Aus Open Media Day - Alcaraz faces Ferrero questioning

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Hello and welcome to Melbourne Park and Australian Open Media Day, the day when the world's top tennis players are brought through the media conveyor belt of TV interviews, social media. funnies, press conferences, one-on-one interviews and huddles. More on those later. It is a slightly chaotic day at any Grand Slam. For Matt, it's a bit of a come down day because it always follows the day after the draw. Matt, are you bouncing back?

I am, you know. There usually is only one way to go after draw day, but today has been great. And I've had, yeah, I've had sort of happy slam vibes today. I started my day with tennis. Spoke to Jasmine Paolini, which is always a good vibe. And, yeah, had a fun moment in the middle of the day as well.

which I'm sure we'll talk about. Excellent tease, Matt. Excellent stuff. David has been asked to join Team Medvedev as a hype man. So no David on today's show. Don't worry, he'll be back tomorrow for our Australian Open hype show today.

we have the company of the man who claims to have the cure for jet lag it's Matt Futterman thanks for having me and yeah I think I think I'm a jet lag black belt at this point I really like it's There's like two things I can do in life, and one is Concord jet lag, and the other is Parallel Park. I think you probably need to share with the class what you think are the jet lag cures, because I think the cure for jet lag is drugs. Well, I do use drugs, and maybe...

Maybe that eliminates me from the jet lag Olympics. I would fail the doping test. If drugs were not allowed, then I would, yeah, then I can't compete. Same. But let's assume that drugs are allowed. And, you know, look, the whole key is you've got to get on the time of the place you're going as soon as the wheels.

lift off the ground uh and like let's do whatever you can do to sleep on a long flight during the night of the place where you're going and once you get there if you get there in the morning uh you gotta get out in the light and go do some exercise and it's all about just like giving your body lots of But I'm pretty sure people did not tune into this show to find out about jet lag. I don't know. Maybe they were interested in tennis, perhaps. People love the bonus content, Matt. I have sent.

Matt's jet lag advice to many people over the years yeah keying off the natural light getting on the right time zone like these are these are things I try to do see my tip is just don't arrive in the morning arrive at night take drugs Sleep through. Boom. See, arriving at night doesn't do great things for me because, like, I arrive at night and because I've done the New York to London flight where you leave really early in the morning and you get there.

at night, and it's a bit of a mess. I'm much better off getting there in the morning, going through my home morning routine, which is go for a run, and your brain is like, okay. Got to do it. It's morning now. I'm keyed in. And you like power through the rest of the day. And like that sleep that night after you power through a full day like that is far and away.

The best sleep I have all year. I don't doubt it. I'm sure it's a... brilliant method unfortunately you did lose me at go for a run so we'll we'll have to we'll have to agree on on different but equally perfect methods uh pretty much everybody has uh been through

the media centre today. We have a few stragglers for tomorrow. Of course, Novak Djokovic. He never comes on main media day, does he always? It's the main character energy of Novak Djokovic, isn't he? He makes us wait. And he's quite late tomorrow as well. Yeah.

Yeah, he's the last to arrive at the party. And he won't be at the advertised time. No, absolutely not. But we accept it. It's Novak Djokovic. We'll be here at 7pm cursing Novak Djokovic and then I'm sure we'll give a brilliant press conference. all will be forgiven but we did have you know we had big headliners today and no no bombshell story but I feel like a lot of good

Press conferences, a lot of good lines. Matt, I know you, Matt F, I'm going to have to be clear on this show. It's going to sound formal, but for the sake of clarity, you shall be Matt F and you shall just be Matt. Thank you. I'm pointing. For the tape, I am pointing. Yeah, we had Sinner, we had Alcaraz, we had Svantec, Goff, Sabalenka, Anisimova, Keyes, Osaka, Fritz, Medvedev, Matt, F, you've... done a bunch of one-on-ones as well. Yes, I had a few one-on-ones.

Our friend Amanda Nisimova, friend of the podcast, as we may or may not know at this point. Had a one-on-one with her, Alexandra Iala. Yeah, a few others. It's good to speak with Maria Zachary, who is optimistic.

about life and tennis, seemingly, after a couple good wins in the United Cup. And you know, the good thing about the Australian Open Media Day is I compare it very much to the NFL draft, which I realize that's a reference that... might not land so well with my immediate company here but it's kind of the happiest place on earth because nothing has really happened yet um the nfl career is like

Very cruel. But on draft day, none of those terrible things have happened. Nobody's blown out their ACL. Nobody's completely failed as the top quarterback in the draft. Everyone is destined for the Hall of Fame. And that's kind of how it is. is right before the Australian Open starts. There's no baggage yet. Everybody's played maybe a match or two unless you're Yannick Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz and you just come in cold and you're...

totally confident and fine anyway. And it's kind of, you know, it's kind of a happy day and I'm good with that. Yeah, Iga Shontek pretty much said that, didn't she, packaged within an answer about... jet lag that she was a question she was asked by Jonathan Jareko from the from BBC Sports she said she said she finds jet lag worst on her trips to China

far worse than Australia because she said, well, it's the start of the year. It's grey and black. It's grey and cold back home. It's sunny here. I adapt pretty quickly, she said. China's tough because... we're just so tired of life by then, like tired of the grind by that stage of the season. So yeah, like it is, I agree, it is one of the joys, the fact that everything feels...

just ahead of us. Yeah, we're just on the cusp of everything that's about to unfold. Yannick Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz came in back to back as is fitting with their bromance. Vibe. We had Sinner first. We had Alcaraz second. Who should we start with, Matt? Who did we learn more from today? Yannick Sinner or Carlos Alcaraz? I think probably Carlos Alcaraz. I felt like his was probably the press conference coming into the day I was most interested in because it had the most obvious.

news line to it, I suppose, with his off-season and obviously the split from Juan Carlos Ferreiro. And it was our first chance to hear Alcaraz, in his own words, talk about that. And that was quite striking, actually. Maybe not what he said, but maybe the way he said it about Juan Carlos Ferrero. And it was...

It was a typical Alcraz press conference in lots of ways with some real upbeat moments and a lovely exchange with you, Catherine, which we can talk about. But there were a couple of answers where he was suddenly... quite a lot more guarded and the body language changed and he was a he was kind of a bit more corporate and sticking sticking to a sort of message about

Juan Carlos Ferreira. And he's very unemotional in his answers talking about Juan Carlos Ferreira. And it was the same in Spanish? Absolutely. As English? Yeah, it was. It was a much shorter section of the Spanish. press conference but again he gave just he sort of battered it away talking about internal issues and he just didn't really get into it at all and he does he does have a way of navigating any potential difficult subjects in press conferences, but he often does it with his...

with his sort of smile and his joy, and you almost don't want to ask him the difficult questions because it's such a good vibe always. But obviously these questions had to be asked, and yeah, it was just kind of... bit sombre i found in those moments and and his body language did change and not in a shocking way i wasn't like massively surprised it was like that but it was notable and i think particularly being in the room versus reading it on

Yeah, it felt like he was suddenly using his cap as a shield. His eyes were glancing downwards. He wasn't looking out to the room. It was just head down, get through this bit. I knew this was coming. Deliver the lines that... I've agreed on presumably with my team about what's happened and move on. That's what it felt like to me, just get through this.

Yeah, I was a little late. I didn't actually catch that part of the press conference. I was doing another interview. I think at the time of day I was with Marta Koscik. I mean, what I've been thinking about with Alcaraz and the Juan Carlos thing is I'm just sort of curious, like, you know, if you could sort of give him true serum and be in a locked room.

I would be curious, like, does he feel abandoned in any way? I mean, this is the guy who was kind of a father figure for him. I realize his father is a very big part of his life, but... This guy was his tennis father. And I do think at some level, even if it was like a disagreement on financial terms, which seems to be what... the general consensus here, or no matter what the details of it are, I mean, the idea that at the end of the day, this guy said, I can live without you.

You're not that important to me. I feel like, I don't know, he's just, the one thing we really do know about Carlos Aguilar, and we know a fair bit about him, but one thing we definitely know about him is that he's sensitive. He feels things. And I do think at some level, no matter how much of a business relationship it is, or it was, That's got to be a little hard to accept because you don't necessarily hug someone who you're in business with in the way that those two hugged each other.

Yeah, and the message that Alcaraz had clearly talked about with his team and wanted to get out in the press conference was... not much has changed. You know, he kept saying, the team's the same except for one guy who's missing. Yeah, he was trying to pitch it as if his omelette chef had left the team. Yeah, like the sort of unspoken word was, yeah, but... a pretty important guy has left. But, you know, I do think from a tennis perspective...

Samuel Lopez has been a really good coach for him and a nice addition to the team. And that kind of links into maybe what you asked. Matt about the serve like I think Samuel Lopez is a guy who I think is comfortable doing those technical changes in that team and those are still happening it's still business as usual in that sense and yeah so like

I think maybe it is hard for Alcrest to know what ultimately the effect will be down the line of Ferreira not being there. Like we talked about this yesterday, he's so far ahead of so many people on the tour. is it only when you get to Yannick Sinner in the final that you actually really notice the difference? Maybe he doesn't really even know yet and maybe we'll find out as the season goes. But yeah, it is... It is kind of fascinating to see whether it does have an effect as we go.

Matt F, sorry. Yes, this is like first grade when there were two Matts in the class. And you're both sitting in front of me as well, like I'm the teacher. I feel very powerful. You asked him about his serve, which he continues to tweak. And there was a, I can't tell if it was a really revealing thing he said about Djokovic or a really weird thing or a thing that I didn't quite understand. But it was certainly a sort of double, a real double take moment.

Yes, he immediately said, you know, I guess sort of what I was thinking, and I think what everyone's thinking, which is that it almost looks like when he serves now is that he's doing... like a Djokovic impression of himself almost like it's sort of he said he said You're going to ask me if I'm imitating Novak Djokovic or you're going to ask me if my serve is trying to be like Novak. Is that what the streets are saying? Because I hadn't clocked that myself.

Yes, there's been some footage going around. of a side-by-side of Alcaraz's new serve and Novak Djokovic's serve. So he's presumably seen that and was okay. Yes, and he lives on social media. We also know that about Carlos Sackles. This is because Matt and I haven't watched The Traitors yet.

So we've had a social media blackout all day to avoid spoilers. Yeah, exactly. It's affecting my journalism, Matt. Yeah, the number of times I've clicked Twitter and then as just a reflex and then, oh God, no. I can't go on there. Yeah, we've missed stuff, Matt. But could you seriously imagine? I mean, just getting back on a more serious note, away from the double take. Could you imagine serving?

the way he served at the U.S. Open and saying, yeah, I'm going to change that. I mean, it's kind of like Tiger Woods, like when he kept changing his swing and he was like winning every golf tournament, essentially. And it's just, I mean, it's amazing to me that, I guess, first of all, that you could possibly think that you could get better. And also just sort of...

Having that sort of open mind and the confidence, I mean, all I would ever want to do if, you know, I ever hit one serve the way he... hits a million serves is to be like okay how do i do that exact same thing for the rest of my life and like here he is tinkering and and there was such a parallel between between that and an answer that sinner gave in his

press conference as well, which was about the line he gave after his US Open final defeat about wanting to add more variety to his game. And he said, off-season. We worked on coming into the net, more transitioning into the net, tweaked a couple of things on the serve. There were such similarities in those two answers. Of course, like, I'm always tweaking. Like, you have to be. That's what sets them apart. Yeah, and that's the beauty of the rivalry. You know, they're having to tweak.

mostly for one another. Look, Sinner played that down, didn't he, in his answer. He said it is for everyone that he's incorporating this variety. I think it was pretty revealing the way he talked about it after the US Open final and how much he was thinking about Carlos Alcaraz in that. I would say the one slight difference, I thought, in their answers was that Sinner was very much talking about extremely intentional.

and working on variety and the serve, like you say, and transitioning to the net. Alcares was... laying it out as yes he always wants to be keeping an open mind as you say and tinkering and making little adjustments but he was almost talking about it in terms of its sort of technical drift and it's not something that he's absolutely like setting out I'm gonna make my serve look like this I think he's such a sort of feel player that he's

experiencing and thinking maybe it could even be a little bit better if I do it like this and he's just playing with it and he's ended up with this service motion and he sort of talked about how By the end of the year, he might have a bit of a different service motion again. Like, he's just got that open mind that Matt F has been talking about. And, yeah, he also used the words calm and peaceful rhythm that he feels on serve now. Just like you, right?

You have a calm and peaceful rhythm when you're served. That's how you feel as the ball goes into the air. Calm and peaceful, right? Oh, all the time, calm and peaceful. Yeah. If only.

Matt played very well this morning. In the wind, no less. I'm sure he did. Calmly and peacefully, no doubt. Sinner, I mean, Sinner was just, he's so spectacularly... I mean, life's good, isn't it? He's so completely at ease and confident. I don't know, he just filled me with confidence in every regard today. Yeah, he does that thing, Sinner, of ending a lot of answers with...

Let's see what's coming. And I just feel like every time it's like a threat to everyone else. He says it so calmly, but you know what's coming, and it's like a sinner onslaught on these tournaments. He spoke about the difference he was feeling sitting there this year compared to last year when obviously he had the case still hanging over him and not knowing whether he was going to be banned.

Yeah, he talked about how tough that was and how that whole experience, as he said, felt like it made him more mature. And yeah, he had a twinkle in his eye talking about the one-point slam. He jokingly talked about that with the same look on his face as when he talked about partnering with Emma Navarro at the US Open mixed doubles. Like, this is all kind of a joke. Waterload of nonsense. I'm in on it. I'm happy to go with it.

He's had the same one-point slam trajectory that I've had. He said, not a big fan in the beginning, but it was great. We've all been there, Yannick. I think we need to figure out what's the next thing that could get them out of their comfort zones.

funny way like could they all could they have to play something like with their opposite hand or something like I just think like these who would win who Off the top of your head, who do we think would win that? Alcaraz? I bet it would be some... There's a number of players who are playing with their wrong hand. Yes, so Nadal famously... Yes, like Nadal. And Carlos Moyer as well. I'm not saying he would win this thing, but Alex Mikkelsen is actually a lefty, strangely. And so...

He's probably a pretty good left-handed tennis player. I mean, I think pretty much every tennis player could win a golden set against me playing with their opposite hand. Maria Sharapova used to occasionally do that. switching the racket to her left hand when she was dragged out wide on the backhand side, didn't you? That was always fun. I'm going to give a shout to Thomas Mahatch, of course. Of course you are. I've seen him hit good left-handed forehands in the middle of points.

Of course, that is something that he would do. There's also a number of players who sign the camera afterwards with their left hand. I think, off the top of my head, Bonaciric is one of those. I want to say potentially also Tommy Paul. certain about that um but yeah i think i think matt f is right like there's

I don't probably need to say Matt F, really, do I? Like, it's obvious when I'm saying Matt. It feels validating for me, but it feels like you're backing me up. So I appreciate it. No, but I'm quite in on that. In on the playing with the wrong hand. David always...

wants a wooden racket tournament as well, doesn't he? Test the skills. I agree with you. Seeing them out of their comfort zones. Oh, it's great. That's the USP, or certainly one of the USPs. That's the magic sauce. Yeah, and it's much better than like the sort of...

hit and giggle two set thing where they're like I don't know they're trying to be funny and play tennis at the same time and I don't know it's There's something to these sort of like quick, slightly gimmicky things before the real shit comes that I think has like a bit of magic to it. I mean, you saw it with the U.S. Open Mixed Doubles and the Fast Fours, and yes, there was a big trophy for that, but still, it was different, and it was different, and it was fast, and it was quick.

It was just sort of like a quick good meal that you get. And yeah, why not do a couple of things different? Because we know that it's a pretty long, you know. Grand Slam tournament, we're going to get a lot of matches, a lot of long matches. And yeah, these first weeks, I don't know what we should call them anymore. Well, each Grand Slam brand there is a bit different.

Don't know. This is opening week. This is opening week. In New York, it's fan week. And in Roland Garros, it's, I don't know, chic week. I don't know. And I have my big idea that... But this gets into the whole wild card debate, which is get rid of all main draw wild cards. You only have wild cards for qualifying, and then it becomes wild card week. Don't you want a ticket to wildcard week? I've signed that off. There it is.

I approved. Matt F, you and I asked like a twin set of questions to Alcaraz and Shiontek. Me to Alcaraz, you to Shiontek. The big... career slam question because they're in the same boat at this tournament okay not not identical boats how far can I take the boat metaphor here will I make my dad proud because obviously Alcaraz has the chance to

set a record in being the youngest man ever to achieve the career slam, whereas Shontek would be merely just adding her name to the list of incredible players that have achieved the career slam. I went first with... Alcaraz and I had the sort of leg up of him already having done that interview at the end of last year where he said if you offered me

two other slams in 2026 or one Australian Open, I would take one Australian Open. So I very directly pitched him the offer of all three other slams or the Australian Open. And... He's still thinking. He's still thinking about it. He thought about it long and hard. I felt at one... It's... I sensed at one point he was about to say Australian Open. And then he went, but three is three. And he said, I need to think about it. And I said, I'll ask you again later in the tournament.

Unless you lose to Adam Walton round one, which is obviously the unsaid subject there. I can't believe he needs to think about that. Just because he's so young, he'll get the career slam. But he won't necessarily... I think he wants to be the youngest. He... youngest man, he referenced it himself. He wants that, I think. I understand why it's a dilemma for him, and I like that it's a dilemma for him. I like how much he wants this now.

And I'm sorry, is this his last chance to be the youngest man? We think he has one more. I think he's got one more shot at it. Okay, so... If I'm Carlos Akaraz and I'm not Carlos Akaraz, I'm taking three this year. And then when it's my last chance, then I'll do it. And then he's won four in a row as well. Right. Yeah.

Then he's got a Serena slam. Right, exactly. You can pitch that to him at the next press conference, Catherine. He was so like Pete Carlos Alcaraz during the answer to that question, wasn't he? huge grin his mouth couldn't have gone wider and he really thought about it he was totally sort of in the moment and really engaging with me and then the next question was about Juan Carlos Ferreira so you had this

This whiplash of, you know, head down, body language change. But yeah, Schwantek, in very much typical Schwantek style, didn't want to engage with the... with the career slam hoo-ha. You know, she thinks that's a big deal in our minds. Well, she doesn't even want to know who she'll play in the second round. Forget about the idea of thinking about if I win the tournament, then I've won the career slam. I bet you can't name the last person to win the career slam, probably.

But that doesn't mean that she doesn't want to. Don't you think she wants it more than she let on in that answer? No, she said, by the end of the answer, she said, like, it's a dream. It would be a dream. Like, yeah, of course. I just can't.

be in the mindset of thinking about it all the time yeah that's not sort of the way yeah I need I need to shut this down now so that I'm not persistently reminded of it at every at every turn yeah I think she's learned at this point I mean, she's had a lot of practice doing it that like she is at her best when she's just, you know, when she's channeling Rafa and, you know, next ball, next ball, next point, next game.

why would I worry about anything else? Everything else is so far off into the future. And she sort of trained herself to do that as much as possible. But at the same time... She did say, yeah, I really want to do this. It'd be great. Can you imagine? I get to win all four Grand Slams. I still think she's slightly amazed that she's even won one Grand Slam. Because...

You know, no one from Poland had ever done it before, so, I mean, I think, I mean, she said, I remember very clearly, she said, like... It was hard for me even to dream about doing that because it just seemed so out of the realm of possibility. So I think, you know, a career slam, like, that would be wild.

Like, she can't quite believe still, and I don't know that she'll ever really believe, like, this life that she lives. Generally, I thought she was on great form. Is she on tech? I did too, and I think the... The most obvious way that that came across was that, as Matt has mentioned, she doesn't like knowing the draw. And the first question she got asked in the room was...

about players who are in her drawer. Like, Asaka was named and Rabatkinner was named. And I feel like I've been in English film tech press conferences before where that would sort of derail the whole thing. You know, she said, I don't like to know the draw. She quite funnily and sort of sassily said, oh, so thanks for the heads up. But then she stayed in a really, really good mood, I thought, during the press conference.

gave some real insight, Catherine, I thought, to your question about something we've been talking about a lot, which is the win for set idea.

versus the Witkarowski idea of what her game should be and how caught in between she is at the moment. Yeah, I really didn't know how she was going to take... that question and she gave the most fantastic analysis of her game okay it might not have told us anything that we didn't sort of suspect from looking at the outside but the fact that she saw it the same way as we see it from the outside and was prepared to say that

I found interesting in itself. She wasn't at all defensive about it. She can take things... She can take things personally, as we all can, or... Yeah, get a bit defensive occasionally. But I didn't feel like there was any of that today. Even at the start, when the very first question was extremely awkward because it just revealed all of the big names in her section of the draw, which... Look, we as people that follow the sport all the time know it's something you don't do with Igor Schwantek.

And I do think generally you should be careful with that as a tennis journalist. However, I'm also aware that you can't expect everybody to know that that's a total no-no with Shontek. What I was really impressed with with Chiantic was the way she broke down wicked, like with the seriousness as if she was breaking down. It was incredible analysis. We were talking about Cynthia Erivo's vocal tone and how it blends with other cast members. Oh, it was like a...

I mean, she was going deep. She wasn't laughing and giggly. She was serious. It was as if she was on, like, a film review podcast. And this was all after. It was really... It was kind of cool. It was. It was awesome. It was a great Igor Shantek press conference. But this was all after the first question, which had gone so badly wrong. And she said, please don't. I don't like to know my draw. Please don't say that again.

And that could have set the train for the press conference and it could have been quite tense at that point. So the fact that we ended up with a deep dive on Wicked for Good was amazing. It's made me feel pretty good about Uggish film today. Yeah. And, like, I had absolutely no idea...

And this was a question that Tomaini Cario put to her kind of at the end of the press conference. Like, I didn't know how she was going to feel coming out of the United Cup because it was this weird thing where Poland had won. And yet, on a personal level... she had underperformed you know she hadn't she's not really been in that setting before she'd been in

the opposite quite a lot, where she'd won her matches and Poland hadn't won. But actually, I think she did really lean into the team aspect of the United Cup. She sort of said that and enjoyed that. And yeah, she was on really... good form and it was really nice to see and in terms of the answer about her game like she said something that

was like music to my ears. She was like, I can be an attacking player and a defensive player. Like that is such a great understanding of her game and her attributes. And, you know, she said, the problem is... when things are going badly and she still falls back into her patterns that are so embedded in her game. Because she doesn't have... The schedule doesn't allow her time to ingrain new patterns, basically. She said, if I had six months, I could sort of re-imprint my DNA as a tennis player.

She knows she has the technical skill set to do it. It's just, you know, her DNA has been written in a certain way with that partnership with Thomas Wichorowski. She said, like, I just, you only get a couple of weeks here and there, even the off-season is... three weeks and it's just not enough time to fully embed it in the muscle memory so that when things start to go wrong you don't revert back to old patterns.

At some point, I do think she's going to go to school on Arena and start skipping some tournaments. Maybe she'll do it this season. Or maybe it'll take one more season of San Blanco finishing the year as world number one while skipping Canada. skipping a couple of other things. She skipped one of the China tournaments, correct? Yeah. And she basically sort of mails it into the Middle East.

I think at that point, egos start sort of dialing back a little bit and being like, huh, maybe there is something to this. Maybe I don't. Maybe the whole like. Playing every single tournament really doesn't matter all that much when you're at my level. Because there is no... reason to. There's no WTA bonus pool. She's not going to lose money out of it the way the ATP players do. She just gets zero points that week. But if you're making the final four of pretty much every Grand Slam,

You can skip a couple of the thousands. Yep. Here, here. Or, you know, tennis could shorten its calendar and none of that would be necessary. Yeah. OK, that's it for part one. We will be back in part two to talk about, well, Irina Sabalenka, Coco Gough, maybe even Amanda Anisimova.

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Welcome back to part two of today's tennis podcast. I feel like we should talk about Irina Sabalenka, even though I don't have that many takes at all. Potentially no takes from Irina Sabalenka's press conference other than I feel exactly the same way as I did on yesterday's show about she's my favourite for the Australian Open, which is obviously not a mic drop thing to say. But, you know, Irina Sabalenka...

Was Irina Sabalenka and is incredibly happy and comfortable in Australia and backs herself to win this tournament, I think. Yes, I mean, I have Sabalenka's... name written down on my notes page and no no notes after it like there really wasn't much to come from this press conference at all um i was thinking about her record in australia and like

She mentioned how well Keys played in that final last year. And then, you know, the other sort of loss she's taken in Australia over the past couple of years was Rabakina beating her in Brisbane.

that's probably the best match I've ever seen. We're back in a play. And it just got me thinking, like, Sabalenka so often starts the season well, all throughout her career. She clearly loves the conditions and playing in Australia. And it has taken two... great performances from big hitters who can take the racket out of your hand to beat her over the last few years otherwise it's just a perfect record and yeah she's she is the bar and someone is going to have to

go some to to beat her here i think and yet coco goff is in her half of the draw and we know what those matches can look like on the biggest stages and in the highest stress situations. And Coco Goff seemed on brilliant form impressed today. Yeah, she seemed pretty good. Mentally, and obviously if I was coming off a win over Iga Svantec, I'd probably feel pretty good too. That being said, like, I mean...

She is a beguiling player at a beguiling point in her career. I mean, do you know for a fact that she's going to come out and play really solid in round one? Would you be, I mean, I would be surprised if she lost in round one or round two. Would I be completely shocked? Like, no, because I wouldn't be shocked if she double faulted 15 or 18 times. Especially if it's windy like it is.

today she could do with that dying down couldn't she yeah i mean so i i think it's completely fascinating to have someone who's 21 years old who's won two grand slams uh who's The best athlete in the game, probably. You know, her or Iga, I would guess. I think that's what she would say. And yet... You kind of don't know from day to day what Coco Gauff is going to show up in the way that you kind of know what Jessica Pagula is going to show up.

You just don't know what you're going to get out of her. So I don't know. It's hard to predict at this point, especially because so recently we saw her play that match again.

was this Monero which as she said was like one of the worst ranches of her career yeah that was my question to her like how are you processing the fact that in a week you can play the Buthas-Monero match and then the same tournament a few days later you can play the Igor Svantec match, you know, and... how much of a goal is it for you to get more consistent was you know was kind of what I wanted to to know and she talked about the fact that she thinks that

Young players are inconsistent and we forget that Coco Gauff is still a young player and how she thinks that when she gets to her mid-20s rather than early 20s, she really thinks that that... might have improved a lot and ultimately it comes down to the serve like the inconsistent days are the root cause of them is the serve and I think you know she's clearly on that she's working hard to make the serve more consistent but she's just not there yet and

Like Matt said, I have no idea how Coco Goff is going to play round one, which makes her probably the most compelling player in the draw because she's also someone who can win the tournament.

And this is, for us as viewers and observers of the sport, it makes it really interesting every match. You can't just... There are some players in the draw who you can just... leave to live scores and you're like okay i kind of know what's going on there they're going to be fine i'll get eyes on it if something dramatic happens you have to have eyes on coco golf because you don't know what's

what's going to happen from any given match. And I think that is frustrating for her at this stage. But she's working hard to overcome it. But maybe she's going to need to get older. I...

In a less extreme way, I feel quite similarly about Madison Keys, this tournament, in terms of really having no idea what to expect from her, because I think her form is... Her preparation has been fine. It hasn't been what it has been last year. I don't get the feeling she loves defending. titles and points generally speaking but then that might be old madison keys like the way she was talking today in impress it

It brought back all the memories of how she was talking here last year. It was all incredibly healthy. She said, everyone keeps asking me how my life has changed since winning the title here. And she was like, nothing much has changed and that's the whole point. I was watching Cool Runnings the other night, which, side note, I do think is a perfect movie.

Absolutely perfect movie. Matt F is smiling at me like that's a bad take. It's just been a long time since I've watched Cool Runnings. It's the same for me. I don't know that I'm qualified to comment on it.

Well, Channel 9 was showing it on prime time the other night, and I... loved it and anyway this is the sort of the big the moment building up to the big climax the moment that allows the big climax to be what it is is John Candy speaking to one of the members of the Jamaican bobsleigh team, and he says, the thing about a gold medal is it's really nice, but if you're not enough without it, you'll never be enough with it.

There you go. John Candy knew things. John Candy speaks the truth. Right. And like it was that same Madison Keys today. So one part of me thinks. I think she could struggle with the pressure of defending here and never having been in this position before and the inevitable nerves. Another part of me thinks she's coming into this with the same mindset she had.

last year and like we shouldn't if we've learned anything it's that we shouldn't be underestimating madison keys and definitely not not here um Yeah, I'm not predicting Madison Keyes to win this tournament, but I'm pretty intrigued by how she's going to get on at this tournament. Yeah, I think she definitely sort of ended last year. and especially at the U.S. Open in a place where I think she didn't really expect herself to be. I think she expected herself to...

I don't want to use the word care. When I say not care as much, I don't mean that she didn't care about winning. But what she wasn't doing was that she wasn't, you know... I think she expected herself to be at a point where she wasn't equating results with self-worth, identity, value, all of those things.

And as she said, when she lost at the U.S. Open, that's kind of where she got to. And she ended up where she ended up because I think... because of it and so look she really didn't play a lot of tennis since then um yeah she could she's another one she could lose in the first round we wouldn't be shocked um She could win several matches and be a big part of the second week, and we'd be like, yeah, sure, that's what Madison Keys does these days.

I feel like I remember Madison Keyes having an analysis of why the US Open is typically sort of seen as the more open slam. And she articulated it well in terms of like, when it is the... final slam of the season when everyone is tired like a lot of the sort of coping mechanisms that you have have fallen by the wayside by that point It's like what Shiontek was saying about her game. Exactly. US Open Media Day, not the happiest place on earth. It's really not, is it? I can tell you that much.

Right. And like she started the season out last year being able to separate her results from her self-worth. But by the time, you know, nine months of tennis has happened, it's a lot harder to do that.

Yeah, I get it. Absolutely. Should we talk about Mandarin and Samova? Always. on this on this podcast when we should always be talking about a man and he's anisa mova i mean you know you just tell me who wants to who gets to do the big reveal i feel like katherine it should be you I don't want it to be me. It can't be me. Well, I mean, a couple of headlines. She follows Matt Roberts on Instagram.

No, she follows the podcast. Matt Roberts stubbornly refuses to have his own private Instagram, despite the clamours of the people. But it was directed, I mean, what happened, for those of you who weren't riveted in watching the press conferences, Mac got called on. Amanda Nisimova's face immediately lit up and she said, I follow you on Instagram or I follow the podcast on Instagram and I love it.

And it was just sort of like, OK, I think we can all go home now. This is it. It was my Federer winking at David moment. Yeah, what's going to happen to me tomorrow? I know, like you're going to... I was thinking, like, get to pet Yahtzee or something. Oh, yeah, that would be huge. I think I've missed the Denis Shapovalov press conference and I don't think Yahtzee was present, but anyway.

Yeah, that would be good. Yet you regrouped from that, you know, you picked yourself up and did a good impression of a professional journalist. in the aftermath of that moment. I was in the middle of asking a hair question. My personal reputation as somewhat professional was in tatters. But no, it was a lovely moment. And the hair question in question and its response.

Well, why have you gone back to blonde was the question. And the answer was basically like she was sick of the maintenance. Yeah. I mean, we've all been there. I was getting roots. And also, like, she said she's someone who, you know... Well, actually, in our Instagram comment, she said to someone who has a lot of crises about her hair and constantly wants to change. And she said she could be dark again by the end of the year. Keeping us on our toes, Amanda. She was in great form, wasn't she?

Oh, she really was. Sometimes she does... Like, I think she kind of decides... Maybe it's not a conscious decision, but, like, there's a big difference between a great Amanda Unisamova press conference where she's... really engaging with everything and flirting with Matt Roberts and Anna, you know, one where she's just not quite in the mood to chat to us and reveal her secrets. Yeah, it is amazing seeing like the difference.

in basically everything about her from the Amanda Anisimova that I was with in early November in Saudi Arabia, who played some pretty good tennis, but at the same time, like, it was taking... everything out of her to just sort of like stand upright and you know it turns out that having a good couple of months of not touring around and playing tennis is pretty good for you and so yeah i sort of anticipate that she could play really well at this tournament what does what does play really well mean

Yeah, I mean, get to the business end. She can win the tournament, sure. Yeah, I mean, if she's... Well, let's put it to the floor. If she's facing... Iga Sviantek in, is that a quarter or a semi? Semi. That would be a semi, right? She's number four. So if she's facing Iga in the semi, who's the favorite?

Well, with the caveat that we always give that, like, let's see how they're playing through the tournament. Because I think between them, it's pretty even. I think that would come into my analysis. But right now... I actually think I need some over. Yeah, I mean, if you're in a semi-final, like, you've had a great tournament, you're playing well. I mean, you've...

Right, but you might also have had five three-set matches in your legs and Igor Sfiontek's cruise through and, you know, like these things do come into it. But yeah, like all things being equal.

Anissa Mova, in her last two matches against Fiontech, has shown that she can handle that game on the surface. Yeah, I think it's a 50-50. I mean, I would put it at a... I mean, let's assume... they both haven't been in five three-set matches, I would put it at about a 50-50 on a hard court, like, given that, and I get, and I mean, I'm partly colored by...

I think I should be partly colored by what I saw at the U.S. Open and then what I also saw in Saudi Arabia. Anissa Mova is probably not going to have a Wimbledon. situation on if she plays Fiontech in the semi-final. That's it, isn't it? I'm not remotely worried about Amanda Onisimova having a Wimbledon situation again. No, no. And so, like... I mean, she's definitely someone like you would not be surprised at all if she's winning the tournament. The words you're looking for.

Oh, in the mix? Right. Yes, absolutely. I guess I can say she is in the mix. There we go. Madison Keyes, I would be surprised. I would too, yeah. Me too. The mix... On the women's side is, what, Sabalenka, Shontek, Goff, Anisimova. Could maybe throw Rabatkinner in. I think people would have their own opinion on that. Go pretty far I think to find people putting more than those five in Yes, you would but then again This

The women's tennis does throw up some really good, you know, surprising champions. But that's the thing. They're surprising. And they are surprising, and you wouldn't...

pencil them into a final at this point right not like you might with daniel medvedev say if you were david law um medvedev came to press today room two for medvedev um

He seems happy, doesn't he? Yeah, I was having to catch myself and not read too much into a pre-tournament press conference because I was thinking, you know... while I was in there I was thinking oh my god you're back David's called it and maybe he has but yeah he was relaxed he was funny he was self-deprecating all of all of the good

Medvedev traits were present in Room 2. Sounds motivated, doesn't he? Fresh, motivated, no pressure on him, nothing to defend. Some great analysis of his rivalry with Lerner Tien. Quote, neither of us can hit a winner, so that's fun. And he said his goal for the year, I'm actually a bit disappointed about this. He said, I've only set myself one goal for the year, and that's to win a title somewhere that I've already won a title.

Yeah, keep the iconic record, Vanille. Just go for... It's the most fun stat in tennis. Yeah. And you are fun. But it would also be a fun moment if he broke that duck.

I think that, I mean, what I have my eye on, and Medvedev comes to mind when I think about this, is right now the forecast for... The middle part of this tournament is outrageously hot and it's going to become like really, really hard for a few. men who are slotted like in the afternoon if this forecast holds up like next

I think it's Thursday, Friday, Saturday. Yeah, it's when Matt's parents are due to come. Yeah, it's supposed to be ungodly hot. And I'm just thinking about, like, Daniil Medvedev on the court, you know, in... the middle of the day because of like where his seating is. He probably won't get a night match because everybody's going to want the night match at that point. And he's going to, you know, just.

be an ungodly mess out there. But he plays some of his best tennis when he's an ungodly mess. He does. I just... And that's... I mean, that has... Those few days... have the potential to like I think Sinner and Alcaraz will be just fine because they can be efficient. They can switch into that mode. They're going to play on Rod Laver. Who knows? They may end up even closing the roof on Rod Laver to make it more amenable. But there's going to be a...

There's going to be that middle section of seeds who are not going to be that slot, and they are going to have to go through hell. Taylor Fritz as well, probably in that category.

Yeah, I mean, him, I think it's just like, how long is his knee going to hold up? He was trying to be a bit more upbeat about... the knee today I thought I mean an overall bad picture but certainly more upbeat than those quotes that came out after his Sebastian Baia's defeat to open the season which were alarming what will you know

The words that I'm never going to forget that I've heard this week are what Roger Federer said yesterday when he was asked about... you know one thing that he like doesn't miss or I don't know exactly what the question is but what he referenced was you know he said it was something like

Well, I don't want to use the word lying, but like, you know, you sit up here behind these microphones and people ask, how are you feeling? And you say, and you're always saying, oh, I feel great. And actually, you know, you don't feel great. You feel terrible. This hurts and that hurts. So, you know, I now take everything with a grain of salt when Taylor Fritz is being upbeat about knee tendinitis. I've had knee tendinitis, and it's hard to walk to the bathroom.

let alone play a five-set tennis match on a hard court against whoever he's got in the first round. Yeah. That's fair. It was an incredible line from Federer, wasn't it? Oh, it was a great line. Yeah, really well delivered. OK, that's it for part two of today's tennis podcast. Join us in part three for some tidbits from Matt. F's one-on-ones on Media Day. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. Fiscally responsible, financial geniuses, monetary magicians.

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Welcome back to part three of today's tennis podcast. I teased it before the break, Matt. Your tidbits from your one-on-one. You spoke to Maria Sakary, Marta Kostiuk, Alexandra Ayala. How was she? Alexandra Ayala is great. Yeah? Yeah. She's like, you want to pick me up? Go spend a few minutes chatting with Alexandra Ayala, who is, you know.

young and bright and you know eyes wide open and realistic and enjoying herself and you know you sort of you mentioned you know that match at the U.S. Open with that huge crowd and and she says oh that was amazing wasn't it you know which is like what she should say what like you know she's not like just like sort of take it in stride and uh you know really looking forward to playing here at

an event that markets itself as sort of the Grand Slam of the Asia-Pacific region. There's a big Filipino community here. They should be out in full force supporting her. And yeah, I mean, Wooden and Alexandra Iala. run at the Australian Open be good news for this tournament. She's in a fun section of the draw, isn't she? I feel like a fun third or fourth round. I mean...

I'm not assuming she'll get there, but there's potential for some Eyal of Fun, I think. I think it's Mukava. Ooh, yes, please. I think it might even be as early as round two. Okay. I mean, Mukava's in my fantasy team, so that'll... That'll assign my allegiances, but I want that much to happen. Kostiuk, she's a bit of a woman of the moment.

Yeah, she had a good week last week. It took her totally by surprise. She really wasn't expecting it. She's like, I don't really start off that well in Australia usually. And there I was in the final. It's just so interesting when you talk to Marta Koscik because you're sort of... talking about like regular stuff and what'd you do over uh how'd you spend your off season oh well you know I went to Ukraine I was in yeah it was in

Kiev and Lviv and you have the same family it was it was really great it's really inspiring there were we had to do you know blackouts and there were drones and you know it wasn't a bad bombing night but you know so you sort of all of a sudden you just like get hit with this like reality that these players from ukraine live with um and you just sort of like marvel that this is just the regular everyday part of their life and they're still

Almost four years later, waking up and checking telegram to see where the bombs fell. Blimey. That puts things in perspective. Maria Zachary? Yeah, Maria Zachary, who is hopeful. I think cautiously optimistic that she's finding some form. She obviously felt really good about a couple of her matches. in the United Cup, and I think she felt pretty good about 25 minutes of the match against Coco Gauff when she had a bit of a purple patch.

Yeah, she loves playing here. Obviously a huge Greek community. And she's like, I really hope one day I have a really good run here because...

I would love to do it in front of this crowd. It sounds a real contrast to Stefanos Tsitsipas, whose press conference I watched on the screen, and he just, you know, whereas everybody else is so... full of the joys of spring or you know january and the freshness of that as we've talked about he it looks like he's picked up where he left off last year to me like in terms of

jadedness and obviously a huge part of it is his ongoing back injury that he's managing but i think that's just exhausting him yes i i was at that press conference um i think it is tiring and you just don't know. He did get pretty expansive about sort of how much... of his disappointments of last year was mental and how much of his physical and he was like it was like improv class yes and um

He said, you know, it's both and you can't disconnect them. And if you're feeling bad physically, you're going to feel bad mentally. And if you feel bad mentally, it's probably going to make you feel worse physically. And it's just... I think he's at the point in his career is if he could just have a run of good health, that would make him really, really happy. at this point and he said as much so he did sort of go very deep into

the problems with the Masters 1000s without much prompting. And he was very clear that he had been... He had done videos for the ATP tour, you know, doing interviews with Gadenzi a few years back, you know, pushing for this vision. And he said, I was wrong. I was totally mistaken. All I had to do was get a taste of what it was, and I realized I was wrong, and I would not say that today. It needs to be changed. Wow. Yeah, good on him, right? Yeah, absolutely good on him.

Okay, I think that is it for our Media Day Roundup. We have stragglers tomorrow. Novak Djokovic, Emirati Karnou, I think. A few others, but it's been a good movie. Kasparud, Kasparud moved. Kasparud was a late cancellation today. Matt, Kasparud lost to Roger Federer today. He is not in the mix. Put it that way. I don't think so. No. Okay. But we'll let you know what he has to say tomorrow. Matt, you're a dog guy now. Definitely a dog guy. Would you like to see Gus?

Our Australian Open mascot. I would love to see Gus. This is Gus in her winter wear. She's wearing a pink, a bright pink, waterproof sort of harness with hood. And it's... It's really great stuff. Renee says, to commiserate with those in the UK and anywhere else where it's been wet and miserable, here is Gus in rain gear.

And we love that. Thank you, Gus. Thank you, Bodie, Maisie and Roger, our mascots, of course. Hello to Greg, Chris and Jeff, our executive producers. No shout outs today because what is a shout out with David Law and his 90s mind palace. They'll be back. As will David. We of course are part of the Athletic Podcast Network. Thank you Matt F. Thanks for having me. Care to tease anything that's coming up in the Athletic? Have a good day.

feature coming out um i was able to spend some time with and Watched a practice match between Lerner Tien and Alex Mickelson on a random court in Orange County in mid-December. which was really good fun. Sort of classic American moment where they're playing on one court and there's a pickleball game going on on the next court and people are completely oblivious about the fact that...

These two pretty good tennis players are playing next to them. And so I have a nice feature about them and the next generation of American players that's really kind of pushing that. Tiafoe, Paul, Fritz generation. Something that Taylor Fritz claimed to be unbothered by today. Yes, somewhat unbothered. But as established, we don't believe anything that tennis players say. Exactly. Right. Matt?

Thanks for your time. Thanks so much for having me. We love to talk tennis with you. We were watching the one-point slam the other day thinking, I'm so curious what Matt Futterman is going to think about this. We just didn't know. Yeah, I think I would have loved it and I was sad to have missed it. We'll get you to the next one. Folks, thank you for listening. We'll be back tomorrow with our pre-Australian Open hype show.

It has to be good, doesn't it, if you call it a hype show. So we'll do our best, Matt, to make sure it's good. Yeah, and the return of David for hype. Yeah, exactly. Thanks for listening, folks. We'll speak to you then. In a world where January is supposed to be boring, one staple of the holidays refuses to end. The great deals at Verizon. The joy just keeps on coming. Right now, you can save on four new phones and four lines.

Critics agree. It's the deal that keeps on giving. Come into Verizon and save on four new phones and four lines on unlimited welcome. Additional terms apply. See verizon.com for details. This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.

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