Speaker 1: Hi everybody, and welcome to the Renee Stubs Tennis podcast.
Speaker 1: I am Renee Stubs and we are not together. Caitlyn
Speaker 1: is in New York and I am in Kahn. I
Speaker 1: am in Khan for can Lyon. I'm doing a bunch
Speaker 1: of stuff over here for my couple of different companies.
Speaker 1: And I am hot, Caitlin, and I don't mean yes,
Speaker 1: I'm hot, I mean it is hot over here, dude.
Speaker 1: So we are fully set in the summer of our
Speaker 1: lives and also tennis because the French Open is over.
Speaker 1: We're on the grass now. We're all excited, but we
Speaker 1: are really going to talk a little bit about We're
Speaker 1: going to fast forward because I've been texted and tweeted
Speaker 1: at and black mixed doubles. There's excitement, there's WTF is
Speaker 1: going on? Your first initial thoughts Kaitlin on the partners
Speaker 1: spakes that are happening. It's crazy.
Speaker 2: This player's list, this lineup goes unbelievably hard. It goes
Speaker 2: hard and it doesn't quit. Okay, let me just read
Speaker 2: you some of the highlights and then we'll get into it.
Speaker 2: The pairings are unhinged, unhinged, Okay, Chinwin Jung Jack Draper,
Speaker 2: Yannick Sinner, Emma Navarro. We got two Italians Yasmin Paulini,
Speaker 2: Lorenzo Mussetti, Americans Tommy Paul Jpeg, Jessica Pegula, Rushians together,
Speaker 2: Mir and.
Speaker 3: Reva, Danielle Medvedev.
Speaker 2: Then it gets funky, ready for this Taylor Fritz, Elena Rebakna,
Speaker 2: Sure why not, Arina Sblanka, Grigor Dimitrov, two Serbs, Olga Danilovich,
Speaker 2: who's a very good.
Speaker 3: Young big ball striker, and Novak Djokovic.
Speaker 2: That'll be fun all American Francis Tiafo, Madison Keys. That
Speaker 2: one got a lot of shine. A lot of people
Speaker 2: are very excited about that. Igish Fiantek Caspar Rude boyfriend
Speaker 2: girlfriend Tzipas Bodosa. No surprise there the one that everyone
Speaker 2: seems to be the most excited about, even though it's
Speaker 2: not my top pick, even though they are very cute
Speaker 2: and awesome. Am Aratakanu Carlos Alcoraz. This sort of like
Speaker 2: mirrors the stan narrative that's going on the Internet, where
Speaker 2: people are convinced that Carlos Alvarez has a crush on
Speaker 2: a marat Kanu.
Speaker 3: Maybe that's true, maybe it's not.
Speaker 2: I'm skipping over my favorite pair to highlight name Osaka
Speaker 2: and Nick Kirios, which we can get into. There is
Speaker 2: the reigning champions, uh Sarah Irani and Vasivori from Finland.
Speaker 2: I think I'm leaving somebody off, but the one I'm
Speaker 2: most excited about, and frankly the ones I think are
Speaker 2: going to win the tournament, Ben Shelton and Taylor Townsend.
Speaker 2: What a murderer's row of lineups. Everybody's doing it?
Speaker 1: Yes, nuts, Yeah, I think that. I think that Ben
Speaker 1: Shelton Taylor Townsend stands out just because you know Lefty's big,
Speaker 1: you know, big serving Ben. But look, who do I
Speaker 1: think is gonna win and all of that? Maybe those
Speaker 1: guys I don't just don't think that Irani and Vavasori
Speaker 1: can be questioned and thought about not winning because they're
Speaker 1: doubles players as well. Sarah Ronnie Serve will be questionable.
Speaker 1: But then again, when isn't it When when isn't it?
Speaker 1: So I don't know. Part of me is so excited
Speaker 1: about this. Then there's the flip side of it of
Speaker 1: it feels a little exhibition y, right, So I can't.
Speaker 2: Talk about the format because I think that is one
Speaker 2: of the main critiques of this feeling a little exhibition
Speaker 2: y right, because it is not a full length match.
Speaker 1: Yes, it is a first to four I believe games
Speaker 1: three sets. Is that correct?
Speaker 3: I understanding it was first of three, but first of four.
Speaker 1: Yeah, which is basically everyone's serving once, and it feels
Speaker 1: like a little bit Team Tennessee, which, by the way,
Speaker 1: Team Tennis was first of five. In the end it
Speaker 1: was six and then it was five, mainly because you
Speaker 1: were playing five sets of singles, doubles and mixed in
Speaker 1: World Team Tennis. So it did go quick and it
Speaker 1: was no ad. I mean, these matches are going to
Speaker 1: go real fast. So I'm not quite sure how I
Speaker 1: feel about that. Actually, I know how I feel about that.
Speaker 1: That's shit. It's terrible. I think it should be to six.
Speaker 1: I think we should play exactly how they played the
Speaker 1: system before they already went to the bit of the
Speaker 1: chuck raffle. And anybody's listening to our podcast in the path,
Speaker 1: you know what the chuck raffle is. It's what Todd
Speaker 1: Woodbridge and I called it in two thousand and one
Speaker 1: when we won the mixed doubles and we would get
Speaker 1: into the ten point tiebreak, and he's kind of anybody's game.
Speaker 1: I don't like the first of four. I think that
Speaker 1: they should do a regular set. I think they should
Speaker 1: play best of two sets and then a ten point
Speaker 1: match tie break. Those matches only usually go for like
Speaker 1: an hour and twenty minutes. Anyway, that's not taxing on anyone,
Speaker 1: and I feel like it does make it very much
Speaker 1: an exhibition type style. Now you have to think about Caitlin, like,
Speaker 1: there's a history behind the mixed doubles, and there used
Speaker 1: to be great singles players that always played the mix,
Speaker 1: always played doubles, and it has become taxing on their bodies.
Speaker 1: And it also there's so much money now in tennis,
Speaker 1: so they don't need to play mixed doubles or doubles
Speaker 1: to make money, right. But I don't like that the
Speaker 1: fact that they're not playing a regular scoring system. I
Speaker 1: think that to tracks from it. And if you're worried
Speaker 1: about not getting top plays because it's going to be
Speaker 1: too taxing on them, I don't agree with that. I
Speaker 1: think you would still get them playing. It's a knockout system.
Speaker 1: It's not like they're all going to be playing the
Speaker 1: whole tournament. So I don't like that format. I also
Speaker 1: think there should be a little onus on if you're
Speaker 1: top ten in the world in doubles, you should be
Speaker 1: allowed to be in that discussion of being in the
Speaker 1: tournament because you know, Okay, before I go on another
Speaker 1: tangent on you know, singles players versus doubles players, all
Speaker 1: that sort of thud, what are your thoughts.
Speaker 3: On I think people are going to watch it.
Speaker 1: I don't disagree with that, Caitlin.
Speaker 2: I think, at the end of the day, totally valid
Speaker 2: and I want to hear your tangent about top ten
Speaker 2: doubles players because I think at the most elite end
Speaker 2: of the spectrum, mixed doubles is awesome. It's one of
Speaker 2: my favorite events, and the history of it is just
Speaker 2: like absolutely amazing because.
Speaker 3: It is the only sport in the world where.
Speaker 2: Men and women compete at the same time on the
Speaker 2: same field of play at their you know, at their
Speaker 2: absolute limit. We saw skiing and other sports attempt to
Speaker 2: bring in mixed team events just based on the popularity
Speaker 2: of having dual gender The dual gender tournaments get the
Speaker 2: most shine, the most money, the most audious. Swimming has
Speaker 2: done relays. Yeah, but like skiing, swimming is a relay
Speaker 2: system which is about as good as you can get.
Speaker 2: This is everybody's playing at the same time, and it's
Speaker 2: the most fun. I'll never forget my mother in law,
Speaker 2: who cares nothing about tennis, texting me saying, how can
Speaker 2: I watch Roger Federer play against Serena Williams. And this
Speaker 2: is several years ago, and she was speaking, although she
Speaker 2: did not know it, about the Hopman Cup in Australia
Speaker 2: over the winter break, and that kind of level of
Speaker 2: excitement where the tennis transcends fan nationality, time zone kind
Speaker 2: of only happens when you have some nuclear power combinations. Attention,
Speaker 2: I'm thinking back, as was Lou Suer, the outgoing CEO
Speaker 2: of the USTA, who allegedly came up with this about
Speaker 2: the Andy Murray Serena Williams pairing at Wimbledon a couple
Speaker 2: of years ago. I was in the stands for that.
Speaker 2: I was brought to tears by how enthused, how packed,
Speaker 2: how exciting and how awesome it was. And they ended
Speaker 2: up winning the match that I watched. And just this
Speaker 2: idea that we can create a new fanship for a
Speaker 2: legendary product that only our sport can provide is awesome,
Speaker 2: and I'm glad to have their revived attention. Most importantly,
Speaker 2: I'm really glad that people care about it and we'll
Speaker 2: watch it, and maybe this year is the sort of
Speaker 2: tester to see if people will come early, because it
Speaker 2: is the week before the main draw of single starts,
Speaker 2: so it's what we call fan week, and we'll see
Speaker 2: based on the amount of caliber and excitement and you know,
Speaker 2: names that are attached to this, if we can get
Speaker 2: some following and fanship for mixed as a concept, and
Speaker 2: maybe next year it's a full size But yeah, I think,
Speaker 2: like tragically, nobody watches the current euation of it except
Speaker 2: maybe you and me, and that sucks.
Speaker 3: And this is.
Speaker 2: Something that people will watch, and I think you know,
Speaker 2: it doesn't It's not terribly more complicated than that for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah, listen, I don't disagree with anything you've just said.
Speaker 1: I think that you know, watching it is important, it's exciting,
Speaker 1: it's fun, like mixed doubles is great to watch. Doubles
Speaker 1: is great to watch, you know, and when people do
Speaker 1: watch it, and the tennis enthusiasts love doubles because most
Speaker 1: tennis enthusiasts that play play doubles. At a certain age,
Speaker 1: it's too tough to run around playing singles all the time,
Speaker 1: and unless you're in incredible shape and you've been playing
Speaker 1: it in, playing doubles is a lot more fun. It's
Speaker 1: one of the reasons why pickleball, which we hate, you know,
Speaker 1: they're like, well, we get to hang out with our friends,
Speaker 1: and in doubles, yeah, there's four people in the court.
Speaker 1: You get to hang out a little bit more. And
Speaker 1: I think a lot of the older generation play doubles
Speaker 1: and want to watch doubles. So in that regard, I
Speaker 1: think it's fantastic. There's a positive and negative to things
Speaker 1: I'm going to say, and it might be a little
Speaker 1: bit controversy controversial, yeah, but it wouldn't be uske without
Speaker 1: a little controversy. And I'm just being honest, right, So
Speaker 1: a couple of things. One is back in the day,
Speaker 1: and I hate to say that, but a lot of
Speaker 1: great singles players played mixed doubles. You think about the
Speaker 1: John McEnroe's that played. I'll never forget him playing with
Speaker 1: Steffi Graff. He still hasn't forgiven Stepfie about pulling out
Speaker 1: of the quarterfinals to Wimbland in his last Wimblin. But
Speaker 1: you know, you had great singles players and very good
Speaker 1: singles plays playing in the mixed doubles event, and it
Speaker 1: slowly started to dwindle and they soldly started to leave
Speaker 1: and it became really doubles only sort of tournament. Then,
Speaker 1: of course, in doubles we still have and in the
Speaker 1: women's game, we have more women playing top players playing
Speaker 1: doubles than you do having playing singles. There was a
Speaker 1: lot more really good singles players playing doubles. And I
Speaker 1: have spoken about it many times, you know, during my
Speaker 1: years of playing Kim Kleister's, Lindsey Davenport, a Rancho Sanchez Vicario.
Speaker 1: The list is long, very very long. Anybody can look
Speaker 1: it up. Who was ranked number one in singles in
Speaker 1: the world and number one doubles in the world and
Speaker 1: sometimes at the same time. That will never happen anymore.
Speaker 1: So that's a shame because the quality of doubles was
Speaker 1: so good back twenty years ago. And I don't that's
Speaker 1: gonna sound like a slight to players that are playing
Speaker 1: doubles now, but it's just a fact. I cannot stress
Speaker 1: how that's just the fact. And if any doubles only
Speaker 1: player wants to have a go at me about it,
Speaker 1: go for it. Because I played ten years of singles
Speaker 1: on tour, and I've played predominantly ten years of just
Speaker 1: doubles on tour. So I played the lost thirteen singles
Speaker 1: and then I played from thirty to forty doubles only right,
Speaker 1: I was playing against the players in finals of Grand Slams,
Speaker 1: like the Williamson, like the Kim Kleisters, Natalie Tourzia. I mean,
Speaker 1: these are players I played in the finals who were
Speaker 1: all top ten or number one in the world in singles.
Speaker 1: That's what I was playing against to win singles and
Speaker 1: doubles Grand Slams. And that has dropped off, and the quality,
Speaker 1: in my opinion, has dropped off significantly. We're not seeing
Speaker 1: players play great singles and doubles, playing great at the net,
Speaker 1: you know, combining those things. And frankly, I think one
Speaker 1: of the reasons why, and this might be a little
Speaker 1: bit of a controversial stand, I think one of the
Speaker 1: reasons why Coco GoF has played well over the last
Speaker 1: months as well is that she started playing a little
Speaker 1: bit of doubles again and it helps your game, There's
Speaker 1: no doubt about it. Andre Eva is a great example.
Speaker 1: She's playing singles and doubles every single week. Paolini's playing
Speaker 1: singles and doubles every single week. And these are the
Speaker 1: players that are getting later parts of singles tournaments. So
Speaker 1: I think that this might spur a couple of top
Speaker 1: players to play a little bit more doubles or mixed doubles.
Speaker 1: And it brings back, as you said, the attention to
Speaker 1: the game. And I don't want to be that person's like, oh, Renee,
Speaker 1: you know, you'd have to talk about like your day
Speaker 1: and age. But it's just a fact. I played when
Speaker 1: I won the US Open doubles in two thousand and
Speaker 1: or and Lisa Raymon, who was a perennial top ten
Speaker 1: singles player. By the way, we beat in the quarterfinals
Speaker 1: Martina Hingis and Jennifer Caapriarti in doubles. They were the
Speaker 1: number one and the number two players in singles that year, okay,
Speaker 1: and we beat them in the quarterfinals. Great doubles players
Speaker 1: can beat great singles players. And by the way, both
Speaker 1: Jennifer and Martina and I would argue that Martina Hingis
Speaker 1: was a better doubles player than singles player, and he
Speaker 1: was a great singles player. Yeah, great doubles teams will
Speaker 1: not always, but often beat great singles players that play together, right,
Speaker 1: And we're talking great doubles teams like you know the
Speaker 1: Gigi Fernandez and Vereveras of the world. You know the
Speaker 1: Martina navrolovat Pamswiper, who were both very good singles players, clearly,
Speaker 1: but you know myself and Lisa Raymond when we were
Speaker 1: at our peak, we were beating singles top singles players,
Speaker 1: and I think that has dropped off, and I think
Speaker 1: the quality of doubles has dropped off, frankly, And you
Speaker 1: see four girls on the baseline at the French Open
Speaker 1: playing doubles against each other, like what in the actual
Speaker 1: f Like that is quality of doubles that I'm sorry
Speaker 1: has dropped off. So I think that there's a conversation
Speaker 1: that needs to have about how do we make doubles
Speaker 1: or mixed doubles more viable, more entertaining, and getting singles
Speaker 1: players to play will make it more valuable and it
Speaker 1: will give it more gravitas. Again, because some of the
Speaker 1: teams and that are winning these doubles and mixed doubles,
Speaker 1: they would not compete sometimes with the great singles players
Speaker 1: that played more doubles. So I like this. I just
Speaker 1: don't like the scoring system. I don't like the exhibition
Speaker 1: feel of that.
Speaker 2: Great, I think we're in total agreement, and I think
Speaker 2: what I'm particularly interested in is, well, you know, my
Speaker 2: if I'm become commissioner of tennis, I'm making I'm stripping
Speaker 2: back the tours and the tournaments that matter to like
Speaker 2: ten to fifteen, and everybody has to play all events.
Speaker 2: If you got to play singles, you gott play doubles,
Speaker 2: and you gotta play mixed you get fewer stops on
Speaker 2: the tour. But you really got to commit and like
Speaker 2: give people a couple of different products. That's how you know,
Speaker 2: you know, John McEnroe and Mary Carillo want to mix slam.
Speaker 3: Together like things.
Speaker 2: Fun things happen when I think you put some interesting
Speaker 2: combinations together, and that is certainly what we have in
Speaker 2: this draw, which is why I think it's really interesting
Speaker 2: that we have this like player lineup that is personalities
Speaker 2: that you kind of think are like, Okay, who is
Speaker 2: going to record the most pegs in a single match.
Speaker 2: It's definitely going to be Ben Shelton and Taylor Townsend
Speaker 2: if they don't have I want to like special counter
Speaker 2: that's like pegs per match. How many people are they
Speaker 2: hitting with balls?
Speaker 3: I had to see like at least four.
Speaker 1: M Arena and Dimitrov. I think Arena Sabalanka might be
Speaker 1: don't think that Madison Keyes might be pegging people with
Speaker 1: their groundstrokes either.
Speaker 3: Great, this is what I'm talking about.
Speaker 2: This is what I want. There's a pretty hilarious rooky
Speaker 2: diamond on Twitter has created the US Open Mixed Doubles
Speaker 2: power rankings based on the number of words that teammates
Speaker 2: have ever spoken to each other, and at the bottom
Speaker 2: of the list is Elena Rebakna and Taylor Fritz.
Speaker 3: Have they ever had a conversation?
Speaker 1: Well, I think the reason I had to play together. No,
Speaker 1: But didn't they win the Indian World Exhibition Tournament.
Speaker 3: Yes, good point.
Speaker 1: That's why, Kate lens they've already had interaction. And let
Speaker 1: me tell you something. They're not gonna bet. They're gonna
Speaker 1: be hard to beat, for sure, Big serves Taylor's a
Speaker 1: little bit afraid of anything at the net, so that
Speaker 1: will be questionable. But he doesn't have to worry about
Speaker 1: it because his player is hitting a second and he's
Speaker 1: serving huge. The person I'm concerned about is Bava. Sorry,
Speaker 1: if they get drawn up against the Madison Keys, who's
Speaker 1: gonna take her serve and put a bullet through him?
Speaker 2: I mean some would argue Vasivori is a little bit
Speaker 2: of ack for punishment. Well, you know again respectfully, and
Speaker 2: I think this speaks to your point before you know,
Speaker 2: he and Sarah Ronnie won it last year, but they
Speaker 2: are the only team basically in here that is not
Speaker 2: composed of singles superstars. So yeah, like what happens when
Speaker 2: he's got to defend serves from to the Fritz or
Speaker 2: a forehand Madison Keys, you know, like a Rittasa Blaker, Like,
Speaker 2: I don't know, I think it's gonna be. I think
Speaker 2: he's gonna get kind of brutalized up there.
Speaker 1: I guess what we will we will find out. I'll
Speaker 1: be the doubles, the mixed doubles champions of last year,
Speaker 1: how they proved themselves up against the lineup like this
Speaker 1: of incredible singles players that hit the ball really well.
Speaker 1: All right, now, again it's not a flight because look,
Speaker 1: I wasn't a great returner. You know, I won two
Speaker 1: mixed doubles tournaments and I beat a rancho Sanchez, Curry
Speaker 1: on Todd Woodbridge, who's argued one of the greatest doubles
Speaker 1: players of all time, you know, and I played with
Speaker 1: at the time Jared Palmer, who was a great doubles player,
Speaker 1: and you know, and then in another final that I played,
Speaker 1: played Lisa Raymond and Leander Pays, and Leander Pay is
Speaker 1: one of the greatest. I would put Leander Pays and
Speaker 1: Lisa Raymond up against any of these teams, you know,
Speaker 1: any of these singles players, but at least obviously it's
Speaker 1: an incredible singles player. And Leander and his own right,
Speaker 1: was a pretty decent singles player. But we gonna find
Speaker 1: out the level of a defending champion against quality singles
Speaker 1: players the ball as well as all of these players do.
Speaker 3: For sure.
Speaker 2: And I also think, uh, you know, some of the players,
Speaker 2: like you said, like Amira Andreva, uh you know, don't
Speaker 2: forget Arina Sablinka has a couple of doubles Grand Slam titles.
Speaker 2: Like some of these folks are really accomplished doubles players.
Speaker 2: We just don't see them doing it that much, maybe
Speaker 2: because they've prioritized, you know, other things. But yeah, like
Speaker 2: you said, at Coco has played doubles. She most famously
Speaker 2: played a lot with Jessica Pagoula, who pairs with Tim
Speaker 2: and Paul, who like, I love that pair up. I
Speaker 2: think that's really interesting. A lot has been made about
Speaker 2: Naomi Osaka and nik Kirius. A lot of folks have
Speaker 2: sort of sent me that as a line like, oh,
Speaker 2: they're super disappointed to see a lot of people kind
Speaker 2: of feel a certain way about Nick, you know, which
Speaker 2: fair enough, like you don't I think you don't get
Speaker 2: to repost, you know, Andrew Tait quotes on Twitter without
Speaker 2: getting some feedback. But the thing that most people need
Speaker 2: to know is Naomi Osaka and Nikias share an agent.
Speaker 2: So a lot of these are marriages of convenience. And
Speaker 2: I'm not sure that they are, you know, the best
Speaker 2: of friends or not. But keep in mind, like that's
Speaker 2: that's how Nick curious gets into this thing, because otherwise
Speaker 2: he doesn't work the tennis.
Speaker 1: I mean, listen, controversial take that's the one team that
Speaker 1: I am questioning because Nick hasn't played at all and
Speaker 1: is he playing or not? And then there's probably a
Speaker 1: team that probably could have taken that spot. Now having
Speaker 1: said that, will they get bums in seats absolute, ad
Speaker 1: lutely completely, and that's the issue, and that's what Nick
Speaker 1: says on you know, I sell out and people come
Speaker 1: and watch me play, and all of that is true.
Speaker 1: But at the same time you have to also say, yeah,
Speaker 1: but are you are you a player? Are you playing
Speaker 1: on tour? You know, every single person in this draw
Speaker 1: when it comes to the men, are all great singles
Speaker 1: players playing on tour every single day. So you know,
Speaker 1: that's probably the one team that you know, if I
Speaker 1: saw the alternate, I'd like to know the alternates, you know,
Speaker 1: the team that I don't.
Speaker 2: Who didn't who didn't get yeah right.
Speaker 1: Yeah, who requested to play and who didn't get in.
Speaker 1: I would like to know that, And I think they
Speaker 1: should post that. I think they should post the ten
Speaker 1: alternate teams because I guarantee you there'll be one of
Speaker 1: these teams that don't play.
Speaker 3: For sure, for sure.
Speaker 1: I mean it's a her side, they're a little bit injured,
Speaker 1: or you know, something's going on and they don't want
Speaker 1: to they don't want to threaten there playing the following
Speaker 1: week in singles.
Speaker 2: Yeah, or if your Nick and you have like some
Speaker 2: brand obligations, then you kind of take a spot from
Speaker 2: a wild card and then decide not to play, which
Speaker 2: is I think what has happened now in wimbled and
Speaker 2: in some other places because you don't want to not
Speaker 2: do the commercial side of things. From the cutey petuity angle,
Speaker 2: Carlos Alcoraz and Emarata Kanu, come on, what are we
Speaker 2: doing so cute?
Speaker 3: And then some other folks have mentioned.
Speaker 1: I would argue that they are and this is nothing
Speaker 1: against any of them. I would argue just talking from
Speaker 1: a perspective of doubles, everybody, so don't lose your mind,
Speaker 1: because you all know how I feel like out both
Speaker 1: of them. I've talked about them both very glowing over
Speaker 1: the last couple of years. That's the weakest pair that
Speaker 1: and maybe Eager and Casper the only reason there's it's
Speaker 1: more there's a there's a little bit of a weakness
Speaker 1: in the doubles aspect. Eager's the great returner, could serve
Speaker 1: a Casper. I'm not sure how great he is in
Speaker 1: the doubles perspective. Emma Carlos, I saw him play doubles
Speaker 1: with a Rapi. He was kind of like a little
Speaker 1: lost puppy out there, didn't know where to hit the
Speaker 1: ball half the time, or where to stand on the court,
Speaker 1: And I was like, oh, it's great. A player is
Speaker 1: his ears and of course he's argua the best player
Speaker 1: in the world right now. I don't know how his
Speaker 1: doubles acumen.
Speaker 3: Is pretty poor.
Speaker 2: But again, this is the qt ptuity power rankings and.
Speaker 1: The going on that. Okay, if you're just going on.
Speaker 3: That, they're at the top for me.
Speaker 1: I mean, and Emma is interesting because I mean, when
Speaker 1: was the last time Emma Davarra played doubles. I mean probably,
Speaker 1: I'm guessing doubles is such a different game to singles, Okay,
Speaker 1: and everyone out there that doesn't understand that, which is
Speaker 1: why back sorry to say this again, but back in
Speaker 1: you know, the nineties and two thousands, these singles players
Speaker 1: that were number one in the world in doubles and
Speaker 1: singles were great doubles plays because they were playing doubles
Speaker 1: all the time. They weren't just stepping on the court
Speaker 1: and hitting a tennis ball. Really well, doubles is a
Speaker 1: different game. It's not the same as singles. You hit
Speaker 1: the ball the same, but you have to know where
Speaker 1: to stand, you have to know angles, you have to
Speaker 1: know you know where to stand at the net. You
Speaker 1: have to be able to bolly you're at the net,
Speaker 1: and teams at the net that are good at the
Speaker 1: net are always going to win doubles matches. I don't
Speaker 1: care who you are. And the reason why Paolini and
Speaker 1: you know Irani do well is because the Rani's great
Speaker 1: at the net. She's got great hands. She knows when
Speaker 1: where to hit the volley, how to hit the volley,
Speaker 1: and where to stand even though her serf is so bad,
Speaker 1: they just stand back Paolini. Remember we talked about this.
Speaker 1: Everyone hits the ball then to Paolini and a RUnni
Speaker 1: runs into that. I'm like, if you're smart, you hit
Speaker 1: the ball to a Rani and then you keep hitting
Speaker 1: the ball to a running on the bay and you
Speaker 1: cannot lose.
Speaker 2: Then well listen, I really hope you are going to
Speaker 2: commentate this because it seems like we had a thorough
Speaker 2: technical maybe live from our footprint in New York.
Speaker 3: Stay tuned for more details about that.
Speaker 2: The other cutey p Tuity power ranking couple that I
Speaker 2: want to call out is Chinwin Jung and Jack Draper.
Speaker 2: I mean, face Card meets face Card, whoa like that
Speaker 2: is giving Vogue editorial.
Speaker 1: That is giving Vogue editorial. I see major. I wonder
Speaker 1: if they have the same agents, but having very likely
Speaker 1: that is an interesting pairing. That is an interesting pairing.
Speaker 2: I just somebody was like, oh, chin Win's a nerd
Speaker 2: and he's sort of soft boy, and I was like,
Speaker 2: chin Win would eat him for breakfast. Don't make no mistake,
Speaker 2: chin Win is going to be the boss of that team.
Speaker 1: Which what we should do is have a power ranking
Speaker 1: of who is going to be the captain of every
Speaker 1: tame good point.
Speaker 3: Okay, so Madison, Francis, Tiafa.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm gonna go through those because they got in
Speaker 1: front of me. Navarro Finner, I think that is an
Speaker 1: equal captaincy Agree, Okay. Neither of them are super outgoing.
Speaker 3: Or loud, two introverts, very chill, yep.
Speaker 1: Draper chin Win We've already discussed definitely going to be
Speaker 1: chin Win, Pagoula, Tommy Paul, very similar personalities. I would
Speaker 1: say a little bit of this and a little bit
Speaker 1: of that on the team. I think Jess will be
Speaker 1: a little bit of guiding light and Tommy will be
Speaker 1: the fun, you know. And it was kind of like
Speaker 1: a bit of back and forth and they'll both be
Speaker 1: I'll tell you what they'll be doing. They'll be doing
Speaker 1: a lot of smiling, a lot of laughing.
Speaker 3: I think that's actually the team to watch. That's my
Speaker 3: peck to win it.
Speaker 1: They're like passively aggressively funny, so they will be perfect together.
Speaker 2: I think them and Ben Shelton Taylor turns End are
Speaker 2: my two faves for Okay, anyway, please go on, please
Speaker 2: keep going.
Speaker 1: Paulini and Rssetti, I would say Pawelini is going to
Speaker 1: be the boss of that team. She's like, dude, look
Speaker 1: I've won a few double titles over the last few years.
Speaker 1: Let me to be the boss, and you just look
Speaker 1: pretty and I'm gonna tell you what to do. Revakina
Speaker 1: Taylor Fritz, I think that's a combined captain c because
Speaker 1: both as neither of them exactly type Ah Andreva Medvedev.
Speaker 1: I think that's going to be all about Mira Andreva.
Speaker 1: She's gonna draw that, She's gonna run that ship. I
Speaker 1: think Danil is just going to be along for the ride,
Speaker 1: and you're going to see him smiling a lot on
Speaker 1: the tennis court because he's not winning a lot of
Speaker 1: singles matches right now. And this might be his chance
Speaker 1: to get some confidence back. Madison Keys Tiafo. That is
Speaker 1: just going to be I think that's a combined Maddie
Speaker 1: will probably be the one telling Francis to calm down
Speaker 1: and to concentrate. Dimitrov and Sablenka. There's no question we
Speaker 1: know the boss team IgA Kaspar. I think that's going
Speaker 1: to be a combined captain. C Podosa sits the pass.
Speaker 1: We know the Podoza is definitely going to be wearing
Speaker 1: the pants in that situation and telling exactly what to
Speaker 1: do for Stefan, stephan Us, Radikanu and al KaAZ. I
Speaker 1: don't even know what to say. I think that's just
Speaker 1: gonna be.
Speaker 3: You think that's the blind leading the blind.
Speaker 1: I think that is going to be just the cutest
Speaker 1: situation to see them look at each other and go,
Speaker 1: I don't know, I don't know. What do you think
Speaker 1: Benchicch and Zverev definitely Benschic she's the mother now, She's
Speaker 1: gonna definitely tell Zverev what to do. Danelovich and Djokovic.
Speaker 1: I think Danilovich is going to be the captain of
Speaker 1: that team because she is like serious attitude and I
Speaker 1: think it's actually that combination is going to be kind
Speaker 1: of funny. Actually, I think Novak's gonna just be like,
Speaker 1: I'm playing tennis for fun and this feels great.
Speaker 2: I'm really excited, just on a note for this to
Speaker 2: see the Novak of old, who's like goofy and silly
Speaker 2: and like truly having a good time on the court
Speaker 2: in a way that doesn't really cast any meaning onto
Speaker 2: his quest.
Speaker 3: For a slam or his quest for gold. You know
Speaker 3: all these things.
Speaker 1: They played the Olympics, they played them. I think he
Speaker 1: pulled out because he was hurt.
Speaker 3: I think they did, but he didn't play. He didn't
Speaker 3: end up playing.
Speaker 1: He played. He pulled out against the Australian team of
Speaker 1: Peers and Ash Barty for the bronze medal and because
Speaker 1: he was hurt. So so they played together the ball
Speaker 1: and they're really good friends. And Novak's been a like
Speaker 1: literally a mentor to Danilovich. So that'll be fun to watch.
Speaker 1: This is like dad playing with his daughter out there.
Speaker 1: Funny Taylor and Ben Taylor. Taylor's going to be telling
Speaker 1: Ben and then Irani Barvasori. We already know the answer
Speaker 1: to that. We saw the final last year at the
Speaker 1: US Open and Sarahronie was the best player on court,
Speaker 1: and she was like looking at Baba's story and be like, look,
Speaker 1: calm down, I got you. Just just follow my lead.
Speaker 1: Osaka and Curios. I didn't even know if they're going
Speaker 1: to play. Yeah, let's that's my guess.
Speaker 2: We can come back to that if they actually show up.
Speaker 2: There's another team that we're leaving off that. I feel
Speaker 2: like it's very it's very of adventures. We didn't talk
Speaker 2: about them in the sort of power rankings beforehand, and
Speaker 2: you know, I think for me, the benchic dynamic that
Speaker 2: you describe is the right one.
Speaker 3: Well, I think no matter.
Speaker 2: What I am, titilated, people are talking about this, people
Speaker 2: are excited. I think they will have absolute attention. Kudos
Speaker 2: Solution the outgoing US Taco for innovating a new product
Speaker 2: that's not something we've said that much about the USTA
Speaker 2: in years past, and totally hats off because I think
Speaker 2: centering mixed doubles in this way is just super smart
Speaker 2: and it leans into one of the many things that
Speaker 2: tennis has going for it, which is that there's all
Speaker 2: these different products like wheelchair tennis, Legends, Tennis, Junior tennis,
Speaker 2: men's tennis, women's tennis, mixed tennis, like yes, is the
Speaker 2: answer to all of it. And I think for me,
Speaker 2: just the idea that tennis takes all these different forms,
Speaker 2: and I was getting a little bit of shine. I
Speaker 2: would love, as you suggest, for this to be a
Speaker 2: real match with real scores and real formatting. And so
Speaker 2: maybe the idea here is if this gets a ton
Speaker 2: of attention, a ton of press as it already has,
Speaker 2: and a ton of you know, revenue and enthusiasm from
Speaker 2: the players, then maybe this is something that they continue,
Speaker 2: because I'd certainly love to see it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, listen, I think this is a you know, this
Speaker 1: is the start of a sort of I don't know,
Speaker 1: the wall falling in mixed doubles. I think, yeah, the
Speaker 1: Grand Slams are going to see what happens to this,
Speaker 1: and they're going to decide how they're going to do it.
Speaker 1: I cannot imagine Craig Tyley doing this in this format,
Speaker 1: but I would imagine. I know, Wimbledon won't change it,
Speaker 1: and I hope they don't because I just I don't
Speaker 1: know Wimbledon is. It's different, Caitlin. People go and watch
Speaker 1: mixed doubles and doubles at Wimbledon. They do. They love tennis,
Speaker 1: they get it, grounds pass and they just want to
Speaker 1: go and watch tennis. So I don't see them really
Speaker 1: doing it. We'll see, and I might be wrong, but
Speaker 1: we'll see. But it's definitely exciting this came out, and
Speaker 1: it's a buzz on the Internet and tennis Twitter and
Speaker 1: all the other socials are like losing their minds over
Speaker 1: the potential of all of this stuff, and it will
Speaker 1: be an incredible week. ESPN wallabys to be showing it
Speaker 1: and loving it. Before we sign off, because this is
Speaker 1: going to be a quick one today because this was
Speaker 1: the talk we wanted to talk about. And we're late
Speaker 1: getting our podcasts out this week, but I've been sleeping
Speaker 1: very rarely hear and can but can we just touch
Speaker 1: on really quickly last week first time we had a
Speaker 1: women's event at Queen's Love and tut Tiana Maria slicing
Speaker 1: her forehand to a victory on the grass at Wimbledon,
Speaker 1: and it just blows my mind that people and coaches
Speaker 1: cannot get their players to play a certain game to
Speaker 1: beat this player on grass who cannot literally hit a
Speaker 1: passing shot, and it just proves to you. If you're
Speaker 1: going to teach your player how to win in tennis,
Speaker 1: please teach them how to hit volleys, because she showed
Speaker 1: you why playing on grass is a whole different animal.
Speaker 1: If you keep the ball below the net and you
Speaker 1: are afraid to going to the net, you're going to
Speaker 1: get literally no pun intended chopped on grass. And that's
Speaker 1: what happened.
Speaker 3: I loved it.
Speaker 2: I watched so many of Tatiana Maria's matches, including the
Speaker 2: final against Nissimova. The amount of bafflement that her opponents
Speaker 2: seemed to generate with her slice on both sides was
Speaker 2: quite upsetting because it's like, hey, guys, adjust, make do
Speaker 2: something different, like please, even though this is coming, come
Speaker 2: into the net, it's gonna float. Interestingly, the best match
Speaker 2: from the tournament and the one that was the closest,
Speaker 2: was Mukhova Tauchiana Maria. Not surprisingly, both of them hitting
Speaker 2: one handed backhands because Mukhova, who has a beautiful slice
Speaker 2: and a beautiful net games, you know, had a left
Speaker 2: wrist injury, so she was actually both hitting slice on
Speaker 2: the one handed backhand and hitting over the one handed backhand,
Speaker 2: so it was like it looked like tennis that I play.
Speaker 2: I was so thrilled. I was like, everyone is slicing
Speaker 2: and hitting one handers and coming into the net and
Speaker 2: utilizing the dimensions of the court. It was such classic
Speaker 2: throwback tennis.
Speaker 3: Made me so happy.
Speaker 2: And what a fantastic story that touchdown to Maria h
Speaker 2: Age thirty nine with two kids wins, you know, wins
Speaker 2: the first women's event at Queen's Club in forever certainly forever,
Speaker 2: how long? Like what a great outcome. But yes, please,
Speaker 2: what the lesson is here is teach slaves and teach volleys.
Speaker 1: The lesson here is too better as coaches, Like, seriously,
Speaker 1: as a coach, how do you not have your player
Speaker 1: just say listen. I know you're not comfortable than that.
Speaker 1: But and I love Tatiana and what she did is incredible,
Speaker 1: but she doesn't have a puzzling shot. Really, she has
Speaker 1: to love you. And it's like, how do you not
Speaker 1: teach your player to come in on her ball and
Speaker 1: be patient and hit the volley away. So it's just like,
Speaker 1: it's just incredible to me. And if you play a
Speaker 1: player like that, you have to come and interview, don't.
Speaker 1: She's gonna literally make your life a nightmare, and that's
Speaker 1: what happened. And she beat big hitters because they were
Speaker 1: refused to come in to beat Madison Keith and then
Speaker 1: heath him over back to back because their refusal to
Speaker 1: be comfortable inside the service line is just beyond me.
Speaker 1: And it's classic. Anyway. I was so happy to see
Speaker 1: it because I'm like, good for you, kiddo, good for you.
Speaker 1: That's unbelievable. And and she is the nicest person.
Speaker 3: She's a lovely person.
Speaker 1: Her husband, who is the coach, is the nicest guy.
Speaker 1: It was just really great to see.
Speaker 2: He loved it, and also shout out to Taylor Fritz
Speaker 2: who took Shue Coat on grass beating alex.
Speaker 3: Verev on his again turf of Germany. Again.
Speaker 1: That what we call Caitlin. When you beat someone like that,
Speaker 1: they become your pigeon, and he is. Taylor Fritz looks
Speaker 1: at Verep and says, you are my pigeon. No argument here,
Speaker 1: no argument here. Happy to see it.
Speaker 2: Anyway, France, I see, we will be in I will
Speaker 2: be in Maymi in a few hours doing some puddle
Speaker 2: events and tennis because sports playing, I say together. And
Speaker 2: then I'll be in London on Monday with an event
Speaker 2: to come, so stay tuned.
Speaker 1: Great all right, Kaylin, I'll see you in London until then.
Speaker 1: As they say in France, I won't say Adam because
Speaker 1: I won't see you tomorrow, but i'll see you next week. Wait. Okay, everybody,
Speaker 1: thanks for joining you today. All right, beat out everyone. Bye,