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Follow the show on YouTube or wherever you listen to your podcasts. Hey everyone, welcome to another week of Served. It's producer Mike's Absolutely. favorite type of episode when we're in like the third round of a master series on like a random Tuesday. because we've played two tournaments in a month, or we will play two tournaments in a month leading into the French show. You love that, don't you? It's great. There's so many topics that come out of this. Yeah. So much.
finality it's yeah i mean there's matches playing right now we're instantly outdated it's great we can we can like spend a half hour breaking down sinner and navone and alcaraz and jara yeah I mean, I think the biggest thing where it's like a kind of a surprising question mark
is Iga. And not because she's, listen, she makes the semis in Madrid. Most people are pumped about that, right? She's made the quarters before she lost in Rome to Daniel Collins. She made the quarters of every event she had entered this year. So again, best player of her generation so far. Sabalenka gaining on it. Maybe you throw Ash Barty if you don't think she precedes it.
something that's weird. And she's, you know, we judge her against her own shadow and clay, which has been monstrous over the last five years, like Rafa-esque over the last five years. She's struggling on clay for the first time since 2020 when she broke through and won Roland Garros.
Is that fair to say? Lost one and one to Coco and lost five and one to Danielle Collins, whose best service probably isn't Clay? JW, are we sounding the alarm or are we just kind of like, you know, whatever, she'll figure it out? or sounding the alarm. Doesn't mean she won't figure it out. She has not reached a final.
since Roland Garros 2024. Really, 48 weeks since she's never mind won a title. She hasn't even reached a final. I think some of this is the results. Remember, she lost in Miami to Ayala. Now it's like... Koko seems to have gotten her number. Ostapenko has her number. Mirandreva has her number. It's not like she's losing to Sabalenka in the finals, you know, 6-4 in the third. I think there's a real crisis here. I think that...
Some of this is the match results. Some of this is just she doesn't project joy. And you just, I mean, we've seen social media posts, we've seen interviews, you see her, this stress welded to her face when she plays. So some of this is just the results haven't been there, but some of this also is the way she is. projecting, I mean, my pet theory, hot take is that this doping incident really impacted her. I think most people that look at the fact
reach the conclusion this says a whole lot about the process and says very little about her ethics. I don't think a lot of people think that she did anything wrong. I think it's really impacted her. There's clearly some chaos in the camp. She's made an off-season coaching change. That didn't pay off. But no, this is a player who...
She's going to be number four. Best case scenario, if Jasmine Paolini does not win Rome, Eagle will be the fourth seed at Roland Garros. That's kind of jarring in itself, but more to me is... She hasn't won a tournament since she won her fourth Roland Garros. It's been a rough 12 months, 11 months. Yeah, and it's... Producer Mike, have you ever gone through a run of bad form and dropped to four in the world at something? Yeah, yeah. No, actually, we're number one in podcasting.
Yeah, if we narrow down the descriptors enough, we're number one or something. Yeah, we're really tight. Yeah, totally. No, listen, it's a strange thing. I feel the way when we do TC Live and it's like you're... you're breaking down a Carlos match and you're offering some sort of criticism or adjustments to his game, right? Like she's superseded my entire career in a single tournament, like by far, by like a multiple, but that's what we base.
any opinion of Iga against and you know credit to her it's almost like a weird form of flattery when we're sounding the alarm and she's four in the world But that being said, that's the reality of how we judge someone. you know, Federer loses fourth round, it's like, you know, the end of the world. And if some hotshot 17-year-old prospect makes the fourth round, it's all ahead of you. So obviously there are different ways to look at it. But yeah, JW, I have a hard time thinking that.
The melatonin situation, it being announced very publicly, I think it's had a real effect on her. She admitted that much when she released that social post right before Miami. It just feels like, you know, it feels like she looks like she feels the eyeballs and chatter and honestly, I don't see...
Too much of it, you know, I think that she complains about the Polish media, which, I'm sorry, if you're like a journalist, a sports journalist in Poland, and you're crushing ego on a week-to-week basis, you're a fucking moron. You are. I'm sorry. She's the greatest sports person you've ever had. You know, counter that to the Italian press giving Yannick a standing ovation when he walks into the press room, which is also ridiculous.
this week in Rome. If you're a Polish journalist and you are making Iga's life really difficult and not throwing a parade every time she talks to you, you're a moron. I mean, it's amazing. And she's not playing that well. Right? She's not playing that great. You mentioned the matchup against Coco. It used to be as bad as me and Roger. Right? And now Coco's gaining on it. And she's won the last couple. And she beat her one and one on clay.
So that seems like it's turned a little bit. We haven't even gotten to the Sabalenka of things. It seems like it's turned a little bit. When she used to get to the semis of a slam, it was like, close the door, Madison got her, and she played well against Madison. That was maybe the match, you know.
That Sabalenka-Sviatek back-to-back were stunning matches. Everyone was kind of present for that. But it's weird. You mentioned the coaching change, and that's also a strange thing because Wimph is set. Before the show, it's like you know him as a well-regarded coach. You know that his track record is good, and he's worked with a bunch of players. When we actually started going through, just so we kind of crossed T's and dotted I's, With Klysters, when she returns, slams Sabine Lissicky.
Got her to a Wimbledon final and beat Serena. Simona Halep in 2014. Victoria Azarenka in 2015. Johanna Conta and got her to the semis of her home slam at Wimbledon. You know, Kerber, Grand Slam, Naomi in 2020. This guy's been doing some freaking work on the coaching side for 15 years. So it's an obvious play for Iga to hire Wim Fassett, and it just seems like they're searching for whatever reason, and I don't know enough about... But what I do know, Iga is a Hall of Fame player talent.
you know, all of the things champion. Wim Facet is that on the coaching side and they're searching such as sports. There's no script. There's no guarantees. You got to go out there and earn it. every day are you are you putting her i think sabalenka is the favorite i think she's gotten to the point where
You know, it's that, I'm not saying she's Tiger Woods. I'm saying that Tiger Woods thing where you, would you take her or the field in most events that she enters right now? And I think that's a realistic conversation. That's the way the conversation has been at Roland Garros with Iga for a while. And you take Iga. John, do you think Iga's the second favorite at Roland Garros, or are we going further down the list right now?
It sounds crazy, right? I mean, she's won this four of the last five years. This is like, you know when you invest in a stock and you sort of look at, you know, do you want to look at its long-term performance or do you want to look at its performance in the last, 180 days. Where do you draw these bands? Is it before or after Liberation Day? Today's Liberation Day, baby. Have you seen the market? I'm sorry, Mike. I'm sorry. Oh my god.
Anyway, sorry. Go ahead, JW. Where were we? We need tariffs on tennis victories. Where were we? No, I don't know. I mean, I think, look, if you're coaching... Iga, you say, listen, this is the event you've owned. You're the queen here. You have won this four of the last five years. I don't care what you've done the last 48 weeks. Your track record here speaks for itself. You go queen, go NFL.
Um, you know, I mean, I think you could also look at this much more. So your coaching advice is just go in this thing. What do you tell? I mean, this has been a rough patch, right? And your point is taken that, listen, she's four in the world and she's only reaching major semis. We're still doing pretty well here.
This is not up to our standards. I mean, again, that's just math. What do you tell her? What do you tell a player that's really struggling for form and doesn't seem particularly happy on the court? What would your advice be? Here's where I'm at. And Iga has that like,
get on the front foot mentality when she's playing well she's smothering people right and she has the rpms in the forehand she doesn't hit run around she kind of stands right sets up right there in the middle and takes the ball on each side it feels like when she is uh searching She ups the aggression, right? It seems like she goes more. And I think that... It's tough.
If I'm our coach, I'm trying to convince her you have enough on your ball all the time, right? Your backhand gets through the court. Your forehand when you have time is through the court. Maybe it's as simple as like, listen, when you're running to the forehand side early on. Big swings and we're going to go back cross court. We're going to make people actually have to like hurt you lying, right? Use your wheels, use your movement. You can slide into the ball.
trust your weight of shot. Right now it seems like she doesn't trust it and therefore she's trying to go bigger and bigger and bigger and you get to a Collins where all of a sudden Ega's inside the court and you're striking one ball and she's pushed back. So I would be centering around trust. And not different than what you say. It's just there has to be a process to just go in the tournament. Use your wheel.
If anyone's struggling and they have the movement set that Iga Sviatek has, I would rely on that. Footwork is pretty recession-proof as far as your game. Getting the right torque on your shot selection definitely isn't. If your Achilles heels, when you go big on your forehand, your movement, her movement is great regardless. I don't think she needs to retrain her footwork at all. Trust your shot. Trust weight of shot. Make people work. to beat you as opposed to kind of just committing errors
It's not totally different than what I saw with Carlos. One, one of the biggest stories of this week in Rome, aside from Sinner. What's Novak going to do? We're going to get to all that on the other side of the first break. But Carlos, I think he needs to rely on his wheels when he's... Not perfect. And it's impossible to talk to someone who's already won four slams and who has this uber aggressive mindset.
But I think that saves him the losses to Goffin and the losses, you know, early-ish for him in slams. I watched him go into, like, D-mode against Jarrett yesterday, and literally the guy couldn't put a ball past him. He made him feel his speed getting, and then all of a sudden,
It starts going and you're hitting winners without actually having to press. I'd like to see that a little bit from Iga. Just trust in weight of shot. But it is crazy going into a clay tournament season and the warm-up events are all over and we're going, I don't know.
Well, she said she said as much, you know, when asked if it was her coach was an issue, which she said like it was a very harsh and unfair statement. Yeah. But she said the worst results coincide with many other challenges in recent months also in family life. I found myself at a stage in my career where I had to reformulate my thinking about myself.
You know, I mean, you have to take that into account when you're thinking about, is she the favorite for the French Open? Like, if she's sitting here, I mean, it's not just footwork, right? There's no, but my, like, yes. She's saying it so that obviously all of this has an effect. I'm saying if we're going to start the walk towards a destination.
In my opinion, it starts with her feet. It's something that you know isn't about ball striking. I want her focus on something that she's going to instantly feel confident with, right? And then it's weight of shot. The ball comes off your racket. It slings. Let's get some warm weather. Let's let that ball go. And if it's a soggy dog of a day, right, let's, let's.
have your quads win a match for you. Have your feet win a match for you. Take it away from balls and strikes and having to actually strike the ball perfectly. You get through one or two of those. Matt Rafa was a genius at this. Genius. If he didn't have it where he's slinging that forehand and hitting winners, I'm going to make your day an absolute nightmare and you're going to have to hit a million balls. I don't know. Novak is the same.
He'll play a lot. We hear that lockdown, Novak lockdown. What does that mean? It means he knows he has his range. He knows he can slide into every shot. He knows his plan B is a complete pain in the ass because you can't get a ball past him. Confidence in settling into that plan B, even if it's imperfect, is where I would start with that walk towards a destination. Because that's something that after one or two practice days,
Okay, I can settle into this. We're going to reset the floor. Now, the ceiling we're not even close to, but if I'm a coach, I would try to reset the floor and raise it. a little bit. And also remember, she's not going to play someone 12 in the world. She's not going to play, you know, a Daniel Collins in the first couple of rounds of Roland Garros.
you know she's gonna have two matches where she can work her way into it which is not like a master series or not like a you know 1000 where second match you're playing someone who is also you know most likely won big tournament When you talk about that, is something like this where would she be better off not getting a buy early on? Maybe at a certain point. I mean, you see people, you know.
I don't know. That's like talking about the Easter Bunny to me. Just because it's like, when she gets to the point where she's not getting buys in tournaments, she'll probably stop. You know, that's 32, so probably not. It's just, but to your point, like, JW, if you're in her camp, are you entertaining a wild card in like a 250 next week? Are you getting matches?
That would be very Vogue-ish. That seems to have fallen in favor with a number of players. I don't know. I mean, I think that's a real... tell to the field. I mean, no, no, we can talk in a bit about, you know, this Geneva field and Novak. I mean, Novak didn't play Rome. I think it's an awful big tell to the field. that you're really lacking in confidence if you're a four-time champion.
It's an interesting, I don't know how badly she needs matches and how much of this is I just need to get her head right. You said something really important that I think we overlook too much. With 32C, What does that mean? That means that if you are a top 32 player, you are guaranteed not to play anyone ranked higher than you until the third round.
So she won't play a top. So I think we forget that point too often, whether it's Novak trying to get their footing. When you're a seeded player, you are guaranteed two matches of a player ranked lower than you. that's a big opportunity to sort of get your groove back. I always wonder about Iga. I remember talking to Steve Kerr once and he had this whole riff about joy and how important joy is in sports and there are no metrics and there are no analytics, but...
When Steph Curry's got a smile on his face and when the Warriors as a team are all sort of communicating and have a rapport going, it's a much different basketball team. One thing I've noticed about IGA is What happened to the kooky conversations about what book she's reading? What happened to the... you know the self-deprecating stories about the she thought she was ordering x and the food instead was y
We watched her practice a few months ago and, you know, this was, I guess it was last year, but, you know, the coach and the sports psychologist barely had any communication during our practice session. It just seems as though there is this stress shrouding the whole enterprise and it manifests when she plays it manifests when she has social media posts that reference her anxiety there just seems everything is so taught I wonder how much you read into that, how much other players read into that.
how fans should process it. Part of this too is contrast that with Sabalenko who's posting funny dancing videos and she's doing pranks and she's like this YouTube queen and she's giggling her way through trophy presentation ceremonies. Some of it is thrown into sharp relief by the number one player but i'm just I'm concerned with ego by the level of stress.
that she expresses on and off the court. What do you, former top player, read into that, if anything? It's strange because I've said this before on this podcast. I think sometimes our biggest strengths are oftentimes our biggest weaknesses. The fact that Iga had it figured out at 19. And Sabalenka is in her prime at 27. You know, Iga has four years until she's at, you know, if I'm wrong, then whatever. It's wrong by four and a half years or six months or whatever it is.
But, like, she will have gone through another lifetime of tennis before she saw Belenka's age. Right? So it's weird. She had that focus early. And now I think expectation is tough, whereas Sabalenka had the expectations early that she didn't quite overcome. You know, we saw her at 19. We're like, she's going to be a world beater. And it took her a minute.
Right. And right now it's like opposite ends of the spectrum, you know, with the expectation set involved, it's taking EGON a minute. Like, so I don't know. I, you know, it's easy to say now that like Sabalenka is the way to go. But that would have been an insane conversation to have four years ago. It would have been a crazy take four years ago. And it's like, you know, victim of the moment a little bit. I think the joy is, is, is that.
For sure. It seems like she's in a constant state of stress. It seems like we're in the point where, you know, producer Mike, when we talked about the Brene Brown episode, it feels like it's relief when she wins. And it's like, that's what should happen. You know, it's gotten to the point where, which has to be a really hard place to be. I was never there. But, like, if you win a tournament, it's like, oh, yeah, you were supposed to do that.
That's a tough one, but I think she's giving too much air to all of us yahoos. you know, who have an opinion, right? She's more accomplished than everyone, and she name-checked the Polish media. It's like, oh my God, you're giving them... Exactly what they want. Yeah, these losers who live in their parents' basement, like a mindshare in your brain. Um,
You know, it's a tough thing, but listen, bet against the greats at your own peril. She'll figure it out again at some point. I just don't know if she has enough time and reps. That's another thing about these two-week events. It's like she loses early. She has two full weeks. Do you know how long it feels to have two full weeks going into a major where you're not getting any match play? That's a long time. and you can practice as well as you want.
But not for a second. Do you ever... played great in practice two days in a row. And then go, you know what? I am fully confident I have it there, even though I haven't played well in any matches. Rafa talked about it. He's like, I was practicing great last year, and I'd get out there, and it wasn't quite the same.
It could happen to Rafa, it could happen to anyone. But I hope she turns it around. It's a more fun conversation when she's in the mix at Roland Garros and you feel like Sabalenka's trying to steal one from her there. But we'll see. Coco's playing great. She's definitely entered that conversation, pulling that forehand, like not trying to hit inside outs and down the lines, like punishing the ball cross court.
which also creates space up the line. The geometry of the rally she's getting is favorable. I thought it was really cool that Naomi Osaka went down a level and played a 125.
somewhere that I can't open 35 in France but goes and wins it and then referenced Andre in 97 or 90, whatever it was, I mean, he's flipping his own scoreboard the year after winning the Olympics and, you know, a year and a half before he got back to number one in the world in Vegas, 140 something in the world, you know, flipping his own scoreboard.
I think it's a great move. I think you take a little bit of humblebile. Now she's stepping up and she's... playing points on her terms again on a surface that doesn't benefit her I think it's the best possible thing that she could have done respect for kind of putting ego aside you know I have four slams but I also You know, those aren't going to win many points next week. So what can I do this week to affect next week? Props to her. I thought it was a great move.
Don't you love when Andre did that in 1997? I suspect he did not realize that 30 years later that would be seen as inspiration and something that players reference and emulate. You know, Naomi also played that 125 in France. On a surface that has not treated her well. This wasn't like she went to her backyard and got to sleep in her own bed. Lost today. We're going to timestamp this. Seven, six and a third to Peyton Stearns.
Good feisty former college players. Now won two straight matches, 7-6 in the third. I like the way Peyton Stearns is playing dark horse at the French Open to make a run. Hired Blaz Kavcic in Madrid. So coaching change that is bearing results early, sometimes a change. I like how she just goes and takes it on. She might get beat, but she is in there. She's in there throwing punches. I like Peyton Stearns a lot. Cincinnati person. There you go. Shout out. Danimal 2.0
Yeah, she's got that bulldog. She's got some fight in her. That was a good bet. But even that aside, Naomi different than she was three weeks ago. I like the 125 play like Peyton Stearns. And we will be right back after the break. It's been reported that one in four people experience sensory sensitivities, making everyday experiences like a trip to the dentist especially difficult. In fact, 26% of sensory sensitive individuals avoid dental visits entirely.
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Right. How's Carlos look? His movement looked phenomenal. He won the match against Jero with his legs. How's Sinner look? Listen, the draw was... If anyone's mad at him for it as far as karmic forces, They didn't take it out on him with this draw. Navone is a really good player, but he's going to have time. He's up against De Jong. We're shooting it as Yannick's playing, I think. We shoot on Mondays and release on Tuesdays. He's going to get his looks. He's entered like a lot of players.
are entered in the events next week. We'll see how many come and go. Novak just took a walk into Geneva, but I think Sinner looks good. I'm not super stressed about his form going into Roland Garros. Now we'll see if he gets an extended match, five-setter. How that turns around practice reps are not match reps.
because oftentimes I can't imagine Yannick Sinner getting nervous and not having an effect on his body in practice. But I think as far as like the eye test early on in Rome, I think Carlos passes. Big time. I think center passes big time. Carlos. Literally, I was happy watching because...
Obviously, if he gets inside and starts throwing body blows and can uppercut and go like full Tyson, like late 80s, you don't have a chance, but he often needs to get to that position. He made the adjustment to rely on his legs. He is so fast. There is another route for him that he utilized in the Jera match at Rome where he was like, you're going to have to put the ball past me. And guess what? Ball isn't going past him. Mixing up high...
adjusted return positions, all the things like if we're going to criticize and say, I wish he would have done this, let's give credit when he does. Went full confusing conquer method, switched it up mid-match. Jarrett was serving for the first set. Carlos flipped it, ran one going away. It was really exciting to watch, and it was no less dramatic, by the way. We kind of often make this thing where it's like, well, if he does that, it won't be as much fun to watch. Watching him cover the corners,
I don't know. I'd make reservations to watch that. So check this out. So oftentimes, the top players don't like to play. The week before a slam you wanna- I liked when I was playing well. I like to hopefully get a result, you know. the last tournament I played, and then I like to get to the slam. I like to get used to the conditions, the cadence, the habit of going to the court.
timing out how long it takes to get there, kind of dialing in your groove. That's what I like to do. That's what a lot of the top players like to do. How's this for an entry list in Hamburg? The week before the French Open. So they could be playing a final on a Saturday and a first round in Roland Garros or the French Open on a Monday. Sinner? who, by the way, if he makes the semis in Italian Open, I'll bet anyone 20 bucks that he will not play Hamburg. Musetti?
Got a lot of matches in. We'll see if that holds. Runa, I bet will play because he took a pretty... Average loss to Moutet, who competed his ass off, by the way. Tommy Paul, I don't know. He's over there. He's like, I'll give it a rip. Tiafoe, Rublev, Sarundalo, Sitsipas. These are guys that have played the entire clay court season, and they're adding another weight.
Not surprising to see Taylor Fritz in Geneva because he kind of just plays whenever there's a tournament to be played. Kasper Rude. if you win madrid go deep in rome did i don't know like i'd be if i'm if i'm dad i'm going i think we're good i think we're good dimitrov mahach novak takes a wild card into Geneva. I think it's the right call. You know, just, and I'm going to preface this with, I get everything wrong about Novak every time. Every time.
What would make sense to me is maybe he, in his movement, didn't look great in Monte Carlo and Madrid. He wasn't kind of fighting off one more ball. It feels like when he got stretched, he got exposed to the other side, I'm guessing. They went and just did a ton of legwork, a ton of two-on-ones. Let's get those legs set. So like we were talking about with Iga and like we were talking about with Carlos, Novak is the master along with Rafa.
at using your legs to find your best tennis getting reps making people play through you asking the question and then all of a sudden by round two three four The ball is flying off your racket. The forehands are happening. The winners are happening. I got to think from that loss to Arnoldi in Madrid, and maybe this is one of the benefits for Novak of every tournament lasting a full weather season. He could go find his legs. It's been like three weeks between events. It's absurd.
I think it's good for him to go to Geneva. I think it's a weaker field his first couple rounds. You know, he's not going to pull a Barrettini or someone first round. So I like this move from Novak. I think he has to have some matches going into Roland Garros. He knows that venue, that place backwards. It's not as important for him to be onside as it would be. for someone else. Do you like this move? Are you surprised by this move? I was not that surprised by it.
No, I mean, remember he did this last year too, right? Not dissimilar set of circumstances, and he goes to Geneva, wins a couple matches. I think he lost to Mahatsch, who's kind of a streaky player, but mission accomplished, right? He got some matches in, he won a few matches. And then he goes to Roland Garros, and he looked really good. Even that match where he suffered the knee injury, remember, he beat Sorundolo and won that match.
So it served its purpose last year. I mean, I think one thing that people might not always realize are the distances here in Europe. Geneva to Paris is like two and a half hours on the train or like a 50 minute flight. So I think that's part of it too. It's not like you're flying across a country and I think
These weeks between the majors, sometimes these tournaments, you know, people like, as you say, people like to take the week off. The U.S. Open, you come, you do your sponsor appearances, you get to hit at the tennis center, you get used to New York. But also these events can pick up players in need of matches and there we would be naive to overlook in some I don't think Novak's motivated by this in some cases there are appearance fees
And I think it's also, we talk about these 12-day masters. If you're Taylor Fritz and you lose early in Rome, do you fly back to the u.s nine hours of time difference and long flights and all the crap that comes with traveling for a week Or do you stick it out in Europe? Well, if I stick it out in Europe, you know, Jess Pagoula is another example. Jess Pagoula lost Saturday. It's two weeks before Roland Garros, but she really want to fly back.
to the U.S. though? Probably not. So stick around and get in some matches and then know that if you have to get from Hamburg or Geneva to Paris, you can do it in two hours. Yeah, these are all the kind of gymnastics that you walk through. And I took a couple before the U.S. Open a couple of times and before the French Open a couple of times. I took a couple of panic wild cards, right?
You get hurt in the summer. You don't play well. All of a sudden, you've had two matches in a month, to your point, JW. And all of a sudden, Winston-Salem starts looking real good as an option to kind of find some form. But I saw the draws, and actually Jim Currier sent them in an email when we were prepping for TC Lab the other day. These events are stacked, as stacked as I remember seeing.
for players going into a Grand Slam, and a lot of them are players that have actually been playing well. I mean, you look at Ruud, Runa, one in Barcelona, Sarundolo, Tsitsipas has played a heavy slate of events.
But I guess, you know, if you are those, you also realize, you know, since the boss is kind of close to dropping out of the top 20, he's got to go put points on the board. It's not, it's not even just Roland Garros to bust. He's kind of playing in the, you know, I'd like to be seated in the top 16 of. you know, events for the rest of the season. So a lot of questions answered. We'll see how Rome plays out. But, you know, hell, I'm not as worried about.
How Carlos does quarters or finals, like he's probably still the favorite at Roland Garros, was very curious to see how he's movement. He didn't think twice about sprinting for a ball like he was on it. So, you know, unless there's something that happens again. or re-aggravate something, he was going 0-60 pretty quick. I love what you've seen from center. The draw was nice. He didn't have to play some awkward, petty pair of card, Opelka, Berrettini just hitting bombs at you.
So that was good for him. What's up to that one? You want a center hot take? Yeah! When that sanction, when his plea bargain was... was presented. I think a lot of people, us included, said he doesn't miss a major and this guy wins in Australia and he'll serve his 90 days but he's back in time for Roland Garros. I think what might be more significant
is that his first tournament back was in Rome, didn't play it last year, Italian player who's won three majors in the interim. That was a really warm reception. And regardless of how you feel about him and the circumstances of his case,
A guy returning from a 90-day anti-doping sanction, there's some stress, there's some pressure. Who knows how a crowd anywhere other than your home country will respond to that? I think it's... really relevant that he got such a soft landing and he got this, you know, his practice was before he even played his first match.
He got a very warm reception when he went out for his first public practice. I think this is something we may have overlooked, that for a guy who had some potentially really tricky circumstances surrounding his return, the fact that he got to do so in such a hospitable place, I think... is something we should be talking about. Yeah, I will tell you, as you're walking through that, all I can think of is Roland Garros in the French Open. They'll boo their mother's cook in there.
They'll, they'll, they'll. I think he's embracing it. I think he's in all black. He's like, you know, there's all the Darth Vader memes. That's fun. I love it. Whatever the warm and fuzzies are in Rome. Yeah. You get sideways with the French crowd, like, boo, boo. Just boo you. Like, you know, like, to boo someone at a sporting event, they have to do something pretty gross.
Here it's like you catch the ball from the ball kid the wrong way. So all of those warm and fuzzies will probably go by the wayside, but I think that it's good for him to kick the tires before. I went on way too long, but let's get to a quick break. I'm going to give you two names, one on the men's side, one on the women's side, who I think should be way higher in the rolling girls' odds on the other side. Alright, welcome back. I got a couple names for you guys.
You know, we do these on TC Live. We do the show, the odds, right? For, you know, he's never on that first page of odds who should be on the first page of odds because he's been playing great and he can absolutely bully people. Arter Fies is an animal. He creates so much speed. He has a big boy body. He's beaten Tsitsipas on clay a bunch of times. If he's not in the top 10 on your site, then I don't think your site knows what they're talking about.
Another one sneaky one that's going to end up in like the quarters around a 16, you know, semi something. Costiak. is playing really well right now, and she caught Sabalenka in the quarters. She gave Sabalenka her toughest match in Madrid. She now has to play Sabalenka again. I think it's sometime today, which is Monday. She's playing really well. If she gets a soft draw, she's going to make a move.
at Roland Garros. Is that crazy, JW, or is everyone else crazy? Well, I like those. What do we make of the fact, I got two Arthur Feast adjacent questions. One of them is, French player playing in Paris. He'll be the highest ranked. He's higher than Umberto right now. He'll be the highest ranked French player. There's attention. I don't...
I don't have in front of me. I don't believe he's ever going to match at Roland Garros. Do we worry about the pressure that comes with being the French player at the French event? Yes. Yes, it's an unknown. I mean, Amelie Maresmo is a phenomenal two-time slam winner. And she admitted, now the tournament director, she had a hard time playing there. You know, she comes in as the two or three seed, sometimes the one seed every year.
And yeah, it's definitely a real thing. I mean, playing, I mean, Murray had to deal with it. so much. I think being successful at your home slam is very difficult. Feast seems to like to engage. He seems to be pretty, you don't really have to wonder what he's thinking. I think they're going to eat him up if he starts playing well.
But yeah, I do think that's something that we need to watch. It's past the balls and strikes that I was just talking about and kind of just game on game. Tough to predict. It seems like he has the personality for it, but you just, you never know. But I think that's a really good point. All right, you mentioned that personality. You probably caught him after he beat Tsitsipas, and they had a moment at the net. They had a summit.
I'm still not sure I've read like three different versions and I'm not sure anyone authoritatively definitively said what happened but apparently something had to do also with with a body shot We had a body shock. last month with Ben Shullin and Vavasori. That fractured his ribs. A rib fracturing body shot. I'm going to let you describe the fees one in a second. the doubles one where Ben hit a guy with a swinging four and he was three feet in front of the baseline.
That's not out of bounds. I'm sorry. Like someone hits a forehand, your job is to have quick hands and they... They peg you up in your ribs and then you pull out of the next week. You say you have broken ribs. By the way, do either of you know the standard amount of time it takes for broken ribs to heal? No. Six to eight weeks. Oh, do you want to know how many days it took after like one?
I don't think you can break someone's ribs with a tennis ball. I'm just going to say it. I've never seen it. Not at that distance. Bullshit. Not at that distance. Bullshit. Guy was back in 10 days. He didn't have fucking broken ribs. Anyways, go finish. And then tell us about the Sitsipas and Feast thing. No, no, keep, because honestly, I didn't even see, I mean, I've only read these accounts. My question to you is,
Can you just kind of give us the breaches of protocol? Can you give us the rules of the road for body shots? When are you right to be pissed off? Because I think most of the time you hold up a hand and it's a fair play to go down the middle.
I think fans would be interested to know when have we crossed a line and what's acceptable and what isn't. I think the only time... that it's crossing the line is if you're in doubles and the ball is like a floater and you have like a sitting overhead that's bounced and you're five feet from the net. And I've seen guys kind of like turn their back where you can literally hit it anywhere. Like they've given up on the point. If you tee someone up there.
It's within the rules, but that would get my attention a little bit. Also, I probably wouldn't turn my back, so it's kind of self-inflicted. I don't want to hear about... People getting hit like and feast to his credit by the way because I've done this a million times and I'm a I'm a prick for doing it But he goes I needed energy He goes, I needed something. I was getting beat two and two. Like I was, Steph was killing me. He basically did the McEnroe and bluffed.
you know, became an energy vacuum and then started getting the crowd into it. And at the end, he just said he didn't have an issue with it. Like he's like, he teed me up and he should have. And it wasn't, it wasn't like, Steph didn't take a cheap shot at all. Like it was.
I would have had an issue if Feast would have defended being pissed about it. Like if he would have kept it up? He basically just said I used it as like an energy source and kind of tried to throw a wedge into the match and change the energy. And he goes, and it worked. I have no issue. And also, stop whining if you get hit. Can we stop with this? You're going to be mad. You're going to be pissed. No one likes getting teed up.
But don't act like someone's doing something wrong. Ben Shelton did zero wrong. And when he said, like, that's soft, he was absolutely right. What a great reply. I teed up a guy harder than Dingles today. He was 57. Sorry. Utterly abuse. I'm sorry. Are we playing sports? We're not going to get over the soft labels in tennis if we're getting hit by a felt ball. Like, whatever. Like, you can't break. I've hit people 120 mile an hour before, like, overheads. You can't break ribs.
And if you do break a rib, it's not a... Get out of here for eight weeks. I don't know. It's like everyone's obsessed with it. People get chippy. I don't think there's going to be an issue with fees since it's a boss, like next week in the locker room. It seems like it's passed completely. I think six months from now, they're going to laugh about it.
I think when Sitsipas has a podcast in 10 years, he's going to laugh about it and tell you the actual thing and what happened. But if you're playing doubles and someone tees you up from the baseline... Get over it. Get over it. Don't get hit. Someone teased me up from the baseline. That's my fault. What about you, JW?
A little heavy-handed by me? I want to... No, I mean, I think there are all these... I think you're right. I mean, I think a guy concedes the point and throws his arms up and then turns their back to the net. You don't want to drill him, but other than that... I'd say 19 times out of 20, it's a fair play. Maybe Mike in the show notes can link Andy versus Darren Revell. Remember that?
Did you not break his ribs? We'll do that. We'll do that. I didn't break his ribs. And Jay and Dan from, we used to do, I used to do a show on Fox Sports Live. I teed them up too. For bits. I'm sorry if like the, if Darren Ravel can take. a peg from me, then professional athletes should be able to take a peg from me. If you were to be like, whose ribs would you break? I'd be like, probably Darren Ravel's. Darren Ravel. Yeah, his ribs look breakable.
Yeah, I don't know. I just like, let's get over this. And by the way, what's his? Vavasor, he hit them twice that set. After he got pissed at Ben, he had picked them off twice that set. Fuck outta here, bud. All right. Thanks for listening. We'll be in a better mood next time. Actually, no, we got a bunch of announcements to make. Yeah, we got announcements. We're launching our newsletter this week. It'll drop with this episode. You can find it on our website. Go sign up. Link in the show notes.
Linktree, all the good places. What's a Linktree? That's a question for Sophie. Great. It's a tree of links. Moving on. Check out the show description for that. We're still formulating our idea to give away your shoes, and I think we have a really good idea that we'll announce with our draw show. We haven't done that yet? No. It's going to run through the French Open. Okay.
We'll let you know. Sign up for the Chuckers Club. Find the membership program on YouTube. I got bigger news. What? Do the Chuckers Club. Oh, I was talking about doing, Eubanks was in town last week and we were hitting some. Oh, yeah. I'm thinking we might start dropping some hidden shows for the Chuckers. Oh, I like that. Like the top five lists. Eubanks was getting all into it. He was arguing with me at dinner. We're going to turn this thing into like,
First tech. Just scream at each other. Yeah, when I think of Chris Ubex, I think of... Screaming. Yeah, exactly. I can promise you if Eubanks and I got in a fight, I know exactly whose fault it is. It's my fault. 100%. I got big news, though. I don't even know if JW knows about this yet. Guess who we have will release the second Tuesday of the French Open. June 3rd. Interview. In person. Will he be working for TNT? He will be, and he's my idol, so this is kind of a cool moment for me.
He's right there on the board. Where is he? Look at the old moulet right there. Andre Agassi going to join the show. We're going to drive down and do that. I'm pumped. So excited for that. That could be our Springsteen show. That could be a two and a half hour show. I know, they gave us like a four hour block and I'm like, we're going to use you every minute.
He wants to rip it up. And it'll be cool because he's going to have something to promote and announce, which will come out in the next couple weeks. And then he'll go from, we'll shoot that on Monday. Quick turnaround time for you, Techie Sean. Good luck. That'll be out Tuesday morning, and then he's flying over and doing the last four days of coverage on TNT, which is great. There are a few people that I want to listen to break down.
X's and O's in someone's habits more than Andre Agassi. I'm excited to see what TNT does. I hope they use him like they should.
I hope it's going to be pretty cool. I like that they're bringing Venus into the fall. They're bringing Andre into the fall. I think it's great, but I'm pumped for that interview. That's going to be one where I'm going to have butterflies going in just because you don't want to get it wrong how many times you get to interview your idol you know imagine how important someone is if they have you wearing hot pink spandex You know? It's like a life moment.
That's awesome. Anyways, that'll be cool. Yeah, so thank you for listening. We'll have a recap. Next week, maybe we'll do some Q&A. Maybe we'll do some questions. What do we have next week? Yeah, maybe. JW is out of town on us. He's got a personal, you have graduation. Right, JW? So we're going to find something. Tell us about that. Daughter's college graduation, that's an excused absence, right? It's excused. You're excused. I was going to do that, but then it turns out I wasn't that smart.
congrats jw in all seriousness congrats enjoy we'll figure out someone to come on maybe we'll get maybe we'll bring him in maybe we'll call you back oh we should talk about uh last um yeah maybe we'll get you thanks um well he'll be playing qualities maybe uh Talk about Laval. Oh, yeah. My flight got canceled because of all the flying in, but Sophie was able to go up. We sat down with one Hannah Berner in New York, and Kim and her had an awesome time talking, I think.
I didn't realize how good she was.
at the collegiate level like she was number one at wisconsin yeah hannah burn she uh on netflix special huge comedian podcaster reality like she's doing this whole new media thing she is an absolute star but played number one at wisconsin yeah that was really good but even just like she talks about her like writing bits right she's like it's easier for me to write about my husband and a bit about my husband than it is for tennis she's like it's still too wrong really she still misses it
so much and now she's you know doing stuff with lululemon she has sponsorships with racket companies it's crazy it's cool Give her 10 years and she'll be able to write a book about you know, matches she played when she was 11, like Costa. She actually brought him up. They actually hit together early in her career. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. All right. Well, that's all the news for now. Go check out Love All. I'm pumped for the Andre episode coming up.
We'll figure out what the hell we're doing next week. We'll bring someone in. It'll be fun. JW, have a good week. Congrats on the graduation. And we'll see you next week. Thank you for listening. And watching, sir, was I too hard on the, when someone gets pegged? No, that was good. All right, see ya. That was good. Okay, my broken wrist. Gracias.