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Hi, this is Billie Jean King. This is Marian Bartotti. This is Bianca Andreescu. I'm Mats Villander. This is Mary Carrillo. This is Pam Shriver. This is Yannick Noah, and you're listening to The Tennis Podcast. Well, hello and welcome to the Tennis Podcast. On day 11 of the Australian Open, you find us in a cafe that is long closed and on a screen in front of us, Marcus Bagdatis and Leighton Hewitt.
are playing tennis, which given we got to bed at half five in the morning this morning, feels like a personal attack. Those two, of course, having been involved in the latest ever Australian Open finish. And everyone seems to think, David, that it's... nostalgic to have two of them on the same court together and not haunting yes i also remember how that used to feel like a really unusual occurrence back then and now it just feels normal
It was still on when Matt got home from school. Yes, that's when you know things are really bad. I mean, I was loving it at the time, but now I'm older and wiser, I know that it was...
It was terrible. 2025, Matt, in that situation, it would be you'd get home from school and the pod still wouldn't be up. You'd be refreshing your feeds. We had a lot of messages from people on Instagram last night going, where's the pod? It's like... we're trying our best we're doing our best yeah anyway no leaf blowers tonight
And it is not even 11pm. Thank you, Yannick Sinner and Alex de Menor in the ugliest tennis head-to-head in the sport at the moment. We'll come on to that very shortly. But first... A word from our sponsors, who are, of course, Steve Fogel's International Tennis Tours, your gateway to premium tennis events worldwide. Someone's got the agenda open. Always jumped out of my...
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Alex de Manor and the semi-final that has been set up between Yannick Sinner and Ben Shelton. But I think we should start with the women's quarterfinals today because the women's semi-finals are tomorrow. Those are headlining the schedule for day 12. And what we've had set up today is a semi-final between Iga Svantec and Madison Keyes. Svantec continuing her almost perfect progress. this tournament 6-1 6-2 over Emma Navarro and Emma Navarro played really well yeah
It says everything, doesn't it? When you consider that scoreline, when you see it written down, you just think, oh, I won't bother going and watching that back. But actually, if you did watch... Particularly the second set, the first half dozen games in that second set. It's really competitive and Navarro's putting all sorts of pressure on and she's super fit and she's having a go and trying to dart some of those ground strokes straight at.
and it was close to all wasn't it and then there was a moment there was a moment that I think Everybody was talking about with a controversial call, one of the double bounce situations. And thereafter, Svantec just took off into the distance again. And look, I think she would have won comfortably in the end on the scoreboard anyway. But it was a bit of a shame in a way that that...
ended up being a factor in the match, or at least a talking point. And it is a talking point, and we will talk about it. Do you think it was... in any way critical in terms of the match, Matt, or is it just highlighted an issue which we should be talking about and doing something about in the sport anyway? I generally agree with David that, you know...
I think it would have been the difference between Emma Navarro going 3-2 up in that second set and what happened is it went back to Deuce in that game and then Emma Navarro didn't win another game in the match. So I think it could have made...
a little bit of a difference. It could have kept up the competitive second set for a little bit longer, perhaps. But ultimately, in the end, I think Yves Fiontek still would have won this match in straight sets. She was playing that well, as you say, against a top 10 player. someone who has regularly reached Grand Slam quarterfinals now.
Yes, she was made to work harder than in her previous rounds, but she was still just several levels above. She is playing so, so well, Igor Sviantek. The combination of aggressive hitting, but with margin.
is just such a tricky one for... for opponents to contend with and you know she's very very content at the moment to hit extra shots to work the point a little bit more rather than going all out with a really flat forehand that she might have hit last year she's adding more shape to her ball and it's it's really really paying off and that
That attack combined with her incredible footwork and her foot speed to deal with the moments where her opponents are throwing shots at her is just such a good combination. I think she's looking absolutely sublime in this. in this tournament. And as much as a lot of casual tennis fans will look at these scorelines and Igor Shiontek's progress through this tournament and go, well, yeah, bagels and breadsticks, that's what Igor Shiontek does. And of course...
That is, to a certain extent, her trademark. There is a ruthlessness to her. She's a great front-runner. But this is not necessarily... Oh, my God, it's a mouse. Two mice. Two? Two. They are walking towards us. Oh, God. Shall I go and stomp my feet over there? Oh, God, it's scurrying over there. What does David think he's achieving? What? Is that known to... Would you want me walking towards you like that size?
Do you feel you can't continue podcasting? No, I can continue. Make it clear that I haven't done anything to them. Okay, Matt's going to be a hero and press on, despite... Despite factors. What point was I making? Yes, the normalisation of Iger Svante dishing out school lines like this. It's not normal. on on hardcore so i know she won that us open 2022 but this is only a second australian open semi-final she's never gone beyond this stage of a grand slam like
We talked going into this year that improving her results outside of clay was a... It was important for Iga Chiantek, and here she is doing it, and just because we're... we're kind of so used to seeing her put in performances like this elsewhere, doesn't mean we should kind of normalise her doing it here. And the thing is, these sorts of scorelines have been quite normal for her on hard courts on tour.
You know, I think the odd thing was that the Grand Slam hardcore record wasn't aligning with the tour level and tour... hardcore record so to me it actually like yes it isn't normal that that she's putting together these scores it's absolutely astonishingly impressive um today's today's newsletter stat if i can tease that is about just how one-sided her her route through has been and putting it in some historical context and spoiler it's very very impressive
But I suppose I've been surprised that it hasn't happened before. This, to me, almost feels like her Grand Slam. level catching up with the level that she's shown pretty consistently on the on the tour year round and she's also just passing the eye test you know like just to watch her is to see someone totally in control of their own game right now. And I'm sure there are lots of minor details that Winforset is inputting into the Igor Shontek game. And I know that coaching is very much more...
about very much more than just sort of specific tactical or technical inputs. It's about vibes and chemistry and mental health. and the interaction of all of those things. But... There is a very clear, concrete thing that Winforset has introduced this year on Tick game, which is greater margin, greater shape on the forehand, more topspin on the forehand. And it's so plain to see the improvement that's making. It's one of those things where you go, oh, well.
How do you do that ages ago? It's so obvious. Yeah. Well, when I think of the number of times she's gone out of Grand Slam tournaments that weren't Ronan Garros, when they've so often been the same way.
Yes, she's been knocked out by big hitters. One thinks of Yelena Ostapenko and Yelena Rabakina a couple of times. But I also think of when she lost at Wimbledon to Elisa Corne and to Yulia Putinseva. And just time after time after time, she'd be... thrashing at the ball with no margin with no pulling in the margins whatsoever and you know that would just that would just keep happening she would just keep hitting long and so having more margin and shape
Just makes a lot of sense to me. I always remember Nigel Sears in commentary on BT Sports coverage of the WTA Tour years ago saying one of the things that he would often get players to do is just hit hard. But pull your margin in so that you're not aiming for lines. You're aiming for a foot inside the lines. And this is a kind of extension of that. I mean, years and years ago, Sven Grunewald got Roger Federer.
to put a second net on top of the net so that he had to get used to clearing the net with proper margin. And Federer would say, I don't want to play like this. And he was just made to because he was told that that's how you get control on your forehand. And I remember Andre Agassi saying, if I've hit the line, then I've missed because I'm aiming a foot inside the line. Great example.
And, yeah, it's so... I guess it's so obvious for Igor Shiontek, and I'm saying that knowingly because, like, all things seem obvious after the fact. Like, I do... I do realise that. But Igor Shontek is able to impart spins on balls that very few others in the women's game are able to do. I mean, everybody says that and watching a lot of...
the United Cup up close and the mixed doubles that you get to see in that. It's not the power that female players struggle with when they're playing against men. They can cope with power. WCA players, so many of them are master shock absorbers, masters at, you know, it's great if somebody else gives them power because...
because they're able to use it and turn it back on the opponent, it's the spins. It's the spins that are so different, and Igor Shiontek is able to impart ATP-esque spins onto a tennis ball. Yeah, that's right. And one thinks of stories Coco Goff's told about when she's having baseline exchanges in practice with Taylor Fritz or Francis Tiafoe and she's saying...
If they're coming to my backhand and we're just going shot for shot, I can handle them. And they're really taken aback by how hard the ball's coming back at them. And yes, you're right, it is that top spin. And there was a very good stat from Opta Ace today pointing out that... Yes, we're talking about this with her ground game and the improvements that she's made, but the area where she's maybe been most obviously working to improve over the last year or so is her serve.
She's not lost a service game since the first round here. That's four matches in a row where she hasn't dropped serve, and that's the first time that it's happened in her career. So, you know... you could kind of look at those scores and say, well...
Of course she hasn't dropped serve, she's barely dropped games, but she's also had runs in her career where she's barely dropped games, but she has dropped serve in there. So I do think maybe that there has been an improvement in that shot as well, which is crucial. I want to talk about Madison Keyes in a moment. I don't think it's any disrespect to her to say that Igor Shiontek is the heavy favourite to reach the final here.
But is there any risk, Matt, with Shontek, of what you were talking about yesterday in regards to Tommy Paul, of her competition muscles not having been flexed in this tournament? If Madison Keyes... is able to make it close and get her into some tight, competitive...
anxious situations that she doesn't have the recent muscle memory of dealing with those? Potentially, yeah. It's one of those questions that players... often get asked isn't it you know has has your route through been too easy and i don't know i feel like players are maybe split on on sort of how they answer that um
Personally, I'm not worried about it for Iga Svantec because I think she's used to winning a lot of matches like this. And she does have the muscle memory, at least, of the United Cup, which was very, very recent. And she did play. you know, some more competitive matches there. So I take the point, but I'm not too worried. If she does end up losing to Madison Keys, I don't think it will.
really come into my mind that it's been because she won her matches so easily. I think the more likely scenario for Madison Keys to win is that she just goes lights out. and shocks Svantec with the sheer power. Because, ball striking-wise, Madison Keyes can still hit the ball as hard as Elena Rybakken or Elena Ostapenko and all of these huge hitters that have beaten...
Svantec before I think the difference is I don't think she has the control necessarily that that they do she has big wind-ups and and I actually thought being in her press comments today that She's aware of just how much of a problem Svantec's game is for her. She has beaten her before in Cincinnati, but she said, you know, that is very much my...
my home sort of tournament. It's the one that I grew up playing, and there were great conditions for me. It was super fast, et cetera, et cetera. And those revolutions on the ball that... that we talk about which found tech they just cause keys problems and and she's she's a flat hitter she's suddenly somebody who slashes at the ball when she connects
You know, good luck catching up to it. But the point that Keys makes is that Chvantek's movement is so good, so good, she covers so much of the court that she's getting... getting a lot of these back and and i'm afraid that keys has never figured out how to put combinations together reliably she's she's a one punch knockout player maybe a two punch player but If you get enough of them back and she's not bang on it all the time, she misses.
Yeah, it was a very impressive performance today from Madison Keyes to beat Alina Svitolina, 3-6, 6-3, 6-4, reaching her second Australian Open semi-final 10 years after her first. She lost out to Serena Williams back in... 2015 when she was a 19 year old, of course now a 29 year old.
I watched highlights of Keyes' one and only victory over Igor Shontek in Cincinnati 2022 earlier, because although the head-to-head is very one-sided in Shontek's favour, four and one, it did pique my interest that the one... One victory for Keyes came on a quick hard court in Cincinnati. So I went back and watched. And obviously highlights are a terrible way to get a sense of a match because they're showing you the best of it.
I think Igor Shontek hit a fair few one for Ulsterers that day that were not included in this highlights package. And, you know, what I saw was lights out, first strike. tennis from Madison Keys where she looked like she was redlining and she was awesome and I agree with you she's going to have to do that and hope it's enough tomorrow but honestly the thing I was most struck by is how
how different Iga Shiontek looks now. She was world number one at that time. She was three weeks away from winning the US Open, winning her first Grand Slam on a hard court, and she looked... less strong than she does now she looked less intimidating as a presence she had less presence on the court like she looked less like a world number one and the aura that comes with that. I know she's not at the moment, but she has been for a long time.
And yeah, I went there looking for evidence of how Madison Keys has a chance tomorrow and I came away with quite the opposite of that because Igor Shontek is just... a fearsome prospect at the moment. It has been awesome the way she has blitzed through this draw. Yeah, it's the best I've seen from her not at Rowling Garros anywhere.
And that's a testament to the level, because it reminds you of her at Roland Garros. So, good luck everybody else, really. I mean, I do very much want to see her play Rina Sabalenka, because Sabalenka is... twice defending champion and we know what her level can be but certainly Svantec couldn't be in a better place than she is right now and this is definitely one for later in the week if she does end up getting to the final or even winning the title but I was thinking this morning about
just how interesting it would be if Igor Fiontet wins the Australian Open and that would leave Wimbledon as the only slam that she hasn't won and would that just change the... complexion of her career and how she sees Wimbledon like that would be an absolutely fascinating talking point um just just just on Madison Keys like
That was very impressive to come back and beat Svitolina today. She's become only the fourth player to beat Svitolina at a slam from a set down. Helena Svitolina is very, very good when she gets a set up in a slam. She'd only ever lost.
previously to Serena Williams, Coco Goff and Simona Halep. So Madison Keyes joining that group there with this comeback win and she was just committed to... to hitting to big targets today, Madison Keys, but with... with some safety attached as well she just she just took over this she served served well came to the net quite a lot as well which was nice to see and yeah it means that it means that she becomes a top 10 player
Again, Madison Keyes after this tournament. There's going to be four Americans in the WGA top ten with Keyes, one of them. She's playing with a new racket this season. She's switched from Wilson to Yonex. She's been with Wilson her... whole career but is now playing with Yonex and Andy Murray late career style switch but a little bit more successful
And, yeah, like it's all paying off. She's won 12 matches this season, 10 in a row. Like we shouldn't completely underestimate Madison Keyes. You know, the last time she played a major semifinal. She played Irina Sabalenka at the US Open and that went 7-6 in the third. And she came out playing brilliantly that day. And she's going to need, I think, to play something close to that again.
to stand a chance but yeah like I'm I'm very pleased for Madison Keyes because kind of the match today between Svizzlino and Keyes kind of felt like Maybe the two most consistent slam performers over the last 10 years or so who you've never really felt would necessarily win one. And that hasn't necessarily changed for me because I do think Fiontech's a big favourite. But I just like to see players...
constantly putting themselves back in that position. And that was a crushing loss that she had to Sabalenka, that US Open, and here she is again with another shot. So good on it. On the subject of the double bounce... So what happened was Shontek and Navarro had looked in a... toe-to-toe sort of cat and mouse rally. Iga Shontek is chasing a ball up at the net, moving up the court. She's on the stretch. She seemingly gets it just before the double bounce. Certainly a double bounce isn't called.
The umpire. They play on with the point. Igor Shiantek wins it. Emma Navarro then queries after the point is over. Can we have a look at the replay there and double check the bounce on that shot? And she is informed by the umpire. It was Ava Asderaki Moore, yeah. She's informed by the umpire that she can't check the replay or nobody's able to check the replay because she played on with the point and apparently the rule is like it used to be with...
Hawkeye challenges, you have to stop the point to challenge. Nobody seemed aware of this. I certainly wasn't aware of this. It seems ludicrous to me that this technology is... and seemingly quite smoothly available, and it's not being used. Like, just use it. It just doesn't make any sense to me.
I get the point. You don't necessarily want to give a player effectively two chances. One, to get to the ball and maybe hit a winner and say nothing. And also then, not sort of... queering it and and then allowing them a challenge but i just think ultimately you've got to get that decision right and and
The moment that it is shown on TV, and it was a very clear one on TV in a slow motion replay, it's not possible in real time. I totally accept that to see the double bounce, but we could see it very clearly on the replay. You've got to be able to look at that. and use it because why have you got it otherwise it strikes me that this this might be an incident that does bring in this rule change like because I think everyone has looked at that and thought well it's very obvious that
The point needs to play out there. I think particularly this one's tricky because the shot that Svantec hits after the double bounce ends the point pretty much. So it's not like this happened and then there were 10 more strokes and then Navarro saying, oh, can we go back to that one way earlier in the rally and check that? I think that would feel a bit silly, but I think some common sense to bring.
in and say there's no way that Navarro can chase that ball down because she needs to chase it down because she's trying to get to it and also stop and say oh hang on a minute It's a double bounce. It's just an impossible situation for her. So she absolutely needed to be able to chase the ball down, not reach it and say, hang on a minute, that was a double bounce. It all just happened at virtually the same moment. And I think it would have been...
Absolutely right if Navarro had been able to use the video replay straight after the point. It's like phases of play in football, isn't it? VAR, if there's a goal, VAR is able to go back and check... a possible foul that didn't directly lead to the goal but was considered to be in the same phase of play.
as the as the phase that resulted in the goal and it's also like tennis when we had challenges you know like if you if you weren't sure that a ball was in or out you know you couldn't you couldn't go back to the umpire at the end of the rally and say i'm pretty sure the fourth shot of this rally you had to you had to call it in that time um but this one
This one was literally at the end of the rally, so I think that's why it feels like she should have been able to do it. In the words of Erin Routliff, there are robots everywhere. Let's use them. It's well said. Okay, that's it for part one. We'll be back to talk about the men in part two. Ready for a career change? One where you can truly be yourself, gain valuable training and shine with your customer service skills? Then listen up.
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We keep your vehicles on the road and your business running smoothly. Search better business to learn more. Lexus awarded Best Reliability in the 2023 What Car Awards. Welcome back to part two of the tennis podcast on day 11 of the Australian Open, where between parts there, David did a bit of stomping around to scare away the mice that are still very much circling. Let's have a chat about the men's matches from...
Let's start with the one we just watched, Sinner beating Diminor, 6-3, 6-2, 6-1. I mean, without tooting our horns, and I don't think this is actually tooting our horns, but... exactly the match that we predicted and expected really and I don't think that's that wasn't a bold or brave call from us like this is just a Unfortunately for Dimonor, who absolutely tried his heart out and threw the kitchen sink at it exactly as we all expected, roared on by the Melbourne crowd.
It's just an absolute... It's the quintessential nightmare match-up. Yeah. All right.
I did try to give it a bit of hype yesterday, didn't I? And I sort of found a way to convince myself that there was a way If Sinner was short in any way physically and Dimonor inspired and maybe Dimonor's... incremental improvements because he works so hard and he leaves no stone unturned how much can you actually add to your game is always the question mark if you've got this as your base if this is who you are what can you do to improve and we've seen the the greats
do it. Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Roger Federer, they've added to their games and they've actually become quite a different proposition. And I think in some degree... Dimonor has done that against other players. But when you put him up against Sinner, he just looks the same each time, no matter what he does. And I mean, this was...
I think quite a good performance at the start from Alex Diminor in many ways. He was striking the ball really cleanly from the baseline. He's moving around well. He's getting nowhere near enough first serves in. He's still 50% odd. I mean, that's not enough. And that is a problem for him generally. I think he's one of the lowest on tour for first serve percentage and second serve is getting killed today. I think 39% won overall on the second serve. Yeah.
But when you watch them exchange, it's so hard for him to hurt Sinner. And, I mean, at the start, Sinner was missing a few as well, a few unforced errors. There were a couple of rallies. Mark Woodford was in our commentary box on BBC Radio, and he was saying, you know, maybe you've got to throw in a slice and then drive and try. And he did that a few times. some some success but you it's not something that works consistently it's an occasional success and
My main takeaway was just how good Yannick Sinner was and just how healthy he looked. He wasn't ill. We got word beforehand from Darren Cahill. He's fine. He's woken up fine. And, my goodness, he looked irresistible. And this, after a day of rumours spoiling, albeit totally unsubstantiated rumours, like the ultimate in hot air, we had the word pneumonia.
swirling around speculation that Yannick Sinner on the basis of pretty much nothing might have pneumonia or be recovering from pneumonia and yeah he He looked absolutely fine this evening, didn't he? Albeit not having been tested physically at all. And maybe that is a minor caveat.
And the weather was lovely for him. You know, it was lovely and cool, night, totally different conditions. And maybe that's the bigger issue. I think not being tested was exactly what he needed. You know, like, OK, he doesn't have pneumonia. But he was struggling the other day. He didn't want another gruelling match, as David said.
Not being in the heat, I think, was good for him. This was just absolutely perfect for Yannickson. If he could cherry-pick an opponent, it would be Alex Dimonor. He's won there, yeah, 20 sets in a row he's won now against him. Honestly, like they're both so young and they're both so consistent that you feel like they're just going to keep playing and it could end up being one of the most one-sided.
head-to-head in the sports history. It's already got that feel to it. Yeah, it's really... quite uncomfortable to watch actually like you can watch it through the lens of appreciating Yannick Sinner's brilliance and we should do that because he is so good but I do feel for Alex de Manor in it because
it does just feel like there's nothing he can do. Because he's also played him in a couple of environments where you might think that it would bring out the absolute best in him, like Davis Cup, and here in Australia with the crowd, and yet... it makes absolutely no difference whatsoever. And I think it does bring out the best in him. His best is just so far short of Yannick Sinner. Yeah, what I had in my match throughout this whole...
whole evening was Matt saying, Draws matter. I had that in my mind last night. I had it in my mind tonight. You know, when... They do. When we go to Draws together... which we do offer now, and they are four of the highlights of my year. Well, actually, no, we don't go to a US Open draw, do we? Because it's just a PDF on a website. Yeah, which is actually one of the worst days of my year. Unspecified time.
But yes, when we go to draws together, I'm always so struck by how totally forward looking you are. You know, a draw gets done and you say, wow, that means that... so-and-so will have to play so-and-so, so-and-so, so-and-so in order to win this title, and that's pretty much unheard of. For Novak Djokovic to win this title, it's looking like...
Ben Shelton aside, he will have to win, beat the number three, number two and number one in the world, which I believe has never been done before, certainly in men's tennis. And you're so good at seeing that in draws, whereas I'm just looking for fun first round matchups. I'm just looking for a new la la. And I'm luckily always sat next to you. So I'm able to rely on you for that. that forward looking element but
I like the ulalas as well. But yeah, you're always able to see that and plot how the draw is going to have such an impact on the business end of a tournament. I don't really know what to say to that other than thank you. Because it feels like a compliment. So I will take it. It's a great compliment. And I feel like this tournament has been such...
Such evidence of that. And on the beating the number three, number two, number one thing, I'm working to confirm it. The one I do know about is Steffi Graf at the 1999 French Open beat. the top three players in the world to win the title there. I look forward to lots of people trotting out stats which totally airbrush the existence of Steffi Graf which...
Yeah, it's not uncommon, is it? We're hearing a lot of, you know, Carlos Alcaraz aiming to become the youngest ever player to complete the career Grand Slam. That kind of stuff. And actually... Therefore, we should say Parabalosa can do it this tournament as well. She can beat 3-2-1 to win the title. She can.
More on our Bedoso Sabalenka preview a little bit later. Had to get that one in tonight because it might not be relevant tomorrow. As we've... given away it'll be Ben Shelton that Yannick Sinner faces in the semi-final in a couple of days time he beat Lorenzo Sonego 6-4 7-5 6-4, 7-5. I've written 7-4 in the agenda and that is not a tennis score line. So I'm going to assume that was 7-5. 4-6, 7-6. In the words of Ben Shelton himself in his post-match press conference, which was...
Very interesting. He said, he punched me in the mouth in the third set and started landing body blows. And I think that's a really good assessment of how this match started to feel different. in the third set and how impressive it was that Ben Shelton withstood that and that not only did he win, but it didn't even go to a fifth set, David. Yeah, I loved this match and I think it was impressive from both of them in three stages. I think Shelton...
was excellent early on. He sort of stamped that top player authority on the match immediately to go up two sets to love. And you are kind of thinking at that point, OK, this is going to be straight sets. And fair play to Sonnego.
He came roaring back at him. He never lost hope. He never lost sort of presence in the match. And he's one of these, he's a showman himself. And some of the exchanges they had, there was one... dive lunge volley that Sonnego hit with outrageous backspin that went just over the net and then bounced back his own side and they gave each other a sort of handshake afterwards because they both you know Shelton appreciates that sort of
stuff but as well as he was appreciating it he was starting to get worried because i think his game went off his backhand is is an issue sometimes and sonico once he gets inspired the crowd start rise into him and he gets better as a result of it and and becomes dangerous and he can put spurts together that can kind of leave you a little bit bereft um and suddenly he gets himself into a fourth set
And it's close. It's a tie break. And I remember going from the restaurant here down to the commentary box. And by the time I got down there, Shelton had wrestled match point from this situation. But it felt unlikely. It actually felt like it was about to go. five sets so I kind of felt actually Shelton's done incredibly well to stop that from happening
And he did do well because right at the end of that fourth set, he started getting a bit passive, Ben Sheldon. He was dropping the ball pretty short in the rallies. And Sonogo was really taking advantage. And Sonogo has a... has an injection of pace into his shots. It always catches me out. I feel like he hits shots that just take me by surprise because of the pace that they suddenly have on them. Sonego was the one kind of dictating in those latter stages.
stages of the fourth set. He was coming in a lot. He was... really struggling with the smash Sonnego, but otherwise he was coming in pretty effectively. But in that tie-break, Shelton hit a great inside-out forehand to sort of grab the lead in it, and he had an absolutely incredible get right at the end.
She ended up losing the point from it, but he almost like crashed into the side of the court and sort of... hurled himself at the ball and it just seemed to free him up again and he played more aggressively right to the finish line and yeah I really enjoyed this match it was quite
It was quite an interesting quarterfinal to come off the back of Alcaraz Djokovic, which felt so high stakes. It felt like, you know, in Djokovic's words, it felt like the final. And this one... did not you know it felt like just a fun spectacle between you know the
two guys in the draw who you would probably look at and think it's going to be toughest for them to actually win it so like how like meaningful it felt for the tournament as a whole couldn't have been more different to Djokovic-Jalquez last night but it was nice to have that contrast and Ben Shelton is just
such a great presence on the court generally like he is he's box office and he's a he's a great great antidote to the, I don't know, I guess I'm thinking of Nick Kyrgios and people will say, oh, but Nick Kyrgios is so good for the sport because he's entertaining and he... brings in different viewers and that kind of thing well Ben Shelton does all of that without abusing people and without being nasty with it and without disrespecting opponents you know Ben Shelton as David said like
He gets a kick out of what Sonnega is doing as well. And he got a kick out of what Monfils is doing. And he's talking glowingly about them in press conference. And yes, he absolutely wants to beat them when he's on the court. And he brings an incredible competitiveness. But he's also...
got an incredibly generous spirit i think as well ben shelton and i just i just find him a really fun presence on the tour personally and he is bringing it at the slams now to have a couple of semi-finals to his name already and a quarter final run like compared to his tour results he's he's over performing at the slams which you know which is kind of the way round you would want to have it and makes him a makes him a really fun prospect in the game so yeah
All credit to him for getting through this one in four sets. And that was how he started his press conference today, talking about how proud he is of his record at slams and how he peaks.
at slams given that he said when he was growing up particularly when he stopped playing football like he wasn't in physically great shape like he would never have imagined that he'd be this best of five set guy that comes comes into his own in in the longer format of the sport that was how he started the press conference and it was a brilliant press conference actually he talked about how different this run deep into a slam
feels different to his run to the semifinals of the US Open 18 months or so ago, and his run to the quarterfinals here a couple of years ago, which was his first ever trip outside of the US, if you remember. And he said he felt like on...
Those Grand Slam runs, he was redlining everything and everything he said had to be perfect for him to have success. He says this time his run hasn't been perfect. He said he's only had one good... good serving match he didn't didn't feel like he served particularly well today and he said my return has had to pick up the slack and I've had to find new ways to win new ways to make
Guy's uncomfortable without playing. He said, without playing at my upper limits and just slapping. It was really great analysis of his own game. And he said, I've learned that the base game has to be good enough that you can win at 70%. He said, a year ago, if I had a bad serving day, that was it. I would lose the match. And he said, if you don't have anything else to rely on and your gun doesn't fire, then you're in trouble. If you remember, the US Open...
I asked him a little bit about the progression of his game, and particularly his serve, and he pointed out as well, he's got to look after that arm and that shoulder. And if he's just serving 140 miles an hour all the time, he's just going to blow his shoulder out. If you remember at the US Open, And that time he was having all the treatment all the time to keep his shoulder working. And now he's using it sparingly. And it's still a weapon, but he is a much more complete player. Yeah.
It's such a mature development to his serve, isn't it? Because it must be so tempting, if you can hit serves like he can, to do it every time you step up to the line. That's real discipline. I think, and really impressive from him. We'll talk a little bit more about Ben Shelton in part three. That's it for part two. Ready for a career change? One way you can truly be yourself, gain valuable training, and shine with your customer service skills? Then listen up.
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Search better business to learn more. Lexus awarded Best Reliability in the 2023 What Car Awards. Welcome back to part three and David's done a bit more whack-a-mole with the mice. I haven't hurt anybody or anything, folks. I've just been... A deterrent. A presence. You've made your presence felt. Yes. In the mouse community.
of Melbourne yeah okay we're going to have a look ahead to tomorrow's order of play in just a moment but before that I wanted to touch upon this at the very end of Ben Shelton's press conference today which had been brilliant and really conversational and in such good humour on both sides with the journalist and with the player, he said, I just want to make a statement.
And that statement was calling out the broadcasters here and how they've treated, in his view, some of the players. He referenced the... He started off by... referencing the TJ incident. We just can't get away from mentioning TJ on this podcast. But he kind of moved on from that really quickly. Talked more about some of the on-court interviews. He called out the interview with Lerna Tien after his win over Daniel Medvedev.
a week or so ago he called that embarrassing and disrespectful he also called out his interview the interview that was done with him a couple of days ago on the second court after his win over Gael Monfils. Now Matt and I, we were on court for this and there was a very awkward moment to start the interview about Monfils being...
Ben Shelton's dad and Ben Shelton's response was, is that a black joke? And the interview ended up being fine, absolutely fine. Actually, Shelton was asked about it in his press conference afterwards and he apologised. if he'd made that situation awkward and he said, don't worry, it's fine. But in the interview today, which was conducted, I think, just by the...
the MC, the guy that does the announcements for the Rod Laver Arena, which I think must have been a change to the schedule because they were running behind time. The night session ended up being delayed. I'm pretty sure that was supposed to be a gym courier.
Channel 9 interview but it ended up being the court MC and it was pretty brief but he was asked about the fact that no one's going to be cheering for him in his next match and he said of that in press today that may be true but it's not disrespectful from a guy I've never met before in my life and he said I feel like these broadcasters should be helping us grow our sport and help these athletes who just won matches on the biggest stage
to enjoy their moment. It was quite a moment in press and he expressed himself very well, I thought, Ben Shelton. Well, to get to the end of a press conference... and with no more questions being asked, and then for him to bring it up and say, there's something I want to say, then I think it's on us all to listen, really, because...
He doesn't need to do that. He's just reached the Grand Slam semi-final. It clearly matters to him. It clearly is something that he has thought a lot about and is bothering him. And so it's only right that we... All, and I'd include myself, I don't do the interviews here, but I have done interviews in the past, and I think we all need to think about what we ask players, and especially if a player is bringing attention to things that is...
bothering him publicly like that. I don't completely agree with Ben Shelton about what he said at the end there. I don't think it is necessarily on the media or on an on-court interviewer to be... promoting the sport in quite the way I think that Ben might have in mind but generally speaking it isn't the same as a press conference or it's not a it's not a truly journalistic venture when you do an on-court interview It's about a crowd. It's about a moment.
That having been said, if something controversial happens during a match or there's an injury or something or a moment between players that might be fractious or something like that, I think it's absolutely right that an interviewer is noticing those things and asking them about it. I've seen incidents like that at Wimbledon. The past, Alex Diminor, when he got injured, was asked, are you OK? And it was important to ask him that question because it was the salient one. But I think that...
This has been a slightly difficult tournament the last few days, and I think some thinking will need to be done. In terms of what makes a good interview, I know there are some people that think that ex-players should do all the interviews. I don't personally think that. I don't think it is necessary to hit tennis balls in order to ask good questions. That having been said, I think there are ex-players, and I'd point to Jim Currier.
who I think is an absolute master at the art of an on-court interview. I think he can do it as well as anybody that I've seen do it. He's incisive, he's journalistic at times, he puts players at ease, he's clearly thought about...
wants to ask but he listens and he listens he listens and and I think look not everybody can do it like Jim Currier and I think Probably a little more care needs to be taken in selecting who's doing the interviews and having a plan of what they're going to ask and so forth, because it is a skill.
It is a real art. It's not enough to just say, oh, who have we got available to do an interview? Anybody. Or to assume that someone that's good at commentary will necessarily be... good at interviewing or vice versa or as you say the point about hitting a tennis ball it is a skill in itself that needs to be respected and obviously Jim Currier is the gold standard but I'd also say Blair Henley is incredibly good at these
on-court interviews. I think she played college tennis. She can play good tennis, but she's not a former pro. No. And she has a lightness of touch, great rapport with the players. It's not like a... press conference but she also has a a sneaky good way of actually getting some quite editorial stuff
out of them with that lightness of touch. And I think she's excellent at it and good evidence of how it doesn't always have to be an ex-player. It was interesting and I hope it makes all of us... think absolutely okay tomorrow's order of play it is all night session in terms of the singles um And the day session is doubles, men's doubles semifinal, followed by AO Legends Cup men's doubles semifinals, which means that Marcus Bagdatis is out again.
in a little while, as is Mark Filipousis. They're still playing. It looks like it's very surprisingly, David, for those of us who worked on the Champions Tour, it's going to go to a deciding set tie-break. Which is particularly helpful when they've had a straight set. first match that didn't go for very long absolutely I think they might play for precisely 90 minutes
Just a prediction. Then it's another men's doubles semifinal. So the two men's doubles semis tomorrow are on the Rod Laver arena. We will talk about the doubles as we near the business end and the wheelchair events as well. And maybe even some... talent spotting on the junior front.
two. But it's a night session tomorrow on Rod Laver Arena where we find our two women's singles semi-finals. Madison Keyes against Igor Svantec is the second of the two. We've kind of already previewed that a little bit. The first of the two at 7.30. is Irina Sabalenka and Paola Bedossa. David, can you give Bedossa the same hype that you gave Dominoor yesterday? I mean, realistically, I think there should be a reason to give more hype because I think she's got a bigger game.
and she's in red-hot form right now. And there's absolutely no reason why Paola Barossa shouldn't be doing this more often at the latter stages of a tournament. If you think about her game, if you think about... the shape of her forehand there's maybe a little bit of Shriantech about the way she loads it with topspin and it's got power as well you know she's she's a heck of an athlete I know she's had the back problem that having been said
I still think Sabalenka's winning it because she's just a champion. She's a champion twice over and somebody's going to have to wrestle that trophy off her. And I think Bedosa will give a really good account of herself. She could make it close, but I still expect Sabalinka to win. Yeah, I... I expect Sabalenka to win as well. You know, I think we've seen players have moments in matches against Sabalenka this tournament. Boutas Monero, Clara Towson, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova.
all had their moments but it just feels like Sabalenka even if she's slightly off her game is able to able to get it together and go through the gears and and reach a level that those players, and I would include Paola Valosa in that, even as good as she is, can't quite live with, which is what makes me excited about the prospect of...
Swiontek, Sabalenka, because Swiontek is someone who can sustain that high level all throughout and force Sabalenka to bring it all throughout. Think of their Madrid final match last year, just in terms of sustained quality. Probably the match of last year. So, yes, I do think Sabalenka will take this one against Belosa. They're obviously good friends, aren't they? Which can sometimes create...
an awkward atmosphere in a match. I don't expect it to be that. I've seen some of their matches be really, really good in the past. I think one of the challenges for Berlusso and probably one of the reasons why it's... so hard to beat the top players to win a slam, like we were talking about earlier, is that backing up big wins is a very, very hard thing to do. And that was a huge career moment for Paolo Belosa.
beating Coco Gough overcoming the Grand Slam quarterfinal barrier and it might free her up and she might absolutely play brilliantly or there might be a little bit of a of a come down and a let down and having to do it again is just a challenge. So I think all of that is what is sort of leaning me quite heavily here towards San Belenco.
And that would leave us with Shontek Sabalenka. I love the Keys story. I love the Bedossa story. Kind of in the moment, there is always, no matter what the match, no matter who's involved, there's always a small part of me that wants the upset. because of the drama i just i love the drama and the story of it but it does feel like sean tech and sablenka have been dancing around one another at slams and only met once we want to see it we we do want to see it don't we and
Yeah, it's hard to see a world in which that is disappointing. So, yeah. Good luck, Madison. Good luck, Paola. We have a mascot. In fact, we have two mascots for today's episode. And I was having a real energy lull at the point that they landed, the photo landed in the WhatsApp group. In fact, what am I talking about? Today's been one big energy, lol. It's been a struggle, hasn't it? But a boost was provided by Lila and Giacomo. Am I pronouncing that right, do you think? Giacomo?
Yeah, I think so. I'm putting on a slightly weird accent as I say it, but there we go. Lila is four years old, Giacomo is three years old, and they're owned by Jennifer and... My goodness me, are they beautiful. They are New York City cats who are part British Shorthair and part Selkirk Rex. These are words I'm not familiar with, which is why they have wavy fur and villainous looking whiskers. Giacomo is...
inconveniently smart. He's the reason Jennifer has childproof locks on her cabinets and closets. But Lila is, to quote Jennifer, dumb as a pile of rocks. Sounds like Mary Carrillo talking about her dogs, doesn't it? Hi, Mary, by the way. Hi, Mary. Yeah, I've been thinking of you. They're both talkative and they love to curl up with Jennifer while she's reading or watching tennis. They make every day better. Isn't that lovely?
That's what animals are for, making every day better. Jennifer, that's completely lovely. I'm astonished by the beauty of these cats. I'm sure you don't have favourites. But one in particular, the one on the left of the photo, I did send a picture to my mum because my breath was taken by either his or her beauty. So hello, Lila. Hello. Hello, Giacomo, and hello, Jennifer. Hello to our mascots, Phoebe, Maisie, and TBC.
Lovely face to TBC. Hello to Greg, Chris and Jeff, our executive producers and top folks. And over to Matt for shout outs. And we start with Lindsay Queener in Nashville. Oh, hello, Lindsay. Right, Lindsay. And we know Lindsay. Lindsay took part in and won our 2024 Roland Garros newsletter predictions. Wow. Which really takes some doing. Good work. Yeah, not to be us.
No, no, to beat the other competitors. And Lindsay credits Jasmine Paolini's win over Rabatkinner there as the clincher of that title. Which she deserves because, well, we weren't picking that, were we? Well, speak for yourself. We were still in our underestimating Jasmine Paolini era, which we're very much out of now. Thank you, Lindsay Davenport, former champion here, of course. We've also got Julie, who's from Kilkenny in Ireland, but now lives in Kildare and works in Dublin.
Right, Julie. Hello, Julie. Like Julie Kindley, the umpire. Yep. Wow. I was going to go Julie Heldman, original nine. Both good. Yeah. And I was going to talk about Michael Agui. Because according to my brother, and we learned this in our rehearsal for the fantasy draft, which also didn't go well for me. You're not wrong.
Math made us aware of someone called Michael Agui, who apparently is a great young talent from Ireland. Irish number one, he said. So there you go, Julie. You've got a talent incubating. I only knew about him from losing to Dominic Thiem last year, I believe, when Vienna went over to Ireland in the Davis Cup. And losing to Dominic Thiem wasn't at any point in the last few years.
It's not a great sign, but Matt assured us that he's young and improving. He's on a trajectory. So there you go, Julie. Look out for him. Yeah. And Julie, in fact, was, I believe, completing her career slam at this year's Australian Open. Congratulations, Julie. Awesome. That's awesome. Yes, really awesome. I feel like we should have seen Julie, but I don't think we have. No, I don't think so, but...
If Julie's coming this weekend... Let us know, Julie. Let us know. Thanks for being a friend. And finally, we've got Madhumita Chakraborty. Hello, Madhumita. From New Delhi, India. And she says, I've been listening to the pod since almost the beginning. You may remember me from the Bush Hall event as the person who came all the way from India. I sure do. It was the best. That is unreal that she did that.
It's so cool. I still can't quite get my head around the fact that that happened. But Matumita, we are... Yeah. But I don't even know what to say about that. Like, it's very overwhelming, isn't it? In awe. In all of that. Thank you so much. I hope it was worth it. Of course it was. Martin Meter, thank you. Julie and Lindsay.
Thank you ever so much for being friends with the tennis podcast. If you'd like to become a friend, the link is in our show notes. And if you'd like your pet to be a mascot this year, then you have just over a week more to sign them up. Entries close at the end of this month. thanks for listening folks the legends have got the job done just inside 90 minutes incredible stuff we'll be back tomorrow to talk about the women's semifinals and look ahead to more fun on Friday we'll speak to you then
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Hi, Gemini. The football transfer window's open. How are my team's stats looking? Well, your team definitely has a lot of star power. Do you think we're going to have a good season? It's going to come down to consistency and a little bit of luck on your side. I'll let you know if we win. I'll be keeping an eye on the score.
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