2026 AUSTRALIAN OPEN DAY 2: Novak’s 100th Win, FAA’s Shocking Exit, & Wawrinka’s Emotional Return | QUICK SERVED

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Hey everyone, welcome to Quick Serve brought to you by our friends at ServiceNow. I love Grand Slam tennis. It's my favorite. Aussie opened day two in the books. Let's go. Uh headlines, Novak. Wins, not surprising, a hundred wins incredible in Australia alone. We need to spend more time on that just to give it context. Yeah. To show like we just take these things for granted now with the big three and like we were spoiled.

We're gonna break that down a little bit more. Uh Ega three and six, uh played fine. work to do. I think she had some question marks coming in, but she is the type of player we saw Wimmel. She'll play her way into it. Uh the more look she gets, Demon over Mackie McDonald, Coco rolls, uh Rude. Uh one four and two, I think. Roll rolled pretty good. Uh Andreva beating Vecich was a big win. It's not always easy. She played Saturday in Adelaide.

had one day probably hit for like thirty minutes and then had to g this is like the one where okay now she has the confidence from Adelaide and she got into the tournament. Like that was a huge kind of weird we saw uh You know, Booblik did it last year, right? Like you gotta you have to like keep building in the slam. For her to win that first match, I think is massive. Like tournament altering, like I'm in it.

To win it type situation. Uh Anasamova two and three, Medi one and straight sets, Jess Pagulo uh two and one or one and two. Uh one of those things. Diana Schneider uh beats Krichikova. Which means that I get the points in the draw show over Ortheim. Hey you uh stay in the man while Rinka. Still fighting, man. Still fighting. Still going. I think we have uh

Something from him uh a little bit later on the show. Rublev uh beats Arnaldi. I th I thought that was a tough first round draw. Umboko, same thing as Andreva getting back in into the uh keeping Techishon's bracket alive. And m probably slightly just just slightly more important, um, showing that she's healthy. She didn't look great against Andreve the other day in the final in Adelaide. Uh Lynette takes out Emma Navarro. You called that one. I did. Um

It's just t it is she just had some matches. It's that simple thing where it's like someone goes in and someone's Fine trying to find confidence versus kind of breaking the seal on the year, which Lynette uh had done. And she played uh Diovich Tough last week, which I thought was good. One that I got wrong and I there's nothing between'em. I like them both a lot. Um

is Learn a Tien beats Jerome in five. Knew that one was gonna be hard. Knew knew it was gonna be tough. It was a slug fest. Um but Jerome, I mean your Jerone you tell him, hey, listen, you're gonna go semi semi Before, you know, losing to a seed in five sets. I I it's really a good start to the year for him. Learn and Tian's just really good. He's just a really good player. Um, you know, I I I did have a results bias. Um In that one, uh FAA is uh

That that was a that was uh a a little bit of a a strange one. What happened there? I mean he they they cited cramping, right? It was only a couple hours in. Yeah. Um Nakashima also lost uh in an upset. Vashiro gets through against Martin Dam. Uh Junior. FAA, it's it's a strange one, man. Like cause you look up and he he's fit, he's professional. You know, you don't feel like he's the kind of guy that's not gonna work.

Uh played long into last year, right? Made that big, had a lot of reps, US Open and beyond, right? Made up went from twenty-eight in the world to five in the world. Maybe you need more time. You have to balance rest versus kicking it up and being ready to play five sets. But also we just don't ever know what someone's going through. And I I I have no inside information on FAA. What I do know is that he said he was cramping at the end of the second set or beginning of the third set.

When he stopped with cramps, they were two hours and nine minutes into the match. I don't know if the I I don't think the conditions were extreme. I don't think they were crazy. Um, which means that he started feeling cramps at hour twenty. Yeah. Something like that. Which is You know not

not the time when you would see someone cramp unless there was something else going on. Um the example I was giving you guys off off air um just to kind of draw a personal line to it is I remember one year at the US Open, I finished It was two thousand eleven. I won my third round against Julian Benito on a Sunday on like the CBS match or the I think it was a C B S match at that point.

Um, got sick that night, like came down with something where w without too much information it was it was it was it was coming from everywhere. Um and I spent the next it rained for three days and I don't think I would have been able to play with one day's rest. Like I was cooked, fever It was nothing left in I was depleted. My body, I couldn't keep anything in it.

It rained three days in a row. So this match that I had next against David Ferrer, um, which some will remember where we m we moved and played on the small court because there was a leak in the court or whatever. And I remember in that match in the fourth set, we probably were a couple hours in and I was shortening everything, serving and volleying on everything, not because like great tactics. I'm like, no, I just no I can't stay out here. So end up winning that match, but

Imagine being up four three a break and knowing that you only have fifteen minutes left to play. Like my hand was starting to like do the claw like where it was cramping, like this. And so I'm like, all right. Like you're up two sets, you're gonna like you're in line to win and you you also are the only person on earth, maybe with your team that knows.

If I don't actually close this out right here, I'm gonna be on the ground with cramps in thirty minutes. Yeah. It wasn't because I wasn't fit or not prepared. It was be you know, something beyond that. Um So I still remember for rare walking past me in the locker room. I'm in full body cramps at that point. Like laying on the ground in the locker room, like moaning, screaming.

And he just like gently had to like walk over me. Oh. How annoying is that? He's just like, Are you serious? Yeah. And then the next day, because The schedule got pushed back. I had to play the next day against

Rafa, three out of five. How how do you think that went? Yeah. Not well. Just cooked. It was one oh and two, I think. I mean, I just think it it puts in context, right? We again we don't know what happened, but it anything can happen, right? Everyone everyone's human and at the end of the day, like it's everyone gets sick.

Naturally and it could be a bad timing, but we don't know that that's what happened. Well I don't know that's what happened. Here's what I know. FAA's not a guy to cramp or be unprepared at an hour and twenty. Yeah. Right. And then then fight it through however long. That seems really weird to me. I don't know what the reasoning is, but it it that screened, like I circled out with an exclamation point. Like that seems like a weird

Yeah, the the like a really weird outlier. Yeah, the Australian Open has a has like their heat rating and I think it was out of five it was like a one point nine so it was it was mild. Yeah, it was super mild in comparison to what they've experienced before. I think it was in the mid eighties.

Yeah. What like temperature wise. Yeah. I so that's strange, but that's you know, the biggest upset uh so far, don't take anything away from Borgis. Like we were sitting here before and I didn't have the balls to to pick it. Um I think I had some virus remorse because I

Picked against FAA at the US Open last year and he went to the semis. Um but Borges, that that's a rough draw. And he had already played a couple matches this year. Um all right. So I think I'd probably know what the stat of the day is, Mike.

You think you're really good at your job. Can you tell me what the stat of the day is? Yeah. by one Novak Djokovic, which got us in the newsletter and research department wondering, you know, because we aren't big tennis guys and uh only six players have achieved this. In one turn history and it's been done nine times. Sorry, in one slant. So six players have achieved one hundred or more wins in a single slam. And this is me guessing. And it's been done nine times.

Can you guess those six players? Yes, six players for sure I can guess. Three I have no problem off the it's obviously uh feds done it. At Wimbledon, Nadal's done it at Roland Garros. Uh Navratilova has done it. She might have doubled up somewhere or tripled up. Chrissy's done it for sure. Um and then you're looking at like

Has has Novak done it somewhere else? Did he do it at whim? No, because he won 10 times. Do you want me to give you this list? It's it's absurd. Well, what I want is like here's here's here's how impressive this stat is. Like, I'm betting. Yeah, I don't think so like Pete didn't play twenty years. Mm-hmm. Right. Pete was on them, you know, eighty nine, ninety and then out in oh two. So it didn't have this like volume situation that Rafa, Roger, Chrissy Martin. I bet Pete won Wimbledon

Seven times and might not have been close to this number at Wimbledon. Am I wrong? He's not on the list. Jimmy Connors is on the list. He is not on the list. Jimmy Connors isn't on the list. He missed it by two. He won the U.S. Open five. Not on the list. Novak's on it three times. He's on it three times. Three times. He's three. So he's made runs at the US open even though he hasn't won at eighteen million hundreds. Hundred at Australia, a hundred and two at Wimbledon, a hundred and two at uh

Roll or a hundred and one sorry at Roland Garros and he's currently sitting at ninety five at the US Open. So who are we missing? You have Federer twice, one oh two at the Australian Open, one oh five at Wimbledon. You have Serena one oh eight at the US Open, Rafa one twelve. Martina a hundred and twenty and Chrissy is on there at a hundred and one at the US Open. Bonkers. Like so So no no back if he no back if he wins five matches at the US Open.

Uh I mean obviously that'll be impressive this year. Um, but yeah, he will have he wins five, he'll have a hundred at every grand slam. He'll have he'll over four hundred wins at just slams. So to put this in perspective, like hopefully like how many did Pete have at at Wimbledon? Uh let me look that up. It had to be I I don't I d I don't think he got to like eighty. I don't know if he got to seventy. I don't know. I'm looking at it.

quality. Crazy. Um some of the other things, like just for context to show you how ridiculous is, like Kim Kleister's won Australia. Mm-hmm. She had I think forty three match wins in Australia. That's what we see. Yeah. I won the US Open and made another final there, and I think I had forty three wins in the US Open. Mm-hmm.

Like Maria won in Australia and I think she had fifty something wins down there. 57. That's absurd. Like she doubling up, doubling people up and then adding 15. I mean, it's absurd. Yeah, Hewitt 47 at US Open. Yeah. But like also think about this. Like there are really, really, really good players. Really good players. Mm-hmm. Like, I'm trying to think of names that people know. Okay, so we're podcasters. So I looked this up a book.

Like Steve Johnson, who's a great player, was 20 in the world, right? Yeah. Won 197 matches total, anywhere, all tournaments. His his pod host, Jack Sock, won 181. All in. Not at one tournament, all in. And he was top 10 player. Kyros was almost a top 10 player, and he won like 205. Made the finals of a grand slam. It's wild. Novex literally almost halved their total match wins.

In w in a single event, and he's gonna he'll do it three times. Yeah. Like I won six hundred and something matches, which is an absurd amount of matches in a shorter ish career. Novak's gonna get four hundred only in slam. It's a joke. More than that. He already has 400 in slams if you combine them all together. Yeah, but I'm saying 100 in each slam. It's absurd. I mean, I don't know how you.

I don't know how you make this real enough, like how absurd this is. And this it doing it on different services, doing it over a span of time, doing it, it's just ridiculous. Well also should like you can't do this.

Without making the semis almost every time. Like you have to add five almost every time you play and then have the long judge. Anyways, props. That's it's it's an absurd stat. Like I hope people kind of fully are able to digest. Hopefully we gave it the proper context. It's Uh e even th like next to really, really good players it makes us all look really stupid and Less they am.

Frankly. Frankly. All right. Perfect delivery of the day. Mike, explain what the hell this is this is you like are you literally you're I see perfect delivery. Perfect delivery. You're literally angling just for more sponsors. I I mean, we're just giving them opportunities to create space. And and I knew exactly what this was. Perfect delivery underlined four times. Call me. Call me whoever wants. Tell me what this scam is. It's not a scam. Okay, go. I think it I think it's great. I I think we

So we we tennis is really unique, right? Because you do get to hear from the athletes right after they play, good or bad. Yeah. And and I do think it gives an opportunity for great interactions with these athletes and for them to show a little bit of their personality. Great. You know, and so I think that's a good thing. Got it. Great. So so won Stan Warinka, won his opening match, which we talked about. It's incredible. And he had a really nice moment

With the with the presenter uh at the end of the match, uh getting a chance to uh speak directly to the fans. You first played the main draw here in two thousand and six. You won the tournament twenty fourteen, it's twenty twenty-six and you're still winning here in Melbourne. How do you do it? It's been a long journey. It's been amazing. So much uh so many memories here.

It's been incredible. The only reason I come back is because the love you give me. It was amazing today, so thank you so much. I just think that's so cool. And and what you can't see on on listen to us on the radio is uh that He's getting emotional. You know, he's getting he's getting teary eyed. You can hear it in the voice. He's breaking. Yeah. Um

If that's not full of appreciation, like who knows what is, right? And and he I don't know that Stan's ever been the guy to like cry at a Hallmark commercial. You know, I I think he's You know, obviously it's big, but like I think it's gonna be a really fun year. Right. I I I think he's full of gratitude. Um you believe everything he's saying.

Uh the crowd obviously reacts. Um this is great. I I I like having the ability. I didn't do it this way. I just like said see ya bye. Thanks. That was fun. I do like the chance to celebrate uh our champions over an extended period of time throughout the year. Yeah. Is when you look at something like that, right, like Could that be emotionally depleting now he's gonna go play another match, right? Like is is

I I I th I could even make the argument that it's like an emotional boost also. Like I could argue either side of that. I don't think so for someone who's Yeah, you know, and it's not as if Stan has been front and center

uh top of mind over the last three or four years, right? He's, you know, back and forth between challengers. So I think the mental tank is is is probably pretty full. Um I I I d I wouldn't think so. I think the the net net of support versus toll I think is is largely in in the in the positive.

Speaking of of good crowds,'cause I imagine Stan's gonna have a pretty good crowd at his next match if he's given this most appreciation. Did you at all see any highlights of of parks in Iowa? And that and that they had it on a smaller court and the place was like packed, standing room only. I mean, these markets that I mean we saw it last year with Fonseca in in Miami and it's Australia especially. I think and it's kinda what Coco was getting at when I you know

said forget about it, but like people come out for for their stars and you look at the views on her press conferences versus, you know, the top stars in the world, um, she has a massive, massive following in the Philippines. It's it's it's crazy impressive and it's something that Tournaments are gonna have to like pay attention to. Um Didn't work out. Parks won. Uh great.

Great win for her. Um, but this is the type of story you cheer for because it's great for tennis. Yeah. Yeah. The uh the fact that the first lady of the Philippines was there. I mean, it's like it's it's a it's a crazy crowd.

Um all right, was that the perfect delivery or that that was the that was a perfect delivery. Okay. That was a perfect delivery. Are there any more deliveries or are there are we just uh no. Uh you know who actually had a really good sound bite, which I wanted to get I wanted to get your take on was uh was Coco. Oh. So you're saying that Stan is perfect and she was imperfect? No, it's just a just a label. We could have multiple perfect deliveries.

Well that's why that's what I just asked. You were just a hard no. I mean just think it through. Just give everyone a chance. Perfect delivery. Brought to us by whoever you are. Brought to us by nobody. Nobody.

But yeah, so Coco in a press conference was asked, you know, kind of what it was like going back into the locker room, right? It's unique that tennis players share locker rooms with their opponents, with friends, with people they might face off against uh later in the tournament. And she had this to say.

Um, yeah, it is awkward. I had an awkward one after a match. I won't say who, um, but I thought a person won and they didn't and um yeah, I was I was like, Oh and then they were like no and I was like, Oh but they took it well. Um So yeah, there's moments like that where you don't know whether to speak to the person or not if you haven't seen the score and how their match goes. So I'm usually pretty good at like doing that but today was a mess up but luckily I the the girl was

She I know her, she's super sweet. So um yeah, that happens. Um and as far as like opponents. I mean yeah, it is always sometimes awkward like you say hello and stuff, but um with the people I know really well it's not really that awkward. We'll talk and be like, Hey, like see you out there and that's fine and But always people you don't know, you don't know whether to say hi to them or not. I'm someone who usually always says hi, but the responses vary and I I understand you get in the moment.

But yeah, I think the the worst about sharing a locker room is just seeing someone and knowing they play today but not knowing how the score went and you don't know like what mood they're in and I always find that hard to navigate. Um, I just said oh it must have went well because they were eating candy and they were like, no, this is like depression candy. Oh man. The old depression candy. Yeah. Like the like what do you you're like, ooh You don't know'cause this is it's

It's weird to you like you know less being in the tournament than you do being outside of the tournament. Yeah. Right? Like because you're not watching all the TV. You probably want to break when you get away from the courts. And that's so true. Like, oh, how'd you go? And they're like, Oh no.

My my favorite thing though is when you see someone who's like on one of the teams or if like someone was dating someone or like their mother was there or something, y'all, how'd you do? And they always go, We won. Yeah. I'm like, Oh, that's great. But then How'd you do? He lost. The old we one he lost is always a rough the tough one. I don't know why while I was listening to that and not to make light of it, but I like I all I imagined, you know, like in The Bachelor when like

Somebody gets eliminated and the crew just comes in and takes their rollerbag and wheels out. You take their mic. I'm like, yeah. Like I don't know why I just imagined like it was always like that. It was always a bit of a tell. I remember like Someone I was on tour with who I'm close with was like dating someone and like the we one the we one he lost was like a real real barometer. You start taking the under on month's dating at that point. Oh that's interesting. We won. He lost.

Start the start the clock. Let's start the clock. Oh my god. Um listen, I can't wait to start the clock on day three. Matty Keys, defending champion. That's a that's a like a nervy thing, right? That's a It's a tough one. Uh hopefully she gets off to a good start. Uh Ben Sheldon is doesn't have the easiest draw.

Umber is is tough. He's not going to give you rhythm. He comes in lefty on lefty. That is one to watch for. That those that's one of those ones where if you want to make a quarterfinal run, you kind of have to find a way through it. Uh center coming out, Osaka, Musetti, Rabakina. JW took her to win the tournament. I don't hate it. I didn't do it. Benchic has been about as hot as any player on the planet. Uh at United Cup, she played great. Uh Fritz.

Starting up, uh Fonseca, maybe we'll get a read on the back injury that he's been carrying. And can he get it to that third round matchup? with Yannick Sinner. Do you have any other branded things you just wanna wheel out there right now before we close the show or if you filled out a bracket, go ahead and go over the second

Hey Andy, right now you're you're doing good. You had a you had a nice run. Men's men's you're leading our group, uh, with two hundred and ninety points. John's at two forty. Women's uh One Blair Henley is ten point uh favorite right now. She's at three hundred points, you and John at two ninety. Okay, we're good. Kim rounding out the back and then th check out the leaderboard. We have uh

Wiki01 is crushing it in the men's bracket uh with three hundred and ninety, but only leading by a slim margin of ten points. So maybe our maybe our little scoring system is gonna produce some popcorn. I was pretty happy with mine. I gotta be honest. Uh we'll see. We'll see who had FAA going deep. Those first round numbers can be deceiving. Uh thank you for watching Quick Served, uh presented by our friends at ServiceNow.

Uh, this is the end of the show unless Mike has any more Okay, this is the end of the show. Thanks for watching Quick Served. Close your eyes, exhale, feel your body respect. Well, I'm letting go of the worry that I wouldn't get my new contacts in time for this class. I got them delivered free from one-eight hundred contacts. Oh my gosh, they're so fast. And breathe. Oh, sorry.

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