2026 RG WOMEN’S FINAL RECAP & MEN’S FINAL PREVIEW

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Hey everyone, welcome to QuickServe brought to you by ServiceNow. We're back in the studio. Back, baby. Gotta say. The uh HBO Max app saved my life where we were traveling around this week. Yeah. We had to pop up to New York. To host. A conversation after a private screening of Rafa. Yeah, we have uh we'll we'll have some clips on Monday and then we're actually putting out the full conversation in partnership with them on uh Thursday.

Awesome. It was really fun. There was like there were a ton of fancy people there. Yeah. It was Very cool. The coolest one was Rafa. Yeah, he was the He was the it's funny, like you you're in a room with, you know, Seinfeld and Anna Wintor and all these amazing people and like they come to see Rafa, you know, it's like and see his doc. I know we're in our bubble and we forget about how important, you know, this game is to so many people. Um anyways, I digress. Uh Mira and Drava.

We said might be an arrival. Quite the arrival. Um, it's weird when people win their first one sometimes like can they do it? This one, it felt From like the quarters on it felt like This this was kind of hers. You know, it it had that Zvera feel where she's the favorite, but without the baggage and kind of the damage of close calls from the years. Um I think the only thing I got right this entire one was I thought Andrevo would roll in this final against Kralinsk Kralinska.

Uh she is, I mean, was just such an amazing story before we get to Mira and kind of project forward what this means for her. To go from one fourteen in the world to twenty one in the world in one tournament. It's crazy. Ninety three spots. We talked about the other day. It's life changing in so many ways. Like

What I wanna know is like I wish they would release this if I'm her c her her team. Okay. This was the schedule we were gonna play. I guarantee you she was entered in some challenge or somewhere random going into Wimbledon before she had to play Qualies. I bet it was Some place you've never heard of. And then all of a sudden after Wimbledon, she's going to be I guarantee you they have back of the napkin schedule this, you know, and all of a sudden it's gonna be

Cincinnati, Canada, Washington. Like it's gonna be very different for her. You kind of rip up that schedule. You adjust. Mm-hmm. You're getting paid more money to lose first round than you are to win a s challenger sometimes. Yeah. I mean she talked about how the past three weeks has been kind of a blur, she said in her like post. And she's like, I haven't really like processed what just happened. Totally.

It's like it's that live in the moment like need, I I assume, for for a tennis player while also like How do you grasp the gravity of of what just changed, like you said? Yeah, I I always felt weird. I was younger a little bit, but you would go like juggling normalcy where you live, what your room looks like. For me it was, you know, I

played Agassiz and then went to school the next day. And it was like didn't change anything. I beat Pete and then you would be it was just these little things, but then you would always go back to something normal and you'd be sitting in a place that you recognize and that's when it would hit me and be like The room hasn't changed, but everything outside of it has.

You know, and I I'm sure that's what she's going through. Uh not confirmed, um, but One of the journalists. from Poland was basically saying this was the highest rated Yeah, what was it? Something or other. There's someone out there saying and we haven't covered on this, so take out the grain of salt, but it's somewhere out there saying that this week the these matches were higher rated than EGA's finals even in Poland. And I think that just goes to the fairy tale story.

Mm-hmm. Um, I I will say with the Polish media, it feels like they take ego for granted sometimes. Um, you know, it seems like they didn't take this story for granted. Uh, but there's a lot of things, you know, we we we also saw Or we're seeing with Fonseca

they have an established precedent in Brazil of winning majors and being number one in the world and kind of getting to know the process of a Grand Slam event by virtue of having a champion and Google Quarden and now Fonseca everyone goes nuts. I think what Iga creates, and then all of a sudden you have the people that are in love with tennis in Poland and not just in love with a Polish player. And then you layer in this fairy tale story of

someone 114. I mean, she's never been on tour before. Like the legit I'm getting into every high level pro event that I enter, uh challenger tour, maybe go back and forth a little bit, but I am on tour. I'm gonna be able to enter every tournament. At twenty-one in the world, she's gonna be seated at most of her events. Like I I have a hard time like I'm trying to think of all the little details that will change, right? Not waiting on a bus to take you to

Some court somewhere to play challengers. Like she's going to get a car service. She's going to get her own room. She's not going to have to share expenses with someone sleeping night. Like all of these little things.

that, you know, tour players take for granted because they s they are they are normal winter on tour, but she's gonna have all these things. Um it's it's it was just really fun to watch. It was really fun to see someone in this era of Power tennis dominating where bigger, stronger, faster, hit harder off both sides. Someone who can mix up paces, mix up height, deflate power, inject sometimes.

You have to win with positioning. She's not gonna hit winners from four feet behind the the baseline. So she would play a a soft high one and then use her, you know, then try to get in and dictate. Now it's tough to do against someone who kind of has you covered on the slow stuff and then has you covered with the power st powerful stuff and then has you covered with the serve. Um Andreva, I think uh we talked about it yesterday.

The soft stuff to someone like Sabalenko who doesn't have that option, I you know, wants to go through you. i is is interesting, but when you play someone like a like an Andreva, um, you know, she has that option to kind of Weave out of uh in and out of game plans, uh listen, performance beyond our years.

There is pressure in being the the blue chip prospect, having a look at the basket, knowing that you're the overwhelming favorite, knowing that this is the time, and then going out and delivering a convincing performance.

And it was we it was a little weird in the first set. Like down you she was up two one, down three, two. Uh Kalinska was was kind of getting those, you know, those little deals where she was hitting the highball, a little bit of confusing, and then Andreba just kind of stepped on the gas.

started picking and choosing the right shots to go for. Um, and then it just felt like downhill skiing. Once you kinda had that figured out, four three, five three, wins the first set. You're thinking to yourself, this is a long road back and a lot has to go right just based on matchup. But um

It's also weird, like with first time winner, it's like, yep, that was just it it there's a sense of inevitability around Andreva. Um dominated early part of last year, was okay probably by her own standards. um and then just got on the clay and just turned up the gas. Mm. She's only getting stronger. I mean, she was she kinda had that thing a couple of years ago where, you know, she was still kind of growing into her physicality and and now I mean she's she's strong off the mark.

She's fast. Like you hear her feet ripping when she takes off for a drop shot. Serve is really good. There's some motion and margin on her serve. I don't see that ever going sideways. Um and I'm just telling you, she's only gonna get better. Like it's i this isn't She's still a work in progress, even though she's as good as she is. The thing with options and having those options is you need time, reps, and years to figure out when to apply them perfectly. I do want to say.

Conchita Martinez is is has one of the best track records in in tennis. Yeah. what she's doing um with Andreva. Having coached Fed Cup, a team, having coached individual players, established players, you know, bringing someone from 17 To that next level, you know, on top of being a Wimbledon champion herself. I was thinking when we were getting off the plane today, Mike, after I was watching the match, uh streaming.

I was like, this is a really good I I didn't think of it before and I should have. Conchita Martinez was was one who liked to hit those high balls and then she would hit the chips and then she would hit the drop shots. I'm going, so if she's coaching against it, she's gonna have a great

view on how to counter stuff that she did pretty well and be able to teach that uh that style to Andreva who can adopt it. And then she kind of shape shifts between the moon balls and then getting on her front foot.

uh and has both options. Um yeah, maybe more so than than anyone in the in the women's game. And that's not saying she's the best player in the world right now. Um I'm not ready to give up on Sabalenka and Rabakina. I don't think we're at that point. But they play straight through you. And they're gonna play straight through you. And when they execute, it's very hard to beat.

And Drava has a little bit more optionality. Now, does she go through people as well as those two? No. Will she someday? Maybe. But it's still gonna take time for her to learn. how to use all the tools that that she has, which is which is pretty scary. I mean if you couple you couple this skill set and what it looked like, the comfortability she had with the, you know, what seemed to be, you know, really strong mental fortitude like throughout the entire she was calm It's pretty.

It's it's a very likely path. That it's realistic that one day she'd be number one. Sure. I mean I think we were on record saying that. I mean we can go back I d I don't know with the vault, but I think we said that the Middle East last year. Yeah. It's like listen, you make progress, you go backwards, but the pieces The strength, the movement, the ball flight, the serve.

Um, you know, all the all those things lead to her just getting better and better. Um, yeah, I mean she feels like a future Yeah, world number one. Afterwards she talked about she did her thing where she thanks herself, which I Which I think is hilarious.

I love that. And she, you know, earlier in the tournament she talked about how she got that from Soup Dog. But I but I think what I what I took away from that, you know, she said, only I know how tough it was for me and how nervous I was throughout these two weeks. Thanks to myself for working so hard and giving my best. And I think it's like looking in the mirror and acknowledging the the struggle that you're going through. I mean, it's just like for a 19 year old to do

That yeah. It's pr and it's also like she's she has a personality. She's gonna be great for the game. She gives you the quote, she's kind of Very serious when she's out there. We've seen her explode and be very volatile. But then when she gets to interviews, She's always in on the joke. Yeah. She's fun. She's easy. She's almost like the opposite of the way she's like wistful. You know, she's she's great. She's gonna be great for the game.

For a long time. Now, is she gonna be the best fast court player in the world tomorrow? I I I don't think so yet. Is she gonna be You know, in the hunt for the number one ranking, I think next year. Yeah. Well Yeah, I think it's I think it's coming I think it's coming pretty quick, but I mean, what an arrival by Andreva. And by the way, like she didn't really get tested this tournament. Like maybe one set early on or something, but From the last three or four rounds.

People weren't really putting together consecutive games very consistently. Um it was it was dominant. Yeah. And it was gross. Like the I don't mean the the play was gross. I mean the the weather was pretty gross the second week. The wind to go from hot

you know, not windy and then switch and then get through that. I mean today was gr I was watching the flags and you could see the way the ball flight it was like kinda like floating the wrong way. That's another thing about Kwalinska, like her ball getting up in that wind and kind of knuckleballing. Getting that weather the second week, I think was was good for her. Yeah. Um I can't wait to see her on grass because if there's something that we're all missing.

Right,'cause right now you see the way she varies speed and you're going, Oh, that's that's made for a clay court or a slower, high bouncing court. Now, I I can't wait to see her on something faster that shoots through the court where she's not getting the benefit of time and seeing how it translates. You know, I don't think it's as natural a transition, but I can't wait to watch it.

You know, and it's almost like she's gonna get she had this amazing event, but she's gonna get on the job training now. While being ranked 21 in the world and being uh a Grand Slam finalist. Um, all in all, like a a nutty, crazy. Bro and Garros on the women's side, but it was really fun. Really, really a lot of really great stories. Um, there's gonna be a lot of very hungry top players. Coming into Wimbledon. Yeah. That had early losses that

Or saying we we wanna we wanna write that ship uh going in. You know, the the uh the obvious storylines is Rabacina lost early. She's her game's like Taylor made for grass, she's won before, Sablanka hasn't won Wimbledon. She didn't really leave in the most positive mindset. Um, you know, Ega can she defend? Does Iga flirt with dropping out of the top ten?

Either after Wimbledon or shortly thereafter, if she can't find that form, um you know she was unreal. Coco, can Coco figure out I think grass is the service that does her game the least amount of favors. Um, she's been Uh a little susceptible to to upsets there. So um Jess Pagula, just get herself back into that conversation. I think she can play great on grass. Um it'll be interesting, but there's gonna be a lot of top players that wanna kinda Reestablish the uh the pecking order.

Yeah. Well the uh the s the stat of the day brought to you by uh ServiceNow is that Mira at nineteen years old and forty days is third youngest female player to win a slam since the year two thousand. Do you know the other two? Hm, I'd guess you an ego one first and cocoa? Uh no. No, no. Uh I'll give you Maria Sheripova, seventeen years old and uh Wimbledon, yeah. Two thousand four, and then Emma Radicano, eighteen years. Yeah. Yeah. And three hundred and two days. I wouldn't have to do that.

Excuse me, old jet lag. Yeah. But it's it's it's the forty days. I gotta be honest, I would have gotten that if I wasn't very hungover. But here we are. Yeah.

One thing to look for in the men's final tomorrow with Kaboli and Zverev, uh one Kaboli's been off for a while now. A lot of time to think about it, didn't get that match. Obviously, you take the entry into the final. And I think you were telling me yesterday d what did what did Courier say about it? Like he heard it was ninety two he got a walk over or something in Australia. I I pretended to be really upset but I was really excited. Yeah, you get it, of course. Yeah. Yes.

Yeah. Yeah. Would I would I like a guaranteed entry to the final? Yes. Or would I like a coin flip to Yeah, no, I'll I'll I'll take the I'll take the spot in the final. Thank you. Yeah. I feel badly. Doesn't mean you can't feel badly for your buddy. Yeah. Doesn't mean you don't have some guilt about how you got there. Get over that shit real quick though. I'm excited. We're gonna see two really fresh tennis players.

Yeah, I don't think for it's it's funny, for as much of the storyline that's been around recovery, can people get back on the court and there's almost gonna be none of that yeah for the final. They should both be fresh. I don't think it's gonna be hot. I don't know what the win's gonna look like. I I should. Uh one thing that I think is a maybe the biggest factor For Kaboli.

that we will have seen yet. So we've talked about the way he's dominating the ad side on Cerve and getting that forehand over and over and over. Uh one of the things against Felix was Felix, you know, kind of has that inside out backhand swing, but creates a little bit more shape. And we were saying if he gets pulled out, does he have a strong enough left hand and will he be able to flatten that ball out and get direction?

The difference is I think for the first time in this in this tournament, maybe not as Vita's the has a strong two under also, but uh he will not have seen Someone who's built the deal with what he's giving on the ad side, like like Zvero.

Right. So if you think about the kick, what's the point of it? You get it off the court, you want to get high up and away, and make someone use that left hand. Zverev is maybe the best in the world at not only hitting it hard, but flat and long through the court.

So I don't know if Kaboli's gonna be able to get that like step or two inside to punch that ball cross to his forehand. Zverev gets more depth. I don't know that he's gonna be able to get on the front foot based on how flat and deep Zverev hits that return. And also when you're six foot six it's not getting you know, it's much different than when you're six foot two or three.

uh as far as that ball getting kinda up and away. Zverev's happy to let it drop'cause he knows he can create enough distance. Not even just depth, but like full on distance uh through the court. So I don't think Kaboli's gonna have

I'm not gonna say he's not gonna have success because there's only so much you can do when when when but I don't think he has dealt with someone who can deal with what he's gonna give like Zverev. And I also wanna see how he returns first serves. Right. He did a good job against Felix, but Zverev has started widening the court a lot and not letting people get the patterns. Uh he did a couple of rounds ago where he started

T T T T T and then started going wide. He's almost establishing the pattern T early and then opening up the wide ones. If he served seventy six percent and he's serving big, I mean, that's a lot of returns that Kaboli's gonna have to make. I think I simply think Zverev's gonna be in a lot more Kaboli service games uh from the return side uh than vice versa. There will be one or two games a set where Zverev

cruises through by virtue of Aces service winners or, you know, the serve plus one. Um I like Zverev in this match, which should be music to Gaboli's ears. Mm-hmm. Um I'm whenever I've been picking against him, he's been great. Um but he he's had a he's had an amazing tournament. Zverev's handled it like an adult. you know, since uh since he became the favorite. I can't wait to watch it. Uh I think Sasha will win. I think

He deserves. He deserves it. He's earned this over time. Five hundred and fifty some odd match wins, two World Tour finals, a bunch of Grand Slam finals. He's a worthy champion uh of a Grand Slam. Um you know, didn't have to go through center and Alcaraz. This is a real opportunity. This one will stick with him. If he doesn't win, I expect him to to deliver. But there's a lot of pressure on him. Mm-hmm. But also like people like all the pressures on Zverev was like, well, no.

Same thing that applies to very like Caboli's like, This is this my shot at the basket. Like he's gonna it's not as if he feels nothing because he's not the favorite. Like I hate it when people So there's a lot at stake for him too. You know, who would have thought he would have the chance to be the uh the first Italian since nineteen seventy six and put Panada to win the French Open? Right. Crazy. Right. Um looking forward to it. That pattern early in how Zverev deals with Kaboli.

And Kaboli's going like way as you're as you're looking at the screen, like way to the outside on the ad side, almost to like the sideline. And then using that angle to get to the person's backhand and or set up the center serve. Be curious to see how much he gets away with it. I'm also going to be curious, he's been feeding that pattern for two weeks.

If Zverev handles it, how quickly does he try to get away from it, even though he's been been been using it for two weeks? All of those little adjustments to the adjustments in the first four or five games uh will be interesting to see. And also how much success Zverev has.

Can he bully Kaboli at all to the forehand side? If that shot's open, Zverev becomes a much better player. That's the one where he tries to bully center and then Sil Center opens up the shoulders. Alcaraz opens up the shoulders. If that's open, it makes his kind of directional, you know, higher ball up the line, uh, way more open. So those are the two things I would look for early uh in the match tomorrow is how he's handling Kaboli's service from the outside and is he getting

Is he getting paid off when he tries to go aggressive to the Kaboli forehand off of his forehand side, either from the backhand corner or from cross court? If he's having s uh some payoff with that and some success with that. It opens up a lot of uh matchup problems for uh for Kaboli. And the w weather looks pretty neutral, looks seventy-two degrees, five mile an hour winds. Doesn't look like it's gonna be a factor. Let her rip, Tater Chip.

Before we go, uh wanna give a shout out to uh Took home his fourth consecutive French Open title or rolling arrows title, uh giving the twenty year old his ninth. slam in the wheelchair division. Uh in the wheelchair division. Amazing. Yeah. Yeah. He's like the he's like the phenom of all phenoms. Yeah. Um amazing. If you if you get a chance to watch him, please go do it. It's it's hit we it's history in the making. We should have Q and A and so. I would fucking be starstruck.

I think I think he's the coolest. Um anyways, thanks for watching Quick Served. Uh thanks for hanging with us for the last two weeks. We got one more boys. We're almost there. Uh Brought to you as always by ServiceNow. We will see you tomorrow. with a new Grand Slam champion. Props to Andrebo. Really well done. AI is only as powerful as the platform it's built on. With the ServiceNow AI platform, your AI, data, and workflows all work together, connecting every corner of your business.

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