Speaker 1: Okay, Hi everybody, welcome to the Reneetlips Tennis Podcast. We
Speaker 1: are bringing you live literally live and in person here
Speaker 1: with my great friend Andrea Pekovic.
Speaker 2: Hi, Hi, nice to see you. We are on floor
Speaker 2: four of the players. It don't win for though, I
Speaker 2: don't want to bother people who are trying to eat.
Speaker 2: Actually I wanted to say the players restaurant, but it's
Speaker 2: kind of players restaurants here at them.
Speaker 1: If we're on the top floor, we are sitting rather
Speaker 1: close to the Spanish contingent who are sitting over there.
Speaker 1: So if you hear the names and the voices in
Speaker 1: the background, that is who it is. But yeah, anyway,
Speaker 1: let's get into it. So we started Sunday. I had
Speaker 1: a lot of rain and so we a lot of
Speaker 1: matches were canceled. But give me your first thoughts on
Speaker 1: just overall the start of the tournament.
Speaker 2: Okay, So let's start with the two matches I did,
Speaker 2: and then maybe the ones you did. So I did
Speaker 2: Ankatodoni the qualifier twenty years old against chin Wean Jang.
Speaker 2: It was a fantastic first set. I mean considering in
Speaker 2: the second week we will see better matches. But considering
Speaker 2: it's the first round of a Grand Slam tournament. I
Speaker 2: thought it was really good tennis. Unka to DONI is
Speaker 2: playing well. I think she can do really well this year.
Speaker 2: She had kind of a meteoric rise through the challenges
Speaker 2: last year and qualified here, qualified in Brisbane, so she's
Speaker 2: been doing really well. Has won six matches. She's already
Speaker 2: twenty years old.
Speaker 1: Okay, So you know, it's funny when you think, okay,
Speaker 1: it's huge, huge, huge opportunity there right at twenty years
Speaker 1: of age, and then you think Kaka gov twenty years
Speaker 1: of ages.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's cricky. But she's like she can, yes, and
Speaker 2: alien well, like from another world. I always say that
Speaker 2: about player like immortals, you know, who do things that
Speaker 2: normal people can. There from another world, sent to this
Speaker 2: earth to pleasure us with that tennis.
Speaker 1: Yes, indeed, and chin.
Speaker 2: When I thought she looked actually she looked fully in control.
Speaker 2: She was five three, five four, serving for the.
Speaker 1: Member down forty love, but she was down three set
Speaker 1: points in the first WLD, so that's the thing.
Speaker 2: She was serving for the set five four forty love
Speaker 2: and then got a little bit tight, just pulled back,
Speaker 2: and I have to give credit to to Doni because
Speaker 2: she could have just as easy gotten and unforced errors
Speaker 2: and to Dony just didn't miss. She just went for
Speaker 2: her shots. Chin went's speed of Groundstokes dropped a little,
Speaker 2: didn't make it first serves, and all of a sudden
Speaker 2: it was five six and the other girl had fifteen
Speaker 2: forty two set points. And I will say, man, Chin
Speaker 2: when is good under pressure? Yeah, she is good.
Speaker 1: Do you think that she's getting better or do you
Speaker 1: think she's always been?
Speaker 2: Like, No, I think she's getting better. I think she's
Speaker 2: always She was always good in sort of hiding her emotions.
Speaker 2: I think a lot is going on underneath, but she's
Speaker 2: good in hiding it. But I think the hiding of
Speaker 2: it is transferring into what she's actually feeling. Because she
Speaker 2: couldn't find the first surf for a couple of games.
Speaker 2: Fifteen forty boom through first serfs. Yeah, and then in
Speaker 2: the tiebreak the same made our first serfs. And then
Speaker 2: it's so easy because her first surf is so good.
Speaker 2: And then once she found her rhythm, and it has
Speaker 2: to be said, this was her first match of the season.
Speaker 2: She pulled out a United Cup did in play since
Speaker 2: the WTA finals, so she's had quite a break compared
Speaker 2: to other players, and I thought she did well in
Speaker 2: the first set and then very well in the second set.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So Sabalanca last night?
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, perfect?
Speaker 1: Was How would you describe that? Did you watch the match?
Speaker 1: Because I thought it was a little patchy. I didn't
Speaker 1: think it was. Like I said in the coverage with
Speaker 1: Patrick McEnroe and Mary Joe Fernandez, I said, I don't
Speaker 1: think she'll be ultra happy about this, the way she played,
Speaker 1: and then Mary Joe said, no, I think she'll be
Speaker 1: happy that she's gotten through. And you know, it wasn't
Speaker 1: an easy, you know, name matchup. She's playing against Sloane Stevens,
Speaker 1: and you know, it's tough to see Sloan not playing
Speaker 1: well because you know, we know what she's capable of doing.
Speaker 1: But you can see just the lack of confidence in her.
Speaker 1: That's nine matches in a that she's lost in the
Speaker 1: first round, and I don't know how many matches you've
Speaker 1: lost in a row, but it starts to five for yeah, mentally,
Speaker 1: it starts to really hurt you. And I think that
Speaker 1: lost of the US Open when she was up a
Speaker 1: set in three loves and then ended up losing that
Speaker 1: first round because it devastated her. I can't even remember.
Speaker 1: It was just so unbelievable that she ended up losing.
Speaker 1: But to see Sloan, you know, pulling off a shots
Speaker 1: not committing to them. Yeah, and it was just a
Speaker 1: shit draw, let's face it. I mean, the one person
Speaker 1: you really didn't want to play in the first round
Speaker 1: was probably Sabalalnca, just because she comes in with so
Speaker 1: much confidence after winning Queensland in Brisbane. So anyway, I
Speaker 1: thought she she did. She played well enough, Saba Anca,
Speaker 1: but I think that she'll be happy to get through
Speaker 1: the first round, but I think she'll be looking to
Speaker 1: improve on a few things like just very scratchy the
Speaker 1: certain shots that she shouldn't be scratchy on. It'd be
Speaker 1: one thing like if she was, you know, chen Wen
Speaker 1: coming in not having a lot of matches at.
Speaker 3: All this year.
Speaker 1: She's had a lot of matches. So look, she got
Speaker 1: through the match and I think, as we all know,
Speaker 1: for around for a nightmare, they're very nerve wracking, and
Speaker 1: so she got through them. Well.
Speaker 2: Just to just to underline what you just said, I
Speaker 2: think that really broke her because it was against Clara Burrell,
Speaker 2: and she was not only upset and three oh, she
Speaker 2: was up six oh three oh. So she was up
Speaker 2: nine zero and then lost the match seven five and
Speaker 2: the third. So that'll do it. Honestly, I just watched
Speaker 2: the match until four zero in the first set, and
Speaker 2: I thought Sabolenka looked like.
Speaker 1: She had never I thought a three love it was
Speaker 1: going to be love and loss. Yes, she was so
Speaker 1: old and she went back to the point. That's what
Speaker 1: I'm talking about the patch. She just went off like
Speaker 1: all of a sudden, like two or three games. It
Speaker 1: was just horrendous tns from her. So those are the
Speaker 1: things that I feel like, if she's going to win
Speaker 1: the tournament, which she's the favorite to do, she needs
Speaker 1: to cut down on those errors when there was really
Speaker 1: no pressure on her, you know what I mean.
Speaker 2: When one question I wanted to ask you because I
Speaker 2: did see that Sloan almost played only slices on the
Speaker 2: backhead or a lot of slices, and she doesn't usually
Speaker 2: do that. Now, granted I haven't seen her since the
Speaker 2: US Open. Do you think there was a tactical choice
Speaker 2: by them or do you think she's just trying to
Speaker 2: hit more slices?
Speaker 1: I think it was a combination. She was a little
Speaker 1: bit you know, her foot what wasn't great to it,
Speaker 1: and so she's kind of a little bit and I
Speaker 1: wouldn't say lazy, she's a bit late to it. But
Speaker 1: also it's a good tactic against Sabalanka. You don't really
Speaker 1: want to give her pace. She's going to kill you.
Speaker 1: So I think it was a choice of hers to
Speaker 1: hit the slice and try and mix it up and
Speaker 1: in the end it got elicited a lot of errors,
Speaker 1: but look overall, sablank is still the player to be
Speaker 1: for sure.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Nice.
Speaker 2: So what the match I did was the Paula Badosa
Speaker 2: match against Oh yeah, Wang Ji knew there was a
Speaker 2: fantastic I did that match as well. Yeah, that was
Speaker 2: really you had to probably leave it way I was leaving.
Speaker 1: I left after the first set in a bit okay,
Speaker 1: and Wang was like very successful coming into the net.
Speaker 2: Oh my god. And it was so funny because I
Speaker 2: met god On he's her. She has a Serbian coach
Speaker 2: who has moved to China five years ago and has
Speaker 2: been working with her. And I've met him an hour
Speaker 2: before the man and I asked him, what did you
Speaker 2: guys work on and he said to me, well, she's
Speaker 2: a really good doubles players because she won the French
Speaker 2: Allengaros exactly in doubles, so we want her to come
Speaker 2: to the net more often, and I mentioned it in
Speaker 2: the broadcast. And then she came to the net seventeen
Speaker 2: times and won sixteen points.
Speaker 1: I guess what one she didn't win that point.
Speaker 2: That was really sad. Yeah, she rushed that one a
Speaker 2: little bit. But it was funny because I worked on
Speaker 2: plenty of things and off seasons and they didn't work
Speaker 2: so well right off the bed coming into the first
Speaker 2: grandson after year, so that was really impressive. But I
Speaker 2: thought she played man. She had stretches of play where
Speaker 2: she looked like the best player in the world. It
Speaker 2: was incredible and badosa. I felt she played a really
Speaker 2: good conservative match. She didn't go for too much, she
Speaker 2: had big targets, moved well, really extended the rallies long
Speaker 2: and nicely when she needed to, and won all the
Speaker 2: important points. So I think for her for her first round,
Speaker 2: this was a very solid, good performance. I think she
Speaker 2: can definitely play more aggressive in the future. But it
Speaker 2: wasn't easy because, as we just mentioned, one came out
Speaker 2: firing on our cylinder. So there was a tough first
Speaker 2: round for part Life. Yeah, yeah, it was good. It
Speaker 2: was good match for her because also one was one
Speaker 2: of the.
Speaker 1: Players just outside of being seated, So that was one
Speaker 1: of the toughest first rounds. I want to get into.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about a couple of matches from today and
Speaker 1: then the looks look at the big picture of the tournament,
Speaker 1: because we are going to you know, so you did Coco,
Speaker 1: So I did Coco today? Did you happen to see
Speaker 1: any of the match?
Speaker 2: No, I was doing another match at the.
Speaker 1: Same So I think it's a match that Coco.
Speaker 4: Look.
Speaker 1: You know she did admit after the match, because I
Speaker 1: did interview her after the match for ESPN and she said, look,
Speaker 1: I was very very nervous. It's a matchup that's not
Speaker 1: been good for her. She's lost. Out of the three
Speaker 1: times they've played, she's lost to Sophia Kennon.
Speaker 2: Twice, and both of them on Grand Slam level, and both.
Speaker 1: At Grand Slam level, and once here in the quarterfinals
Speaker 1: when Sophia Kennon won the tournament. Clearly, Coco Cop is
Speaker 1: much better player than she was back then, and yeah, older,
Speaker 1: and she was stronger. I think she was sixteen, but
Speaker 1: I mean that's pretty but you know, outrageously young, let's
Speaker 1: put it that way. But you know you could tell
Speaker 1: that she was a little nerve us. There's a bunch
Speaker 1: of double faults today. I think seven or eight at least.
Speaker 1: A lot of it had to do with the sun.
Speaker 1: From that end of the.
Speaker 2: Course, you made us such a great mind earlier when
Speaker 2: we just talked briefly before we started recording. She has
Speaker 2: only played indoors. Yeah, since she has that change, both
Speaker 2: Wukhan and Beijing have they don't have the fork and
Speaker 2: Perth yes, and Sydney complete they are completely covered even
Speaker 2: but both Beijing and Juan have like this half kind
Speaker 2: of thing where you feel protected from the wind. They
Speaker 2: always played at night. They tend to play at night,
Speaker 2: so you don't have the sun. And then of course
Speaker 2: the WTA finals which he won was completely indoors, so
Speaker 2: that was a really and you think that's the difference
Speaker 2: the conditions and the weather coming into play.
Speaker 1: Yeah. Well, what I said at the start of the
Speaker 1: match today was the one thing I'm interested in seeing
Speaker 1: from Coco is how the serve is going to handle
Speaker 1: the pressure outdoors. Because she hasn't played outdoors, she hasn't
Speaker 1: had a lot of conditions to deal with sun and wind.
Speaker 1: And we saw what happen today. There was a seven
Speaker 1: or eight double faults. A lot of it came down
Speaker 1: the end with the sun. I get it. But if
Speaker 1: you have a if you have a mechanically sound serve,
Speaker 1: you will find a way to throw the ball to
Speaker 1: us up anyway to get it in the court. And
Speaker 1: she had a struggle with that today. So that's a
Speaker 1: little concerning. Will she play.
Speaker 2: Sorry, I don't know the words mechanically sound served.
Speaker 1: Yeah, can you explain a more in depth.
Speaker 2: I don't know what these words mean next to each.
Speaker 3: Will have very nice right, very nice right.
Speaker 1: But you know, mechanical sounds serve meaning like my look,
Speaker 1: I'm not comparing myself to Coco. She's a greater tennis
Speaker 1: plan than I could ever be. But I had a
Speaker 1: mechanically sound serve. So if the serve, if the sun
Speaker 1: was in my eyes, I could throw the ball, toss
Speaker 1: all the way to the right and still hit it
Speaker 1: in because I could just hit a slider serve, you know,
Speaker 1: And so you have to be able to you know.
Speaker 1: Serena was famous of throwing that ball, toss like randomly
Speaker 1: here at this train open, just getting in in the court.
Speaker 2: Right, She did it to me that one time.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Every time I thought she's serving a slice, she won tea.
Speaker 2: When she threw it for a kick, she went slice.
Speaker 2: That was so tough to read.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I mean so mechanically sound is important when
Speaker 1: you're nervous and when you're dealing with surroundings like sun
Speaker 1: and wind and various things.
Speaker 2: So she's just want to see David Ferrer, the Spanish
Speaker 2: contagious that you mentioned. They're sitting here and drinking beer
Speaker 2: and I appreciate that so much. It's five pm, well.
Speaker 1: Somewhere, yeah, okay, and listen, five pm in Australia is
Speaker 1: like it's like midnight. Okay, all right, So let's just
Speaker 1: I'm happy for this this Spanish contingent. Clearly their players won,
Speaker 1: I hope, and they're celebrated.
Speaker 2: Are still is about to play?
Speaker 1: That is true, that'll be drunk, yes, well, good for them.
Speaker 1: So that's a little bit of a concern. The forehand
Speaker 1: was okay, it wasn't great, but it was okay. I
Speaker 1: thought Sophie can have played tactically, which is unusual for
Speaker 1: her because she's pretty good tactically. I thought she played
Speaker 1: a tactically poor match today. I thought she didn't go
Speaker 1: after the forehand enough and she had a lot of opportunities.
Speaker 1: But Coco got through it. Admitted that she was nervous
Speaker 1: and this court is quick, so going further in the tournament.
Speaker 1: But interestingly enough, Coco said that she gets less nervous
Speaker 1: as the tournament goes on.
Speaker 2: I had the same thing. I mean again, I think,
Speaker 2: but I always tried to explain this to people when
Speaker 2: journalists would ask you before a quarters, before a semis,
Speaker 2: aren't you aren't you so nervous now that you're playing semis?
Speaker 2: And I was like, I'm in the semis. I know
Speaker 2: I'm playing well. You know I won like five matches. Yeah,
Speaker 2: of course I'm playing well. It's much worse than the
Speaker 2: first round. You haven't played in the conditions. Anything can
Speaker 2: happen in the first round, especially on Sundays. Now that
Speaker 2: they have the Sunday start. The worst thing that can
Speaker 2: happen to you is lose at eleven am on a Sunday.
Speaker 2: The tournament hasn't even started and you're already on the
Speaker 2: plane back, especially from Europe because the planes leave at midnight,
Speaker 2: so you're like already like waving from across the ocean
Speaker 2: to the planes that haven't even seen. So that's a
Speaker 2: terrible feeling to have. And I agree, But you could
Speaker 2: also tell with her last year here she was scratchy
Speaker 2: at times in the first week and then played a
Speaker 2: really great match against Arena Sabalenka. Yeah, in the semi finals.
Speaker 2: Since she's gone. And that's what the top players do, right,
Speaker 2: they get better with the tournaments when it progressed. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I think it's hard for people to understand that because
Speaker 1: they think, well, the first round should be easier because
Speaker 1: you're playing at like a lesser less yer. Yeah, but
Speaker 1: it's not because you feel comfortable now you've prepared for
Speaker 1: these big matches. I was the same way. First round,
Speaker 1: you're shitting yourself, quarter final, semi final, you're like, let's go.
Speaker 2: Yes.
Speaker 1: So it was good hear that from her. So I
Speaker 1: did say to her, and I find it. I go
Speaker 1: to see what you thought about this, But I said,
Speaker 1: leading into this match, for the last three or four days,
Speaker 1: when you knew the schedule, you knew who you were
Speaker 1: playing in the first round, did you focus on playing
Speaker 1: against Kennon or did you focus on what you were
Speaker 1: doing and for the tournament? And she said for the tournament.
Speaker 1: In the last day, I focused on what I was
Speaker 1: going to do in my match against Sophia I am
Speaker 1: prior to that, I only thought about what I needed
Speaker 1: to do to get through the tournament. So I thought
Speaker 1: that was a really interesting way of thinking, and also
Speaker 1: a little bit of a look into her mind that
Speaker 1: she's that confident. So anyway, that was. That was I
Speaker 1: thought a great good start. In the end, it could
Speaker 1: have been better just the way she played, but having
Speaker 1: lost to Cannon and the fact that Kenon what a
Speaker 1: shitty draw for her, my.
Speaker 2: God, And to be fair, the last time she lost
Speaker 2: to Canon, she went on an absolute tear afterwards because
Speaker 2: she lost them womens right and then one basically every
Speaker 2: tournament that ever happened.
Speaker 1: So maybe it's not a good thing. I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2: Laura Robson said something funny, I say she said because
Speaker 2: it was about that Catodoni and and Chinwuan Jang match.
Speaker 2: She said, like, when you play this, when you're a qualifier,
Speaker 2: you come as a lower ranked player into these tournaments
Speaker 2: and you play a hide see, there will always be
Speaker 2: somebody in the locker room telling you, well, it's good
Speaker 2: that you get them now, better than to get them
Speaker 2: in the fourth or.
Speaker 1: Well, actually I have said that to somebody this week,
Speaker 1: a young player from Australia who's playing one of the
Speaker 1: best players in the world as well, give out it
Speaker 1: to get them in their And it is true.
Speaker 2: And there will always be somebody who will tell to you,
Speaker 2: over qualifier, that's tough.
Speaker 4: They have already won, play three matches, not just those
Speaker 4: tennis stereotypes that every time you play somebody like this
Speaker 4: you will hear in the locker room at least once.
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. We just I just interviewed Francis Tiafo after
Speaker 1: his battle. Five set match was incredible, My god, five sets,
Speaker 1: puking on the court, hitting under armed serfs. I mean,
Speaker 1: it was the most Francis Tiafo match I've seen in
Speaker 1: a long time. But he got through it and he said,
Speaker 1: you know, look, I know I'm getting to the second
Speaker 1: part of my career. And so he said, if I'd
Speaker 1: been in a reddit, I think he's I'm not sure,
Speaker 1: I'll have you look it up, but he understands it. Look,
Speaker 1: his end rate maybe is mid thirties, thirty six, and
Speaker 1: so he is technically getting to the second part of
Speaker 1: his career, right, he's probably like twenty six or twenty
Speaker 1: seven six. So he said, I would have defaulted that
Speaker 1: match today if it wasn't a Grand Slam. And so
Speaker 1: that's how much he fought through. He was cramping, he
Speaker 1: was having side cramps. He was like tanking return games
Speaker 1: to conserve energy for his service games. And actually, in fact,
Speaker 1: he tanked the last game and he was started diting
Speaker 1: winners all over the place and ended up winning the game,
Speaker 1: which was important because he would have had to serve
Speaker 1: into the wind uphill, which he probably thinking, what do
Speaker 1: you mean uphill? There's a slight little, a little tilt
Speaker 1: on the courts here at this strain, open the tilt
Speaker 1: down to the river. It's very minor, but when you're
Speaker 1: out there, you feel it. And he would have been
Speaker 1: serving uphill into the wind. And let me tell you
Speaker 1: something that would have been hard for him.
Speaker 2: And I don't know if you've ever cramped. I cramped.
Speaker 1: I have cramped indoors and stood out playing doubles. How
Speaker 1: embarrassing that is?
Speaker 2: Weird? We will just glaze over it. As if it
Speaker 2: never happened. I'm glad.
Speaker 1: I know what it feels like.
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I will say I crammed once and then
Speaker 2: I retired three months later because I was like, I'm
Speaker 2: out of here. I'm not fit anymore. And it is
Speaker 2: really hard on those quick explosive motions, which for Francis
Speaker 2: is the serf, so there would have been hard to
Speaker 2: serve out.
Speaker 1: It was not easy. It was painful. He was and
Speaker 1: he was puking, so he's clearly lost a condition. He's like,
Speaker 1: you know that's going to make the cramp.
Speaker 2: Jack Draper puke.
Speaker 1: He Jack Draper puked all over he was Yeah, but
Speaker 1: he did it strategically, really smart thing. He puked right
Speaker 1: near the baseline, so they had to take forever to
Speaker 1: clean it up. So I think the people that clean
Speaker 1: that stuff up need to get a race. Just frankly,
Speaker 1: and the dude that did.
Speaker 2: It, even we ran into his girlfriend. Even his girlfriend
Speaker 2: was like the poor girl.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well there was a girl that cleaned up. There
Speaker 1: was a guy there was like he was puking all
Speaker 1: over the place. But anyway, it was a great effort
Speaker 1: from him. And let's see how he handles that. Because
Speaker 1: you've got a couple of days off now to recover,
Speaker 1: which he needs, and we'll see how getting through a
Speaker 1: match like that can help him go further. Another player
Speaker 1: that we just saw win was Yannick Cinna. Certainly looks unbelievable.
Speaker 1: That was an incredibly tough ra Jerry Jerry was one
Speaker 1: of the next.
Speaker 2: Thing we'll say one thing, tell me, I think the
Speaker 2: top seats on the women's side have gotten incredibly tough
Speaker 2: draws on paper. But then also in match Arena Sabalenka,
Speaker 2: former US Open champion, Sloan Stevens, Coco Go, former Australian
Speaker 2: Open champion, Sofia Cannon, and IgA Schriontek, got Katarina Senia Kova,
Speaker 2: who is also a Grand Slam champion, maybe not singles,
Speaker 2: but she's won nine Grand Slams. She's a gold medalist, yeah,
Speaker 2: and she's got the Olympics, and she's a good singles player.
Speaker 2: She's a farmer top thirty.
Speaker 1: Now and they all got through them, they all.
Speaker 2: Straight through them in straight sets. But and then Yanick
Speaker 2: Sinner with Nicolas Sharry who is just outside of the
Speaker 2: seating position, and so man today is.
Speaker 1: Packed with the schedule that we've got going on Cosnovak
Speaker 1: Djokovic is later on tonight seven PMC, ten times champion
Speaker 1: coming out on the court. What do you think his
Speaker 1: chances are to withdraw? Let's talk a little bit about
Speaker 1: the overall now that you know the schedule, now the
Speaker 1: end of the drawer and who's up the top, down
Speaker 1: the bottom, all the things. Who what's your overall thought
Speaker 1: process with the men and the women.
Speaker 2: So my overall thought process is that in both parts,
Speaker 2: the lower half is a lot weaker. But not in
Speaker 2: terms of the seated players, because there is a Djokovic
Speaker 2: and there is Alchoras, and there is a Zveref on
Speaker 2: the men's side, and there is a Chiantek and a
Speaker 2: Rebuccena on the women's side. But in terms of, you know,
Speaker 2: the floaters that you don't want to have, they are
Speaker 2: somehow all in the top half. Just as an example,
Speaker 2: Nori and Bertini are playing each other in the first
Speaker 2: round as unseated players. All these kinds of players are
Speaker 2: kind of in the top half. Nikola Shari playing Yannick
Speaker 2: Sinner in the first round. So I feel like in
Speaker 2: that regard art, I think the people in the top
Speaker 2: half will have a lot harder time to get to
Speaker 2: the second week, you know, but then once you are
Speaker 2: in the second week, it's a loaded It's a loaded
Speaker 2: draw for Alexander z Vera. If you will just rejoice
Speaker 2: that Taylor Fritz is away from him in the top half.
Speaker 2: I think there was a prayer circle and multiple candles.
Speaker 2: I don't want to see exactly. And then I mean,
Speaker 2: this is this is tough. So quarter finals for Novak
Speaker 2: would be Carlos al Charas and then is in.
Speaker 1: The button quarters they're playing each other in the quarters.
Speaker 2: They would play. Yeah, if they get through, they would
Speaker 2: play each other.
Speaker 1: That's a nightmare. I thought that I hadn't looked at
Speaker 1: the draw. Again, I wasn't one hundred percent sure, but
Speaker 1: that's a freaking nightmare.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean that's the third round mahaj, which is
Speaker 2: not easy. Tell us night. He was playing incredible at
Speaker 2: United Cup, but he had also an incredible maildown. If
Speaker 2: you haven't seen them, please google it because it was
Speaker 2: a good the.
Speaker 1: Beautiful, it was all things happen. Yeah, speaking of Mahach
Speaker 1: who now has to play Riley a Pelka. Actually, my god,
Speaker 1: So what about Riley getting through last night?
Speaker 2: Maybe maybe I'll take back the top half is more
Speaker 2: loaded with these floaters because Mahatch and Opelka and Neo Novak.
Speaker 2: That's tough.
Speaker 1: That's that's rough. I did see Riley. He's you know,
Speaker 1: he's still kind of having struggles with the back a
Speaker 1: little bit. So we'll see how he recovers. Because he
Speaker 1: finished very late last night, cool conditions. Did you see
Speaker 1: him today? He was taking a day off. He was
Speaker 1: going to do anything because I don't believe he has
Speaker 1: to play.
Speaker 2: I think he has two days.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, so look, you know that's he can beat
Speaker 1: anyone as long as he's healthy.
Speaker 2: So I'm supposed to get hot, so that would help him.
Speaker 1: Super hot this week here in Melbourne. I mean it's hot, yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean for people there in Europe right now in
Speaker 1: New York, this is bloody hot. Yeah, but it's not
Speaker 1: it's not what it could be. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Maybe let's just talk quickly about Ego because I called
Speaker 2: her match right now. I said she played Signa Kova
Speaker 2: so tough first round, and Signacovi had stretches of play
Speaker 2: where she hit as she can winners all over, played
Speaker 2: so well. And what I really liked about Ego was
Speaker 2: she kind of and that wym Fisette talked about this
Speaker 2: during United Cup. We had the chance to chat to
Speaker 2: him a few times, and he said he wants her
Speaker 2: to panic less when these big hitters come around and
Speaker 2: sort of just give a little shape on the ball,
Speaker 2: stay in the rally and wait for these stretches of
Speaker 2: play of the big hitters to subside. And she did
Speaker 2: well today. There was one moment where Katerina had three
Speaker 2: games where she hit seven winners, like incredible, where he
Speaker 2: was on the verge of panicking, but she riled it
Speaker 2: back in and she did so well, and that was
Speaker 2: something that for me as an EGA fan, for all
Speaker 2: EGA fans, was very encouraging. She reversed back to something
Speaker 2: she did when she had her best season. She would
Speaker 2: put a bit more shape on the forehand and trajectory
Speaker 2: to give herself more time and whereas last year sometimes
Speaker 2: she would get into this hitting fits with these big
Speaker 2: hitters that she could not hit and she especially.
Speaker 1: On a fast court. Now she can have hit of
Speaker 1: player on a clay court. Changed direction.
Speaker 2: Yes, yes, but that was so smart of her.
Speaker 1: Who's going on the court. This is what you people
Speaker 1: were going to hear.
Speaker 2: In women's skirls. Petroma Christiana a nice manch Why don't
Speaker 2: we go see it?
Speaker 1: H M.
Speaker 2: And so. So. I thought she did super well there.
Speaker 2: And what was also another very encouraging sign she played
Speaker 2: her best tennis in the most important moments. And we
Speaker 2: had moments last year where it wasn't always the case
Speaker 2: on the quick surface, and it's going to be fair
Speaker 2: on the slow surfaces. She's the ego that we've always seen.
Speaker 2: She has shortened the forehead swing. She's kind of if
Speaker 2: you remember, she would go up with the racket face
Speaker 2: and then drop it down before she hits it. Now
Speaker 2: she's trying to do the quick rotation, so basically just
Speaker 2: turning her shoulders sometimes it's still the most well. I
Speaker 2: wish that was the only time anyone has ever compared
Speaker 2: my forehand to ye're welcome.
Speaker 1: Well, no one's going to be comparing my forehand to anyone,
Speaker 1: particularly the world's one of the best places.
Speaker 2: Over the world. Well, and they worked on the surf.
Speaker 2: It's a bit more fluid, but Wims did say at
Speaker 2: the United Cup that it's a stepping stone basically, that
Speaker 2: this is a stepping stone to even more fluidity in
Speaker 2: the future hopefully, And she's getting on average hundred seventy
Speaker 2: nine hundred eighty cases, she's.
Speaker 1: Probably the first serve. I'm not concerned about the first
Speaker 1: surf of her. I'm concerned about the second serf. I'm
Speaker 1: concerned about the fact that the second service isn't as
Speaker 1: lethal it could be, and she doesn't get enough kick
Speaker 1: on the bald toss, so well, I want I'm going
Speaker 1: to keep my eye on that. It's sort of similar
Speaker 1: to how I feel about Coco because you know, as
Speaker 1: the old time has used to say, you're only as
Speaker 1: good as your second serve, and nowadays, guess what that
Speaker 1: is true, Because if you have a shit second serve
Speaker 1: in men's and women's fantas, you are going to get crushed.
Speaker 1: They are going to crush that second ball. And unless
Speaker 1: you're an incredible mover, you can maybe get away with it.
Speaker 1: But still, even if you're a cocoa go or an
Speaker 1: eager shantech, if you don't hit your serve, well, these
Speaker 1: girls are going to step up and crush the second serve.
Speaker 1: So that is something that we're going to have to
Speaker 1: keep an eye on because on this court it's fast,
Speaker 1: Australia's fast, and it's hot, and the conditions play quick,
Speaker 1: and that's why Sabalanca plays well here. It's why Rubarkina
Speaker 1: has done well here and made the finals. So and
Speaker 1: even Chinwen goes for the serf, you know, her second
Speaker 1: serve has a bit more pop on it sometimes than
Speaker 1: even eagers. They're pretty similar in a lot of ways.
Speaker 2: But it's funny because the so I talked to a
Speaker 2: few I did the week zero as we call it here.
Speaker 2: I did few of the charity matches, just like interviewing
Speaker 2: the players, and it's so funny. You interview five players
Speaker 2: and they will tell you five different opinions on the
Speaker 2: surfness of the court. And I the first person I
Speaker 2: spoke to was Alex Deminor and he was like, this
Speaker 2: is the slowest rod labor Arena has ever been. And
Speaker 2: I'm like walking around telling everybody how slow it is.
Speaker 2: And then I speak to Janick Sinner and Stefano Stizzipas
Speaker 2: and both of them go, oh my god, it's so fast.
Speaker 2: We didn't have a we didn't have a single rally.
Speaker 2: We couldn't get over two shots per rally.
Speaker 1: That's interesting.
Speaker 2: So it's and then another person said, I can't remember, oh,
Speaker 2: Carlito's he said that it's medium fast. It's like everything goes.
Speaker 2: But you can basically ask four players and you will
Speaker 2: get four different opinions.
Speaker 1: I think the surface looks medium medium to fast. Yeah
Speaker 1: it doesn't. It's not medium, it's not it's not definitely
Speaker 1: not medium slow. So I guess we'll see who gets
Speaker 1: through the second week. We'll have a pretty idea, pretty
Speaker 1: good idea who's more comfortable on this court. But you know, overall,
Speaker 1: I think sits a past losing that to Michelson. There's
Speaker 1: something going on.
Speaker 2: You have he has to.
Speaker 1: I mean, how long before the dad's back in the picture.
Speaker 2: I think I'm giving it one month.
Speaker 1: Well one month, so you think Indian Wells he's going
Speaker 1: to be back there. I think Indian Wells see Papa
Speaker 1: Smurf back in the back in the players box. That'll
Speaker 1: be interesting. But he is obviously struggling. But you know, look,
Speaker 1: we are off to a great start here. It is.
Speaker 1: The weather is beautiful today. It was crap yesterday. Petco
Speaker 1: and I are working out arses off. We're going running
Speaker 1: back and forth with everyone. What do you have for
Speaker 1: a tremendous amount of Americans in the main draw here?
Speaker 1: I think it was like thirty six or something thirty three. Yeah,
Speaker 1: men and women, they have like thirty three players in
Speaker 1: the main draw. That is a phenomenal effort.
Speaker 2: We don't even have thirty three players and tennis.
Speaker 1: I mean same with Australia. I mean that's impressive, very
Speaker 1: impressive numbers. I have Daniel Collins and calling her later
Speaker 1: on tonight. Yes, the dnimoll is back for another year,
Speaker 1: so we'll see what happens. I don't know, haven't looked
Speaker 1: at the schedule preparation again, Hey, listen, this is how
Speaker 1: real she prey for matches. I don't well, we can
Speaker 1: tell now, but who do you have to know?
Speaker 2: I have Carlos interested to see how Carlus plays, so
Speaker 2: I've done the charity matches with him and and it
Speaker 2: was really interesting. I spoke to Juan Carlos Ferrero as
Speaker 2: who I was really scared to talk to. He smells fantastic,
Speaker 2: by the way. I nearly fainted when I I had
Speaker 2: to like kind of awkwardly squat.
Speaker 1: The best smelling team for me.
Speaker 2: Okay, well try Carlos. And I was interviewing him and
Speaker 2: I was just like awkwardly leaning into had a sniff
Speaker 2: of his scent. He's just had surgery on his right
Speaker 2: knee as his cottlage repair, and he told me it
Speaker 2: was really interesting. They worked on Carlos's concentration and consistency
Speaker 2: in the off season, and he said that he just
Speaker 2: he's so young and his emotions young. He didn't say
Speaker 2: it with these words, but he basically said he's such
Speaker 2: a young person still that his thoughts just wander off,
Speaker 2: and that's something they've worked on. And I wanted to ask,
Speaker 2: how would you work on something like this, but I
Speaker 2: only was allowed to questions, And Carlos has changed the serf,
Speaker 2: so I wanted to ask about the serf as well.
Speaker 2: So I had to pick and so I asked him
Speaker 2: about the surf and he said, well, they also similar
Speaker 2: as to EGA. He felt like Carlos's service motion was
Speaker 2: a bit disjointed. So they also also worked on a fluidity.
Speaker 2: You can see it right away. It looks very beautiful actually,
Speaker 2: And he said that he felt that Carlos's speed on
Speaker 2: serf is okay, it's enough because he has a lot
Speaker 2: of different enough, but that the consistency is lacking, and
Speaker 2: that's what they've been working on. So this is all.
Speaker 2: This is not me this is one Carlos Ferrero's great
Speaker 2: smelling guy knee operated words from me from my mouth
Speaker 2: to your ear.
Speaker 1: Well, I will say I think that the one thing
Speaker 1: that hurts him, and I may have even discussed it
Speaker 1: with you on the pod, is that he doesn't hit
Speaker 1: his spots well enough on serve, and there were a
Speaker 1: period of time the last few years where he did
Speaker 1: hit it really well. I think that is one era
Speaker 1: that he needs to improve on, which is why he
Speaker 1: doesn't went on hard court like a Sinner does, because
Speaker 1: Janni gets so many free points with his accuracy on
Speaker 1: serve and his power on serve, whereas I think Carlos
Speaker 1: doesn't have the power like Yannick. Clearly he's like five
Speaker 1: inches shorter than him, so that makes a big difference.
Speaker 1: And Sinner can get that snap and that accuracy getting
Speaker 1: the corners. But I think that's an area that he
Speaker 1: needs to work on, so if he can, so we'll
Speaker 1: take a look at like as we call it Bolt six,
Speaker 1: as it's new, it's taken over from Hawkeye. I'm gonna
Speaker 1: be interested to see where Carlos is serving stats, look
Speaker 1: as far as where he's actually pinpointing the serve. Last
Speaker 1: year and this year, yeah, because if he's hitting his
Speaker 1: spots better this year, he will have more success on
Speaker 1: hard court. He can get away with it on clay
Speaker 1: because the service is as important. And on grass. I
Speaker 1: think he gets more confident on grass and he just
Speaker 1: moves better and looks Kleine sept Quarter sept Quarter, who
Speaker 1: had a great week last week in Adelaide, so and
Speaker 1: so do Matti Keys. I just want to give a
Speaker 1: shout out to those guys, Mattie Keys. I did speak
Speaker 1: to Jessica Bagoula. I said, wow, man, Maddie played great,
Speaker 1: and you know what she said, I've never seen her
Speaker 1: play better tennis in my life. It was like I
Speaker 1: could do nothing and shout out to jess who made
Speaker 1: the final, but.
Speaker 2: Mattie was getting married.
Speaker 1: Will do to hey, listen, if she can find recommend
Speaker 1: she can find mary assistency. And we all know that
Speaker 1: no one hits the ball bigger than Maddie Keys, no
Speaker 1: one she can hit it in good luck everybody.
Speaker 2: I'm just always apprehensive about.
Speaker 1: Well, yeah, because the big matches, she gets a little
Speaker 1: anxious or.
Speaker 2: Not about that. I'm always apprehensive when they win the
Speaker 2: mat tournament before it feels like it happened only once
Speaker 2: that the person who won the tournament before ended up
Speaker 2: winning the Grand Slam after which was Barbora Krichikova who
Speaker 2: won stass Book and then the French Open. I don't
Speaker 2: think I can't remember anybody ever winning the tournament right before.
Speaker 1: In Australia, we've had it happened in the past. It
Speaker 1: used to be the tournament in Sydney. Like Alena kim Gleisters,
Speaker 1: they would win Sydney and I don't know what she is, sure,
Speaker 1: I don't know what she is. They won Sydney and
Speaker 1: then they came down in one.
Speaker 2: But I cannot remember.
Speaker 1: Well look it up, but listen, our faithful listeners will
Speaker 1: look that up on them.
Speaker 2: Yes they were. Oh maybe another little inside because I
Speaker 2: also got there was this charity week. Was great to
Speaker 2: speak because they have this new coaches box on the court,
Speaker 2: so the coaches said closer and so they had this
Speaker 2: new initiative to bring them also closer into the media space.
Speaker 2: So I had the chance to speak to them, and
Speaker 2: I also spoke to Darren which was really interesting. Ok
Speaker 2: Hill exactly Janick Sentner's coach, and it was really interesting
Speaker 2: because I was I didn't know what to expect, whether
Speaker 2: they will actually open up or try and keep some secrets.
Speaker 2: And Darren was really open as well and said that
Speaker 2: they basically worked on making Yanick more, make Yanick have
Speaker 2: more variety. They continued on his net play for him
Speaker 2: to finish points more often at the net, and they
Speaker 2: also continued on his serf to have more accuracy and
Speaker 2: more variety in a surf. They are very happy with
Speaker 2: how the speed has progressed and now they want him
Speaker 2: to be able to basically serve his spots and different
Speaker 2: kind of slices.
Speaker 1: And spaces and changed the pace on it a little bit. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and listen, variety and overall as well, probably trying to
Speaker 1: develop the fourhand drop shot a little bit more because
Speaker 1: you know, when you hit the ball that big and hard,
Speaker 1: everyone starts moving backwards. So like Carlos, if you can
Speaker 1: hit that drop shot, it's certainly affected.
Speaker 2: All right, guys, we're getting ready for full It's getting loud.
Speaker 1: Getting louder, it's getting crazier. We love it here in Australia.
Speaker 1: It's got great matches tonight. There's literally alcaraz Novak, Djokovic
Speaker 1: and Nick Curious. We'll see what happens with Nick curios here?
Speaker 1: What is your He's playing on the People's Court John
Speaker 1: Caine Arena?
Speaker 2: What is your guest? So I spoke to I spoke
Speaker 2: to somebody who told me that Nick actually prefers the
Speaker 2: tougher US in the first round.
Speaker 1: Did you see us an excuse if he loses? Probably?
Speaker 2: Oh you think so?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Probably?
Speaker 2: Okay, Yeah, it was just surprised because I don't know
Speaker 2: exactly who told me, but they were like, you know,
Speaker 2: he's always waiting for the draw and hoping to get
Speaker 2: one of the top seats in the first round.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, we'll see how he turns out tonight.
Speaker 2: But we've got some that you believe that story or
Speaker 2: you don't.
Speaker 1: I believe it, but probably for different reasons of why. Okay,
Speaker 1: but hey, listen, who knows. I don't know. I'm not
Speaker 1: in Nick's head, and I'm grateful for that, that's for sure. Anyway.
Speaker 1: All right, guys, well listen, it's a quick one and
Speaker 1: we're happy to bring it to you. Live here, background,
Speaker 1: noise from the strain and open, beautiful day. Thanks for
Speaker 1: listening to us, and thanks for staying up late in
Speaker 1: the US and watching us on ESPN. And throughout the world.
Speaker 1: Listening to PETCO on the World Feed and we'll talk
Speaker 1: to you soon. Why b B B