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This is Peter Kafka, the host of Channels, the show about what happens when media and tech collide. And this week, I'm talking to Katie Drummond, who runs Wire. She's found a way to breathe new life into that publication by... covering news. We started covering Doge, like several stories a day, every single day. And after like a week, I sort of looked around and was like, where is everyone else? That's this week. on channels wherever you listen to your favorite podcast.
Hey, all you cool cats and kittens, John Wertheim here. It is today's quick serve. Our wrap up of Roland Garros sponsored by Amazon Prime for the Serve Podcast Network. Day six, day cease in the books. It was a long one. Full disclosure, I was courtside for a lot of the day for two matches. So I can tell you everything you want to know about Tommy.
Paul against Karen Hotchinoff. I can tell you a lot about Carlos Alcarazza, Demir Schumer. I did not see a whole lot of other tennis because that's where I was stationed. But let's run through the results. Good day of tennis here as we make the turn into the business end of this major kick.
things off. Irina Sabalenka going for her first Roland Garros title. Straits at winner over Olga Nilevic, the lefty from Serbia. Sabalenka continues to look very strong and look like the betting favorite that she is. Holger Runa followed her up. Kenton Hallease in five sets. Hallease, a few points from winning this match, a heartbreaking loss for him. He ends up being the last Frenchman remaining for reasons we will get.
through we'll get to in a moment jasmine paulini crowd favorite finalist last year rome champion just a few days ago she advanced As did Carlos Alcaraz. That was a night session. That's where I was. This was a very strange match for about 90 minutes. This was the Carlos Alcaraz performance featuring Demir Schumer as cannon fodder, as the obligatory opponent.
It was a fun atmosphere. Everybody was applauding, a lot of smiles. There were fans on the concourse. Then all of a sudden, Demir Schumer takes an injury break in the third set. He breaks Carlos Alcaraz, closes out the set, gets a break to start the fourth, and all of a sudden this goes from a fun night out in Paris on a Friday night, getting to see one of the great stars of international sport, to, whoa, could this be a colossal upset?
Very strange. Demir Jumar, 33 years old. He's very flashy, great shot maker. Not a booming tennis presence. Had zero aces. And Carlos Alcaraz just seemed to go on a bit of a walkabout. A weird match, an entertaining match. Carlos Alcaraz ended up... getting it together or we would have led with that and ended up closing it out in four sets. But it was longer than three hours and a very strange kind of match. Carlos Alcaraz can rest easy.
His defending champion, his title defense is still intact, but not the last 90 minutes he was looking for, especially because he has a very tough next opponent in Ben Shelton. Remember, Ben Shelton got a walkover in a second round match. Ben Shelton has only played twice, but he's in the fourth round. That's Carlos Alcaraz's next opponent. Shelton won pretty handily today. Other matches, Lorenzo Musetti.
who has been playing so well this year. He lost a set, the first set, and then triumphed pretty handily. Iga Svantec, the draw is really looking good, and so is her tennis. We sort of spoke all credit to Andy for essentially saying... Give her her props for what she's achieved. Bank on her based on her track record. Maybe Roland Garros will have this restorative effect on her tennis. That's pretty much what happened. She wasn't at her best today, but she beat Jacqueline Christian.
She also was very happy to learn that Yelena Ostapenko, her kryptonite, was eliminated by Elena Rabakina. So not only is Iga Svantec playing well, the draw is opening up for her, and suddenly she's looking like a... Pretty good contender to win that fifth Roland Garros in the last six years. Rabakina, again, as I said, beat Yelena Astepenko.
Maybe next week we can talk a little bit more about Rabakina, who's played very well here. Remember, she can play on clay. She beat Serena Williams at Roland Garros in Serena Williams' last match. A lot of off-court theater with Rabakina. Maybe Andy and I can get to next week.
She's in week two. Other matches. Francis Tiafoe beats Seb Korda. Battle of two Americans. And Francis has been very buttoned up. Here's a player who we often sort of say, lovely guy, good presence out there. And boy, it's a shame he cannot bring that. US Open intensity the other 50 weeks of the year. Well, he's bringing it here. Hasn't a lot to set. Beat Corda.
Won a tight tie break in the first set and then really closed it out. And suddenly Francis is looking very strong here on the clay. Other matches. Victoria Mboko. Born in. Drumroll. Charlotte, North Carolina. We're, yeah, exactly. Give it up for Charlotte. Pity the United States couldn't have seized her as their own because she moved to Canada and now is a bright Canadian prospect, 18 years old. Remember the name. She's been a real revelation. I mean, this is like.
Fonseca of the women's side, I'll say. Maybe that's an exaggeration. But Victoria Mboko, very nice player, very poised in the interview room. Just a great revelation this tournament, really this entire spring. She did not win today, however. She lost to Zheng Chenwen, who is a... Olympic gold medalist at this same venue. Zhang has been playing very well here. The maps that I watched for four plus hours, Tommy Paul, we were told he was injured, had a grade A.
um, strain of his abdomen. It did not look good. Talk to his coach, Brad Stein. It was sort of like this, this thing ain't going to get better. Tommy's just got to struggle and get through it. Guess what? Tommy struggled and got through it. He played like a truck owner. This was just sort of gritty, gritty, grimy, dusty tennis. And Tommy Paul prevails in five sets. Really, I thought of admirable performance. Remember, this is the boys champion here 10 years ago has never really replicated that.
in the men's draw. Now he is in week two. Again, keep an eye on the ab, but he got through it and gridded out a five-set win. Ben Shelton, as I mentioned. Has gotten lucky with injuries, got lucky with the draw, played the Italian qualifier Gigante, and Ben Shelton was Gigante. By far the superior player today, Lina Svitolina, crowd favorite. Married to Gael Monfils. I understand she may be getting an MBA, I was told. She's also...
A Ukrainian player playing under a very difficult circumstance as a mother. I think Spitalina's got a lot going on. You know what's going on? A week two showing because she outlasted Bernarda Pera, the American lefty, in a late match. Court Simone Mattu. Amanda Anasimova, who nearly reached the finals here five years ago, beat Clara Towson of...
Denmark in another result. Two big off-court stories that were breaking late this afternoon and this evening. Arthur Feast, the 20-year-old Frenchman, won a stirring second-round match over João Munar of Spain. Majorca, great match, great atmosphere, up and down. We talked about it yesterday. Feast wins in five sets, yanks his shirt off, controversy, booing, whistling, exhaustion.
At age 20, Arthur Feast does not have what it takes to recover fast enough. He said he took a lot of ice baths. He did not hit today, but late today we got word that he will not be able to post for his third rounder. So Andre Rublev, the opponent advances. Two effects of that. One of them is, unfortunately, there are no more French players remaining. Arthur Feast, 20 years old. I mean, Andy and I have talked about him a lot. Electric player, a lot of shot making, great personality.
Pity for this event that he is not able to compete in another match. What it does mean is that Joao Fonseca gets his match moved too. Longland Court. So Joao Fonseca, who has been exiled to the boonies inexplicably, will now play along with all those Brazilians.
On a show court. The other big news, though, that broke was Lou Scheer, the head of the USTA. Scheer to the Mets, which sounds like a baseball trade. It is not. Lou Scheer is leaving the USTA and going to work as president of a business operation.
operations for the Mets. I guess the good news is his commute time won't change. The Mets, of course, play on the other side of the Long Island railroad tracks. But yeah, this is a bit puzzling. I mean, Luchier, generally well-liked. He's been at the organization for a long time, well-respected.
Just last week, the USTA announced $800 million renovation refurbishment to Arthur Ashe Stadium. The US Open, which is going to this three-week event, they're going to hold the mixed doubles event in advance. A lot of innovation going on. That's less than 90 days away. So to lose your leader this close is a bit problematic for tennis. I was told the interim, I don't know.
All right. Well, we'll say this and I hope this I'm not going to get fact checked. I think I've got this secure enough. But apparently the interim the interim leaders are going to be Brian Vahali, a former player who's. chairman of the USTA board, and Andrea Hirsch, longtime lawyer there who now I believe is COO. They're going to be the interim leaders. But in all likelihood, there will not be a replacement. This is a big, big job, big job for American tennis, big job for the US Open.
Not ideal timing. I can't imagine that job is going to be filled by the time the U.S. Open rolls around. So this is sort of an interesting twist in tennis. Luchier, you know, I suspect Steve, the bottomless vortexes that are Steve Cohen's pockets may have perhaps been the decider here. But Luchier will now be across the.
LIRR tracks from the National Tennis Center. He'll be working for the Mets. Congratulations to him. Again, this is one of the good guys of tennis, reasonable, sort of a... compromiser um it's a pity tennis loses him but the usta has a big leadership hole to fill that's an off-court story from a different major and i suspect that uh
Roland Garros might have preferred that that news had held. So there'd been more attention on their event. But as it is, day seven awaits. It is actually today. We have gone past midnight. What do we have on the schedule? Jesse Pagula, third seed against Monqueta. Vondrusova, former finalist here. Just a quick factoid.
Pagula and Tommy Paul share a physio. Tommy Paul's got a lot of recovery to do. I hope for Jesse Pagula's sake she is healthy because that poor physio is going back and forth between two players. Alexandra Zverev. trying to win his first major and do one round better than last year where he reached the final, his playing caboli. What did we say? Leave the gun, take the caboli. But I think we take Zverev to win in that one.
Coco Gauff against Marie Buscova. I believe I'm a lapsed hockey fan, I must confess. But Marie Buscova's boyfriend, what's his name? Alex. Help me. Who's a hockey fan? You guys hockey fans? Nope. Who's the captain of the Panthers? Her boyfriend's playing in the Stanley Cup. I don't know if that's going to be a distraction or maybe a motivation, but Marie Buskova is Coco Goffsum.
opponent in the next round. Alexander Barkov. Alexander Barkov. There you go. There you go. As opposed to Michael Barkan. Alexander Barkov is Marie Buskova's boyfriend. Just a little. I do not think that will have any impact on this match, which I suspect Coco Gauff will win. Other matches, it's starting to smell a lot like Novak. Novak Djokovic, remember him? Three-time champion, 24 majors. Boy, are we in such a different place than we were like 10 days ago.
Not only does he come in winning a title, not only does he look good here, in his third round match, he plays a qualifier, Filip Misalic, who beat Denis Shapovalov in the previous round. Boy, Novak Djokovic's fortunes have sure... And suddenly he has gone from, boy, what do we make of Novak to there are fewer and fewer reasons why he cannot win here and thus win his 25th major. I would be very surprised if he is tested by.
a qualifier but you never know um who else do we have in action mira and dreva A semifinalist last year who's looked very good so far. Yannick Sinner gets Yuri LaHeshka. Fonseca Draper is a big match that two young stars on the make. That will be a hot ticket. Fonseca Mania. continues to rage here. This is a big step up for him. This is a big test, though. Let's see how he can do against a top five player they played earlier this year. This will be a tough one for...
Fonseca Matty Keys against Sonia Kennan. Those two know each other well. Two former Australian Open champions. Daria Kazakina of Australia against Paola Bedosa. Alexander Bublev, who a lot of people chastise us for not mentioning his upset of Alex Dimonor. Alexander Bublev, who can A, play on clay, B, when he feels like it, can play with anyone, has looked very good, came back from two sets to love against Alex Dimonor, which is no...
Easy task. So we apologize. All credit to Alexander Bublik. Watch for his next round match. Battle of two Brits. This is the first time since 1968 that three British men have been. in the third round of this tournament and they'll get one player into the fourth round because Cam Norrie plays against Fernley.
Talon Griegspor against Ethan Quinn, the lone American to qualify a college player with a monster forehand. Very nice tournament for Ethan Quinn, regardless of how that goes. Haley Batiste is in action as well. Novak gets that night session. and I at some point will address this controversy of no women playing at night. Now is not the time, though.
It should be a great day of tennis. I mean, this event, so far, the weather has been great. The matches have been great. This is tennis sort of transitioning into the era. Post Rafa, post Roger, post Serena. We've got upsets. We've got some stalwarts. But this has been a very strong tournament, I think, through week one. We will have another quick serve tomorrow brought to you. We won't have another quick serve tomorrow. We're doing the draw show. Yeah, we're doing the redraw show, baby.
All right. I stand corrected. Three Draw Show is sponsored by Amazon Prime. Yes, it is correct. Yeah, we're doing it a little bit early for everybody because on Tuesday, we'll have our Andre Agassi special. So we are going fourth round through the finals where John and Andy get to eat some crow. You guys get to make fun of them in the comments and tell them how wrong they are, and they'll probably pick all the safe picks.
I don't know what you're talking about. I don't even know why we're doing a redraw. The implication is that we missed a couple of picks along the way. But I don't recall missing any. Yeah. So I stand corrected. Tomorrow we will have a redraw show. We've got a lot of. other fun stuff coming up. I didn't realize this Andre Agassi was, I didn't realize this was public info. I thought we were sort of tap dancing around it, but there you have it. We've got Andre Agassi as well.
Again, this has been a really fun tournament so far. I hope it keeps up the momentum. We'll be back redrawing. Francisco Sarundalo, you are dead to me. Just kidding. But we will have our new picks. Luckily, Demir Jumer is not a player we have to reckon with, but I'm still getting over the last.
Sitting courtside for the last 90 minutes of Carlo Alcaraz. That was a strange, strange match tonight. Get some sleep, Chad. Get some sleep, Chad. I'm going to sleep. You guys be well. Thanks, everyone, for listening. This is QuickServe, brought to you by Amazon Prime. We'll be back tomorrow redrawing. Support for the show comes from Amazon Prime.
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