Okay. Wow, I'm thankful that we didn't get what Caitlin just said on the podcast slightly well you would have edited out anyway. Hi everyone, Welcome to the Renee Stubs Tennis Podcast. It is Wow, what a week of tennis. We had what well ten days. We had a blackout, We've already talked about that. We had some surprises, we had some WTF moments. Wow, Yeah, we had some crazy,
crazy time. So let's get into it. Let's talk a little bit about Let's start with the Let's start with the men, or should we start with the ladies.
We have so much to say about the ladies. Usually let's leave them.
Oh you want to just table the men's No, no.
No, let's leave the women's for a rare instance of us prioritizing the men and talk about the men. Okay, which was such a fun and unexpected final. Yeah, for two reasons.
Number one, Alchoriz wasn't there.
Alchoriz wasn't in it, which, yes, probably him and Sinner not being in the draw after you know, Alcrest pulled out and obviously Sinner's making has come back this.
Week in win a match.
Novak is at Sea.
Yeah, and we had two unexpected finalists in the form of Jack Draper, who is really exciting and I can't wait to talk about.
And also casperud who a couple of.
Years ago would not have been a surprise surprise finalist, but this year has struggled, struggled and has really for the last like two years or so, struggled to talk about his own mental health struggles, which I think, you know, again, as we say often on this pod, like good on you, good on you, thank you for talking.
About that sort of stuff.
It is useful to obviously understand, and I think it does change the dynamic around the athletes. But yeah, Casper Rude, like exciting to see him back at the top at least especially you know of the clay court season in this Madrid final. What did you make of the men's draw in total to get these two.
Finalists, Yeah, I think what was is someone like Jack Draper, for example, who has already won a Masters one thousand. So when you think about that, that in and of itself, you've got Jack's you know, one thousand already this year. He's so young, and then you look down the other end, like Kaspar Rude, who's made two Roland Garris finals and and yet has never won a Masters one thousand, which is kind of crazy when you think about.
You mean two rolling finals and he has open finals.
Yeah, exactly.
He has been to the highest level of the end, but he's never won a Master's one.
Thousand, never won a Masters one thousand, So you think, well, what, what the hell, dude. But it also makes you realize, like how special it is to win a Master's one thousand. And you think about the greats like Novak and Roger and Rafa and how many Masters one thousands they want throughout their career. It's not easy to do. So look, clearly, our Karaz is not there, sin Theer's not there. That helps not gonna lie. I mean, these guys are the dominant two figures on the men's tour of the last
couple of years. But it was really nice to see. I mean, he obviously like battled his way through to the final, and a lot of it is mental, you know, a lot of it is lot he'd lost a little bit of his Like I don't know, when you lose your confidence, it's really hard to get it back. And I have to say this, I loved that he put out that message on Twitter to eager Yeah.
Agree.
I thought that was so classy of him to say, listen, you know, I love watching you play and like, you know, everything's going to be okay kind of thing, because he probably felt the same way over the last twelve months is that, you know, everyone was talking about him not being good anymore and he's outside of the top ten and you know he's only a clay guy and blah blah blah blah blah. So you know all these players that you think are you know, not human because they
don't take all of this on. It's not true. They take all of it on. And you know, you say, well, don't look at social media. Well, okay, you don't necessarily have to look at social media. It's pretty easy to fucking pick up on shit that's being said, either on that tour or around the.
World because the press tends to follow it up where it'll be a narrative that becomes self reinforcing, which is like, yeah, you know, even if you're not on social media, if you're you're not trying to listen to the critics and you're trying to stay in your positive bubble, you'll get asked a question, like, hey, exactly, you know, Naomi Osaka,
we you know this is your worst surface. Everyone's talking about it on Twitter, and it's like, well, that's a press conference, Like is that a nice or responsible thing to do to sort of confront a player that way?
I would argue not. I'm not sure that's really journalism either.
So I think you can't help but be in the moment, and obviously we'll talk to the circumstances that inspired Casper Rud's tweet to send to Egosh Fiantek in her pretty one sided loss to Coco when we talk about the women later, But yeah, wof, But Casper Rude, like, you know, he doesn't have a massive, massive arsenal of weapons, so he really does have to rely on like confidence four
and his forehand was big this weekend. I was actually gonna sort of mention the fact that he looks like he was a little bit more of an offensive version of himself than somebody I was used to watching, even a couple of years ago.
Maybe that's just.
Me because I forgot what he's played like, but it also felt like he was taking the initiative a little bit more, which against a player like Dreeper who does you know, his massive size and he has a big arsenal himself. Like you, I felt really happy that Casper rud was taking the initiative and was a very aggressive player at that final. Yeah.
I mean one of the things that I noted, you know, when I was watching the match, because sometimes I don't
watch them, and I watched them back later on. I watched both of those matches live, and I have to say, like when I was watching the match, look, he started slowly, clearly got broken early in the first set, and then you know, he managed to I think Jack got a little bit tight towards the end of that first set, and then it was interesting after the first set when Jack and I put it out on the socials, when
Jack was like, I'm done, I'm dead. You know, he was so pissed off at himself after losing that first set, which is never a great sign when you're basically yelling out that I'm dead, Like you don't want to say that to someone like Casper who's going to grind you down. But at the same at the same time, he was letting out frustration. But I think it's a it's probably a it's probably something that his coaches or people will tell him, and you don't see it on network television
because if you're watching the network, it's on the commercial. Yeah, So you don't see him unless they talk about it after right, unless they say, oh well actually, and somebody who works in television you can say to you. I can say to my producer, hey, can you show him on the changeover? It's talking like that.
And I just want to call that up because I so much wish that they would say that a lot of times if I'm watching a match live, meaning like I'm there, or if I'm watching it on the World Feed.
Were you watching on the world feed or were you watching on network?
I only watch on the.
World Okay, So it'd be interesting for our listeners out there who were watching it on the network. And one of the reasons I'm not watching it on the networks because for some reason, my fucking tennis channel on Spectrum here in New York does not work. Like it just does not work. It's either it's either pixelating or not working or it's frozen. Interesting, So I have to go onto my tennis channel app onto my television to watch it.
I only watch on the app.
Yeah, watch a network but often I do prefer something.
I will say the Tennis Channel, who interestingly, they just got a new CEO, which I shall portend interesting things hopefully for the network.
But I think on the whole the app has.
Been a really really great experience, and the app has gotten a ton better, and the app has been stable. And so you know, we are the first to criticize certainly, yeah, certainly the first anything the WCA, certainly, you know, the ATP, A lot of this stuff, you know, the PTPAS sort of maybe well intentioned but baffling lawsuits, you know, like it's just you know, I think, if if anything, you can kind of just to be honest.
And so for me, I do have to say.
The Tennis Yonal app itself has gotten a ton better. But you're right, I watch it on the world feet and I just don't want to bring that up because so much of what makes watching tennis interesting is not just the point play, it's the context. Are screaming at their box or they did they smash eighteen rackets on the changeover? Did they have a lengthy monologue? Did they have a dialogue like Bubliic did with Muhammed.
That was just hilarious it was hilarious. It was public who this year was this year? When he's like, hey, Mohammed Remo used to get to the cortus. It was so easy.
You're like, the men's tennis depth is great, what a great insightful you know.
Muhammedlanda is just like all right, but sure.
Whatever, But like, there's so much interesting stuff that tells you about the players, their mindset, maybe what's happening the dynamic in the match.
It's better to watch it on the app.
And not only is a better watch on the app, but I think if you are a network broadcaster taking a minute to do what you just said, which is like, hey, have this teed up for when we go back from a commercial, because I want to talk about a little bit more because there's something interesting to unpack here.
Yeah, well listen. I mean that's one of the things that I I really try and do when I commentate, and in general, I'm very perceptive of what's happening on the court because little things like that do tell a story that you don't now imagine if you came back and just started playing the match again and showed none of that of what Jack Draper did on the Chaine.
Out and then if Jack Draper loses eight points in a row by netting it in the bottom, you're.
Like what, well, yeah, you're like, wow, how did that happen? You're like, well, let me show you. So I think that's also another thing about being court sided, Like as a court side commentator, I'm very aware that's the things that I'm told as a court side commentator is al, wait, we can't necessarily see things all the time in the booth.
But that's also another thing about being on site, right, is that you you know, often when you're calling a match, you can see the player from the booth and you can see things happening if you're caught side, But if you're in a booth stuck in Santa Monica, which Tennis Channel are most of the time you're in a booth, you're not seeing that. So you don't even know that. Yeah, So it would have been interesting to see if they even picked up on that on Tennis Channel in general.
Yeah, as a post the World Feet, I was gonna say one of my favorite Renee subs is is the court side renee stubs. I mean, I know they like to use you in the booth and at the desk a lot because you're so good at it, but like the court side renee stubs.
Is the is for me the most fun because you're always like leaning close to the microphone and like it gets the like I'm always feeling lean too close.
No, but I feel like I'm getting some kind of like insider information because you're like, well, here I am down to and I just heard this screaming from the box. You know, Like it really adds to the experience as a spectator, which is like, oh, I'm here with somebody and it's almost like I'm there.
Yeah.
I think the one thing I wasn't planning on talking about this but I was really excited to see it is during the Lorenzo Mussetti Jack Draper semifinal, which Lorenzo Mussetti man because we'll just talk about his amazing album.
Can we just talk about that? Could be the you know, likelihood of the best looking match on what's a lot of good listen coming from you and me? True, Like there's a lot of good looking man out there. I mean, arguably you've got Rude who's a very good looking guy, him back oat Mill Stallion and you know Jack Drap Baumasetti. I mean good looking fellas it's to say.
Lorenzo Messeeti, especially because he was wearing that EPC ESX kid. Much controversial feedback has that kid received, But for me is any plus?
You like him with the shorter hair.
I like him with the shorter hair, and I like him with the shorter shorts.
Oh see, the whole thing was you know how I felt about the shorter shorts. Yes, I've been asking for the shorter shorts forever and a day because I want to see the guy's cords. Because I want people to understand how strong they are in the legs because their upper body. Most tennis players will not be strong with the bodies he rexes up. Yeah, because you have to have flexibility and all the things. But you don't want to be too heavy up top because you're running a lot. But but going back to the.
Match, wait wa wait, But the reason I brought up to Lorenzo Messeeti jack daper match was not to talk about their legs or how good looking they were. It is that Tennis TV, which is a subsidiary of ATP channel, had for a minute and was sharing on their social media a camera angle that went not only behind Jack Draper or learn Zubi SETI court side so you could see the ball, but it also tracked sideways to watch the point as it unfolded. The speed, the spin, the movement, the dynamics.
Like it was great.
And I think tools like that, whether you want to show a whole match like that or not, help explain to people who are not able to appreciate it from a tennis a bird's eye tennis camera angle where it just looks like pingpong, how hard it is and how fast the ball is traveling and how much court they have to cover and in what way. So I just want to shout that out because it was so good. I want I've been complaining about it for years and I want to see more of it, and I'm glad I did.
Here's my one comment on you know, we bitched about the light that you couldn't see the court at Materia and shadows or bad it is, you know, YadA YadA for television. Maybe that's why they've moved the camera angle down lower. I don't know, but here's one of the things that I want the Madrid Tournament to understand or
whoever's running the television. You know production there. You cannot have the back lighting of the because they have the led that goes around like the Australian Open introduced to the world many years ago. You cannot have the glare and the color of that be a fucking lime or whatever that color was. It was like it was like a seafoam.
It's it was like seafoam's color.
But it's so distracting.
I couldn't even see the fucking tennis ball. Like I if I can't see the tennis ball, God, good luck any layman, amateur tennis player out there trying to watch this tennis match. All of a sudden, I'm like, where's the ball? Oh there it is? Oh where's the Oh there it is. I'm like, what the fuck? You can't have seafoam or teal as a background on television. Just
do me a favor, everyone out there. Just go back, get on your tennis channel, app go on your television and go to a replay of the Rude Draper match. And every time they showed that lower camera angle, I couldn't see the fucking tennis ball. It's like, what is happening? So whenever it got into the background area of that LED screen. The ball just disappeared. You couldn't see it. What are they thinking?
It doesn't look at that LED screens somewhere else?
No, the LED screen's fine. We got to make it back during the point. What the fuck?
Yeah, making it move during the point.
It seems it's not moving. It's just it's just teal. Yeah, you can't see the tennis ball anyway, that's that. I didn't think I was going to get on.
This was a podcast episode, if we don't call that something random and specificate and reading.
About cephone bloody phone anyway, But back to the match when I could see the fucking tennis ball. There was a moment in the second set and Casper was up a set. Clearly Jack was struggling. Maybe he even made the gesture on that changeover after the first set. He was like huffing and puffing, like he was struggling to breathe. And as we know, it is slightly altitude at Madrid, and it is hard. It is a little bit harder
to breathe and all the things. And it's a one knock on him that some people have talked about his fitness level, which has improved dramatically. Even Jim Corea Andy Roddick had spoken about it as well. They both talked about how much he's improved his fitness level and it's a knock. That was the one big knock on him. But it was four to three. I believe it was four to three in the second set. Casper was serving
and he got down fifteen thirty in the game. And Casper's biggest strength is looking for the forehand and going for the forehand, much like Jack in a lot of ways, but Casper really depends on that big forehand. Plays very similar to Rougher in a lot of ways. He pussed out so bad in that fifteen thirty point fifteen thirty had a forehand mid court, could have really ripped it, like roped it somewhere inside out or inside in whatever.
He hit the worst week fourhand two Jack's forehand and Jack just went It was almost like it's like, oh, okay, you're welcome, and he just went smack and hit a winner, and I was like, oh my god, now I know it hit me at that moment, I was like, now I know why you have one of Masters one thousand or a Grand Slam, because a rafa or a Novak or a Roger or a Serena or a great player
that just steps up into those big moments. Down fifteen thirty a set and four to three, you know, he's up a set, down three to four, but it's on serve. He just completely puts it out on that shot, and I thought, oh my god. And then he lost the game.
He played a really weak couple of points and then all of a sudden, Jack just stepped up wins the second set, and I'm like, oh God, if you can't step up, And I give him a ton of credit because in the third set, there are some moments, whether it be you know, early in the game when his serve, particularly on his own serve, he every time he had a forehand, he went for it. And I was like, good for you, dude, good for you, because you're not going to win this match unless you go for it.
Because Jack's one in one thousand. He knows how to do it. He's not afraid. He might be a little bit tired, but you got to step up because if you don't, Jack's going to do that, and especially in his serve. And I was like, that's what made me happiest about Casper and I thought, oh my god, that is a major major shift for him is to go for it to win the match. And that's what he did. He won the match. He played great to break and
that was it. And as you've already talked about Caitlyn, he's talked, you know, openly about seeing a psychologist and doing the thing. And I think Madison Keys is going to make a lot of big difference in a lot of players to talk about it and to be honest about why is it that I can't get through these big moments and maybe I need to talk to someone and maybe that's the catalyst for him.
Yeah, I think you're rightly. I think it's a lack of fear.
And I think that I know you always have fear, well, no, but courage maybe courage in.
The feace of fear.
Yeah, it's be brave.
I think when you are playing from a police of fear as opposed to playing.
From a police of ravery, you're well, okay. Remember Pittko always said that she thought Rafa played from a place of fear.
And fear and anxiety and got through it. I mean, obviously he played big, but but you know, I think for for a player who maybe doesn't possess as many as Rafa's, you know, many extollable virtues with regards to just being an absolute beast, which Casper is an incredible athlete. But you know there's a gap, you know, and I think for me that was exciting. So so as we shift into just to wrap.
It up on the men, because I know we really want to talk about women.
But like as we shift into Rome, which I think for most people, because of the lack of altitude, because of the speed of the court, is probably a much more reliable predictor of who in As those play season works towards its apex and Roland Garros towards the end of this month, like Sinners coming back, Carlos is hopefully over that you know, hip, hopefully thing that that first showed up in the Barcelona final and kept him out
of this Majrid tournament. You know what, what what is the results of Madrid, if anything, portend for this next shift into realm.
For two weeks. Well, I was going to get more into it after the women, but you've asked the question now. Rome has always been for me a precursor to who's the favorite for Paris because the conditions in Rome are very similar to the conditions in Paris. You can have days in Paris that are really hot or really cold. You can have days in Rome where it's really hot or really cold. You never really know. So the clay does change dependent on how hot it is out, if
you're playing at night, all those sort of things. And you didn't have to worry about in Paris of playing at night. Now you do because they have the lights right. So there are a lot of similarities to Rome to what we see in Paris. So Madrid is not a precursor to who's going to do well in Paris. I mean, when you think about it, and this is what I was going to bring it up with the women, Sabalenca became the first player to win three Madrid titles since
Petra Covitteva. Hilarious. That describes to you how different the conditions are in Madrid. I would you that Patrick a bit of a I don't even know. I probably should have looked upfore I did the pod, But can't imagine her winning a lot of clay court tournaments. Now we know she's a two time Wimbledon champion. Because of her game, you have to serve well in Madrid. If you don't
serve well, you're going to get crushed. And you saw there was a lot of acing, a lot of big servers, and a lot of big servers have won the Madrid title, which is why Rafa never won. He won Madrid like one or two times.
That's it.
I mean, come on his career.
Yeah, that's crazy.
Yeah, Rodger won it. How many times? He won it more times than Rafa probably, so it's not a great precursor on the women's side. It maybe can be a little bit lesser. So, but arguably, look, Sabalanca and Rude will probably be maybe second. Sabellanca certainly second favorite to win the French. I would say Rud's probably third favorite to win the French. Now you think, oh, yeah, I have to put him in. That guy's made it to
the final twice. He loves the clay there that when would have given him so much confidence, Caitline to win a Masses one thousand. He can finally put that away and say, all right, what's the next thing for me to do in a Slam? Can I do it? I don't know, but I certainly can get to the final. Why not it's just dependent on if he plays al Chorazin Djokovic. You know, the guys that he that know they can win them. I don't know. Listen what I
expect from Sinner. He has a buye. He has a pretty good second round navone or Sinner, not Sinner but with a C. I n a a wild card Italian, but you never know, could be the next Sinner. So he has a pretty good draw. He probably will play David David Kin. I can never say his name, thank you once I hear it once, I'm good. That could be a tough one. We know how well he can play on clay. But overall his draw is reasonably good.
There's no one really up that half of the draw that's going to be, you know, frankly, in my opinion, better than him.
Question setting aside the doping stuff, which we've talked about at length, and if you need to hear more, Rude.
Is in his half. So it'll be interesting to see how how he sits there.
What's your feeling generally with tennis players like rest or Rest, because now he's had a couple of months off, is that good?
You know? I think there's there's something in that that is really good for him because the amount of pressure on his shoulders over the last year to win the austrain and Open, win the US Open, have the results that he's had over the last twelve months has been pretty spectacular. I'm sure he would have liked to have kept playing because he was playing so well. But at the same time, look, you know, he probably went skiing.
He probably really enjoyed himself, and then he's probably been working unbelievably hard over the last month to get him back on the court, and he would have been playing practice sets out the wazoo.
Sure, And it's not like he comes into the realm tournament his home Master's one thousand as like an underdog or somebody somebody's overlooking. But certainly maybe to your point about pressure, like, it's.
Not the worst thing in the world to like win, Yeah, I think be like, hey.
I'm gonna take you know, I think resting the brain, whether it's my choice or not. Yeah, I mean, listen, only he will be able to answer this question. But and you know, whether he's going to be honest about it or not, I think it It also would have been really hard for him to be sitting out of the sport for three months knowing that, particularly for him feeling like he didn't do anything wrong. You know, if
that's the case, it would have been hard. He would have been ruminating over it every day, like everyone thinks I'm a cheat, Like that's really hard. That must be really hard for him as well, particularly if he knows he didn't do anything wrong. Look, I'm not saying he did or not. None of us know that. None of us know the truth except him the physio, and maybe Nick Curious, who seems to and apparently Nick curious, but you know, really no one knows the truth right accept them.
And so if he is truly innocent, and he really does think that he was hard done, I imagine he wouldn't be thinking about it would be really hard to deal with that for three months. So I think that he's probably at his very happiest on the tennis court. So I'm sure we'll listen. Time will tell, Time will tell.
I'm just I'm really excited about it.
Colitus reappearance, Well, we're all very happy to Carlos. I mean, you know how I feel about the guy. He's just the best. Zverev is course number two seed in Rome. He of course, he just I don't know his ranking being it to hopefully that changes by the French Open, because he doesn't deserve to be number two in the world. He just doesn't. He just he has not turned up for the big matches.
Yeah, he's a perennial, like semi finalist.
He's in alcaraz Is down that half of the draw. So you know, we'll see. Listen if Verev does beat Carlos, or if he gets through to the finals here or wins Rome. Hey, it's a totally different story. It's a totally different story. And he is deserved of the number two ranking at the French Open. Look, he is because of rankings and all that sort of stuff, and you don't get there without winning a lot of matches. And he has won a lot of matches, but there's a
difference between stepping up when they're big matches. Yeah, and you know, his loss in that should not happen in Madrid. His game is perfect for Madrid, big surve, big fourhand, but he gets tight, He gets so tight on his forehand it's like it's hard to watch. Anyway.
Let's get to the lady, lady, So do you think Coco listened to our last podcast.
I think she did. I think she did.
Because she really you know, yes, she last in the final tour in a SOUTHLKA.
But what a great tournament, what a great tournament.
What a great tournament.
I'm glad that I think we couched it. As you know, tough love, but mainly love.
It's always tough love. But it's always.
Especially with Coco.
She I mean, let's just talk about her masterclass.
Oh my god, No, okay, okay, let's look at let's.
Talk about that. That's one of the most.
Let's look at that objectively, Okay, objectively arguably the worst match I ever seen Eager Chiante play in my entire life.
Very poor.
It was fucking terrible mistakes out the wazoo, not serving well, missing easy backhands, missing easy fourhands, missing returns like it was just brutal. I've never seen such a great player, particularly on a surface that is owned by her play and look so incredibly lost on the tennis court. There is no height on her shots, there is no margin on the shots. She's going for shots that she shouldn't be, She's pulling the trigger too early in the point. It
was just brutal. I mean. And the flip side is that Coco was absolutely out and serving out of her just mind, like acing left and right, which is another thing, like eager stand back, like how about take a step back in the court and give your opponent a different look. The one thing you know about Coco is if she hits the double fault or starts missing her first serve, you know in your mind you sort of got her. Right, there's a little there's a there's a window that just
got opened that you can say, Okay, I'm climbing through it. Yes, I'm going to own this house now because you just opened the window, right, which is what happened in the final. But we're going to get to that, right, I'm gonna own this house. Sense. So Coco didn't give a lot of the free stuff, right, She wasn't double folding. She was serving unbelievable. She was hitting a lot of bases.
She served that one out wide like eighty percent of the time, like eager, what the f like stand over there or stand back the app like what is no offense? But whim like come on, man, like you're sitting there. You can tell her anything you want. How about change your return position? Get in her head a little bit, Like the one thing you want from Coco is to lose her rhythm on her surf. You're standing in the
same spot, You're going for the same ridiculous return. Like there was just it was the it was the epitome of like greatness playing against not greatness in one day. I mean, Coco did not miss her forehand. You could tell eager was going to a forehand and she wasn't making a mistake, and all of a sudden, She's like, what do I do? It's like, what do you mean, what do you do? You got to move the ball.
It's almost like she's so fixated on she was so fixated on getting it to the forehand that she would have an easy backhand and she would still go she would try and go down the line and miss it.
And I'm like, just hit your best backhand, your best backhands as good as anybody else's Like, yes, Coco's got a great backhand, but you know, sometimes you got to step up and go manner a manner like I'm gonna which is why she used to beat Coco all the time, because she was like, I can handle your backhand to backhand, yeah.
And then I'll earn a look at your weik for h but you're not gonna get there right Only.
It's almost like whim's like you know, you only got to go to the forehand, which okay, is fine, But Coco lost matches missing backhands too.
I wonder a couple of things about Ego. I'm not that we want to take anything from Coco.
Unbelievable, so happy to see her with that aggressive sir.
Yeah, and the fact she stepped up and served it out, like.
The two points I want to make about do you think so Ega had a pretty intense draw up until this point and she was playing well.
Like that was to what was shocking about it. It's not like we saw her have a bad day after a series of bad days.
She had a great match with alex Ela that I want to come back to because Christy on my team had made a point like I wonder if that introduced some seeds of doubt in Eagle's mind. Losing a set to alex Eya who who had beaten her for sure in Miami. Then she plays Lyndonskova, not a bad player. Then she played Schneider.
In Osco, who she'd lost to at Thestraia.
Lost the New Australian.
Then she played Janet Schneider, who's you know, hard hitting lefty, went to three sets. Then she beat Madison Keys in three sets. Who had you know, beaten her in that epic still probably the best match of the year.
Which I still wonder if that scar tissues really hurt her. Yeah.
So, like you know, she shows up to the Cocoa match and she should be feeling good. She's vanquished two former foes in the in the past, three former foes who've taken her out this year.
Alone in the run up, tough matches, tough.
Matches, physical matches, and to see her physically not show up. She wasn't injured that we know of.
Well, we know that her grandfather had died the week before, so you know, she hadn't mentioned that. You know, I'm sure that was weighing on her in some regards. But at the same time, you hadn't gotten you had gotten through three or four matches right round so against you know, her first round opponent. Okay, you can understand why that
might might be still you know, hanging over. I think this was just there's scar tissue and all those matches she lost a set six love to Madison, Like there's scar tissue along the way of not beating you know, Alex in straight sets on clay, which a lot of people were expecting, not beating a Madison, Keys in straight sets on clay, or all these players on clay. Easily we're used to the bagel and the bakery Eager, right, the O and one, the one and one, and it's
really hard to do that against anyone. That just shows you how great she was prior and now there's doubt. Yeah, it's kind of like what's happening with Novak, but in a different way because he's older and there's no question his age, and the drive isn't there as much as anymore, but the driver is certainly there for Eager. I just wonder there's a little bit of scar tissue. I talk
about it all the time on her brain. Like it's like and when you miss some balls, you're like, oh my god, here we go again, and you can see it, and she's just it's the same as Coco. As soon as she hits the double fault or misses a foyand you see his shoulder slump and she's like, oh my god, get us first servant.
So I deal with with Eager in particular.
You know you called out when Fassett, who you know has had great results with a lot of players, but you tactically you'd like to see her be encouraged to go backhand to back in and maybe there's a coaching thing there.
I do also want to say, like, you know, there's a lot.
Of credit has been given to her mental coach time and time again about how tough mentally she is, and I have to say she has looked the opposite of tough mentally.
I think that's to me the main issue she looks.
Yeah, but it goes hand in hand, right. So you can work on someone's mentality all day, every day. But if they're not comfortable on the tennis court, I don't give a shit.
How many mental coaches job to make sure they're comfortable on the tennis cord.
Well, yes, but also if they're not comfortable hitting the tennis ball and they're confused about what they should be doing with the tennis ball, then that that is the overriding factor. I can feel great all I want. I can be like, no, no, you're good, you're good, No need to panic, no need to panic, Okay, go to hit that forehand. What do I do? What do I do with it? Oh? My god, that's right in practice, I don't know if I should be hitting it there.
They're telling me this, I don't know. And all of a sudden, for me, it comes down to what you're doing on the practice court as well. And I just and also the problem solving that's happening in the match and there's no problem solving like that was just there were so many moments where I was like, why would you hit that shot? Like why are you going for that? What was that? There were so many times she needs to work on her slice. I don't care what anyone says,
you know, there were times where she could have. You have to mix the pace up. Yeah, And if it's not working and you're bounding the ball and you're losing rallies, you have to vary the pace. You have to hit a high ball. You have to do a slice. That's what mea Andreva does so well.
And usually you could does that. I mean she used to do, but certainly with the off piece.
Back in the day. I remember she used to have this drop shot. She used to did a drop shot all the time. She didn't drop shot at all anymore, Like all of a sudden, she doesn't drop shot, she doesn't eat high balls, she doesn't try and vary the pace. She tries to hit every ball one hundred miles an hour, and it's like there's no variation and if it's not going in, then all of a sudden, it's like the panic sets in and it's hard to watch. And also it comes from me. It starts with this as well.
I just think she's missing way too many first serves and her second serve is getting predictable, and you know, it was just it was ugly. It was ugly. It was ugly from Eager, and it was fantastic from Coco, which is why it was one on one.
Two more things I want to talk about on this relatively.
Short that'd be like beating Rougher one on one.
It's staggering.
Yeah, but we're going to have a big roam extravaganza next week and week after. But just sort of briefly as we wrap this up, like shout out to one of whim Fassett's former.
H wait before we get to Naomi, though, I just want to finish the final so sable Anca Coco definitely come out came out a little bit nervous, isn't it because I think she played so well against Eager that she probably had a little bit of pressure on her coming out, like okay, now you got to you gotta show everybody that you can still do this right. And there's no doubt whether it was subconscious or consciously in
her mind. And I think she started a little bit flat and then you know, started playing really, really a lot better. In the first set. You know, Sabalanca gets the first set done, they were the tennis was great, like they were hitting the ball so big. And then the second set when when Coco gets the break and there's up and then is five when she's serving for the set, you, as an opponent, this is what I was talking about, you know, locker room reputation and all
this sort of stuff. It's like, you know, if Coco gives you a little window, you climb through it, and Sabalanca doesn't climb through, she smashes it down. Okay, So all of a sudden, she's serving for the set, playing great first point double fault. As an opponent, you're like, you go, uh, okay, here we go. Now. Subsequently, she had a set point and Sabalanca crushed a return, but again didn't you know, didn't get the free point on
the serve and all that sort of stuff. But when you double fault the first point, there is a moment in you as an opponent where you go, ah, okay, all right, I know she's gonna get tight if I just play positively, and well, right now I'm getting back in this match.
And these two have had so much history, yeah that they know. Of course, these moments really were and I think you can see it.
But even if you don't play against them, anyone who knows playing against Coco, you know that there could be a window that's opened on the forehand and the serf. And unfortunately, and I know this is a tough love again, but when you're serving for the first set, the first point is so important, and when you it's one thing to lose it, but to lose it double folding, yeah, it's just it's just not a good thing.
No three points.
So of course the serve breaks down and the forehand breaks down. At five four both break down and at five all even there, she's love thirty on Sabalanca serve love thirty Okay, well, we're going to get the break straight back, which often happens right foehand miss missed return, forehand miss return and then another error I think on a backhand and just gave the game back to Applanca with errors on the forehand side. Yeah, you know, and then again serving to stay in the match, a couple
of forehand errors again and on match point double fault. Like, so if you're looking at it from a coach's perspective,
you have to say what happens there? Now, I've always said bad technique breaks down under pressure, and unfortunately Coco with her serve and forehand, her technique is questionable, right, everything else is so unbelievably good, And there are times where she's hitting the forehand well, but like get the hide on the forehand, Like I would just be telling her get that hide on the forehand and then smack your backhand.
What's the serve that you're telling her to start that game? I think you have to slice body serve where it's like percentage but like kind of tough, like what you know from a tactics perspective, like obviously I'm going to try to get the first serve in. Yeah, but like Is there a specific serve that you're telling her, especially with her game, Yeah, to go for.
Well, it's hard because her technique, you know, it doesn't really allow to. I mean, honestly, it's just super important that you get your first serve in on that first characters. And you saw her at five to four. She turns around and the camera was on her and she said, oh, first serve. So it's in her head, yeah, you know, because she knows the pressure then is on her on a second serve, particularly against Sabelenka. I mean, she's just gonna crush your second.
Sech And that's the thing, Like you can see Sebelinka and I remember distinctly watching her play against Coco.
You know, Coco misses the first serve.
It doesn't even matter how hard the first serve is, no matter what Arena's taking two steps in and like just because she knows she can crush it. But also like the aggressive return position on a second serve, like within a readA to Sablenka, She's gonna give you less seconds to react, less like and I know that that's so much in her head when she's going up to the line, which is obviously why the double falls tend
to tend to show up in those pressure moments. So yeah, I mean, I think for me, the main takeaway from Coco is like, what a great week. Still some stuff to work on, but like, what a fantastic turnaround of the season. She has to be feeling, I tell you, so much better better going into Rome and Paris.
No, she's going to be real good in Paris. I think she's going to.
Be real good, but the game is better with her strong.
I think she needs to understand in the very tight moments when it gets when she gets a little nervous and she can feel it, and everybody feels it, everybody you know, when it's happening, you start getting a little bit doubtful in your own mind. You either have to have a word to yourself and be like, fuck, no,
not today. You know I'm getting the first servey in and I'm going for it and I know I'm going to make it, or if you know that, you're like faking it till you make it and you know you're a little bit tight and so you get you feel your arm a little bit heavy. You got to just get that first survey in, like just the first point. Just get a good first serve in and what use what you use and do as well as anyone, which is run a million balls down, smack some backhands, hit
the height on your forehand and make your opponent beat you. Instead, it was it was opposite. It was the opposite in this match, Like she actually gave away three points at five, four and five all she gave those away. She had a swinging volley that missed and like so there was there was about six points that she probably if she just pulled back a little bit and not push the ball. That's not what I'm talking about.
But margin, percentage, play of your strength, smacking back hands.
Make Sablenka in that moment beat you. If she steps up and hits a couple of winners, you go, okay, I've got to be a little bit more aggressive. I mean, you do have to calculate all this when you're out there. And I'm not saying that, Yeah that's not easy, but it's this is the separator, right, Well, was what rude? Did you know? He got tight in the second set. He's like, oh, just make it and then Jack went bang and so he's like, shit, I can't do that. So if I want to win this match. I have
to go for it. So you have to get that layer of the land when you're out there. But the most important thing for Coco is do not give away a free point by double folding. That is the killer for her. And because it gives your opponents so much breathing room, they just go, okay, okay, she's tight. I'll probably get a free couple of points here, and that makes a world a.
Difference for you, and then Sablanca's shoulders relax and then she can swing for you. You know, there's so many more things than just the point it happens.
Yes, it's really.
It's a mental match against a mental match as well as well as hitting four hands and back ends. But anyway, congrats to sable Anca, who had lost a couple of finals so this year. So it was I'm sure when she was down that set point to Coco thinking fucking hell, am I going to lose this match?
As well? Were the Australian and Australia.
Lots. She's lost a lot of finals. She just lost to Yeah stood too like so she's lost a lot of finals this year. Anyway, Yes, Naomi Osaka goes down. We talked about this a couple of weeks ago. It was the last week week, Yeah, most last week. How it was a good move for her to go down to a lower level. And you know, somebody I read a couple of things on the social media's and someone was like, well, I mean, she can't win that tournament, And I'm like, can you guys just do a funk off?
Yeah, I mean, have you ever on a tournament win Grand Slams? Winning a tournament period, like you know, you gotta every day. Yes, granted the level was much lower, but still like, this is somebody who's really struggled profoundly.
Yeah, especially on the surface, like kudos, it's.
Still first tournament.
You can control who you're playing. Yeah, you know, maybe I mean a streaky, amazing person.
And what people don't realize, Caitline, is the amount of pressure that would have been on her shoulders to win that tournament. If you don't win this tournament, yeah you shouldn't be playing anymore, That's right. And so she's like, I've seen players go back to playing challenges like twenty fives and fifties to get matches, you know that ranked that are ranked outside of the top two hundred and
fifty now that were ranked inside the top twenty. It's like, it's really hard and it's a lot of pressure on you. It's why a lot of them don't go down to the lower levels because they don't want that even more pressure on them to win the tournament. So I give her a ton of credit for doing that. It's going to give her a lot of Listen, we'll see how she does going in the next couple of weeks. I wouldn't want to play her.
No, I wouldn't want to play it either.
And also, like you know, kind of the upside of having a weak surface is it doesn't matter like you're going to get some wins on a surface.
That you notably don't like.
Yeah, in a part of the year that you notably not you know, don't really show up to you, I'm like, win when I lift. This gives her more bounds to go back into the rest of the season with like sort of a renewed headspace, like I'm off for it.
I did love that she put on the job application online. Did you see that she said for those that are I can't remember if herbade him, but it was basically like she put hey for the haters, here's here, you know, try this and she put a job application, so you plan now, doesn't tell me to get a job. I've got a job. Why don't you get a job? I thought that was her love that.
I wish she would tell her Evolve Agency co co founder Nick Curious to get a job instead of.
Being you know what's funny. I got a photo from my my best friend's daughter is going to university in Canberra?
Is he there?
And he lives in Canberra, he's from there, and she's going to university there doing a law degree. And because she's smart, and Freya texted me and she goes, oh, hey, look who I ran into at a bar. Of course, Nick Carrious at a bus, wind sprints really getting self prepared to play Wimbledon. I don't know what he's doing, but anyway, just really quick. One thing we didn't talk about was mir Andreva and Coco. Like that was Coco
has it over Mira. I agree the last couple of matches, but Mira just went off the boil like I don't know what happened. I don't know what happened with her. It was very strange.
It was like a pre this season. Mir andrev who has she just.
Got the ships in that first set and it just like was like, I'm out of here, man. It was weird. Con she did not look happy in that situation.
I thought, that's also and she's still young.
Well.
I also swear about.
Sabalannka, which is like, you know, one of the things that makes some of these players uh fun is that, you know, there's a little bit of crazy.
You know, a little bit of crazy.
You know.
In case anyone forgot, because mir Andreva has been playing poised above her age.
The seventeen year olds down there.
For a couple of games, it's going to be a complete mediac Listen, this is one of my favorite tiends of the year. There is no more beautiful tennis court than the for Italica.
Are you upset about what they've done to the court the second court?
Actually yes, because that should be the most beautiful court and you cannot put metal stands around it.
Yeah, it's come on, what are you doing to I mean, obviously it used to get packed, so they wanted to have the availability of having.
Build another stadium.
You build another stadium, I agree.
See him? Come on right?
Yeah? Anyway, so Rome is going on it's about to start.
We're going to see really excited.
Of course, Sabalanca number one seed, Canon is in her little section of the drawer there. Can we just give it up for Sophia Cannon back to she's thirty first seed in Rome, which I imagine she's probably thirty two in the world or thirty one in the world. What a great effort over the last couple of years, because she's had a bloody hard time, and so I give her a lot of credit for being ranked and seeded. And she's going to be seated at the French and
I'm just really happy to se Ayla and Costure. First round in Rome is going to be real fun to watch.
We don't even talk about Murta Chaste because she had a lot to say about the randolation. Well, she was right, Sabka, Yeah, she was right.
You can't take your first serve and then be like it's raining, I can't serve now.
I don't know. Drama follows.
Marta is a little bit of a dec drama here is a bit of a DCU. But she was right in the circumstance.
It was agreed.
You can't just serve and go oh no, I can't say too bad.
You hear, but I do think like just yeah, tap the bricks.
But I remember you've got the bella Russian Ukrainian thing there.
I'm here for one DQ and one di qu only and that's daniel Collins.
What about Danielle?
Yeah, what about it?
We haven't seen any hydro here of her.
Danielle.
I think she's collecting the cash all these tournaments and walking away.
I'm that's gonna be my wild code. I'm calling it out.
Room, no chance, maybe a random one is whatever happened to Bianca and rescue. I know she's had a ton of injuries and all that stuff. But your fellow Canadian is she just.
Won a doubles title in at that. I think same challenger when Nemeas.
Was well there you go, look at that. You were so open champions going back to A one twenty five to get some confidents. Sometimes she can get it in doubles grade. She has a pretty good first round. So she will play Donna Vekitch in the second round if that's the case, and that might be an interesting little matchup because Donna has not been playing well this year at all. Changed a coach at the start of this year. I don't know why she had a great year last year.
I don't have that other coach just didn't want to be involved. And PAMs Driver is still doing a little bit with Donna but went to Sasha Bajan and really has only won a couple has not played well all year. So how long is that little coaching situation going to last? Kinwin chin win? I think you should say, because you get mad at me if I don't say it correctly, correct pronuncision. I know, but I have this fight with my fellow some of my fellow commentators ARSI is in particular. No,
I tell you what the problem is. Caitlin on the wt website, she says kinwin. Do you know this? Have you looked at her thing?
Yes? She has decided that you can call her chin win, kinwin or Anna, And it's like, no, guys, just go with your correct pronunc You should have n.
I call her chin win, thank you, because I know that's the correct way to say it in Chinese. But when you're working with someone who refuses to call them chin win and calls them kin win. Because the WTA website.
It's a hard the WTO website.
I know, but this is the these are the arguments I have in my ESPN Green role.
I'm glad that, by the way, but I'm.
Going with gin win because that's how you say it. So that's gonna be interesting. We'll see how Coco, you know, turns it up again. She has a pretty good draw. She'll probably play either Benchic or Lynette in like the round of thirty two. But I like her draw a lot. A player that's back, Amanda Anissa Mova back from a bit of injury, so we'll see how she does in this tournament. And a Navarro has been a play that has not played well.
She had such a great year last year that following it up this year I think was always going to be a tough order. Yeah, and you're right, she's really looked like she's missed a step.
Nice. You know, it's nice to see vondrous over back in the tournament in Rome. Yeah. Man, that girl has just had no luck with her injuries. Test terrible and so well. Well, we'll see, of course, mere Andreva, We'll see how she fares this week. I think maybe it's.
The biggest question mark for realm is eager. It's her tournament under normal circumstances.
It is her tournament without question. I mean, she won a final there against one of the biggest service we've ever had in a women's game, Caroline Pushkoba. Oh and oh in a final.
They should have made him play a third set.
You know what, we decided we're going to do best of five and we're starting it right now. Oh and to be Carolina, I mean, Carolina made the final, winning a lot of matches, hitting the ball. Well. I just want people to know I was not coaching her at the time, because there's no effing way I would let my player loose and I would be like, you were hitting under arm, you were doing whatever you need to
do win a game. Again. Interestingly, Caitlin in the little round of thirty two in Rome, is potential that your girl animal will play against Eager Let's go, So that will be an interesting situation.
As good as you Lena as Yeah.
And Switzerlina is down that section of the drawer who's also had a great year sam Sonova, So I'm excited. This is this is This section of the draw for EGA is pretty good, although Naomi Osaka is down that section of the draw too and could play Bodoza in the second round, so we'll see. Let's go parla anyway, all right, Well, you've got a lot to get to when it comes to Rome next week, and of course the French Open is around the corner and Max, yeah, etcetera.
Taking the French Sadly, I will not be there. I'm a little bummed about it. I'm not gonna lie. Yeah, but we will be here for you for the French Open. But in the meantime, thanks for joining us today, Katelin. Anything else you want to say, No, I'm just so excited. This is like the part of the season.
You love business.
I do love.
I love the whole thing is I love forgetting Yeah, I love.
Of waking up. I'm not an early riser, as you know, Caitlyn, so for me to get up early and watch these matches, that's how much I love tennis.
I love watching tennis in the morning and then playing tennis in the afternoon. It's the best.
Well, Caitlin, we have to play a little tennis because I got invited back to play in the old farts at Wimbledon.
So if you will deem to play tennis with me.
I have not hit a ball in a while, and so I need to start, all right. Wonderful. On that note, preparation for Wimbledon starts, for Stubbs Time starts today, and the French Open two weeks away. Don't wait, all right, guys, Thanks for Johnny to say okay bye,