Hey everyone, welcome to Quick Served. I am Andy. This is brought to you by Amazon Prime. Guys, I am a little overwhelmed by this episode. I don't know what we can say just yapping on about what we just saw. Easily one of the greatest matches of all time. Anyone who doesn't think so is just living in their own nostalgia. These guys and what they did, side to side, the movement they had, the shots they hit.
the opportunities squandered and squandered isn't even a fair word because they were both just playing so well it's not as if someone let it go unless we're nitpicking right I mean I just I'm humbled to have watched this match. What Carlos did in the fifth set breaker might have been the best run of 12 points that I've ever seen anyone have. It's just absurd the level that these two have taken this game to. And like the big three before them.
Like they're pushing the game to heights that I don't know that we've ever seen before. I mean, the way Yannick came out and how hard he was hitting the ball, it was just absurd. The fact that we're at five hours and 40 minutes and they're still standing. it's just, you know, the Yannick dealing with maybe some cramps and then figuring it out and Carlos never quitting. And then Yannick never quitting and points being.
you know a huge factor not as if like oh the guy's missing forehands or he's missing back ends sitting here and being like oh his first serve percentage has come down four four points and that's going to be the difference it's like it's like the the misses aren't even misses it's like you miss your spot on a forehand by two feet and it's curtains um It's always this weird thing where you're happy for one's successes, but then I just feel like these pangs of...
I just feel badly for Yannick. I'm sure in his right mind, he knows there's nothing to hang his head about. I'm sure in his right mind, he knows he played his ass off. I'm sure in his right mind, he knows that... Three months ago, this was an unbelievable result. And yet that won't change him thinking about it while he goes to bed for a while. It just won't. And Carlos is just... i don't know he just he's able to just bring out emotions and and and people and fans and you know
Never having come back from two sets down, which is always a little bit of a deceiving stat because the great players don't often find themselves two sets down. I think that's one of the more overrated stats along with five set record because. You know, Carlos's five-set record or Yannick's five-set record, I guarantee you most of those are coming against other players who are top five or top ten in the world because it always was a stat that kind of used to annoy me a little bit.
You know, it's almost like it's all neutral. You're better in fifth sets. How about I'm better at not having someone get to the fifth set against me? Like, where's the stat for that? But, you know. I know that they're going to keep doing it. Yannick's never won a match over four hours. He was playing his ass off at five and a half hours into this one and turned it and gave himself a chance. Those stats are going to fall hollow.
on me. And if, if you've been there and you know what it feels like and you know what your body feels like and you know what the mental gymnastics is to stay in a match like that, those are, those are good fodder for, for TV. But they don't tell the story. Watching that, I don't...
You don't want to be a victim of the moment. And also, I don't know that there's anyone that's going to push back and say, if that's not the best match that I've ever seen, it's on the short list of two or three best matches that I've ever seen. I normally am against making those judgments straight off of something, but I don't know that I've seen tennis played like that.
by two people for five and a half hours before. And, you know, I understand Novak and Rafa, and I think they were ahead of where the game was 10 years before that. In fact, I know that to be true. But just because they're not at the ends of their career doesn't mean we can call this match what it was in real time, which is one of the best ever. Yannick moving.
at 6'4", 6'5", and Carlos taking full cuts, and he can hit it both ways, and he can hit drop shots, and the kick serves they were hitting and the ground they were covering. I mean, my jaw was on the floor 77 times during this match. And Yannick and what... I don't know. He might be the classiest person I've ever seen. He had a legit argument with the umpire in the fifth about a non-call, which means you're...
You know, playing a point instead of looking at a second serve. With no face or tone or anything else, he genuinely thanked everyone that worked on the match. afterwards i wouldn't have done that i'm not i'm not a good enough person to do that i would have made some snarky stupid remark like it's just really impressive and he's
If you weren't a fan before, I don't know how you watch him do what he does and have anything negative to say about him. Carlos came back and took this match. Yannick, I don't think, let it go. It's not as if... I mean, we've seen matches let go before with misses or this was just, you know, one of the best players in the world. And I guess we can call these guys two of the best players of all time. I'm ready to say that.
you know time will tell and we like to always kind of hit certain markers but the level that i saw today these two are two of the best of all time now you know i we should just say it in real time as opposed to just waiting um it was
I mean, just phenomenal, phenomenal tennis. I normally have a lot more to say. X's and O's and all that. And we can go through it, but it almost seems a little... A little shallow to go into that and tell you what someone did wrong and someone did right just at certain moments because they both did so much right. Today, I don't know. This is what I feel like a weird feeling. Like, I don't want to say anything that disrespects the magnitude of what we just saw with, you know, me going.
Sinner was pounding the four and then he wasn't. That seems just so stupid to me in this moment. I think they both executed to the max of their ability 95% of the time in this match. just phenomenal i mean phenomenal fitness phenomenal it's just just phenomenal i i i can't get over it and i do have to correct something that and then we'll get back to this match and i'll ask you guys what you thought about it but
We normally do this show straight away after it finishes. So an example of two days ago, I said a bunch of stuff about Novak. leaving the court and the fact that I digested that as him not knowing whether or not he'd be back. And I happened to be right that day that what I was watching and what I was feeling ended up being what Novak said.
In his press conference, he said, I don't know if I'll be back again. That's exactly what that was. So, you know, you look smart. Yesterday, I said, you know, the way that Sabalenka has generally carried herself during the post-match ceremonies. And all of that stuff has been largely good. She normally has a joke or is complimentary. I didn't really like what she did in the post-match presser yesterday.
um talking about how terrible she played and talking about all this stuff and talking about how ego would have won had she played coco like i don't know like who like if a frog had wings it wouldn't bump its ass when it hopped like what's the point of saying it
Like, it doesn't. I thought it was beneath the precedent that she set for herself before. And frankly, it doesn't matter. Scoreboard... wins loses like but there was just no reason like you can feel that way and I think the conditions helped Coco a ton like a lot I said it yesterday on the show But they are what they are. We know the drill at this point. We know the contract. We know sometimes it works for you and sometimes it doesn't.
And certainly it can create an outlier result. And certainly we can all sit here as analysts and say on a perfect day, you know, the huge ball striker, it's an advantage if there are less elements. But. And that's like the what if game is a dumb one to play. I was disappointed with her going on and on about it. And I wasn't privy to her press conference when I said that she generally.
loses pretty well um i think yesterday was an exception and i think with time you know maybe she'll regret it maybe she won't maybe she doesn't give a shit about it but um yeah yeah she did release a uh a um statement today during the match basically saying you know i shouldn't have said what i said essentially yeah she said i didn't play my best coco stepped up and played with poison purpose she earned that title respect time to rest learn and come back stronger so
Well, good. I mean, listen, if she says it about herself, what are we going to say? And I'm not going to rip her for it because I've been in, I've done worse and bad emotional states. And it was just, it was poor form for her.
I was disappointed. We did our show, and I generally like Irina a lot. I think she has a lot to the game. I think she has dealt with losses pretty well before. Losing to Madison was a heartbreaker too, and I thought she was brilliant in the postmortem of... of that match but it felt like a personal shot at at coco a little bit like kind of taking away her shine a little bit which i thought was just unnecessary she can think all those things and we can say that you know she didn't play great but
One of the things I challenge us in the media to do is that if we talk about a match with Madison and how it wasn't great tennis and Coco won, and then... In the final, we can say it wasn't great tennis, but Coco won. Shouldn't we just like take a second and say, you know what Coco is really good at? She's good at making people not play well.
Right? Like if it happens over and over and over and over again, like, and I need to do this too, but it's like, oh, it was an ugly match. You know who's really good at winning those matches once she creates that atmosphere? Coco. That's a skill. That's not luck. We've seen it too many times. That's a skill. The variance in shot, the slices in shot, the spin on the forehand versus the flat backhand, it all looks different.
The unpredictability on the serve can work a couple of ways. So I'm glad Arena came out and said something because I read the press conferences and I'm trying to think of a way to kind of put whipped cream on top of shit. And it still just kind of looked like shit. You know, so I'm a huge fan of hers. I'm sure.
She'll regret it. I would, you know, you know, it seems like she already kind of does. It was just she can think all those things and she could say to her team, we've all done stuff like that. It just wasn't great. And then to kind of contrast that with. With Yannick today, just it was very different, you know, and, you know, we're all aspirational. I did a lot of things when I was.
younger in my career that I wouldn't have done when I was older and handled things better when you're older and sometimes not. So have some grace because you've all done stuff that's probably beneath your own personal precedent too. Just pointing out that when we do this show, our goal is to get it out quickly.
to you and turn it around. And there's a whole process in between where we have to, I say, we, uh, techie Sean and Mike have to edit it. I just get up with the chair and leave. But, um, so I don't always have all the information. Um, You know, and I'd rather I'd rather come in here with my own feelings than have to regurgitate what they say. But, you know, sometimes it works. Two days ago with Novak, you nail it. And, you know, yesterday I was generally genuinely surprised.
by Arena's reaction and not only being disappointed and saying like, Saying it wasn't my best and Coco deserves it is very different than that's the worst final I've ever played. And that's the worst I've played in six months. And it felt like it was like once the horse was dead, we we shot it in the head anyways. You know, so anyways, but like, listen, this this.
I don't want to detour too long from what we just saw today. I have a question for you two. If you compare this, and I'm very biased in this question, and I'm leading the witnesses here. Um, but you compare this to other sports and I've been in this a lot longer than you all have had to be in it, but five hours and 40 something minutes on the biggest stages, like to just put this into context. And since it's on TNT and they're coming off of having done basketball for a long time, and this isn't.
To say one thing doesn't mean you're throwing shade at someone else. I'm celebrating and applauding one set of athletes. An NBA game is 48 minutes played in air conditioning where you have teammates, halftime, timeouts, the whole thing. Communication. I think tennis players are the best athletes in the world. And the more I watch it, the more I think it. Tell me why I'm wrong. I mean, I don't think you're wrong because I think when you...
pull all the elements together of what makes up a great athlete. And Sean and I were talking about this the other day. You know, it's like it's not just who can jump the highest or run the fastest or, you know, who is clutch. It's everything all at once. And to think about all the other sports that are. in their own right, so incredible and filled with these amazing athletes. A lot of them have support, right? You don't have to be the tallest, fastest, strongest, smartest at every moment.
Think on your own and be isolated on an island and battling your own demons and have no one to confide in in all those moments more than you do in tennis. I mean, it's just, it's incredible. I mean, five hours and 40 minutes. of just pure isolation and focus. Um, I don't, I don't think there's anything else like it, you know? Um, The only other sport I can think of that is as grueling timing-wise and can go on and on and on that seems endless sometimes is like NASCAR racing.
And it's like, it's completely different, right? They still have a team and they're still relying on each other and it's a machine. It's the most incredible thing. I've never watched a sporting event like what we witnessed. Yeah, it's just, I don't feel like you can have a skill that's way better, but it doesn't allow you to just silo off those skills to be effective. Does that make sense?
Like an offensive lineman, and obviously, I mean, I know we're going to get the comments, you're not getting hit in the head. I understand the hard parts of a lot of sports, but I could have, in a team sport, I would have been able to almost isolate my skill set where I didn't have to hit backhands. Or I didn't have to play for five hours if that wasn't my strength. And the list goes on and on and on. You have to be strong, fast, mentally resilient.
You have to be able to basically do sprint intervals while also using hand. It's the most complete examination. of an athlete that I can think of. And it's weird when you're in it and doing it. I don't know that I gave the credit for, I knew it was hard. I knew people were amazing. It's just gone further. And I think tennis is having this moment of, you know, we used to get viewed.
as like oh you're soft like country club sport i don't know that that narrative exists i don't know how you can watch what happened today and not say the athleticism on display is otherworldly. And that's before we get to the isolating factors. That's before we get to, oh, they're playing on this type of surface right now.
And then in three weeks, they're going to be playing another one of the biggest tournaments on something that's completely different. And we have to adapt. We don't have a training camp. It has to be done pretty quickly. And then you have to do that 14 times during the year. I hear a lot about the NFL, and they're like, oh, well, they got that West Coast time change. And I'm going, dude, try Memphis on a Friday and Dubai on a Monday.
I don't want to hear about Los Angeles, you know, and it's just, I say this because I'm happy with the reaction and the respect that tennis is. deservedly getting in in this moment and it feels like it's it feels like a downhill snowball right now with respect as it as it should be um and it's just You have these guys on the heels of the other three guys, and it's like, how spoiled are we in the best possible way?
You have Coco coming through. I mean, it's just TNT just hit the mother load with what happened this tournament. Like, I don't know that you could make anything better for them. I like, I don't, it's great. And that means there's going to be more investment in the sport and the sport's going to grow and we're all going to fight about how it should grow, but it's growing. Yeah. And I mean, honestly, when I watch this, you know, I think this is like Carlos is, uh,
Tom Brady versus the Atlanta Falcons in the Super Bowl game, right? Like 28 to three in this comeback. I mean, you're watching three championship point opportunities and it wasn't that Yannick didn't close it. It was that Carlos. kept fighting to win it. You know, I was looking at the stat lines and if I was to tell you, you know, the player that had the most aces, zero double faults, the most first win.
serve percentage the the best first win serve percentage and one had the most total points one if i was to read that stat line to you you'd be like oh that person probably won yeah and they didn't yeah that can happen Someone who I think won more points than he lost one time in a slam final and lost. That's just the way it is. And that's another thing. That's a good point. Let's throw that in. How great do you have to be situationally all the time?
in tennis it's great it's crazy like you have to reset you have to lie to yourself oh i lost the first set mentally let's turn it around quickly like it's just Like imagine Carlos being down playing this cyborg of a human in center. And I mean that in the most complimentary way where the guy plays tennis like a robot. He's that good where he just can execute the way he does. Down two sets and a break.
And like, all right, I know I'm at least three hours away from this win and so much pain. And just to do it, but you have to do it like 30 seconds at a time. You can't skip anything. You can't skip steps. You can't say, okay, we're just going to throw the ball 50 yards down field and try to get a score in 30 seconds. You can't do that. You can't score quickly. You can't.
The scoreboard is a scoreboard is a scoreboard. Like you can't take shortcuts. You have to pay the bill physically. It's just like situationally, you just have to be so perfect all the time. It's just, it's just amazing. I'm just in awe. Like I, I just kudos to, to these, these champions. Um, we're, we're going to get, um, like a proper recap show with, uh, with JW, um, like we always do.
But fucking hell, what a tournament this was. It might be my favorite French Open ever. Not saying I don't like players more, not saying like the Andre and 99 of things and the Rafa things, but like... Think about Boisson, and we'll get into this in the recap, but there are so many amazing stories. And then it ends with 1v2 and dramatic finals. And it started with an adult retirement ceremony. It's just like...
Storybook. The whole tournament. Point to point. It has been a pleasure to come chat with you all daily during this tournament. I appreciate you giving us the audience. and entrusting us to deliver information in a responsible way. We'll always tell you when we get it wrong, but there was a lot to get right with this event. It was a pleasure to come to you daily. Speak quick, presented by Amazon Prime. We'll see you at Wimbledon.