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Hi, this is Billie Jean King. This is Marion Bartoli. I'm Mats Willander. This is Mary Carrillo. This is Pam Shriver. This is Yannick Noah. Hi, this is Rachel Williams in Baltimore, Maryland, and you're listening to The Tennis Podcast. you Well, hello and welcome to The Tennis Podcast, our first tennis podcast of the 2024 off-season, introduced beautifully there by Rachel Williams in Baltimore, Maryland, which is very apt. for today's show because Baltimore is of course the hometown of Pamela.
Howard Shriver, one of our contributors today on our end of year review show, one of our favourite shows, David, of the year. Oh, it is. If you're a friend of the tennis podcast and you like the Grand Slam review shows where we have voice note contributors, this is that. multiplied, amplified. It's wonderful. And we have so many brilliant voices every time we do this to look back on the year. But actually, having heard the voice notes, or most of them already, that we've got in this show...
I think this is another level. This really moved me when I was listening to them, and I suspect it'll move many of you as well. David Law is such a pro broadcaster that not only in that answer did he do a fantastic promo for the show you're about to listen to, he also weaved in a promo for Friends of the Tennis podcast. What a pro David is.
Yeah, Friends of the Tennis Podcast is our ongoing subscription service. You can subscribe to become a friend anytime and get access to the 12 live Q&A shows that we do on YouTube throughout the year. of Tennis Relived, those four Grand Slam review podcasts with voice notes, our entire archive of Friends shows. You get access to The Barge, our community platform, Hannah's column as well for her wonderful writing and a pre-sale.
for tickets to live events. And big news on that front is that we will soon have tickets on sale for our Melbourne live show, which will be on Thursday the 9th of January. Details to follow and tickets on sale soon. So if you want to get access to that pre-sale window and tickets will be limited, then becoming a friend of the tennis podcast is a way to do that. And also...
Brand new for, well, the end of 2024 and onwards is that Friends of the Tennis Podcast now get to listen to the show ad-free. Some of you will indeed be doing that as we speak. And as I say, it's an ongoing subscription platform. You can join anytime, get yourself an intro, a shout out. But yesterday, while we were all at respective football games, our...
slots for special categories opened up for 2025. This is how you become a guest editor, how you become an executive producer. It's how you join our brand new fantasy.
tennis league for 2025 and it's how you can make your pet a mascot of the show or of one of us and Matt news on that front yes I haven't sent the email yet to the lovely people who've signed up to be presenter mascots or have their pet as presenter mascots and that's always a it's always a delicate email that i have to send who which one of us would you like to sponsor and then to the next person well katherine's gone
So it's me or David, I'm afraid. I didn't go first last year, I don't think. Cat owners think that I have a dog bias. Which I may, but I still maintain that I love cats more than most people love cats. It's just I love dogs in a weird way that... Yeah, but I resent the binary cat person or dog person thing. I like all the animals apart from the snakes.
But snakes are welcome in the Presenter Mascot Church. I would just urge them to pick David or Matt, perhaps. But yes, yesterday was a very exciting day for us. And we were all detained at football games. While it was happening, David was overseeing the care of how many 12-year-olds? Six. David, at the time that our friends' slots opened up, our biggest business day of the year.
You were caring for six 12 year olds. I really didn't plan that as I should have done. And it was only after I'd gone too far down the booking process whereby I couldn't get out of it that I realised that I'd double booked myself and therefore would need to. both be managing everybody's subscriptions and trying to get six small humans through turnstiles without getting lost.
It was David's second best ever multitasking feats, I think. The first being when he remained on air during a podcast while also stopping us from being hacked on Instagram. I still think about that. It was incredible. Yeah, that did happen. And no offence, David, but I don't think of you as one of the world's great multitaskers. And you'd be right not to. I think you're one of the world's great taskers.
I have to really steel myself and realise that the stakes are high and then I can usually pull it off. With a bag full of chocolates and sweets, which is definitely my... My approach to childcare as well. So that was yesterday. Look, if you if you want to become a friend of the tennis podcast and just support the show, get access to all of that wonderful stuff or get yourself one of those fun extra categories.
You can now get a personal video greeting from one of us. Join our fantasy league or please somebody out there. snap up that last presenter mascot slot, then just go to tennis.supportingcast.fm, supportingcast.fm to become a friend. And of course, we'll pop the link in our show notes. One additional plug for friends will be that all pet mascot owners and above level friends in 2025 will get a... invite to our end of year quiz so we're we're opening that up for
for more people. And I'm thinking a lot about the quiz at the moment because we're currently writing our 2024 quiz, which sort of links in with this show a bit, really. Although... I did think it would be really useful prep, but I realised that this show is quite big picture looking back on the year and themes. No one did a voice note about the bees, Matt. Right. The quiz is the niche moments.
So that's what's coming up for anyone who is taking part in our quiz in a couple of weeks' time. Niche moments from the year. That's a great quiz promo, Matt. I appreciate that. And the reason that we've, well... Lots of reasons that we've opened that up to more people for 2025. But one of them is that Matt and I decided our quizzes are so good, they deserve to be seen and appreciated by more people. So, yes, from 2025, that will be the case. Right. On to the aforementioned...
voice notes. They're going to take you through a story of 2025, not a chronological story of... I said 2025, didn't I? I get ahead of myself. My mind is already in 30 degrees in Australia. No, they're going to take you on a story of 2024, not a chronological story, but a story. of moments and meaning, I think. And that story starts with The Athletic's Matt Futterman. Thanks so much for asking me to contribute.
The idea that I get to be on one of these lists that also includes people like Mary Carrillo and Pam Shriver is something I will never really get used to. It's been a weird year for me. Tons of travel all over the world, lots of time on the road at all these big events. At the risk of being completely obvious, there's no doubt that on that front, the moment that will stay with me is the Djokovic-Alkaraz final at the Olympics.
Those two forehands Novak hit in the second set tiebreaker when he and everyone else knew he had to hit two of the best shots of his life to win because nothing else would be good enough. were to me what courage on the field of competition is all about. You put it all out there. You try your best. You might fail. Sometimes you succeed. And then...
Seeing him drop to the clay, sobbing in the dirt, from where I was sitting, you could see his hand shaking uncontrollably. And on the other side of the net, Carlos was in tears too. How is it that winning and losing stir some of the same physical reactions in us sometimes? Humans can be strange beings, can't we? Now, I said it was a bit of a weird year, and here's why.
Because while I was traveling all around the world following some of the most famous athletes in the world, the story I thought about every day, the one I was completely obsessed with, was about two women that very few people have ever heard of. It took me more than a year to get at. It's about Karen Clark and Carolyn Ulrich. Two women, one in Colorado, the other in Norway. Different generations.
but with the same experience of allegedly being sexually assaulted by the same coach, 26 years apart. Clark was 15 at the time, and she told no one about it for decades. Oring was 23. a college student at Wake Forest University, where administrators somehow convinced her to help cover up the assault. Now with apologies to Novak, the courage of these women to go public with their stories.
And they're trusting me to tell them that was kind of on a different level. And it's going to stay with me forever. One other thing, so I can finish on a lighter note. Bagels with you all and the rest of the athletic tennis team in my apartment the morning of a U.S. Open final was about as good as it gets. Let's do it again next year. At the risk of doing the most cliched American thing possible,
I'll end with some Ted Lasso. Appreciate you all. See you soon, Down Under. Well, we appreciate you, Matt Futterman. Yeah, a really incredible way to... To start the show today, I mean, first and foremost, we love bagels at... at your place as well, Matt. And it was very lovely to be invited. And I didn't just enjoy it because I got to meet Ziggy, Matt's dog, finally. But I was very pleased, as Matt recounted on the podcast at the time, that Ziggy...
Ziggy was in attendance. When Matt and I were standing on the doorstep and we knocked to come in, I turned to Matt and I said, oh, there's no bark. thinking Ziggy wasn't going to be there. But anyway, Ziggy was there. They were lovely bagels and it was very lovely to be invited to Matt's. And it is always lovely to... hear Matt's thoughts gets Matt's perspective because they are so often...
really different to our own. Not necessarily that we disagree, although we sometimes do. Matt is a man that, quote, has never been moved by Dominic Thiem. But he's... Sometimes he just comes at things from a completely different angle to what we do, an angle that it's never even occurred to us to come at things from. And I find that, you know, really...
really valuable hearing about the way he comes at the sport from. And, you know, he, as he said, he travels a lot. He's seen a lot of these moments up close and personal, you know, hearing his description there of Djokovic's winning moment at the Olympics.
which we'll hear more about in our next voice note as well. You know, his hand shaking in the dirt, that's such a visceral visual. But his abiding memory being that... the story that was only published last week about Caroline Ulring and Karen Clarke. It's so incredibly powerful, the story itself, but also, you know, knowing now that Matt has been carrying that story and working on that story sort of the entire year that we've been seeing him in.
Press conferences covering the day-to-day of the sport, but also just having this in his mind and on the back burner the whole time. And I don't know, that's just an interesting window into how that kind of...
that kind of journalism works. And honestly, if you haven't read that story that came out last week in The Athletic, I would urge you to do so because it is an incredibly... powerful piece of journalism it is incredibly brave of those women to be telling their stories and I think as I said to Matt at the time when we were talking about it I think he does a particularly excellent job of spotlighting the experience of being a victim and how poorly understood that is by the world. And...
Yeah, I think that's such an important story to tell. And it's a story that probably wouldn't be being told now were it not for Pam telling her story a few years ago. I know it feels like sort of the wheels of change. grind incredibly slowly and I think we all and Pam would have would have liked to have seen perhaps more change, more palpable change maybe in the time since she came out and told her story. But this is evidence that, you know, incrementally things do change. And this felt...
incredibly important and incredibly powerful. Well, when Matt sent me a note with the link to that story, he said that... this story does not get told unless Pam tells her story. And I think that that sort of says everything, doesn't it? And I was reading it over the weekend, and I felt like I didn't take a breath for about five minutes.
story itself of course is incredibly hard-hitting and and difficult to stomach it's difficult to think of these two young women going having to go through this at the time of course and then now having to relive it and talk about it and yet That seems as though it's exactly what they needed to do in order to be able to process it. And only now, having come together and being able to share their story together, it seems that that's the case.
So important that these stories are heard because it went on and it went on ignored, swept under the carpet. People turning their back. And just on the subject of the journalism involved, Catherine, you mentioned that comes across in every line of that.
piece there's no wasted words there's no fluff there's no sort of you know waffle to sort of pad it out it's it's you can imagine a week has gone into a sentence in that piece because he's had a certain phone call and another phone call and another meeting which has led to X, Y and Z fact that he's able to put down in that piece and it's... It's a lesson. I've never done journalism like that, but it's a lesson. Matt? Yeah. Other Matt? Yeah. I think that's so well said.
When Matt sent it to me, I just said I was incredibly proud of him, really, for that work that's gone into that and incredibly proud of Pam as well for all the work she's done. And you're just struck by the incredible... courage of Karen and Caroline that comes through in this piece. And yeah, it's an extraordinary read. And I'm so glad that Matt has highlighted that on...
in his voice note there, because it needs to be read and it needs to be heard. And it's just incredibly, incredibly powerful. Absolutely. Well, let's hear more about the Olympics. As I mentioned, because what was special about 2024 other than bees? The Olympics. It was an Olympic year and that's what our incredible writer...
and barge captain Hannah Wilkes wanted to talk about in her voice note. So what I want to talk about is how 2024 was an Olympic year and I think a great Olympic year, which is not... always the case uh you wouldn't believe how many times this year i've had to google who won gold in tokyo you know i i look it up and i read the names and i go oh okay and then i immediately forget
And I don't think that in four years time, I'm going to be needing to Google who won gold at Paris 2024. You know, some of that depends on how things play out on the next few years on the women's side, for sure.
you know, is it going to be as big a turning point for Igor Shontak, for Jenkins 1, as it... seems now who knows we're obviously not going to forget a definitive a definitive achievement for Novak Djokovic and how extraordinary that such that such a definitive achievement is still possible after everything, you know. After the kind of forensic familiarity that we've all been more or less forced to acquire just through exposure, kind of familiarity to every kind of component of his greatness.
he can still produce something so surprising. And I don't think that would have been possible anywhere but the Olympics. And I think it elevated the Olympics, which is how it should work. It's only half the story because the other half is the Paralympics. The gold medal matches between Yui Kimi-ji and Dida de Hoot and between Takita Oda and Alfie Hewitt. These loom so large in my memory when I look back on 2024.
extraordinary matches they're still on youtube by the way full matches and i know that because i've watched them and um the the highlights of the highlights of both those matches are on i have like a little secret embarrassing youtube playlist of videos that reliably make me feel things when you know feeling anything is otherwise impossible uh you know i watch
God, I don't know. I watch... I do know. I'm just embarrassed to admit it. I watch Kenneth Branagh doing, like, the St. Crispin's Day speech. And I watch the barn dance from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers. And I watch... I don't know, the end of Sister Act 2. And I watch the moment when Takita Oda wins that gold medal and he takes off his will.
And he collapses on his back. And that packs Philippe Chatrier. And Alfie Hewitt, who had to go medal point and couldn't convert it, comes around the net.
And he picks him up and he helps him get his will back on. And they are holding each other. And it is Federer and Adal 2008 levels of... agony and ecstasy and significance and that kind of that epic heft and scale and sweep you know it's just not possible without the olympic and and in particular the paralympic games the paralympic name you know that match doesn't get
It doesn't get that setting. It doesn't get that stage. It doesn't get the crowd. It doesn't have the stakes in any other circumstance. And because of the way that those... players and the setting and the the stakes all came together what happened was something extraordinary something I don't think I could forget, but certainly something that I'm choosing to remember and to memorialise about 2024. Take me back!
Take me back to the Olympics. It was the best. Why do we have to wait another three and a half years? And yet also, I'm glad we have to wait another three and a half years because it's the waiting. in part, that makes it so delicious. But Hannah is so right there that, yes, it... It was special just by dint of being an Olympic year. I do firmly believe that. But also this was a particularly excellent Olympic year. Like, I find it hard not to think that the Olympics was...
the tennis tournament of the year. And that's before even coming on to the Paralympics, which we'll talk about as well. I think it was, for me, the tournament of the year, combining men's and women's and doubles and Daniel Medvedev failing to return Sari Arani's serve. Everything all in, tournament of the year. Oh, I agree. I agree. Every day was an epic. Every day made you feel...
The sort of things that Hannah's referencing there, I love the idea of the playlist. And as a Seven Brides for Seven Brothers fan who knows many of the songs and taught his daughter one of them when she was about five, I'm particularly delightful to... to have heard that reference um but but i i just feel like Yeah, every day was like that. And during the Paralympics, I remember being away on holiday and then Hannah telling us about what's going on.
And I just had to sort of interrupt my holiday to start following these stories and watched the Alpha Heuia Taquito Oda finale, the final few games, you know, and the stories as well, the stories that were coming up that we weren't necessarily expecting. And the atmosphere, it was packed, it was packed, and people were so into it. It felt like that was all that mattered in the world. And that's what it's all about.
How are we still learning new revelatory things about David Law? Yeah, I have one of those playlists as well, Hannah. I was absolutely hanging on her revealing what her... what her playlist items were. And I will be watching the end of Sister Act 2 later on today. Matt, we watched that Alfie Hewitt Takedo Oda...
final altogether, didn't we? We gathered around a laptop screen in our apartment in New York. Yeah, that's it. Like, it takes something to snap you out of the bubble of a grand slam when you're in it, you know, like you're... you're living and breathing the US Open and it's like you haven't really got headspace for anything else in your life and yet...
I don't know. I can't remember the exact details. I'm sure we'd gone to bed at about four o'clock in the morning and then we were up the next day and this match at Roland Garros, the Paralympics was on and David was watching it and David was like... guys you've got to come and see this and it's so vivid in my mind even though it was on a sort of tiny small laptop screen that we were all sort of crouched around watching and i think
I don't know. I remember being struck by the fact that we'd seen Alfie Hewitt come so close to winning Wimbledon in the past. And like eventually he gets over the line there. And yet, like, here's another thing. It's like there's always another thing that you can achieve and maybe come so close to in the way that Alfie Hewitt did.
Odo was just absolutely incredible, came up with so many amazing shots at, like, the right time. And, yeah, seeing it get that stage, the packed Philippe Chatrier Stadium was absolutely awesome. and as hannah has mentioned and as matt mentioned as well a couple of months before like if i if i did have to pick out one match that sort of stopped me in my tracks this year on the men's side, it probably would be Djokovic beating Alcaraz in that final. Isn't it just so Novak Djokovic that like...
By his standards, the rest of his year, not very good. And yet he's like made himself the protagonist of like those first two of like the first two voice notes that we've played in a season which was far from his best. He still achieved the thing he most wanted to achieve. It was this mix of also being a bit shocking, like because we... By that point through the season, we'd seen him get blown away by Sinu and Alcaraz. We'd seen him struggle for form and fitness. He'd had surgery.
genuinely was reaching the point where I didn't know if Nomad Djokovic had that level in him. When he needed it most, he pulled it out of the bag and it was just a phenomenal reminder of how great he is. And I remember thinking...
Alcaraz has got his whole year his whole career ahead of him and yet this could be the best guy he ever plays and like what a what a learning experience for Carlos Alcaraz that was as well and I think Matt like said it so perfectly seeing the seeing kind of the similar physical
emotions coming out of them, even though their actual emotions that they were experiencing were at the opposite end of the spectrum. It was a really, really powerful scene. And I just think the Olympics can do that like no other. Like no other sporting event, really, and like no other tennis event, because it is every four years. And yeah, it was a really, really powerful, powerful...
two tournaments there with the Olympics and the Paralympics. And I'm glad that we're kind of starting there because I do think the summer of this year, you know, Roland Garros, Wimbledon, Olympics, Paralympics, US Open. That was the crux of it right there. It was just so much packed in with the Olympics right at the top. Yeah, I mean, to think of that final and the... The moments in the immediate aftermath of that final, you know, Djokovic with his hands trembling, sobbing in the dirt and...
And Alcaraz breaking down mid-interview, that interview that he did with Alex Korecha where he, you know, had to stop midway through because he was... so heartbroken, so upset. You know, these two men, completely different ends of the personality spectrum, completely different ends of their career. spectrum and age spectrum. And yet I'm seeing them both in new lights. I'm seeing something that I've never seen before from both of them in that moment. That was...
That was pretty incredible. And I do think that looking back... The latter half of Carlos Alcraz's year and certainly that the US Open, you know, that hard court run surely must have been deeply in the shadow of what happened. in that Olympic final. I think that was such a new experience for him. I think here I am taking something away from Bertik van der Zandtschelp again. But yeah, I think that that must have...
derailed him somewhat. We're going to stay kind of with the Olympics now. Certainly there's an Olympic flavour to this next voice note which is from... Our very favourite Pamela Howard-Shriver with a little cameo, folks. Okay, so thinking about my favorite part or my favorite memory of 2024, a lot of them. Tennis gave me a lot of gifts again from watching my son finish his senior year of high school on the tennis team, see my oldest son get back into play.
tennis keeps giving and I especially had an amazing experience again for the second year in a row being on Donna Vekic's team so of course her summer of 2024 combination of wimbledon and the olympics was certainly a highlight i'll always remember and i'm so proud of the work and you know speaking of who do we have here we actually have donna vecich she's doing her pre-season in la donna what is your favorite
memory of 2024 hi hi maybe the week we spent training at your court between Indian Wells and Miami now all jokes aside It's got to be winning the silver medal at the Olympics, but it's been a great year. Wimbledon semifinals was a little bit heartbreaking, but the medal helped me recover from that. It tasted pretty good when you got in contention to win your first major and then played the gold medal match. What does that mean for your 2025?
I mean, it's given me a lot of motivation and belief that I can get far in the majors, maybe win one. But yeah, it's just not... Everyone is playing really good tennis, and it just shows you that you have to really be at your best and the fittest that you can be if you want to have a chance. Well, thanks for joining us on the Year in Review and the Tennis Podcast. We're all fans of you. Matt, Catherine and David especially. And I'm fans of you guys.
Bless Donna for saying that. I don't believe for a moment she has any idea who we are. I certainly don't think, Matt, she knows that she's not playing on Pam's court, she's playing on your court. Quite right, yes. Donna once sent us an eye roll on Twitter. That's one thing I always remember. She did. About the United Cup?
Yeah, there was some kind of United Cup team selection drama, wasn't there? But I enjoyed the eye roll a lot. We didn't know if she was agreeing with us or whether she was eye rolling at our takes. We still don't know. Yeah, I mean, everyone, you know how I feel about... silver medals at the Olympics. Not that I'd say no to one, but it is, yeah, it's wonderful to, and it was wonderful and very Olympic to hear.
somebody talk about a silver medal in that way and also in the context of what happened to Donna at Wimbledon, you know, which I think... Might be my match of the season. Maybe Djokovic Alcaraz at the Olympics aside. I don't know. I think Vekic Paolini will take some beating in terms of match of the year at Wimbledon.
to bounce back from that kind of heartbreak in the way that she did to achieve that at the Olympics. You know, that wouldn't have been possible. That wouldn't have been there in a non-Olympic year, that opportunity, David. No, she was part of two of the other great stories of the year in Jasmine Paolini and in Jung Chin Wen. I feel like they were real revelations. for the whole year of 2024. And because she didn't get to the women's final, and because she didn't win the Olympic gold, Donna...
Perhaps it could go under the radar if her coach didn't have to be our good friend Pam. And I'm glad that it doesn't because this is the year of Donna Vekic's life. And she's... She's been around for quite a while. She's been around for a decade now. And it may still be that her best is yet to come. It's interesting just hearing her talk. I suppose you would imagine she would, but there's real hope there.
that this is the start of something still, that she's on her way to something even better. And I mean, because I do so many of these tennis relived interviews and we watch so many... nostalgic pieces where people are talking about how oh next year you will come and win this thing that you haven't won and and then you can look 10-15 years down the track and realize oh
They didn't. And that was a moment in time where they were wondering whether they would. And right now, Donna's in that moment, along with Paolini, of course, but as players that are right there. And is this as good as it gets or is there another level to go? And if she can stay fit, it's always the big thing, isn't it? If she can stay fit, there's enough game in Donna Vekic to think that she can remain.
at the very least a contender. And I think a slightly forgotten part of Donovekic's summer was...
was kind of the way it started with that absolutely heartbreaking defeat at the French Open to Olga Danilovic when she'd cruised through the first set and ended up losing it in a final set tie break. And it was just such a gutting... loss for her and and she spoke about how you know she genuinely like wasn't sure what way her career was going after that and yet she then gets on the grass and has that
Absolutely formidable run at Wimbledon and then gets back on the clay and is in contention to win the gold. It's just incredible to see a player...
turn into someone who's in contention to win the biggest, biggest titles, having honestly not really been that player for their career. Like, you know, she'd reached, you know... quarterfinals before and and been really consistent but like hadn't ever really been in the mix for for one of these biggest titles and she was this summer she tasted it and as Pam says there and as Donna says there like that
that motivates you, I think, to think that I want that again, you know, I want to get there again. Yeah, it's really, really exciting to kind of follow a player as closely as we did in that summer and all the highs and lows that they experience. And yeah. would love it for for Vekic and for Pam if they can just get back there again in 2025 just just give yourself another shot and
Yeah, it was a really special time. Did you hear what Matt said there, Pam? He said, Donna Vekic in the mix. That's what I heard. to be discussed, to be discussed on probably an Australian Open preview show. Hear that happy business owner. They're whistling because they found a great deal for unlimited calls, texts and data with three business. Plans start from just £8 a month with a 4.5% price increase each April. Switch to free business for savings that'll give you something to whistle about.
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Right, we move on now to our second contributor from The Athletic. This is Charlie Eccleshare moving us on to two of the biggest overarching... topics and threads running through the 2024 tennis season. Hi, everyone. It's Charlie Eccleshare here. So thinking about what one thing will I remember most about 2024 in tennis, there were two themes that jumped out thinking about it. And the first is...
the two positive doping tests for two of the most high profile players in the sport, you know, when that happened once, that was pretty striking in and of itself. Then it happens a second time. And then, you know, that was... even more crazy but i think the the thing i'll remember most is the the retirements and the goodbyes you know this was the year when we had andy murray
Rafael Nadal, amongst others, like Dominic Thiem saying goodbye. And in the case of both Murray and Nadal, I think we always wondered what that would look like. And to some extent, even though we didn't actually rationally think this, but would that day ever come? Because certainly in Nadal's case, his ability to constantly regenerate and recover from injuries.
you know, did make it seem like he just had this knack for somehow being able to keep going. And obviously both of those led to a lot of reflections. And, you know, thoughts about the sport's past and its present and its future and what tennis is going to look like without those guys and the fact that...
Federer's gone and we don't know how much longer we've got Novak Djokovic for. And I think for me, one of the nice things about it was... that it does force you to take a moment to stop and reflect and think about how lucky you've been to see those players up close and cherish some of their best memories and kind of rediscover things you'd sort of forgotten about.
But yeah, I think that's the, that theme, the retirement one is what I think really sort of dominated tennis because, you know, especially with Nadal. The whole clay court season was this sort of dance as to what was going to happen. Was it his last time at the French Open? And then there was the Olympics. I just reinforced that, you know, you can't pick.
how these things end. And also my view is that it doesn't really matter all that much. That's not what's going to define these players' legacy. And I was lucky enough actually to talk to Roger Federer. earlier this year around the time of his film premiere and he basically said that you know don't worry too much just do whatever feels right and and ultimately it's okay it's not gonna
be how people remember Rafael Nadal or Andy Murray or even Roger Federer, the fact that he went out when he did. It's everything that came before. So, yeah, that's it for me. It's thinking about... those guys and what they achieved and now how tennis moves on and the baton being passed to the next generation and You know, again, linking back, I guess, to the other theme, a doping ban notwithstanding, I do feel like tennis.
um on the men's side which obviously been the focus here because that's where the most high profile retirements have come uh feels like it's in pretty good hands thanks everyone uh and speak soon bye Thank you, Charlie. Always a pleasure. He makes a very interesting and salient point, doesn't he, about... whether these retirements that we have spent so long talking about and speculating about and dwelling on for 2024, whether they actually matter at all.
whether the goodbyes and the endings themselves matter at all. And I do think Charlie is totally right in terms of legacy and in terms of sort of the external world. They really... don't matter, is my view. But the fact that the players are going to such lengths to engineer... as good a retirement moment as they possibly can within the circumstances of their ailing and failing bodies, says to me that it matters a lot to them.
And probably the degree to which it matters to them is probably determined by how at peace with the retirement they are. You know, Federer saying it doesn't matter. Well, maybe that's because he was totally... at peace with it and, you know, he'd created the Labour Cup, this sort of vehicle for himself to pass into the next life. But I think maybe Andy Murray and Rafael Nadal. less at peace with it and perhaps more why they try to engineer these competitive retirements when in fact you know
Maybe the juxtaposition of those two things just isn't possible. I mean, I think Andy Murray fashioned something about as close to... as was possible within the circumstances of his body. You know, those moments he created at the Olympics and the ceremony that Wimbledon put on for him. But I don't think I'll remember Rafael Nadal's retirement.
very fondly I think I'll remember it as a bungling quite frankly and I also feel I don't know how you two feel about this but I do feel a bit of relief that that these two retirements that we have been anticipating for so, so long have just happened now. The inevitable has happened and we all can move on now.
As much as I will miss them both desperately in the tennis world, like, OK, OK, we've done it now. What's next? You know, what do you think, Matt? I certainly... agree with you there in terms of like it did feel like we had so many tournaments this year and kind of in the past few years that just been kind of dominated by that retirement talk and And that juxtaposition of what you're saying there, like you can't cheat it. You can't cheat the end. And yet we...
we were probably guilty of trying to think of what this perfect ending could be. You know, we were all getting very carried away with the possibility of Nadal and Alcaraz and, you know, it all kind of being amazing for Nadal. And, you know, there was definitely... a part of me that started to think oh god maybe maybe Andy Murray could win a medal at the Olympics you know like all these things start running through your mind and you realise that
As I said, you can't cheat it. You can't engineer a picture-perfect retirement. It's just not like that. So there's definitely been a big... a big relief, I suppose. I think also for those players, I do think as much as Nadal, you know, obviously would love to keep playing. It's just that his body can't... can't do it anymore. I do think he's over the last few months and year maybe really come to terms with the fact that he can have a life away from the tennis court as well.
I will remember the sense of occasion about that, you know, like being there and having to go to the player hotel for his press conference. Seeing all the journalists descend on this not very big stadium in Malaga from from throughout Spain, like that was telling in itself about how big a story this was and what an impact Nadal has had on tennis and on sport. and on the world, like, that for me will be what I remember probably more so than his final match.
i kind of blocked that out even even at the time like i'll just remember the impact that he had um I think it's really interesting what Charlie says there about, you know, tennis is in, or men's tennis is kind of what he was talking about there. Men's tennis is in good hands. And I think like, yes, it is in terms of like Alcaraz and Sinner.
I have had this moment, though, over the last month or so, like I was really struck by the ATP finals field and how I just wasn't that into it. And I think... I think that was a real moment of realisation for me where I was like, wow, we have had it really good for so long. Because it wasn't just one or two players that we had at the top. It was four of them repeatedly, reliably there, year in, year out.
And that has gone. And also, you know, you cannot ignore the potential ban that is coming Yannick Sinner's way. Look, we don't know. I think the WADA are... appeal list is out and they've listed all the appeals that are going to be heard before February the 11th and Sinner isn't on there so it's likely going to be after that.
And we don't know what the outcome of that will be. But that is just at the forefront of my mind right now. I can't really get as excited about Sinner Alcaraz as I want to, knowing that it might... all go for a year or two depending on on the outcome and and that uncertainty is just leaving men's tennis at the moment in a bit of a difficult spot as well as these absolute legends of the sport leaving like that
There's a lot of good, absolutely. And Alcaraz is such a gift to the sport, especially like coming after Nadal in Spain. I can definitely get excited about it. I'm not saying that I can't, but I do have all these like conflated, conflicted feelings. And I think the... retirements of Murray and Dahl this year have have just sort of elevated those they've just been a realization that we are we are now in
in a very different era and, you know, it might not be as great as the previous one. It probably won't be. And that is OK, but it does take a bit of time to sort of come to terms with that, I suppose. I had the same sort of... musing a bit on Charlie's last point there about men's tennis being in good hands because I had the exact same reaction. Like, yeah, with Alcoraz and Sinner, asterisk next to Sinner. But I... I feel like...
men's tennis could be in good hands if Art of Feast happens and Jack Draper continues to happen and a few of those bets come off. But I do feel like the ATP is dependent on a few players. Like that bringing some more pizzazz, some depth of pizzazz. Strength in pizzazz depth. Yeah. We've got a workshop. Strength in pizzazz depth. yeah no it's but in two years time there's probably going to be some other kid come along who
has got those things and changes the landscape. But right now... Carlos Alcraz's younger brother, apparently. Yeah, he'd be useful. But right now, I don't really see how you can lose this sort of generation and not have... a kind of response to that. And you put in the last two years the sheer size of these... These figures that are leaving in terms of impact, Federer, Serena, Nadal, Murray and soon Djokovic. That's just, it doesn't get any bigger than that in any sport. I mean...
One of those would be era-defining, and they're all in the same era. It's just astonishing. So, yeah, I still end up feeling... that particularly Nadal's suffering is over and the kind of the memories. It's not just about moving on. It's about being left with the real memories. I want to be able to remember how they were.
I was watching some clips of Nadal at Australian Open from 20 years ago. And just when he was 18, you know, and I don't want to remember that. I don't want to remember what I've seen of him over the last year because it's been tough to see. OK, well, we're going to stay on the subject of retirements for a moment and focus on one retirement in particular with a wild card contributor.
David has been wanting to make this happen for months, if not years, folks. If this is the last tennis podcast that you hear David on, it's because he's left us for the Murray Musings podcast, hosted by Scott. but sort of professional Andy Murray fan and all-around excellent internet person. Would that be accurate, David? Yep. I've never known anyone have this effect on David. David's a different person when he talks about Scott Barkley. It's amazing. Yeah.
Every tweet he puts up, every social media post he puts up, I have to share with you both pretty much because it always makes me laugh. David screenshots it and shares it with the caption, he never misses. I'm pretty sure I do follow Scott Barkley, but I don't need to because David just sends us all of his stuff. Yeah, and David will be appearing on the Murray Museums podcast this evening, David. If I've got the energy. Good of you to squeeze us in before you...
Before your main appearance of the day. Here is Andy Murray's biggest fan, Scott Barkley, talking about, well, you can probably guess what he's talking about. Hi there, David, Catherine and the Tennis Podcast generally. My memories of 2024 can be perfectly defined with the goodbye.
to Andy Murray the retirement of Andy Murray and how that generally kind of I guess like took over my tennis fan year generally As a fan of Andy, since I was, I think 11 or 12, I can never quite remember, it felt like the... the final chapter of the first part of my life, however dramatic that sounds. And I think it was almost so perfect and it will be remembered in the way that it was.
because it was exactly the sort of goodbye that suited Andy Murray. None of us... quite knew exactly when it was coming until like the few weeks beforehand you could tell how desperate he was to keep playing but it was just time and um it was it wasn't perfect it wasn't it wasn't like you know it wasn't a kind of picture perfect send off you know walking away with the trophy or a medal or or anything like that it was scrappy it was messy it was
you know, like taped together. It was, you know, it just felt real. It felt like such a real kind of goodbye to someone who loves the sport so much. As a fan of his, as a huge, huge fan of his, it felt like a kind of seismic shift of how I'm going to continue to be a tennis fan.
um those two matches at the olympics you know made me realize I'm going to miss him even more than I realized that I was because to save those match points in the first round of the Olympics and then to save them again in the second round and to you know scramble his way through to kind of you know resuscitate his career from the doldrums was just you know iconic in the way that only Andy Murray can really provide for us and you know
I do think that it's worth saying that right at the end of the year now, he's announced he's going to be coaching Novak Djokovic. And for me, that is just ideal. Because I was still trying to get over the fact that we weren't going to be seeing him on the tennis circuit. And that we are coaching the, in my opinion, the greatest.
men's tennis player of all time is just phenomenal. So I'm looking forward to seeing him in the coaching box. That's more than I thought I would ever get from him again. And yeah, this year was a goodbye. year as a fan of the tennis player Andy Murray and now I'm ready to enter the next chapter as a fan of the coach. Andy Murray. Thank you very much. And I'll catch you in the next one. See you. Yeah, what a gift to the Murray Musings podcast, that bombshell coaching news.
I don't know what... There was a worrying moment when they thought they were going to have to really get into golf. Yeah, I don't know what the content plan was for Murray Musings before that bombshell, but wow, what a gift. I mean, frankly, a gift to, I could just imagine all the British journos. you know, just eyes lighting up at that news, which, honestly, I am still not over. I still, I can't believe it. I still have moments where I...
really have to double take that it's real and it's happy. Yeah, it wouldn't be at all surprising if Andy Murray just put out a post that says, I was only joking. Yeah, I'd go, oh, sure. What fools we were to have fallen for that. That would be my reaction to a ha-ha got you post. I can't believe it. It's amazing. I mean, you know, thinking about...
Everything that we said about and our contributors have said about Novak Djokovic on this pod up to now, like the more I think about it, the more and David in particular, your take on our emergency podcast that.
Well, no, it wasn't an emergency one, was it? It just felt like one. But it was during a period where we were podcasting every day anyway, so we didn't need to do an emergency podcast about this. But your take about Djokovic... needing to find something to keep things fresh and keep himself motivated and to try and bring back that feeling that he had the Olympics, that edge that the Olympics gave him.
this year. The more I think about that, the more this makes sense to me from a Djokovic perspective. As much as it's not where I necessarily would have thought his mind would go, I get it. For Andy Murray. It's the same thing, Catherine. It's the same thing. For Djokovic is to elongate his career. For Andy Murray, it's to kind of be able to rewind the clock with that.
having to use his own body. He gets to just... Sure, but I thought there'd be a year or two before he did this. He didn't get this offer, did he? That's the thing. I think it's timing. I think in an ideal world, it would have happened in two years' time when he's had a good break and he's done all the things he was planning to do. But... You can't control when you get the offer. And I think that's where he is. And Novak Djokovic needs the buzz. Yeah.
Andy Murray's got this opportunity for a once-in-a-lifetime buzz again. So here we are. How do you think the now or never argument went down with Kim? I would not like to speculate. I mean, actually, I... Clearly, Mark Andy won, didn't he? Yeah, I actually think that, I think I remember hearing that his team were saying, you've got to do this. Like, the people close to him. Interesting, the Alcaraz quotes that have come out.
this week with him saying, when I play Djokovic, I'll feel like I'm playing both of them. You know, it's like they've combined forces. Yeah, it is a bit like that. And I am... perplexed and fascinated by it and I'm not sure I'll ever get used to it. I think even when I'm sitting there in the press seats on...
On Rod Laver Arena, potentially just behind Andy Murray, aren't they? Because the press seats are just behind one of the coaching boxes on the Rod Laver Arena. So Andy Murray could be sat right there in front of us. And I still don't think I will... quite believe that that's where we are but I can't wait for it absolutely bonkers it is Like so exciting. I can't wait. I said yesterday that like I'm going to figure out how as media members.
we get access to practice sessions. Because I know that we do, but that's something I never do at a tournament. I never really go and watch practice because I always think, well, they're going to be hitting the ball well.
what am I going to get from this over something else that I could be doing? But I will be seated for Andy Murray and Novak Djokovic's practice sessions. I just want to know what the... what the vibe's like as long as they're open to the media like maybe they'll be maybe they'll be behind closed doors do you think murray will be the hitting partner he's been sort of hippie
Yeah, well, do you think that could be an awkward conversation? You know, Djokovic saying, no, I need someone more Sprite. I want to be there when that's said. I've hired you for your brain, not your body. Yeah, if you could... stand over there while this 21 year old comes on and tries to emulate Carlos Alcaraz for me at the other end of the court yeah all of that like I just don't know because in a practice session there does tend to be there's the hitting partner or I mean Goran used to
hit with Djokovic, didn't he? Sometimes. But then there'll also be the coach that sort of stands behind with their arms folded. Is Murray going to be the stand behind with his arms folded? Or is he... I don't know. I don't know. We get to find out. Get me to Australia. Thank you, Scott, for that. Fantastic contribution. I will be tuning in to the David Law episode of Murray Musings. And yeah, David, I mean, we all enjoy your tweets, but David is truly obsessed.
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The 2024 year in tennis. What I'm going to remember most is how goddamn provisional this year has been. One of my favourite writers is F. Scott Fitzgerald. He wrote during the 20s, the jazz age, as he coined it. He wrote that a first-rate intelligence can hold two opposed ideas in mind while still being able to function. Let me tell you something, kids. There were times this year when I had an extremely hard time functioning.
Moral ambiguity does that to me. It always messes with my head. And it did so particularly in the second half of 2024. Donald Trump, the noted and convicted felon and twice impeached president for the second time. he beat a far better woman for the job. And now every one of his sordid convictions is being made provisional and ultimately toothless. Living through that realization brought me to my knees.
And even before that, the Yannick Sinner provisional doping suspension threw me sideways. And that was followed by the Igich Fiontech provisional doping suspension to end the 2024 season. And by then, I could only throw up my hands. So to review, a president of the United States can't be held to the same standards as non-presidents of the United States.
Yannick Sinner and Iga Shantek didn't take the banned drugs intentionally, and their extensive and expensive teams moved quickly to show that to be true. There's provisions for those things. Now, you can argue those things up and down, and many have. And I get it. It's good to be rich and famous. And life isn't fair. And I've heard and read every argument for why this stuff happens. I get it. But still.
Shouldn't we at least want things to be fair? Shouldn't we want a level playing field all over the world? And speaking globally and provisionally, shouldn't we at least want, demand? that a sovereign Islamic state, a monarchy with horrific and deadly laws, especially for women, gays, and journalists, and I'm all three, make important, unequivocal changes before the biggest women's sport in the world.
always somehow short on money, tells us that Saudi Arabia's atrocities are terrible, but they're provisional. They'll change somehow down this old road. And until then, we'll take their millions. Am I sounding old? I am old. Here's how old I am. When things get bleak in my world, I start watching Star Wars movies all over again.
Because they're about light and dark and purpose and conviction. And the good guys protecting their own. That's how we have to protect our sport. In the film, The Last Jedi. Finn, and we love Finn, Finn is about to try and stop the First Order by crashing his speeder into their siege cannon. It's a suicide mission.
At the last moment, Rose, and I love Rose, and she loves Finn, she crashes her speeder into his, knocking him off course. And then Finn, of course, in typical guy fashion, he's all like, why did you do that? And Rose, she's all banged up and stuff. And she just quietly says, I saved you, dummy. That's how we're going to win. Not fighting what we hate, saving what we love.
Okay, I know it's cheesy. I love it anyway. And that's how I'm going to approach 2025. I'm counting on Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray, both of them fighting what they hate. which is getting older, but saving what they love, their passion for tennis, I want them to do great. And with those two, you just know there will be no provisions. As Han Solo says, never tell me the odds. As Yoda says, do or do not. There is no try. And, of course, Princess Leia.
She says, you're our only hope. So come on, guys. May the Force be with you. And may every match be a lightsaber battle. Can someone else say something, please? Because I don't know. I've got no words to follow that Mary Carrillo voice note. Friends of the pod will know that her last... contribution to the tennis podcast was a voice note for our Davis Cup Relived show, which is up now and we recorded a couple of weeks ago. And that voice note included...
an anecdote about the KGB or an anecdote that featured the KGB. She is extraordinary. We're so lucky to have her in our world. And tennis is so lucky to have her. I mean, wow. Yeah. What, you expect me to say something different to that? I agree with all of that. She's a genius. She's just the best.
One of the best people I've ever met, I think. And, yeah, I just can't get enough of hearing what she's got to say and think about things. And she gets me thinking. And actually, that's what this show does, I think, is listening.
to all these voice notes it just get they get me thinking in a way maybe maybe to help me explain what i feel but also to teach me and and make me aware of more um and she is kind of like it feels like almost the conscience of the sport, of trying to just maybe, before you do stuff, tennis and organisers, maybe just find out what Mary thinks about it before you do it. Would be my suggestion. Yeah, I just think her mind never misses. Like, it's such a... The relief and validation of...
finding out that Mary feels the same way as you do about something is kind of in itself incomparable. It's like, oh, okay, I feel on the right side of things. Yeah. Yeah, but put her in charge of everything. We've been lucky enough to watch tennis with Mary Carrillo and I now want to watch Star Wars with Mary Carrillo. Yeah, I want to watch Sister Act 2 with Hannah and I want to watch all of the Star Wars. And I think there are a lot of Star Wars. I want to watch it all with Mary.
Right. We come on now to our final voice note of this show. It is quite a tough one. It's quite a sad one, but I think it's a very important and... necessary one from our friend and The Telegraph's tennis correspondent, Simon Briggs. It can only be one memory for me this year, really, and that's a sad one because we lost.
Mike Dixon, our friend and I guess my mentor at the Australian Open so suddenly it was shocking. A feeling of numbness initially and then sort of sunk in as the year went on and I suddenly missed him every day. I've been working in particular. Yeah.
And a day I thought of him a lot was the last day of tennis I covered this year, the Davis Cup. Mike really loved the Davis Cup and he would have loved the sort of complexity and the irony, I suppose, of Rafael Nadal's last... match, the incredible crowd that was there in Malaga and the sort of weird sense that somehow it had Been a great day for saying goodbye to Rafa, but not such a great day for Spain's prospects of winning the title. I can imagine him sort of puffing on his vape and...
kind of making an ironic comment and making a brilliant piece out of the whole event. And yeah, just sad he wasn't there to see it. David, I think I would have really enjoyed reading Mike's piece about David Ferrer's bungling of Spain's Davis Cup hopes in the name of Nadal's. And, yeah, his work will be missed, is being missed, and he continues to be... to be missed. And I think, as Simon said there, his loss has taken a long time to kind of sink in over the course of...
over the course of the year, and I think we'll all feel it again. You know, someone like Simon, who was so close to Mike in particular, we'll feel it again in Australia, won't we, when the anniversary and all the... All the memories come around again and, yeah, it wouldn't feel right for us to... To not touch upon this is a significant part of our year. No. And Simon and people like Stu Fraser from The Times, people that both number Mike as their mentor.
They're the ones, I think, on site at tennis tournaments who feel his loss the most intensely because he was sitting right next to them all the time and working with them and alongside them and travelling with them.
them but you know I think everybody feels it because he he was just such a huge character from from the tennis world and and it was it was always An interesting combination when reading his work, because it was simultaneously kind of a love letter to the sport, but also quite cynical and absolutely... scathing when necessary you know he he he didn't hold back and you just felt like you were getting the real verdict from him what he thought without any
relationships to to protect or anything and and there was a deep value in that as a reader and uh yeah i i i've heard him in years gone by talk about other people he would have been interested to to have heard or read or seen what so and so had thought of of something that was going on and and that occurs to me quite a lot with mike now um you know because we don't have it anymore and and i just try to imagine it so uh yeah he remains deeply missed and um
Yeah, we'll certainly be raising a glass or two to him in January. We certainly will in just... Just we're on the subject of losses in the tennis world. Since we last brought you a podcast, you might have heard that the tennis world lost Neil Fraser. Australian three-time major winner, winner of the Triple Crown, of course. Rod Laver tweeted about his loss. He said, I'm deeply saddened here of the passing of my dear mate.
and fellow lefty Neil Fraser. He was a true gem in a golden era of Australian tennis legends, an incredible world number one, a Grand Slam champion and a Davis Cup. Neil bested me in two major finals, pushing me to become a better player. My heartfelt condolences go out to Thea and Neil's extended family. I miss you dearly, buddy. Rest in peace. And we also had a post, well, I mean, there were lots of posts about Neil Fraser, but we also had this from Darren Cahill. He said...
A coach, a captain, mentor, leader, inspiration, and most importantly, a friend. Neil Fraser was that to all of Australian tennis and every generation of player. We will all miss you, mate. A brilliant career, but he torched his legacy into the Australian Davis Cup team with a passion and loyalty that will remain forever. And he cared about the Australian players no matter how good you were. He took the time to speak to all of us.
to give advice, to show support, to build a healthy competitive culture and show us the path needed to improve as players and men. And damn, he loved his team. He made everyone feel like they would kill to be in his team. some of the practice sessions as an orange boy in the lead up to the 1986 final. They nearly did. That's what it meant. to play for Australia and for Frase. Thanks for everything, Frase. There's too much to list, but mostly for the love and friendship.
So as you looked to the heavens standing at match point in the 1960 Wimbledon singles final against Rod Laver and whispered the words, God help me, and then unleashed a blistering forehand down the line return winner to win the title. Now it's time. that beer with your mate upstairs you can thank him as I reckon you had your eyes closed caught it late and blindsided Rocket covering your favourite cross-court return that's a lovely
tribute, isn't it? And there were tons of those. I mean, he was obviously a towering figure in all of tennis, but he clearly meant so much, David, to... to Australian tennis. Yeah, I think whenever you... heard his name i would hear people like richard evans the great tennis writer talk about him both in terms of his company but also as a as a davis cup leader and one of the figures of australian tennis
always talked about together. It's very rarely that you hear about individuals. It was a group. It was a sort of team of boys who... Grew into men and led Australia in the tennis world, and he was right at the forefront for many, many years, just regarded with such respect and affection from anybody you spoke to, particularly in Australia. Absolutely. And our thoughts, of course, with his family and everybody in the tennis world that I'll miss Neil.
That's about it for our review of 2024. We'll be back next week with a show to talk about things that have happened in the tennis world during the off-season because... because things just keep happening and we'll be here to talk about it and maybe do a bit of looking ahead to 2025 as well. So don't worry, we'll be back next week. We, of course, have our mascots. Our trusty, trusty mascots who have been with us throughout all of those ups and downs of 2024. I've had the...
the dearly departed Darwin. David has had Francis and Matt has had Haida and Soma. Billie Jean has had Billie Jean King and Alana Kloss. What a thing to be able to say. We have our top folks. and executive producers, truly, truly top folks, Greg, Chris, Jamie and Jeff and Matt. We have some shout-outs. We start with Tim Johnson, who is on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York. Hello, Tim. Hi, Tim Mayotte.
From the 80s. And Henman from the 90s and 90s. And Putz. And Tim Putz and Gullickson. Big tennis name, Tim. Tiger Tim if you will. And Tim says, I got swept up in tennis when I was 13 years old when I played all summer in the New York Police Athletic League. For doing that, I got free ticket for the first 10 days of the year. US Open at Forest Hills. It was magical. Whoa. So cool. That's a good trade, isn't it? That's fantastic.
Wow, Tim, love that. Thank you. We've also got Adrian Grubler in Dallas, Texas. Like Marorino? Like Manorino. Wow. That's the most exciting you've looked all day, Catherine. Manorino's going to come up in the quiz, isn't he? His big tequila moment. Almost certainly. So, Adrian, from whereabouts in Texas? Dallas. And Adrian has two rescue cats and one dog. They all get along quite well, he says. And he loves playing tennis with his daughter.
That is extremely lovely, Adrienne. Animals being friends is my favourite thing. Thank you for that. And last but by no means least, we have Tash, who is celebrating her 40th birthday this week. Billie Jean's big into it. She says, tell us more about Tash. Well, this shout out, of course, comes from our mate.
Dave. Hello, our mate Dave. And hello, Tash. I wanted to give a shout out to Tash. And he's even written what he wants to say. So Dave says, this is for you, Tash. Tash is a very fine tennis player and lifetime rookie. Federer fan I want to dedicate this to her as a birthday present and for being an amazing person who deserves only the best my aim for 2025 Dave says is to improve my tennis enough for Tash to invite me to Go on, Dave.
really good. And I'm not saying that that's an unachievable goal for Dave. I'm just saying on the basis of what I've seen... Long way to go. Long way to go, Dave. Unfortunately, you've married someone really quite good at tennis. But yeah, Tash is a delight. Dave is a delight. They're a delight together. And yeah, they're... Their French Open trip last year for Dave's 40th birthday saved one of our podcasts. So we remain eternally grateful for that. Tash, hope you have a...
A wonderful birthday. And Dave, thank you. Thank you for your continued support of us and of the podcast. And that is it, folks, for our 2024 review show. It's not it for podcasts in 2024. We'll be back. next week with a little update show with all the various goings on from the offseason, the coaching merry-go-rounds, probably some more attempts to process Murray and Djokovic. I'm going to be doing that probably on every podcast.
forevermore. So yeah, we'll be back next week. And of course, we have all those... fun and exciting plans for 2025. If you want to get yourself an intro or a shout out or join in with any of the various categories of fun that we have on offer with Friends of the Pod, then the link to do that is in our show notes.
reminder that all friends of the podcast now get ad free listening as of today so if you've been listening to this show ad free we very much hope you've enjoyed it now How do you end a podcast that has featured the great Mary Carrillo and Pam Shriver with cameo from Donna Vekic and assorted other... brilliant tennis folk. How do you end a podcast like that on a high? I hear you ask. Well, that is where listener Adam Sajczyk enters. The Fray. Adam from New Mexico sent us this.
A couple of weeks ago he said, I was driving around the UK and France with my wife Jane last May and June and we kept up with the French Open and Wimbledon via hours listening to the pod. We are fans. And in gratitude... Wait for it. I wrote this song for you. Here is the song written and performed by Adam. It is called Posh Slice and we hope you enjoy. We're tuning in to the Tennis Podcast Towers. Home of the fresh takes. ATP, WTA, and Grand Slams. Wash down with beer and cakes.
David's the Eminence Grease. Older than Gail Monfils. Young Matt joined as number three. He's your George Harrison. So let it be. And Lady Catherine, she's like a royal, a royal with spice. I got a nickname for her. i call her posh slice yeah i got a nickname for her i call her posh slice In a world with so much wrong Let's nerd out on our sport And celebrate the aggro On and off the court Fight for egalite. Give us the big feels. Watch into the night for us and run.
The highlight reels. Lady Catherine, you've got those posh words. And you love... Saying them in French. Matt, give us a stat. You're so clever. David, you're incisive and nice. But I got no nickname for you. Unless you're Posh Slice. Yeah, I got no nickname for you. Unless you're posh slice. Are you still coming for dinner on Saturday? I could save you money on your energy bill. Everyday noise, drowning out what really matters to your business.
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