Okay, Hi, everybody, welcome to the Renee Stubs Tennis Podcast. We are in New York City. We're not in my usual spot, but we are in a beautiful spot. We have a lovely view and Caitlin's had a couple of sidecars.
Let's see what happens in the bar.
Are rare occasion, but you know, tosty Memorial Day we did.
Who serve?
We did? That's right, Happy Memorial Day to everyone who served and is serving. And of course we also bumped into a little common downstairs in the bar.
You know, if you're in the mix like we are. Yeah, sometimes you know, you just have some slebrity account.
With Jennifer Hudson.
Little common little you know, connect the darts, connect.
The dice they were hapving. Maybe a sidecar as.
Well, could be could?
I mean, we are not in Paris, we are not sadly sadly, but we're in New York City.
We do have to talk about, of course, what happened last week before we get to the French Open and what's going on there with all the shenanigans. You were, of course away for the weekend. I was in Indiana doing my you know, love of the liberty.
Rough life getting to fly with celebrity out to their games. You know on the plane, do they have a stencil on the side.
No, No, stencil is just all Delta, which, by the way, thank you Delta because they have done an amazing job giving the charter flights to the w NBA players. But no, Caitlin, you were busy on the weekend. I was busy on the weekend, which we were a bit late getting this out, but we do have to talk about Novak Djokovic. He joins a very very very special group of one hundred plus titles on the A Top two where he joins of course Raja Rafa and Jimmy Connors. Yes, people remember
that guy. That guy won so many tennis matches and nine titles.
He won so many tennis matches, singles, Grand Slams, played eight hundred. Yeah, I mean, this guy, we forget about him a little bit, and I feel like, you know, we can get into why, but just results themselves, they're sort of staggering.
Yeah, it is staggering. And the staggering part is that he didn't win more Grand Slams. You know, when you think about how many totonomous he won, he didn't win more Grand Slams, but at the same time, you know, he was going up against John McEnroe, and you know Yvonne Landell and Matt's v Landa and all these great champions from the past, and he was a little volatile, but clearly he got the job done at regular autonomous in fact that he has one hundred and nine.
Yeah, Jimmy Caunors was kind of like our nick curious well, I mean, but.
Maybe a little bit of as far as the personality is. But when we're talking about work ethic, no one worked harder than Jimmy Connors.
And he had a mom who made sure that he did not miss a tournament.
I said, serve, I mean.
Kid, this guy wanted to win. He wanted to win.
Yeah, Jimmy Canors is somebody we don't actually talk very much about, which is why I played will team tennis with him once.
What was he like? Interesting cat? You know, he would like to have a side cow or two with us.
I believe, let's put it that way.
I the last I heard of Jimmy Connors is you could buy a couple's massage with Jimmy Connors.
All of the things that I don't surprise me. Whatsover?
What do I want to do that?
I don't know.
But then you get a massage here in Florida, you get like, I don't know to hang out with Jim mccarnter's.
Sometimes there's you know, there's some speries I would want to do that. I don't know where. You just keep them to yourselves. I'm going to keep my Jimmy Connor stories to myself. We'll look forward to them because he's fun. I'll tell you that.
Sure. So going back to Novak, yeah, tatle number one hundred.
Obviously he now has the record for Grand Slams, but the tatos themselves not bad and.
A title he should not have won. No, I mean he was down should Jube is playing out of his mind. He's serving out of his mind. He has not lost his serve the whole match. He gets up four to three in the third, he plays a great point. He has a complete sitter forehand. Like when I say sitter, Novak is literally falling over himself on the left side of the court, running to a backhand who becomes people on the perfect inside out foehand, which you know I love.
Don't come in across court fourhand people, if you do cover the cross court, that's just my golden rule in tennis. He comes in on the perfect shot, he has an absolute sitter, and he just stinks it into the net. And you could just tell because Herbie is like a five year old in a fifty year old buddy. He looks like someone has just stolen his blanket, like his favorite blanket. He just was like, I'm not gonna beat Novak. I haven't beaten him once and I'm not going to
do it today. It was like, what the hell? It was such an easy point, and I promise you, I really do believe if he wins that point, he wins the match. Yeah, because he was serving Novak off the court. Novak couldn't do anything. He broke him early in the first game of the third set, and he was holding serve like no big deal. And then when you miss a shot like that, you go that's when all the negative things hit your brain, like a fuck, maybe I won't beat this guy. Oh my god, I can't believe
I missed that shot. And then he didn't get any first service in hard out right now, I should have been up thirty love, you know, Instead he was down, and then on the game point, Novak played a typical Novak Djokovic game point where he ran and hustled down this one ball and hit a skyrocketing lob into the air that was like a ranch of Sanchez back in the early nineties that landed one foot inside both sideline and baseline, and you know, he gets himself back into
this point miraculously, and then he wins the point ye and it's like four all, and you're just like it's over.
It's over, even to the point that really matter what the score is at that point, it's over.
Spiritually momentum, the fact that he's never beaten Novak, the fact that he actually knows and cannot probably get that fullhand out of his brain. And then all of a sudden he wins in the tiebreak, and Novak just walks to the net. He doesn't really celebrate, and because I think he feels sorry for he's like the nicest guy in the world, and he walks the net, literally shakes hands with him and says sorry, man, man.
It's just like one of my favorite facts of this match is the first title that Novak cho has ever won, like twenty years ago, I.
Think it was two thousand and five.
Two and six was against Nico Massu. Nico Massu maybe you know him as having his own pro career. Maybe you know him because he was Dominic teams coach for a really long time. But now he is coaching who be her coach? Now he is in the stands watching the I don't want to call it a end because we don't know how many more tournaments Novak Djokovic is gonna play. But being there for the first because he was on a losing sad and being there for the one hundredth on the.
Losing side, that's crazy.
It sort of feels nuts.
That's a good little nuggy.
It's like a little sort of tennis lorener that is classic.
And the fact that Andy Murray wasn't there as a coach.
Should we talk about the fact that Andy Murray got I don't want to say fired, but.
They probably both realized that it wasn't working for the either of them or maybe nuts. I don't know. I know it didn't make sense at all, But look, Novak's done that stuff. Look he bought bars becka On, he.
Bought you know, he's brought Andreas Andrea agacy.
He's done this. You know, he went back. I saw do some Vemic was back with him. He was a former player, one of my old team tennis.
Yeah, a lovely, lovely guy.
Maybe they've been friends forever. They're about the same age, and I think that maybe dou Son's a little bit older. But it's just like it was interesting to see him in the box, and there's that familiarity of having someone like adu Son who just like very non judgmental, very positive. So he probably needs somebody like that in his corner right now, who speaks serbian as well.
I always thought it was so weird because Andy Murray, to me, did the one thing that Novak was already really great at, which is like being tenacious and like never.
Letting go and being a little crusty and kind of.
Being crusty, like he doesn't need help doing that. He's already that and Andy was great at that, but Novak was maybe better. So it's kind of like what could Andy great champion? No slate intended, but what could he bring to the box?
Yeah, well, I mean you could say that about anybody really, you know, who's going to come into the to the player box of Novak Djokovic.
And any more than him.
So there's no there's no greater player than him. The only person that could sit in that box and even remotely have the same thought process is Roger Ruff and Serena like really, or Jimmy Connors.
Jimmy Connor's back out there, He's one, He's one return.
Of Jimmy's done his fair share of coaching.
Well we are, So what happened with Andy Roddick and Jimmy Connors didn't coach Maria for a hot minute.
Yeah, I remember hearing her speak.
We were actually doing a racket event with Evan on a boat and she was like, you know, a good executive because she was asking answering a question about like, hey, you know, how do you translate tennis skills into entrepreneurial skills?
Because Maria sort of famously after her career had been like in the business world, yep, and Maria Andrea Pekovich, our cultural attest, was interviewing her and said, you know, she asked her this question and Maria was like, you know, the entrepreneurial skill I most have taken from tennis.
Is to know when to call it interesting. For example, it's called your lane kind.
Of and like Jimmy Connors was my coach, and I could tell immediately it wasn't gonna work out. So I called it and I was kind of like, oh, interesting, Like that's.
Got a whole follow up. Yeah, can we get Jimmy Connors in the pod?
Yeah? Sure, I mean he wanted to come on to my show and Amazon, but we had to keep rescheduling it. Not because of me.
Should we do it? Called that massage first and then.
Get a couple's massage going there with Jimmy. I just you know, stories sometimes when you play World Team Tennis, those stories will always stay with you because that's like, now I know why wy why NBA players and like players that are on the road all the time, W NBA whatever, and they travel together always as a team, why they get into up to no good?
Because it is there.
I mean, listen, let's put it this way. I loved my time at World Team Tennis. I did. I didn't hook up, but there was a lot that did. Okay, some marriages came out of World Team Tennis, some divorces came out of World Team Tennis. What else? That's all I can tell you, Okay, A lot of fun. I love World Team Tennis as ever for their memoir. Okay, so let's talk a little bit about also Rebakina. She won a tournament leading into Paris, barely got out of
her first round though. That's the one thing about playing well and doing you know, winning a tournament the week before, it's really hard to back it up in a day or two. Completely different app sphere of New Paris compared to wherever you were Geneva, Strasburg in Strasbourg, very different to Paris. But she got through a first round, which is big. But she thanks her her absent coach from the player's box, but clearly in her ear twenty four to seven.
Stay, yeah, yeah, it's trajeict.
Just god, I don't have Alena Rubb back in and winning a lot of tournament's unclay.
Well, Strasbourg is quite slippery, so it really does lend itself to somebody who plays quite big serving, big ball striking.
So it's more grass.
It's no, it's not grass, but it's just it's just hard to get the footing right and it tends to not be muddy or slow. It's quite a fun because it's quite hot down in the south of France, you know, so it does get it's a it's a beautiful place to go. I don't know if anyone has never been. Have you ever been to Strasburg. It is gorgeous, just gorgeous. So so yeah, but having to back it up in a day quickly and barely getting through her first round, that would be a big relief for her because there
was some place. I do want to give a bit of a shout out to Maya Joint, the Aussie who first Australian to win tournament since Ashbarty. Of course one was that Robert Yes, so I.
Want to be super I watched her play one of the earlier round matches in yeah, great kid, should beat on a conye yes, uh, And I was really impressed.
She looks like she was rounding in a form my joint.
Shout out, yeah, shout out. Sadly, she lost in the first round of the French which is why it's so hard to back it up, but lost to another Australian Inla Tommy Janovich. So that was a bit of a tough first round for Maya. But well done, kiddo. That's a that's an amazing effort to win your first w T a title. Someone who didn't win a title leading into Paris is a guy that thinks he's going to win the French Open because he dreamed it. Our friend Alex Zverev, or is it Sasha Sasha Sasha his brother.
The brother.
Aka Alex is the one. You're having a senior moment, then, I like vision boarding your wins.
I'm just trying to say something positive.
I cannot believe he actually came and said that, like, even if you dreamt that, keep that to yourself.
So he last Hamburg, his hometown, complaining about the weather, complaining about the food, complaining about the balls, complaining It's like, come on, dude, like just not up, like shut.
Complaining about the balls and every he complains. He complained about the balls and complain about.
The rolls and rum. But it's just like, come on, bro, like just take it easy, just yeah, just let your rackety.
In German halty clapper, which means basically shut a zip it. It's STEFFI Graff told me that one I wonder why helty clapper. She would tell me that on the court, just zip it.
I mean, he is the what four seed three seeds?
Well, thank God, he's not the second seed, because remember I was very upset about that happening, and he's not. He is in the I think, I don't know what he is, but he's not two.
And that's all that matters because that means that the Alchoriz is too the top half well, because it just means that Karaz and Sinner will not be in the same half, which I know.
So if you are three or four seeds, you get pulled out of the hat to be in the top or the bottom and over the last it feels like century of Grand slams, Sinner and Aucraz have been in the same half.
And they should, really, given the set of men centers be playing, and course they should be the you know, the forces they did end up doing in Rome.
That's right.
The foreseed, Taylor Swift or as I've been calling him, clear the Swift, hasn't that been backing it up?
Clearly?
He is now officially not Klayler. No, he is going to be Grasser maybe sure, definitely not clay He has not played well. But I did mention last week on the pod that I think and this is just a this is just an open ended sort of question and conversation about coaching and about a player. At some point, I do feel and I did. I expressed this last week, and it's this is nothing against Mike Russell at all. I think he's he's a great coach, and I think
it's an amazing with Taylor. But I think that there's a point where you've run your race with them, You've gotten to the end of the line, and you take you got to let the rope go. And I think that maybe it's a new he needs a new vice and he's here, maybe Andy Murray, but like I think Taylor to take that next step. And actually, now that I say that that's not a bad idea, that's but I do think that Taylor wants to take the next step. He wants to be He's gotten to you know, four
in the world. He's gotten to a Grand Slam final thanks to Mike Russell, thanks to all the work that he's done. But maybe, and I know that Paul Anacon is still part of I don't even know where he is in the situation, but I do think that it's time to have somebody maybe that comes in that gives him a new voice and gives him a new perspective on how to get to the end of a Grand Slam and to win it, because I do think he
has the capability of doing that. Do you think that he needs to improve his volleys if he wants to win a Grand Slam? I just I will believe that until the day that I can't talk, which is hopefully until the day I die. But I do think that that little added extra in his game will help him win a Grand Slam, possibly the US Open, maybe Wimbledon, But until then, I don't see him winning a Grand Slam. So and again I want to stress this is not
a slight on Michael at all. He will do a great job with whoever he picks up next as a coach. But I do think that Taylor is really struggling now, and I think that it's time for a new voice in his head.
Something I think a lot about, which is sort of unrelated, but I think actually kind of speaks to this, is like I think a lot about media and people who run companies, magazines, whatever.
Just bear with me.
At a certain point, it's like you've said all you have to say, You've put out all you have to do, Like, let's keep it moving and I think when it comes to coaching, it's kind of similar, which is like, you've expressed everything you've taught.
The player, you know. I think there is a little bit of an expert.
You're not going to come up with new shit as a coach five years later. You're just not. I mean you may but good, good, good for you if you do. But it's very rare, which is why Darren Kahle says, you know, really the shelf life of a great coach should be four or five years, because that's when you've gotten all of your information out. That's when you should have known the player as their best and at their worst, and how to make them better and how to make
how to stop them from declining. And if you can't, you can't keep telling them the same thing.
That's right.
So and it's just like a parent apparently be like, oh my god, I can't believe I've been telling how to do that for a year and you told her one time and she did it, and I was like yeah, Because I'm not a parent, it's the same thing. It's like the same thing coming from the same coach. It's like fuck, I know. And then some other person could come along say sort of the same thing but in a different way, and they go, oh, I get it, and.
You Andy Murray, what are you doing next?
Andy Murray? What are you doing next? One thing I do want to talk about before we get to even what's going on at the French can we talk about the Nike outfits? Whoof? Woof? What I mean? Listen? They nobody does advertising commercials better than Nike when it comes to like someone winning a Grand Slam or you know, the Liberty winning last year with Sabrina you rescue, and like, there's certain things that they just you just go fuck. Nike never misses this stuff. Sometimes once or twice they
have missed, but overall they're pretty great. A designs the hell I doing?
But when Anne Center looks like a crem dement that you order it like an old timy bar.
I mean, Jesus what Carlos.
Carlos looks like he's just like, hey, dad, can I wear your shirt today? And he's just like going out of the court and the day no, don't wear Okay, he's already outs.
So bad, it's uniformly bad.
But who says, yeah, let's put the stripes across, Let's make them look fatter than they are.
I don't know.
I don't care. It's so bad. I know it's like junior versity.
I don't know. Do you think some you know, financial bro here in New York is going to go into Paragon Sports. I have a beef with Paragons Sports. Have you seen my Instagram lately? There's a window outside of Paragon Sports of New There's a window outside of Paragon Sports with their hats like all the Giants, you know, Mats, Yankees, all of the things, and they don't have a liberty and I'm I'm not happy about it, but you know they do have They have Arizona in whatever their baseball
team is. Yeah, they have that hat in the window.
I did see this and I thought, Renee, save your energy.
No, I'm not going to save my energy, Caitlin. I'm going to fight the fight for women's sports. That's fucking bullshit. You know, they're the only ones that won anything over the last i don't know, thirty years here in New York. What are you doing put one of their hats in your window? Okay, that's a total side rant. I'm sorry, but Paragon Sports do better.
Do better? I do.
I do think naked should care or just get out of the game, like, please, please care.
You can't get out of the game.
They could.
No, they're so good normally, not all the time, not just I like sinners all black in rome. I thought that was cool.
Hard is it a design? A black polish?
Better than the fucking zebra crossings they've got going on today this tournament's.
Yeh, rude. No, they just don't care. I think that's sort of the issue. Okay, so I just jumping into your well.
One thing that just struck me. When we're talking about bad outfits, I was just thinking about the the extra uh, the extra Naomi Osaka was wearing today. It looked like she had little windmills in her hair. Man, Like, I just just atract from what you're trying to do. You gotta win.
The faster we get past Naomi, the better for me.
No, we need her in the game, and she's such a great player, but I just need our conversation.
Oh I'm not sure I have that many productive No.
Well, look, it was a good match, but I was a one dealing with injuries over the months.
Took inspiration from seeing the RAFA plaque that did a fantastic job honoring this man.
A lot of today's.
Social media, a lot of the time on court was spent honoring Rafa and his fourteen titles, the Rolling garras they gave him obviously in a ceremony, but on the court itself, on the Philippe Chatrier Stadium.
Court really starred Rolling Grass.
They did a implanted sort of imprinted slidemark and fourteen title commemorative plack, absolutely brilliant, and they revealed it by brushing off the clay just like it was.
So it was so brilliantly done. It was staleish and there was a few things that I would have done differently with the ceremony, but I thought that that was whoever came up with that idea to Shay. To Shay. It was just brilliant because every single player, now you know, who would walk over that every time now would be Serena. She was still playing because she was the only one player that would walk over the side of the court
and she would walk back fourteen. I love that she used to walk on the episode all the time.
All the time. I mean, listen, it's France.
So I'm really happy, and really, if we didn't have like mimes or you know, uh, impromptu musical performance.
You never know, like there's that they made.
Of these butts, but it's so bad so it doesn't even look like him.
No, it looks like the version of somebody who's yea, his eyes are beaty.
It's nuts. So you know, it's not a guarantee they're gonna nail it. They take they take chances. If anything.
One of the best things I read was Alejandro Davidovich.
His fellows said, because you know I struggle with them.
You have a hard time with this particular name.
He had some very critical words for the farewell uh ceremony that accompanied Raffa's last match playing Davis cup In.
I want to say it was I was the Malaga.
They didn't do a thing. They didn't really the moment he was gonna.
Well, they didn't want to do. They didn't want to have it because they went shore that they were going to lose and technically they probably should have won that match, that's right.
So I felt, according to other Spaniards like kind of rush, not the moment. So I speak for everyone in tennis. I think when I say we all love ruff I wanted him to get his moment, and he did.
The only people that don't like Ruffa are the very very parochially big stands of Novak. You know, you still get those people who that just right.
For You're still doing that, Yeah, you know.
But but I would say it's a very small percentage of tennis fans if you don't like Ruffia and Nadal. There's something literally mentally because no one, no one, no one was more professional, no one was more uh respected onto and he respected everyone. He walked on the.
Court with effort. Yeah, exactly, I'll see.
I'll get one little quick about one little quick thing about that. That whole thing. I thought it was really interesting that Rafa. One of the times that he got really emotional was when they brought out because someone was like, who are the people that were brought out before Rafa? Roger and Andy? And I said, all the staff that worked the French open, so people that I recognized, there were people that did the practice courts. A lot of them were not nice just an fyi to me, but
to him they were really nice. Clearly he won a lot there, so that helped.
We got some acts.
But the one that they did brought out, the one they did bring out was a very nice young woman, but like all those people that came out, like the staff of the French Open, and he like got really emotional. Yeah, and that shows you what kind of person he is. Good that he was like, Oh, these are all the people that I've that have helped me through the last.
I think it needs to the way that people talk about, which was not only a champion who could like you know, be present and succeed in like the most intense, biggest moments, but a person for whom his workplace was sacrissing. Yeah.
And he treated everybody and held doors and looked people in the eye and was cognizant of the fact that this entire tour and tennis really writ large and I'm sure all sports are really made up of people who you know, are workaday showing up, assigning practice courts, the people who sort of make the tour function and the sport function in.
A very basic way.
And I think for me, that's the legacy that Rafa leaves, not only these amazing collection of fourteen titles, not all the Grand Slams, but just the fact that he, as a professional athlete, showed up every single day and put is absolutely much into it as a human being.
Possibly could.
I mean, just you know, not a Rafa tribute moment, but like you know, I was describing to a friend this morning the radio way therapy he had to endure on his feet towards the end of the.
Career, that he had just to walk on the on the court. So to me, just.
The entirety of his career really is a testament to that. And tying it back to Paula Badosa's today, my hope for him is that obviously he has the academy named after him, he has center courts named after him, He has a legacy that will be you know, obviously remembered
for decades to come. But the fact that on the very day that his retirements heremony took place, a fellow Spaniard took the court, looked at the plaque on that court and got inspired to dig out a win against a very worthy, really impressive Naomi Osaka.
Yeah, he just come off winning a tournament.
Had come off winning a challenger tournament.
And to her credit, I mean, listen, the national surfaces have never been her favorite, but she has worked her ass off, gotten herself back into shape and has one four Grand Slams. So the fact that Paul Badosa took her down in four sets was inspired by Rafa, And yeah, his plaque was really cool.
One thing that is interesting about that Naomi Saka thing that I wanted to talk about earlier was she went into press and was very upset after the match and cried and you know, got emotional about her loss. And I thought it was really interesting that she said, you know something about Patrick mortaglus is Like she said, essentially, you know, here he was coaching like the greatest player of all time and now I can't win a match kind of thing. That was her mindset, and I.
Was like, speaking of Serena essentially.
Yeah. I was like, honey, if you're worrying about what your coach is thinking and poor him because you're not winning matches, she said, I feel like I've let everybody down, and I'm like, oh my god. First of all, I would be like, I don't fucking matter if I'm the coach. I'm like, I don't fucking matter. There's got nothing to do with me. You're still paying me, maybe, Uh, like I love what I'm doing. You're doing great, Yeah, uh
we're If I don't worry about me. Like the fact that she's even thinking that is razy, weird, like crazy, which is another reason why I thought it was a bad idea for her to hire him, because I think, honestly, the reason she hired him because he was Serena's coach and she admired and has looked up to Serena her whole life and wants to, you know, be like Serena and play like Serena and the whole thing. And to the fact that she was, you know, decided to bring
him on. It was thinking that, oh, he's going to turn her into Serena. That's crazy. You have to think about yourself, like, don't worry about what everybody else is thinking about you, or you're letting everyone down. That was crazy for me to hear. I couldn't. I've never heard a player say, oh, I feel bad for my coach. I'm letting him down, Like what, No, that's weird.
Raised some questions about like what kind of dynamic they must have that that's even part of her, because.
It's not the fair to tell you losing her matches of ladies and thinking, god's yeah, yeah, she's thinking you might fire.
Do you want to shout up. Naomi has done, like I said, a ton.
Of work to get herself fit, to get herself on contention and to win a title on a natural so like it's a really amazing effort as a mother.
Remember we were talking last week about how people can't slide and play. To watch these two today was hilarious because neither of them can slide, which I don't understand how Polar Badosa Spanish can't slide like it was.
A grass court specialist.
Yeah, but I mean you can understand that, but he could slide. So I'm watching these two belt the ship out of the ball and then neither of them can slide. I'm like, girls just hit a drop shot just to hit a drop shot. And one time, literally Paula Badosa hit a drop shot. It was one I heard from the commentators where she hasn't hit that much today, that shot much today, and Naomi literally fell over, like didn't even get she slipped. I mean, which happens to everybody, sure, but it was like ding.
Ding ding ding.
That was it four to three in the third set Way Service game. I was like, oh my god, how do you not know this? Like I don't understand coaches that are not telling the play is that, like you can't not going to hit Naomi off the court, but tell you what make a run or Badosa go back behind her? Like these girls can't slide. It's crazy to.
Me, it's crazy.
I just the last thing I'll say about Nami, because everything I was saying about her was complimentary. And listen, Paula has had her back issues, like it was sort of a little bit of.
It was a shit first round.
Let's just call it what.
It was a shit first round for a lot of reasons.
Like Naomi hasn't had good drawers at the French I mean she almost took out.
She almost in the first round. Bananas, uh.
That was the second round. I believe I.
Want Naomi to have a better team of people around her. Well you know I mean that in always like she's had some family stuff, which you can't choose your family, so that's tough. She's had some This is the agent the thing she's like, come on, Naomi, like, keep keep a moving you are I kind of feel like would be better served by a better team.
Well, I mean listen, and these are all choices that she has all to be decided at some point. But I just apparently she cares more about what her letting her coach and the team down, rather than worrying about her own self.
So but I don't think we can call that an upset.
That upset.
We can, however, call Amminavara losing oh my god, whoa and then and one that's an upset. It certainly is an upset.
But Claire, who knows how to say.
And apparently I've heard, has a lot of upside to her. We'll see if she can quickly bounce back. But she doesn't have to bounce back from much. She lost one game.
One game.
I mean, Emma talk about maybe here's.
A new coaching opportunity.
Maybe she's been with her coach for a long time now a long time, and he's done an amazing job getting her to where she has gotten to in her career and her ranking.
And her fitness is.
But you know, sophomore year is the toughest year in tennis. You can come out and people start to figure out your strengths and weaknesses and start to know how to play you. Peyton Stern's also lost early in the first round.
I kind of clearly thinking maybe Peyton Sterns, especially given the Madrid and rome she had, would be a hard position.
But it's hard. I mean, Ava Lisa is a good dat played a great sing but great.
But yeah, Peyton Sterns, I kind of expect to you expect her to win that match, win that match, certainly, I kind of expect her to like show up at least into the third or fourth round.
Someone who looked pretty good, Uh eager one in sets three and three. Uh, she would. I can be a little bit tricky because she hits the hell out of the ball and is a good competitor.
So that was good to say something. I didn't either have a very like walking but she's straight set some people who took care of business. Carlos took care of business.
You know, you kind of expect the champions in the seeds to do that, and all four of them, I would say something like an eager Carlos and center are you know, certainly are well.
You would imagine we're going.
To see the guy that dreamt that he won the tournament. He will be out there tomorrow.
Belief about the balls.
Golf has a great drawl, Like if she doesn't make the final, I'll be surprised.
Coco has a great Eager has.
A named night Metra, including the possibil of playing after Panca, two of her nemesisssis and her biggest like literally kryptonite iss Penko Loubing looming in her third round. I kind of feel like she has a second round.
She she does, she has to make some some valiant efforts.
To get to the third Markina is in that section as well.
Knowing Yelena as to Panco, I kind of feel like, if nothing else, she's just gonna stick around the third round, just so she could.
Well. Let me tell you something, if Oster Penko ends up playing Eager sound tech, I will say that the first win will finally come for Eager. You think he's gonna win it, I do, because I think that I was gonna say. We've talked about this. She's been on every surface except clay, except in Madrid. Right, it was Madrid, Right, Madrid is altitude.
Madrid is altitude.
It is. It is very different than suits be hitters. It suits big ball strikers and big service and that is all the things that she does very very well. Ostapenko French Open is very different. It's a big court, center court. I mean, so is Madrid, but it's the court is slower and if it's if it's if it's at night, then there's no way. I think. I think, I think Eager wins that match. If it's a hot day in the middle of the day, there's a chance that oster Panko still was and we all know that
ostar Penko can play. At the French Open, she won the tournament, so it's not like she doesn't love playing there, even though she should have really lost to Sam Stowe's in the third round. She broke her hand in that match. Sam. In the middle of the match, she was running around her forehand hitting backhands and here I thought, that's like you running around your back end. It's just not happening here.
I thought it was Hallibs.
Well coming earlier tournament. You can all thanks for Sam for that. Yeah, so it was the one and only time she lost to her because she had a break broken hand.
But anyway, that would fly to anybody with a broken hand. It's like, totally, it's a pretty good effort if you asked me.
But anyway, but yeah, it's all started, it's all exciting. We're very pumped Novak going in winning a tournament certainly helps him because remember last week, I said, there's only two guys that I think you're gonna win. It's Sinner or Alchoraz. I do think that you have to put Novak in the conversation because we know, of course, he's the greatest player of all time. No one's won more Grand Slams than him. So if he gets deep into the tournament and he's healthy, that's what it comes down to.
That's right, there's no question that he can still win this tournament.
I actually kind of think Eager and Novak are similar in the sense that like if they play their way into forum.
They're injured in different.
Ways, yes, age and mind, yeah, but if they play their way into the tournament, which is why I actually thought like Egets showing up and kind of nonchalantly taking care of business was a really good indicator that like she's kind of maybe corrected chorus because she can have an off day against anybody. It's not like she needs to see somebody really scary in the first couple of rounds. No, it's more she's in control, and if she's in control,
she's she's in goodstead. But I think for me, Novak and e are both similar that way, where it's like, okay, once they get a couple of matches, they can really play themselves into form.
And yeah, it's scary.
I mean the thing with Novak, Ego should win this tournament in most circumstances. She's just had a scary twenty twenty.
Five, so she doesn't want a tournaments since last years whip and last.
Year has not played on clay the way that you would expect her to into this tournament.
Novak, I kind of.
Feel like he's a total wildcard to me right now.
Yeah, it's crazy. Does he no one's talking about him take out.
I think he takes out as Verev. I think he takes out a you know, a second tier player. Does he take out a Carger Loos or a Jan I don't know.
That's that's that's the what he does there. He was his greatest This will be his greatest achievement. Agree for sure, Agree and he will twilight. I swear on the laft what he should do it. He should just literally put the racket on the ground and do what Uga did. Yeah, and just say retired.
Twenty five piece out slam piece yeah, yeah.
I mean I know he thinks he can still win Wimbledon because clearly's made the final. There are now two years in a row and lost to Carlos. But it's like, I don't know, I just feel like man.
Cool totally.
Just put the rackets, the record right on the ground, like Google, love everybody. Yeah, I'm done, peace out on that note, Gus, thanks for Johnny, anything else anything? Oh you know what I want to add. Somebody kept asking me this on Twitter. Does it help that they whack their shoes on clay? Yes? And my answer to that is yes. So what happens is on grass you have the little nib things on the bottom of the shoes that help you grab the grass right, and on clay
you have herring bone. So it's like the old In Australia, we had all Dunlop volleys, which which were great for playing on clay or onto car or anything, but they had zero zero cushion in them, so they were like they were like wearing those you know, the shoes that you wear into the water. That's what it was like playing on it with Dunlop volleys. But they're a herring bone. So the herring bone helps you slide and grip, but allows you to slide.
To translate that into American English, it is a tire tread.
Now it's not a t.
If you are on clay, you have a V shaped tire tread.
You know what it is. Go look at rough ill the dolls you can really like. Yeah, if you want to know what I'm talking about, go look at the park and you'll see like a like an S curved on the bottom. It allows you to slide on clay, but it allows you to have a little bit of grip on a hard court. You'll see just you know, it's very it's less herring bone because you want to have it be thicker and sustained to be able to play on a hard court.
That's right, right, So, because.
You'll tear up if you walk clay court shoes on a hard court, for example, they would be torn up in a best of five in like three sets.
That's in the clach shoe category. The tread grips the court much like a tire to close the road. And because of the fact that it grips so much, so much gets stuck up in it and you need to hit the clean so you can retain the mobility on the court.
So it's also kind of fun and coore like we don't have it is.
But I mean, honestly, that's the only reason why you do it, because you don't see them doing it on hard court. You know, some players do because it's like a habit. But the reason you do it is because think about it. If you literally, like Caitlin saying, like, if you drive your car through mud, it's got mud up in the the treads in the tread and so if you were to go and just try and slide again,
you couldn't. It wouldn't grip because you're and and frankly, it makes your shoe a little bit heavier because the player's stuck in there. So that's why you'll see players hit their shoe all the time to get the clay out of their shoe. So another little thing that they do too is you see them always like you know, scooting their foot over the court and sort of like doing a.
Little bit of cleaning off alone.
Yeah, a little bit of a cleaning. They're trying to smoo booth down the area so it stops bad bounces because that happens on clay all the time. Especially in the middle of the court. You'll see a player always like scoot down a little bad mark or something, because if you think about sliding on clay, it leaves a little ridge of clay on the court. So you want that to be gone because if a ball hits that,
it bounces funny. So that's just all little things on clay, which is why our sport is the greatest sport in the world, because I mean, what the fuck who does their own cleaning? Right?
It's great? Yeah, anyway, I can't agree with you.
All right, So that on that note, check out what happens on the court, watch the players hit their shoes, watch them clean the court.
And I have a maybe fun announcement. I think there's a chance we might be doing a.
Lit live podcast. Yes, when are we going to do it? I think next weekend Saturday or Sunday.
TVD But do not hesitate to rate, subscribe, share, and return to our podcast because we will be announcing more.
In the next couple of days. We're going to put it out on the Socials, but we're going to do a live podcast. So if you're in the New York Tri state area, I mean, it's only a quick exceller up from Washington. It's not that far.
Away, just a little PG.
Really, yeah, pop up if you're upstate, come back there, and we're gonna do a live podcast. Yeah cool, than see what happens, all right, guys, enjoy the French the rest of what's going on. We're excited about the whole time and that, and we're going to bring the whole team joining State Augoi MH.