Adobe Express is the quick and easy create-anything app. It's my go-to for making my business stand out. From videos and social posts to flyers and logos. Search for Adobe Express to find out more and use it for free. Hi, Megan Rapinoe here. This week on A Touch More, Sue and I go over the first weekend of Unrivaled.
Caitlin Clark sitting next to Taylor Swift at a playoff game. And what's really behind the legislation that aims to bar transgender girls from school sports. Plus, we'll hear some responses to last week's Baker of the Week. And Sue's going to share her ice cream recipe. Check out the latest episode of A Touch More wherever you get your podcasts and on YouTube. Hey, everyone. Welcome to Quick Serve. As you can see, I am.
Traveling. Guys, I don't drink in the morning. But if there was ever a time, it would be in celebration of Madison Keys this morning. Now, there's the tennis, which was lights out. And we're going to get into the X's and O's.
of of all of it of which you know i think is actually a very fascinating and more nuanced than i thought it was going to be in in this matchup but i i think what like i i've talked to a bunch of friends in tennis um people that i we have mutual friends that are very close to bjorn and and maddie um you know max eisenbud this morning you know andrea petkovic i think on air was like getting emotional for maddie
And I don't know Maddie well. I just know reputationally when you've been around the tour for 10 years plus and you don't hear any negativity around someone, that means that they operate in a certain way all the time. Just so affable. She's going to have to work on – she's kind of –
she kind of rips on herself a lot like in in like a funny way is pretty self-deprecating and she's gonna have to learn how to uh to to do that a little bit differently because she's a grand slam champion now um beating the two best players of the post serena generation back to back and by the way can we talk about her draw danielle collins to beat robachina to beat svitolina to beat shviatek
to beat Sabalenka, the two-time defending champion in Australia. Nothing given, everything earned. And I think the reason why it's caused such a tidal wave of positive emotion for her to where I was emotional when she won, and I like Irina Sabalenka. I think it's well-documented on this show how much respect I have for her and her process and how, frankly, she...
kind of out gained the things that was that were holding her back for a long time madison keys especially in this matchup against sabalenka i think we remember if we're if we're maintaining an ounce of credibility on this show without bias it was a collapse against against sabalenka in the us open semifinal and something that i know
Left a huge emotional mark. I think losing to Sloan in that U S open final where her game didn't really show up. It seemed like maybe the moment was overwhelming for Maddie and she's made numerous. She's made the, the, the workers end of, of, of slam so many times. And did anyone think, okay, this is going to be the time where she comes in and is in these tough matches over and over and over.
Why now? Why now? I mean, people are going to say, oh, she got married. Listen, she's had the ability for a long time. Bjorn Frantangelo is a saint of a human for putting himself in this position because you get the worst of tennis players when you're the coach. You get their most hysterical moments, their most insecurities. To do this and to have them do it together at this time and to see...
someone who has a known track record of getting nervous in the biggest moments and saying, you know what? I don't need to be perfect for the last 10 years. I can, forever, for the rest of her life, she can look back and say, do you remember that tournament where I was the most clutch person on the planet for a couple of weeks? Forever. She took a massive eraser to everyone's memory bank.
It's not as if anything was given to her. Svantec was playing great going into the semis. She wasn't losing games. Sabalenka owns this tournament. Third final in a row. So credit to her. Hitting her shots when the chips were down over and over and over again while you know fighting these mental demons and the scar tissue of Grand Slam's past.
It just, I'm so happy for her. I don't even know, like winning I think is good, but I think just the fact that for the rest of her life, she'll sleep knowing that like I stepped up and did this in this moment, right? Like I was that person and I'm a Grand Slam champion forever. It doesn't matter what she does for the rest of her life. 30, almost 30 years old, turns 30 years old, I think in three weeks, rest of her life, she's a Grand Slam champion.
And doing it, beating the best on earth. Nothing given. It's not like a draw opened up. Draw opened up. Rabakina, Svitolina, Chviantek, Sabalenka. It's like a nightmare of a draw. So just on a personal level, I think the groundswell of support, and I hope she feels this. She has to feel it. The groundswell of support from the tennis community.
means that she operates as a decent human all of the days, right? And good things, you want good things to happen to the best people. And it seems like for these two weeks in Melbourne, Australia, Karma got it right with Maddie Keys. I just, I'm so happy for her. And we get into the X's of no's a little bit now.
Which are the reason we're talking about all of the good things that happened. But I don't want that to be the headline. I want the headline to be hurdles in front of you. I bet they never seemed taller than after that U.S. Open collapse against Sabalenka. And to see just, you know, to see like a human issue overcome on the biggest of stages with the brightest of lights.
For someone that's good, not a good player, but someone that is inherently intentionally and always good. It just, that's what that's, that's the, that's sports, man. Like that's, that's the, that's the thing. It's the world's best reality show. When sports goes right, it makes you feel like what, what other thing causes emotion like this, where there's like, we can't, as adults, we can't agree on anything at scale. We can't agree on anything.
And yet here we are. I don't know a single person that's not thrilled for Maddie Keys. She played a strategically perfect match because it was a high level of tennis. When you have two players that hit the ball as hard as they do, it can sometimes make a stat sheet look kind of ugly, right? To where you get the Shelton line from a couple days ago with the 27 winners, 55 errors. Doesn't always tell the story accurately, but I was a little scared of this one.
going sideways, they were right around almost even on winners to errors. And the errors they're making are off of shots that are coming in massive. Right? So it just, it was a high level the entire time. We said that for Maddie to have a chance, she was going to have to serve close to 70%. And guess what she did, producer Mike? She did it. She served close to 70%. And by the way, in the biggest match of her life, didn't have a double fault. Not one nervy,
squirrely, double fault. At 5-all, 30-all in the third set, Sabalenka rocked two returns. Like, rocked two returns. Matty, cold-blooded, smoked two winners. Like, you can't force the issue when Sabalenka just crushes the ball, and she was so steadfast, and you know what? I'm going to get on the front foot first. And she did it, and she executed.
It's like in the fact that we talked about it at the end of the show. I said she's going to have to switch directions earlier in rallies than she wants to. That backhand where it was almost inside out off of Saba's returns. She hit that over and over and over again. Inside out back in. Bam. Reset the deck. So Saba hits one big one moving to her left. Quick punch inside out against the movement. And she did that all day confidently. The serving at 70%. Mixing up the four.
Something that she was messing around with when they played that XO in Charlotte here was she was taking one hand off the racket a lot against Sloan in the little exhibition they did here that didn't have any, you know, there's no consequence for it. It was a feel-good night, right? Like, there was no winners, losers. No one cared. They just wanted to be entertained. And she was hitting a lot of chips. And I'm like, okay, that's a weird thing. It's not like the Matty Keys thing, maybe. I'll be damned if she didn't.
squeeze out like three or four really big points because she was in the corner and took one hand off the racket. First set, she hit this little chipper Magoo where Sabalenka looked at her box and was like, wait, no, that's not in, that wasn't in the notes. It's interesting. It wasn't in the notes. She got out of corners. She ran and the, the, the exhale that she must have is like, I hope it lasts for years.
I hope it lasts for years. I mean, the stat line is crazy. I mean, you look at this and it would be a 50-50 shot on who would win this when you just scroll the stat lines. Yeah, Matty won. I took a quick glance, but Matty won exactly one more point. Exactly one, 92-91. Yeah, there you go. One more point. This was a... Matty was in... I mean, it was like she was playing video games in the first set.
However she came out in the U.S. Open final, she came out and was unconscious. Got a little dicey, played a little bit of a nervous game and then reset. By the way, Sabalenka, she won't get credit for it because like idiots, we only give credit to someone when they win something. Sabalenka lost this match. It doesn't mean that she didn't make great tactical adjustments to get back into this match to give herself a chance.
And no one will ever talk about it because she lost. But second set, something that Sabalenka doesn't do. One, she doesn't get beat off the front foot. There's like one person on earth who can do that and beat her at her own game. Apparently, and that was Madison Keys today. She outs Sabalenka and Sabalenka. Like she got on the front foot and just bullied her to the corners and played against her movement. And it was brilliant. And Sabalenka was able to pick and choose her spots in the second set.
base setting is I still have the power. I'm going to use that when I need to. Sabalenka started mixing up high balls to Maddie's backhand to where all of a sudden Maddie had to force that line one off of a ball above her shoulders as opposed to in her pocket. No one walking around is going like, Oh, Sabalenka is capable of just mixing up paces now. Like how about that progression as a player hitting drop shots? Like she almost went to it too much in the third set, but in the second set,
Maddie B. Set and she started playing like field drop shots against Maddie's movement. And I don't know that that's something she had two years ago, much less five or six. I was I was I was so impressed with the strategic decision making on on both sides. Like it was it was a pleasure to watch to watch it because you could see it going on in real time. And. I'll tell you, Maddie's forehand.
when it is in full flight is one of the most beautiful shots on earth like she lays it back and then is able to whip it through without looking like it's it doesn't break and go awkward at any point like even even like a rafa sets it and then there's like a like a you feel the impact you feel the moment right like you feel the effort that's being put into it maddie lays it back and it is her her speed through the zone without
stops and starts, it has to cause jealousy. To see her have that shot, keep it in full flight while serving well, while protecting, not even protecting the backhand, hitting it well. I've watched Maddie throughout the years when that backhand starts going a little sideways and she starts looking like, how do I fix this? How do I fix this?
Her head was down on to the next point. I'm just so impressed by the progression and we use it too much. But like when you're fighting those demons, it's brave for her to be out there and keep going after the shot that isn't the one that you've been able to rely on your entire career. And it wasn't just good enough. It was really good today. I didn't think we'd be talking about her hitting slices to chip to give herself another chance to get out of the corners.
to then set up the forehand. I didn't think we'd be talking about her off backhand off of a rocket return inside out against someone's movement. I didn't think that was something that we were going to be able to do. Did I think we were going to say, hey, listen, she's going to go through and be grittier and have more belief than the two best players in the post-Sirena generation?
i don't know that i would have bet on it and i couldn't be happier to be wrong i think she's amazing i think she played amazingly well uh friend of the show max eisenbud was beside himself he's he's been with maddie since the beginning um was texting him and he's like i've been i've been crying dribbling like a blubbering moron for since it happened that's awesome and i said the only part um
That I can tell you for sure is the moron part, Max, but I'm really happy for you. The thing about tennis, there's so many people that are invested in these people and these stories, not knowing if it's ever going to happen. Very, very probable that they go through and it's what if. And that would have lasted a long time. But I think those moments where...
Maddie's in despair after that U.S. Open makes this sweeter for everyone around her, too, because I know those people were there for her when that happened. And even if they didn't believe it, I guarantee you they were telling her that they did, which is part of the game, too. I don't know. This is like my cup is full, not because we're playing favorite. I mean, I think the world of Irina Sabalenka and what she's done as a player over and over.
Yeah, and I said that much. We were lucky enough to have an episode with her, and she came on, and I said this to her. I know she's going to win bunches of majors, and something else I know for sure is that Maddie Keys is a Grand Slam champion forever, which is pretty great. What do you think, Producer Mike? That's awesome. I mean, I think we now have four American women in the top ten. So cool. Which is pretty cool. We got Emma Navarro at eight.
jess pagula six uh we have our new friend maddie keys at seven and we have coco golf three i think that's i think it's awesome i i think people push each other even like let's give credit to the men too because you know the the women are fantastic we know that they have the the upside to to to win majors um it's proven but the men also like you look at that group
They've all been in semis and majors now. Ben's been in two. Francis has been in two. Tommy Paul's been in one. Fritz has made a final. That wasn't happening even during my generation. You weren't having guys pop off into the semis regularly. I love James and Marty. They're brothers to me, but they didn't make a semi. This is a great moment. I hope we can appreciate it.
For fuck's sake, I hope we can not talk about what we're not doing in American tennis right now. Can we clear the deck with this a little bit? Can we acknowledge progress and be happy about it? And not just bring up the ghost of players' pasts all the time. It's just a really, really great moment. This was a great story. Sinner and Zverev tonight. It almost feels like weak to do a preview right now because the story is so much bigger than doing balls and strikes.
I'll keep it short. I like center. I think he's going to be able to get on the front foot. I think Zverev is going to have to play a little bit outside of himself or serve really well, like impossibly well, which he's capable of. Center's going to be able to find the Zverev forehand. Zverev is the cross-cross back-end matchup. Center's one of the few that can actually hang in there with Zverev, and he can switch directions. So I'll be really curious to see what adjustments are made.
Listen, maybe we have two first-time winners who have experienced heartbreak at the end of majors before. And Zverev is certainly at that camp. He's undoubtedly, if you're going by numbers and not feeling, the best player that hasn't won a major. And when he does win a major, he goes ahead of a lot of people who have as far as career accomplishments instantly. That's the only thing he's missing. Is that number one ranking? But people have been pretty selfish with that number one ranking during his time.
Um, but I don't know. I just, I just feel, I'm going to feel my feet might not touch the ground today just because I have so much pride and admiration for, uh, for Maddie this morning. And I hope she is taking it all in. I know she is. I mean that I'm getting emotional now, like her celebration in that moment when she won, you could feel the world lifting off of her shoulders. It was just, it was just fantastic.
I thank you all for watching these quick served episodes. Not in studio today, as you can tell. I'm traveling, but I like that. I really appreciate you guys tuning in and letting us kind of spout all of our opinions that may or may not be right. It's been a fun run. We'll do one more for you tomorrow after the men's final. But what a fucking Australian Open. And Matty Keys, you're a champion. Really happy for you. Thanks for watching served.