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This is Yannick Noah and you're listening to The Tennis Podcast. Alexander Zerev. Well, it's draw day at Roland Garros and the three of us, myself, Catherine Whitaker, David Law, Matt Roberts, brought up to Lamezani in Atlornjury here at Roland Garros. Our first day on site, we headed there in anticipation in hope of Ula-Las.
And we got Ula-Las and we'll talk about them in due course. But first and foremost, we got the moment that you just heard there and whatever sound it was that you just heard there. David Law, how would you describe the reaction in the room to the moment that Alexander Zerev was drawn to face Rafa on the dial in what we fully expect to be his last ever Roland Garros?
Yeah, shock was the sound. I think you just heard. And I think that's because, well, Nadal has meant such an awful lot to this tournament, the relationship between him and it and the people around it. And everybody knows that this is the end. And we were talking before we arrived even on site today about what sort of draw would you hope for for Rafa on the dial?
Would it be against a massive name for him to have a go against and probably in the current physical state that he's in not be able to compete with, whether it's a Jacović or an Alchraz or a Yannick Sin or all of these were possibilities? Or would it be somebody maybe that who might struggle against him and the occasion and he might be able to get a couple of wins and he might even be able to get a bit of momentum and then who knows what most likely go out to a big an aim as things went on?
I think what you've ended up with what seems like on paper is the worst possible scenario for Rafa on the dial because this is a guy who, when Nadal won this tournament two years ago, was having a really tough time against Alexander Zverev until Zverev had that horrific ankle turn and ended up being out for a year. So the chances of him winning are very, very small. We don't even know whether Nadal will be able to get out on the court, frankly.
We'll have to wait and see. And then you have everything around Zverev at the moment, the fact that in a few days time his trial for allegations of domestic abuse, for a penalty order, a charge that has been levied against him in Germany will begin in Germany. He denies those charges. We've talked about that at length in recent podcasts.
But you are faced with a situation where the most celebrated, decorated, one of the most popular champions ever could well be playing his final match against a man who has that hanging over him and about to start. And it's very difficult not to watch the match that will unfold without, at least in my case, without having that in the back of my mind or having it somewhere in there.
And I think that that is, it is shocking really. I mean, it's dramatic. You couldn't write that any more dramatically than it unfolded. You've got 128 players in a draw, and that was the first round scenario. And it takes some getting used to.
Yeah, regardless of the outcome of that match or the nature of it, Alexander Zverev will be a big feature of it. And that will make a lot of people and should make a lot of people very, very uncomfortable, frankly, because of those circumstances you just described. Matt, one of my favourite things is seeing you at the start of Draw Day. He puts his best outfit on. He makes sure he gets a good night's sleep. He's like a freshly hacked, hatched chick full times a year.
And the contrast in your mood now, to what it was a few hours ago, is it a little bit sad to see? I have to say, it's a little bit Dominic Team, 2019 versus Dominic Team, 2024. Yeah, I cannot deny it. I cannot deny it. Yeah, that was the moment of horror, really. That draw, that was not... I don't think what anyone really wanted as an outcome for exactly the reasons David has described.
You know, Raffa Nidal has never lost back to back matches on Clay in his professional career. And he's now staring down the prospect of having to face the most kind of inform men's player in his very first match here at Roland Garros. And honestly, I do think that there's a chance, given what Raffa Nidal said about how he only wants to play Roland Garros if he's competitive. There's a chance he doesn't play this tournament.
He would have seen that draw, he knows that Alexander's very is in form and will be so hard to beat. And he said he doesn't want to leave Roland Garros with memories like that. He would prefer to keep the memories he has. Now, I don't know whether that sort of reality hits when you get here and then you start thinking, oh, I've won this tournament 14 times.
And he's going to give it absolutely everything. He's ready to die on the court. That was another thing he said in the lead-up to this tournament. So there has been some mixed messages. But there's no way around it. That is an absolutely brutal draw. And exactly as you said, there's going to be an awful lot of focus and attention on this match. And I just hope that the big broadcasters are telling their commentators that they need to be talking about the allegations against Alexander's Rav.
And that's important context for this match. There will be a lot of people who don't necessarily know Alexander's Rav's story coming to this match to watch it. And the fact that his trial is starting in a few days, I don't think tennis has handled Alexander's Rav's case at all well. And there's a real pressure now for at least for the broadcasters, the commentators, the writers to do their bit and tell that important context to this match.
As we're watching, potentially there could be a massive ceremony afterwards and Alexander's Rav will be part of that ceremony. There's just a lot that people need to know about Zvarer going into this match. Because up to now so much of tennis and in particular, Men's Tennis is governing body, has treated the Zvarer situation as an inconvenient truth that it would just like to go away.
And just sort of hopes it stays on the back burner as much as possible. Well, this is what you get when you bury your head in the sand and just hope that things go away. This was always a possible scenario. And now tennis is being forced to confront this situation. And as you say, Matt, I don't have faith that everybody will do the right thing here. But it'll force some people to make some decisions that they've been trying to duck, I suppose.
Yeah, I mean, just on the tennis of it all, I know it's Nadal at Roland Garros. I do know that. I do know that magical and possible things are made possible by Nadal at Roland Garros. But there's two things. There's number one, the fact that he's always had a match up problem with Alexander Zvarer. Even Rafael Nadal playing close to his best has had problems with Alexander Zvarer. That forehand going into Zvarer back there. Absolutely. It's a nightmare for him.
And number two, yes, assuming he takes to the court, given what he's told us, he's told us he's only going to play if he feels he can be competitive. Therefore, if the match happens, you have to assume it's because Nadal thinks he's in good enough shape to be competitive. But he thought that ahead of Rome. And he was so bad in Rome that her catch match haunts me. And I just don't want to see that against Alexander Zvarer over here in a few days' time.
David, I know, I mean, you're always the resident optimist. You've worked hard today. You put a shift in this afternoon. Listen, I mean, the flip side is, what if Nadal won? What if Nadal found something on the day and won that match, or Zvarer of Titan Day? I think Zvarer will be edgy and nervous going into that. I think most players are nervous going into every match.
But when you play in the Dow on court for the flip, I know Zvarer has done it before, but he was able to do it as an underdog in the past. This time he can come out, he'll come out with not only expecting to win that match, but I would say a lot of people expecting him to win the tournament. And I think that could make him tighten. And just the one thing I know things have changed, but two years ago Nadal came into this tournament with that foot.
And do you remember how he looked in Rome shortly before that? I don't know whether he retired, but he was in a terrible state in Rome. And there were real question marks over him coming into that event. I used to shop a valve of memory that that sounds bad. But I did, that's a good point David, and I will be clinging to that for the days to come. But he did have some treatment in the intervening days between the Rome loss and Roland Garros.
And he's on the fight the foot, didn't he? Which changed the landscape? Yeah, he did. It sounds like he's free to hold body of the moment. Being old? Yeah, well, I mean, let me know. There's something, something's going on with his body that is not, it's not reacting positively really at the moment to stuff. Look, I do, I do still hold out some hope for him because because of the question, you just said, is he going to play or not? And if he plays, I think he's going to go hell forever.
And I don't know. He'll have the whole crowd behind him. You would have to say that he would have one side of crowds ever. You would have thought. Okay, well, that that matches come out in the second quarter of the men's draw. The first quarter, of course, is where the top seed finds himself that offending champion, no match, no match, no match,
he could face three back to back Frenchman in the opening three rounds. If the draw falls that way, he's got the wildcard Pierre-Ruy-Gaibair in round one. He could have constant on Lestien, David, in round two, although no one's betting any money on Lestien getting there, I don't think are there. And he could have Gamel Fees in round number three. I don't hold out much hope for a bear doing anything fun there, but Lestien trolling Novak Djokovic.
I think if it is throwback, Novak Djokovic match, I'm very iffy. I just, you're here for Novak Djokovic. Yeah, I'm struggling with that, Catherine, to be honest, based on that history. A throwback is a beat down if we have any history. And the truth is, much as I love watching Costal Lestien rack people up in knots, Djokovic heats people like that for breakfast. He is just stopping people messing with him by his perfect line of length. And he would likely destroy him.
So I don't see Djokovic having too many troubles. That having been said, we have Novak Djokovic at the moment with a lot of question marks over him. But there is uncertainty. The fact that he's in Geneva tells you he's uncertain. And so everywhere you look, look, I know that Sverev Nadal has taken the headlines of that draw today. But it's a fantastic draw in terms of intrigue all the way through it. It means Verve himself has a horrendous draw in that half overall, I think.
Yeah, okay. So Djokovic in the top half, he, or the top of the whole draw, he's ceded to face Casper Rude in the quarterfinals. Verve's ceded quarterfinal appointment would be Daniel Memvirev, but also in that section, in that quarter is Holger Runa. And a couple of other danger men, David, Karen Hashanov, is in there you think, even taking the Nidale out of it, you think this is a tough draw for yourself.
Yeah, I would not be happy if I was in his camp looking at that draw because Greek Spore is a potential third round opponent. He's a dangerous player. The winner of Hashanov Runa, Medvedev as a quarterfinalist, I know Medvedev isn't as solid on clay, but he does have this record against Verve. And that's just for the right to meet most likely, you know that Djokovic in the semi-finals, and who knows who comes to meet them in the final.
I don't think that's a great draw for his very own, I really don't. Yeah, I would cosine that. A few other things that just jump out at me in this top half. I do think that's a tricky opener for Kasparud, Jakob Menzik, has had some big wins this year Kasparud is currently playing in Geneva. Why is he currently playing in Geneva? That is not what contenders at Roland Garros do. I mean, okay, Djokovic is there, but... He's specifically looking for something. Absolutely, that's very specific.
I mean, the thing is... I mean, Djokovic generally knows that that's not a thing that contenders do, and he's making a very contextualised exception. Kasparud, I just think, is behaving not like a champion. He's finally here the last two years. He has a tricky draw. He has a few fees? I mean, you know, that was the suggestion, the erotic said that Taylor Fritz has basically gone after an appearance fee in Geneva.
And he didn't cast any judgement on him for that. I do. I like Taylor Fritz, I like Kasparud, but if that's what they've done, that is not necessary. You are rich men already, and you're going to earn plenty if you go deep in Roland Garros. Kasparud should be thinking, this is my slam. This is the window I've been waiting for. And I don't know that, of course, that Rudd may not be doing that. He may just want to get the reps in the way...
He may want a million reps before he takes on the stormers, and if that, look, he's got to the final twice. And I think he played Geneva last year. You've probably got to give him the benefit of the doubt that he knows what he's doing. It still seems a bit surprising to me. It'll be one to it. I wouldn't mind asking him about that. Mensick Strickey, I agree. Mensick's... And there's Alejandro de Vich Vich Vich Vich Vich, who is, you know, so hot and cold.
He's so... In fact, he's been so cold, he's not even seeded now. But he can be pretty electric when he gets it right. I think if Rudd had to play Mensick and David Vich Vich Vich Vich Vich, first two rounds, that's kind of as hard as it gets for a seed. Unless you've got a red-final, I suppose. So that's the top half of the draw. In terms of the bottom half of the draw, that is where Janik Sinner and Carlos Alcarez find themselves.
They're scheduled to meet in the semi-final, Sinner at the very bottom of the draw as the second seed Alcarez is in the third quarter. We'll talk about those two in just a moment. But first, in terms of the bottom half, the biggest Ula-Lar moment of the Mens draw unquestionably came when Andy Murray and Stan Ravrinka were drawn to face off in round one.
No. Oh. Oh. So what was happening there, the narration that you were hearing from Matt Roberts with the occasional inserts from myself, was the draw getting ever closer to the very bottom. And the prospects of Andy Murray, who we were keeping an eye out for, and vaguely in the back of our head, Stan Ravrinka, having to face Janik Sinner in round one. That's what we were angsting about in that moment.
We hadn't, we weren't quite nimble enough to realise, oh my goodness, they could come out to face one another and lo and behold, there they were. We've seen it here before in the first round and it was horrible. I hope not to see that much again. Well, an absolutely astonishing stat that tennis TV tweeted is that this will be Andy Murray's third consecutive match at Ravrinka against Stan Ravrinka.
So he played Stan Ravrinka 2017 in the semi-final that sort of broke his hip. Then he didn't play Ravrinka once again until the aforementioned match against Ravrinka in 2020. And he hasn't played Ravrinka since then. So three Ravrinka matches in a row, all of them against Stan Ravrinka. Well, that is wild. If the room had known that stat at the time that you always made, imagine how big the Ula-la would have been then.
There have been rumours swirling this week. Haven't there that Ravrinka is poised to announce an imminent retirement or scheduled retirement at some stage this season, which wouldn't be a shock. He's older even than that. But, oh, goodness. I just don't want it to be sad. Give me anything other than sad with this one. Again, I hold out some hope that to me, it ends up being the opposite because they're both beloved here. They're both loved so much.
Andy Murray and Stan Ravrinka, who won this title in 2015, you know, on the barge, Hannah started a thread about what's your favorite role in Gareth's match ever? And one of the ones that my mind instantly went to was Vavrinka against Jokovic, the way Vavrinka just wrestled this match away from Jokovic, no matter how good Novak was back then. Andy Murray reached the final the following year and lost to Jokovic, so that they're loved here, they're loved around the world, and they're facing off.
So, to me, it's kind of no-lose from a sort of nostalgic perspective, as long as it's not horribly one-sided, which that last one you mentioned was, and Murray was terrible that day. I just hope they're both decent, and I actually think you could end up getting a really good match. Have a soldier to you. No, they both need to be equal levels of sad, so you need to be equal. Yeah, exactly. Look, if one of those two were to go on a run technically, they would be a potential third round opponent.
If Janik Sinner, he starts against Chris U-Banks, possible round two with Bourne Chorich, and then you've got Cameron Norrie and Pavel Kottov lurking in there as well. Norrie, Kottov, the winner of that phase, the winner of Murray, Barinka. Her catch is the projected quarter-final opponent of Janik Sinner. It's a good draw for Sinner, I think. I mean, the hip is... If he were fully fit without any question marks, I think I'd be saying good draw for Sinner.
Yes, and actually, I think that's probably my other than Zverev Nadal. That's probably my big takeaway from the men's draw in the three big names who were all so uncertain about, have got workable draws, I would say. We've talked about Jacović's, sinners there, as you've mentioned. I think that's a pretty good draw for Janik Sinner, I agree. I do note Nicholas Jerry, potentially in the fourth round. Corinth and Mute in Round 1 for Nicholas Jerry, that is a very tennis podcast co-pid, isn't it?
It is. We will be there. There's a few that popped out of the draw that Mubis just go. Gaston Shelton, we dare mark as fun. Yeah, and Runa Evans. It's excellent. I think Al Carras has... I mean, look, there's an unknown over Al Carras' draw because he's got a qualifier or a lucky loser in his first match. There's a couple in there. I think we've all sort of circled the way Mugevich has come through qualifying, looking very impressive.
Yeah, as it stands at the moment, they do the draw here before qualifying is completed. Quite a lot before qualifying is completed. So we don't know who the qualifiers slash lucky losers will be that people have been drawn to play in Round 1. The good news though, is that we've got a podcast for you tomorrow, in which we will be able to wrap up qualifying for you and update you on who has the misfortune of drawing Hammond Mugevich in Round 1 because he is a danger for sure.
He's really like him. I think he is big time. He stares you down. He played Luca Pui in the qualifying. As we thought, as we were talking about the other day, the qualifying here, the way they're staging it, makes it feel like this tournament has already started. These feel like first round matches. He beat Luca Pui and France in a cracking contest, actually. It was straight sets. Then he just goes and dusts his third round opponent 6262.
He's a big guy with a big game and a big personality. He's not afraid of the occasion. You never know quite how they'll rebound when they get into the main draw. To me, you don't want to be facing that guy. I agree. I watched him again. I never did the other week. He can really like the way he can change up the rhythm on his shots and inject pace out of no way.
So, yeah, Alcarazza's draw. If he were to face a tough qualifier, then he's actually got draper in the second round and then potentially quarter in the third round who has beaten him on clay before. I think he's probably got the tougher one potentially out of Sinner and Diocletus in his first few rounds. I apparently lost a practice set to Raffa on the dial yesterday. I don't know what that says about anyone involved in that, but that's what I've said.
Is the room for hope there for about an hour? I don't know. I just throw it at him. I'll cling to it with you David. So, Alcarazza projected quarter final for him would be André Rublev. He's got Sitter Pass in his quarter Felix Alia Seem lurking there too. Rublev Sitter Pass possible fourth round feels pretty big for both of those players. Absolutely.
Two of the ones who won the lead in Clay Court events, they would not necessarily be expecting to meet in the fourth round. That would feel quite early, I think, for Rublev Sitter Pass clash. It's an open draw like this. Two guys with one big tournament this year meeting in the fourth round. I think that's a potentially big contest. So, David, for Rublev, it would in theory be Sitter Pass fourth round Alcarazza quarter final. I'm guessing Rublev not in your mix right now.
No, no, he's not. No, I just, but the intrigue over Alcarazza's center, their lack of fitness, I actually think that's probably the better half for him to be in. I think he'd have more problems right now if he was in with Sverev and Medvedev and Jokovic, you know. And Absam, just sort of processing this now. I hadn't really looked at it. I think that's a bit of a tough draw early on for Sitter Pass in the Martin Foucherviks.
Okay, he's not as good as he used to be, but that's a physical test. And then he's got, it takes you Altmaier who took out Sinahir last year, or Lazlijero, who's very good on clay. Also, sort of lurking even before you would get to Rublev, Zhang Zhijian, who had a good run recently, Umbe, but takes you with the French crowd, Sonnego, who's pretty dangerous. I don't think that's a cakewalk for Sitter Pass through to that. Umbe, Sonnego, by the way, is going to be a fun match.
And that got a new Lalla, yeah. They were very excited about that. As did the match just above that in the draw, which is Fissan Aldi. That was just for me. I wasn't happy about that. Yeah, Dave's not happy with that. I'm thrilled, I think that sounds great. Really, I think you'll be a good match, I'd say, one I would want to see. As somebody who's pulling for our Feast or Doo staff, I think Arnaud is the favourite in that match. He's really good. Yeah, oh, he's a favourite for sure.
Okay, so that's the men's draw digested for you. I'm sure Chad about it more tomorrow. Once we've spoken to the players about how they feel about their draw, we course have another podcast coming your way after media day, and after qualifying has been wrapped up tomorrow. And David has managed to squeeze in an extra bonus live podcast on Saturday. Yeah, cool, right. What time do you schedule that for on a Saturday, David?
6pm local Perisian time, which means 5pm in the UK, midday noon for these coasts of America, and 9am, get up in the morning, and watch us live on YouTube if you're on the West Coast. And I guess we'll be doing that from our Airbnb, so there will be a weird lamp in the background. Yeah, just briefly. Well, take your picture.
Just briefly, guys, if looking around other people's houses is your thing, and it absolutely is my thing, you should join us live on YouTube on Saturday just to have a snooper around our Airbnb, because it is wild. It is hands down the weirdest place we've ever stayed. Yeah, and get on our Instagram as well, because Catherine has been detailing it in the... Yeah, our host has a lamp fetish. And David's got a sexy picture on his wall. The sofa is straight out of a student house from the 80s.
It's very confused aesthetic, I would say. It's an excellent hat stand with some excellent hats on it. I'd say that's a highlight. We're not bored in there, are we? We're not bored. We are exhausted because it's on the 5th floor and the lift is broken. But, yeah, there's... We're constantly discovering new facets of our accommodation, so yet do join us on Saturday for that. And I had to do some emergency hoovering at quarter past midnight last night.
Twice. Twice post midnight, Matt got the hoover out. Yeah. Bit dusty. Yeah. We're very pleased to be here, though, for you. Millions of people have lost weight with personalized plans for noon, like Evan, who can't stand salads and still lost 50 pounds. Salads generally for most people are the easy button, right? For me, that wasn't an option. I've never really was a salad guy, that's just not who I am. But new work for me. Get your personalized plan today at Noon.com.
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So subscribe to tennis channel plus to stream daily coverage of Roland Garros use promo code tennis pod 20 for 20% off your annual subscription. Now we're going to talk about the women's job. Just before we do that, they were actually going to play you a teaser, a teaser clip from our most recent edition of tennis relived Roland Garros 20. Roland Garros 2004 relived.
It was a brilliant show that I say so myself with some incredible contributors, including 2012 catam Mittica who makes a very brief cameo to see of David Law. An interview I did with Gaston Gallo many moons ago. But we also had Tim Hemman on the show. He visited tennis podcast towers, Puppany. He was very generous with his time. And he told us some brilliant stories from his run to the semifinals at Roland Garros in 2004.
And he's just a little teaser of him talking about the man who would have been his final opponent had he beaten Guillermo Corio in that semifinal where he led by a set in a break. Here he is talking about Gaston Gallo. He said he was so happy that I lost in the semifinals because he said he hated playing me but he had this perception that when I played against him and I looked down the court, he felt that I looked at him as if to say you're hopeless. And there's no chance of you beating me.
And again, this is the power of the mind. I think Gaudi is brilliant on Clay. I think he's got one of the top three single handed backends I've ever seen. And I'm thrilled that I'd beaten him on Clay. And so it would have been interesting for me to have played that French Open Final if I've beaten Corio because I would have never known that. And I would go into that match against Gaudi on Clay thinking I'm the underdog for sure. Whereas he would have been thinking this guy thinks I'm hopeless.
I've got no chance of beating him. I mean it's bizarre. So that was Tim Hemman from our most recent edition of Tennis Relived exclusively for Friends of the Tennis Podcast. If you're already a friend, thank you very much. You're the reason we're here in Paris staying in the world weirdest Airbnb loving life. And if you're not a friend and you'd like to become one, then the link to do that is in our show notes.
Now the women's draw, Eagishriantec, the top seed, of course, at the very top of the draw. And a potential second round meeting for her with Naomi Osaka, if Osaka beats Lucia Bronzetti in round number one. Now sorry to Lucia Bronzetti and her fans out there, but I just want to see that match. I know Shion take a win at, but I just want to see it. I want the occasion of Osaka playing Shion take at Islam. Yeah, I feel the same. And there's just, there's a curiosity as well to see.
I think Osaka's been putting the work in on Clay and really been trying to get used to it. She's had some wins of late. I mean, look, the problem is she'd be playing against the ultimate test in the sport at the moment in Eagishriantec on Clay at Roman Garros three time champion. So chances are she wouldn't get very far, but when you talk about players who've got a high ceiling, just generally speaking, Osaka's as high as anybody else in the sport.
So we're just sort of waiting for that to come back, not on Clay admittedly. I mean, she still is really unconvincing on the surface, but yeah, I do hope she beats Bronzetti who is actually not a bad player to try to get used to playing on Clay against because she's a very, very good. Say it, David. Say it. David's trying so hard not to say not to call another Italian woman a good draw.
That's what he's trying to avoid it. She's having a good run this week. I don't know whether she actually won her match today, but you know, she's, she's, she's had some, some decent results on on this surface. So she's a proper Clay court player, but she's also limited and Naomi Osaka, if she would have win that match, would get some confidence from it. And then frankly, she could just go and have a swing against against Shiontech. And I hope we get to see that.
Absolutely. Also in Shiontech's quarter or Shiontech's projected quarter final opponent is Danielle Collins. Now, while I was disappointed that Rebecca didn't come out in Shiontech's half, we'll talk about Rebecca is drawing a moment. I was thrilled that Collins came out in Shiontech's half because I feel, I feel more confident in Collins than I ever have that she will, she will reach this match.
And it's the match I want to see. I'm desperate to see this match just now. What are you laughing at, Matt? I just think Marquette of Androche, but says hi. She's done nothing. That's exactly when she's going to say hi. She has a win swimble. I can't, I can't, none of this can be worrying about when and where Marquette of Androche might do things because life's too short. Yeah, so that would be a Collins, Androche, as a potential fourth round. Winner to face most likely Shiontech.
Yes. I'm desperate to see Collins in this form play Shiontech. Oh, me too. Again, would back Shiontech to come through? I just want to see it. Yeah, you want all the potential matchups to happen before crowning a champion. That's what you're looking for. I actually think we, because of the way the draws hand out, one of them we're going to not get. Because you're not going to get Shiontech against either one of Rebecca or Samurai Gets.
You'll play one of them if they go, if they get to the final. But I personally would have liked to have seen Rebecca and her fall in Shiontech's half. Yeah, I think there are, I think the three most dangerous players for Shiontech would be, and you know, I may well be wrong about this, but in my head, they're Collins, Rebecca and her, Anastepenka. And she got two of them in her half, and that's Collins and Anastepenka. But I think she would take that over having one Rebecca and her.
I think Rebecca is the most dangerous opponent for Shiontech. I think I agree with that. But I do agree with you, Catherine, that you know, you just don't know whether Rebecca is going to make it that far in the draw. I feel a little bit more confident that Collins will. Obviously the Von Drosheva Astorist there. I think Anastepenka has got Christian in the first round, and Christian is very good on clay. So that's a tough start for Anastepenka.
Overall, I think this is a pretty good draw for Eekish Fountain Tech. Like, absolutely she would want Goff rather than Rebecca as the semi-finalist, and that's the one she got. Yeah, so Goffs come out in the second quarter, her projected quarter final opponent would be Anastepenka, according to seating.
Although, I mean, I realized when Anastepenka's name came out of that draw that I wasn't even thinking, ooh, where's Anastepenka gonna come out, who will be her projected quarter final because I'm just not thinking about her in those terms anymore or at the moment. I hope to again, but I'm pretty confident about it.
When you think of that compared to two years ago, when she came in here is one of the real favourites of the title, and she lost first round, and she, and there was that whole conversation then about, well, what does that end up meaning? And she went and put that all to bed by getting to the Wimman and Final and very nearly winning it.
But I find that very interesting that two years in a row, she's reached the Wimman and Final, and she's reached to US Open Final, and yet we were bigger on her two years ago, but for all that, then we are now. And there's no, as you said, there's no hyper-under-right now. It's very interesting. It's a very good point. So, Gough, Jabur technically may be a quarter final. Oster Penko is Matt Sed is in that quarter, and have to highlight Sofia Kennin against Laura Siegman's round one.
Hold onto your hat, folks. Big aggro, protect yourself. We need one of those sort of, we need to put up one of those boards in our weird apartments, with the matches we are going to find a way to save. I'm sure he's got one of those boards somewhere, just behind the enormous karaoke machine. That's good, Annari. Yeah, well, Carrie. Well, I'll carry her. I'll carry her. He needs our catered for tennis football, as Tyra's Paris. I think this is a good draw for Coco Gough to get to that semi-final.
I'm looking at this, and I think that Gough can have a substantial run here. She could also lose to anybody though. But I think her game looked good in Rome, apart from the double faults, which are worried. That is a bigger part, right? I realise. The thing is, her results stand up, even if her performance is not down. She's such a confusing player, fascinating. I think it... Mentally, I think she's one of the strongest players in the game in a world. Me too.
If she were to have a hot streak four-mys, watch out everybody. The only thing is, I still don't think that hot streak can necessarily just completely cover us two very obvious issues. I don't think you can get away with that against Eagish Ranto. The forehand hasn't looked so bad recently. It's definitely been the serve. There's been the issue. Okay, so that's the top half. I think I tend to agree. I think of the top of my head.
I will end up picking that shun-ket, shun-tek-goff semi-final to happen. Bottom half, we have Elena Rabakina in the top of the bottom half, and then of course, the second seed arena, Sabalenka at the bottom. So, Rabakina starts against Grip Minnan, and she's a possible round two against Angelique Kerber. Fun? Fun. Kerber looked really good in Rome. Really good. And Rabakina had to pull out of Rome.
It's very hard to say with Rabakina what to expect really, because if she plays and she's healthy, then her tennis all year on tour has been fantastic. But she actually hasn't really had a run at a slam for a while now. You have to go back to maybe quarters at Wimbledon last year, but before that, kind of Australian open when she reached the final in 2023. It was the last time I really thought about Rabakina as a serious contender at the end of a Grand Sam tournament.
And if she wants to be part of this conversation, that's the thing that she needs to do more on. It feels like an important summer for Rabakina. There's only three, four big events coming up. She could do with having big results that have fewer them. Yeah, because Goss has been doing better in the slams than she has. And Sabelankin, Shiontech as well. And Rabakina's got the game to do it. But yeah, just question marks over her health. I just really hope she's feeling better.
Also in this third quarter, Plichkevers starts against Svitterlina. That was a little Gossby moment in Le Mazzanina. She's in Le Mazzanina. She's your own jury. Throw back in there. That could be 10 years ago. We've got Bianca Randrescu scheduled to make her comeback against Sarasriba's Tormo. In theory. That feels painful. Yeah. Is she ready to go three and a half hours in her first match back? It's a big question, isn't it?
We've got Elise Kourne taking on projected quarter finalist for Elena Rabakina, a projected quarter final opponent for Elena Rabakina, Shiontech when this was the biggest ula-la if the women's draw, wasn't it? The Kourne is a big deal here, isn't she? Yeah. Yeah. She featured in all of the preamble from Jil Moraton, the president of the French tennis federation. And this is blasphemy for me that I can't remember his name. Mark Morroy. Mark Morroy.
Kourne was highlighted as a feature of the upcoming Royal Engaro, despite all of these people. And I was thinking, OK, calm down. He said, he's a Kourne. And she's played 50% of the women's night session matches. I think she's going to play. She's going to end up having played for a time, 66% of the women's night session matches here. Yeah, I don't think that France is like any of the other countries, Grand Slam nations in that way.
I don't think the UK is making the same deal about a similarly ranks player, or the US, or Australia. I mean, they have great interest and pride and passion for their own. And I had a chat with Julian Robbelea of Le Keep earlier today. He started loitering, folks. I have, yeah. And it was fascinating because I wanted to know, how do you think French tennis is doing right now? And he sort of said, OK, we're doing OK.
And if you look at the top 200, I mean, there's something like 25 of the men's top 200 of French. And decent number in the women's game as well. They don't have as many higher ranked players in the women's game. They've got Deamn Parier, they've got Clara Barrel. But he sort of said, you know, in Barrel's case, she's probably pretty happy being where she is. There's not this absolute desperation to be a star. And I think that the sense is that that is part of the problem here is...
Like a fang? Yeah, and lack of desperation. It's not just sort of in the moment fangs. It's that will it change your life one way or the other? If you are the best player in the world or the top five player in the world, all being top 30. But then too many of them, I think, from what I gather, are more or less happy enough to be having a good career in playing tennis. They love tennis.
Wouldn't you expect that to be a trait of players from all grand slam nations that do have a relatively very cushy ride with guaranteed wild cards and federation supports and, you know, not coming from war torn countries like Novak Djokovic did. I know that not every world and the one in history has come from hardship and trauma, but I think a disproportionate number have, because that sort of thing can often lie on your belly. I think the outline... Particularly French.
I mean, we'd look to Tim Hemman, Roger Federer. These players didn't come from hardship, but they're outliers. They're the ones that, for whatever reason, have just got it burning within them. He said, you know, he doesn't feel you can create stars if you're a federation. You're trying to get numbers. And he says, they are trying different things. You know, they've got even Lubichits working with the French tennis federation these days. They are trying to get outside help.
Artifice has hired a search of a bigger error. And people like that, which, by the way, he wondered whether maybe that might be a year too early to be doing that. Such a big change. But generally speaking, the culture is just an absolute love affair with the sport here. Which is wonderful. Everywhere you go, there are tournaments that don't seem that big on paper. And yet they're wonderfully attended. Look at the Bordeaux Challenger last week. And look at qualifying here.
I mean, this is a long-ling court for Jean-Jean today. It was absolutely packed, Catherine and I ducked in there at 4-0 and the final set. It was like one of the great first-week matches. And here we are. We haven't even started the tournament yet. But I think that from what he's saying, they're happy to be tennis players. They're happy to be playing the sport they love. And in a good living, pretty pressure-free. And I'm not sure you give yourself the best chance of champions in that way.
Isn't that what Janik Noah kind of said to you, David, in that big interview that you did with him three or four years ago now, where he spoke about the culture de la Luse in France. And he said that he felt like he sort of single-handedly tried to change that. And he was a winner. He wanted to win rather than necessarily just be there. And I think you can measure success, can't you, in so many different ways.
Like, as you said, thriving club culture, loads of great tournaments that are well attended, loads of players ranked in the top 200. These are all signs that French tennis is thriving in that capacity. But it is remarkable to me that there's been no French Grand Sermail Champions since Janik Noah. And I think... 41 years. Yeah, here in 1983. And they did have that group of Monfice and Songo and Gascay and Seymour. But I'm not sure that he had that champion's mentality. They were in a tough year.
They were in a very tough year. They were in his life. He's a tennis player. He didn't want to stop. But he's never had that desperation. And another way you might measure success as well is Billie Jean-Kinkar and Davis Cup. And they have not featured recently in the new format. They're so against it and it feels like they should be doing better in those competitions as well. And it's a huge success for nations and federations. Very interesting aren't they? Particularly for Grand Sermon Nations.
Because we've seen this with the LTA, which obviously we have the clearest window on being in the UK. And how a new Chief Executive will come in and the Gold Post will move for entirely legitimate reasons, as you've just been saying. There isn't. It's not an exact science what constitutes success. But for five years it will be depth of the pool and the grassroots. And then someone will come in and it will be all about elite performance.
And that's not achievable over five years to have elite performance down the line. You obviously have to cultivate 15 years before that. You have to be cultivating the depth of the pool. Surely it feels I know Chief Executive's everywhere listening to this going, oh my god you're so naive. But surely it's that like those two things aren't in direct opposition, right? It should be possible to aim to achieve success in both depth of talent, participation numbers and elite level success.
Put me in charge guys. I'll do it overnight. Sounds easy, doesn't it? Just one last section of the draw to cover off and that is the bottom quarter where we find a rena sabilekra, of course, rejected to meet Elena Rebecca in the semi-finals, her projected quarter. Final opponent is Maria Sackery. How many people do you think we'd have to poll before you found some of the things Maria Sackery's getting there?
Oh yeah and looking at her draw she's got Linda Noscover, maybe lurking Victoria Azarenca, Daria Kassakina. I actually think Sackery will get there. Wow, it turns out. Yeah, I'm going to go with that I think. Took my shitting on my question David. Sorry. Listen, I haven't fully cultivated my thoughts on that yet, but it's taking my brain back to when she started working with David Witt. And I was saying I think that things are going to change from Maria Sackery as a result of that.
So I don't feel like I can completely, I can completely, deserve that take. It was just a long range tape. The medium to long range tape. My favourite match, first round match from this section, is Putin's Saver versus Stevens. Because that in the past has given us one of the great tennis quotes, which was saying Steven saying about Putin's Saver. It's not one scam, it's another. So I'm here for that one. Winner of that to play the winner of Bidossa, Bolta. That's pretty cool.
And while we're talking about... And Bolta was, you know, I think she, in fact, I saw her walking past just now. She's here, but on her Instagram the other day, she was sort of, Wimbledon hitting with Slasinger, Wimbledon tennis balls. Like it was a kind of like... It wasn't giving, Ron Garland. It wasn't giving, Ron Garland. Just while we're touching on Agro, all sort of sassiness, Daniel Collins' encore interview after her victory in Strasbourg last night. Has everyone seen that?
No, I still miss her, see that. She's very innocently, but slightly inappropriately, I think, put on the spot by the interviewer there about speaking some French. And he said, you really try some French? You try some French? And she goes, well, you've put me on the spot there, but I guess, okay. And does the most epic eye roll ever. It's so brilliant. Okay. Who's winning these things? Ega Schildtek. I haven't been persuaded otherwise.
Do you know, it's one of those things where like, I've been talking all year and really believing it about how much Novak Djokovic has been struggling. And suddenly we get on sight at a Graham slam and it's like, I think Novak Djokovic comes out of this pretty well. Right now, I would probably lean towards him. But I truly think this is a case where we need to see what form Alcharez and Sinner are in. I just don't think you can make an informed take until you actually see these people hit.
I really like that. And I will give everybody the right to change the takes that they make here and now for that reason, but I do want takes here and now. Okay, well, I'll give you Ega Schildtek as well. I don't think anything is going to change to that view between now and the draw starting. On the men's side, I am going to wait and see what I feel like tomorrow after going to the press conferences and we'll do our podcast after that. And then we've got our live show on Saturday.
What about here and now, David, did you not understand? You see, I am not going to just do what you say. I'm going to, I've got the newsletter as well and I've got the predictions and I can use all of this time to really ponder that men's draw and work out. But I want to hot take. You can have a pondered considered take tomorrow and a different one the next day if you like. I want a hot take right now. I knew he was going to get out of the press. And the next 11 after that.
I've got your hot take. I've got to say, I'll press on that. I think my hot take would probably be out for us as well just because I do think a demon is a, I need to do some more googling about a demon which is what it's not just a hot take. Suffering from in the forearm, but I don't think that's serious. I do think in theory that's had time to clear up. Yeah, I mean, he's obviously, he's been practicing with the sleeve on. Yeah, it is still.
It worries me that I think Sinner's injury sounds worse. I know they've been promising sounds coming out from team Sinner over the last week. People that have seen him practicing in Monte Carlo saying he's looked really wearing to go and I'm thrilled to hear that. I hope he is, but I just think he's so pragmatic and so cautious and hip is bad. I don't think he will take any risk at all. Sinner worries me more than Alcoraz at the moment.
But everybody, I will not, I appreciate you giving me the hot takes and I won't weaponize them against you in future podcasts. I guess the thing with Sinner and Alcoraz is like even if they've been coming in here with really good form, we'd probably be saying, well, not done it at Roland Garros before. I feel like he's got something to prove here.
Okay, that performance against Verra a couple of years ago, he's matured a lot since then and he's won a couple of slams, but that was a bit of a shocker. And last year, he got cramped, didn't he, against Jocovic. He needed to prove it on that stage and he hasn't yet and Sinner has never had a huge run here and yet there were these question marks around them with their fitness. So I think, I don't know, it just felt like he both got a lot still to prove here.
And there's just something about arriving on site at a Grand Slam and it's just such a familiar feeling that you just look at the draw and it's like, Jocovic is kind of way wants to be. But as I said, I can't just abandon everything I've been saying all year and there are question marks over Jocovic as well. So right now I would go Jocovic, but as you said, we've got a lot to learn about all these guys. It's wild that none of us are saying any of the others.
Yeah. That just shows the grip that these guys have had on the biggest tournaments because we should absolutely be saying someone else, given the uncertainty around all of those and yet we're not. Would you take all of those someone else's against that's a good question. Sinner Alcrow's in Jocovic. Not against all three, he probably would you take all of the someone else's against Sinner Alcrow's probably yes.
Yeah, same. Okay. As David mentioned, we went out and watched a couple of games, a qualifying earlier, we watched Lio Lio Zhang Zhang and the French crowd just take the legs and soul of Paul Robin Montgomery. And the the chapo on Longland, she looks good, doesn't she? Oh yeah, yeah, absolutely. It's a wonderful roof and it's got a gap on each side so that you see daylight. Now, it does make me rather worry about what happens if you get diagonal rain coming in, because I don't think it's a glass.
I simply have to hope that engineers have thought of that. But having been a champion through event in Edinburgh, where there was a bespoke move made where that's categorically hadn't been thought of. I think it's legit to have concerns. How confident are you that they've thought of shadows? Oh, I don't know about that. Nobody gives us stuff about shadows in tennis. Well, get me a gun at 11 o'clock whenever I look at it then in the morning.
Okay, but but in terms of the experience of of Longland, which obviously has become very close to my heart the last two years, the experience feels undiminished. In fact, in some ways, it had a slightly more intimate feel to it because you got that enclosure of just a little bit of roof on each side before it comes over. Now, haven't watched matches in person with it on yet, but I've seen them on TV the last couple of days. And it sounded amazing coming through the TV. So I'm very encouraged.
It was the scene, of course, yesterday, Longland of the end of Dominic team's Roland Garros career out in round two of qualifying to Otto Vertonen, who went on to lose today quite handily. There was a pretty extravagant presentation for Dominic team. He received the really lovely memento that they give to retiring players, which is a segment across sections, segment of the court of the clay. Basically, it was what Joe Alford Songo received last year. Was it two years ago?
Sometime back in the ether. Two years ago, really? And it's lovely. It's a lovely thing that they do. It's a lovely memento. And they don't do it for everybody. They only do it for players that have achieved significant things at this tournament. You'd think that the Venn diagram of players worthy of a wild card and players worthy of receiving that kind of ceremony with Amity Merezmo standing alongside Beaming.
We'd have pretty much 100% overlap, but apparently not. I got pretty angry watching that ceremony, actually. I thought that was pretty gauley. You don't say. The audacity to give Dominic team a nice memento, layers of clay, and yet not give him a wild card. That was tough. You could make an argument that he probably got a better crowd than he would have got if he was in the main draw playing most likely on more than outside court.
There was a big crowd there, and he was clearly taking that in and was moved by it. It's about just the lack of recognition and respect. It's a matter of principle, I think. It's not about those details. I'm sure Amity would say, we're really trying to big up qualifying week. And they had done a stunning job of that. It's been awesome. But that's not why Dominic team didn't get a wild card. And if it is, it's not good enough.
From what I understood from Julian, from Leakeek, because I asked him about it, what did he and his colleagues think of that decision? He said, well, first of all, we weren't surprised, because they do always give the wild cards to French players. And secondly, he said, I do know that a long conversation was had about it. It wasn't just he's definitely not getting a wild card.
It was back and forth with Amity Maraismo, Gilmourathon, the people involved there. And he also said that she only has, say, over four of the wild cards. Yeah, they're like, some are one, aren't they? Yeah, I heard. And he said there were three that were very close together of the French players. They didn't know who to leave out if they were going to not. And so they ended up giving them to all of them.
Now, I'm not trying to make excuses, because I ultimately agree with you. I think you should have got a wild card. But it's interesting to at least understand how they go about it. And again, it got back into the, it comes back to the culture of French tennis. How much they love their own, and they want to support their own. And I'm just not convinced that that's the right thing to be doing, really. It almost makes it worse to me that there was a big discussion and conversation.
I thought there was a conversation because like, if you're having that discussion, it's for your obviously should get one. Right. Yeah. Like, I'd rather it was just a policy of, oh, we don't give them to non-French players. Unless they're Andy Murray. You've got one in 2020. You've got a doubles wild card with Dan and him. Do you think it's unrelated that Andy Murray as Maraismo used to coach Andy Murray? Yeah, that's a good question. I don't know. I don't think it's unrelated.
I mean, I know Wimbledon have guidelines for their wild cards. They have policies. You have to be in the top 200 as a British player to even be eligible. Now, they do make the odd exception, but I think it's really quite rare for them to make those exceptions. But obviously, as I was mentioning, 25 players in France are in the world's top 200 in the men's game. So there's a lot of players that, in other countries, would be shurines for doing well, getting wild cards.
But I just think that this was an exception that should have been made. Even if that is your general policy, this guy deserves a wild card. Okay. The threat of rain has been pretty significant for about the last 40 minutes. There was a period about 50 minutes ago. They started tying up all the umbrellas and moving chairs away. And we somehow managed to quite literally whether that. But I think I think Faters caught up with this folks.
We need to get this show off the road, but not folks before I introduce you to Bacchia, our French open mascot owned by Elise Matt, on route to Dublin on Saturday. It's very excitedly got out pictures of Bacchia to show me, because he is honestly a stunning cat. Like really, really beautiful. He's six years old.
He was born on the streets of Doha in Qatar and rescued as a kitten by a local vet, where Elise says we found him and adopted him from that local vet, shout out to the work that all the local vets are doing there. And the UAE is there are lots of street cats or cats abandon my families when they return to their home countries, unfortunately. Absolutely. Very good shout out.
Bacchia is the sweetest boy. He's an indoor cat now living in Abu Dhabi, a traveling cat, where he moved in 2020 from Doha with his two French humans. Sometimes I want to refuse an adog because he eats our socks, t-shirts and flip flops and plays fetch with small soft balls. He also likes to watch tennis with me, especially when it's Raffa. Tough scene for Bacchia coming up. We love him dearly and he's been our best companion for these past six years.
Bacchia wishes everybody from the TTP community a great French open and we brave a Raffa to have a good run Bacchia. With you behind him, maybe David's optimism will come to fruition. So thank you Bacchia. We will be proudly posting those beautiful pictures of you all over our social media and in our newsletter. And do subscribe to the newsletter because during ground slams you get daily maths stat.
And plenty else besides we have our mascots. I have the dearly departed Darwin and our prediction for the week lost before the newsletter went out. David has Frances, Matt has Heider and Soma and Billie Jean is in the Turing area somewhere being sponsored by Billie Jean King and Delana Class. We have top folks and executive producers Jamie Jeff, Greg and Chris and Rishi Sue next style. We have some rainy shout outs Matt. Gosh these poor people being introduced as Rishi Sue next style.
We start with Diane Martin. Hello Diane. Who is from Melbourne but currently living in Bangkok. Like Diane Perry. Yeah. And that was a big Oolala because Diane Parry drew Fiona Farrow. Oh yeah. That was so. That's one for the connoisseurs isn't it? Not sure I'm enough of a connoisseur but we'll see. Thank you Diane. We've also got Megan Stock who is from Cambridge Ontario Canada. Oh Megan. Megan says while you try and think of the tennis Megan I will say that Megan says the first thing.
I was just going to say Sean C. And the most thinking was that a person? It was a person. Yeah I like to play it. I look quite good one. Megan says the first episode of the podcast I heard was the one where Catherine came late to the Australian open because of her eye procedure. I was laughing so hard I couldn't see and had to pull the car over. I've been hooked ever since. What was that funny? I got rid of what we were talking about. Thanks Megan.
My misery is your charden for you to apparently. That was right before the pandemic as well. Good times. Thank you Megan. And finally we have Tomah Rundu who is from Belgium but living in New York like Thomas Mahatch. Who's into the semi-finals? He's in. Who won today? Geneva. Yeah and I've got massive points riding on him if he were to win. Which could get me back in the game which I was all he needed in the newsletter.
And I'm pretty sure I met Tomah at the US Open in a queue and he says that he's currently trying to convince his girlfriend that they should go to the Australian Open. Good idea. Tomah's girlfriend you should go to the Australian Open. I mean you can't lose. That's that settle. Tomah all of us outs outs all of our friends. Thank you very much if you'd like to become a friend. The link to do so is in our show notes.
Join us tomorrow for our media day show and a reminder that we have a live show on YouTube from our weird apartment 6pm. European time, central European time on Saturday. Unfortunately we need to head back to that weird apartment now because it is pouring. We'll speak to you tomorrow. Quality sleep is essential. That's why the sleep number smart bed is designed for your ever evolving sleep needs. Need a bed that's firmer or softer on either side helps you sleep at a comfortable temperature.
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