Speaker 1: Hi everybody, and welcome to the Renee Subs Tams podcast
Speaker 1: in Renee Stubs this apartment once again with my with
Speaker 1: my first ever guest to stay in this apartment, actually, Petkovic,
Speaker 1: that's true. Yes, well you caught me, Petvich And of
Speaker 1: course Katelyn Thompson, you have not slept here.
Speaker 2: I have not slept here.
Speaker 1: Even if even on a drunken night he managed to go.
Speaker 2: Home exercise basically sleep here.
Speaker 1: Your exercise bike is still there, it is, yes, do
Speaker 1: you still use it something? Yes, I did once in
Speaker 1: a while, once in a blue moon. I know we
Speaker 1: both need to use it. Well, I've got to get
Speaker 1: my legs in shape because I'm going skiing in a
Speaker 1: couple of days and I know the first run I take,
Speaker 1: my legs are going to be shaking like a mofo.
Speaker 3: Maybe you can take a lesson with Yannick Sinner. But
Speaker 3: just to bring back that moment when I slept up there,
Speaker 3: which is like stairs.
Speaker 1: I have a little letter. I call it a little
Speaker 1: mezzanet area.
Speaker 2: Okay, could you call it that a mezzanette. Yeah, that's
Speaker 2: a neologism to me, but I think it. But you
Speaker 2: know how I like to make up words. It is
Speaker 2: a it's like a yeah, we.
Speaker 3: Were sitting on boxes having pizza.
Speaker 2: What happens up there now?
Speaker 1: Nothing? Well, people sleep up there still when I have friends,
Speaker 1: I have friends coming to stay. My friend Nicole brad
Speaker 1: Key used to play on tour, and her husband Mark
Speaker 1: and their son. The problem is three people, three people. Well, no,
Speaker 1: they're staying down the parents are staying downstairs. I'm leaving.
Speaker 1: When I go to Australia, they come here. It's amazing
Speaker 1: how people come and visit me when I'm not here,
Speaker 1: including my sister Cole. I don't know. They like to
Speaker 1: have my apartment by themselves.
Speaker 3: Did you see how bad the New York Giants played yesterday?
Speaker 1: I don't care about the Giants.
Speaker 2: They're so bad that you come to New York. And
Speaker 2: why don't you tell our listeners? For those who follow
Speaker 2: you very closely through your various substack Instagram, various adventures,
Speaker 2: you are basically a part time resident of New York.
Speaker 2: You go to galleries, she shows, you go to plays.
Speaker 2: But also you're a massive New York Giants fan.
Speaker 1: Doesn't have a choice.
Speaker 3: Giants fan is maybe a stretch Giant fan. No, definitely not,
Speaker 3: but my partner, Jesse. He's very clear about rooting for
Speaker 3: the Giants, the Knicks, and the Mets, and nothing else
Speaker 3: is allowed. So I guess by proximity, I am a
Speaker 3: giant choice the Nicks and a Mets fan, and.
Speaker 1: Well, you must be. He must have been out of
Speaker 1: each I.
Speaker 3: Was, so I told you that I was really sick.
Speaker 3: I had a fever yesterday. I'm fine again, thank you
Speaker 3: for asking. And I fell asleep yesterday at eight pm,
Speaker 3: and around nine pm, Jesse starts screaming next to me.
Speaker 3: I thought something happened. And the thing that happened was
Speaker 3: that who got got a contract with.
Speaker 1: The Mets years almost was it?
Speaker 3: Almost seven eight hundred million dollars?
Speaker 1: Can you effin imagine that we have talked about have
Speaker 1: we not talked about this maybe in our regular life
Speaker 1: or on the pod about how we think? You know,
Speaker 1: everyone says about tennis players and the money they make,
Speaker 1: and we've seen just recently that the highest paid top
Speaker 1: ten female athletes in the world have been three or
Speaker 1: I think four or five of them were tennis players.
Speaker 2: Tennis keeps out of the ten.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's like crazy, but a lot of that is
Speaker 1: also prize money and I'm like, but you earn that
Speaker 1: money like tennis players earn their money. They don't get
Speaker 1: guaranteed fifteen year. I mean because if that happened in tennis,
Speaker 1: Carlos Alkarazen Sina would be getting eight hundred million dollars
Speaker 1: for fifteen years because we know they're going to be
Speaker 1: at the top of the game for at least a decade,
Speaker 1: you know me, whereas one Soto could like have a
Speaker 1: slump year or two or three and he's still getting paid.
Speaker 1: What is it ten million? What is it a year?
Speaker 1: Fifteen million? I can't work it out for me, Kaitlin
Speaker 1: to fifteen million, it's fifty million year. It's like fifty
Speaker 1: million a year. Can you fucking even imagine that?
Speaker 2: I get that baseball players play a lot of days,
Speaker 2: but I have to say, per like energy, burning, moment back,
Speaker 2: the moment effort. I would love to be a baseball player.
Speaker 2: Teams like you don't have to like you're not you know,
Speaker 2: a tennis player is running almost every single minute of
Speaker 2: the competition. A baseball player, you're up like every couple innings. Yeah,
Speaker 2: like maybe you make I think baseball is great and
Speaker 2: I love baseball. I actually think It's one of the
Speaker 2: best sports there is.
Speaker 3: Spoken like a true socialist.
Speaker 2: I guess I have a socialist. My team, the Montreal
Speaker 2: Expos was not there anymore I know.
Speaker 1: Is that a thing is making up word Montreal. One
Speaker 1: of the most famous at Montreal Expos moments is when
Speaker 1: they stole it from the Cubs.
Speaker 2: Yes, it was great. We had a great team and
Speaker 2: had the baseball strike of nineteen ninety six not happened,
Speaker 2: we might have won a World Series and then we
Speaker 2: would have kept our team instead of having to sell
Speaker 2: it to the Wash and franchise. Whs became the Nationals, which,
Speaker 2: like anyway, I think thisbell is great, but if you
Speaker 2: paid me one hundreds of millions of dollars, I'd play forever,
Speaker 2: yeah for and not have to do that much.
Speaker 1: I mean, seriously, I'm not kidding. I love this game,
Speaker 1: but if you have a son having play baseball, I mean,
Speaker 1: why would you put your son in football? Like CT
Speaker 1: the physicality of that game. I was watching the Monday
Speaker 1: night game last night was Kansas City and the LA
Speaker 1: team and they around. It was a great game, but
Speaker 1: it's like every play someone was getting carted off the
Speaker 1: field for something.
Speaker 2: Do you think they should play football without helmets.
Speaker 1: Yes, said I've said this a million times.
Speaker 2: Will not do open field tackle helmet helmets.
Speaker 1: I think what they should do is what they do
Speaker 1: in rugby. If you want to wear helmet, you have
Speaker 1: to you wear like a leathered you a helmet thing
Speaker 1: around your head. And because I have said this forever,
Speaker 1: if you go back to the old days of the NFL,
Speaker 1: that's all they had. They just had that like leather
Speaker 1: thing around there.
Speaker 2: Also they didn't have a lot of teeth.
Speaker 1: They didn't have a lot of teeth. But it's like
Speaker 1: for me, it's more it's like rugby. Then you start
Speaker 1: to learn how to tackle without using your head right,
Speaker 1: so you use your shoulder, you go to you can
Speaker 1: have you seen a game of rugby? Those guys are
Speaker 1: running at you at full pelt and you are tackling
Speaker 1: them now. I And also when you think about a
Speaker 1: wide receiver going across, like you're not going to spear
Speaker 1: him with your head. Now, they've tried to take away spearing, right,
Speaker 1: but it has still happens from time to time just
Speaker 1: because you know that's but if you know that your
Speaker 1: head is not protected, you're not sparing anybody.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and Noso. For me, what I like about football
Speaker 2: is the athleticism of the running and catching. Yeah, not
Speaker 2: so much the and the throwing and the accuracy human beings.
Speaker 2: So yeah, like I feel you know, I, you know,
Speaker 2: I like to throw an a hypothetical. So for me,
Speaker 2: I would watch football again if there were no helpmets.
Speaker 1: Honestly, it's a hypothetical I've been saying for years. I think,
Speaker 1: I honestly think if they want to improve people's longevity, and.
Speaker 2: They want to improve people's longevity, well, you know they.
Speaker 1: Talk about it, and we've improved the helmets. I'm like,
Speaker 1: just take the helmets away. You'd be dull and real
Speaker 1: quick not to go in with their helmet with their
Speaker 1: head because I don't have a helmet on.
Speaker 2: Anyway. I love that you're New York Transfer anyway.
Speaker 1: Tennisis so you really yelled into the mic.
Speaker 3: Then, oh, look at that.
Speaker 1: Look at that.
Speaker 3: I really tried to make a point about tennis. Yes,
Speaker 3: sometimes I bring it too close. Yeah, I always think
Speaker 3: people want stop trying to put.
Speaker 1: That little mark in your mouth. All right, so let's
Speaker 1: get to a little bit of tennis. Hi, everybody, I'm
Speaker 1: glad you joined us for a tennis talk and we
Speaker 1: talked about everything.
Speaker 3: But tennis talk starts at ten minutes.
Speaker 2: I have a segue into tennis, which is speaking of
Speaker 2: how much people get paid. There is wild speculation. First
Speaker 2: of all, renee u M Seed an event here in
Speaker 2: New York, the Garden Cup Cup. Oh yeah, Amminavarrogula yep.
Speaker 2: Ben Shelton Alcarez.
Speaker 1: Yes, by all accounts, wildly successful.
Speaker 2: Well not all accounts was it wildly successful, But by
Speaker 2: some accounts it was successful because there were a lot
Speaker 2: of seats energy in the space.
Speaker 1: Was I would say it was wildly successful in the
Speaker 1: fact that Madison Square Garden was sold out. And I
Speaker 1: have to tell you when I heard that I was
Speaker 1: getting I was doing the MC job. This was months
Speaker 1: and months ago, and you know I live in New York.
Speaker 1: Did you see any advertising.
Speaker 2: No, they didn't market it at all, which was strange.
Speaker 1: Well I can tell you why.
Speaker 2: And there were still some seats available day for eight dollars.
Speaker 1: I looked online. Yeah, but like we're talking, way way way, way,
Speaker 1: way out, it wasn't.
Speaker 2: I'm happy that tennis was in MSU and we had
Speaker 2: something to talk about, so I'm not trying how.
Speaker 1: Many members of the USTA membership is there, take your guess,
Speaker 1: eight hundred thousand.
Speaker 3: Yes.
Speaker 1: So they sent out an email to all the USTA memberships, okay,
Speaker 1: and they bought the tickets like crazy. So that's how
Speaker 1: they sold out. Interesting, they didn't have to do any
Speaker 1: advertising because tennis is so popular. And this is the
Speaker 1: conversation I wanted to get to today, is that tennis
Speaker 1: is so wildly popular in this country that you know
Speaker 1: a million people reached out to get tickets to this thing. Yeah,
Speaker 1: like in overall and so. And I have to say, like,
Speaker 1: when I got there, I was working with Steve Weissman,
Speaker 1: he was the other MC. I'm like, I said to him,
Speaker 1: I was like, well, how'd they get a good crowd?
Speaker 1: He goes, it's sold out? Like a what. So many
Speaker 1: of my friends that live in the city who love
Speaker 1: tennis were like, oh, I didn't even know this was
Speaker 1: happening because literally they did no advertising on it.
Speaker 2: Is that a good thing?
Speaker 1: Yeah? They sold out?
Speaker 2: Yeah, But is it a good thing that we had
Speaker 2: a major event in the heart of New York City
Speaker 2: and nobody knew about it?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 1: I don't know. You answered that question.
Speaker 3: What you said on some accounts, what were their accounts?
Speaker 2: They were friends. The friends they were there were like, oh,
Speaker 2: it's pretty low energy. These matches are not very good.
Speaker 2: There's no music or energy to it, which is a
Speaker 2: production issue, and that's a cost. It is a cost.
Speaker 2: But also if you sell out a thing like give
Speaker 2: people a night of entertainment, Like I'm not a huge
Speaker 2: exhibition tennis fan generally la the elephant out there, baby,
Speaker 2: but I do think like, and truly my attitude about
Speaker 2: this is like, hey, great, start like did I put
Speaker 2: on an event at MSG?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 2: I did not, So I'm not here to be like, oh,
Speaker 2: well they could have done all this stuff better. That's it. Great.
Speaker 2: Now that we've established that people want to see this thing, like,
Speaker 2: how can we iterate and improve it and maybe make
Speaker 2: the sort of interstitual moments because sometimes you get a
Speaker 2: good exit. I mean, you've played tons of exos. I
Speaker 2: don't know what makes a good exo.
Speaker 3: It's really hard, but I think so what I think
Speaker 3: what you really need to lean into from my experience,
Speaker 3: is to have a bit of a different counting system,
Speaker 3: get new people in and out so you keep the
Speaker 3: because it's not the match that counts, right, it's about
Speaker 3: the people that come out, and of course Carlos helps
Speaker 3: because he's just both Ben and Carlos.
Speaker 1: I was fantastic.
Speaker 3: Yeah, the box office players exactly, so that that will
Speaker 3: always work. But I think what the exhibitions I was
Speaker 3: part of that work best were mostly when either it
Speaker 3: was established like the Luxembourg Ladies do. It's a prize
Speaker 3: money thing. Who wins wins more money than there is
Speaker 3: a little bit of stakes, and that was like part
Speaker 3: of the advertising is who wins gets a fifty k paycheck, right,
Speaker 3: so then you feel a little bit of a competition
Speaker 3: in it. Yes, that's one thing that works. Or you
Speaker 3: have I have a lot of names and you keep
Speaker 3: changing them out right where you can like exchange oh,
Speaker 3: three games Andre Agacy please.
Speaker 1: The problem with that? Yeah, money, Okay, so it cost
Speaker 1: a lot of money. I would say, I don't know,
Speaker 1: I have no idea, but I'm going to take a
Speaker 1: guess and say that Carlos probably made a million dollars
Speaker 1: that night.
Speaker 2: The rumor is it's between one and two million, guaranteed.
Speaker 2: I would say one, You're probably right.
Speaker 1: I know that the taking the gate was three with
Speaker 1: the crowds. Yeah, you know, and the money.
Speaker 2: And I heard Jess and Emma got one hundred K,
Speaker 2: and I heard Ben got anywhere from two to five
Speaker 2: hundred from a couple of different reason.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I would say that was truly spent at least
Speaker 1: two million dollars on just the players alone, on talent.
Speaker 1: So when you think about that, then you've got to
Speaker 1: pay everyone working, including myself. You know, you've got to
Speaker 1: pay these people to come in, You've got to pay
Speaker 1: for the court to be later. Like, it costs a
Speaker 1: lot of money to put an event like that. So
Speaker 1: I know that the sponsorship, they didn't have a lot
Speaker 1: of sponsorship, but I I can they did not have them, No,
Speaker 1: they did not, but I can. They made enough money
Speaker 1: to cover everything. But what I would say is that's great. Yea, yeah,
Speaker 1: which is great. First, Yeah, and and yes, Ben and
Speaker 1: Carlos were incredible. Carlos is just oh my god, he's
Speaker 1: just he is. Yeah, and Ben did a great job
Speaker 1: as well. And his game is not necessarily like flashy
Speaker 1: like Carlos's, because you know, he can't rally as easily.
Speaker 1: But my god, some of the shots he hit, and
Speaker 1: he hit one forehand that was so hard. I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: my god. So they were fun. The girls not so much.
Speaker 1: But you know, I mean, Emma was trying because she's
Speaker 1: got a little bit more of a like quirky personality.
Speaker 1: But you know, Jess is Jess. She's not really flashy
Speaker 1: and all that sort of stuff. But the tennis was
Speaker 1: really good from the two of them. It was very
Speaker 1: good tennis.
Speaker 3: The thing with them, yeah, I don't know. It's the
Speaker 3: thing with them is you need one of the players
Speaker 3: to be an extroverted charisma a type of thing. But
Speaker 3: she's not going to drop shots or slices through the truth.
Speaker 3: But Sablenka will show up, she will look great in
Speaker 3: her dress, she will demand attention, and she will be
Speaker 3: there and have presence. And I think you need at
Speaker 3: least one of these type of players for these things.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but again, as I said, yeah, yeah, but what about.
Speaker 3: You think Pegula doesn't have a bigger paycheck on her
Speaker 3: head in America than Seblenka. Nobody in the States knows
Speaker 3: who she is, even though she's number one in the world.
Speaker 3: Right even like, okay, we side in the Forbes things
Speaker 3: that you just mentioned, Sablenka andre Bacchina combined earned less
Speaker 3: in sponsorship money than Emma Raducanu. Yeah, so clearly you
Speaker 3: know we know why they are not from the States.
Speaker 3: Well yeah, no, and also or England or EU countries
Speaker 3: or Big Marsh. She's attractive and they so Sabka, Sablenka
Speaker 3: is an incredible.
Speaker 1: She's from Belarus.
Speaker 3: That's what I mean. That's what I mean. You can't
Speaker 3: tell me that Sablenka costs more than a Jess Pagoula
Speaker 3: in America. That's what I'm saying. Oh, I think they
Speaker 3: are demanded.
Speaker 1: I would think she would demand.
Speaker 3: She wouldn't because she's number one in the world.
Speaker 2: And I don't know. I bet she'd be like, oh, dude,
Speaker 2: you get a carbone table and you get the thing
Speaker 2: like I think you could probably just shuld be like,
Speaker 2: oh yeah, we'll put you on the giant screen at
Speaker 2: a Knicks game. She'd be like, yeah, cool. She seems
Speaker 2: like a good time Charlie.
Speaker 1: I bet you did.
Speaker 2: It's like, oh, I'll beat me at the bar after.
Speaker 3: I'll She is very very serious. I talked to her
Speaker 3: at the Ocean Open last year. I interviewed to a
Speaker 3: few times. She's super She's very serious about her off season.
Speaker 3: She takes it very serious.
Speaker 2: I cannot say enough about how thankful I feel as
Speaker 2: a tennis fan, not only because I like her style
Speaker 2: of play, but also just like it is so helpful
Speaker 2: for the game to have a charismatic number one. It
Speaker 2: is so helpful to even if she's from a small market.
Speaker 2: She translates, she's Miami, she's flashy, she's got the Omar
Speaker 2: Piger watch thing. She's just like, she's fun.
Speaker 3: She has a lot of presents, so.
Speaker 2: Much presence, and it's uh to me. You know, I
Speaker 2: don't need her to win all the stuff. Part of
Speaker 2: it is is she gonna.
Speaker 1: Well, Actually, part of I love, I actually love when
Speaker 1: she loses because she's especially in finals and she does
Speaker 1: her speeches and she's like, wow, but she's my ass
Speaker 1: this time, but I'm going to kick your ass.
Speaker 2: What is just like such a fun spectacle. I really
Speaker 2: like when my athletes are like treating it like a
Speaker 2: game in the sense that they're very serious and it's
Speaker 2: about the process, but also they understand that like part
Speaker 2: of it is also the entertainment factor, and like she
Speaker 2: really delivers on that for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and not all of them do, No, they don't,
Speaker 1: but you know, I mean listen, you can't help your personality.
Speaker 1: It's just who you are.
Speaker 3: But for example, that's why Jess and Saberlenka when they
Speaker 3: do play, that's an amazing matchup because they, yes, you
Speaker 3: don't need Tonka, Like.
Speaker 1: It comes down to money and who's available as well
Speaker 1: for these things. And it's easier to get an American
Speaker 1: in November to play in America, right. And the fact
Speaker 1: that Carlos, I mean, I'm gonna be honest, like.
Speaker 2: Playing like another exhibition.
Speaker 1: The fact that he and then he played Charlotte. No,
Speaker 1: he's already done that Charlotte event. Yeah, But like I'm like,
Speaker 1: when is this guy having any time off? When is
Speaker 1: he like he started He's starting his preseason this coming week.
Speaker 1: I asked him his agent. So I'm like, apparently had
Speaker 1: like two weeks off, didn't hit a tennis ball after
Speaker 1: after Davis Cup. I'm like, so when he played Ben
Speaker 1: he hadn't hit a ball in like two weeks.
Speaker 2: I guess he doesn't need so.
Speaker 1: That those were his two those were his weeks off,
Speaker 1: and then coming to play these exos was like him
Speaker 1: getting started for next year. I'm like, fuck you, no, man,
Speaker 1: I tell you if I'm Yanick Sin. I'm sitting back
Speaker 1: there going, okay, well, I had pretty good preseason. I
Speaker 1: had like two weeks off I didn't do anything, and
Speaker 1: then I went straight into it. I don't know, we'll see.
Speaker 2: Can you guys talk a little bit about just because
Speaker 2: I think it is really interesting to understand the exo
Speaker 2: and like what the formula of it, Like what the
Speaker 2: fun ones you've been involved in. I mean, like everyone
Speaker 2: gives UTS a lot of shit. I know, everybody in
Speaker 2: the space.
Speaker 1: Yeah, like just one that utr UTS. What is a
Speaker 1: UTR in London?
Speaker 2: UTS is the XO. UTR is the reading system and
Speaker 2: they're very easy to confuse. But you know, Patrick gets
Speaker 2: a lot.
Speaker 1: Of not not to be confused with the UTI.
Speaker 2: Nobody want that. That's what I don't want. Only cranberry
Speaker 2: juice can prevent a UTS, oh my god, but it
Speaker 2: cannot prevent a UTS. So I do like actually the
Speaker 2: UTS format because kind of two point It's like, yes,
Speaker 2: the names are silly. I think their graphics could be
Speaker 2: greatly improved. It looks like a you know, WWE, like
Speaker 2: from nineteen eighties sort of marketing program.
Speaker 1: The WWE in the eighties was awesome.
Speaker 2: It was pretty cool, but like it's kind of like
Speaker 2: and yeah, like I want to watch somebody play a
Speaker 2: tie break? Do I want to watch somebody, especially if
Speaker 2: their hertsun and it play three sets, Like Nope, But
Speaker 2: I'm happy to like see somebody try for like a
Speaker 2: ten point really hard and see what happens and like
Speaker 2: maybe try to do go for some asis. So I
Speaker 2: do think that there's something too. I don't hate exos
Speaker 2: as a as a rule, but I do think there's
Speaker 2: like a variation and how good they can be. And
Speaker 2: like I said, MSG, I'm glad they had it. I'm
Speaker 2: glad well was so. But I would love to see
Speaker 2: us build on this and maybe make it.
Speaker 1: I know that they have one hundred percent certain I'm
Speaker 1: not gonna say for certainly it's coming back next year,
Speaker 1: but I would say ninety percent certainty that it will
Speaker 1: come back because of the it was so wildly successful.
Speaker 2: Yeah, breaking even in your first year is great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And they hadn't played for six or seven years,
Speaker 1: they hadn't had the Garden Cup for like six or
Speaker 1: seven years. I've been a part of it almost every
Speaker 1: year that has been there, whether it be MCing or
Speaker 1: commentating it. But you know what it showed me was,
Speaker 1: first of all, God, how I missed playing tennis tournaments
Speaker 1: in Madison Square Garden. I mean we played the WTA
Speaker 1: finals there for a number year. My first couple of
Speaker 1: years I played the WTA finals when I was a
Speaker 1: Bear Bear was at Madison Square Garden and it was
Speaker 1: unbelievably successful. We always had great crowds. Double singles didn't matter.
Speaker 1: People came and they showed up. Because you have to remember,
Speaker 1: we're talking about Madison Square Garden. It is in the
Speaker 1: middle of Manhattan. Do you know how many people live
Speaker 1: in Manhattan that have money.
Speaker 2: Easy to get to on every train.
Speaker 1: One fucking apartment building could fill the Madison Square Garden.
Speaker 1: You think about then you've got people coming in from
Speaker 1: Long Island, but it is accessible. It's so easy to
Speaker 1: get into Madison Square Garden.
Speaker 3: And how was the atmosphere when you were I was great?
Speaker 3: It was great.
Speaker 1: And I mean even the atmosphere, you know when Ben's
Speaker 1: particular in Ben and Carlos were playing, the crowd goes nuts.
Speaker 1: The atmosphere and there is awesome. So I'm like, please, God,
Speaker 1: can we bring an event back there. It's crazy The
Speaker 1: ATP or WT finals one year should be there. Clearly
Speaker 1: you've got to find the sponsorship. I get it. But surely,
Speaker 1: surely Bill Ackman was playing in the pro am. Of
Speaker 1: course it was before the event. I mean I could
Speaker 1: buy the fucking w TAO ATP finals and put it
Speaker 1: on there every year himself.
Speaker 2: Time better spent than him trying to get University of
Speaker 2: Presidents fired for which hunts.
Speaker 1: So yeah, exactly, him for supporting certain people for president.
Speaker 3: Well, at this rate, the Italians will buy Madison Square
Speaker 3: and then just put an event on by the Italian
Speaker 3: Tennis Federation.
Speaker 1: Let's actually get to that, because let's have it. But
Speaker 1: just to finish, like the thread on this is that
Speaker 1: you know you saw Charlotte also packed, also sold out.
Speaker 1: We are missing more tenors in this country, in the US.
Speaker 1: And you know, when I played in my day, we
Speaker 1: had a number of tournaments here at the end of
Speaker 1: the year, indoors in Philadelphia, at Madison Square Garden in Chicago,
Speaker 1: and we don't have those events. And god, I wish
Speaker 1: we had more events because people are hankering for tennis
Speaker 1: in this country exactly.
Speaker 2: And I think what, I'm glad you mentioned that because
Speaker 2: that was totally my takeaway, which is just like with
Speaker 2: very little.
Speaker 1: Much an email.
Speaker 2: They send out emails like imagine what the USTA could
Speaker 2: be doing on a regular basis if they have.
Speaker 1: A utilizing their membership.
Speaker 2: And I think, like, you know, we know that the
Speaker 2: USTA is oversubscribed, we know that they probably sell too
Speaker 2: many tickets, so that the thing now just feels like
Speaker 2: it's a total us open us open. Yeah sorry, And
Speaker 2: I think because of that, like, yeah, there's latent demand here,
Speaker 2: so let's like spread the wealth throughout the I mean
Speaker 2: Paris has two major events, like it has a Master's
Speaker 2: one thousand, and it has a Slam. Like then that's
Speaker 2: a city with less density and it gets sold out
Speaker 2: every time, and it sold out every time, and you know,
Speaker 2: I think that's great. Like I want to see like
Speaker 2: sort of it's it's easy to use case studies to
Speaker 2: sort of say like, Okay, well this makes the case
Speaker 2: now for this, and I hope that happens. La, as
Speaker 2: we've discussed many times, should also have a.
Speaker 1: Tennis Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 2: I was actually I was talking with Christy on about
Speaker 2: this on Friday because she I was like, you know,
Speaker 2: it's a real shame Chicago doesn't have a tournament because
Speaker 2: Chicago's actually like a pretty big tennis study. And then
Speaker 2: she was like, wait, but the Chicago tennis tournament itself,
Speaker 2: and I was like, actually, yeah, I've talked about this.
Speaker 2: She was like, you don't understand what the tournament in
Speaker 2: Chicago was like.
Speaker 3: Okay, as an example, so sometimes had nine am. I
Speaker 3: haven't played at nine am since I was twelve years old.
Speaker 3: That was my match, my main dro match, because their
Speaker 3: lights weren't working, so they had to get in four
Speaker 3: rounds of tennis.
Speaker 2: She said, there was She said there was a curfect.
Speaker 2: I know, we know, you know the owners and you
Speaker 2: wanted to know. No, no, no, But just to illustrate
Speaker 2: the point, she said, there was a curfew because also
Speaker 2: it was like pretty rough around town and nobody came to.
Speaker 1: There was in the south side of shit.
Speaker 2: Everybody had to get bussed out of there by a
Speaker 2: certain time, so that just by a.
Speaker 3: Bus there wasn't running, and so you had to order
Speaker 3: ubers and then give them the invoices that they never
Speaker 3: paid for. That was one and then on the semi
Speaker 3: final day because strangely enough, I want the doubles in
Speaker 3: that one. Yes, yeah, no, no, I'm not cheating on
Speaker 3: it with she won with a crutch by her side.
Speaker 3: But on semifinals day, they didn't have catering. They didn't
Speaker 3: have food because they said, oh, they told us nobody
Speaker 3: was going to be here anymore, and then we had
Speaker 3: to order Uber Eats again give them the invoice that
Speaker 3: they never paid for. So I'm not sure Chicago really
Speaker 3: needs time to shoot.
Speaker 2: On a tournament. It's just to say it does take
Speaker 2: a lot of planning.
Speaker 1: It does take a lot of which is my point
Speaker 1: in making with them. They didn't have a lot of time.
Speaker 1: This was thrust upon them very quickly to have that tournament,
Speaker 1: and they said, yeah, we can do it because they
Speaker 1: have the facilities. And one of the things about having
Speaker 1: a tennis storm is you have to have facilities. You
Speaker 1: have got gotta have the call, you've got to have
Speaker 1: the lights, you've got to have the freedom to have
Speaker 1: the members say oh yeah, we can, okay give up
Speaker 1: our you know, our club for a week. So there's
Speaker 1: a lot that goes into it. You've got to have sponsorship,
Speaker 1: you've got to have all that sort of stuff. You've
Speaker 1: got to be able to pay for lunches, you've got
Speaker 1: to be able to it's you've got to play for linesmen,
Speaker 1: You've got to play for lines women, and you have
Speaker 1: to you've got to put them up in hotels.
Speaker 2: I like, you've got to advertise the tournament so that
Speaker 2: people come, which is not nothing.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 2: Maybe this event sure had a built in email list
Speaker 2: to create fandom, but like, not all of them do. Like,
Speaker 2: I'm really curious to see what happens with the Dallas Open,
Speaker 2: which is now like kind of getting an upgrade. It's
Speaker 2: a men's only event in late February, it's an indoor event.
Speaker 2: Obviously they get the male stars. But the reason I
Speaker 2: bring it up is because it exactly to your point,
Speaker 2: was at a private, kind of provincial, nice but provincial
Speaker 2: club in the middle of like the Dallas suburbs. And
Speaker 2: now they're playing it at the practice stadium for the
Speaker 2: Dallas Cowboys, and it's going to feel real empty unless
Speaker 2: they got a ton of people there, yeah, which maybe
Speaker 2: they will and hopefully it's you know how much I
Speaker 2: think it's kind similar to the Miami Open stadium where
Speaker 2: they like.
Speaker 3: Oh right, oh okay, that's going.
Speaker 2: So it'll be it'll be interesting to see what happens.
Speaker 2: But I like the idea like okay, cool, like we're
Speaker 2: going to make a commitment, we're going to try to
Speaker 2: have this venue for a couple of years, and they're
Speaker 2: advertising it now so that.
Speaker 1: They have you know, because the thing that I feel
Speaker 1: that's a men's of anally, it's.
Speaker 2: A mens of not only so you know, obviously plenty
Speaker 2: to leave to be desired, but like the thing that
Speaker 2: I feel like as a as a spectator is, yes,
Speaker 2: I want this to be like good tennis, and I
Speaker 2: want to feel like there's a thoughtful set up as
Speaker 2: an experience, but also like I feel bad when the
Speaker 2: players show up and there's nobody to watch that.
Speaker 1: Yeah, of course it's like that sucks like WTA finals
Speaker 1: in Dallas, I mean in Fort Worth and nobody knew
Speaker 1: about it.
Speaker 2: They didn't pick the venue until like ten days before.
Speaker 2: I mean I'm sort of exaggerating, but like, yeah, like
Speaker 2: the players deserve especially for like a finals event, like.
Speaker 1: Well guess what in read they know it's still coming back.
Speaker 3: Semi finals and finals was sold out. It's a small venue.
Speaker 3: Three and a half I think were great, but the
Speaker 3: semis and finals were at least sold out, So maybe
Speaker 3: next year, you know, the it's not easy. I always
Speaker 3: give slack. Is that how you say? I give slack
Speaker 3: to first year events. That's why Madison Square Garden, the
Speaker 3: Garden Cup, they called it breaking even in the first
Speaker 3: year is an incredible success because usually it takes a
Speaker 3: few years. I mean, just talk to Bob Moran, who
Speaker 3: has done an incredible job with Charles Charleston. It just
Speaker 3: takes years to embed yourself into the community and for
Speaker 3: people to know this part time of year, the tennis
Speaker 3: is in town. Like the Gossip Girl. Do you know
Speaker 3: the Gossip Girl? It was like, why what do you
Speaker 3: want to don't want to go out? Tennis players are
Speaker 3: in town. That's like a line on Gossip Girl. And
Speaker 3: that's the type that that's the thing that you want
Speaker 3: to achieve with an event like this, that people of
Speaker 3: the community are going like, tennis is in town.
Speaker 1: This is what we do.
Speaker 3: At least one day of it. I'm taking my family.
Speaker 3: That's why tickets have to be affordable, at least some
Speaker 3: of them. It's my credo some of them. You have
Speaker 3: to be able to take your kids to tennis and
Speaker 3: then for them to see the magic with their own
Speaker 3: eyes and maybe pick up the record and become a
Speaker 3: lifelong fan, and this is.
Speaker 2: Why we need a Commissioner of Tennis.
Speaker 1: That's right, and we have nominated you now, mamma, thank
Speaker 1: you very much.
Speaker 2: Well, it's been a majority of us yes.
Speaker 1: Yet on exactly you.
Speaker 2: Can't oppose your own nomination against my will. I've decided
Speaker 2: to accept.
Speaker 3: Against my will, I've phenominated.
Speaker 1: Oh it's classic anyway. I just think we need tennis
Speaker 1: in this country more. But it also goes back to
Speaker 1: the conversation we've been having through me thinking that after
Speaker 1: the US Open, tennis needs to stop. The calendar tournaments
Speaker 1: need to stop. As far as the WTAATP, I think
Speaker 1: you need to have one twenty five to fifties for
Speaker 1: players outside of so the top fifty, but everybody else.
Speaker 1: I think we need to have some team events and
Speaker 1: some exos and fun and make sure these players are
Speaker 1: making our shit ton of money and but they're not
Speaker 1: having the stress of like winning a tournament or playing
Speaker 1: against people like from the US Open nine. I think
Speaker 1: we have the United Cup. I think we have Hotman Cut,
Speaker 1: we have Davis Cup and Billy Jean Kin Cup, and
Speaker 1: you make everything a team event and make everything fun
Speaker 1: for these players and you take maybe one player I
Speaker 1: think we discussed this last week, but one player from
Speaker 1: the top ten, one player from the top twenty, one
Speaker 1: player from the top thirty, forty and fifty, right, and
Speaker 1: you make a team of that. So it's kind of
Speaker 1: like an NBAWNBA free agency, Like, okay, you get to
Speaker 1: choose somebody in the top ten, you get to choose
Speaker 1: somebody in the top five.
Speaker 2: Is that like World Team Tennis?
Speaker 1: Kind of a little bit like World Team Tennis, and
Speaker 1: you make a team out of it, and then you
Speaker 1: can exchange them in and out singles and doubles and
Speaker 1: mixed doubles, and you actually have teams a minute.
Speaker 2: For the merchandise, the logos, I mean team handchicks.
Speaker 1: You know, China is putting a lot of tennis into
Speaker 1: money at the end of the year, so guess what,
Speaker 1: you have a true World Cup, right, So everyone from
Speaker 1: every you know, one person from each top ten, top twenty,
Speaker 1: top thirty has to be picked in a team.
Speaker 2: I love it, and y could be a Parrot's team.
Speaker 1: So everyone in the top fifty is taking care of
Speaker 1: everyone's playing. If you're ranked one, you get x amount
Speaker 1: of money too.
Speaker 2: So pragmatically, what comes off the schedule.
Speaker 1: Everything, so you kill all of that Asian tournaments and
Speaker 1: everyone's like, well but Asian wants to put money, Yeah,
Speaker 1: they can. You have a World Cup, you have a
Speaker 1: true World Cup, then you have a you know, a
Speaker 1: mixed event.
Speaker 2: You have like, well, don't we take it out of Australia.
Speaker 1: Of Madison Square Garden that was one of the sites
Speaker 1: of a World Team Tennis, it was sold out every
Speaker 1: single match.
Speaker 2: I think any economist would like the I think the
Speaker 2: World Cup idea is additive. I think anybody who's looking
Speaker 2: at the tenness economics would say, you're insane to take
Speaker 2: tennis out of Asia. We probably should take it out
Speaker 2: of Australia because it's such a small market.
Speaker 1: So I just say, I'm just saying, I'm talking about
Speaker 1: at the end of the year.
Speaker 2: I know what you're talking about, but some thing's got
Speaker 2: to give. And it's easy for you to be like
Speaker 2: it's Asia, But it would also be easy for somebody
Speaker 2: to be like January, it's not really summer for most
Speaker 2: of the living hemispheres, but that's why it's down there.
Speaker 1: It's summer.
Speaker 2: But I just but I think you have to I
Speaker 2: think you have to account for your own bias in this.
Speaker 1: It's not a bias Australia. First of all, Australias the
Speaker 1: amount of money. There's no bigger country in the world.
Speaker 1: There's no country in the world that loves sports more.
Speaker 2: That's the intangible, the amount.
Speaker 1: Of money that it makes for Victoria, for Australia, for
Speaker 1: as an industry.
Speaker 2: As a market, it is a tiny, tiny, tiny market.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's it's in Asia. It's Australia. The tournament
Speaker 1: is known as the Tournament of Australia.
Speaker 2: White people.
Speaker 1: I don't think any Asian people are like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's sponsored by Kia. Like half the sponsorships are Chinese.
Speaker 2: Kias are a Korean company.
Speaker 1: Well, but but it's an Asian company.
Speaker 2: My point is, I think if you were to be like,
Speaker 2: I'm these are the this is gonna be a your
Speaker 2: feet now that you're the commissioner, I like, and you're like,
Speaker 2: I'm just going back. If you're the commissioner and you
Speaker 2: have to kill a part of the tour and so
Speaker 2: much money and so much new play and recreation and
Speaker 2: equipment sales and momentum is coming out of Asia, what
Speaker 2: do you do about that?
Speaker 3: Well, then the World Cup first chances Commissioner to make
Speaker 3: it the World Cup that Renee mentioned it had to
Speaker 3: be it would have to be in Asia then, or
Speaker 3: you would travel it around the world. I can't kill
Speaker 3: that part or you have That's what I always said.
Speaker 3: In order to protect I don't think it would be feasible,
Speaker 3: but in order to protect protect players health, I just
Speaker 3: don't think they would want to be away from home
Speaker 3: so much is I think you should have all of January, February,
Speaker 3: maybe a little bit into March, be in Asia Pacific,
Speaker 3: start at Australia.
Speaker 4: Commissioner has moved, well, start start in Australia, starting in Australia,
Speaker 4: Start in Australia, move to China, Asia, China, Japan, then
Speaker 4: go to the Middle East and then go to the States.
Speaker 3: So basically you're staying on the same timeline because what's
Speaker 3: killing players on top of the long schedule is having
Speaker 3: to fly back and forth from one from one time.
Speaker 1: All well, the way it used to go back in
Speaker 1: the new has arrived early on in my career, it
Speaker 1: went Australia, Japan, indoors in the US right Chicago, Philadelphia,
Speaker 1: that was the early part. So it was winter. It
Speaker 1: was like April. Sorry, it was like February March, and
Speaker 1: then it was Indian Wells and Miami. So you went Australia, Asia, US,
Speaker 1: then you went to Europe for all the clay and Wimbledon,
Speaker 1: et cetera. And then you came back to the US
Speaker 1: and then you either went back to Europe or you
Speaker 1: stayed in the States. There were tournaments in both in
Speaker 1: Europe and in the States, and then we finished with
Speaker 1: Madison Square Garden.
Speaker 2: So we've done this before, but I would like to
Speaker 2: crowdsource an ideal schedule. Somebody asked me and I was like,
Speaker 2: I don't know. Buenas like I just wasn't prepared.
Speaker 1: You were just buased. You would you want to take
Speaker 1: everything out of Australia and put it in South America.
Speaker 2: The market is I don't want to punish Australia. My
Speaker 2: beef is not with Australia. My beef is more just
Speaker 2: like with the schedule. It's a weird time with the schedule.
Speaker 1: And also it's not when do you propose having an
Speaker 1: Australia in winter? I don't, Yeah, that's your problem.
Speaker 2: I'm just gonna I think actually like something that that
Speaker 2: is part of a as long as it's part of
Speaker 2: a tour. It just feels like such an outlier now.
Speaker 1: And also like it's an outlier that people love, dude,
Speaker 1: some people Australian people do. But because we have to
Speaker 1: fucking get up at three in the morning to watch
Speaker 1: any tennis event for the rest of the year, it's
Speaker 1: about time y'all got up early and had to watch us.
Speaker 1: But they don't.
Speaker 2: And also a lot of the sponsors, yes, Kiah, sure,
Speaker 2: but like a lot of the global sponsors don't consider
Speaker 2: Australia a big enough market to develop.
Speaker 1: It, which a little Australia feels differently.
Speaker 2: They making Australia has done a great job with a
Speaker 2: with a with not a lot.
Speaker 1: But also you talk about having destination ornaments and destination
Speaker 1: events all the time, in Australia is truly a destination.
Speaker 1: How many europe you know how many Europeans go down
Speaker 1: to Australia for the Australian Open.
Speaker 3: It's yeah, that's true. They always they connect it. Well
Speaker 3: that's the thing that Americans. Yeah, they go like, oh,
Speaker 3: we've never been to Australia, let's stay there for three
Speaker 3: four weeks and Yesta and Open or United Cup, a
Speaker 3: one part of that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So anyway, just to get back to I think
Speaker 1: after the US Open, I think that's the time, you know,
Speaker 1: you pet go bring up Okay, do we just have
Speaker 1: it in Asia? I don't know. You can see, I think,
Speaker 1: sign a five year contract and have a World Cup
Speaker 1: and have all these different events in China where people
Speaker 1: aren't moving around, where they actually getting a place to
Speaker 1: stay in for a month, They're getting paid a lot
Speaker 1: of money.
Speaker 2: I think the reason she's Asia is whatever, because otherwise
Speaker 2: where where do they fit.
Speaker 1: On the schedule. Well, the reason I bring up having
Speaker 1: it in Asia or China in particular is because obviously
Speaker 1: they're willing to put a lot of money in and
Speaker 1: to it's it's you're going to always guarantee a big
Speaker 1: prize money check. Now are the fans gonna be there?
Speaker 1: I don't know. I mean certainly they get great fans
Speaker 1: in Beijing and Shanghai, in the big cities, and then
Speaker 1: maybe after four years or five years you have a
Speaker 1: bidding war.
Speaker 2: I actually think if we're gonna go double down on Asia,
Speaker 2: having lived there, I think you go in like February
Speaker 2: into it indoors when it's the lunar New York Festa.
Speaker 1: But we're talking about having this World Cup. I get
Speaker 1: it without the points.
Speaker 2: You're you're so we're solving for different problems. My problem
Speaker 2: is trying to shorten the season so the players don't
Speaker 2: get injured so much and so they don't have to
Speaker 2: like dread playing a single points meaningful tournament after all. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I think it is your larger point. And for me,
Speaker 2: the way to do that is to move You can't
Speaker 2: kill Asia from the schedule, so move it to maybe
Speaker 2: the like late winter, early spring.
Speaker 1: Well you could do what Picco saying. You go from
Speaker 1: Australia to Asia and you move everything around at the
Speaker 1: end of the year and then you take it at
Speaker 1: the end of the year and you go to my
Speaker 1: South America or But also you have to remember this,
Speaker 1: the people that put this on after the US Open
Speaker 1: to have a World Cup. That the thing I'm talking
Speaker 1: about a lot of money. It has to be in
Speaker 1: a place that can afford a lot of money. So
Speaker 1: we're talking China, we're talking to it does have to
Speaker 1: be Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia, Yeah, well maybe it is.
Speaker 1: Maybe that's where you have the World Cup and you literally,
Speaker 1: you know, if you're number one in the world and
Speaker 1: you play in this, you're getting ten million dollars, you know,
Speaker 1: or fifteen million dollars to come and play it.
Speaker 2: Listen. I will gladly do all the cooler merch and
Speaker 2: marketing and storytelling for this.
Speaker 1: I had this conversation actually with Craig Tiley, you know,
Speaker 1: because Craig's always trying to innovate at some stage with tennis,
Speaker 1: and he's always trying to push the envelope a little bit.
Speaker 1: And I said, you know, after the US Open, like,
Speaker 1: let's just nix all the points tournaments, keep the smaller
Speaker 1: ones because for the people outside say the top fifty
Speaker 1: or top seventy five, that they're able to play and
Speaker 1: people are going to be like, well, they're gonna they're
Speaker 1: gonna win, they're going to win points and they're going
Speaker 1: to move up, and players inside the top fifty aren't
Speaker 1: because they're not getting points. You work out a system
Speaker 1: of maybe a bonus points schedule. If you win against
Speaker 1: certain people, you get a certain amount. I just think
Speaker 1: there's an opportunity there to take away the pressure of playing.
Speaker 1: And also, these players are playing these exhibitions when they've
Speaker 1: been talking about how fucking tired they are. I'm like, well, no,
Speaker 1: you're playing because you're getting paid a lot of money.
Speaker 1: That's why for free, because it doesn't cost you anything.
Speaker 1: If Carlos loses to Francis, who cares? He loses the band?
Speaker 3: Who cares?
Speaker 1: If he loses in a regular tournament, it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: he's on a losing streak.
Speaker 3: That's what we talked about last year, right, where tennis
Speaker 3: is the only sport that kind of functions like a
Speaker 3: little where every team functions like a little company. Tennis
Speaker 3: player being the CEO has to hire his own people,
Speaker 3: pay them, and then make sure he makes a profit
Speaker 3: from what he's to pay for it. So when you
Speaker 3: have an exhibition at pays two million, you can be like,
Speaker 3: are my expenses for this year?
Speaker 1: Covert?
Speaker 3: Now I can go buy myself a cryo cabin in
Speaker 3: my house like Cristiano Ronaldo and sleep and minus ninety degrees.
Speaker 1: That's no, that travels with doesn't he?
Speaker 3: But right, that's what I think. That's what in tennis.
Speaker 3: You don't have the security like who wants oo? Who knows?
Speaker 3: For the next fifteen years, I'm set with seven hundred
Speaker 3: and fifty million dollars.
Speaker 1: I can make sure that is e Venezuelan. Oh my god,
Speaker 1: he might so much money he buy the country he
Speaker 1: came from. I mean, that's just crazy money.
Speaker 3: But just you know he can, he can allocate a
Speaker 3: certain number of that money that he's that he's going
Speaker 3: to be paid. And Pullinovak Djokovic who always had that.
Speaker 3: Heinz Or always had this like incredible vision of himself
Speaker 3: when we were seventeen, he's my age. When we were seventeen,
Speaker 3: he already was drinking green juices, already had a physio
Speaker 3: with him, and he was paying that out of his
Speaker 3: own pocket. He's from serving investing he did. Yeah, he
Speaker 3: didn't have a federation that was backing him. It didn't
Speaker 3: have big sponsorship money. He just had this vision of
Speaker 3: himself becoming the goat, and he managed to do so.
Speaker 3: But rarely do people ever have that. But somebody who
Speaker 3: earns in the next ten years x amount can allocate
Speaker 3: some of those funds into building themselves into the best
Speaker 3: player that can be, and tennis players can't. And that's
Speaker 3: why we see regularly on the tennis player side people
Speaker 3: not fulfilling their potential because they have to decide make
Speaker 3: decisions day to day when they lose. Like I always
Speaker 3: give the example when I in my last year before
Speaker 3: I retired, I wanted to make a big splash at
Speaker 3: Indian Wells and Miami. So I traveled with three people
Speaker 3: with a physio, with a fitness coach and my coach,
Speaker 3: and I.
Speaker 1: Spent You had an entourage.
Speaker 3: I had an entourage, and I spent ten K because
Speaker 3: we arrived ten days early to Indian Wells to adjust
Speaker 3: to the time zone to adjus to the desert. I'd
Speaker 3: never played well in Indian Wells because the ball flew,
Speaker 3: so I like bought all these balls. I brought all
Speaker 3: these people, and a day before Indian Wells, I tear
Speaker 3: my doctor. Yeah that's right, I tore my doctor. I
Speaker 3: had to pull out. And then they have this rule
Speaker 3: that you can pull out of the tournament and you
Speaker 3: get the first round price hockey right half of it.
Speaker 3: So I got like four and a half thousand. So
Speaker 3: I was already in the minors. So now I was
Speaker 3: there having to decide do I try to get ready
Speaker 3: for It was a small tear. Do I try to
Speaker 3: get ready for Miami? Spend another fifteen K with all
Speaker 3: these people? I made the decision, and I reinjured my
Speaker 3: adopted three days before Miami had to pull out. Didn't
Speaker 3: get any money there. I remember I was in a
Speaker 3: minus of twenty five thousand.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I was okay.
Speaker 3: I had a career of fifteen years behind.
Speaker 1: I was reach already.
Speaker 3: But but that's those are decisions. But those are decisions.
Speaker 3: And I was in the fifteenth year of my career
Speaker 3: and that was my last year. I could make this
Speaker 3: splash and I had a decent career. But there are
Speaker 3: plenty of plays. If I had been eighteen, who had
Speaker 3: just been on a score for one year, they would fuck.
Speaker 1: My next five years.
Speaker 3: I couldn't have paid for my coach, but the whole
Speaker 3: entire rest of the season, And that's what tennis players
Speaker 3: have to deal with every day. And so I think
Speaker 3: you have to give them the opportunity to play a
Speaker 3: few exhibitions to have saved money in the pocket, and
Speaker 3: then they can, you know, pay for their teams, et cetera,
Speaker 3: et cetera.
Speaker 2: Or we can socialize and have a union and create
Speaker 2: labor negotiations with mutually agreed upon several roles and schedule.
Speaker 1: Oh, it seems to me that I'm sitting here with
Speaker 1: both commissioners. I'm just the uh, I'm the consigli. That's
Speaker 1: all I wanted. All right, that's what you want to
Speaker 1: all right, let's let's finish this pod because we're going
Speaker 1: to do a quick one.
Speaker 2: Can I ask a question? We have?
Speaker 3: We have, we have questions, questions.
Speaker 2: Can I just ask a question A quick question? Yes,
Speaker 2: for the lay person because you mentioned it Renee before,
Speaker 2: and Andrea, I'm very curious because you have played so
Speaker 2: recently and we're talking about physically optimizing. Carlos was spending
Speaker 2: his off season doing exos and is now beginning his preseason.
Speaker 2: We see all these photographs of players Dubai wherever, training Miami.
Speaker 2: What are you trying to do? You're trying to reset,
Speaker 2: You're trying to get strong, You're trying to incorporate new things,
Speaker 2: like what's the what's the ideal in your mind preseason
Speaker 2: or like what's the best preseason you ever had?
Speaker 3: And what are you doing? So for me, I'm interested
Speaker 3: to hear what Renee's for me. It was roughly five
Speaker 3: weeks and I would focus for the like of course,
Speaker 3: first at least two weeks I think two weeks rest
Speaker 3: after a season is too little. Actually, I later in
Speaker 3: the year, I would try and take three four weeks
Speaker 3: and it doesn't mean three weeks lying in bed not
Speaker 3: doing anything, but three weeks without playing tennis and maybe
Speaker 3: just focusing on regenerator recovering gender.
Speaker 1: Getting the tennis back is not hard. It's a physicality, yes, exactly.
Speaker 1: And the problem is you know when you go on vacation,
Speaker 1: you have this dread in your breast because you know
Speaker 1: every in your breast. Yeah, well every day I have
Speaker 1: had a dread in my breast.
Speaker 2: Well you have this probably better in German, but yeah,
Speaker 2: but you haven't.
Speaker 3: You have a dread inside of you because you know
Speaker 3: German you have. There is no I just made this up,
Speaker 3: but every I'm a riter. I was trying.
Speaker 2: I was trying to give you in Serbian.
Speaker 3: Yeah, for sure. But every every day that you don't
Speaker 3: work out will make you suffer more for first day
Speaker 3: that you start workling out again.
Speaker 1: So you have this you even when you're guilt, it's
Speaker 1: just you know it's dread.
Speaker 3: Yes, it's dread in your breast post you're trying to recover.
Speaker 3: But at the same time, you know I haven't down. Okay,
Speaker 3: I'm yelling again. I'm sorry, Okay, So what I want
Speaker 3: to say is, for me, the ideal thing is if
Speaker 3: you could recover for three to four weeks ideally, which
Speaker 3: is rarely of a possible. So let's say three weeks
Speaker 3: and then two weeks you only work on your physicality.
Speaker 3: You do four or five hours a day doing intervals,
Speaker 3: doing getting back your endurance, getting back your strength, just
Speaker 3: getting really strong. Then you start playing tennis. The first week,
Speaker 3: how I would do it. I would just hit balls,
Speaker 3: cross cords, the most boring ship you can. Yeah, you
Speaker 3: go half an hour cross court, half an our cross court,
Speaker 3: half an hour, then the small Then the next week
Speaker 3: you would start to do moving on the court, a
Speaker 3: lot of how do you call it, side side to
Speaker 3: sides exactly, to across one line exactly, those things. And
Speaker 3: then in the last two weeks, and that can already
Speaker 3: be at the tournament side.
Speaker 1: You start playing points. Yeah, you stop playing points, then
Speaker 1: you stop playing sets, you stop playing.
Speaker 2: It's a slow build, but it's intentional.
Speaker 1: It's very intentional. It's it's intentional. The physol part of
Speaker 1: it is intentional is that you know the same thing,
Speaker 1: like the maximum I ever had off of doing nothing
Speaker 1: was a week like because every day you're like, oh
Speaker 1: my god, it's going to be hurting, and it hurts
Speaker 1: so much in that first week, so you try and
Speaker 1: sort of doing a little bit of physicality every day,
Speaker 1: even if it's just a ten minute run or something
Speaker 1: like that, just to keep your heart rate up. And
Speaker 1: then the second week, you know, you would get back
Speaker 1: into definitely working out, and then two weeks after that,
Speaker 1: you know, I would start hitting balls again. You don't
Speaker 1: forget how to hit a ball, that's the thing. It's
Speaker 1: just the thing that's hard is that you lose the
Speaker 1: rust of playing points, you know. So the first couple
Speaker 1: of games of every tournament, you know, on Brisbane or
Speaker 1: wherever you start, Auckland, it's just like, well, you know,
Speaker 1: because you people like, what do you mean you forget?
Speaker 1: You kin'd of forget how to construct a point, you know,
Speaker 1: because it just doesn't come as naturally. And then after
Speaker 1: a week you're like, oh, I got it. But yeah,
Speaker 1: so just a slow build and also you're working on
Speaker 1: all of your weaknesses hopefully in the off season, you know.
Speaker 3: And that's a little bit just to just as an
Speaker 3: addendum there. If you have done big technical thing that
Speaker 3: you have to fix, talking about maybe Cocoa Gov's forehand
Speaker 3: or Cocoga second serf, whatever it is. Although they changed
Speaker 3: her grip on the surf within middle of the season
Speaker 3: and it worked perfectly well, good for her. But if
Speaker 3: you have something like that, a bigger technical adjustment, I
Speaker 3: think you will have to I had something that I
Speaker 3: did with my forehand. I started playing tennis earlier than
Speaker 3: I would have normally, so I didn't do only physical stuff.
Speaker 3: I would go out on court for an hour and
Speaker 3: just try to fix that technical thing, because it takes
Speaker 3: roughly ninety days before something is in the subconscious.
Speaker 2: This is why I asked a question, because I knew
Speaker 2: that there was some sort of formula.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I remember one of the best examples of
Speaker 1: that for me was Lee Nah when she won these
Speaker 1: Strain Open prior to that in I will never forget,
Speaker 1: I was courtside for her match in New Haven and
Speaker 1: she probably hit twelve to fifteen double faults, and she
Speaker 1: had this little bit of a hitch on her second serve.
Speaker 1: She didn't get a good kicker. She was hitting on
Speaker 1: the right side of the ball, kind of similar to Coco.
Speaker 1: To be honest, and people that don't have that margin
Speaker 1: under the ball hitting the kickserver are always going to
Speaker 1: be under pressure, are going to hit a lot of
Speaker 1: double faults, or they're going to have a shitty second serve.
Speaker 1: And I remember thinking, oh my god, if she could
Speaker 1: have got the serve and she would have won this match.
Speaker 1: I think I don't know if it was a semi
Speaker 1: or final in new Haven. And anyway, cut to this
Speaker 1: strain and open. I'm doing her first match and we're
Speaker 1: at our position for I was working for the seven Network.
Speaker 1: Then we are literally right behind the court on the court,
Speaker 1: it's one of the best views in tennis. And I
Speaker 1: remember her first serving. I was like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: she's hitting a kickserf. Her ball toss was further behind
Speaker 1: her she was. It was all better, it was all correct,
Speaker 1: and I was like, there's margin.
Speaker 3: This is good.
Speaker 1: She's under pressure, she's going to make She's going to
Speaker 1: be able to make her second serves. So anyway, she
Speaker 1: had a couple of little, little scary moments in this match.
Speaker 1: It wasn't that easy. Anyway, she wins in two sets.
Speaker 1: She comes off the court. I see her in the
Speaker 1: hallway and you know Lee and I you know had.
Speaker 1: We always had a pretty fun, good relationship. And I say, hey,
Speaker 1: I was like, your serve, you're hitting kicksof now and
Speaker 1: she's like, yeah, but I almost went back to my
Speaker 1: old serf because she hadn't played a match, ye under pressure,
Speaker 1: And this is on Rod Laver Arena. Everybody loves her there,
Speaker 1: everyone knows her. And as you said, it takes ninety days.
Speaker 1: She had had not had ninety days. Yeah she probably had. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she probably had thirty days. Yeah, she maybe had well,
Speaker 1: probably at that stage about thirty days. And she said, yeah,
Speaker 1: I almost went back to my old serf. And I
Speaker 1: literally looked at her and I go, no, I go,
Speaker 1: do not go back to your old serf. Stay with this.
Speaker 1: It is so much better, so much better. Sure enough,
Speaker 1: she won this strown up in that year and a
Speaker 1: lot of coincidence, coincidence, I think not.
Speaker 3: No, I've had credit with her German friend and the quarterfinals,
Speaker 3: so she beat four and one without giving her any chance.
Speaker 3: Yes it was me, Yeah, you.
Speaker 2: Give her the confidence. She double faulted in the quarterfin.
Speaker 3: Played amazing. I went off the match and I said
Speaker 3: and pressed, She's going to win the Ocean Open. Everyone laughed,
Speaker 3: at me because she hadn't won a slam. She had
Speaker 3: at the French she said, was sorry, I'm I misspoke.
Speaker 3: That was when she was up a set and a
Speaker 3: break on Kim in the final. Yes, some Chinese person
Speaker 3: yelled something at her. Do you remember this?
Speaker 1: Yeah, I can't remember the exactly she.
Speaker 2: Would have won the Australia.
Speaker 3: Yeah, And everyone was laughing at me because she was
Speaker 3: never even close to winning a major tournament.
Speaker 2: Not the first time she won the French.
Speaker 1: We just established that.
Speaker 3: And but that was I lost to her when she
Speaker 3: lost in the final to Kim. So that was her
Speaker 3: first final that.
Speaker 2: I need to leave, all right, you have to take
Speaker 2: questions without me, Okay, I will edit out my leaving.
Speaker 1: Please you leave that in so people know why you left.
Speaker 2: Well, have to go judge a very important cookie competition, right,
Speaker 2: and I talk about the Australia. Maybe could they said,
Speaker 2: calm hungry, I haven't eaten anything, so I don't have
Speaker 2: to cookies. Goodbye, I love you, thank you.
Speaker 1: Can you please turn your mic off so you don't interjecting.
Speaker 2: I trust you to answer reader questions about me.
Speaker 1: We will, we will.
Speaker 2: She's the commissioner. So now she had to I turned
Speaker 2: the mic off.
Speaker 1: Okay, so bye, Caitlin. You don't have to go out slowly.
Speaker 1: We all know you're leaving goodbye anyway. Yeah, so that's
Speaker 1: I'll never forget that. So it's possible to do it.
Speaker 3: It is. But it's funny. Is that moment that you
Speaker 3: mentioned is interesting because if she had maybe lost that match,
Speaker 3: chances are she will go back to the old thing
Speaker 3: and maybe mess up her next the arrest of her year.
Speaker 3: But she went through it, and.
Speaker 1: At that point, it's not like she was like twenty
Speaker 1: you know what I mean. That's like she put in
Speaker 1: not ten thousand hours, like fifty thousand hours at that
Speaker 1: point of hitting a tennis ball the way she was Anyway,
Speaker 1: all right, let's get We only have a couple of questions.
Speaker 1: I did put it out on Blue Sky, Jude Bye.
Speaker 1: We did not put it on Twitter, where I have
Speaker 1: more followers, but I'm trying to get people. Oh god,
Speaker 1: she could have gone out a little bit more gently.
Speaker 1: Usually I put it on Twitter because I have a
Speaker 1: lot more followers, But we're trying to move away from
Speaker 1: X because it's so toxic. One of the things was
Speaker 1: you can answer this question as well, how if at
Speaker 1: all has the off season preseason changed through your time
Speaker 1: in the tennis world. So for me, I started and
Speaker 1: that was from Munata.
Speaker 3: Hi, Munata.
Speaker 1: So I came on tour.
Speaker 3: When was his name, Larry.
Speaker 1: Larry STEFANKI, No, Larry Curb, you're insa Larry Larry, Larry.
Speaker 3: Jerry Larry, No the wt A c e O, It'll
Speaker 3: come to me. Larry Scott, Larry Scott, thank you. So
Speaker 3: he had just come through with the WTA roadmap, do
Speaker 3: you remember this? So he had taken off the calendar
Speaker 3: a lot of tournaments. So when I started, the off
Speaker 3: season was actually great. I think it was almost eight weeks.
Speaker 3: We would have the WTA Final at the end of
Speaker 3: October or maybe the latest in the first week of November.
Speaker 3: And obviously when I started on tour, I wasn't qualified
Speaker 3: ay the WTA finals, so my season would end mid
Speaker 3: of October. It was amazing enough time to get enough
Speaker 3: rest and then start the pre season in enough time.
Speaker 3: And then when I retired in the end of my
Speaker 3: career in mid November. Yeah, it was later and later,
Speaker 3: especially with Billy Jing king Cup moving then and I
Speaker 3: always played Billy Jing king Cup moving to the second
Speaker 3: week of November. I was done. Mid November, I was
Speaker 3: over thirty. My body was not recovering as quickly anymore,
Speaker 3: and my off season shrunk more and more. And in
Speaker 3: the end, I think in my last year, I had
Speaker 3: maybe three weeks of actual good practice or nowhere I
Speaker 3: could practice without just you know, because when you're older,
Speaker 3: every single little injury that you take with you, it
Speaker 3: takes double the time to recover. So I could only
Speaker 3: start a bit later with my off scene. So I
Speaker 3: think that's the biggest difference that in the beginning, when
Speaker 3: I started, when I didn't need it because I was
Speaker 3: nineteen and I recovered in a day. I had enough
Speaker 3: time for everything. And in the end, especially with the
Speaker 3: Billy jan Kin Cup moving to so late, it was
Speaker 3: tougher and tougher to get everything under which is why
Speaker 3: I might comment about having that be after that.
Speaker 1: How was it for you a WTA finals after the
Speaker 1: Season's same same for me. I mean, I you know,
Speaker 1: I don't want to brag, but I made thirteen WTA finals,
Speaker 1: so I was playing right until you know, I was
Speaker 1: on tour for twenty two years, so for me, the
Speaker 1: same thing. It was like WTA finals are getting later
Speaker 1: and later and later. Cup Billy Jean Kingcup hadn't. I
Speaker 1: didn't play that late. I think I'd retired by the
Speaker 1: time it started to move to that point because we
Speaker 1: were playing home and away ties then, so you know,
Speaker 1: you were playing at home and away blah blah blah,
Speaker 1: and usually the last final or whatever it was after
Speaker 1: the US Open. So yeah, absolutely, it's just gotten harder
Speaker 1: and harder and more and more shit on the calendar,
Speaker 1: and it needs to stop as far as I'm concerned. Anyway,
Speaker 1: that was one question. Another one was somebody asked me
Speaker 1: any coaching talks for you, no name, no need to
Speaker 1: name names. But I'm actually I will be helping out
Speaker 1: Alan Perez in the little doubles stuff. I'm going to
Speaker 1: help her out at the start of the year.
Speaker 3: So tell me, please, what is the motion picture that
Speaker 3: has a similar Is it also Elan Perez?
Speaker 1: No, that's Amelia Amelia Perez. Oh okay, that's the movie
Speaker 1: that Caitlin made.
Speaker 3: Me watch because I keep saying to everyone, I really
Speaker 3: want to watch this movie. I want to know what
Speaker 3: people in tennis are like. There's a movie about Alan Perez.
Speaker 1: You should watch it and let me know, okay, because
Speaker 1: Caitlin thinks it's the best movie of the year. Okay,
Speaker 1: I think it was. Okay. I wasn't really into the singing.
Speaker 1: It's very unique. It's yes, it's a musical slash. It's interesting. Okay,
Speaker 1: it's it's interesting, but not my super cup of tea.
Speaker 1: But I what I would do is because but I
Speaker 1: couldn't do this in the movie theater. I would fast
Speaker 1: forward through the like singing parts because I was like,
Speaker 1: I'm not okay, but you're going into it knowing it's
Speaker 1: a music call music that I know. So I was
Speaker 1: mentally prepared for that, whereas with this one, I was like,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I'm mentally prepared to see you know.
Speaker 1: I mean, the story is really interesting, you know the
Speaker 1: story behind it, right the person there's a man who
Speaker 1: is literally like a Mexican drug lord, and he transitions
Speaker 1: to a woman. Oh and he escapes out of this
Speaker 1: and then becomes actually a really good person. I'm paraphrasing
Speaker 1: like crazy, So it's like the whole time. And then
Speaker 1: there's this lawyer. She's a I can't remember her name.
Speaker 1: If Kitlyn was here, she would know because she's quite attractive.
Speaker 1: She's really Caitlyn's type. But Zoe Zoe Seldana, Yes, so
Speaker 1: I think it's always anyway. She plays a lawyer who
Speaker 1: represents this this man who transitions into and it's yeah,
Speaker 1: it's interesting. It's interesting. Like at the end, I was like, Okay,
Speaker 1: it wasn't bad. I didn't think I was going to
Speaker 1: get through it, but I managed, mainly because I needed
Speaker 1: to talk to Kitlyn. But I love that she's not
Speaker 1: here hearing me how much she's talking. It is interesting.
Speaker 1: I think you would probably I don't know. I'm going
Speaker 1: to tell you anything. You watch it and just let
Speaker 1: me know, okay. Anyway, So yeah, so that is the question.
Speaker 1: So I will be doing a little bit of work
Speaker 1: with somebody.
Speaker 3: With Ellen, with Ellen anything on the horizon.
Speaker 1: No, I told you. It's two years since working with Serena,
Speaker 1: and I've had two people now, one I will not name,
Speaker 1: but was in the top ten, but they went with
Speaker 1: somebody else, and mainly because they didn't want me to
Speaker 1: be you know, I'm still working for ESPN, so it
Speaker 1: is tough for people because they want you twenty four
Speaker 1: to seven. But also I do say, well, Darren Khle's
Speaker 1: doing pretty well and he works for ESPN. And you know,
Speaker 1: Brad Gilbert did pretty well a couple of years ago
Speaker 1: with Coco when he was working for ESPN. So it
Speaker 1: is possible, But that is it I've had and then Ellen,
Speaker 1: it's just you know, and now there's certain men that
Speaker 1: just literally get a job every two weeks and they
Speaker 1: get fired two weeks later. They hired again Sasha Bajans
Speaker 1: back in the picture with Donna VICKI like, you know,
Speaker 1: like these people just boom, They're just like they're like
Speaker 1: they like hemorrhoids. They just come back anyway.
Speaker 3: They who love this analogy.
Speaker 1: I love that analogy. Okay, so what about you? Would
Speaker 1: you have a coach?
Speaker 3: I don't think so. I mean, honestly, I'm not gonna
Speaker 3: say no in maybe a few years, but you know,
Speaker 3: I kind of also retired to not have to travel
Speaker 3: around the tennis schedule, and that's.
Speaker 1: What you were working at more than I've ever seen
Speaker 1: you work.
Speaker 3: And also the thing is I think that what you
Speaker 3: and I talked to Boris Becker about it for a
Speaker 3: long time. When he started coaching Novak, he said five
Speaker 3: years before he couldn't have done it because you need
Speaker 3: to let go of a certain type of ego that
Speaker 3: helped you when you were a tennis player, not only
Speaker 3: helped you, but made you who you are as a
Speaker 3: tennis player. We all know Boris had a huge ego
Speaker 3: as a tennis player. And he said just five years earlier,
Speaker 3: had Novak asked him, he would have done it, but
Speaker 3: he would never have been good because because he can
Speaker 3: getto had the ego of a tennis player. And then
Speaker 3: when when he did start with Novak, he was much wiser,
Speaker 3: much more mature. He didn't need the accolades of a
Speaker 3: tennis player anymore. He was ready to give himself into
Speaker 3: this in a different way.
Speaker 1: So on that light, which we didn't talk about last week,
Speaker 1: what do you think about Andy Murray?
Speaker 3: Well, that's what That's why we were talking about it. Actually,
Speaker 3: that was it because I asked him. So that's the
Speaker 3: only thing that I have. I think Andy could or
Speaker 3: will be an incredible coach one day because if you
Speaker 3: ever hear about well, that's what let me finish for
Speaker 3: a second, because whenever you hear him talk about tennis
Speaker 3: and tactics and strategy, he has an incredible tennis he guys,
Speaker 3: I talked to him. We had the same coach, a
Speaker 3: German guy. For a while. I talked to him about
Speaker 3: it and he had very potent to Andy, and I
Speaker 3: asked him what did you like? What didn't you like?
Speaker 3: And the way he talked about it, he had very
Speaker 3: particular needs and desires and the work on the court,
Speaker 3: which made me realize, oh, he also knows what he
Speaker 3: needs as a tennis player on the court, because some
Speaker 3: players are really good tactically but don't actually know what
Speaker 3: to work on court. What should I do today, yes,
Speaker 3: to achieve that tactical intelligence. But he had both, so
Speaker 3: I think the only thing that I and it comes
Speaker 3: back to Boris and that's what's the question I asked him,
Speaker 3: was has Andy let go enough of the tennis player
Speaker 3: persona to be there fully for Novak without having this
Speaker 3: own thing in the way, Because I know how and
Speaker 3: I've just finally let go of I'm a tennis player.
Speaker 3: Now I say, I used to be a tennis player
Speaker 3: work in TV. Now I'm a writer. But I used
Speaker 3: to a year ago. I was already a year retired.
Speaker 3: I would still sometimes blurret out I'm a tennis player
Speaker 3: and then had to realize I'm not. You know, that's
Speaker 3: the only thing that is a question mark.
Speaker 1: I think that Andy will be fine. Yeah. I don't
Speaker 1: think the ego part of what will get in his
Speaker 1: way at all. I think that he is so emotional,
Speaker 1: like he's very high emotional intelligence. And I think that
Speaker 1: he also understands Novak's crazy, because let's face it, Andy
Speaker 1: was crazy as well. And I do think like me,
Speaker 1: like for example, like I can understand somebody who's crazy,
Speaker 1: and I can relate to them and I can empathize
Speaker 1: with them, but I can also help them because I'm like, look,
Speaker 1: it doesn't help you, know what I mean? And Andy
Speaker 1: knows that Andy knows. Look, no, Andy knows just like him,
Speaker 1: he needs to release the tension. He needs to release
Speaker 1: the frustration. Like I remember, you know, very specifically during
Speaker 1: the during the Olympic final, him turning around, and I
Speaker 1: always text you, I'm like, what did he say? What
Speaker 1: did he say? Because you speak his language clearly, And
Speaker 1: I said, and somebody wrote me on X and told
Speaker 1: me what he said, because I said, please, somebody out
Speaker 1: there who speaks Serbia and let me know what he said.
Speaker 1: And he was Yet he yelled at his box. I've
Speaker 1: been yelling at you for two hours, and you haven't
Speaker 1: told me anything essentially, right, And I'm like, if he
Speaker 1: says that to Andy, and he's going to be like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel you, bro like because that's something I would
Speaker 1: yell at. Yeah, but he also understands it's not personal.
Speaker 1: Yeah right. And I always say, as a as a coach,
Speaker 1: and I know what I was like as a player
Speaker 1: as well, I don't take anything personally from you as
Speaker 1: a player to me as a coach until you make
Speaker 1: it personal to me, right if you said something personally
Speaker 1: against me, Like, what do you mean, Well, that's that.
Speaker 3: Kind of personal. I've been yelling at you and you
Speaker 3: haven't been telling me anything. Well. Well, but in some
Speaker 3: ways they probably have been. He just hasn't had the
Speaker 3: capacity to listen in that moment.
Speaker 1: Either he wasn't listening or he couldn't take it in
Speaker 1: or what they told him didn't work. So he's like
Speaker 1: in his eyes, he's probably like, you haven't told me
Speaker 1: anything that's helping, yeah, right. I Like, for example, if
Speaker 1: I'll give you a really quick example, like Serena, I've
Speaker 1: told you this story. How you know she had a
Speaker 1: really tough warm up before the second round of the
Speaker 1: US Open. She came late because the traffic was really bad,
Speaker 1: and you you know, as it happens, you know, you
Speaker 1: get an accident on the freeway coming out and it
Speaker 1: can take thirty minutes from the city or an hour,
Speaker 1: you know, And it took longer than expected, and she
Speaker 1: rushed under the practice court, so she hadn't done her
Speaker 1: proper stretching, and just she was it's very stressed, right,
Speaker 1: and you know, and of course she's very stressed. This
Speaker 1: is a big tournament for her, big match for her,
Speaker 1: playing against contivate, who at the time was number two
Speaker 1: player in the world, which is crazy. And so she
Speaker 1: was very stressed. And her hitting partner was having a
Speaker 1: bad day as well. He normally hits the ball perfectly
Speaker 1: for it, and he was having a better rough day
Speaker 1: as well because he was probably nervous to it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and he could probably feel the tension. And she hit
Speaker 1: one ball in the literally in the bottom of the
Speaker 1: net on purpose, and I'm like standing there going, oh
Speaker 1: my god, like this is okay. If I'm really coaching
Speaker 1: and if I'm really going to make a difference here,
Speaker 1: I need to step in here. Because my old coach
Speaker 1: used to say to me, because I used to get
Speaker 1: the shits in practice as well as we all do,
Speaker 1: especially when you're stressed. And he used to say to
Speaker 1: me grubs. He used to call me grubs Ray Ruffles.
Speaker 1: He'd say, you can't win the match, but you're certainly
Speaker 1: helping yourself lose it. You know, you can't win the
Speaker 1: match in practice, but you're helping yourself lose it. And
Speaker 1: I never forgot that because it's so true, because I'm like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm not really okay, yeah I'm stressed and all that
Speaker 1: sort of stuff, But do I really need to self sabotage?
Speaker 1: And the really good of really good example of that
Speaker 1: was on Zibur before she played the second to last
Speaker 1: or the second Wimbledon final, when she lost to Vondrosova.
Speaker 1: She had the worst warm up I've ever seen because
Speaker 1: we could see it in the no at Wimbledon. You
Speaker 1: know how you have the TV's on you, you have
Speaker 1: the in feed, right, So we had the camera on
Speaker 1: center court while in our production meeting at ESPN, so
Speaker 1: we could see her warming up. She came onto the
Speaker 1: court in all black and started hitting, and after ten
Speaker 1: minutes somebody from the club came out and said, you
Speaker 1: can't practice in black. Yeah, you have to at Wimbledon.
Speaker 1: Everybody knows you have to play in all white, even practice,
Speaker 1: even the finalists, even on senate court. And so they
Speaker 1: came out and told us. So she had to run
Speaker 1: off the court get change, came back and her warm
Speaker 1: up was terrible. She was missing balls. She was not
Speaker 1: throwing her racket, because you can't do that Wimbledon because
Speaker 1: you get in trouble. But she was just she had
Speaker 1: the shits. She was It was such a bad warm
Speaker 1: up and I was looking at it, and we were
Speaker 1: all looking at it, and we're like, this is bad,
Speaker 1: this is not good. And if I was coaching her
Speaker 1: at that point, I would have literally walked into the
Speaker 1: nat and said we're not hitting anymore, Like we're done.
Speaker 1: I'm going to feed you a couple of balls.
Speaker 3: Was very windy.
Speaker 1: Also that it was very windy, but not inside sena
Speaker 1: cord and you're very protected inside Vandrosa. I saw coming
Speaker 1: from a rangie where it was fifty mile an hour winds. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and she went over to hit out there. So she
Speaker 1: was like, ah, fuck it, and I'm gonna go hit it.
Speaker 1: I don't care. I'm not changing because they said you
Speaker 1: can hit on Sena court to her final, and she
Speaker 1: chose to go to a range, which was classic because
Speaker 1: it was the worst warm up, but she took it
Speaker 1: in his stride. She was just like, whatever, I'm in
Speaker 1: the final. I'm happy if I win, great if I don't.
Speaker 3: Whatever.
Speaker 1: And whereas Arms had a lot of pressure on her
Speaker 1: shoulders to win that tournament and she had the worst
Speaker 1: warm up and that's where you as a coach. So
Speaker 1: that moment with Serena, I'll never forget it. I was like,
Speaker 1: all right, I got I gotta be a coach here,
Speaker 1: and I have it on film and I sent it
Speaker 1: to her because we laugh about it now. And I
Speaker 1: literally walked up to her and I stopped her hitting
Speaker 1: the next ball out of her hand, and I got
Speaker 1: in between her and the racket and the ball and
Speaker 1: I just said to her, you one, you cannot win
Speaker 1: this match. I just told her what Ray told me.
Speaker 1: But you're helping yourself lose it. And she goes, yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm just trying to get a good warm up and
Speaker 1: he's not moving and he's not hitting it in the
Speaker 1: Bible and she's just so stressed, right, And I was like, okay,
Speaker 1: but like you know, let's not destroy ourselves right now, right,
Speaker 1: And I can tell you, and this is the difference
Speaker 1: between great and good. She's she heard me, and she
Speaker 1: was so much better in that warm up. And then
Speaker 1: the next time I talked to her about something on
Speaker 1: her return, she looked me dead in the eyes and
Speaker 1: it was like she had given me the respect also say,
Speaker 1: you know, it's kind of shitty with you. Back then,
Speaker 1: I snapped at you, and I shouldn't have, but I
Speaker 1: knew right away that she heard me. Now, if she
Speaker 1: said to me, listen, you're lesbian, back off, you know,
Speaker 1: But that's what I'm saying about you personal. Right If
Speaker 1: she said listen, you're what do you You don't know anything?
Speaker 1: She's attacking If you're attacking me, yeah, that's when, as
Speaker 1: a coach or as a person, you go, yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: I'm walking off this court now, as opposed to getting
Speaker 1: stressed because she's stressed. That's what I mean about I
Speaker 1: don't take it personally until you make it personal. That's
Speaker 1: the difference. And I think Andy Novak might say something
Speaker 1: or snap, and Andy will be like water off a
Speaker 1: duck's back. You'd be like, I get it, man, you're stressed. Out.
Speaker 1: It's good. Now if you turned around and said, oh,
Speaker 1: you didn't beat me here at this strain open, what
Speaker 1: the fuck do you know? That's making it personal, right,
Speaker 1: So that's what I mean by yeah. So I think
Speaker 1: that Andy will do a great job. So there you go.
Speaker 1: That we've answered that question. All right, So last question
Speaker 1: and then we got to wrap this up. Someone said,
Speaker 1: who's your favorite doubles player and who plays the most
Speaker 1: like a classic style, good volley or etc. You said,
Speaker 1: I said that last week, RANI. That was from Logan H. Spence.
Speaker 1: Thanks for the question. I think Sarah Ruani. I mean
Speaker 1: it's not super classics, not like Servantvali, Lisa Raymond, Kara
Speaker 1: Black me style. But she certainly tries to play doubles.
Speaker 1: Doubles I think, you know, Aaron Ratliffe and Gabby Dobrowski try.
Speaker 1: They who come into the net, they try and do
Speaker 1: those sorts of things. I think send the Yakovos definitely
Speaker 1: at the net as much as possible. But she pays
Speaker 1: from the back, so you know Taylor Taylor Townsend sort of,
Speaker 1: but she plays from the back. The only real I
Speaker 1: mean Katie McNally, and hey, kudos to Katie she just
Speaker 1: want to challenge her. She's coming back from a really
Speaker 1: terrible elbow injury I think it was or I can't
Speaker 1: remember the injury, but good to see her back. She
Speaker 1: plays a very classic servants folly style. She was the
Speaker 1: player that I saw player and I thought, oh, as
Speaker 1: a like if I was still playing on tour, that
Speaker 1: would be a player that I would like to play with.
Speaker 1: So Katie, nice to see you back, hopefully back inside
Speaker 1: the top one hundred and singles. All soon, All right, well,
Speaker 1: I think we've wrapped it up for today. I think
Speaker 1: we have, so thanks for joining us, everybody straight hope.
Speaker 3: It's getting closer and close, and I thought we would
Speaker 3: have nothing to talk about because it's the end of
Speaker 3: the season, but we somehow managed to blab her on.
Speaker 1: We blab her on, so thanks and Caitlin left us early,
Speaker 1: thank god. Anyway, all right, everyone, we'll see you next week.
Speaker 1: Thanks for joining us today.
Speaker 5: JeOS about back
Speaker 1: Dict