Speaker 1: Hello, Welcome to the tennis once again.
Speaker 2: I'm Zavean Muellerbuck your host for the week, Filipino for
Speaker 2: non world card alex Yala is the giant killer in Miami,
Speaker 2: adding Eagish Viertek to her star studded list of casualties.
Speaker 2: Fon Seca Fever Hard Rock Stadium was pumping every time
Speaker 2: javon Seca took to center court. This week, we're going
Speaker 2: to analyze the game behind the fame and Olympic overhaul
Speaker 2: Brisbane's pat Raft Arena. He's getting a major makeover. Tennis
Speaker 2: Australia CEO Craig Tyler joins us later and he'll be
Speaker 2: covering all the big tennis storylines at home and abroad.
Speaker 2: But let's jump on in joining me this week once
Speaker 2: again is Queen of the small stream screen. Well, you
Speaker 2: know when my head went to sembrace stream. No, the
Speaker 2: problem I have is Queen of the small Great sounds
Speaker 2: like you've got an only fans. Oh yeah, no, I
Speaker 2: don't good fans at home. She's just going to stick here,
Speaker 2: just crossing out smaller screen. We're gonna get on desktop
Speaker 2: of ste anyway about.
Speaker 3: You're good, Yeah, I'm a good thing.
Speaker 1: That's great.
Speaker 2: And across the table from me, we've got two coaching
Speaker 2: superstars fresh off the plane from Miami.
Speaker 1: Is to call Pratt and Simon Ray. Welcome, g great
Speaker 1: to be here, is it? He looks scared of me.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, Well, yeah, this is different. There's a different vibe.
Speaker 4: But I'm open to you know, a chat more.
Speaker 5: See.
Speaker 1: Okay, excellent. How's the flight home? Do you got? Who
Speaker 1: got the best seat on the plane?
Speaker 3: I got upgraded.
Speaker 4: Actually, I use my points, and when I got that
Speaker 4: text before, I was just.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, there's only three things that are amazing at
Speaker 2: the airport. One is getting that text. Second is the
Speaker 2: gate upgrade. When you're about to board, you scan the
Speaker 2: thing that goes bomb bong, and you think you're about
Speaker 2: to be deported, and suddenly like, actually, we've had a
Speaker 2: better seat for you.
Speaker 3: I don't think that's ever happened to me.
Speaker 1: That's right. We'll keep with your smaller screen and maybe
Speaker 1: you'll get that.
Speaker 2: Yeah. We'll jump into the biggest news of the week.
Speaker 2: Wild Card alexandre Yala. She bet her third consecutive Grand
Speaker 2: Slam champion at Miami just overnight. Huge news. Yeah, not
Speaker 2: just anyone. Yeah, the eager amazing news, isn't it? And
Speaker 2: I went back and did a little bit of homework
Speaker 2: on Yala, and so often, you know, these outstanding stories
Speaker 2: that we see play out, there's some clues if we
Speaker 2: track back in time.
Speaker 6: A little bit.
Speaker 7: So Alex Yala two thousand and five birth yet, meaning
Speaker 7: she's turning twenty out of the game arras year somewhere
Speaker 7: in twenty twenty as a fifteen year old, though from
Speaker 7: a junior tennis perspective, she's ranked number two in the world.
Speaker 7: So so and pratty, you'll be able to back me
Speaker 7: up here. So often we see that that these elite
Speaker 7: talents are nearly always, not always, but nearly always some
Speaker 7: of the best junior players in the world. So that
Speaker 7: was certainly the case with Yala makes the semi finals
Speaker 7: of Role in Garros at fifteen in twenty twenty I'm
Speaker 7: talking the junior edition obviously, and wins the US Open
Speaker 7: at seventeen from a girl's singles perspective, and then we
Speaker 7: know that the story changes a little bit because then
Speaker 7: it is taking some time to have the big breakthrough
Speaker 7: which we've just seen play out in front of us
Speaker 7: this week. So in twenty twenty two, at seventeen, she's
Speaker 7: ranked two hundred and nineteen in professional tennis. Twenty twenty three,
Speaker 7: improves thirty spots one hundred and eighty nine, twenty twenty four,
Speaker 7: forty spots one hundred and forty three, and now twenty
Speaker 7: twenty five on the live rankings. So we know there's
Speaker 7: elite talent there, and maybe Pratty can give some insight
Speaker 7: into what that breakthrough kind of consists of. There's elite talent,
Speaker 7: then it takes some time, then the grind starts. Then
Speaker 7: it's kind of shoulder to the wheel for a number
Speaker 7: of years, and all of a sudden this week and
Speaker 7: you've outlined the quality of the winds, not just the winds,
Speaker 7: the quality of the winds, and she's away with a
Speaker 7: bullet to seventy five in the world and evidently going
Speaker 7: to go much higher.
Speaker 1: Yeah, what's your tape?
Speaker 4: Praddy definitely can back up Somei'm in there with the
Speaker 4: fact that you know, the junior results are definitely an
Speaker 4: indicator of future senior success. So the numbers there show
Speaker 4: pretty much are evidence that she was going to get there,
Speaker 4: but it's taken some time. I'll never forget I was
Speaker 4: watching actually at Roland Garrett's last year, she was playing
Speaker 4: against Taylor Preston. Taylor Preston was all over her, like
Speaker 4: destroying her. And the thing that stuck out for me was,
Speaker 4: I think her resilience, her resolve when she really didn't
Speaker 4: have an answer to Taylor, but anyway, she just hung there.
Speaker 4: She's stuck with it. Her attitude is amazing. So you know,
Speaker 4: I would say maybe you could argue training out of
Speaker 4: the Nadale Academy. You know, that's something that's instilled in
Speaker 4: the players there about you know, the work ethic, the
Speaker 4: resilience piece, and the belief piece. You know, if you
Speaker 4: keep working hard enough, then then good things are going
Speaker 4: to happen. So no, it's a huge breakthrough for her.
Speaker 4: And you know she's a sweetheart as well, so it's
Speaker 4: great to see one of the nice players come through also.
Speaker 2: More of those pleas and she's put Filipino tennis on
Speaker 2: the map.
Speaker 4: Yeah yeah, but look at the scalps. I mean, Madison
Speaker 4: Keys has been untouchable pretty much this year.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but she's just like a little while.
Speaker 2: You know, she moved to me Orca at fourteen to
Speaker 2: go to the Raffa Academy and funnily Eno, I've got
Speaker 2: a picture here that he was floating around her graduating
Speaker 2: from the Raffa Academy. And then a special guests in
Speaker 2: the tenants was Eagershiartek. Her most recent scalp just nuts she.
Speaker 8: See to Tony Nadal was in her box today when
Speaker 8: she played, which is obviously Rafa's uncle. He coach really
Speaker 8: drives the academy these days.
Speaker 3: For a far.
Speaker 1: But yeah, wow, kingmakers the whole thing huge.
Speaker 2: Staying with Miami for a moment, I thought we jump
Speaker 2: into What's caught your Eye. This is a segment where
Speaker 2: every week we look at what has been happening in
Speaker 2: the tennis world. Praddy, what's caught your I this week
Speaker 2: in the tennis land?
Speaker 4: Well, I think it's caught everyone's eyes. Fonseca in listen
Speaker 4: just the it was phenomenal. The crowds were phenomenal. We're
Speaker 4: talking about Miami being northern Brazil, the amount of Brazilians
Speaker 4: they're selling Brazilian T shirts out in the merchant merch store.
Speaker 4: There's Brazilians everywhere. So anyway, in his second round match
Speaker 4: he was playing, I think he was out on gran
Speaker 4: Grandstand that only has three thousand people. Well, what happened
Speaker 4: was there were three thousand people outside waiting to get in,
Speaker 4: which was a security risk, so they actually had to
Speaker 4: shut the match down and the only place they could
Speaker 4: put it was in the Senate Court. So what happened
Speaker 4: is all the Brazilians that had lined up to watch
Speaker 4: the match were then told it's moving to Santa Court,
Speaker 4: that they'd have to buy a Senate Court ticket. So
Speaker 4: they went then went over to the Santate Court, started yelling, booing,
Speaker 4: and then they had to disrupt the Draper match, pull
Speaker 4: that off the court because the fans wouldn't stop. So
Speaker 4: it is just it's craziness, Like it's like we're talking superstar,
Speaker 4: absolutely SUPERSTI.
Speaker 8: Taste of it here right open. But that sounds even mourning,
Speaker 8: but it was nuts.
Speaker 3: It was nuts.
Speaker 4: It was actually nuts, like I'd never I've actually never
Speaker 4: heard of a situation like that before.
Speaker 1: I kind of love it.
Speaker 2: He's a good kid, and he said, really great here
Speaker 2: in Melbourne. Yeah, if we could just keep the security
Speaker 2: wrist to a low, but the fandom high.
Speaker 1: Good.
Speaker 8: What do you think is next for him? Pretty from
Speaker 8: and Simon, Oh he's going to fly. I mean, Simon
Speaker 8: will break his game down. But I just you know,
Speaker 8: even in the first round match against learn A team,
Speaker 8: that match was phenomenal. It was three sets and it
Speaker 8: was a battle, and that come through the juniors as well.
Speaker 8: But I just love I just love how he enjoys
Speaker 8: the game so much, like I don't know, all the
Speaker 8: different moments where someone's challenged, it's almost like he enjoyed
Speaker 8: the challenge and he wanted the challenge because that's where
Speaker 8: he's going to step up.
Speaker 3: And you can talk about where he steps up, talk
Speaker 3: about it.
Speaker 6: I think Pratty makes a great point.
Speaker 7: You know, you can talk about the numbers and break
Speaker 7: down the game all you like, but that ability to
Speaker 7: walk towards I guess the pressure and the discomfort that
Speaker 7: that's so often the differentiated between the elite, the real
Speaker 7: champions of our sport and the rest of us. And
Speaker 7: I think that's an outstanding point that probably makes so
Speaker 7: to have a look behind him, well, I think that
Speaker 7: that's the first thing that I see when I look
Speaker 7: at this guy that want to have the spotlight on
Speaker 7: him and to back his big game, back his weapons
Speaker 7: against anyone down the other end. So he's he's okay
Speaker 7: to go down. You know, and we've seen some ups
Speaker 7: and downs, more ups than downs. But we saw him
Speaker 7: win that title on clay during the South American Swing,
Speaker 7: then go out first round. The following week. We saw
Speaker 7: him at Indian Wells lose to the eventual champion, Jack Draper.
Speaker 7: Then he goes to Phoenix, plays a challenger the next week,
Speaker 7: which is basically as strong as a tour event, wins
Speaker 7: that challenger in Phoenix, and then Pratty spoken to some
Speaker 7: of the circus in Miami that's followed him around there
Speaker 7: and speaks to the quality of Alex demon Or's win
Speaker 7: over him in fact, to get that done, and demon
Speaker 7: I think, backed up exactly what Pratdy was saying right
Speaker 7: on the camera. Nice to get a winner.
Speaker 3: I thought that was quite funny, found rude, but I was.
Speaker 1: Like having a large.
Speaker 7: I loved it on him talking about overcoming that adversity.
Speaker 7: But in terms of this guy's game, well, the top
Speaker 7: ten players in the world, okay, just looking at the
Speaker 7: top ten, they average one hundred and high one fifties,
Speaker 7: one fifty nine, one fifty fifty nine on second serve. Okay,
Speaker 7: that's normally the serve that you want to make sure
Speaker 7: you get in right. You don't want to cough up
Speaker 7: dog faults. This guy hits his second serve one hundred
Speaker 7: and seventy kilometers an now as an eighteen year old
Speaker 7: fourhand speed top ten average one hundred and twenty seven.
Speaker 7: This guy's one hundred and thirty two. And Pratty's heard
Speaker 7: me talk about some of these figures before. How about
Speaker 7: spin twenty eight hundred the best players in or twenty
Speaker 7: eight hundred. How many revs on the ball, So this
Speaker 7: guy's three thy fifty. That means he's not just getting
Speaker 7: you for speed on the foehand side, he's getting you
Speaker 7: for spin as well. Normally when you add one, you've
Speaker 7: got to take off a bit of the other. This
Speaker 7: guy's the whole package on serve. He's going after the
Speaker 7: ball on fourhand. He's not going to die wondering, And
Speaker 7: was spoken about his want to grab a hold of
Speaker 7: the moment and to win or lose on his terms
Speaker 7: dictating the play, you know, go down on the terms
Speaker 7: that he's comfortable with. So the Demon match in particular,
Speaker 7: if you want to get into that, I think it
Speaker 7: speaks to the quality of that win from Alex Deman
Speaker 7: or to kind of put a stop to all of
Speaker 7: that momentum that Fonseca had going into that.
Speaker 2: Context, Pratty wanted to ask, how many numbers does it
Speaker 2: take when Simon's telling you all the the numbers and stats,
Speaker 2: how long until your eyes glaze over pretty quickly?
Speaker 4: And I love the number. Yeah, I'm a bit of
Speaker 4: a stat's nut myself, So I actually really enjoyed listening
Speaker 4: to that good. But I think where he's going to
Speaker 4: make his biggest gains, and I still feel like there's
Speaker 4: a bit of a gap here is physically, how could
Speaker 4: I say he's a little soft in some areas where
Speaker 4: he can harden up, like you get that roots leaning,
Speaker 4: he needs to develop that real lean muscle mass, and
Speaker 4: then you know, when he gets towards you know, we've
Speaker 4: got to remember, you know, the Indian Wells and the
Speaker 4: Miami's they're the two week events, right and the Slams
Speaker 4: are the two weeks events, and it takes a toll
Speaker 4: on the body. So yeah, that's an area where it's
Speaker 4: exciting that he still has that growth.
Speaker 2: There, those little elements of growth. So if he was
Speaker 2: at five out of five on a ranking for every
Speaker 2: single element, they'd be nowhere to go. But by having
Speaker 2: those yeah, exactly, still heaps of time. So if he's
Speaker 2: already nailing certain things and he's got capacity for improvement
Speaker 2: and others, these kids can absolutely knock it out of
Speaker 2: the park.
Speaker 6: Yep.
Speaker 8: Yeah, But of a different question for both of you.
Speaker 8: So Alex obviously overcame Fonseca, yep, played. Well what did
Speaker 8: he have in the Fonseca match that he didn't have?
Speaker 3: Yeah when we watched him play yesterday.
Speaker 7: Well, I'm pleased you've asked that, Brie, because in the
Speaker 7: Demon match, you know, typically and this is probably will
Speaker 7: be able to speak to this again. This is often
Speaker 7: the case sometimes when you have identified as strength in
Speaker 7: an opponent, which in Fonsecu's case is the forehand was
Speaker 7: spoken about, that a lot what you may do down
Speaker 7: the other end is actually attacked directly into that wing. Okay,
Speaker 7: because a lot of times those players that have got
Speaker 7: dominant four hands, they love time on the ball, They
Speaker 7: love to be able to shift to their left. So
Speaker 7: getting into the technique and the tactics if you like
Speaker 7: a little bit more now, and their most dangerous forehands
Speaker 7: are hit from the center third of the court or
Speaker 7: even from the backhand side of the court. Demon in
Speaker 7: this match served a lot of times under pressure on
Speaker 7: the juice court straight out wide to the fonsecad four hand,
Speaker 7: drawing him to his right. The thinking there being if
Speaker 7: I draw him to his right, I'm going to increase
Speaker 7: my chances of finding his backhand on shots two, three,
Speaker 7: and four. Did a great job of that and the
Speaker 7: other thing. And we know about Demon's quality on second
Speaker 7: serve return, he really made a big inroads. We spoke
Speaker 7: about the speed of the Fonseca second serve, but Demon
Speaker 7: really in sets two and three when he turned that
Speaker 7: match around, he hardly won a point on second serve
Speaker 7: yeall Fonseca and Demon did it through a variety of ways,
Speaker 7: through mixing things up. He went back in the court
Speaker 7: a long way on second serve return. Other times he's
Speaker 7: standing right up or inside the baseline. So he changed
Speaker 7: the look that he was giving Fonseca. And we know
Speaker 7: about his ability to pinpoint targets on second serve return.
Speaker 6: Starved him of.
Speaker 7: Time and really made inroads, made Fonseca uncomfortable in that
Speaker 7: way in that match.
Speaker 1: Come what a journey? Anything else? Catch your eye over it?
Speaker 1: Many well?
Speaker 7: The only thing I would say any other thing I'd
Speaker 7: say on Fonsecer we spoke about success leaving clues. There's
Speaker 7: another number one ranked junior in the world, you know
Speaker 7: at seventeen, okay, number one ranked junior in the world.
Speaker 6: So for those tennis lovers out there listening in, take.
Speaker 7: A look at the junior rankings right now, because those
Speaker 7: players that are ranked top five, top ten in the world,
Speaker 7: and both the boys and girls, i'd nearly guarantee, stop
Speaker 7: short of a cast iron guarantee, but nearly guarantee your
Speaker 7: elite champions in the next five ten years are coming
Speaker 7: from that coke.
Speaker 6: Yep, right now.
Speaker 2: And when you're at a Grand Slam, go check out
Speaker 2: the junior's tournament.
Speaker 6: I think.
Speaker 7: Speaking in Miami, what else caught my Yeah, Victoria and Boko,
Speaker 7: who is a player that you know. Now there's another
Speaker 7: I think young player on the right. So I watched
Speaker 7: her play Pala Badosa out there in Miami. Now, she
Speaker 7: doesn't hold back on the ball. Just put a little
Speaker 7: asterisk next to her game. Okay, she's got some power
Speaker 7: and some weapons off both wings. She came within a
Speaker 7: point or two of knocking off Palabadosa. I think it
Speaker 7: was out on court one that day when I sat
Speaker 7: there and watched there's a Star on the rise.
Speaker 6: I think we've spoken about a Yala a little bit already.
Speaker 7: We've spoken about Fonsaka, So just adding Victoria and Boco
Speaker 7: was one to keep.
Speaker 6: One to watch in that same regard.
Speaker 1: Very good.
Speaker 2: Yeah, thanks for bri. What's catching your eyeballs over there
Speaker 2: in Miami?
Speaker 8: Well, you know, I love Andreva, and sadly she was
Speaker 8: defeated by Annis, who has now since been defeated also
Speaker 8: when it's out of Miami. But I did quite enjoy
Speaker 8: a little bit of rivalry. Whether or not it was
Speaker 8: sportsmanship questionable, but Andrev did question a medical time out
Speaker 8: that Anasimova had during their match play because she had
Speaker 8: a blister and a finger, and she questioned it, and
Speaker 8: then Anasaimova did bite back on Instagram indicating that there
Speaker 8: was a blister and it was her middle finger, and
Speaker 8: it was very like, oh here it is, here it is.
Speaker 8: So I quite liked that and thought found it quite funny.
Speaker 8: And for I know we're also an audio, I am
Speaker 8: finding my rude middle finger up whatever you call it,
Speaker 8: the bird, So I kind of look whether or not
Speaker 8: Andreva enjoyed it, I'm guessing Anisimova did enjoy her humor
Speaker 8: with doing that on Instagram.
Speaker 2: I've got to have a laugh, I know. I kind
Speaker 2: of like a little bit of rivalry. You're gonna have
Speaker 2: the storylines school.
Speaker 3: We're not always so nice.
Speaker 8: And they're all friends, well most of them, right like
Speaker 8: we always see them when the cameras rolling, hugging and
Speaker 8: all that kind of stuff. So yeah, a little bit
Speaker 8: of you know, flipping the bird.
Speaker 4: Well, they'll be playing each other in you're in, you're out.
Speaker 4: They're both too high quality ways. It's great to see
Speaker 4: you in some over back. Yeah it is, isn't it.
Speaker 2: Can you just really stoke the flames on that rivalry
Speaker 2: for us? That's great when you're out there on the road. Yeah,
Speaker 2: I'll try cool so much.
Speaker 1: She needs to give her a few bissenes. Should let
Speaker 1: the banjo. That's the best way.
Speaker 2: I want to keep this high ring this Yeah, well
Speaker 2: really high brow, a high interest in like the and
Speaker 2: the tennis. You know what's really great at the tennis
Speaker 2: at the moment, courtside bars, they're popping up everywhere. We
Speaker 2: had one of the AO A few players. I think
Speaker 2: we started it. We did kick here, but the one
Speaker 2: in Miami. Jeez, it looked fun either of you courtside.
Speaker 4: But I've got a story on that one. So Kim
Speaker 4: Burrell was out playing a qualifying match wondering, and I
Speaker 4: swear it was I couldn't think it was that loud
Speaker 4: coming the music from the bar. It was off the chart.
Speaker 8: It's the chart for a punter, phenomenal for a player
Speaker 8: or a co terrific.
Speaker 4: I couldn't think, So I could can't imagine what the
Speaker 4: you know, the players couldn't think either. So actually, I
Speaker 4: actually I had to send a message into the referee
Speaker 4: and say, you have to turn this down. Yeah, it
Speaker 4: is way too loud, way too late.
Speaker 1: They did, Okay, they did, but it was I mean,
Speaker 1: it was pumping.
Speaker 2: People were talking about Indian Wells being the coachellor of tennis.
Speaker 2: Sounds that this one is music festival vibes. But I'll
Speaker 2: tell you what, there might be a few more middle
Speaker 2: finger emojis going up with that.
Speaker 1: And that's the fact.
Speaker 2: What's caught your eye for this week? Anything else from
Speaker 2: Miami folks before we roll on with the rest of
Speaker 2: the show.
Speaker 7: Well, I thought, you know, one thing for me, and
Speaker 7: looking at Miami rolling off the back of Indian Wells
Speaker 7: was just the toll that the sport is taking on
Speaker 7: some of the best players. And also perhaps how even
Speaker 7: now we're finding both men's tennis and women's tennis. So
Speaker 7: having a look at the finalist from Indian Wales and
Speaker 7: the men's game, So Jack Draper obviously the champion indi
Speaker 7: In Welles whole garun of the beaten finalist or the
Speaker 7: runner up, both of those men out.
Speaker 6: Opening match at Miami.
Speaker 7: Okay, then we're seeing things like four lucky losers. So
Speaker 7: we've got a story to tell about Adam Walton who
Speaker 7: was one of the beneficiaries of that spot, which is awesome, right, Yeah,
Speaker 7: But the fact that there's and I think this is
Speaker 7: actually a credit to where the sport's heading. So now, okay,
Speaker 7: previous to five or ten years ago, where you go
Speaker 7: into an event under an injury cloud and you roll up,
Speaker 7: you go through the motions, potentially you take your paycheck,
Speaker 7: you may pull out it for one down in the
Speaker 7: opening set and you're out of there. Now, what you're
Speaker 7: doing is you're saying to the tournament organizers, hey, folks,
Speaker 7: I'm not right. I'll grab my second round prize money.
Speaker 7: Thanks hub her catch as the seated player. But I'm
Speaker 7: just telling you, and I think it's the right thing.
Speaker 7: I'm just telling you, I'm not right. I'll take my
Speaker 7: second run. I think you can do that three or
Speaker 7: four times over the course of the year, and someone
Speaker 7: gets a run as a lucky loser. Yeah, that's a
Speaker 7: better show on for the customer, for the consumer, if
Speaker 7: you like so. I think that's working. But the talking
Speaker 7: point for me is, again, year on year, we seem
Speaker 7: to have the same conversation. Jesus is taking a toll
Speaker 7: and it's so hard to be And I think prabb
Speaker 7: you be able to speak to the coaching challenge of this,
Speaker 7: able to repeat your success week on week and again,
Speaker 7: I think that's another market for the very best players
Speaker 7: in the.
Speaker 6: Sport versus the rest of the field.
Speaker 7: Can you find a way to minimize the gap between
Speaker 7: your best tennis and your worst tennis on any given day?
Speaker 7: And that, for me, perhaps more than any other measure,
Speaker 7: speaks of the progress that you might be making your
Speaker 7: best tennis. Everyone's got a high level on their great days,
Speaker 7: but what's your bad level? And when that gap is
Speaker 7: small or smaller, that's indicative for me of real progress.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: So what I mean when players are on the tour
Speaker 2: is what are the key things that really can take
Speaker 2: their toll the most? Is in combination to every or
Speaker 2: is it the travel, the match play, the training, Yeah,
Speaker 2: schedule schedules.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think it's a combination of everything. You know,
Speaker 4: Like it's a three hour time difference from Indian Wells
Speaker 4: to Miami, and whilst it might seem oh it's only
Speaker 4: three hours, it actually does take its toll in terms
Speaker 4: of your sleep patterns. The conditions were very different in
Speaker 4: Miami versus Indian Wells Miami, the courts were different, and
Speaker 4: then obviously you've got the humidity in Miami as well.
Speaker 4: So and it's really interesting the events in Indian Wells
Speaker 4: in Miami because the top players have the buys in
Speaker 4: the first rounds and so often they're not playing their
Speaker 4: first round match until sort of Thursday Friday, and I
Speaker 4: feel like the tournament actually gets really squeezed and condensed,
Speaker 4: so they actually don't have a lot of time off.
Speaker 4: And so for you know two one thousands, where it's like,
Speaker 4: oh it's a ten day, two week event, it's not
Speaker 4: like that at all for them. So yeah, I just
Speaker 4: think the matches get condensed, and and I think the
Speaker 4: fact that like you don't when you don't have days off,
Speaker 4: like if you're in a tournament, you're constantly on. There's
Speaker 4: no switching off. And I believe that's what takes its toll.
Speaker 4: And the best players, I think, manage themselves incredibly well
Speaker 4: with the people that they hang out with in terms
Speaker 4: of just taking away all the noise, because that takes
Speaker 4: its tall.
Speaker 8: Can I just bring up some other key things that
Speaker 8: have happened in Miami because I would love to get
Speaker 8: both europeions.
Speaker 1: We've already covered the court side bar. What else is there?
Speaker 3: I'm trying to bring it back to the tennis Tennis.
Speaker 1: Well, that's the shame of the show tennis.
Speaker 8: So this morning Arthur Fees or Arta Fees knocked out Zverev.
Speaker 3: Three six six, three six four. Novak is pushing through.
Speaker 8: He's nearing maybe completing his one hundred singles titles. If
Speaker 8: he wins Miami, we still have it, am I radicanu in.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, is this Radakanu's re emergence? I mean she
Speaker 2: had this the first time, what at one thousand events,
Speaker 2: she's made the quarters three years since a USO open.
Speaker 1: When is there anything to watch there or is this
Speaker 1: a blip?
Speaker 4: I just think it's really interesting. Like the backstory on
Speaker 4: Radakhani was she tried a new coach, Bladdo Patnek, who
Speaker 4: had formerly coached Derek Castecino and a number of other players,
Speaker 4: very very good coach. So she had lost early in
Speaker 4: Indian Wells, had been doing training with Bladdo out there
Speaker 4: and then also in Miami, and then all of a sudden,
Speaker 4: the day before a match, there's no Vlado. So then
Speaker 4: I'm like, oh, this is really interesting, like who's now
Speaker 4: coaching Emma. So it turns out that Mark Petchi, your commentator,
Speaker 4: has been over in the box and Jane o'donna, who
Speaker 4: who had you know, works for the for the LTA,
Speaker 4: was there as well. She's been working consistently with her
Speaker 4: fitness training Attacker. But I thought that was really really
Speaker 4: interesting and I'm just wondering, you know, was she challenged
Speaker 4: by some things that Bladdo was working on and.
Speaker 3: It's worked for her.
Speaker 4: But I kind of feel bad for because he was
Speaker 4: he was out there grinding for the two weeks to
Speaker 4: into Miami and.
Speaker 3: Then all of that's gone.
Speaker 4: Yeah, now he's gone that's so now it's like it's
Speaker 4: kind of clicking. So yeah, that that's a really interesting
Speaker 4: one for me. One really interesting one turn.
Speaker 6: Over of coaching stuff in that camp, that's for sure. Yeah,
Speaker 6: imagine you'd have.
Speaker 7: To look a certain way to attract some of the
Speaker 7: best coaches of our sports given the kind of track
Speaker 7: record that's existed there for a period of time.
Speaker 2: Is that the new normal? Like is there more churn
Speaker 2: than ever before or is it just there's more not
Speaker 2: to that.
Speaker 3: Extent, No, not.
Speaker 4: I mean Radakani is probably number one in regards to
Speaker 4: changing over coaches at the.
Speaker 3: Number one at something, don't you.
Speaker 4: But you know what, I love that she's doing. I
Speaker 4: love that.
Speaker 1: She's doing well.
Speaker 4: She's you know, she's a superstar in our game, and
Speaker 4: it's great to see her back doing well because she's
Speaker 4: been struggling with injuries.
Speaker 3: It's terrific. My last question to both of you, will
Speaker 3: novak win well?
Speaker 6: I think he's looking at goods.
Speaker 7: I think he's clearly been pretty dominant through through the
Speaker 7: opening and what are we now, opening week or ten
Speaker 7: days of the event, Sir Andy, back in the camp,
Speaker 7: through the through the hard court swing they were putting
Speaker 7: in the hours.
Speaker 6: You know, you can see Pratty's.
Speaker 7: Mentioned the really delayed start that the seeds have at
Speaker 7: those big events, and I thought, you know, just on
Speaker 7: a slight side, I thought some of Andy Murray's comments
Speaker 7: about coaching. I actually found that really insightful on his
Speaker 7: reflections from Australia, which if I'm just to summarize it
Speaker 7: was I became obsessive. I've got that obsessive nature anyway,
Speaker 7: and I just sat in my hotel room and obsessed
Speaker 7: over the next opponent, you know, trilled through hours and
Speaker 7: hours of video footage, and only by the end of
Speaker 7: the event that I start to realize, actually, this is
Speaker 7: not that healthy for me. I need to get in
Speaker 7: the gym, I need to go and hit some golf,
Speaker 7: but I need to find an off switch. Which was
Speaker 7: a really interesting refashion and the other thing which grabbed me,
Speaker 7: which you know I kind of applaud the honesty and
Speaker 7: the vulnerability.
Speaker 1: Oh.
Speaker 7: Communication and I'm paraphrase. Communication for me has always been
Speaker 7: the challenge. And I found that, you know, when you're
Speaker 7: the coach, and again we've got one of the world's
Speaker 7: best coaches sitting in the room with us, that there's
Speaker 7: pulling the team together as well, So he was kind
Speaker 7: of putting his hand up, going, I didn't do well
Speaker 7: there either. Like, you've got the physical performance coach to
Speaker 7: talk to, you might have the sports psychologists, you might
Speaker 7: have the analytics guy.
Speaker 6: To talk to, and you've got to pull those threads together. Hey,
Speaker 6: what time we leave in tomorrow morning? You know the
Speaker 6: left hands talking?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 7: Right, do we need to grab dinner? We've got an
Speaker 7: issue here in the camp we need to address. And
Speaker 7: he was kind of going, that wasn't my forte and
Speaker 7: I wasn't expecting that to be. The caves and all
Speaker 7: eyes at times are on the coach to pull it together.
Speaker 7: I think Pratty does a phenomenal job of that of
Speaker 7: kind of managing the dynamics of the team around what
Speaker 7: the player needs. So I just thought it was really
Speaker 7: interesting reflection, an honest reflection from one of the superstars
Speaker 7: of the sport as to the different challenge that coaching
Speaker 7: presents as compared to playing.
Speaker 2: That's great, well, Pray, I know you do have to
Speaker 2: run off soon, but before you go, how was it
Speaker 2: over there? Seeing Stormy friend of the pod back out there?
Speaker 2: Kind of taught him at courts over the past few weeks.
Speaker 4: Yeah, very exciting to have a back out playing, and
Speaker 4: I guess it didn't go well to start with in
Speaker 4: terms of winning. She was on court and she was
Speaker 4: a little bit rusty in Austin, a little bit slow,
Speaker 4: but that was to be expected. And then I thought
Speaker 4: in Indian Wells she actually played a really good match.
Speaker 4: Sam Stosa was out there because we obviously had the
Speaker 4: decision to make of who we're going to choose in
Speaker 4: the BJKA Cup team, and you know, Storm showed enough
Speaker 4: in the in the matches and the practices as well
Speaker 4: that she's you know, she's back at that level. So
Speaker 4: but she hadn't had a win because she lost first
Speaker 4: round in Inning.
Speaker 3: Well, so we get.
Speaker 4: To Miami and you know, the anxieties starting to get
Speaker 4: through the roof and yeah, so there was a change
Speaker 4: in the drawer that I meant to play Sigamund and
Speaker 4: her dad Mayer, they pulled out and so then they
Speaker 4: played Lynette and yes Cremska. Yeah yeah, so two good
Speaker 4: players and so yeah, so to get that first win,
Speaker 4: that was the monkey off the back. She kind of
Speaker 4: relaxed after the shakeout, yeah, and then obviously won a
Speaker 4: match and then lost to the best doubles team in
Speaker 4: the world, Taylortownsend and Senacaba. So yeah, it was awesome.
Speaker 4: So the fact that she there were times there where
Speaker 4: she didn't want to hear it that she was getting
Speaker 4: better every day. It was all about wins and losses.
Speaker 4: But yeah, got over that hurdle and it's awesome.
Speaker 1: It back and it's so good.
Speaker 4: Yeah, So the doubles she's back, and now we'll start
Speaker 4: sort of chipping away at getting ready for singles.
Speaker 2: Yes, well we're two weeks out now from the BJK
Speaker 2: Cup in Brizy.
Speaker 1: How things looking for the team.
Speaker 4: Yeah great, I mean, Kim Birell was consistent again. Qualified
Speaker 4: in Miami one around, had a close lost in close
Speaker 4: three three set match to COSTIUK and my joint just
Speaker 4: you know, again ticking away getting wins. She's in put
Speaker 4: Avada this week, still going strong, and Eila a little
Speaker 4: bit of an injury with her with her peck muscle
Speaker 4: at the moment, but she's due to be playing in Charleston,
Speaker 4: so hopefully she's all good. And yeah, we've got Allen
Speaker 4: and Storm the doubles, so a great, great pairing to
Speaker 4: be able to rely on.
Speaker 2: I mean the Bjkking Cup BJK Cup, BJK Cup is well,
Speaker 2: you know, it's an amazing tournament.
Speaker 1: You've been there for many years.
Speaker 2: How do you think this tournament fits into women's tennis
Speaker 2: or tennis at large and what's some of your favorite
Speaker 2: memories from the event?
Speaker 4: Yeah, I think where it fits in for the Australians,
Speaker 4: which is awesome, is it's in the calendar. Like we actually,
Speaker 4: Sam and I had a conversation with Eiler and because
Speaker 4: you know, she'd had some injuries and listen, we understand
Speaker 4: if it doesn't fit. She's like, no, no, no, it
Speaker 4: is in my calendar that that's a priority for me.
Speaker 4: So the fact that representing Australia is a priority for
Speaker 4: all of our Australian women is it's unreal. It's unreal
Speaker 4: because they you know, again we spoke about the rigors
Speaker 4: of travel and the demands and you know, they've got
Speaker 4: to take care of their own individual rankings. It's not
Speaker 4: always ideal to fly back to Australia in April. So yeah,
Speaker 4: so I'm really proud where it's at for our Australian
Speaker 4: women and has.
Speaker 2: Such an individual sport. It's so great to have a
Speaker 2: team event that regularly go for us.
Speaker 8: It's great that we've got to hear again as well
Speaker 8: in Brisbane.
Speaker 1: Come what's your best memory, good or bad?
Speaker 4: My best memory is when we beat the US actually
Speaker 4: in Ashville, because you know, the the Americans are pretty cocky,
Speaker 4: you know, they think they're the biggest and the best,
Speaker 4: and so yeah, we put off We obviously had Ash
Speaker 4: Barty in the team, which helps a lot. But yeah,
Speaker 4: we went down to the doubles and we'd been sort
Speaker 4: of cat and mousing all week about who we were
Speaker 4: going to put in the doubles, and we sort of
Speaker 4: let the US team know that we if they came
Speaker 4: and scouted us. It looked like we were going to
Speaker 4: put in ash and Astrashama and however, last minute we
Speaker 4: put in but we'd be preparing her. We put in
Speaker 4: pre Hon and so pri and ash were playing the
Speaker 4: deciding doubles. They didn't They literally thought Ashra was playing,
Speaker 4: so that's kind of muddled all their plans and we won,
Speaker 4: and so yeah, it was so nice and it was
Speaker 4: probably more The celebrations afterwards are very quite memorable. Actually, Also, yeah.
Speaker 1: Are you sure you remember them? All?
Speaker 4: I do remember, and I don't know about our captain
Speaker 4: Elisia at the time, Let's just say she had a
Speaker 4: great night.
Speaker 1: Great night, rough morning, very good.
Speaker 2: Now, as I mentioned, you are about to run out
Speaker 2: the door and have something else where are you going
Speaker 2: tell us all about it?
Speaker 4: Well, I'm running out the door because I've actually got
Speaker 4: a Women's Coach connect and a virtual series that we
Speaker 4: provide for women coaches for professional development. So I'm on
Speaker 4: the panel for that one, giving my insights over the
Speaker 4: last sort of four weeks out on tour and how
Speaker 4: that relates to you back at the clubs as well
Speaker 4: for coaches.
Speaker 1: Oh that's great. How do people get involved in that one?
Speaker 4: Well, if you're a coach member, you can sign up
Speaker 4: and be a part of But it's all part of
Speaker 4: the women and Girls strategy with increasing amount of women
Speaker 4: coaches and providing programs for women coaches within Coach Connects.
Speaker 7: So yeah, and just as a kind of a parting
Speaker 7: tribute to Pratty, she won't say it.
Speaker 1: She's going to present her a thing. She's not dying.
Speaker 5: Yeah, no, just as she does.
Speaker 7: Hit out the door though, but being in Miami and
Speaker 7: kind of seeing firsthand again you know, Storm get the win,
Speaker 7: but then seeing the emotion on Stormy's face, sure, but
Speaker 7: on Pratty's face as well in terms of and it
Speaker 7: just reaffirms for me or reinforces for me the strength
Speaker 7: of connection between those two. And I mentioned the importance
Speaker 7: of getting some nourishment from a win and Pratty would
Speaker 7: have been really challenging storm On. Yeah, but where does
Speaker 7: the wind come from? Process Pross, But you know, the
Speaker 7: nourishment needs to come right, So it was really nice
Speaker 7: to kind of be behind the curtain in that regard.
Speaker 7: And what about the job that this woman's done with
Speaker 7: Kim Beryl.
Speaker 1: Because incredible a few years.
Speaker 7: Back Kim reached might have been a couple of years
Speaker 7: back now, Kim reached a career high at that time
Speaker 7: of one hundred on the button in the world right,
Speaker 7: and after that her ranking slid for a variety of reasons.
Speaker 7: Kim this week, I think is on the live rankings,
Speaker 7: I think is at sixty one in the world and
Speaker 7: chatting to Pratty in Miami that Pratty's not satisfied with that,
Speaker 7: but she wants to go higher again. Job that this
Speaker 7: woman continues to do with our best players and a
Speaker 7: couple of pivotal members of the b JK Cup squad.
Speaker 6: There, I just tip my cap. I'm full of admiration
Speaker 6: for the work that.
Speaker 5: Yeah, and that was legit.
Speaker 1: He meant every bloody work.
Speaker 7: You can when you when you're on the road, you
Speaker 7: can see the emotion and the connection and the way
Speaker 7: that Praddy has been able to challenge Kim and support her.
Speaker 6: And she's not finished yet. I guess that is what
Speaker 6: I'm saying.
Speaker 8: And it's so good to hear it from your words
Speaker 8: because you get it. So then we always thought you
Speaker 8: were good. Then to hear somebody why, Yeah, now we've
Speaker 8: got a little.
Speaker 1: Bit more contact. Coach, you cares.
Speaker 7: Yeah, and sacrifice too, right, Okay, ten or eleven days
Speaker 7: to Miami and it's hard my partner back here with
Speaker 7: three young kids, and no less of a sacrifice for
Speaker 7: Pratdy to go for three and four weeks and go
Speaker 7: again to Europe.
Speaker 6: And so I just want to applaud her commitment to
Speaker 6: a players.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I'll keep on keeping on on that note.
Speaker 1: But you're welcome.
Speaker 2: Found the button at last, Thank you very much, Freddy.
Speaker 2: JK Cup sales Tickets are available for the tie in Brisbane.
Speaker 2: Jump on a tickermaster. It sounds like it's going to
Speaker 2: be an absolute ripper. Thank you so much for joining us. Pratty,
Speaker 2: We'll let you go. You can head off to your
Speaker 2: coach's conference. After the break, we'll have Craig Tiley see
Speaker 2: Tennis Australia joining us and giving us his take on
Speaker 2: the world of tennis and the upcoming Olympics in Brisbane.
Speaker 2: Stick around, Welcome back to the Tennis special guest joining
Speaker 2: us now it is the one and only Craig Tiley,
Speaker 2: See of Tennis Australia and tournament director of the Australian Open.
Speaker 2: Welcome Boss, good to be here right again. I'm calling
Speaker 2: this segment career limiting moves save you.
Speaker 5: You know, I know you well enough that pretty much
Speaker 5: every time for you to career exactly, not just you know,
Speaker 5: a podcast.
Speaker 2: It's nine years later you have one. Take that company, man.
Speaker 2: So Craig, what have you been up to?
Speaker 5: You're happy happy, I'm always happy. Okay, we've noticed that
Speaker 5: a happy slam the happy Boss. Yeah no, no, it's
Speaker 5: a things are going great. Look, there's a lot going
Speaker 5: on internationally. If you just read about it with it'd
Speaker 5: be lawsuits and and and I think it's all positive
Speaker 5: in the sense it's positive. It's about a situation being
Speaker 5: better for everyone, better for tournaments, better for players, and
Speaker 5: we're a great sport together with football. Every single nation
Speaker 5: in the world we have a federation. Every single nation
Speaker 5: is the two top sports global in participation of tennis
Speaker 5: and football. I love saying that because it puts everyone
Speaker 5: else in their place, and it's true. The facts are there,
Speaker 5: but we suboptimize ourselves. You know, we have seven different
Speaker 5: governing bodies, each in many cases have different objectives. We
Speaker 5: have four shining lights and those are the Grand Slams
Speaker 5: every year in London, Paris, New York and of course Melbourne.
Speaker 5: And these are you know, these are amongst the best,
Speaker 5: not just tennis events, but sporting events globally. They can
Speaker 5: play a role in ensuring that one the players have
Speaker 5: a great schedule, the fans have a great narrative that
Speaker 5: they can understand where players go from A to B.
Speaker 5: The players are playing all the top events. The players
Speaker 5: have an off season. The players are compensated as best
Speaker 5: as they possibly we possibly can compensate them and more so,
Speaker 5: it's a pretty simple outcome. But the challenge we do
Speaker 5: is when you have so many different governing bodies leaning
Speaker 5: in is they're not spending time together to try and
Speaker 5: get to that outcome. So the things that are happening
Speaker 5: are probably going to be really good leavers to force
Speaker 5: everyone to get to a point that's going to be better
Speaker 5: for this.
Speaker 1: Well, it's been interesting.
Speaker 2: It's because you know, all these organizations, governing bodies have
Speaker 2: their own kind of priorities and things they're working towards,
Speaker 2: and because of that lack of communication, historically they almost
Speaker 2: been competing.
Speaker 1: But when you look at it, realize we're all rowing
Speaker 1: in the same direction.
Speaker 5: Well we are because we're trying to you know, and
Speaker 5: different objectives. You know, the International Test Federations the objective
Speaker 5: more growing the sports. They work close to the federations,
Speaker 5: the wt A and the A to B, the professional
Speaker 5: arm on the tour, and they have a responsible for
Speaker 5: all events. They have labor and management in the same
Speaker 5: under the same umbrella, and that's always really difficult because
Speaker 5: you've got the players and you've got the tournament. So
Speaker 5: that has worked. I think it works less effectively today
Speaker 5: than it did work when was set up. People would
Speaker 5: argue against that. This is my personal view, but but
Speaker 5: it's been managed okay to this point. But what we do.
Speaker 5: We all know this bigger opportunity. That's been very clear.
Speaker 5: We've the data is it's irrefutable the facts. This bigger
Speaker 5: opportunity if you can have all these major improvements, and
Speaker 5: some of those improvements involve breaking glass. It's not just
Speaker 5: an incremental involve breaking glass. And that's why there's this
Speaker 5: frustration amongst the playing group on things not going in
Speaker 5: the direction at that hope to go in. This frustration
Speaker 5: on the tournament side that you know, are we two
Speaker 5: crowd as an event, This frustration on the fans. You
Speaker 5: ask a fan what's going on today in tennis, and
Speaker 5: only those diehards really know. The fans do know. Generally,
Speaker 5: the general fan knows when they know when the four
Speaker 5: Grand Slams are happening. With the four Grand Slams are
Speaker 5: and then outside of that, it drops off a cliff
Speaker 5: as far as fan interest. And so we have to
Speaker 5: close that gap if we want the sport to keep growing.
Speaker 5: So everyone's in it for the right reason, which is
Speaker 5: great and the right objective, but it's just like everything
Speaker 5: human beings, the pane of change is greater than the
Speaker 5: pain of losing, So people to lose the change.
Speaker 1: Just writing that down to Embroider on a pillow. Very good.
Speaker 8: Speaking of change, Yeah, like moving a little bit more
Speaker 8: closer to home here in Brisbane. We had an update
Speaker 8: this week about funding that's been secured for upgrades to
Speaker 8: the Queensland Tennis Center ahead of our twenty thirty two
Speaker 8: Brisbane Olympic Games.
Speaker 3: Why is this so important for us?
Speaker 5: Well, this is this is the biggest infrastructure investment we've
Speaker 5: had since that we had Melbourne Park back in twenty
Speaker 5: ten I think it was. So it's fantastic. Great, we've
Speaker 5: got the Games in Brisbane and now that we're the
Speaker 5: Queenstantatas is a fantastic venue and to have one hundred
Speaker 5: and thirty million dollars of additional funds put into We
Speaker 5: do need a second court for the Olympic Games, but
Speaker 5: also for events that we're going to have up there.
Speaker 5: We do need more courts on the facility on the venue,
Speaker 5: which we would have had to have anyway. For the
Speaker 5: events that we're doing. We have some of our top
Speaker 5: athletes training up there as well, so we do need
Speaker 5: a facility that suits one of the best hype of
Speaker 5: formance environments we can create globally. We also do need
Speaker 5: which is currently going to be built into the scope.
Speaker 5: We are going to need at some point more seats
Speaker 5: in Powder After Arena, whether it be now or later,
Speaker 5: but that's some point that's going to need to come up.
Speaker 5: So that's going to come into that's going to build
Speaker 5: into a magnificent facility. We'd like to see the same
Speaker 5: expansion in Sydney at some point. We've seen some great
Speaker 5: investment by the South Australian government into Adelaide for a
Speaker 5: venue that fits really well for the events that we
Speaker 5: have there. We're now working with Perth and Wa government
Speaker 5: to get something there because we think that that's what
Speaker 5: that's missing for that. Now we've seen an upgrade in Hobot,
Speaker 5: we're going to see more of an upgrade coming up
Speaker 5: now with Lonsistance come online, we're going to we had
Speaker 5: an upgrade in Camera. So these all great infrastructure investments,
Speaker 5: but the size of this one is significant. So we're
Speaker 5: very excited about it and very appreciative to the current
Speaker 5: Queensland government and to the federal government for any role
Speaker 5: that they played.
Speaker 3: Yeah amazing. I just want to thank me for always
Speaker 3: believing in me.
Speaker 1: And yeah, thanks Mia to really put that well.
Speaker 2: Now also how before we move on, if you had
Speaker 2: a few hundred million bucks, what would you do to
Speaker 2: make Melbourney from better?
Speaker 5: I would find a parking lot for you and your tesla.
Speaker 1: I've been asking for.
Speaker 3: We need to hide that test.
Speaker 5: Does not respond to that one, No, but look for
Speaker 5: a start, We've got a great facility here. But like everything,
Speaker 5: you got to keep evolving, keep changing. And we've in
Speaker 5: many parts of the our three week event, we've reached
Speaker 5: capacity and we're not. We don't want to build a
Speaker 5: strategy of more people. We want to build a strategy
Speaker 5: of great experience for those people that come. And so
Speaker 5: that's you know we've got We've got opening week that
Speaker 5: will put more effort into the third week, put more
Speaker 5: effort into But but there's an opportunity for fans to
Speaker 5: come out and see Tennessee players, and we want them
Speaker 5: to be we want that to be not any memorable experience,
Speaker 5: but something that say they have to come back next
Speaker 5: year because that was so good. That's was my best experience. So,
Speaker 5: like everything, you got to keep evolving. So on the
Speaker 5: precinct over here, definitely we want to reduce the amount
Speaker 5: of temporary infrastructure we have to invest in multimillions of
Speaker 5: dollars a year we invest in temporary infrastructure to rip
Speaker 5: it down again. Just to rip it down again. It
Speaker 5: does not sustainable proposition. So, whether it be facilities for broadcast,
Speaker 5: whether it be more more I've said to the team
Speaker 5: it's I add another s. Actually there's three s's. We
Speaker 5: need more seats, need more shade, we need more space.
Speaker 5: And then this week we ad another screw. We need
Speaker 5: more screens, because screens translates to the virtual side of
Speaker 5: our business, this off site, so the off site fan,
Speaker 5: more screens, more opportunity of those screens for the millions
Speaker 5: of people that watch it, well billions now that watch them,
Speaker 5: that engage screens on your device or screens at home
Speaker 5: on TV. But yeah, so so, seat, shade, space and
Speaker 5: screens are the cash phrases for what we need here
Speaker 5: to invest more in.
Speaker 1: That's another pillow I need to order. Well.
Speaker 2: Sticking with the AO, dates have been not leaked, they've
Speaker 2: been announced for next year, kicking off with opening week
Speaker 2: on Monday, the twelve twelfth of January and men's final
Speaker 2: on the first effair.
Speaker 5: What have we got in store? Well, really excited about
Speaker 5: twenty twenty six. We finally now always sly we dominate January.
Speaker 5: Now we're getting to dominate February's for US next year.
Speaker 5: But and then there's there's a little football event a
Speaker 5: couple of weeks after in the US, but a big
Speaker 5: football event.
Speaker 2: So you're saying exclusive here the super Bowl will be
Speaker 2: played at Melbourne Park, No.
Speaker 5: That would be that would be good. There is there's
Speaker 5: something else though, obviously in Melbourne twenty twenty six are
Speaker 5: going to be a brilliant We've already spoken about some
Speaker 5: initiative or internally some initiatives that we want to really
Speaker 5: give to our fans and around making sure that we
Speaker 5: have more shade, more seats, more space. We're going to
Speaker 5: that's going to be something that we're going to grow.
Speaker 5: And there's going to be again two or three transformative
Speaker 5: initiatives that are going to completely wow fans. We're not
Speaker 5: going to announce those yet. At the right time we'll
Speaker 5: announce those and we want everyone's experience to be special
Speaker 5: and those fans that came on site this year, we
Speaker 5: want them to be able to even see more tennis. Yep,
Speaker 5: it's closer to the action. So we're going to create
Speaker 5: the site that does provide that bright enough for content
Speaker 5: out there for them to do that, and then to
Speaker 5: have more opportunities to eat, more opportunities to get and
Speaker 5: enjoy our retail, and more opportunities spend a lot more
Speaker 5: time on the precinct, and and again go away and say,
Speaker 5: now that's what I want every sporting experience to be.
Speaker 1: Love it well.
Speaker 2: On the tennis side of things, so the US Open,
Speaker 2: they were recently claiming they're elevating their mixed doubles by
Speaker 2: moving them into the there for opening week with some
Speaker 2: big name singles players playing in the doubles tournament. Are
Speaker 2: we doing anything to elevate our doubles.
Speaker 5: We're not doing what the US Open are doing. Look,
Speaker 5: I think that works very well for New York, it
Speaker 5: works well for the US Open, and it works getting
Speaker 5: some big names to play those two days. We already
Speaker 5: have that opening week, and we'll see more of this week.
Speaker 5: So Monday, every night there's going to be matches with
Speaker 5: the top players in the world. There'll be women playing
Speaker 5: with men playing, will be all the top players. They'll
Speaker 5: also extend into the afternoons. We're played on the stadiums,
Speaker 5: will play on MCA, we'll playing Rod Lea Arena so
Speaker 5: our fans for the opening weeking and to get to
Speaker 5: see great players play matches against each other. And that
Speaker 5: works really well for us, and we've seen it. We
Speaker 5: filled stadiums on that the Novak Jokovic and I, the Carls,
Speaker 5: al Karez, Alex Demna, all night, we fill stadiums and
Speaker 5: so so we're going to see a lot more of
Speaker 5: that and announce a lot more activities around that for
Speaker 5: twenty twenty six. The Mixed Doubles Championships that we currently
Speaker 5: have is thirty two draws sixty four players. Is really
Speaker 5: an important event for us to provide playing opportunities for
Speaker 5: our fans, particularly the end of the first week and
Speaker 5: the whole of the second week. So if we pulled
Speaker 5: out more matches on the second week and put them
Speaker 5: into the opening for the first week a game, we
Speaker 5: just crowded the opportunity. So we definitely want to keep
Speaker 5: it that way. Ozzie's a tradition done really well in
Speaker 5: the mixed Championship, so I cannot see us changing the
Speaker 5: Mixed doubles Championships.
Speaker 6: We're looking at ways.
Speaker 5: We're sitting down with the doubles players, both the men
Speaker 5: and women's doubles players and looking for ways that we
Speaker 5: can make even doubles more exciting. I'm a big believer
Speaker 5: in doubles. I think it could be that you Manu
Speaker 5: one of the most creative people in the company. You
Speaker 5: come up with something, but endorsement, there's a from your ego.
Speaker 5: But anyway, so yeah, so that's an important championship for us.
Speaker 5: What I'd like to do is what we have within it.
Speaker 5: There's many things I'd like to see in the game.
Speaker 5: I'd like to see us take away the let's I'd
Speaker 5: like to see us take away the warm up. I'd
Speaker 5: like to see us obviously do some different things with scoring.
Speaker 5: I've always advocated for only one serve, but that's pipe
Speaker 5: dream because that completely changes the game. But I think
Speaker 5: there's some things we need to do within the game
Speaker 5: that make it better. And then the way the game
Speaker 5: is played through through doubles and mixed doubles. Now we
Speaker 5: can really blow it out the water and you can
Speaker 5: shorten play shorter sets and and I'm not a fan
Speaker 5: of that. I the Grand Slams have a uniqueness where
Speaker 5: you played three out of five sets on the men's side,
Speaker 5: sled two of three sets on the woman's side, and
Speaker 5: there's an argument about you know, men and weren't being
Speaker 5: paid the same, and there's only three sets and five
Speaker 5: so that I don't buy that. Eedicts It's got nothing
Speaker 5: to do with the length of time on the court.
Speaker 5: It's got everything to do with the value that you
Speaker 5: bring to the sport. So so yeah, so I think
Speaker 5: we're in a good We're in a good spot. And
Speaker 5: I don't think I think if I asked Ozzie players
Speaker 5: what you want to do with mixed doubles and have
Speaker 5: the superstars play the first two weeks, we'll keep it
Speaker 5: as I think the ninety nine point nine standards, they
Speaker 5: keep it as.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I think with storms take away where it was.
Speaker 5: Yeah, yeah, yeah, so maybe you should ask them. That's good.
Speaker 5: That'll be good data for me because I've had an
Speaker 5: asked them what they think and they've all said that
Speaker 5: that they're like, what we've gone?
Speaker 3: Yeah, storm definitely back to that up.
Speaker 1: Yeah throughout Stormy. We've got your back.
Speaker 3: Quick. What's your next?
Speaker 1: My next question? Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, Well, so before Craig, you were CEO here and
Speaker 2: parking enforcement officer or whatever you're doing. Yes, you were
Speaker 2: a tennis coaching. Yeah, doing a bit, but I had
Speaker 2: no idea you were also a comedy coach. So Michael Costa,
Speaker 2: who is a former tennis player, which not everyone may know,
Speaker 2: but he's a correspondent, part time host of the Daily
Speaker 2: Show in America, stand up comedian.
Speaker 1: He's written a book, Lucky Loser.
Speaker 2: Tell us about your knowledge of this tone that I'm
Speaker 2: holding up after that?
Speaker 5: I did. I actually have read the book. He's done
Speaker 5: a great job with the book. And I've been a
Speaker 5: long journey with Mike. He's he's a bret In person,
Speaker 5: got a lot of talent. And even though he got
Speaker 5: I think to eight hundred and sixty eight in the
Speaker 5: world whatever it.
Speaker 2: Was, which as he says on the back is in parentheses,
Speaker 2: it's still better than you, meaning the reader of the book,
Speaker 2: which is a very good point.
Speaker 5: Yeah, any any player in their career got inside the
Speaker 5: top eight hundred. But I know he was on John
Speaker 5: Stuart the other night and it was very funny because
Speaker 5: he he introduced himself eight sixty eight whatever it is,
Speaker 5: and he introduced himself and and everyone laughed that that's
Speaker 5: the highest he got it. And then everyone stopped laughing,
Speaker 5: and he said to them he said, he said, I
Speaker 5: don't think you should know. You should laugh because I
Speaker 5: am actually the most famous tennis player you'll ever meet
Speaker 5: anyone else below that. So so it's very funny. He's
Speaker 5: very funny on our van trips coaching and raising. You
Speaker 5: know that in college tennis, he always used to be
Speaker 5: the funniest guy on the trip. And I and I
Speaker 5: actually do remember when we were in California, and I
Speaker 5: think it was in his junior year and we used
Speaker 5: to have these team challenges and he always was a
Speaker 5: laugh a minute with Mike. But he's also good tennis.
Speaker 5: But he did a good job on our team. And
Speaker 5: he always gives me a hard time about not playing
Speaker 5: him high. But he played where he should have played
Speaker 5: at the time, and and he but but we remember
Speaker 5: having a chat to him about and I said, you know,
Speaker 5: you're an opportunity for other career and comedy. But one
Speaker 5: of the things we did in Third Street Promenade in
Speaker 5: Santa Monica and we were playing Pepperdine University is I
Speaker 5: challenged the team and I said, each of you need
Speaker 5: to go out and who can raise the most money
Speaker 5: busking in the next two hours on thirst freet promenade
Speaker 5: Michael when got a American speeder and that's all he want.
Speaker 5: He stood in a soapbox and he went through this
Speaker 5: whole siloquy of a narrative and he raised the most money.
Speaker 5: So so, yeah, so I think I think it was
Speaker 5: it was something along those lines. I can't exactly remember
Speaker 5: what his comedy was, but but he was always it
Speaker 5: was a funny guy. But he's had he's having a
Speaker 5: great career, you know, and I'm very proud of him
Speaker 5: and what he's created and what he's done. The journey's
Speaker 5: been on is more difficult than it is becoming a
Speaker 5: tennis player.
Speaker 1: Yeah, definitely. Well you've done it right with your career too.
Speaker 5: You scold work hard. I mean, you know, I don't know,
Speaker 5: there's there's no big secret. When does that working hard
Speaker 5: for you start? Like, what's the time frame? Is that
Speaker 5: going to kick in soon? Yeah? Probably sometime next year?
Speaker 5: Long lunches, I would shut up if I was.
Speaker 1: You've got to push about your career limiting moves.
Speaker 5: He was high when we started. He's falling fast a
Speaker 5: high yeah yea hig.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Well okay, let's bring it back to base peeps to
Speaker 2: round us out for this week and every week we
Speaker 2: do our thing called Ace of the Week.
Speaker 1: Doesn't have to be tense related. In fact, I berefer
Speaker 1: it wasn't ure. What's the rest of the week.
Speaker 8: So viv Christie, who is in my team, and she's
Speaker 8: back from Africa.
Speaker 5: I saw the pictures and I'm.
Speaker 8: Really excited she's back because I love working. I think
Speaker 8: I was thinking this morning, I think she's one of
Speaker 8: my favorite people I've ever worked with.
Speaker 1: Ye in the corporate world.
Speaker 2: Did it even make the top ranked eight hundred and
Speaker 2: sixty two weeks?
Speaker 8: Is my anxiety? Yeah, but no, it's just so happy
Speaker 8: to have her back. She had a great break. She
Speaker 8: switched off as much as I could make her, which
Speaker 8: is great, and I'm just so excited to see her
Speaker 8: face today.
Speaker 5: Yeah. And the best place in the world to go
Speaker 5: have a holiday.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I've never been, but it's maybe.
Speaker 1: What we have to do it.
Speaker 5: Everyone needs to, Craig, it needs to be a bucket listing.
Speaker 5: I've been spoiled. I grew up and yeah, it's a
Speaker 5: bucket list thing. You have to do it.
Speaker 8: Yeah, Well, hopefully that's my the week next week and
Speaker 8: Craig is taking me on his family holiday.
Speaker 2: Yes, another kid for the to feed. Keep very happy
Speaker 2: and you can catch me Christy on the sit Down
Speaker 2: one of our sister podcasts next week with fifth Very good. Well, yeah,
Speaker 2: Eddie's good to see her back in the office, Razor,
Speaker 2: what about yourself? Been sitting there very quietly last few minutes.
Speaker 8: Just that's because you've been taking Craig going on and on.
Speaker 1: You do talk a lot in the company line.
Speaker 3: We were supposed to share the questions.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I gave you the first one.
Speaker 3: Anyway.
Speaker 7: One was coming back from Miami, obviously along haul home
Speaker 7: and just how exciting it is to to see my
Speaker 7: three young kids again. And I made my debut on
Speaker 7: land a Tuesday morning and Tuesday sort of lunchtime early afternoon,
Speaker 7: my eldest had his first cross country. He's just started
Speaker 7: school this year, so I've made my debut as a
Speaker 7: cross country parent. And I tried to remain as well,
Speaker 7: give us the stats, try to be in the background,
Speaker 7: just observing.
Speaker 1: Your background.
Speaker 7: I was in the background, just observing, and he did well.
Speaker 7: My young fellows were very proud of him, but just
Speaker 7: lovely to be back with the kids again would be
Speaker 7: my highlight after being on the road for a couple
Speaker 7: of weeks.
Speaker 2: I thought you're going to say, seventeen hours of complete
Speaker 2: bliss and quietness in the air, But no, actually.
Speaker 7: That's what you're sounding very much like Anna there, and
Speaker 7: I've been paying for it since landing with that type
Speaker 7: of mindset on the home front.
Speaker 1: You'll continue to do.
Speaker 7: Paying for that couple of weeks of solid Yeah, exacxactly,
Speaker 7: don't you start exactly how bloody grew?
Speaker 5: Well, we all get it, exactly.
Speaker 1: What about you, Craig. What's your ace of the week?
Speaker 5: Mine was? I look, I don't remember much past the
Speaker 5: last twenty four hours. That's really concerned. It is concerning,
Speaker 5: but that's why. That's what's good about my life. So
Speaker 5: that if that happens, so I didn't never bother, that's good.
Speaker 5: You just move on this, move on and live in
Speaker 5: the present and look forward to the future.
Speaker 1: I forget about so nothing is anything happened the last night?
Speaker 5: Yes, I think, Well, last night I was at had
Speaker 5: a really cool function and in this job involves a
Speaker 5: lot of going in a stakeholder relationships, relationship building. But
Speaker 5: there was a thirty five year celebration of the Big Group.
Speaker 5: So Bruce and Chica, Bruce and Chica, Cuba and and
Speaker 5: it was it was a bit of a who's who
Speaker 5: of Melbourne in the event, but it was it was
Speaker 5: great to connect with everyone. But what was great is
Speaker 5: Eddie McGuire gave a speech and Bruce Keeper gave a
Speaker 5: speech and they both did an unbelievable job around talking
Speaker 5: about Melbourne, the place we live, the city we live,
Speaker 5: and why it's so important to have major events, why
Speaker 5: it's so important to collaborate on major events, and why
Speaker 5: it's so important to invest in major events, what it
Speaker 5: means for the city. Edie maguire gave a story about
Speaker 5: the Trobe and how it all started back in two
Speaker 5: hundred years ago or one hundred and fifty years ago,
Speaker 5: and so it was just really cool to hear the
Speaker 5: then thirty and then and then I love hearing stories
Speaker 5: of success and and Bruce and Cheek you came from
Speaker 5: pretty much working as weight stuff for Peter Rowlands to
Speaker 5: now building this multimillion dollar business that's having a massive
Speaker 5: impact on people's lives. So it was it was cool
Speaker 5: to be there and then to connect with all of
Speaker 5: Melbournian's and it's just a good reminder we're very lucky
Speaker 5: that we have, the city we have and the people
Speaker 5: we have in the city we have.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I saw a few picks on social and
Speaker 2: it looked like a damn good night.
Speaker 5: It was a good night. It was. It was a
Speaker 5: good night.
Speaker 2: All right. Well, I'll finished my ace of the week.
Speaker 2: I had a few to choose from, but I've decided
Speaker 2: to go with this one. Has anyone ever added the
Speaker 2: wrong person to a group text chat?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 5: Are you once?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Exactly, that's right. Took you walked back from that one
Speaker 2: pretty well. It's good. The photo was not appreciated, but
Speaker 2: but I will say so in the States at the moment,
Speaker 2: Michael Waltz, who's the National Security Advisor, it's probably been,
Speaker 2: you know, in everyone's ease and all the news added
Speaker 2: the editor of The Atlantic and news magazine in America
Speaker 2: to a pretty contentious group chat with the Vice president,
Speaker 2: the head of the CIA.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all these things talking about you know, war.
Speaker 2: Plans and all these things, and there's a journalistit in there,
Speaker 2: going this can't be true.
Speaker 3: Did you see he's just leaked the message?
Speaker 1: Yeah, because the whole over the.
Speaker 8: Past twenty four hours, because they were saying there was
Speaker 8: nothing there talking.
Speaker 1: About hang on.
Speaker 2: It was like, actually, here's the timeline of that innovation
Speaker 2: that you were planning. And I just got to thinking
Speaker 2: about all the texts that you've sent to the wrong person.
Speaker 2: I'll be talking to you about Bree, but then I'll
Speaker 2: send the message to Bree and you know, part of
Speaker 2: it feels for them. But also if you if you've
Speaker 2: got a big, important job, just be careful. So that's
Speaker 2: words for you, Craig. Thanks, be careful.
Speaker 5: Listen to one word of it, but thank you for it.
Speaker 1: That's all right, you rarely do listen to it.
Speaker 2: All right. Well, thank you very much everyone for being
Speaker 2: a part of our show today and pratting for dropping
Speaker 2: it earlier that Craig you stole his seat, so thanks
Speaker 2: for doing that. Join us again next week as we
Speaker 2: hit the clay. Nipmccaba will be joining us from the
Speaker 2: WTA five hundred in Charleston. And in the meantime, don't
Speaker 2: forget you can watch this episode and every episode of
Speaker 2: the Tennis on the Australian Open YouTube channel. Hit like
Speaker 2: and subscribe. Make sure you never miss a notification. It's
Speaker 2: not just the pod, there's heaps of other tennis content there.
Speaker 2: Thank you very much team have a great week in
Speaker 2: tennis seven days