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Hi, this is Billie Jean King. This is Mary and Bartori. This is Bianca and Drasco. I'm Matt's Belander. This is Mary Carillo. This is Pam Shriver. This is Janik Noah and you're listening to the tennis podcast. Oh, hello and welcome to the tennis podcast. Your special extra bonus midweek tennis podcast because apparently tennis tournaments finish midweek now. So tennis asks a question. We respond. David is here. This is David's favourite time of day. It's pre-9am. Hello, David.
Yeah, and it's extra podcast day as well. That was also my ideas. Everything's coming up me today. If you've been on last night's coaches and coaching show for friends, you'd have seen Catherine at her very best. And I'd have been flailing around trying to keep up in my sort of, I need to get a bed face. But no, I'm on fine form this morning. David and I have a window of about two hours a day where we're both on okay form
at the same time. Matt Roberts is here. Fresh at any time of day. Matt Roberts, hello. Hello, although I have to say the inside truth is that Catherine was the one pushing for this to be earlier. It was suggested for about 9, 9, 30 and then up pops Catherine and WhatsApp.
8.45 and I almost fell off my chair. Well, because it's the 9.30. Yes, by 10.30, 10.45, Billie Jean would be angsting for a walk and potentially making the sort of noises in the back when she was making throughout that friend show last night, which were somewhat distracting. So actually, the truth is that if we recorded 9.30, I would probably have to get up early enough to give her a walk beforehand, which would be an ungodly hour of the day for me.
The sort of time that David gets up every day. Luckily for this extra bonus show, we have tennis has provided excellent material to talk about. Let's start in Beijing with the ATP final there between Carlos Alcoraz and the Yannick Centre, one by Alcoraz in the deciding set tie break, 67, 64, 76 coming from three love down in that deciding set tie break. David, their matches already, these two have so much pressure on them to be good, don't they? Because they are the
anointed rivalry. So many matches in the past have been good, although their two prime matches this year haven't been that great. Let's be honest, they have, they've been those kind of matches where they haven't played well at the same time. It felt like this one really needed to be good or would have been starting to wonder whether their rivalry was overhyped or something, and it delivered and their rivalries categorically not overhyped. No, not crap. But elements of crap
were since in a couple of the matches that we were really hoping for rivalry bliss. And I think that this one needed to be particularly good because the stakes weren't as high. This was not a grand slam semi-all final. This was not a Masters 1,080B finals final or a Davies Cup final. It was a 500 final, very, very good final in tournament in Beijing, which has the associated,
related 1,000 on the WTA side. But on the 80B side, this was about matches and players and that's what both this and the Tokyo tournament are really about, particularly for players of this level. And I think what you actually got, what we ended up getting was if somebody who didn't know that much about tennis wanted to know what's the big deal about Alcriyze against Sino, you could just send them this match. They don't need to watch any of the others. They could just watch this one
because I think that this match summed up the two players to perfection. I thought there was a really good bit of commentary from Nomi Brody on the world feed when she said the match was like Janik Sinner at 8.5, 9 out of 10 for 3.5 hours and Carlos Alcriyze at 10 out of 10 for some periods of it and 7 out of 10 for other periods of it. And that's kind of what you get with these two.
I did think that Alcriyze was going to win easily when he went 4-1 up in the first set. And he's been in blistering form for the last couple of weeks, including the Lava Cup. The perfect combination of power and variety and just excitement. He really is that puppy of a player who just can't believe how exciting everything is and racing after a footballer. I did find one of the comments from Roger Federer about him at Lava Cup quite revealing, quite funny.
When he said you know he really does need to know that the resembles you don't actually have to chase. And I thought yeah he still hasn't got that memo. Will he ever? I don't know. But generally speaking he's just got that balance right these days. And yet it wasn't the straight forward win that I thought it was going to be in the end and in fact he could very well have lost.
And I think that that is partly still a bit of a failing on his side. And I'm not sure whether it's possible to maybe it's just not possible to maintain the sort of level that is required to win easily against a player like Yarnick Siner who's playing quite well himself. But I also think it says a lot about Siner that he just doesn't ask too much of himself. He has this brilliant level which he asks questions with. And it ended up making for a fantastic three and a half hours that
I watched with my wife. She likes tennis but she's not that bothered but she loved this. And we were both just sat there in thought. It felt to me like Colossalcries was the better player for more of it than Yarnick Siner was. Maybe that's just because you remember the spectacular more than you remember the ordinary. I'm quite sure that's a factor. And yet I ended up being surprised that Alcrier's won because he wasn't winning the big points. I felt like he was just about winning
more points but he wasn't winning the big ones. He was letting opportunities go and usually that ends up costing you ultimately. I had the feeling that it was that was going to end up being the story of the match. And how he how he wrenched control of it from three love down in that tie break. Matt was unreal. Talk about a surge. The most incredible purple patch that he may have ever hit. And that is saying quite something because he's had lots of those in his short
but brilliant career already. And you know he he had to change his shoes didn't he right? The start of that tie break because it was one of those where he was going for a ball that he couldn't get and he ruined his shoes. They had to change them and he then comes back. He's three love
down and he said afterwards that he was aware of Yannick Sinner's tie break record. Sinner had only lost I think one of his last 18 or 19 tie breaks and extraordinary records including of course in the first set where as you say Catherine I thought Alcrier's was the better player in that first set mostly. He was the one doing the gasp inducing shots. He was playing on his terms. He was aggressive. The speed of the court was rewarding his variety and yet it was Sinner who ended up
winning the set with that incredible return to save set point in the tie break. And like just felt like we'd seen that set before in like Federer, Djokovic's rivalries you know where one guy is just doing the sort of tennis that makes you think he's absolutely unstoppable. And then it's like oh he hasn't even won the set because the other guy is just so steely and so good in the big moments and suddenly we find ourselves in this final set tie break and I'm thinking well the same thing's
going to happen again. Alcrier's has dazzled through the set come up with some impossibly good tennis which Sinner has lived with taking it to a tie break and Sinner in the big moment is going to probably win this but no the the points that Alcrier's put together from three love down to win seven in a row extraordinary and so daring you know there was a drop shot in there. There was like a serve volley from like not the baseline but not the service line mid court. He voiled it and came
in. It was just like instinctive shot that I don't think anyone else would play and that's the beauty of Alcrier's because he always says that what he would regret is not going for it you know there was some players who would regret giving it away I think that's been that's probably Sinner's
mantra Sinner doesn't want to give it away he doesn't want to give cheap unforeseen errors it's it's the jokovic's playbook for so many years Alcrier's is not quite like that he's like he wants to go for it on his terms and he did that in those final seven points and you know that's
that's the standard you have to reach to win a tie break against Janik Sinner at the moment it was an incredible surge and I agree with you I think easily their best match since the 2022 US Open which might remain untouched in their rivalry as as maybe their best ever match that
was just extraordinary for for five hours this had more ups and downs there were some points where you know there was quite a lot of cheap unforesterious at times but by the end it just felt like they were hitting you over the head with incredible shot after incredible shot it was absolutely
electrifying and I don't know I think I find it hard to ignore the greater context of the sport at the moment like it felt like there was a premium on this because who knows like we might not get Sinner Alcrier's matches for year or two if the if the wider appeal comes like it felt like a
moment to really like relish this rivalry in this match that we're getting now because look the the the next year is uncertain at this point but what we do know is that right now those two are match-up wise I think the best in men's tennis and it was just an absolute treat to see them play a
final like that. Gosh what I thought Matt I think that just I mean maybe this is sort of hypotheticals that we don't want to do yet we don't even have a time scale for the the wider appeal but I think it would be devastating to Alcrier's if Yannick Sinner were taken out of the equation and that rivalry were removed from from his career for that time I think he he loves it and he's a guy that needs to love what he's doing in order to play well I don't know I think that would be devastating for
Alcrier's David. It certainly bothered John McIner when Bjorn Borg retired at 26 at the peak of their of both of their careers and and McIner just getting such a they retired with with their rivalry at seven seven and they never played again and and and we think of that as one of the
all-time great rivalries yet they only played each of the 14 times and and it just it ripped such meaning out of John McIner's life I think as a tennis player I mean yes he went and dominated and I think that frankly that is what I would expect would happen I mean I already think
Carlos Alcrier's could win 12 in a row still thinks so even though he's got to go back to zero again and start all over again but I mean if Yannick Sinner wasn't around I do think dominant dominance could happen but I also think yeah it is possibly he could have a bit of a funk
if if he didn't get to to have the the excitement of a match like this you know there's a long word a lot a lot that would need to happen and and Yannick Sinner hasn't hasn't faced that situation yet but we know it is a possibility now that is all three matches that they've played this year one by Carlos Alcrier's who now leads that head-to-head six four I think whereas it was led by Yannick Sinner four three ahead of prior to this year all three matches quite different Yannick Sinner struggling
a bit physically in Indian Wales the French hope of match just really patchy and and you know Alcrier's kind of the heavy favorite for that one given the surface or certainly the the favorite in a way that he wouldn't be on other surfaces in in that match up I think and and now this one
incredibly tight and could have been one by Yannick Sinner but the fact is that he's he's o and three against his biggest rival for this year is that a is that a problem for for Yannick Sinner a little bit I think he he did seem to have an advantage over a lot of the other players in the
world that he he'd figured out Alcrier's you know he was able to beat him reliably and consistently in a way that a lot of other players weren't what I find interesting about all the matches is that Alcriers has come from a set down in all of them you know I completely agree they've all
been different but that has been something that has kind of united them all is that Alcriers certainly in the first two had a very slow start he didn't have a slow start at all yesterday he was incredibly quick out the blocks but did end up losing that first set as we've described
and yet he's still gone on to win them all so that that does strike me that that's a bit of a problem for Sinner you know I don't know off the top of my head Sinner's conversion rate from a set up but I imagine it's extremely good and yet all three times that he's faced Alcriers this year
even winning the first set hasn't been enough so that suggests to me that Alcriers has has really figured something out in this rivalry I was I was struck by how much more on Alcrier's terms this match was than some of their ones in the past you know I've often thought of Sinner as being
able to kind of neutralize the Alcrier's fun a little bit you know he'd turn it into a really back and forth hitting contest and Sinner's so good at that but Alcrier's was able to use all the aspects of his game yesterday coming to the net so often taking the ball early drop shots not
not loads but using them at the right time and just generally it looked like the best of Alcriers rather than it kind of looked a bit like Sinner hanging on to me rather than in the past for sometimes it's felt like Alcriers is kind of hanging on against Sinner so it's definitely significant
I think and kind of when we look at the year as a whole you know they're both one two slams obviously Alcriers has got the you know the silver medal as well where Sinner couldn't play the Olympics but I think Sinner's gonna end the year as number one but it kind of feels to me like
their head to head is a little bit of a tie break in this and I think I think right now given obviously the the wider appeal hanging over Sinner and also given the head to head it feels that Alcriers has got the better vibes right now out of the two even though it does feel like Sinner is probably gonna end the year as well number one I think I would rather be in Alcriers' shoes right now. Could you name your point in time and anyone has had better vibes than Carlos Alcriers?
Who was that person? No that Jocovic having one Olympic goal. Yes. Oh gosh have you seen him in Shanghai? He's still wearing that medal. Is he really? Yeah he's wearing a bright green tracksuit and his Olympic medal and good luck to him so long as there's not a gold tennis bag involved when he walks on court where the medal all you like mate. Yeah he's really I like that he's still basking in that glow it is still giving me slight kind of
I've I've summited the Great Mountain what now vibes you know it yeah. It is one of the great fascinations isn't it as to what Novak Jocovic does next I think he he often is that but maybe more so now than I don't want to say ever because this is a guy who was disqualified from the US open and deported from Australia and finding out what he did after those two was was always going to be fascinating but yeah following Olympic gold when Alcriers is doing what he's doing and
Sinner's doing what he's doing all bit now with huge question marks over his future. Yeah Australia for Jocovic will be just particularly tantalizing. Australia probably ranked outside the world's top 10 certainly ranked outside the world's top five you know he's going to be facing the big guns if
he gets to the latter stages he's going to be facing them early. It looks like we're going to have Yannick Sinner and Colossalcries is the top seeds where I've did briefly leap frog into number two in the world he's been pushed down now to number three by Alcries is there's not much in it but
it's where I've been suffering with pneumonia has an e and Alcriers obviously in in great form I mean what we need is Sinner playing Alcriers in the Australian Open Final with the career slam on the line for Colossalcries is it too much to ask folks is it too much to ask because they
because they haven't they've played a fair bit in their young rivalry but they haven't played many finals this was only their second ever final map yes after Umag which was you know tucked in that post-Wimwarden period a couple of years ago that I think only the you know
only the die hud really saw and it does feel like the the next stage is for them to meet in a Grand Slam final exactly like they've they've split the slams this year they've never played in a Grand Slam final and yeah the career slam is on the line for Colossalcries in Australia like
if if Sinner wins the French Open next year like he'll be going into Wimwarden going for the career slam like we're in we're in that territory with them already like they're they're both that good but yeah as I said there is obviously the Waddup appeal that we have to we have to think about
but I don't want to have to think about that because I just want so many years of the of the Sinner Alcara's rivalry just feels like we're we're on the brink of well it is already very special but we're on the brink of something incredible I think between these two we could do with knowing
a a timeline for that couldn't we so we know sort of just what we're dealing with in terms of like what when do we need to start really thinking and worrying about it like because it could it feels like it could be a year or it could be a couple of months away I think a year is more
likely than a couple of months the the wheels do seem to grind very slowly on on these things and with Waddup but yeah the the they're not knowing obviously kind of worse for Yannick Sinner but for the tennis world that uncertainty in that cloud is just sucks and I think we have to
factor that in to what we're saying earlier about the head-to-head between these two this year you know like obviously Sinner has had incredible results while all this has been hanging over him but you you have to also think it probably has taken some toll and had some effect on him like
let's hope that he doesn't get banned and he's able to you know carry on his career without all this hanging over him you would think he would get better after this like you you would think that maybe some of the results he's had this year have been affected by by what's been going on which
sounds like a ludicrous thing to say because he's just won the US Open he was on a what 14 or 15 match winning streak like he seemed to be doing fine but it's it's the matches against Alcarez where you know the very small margins are going to be showing up aren't they and if he's a bit
freer and calmer and just in a better place mentally like maybe that would help him in these in these big matches against Alcarez going forward so I think we you know we have to factor that in when we're talking about Sinner's results this year that there's just been this giant thing
on his mind the whole time certainly can't hurt can it not having the threat of a doping ban hanging over you and you saw him at the US Open when he right he was able to talk about it and not behinding it anymore and then he goes and wins the US Open so obviously subsequently he's had
another thing come on his plate so yeah I mean there is a small bit of evidence there right there okay well that is the Beijing ATP event dealt with the Beijing WTA event is ongoing we'll talk about some of what we've seen there in the last few days and we're going to talk about the Tokyo
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to ship to your door go to blue nile.com and use promo code listen to get $50 off your purchase of $500 or more that's code listen at blue nile.com for $50 off blue nile.com code listen welcome back to part two at the tennis podcast where Jun Shui is hanging in she's trying to
perform another comeback against against palo bidot so i'm going to try and not be too distracted by that in part two though we are going to talk about Jun Shui and what we've seen in the last few days in the WTA event in Beijing which reaches its conclusion over this weekend first though David
you have sat through the order of the appetizer of alchoraz sinner now you get the main course of artifice somehow winning the title in Tokyo saving match point in the second set tie break to beat ugo and bear five seven seven six six three absolute scenes for artifice in Tokyo and i
imagine in the law living room you imagine right because i mean i think the last time we were talking on monday he obviously had a great run and he he'd already beaten Taylor Fritz or be the ice suspect to slightly compromise Taylor Fritz post-loat lay the cup then he beat
matera baritini from a set down and then there was a retirement so again slightly compromise but i don't feel like that tells the story of how well artifice was playing and he subsequently backed all that up by beating hogaruna you know gets to gets to this final and he's up against a guy in
ugo and bear who'd won all three of their matches and he'd only have a one one set the most recently lost six two six two so this guy's a problem for feasts i think stylistically and also they're clearly close they're clearly he seems to get on with everybody artifice he's one of those
but particularly with all the french players there's a real bond and i i think in previous matches they've been able to take advantage of that i think they've been able to take advantage of the fact that they know where to go against artifice he's he's another prodigiously athletic and powerful
and talented guy who's got weaknesses who's who's over the start of this this year in particular had glaring weaknesses he if you if you extended a rally beyond six shots he would break down he would hit long he would hit into the net his returns in were some of the lowest in the top 50
he was right in the bottom two or three in the top 50 of returns in and working he sort of stopped working with surgery begera and just went alone with with semestim grosjon and some of the other french federation people there but grosjon i think in particular you can feel the impact he's
had and and and how much more sort of abbreviated the forehand of feces become it was this massive wind up shot he's got this very high ball toss which i think is prone to to be affected by conditions and and therefore indoors is perfect for him because it doesn't affect him but the security of his
game has come on leave some bounds and yet he hasn't lost that ability to explode on you and and against umber he was clearly physically compromised feces you mentioned it in the matches you were watching catharine that at the end you look like you can barely stand up he was cramping you
and the idea that he would be able to produce the next match seemed kind of far fetched and and even in this match he has a very competitive opening set which he loses and he looks out on his feet he's having medical timeouts he's having attention to his ankles and his feet
and just looking like the body is completely cramping and and and seizing up on him and and umber is is a tough customer left handed short tape backs uses your power against you deflects everything and so all feces could do was kind of go for broke and hang in and but but even then the idea that
he would turn this around seemed absurd and including going match point down you know that and I think that that does show you that there's real heart in him there's real fighting spirit he dug in there somewhere and he's one of these he's a bit like alchrist who described the
tie break against sinner when he was three love down he said I had to sort of keep it close enough so that I could then go for it you can't go for it all the time on every shot you just can't you sometimes got to find a way to keep it close enough so that adrenaline takes over and that's
what feces manage to do uh he managed to keep interested long enough so that then adrenaline comes in and he kind of forgets the aches and pains and um and then he goes for it and he and he took over the same time I know uh uh uh uh uh um bear has this incredible final record but I also watched
every single ball believe me of him against brand and naka shima at winble done because I was compensating on it and he gets tight when it's really big in his mind you can feel him get tight and and and a player who's free hitting I mean on on match point for instance when he had match
point he did approach the net but it was kind of sort of I'm keeping the ball in and coming to the net please miss please miss and feasts didn't miss he hit a back and went down the line save match points and and you just get two different players I think it's one of the beauties of sport generally
is how do you function under pressure when you're really tense and feasts kind of was able to come from behind and not feel any of that because he was basically already done he was outed a lot he lost and yet he hadn't lost and and I think it's it's he's still one of these players who who will
have an amazing week like this and he had it when he beats very often hamburger and then not win a match for four weeks um if he can sort that out I mean he's already 21 in the world I think he's just he's just gone ahead of Felix as you can't see him and overtaking him to 21 in the world
if you can sort that out next year there's so many events where you lost first round last year in big events that he could make major inroads in the rankings well look I think it would be forgivable for him to not have a great tournament in Shanghai I think that turn around is pretty
crazy for anybody that went deep in Beijing or Tokyo especially as most of the players that went deep in Beijing or Tokyo have come out in kind of remember that it's top or bottom of the draw and they've been scheduled to play first I know some of them have a buy in the first round but
but still there is you know there's a tricky turnaround there for for a lot of players Sinner and Alpraz have been have been given an extra day did you see that have they have they will will good some common sense um but so I think that would be forgivable but there's obviously
there's there's Paris around the corner isn't there and and he's going to come into that kind of with I would guess more spotlight than he's ever had before and I think he's now at the stage of his career where he needs to be handling that and having having a good tournament in Paris in
in the live rankings David he is 18 in the world one spot behind Jack Draper Draper is pulled out of Shanghai nursing this abdominal injury which I don't think sounds really bad but it's obviously you know something he's nervous about and just wants to to make absolutely sure not to not to
aggravate it make it anything worse for the longer term I'm going to hit you with a cruel question here David because they're the next one and other in in the live rankings or rather the live race I think it's the race I'm looking at L race but anyway they're they're their bedfellows in in
some forms of the rankings having had very different years I think Jack Draper with that one big standout grand slam result or to feasts having had a you know he's won a 500 title not done anything particularly groundbreaking at slams um but here they find themselves who of them is going to have
the better 2025 it's a great question um I think I would say feasts because I trust his body more to stand up to the rigors of tall life year-round I don't I haven't seen him get injured lots and and break down at an early age the way Draper has and even now Draper's pulled a stomach muscle and
his nion shutting down his season which I think is sensible and I think he's made strides but I think it would be down to that because I think feasts are sorted out his main weaknesses technically I still think there's room for improvement with him no question about it
and I do think it was it was fascinating at the start of this year the way he he played what what is it called the golden swing the the the South American clay courts ornaments which I was really excited to see him in because I like watching him on clay and he I think he won one match in three
tournaments it was terrible that's when he was struggling with this technique issue or certainly the lack of consistency I can't believe that that is going to continue indefinitely I think he's likely to find some consistency more and he's got like I said that I think there were first rounds
in sort of Miami Indian Wells Cincinnati a couple of the Grand Slams are strained open French open he just didn't win matches at any of these tournaments so he's got a lot of upside there and he's also got hugely high ceiling of ability which I think is actually probably higher than Draper's
personally I mean I think draper's left-handedness is a big weapon for him I do think you know when you talk to other players they often cite a player's left-handedness as as reason for their ceiling to be higher other players but now I would say I would say feasts is going to have the better year
of the two what would you two say shocking that that David is Gundam the otter feast hype road mat so for balance what do you think well I got a reputation during the US open for pouring a lot of cold water on on the Jack Draper hype and I'm going to do the same again and say that I agree
with David and think that that feasts certainly if we're talking about next year I think David makes a great point about you know I trust feasts physicality a bit more I'm also really struck by the way Jack Draper spoke in his press conference at the US open about how much he is still
getting to grips with kind of that uncle anxiety that he feels and and that kind of nervousness like I think he can you know with time I think and with experience I think and with a lot of work that I'm sure he's doing I think he will get better at dealing with that but feasts hasn't got any
of that problem in fact he he absolutely relishes the the stage and the moment and I think that's why you know it's one of the reasons why David is sort of so drawn to him he's he's he just know that he can rise to an occasion he can he can play his best tennis in some really big moments
and as David said explode on you and all of those qualities I think suggest to me that this has been a really important year for him figuring out his technique and I just think he's going to have a moment I think he's going to have a big run at some point next year on top of a
bit more consistency as well like I really do think that that's possible for feasts he strikes me as as a threat on kind of any surface I still think the the forehand take back is big and I still think he can be rushed on that side less than less than maybe at the start of the year but that
would be a little worry for me but you don't play that much on really far surfaces so it's not going to be too exposed yeah so I think I would I would lean feasts as well for for those reasons if I if I rephrase the question to they're both guaranteed to be fit all season David would
your answers still be the same now I think they'd be right alongside each other because I do I think drape has got a great work ethic and he's got you've got a really problematic game for a lot of people I think he can beat quite a lot of people relatively straightforwardly which I don't think
feasts has necessarily got I don't think you know it's it's that what are your patterns to win points game I'm not entirely sure what feasts is yet in quite the same way as I am with draper I know exactly how draper is going to win most of his points against most players so I I think you
still more likely to get feasts early round losses more than you are with draper but yeah I think they'd be they'd be side by side I think they'd be both 10 or 11 in the world in a year's time um if if they both stayed fit exciting very well could happen I'm really excited to see feasts
in Paris and that is me desperately looking for reasons to get excited about Paris because I do find that event quite challenging but feasts in Paris is is is definitely a reason to be moderately excited let's move on to talk about the women's event in Beijing where the run of junkshv has
devastatingly just come to an end but remains an incredible story um so pala badosa moving through to the semi finals having just beaten junkshv i junkshv i beat magdalena freck in the intervening periods since our last podcast so the the run did continue before being curtailed um so our
quarter final lineup uh mukhvur against sabalenka and rava against junkshv when staradab saver ulyas staradab saver the ukrainian qualifier against koko goff and uh well it was junkshv rai against pala badosa but badosa just moving through to the semi finals with staradab saver and goff
to to come next uh on the main stadium court in bay jingh just before we move on to to look ahead to those quarter finals a look back i think uh is necessary on goff against a sarka because that was the match that we were salivating over on monday um and periods of it were great and and justified
the saliva but ultimately ended up disappointing the vidnomi asalka who on reflection had clearly been struggling physically throughout having to retire after losing the second set we now know that she had some stiffness in her back which she'd started feeling on the practice called ahead of time um and it even though this match did end up happening finally uh we've still and uh well i still have come away with a with a what what might have been feeling about it Matt.
Oh big time i i had a really weird feeling what's in this whole thing just because honestly i could tell straight away that something was up with the sarka she had this look of resignation on her face right at the start in literally the very first game of the match she was
she was almost looking at her team and kind of laughing as though she was sort of embarking on some some kind of slightly pointless venture because she knew that as we later found out she locked her back up in in practice and seeing that uneasy look on her face straight away just gave me a
slightly uneasy feeling watching the whole thing i did feel at any moment that she might be about to retire because she wasn't she wasn't sitting down comfortably at the change of ends she she clearly wasn't running out properly to the side so i just was constantly on edge for thinking
that this match is going to be stopped at any potential moment that being said like a sarka was in shocking news heading the ball really well and despite the the back issue it looked like she might actually somehow win the match in in two sets she was certainly you know on track to do that
before goff mounted that comeback but i i don't know i i find it tough to to read into too much read the player really because it was just such a compromised match and i'm left feeling like yes we as you say we finally got a sarka goff but we didn't really because you know it clearly
wasn't a fit now in my sarka and therefore we didn't properly get to see the best of cocoa goff either it was just it was just a really unfortunate occasion and i just hope that a sarka's injury isn't too bad she was suggesting that it wasn't because i think she's i think she's meant to play
twice in in Japan still this season there's a couple of events and i think she's meant to play both of them so that would obviously be big for her and and for Japan and i hope that i hope that that can happen we mentioned on monday obviously cocoa goff working with this new coach mat daily who's
a bit of a mysterious figure he's not one of the the usual names that features on the coaching carousel everybody's been sort of furiously looking up his cv in his website and we understand that he has this focus on grip changes what evidence do we see of of technical change in cocoa goff's game
david any any insights it's an interesting one is it because i don't feel qualified to to give a a a reassessment of it in the way that if we were speaking to pamphorins then she would have things that she would see that i just wouldn't see or she would see them certainly with more of a
reliable i but just just through my eye did look more secure i did feel like she looked more confident in the trade of ground strikes on that side and i mean look at it's it's a very small sample size i i think sometimes maybe i'm looking for it because i i i know that
that's that she's with a new coach you apparently has a new a new grip focus and maybe maybe that's happened and therefore i'm if she hits three good four hands in a row i'm thinking oh look huh look what's happened when actually she used it three good four hands in a row in the past
it felt to me like it was more reliable that that was that was how it came across and i do actually think whilst it was a really compromised match you do have two players who are embarking on a similar thing with a completely different way of going about it one has gone for the showiest
coach imaginable who who everybody knows about because how could you not and the other one's gone for somebody that nobody really knows much about and maybe is is focusing on a very specific technical element and and i find i find them really interesting case studies for us to follow over
the next probably six months you know i think you've definitely got to give these sort of relationships that sort of time so that probably takes you through the first three grand sums of the year more or less i think to get a proper idea or certainly up until the clay court season if
you want a factor in the the sunshine double uh following the Australian open i think we'll get we'll get a sense of how things are going for them both after that it was interesting when when goth announced that matt daley was her new coach she said that it was it's much more the
serve that they're that they're going to be working on and you know was the serve that was such a problem at the us open with all those double faults against navaro i felt like she was kind of committing to the forehand more like it she was sort of it didn't look that different to me
honestly but it looked like she was committing and just maybe committing to her whole game a little bit more um in imbejing so far rather than the sort of rut that she's been in for a few months but i i think it's it's the serve where we need to really sort of hone in on and and see if there's
going to be a big difference in the goth game over the next few months as she works with this new coach okay well we will we will watch uh intently uh her next match against uliostaradub saver is is coming up momentarily in china so i feel like uh lest it it likely go out of data
should i should offload my uliostaradub saver research right now it feels like now is the moment uh because well she's reached the last eight of a one thousand event in her first one thousand event which isn't something that's been done an awful lot before she's one of those like wow
she's twenty four and i've only just heard of her where she been players uh well the answer is she went to college she went to a old dominion university which is in virginia i think um only turned pro in uh last you hit last year was essentially her first year on tour graduated
from old dominion in 2022 which is interesting as a ukrainian player i've been reading this article about her on the wta website her whole career as a professional tennis player has been during the period of war in ukrain she said i came on tour basically at the time that ukrain was invaded by
russia and obviously that's that's terrible those are absolutely catastrophic traumatic circumstances to be living any kind of life but equally she talks about the camaraderie that she's experienced with the ukrainian players as a result of that i do often think about how daunting it must be for
players to to come on tour it must be like you know walking into a school school lunch hall as the new kid where everybody's already in their friendship groups and to kind of have that ready-made community and camaraderie it must be a very powerful thing and she certainly talked about it as
as having been a powerful thing for her since she came on tour she was coached as a child by angelina kelinian as grand mother there you go love it and they're still in touch apparently and they're very much still in touch yes so what happens when angelina kelinianer plays
ulyaster i'd have to say but i don't know is it a tony Nadal type i don't want my player to win situation who knows um but there you go she's going to make her top 100 debut and next week off the back of this run um i think the first player to qualify for all four grand slams
in the same season i watched a bit of her playing victoria as a renka in one of the early rounds of the u.s. open she didn't end up winning that much but i was very impressed with her she has a real security on her on her strokes um i felt like and and i think that is an extravagant we think
qualifying for all four slams in in one year as you say first woman to do that in the open era and you know we've watched a fair bit of grand sound qualifying that is an intense intense scenario you know where she should have won 12 matches there under those circumstances
where everyone is fighting for their lives fighting for maybe some of their biggest paychecks that they've ever had and she's come through on different surfaces different you know she's shown that she can compete at that level that's that's pretty impressive i think she
only ended up winning one one main draw match at the slam think that was it winbled in but you know that's kind of 13 wins at the slams this year if you include all those ones in qualifying so that's that's quite something in itself and um yeah i honestly haven't haven't seen a lot of a play
but that just that fact kind of tells me that there's a that there's a play oh and a kind of fighter there and um yeah i'm intrigued to to see how she can do now against golf much last year her friends set up a go fund me to help her just get out on tour and try to get some points and get on the
ladder $25,000 was was raised which was enough for her and her her coach to to start her career basically um which is a reminder of how different tennises for players that don't come from a a nation for whatever reason obviously you know the war in Ukraine is a is a massive factor here
but for whatever reason don't have a huge infrastructure financial and physical to support young players um you know setting up a go fund me just to be able to even try to be a professional tennis player um so it's it's an incredible 18 months that she has had and you know i'm not saying she's necessarily going to be a a grand slam contender i don't i haven't seen enough of her for that but um she's definitely somebody that we're going to be talking about more in 2025 i think and yes
she might be 24 but in 10 this year she is she's brand new um and that's that's exciting so there you go there is uh what i've got to say about you least i would up saver who by the time you listen to this might already have lost to to cocoa golf um just in terms of the other the other players in
the quarterfinals mukover against savalanca feed it into my veins uh i as much as i enjoyed that us open final paugula um and sabalanca it was great i still did have a feeling in my stomach of of being denied mukover sabalanca which i was just salivating at the prospect of i've done a lot of salivating in this podcast haven't i um and now we're going to get it david and i've got incredibly high hopes for this because they're both an incredible form obviously sabalanca on on a winning streak
um just you know the best hardcore player in the world but mukover has been taking players apart for the past week or so and she can do it in several ways she's she's dissecting them she's using variety she's got power she can hurt you and and she can finish you with with shots that can
kind of embarrass you as as well i think i mean i don't think players should feel embarrassed by it because she's that good um but but i i think it is one of the matches i i could be most excited about the prospect of in tennis today mukover against sabalanca because the contrast of styles is
so dramatic the the biggest most ferocious hitting tennis player in sabalanca who just wants to destroy with every ball again somebody who's just gonna find different ways to try to turn that power back on her um and i just hope that they both find their form at the same time because i think it could be as good as anything that you can get um i mean i suppose one i'm asking for more than anything is just what we always ask forward can and the mukover which is stay fit stay fit for
the next five years because it's not too late i so often you see a player recover from serious injuries and she's had many and including risk particularly risk injuries the be somewhere short of of what the wants were and that doesn't feel like like it is the case right now it feels like
mukover's playing the best tennis of her career and uh i'm tuning into every one of her matches no matter when it's on no matter who it's against just be you know she's in that little group i think i'm gonna have to come up with a new list of players i'll watch against whomever whenever and i'll
set my alarm in the middle of the night to watch and she's on it uh it's a short list her and art of feasts and Carlos Alcara as there's one or two others but what a player and and and sabalanca still hasn't lost since what before the us open so yeah probably been absolutely done now
but i can't wait uh that'll be tomorrow so we've got two quarterfinals today uh two two tomorrow um and uh yeah then obviously semis and finals and we'll be back with the podcast on monday to talk about all of that and to talk about the the first few rounds of the 80p 1000 in Shanghai that
we'll have seen obviously the the top seeds get a buy there so you know we won't have seen anything huge in Shanghai but they'll be they'll be plenty to talk about because tennis um and folks i mentioned earlier in the show uh about the friend show or actually think
David mentioned it um the friend show that we recorded last night with Pam Shriver as a special guest on the subject of coaching um and it was it was just so fascinating wasn't it for us for us and we hope for listeners as well certainly seem to get a good reception
in the live chat we were live on youtube um it's available as a podcast it's available to watch back on youtube uh for friends of the tennis podcast uh and if you would like to become a friend of the tennis podcast and get access to that and our whole back catalog of bonus episodes as well
as everything uh that we have to come and we still have a lot of friends bonus content to come for 2024 and of course big plans for 2025 then the link to become a friend is in our show notes um and Pam was on brilliant form as ever and it is such a treat that she that she just pops up
on our shows uh and gives the most um candid uh and fascinating insight so we are we are very lucky and uh we hope that friends of the pod enjoyed that uh we'll be back on Monday uh of course we have a mascot for this episode that mascot uh well no sorry excuse me we have two
mascots for this episode we have Archie and Maxie owned by Ed Weiner Archie is uh the gingercat in the incredible photo that i'm looking at right now and Maxie is the gray cat it's pressing all of my animals being friends buttons right here uh because unless this photo is deeply misleading
they look like they are well very close friends because uh uh well Archie is either hugging Maxie in one colosfero colos alchoraz uh fashion or trying to trying to throttle Maxie but i'm going to choose to believe that it's uh it's a one colosfero style hug um because Ed Weiner tells us they're
a bonded pair adopted from the RSPCA as kittens they're now two years old and much like Billy Jean they don't understand when i watch tennis in the middle of the night and they like to sit in front of the dv or the laptop uh because i'm not paying attention to them that is a very familiar
description Ed Weiner uh they are they're absolutely lovely and they they do look like firm friends and that's that's delightful um so thank you Ed Weiner for Archie and Maxie i'll be popping them on our instagram they'll be going in on newsletter and uh it's a joy to have
them so thank you hello to our mascots of course the dearly departed Darwin, Francis and Hider and Soma you are our stalwarts of 2024 and we're we're very grateful hello to Billy Jean King and Alana Kloss uh who sponsor Billy Jean who my plan has worked she's been silent throughout
this podcast uh and hello to our top folks and executive producers Greg, Chris Jamie and Jeff over to you Matt for some shout outs and we start with Carol Hooper in Kent, well Carol Carol and Carol actually says that she filled in her shout out form while sitting on arms strong waiting for Jack Draper. Oh and presumably waiting for a match that Jack Draper ended up winning because I hope it wasn't Draper match. Well this is Jack Draper fan which it sounds like
she is since she'd have loved that. I don't bet on the puke match. I think it might have been the match. I think it's I think it would have had to be Draper match. Oh I'm sorry. Well let's get Carol out you can do it. tennis carols I'm struggling. Come on there are tennis carols. Zau the Canadian. That's a Billy Jean King cop name isn't it Matt. Yep. Good work Matt. There must be some tennis carols from the past.
Mary Carrillo and Pam Shriver shouting at the they're trying to get one here because otherwise we're going to get some we're going to get some angry messages. No Carol's how it is. That'll do for me. You've done fantastically there at any Hoopers. No. Carol you are unique and we hope you enjoyed Jack Draper beating the shadow of Thomas Mahatch. Thank you. We've also got Peter in Tennessee. Hello Peter. Hello Peter.
And Peter has two dogs, Riggly and Winston. And Peter says they always wake when I join the three of you saying aloud you're one stop shop for Australian Open. Oh like a guy who have Lovian call to action for the canine world. Love that Riggly and Winston. Riggly and Winston. Great names and Peter Fleming Peter McNamara we've got lots of tennis pieces. Yeah. As as he was known to Greg Rzecki and Greg Rzecki only. Yeah much to Pete's
absolute fury. And finally we've got Chloe Williams who would like to give her shout out to Rachel Gilly. Oh Rachel and Chloe met when like Matt that's me we studied languages at Durham. Wow. Amazing. Do you know them? I don't. Okay. Chloe is from Suffolk and Rachel is from Nottingham but lives in Paris. And Rachel was a volunteer at the Olympic tennis at Rolongarros this year at working working in player transport. So that she has some great stories.
I think transport gets good stories because you get the drivers stories and the drivers the drivers hear everything. They sure do. I love that Rachel. Oh. Well Chloe Pache we can go there. Rachel McQuillan. I don't know where I know that name from I think I've said that before but I know it's tennis related. Very well done David and Chloe Pache. What a shout. And Chloe and Rachel are going to the ATP event in Vienna together in October which is oh my gosh Dominic teams last ever event. Oh.
Brace yourselves Chloe and Rachel. Yeah emotional. Well depends where you're going isn't unless you're going on the first day. You won't see Dominic team. But enjoy. Probably best if you don't too sad. Except it's not sad because he's not sad. I'm the only one that's sad. Anyway Chloe Rachel thank you that is that is a lovely thing to do Chloe. Thank you to all of our shout-out friends. If you'd like to get yourself a shout out or an intro you can do that at any time by
becoming a friend of the tennis podcast as I say. The link to do that is in our show notes. Thanks for listening to this bonus mid-required we'll be back on Monday and we'll speak to you then. ACAS powers the world's best podcast. Here's the show that we recommend. Welcome to the Daily Beast podcast. I'm Joanna Coles. Chief content officer of the Daily Beast and I am some other big chief content officer of my house and home and nothing else.
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