all right everyone welcome to served another day slash night in the books down under at the australian open uh aussie hopes They still got him. The demon rolled Alex Mickelson. I was surprised that the score was that lopsided. It's not easy playing in your home slam. who have been starved for a finalist on the male side since Leighton Hewitt in 2005. I unfortunately participated in that by losing to Leighton in the semis.
But the demon is rolling, handling the pressure of being the home kid. How's this? I'll tell you what I wouldn't have predicted. I would not have predicted that the demon served 42% first serves and... 1-0-6-3 in straight sets. You don't see that very often. And I'll tell you, that won't work against Yannick Sinner. But I will tell you, if I was in Demon's camp, Sinner gets through Aruna.
Four sets. We said it might be a little rough. Runa likes playing the big players. He kind of gets into it, gets up for it, doesn't feel that same pressure set. Beats Runa in four sets, but takes a medical timeout where there's video of his hand shaking. during it. He said, going in, I didn't feel the best. Maybe he's been carrying some sort of...
illness, and this is the first time he was extended physically to show it. If I'm in Demon's crew, and now I have a quarterfinal against this guy that has beaten the pants off of me. Yeah, it's not like my dad. Beat the pants off of me. Beating the pants off of me in turn last year. and has kind of not lost with a hard surface under his feet, maybe a couple of times to Carlos Alcaraz last year, I'm going...
All right, well, let's get him into it physically. Let's get him extended and see what he's actually dealing with. If I'm Demon's Camp, and this won't happen because TV rules Australia at night, they're going to get a mint rating, especially because...
The Chuckster and Novak are on the opposite side of the draw. They're the only person that would take the primetime night match from the hometown kid. I would be going, let's play during the day and let's center bake in the heat. I think that is a lever. that should be pulled. I'd be pushing for it if I was in demon's camp and it won't happen. It's going to be sinner, sinner, chicken dinner, and demon at night, I would guess, but I am just...
pounding the physicality of this matchup with Demon versus center and saying, look, this is, if he's got some sort of physical crutch, then we got to kick the crutch, right? We got to make him stand on that leg on his own. The matchup is just tough for Demon, and I have so much respect for this guy. I think he is awesome. He's able to hit that little punchy backhand down the line to reset the rally. He consistently...
over and over, got into the exchanges he wanted to with Mickelson, move better. There were a bunch of points where he reminded me of Hewitt because I had flashbacks to playing points where...
It's like, okay, I did what I wanted to hit three good balls. I found the approach shot. I executed the approach shot well. And then, you know, Leighton picked one up off of his shoe tops because he's the fastest kid on earth. Hashtag super bad. And would hit a passing shot. And I had a great coach, Jimmy Connors.
who you would play points like that where you did everything you wanted to do. And then some superhero across the net did some superhero thing. And he would say, well, kid, operation successful. Sometimes the patient dies. And that's what I felt like I was watching over and over with Demon and Mickelson. I love Mickelson. I like the way he goes about it. He plays with so much respect for his opponent. Always.
down six oh five three still applauding shots while also still fighting it's not like the thing where oh give me credit for good sportsmanship and i'm actually not competing as hard which we can see sometimes. It's like the kids and juniors who win sportsmanship awards because they don't throw temper tantrums, but then they cheat on their line calls when no one's watching, that sort of thing. Mickelson goes about it the right way. I just love his whole vibe.
I like him. Demon was at another level. Monfils and Shelton. Gale said, nope, no moss. This has been a hell of a run. Win a title in Auckland. I'm pretty tired. My back hurts a little bit. And that's that. So yeah, he retired early in the fourth set. Went to press and they said, well, gosh, you know, you're close. Do you think you want to... to try to win he's like no i just want to kind of grow old be happy play some matches and that's that credit to ben shelton though
He's better in slams than he is on the regular tour, which is a great sign. He knows how to navigate three out of five-step matches, especially early in his career. He's had more runs where semis, quarters in Australia, he's in the quarters again than he has in Master Series events when it's the two out of three format. So I think that's a good sign for him.
serving vying a lot more you can tell he's actively working on things is he imperfect yes does he still have stuff to work on yes is he a work in progress we all are always but It's so clear how intentional him and his dad, Brian Shelton, are being with progress, with rounding out his game. You know, he came on tour and he was like this raw athletic thing.
that you could tell didn't have a lot of reps at the highest level it's kind of been on to on the job training props to them for really committing and getting better over time i got that one wrong i said i'd kind of pick the other way But dumb me. Monfils was like, this vacation needs to start now. I'm going to support my wife because she's still rolling. I am not. But listen, in all seriousness, Gail, 38 years old. People love watching him.
People love playing against him. People love being in the locker room with him. He is going to be looked back at so fondly, and it's almost as if he's gotten past the what could have happened, what could have been, what kind of career could he have had, because I think his personality has won out.
around tennis. Even we still have the same criticisms, but we just don't really care. I'm not passionate about it. I just like him. I respect him on a different level. I think he always treats people the right way. I think he gives honest answers, even if they're not the ones that we want.
You know, do you want to win a slam? Does it mean everything to you? He's like, nah, not really. His words, not mine. So save your comments. His words, not mine. I just like him. And I think everyone really likes him. And Shelton was the beneficiary of Monfey's going. My back hurts. Pretty tired. I'm 38. Remember when Forrest Gump would go, he stopped running and he just goes, I think I'm going to go home now. That's kind of what it was. Except, anyways.
Bad joke. Moving on. Hey, thanks for leaving in part what I tried to say sit, but I said shit in the last episode. I think people enjoyed that. Great. Great stuff. Way to go. Glad I have you on board. Sonico Lerner. I told you afterwards. Yeah. Sonico Lerner TN.
sonico is like the teenager eraser he's like all the stories that we are grasping on to fonseca's top five sonico extinguisher learner tn is it needs good you know what do we got a new guy extinguisher yeah he's like the he's like the expeller of teenage stories for this story but hey listen props to someone and i ate sauna goes
serving well, especially the flat one T2 side, wide ad side, mixing in some serving volleys randomly. The guy competes nonstop. I love the story when someone's been on tour for a minute and they make a quarterfinal of a slam. And they work through it, right? They get through the process of grinding through a longer event. I really like what I've seen. And listen, you tell Sonico, like Shelton's the favorite in this matchup, right? And he's the guy that we're looking to.
to cause chaos, potentially for, for center in that half. But Sonic goes going, wait a minute. I got someone that maybe I can hold serve against more often than, than I do. And, you know, I would have taken Ben Shelton in the quarters. Going into this event also
Ben Shelton, I think, is the clear favorite in that matchup, but props to Sanago. I just really like the way he is an absolute professional, goes about his business, and cancels any hope of a teenager making the semis in the Australian Open just pretty much by himself. We talked about Momfist. Let's talk about his other half. Svitolina still rolling. Undefeated against Russian players since the invasion, since the war started. So I...
Take that for what it will, but I like her. If you have not watched the served episode with Alina Svitolina when we had her on, talking about what she's doing to support Ukrainian tennis, please go back and give that a listen. It'll give you some insight into all of the things that she is dealing with and kind of taking head on. A super impressive person, a super impressive player.
Since she's come back from motherhood, all she does is make the quarters or further in Grand Slams also. She knows how to play in the biggest events, which, by the way, was a question mark for her before she had a kid. Right. It was like I'm two or three in the world. And am I losing in the round of 16 when I'm expected to go to the semis and finals? So whatever those mental gymnastics are, Svitolina has been just.
The mental gymnastics that she has to go through with life on a given day to show up and compete the way she is is just... She'll forever have our respect and deservedly so. We'll see if she can keep it rolling. Navarro Kazatkina. Navarro, of course, what would she do? She won a tight three setter.
Obviously, that was never in doubt. She was going to win 7-5 or 6-4 in the third. Sviatek rolled in like 12 seconds. Mike, what's the stat on time spent for Sviatek on court versus Emma Navarro before they play in the quarters? Four hours and 20 minutes for Iga. Yeah. And Emma is about 10 and a half hours. Yeah. So see.
Fiontech's averaging a mighty like one hour and three or four minutes per match literally yeah it was 120 one hour 110 and 59 minutes and Emma almost matched her total time on court but just emma's first match against peyton stearns right yeah 320 yeah i still think she's gonna come out and be i i think we i've been talking about i think her fitness is she's one of the most fit players on tour
Like, and I'm not even kind of worried about her. I said it before the Kazakina match. I said, I'm not worried about her fitness. She'll be able to play another long one. I said two days ago on our show, we don't talk about her fitness. She doesn't breathe hard. She doesn't show us in it. She doesn't make us think about it.
Right? Like, she's just solid. She goes about her business, doesn't wince, doesn't give us any emotion, and is just there. I love it. I think it ends against Sviantec because she's in full, like, robot mode right now. Madison Keys against Robachna. Robachna played. We were worried about her not playing with that back injury. She played three full sets. She didn't look...
totally compromised. I mean, she didn't listen. You can never tell what someone's going through and maybe she, but it wasn't as if she was compromised from the word go Maddie keys playing great. She is really good at from the back end corner.
When she's stepping left, she pulls that back to the forehand and she kind of, a little bit of the mannequin maker, right? Because you have to guess, you have to check step to protect the backhand because she can go so big there. At the last second, she can kind of flip that racket work.
to her left while moving left and she makes people stand still like four or five times a match with with that ball and the memory of looking so dumb and standing there like a mannequin while someone has so obviously beat you it leaves an imprint on your soul out there you know then you kind of start leaning that way and then she opens up the backhand but
serving great, getting a lot more free points on our serve. The serve is moving. It's kicking. It's slicing. I love what we're seeing from Maddie keys. Not surprising. Had her going to guys. I listen. I don't want to brag. All right. I do. So I have. Of my four picks on the women's side, still got a chance to bat a thousand for the semis. Originally had Sabalenka and she plays Pavly Echenkova. Pavly Echenkova is playing great. And I also like Sabalenka. I had Coco.
I still think she beats Badosa. I think Keys beats Fidelina. That's like a feel-good match because I think so much of both of them. Same with Navarro and I think Fiontech rolls. So all of you people are like, oh yeah, why don't you pick the top seeds? Listen. Is the goal of a draw show to entertain you and just be crazy and wacky like John Wertheim? Or is it to, you know, or is it to try to pick the people that are going to exist at the end of the tournament? What do you think, producer Mike?
I think Sean should probably cue up your... I will say... Went the old over to on the TN monthly situation to JW. So credit where credit's due. Tell you what I'm right. I will tell you that's the womp womp. So let's take a look forward to the men's center demon, which we had in our original draw center. It's just, you don't know where demon makes enough headway consistent consistently. He just doesn't, if he could work his ass off and.
find a way to serve 140, he would do it. The guy would run through a wall. He would chew a nail into sand if he could and could figure it out. I just don't know that he has the firepower consistently. deal with yannick center and center is pretty much all firepower all the time but moves great too demon has to make that he has to grab center by the ankles and pull him into
a match that just is physical, right? It gets to in physical enough. And then all of a sudden we're at two all on a breaker. The crowd's going crazy. He has to make it about all those other things and not the X's and O's of trying to execute. When you have that power deficit over the course of time, Shelton Sonego, I like Ben Shelton to move forward in this one.
Props to JW on the redraw. Had him losing first round, but then said, fuck it, I'm taking him to the semis after that. So that's what the redraw show is for. Love the way Ben's coming in. I expect him to serve in volley against Sonigo a little bit. Sonigo.
returns well but it's not a huge you know not a great first serve returner i think ben can expose that serve and volley as he has as he worked on during the offseason the chuckster novak i don't even want to talk about this match because i'm so excited for it i just want to throw things because i'm so excited about it like i can't even wait for it novak is kind of pissed he's picking fights
You know, he's picking out a spectator fight. He thrives on friction more than I've seen anyone in sports. Picked a fight with some guy, some... guy i had never heard of before this week and now i only hear about him like who is this guy yeah who's this who's just some some reporter for channel nine like a local station that does
You know, they basically have the contract with us. No, I know Channel 9. I just don't like it. It's weird. Normally, like the old broadcasters, you know, from back in the day, I don't know this guy at all. And it seems like he's kind of popping off. Feels like he was wrong, by the way.
in the Novak thing, like getting into the Serbian fans and saying, when you say the greatest of all time and you have a crowd and you're going, he's a husband, shut up, especially when you're crusty as shit. Right? Like... You can't call someone a has-been when you're there, when you're crusty too. Like, get out of here. And Novak didn't do the, like, yeah. Listen, you can disagree with Novak. You can say, well, he should have stood there. I mean, I don't know.
He doesn't have to. Every player going off the court agrees to do that in the moment. Frankly, I'm shocked we're batting 1,000 forever. Let's give credit to the players. You know, it was a weird situation for, for courier, but he's like the most grownup person in the room. He's the, he can roll with it and he gets it. He probably doesn't care too much. You know, if, if, if anything, it's going to.
make that next interaction even more like it's going to be good if novek doesn't want to talk to someone and he doesn't have to especially and then he the guy brought in the kick him out like He said basically called Novak a has-been in front of his fans, said all this shit. Listen, we can disagree with people, and also you have to have a base setting of respect for someone who's accomplished as much as Novak has. To troll...
And to call someone a has-been, that's absurd because he's not a has-been. Now, is he as good as he's ever been? Probably not. The guys in the quarters playing great just routed two really good young players, and he's one-time time. Shut up, man. Novak, he doesn't have to do it. He didn't do it in a weird way. He thanked the crowd for the thing, and he's just like, I'm not going to participate.
in this stuff for channel nine. I think the only reason he stopped is out of respect for Jim Currier. So he wasn't just chasing him. You know, he can do it. He doesn't have to, and he showed up in press and explained himself. And listen, if you're a journalist and you're allowed to say whatever you want.
Players are allowed to respond. They're allowed to respond. They don't have to agree with you. You said kick him out. He's totally bringing in like that past scar tissue, you know, of which I didn't agree with Novak on. But also, why bring it up again? That's just dumb. Like, it makes no sense. And then this guy's neck, you know, he used the old tried and true defense of popping off. Oh, it was a joke, mate. It was a joke.
The joke defense, Mike, have we ever heard that before? I don't know. It must be something in the water. But people who have used the joke defense didn't like this joke defense. I'll tell you that right now. It's weird. That's true. Very true. Borderline hypocritical. So anyways, the Chuckster and Novak, I just can't wait for this matchup. I can't wait to see the problem solving. It's basically how do I keep the right hand of Carlos at bay?
If you're Novak, right? Like this punch out power of the forehand side, the brilliance where it's like, I can run up the scoreboard very quickly. It's like holding. A crazy good offense in the NFL, slowing the game, running out the clock, all of these things. That's what Novak's doing, and he's great at it. Switching directions, keeping space between. So when Carlos unloads in the forehand...
making sure he does it from even six inches or a foot further back than he normally would. All those little miniature wins matter over the course of time in this matchup. If one of them serves over 60... two 63% first serves, I really like their chances. And then Techie Sean, I was talking about this with you the other day. You can see who wins most matches just by seeing who defends their second serve better. I would say it's...
I mean, I'm sure this is going to be like Twitter fingers. The one guy in the comments going, no, it's not true. 80 or 90% of the time, whoever defends their second serve better is going to win the match. That break points converted. You can go two of two of 0 for 10. The 0 for 10 is doing a lot more work consistently, but you have to break. This one, I just can't wait to watch it. I cannot wait to watch it. Unbelievable. Going to be the best.
Tommy Paul basically had an extended practice session the other day against Davidovich, Fokino, 1-1-1. I like Zverev in this matchup just because he's proven it more. He has the most bankable asset in this matchup, which is the serve.
right? He's going to get looks on Tommy's serve. He's going to be able to drift way back, you know, five, six, seven feet behind the baseline, firm up that two-hander return, get to neutral more often than I think Tommy's going to be able to get to neutral on Zverev's serve. Listen, so much to look forward to. This is getting good. I enjoy this. Can't wait to see if Novak wins. I can't wait to see if he stops for a chat with Jim.
or if he goes full fucking magoo on on tony jones i hope he does i hope he does i love his i love his post-match on court presser stuff i think he's totally right anyone's criticizing him for not stopping like You can't just say anything about anyone because you're a journalist and expect that athlete not to exercise their leverage points, of which Novak has a lot of them.
Like we got to, I'm fine with what, like I can disagree with both sides and still say they, they have equal rights to say things. And for some reason, Tony Jones can say it. And it doesn't really matter until Novak brings attention to it. He brought attention to it, and the guy crawled back into his hole. He did. He goes, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to say we should kick you out. No, you said it.
Tony Jones would not give the same benefit of the doubt to a player who said something really stupid. He would not give the benefit of the doubt that he is asking for. I feel like we've talked about this before. Thank you for watching, Served.