Speaker 1: You're fun to watch. You're refreshing to be part of
Speaker 1: our tour. The fans love you.
Speaker 2: Welcome to the quarter finals of the Straight and Open
Speaker 2: again again.
Speaker 1: Good day and welcome to the tennis For Day nine
Speaker 1: of AO twenty twenty five, John Huvena's with all the
Speaker 1: big news from Melbourne Park every day of the main draw.
Speaker 1: Today on the tennis Sinner, unrepenting, demon unrelenting.
Speaker 3: I don't believe in coincidences. I think when you're happy
Speaker 3: off the court, you play some good tennis on the court.
Speaker 1: Maddie grabs the keys to the quarters.
Speaker 4: Hard to believe that it was ten years ago that
Speaker 4: I made my first semi final.
Speaker 1: Plus lucky loser Lisa's luck runs out a preview of
Speaker 1: Day ten and Corey Goth I'm fathering a superstar.
Speaker 5: There was no doubt in my mind at that point
Speaker 5: because athletically she was gifted.
Speaker 1: That's all ahead on the tennis.
Speaker 6: High ball from Demonal floating.
Speaker 7: Back that way makers, it's a beast that's had for
Speaker 7: the first time in his career, the Australian Alex Dimenor.
Speaker 6: He's through to the quarter finals of his home major.
Speaker 1: Alex Demonor is the first Australian man in ten years
Speaker 1: to reach the last eight of his home Slam. Following
Speaker 1: an impressive straight sets defeat of Alex Michelson. The Aussie
Speaker 1: eighth seed was in devastating touch early, winning eighty three
Speaker 1: percent of first serve points in a twenty seven minute
Speaker 1: first set avalanche without dropping a game. It took until
Speaker 1: the third game of the second set for Mickelson to
Speaker 1: open his account, which ignited a contest as the American
Speaker 1: raised his level, making inroads on his opponent serve to
Speaker 1: draw level at five all, but with the home crowd
Speaker 1: in his corner. During a second set tiebreak, Demenor found
Speaker 1: an edge with a two hundred and fifteen kilometer an
Speaker 1: hour ace before forcing an error off the Mickelson racket
Speaker 1: to snatch a two set lead. With his opponent on
Speaker 1: the ropes, the Aussie went for the jugular in the
Speaker 1: third set, breaking for four to two. He hit nine winners,
Speaker 1: including three unbelievable passing shots, to put the result beyond
Speaker 1: doubt to the quarterfinals six love seven, six six '
Speaker 1: three in just over two hours, much to the delight
Speaker 1: of the Rod Labor Arena crowd.
Speaker 3: There's nothing I want to do more than play well
Speaker 3: here in Australia in front of you guys. So I'm glad,
Speaker 3: I'm glad, I'm finally finally made it to a quarterfinals here.
Speaker 3: But yes, let's go for bigger and better things come on.
Speaker 1: It brings to an end and outstanding campaign by the
Speaker 1: young American Micholson's best Grand Slam results from six attempts.
Speaker 7: Yeah, I'm super happy with the way I fought. And
Speaker 7: you know, I put myself in a position to almost
Speaker 7: want to set playing poorly off a top ten player,
Speaker 7: So I was super happy with that. He came up
Speaker 7: with the goods and the breaker, hit that four in
Speaker 7: pass at five to four and the ace and five
Speaker 7: all so creds to him there. But super happy with
Speaker 7: even getting a breaker there. And that's it because it
Speaker 7: was it did not feel very good. The first hour
Speaker 7: of the match was really poor. So super happy to
Speaker 7: just compete and almost find a way. And that's it's her.
Speaker 8: Serves down the t the fourhand return from lease rise
Speaker 8: long over the baseline.
Speaker 5: It's a job done.
Speaker 9: One hour exactly.
Speaker 8: Egoiontek through to the quarterfinals. She wins six love six
Speaker 8: one against the valiant very impressive ever Lise in many ways,
Speaker 8: but had absolutely no chance against the world number two Iigish.
Speaker 1: Fiontech has pulled the rug from underneath Everlease, ending the
Speaker 1: charmed run of the world's luckiest lucky loser. Well Lease
Speaker 1: only managed a single winner in the opening set. She
Speaker 1: absorbed some of the pressure in the second to earn
Speaker 1: her only hold four games in, but it was the
Speaker 1: Poll's night, dominating with twenty eight winners and exquisite netplay
Speaker 1: en route to a six love, six to one whitewash
Speaker 1: off the court in under an hour. It's Fiontec's first
Speaker 1: quarterfinal in Melbourne since twenty twenty two.
Speaker 4: You know, I'm still what's twenty three, yeah, twenty three,
Speaker 4: So there's a lot to improve. Like always, you know,
Speaker 4: I don't feel like I'm in my peak yet, you know,
Speaker 4: And yeah, that's for sure, much just like that giving
Speaker 4: confidence and I feel like I'm playing a good game.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 10: I usually didn't feel.
Speaker 4: Comfortable when I was trying to open, you know, with
Speaker 4: my game, but this year it's a bit better. So
Speaker 4: I'm just enjoying being on accord and of the court
Speaker 4: as well, because for sure, I have an amazing time
Speaker 4: here and hopefully it's gonna last even longer.
Speaker 1: Finally able to board her flight, lease leaves Melbourne almost
Speaker 1: half a million dollars richer.
Speaker 11: It's definitely, I think the nicest week I've had in
Speaker 11: my life, just because it wasn't really only about the result,
Speaker 11: but also about the whole story. I mean, getting in
Speaker 11: as a lucky loser last minute on the last day,
Speaker 11: where it was possible changing the flights, winning first time,
Speaker 11: winning second time, making it to top hundred. I mean,
Speaker 11: this is the week I've been working for for ages,
Speaker 11: and I was always waiting for that moment. I've had
Speaker 11: a lot of nights where I was actually talking to
Speaker 11: my parents, often with tears, asking when when will the
Speaker 11: time come? Because I know I have the potential, but
Speaker 11: sometimes I was the only person that's really standing in
Speaker 11: my own way. So everything just came down to this
Speaker 11: week where on one sete it's definitely the tennis they played,
Speaker 11: but also it was the luck in the beginning, and
Speaker 11: it was just the momentum that made it so special.
Speaker 11: So I'm definitely enjoying every second I had here.
Speaker 1: Sreontek's quarter final opponent will be Emma Navarro, who scrapped
Speaker 1: her way past Daria Kasutkina in a match featuring seventeen
Speaker 1: breaks of serve. The eighth the ninth seeds were tenacious
Speaker 1: in their tug of war, Navarro breaking to love to
Speaker 1: take the first set six ' four, while the American
Speaker 1: boosted her win account in the second set. Cassutkina capitalized
Speaker 1: when it mattered and claimed the second set. Safe shooting
Speaker 1: was the name of the game in the deciding set,
Speaker 1: which ultimately was on the Kasutkinna racket, the ninth seed
Speaker 1: hitting four unforced eras in a row in the final
Speaker 1: game to give Navarro's safe passage, and She's become the
Speaker 1: Queen of three set tennis, progressing as the only player
Speaker 1: in the last eight to have played twelve sets across
Speaker 1: four matches. That's ten and a quarter hours on court.
Speaker 9: For me, I feel like it's more of a test
Speaker 9: of mental will than anything. I've worked really hard on
Speaker 9: my fitness to be able to go three sets and
Speaker 9: play over two hours, three hours, whatever it takes. So yeah,
Speaker 9: I feel like my fitness is definitely paid off here
Speaker 9: in the in my first four matches.
Speaker 1: Navarro is preparing for another grind against Sriontech, having not
Speaker 1: played her since their first meeting in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 9: I felt like I didn't have the power, I didn't
Speaker 9: have speed, I didn't have really anything that that could
Speaker 9: challenge her. You know. I felt like I would I
Speaker 9: would just put balls in the court and she would
Speaker 9: hit winners. It was kind of like a little bit
Speaker 9: of a clinic. So yeah, but I feel like I've
Speaker 9: you know, I'm a totally different player now.
Speaker 12: Sensational stuff.
Speaker 13: Madison Keys sixteen into the quarterfinals at the Australian Open.
Speaker 8: What a performance, three set winner over a Larner. We're Barkinger.
Speaker 1: What a magnificent campaign. Madison Keys is putting together back
Speaker 1: into the quarterfinals in Melbourne for the third time and
Speaker 1: shares the first of our spotlight matches. Fort day nine.
Speaker 1: Blair Henley is back from the Blue Zone. How's it been.
Speaker 14: It's been fantastic. I hope everyone is watching for m
Speaker 14: local time.
Speaker 1: Keep Jinny and guys. Levi a Hudderston from gig with
Speaker 1: the numbers. Welcome back, Levi. Thanks for having me and
Speaker 1: for the first time for this tournament a regular on
Speaker 1: the podcast. John Fitzgerald, congratulations a second time grandfather today.
Speaker 6: Thank you, Jonathan. Yes, it's a special day.
Speaker 15: It doesn't happen too often, does it twice in my
Speaker 15: life so far.
Speaker 6: But it's a big day. We're very, very happy and relieved.
Speaker 1: And you've got to share this name, the full name place.
Speaker 15: Well, I've only just learned it myself, so it might
Speaker 15: take me a while to remember it. Walt, Yeah, James
Speaker 15: Huckleberry Harrison.
Speaker 1: Walt James HUCKLEBERR Harrison. There you get strong one tennis family. Well,
Speaker 1: Madison Keys is a name a little bit easier to remember.
Speaker 1: And today Blair, she put on a show and has
Speaker 1: dispatched the women's sixth seed, Elena Rabaikna to the tune
Speaker 1: of sixty three one sixty three.
Speaker 14: Impressive stuff, extremely impressive, and I think Maddie said it
Speaker 14: best and press she said, I need to get on
Speaker 14: offense early and then we're going to see who can
Speaker 14: sustain that level for longer. And so it was a
Speaker 14: little bit of a roller coaster those first two sets,
Speaker 14: but when you look at the third set, she played
Speaker 14: riskier tennis and she played really big tennis. On the
Speaker 14: important point she saved five of six breakpoints and converted
Speaker 14: on three of four. And we know in tennis, yes,
Speaker 14: it's great to have those flashy points. We'd love a
Speaker 14: hot shot, but you have to be able to do
Speaker 14: it when the pressure's on, and she did that in
Speaker 14: the third set today.
Speaker 16: Yeah, we have this thing we call pressure points, so
Speaker 16: it's anything that can lead to a break or a
Speaker 16: break point. And so Madison Keys total points one eighty
Speaker 16: seven to eighty six, incredibly tight, but in terms of
Speaker 16: those pressure points thirty four to twenty two. So she just,
Speaker 16: like you said, kind of one where it counted.
Speaker 17: I love it when that backs me up, apparently by great.
Speaker 1: Stuff of course, great minds, FITZI. Madison Keys has just
Speaker 1: been so sensational. We saw it again against Daniel Collins
Speaker 1: in the previous round and also with today against Elena Rebikina.
Speaker 1: The long rally. She manages to really dig in. Even
Speaker 1: though she's a tall woman, She's got a great endurance
Speaker 1: in those longer rallies.
Speaker 15: Yeah, I think she's too good a plan not to
Speaker 15: win a major as a shew. I mean, I'm sort
Speaker 15: of disappointed she has one one already, but I you know,
Speaker 15: talking about shot selection, I think if she improves out
Speaker 15: of fraction, she's going to win a major. Sometimes I
Speaker 15: feel like she gives away too many points at the
Speaker 15: wrong time, Madison. But boy is she a hitter of
Speaker 15: the ball. And you know what, we know how well
Speaker 15: she times it. It's a heavy, heavy ball, and she
Speaker 15: puts it together. She can I think she can win
Speaker 15: the whole thing, and I hope she does. She's not
Speaker 15: as young as she was. I hope she can win
Speaker 15: one before her time's up, LeBell.
Speaker 16: What else is she doing, Well, we'll talk about hitting
Speaker 16: a heavy ball. She had stats, you know, one hundred
Speaker 16: and twenty nine kilometers per hour on that forehand versus
Speaker 16: one hundred and nineteen for Rebakena, and those two are
Speaker 16: those are huge numbers. The average is one hundred and sixteen,
Speaker 16: so they're both eclipsing the average by quite a margin.
Speaker 16: And one hundred and twenty nine that's some of the
Speaker 16: highest that we've seen. That's an average shot. She's hitting that,
Speaker 16: So just crazy great ball striking from Madison Keys And yeah,
Speaker 16: she won those long rallies. So she won nine or sorry,
Speaker 16: seven out of nine of those long rallies. So any
Speaker 16: rally that went over eight shots, she was winning a
Speaker 16: majority of those.
Speaker 1: What about the campaign of eleanor Rebaikana then form a final?
Speaker 1: Will this fourth round loss go down in the book
Speaker 1: as a fail mark in the Gorin Evanizovitch copybook.
Speaker 14: I don't think so, because if you think back to
Speaker 14: last fall, she pulled out of the US Open in
Speaker 14: the second round and then didn't play again until the
Speaker 14: WTA finals, and during that time she was off court
Speaker 14: for most of it. So in my mind, she's still
Speaker 14: trying to find her rhythm again. Obviously there's a lot
Speaker 14: going on off the court as well, and in her
Speaker 14: previous match against Diania Estromska, she also potentially had some
Speaker 14: back issues coming into this match, which obviously can affect
Speaker 14: the serve, which is her best shot. So I think
Speaker 14: it's just a stepping stone in twenty twenty five for her.
Speaker 15: Yeah, I find her one of my favorite players to
Speaker 15: watch because she's got multi dimensions, you know, in the
Speaker 15: men's and the women's game. A little bit, there was
Speaker 15: a rumor she had a bit of an issue with
Speaker 15: her back, So I don't know if that's true, And
Speaker 15: maybe I shouldn't even mention that because you don't want
Speaker 15: to take away from a winner from Madison today. She
Speaker 15: deserves it. She's out there, she deserves a win. But
Speaker 15: I'm not one hundred percent sure. I didn't see the match.
Speaker 15: I was actually on the Cinner match at the same time.
Speaker 15: So but it's a great win. I'm happy for Madison.
Speaker 15: I really do hope she can go all away. If
Speaker 15: you know, if someone hasn't won one, it's a nice thing,
Speaker 15: I think, and I like, I'm one of those guys
Speaker 15: that likes more winners at majors to create more more stars,
Speaker 15: and now I want Madison to win one now.
Speaker 1: So Keys goes through to take on Ellinas Fitalina in
Speaker 1: the quarterfinals. Our second spotlight match for day nine is
Speaker 1: the one you alluded to, Fitzi Janick Sinner coming through
Speaker 1: in four sets over Holgaruna score line six three three
Speaker 1: six six three six two. And it wasn't easy going
Speaker 1: for the world number one and defending champion.
Speaker 15: Commentating you, we couldn't pick who was injured, who was sick,
Speaker 15: who was playing well at one stage and then who
Speaker 15: the table seemed to turn but the better man one
Speaker 15: I think at the end of the day. He wasn't
Speaker 15: well in the first two sets and we thought he
Speaker 15: might have had a tweak in his back. But because
Speaker 15: we didn't know that he been ill in the morning,
Speaker 15: but we found out afterwards and it became apparent that
Speaker 15: it wasn't an injury. He was just feeling off color.
Speaker 15: So he was gussy today and hold garun. I think
Speaker 15: whether he can become a Grand Slam champion or not,
Speaker 15: I don't know. It's a rare beast that wins. They
Speaker 15: have to be special, special players to win majors. Center
Speaker 15: already is he's one of three or four I think
Speaker 15: that can win this event. But I thought Runa he's
Speaker 15: such a great hitter of the ball, but he's still
Speaker 15: a bit underwhelming with some of his variety, and he's
Speaker 15: got to improve some facets of his game, I think
Speaker 15: to have a realistic chance to win. He's a heck
Speaker 15: of a player, but to win a major is something different.
Speaker 1: Levit, It was a dramatic third set, particularly take us
Speaker 1: through what happened from a numbers perspective.
Speaker 16: Yeah, well, I mean we saw that there was this
Speaker 16: moment before the medical time out where I think Runa
Speaker 16: had a chance to break center and just didn't win
Speaker 16: any of those break points and really struggled to capitalize
Speaker 16: on center serve. But it's not easy, you know, breaking center.
Speaker 16: He served an incredible match in that third set, he
Speaker 16: won ninety four percent of his first serves and like
Speaker 16: for reference and Petchy pair Card, the top server the
Speaker 16: ATP wins eighty percent, So ninety four percent. He just
Speaker 16: blew that out of the water. Even when he's feeling dizzy.
Speaker 16: You know, he's serving at two hundred and five kilometers
Speaker 16: per hour. You know the benchmarks one hundred and on
Speaker 16: one hundred and ninety one. So I mean, just really
Speaker 16: difficult to break him. And so you know, credit to
Speaker 16: Holgaruna for putting up the fight that he did. He
Speaker 16: actually hit more winners than Yonick did, but just had
Speaker 16: probably too many unforced errors.
Speaker 14: My favorite social media post of the day today came
Speaker 14: from Marty Fish on formerly Twitter now x and I'm
Speaker 14: paraphrasing a bit. I don't have it in front of me,
Speaker 14: but I thought it summed up Holgaruna well. He said,
Speaker 14: Holegreena is so good? Why is he not good? And
Speaker 14: that is what you see when you watch him play.
Speaker 14: He's so flashy, he has a disruptive game. He has
Speaker 14: every shot in the book, but just can't quite put
Speaker 14: it together consistently like we saw him do a year
Speaker 14: and a half ish ago when he was beating Novak
Speaker 14: Djokovic and he seemed to be impenetrable, so he just
Speaker 14: got it. Maybe it's a confidence thing, just to get
Speaker 14: his flow, to feel confident doing it point after point
Speaker 14: after point.
Speaker 17: Maybe it's just shot choice thing. Not sure.
Speaker 14: He does have a member of his team, Mike James,
Speaker 14: who's there solely to analyze the numbers. I do think
Speaker 14: as Lee is so nice to have Levi sitting here
Speaker 14: at this table. I would imagine it's great to have
Speaker 14: somebody like that on your team. But there are always
Speaker 14: flashes of lightning. We would just love to see him
Speaker 14: be able to put that together just a little bit more.
Speaker 14: And then another very important question, guys, because at the
Speaker 14: beginning of the fourth set, I saw something that I
Speaker 14: had never seen on a professional tennis court before, and
Speaker 14: that was not just the net strap breaking, but the
Speaker 14: actual screw that was screwed into the court broken half
Speaker 14: And big question here, was it on Nevedev that compromised
Speaker 14: the structural integrity of that screw?
Speaker 1: It was quite distrust Could he tell us take us
Speaker 1: through that twenty minutes of drama?
Speaker 6: Well, I can't answer whether it was Daniel Medvedev or not.
Speaker 6: It was a strange thing.
Speaker 15: You see a netstrap break occasionally the umpire. He was
Speaker 15: like lightening himself. He was down out of it. I
Speaker 15: was impressed. He was down out of that chest fast
Speaker 15: and he got to the net and realized that it
Speaker 15: was actually a metal screw that had snapped. I think
Speaker 15: so it was unusual and it did. There were other
Speaker 15: breaks at one stage. I think we played about five
Speaker 15: or six. They played five or six games in about
Speaker 15: forty five minutes at one stage because they went off
Speaker 15: separately at different times, and then at the end of
Speaker 15: sets and then they had this extra break. So it
Speaker 15: was a strange topsy turvy match.
Speaker 1: Well Sinner has provided some context around his physical well
Speaker 1: being during his postmatch media conference.
Speaker 18: I don't want to dog you know so much, how
Speaker 18: I how I felt today. I was not feeling really well,
Speaker 18: you know. I think beside that today I was struggling,
Speaker 18: you know, physically. I came here as late as possible.
Speaker 18: You know, I knew that it was going to be
Speaker 18: very very difficult today, uh, you know, playing against a
Speaker 18: tough opponent, but also playing against myself a little bit.
Speaker 18: And I knew this before I tried to handle the
Speaker 18: situation on the court as as as good as as
Speaker 18: I could, which I think today I handled, you know,
Speaker 18: as as well as as possible, and you know, happy
Speaker 18: to be in the next round.
Speaker 1: Seener yet to lose to Alex demen Or in their
Speaker 1: nine previous meetings. Yeah, class, and.
Speaker 5: In her first tournament back since foot surgery, she takes
Speaker 5: a huge step forward into the last day once again
Speaker 5: here Happy Australian Open.
Speaker 1: As mentioned earlier, Madison Keys has locked in a quarter
Speaker 1: final battle with Alinas Fittalina. The twenty eighth seed found
Speaker 1: her fighting spirit to dispatch Veronica Kudemeteva in straight sets.
Speaker 1: Kuldemteva got the jump in a first set featuring five
Speaker 1: breaks of serve, but the Ukrainian's sensible shot making saw
Speaker 1: her rally to claim five games on the trot and
Speaker 1: win the set. From there, the Ukrainian found her sweet
Speaker 1: spot and dropped just a single game to cruise into
Speaker 1: the quarters six four six ' one. It's her first
Speaker 1: time among the last eight here in Melbourne since twenty nineteen.
Speaker 10: For me not to find the way to win matches,
Speaker 10: to find a way to bring a little light, a
Speaker 10: little win for Ukrainian people is something that I feel.
Speaker 10: I am responsible of and to bring the fighter is
Speaker 10: the least I can do well.
Speaker 1: What could have been a battle of epic proportions, unfortunately
Speaker 1: has ended in retirement on Margaret Corderina, American rocket launcher
Speaker 1: Ben Shelton and fan favorite Gaiale montfees went toe to
Speaker 1: toe in three breathtaking sets until the Frenchman was unable
Speaker 1: to carry on. Neither player gave an inch until the
Speaker 1: first set tiebreak, when Montfeese coughed up the first set
Speaker 1: with a double fault on set point. Virtually inseparable in
Speaker 1: set two, Montfeese was determined to not let history repeat,
Speaker 1: forcing Shelton into three consecutive errors in a second set
Speaker 1: breaker to draw level, but the thirty eight year old
Speaker 1: began to fatigue in the third set, at times playing
Speaker 1: from an almost stationary position and leaning on his court
Speaker 1: craft to send it to another tiebreak. He was out
Speaker 1: of gas, though two winners was all it took for
Speaker 1: Shelton to snatch a two sets to one lead and
Speaker 1: extinguish any hopes of a French resurgence before Montfeese pulled
Speaker 1: the pin early in the fourth.
Speaker 2: Obviously, he's played a lot of long matches. I want
Speaker 2: to make it as physical as possible. There's a lot
Speaker 2: of things that he does unbelievably well, counterpunching, making you
Speaker 2: feel uncomfortable on the court, and getting to net and
Speaker 2: being able to shorten some of those points where he
Speaker 2: likes to run was really important. So being able to
Speaker 2: find that balance. It was really tricky today to do
Speaker 2: some of that stuff because he was serving so well.
Speaker 2: But I've seen he's been doing that all week, and yeah,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of things that makes that guy a
Speaker 2: nightmare to player. I can't imagine playing him when he was,
Speaker 2: you know, twenty one twenty two.
Speaker 1: Like me, well face, disappointed to not be joining wife
Speaker 1: Elena Sitelina in the quarters, but ever gracious in defeat.
Speaker 19: I love Ben, you know, I love I love him.
Speaker 19: You know, this kid is amazing. He's full of energy.
Speaker 19: He's a great guy, a great kid. Of course, he's
Speaker 19: always too bad to play someone that you love. And
Speaker 19: when we put the fighting spirits, you know, that's why
Speaker 19: I still I want to make it tough for him.
Speaker 19: But at the end, you know, of course, now I'm
Speaker 19: routine for him. He's a guy that I really appreciate,
Speaker 19: spend time with him, talking with him, sharing anything you know,
Speaker 19: we love and he's just an amazing kid.
Speaker 1: Shelton's quarter final opponent will be Lorenzo Sanago, who pulled
Speaker 1: the brake on the Lerner Tien locomotive, the American teenager
Speaker 1: responsible for the eliminations of Daniel Medvedev and Corentin Mute,
Speaker 1: Eventually running out of puff in the fourth round, Senego
Speaker 1: smacked twenty aces among fifty eight winners to put Tien
Speaker 1: on the back foot, pushing through to a six three
Speaker 1: six two three six six ' one victory into the
Speaker 1: last eight for the first time in his career. Lorenzo
Speaker 1: spoke to producer Alexia.
Speaker 20: Mitchell Lorenzo, Congratulations, you're the seventh highest ranked Italian man
Speaker 20: and you're into the final eight here in Melbourne. Can
Speaker 20: you put into words how that achievement feels.
Speaker 21: Yeah, I figure that's one of my best tournament in
Speaker 21: my life.
Speaker 22: For sure. I work hard for each some biggers or
Speaker 22: something like that, and I'm so so.
Speaker 20: You learnt meditation in the off season. Tell me more
Speaker 20: about that and some of the work you've done off
Speaker 20: the court.
Speaker 21: I need to start with a brief on my brief
Speaker 21: and yeah, I like meditation. I tried something different for
Speaker 21: the holiday and this day is from my girlfriend. She
Speaker 21: want to do something different than the holiday, and yeah
Speaker 21: I did, and I learned about the meditation and the Buddhismo.
Speaker 20: It must be paying off. Now that you're in the quarters.
Speaker 20: What do you think the biggest factor is she making
Speaker 20: your first Grand Slam quarter final.
Speaker 21: I think the work that I did in the pre season.
Speaker 21: We worked really hard in the procedure with my team.
Speaker 21: And yeah, I think the attitude on the court is
Speaker 21: different than last year and more have more confidence and
Speaker 21: I more trust in me.
Speaker 20: You have Ben Shelton next. Tell me more about that
Speaker 20: match up.
Speaker 21: Yeah, he's a nice guy and he's a young player.
Speaker 21: He reached the semi final in New York. He has
Speaker 21: a big surve and he played really aggressive and start
Speaker 21: to return, and.
Speaker 22: Yeah, I need to just enjoy.
Speaker 21: This this tournament and every match and just enjoying the time.
Speaker 20: You've released a few songs. How does your music and
Speaker 20: your tennis inspire each other?
Speaker 22: But the music is not really good.
Speaker 21: Yeah, I need to improve, but it's it's just some
Speaker 21: different time to spend with my best friend out of
Speaker 21: the court, and yeah, it's it starts like a like
Speaker 21: a joke, but it's nice to see that we have
Speaker 21: one million of view more and yeah we want to
Speaker 21: work to another song maybe soon.
Speaker 10: Well.
Speaker 20: Best of luck on and off the court.
Speaker 22: Thank you, thank you, thank you so much.
Speaker 1: In other Day nine results, women's double second seeds Gabriella
Speaker 1: Dobrovski and Aaron Rutliff came from a set down to
Speaker 1: topple Bertrice Haudajmeia and Lara Siegemund. Joining them in the
Speaker 1: quarters are mirr Andreva and Diana Schneider, Christina Blandenovich and
Speaker 1: Jung Schwai and Camilla Rakimova and Sara Serebes Tormo, who
Speaker 1: won a third set super tiebreak. Also top seeds Katerina
Speaker 1: Sineakiva and Taylor Townsend threw in straight sets. In men's doubles,
Speaker 1: fourth seeds Kevin Kravitz and Tim Puetz have been put
Speaker 1: to the test by Sande Gye and Jan Zalinski, prevailing
Speaker 1: six seven, six four sixty four. They set up a
Speaker 1: Germany versus UK quarter final meeting Britz, Julian Cash and
Speaker 1: Lloyd Glasspool, who progressed in three Also into the quarters
Speaker 1: Uger Nice and Edouard Raja Vassalon alongside Hari Helievara and
Speaker 1: Henry Pattin. Let's turn our attention to date ten then Blair.
Speaker 1: A couple of matches we're going to have a look at.
Speaker 1: First of all will be the women's quarter final between
Speaker 1: Arena Sablenka and Anastasia Pablia Chhenkova. I've always been a
Speaker 1: fan of her, and she's had another giant killing campaign
Speaker 1: to reach the last date.
Speaker 14: My favorite thing that I've seen nasty of Pabla Chhenkova
Speaker 14: do this week is sign the lens after her win
Speaker 14: over donnavekch.
Speaker 17: Too old but still here.
Speaker 14: Oops, just stumbled right into the quarterfinals here at AO
Speaker 14: twenty five. She's going to have a tough one against
Speaker 14: Arena Sablanka. She does have a two in one record
Speaker 14: against her. The one thing I think Pablia Tchhenkova does
Speaker 14: so well is redirect power. She handles power coming at
Speaker 14: her quite well and that could serve her well against
Speaker 14: Arena Savalenka. But I gotta say she looked real good
Speaker 14: against Tamiera Andreva.
Speaker 16: Yeah, so right now we have the win predictor favoring Sablenka.
Speaker 16: We have her at eighty six to fourteen, so the
Speaker 16: heavy favorite here, but we have seeing that she's not
Speaker 16: undefeated against this player and actually losing the head ahead
Speaker 16: as you mentioned. But what we can look out for,
Speaker 16: I think in this match is that Sabalanka really likes
Speaker 16: to take that third shot forehand after she hits her
Speaker 16: serve quite often and dominating. She hits that about sixty
Speaker 16: seven percent, so I think we can we can really
Speaker 16: look for her to dictate off that first shot. But
Speaker 16: pavlu Chankova, you know, she's just really gripping the baseline
Speaker 16: and she's applying so much pressure, So she's like making
Speaker 16: a lot of contact inside the baseline on that second
Speaker 16: serve return about eighty percent of the time versus Sabolenka's
Speaker 16: sixty one, So she's going to be applying a little
Speaker 16: bit more pressure on that second serve. But I think
Speaker 16: it's going to be a really interesting match. Can probably
Speaker 16: chink of a get a sit, do you think in
Speaker 16: this in this battle.
Speaker 17: I think she could.
Speaker 1: I think she can chin humane.
Speaker 17: I do think she can.
Speaker 14: Again, this is why we go out and compete, because
Speaker 14: you just never know how both players are going to
Speaker 14: come out, And Sabalenka was a little scratchier in her
Speaker 14: first couple of rounds here than maybe some people expected,
Speaker 14: and Pablia Chenkova has nothing to lose. She's also been
Speaker 14: to the quarterfinals here four times in her career, so
Speaker 14: she knows what it's like. The big question for me
Speaker 14: is it's going to be hot again tomorrow. Will her
Speaker 14: partner once again come cheer her on in silk pajamas
Speaker 14: because that has been his uniform This week, she talked
Speaker 14: about the fact that they've got a little style competition
Speaker 14: going behind the scenes. She says she is the most
Speaker 14: stylish and quick. Side note for those interested in fashion,
Speaker 14: she's actually wearing her own clothing brand here, which she
Speaker 14: designed herself. She wanted to express herself in that way,
Speaker 14: which we always.
Speaker 17: Think is kind of cool.
Speaker 3: We love that.
Speaker 1: What's the brand name?
Speaker 14: I don't know what the brand name, and I don't
Speaker 14: actually know if it has a name. She but she
Speaker 14: walked us through the entire thing. She has a couple
Speaker 14: of designs and love it when players have something off
Speaker 14: court that can maybe take their mind off the seriousness
Speaker 14: of tennis.
Speaker 17: She's got nothing to lose, which is always nice.
Speaker 1: It was not well, we've come to that time. We
Speaker 1: predicted it Pray Tournament, the Superstar Blockbuster quarterfinal between Novak
Speaker 1: Djokovic and Carlos Alkaz and Fitz. It has arrived in
Speaker 1: our lapse on day ten.
Speaker 15: If I have to pick someone, I'm going Colidos. You
Speaker 15: know his tennis. His tennis some days is extraordinary. Sometimes
Speaker 15: I wonder whether his diverse ability to hit so many
Speaker 15: different shots in his game causes him to lose the
Speaker 15: odd match, whereas Janick Sinner is more solid, if you will.
Speaker 1: Playing within the lines sort of thing.
Speaker 15: Yeah, without without so much variety. He's got every shot.
Speaker 15: But Carlos is just he must have a confused mind
Speaker 15: every time he goes hit the ball because he's got
Speaker 15: so many options. But you know, I think if he
Speaker 15: plays his best, he'll win. But Novak knows how.
Speaker 6: To win here. He obviously does, and you.
Speaker 15: Cannot count him out. He can win the tournament. I
Speaker 15: think there's only four guys now that can wink, and
Speaker 15: he's one of them. Yeah, well, I think Zverev can win,
Speaker 15: although he hasn't yet. Surely, if you're two in the world,
Speaker 15: and he said to himself to be one in the world,
Speaker 15: you probably need to win a major, you know, but
Speaker 15: I think he can, and of course Yannick, especially if
Speaker 15: he's well again. He struggled today with his health, I think,
Speaker 15: but those four guys for me, and if it's someone else,
Speaker 15: so put my hand up and sells wrong. But I
Speaker 15: think it's one of those four.
Speaker 1: Okay, lev where is this match going to be won
Speaker 1: and lost?
Speaker 16: Well, oftentimes we have a battle of the server and
Speaker 16: the returner, but these are two really excellent returners, so
Speaker 16: you know, looking at where they return the ball is
Speaker 16: going to be important. And we've seen Carlos actually start
Speaker 16: moving up and taking that first serve a little bit
Speaker 16: closer to the baseline, about seven percent more now than
Speaker 16: he did in twenty twenty four, so he's really creeping
Speaker 16: up and I think that could be a big difference
Speaker 16: maker and controlling the point early on. But Novak's also
Speaker 16: an excellent returner, so we'll have to see where that goes.
Speaker 16: But in terms of you know, as the rallies grow longer,
Speaker 16: we actually favor Novak on these long rallies about sixty
Speaker 16: five percent of a time. He's going to win those long
Speaker 16: rallies compared to Carlos winning only about fifty one percent.
Speaker 16: So if the rallies go a little bit longer. Novak
Speaker 16: has that consistent consistency, and I think we can expect
Speaker 16: him to win those long ones.
Speaker 1: Jay Z was phenomenal against Slahechka.
Speaker 14: Yes, and I actually went to his postmatch transcript to
Speaker 14: see if I could see his answer to when he
Speaker 14: was surely asked about Carlos Alcaraz next. He was not
Speaker 14: because the entire presser was about the postmatch interview.
Speaker 17: Courts yes, that we had last night.
Speaker 14: So no feedback from Novak Djokovic on this match. But
Speaker 14: I do think the way that five sets once benefited
Speaker 14: Novak Djokovic, it was really hard to beat him over five.
Speaker 14: I think that now has maybe shifted just a little bit,
Speaker 14: and I think that probably benefits Carlos Alcaraz at this point.
Speaker 14: And I do also think back to Carlito's signing the lens.
Speaker 14: It was after his first or second round match, and
Speaker 14: he wrote, am I a serve bot because his performance
Speaker 14: on the serve was so impressive. I know he's put
Speaker 14: a lot of work into that in the offseason. We'll
Speaker 14: see how that plays out on court.
Speaker 15: He's serving is definitely better. I think I've done a
Speaker 15: couple of these matches and it's big. He's getting more
Speaker 15: free points. That's going to help him a little bit.
Speaker 16: I think, Yeah, he's winning eighty one percent of his
Speaker 16: first serves here and Novak's at seventy eight, both high numbers.
Speaker 16: But I mean we don't typically think of Carlos being
Speaker 16: a serve bot, and so those numbers are quite high.
Speaker 16: We talked about Mpachi being at eighty percent, so he's
Speaker 16: doing well.
Speaker 1: Any other ways we can skin this match well.
Speaker 16: I think a really interesting thing about Carlos is his
Speaker 16: drop shot, and so I just have a couple of
Speaker 16: stats about that that was quite interesting. So typically on
Speaker 16: the drop shot players would win about fifty one percent
Speaker 16: and the margins are super slim. For Carlos, he actually
Speaker 16: has a win rate of sixty one percent and by
Speaker 16: UCX he uses it about five percent of the time,
Speaker 16: so use and effectiveness. He is the best drop shotter
Speaker 16: in the game.
Speaker 6: Is that on hardcourt or is that on all surfaces?
Speaker 1: That would be all surfaces, so yes.
Speaker 6: It's harder on hardcourt, very hard.
Speaker 16: Yeah, So I think that would be something to look for. Obviously,
Speaker 16: Novak has such a great match against Laheka, you know,
Speaker 16: playing those drop shots getting into those balls.
Speaker 1: But let's see.
Speaker 16: You know, if it goes five stats and there's a
Speaker 16: lot of physicality out there, maybe that drop shot becomes
Speaker 16: more effective.
Speaker 15: Go ahead, Well, I you know, I have a lot
Speaker 15: of respect for Lahgekip, but he is not Carlos, so
Speaker 15: I'm not sure it'll be se affected.
Speaker 6: But look the phenomenon that is Novak.
Speaker 15: Djokovic is and we say Djokovic and you guys say Djokovic,
Speaker 15: so potato. But Novak is you know, the player that
Speaker 15: he is through years and years if near perfection, so
Speaker 15: you cannot count him out. But he is thirty eight
Speaker 15: years of age in May, and I agree with the
Speaker 15: I don't.
Speaker 6: I just wonder.
Speaker 15: About the five sets, the deep in the fifth set,
Speaker 15: and also whether he is not lost half a yard
Speaker 15: but maybe maybe just a few inches.
Speaker 6: You know, I'm not quite sure how can he.
Speaker 15: Be as good as he was at this stage but
Speaker 15: still awfully good.
Speaker 1: We had Gorn in here yesterday recording for a different podcast,
Speaker 1: and he says he definitely thinks Novak's got another Grand
Speaker 1: Slam title in him.
Speaker 6: Yeah, I'll be listening to Gora even.
Speaker 1: Though his player went out today. But I think whichever
Speaker 1: way this falls is going to be a spectacular battle
Speaker 1: tomorrow where al Karaz and Djokovic go head to head.
Speaker 1: You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who hasn't heard
Speaker 1: the name Coco Gough, such as the power of her
Speaker 1: brand thanks to her unique name and prodigious talent. Less known, perhaps,
Speaker 1: is the story behind the rise of the world number three,
Speaker 1: who won the US Open at nineteen years of age
Speaker 1: and who at twenty is already the highest paid sportswoman
Speaker 1: in the world. Matt and viv from our sister podcast
Speaker 1: to Sit Down, had the chance to speak to her father,
Speaker 1: Corey Goff, about how he raised a superstar.
Speaker 13: What age was Coco when she got her first recond.
Speaker 5: Just five, so that would have been Serena's second to
Speaker 5: last Australian victory. I believe fifteen years ago would be
Speaker 5: twenty ten ten.
Speaker 6: Yeah, she bit Hennen, she beat Hennon.
Speaker 5: Okay, that's hin.
Speaker 6: So I remember that match.
Speaker 5: It was a twenty ten that I watch and then
Speaker 5: I went out and bought her a little Prince racket
Speaker 5: fantastic and a little soft spongy ball. As she started
Speaker 5: hitting against the garage and she just kind of stayed
Speaker 5: there hitting and hit and my mind started turning like
Speaker 5: maybe it's a possibility, but we didn't do much with it.
Speaker 5: At five, we kind of revisited the whole thing when
Speaker 5: she turned seven.
Speaker 13: Did young Coco ever sort of you talked about you
Speaker 13: Wes sitting and watching his Joy and Open Wimwood and
Speaker 13: all the matches sort of at different times around the world.
Speaker 13: Did you ever sit with Coco and watch some of
Speaker 13: those matches together?
Speaker 5: Back then, I wasn't really thinking about it, and I
Speaker 5: think she'd be interested. She's just interested because her dad's
Speaker 5: sitting there watching TV, so she'd be playing around. And
Speaker 5: keep in mind that was early in the morning. Of course,
Speaker 5: we never watched the US Open because it was late
Speaker 5: at night. She's asleep, so most of the matches that
Speaker 5: night and I'm working during the day. So uh so,
Speaker 5: now we didn't really get to sit and watch any
Speaker 5: matches together. But I started to take her to matches
Speaker 5: when she was six.
Speaker 12: We saw that great vision of her at the Kid's Day,
Speaker 12: so yeah, she's getting That was such a great video.
Speaker 12: A lot about the story for tennis parents is how
Speaker 12: much you have to do. All tennis families is how much
Speaker 12: you have to sacrifice to I guess, pursue the dream.
Speaker 12: There's a lot of travel, there's a lot of money
Speaker 12: investment in time. How much was that the case for
Speaker 12: you guys?
Speaker 5: I hear people say that a lot about the sacrifice,
Speaker 5: but I'd argue and say most parents sacrifice to some
Speaker 5: degree when they have children. I mean, you make that
Speaker 5: decision when you decide to have children, and what happens
Speaker 5: is a lot more planning goes on. Right then, it
Speaker 5: is so much sacrifice because you know, whether your kids,
Speaker 5: you know, smart like Einstein, invest something in him the learning,
Speaker 5: more of it, better computer equipment or maybe interaction with
Speaker 5: a tutor or a violinist or a musician, or some
Speaker 5: type of investment financially that you'll make in your children.
Speaker 5: Tennis is a heavy lift because of the travel and
Speaker 5: the privatization of it where it's not really accessible in
Speaker 5: a group format. At least she can't get very good
Speaker 5: in a group format. So a lot of that was planning.
Speaker 5: I was fortunate enough, my wife and I were fortunate
Speaker 5: enough that, you know, financially, we were finding we were
Speaker 5: able to afford a lot of her growth and development
Speaker 5: into the sports. So it wasn't such a burden. It
Speaker 5: was more like we had to choose not to do
Speaker 5: something to do something some more of this for her,
Speaker 5: so that it was about, you know, planning and choices,
Speaker 5: not as much to sacrifice the sacrifices that it takes
Speaker 5: you away from other things.
Speaker 13: Of course, at what point did you sort of say
Speaker 13: that a professional tennis future was a real estate path
Speaker 13: for Cocard?
Speaker 5: Probably when I saw it was she won Little mo
Speaker 5: when she was maybe seven or eight years old, and
Speaker 5: I saw her determination. I said, man, you know, she
Speaker 5: could probably, uh, she'll probably be a pro tennis player.
Speaker 5: And so there was no doubt in my mind at
Speaker 5: that point because she athletically she was gifted, and then
Speaker 5: she had the ability to concentrate for long periods of time,
Speaker 5: which at that age, even with my son's they can't
Speaker 5: concentrate that long. So you know, if you can silk
Speaker 5: up information in twenty to thirty minute increments, and no
Speaker 5: matter what you do, you're going to be pretty successful
Speaker 5: at it because you can really focus.
Speaker 1: And you can hear that episode in full, plus other
Speaker 1: great interviews with notable tennis identities by searching for the
Speaker 1: sit down wherever you get your podcasts. That's all for
Speaker 1: Day nine of the Australian Open. Join us again tomorrow
Speaker 1: for all the big stories from day ten. Be sure
Speaker 1: to subscribe to never miss an episode, and please consider
Speaker 1: leaving a rating or review so more fans can discover
Speaker 1: the tennis. You can also catch our daily spotlight segment
Speaker 1: on our YouTube channel, Australian Open TV and I'll catch
Speaker 1: you tomorrow for more of the tennis