Speaker 1: He did so many steps forwards meet the finals of
Speaker 1: his first Master's one thousand event. I think played incredible here.
Speaker 2: Who did he lose to in the Masters?
Speaker 3: One thought?
Speaker 1: Okay, yes he lost to me, but that was not
Speaker 1: the point. Why are you making it awkwards?
Speaker 4: Just good ay and.
Speaker 5: Welcome to the tennis. For Day eight of AO twenty
Speaker 5: twenty five, John huveernis with all the big news from
Speaker 5: Melbourne Park every day of the main draw. Today on
Speaker 5: the tennis shades of Paris, Novak and Carlos to meet again.
Speaker 6: Explosive player, incredibly talented and chismatic player.
Speaker 5: Coco takes the chocolates from the Swiss.
Speaker 3: My dad was like, you gotta get some funking here,
Speaker 3: So every time I listen first I kind of think
Speaker 3: about that and just trying to dig even deeper.
Speaker 5: Plus a preview of day nine and meet the youngest
Speaker 5: star of the AO.
Speaker 7: I make people really really happy, like spreading joy.
Speaker 5: That's all ahead. On the tennis.
Speaker 4: Running back end, Jokovic. Lahko goes back in up the line.
Speaker 4: It's into the nat.
Speaker 8: Novak Djokovic little testy down for throwing straight sets three,
Speaker 8: four and six over at YEARI Lahetska.
Speaker 5: Novak Djokovic has set up an Olympic gold medal rematch
Speaker 5: with Carlos al Karaz following an emphatic straight sets win
Speaker 5: of Ighy Leechka. After an even start, the wheels started
Speaker 5: to come a little loose for the check twenty fourth
Speaker 5: seed in the eighth game, double faulting on break point
Speaker 5: to cough up a five to three deficit and the
Speaker 5: first set. Djokovic was merciless in the second, breaking his
Speaker 5: opponent immediately and keeping him at arm's length for a
Speaker 5: two sets to love lead. He did similarly in the third,
Speaker 5: but this time Lahechka was up for the challenge, breathing
Speaker 5: life into the match with a strong breakback of his
Speaker 5: own into a third set tiebreak. Djokovic put on a
Speaker 5: defensive master class, his gobsmacking gets, drawing frustration from the
Speaker 5: other side of the net as Lahechka netted on match
Speaker 5: point to hand the server six three, six, four, seven
Speaker 5: six win. His win sets up a highly anticipated showdown
Speaker 5: with al Karaz. It's Djokovic who leads the I had
Speaker 5: to head four to three, including the only outdoor hard
Speaker 5: court battle at Cincinnati a couple of years ago, we
Speaker 5: had some.
Speaker 6: Long battles, long exchanges. Kind of matches that I played
Speaker 6: against him remind me of my matchups versus Nadal in
Speaker 6: terms of the intensity and the energy on the court
Speaker 6: and just he He's very dynamic, explosive player, incredibly talented
Speaker 6: and charismatic player. Great to watch, not that great to
Speaker 6: play against, but you know, I look forward to it.
Speaker 6: I think when the draw was out that a lot
Speaker 6: of the people were looking forward to a potential matchup
Speaker 6: in quarterfinals Alcors versus me.
Speaker 4: So here we are.
Speaker 5: More on the Olympic silver medalist.
Speaker 9: Later again sass where booksers taken to a foth Australian
Speaker 9: Open quarterfinal.
Speaker 5: Alexander Zverev has powered through to the final lighte defeating
Speaker 5: Hugo Umbert in four sets. The German dropped just one
Speaker 5: point in the opening set, which he won six ' one,
Speaker 5: but Umbert flipped the script in the second, pressuring Zverev
Speaker 5: into a flurry of errors in the final four games
Speaker 5: to draw level. Sets three and four were back on
Speaker 5: the racket of the second seed, who overwhelmed the Frenchman
Speaker 5: with an average serve speed more than twenty five kilometers
Speaker 5: per hour, faster and a solid return game, Umbert struggling,
Speaker 5: winning just twenty three percent of his second serve points,
Speaker 5: Zverev winning through to his fourteenth Grand Slam quarter final
Speaker 5: six to one, two six six, three six two.
Speaker 1: Sometimes was somebody that's unplayable. He returns my first serve
Speaker 1: in front of the baseline at times, you know, playing
Speaker 1: playing faster then I serve, so you know, the second
Speaker 1: set was simply too good from him. Um and then yeah,
Speaker 1: I rebounded quite well. I think I played good tennis
Speaker 1: then to finish off the third and four set.
Speaker 5: Zverev's next test against Tommy Paul, whom he's yet to
Speaker 5: beat in two previous attempts.
Speaker 1: I think he's somebody that is quite a smart player.
Speaker 1: I think he's somebody that can change tactics quite a
Speaker 1: lot when he plays tennis. So he can mix up
Speaker 1: so serve a lot. He can mix up his groundstrokes
Speaker 1: a lot. I mean, he can go higher with the
Speaker 1: fodynel faster. He can use a lot of back and sleighs.
Speaker 1: He can just shorten the points, make them long. He
Speaker 1: can do everything on a test quote. Yeah, and again,
Speaker 1: I think it's going to be a tough challenge and
Speaker 1: I'm looking forward to it.
Speaker 5: Paul was virtually unchallenged by his opponent Alejandro Daviodovitch for Kinna,
Speaker 5: dispatched in under ninety minutes coming off a pair of
Speaker 5: five set marathons, the injury hampered Spaniard refused to retire,
Speaker 5: but set the wheels in motion for Paul to cruise
Speaker 5: into the last date one one and one. The American
Speaker 5: twelfth seed spoke to producer Alexia Mitchell after his win.
Speaker 3: Tommy, just ninety minutes in the sun and you're into
Speaker 3: the quarters. Not bad for a day's work.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Absolutely.
Speaker 10: It's a tricky match because he obviously is. He's tired
Speaker 10: coming in. He's played some long matches, and you know,
Speaker 10: I just got to keep the pressure on him the
Speaker 10: whole time.
Speaker 4: And I thought I did a pretty good job today.
Speaker 3: What lessons did you learn from your best result here
Speaker 3: the twenty twenty three semi final, I don't know.
Speaker 10: I think in all Slam matches, when we're playing three
Speaker 10: out of five sets, it's very important to take care
Speaker 10: of your body and coming in the matches as fresh
Speaker 10: as you can, and I think that's something that I've
Speaker 10: done a good job of this week, and with.
Speaker 3: Yourself Michelson Shelton ten. They're all in the twelve with
Speaker 3: you in the final twelve. How can you explain this
Speaker 3: recent surge in young American men?
Speaker 10: I think you know, it comes in waves and generations.
Speaker 10: And we my group the ninety eight ninety seven years,
Speaker 10: and we had a good group pushing each other. And
Speaker 10: now obviously there's there's the younger guys coming in and
Speaker 10: they're playing playing some great tennis learner. I haven't really
Speaker 10: watched him play too much, but obviously he's won a
Speaker 10: lot of matches and he's won some big matches, so
Speaker 10: I'm looking forward to seeing him play more. And obviously
Speaker 10: it's exciting for American tennis. I mean, I'm a big
Speaker 10: American tennis fan. I always support the Americans when they're playing,
Speaker 10: So yeah, I'm excited about watching them.
Speaker 3: And just before I let you go, I've seen the
Speaker 3: state of some of the Olympic medals. Can I just
Speaker 3: get a welfare check on your bronze? How's it looking?
Speaker 10: I don't know, I haven't seen it since since I
Speaker 10: guess before the US opens series. It's kind of just
Speaker 10: been sitting in the box, so it should be in
Speaker 10: a good condition. I guess is it hiding under your bed?
Speaker 10: Is there a special spot for it? I'm not going
Speaker 10: to tell you where it is.
Speaker 11: Off still on match point lands.
Speaker 4: This one in and that'll do it.
Speaker 11: Pulled worldwide by berlinsa Mentic and it's been a bit
Speaker 11: of an attritional afternoon. But it is the America, the
Speaker 11: third seed Coco Golf who finds a way to get
Speaker 11: through this one against Belinda Bencic.
Speaker 5: Three in boiling sets.
Speaker 11: It was five seven, six, two sixty one nearly two.
Speaker 4: And a half hours.
Speaker 5: The Coco Golf is through to the quarterfinals. Well, the
Speaker 5: fourth round got underway on a marvelous day eight. We
Speaker 5: had some interesting battles and then well a retired match
Speaker 5: as well. We're going to focus on two matches in
Speaker 5: our spotlight today and to do that with me, Blair
Speaker 5: Henley is back from the Blue Zone. Hello Blair, Hello,
Speaker 5: glad to be back. Levi Huddleston from the Gig team. Welcome, Levi,
Speaker 5: thanks for having me and our expert for today, Ryan Harrison.
Speaker 5: Welcome to the tennis Ryan, Well, it's great to be
Speaker 5: with you guys.
Speaker 4: I'm excited to be here.
Speaker 5: We're going to start Ryan with the women today. Coco
Speaker 5: Goff was challenged in a first set against Belinda Bencic,
Speaker 5: who had a magnificent campaign, but in the end ran
Speaker 5: out of gas and Coco goes through to another quarterfinal.
Speaker 5: Five seven six two six one.
Speaker 12: Yeah, the first real test that Coco has faced this year.
Speaker 12: I think it was the first set that she's dropped
Speaker 12: in e stage in any of the events that she's
Speaker 12: played this year. Obviously, we know what Blinda can do
Speaker 12: when she's healthy. She's just had the baby and she's
Speaker 12: coming back strong. I thought it was a great performance
Speaker 12: from her today to go out there and play Coco,
Speaker 12: who has started this year strong but also finish last
Speaker 12: year strong. So her form has really been at the
Speaker 12: top of her game for the last several months and
Speaker 12: it's got to be a win for both players. For
Speaker 12: Coco go if you're looking at the fact that she
Speaker 12: went through a tough opponent and has made her way
Speaker 12: into the quarterfinals and is now in the last eight.
Speaker 12: At the stage of the tournament, she wants to be
Speaker 12: in for Belinda obviously after this run, she's going to
Speaker 12: be taking a lot from it, especially getting a set
Speaker 12: up on Coco.
Speaker 2: Belinda made it really tough for Coco in that first set,
Speaker 2: and this is just her eighteenth matchback since slash Fall.
Speaker 2: She didn't even know if she was going to play
Speaker 2: the Australian Open, so to come out here play the
Speaker 2: kind of tennis that we know she can play. She's
Speaker 2: been ranked four in the world, she's an Olympic gold medalist,
Speaker 2: and as you said, Ryan, I think this was a
Speaker 2: win for her because that first set, if I'm another player,
Speaker 2: I'm thinking, yikes, watch out, We've got Belinda back on tour.
Speaker 2: So dangerous. But then it turned into a physical back.
Speaker 2: It was over thirty degrees celsius here I'm getting my
Speaker 2: celsius which is over ninety degree press fahrenheit. But as
Speaker 2: soon as it turns into a physical battle, I think
Speaker 2: Coco has the advantage. And can I just say props
Speaker 2: to Coco for knowing that during the match, TikTok went
Speaker 2: dark in the United States and she signed the lens
Speaker 2: rip TikTok us Oh. Coco has her finger on the
Speaker 2: pulse at all times. She never ceases to amaze me,
Speaker 2: whether it's with the tennis or with her pop culture knowledge.
Speaker 13: What did Coco do a little bit differently, Well, she's
Speaker 13: an excellent returner. She's one of the top returners that
Speaker 13: we've ever seen. She has a forty six percent win
Speaker 13: rate on the opponent's first serve. That's extremely high. It's
Speaker 13: a top in the top ten. So in that first
Speaker 13: set it dropped a little bit down to about thirty
Speaker 13: eight percent, and then after that it climbed back up.
Speaker 13: And that's like, really where we saw the difference is
Speaker 13: when those return numbers started coming back up. We saw
Speaker 13: her really you know, braking serve quite easily and then
Speaker 13: holding comfortably.
Speaker 2: I thought it was interesting too, looking at Coco's serve stats,
Speaker 2: and we know that she's made adjustments with her grip
Speaker 2: on the serve, particularly to help her on the second serve,
Speaker 2: to give her a little bit more of that kickspin.
Speaker 2: Belinda was very effective against Coco's second serve. I think
Speaker 2: she was winning about thirty three percent of her second
Speaker 2: serve points in the first set. And I think that
Speaker 2: might be something for Team Golf to look at it.
Speaker 2: And Ryan, I'm wondering if you could speak to that
Speaker 2: with getting used to that kickserve, getting used to kicking
Speaker 2: it more. If it sits up even a little bit,
Speaker 2: it's easy to take advantage of Yeah, it's.
Speaker 12: Important that you swing at it just as fast as
Speaker 12: you do the first serve. You want to spin the ball,
Speaker 12: but it has to be done with a lot of
Speaker 12: acceleration through the racket and through the ball. And that's
Speaker 12: what I noticed a little bit at the US Open
Speaker 12: when she had some of those double falls. You were
Speaker 12: just seeing a little bit of lack of confidence and
Speaker 12: the deceleration in it. But it seems like the work
Speaker 12: that she's done, she's really accelerating through it nicely. It's
Speaker 12: got a nice fluid action to it, and the ball's
Speaker 12: hitting and jumping off the court, and as you guys
Speaker 12: were noting earlier, getting a lot higher win rate behind
Speaker 12: her second serve, and that's going to really bode well
Speaker 12: for her in the rest of the tournament.
Speaker 13: Yeah, we have an interesting stat behind that actually, so
Speaker 13: we track the wrist speed as you go through the
Speaker 13: service motion, and in that first set it was the
Speaker 13: lowest out of all the other sets, and then it
Speaker 13: started gradually increasing increasing, Sir, speed went up obviously she was,
Speaker 13: you know, putting a little bit more on there, and
Speaker 13: double faults went down too.
Speaker 12: So I love it when the stats match out to
Speaker 12: what I'm saying with naked eye, So you know, I
Speaker 12: don't know that way, but I'll take it.
Speaker 4: I appreciate the backup of it.
Speaker 5: Badosa in the next round in the quarter finals, is
Speaker 5: it a similar proposition to benchic or is she going
Speaker 5: to have to come at that match from a slightly
Speaker 5: different angle.
Speaker 12: Well, Bidosa has been coming on strong of late. I
Speaker 12: think that the last year or so, after she had
Speaker 12: a little bit of an injury and in the previous
Speaker 12: season she came on really strong. She's inching back toward
Speaker 12: the top ten. I think that in the live ranking
Speaker 12: she's getting very close to it, and it's just great
Speaker 12: to see. I mean, obviously she's great for tennis. She's
Speaker 12: a great personality. People really relate to her out there
Speaker 12: on the court. She can piece hard. I love her footwork.
Speaker 12: If you watch Medosa. I was at the Billaging King
Speaker 12: Cup Finals this year with Team USA and I was
Speaker 12: watching a Bidosa practice and just looking at her footwork
Speaker 12: throughout practice. Just from the very first ball, her footwork
Speaker 12: is phenomenal. You can tell she's incredibly fit. Obviously, she's
Speaker 12: got a full team arounder that's supporting, including Sitsipas, who
Speaker 12: I guess is putting on more of a coaches hat
Speaker 12: this week. He's got, you know, not not as much work.
Speaker 4: To go on his side.
Speaker 12: We don't have to get into that, but he's able
Speaker 12: to take all of his talents at this sport and
Speaker 12: really help focusing on Palo and her Pala and her
Speaker 12: her run through, and it's going to be a fun matchup.
Speaker 2: That was one of my funniest moments of the week. Actually,
Speaker 2: in her previous match, watching stepanositsupas from the stands say
Speaker 2: calm down, and most guys know those are two words
Speaker 2: that you generally try to stay away from. That's if
Speaker 2: you had, you know, the big trigger button in front
Speaker 2: of you.
Speaker 4: I can't see that. But did she say I am calm?
Speaker 4: Was that her instant reaction?
Speaker 2: No, she turned the racket around, she did one of these.
Speaker 4: I love it, I love it, I love the sass,
Speaker 4: I love it.
Speaker 2: But funny enough in this match, in the postmatch interview,
Speaker 2: she said, I went out there completely zen today, so
Speaker 2: zen in fact that my team was like, are you
Speaker 2: going to react?
Speaker 1: So who knows?
Speaker 2: Maybe in the end Stefano sits APARs out a point.
Speaker 5: Yeah, indeed, Well we're going to look forward to that
Speaker 5: next round as Goff takes some Bodosa. But the other
Speaker 5: match for our spotlight focus on day eight, Ryan Well
Speaker 5: ended in unfortunate circumstances for Jack Draper, who had really
Speaker 5: been pushed to the limits over the first three rounds
Speaker 5: and today against Carlos Alcarez fell over after the second
Speaker 5: set seven five six one before he retired.
Speaker 12: Yeah, he got done an early break in that first
Speaker 12: set and then fought back to get to five all,
Speaker 12: and you really felt like he was trying to dig
Speaker 12: in everything that he had. It's a really tough turnaround. Look,
Speaker 12: five sets is no joke. And having to do it
Speaker 12: in back to back matches, let alone all three down
Speaker 12: two sets to one, and then fighting his way back
Speaker 12: into the fourth round just to get this far in
Speaker 12: the tournament out so many matches where he could have
Speaker 12: gone out, is a really good effort. And Jackson competitor. Look,
Speaker 12: he handles everything the right way. If you look at
Speaker 12: the way that he handled even the Aussie crowd and
Speaker 12: that match with Kokanacus, embracing that challenge and really stepping up.
Speaker 12: I loved his response whenever he was saying, yeah, I
Speaker 12: had to have a bit of fun and give it
Speaker 12: back to him. You can just tell the guy loves tennis.
Speaker 12: He loves to be out there. He's a really easy
Speaker 12: guy to like and cheer for. I thought that he
Speaker 12: emptied his tank, every last drop that he had in
Speaker 12: his tank he went in the first set, and then
Speaker 12: by the second set you could tell that he was
Speaker 12: just starting to labor a little bit. And once you
Speaker 12: get to the stage in the match where you feel
Speaker 12: like your body's starting to grab at you. It's been
Speaker 12: a good start to the season for him, and you
Speaker 12: don't want to jeopardize the rest of your year by
Speaker 12: staying out there. So I'm sure that it was disappointing
Speaker 12: for him to have to call it quits there. But
Speaker 12: if you look at it from a big picture standpoint,
Speaker 12: from the fact that this is only January, very started
Speaker 12: the season from these guys who are going to have
Speaker 12: to stay healthy for a long run. I was happy
Speaker 12: to see him pull up today and have a good
Speaker 12: first set, but obviously unfortunate ending.
Speaker 13: And looking at some of the numbers of them going
Speaker 13: into that match, we calculate total distance run and he
Speaker 13: was at twelve ks prior to going into the match.
Speaker 13: Carlos was only about five ks so you know, in
Speaker 13: that first match that Draper played, he probably did more
Speaker 13: running than Carlos did the entire lead up. So and
Speaker 13: those twelve k's aren't just easy. You know, I'm jogging
Speaker 13: twelve k's. Its sprints one way, sprints the other. So
Speaker 13: it's it's hard to really fathom how much toll that
Speaker 13: puts on the body. But he was, yeah, you know,
Speaker 13: pretty gassed going in from there.
Speaker 12: I mean, that's that's a great stat because when you
Speaker 12: look at that in the physicality that it takes to
Speaker 12: try and beat one of those top players. I mean,
Speaker 12: if you look at it from a physical physique standpoint,
Speaker 12: if you just look at the athlete that Carlos al
Speaker 12: Karaz is, you got to be on your a game
Speaker 12: to compete with this guy. And he's already got four
Speaker 12: majors at his age, and he's trying to win a
Speaker 12: career Grand Slam by the time he's twenty two years old.
Speaker 12: Are you kidding me? I mean, I think about the
Speaker 12: career Grand Slam. I think about Roger Feeder knocking at
Speaker 12: the door for so many years just trying to win
Speaker 12: the French Open. I think he finally did in two
Speaker 12: thousand and nine. After how many years of trying.
Speaker 5: I think in seven six and seven?
Speaker 12: Incredible, right, And how long it takes, you know, someone
Speaker 12: with the likes of ra to win the career Grand Slam.
Speaker 12: And now we got al Karaz Are you kidding? Already
Speaker 12: knocking on the door of a career Grand Slam at
Speaker 12: this stage in his career. If he makes his way
Speaker 12: the semis or finals, Wow, what an incredible match that
Speaker 12: will be.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I just have to say Jack Draper has
Speaker 2: been really impressive over those three matches in terms of
Speaker 2: his problem solving, because so he played Navoni and then
Speaker 2: Coconacus and then Vukic and it's funny, I think he
Speaker 2: started off slightly more passive in all three of those
Speaker 2: matches and then by the end was putting the pressure
Speaker 2: on driving through the court more finding his way into
Speaker 2: the net. And you know, maybe that's a lesson he
Speaker 2: can take away. What was working at the end is
Speaker 2: maybe how he should start.
Speaker 5: Yeah, well it might not be his tournament, but he
Speaker 5: set himself up for a very good year if he
Speaker 5: can get his body right, because it's marvelous conditioning for
Speaker 5: Grand Slams to come.
Speaker 4: He serves why to.
Speaker 5: The forehand of Andreavo. The floorhand return at full stretch
Speaker 5: goes in the net.
Speaker 12: A bounce of the ball behind it from Saberlenka, and
Speaker 12: that is job for the top seed, six one, six
Speaker 12: y two.
Speaker 4: She wins, no fuss, no trouble, no bother.
Speaker 5: As mentioned earlier, Arena, Sabolenka and Coco Gough remain on
Speaker 5: track for a semi final rematch. The defending champion opened
Speaker 5: rod Laver Arena on day eight with a statement victory
Speaker 5: over Mirror Andreva, winning fifty eight points to thirty three.
Speaker 5: Sabolenka dominated all facets to put the rest of the
Speaker 5: competition on notice with a six one six ' two win.
Speaker 14: I'm super happy to get this win. Mirrors so young,
Speaker 14: so much roots, such a great player, and yeah, she
Speaker 14: can play really great tennis, and I'm super happy to
Speaker 14: get this win.
Speaker 5: For all of the fun and frivolity that we see
Speaker 5: from Sabolenka, there is a much deeper side to the
Speaker 5: world number one. As Lachlan Wills discovered on AO Live.
Speaker 15: You lost your dab at such a young age, it
Speaker 15: was only four three. How much does he live in
Speaker 15: your heart and inspire you to this day?
Speaker 16: Ah?
Speaker 14: He always in my heart. He always in my memories.
Speaker 14: And you know, when you lose someone you like mly
Speaker 14: you remember some little moments with the person, and only
Speaker 14: when you lose someone you realize how important the message
Speaker 14: he was trying to send you was. And he always
Speaker 14: with me, and I feel his support and I know
Speaker 14: that he would be really proud of myself, and it's
Speaker 14: just like another motivation for me to just keep going
Speaker 14: from my dreams.
Speaker 15: Yeah, gotcha. And what's the biggest thing you got from
Speaker 15: your dad in terms of that the message you got
Speaker 15: from him that you've been out to live your life with.
Speaker 14: I think, you know, I remember when I was a kid,
Speaker 14: and I remember like watching him and thinking like, oh
Speaker 14: my god, how positive he is, how funny is And
Speaker 14: I was thinking, I wish when I grew up, I'm
Speaker 14: gonna be like him. I wish I'll be that positive,
Speaker 14: that funny and I and I don't know. I think
Speaker 14: that's the main lesson and message he sent me is
Speaker 14: just like, no matter what you're going through your lives,
Speaker 14: stay positive, find something which brings your joy and just
Speaker 14: enjoy because life is two shirt.
Speaker 5: Seblenka faces Anastasia Pavlia Tchenkova in the quarter finals, but
Speaker 5: is unbothered by her two to one losing head to
Speaker 5: head record.
Speaker 14: From me, I remind she's a new opportunity, it's a
Speaker 14: new game it you know, it doesn't matter what happened
Speaker 14: in the bust. For me, it's about to stand in
Speaker 14: a moment and focusing on myself and on bringing my
Speaker 14: bust game, because I know that if I'll be able
Speaker 14: to bring my best game, I know that they can
Speaker 14: I can get the win. So I'm trying to focus
Speaker 14: on myself.
Speaker 5: The thirty three year old Russian booked her first Last
Speaker 5: Eight appearance in Melbourne since twenty twenty, downing Donnavekch in
Speaker 5: straight sets. The crow At hurt her knee in a
Speaker 5: tough fought opening set before Pavliachhenkova snatched the tiebreak seven
Speaker 5: zip in obvious discomfort. Vekich had a nine minute medical
Speaker 5: time out between sets, but I did little as Pablia
Speaker 5: Chenkova romped to a seven six six love victory.
Speaker 14: I have a mixed Felix because she sort of kind
Speaker 14: of seemed to be injured. There is something in there,
Speaker 14: so that's not really the way you obviously want to
Speaker 14: play or go into the quarter final, and so it's
Speaker 14: sort of like mixed feelings.
Speaker 5: Paula Boosa has flown into her second consecutive Grand Slam
Speaker 5: quarterfinal with a gritty win over Olga Danillovich, the Spanish
Speaker 5: eleventh seed, in full control in a six to one
Speaker 5: opening set before the Serb dug in a little finding
Speaker 5: her range. Danilovitch was a breakup at five to three
Speaker 5: in the second with the opportunity to serve it out,
Speaker 5: but a cool headed Bodosa scrapped her way back and
Speaker 5: held on for the tiebreaker, which he won seven.
Speaker 16: To Like, honestly, I almost don't recognize myself because I
Speaker 16: was so calm, even like my coach was surprised. It's like,
Speaker 16: I want to hear you more, and I'm like, no, no,
Speaker 16: let's keep like this because sometimes when I get like
Speaker 16: too emotional can be a roller coaster. But today I
Speaker 16: was accepting her good moments because I know she has
Speaker 16: a lot of good moments. Sometimes it can change. So
Speaker 16: I knew one of the keys was to be very
Speaker 16: consistent and yeah, mentally emotionally today I.
Speaker 1: Was pretty calm.
Speaker 16: I mean, after the video of the other day, I'm like, okay,
Speaker 16: today you have to.
Speaker 5: Behave as mentioned before, standing in the way of Budosa
Speaker 5: and a semi final birth is Coco Gough.
Speaker 16: I love Coco, I respect her a lot. He's a
Speaker 16: great competitor. We always have tough matches. Last one was
Speaker 16: really tough for me because I was winning in that
Speaker 16: moment and in the momentum TEMs in Beijing semifinals. It
Speaker 16: was a good match and Room was a little bit similar,
Speaker 16: So I really remember that matches. I hope I can
Speaker 16: have my revenge here.
Speaker 5: In other Day eight stories, Ozzie Stallwart Luke Saville has
Speaker 5: played his last professional match, teaming up with fellow South
Speaker 5: Australian Lee Too. They fell to Andre Garnson and Sam
Speaker 5: Verbak six four sixty three in the men's doubles. The
Speaker 5: former AO Junior Boys champion, Junior Wimbledon champion and Junior
Speaker 5: World number one, calling time on a sixteen year professional career.
Speaker 8: I'm truly blessed to have so many fantastic and influential
Speaker 8: people with me throughout my career. Over here's my riot.
Speaker 8: That's probably about one ten everyone that's been on my journey.
Speaker 8: So I'd like to tell this opportunity. I'd be here
Speaker 8: all night if I named everyone but you know who
Speaker 8: you are, wouldn't be here without you. And from the
Speaker 8: bottom of heart, thank you for everything you've done for me.
Speaker 4: Thank you.
Speaker 5: We look forward to having look back on the podcast
Speaker 5: with us soon. Meantime, top seeds Marcelo Aravallo and Matte
Speaker 5: Pavich progressed to the quarterfinals six four seven six over
Speaker 5: the French sixteenth seeds. It'll be in Italy versus Portugal
Speaker 5: quarterfinal after Simona Bolele and Andrea Vavasori advanced alongside Nuno
Speaker 5: Borges and Francisco cabral And. In women's doubles, Mira Andreva,
Speaker 5: fresh off her loss to Arina Sabolenka, continued her run
Speaker 5: with Diana Schneider to dislodge Italian fourth seeds Sarah Rani
Speaker 5: and Jasmine Paulini seven five seventy five to progress to
Speaker 5: the third round. Their next opponents are Ozzie wildcards Kim
Speaker 5: Birel and Olivia Gadeki. Meantime, Marta Kostuk and Elenor Gabriela
Speaker 5: Russa through to the last eight, winning a third set
Speaker 5: super tie break against twelfth seeds Honey Guo and Alexandra Panava.
Speaker 5: Their quarter final opponents will be third seeds Suey Shit
Speaker 5: and Elena Ostapenko, who took down the thirteenth seeds to
Speaker 5: me of Babosh and Nicole Milka Martinez. Let's turn our
Speaker 5: attention now to day nine, the continuation of the Round
Speaker 5: of sixteen and I match for Focus Ryan Elena Rebaikina
Speaker 5: the sixth seed to take on your countrywoman, Madison Keys.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 12: I thought that Madison Keys was really impressive last night.
Speaker 12: That was a blockbuster matchup against Danielle Collins. They've played
Speaker 12: each other a lot on Ride Labor Arena. Madison Keys
Speaker 12: was having a great season last year and had that
Speaker 12: unfortunate injury at Wimbledon when she was closing out on
Speaker 12: the top ten and playing some great tennis. And to
Speaker 12: see her regain that form, I think it's been incredible
Speaker 12: the way that herm Bjorn have worked together. Bjorn for TAngelo,
Speaker 12: who I played against for a number of years. He's
Speaker 12: around my age, a former American player who is her
Speaker 12: husband and coach. I thought that it was really cool
Speaker 12: the interview her talking about the dynamic, but look for him,
Speaker 12: I think it's a really good It's a good addition
Speaker 12: to her team. From a tennis standpoint, he's a really
Speaker 12: smart guy. He's a very strategic player. He's always had
Speaker 12: a mind for the game. And I can say that
Speaker 12: personally after being around him so long, I've always been
Speaker 12: really impressed with the way he sees the game. And
Speaker 12: for her to go out there, she's gonna have to
Speaker 12: have a great game plan because if you're looking at
Speaker 12: just strictly ball striking, Rebakeana is as good as it
Speaker 12: gets right pure ball striker, big Girl, big Serve has
Speaker 12: a really knack for just ball striking, and that's what
Speaker 12: Madison Keys does well. So I'm going to look and
Speaker 12: see is Madison Key's going to go toe to toe
Speaker 12: with her or is she going to try and do
Speaker 12: some things and mix up the slice, mix up the
Speaker 12: heavy top spin serve and use some variety.
Speaker 13: Yeah, I was looking at some of the numbers and
Speaker 13: it was interesting because a lot of times when we
Speaker 13: look at, you know, what percentage of people are using
Speaker 13: four hand slice or for on top spin, it's usually
Speaker 13: like ninety nine percent or top spin. But with Madison Keys,
Speaker 13: the backhand slice actually features about twenty five percent of
Speaker 13: the time, So she's pretty comfortable slicing that shot. You'll
Speaker 13: have to see if she uses that against Rebakeina and
Speaker 13: see if you can break down her defense with that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, those two are two and two against each other.
Speaker 2: So Madison Keys does know what it's like to beat
Speaker 2: Elena Rabakana. But both of those wins came in twenty
Speaker 2: twenty two, I believe, which is prior to peak Ravakana.
Speaker 2: Another area of potential concern is at the end of
Speaker 2: Rabakkana's third round match, she had the train route for
Speaker 2: some back issues, which can make it hard on the
Speaker 2: serving side of things, which is one of Rebakkena's biggest strengths. Also,
Speaker 2: keep an eye on the fact that Madison Keys switched
Speaker 2: rackets at the beginning of this year. Her second tournament
Speaker 2: of the season wins in Adelaide and comes in here
Speaker 2: and has been incredibly sharp. So keep an eye on
Speaker 2: Mattie Keys going from the Wilson racket to the Yonix racket.
Speaker 2: Talked in depth to Bjorn fra TAngelo about that on
Speaker 2: the Blue Zone. I hope you all are watching The
Speaker 2: Blue Zone live four o'clock local time on your channel
Speaker 2: on this very channel. That's right. Hope you all are
Speaker 2: checking it out. We've had some really interesting talks, but
Speaker 2: Bjorn really broke down how she decided to switch, what
Speaker 2: the process was like, and what this new racket has
Speaker 2: given her, which is the same ball striking ability, but
Speaker 2: just maybe a little more margin both in the sweet
Speaker 2: spot and in terms of how she's hitting it.
Speaker 12: To absolutely, and Bjorn actually made the switch to Yanix
Speaker 12: during his career as well. It's at one stage, so
Speaker 12: I think that that's an important thing to know someone
Speaker 12: who knows tennis that much, knowing her game, the way
Speaker 12: that she strikes the ball, and obviously as you progress,
Speaker 12: you start to try and play a little bit differently.
Speaker 12: You play with more experience, you play a little bit
Speaker 12: more spin, as we were talking about, using the slice
Speaker 12: a bit more. And that's what Madison's going to be
Speaker 12: trying to do, is she looks to try and build
Speaker 12: on that one Grand Slam final at the US Open
Speaker 12: where she played Againstlan Stevens. But she's got the big game,
Speaker 12: she's got the ability to scare these girls. Already beat
Speaker 12: Rabaikana twice, so it's gonna be a fun one.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 5: Our match focus for day nine for the Man is
Speaker 5: the world number one Janick Sina he takes on Holgard Runa,
Speaker 5: who just escaped the clutches of me and mir Katzmanovich
Speaker 5: on day.
Speaker 2: Seven, just escaped and as we've come to see in
Speaker 2: some more recent Holgaruna matches, not quite sure why it
Speaker 2: got to that point in the first place. He could
Speaker 2: have made it a little bit more straightforward for himself,
Speaker 2: but Holgar Runa has the flash. I don't know that
Speaker 2: I ever see him beating someone like Jonnick Center in
Speaker 2: straight sets. But do I think that Holgaruna can come
Speaker 2: up with three sets wherever they happen to fall a
Speaker 2: really flashy, disruptive tennis Yes.
Speaker 14: I do. Yeah.
Speaker 13: I mean looking at some of the stats, like they
Speaker 13: both hit huge balls, so you know it's like one
Speaker 13: hundred and twenty nine kilometers per hour for Center versus
Speaker 13: one hundred and twenty five for Runa, Like they hit
Speaker 13: big shots, and looking at the unforced airs, you think
Speaker 13: that Cinner would be a little bit cleaner than Runa is,
Speaker 13: but they're actually quite similar in terms of their average
Speaker 13: matched unforced error. So we'll have to see when those
Speaker 13: unforced airs happen, because that is you know, what makes
Speaker 13: or break someone in a tennis match, is not how
Speaker 13: many errors, but you know what key points you're making
Speaker 13: those airs, So I think it will be interesting to see.
Speaker 12: Yeah, and I think that just strictly by the stats.
Speaker 12: You know, runas a guy who was talking about himself
Speaker 12: as being part of the new Big three, I think
Speaker 12: he might have painted that target on his back a
Speaker 12: little bit whenever he was making those comments, kind of
Speaker 12: grouping himself in there with Center and al KaAZ whenever
Speaker 12: they had both kind of taken that next jump and
Speaker 12: he was trying to put himself in that category.
Speaker 4: And then you know, he took a little bit of
Speaker 4: a step back.
Speaker 12: He had Patrick Mortaglu in and out of his coaching
Speaker 12: team at different different stages. Was playing with that sort
Speaker 12: of part of it? How much did he need Patrick involved?
Speaker 12: How much was he not going to be involved and
Speaker 12: looking to try and figure out the right stability and
Speaker 12: the team around him.
Speaker 4: We know what he can do.
Speaker 12: He's been a top fire player before. So for a
Speaker 12: fourth round match, that's going to be a really tough
Speaker 12: matchup for center. Center is obviously coming in with the
Speaker 12: head of team. He's playing great tennis. He looked phenomenally
Speaker 12: the other night. He's suffocating with the way he plays
Speaker 12: inside the baseline. I think that that's what's something that
Speaker 12: Novak Djokovic talked about him playing against Center when he
Speaker 12: played him in Shanghai last year. He said he felt
Speaker 12: like it was playing a younger version of himself in
Speaker 12: the way that Centner is a to take time away
Speaker 12: from you. And that's the key difference right now between
Speaker 12: the way that I see Center playing and the way
Speaker 12: that I see Runa playing. Sometimes Holger just tends to
Speaker 12: hang back a little bit, let players like Ketch Monovitch
Speaker 12: work their way into the match and Blair, that's what
Speaker 12: you're talking about. It kind of gets a little bit
Speaker 12: more difficult and tricky than it needs to be. And
Speaker 12: you see someone like Center, who has been at the
Speaker 12: top of the game for a while now, when he
Speaker 12: gets in control, he doesn't let up at all. You
Speaker 12: are absolutely under the gun the entire time. But now
Speaker 12: he's got to play Holger, and Holgers get to play spoiler.
Speaker 12: It's a different, different sort of mindset, and these guys
Speaker 12: are both young. I'm really looking forward to it.
Speaker 2: What lessons Ryan can other players take from that in
Speaker 2: terms of how to disrupt the rhythm of Jonnick Center?
Speaker 12: Well, I always say, when you watch a tennis match
Speaker 12: and you see two players playing, you can typically see
Speaker 12: who's the driver and who's the passenger.
Speaker 4: And that doesn't really have to do with the score.
Speaker 12: That's just watching the way that the points developing and
Speaker 12: watching the attitude in between the points, and you can
Speaker 12: see who's really controlling the emotions out there, and oftentimes
Speaker 12: that's the person who's higher ranked and has the match
Speaker 12: in their advantage. And I thought that did a really
Speaker 12: good job of playing some tennis on his terms, especially
Speaker 12: early on the match, and it was disruptive. If you
Speaker 12: go out there and you play someone like Center and
Speaker 12: you let him play on his terms over three out
Speaker 12: of five sets, you're not going to come out on top.
Speaker 12: You've got to do something that's going to play the
Speaker 12: match on your terms. And what I'm going to be
Speaker 12: looking for because Runa's not going to get in the
Speaker 12: net as much as say as school Kate was. Obviously
Speaker 12: we know what Holger can do. He's a more accomplished player,
Speaker 12: but he's not going to be transitioning as much. But
Speaker 12: if you just pay attention strictly to where they're at
Speaker 12: on the baseline, if you see Center up on top
Speaker 12: of the baseline and Holger way back behind the Melbourne sign.
Speaker 12: That's going to be trouble if you get to see
Speaker 12: Holger up inside the court and running Center a bit.
Speaker 12: That's the one area of Center's game that you can
Speaker 12: try and exploit a little bit, because he's not He's
Speaker 12: not a guy who goes to slice as much. He
Speaker 12: doesn't use a lot of versatility. He's more of a
Speaker 12: guy who just is a ball striker, and he is
Speaker 12: so good at it that we don't need to talk
Speaker 12: about how good he is.
Speaker 4: I mean, we know how good he is.
Speaker 12: But if you can get him running, that's the one
Speaker 12: time that you can expose him a little bit, and
Speaker 12: Holger is going to need to do that.
Speaker 4: Well.
Speaker 5: There have certainly been some glittering performances from youngsters throughout
Speaker 5: the first eight days of competition. Who could forget the
Speaker 5: eyebrow raising exploits of Joe Fonseka and Jachu Menziic and
Speaker 5: the golden runs of Lerner Tienn and Alex Michelson. But
Speaker 5: there's one man who might be out shining them all.
Speaker 5: John Jones is one of the Lucky hot Shots tennis
Speaker 5: players selected to toss the coin before an Australian Open
Speaker 5: match and his performance on day five before Carlos Alcoraz's
Speaker 5: win over Nuno Borges, has led to a media street
Speaker 5: whirlwind for young John over the past few days.
Speaker 1: Carlos, we've got John here.
Speaker 4: He's very excited to be here today. Before you go,
Speaker 4: what's the question?
Speaker 13: He added?
Speaker 5: It is Ao, how are you? We've got something special
Speaker 5: for you today. We've got a badge for you and
Speaker 5: you're going.
Speaker 1: To be the chief happiness Officer.
Speaker 6: Do you think you can do that?
Speaker 4: Yeah, definitely, generally you can do.
Speaker 3: That, is John.
Speaker 4: My name is Craig.
Speaker 3: Good to meet you.
Speaker 4: You the happiness Officer.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that means you're in charge of everyone.
Speaker 4: You're my boss.
Speaker 7: Now.
Speaker 4: Now I'm here with a very special someone.
Speaker 13: And this little guy met Carlos Alcarez and I think
Speaker 13: they might just be best friends.
Speaker 9: He's back again today to spread happiness on site.
Speaker 4: All right, is a happiness officers? Are you tell us?
Speaker 2: Player?
Speaker 8: Yeah?
Speaker 11: When are you going to play the train?
Speaker 7: Not fifteen tennis? I make people really really happy. My
Speaker 7: spreading joy where I didn't turn out slowly? Yeah, nice things.
Speaker 7: Lots of people have said, thank.
Speaker 4: You, have a nice day, John, Hey you have an
Speaker 4: amazing day.
Speaker 7: We'll win a smile all the time.
Speaker 4: Will two?
Speaker 7: No one be sat We'll free. That's like no one's watching.
Speaker 5: Well that's all for Day eight of the Australian Open,
Speaker 5: but join me again tomorrow for all of the big
Speaker 5: stories from Day nine and the conclusion of the fourth round.
Speaker 5: Be sure to subscribe to never miss an episode, and
Speaker 5: please leave a rating or review so more people can
Speaker 5: discover the tennis. You can also catch our daily spotlight
Speaker 5: segment on our YouTube channel, Australian Open TV and I'll
Speaker 5: catch you tomorrow for more of the tennis