker 3: I want to see more of it, and I'm glad
Speaker 3: I did.
Speaker 1: Here's my one comment on you know, we bitched about
Speaker 1: the light that you couldn't see the court at Materia
Speaker 1: and shadows or bad it is, you know, YadA YadA
Speaker 1: for television. Maybe that's why they've moved the camera angle
Speaker 1: down lower. I don't know, but here's one of the
Speaker 1: things that I want the Madrid Tournament to understand or
Speaker 1: whoever's running the television. You know production there. You cannot
Speaker 1: have the back lighting of the because they have the
Speaker 1: led that goes around like the Australian Open introduced to
Speaker 1: the world many years ago. You cannot have the glare
Speaker 1: and the color of that be a fucking lime or
Speaker 1: whatever that color was. It was like it was like
Speaker 1: a seafoam.
Speaker 3: It's it was like seafoam's color.
Speaker 2: But it's so distracting.
Speaker 1: I couldn't even see the fucking tennis ball. Like I
Speaker 1: if I can't see the tennis ball, God, good luck
Speaker 1: any layman, amateur tennis player out there trying to watch
Speaker 1: this tennis match. All of a sudden, I'm like, where's
Speaker 1: the ball? Oh there it is? Oh where's the Oh
Speaker 1: there it is. I'm like, what the fuck? You can't
Speaker 1: have seafoam or teal as a background on television. Just
Speaker 1: do me a favor, everyone out there. Just go back,
Speaker 1: get on your tennis channel, app go on your television
Speaker 1: and go to a replay of the Rude Draper match.
Speaker 1: And every time they showed that lower camera angle, I
Speaker 1: couldn't see the fucking tennis ball. It's like, what is happening?
Speaker 1: So whenever it got into the background area of that
Speaker 1: LED screen. The ball just disappeared. You couldn't see it.
Speaker 1: What are they thinking?
Speaker 2: It doesn't look at that LED screens somewhere else?
Speaker 1: No, the LED screen's fine. We got to make it
Speaker 1: back during the point. What the fuck?
Speaker 2: Yeah, making it move during the point.
Speaker 1: It seems it's not moving. It's just it's just teal. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you can't see the tennis ball anyway, that's that. I
Speaker 1: didn't think I was going to get on.
Speaker 3: This was a podcast episode, if we don't call that
Speaker 3: something random and specificate and reading.
Speaker 1: About cephone bloody phone anyway, But back to the match
Speaker 1: when I could see the fucking tennis ball. There was
Speaker 1: a moment in the second set and Casper was up
Speaker 1: a set. Clearly Jack was struggling. Maybe he even made
Speaker 1: the gesture on that changeover after the first set. He
Speaker 1: was like huffing and puffing, like he was struggling to breathe.
Speaker 1: And as we know, it is slightly altitude at Madrid,
Speaker 1: and it is hard. It is a little bit harder
Speaker 1: to breathe and all the things. And it's a one
Speaker 1: knock on him that some people have talked about his
Speaker 1: fitness level, which has improved dramatically. Even Jim Corea Andy
Speaker 1: Roddick had spoken about it as well. They both talked
Speaker 1: about how much he's improved his fitness level and it's
Speaker 1: a knock. That was the one big knock on him.
Speaker 1: But it was four to three. I believe it was
Speaker 1: four to three in the second set. Casper was serving
Speaker 1: and he got down fifteen thirty in the game. And
Speaker 1: Casper's biggest strength is looking for the forehand and going
Speaker 1: for the forehand, much like Jack in a lot of ways,
Speaker 1: but Casper really depends on that big forehand. Plays very
Speaker 1: similar to Rougher in a lot of ways. He pussed
Speaker 1: out so bad in that fifteen thirty point fifteen thirty
Speaker 1: had a forehand mid court, could have really ripped it,
Speaker 1: like roped it somewhere inside out or inside in whatever.
Speaker 1: He hit the worst week fourhand two Jack's forehand and
Speaker 1: Jack just went It was almost like it's like, oh, okay,
Speaker 1: you're welcome, and he just went smack and hit a winner,
Speaker 1: and I was like, oh my god, now I know
Speaker 1: it hit me at that moment, I was like, now
Speaker 1: I know why you have one of Masters one thousand
Speaker 1: or a Grand Slam, because a rafa or a Novak
Speaker 1: or a Roger or a Serena or a great player
Speaker 1: that just steps up into those big moments. Down fifteen
Speaker 1: thirty a set and four to three, you know, he's
Speaker 1: up a set, down three to four, but it's on serve.
Speaker 1: He just completely puts it out on that shot, and
Speaker 1: I thought, oh my god. And then he lost the game.
Speaker 1: He played a really weak couple of points and then
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, Jack just stepped up wins the
Speaker 1: second set, and I'm like, oh God, if you can't
Speaker 1: step up, And I give him a ton of credit
Speaker 1: because in the third set, there are some moments, whether
Speaker 1: it be you know, early in the game when his serve,
Speaker 1: particularly on his own serve, he every time he had
Speaker 1: a forehand, he went for it. And I was like,
Speaker 1: good for you, dude, good for you, because you're not
Speaker 1: going to win this match unless you go for it.
Speaker 1: Because Jack's one in one thousand. He knows how to
Speaker 1: do it. He's not afraid. He might be a little
Speaker 1: bit tired, but you got to step up because if
Speaker 1: you don't, Jack's going to do that, and especially in
Speaker 1: his serve. And I was like, that's what made me
Speaker 1: happiest about Casper and I thought, oh my god, that
Speaker 1: is a major major shift for him is to go
Speaker 1: for it to win the match. And that's what he did.
Speaker 1: He won the match. He played great to break and
Speaker 1: that was it. And as you've already talked about Caitlyn,
Speaker 1: he's talked, you know, openly about seeing a psychologist and
Speaker 1: doing the thing. And I think Madison Keys is going
Speaker 1: to make a lot of big difference in a lot
Speaker 1: of players to talk about it and to be honest
Speaker 1: about why is it that I can't get through these
Speaker 1: big moments and maybe I need to talk to someone
Speaker 1: and maybe that's the catalyst for him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think you're rightly. I think it's a lack
Speaker 2: of fear.
Speaker 3: And I think that I know you always have fear, well, no,
Speaker 3: but courage maybe courage in.
Speaker 2: The feace of fear.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's be brave.
Speaker 3: I think when you are playing from a police of
Speaker 3: fear as opposed to playing.
Speaker 1: From a police of ravery, you're well, okay. Remember Pittko
Speaker 1: always said that she thought Rafa played from a place
Speaker 1: of fear.
Speaker 3: And fear and anxiety and got through it. I mean,
Speaker 3: obviously he played big, but but you know, I think
Speaker 3: for for a player who maybe doesn't possess as many
Speaker 3: as Rafa's, you know, many extollable virtues with regards to
Speaker 3: just being an absolute beast, which Casper is an incredible athlete.
Speaker 3: But you know there's a gap, you know, and I
Speaker 3: think for me that was exciting. So so as we
Speaker 3: shift into just to wrap.
Speaker 2: It up on the men, because I know we really
Speaker 2: want to talk about women.
Speaker 3: But like as we shift into Rome, which I think
Speaker 3: for most people, because of the lack of altitude, because
Speaker 3: of the speed of the court, is probably a much
Speaker 3: more reliable predictor of who in As those play season
Speaker 3: works towards its apex and Roland Garros towards the end
Speaker 3: of this month, like Sinners coming back, Carlos is hopefully
Speaker 3: over that you know, hip, hopefully thing that that first
Speaker 3: showed up in the Barcelona final and kept him out
Speaker 3: of this Majrid tournament. You know what, what what is
Speaker 3: the results of Madrid, if anything, portend for this next
Speaker 3: shift into realm.
Speaker 1: For two weeks. Well, I was going to get more
Speaker 1: into it after the women, but you've asked the question now.
Speaker 1: Rome has always been for me a precursor to who's
Speaker 1: the favorite for Paris because the conditions in Rome are
Speaker 1: very similar to the conditions in Paris. You can have
Speaker 1: days in Paris that are really hot or really cold.
Speaker 1: You can have days in Rome where it's really hot
Speaker 1: or really cold. You never really know. So the clay
Speaker 1: does change dependent on how hot it is out, if
Speaker 1: you're playing at night, all those sort of things. And
Speaker 1: you didn't have to worry about in Paris of playing
Speaker 1: at night. Now you do because they have the lights right.
Speaker 1: So there are a lot of similarities to Rome to
Speaker 1: what we see in Paris. So Madrid is not a
Speaker 1: precursor to who's going to do well in Paris. I mean,
Speaker 1: when you think about it, and this is what I
Speaker 1: was going to bring it up with the women, Sabalenca
Speaker 1: became the first player to win three Madrid titles since
Speaker 1: Petra Covitteva. Hilarious. That describes to you how different the
Speaker 1: conditions are in Madrid. I would you that Patrick a
Speaker 1: bit of a I don't even know. I probably should
Speaker 1: have looked upfore I did the pod, But can't imagine
Speaker 1: her winning a lot of clay court tournaments. Now we
Speaker 1: know she's a two time Wimbledon champion. Because of her game,
Speaker 1: you have to serve well in Madrid. If you don't
Speaker 1: serve well, you're going to get crushed. And you saw
Speaker 1: there was a lot of acing, a lot of big servers,
Speaker 1: and a lot of big servers have won the Madrid title,
Speaker 1: which is why Rafa never won. He won Madrid like
Speaker 1: one or two times.
Speaker 2: That's it.
Speaker 1: I mean, come on his career.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's crazy.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Rodger won it. How many times? He won it
Speaker 1: more times than Rafa probably, so it's not a great
Speaker 1: precursor on the women's side. It maybe can be a
Speaker 1: little bit lesser. So, but arguably, look, Sabalanca and Rude
Speaker 1: will probably be maybe second. Sabellanca certainly second favorite to
Speaker 1: win the French. I would say Rud's probably third favorite
Speaker 1: to win the French. Now you think, oh, yeah, I
Speaker 1: have to put him in. That guy's made it to
Speaker 1: the final twice. He loves the clay there that when
Speaker 1: would have given him so much confidence, Caitline to win
Speaker 1: a Masses one thousand. He can finally put that away
Speaker 1: and say, all right, what's the next thing for me
Speaker 1: to do in a Slam? Can I do it? I
Speaker 1: don't know, but I certainly can get to the final.
Speaker 1: Why not it's just dependent on if he plays al
Speaker 1: Chorazin Djokovic. You know, the guys that he that know
Speaker 1: they can win them. I don't know. Listen what I
Speaker 1: expect from Sinner. He has a buye. He has a
Speaker 1: pretty good second round navone or Sinner, not Sinner but
Speaker 1: with a C. I n a a wild card Italian,
Speaker 1: but you never know, could be the next Sinner. So
Speaker 1: he has a pretty good draw. He probably will play
Speaker 1: David David Kin. I can never say his name, thank
Speaker 1: you once I hear it once, I'm good. That could
Speaker 1: be a tough one. We know how well he can
Speaker 1: play on clay. But overall his draw is reasonably good.
Speaker 1: There's no one really up that half of the draw
Speaker 1: that's going to be, you know, frankly, in my opinion,
Speaker 1: better than him.
Speaker 3: Question setting aside the doping stuff, which we've talked about
Speaker 3: at length, and if you need to hear more, Rude.
Speaker 1: Is in his half. So it'll be interesting to see
Speaker 1: how how he sits there.
Speaker 3: What's your feeling generally with tennis players like rest or Rest,
Speaker 3: because now he's had a couple of months off, is
Speaker 3: that good?
Speaker 1: You know? I think there's there's something in that that
Speaker 1: is really good for him because the amount of pressure
Speaker 1: on his shoulders over the last year to win the
Speaker 1: austrain and Open, win the US Open, have the results
Speaker 1: that he's had over the last twelve months has been
Speaker 1: pretty spectacular. I'm sure he would have liked to have
Speaker 1: kept playing because he was playing so well. But at
Speaker 1: the same time, look, you know, he probably went skiing.
Speaker 1: He probably really enjoyed himself, and then he's probably been
Speaker 1: working unbelievably hard over the last month to get him
Speaker 1: back on the court, and he would have been playing
Speaker 1: practice sets out the wazoo.
Speaker 3: Sure, And it's not like he comes into the realm
Speaker 3: tournament his home Master's one thousand as like an underdog
Speaker 3: or somebody somebody's overlooking. But certainly maybe to your point
Speaker 3: about pressure, like, it's.
Speaker 2: Not the worst thing in the world to like win, Yeah,
Speaker 2: I think be like, hey.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna take you know, I think resting the brain,
Speaker 1: whether it's my choice or not. Yeah, I mean, listen,
Speaker 1: only he will be able to answer this question. But
Speaker 1: and you know, whether he's going to be honest about
Speaker 1: it or not, I think it It also would have
Speaker 1: been really hard for him to be sitting out of
Speaker 1: the sport for three months knowing that, particularly for him
Speaker 1: feeling like he didn't do anything wrong. You know, if
Speaker 1: that's the case, it would have been hard. He would
Speaker 1: have been ruminating over it every day, like everyone thinks
Speaker 1: I'm a cheat, Like that's really hard. That must be
Speaker 1: really hard for him as well, particularly if he knows
Speaker 1: he didn't do anything wrong. Look, I'm not saying he
Speaker 1: did or not. None of us know that. None of
Speaker 1: us know the truth except him the physio, and maybe
Speaker 1: Nick Curious, who seems to and apparently Nick curious, but
Speaker 1: you know, really no one knows the truth right accept them.
Speaker 1: And so if he is truly innocent, and he really
Speaker 1: does think that he was hard done, I imagine he
Speaker 1: wouldn't be thinking about it would be really hard to
Speaker 1: deal with that for three months. So I think that
Speaker 1: he's probably at his very happiest on the tennis court.
Speaker 1: So I'm sure we'll listen. Time will tell, Time will tell.
Speaker 2: I'm just I'm really excited about it.
Speaker 1: Colitus reappearance, Well, we're all very happy to Carlos. I mean,
Speaker 1: you know how I feel about the guy. He's just
Speaker 1: the best. Zverev is course number two seed in Rome.
Speaker 1: He of course, he just I don't know his ranking
Speaker 1: being it to hopefully that changes by the French Open,
Speaker 1: because he doesn't deserve to be number two in the world.
Speaker 1: He just doesn't. He just he has not turned up
Speaker 1: for the big matches.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's a perennial, like semi finalist.
Speaker 1: He's in alcaraz Is down that half of the draw.
Speaker 1: So you know, we'll see. Listen if Verev does beat Carlos,
Speaker 1: or if he gets through to the finals here or
Speaker 1: wins Rome. Hey, it's a totally different story. It's a
Speaker 1: totally different story. And he is deserved of the number
Speaker 1: two ranking at the French Open. Look, he is because
Speaker 1: of rankings and all that sort of stuff, and you
Speaker 1: don't get there without winning a lot of matches. And
Speaker 1: he has won a lot of matches, but there's a
Speaker 1: difference between stepping up when they're big matches. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: you know, his loss in that should not happen in Madrid.
Speaker 1: His game is perfect for Madrid, big surve, big fourhand,
Speaker 1: but he gets tight, He gets so tight on his
Speaker 1: forehand it's like it's hard to watch. Anyway.
Speaker 4: Let's get to the lady, lady, So do you think
Speaker 4: Coco listened to our last podcast.
Speaker 1: I think she did. I think she did.
Speaker 3: Because she really you know, yes, she last in the
Speaker 3: final tour in a SOUTHLKA.
Speaker 2: But what a great tournament, what a great tournament.
Speaker 1: What a great tournament.
Speaker 3: I'm glad that I think we couched it. As you know,
Speaker 3: tough love, but mainly love.
Speaker 1: It's always tough love. But it's always.
Speaker 2: Especially with Coco.
Speaker 3: She I mean, let's just talk about her masterclass.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, No, okay, okay, let's look at let's.
Speaker 2: Talk about that. That's one of the most.
Speaker 1: Let's look at that objectively, Okay, objectively arguably the worst
Speaker 1: match I ever seen Eager Chiante play in my entire life.
Speaker 2: Very poor.
Speaker 1: It was fucking terrible mistakes out the wazoo, not serving well,
Speaker 1: missing easy backhands, missing easy fourhands, missing returns like it
Speaker 1: was just brutal. I've never seen such a great player,
Speaker 1: particularly on a surface that is owned by her play
Speaker 1: and look so incredibly lost on the tennis court. There
Speaker 1: is no height on her shots, there is no margin
Speaker 1: on the shots. She's going for shots that she shouldn't be,
Speaker 1: She's pulling the trigger too early in the point. It
Speaker 1: was just brutal. I mean. And the flip side is
Speaker 1: that Coco was absolutely out and serving out of her
Speaker 1: just mind, like acing left and right, which is another thing,
Speaker 1: like eager stand back, like how about take a step
Speaker 1: back in the court and give your opponent a different look.
Speaker 1: The one thing you know about Coco is if she
Speaker 1: hits the double fault or starts missing her first serve,
Speaker 1: you know in your mind you sort of got her. Right,
Speaker 1: there's a little there's a there's a window that just
Speaker 1: got opened that you can say, Okay, I'm climbing through it. Yes,
Speaker 1: I'm going to own this house now because you just
Speaker 1: opened the window, right, which is what happened in the final.
Speaker 1: But we're going to get to that, right, I'm gonna
Speaker 1: own this house. Sense. So Coco didn't give a lot
Speaker 1: of the free stuff, right, She wasn't double folding. She
Speaker 1: was serving unbelievable. She was hitting a lot of bases.
Speaker 1: She served that one out wide like eighty percent of
Speaker 1: the time, like eager, what the f like stand over
Speaker 1: there or stand back the app like what is no offense?
Speaker 1: But whim like come on, man, like you're sitting there.
Speaker 1: You can tell her anything you want. How about change
Speaker 1: your return position? Get in her head a little bit,
Speaker 1: Like the one thing you want from Coco is to
Speaker 1: lose her rhythm on her surf. You're standing in the
Speaker 1: same spot, You're going for the same ridiculous return. Like
Speaker 1: there was just it was the it was the epitome
Speaker 1: of like greatness playing against not greatness in one day.
Speaker 1: I mean, Coco did not miss her forehand. You could
Speaker 1: tell eager was going to a forehand and she wasn't
Speaker 1: making a mistake, and all of a sudden, She's like,
Speaker 1: what do I do? It's like, what do you mean,
Speaker 1: what do you do? You got to move the ball.
Speaker 1: It's almost like she's so fixated on she was so
Speaker 1: fixated on getting it to the forehand that she would
Speaker 1: have an easy backhand and she would still go she
Speaker 1: would try and go down the line and miss it.
Speaker 1: And I'm like, just hit your best backhand, your best
Speaker 1: backhands as good as anybody else's Like, yes, Coco's got
Speaker 1: a great backhand, but you know, sometimes you got to
Speaker 1: step up and go manner a manner like I'm gonna
Speaker 1: which is why she used to beat Coco all the time,
Speaker 1: because she was like, I can handle your backhand to backhand, yeah.
Speaker 2: And then I'll earn a look at your weik for
Speaker 2: h but you're not gonna get there right Only.
Speaker 1: It's almost like whim's like you know, you only got
Speaker 1: to go to the forehand, which okay, is fine, But
Speaker 1: Coco lost matches missing backhands too.
Speaker 3: I wonder a couple of things about Ego. I'm not
Speaker 3: that we want to take anything from Coco.
Speaker 2: Unbelievable, so happy to see her with that aggressive sir.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and the fact she stepped up and served it out, like.
Speaker 3: The two points I want to make about do you
Speaker 3: think so Ega had a pretty intense draw up until
Speaker 3: this point and she was playing well.
Speaker 2: Like that was to what was shocking about it. It's
Speaker 2: not like we saw her have a bad day after
Speaker 2: a series of bad days.
Speaker 3: She had a great match with alex Ela that I
Speaker 3: want to come back to because Christy on my team
Speaker 3: had made a point like I wonder if that introduced
Speaker 3: some seeds of doubt in Eagle's mind. Losing a set
Speaker 3: to alex Eya who who had beaten her for sure
Speaker 3: in Miami. Then she plays Lyndonskova, not a bad player.
Speaker 3: Then she played Schneider.
Speaker 1: In Osco, who she'd lost to at Thestraia.
Speaker 2: Lost the New Australian.
Speaker 3: Then she played Janet Schneider, who's you know, hard hitting lefty,
Speaker 3: went to three sets. Then she beat Madison Keys in
Speaker 3: three sets. Who had you know, beaten her in that
Speaker 3: epic still probably the best match of the year.
Speaker 1: Which I still wonder if that scar tissues really hurt her. Yeah.
Speaker 3: So, like you know, she shows up to the Cocoa
Speaker 3: match and she should be feeling good. She's vanquished two
Speaker 3: former foes in the in the past, three former foes
Speaker 3: who've taken her out this year.
Speaker 1: Alone in the run up, tough matches, tough.
Speaker 2: Matches, physical matches, and to see her physically not show up.
Speaker 2: She wasn't injured that we know of.
Speaker 1: Well, we know that her grandfather had died the week before,
Speaker 1: so you know, she hadn't mentioned that. You know, I'm
Speaker 1: sure that was weighing on her in some regards. But
Speaker 1: at the same time, you hadn't gotten you had gotten
Speaker 1: through three or four matches right round so against you know,
Speaker 1: her first round opponent. Okay, you can understand why that
Speaker 1: might might be still you know, hanging over. I think
Speaker 1: this was just there's scar tissue and all those matches
Speaker 1: she lost a set six love to Madison, Like there's
Speaker 1: scar tissue along the way of not beating you know,
Speaker 1: Alex in straight sets on clay, which a lot of
Speaker 1: people were expecting, not beating a Madison, Keys in straight
Speaker 1: sets on clay, or all these players on clay. Easily
Speaker 1: we're used to the bagel and the bakery Eager, right,
Speaker 1: the O and one, the one and one, and it's
Speaker 1: really hard to do that against anyone. That just shows
Speaker 1: you how great she was prior and now there's doubt. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's kind of like what's happening with Novak, but in
Speaker 1: a different way because he's older and there's no question
Speaker 1: his age, and the drive isn't there as much as anymore,
Speaker 1: but the driver is certainly there for Eager. I just
Speaker 1: wonder there's a little bit of scar tissue. I talk
Speaker 1: about it all the time on her brain. Like it's
Speaker 1: like and when you miss some balls, you're like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, here we go again, and you can see it,
Speaker 1: and she's just it's the same as Coco. As soon
Speaker 1: as she hits the double fault or misses a foyand
Speaker 1: you see his shoulder slump and she's like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: get us first servant.
Speaker 2: So I deal with with Eager in particular.
Speaker 3: You know you called out when Fassett, who you know
Speaker 3: has had great results with a lot of players, but
Speaker 3: you tactically you'd like to see her be encouraged to
Speaker 3: go backhand to back in and maybe there's a coaching
Speaker 3: thing there.
Speaker 2: I do also want to say, like, you know, there's
Speaker 2: a lot.
Speaker 3: Of credit has been given to her mental coach time
Speaker 3: and time again about how tough mentally she is, and
Speaker 3: I have to say she has looked the opposite of
Speaker 3: tough mentally.
Speaker 2: I think that's to me the main issue she looks.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it goes hand in hand, right. So you
Speaker 1: can work on someone's mentality all day, every day. But
Speaker 1: if they're not comfortable on the tennis court, I don't
Speaker 1: give a shit.
Speaker 2: How many mental coaches job to make sure they're comfortable
Speaker 2: on the tennis cord.
Speaker 1: Well, yes, but also if they're not comfortable hitting the
Speaker 1: tennis ball and they're confused about what they should be
Speaker 1: doing with the tennis ball, then that that is the
Speaker 1: overriding factor. I can feel great all I want. I
Speaker 1: can be like, no, no, you're good, you're good, No
Speaker 1: need to panic, no need to panic, Okay, go to
Speaker 1: hit that forehand. What do I do? What do I
Speaker 1: do with it? Oh? My god, that's right in practice,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I should be hitting it there.
Speaker 1: They're telling me this, I don't know. And all of
Speaker 1: a sudden, for me, it comes down to what you're
Speaker 1: doing on the practice court as well. And I just
Speaker 1: and also the problem solving that's happening in the match
Speaker 1: and there's no problem solving like that was just there
Speaker 1: were so many moments where I was like, why would
Speaker 1: you hit that shot? Like why are you going for that?
Speaker 1: What was that? There were so many times she needs
Speaker 1: to work on her slice. I don't care what anyone says,
Speaker 1: you know, there were times where she could have. You
Speaker 1: have to mix the pace up. Yeah, And if it's
Speaker 1: not working and you're bounding the ball and you're losing rallies,
Speaker 1: you have to vary the pace. You have to hit
Speaker 1: a high ball. You have to do a slice. That's
Speaker 1: what mea Andreva does so well.
Speaker 2: And usually you could does that. I mean she used
Speaker 2: to do, but certainly with the off piece.
Speaker 1: Back in the day. I remember she used to have
Speaker 1: this drop shot. She used to did a drop shot
Speaker 1: all the time. She didn't drop shot at all anymore,
Speaker 1: Like all of a sudden, she doesn't drop shot, she
Speaker 1: doesn't eat high balls, she doesn't try and vary the pace.
Speaker 1: She tries to hit every ball one hundred miles an hour,
Speaker 1: and it's like there's no variation and if it's not
Speaker 1: going in, then all of a sudden, it's like the
Speaker 1: panic sets in and it's hard to watch. And also
Speaker 1: it comes from me. It starts with this as well.
Speaker 1: I just think she's missing way too many first serves
Speaker 1: and her second serve is getting predictable, and you know,
Speaker 1: it was just it was ugly. It was ugly. It
Speaker 1: was ugly from Eager, and it was fantastic from Coco,
Speaker 1: which is why it was one on one.
Speaker 2: Two more things I want to talk about on this relatively.
Speaker 1: Short that'd be like beating Rougher one on one.
Speaker 2: It's staggering.
Speaker 3: Yeah, but we're going to have a big roam extravaganza
Speaker 3: next week and week after. But just sort of briefly
Speaker 3: as we wrap this up, like shout out to one
Speaker 3: of whim Fassett's former.
Speaker 1: H wait before we get to Naomi, though, I just
Speaker 1: want to finish the final so sable Anca Coco definitely
Speaker 1: come out came out a little bit nervous, isn't it
Speaker 1: because I think she played so well against Eager that
Speaker 1: she probably had a little bit of pressure on her
Speaker 1: coming out, like okay, now you got to you gotta
Speaker 1: show everybody that you can still do this right. And
Speaker 1: there's no doubt whether it was subconscious or consciously in
Speaker 1: her mind. And I think she started a little bit
Speaker 1: flat and then you know, started playing really, really a
Speaker 1: lot better. In the first set. You know, Sabalanca gets
Speaker 1: the first set done, they were the tennis was great,
Speaker 1: like they were hitting the ball so big. And then
Speaker 1: the second set when when Coco gets the break and
Speaker 1: there's up and then is five when she's serving for
Speaker 1: the set, you, as an opponent, this is what I
Speaker 1: was talking about, you know, locker room reputation and all
Speaker 1: this sort of stuff. It's like, you know, if Coco
Speaker 1: gives you a little window, you climb through it, and
Speaker 1: Sabalanca doesn't climb through, she smashes it down. Okay, So
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, she's serving for the set, playing
Speaker 1: great first point double fault. As an opponent, you're like,
Speaker 1: you go, uh, okay, here we go. Now. Subsequently, she
Speaker 1: had a set point and Sabalanca crushed a return, but
Speaker 1: again didn't you know, didn't get the free point on
Speaker 1: the serve and all that sort of stuff. But when
Speaker 1: you double fault the first point, there is a moment
Speaker 1: in you as an opponent where you go, ah, okay,
Speaker 1: all right, I know she's gonna get tight if I
Speaker 1: just play positively, and well, right now I'm getting back
Speaker 1: in this match.
Speaker 3: And these two have had so much history, yeah that
Speaker 3: they know. Of course, these moments really were and I
Speaker 3: think you can see it.
Speaker 1: But even if you don't play against them, anyone who
Speaker 1: knows playing against Coco, you know that there could be
Speaker 1: a window that's opened on the forehand and the serf.
Speaker 1: And unfortunately, and I know this is a tough love again,
Speaker 1: but when you're serving for the first set, the first
Speaker 1: point is so important, and when you it's one thing
Speaker 1: to lose it, but to lose it double folding, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just it's just not a good thing.
Speaker 2: No three points.
Speaker 1: So of course the serve breaks down and the forehand
Speaker 1: breaks down. At five four both break down and at
Speaker 1: five all even there, she's love thirty on Sabalanca serve
Speaker 1: love thirty Okay, well, we're going to get the break
Speaker 1: straight back, which often happens right foehand miss missed return,
Speaker 1: forehand miss return and then another error I think on
Speaker 1: a backhand and just gave the game back to Applanca
Speaker 1: with errors on the forehand side. Yeah, you know, and
Speaker 1: then again serving to stay in the match, a couple
Speaker 1: of forehand errors again and on match point double fault. Like,
Speaker 1: so if you're looking at it from a coach's perspective,
Speaker 1: you have to say what happens there? Now, I've always
Speaker 1: said bad technique breaks down under pressure, and unfortunately Coco
Speaker 1: with her serve and forehand, her technique is questionable, right,
Speaker 1: everything else is so unbelievably good, And there are times
Speaker 1: where she's hitting the forehand well, but like get the
Speaker 1: hide on the forehand, Like I would just be telling
Speaker 1: her get that hide on the forehand and then smack
Speaker 1: your backhand.
Speaker 3: What's the serve that you're telling her to start that game?
Speaker 3: I think you have to slice body serve where it's
Speaker 3: like percentage but like kind of tough, like what you
Speaker 3: know from a tactics perspective, like obviously I'm going to
Speaker 3: try to get the first serve in. Yeah, but like
Speaker 3: Is there a specific serve that you're telling her, especially
Speaker 3: with her game, Yeah, to go for.
Speaker 1: Well, it's hard because her technique, you know, it doesn't
Speaker 1: really allow to. I mean, honestly, it's just super important
Speaker 1: that you get your first serve in on that first characters.
Speaker 1: And you saw her at five to four. She turns
Speaker 1: around and the camera was on her and she said, oh,
Speaker 1: first serve. So it's in her head, yeah, you know,
Speaker 1: because she knows the pressure then is on her on
Speaker 1: a second serve, particularly against Sabelenka. I mean, she's just
Speaker 1: gonna crush your second.
Speaker 3: Sech And that's the thing, Like you can see Sebelinka
Speaker 3: and I remember distinctly watching her play against Coco.
Speaker 2: You know, Coco misses the first serve.
Speaker 3: It doesn't even matter how hard the first serve is,
Speaker 3: no matter what Arena's taking two steps in and like
Speaker 3: just because she knows she can crush it. But also
Speaker 3: like the aggressive return position on a second serve, like
Speaker 3: within a readA to Sablenka, She's gonna give you less
Speaker 3: seconds to react, less like and I know that that's
Speaker 3: so much in her head when she's going up to
Speaker 3: the line, which is obviously why the double falls tend
Speaker 3: to tend to show up in those pressure moments. So yeah,
Speaker 3: I mean, I think for me, the main takeaway from
Speaker 3: Coco is like, what a great week. Still some stuff
Speaker 3: to work on, but like, what a fantastic turnaround of
Speaker 3: the season. She has to be feeling, I tell you,
Speaker 3: so much better better going into Rome and Paris.
Speaker 1: No, she's going to be real good in Paris. I
Speaker 1: think she's going to.
Speaker 2: Be real good, but the game is better with her strong.
Speaker 1: I think she needs to understand in the very tight
Speaker 1: moments when it gets when she gets a little nervous
Speaker 1: and she can feel it, and everybody feels it, everybody
Speaker 1: you know, when it's happening, you start getting a little
Speaker 1: bit doubtful in your own mind. You either have to
Speaker 1: have a word to yourself and be like, fuck, no,
Speaker 1: not today. You know I'm getting the first servey in
Speaker 1: and I'm going for it and I know I'm going
Speaker 1: to make it, or if you know that, you're like
Speaker 1: faking it till you make it and you know you're
Speaker 1: a little bit tight and so you get you feel
Speaker 1: your arm a little bit heavy. You got to just
Speaker 1: get that first survey in, like just the first point.
Speaker 1: Just get a good first serve in and what use
Speaker 1: what you use and do as well as anyone, which
Speaker 1: is run a million balls down, smack some backhands, hit
Speaker 1: the height on your forehand and make your opponent beat you. Instead,
Speaker 1: it was it was opposite. It was the opposite in
Speaker 1: this match, Like she actually gave away three points at five,
Speaker 1: four and five all she gave those away. She had
Speaker 1: a swinging volley that missed and like so there was
Speaker 1: there was about six points that she probably if she
Speaker 1: just pulled back a little bit and not push the ball.
Speaker 1: That's not what I'm talking about.
Speaker 3: But margin, percentage, play of your strength, smacking back hands.
Speaker 1: Make Sablenka in that moment beat you. If she steps
Speaker 1: up and hits a couple of winners, you go, okay,
Speaker 1: I've got to be a little bit more aggressive. I mean,
Speaker 1: you do have to calculate all this when you're out there.
Speaker 1: And I'm not saying that, Yeah that's not easy, but
Speaker 1: it's this is the separator, right, Well, was what rude?
Speaker 1: Did you know? He got tight in the second set.
Speaker 1: He's like, oh, just make it and then Jack went
Speaker 1: bang and so he's like, shit, I can't do that.
Speaker 1: So if I want to win this match. I have
Speaker 1: to go for it. So you have to get that
Speaker 1: layer of the land when you're out there. But the
Speaker 1: most important thing for Coco is do not give away
Speaker 1: a free point by double folding. That is the killer
Speaker 1: for her. And because it gives your opponents so much
Speaker 1: breathing room, they just go, okay, okay, she's tight. I'll
Speaker 1: probably get a free couple of points here, and that
Speaker 1: makes a world a.
Speaker 3: Difference for you, and then Sablanca's shoulders relax and then
Speaker 3: she can swing for you. You know, there's so many
Speaker 3: more things than just the point it happens.
Speaker 2: Yes, it's really.
Speaker 1: It's a mental match against a mental match as well
Speaker 1: as well as hitting four hands and back ends. But anyway,
Speaker 1: congrats to sable Anca, who had lost a couple of
Speaker 1: finals so this year. So it was I'm sure when
Speaker 1: she was down that set point to Coco thinking fucking hell,
Speaker 1: am I going to lose this match?
Speaker 2: As well? Were the Australian and Australia.
Speaker 1: Lots. She's lost a lot of finals. She just lost
Speaker 1: to Yeah stood too like so she's lost a lot
Speaker 1: of finals this year. Anyway, Yes, Naomi Osaka goes down.
Speaker 1: We talked about this a couple of weeks ago. It
Speaker 1: was the last week week, Yeah, most last week. How
Speaker 1: it was a good move for her to go down
Speaker 1: to a lower level. And you know, somebody I read
Speaker 1: a couple of things on the social media's and someone
Speaker 1: was like, well, I mean, she can't win that tournament,
Speaker 1: And I'm like, can you guys just do a funk off?
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, have you ever on a tournament win
Speaker 3: Grand Slams? Winning a tournament period, like you know, you
Speaker 3: gotta every day. Yes, granted the level was much lower,
Speaker 3: but still like, this is somebody who's really struggled profoundly.
Speaker 2: Yeah, especially on the surface, like kudos, it's.
Speaker 1: Still first tournament.
Speaker 3: You can control who you're playing. Yeah, you know, maybe
Speaker 3: I mean a streaky, amazing person.
Speaker 1: And what people don't realize, Caitline, is the amount of
Speaker 1: pressure that would have been on her shoulders to win
Speaker 1: that tournament. If you don't win this tournament, yeah you
Speaker 1: shouldn't be playing anymore, That's right. And so she's like,
Speaker 1: I've seen players go back to playing challenges like twenty
Speaker 1: fives and fifties to get matches, you know that ranked
Speaker 1: that are ranked outside of the top two hundred and
Speaker 1: fifty now that were ranked inside the top twenty. It's like,
Speaker 1: it's really hard and it's a lot of pressure on you.
Speaker 1: It's why a lot of them don't go down to
Speaker 1: the lower levels because they don't want that even more
Speaker 1: pressure on them to win the tournament. So I give
Speaker 1: her a ton of credit for doing that. It's going
Speaker 1: to give her a lot of Listen, we'll see how
Speaker 1: she does going in the next couple of weeks. I
Speaker 1: wouldn't want to play her.
Speaker 2: No, I wouldn't want to play it either.
Speaker 3: And also, like you know, kind of the upside of
Speaker 3: having a weak surface is it doesn't matter like you're
Speaker 3: going to get some wins on a surface.
Speaker 2: That you notably don't like.
Speaker 3: Yeah, in a part of the year that you notably
Speaker 3: not you know, don't really show up to you, I'm like,
Speaker 3: win when I lift. This gives her more bounds to
Speaker 3: go back into the rest of the season with like
Speaker 3: sort of a renewed headspace, like I'm off for it.
Speaker 1: I did love that she put on the job application online.
Speaker 1: Did you see that she said for those that are
Speaker 1: I can't remember if herbade him, but it was basically
Speaker 1: like she put hey for the haters, here's here, you know,
Speaker 1: try this and she put a job application, so you
Speaker 1: plan now, doesn't tell me to get a job. I've
Speaker 1: got a job. Why don't you get a job? I
Speaker 1: thought that was her love that.
Speaker 3: I wish she would tell her Evolve Agency co co
Speaker 3: founder Nick Curious to get a job instead of.
Speaker 1: Being you know what's funny. I got a photo from
Speaker 1: my my best friend's daughter is going to university in Canberra?
Speaker 2: Is he there?
Speaker 1: And he lives in Canberra, he's from there, and she's
Speaker 1: going to university there doing a law degree. And because
Speaker 1: she's smart, and Freya texted me and she goes, oh, hey,
Speaker 1: look who I ran into at a bar. Of course,
Speaker 1: Nick Carrious at a bus, wind sprints really getting self
Speaker 1: prepared to play Wimbledon. I don't know what he's doing,
Speaker 1: but anyway, just really quick. One thing we didn't talk
Speaker 1: about was mir Andreva and Coco. Like that was Coco
Speaker 1: has it over Mira. I agree the last couple of matches,
Speaker 1: but Mira just went off the boil like I don't
Speaker 1: know what happened. I don't know what happened with her.
Speaker 1: It was very strange.
Speaker 2: It was like a pre this season. Mir andrev who
Speaker 2: has she just.
Speaker 1: Got the ships in that first set and it just
Speaker 1: like was like, I'm out of here, man. It was weird.
Speaker 1: Con she did not look happy in that situation.
Speaker 2: I thought, that's also and she's still young.
Speaker 1: Well.
Speaker 2: I also swear about.
Speaker 3: Sabalannka, which is like, you know, one of the things
Speaker 3: that makes some of these players uh fun is that,
Speaker 3: you know, there's a little bit of crazy.
Speaker 1: You know, a little bit of crazy.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 3: In case anyone forgot, because mir Andreva has been playing
Speaker 3: poised above her age.
Speaker 1: The seventeen year olds down there.
Speaker 3: For a couple of games, it's going to be a
Speaker 3: complete mediac Listen, this is one of my favorite tiends
Speaker 3: of the year. There is no more beautiful tennis court
Speaker 3: than the for Italica.
Speaker 1: Are you upset about what they've done to the court
Speaker 1: the second court?
Speaker 3: Actually yes, because that should be the most beautiful court
Speaker 3: and you cannot put metal stands around it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's come on, what are you doing to I mean,
Speaker 1: obviously it used to get packed, so they wanted to
Speaker 1: have the availability of having.
Speaker 2: Build another stadium.
Speaker 1: You build another stadium, I agree.
Speaker 2: See him? Come on right?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Anyway, so Rome is going on it's about to start.
Speaker 2: We're going to see really excited.
Speaker 1: Of course, Sabalanca number one seed, Canon is in her
Speaker 1: little section of the drawer there. Can we just give
Speaker 1: it up for Sophia Cannon back to she's thirty first
Speaker 1: seed in Rome, which I imagine she's probably thirty two
Speaker 1: in the world or thirty one in the world. What
Speaker 1: a great effort over the last couple of years, because
Speaker 1: she's had a bloody hard time, and so I give
Speaker 1: her a lot of credit for being ranked and seeded.
Speaker 1: And she's going to be seated at the French and
Speaker 1: I'm just really happy to se Ayla and Costure. First
Speaker 1: round in Rome is going to be real fun to watch.
Speaker 3: We don't even talk about Murta Chaste because she had
Speaker 3: a lot to say about the randolation. Well, she was right, Sabka, Yeah,
Speaker 3: she was right.
Speaker 1: You can't take your first serve and then be like
Speaker 1: it's raining, I can't serve now.
Speaker 2: I don't know. Drama follows.
Speaker 1: Marta is a little bit of a dec drama here
Speaker 1: is a bit of a DCU. But she was right
Speaker 1: in the circumstance.
Speaker 2: It was agreed.
Speaker 1: You can't just serve and go oh no, I can't
Speaker 1: say too bad.
Speaker 2: You hear, but I do think like just yeah, tap
Speaker 2: the bricks.
Speaker 1: But I remember you've got the bella Russian Ukrainian thing there.
Speaker 2: I'm here for one DQ and one di qu only
Speaker 2: and that's daniel Collins.
Speaker 1: What about Danielle?
Speaker 2: Yeah, what about it?
Speaker 1: We haven't seen any hydro here of her.
Speaker 2: Danielle.
Speaker 1: I think she's collecting the cash all these tournaments and
Speaker 1: walking away.
Speaker 2: I'm that's gonna be my wild code. I'm calling it out.
Speaker 1: Room, no chance, maybe a random one is whatever happened
Speaker 1: to Bianca and rescue. I know she's had a ton
Speaker 1: of injuries and all that stuff. But your fellow Canadian
Speaker 1: is she just.
Speaker 3: Won a doubles title in at that. I think same
Speaker 3: challenger when Nemeas.
Speaker 1: Was well there you go, look at that. You were
Speaker 1: so open champions going back to A one twenty five
Speaker 1: to get some confidents. Sometimes she can get it in
Speaker 1: doubles grade. She has a pretty good first round. So
Speaker 1: she will play Donna Vekitch in the second round if
Speaker 1: that's the case, and that might be an interesting little
Speaker 1: matchup because Donna has not been playing well this year
Speaker 1: at all. Changed a coach at the start of this year.
Speaker 1: I don't know why she had a great year last year.
Speaker 1: I don't have that other coach just didn't want to
Speaker 1: be involved. And PAMs Driver is still doing a little
Speaker 1: bit with Donna but went to Sasha Bajan and really
Speaker 1: has only won a couple has not played well all year.
Speaker 1: So how long is that little coaching situation going to last?
Speaker 1: Kinwin chin win? I think you should say, because you
Speaker 1: get mad at me if I don't say it correctly,
Speaker 1: correct pronuncision. I know, but I have this fight with
Speaker 1: my fellow some of my fellow commentators ARSI is in particular. No,
Speaker 1: I tell you what the problem is. Caitlin on the
Speaker 1: wt website, she says kinwin. Do you know this? Have
Speaker 1: you looked at her thing?
Speaker 3: Yes? She has decided that you can call her chin win,
Speaker 3: kinwin or Anna, And it's like, no, guys, just go
Speaker 3: with your correct pronunc You should have n.
Speaker 1: I call her chin win, thank you, because I know
Speaker 1: that's the correct way to say it in Chinese. But
Speaker 1: when you're working with someone who refuses to call them
Speaker 1: chin win and calls them kin win. Because the WTA website.
Speaker 2: It's a hard the WTO website.
Speaker 1: I know, but this is the these are the arguments
Speaker 1: I have in my ESPN Green role.
Speaker 2: I'm glad that, by the way, but I'm.
Speaker 1: Going with gin win because that's how you say it.
Speaker 1: So that's gonna be interesting. We'll see how Coco, you know,
Speaker 1: turns it up again. She has a pretty good draw.
Speaker 1: She'll probably play either Benchic or Lynette in like the
Speaker 1: round of thirty two. But I like her draw a lot.
Speaker 1: A player that's back, Amanda Anissa Mova back from a
Speaker 1: bit of injury, so we'll see how she does in
Speaker 1: this tournament. And a Navarro has been a play that
Speaker 1: has not played well.
Speaker 3: She had such a great year last year that following
Speaker 3: it up this year I think was always going to
Speaker 3: be a tough order. Yeah, and you're right, she's really
Speaker 3: looked like she's missed a step.
Speaker 1: Nice. You know, it's nice to see vondrous over back
Speaker 1: in the tournament in Rome. Yeah. Man, that girl has
Speaker 1: just had no luck with her injuries. Test terrible and
Speaker 1: so well. Well, we'll see, of course, mere Andreva, We'll
Speaker 1: see how she fares this week. I think maybe it's.
Speaker 3: The biggest question mark for realm is eager. It's her
Speaker 3: tournament under normal circumstances.
Speaker 1: It is her tournament without question. I mean, she won
Speaker 1: a final there against one of the biggest service we've
Speaker 1: ever had in a women's game, Caroline Pushkoba. Oh and
Speaker 1: oh in a final.
Speaker 2: They should have made him play a third set.
Speaker 1: You know what, we decided we're going to do best
Speaker 1: of five and we're starting it right now. Oh and
Speaker 1: to be Carolina, I mean, Carolina made the final, winning
Speaker 1: a lot of matches, hitting the ball. Well. I just
Speaker 1: want people to know I was not coaching her at
Speaker 1: the time, because there's no effing way I would let
Speaker 1: my player loose and I would be like, you were
Speaker 1: hitting under arm, you were doing whatever you need to
Speaker 1: do win a game. Again. Interestingly, Caitlin in the little
Speaker 1: round of thirty two in Rome, is potential that your
Speaker 1: girl animal will play against Eager Let's go, So that
Speaker 1: will be an interesting situation.
Speaker 2: As good as you Lena as Yeah.
Speaker 1: And Switzerlina is down that section of the drawer who's
Speaker 1: also had a great year sam Sonova, So I'm excited.
Speaker 1: This is this is This section of the draw for
Speaker 1: EGA is pretty good, although Naomi Osaka is down that
Speaker 1: section of the draw too and could play Bodoza in
Speaker 1: the second round, so we'll see. Let's go parla anyway,
Speaker 1: all right, Well, you've got a lot to get to
Speaker 1: when it comes to Rome next week, and of course
Speaker 1: the French Open is around the corner and Max, yeah, etcetera.
Speaker 1: Taking the French Sadly, I will not be there. I'm
Speaker 1: a little bummed about it. I'm not gonna lie. Yeah,
Speaker 1: but we will be here for you for the French Open.
Speaker 1: But in the meantime, thanks for joining us today, Katelin.
Speaker 1: Anything else you want to say, No, I'm just so excited.
Speaker 1: This is like the part of the season.
Speaker 2: You love business.
Speaker 1: I do love.
Speaker 2: I love the whole thing is I love forgetting Yeah,
Speaker 2: I love.
Speaker 1: Of waking up. I'm not an early riser, as you know, Caitlyn,
Speaker 1: so for me to get up early and watch these matches,
Speaker 1: that's how much I love tennis.
Speaker 2: I love watching tennis in the morning and then playing
Speaker 2: tennis in the afternoon. It's the best.
Speaker 1: Well, Caitlin, we have to play a little tennis because
Speaker 1: I got invited back to play in the old farts
Speaker 1: at Wimbledon.
Speaker 2: So if you will deem to play tennis with me.
Speaker 1: I have not hit a ball in a while, and
Speaker 1: so I need to start, all right. Wonderful. On that note,
Speaker 1: preparation for Wimbledon starts, for Stubbs Time starts today, and
Speaker 1: the French Open two weeks away. Don't wait, all right, guys,
Speaker 1: Thanks for Johnny to say okay bye,