Roland Garros Preview - 100 titles for Djokovic, can he still win a Slam?

Hi, this is Billie Jean King. This is Marion Bartotti. This is Bianca Andreescu. I'm Mats Villander. This is Mary Carrillo. This is Pam Shriver. This is Yannick Noah, and you're listening to the Tennis Podcast.

well hello and welcome to the tennis podcast our third daily tennis podcast from Roland Garros 2025 the last of our preview shows the final time we get to ponder what might happen and what it might mean before all the things start to actually happen and speaking of things that might actually happen

Matt Roberts, the people are waiting with bated breath for an update on your Amanda Anisimova saga. Saga is the right word. It is now officially a saga because I'm here to tell the people for the second time in 24 hours. I got stood up by my favorite player. I made it to the area this time. But I did not go away with an interview. Unfortunately, Amanda Nassimova was not feeling well and has requested that we speak tomorrow if she wins.

So Matt's got another anxious day in store. Fingers crossed for Matt. And Friends of the Tennis Podcast for tomorrow and for Amanda Anisimova, of course. There will still be an episode of Loitering with Law for Friends today. Because David delivers on his promises. Correct. I wasn't stood up by Jensen Brooksby or Peyton Stearns, I'm telling you. I'm now anxious about Amanda's results tomorrow. More than usual. I often want her to win. Now she has to win. It's vital.

Just an extra bit of jeopardy on day one of us now. She's playing Nina Stojanovic. She's played nine sets in qualifying. So I'm not sure who's feeling worse out of the two. okay a lot of people listening to this will already know the fate of amanda anisimova and matt's interview we of course will bring you the latest

update in the saga on tomorrow's show. It's totally going to clash with Fulham. I just know it. Watch this space, folks. I am delighted to welcome to the show today. For the first time, I think... in real time. The Athletic's Matt Futterman. Well, in real life. Oh, you mean live. I mean live for us, obviously not live for the listener. But for us, you are live and in front of us. Live and in front of you, we've done it.

Zoom-like from I was in a car in LA parked and I think that was I've lost track of the years, but it was I think it was last year with the whole super tour story discussion So But yeah, I think this is the first time... like sitting around a table. holding a microphone that says the tennis podcast on it. Matt was a bit disappointed that we didn't bring beers. Next time they seem the way we record sometimes. I think you have to be it's possible that you have to be Grand Slam doubles champion

and US Open finalist in order to have beers provided for you. But you know, it's okay. Pan was the one that was there for Matt in his lowest moment. earlier though to pick him up off the floor when he was feeling jilted. And in fairness, sometimes Pam brings her own alcohol. Contraver. Matt, it's great to have you with us. It's great to be here. Here on Roland Garros. Kids Day but they call it Yannick Noah Day here.

but the sound of joyous slightly hyped up children is uh is what you're hearing is as ambience in the background and today has been sort of media day times two the stragglers the stragglers have been through the uh the press conference room today we've had naomi osaka kasper rude matt i think

i think you probably speak to even more players than than we do on media day i i saw i bumped into matt yesterday seeking directions to the susan longland mixed zone which is a level of commitment to media day that that not even David Law has shown up until this week. I don't even know where that is. Well, neither did Matt. It's honestly a level of commitment to Victoria M. Boca, who made it through qualifying.

really impressive I mean this was like a player who was playing 15,000 a few months ago and Just look at her record last year. I mean, I don't want to say this is like out of nowhere. But she's gotten, she like, something clicked in the last few months. And, you know, I think she won something like 25 matches in a row, which I think most professional tennis players will tell you. You win 25 matches in a row.

at any level, you're playing really well. It doesn't matter if they're ATP matches or if they're It's hard to win tennis matches. It sort of reminds me of... I'll make the baseball reference for people who understand those things. But when people... you know, bat 300, which is quite good. If you do it in the minor leagues, it's like, okay, you're playing well. It doesn't matter if you do it, you know, in the minor leagues or in the major leagues. You're swinging the bat well.

And so that's what I sort of thought of when I saw how Victorian vocals won that many matches in a row. And she... you know qualified at the Italian Open and she now qualified here and she's 18 years old and you know she's sort of Canadian Congolese as well. And so I think she's a pretty exciting character to potentially have. And that's what was taking me to the Suzanne Long one. Is she one of those precociously talented 18 year olds that...

seems well beyond her years when you speak to her? Or is she one of those precociously talented teenagers that seems her age, like Amir Andreeva, who seems reassuringly teenage when you speak to her, even though she's way beyond her years tennis-wise. She kind of goes back and forth because, I mean... She's like very cool about it all. I was like, did you sleep last night?

I mean, this is her first Grand Slam main draw that she was trying to qualify for. And she was like, yeah, I slept great. Why wouldn't I? Why wouldn't I? I was like, I don't know. That is kind of what I want to say when people ask me if I slept well. Right. And she was like, yeah, I'm me. That's what I do best. Yeah, it's been pretty cool, fun, you know, like just like sort of in one sense like a very cool cat.

And then when we were talking in Rome, and I asked her, I was like, what are your parents' tennis heads? What do they do for a living? And she was like... I'm not exactly sure. And I was like, okay, that's an answer. so maybe they're spies and like that's what she has to say but if we're assuming that they're not spies she's like you know a teenager who's just sort of in her own world and doing her thing and so and I kind

And I kind of, like, I love the ambivalence of that. I think it's very entertaining. You need the breath of fresh air, don't you, on media day. When you're getting all of... tennises faces and voices crammed into a short period there's a lot of hamster wheel energy.

Isn't there? There's a lot of jadedness out there. There's a lot of people just trotting out the lines, so you need that reinvigoration of somebody that it's all new to and that is experiencing it for the first time and That can rub off on you a little bit. Yeah, because they've all done it so many times before. We've all done it so many times before. You have a sort of three-day lead in. I mean, I'm personally just want the thing to...

start now just get the matches going but at the same time you know when you do meet a new character like that who who is new to it and who might just breathe some fresh air into the whole sport You know, you could be there right at the start like Matt over on Courts of San Longlin in there.

in the mixed zone there. We could be talking about that in 10 years time and you remember in that conversation. There was a big crowd for Alexandra Ayala in Press Conference 3. It's called Press Conference Room 3. I'd like to take issue with that. I think it's false advertising. That is not a room. That is an extension of the area. How hard was it to hear what Taylor Fritz was saying in that room? There was something going on behind us in interview area.

So, yeah, it was a little hard. Why was Taylor Fritz the fourth seed? in interview room 3 in press conference room 3 which is just the area you know that's where That's where people like... I'm looking forward to this. Here's the example. Help me out here. That's where Sonic our towel was yesterday. That's where Dennis Shephavala was yesterday. Right. No offense. I swear Sonic Hotel had a transcript. I think she might have been in a bigger room.

I think you might be right, actually. So why was Taylor Fritz in the ring? I don't know, because he was... one of the best interviews we've had. I often think that. He's somebody who analyzes the sport. He doesn't duck questions. He really thinks about his answers. He seems quite interested in the conversation a lot of the time. There are about five or six of us there.

Yeah, I mean, I came out of that. I think it was the first press conference I attended of the day. I came out of that with about five talking points because he's just the questions. I think I suppose. We as the media know the players that you can put a question to where you might actually get some insights. And he's one of those. Yeah, absolutely. And you sort of know the topics also that he's good to talk about. I asked him about the

the balls, which I have here, which is here specifically, which I've talked to him about before. People are upset with them being very flat. Yeah, he's like they're super dad fun to hit with because you can, you know, hit the crap out of it and it lands in. It's like, but then you're in a match and you have to hit the crap out of it and hope it goes through the court and it doesn't go through, it doesn't go through the court and it goes in, so...

You know, interestingly, interesting to me at least, I think it was last year when he went to, he was playing really well in Madrid, which I know is different from here. And I was asking him about clay, and he was like, look, I was absurd. When I first tried clay, I really could barely stand up. He's like, but now I don't really have a problem with clay. I'm sort of used to it. And I think I could do okay at the French Open.

They were different balls. He's like, but I've never been able to hit those balls there. I just find them super dead. I wonder who it does favor. Is there a certain type of player who these balls are going to favor?

I don't yeah I mean I could we could like speculate make make something up but it definitely favors someone who had who is able, I mean, as Taylor said, it favors someone who's able to sort of you know we all know who he's talking about here can generate power out of nowhere and control it i guess so power with spin and and

there's two players who can generate power out of nowhere and they're probably going to play in the finals. And the other one is the winner of the tournament, Joel Fonseca. Absolutely, there you go, there's your final. David, one of the other topics I know you, not just you, but everybody in the huddle with Taylor Fritz huddle area.

Slightly larger area than the area. I feel like a huddle implies standing up and we were seated. Right. Okay. Everybody was seated. We were all seated. There is seating in an interview room 3. Intimate seating situation. Yeah.

One of the topics that I know came up there was one that ended up being a running theme throughout a lot of today's press conference and a couple yesterday, but I feel like... it really blossomed into a theme today and that was a a talking point that was actually started by by Caroline Garcia first back in September when she put a premature end to her season at the end of September following the US Open. She posted at the time every week of rest feels like taking a step back.

losing points in the rankings and missing out on opportunities. Physically, I feel I pushed my shoulder to the limit trying to recover while competing, but it hasn't worked. The truth is I need more rest time to recover properly. Lately, I've felt overwhelmed by the tour, the pressure to perform and the scrutinizing eyes on every move. On every move, I've been battling anxiety, shutting myself off, feeling trapped on the court. Winning no longer brings me satisfaction. It simply gives me relief.

that it's over now as we know she did return for the 2025 season but this week she announced that 2025 would be her last year on tour and that this is her last role on garros and that announcement a couple of days ago was preceded preceded by a post on her social media a couple of weeks ago calling out the culture of glorifying playing through pain in sport she said on the cover of this post is a...

quote in bold type if you really cared you could play with this pain and she said that was that was something she she was told by by someone close to her and this is This is really common, isn't it? It was, what, three days ago that we had Alexander Zverev after his defeat in Hamburg to Alexander Muller claiming...

We were bragging, really, that there were only two players in the world that would have taken to the court in the physical state that I was in today. We think he was implying the other one was Novak Djokovic, but that hasn't been confirmed. Caroline Garcia's post was put to Alexander Zverev in his press conference yesterday and He didn't seem to understand the point that was being put to him at all, actually.

It was put to a number of other players today and there were some fascinating exchanges. I was in Amir Adekarnu's press conference and Pierre. That was the best Amaradikani press conference I've ever been in. I felt like that was the first time I sat in a room with the real Amaradikani. I thought it was a massive shift. in her today. No defensiveness, real openness, genuine relaxation in her face and in her demeanor.

there wasn't a suspicion or an anxiousness or a wariness on on either side of the if the you know media player divide i think it was helped by it being in room two which is a proper press conference room but it is quite small and intimate you can have some you can generally have some quite good exchanges in there but look i'm not suggesting that

means anything in terms of her form or what she's going to do here. I don't think it's about that, but I was so pleasantly surprised by how I found Emma Adekarnu today and I asked her about playing through injury because obviously she she suffered this back injury in in strasburg last week and has had a rough old time of it with

injuries and she said look I think as players we always push on through because there's no real breaks in the season so if you kind of miss some weeks you're just taking that time out from yourself. because there's not really enough time in the calendar to rest. So it does kind of hurt us, she said, because we'll push through and then probably do some more damage. She said, I know from my personal experience with my wrists, remember she had that.

double surgery a couple of years ago 18 months ago She said I was struggling for seven months with them before I ended up having surgery I just kept pushing through because people were telling me I wasn't tough enough and that I needed to work through it like it's normal I'm feeling fatigued because I'm training so much when in reality I knew there was pain and I knew it felt more than just soreness and she said I wish I would have listened to myself sooner and I would have saved myself eight

12 months of struggling but she said I've I've learned from that and she said I'm I'm more astute now when it comes to pain and what's manageable and what should be taken more seriously and I just saw clarification on that when she said People were telling me that I wasn't tough enough, whether she meant, you know, people on the internet that she doesn't know. There's a lot of people on the internet that she doesn't know telling her.

lots of great things about herself um but no she she meant people around her she said um she didn't specify who but she said yep people around me She said, look, I was only 19 at the time, so she was... vulnerable and very susceptible to what what people around her were saying and Naomi Osaka had had a similar take on the situation she says she doesn't feel that pressure to play through injuries now but when she was younger before she

developed a sense of self and confidence in her instincts she she did feel it a lot and taylor fritz talked about it today Yeah, and I think with him, we were trying to get to the bottom of why. He said this has been his most unhealthy year as a tennis player, and it dates back to the tournaments in February and Dallas and Delray.

He said, I shouldn't have been playing these tournaments. I wasn't fit enough to give a proper account to myself. And it seems as though that has persisted. He's had an abdominal problem, I think. It's a horrible part of the body, isn't it? Yeah, it's not a great thing when that's the power source for your biggest weapon.

Is it about your sponsors? Is it about a commitment you made to a tournament, you know, you're getting paid and all the rest of it? He said, no, it's just, it's my competitiveness. I convince myself that I'm okay, that I can play through this, that I can still do well even though I've got... what I've got. And I don't doubt

I don't doubt him for a second. I think the adrenaline is like, yeah, adrenaline is incredible. I mean, like, you know, I'm the furthest thing from... Taylor Fritz and like I ran the Boston Boston Marathon with a broken foot once because and I was only gonna run like It's a Boston Marathon. I qualified. And then I had tripped like three weeks before my last long run. And I cracked my fifth metatarsal. but you know it started to heal and I was gonna write something about it and

And I was like, yeah, I'll go to the starting line. I'm just going to run the first 5K. And, you know, it's the Boston Marathon. And, like, you know, it's the highlight of distance running. And you just get there and, like, just 5K into it. And I was like, oh, this is pretty fun. And I ran another few miles and I was like, this is great. And

And I was like, well, my friend lives in Wellesley, which is right around the halfway mark. And she said I could stop there and she'd give me a ride back into Boston where I was staying. I was like, so I'll go to the halfway mark. But then you go through the Scream Tunnel. which is around Wellesley College where you have like thousands of people yelling for you. and like I didn't have any foot pain and you know like I was

running into the hills in Newton and I called out my phone and I called my friend and I was like, I'm doing this. I feel great. And I couldn't, and I kind of tell you the pain I was in the next day and what a stupid thing it was to do. But in the moment, I felt great. And I'm sure if you're Taylor Fritz, I got a tournament. This is what I do.

you know I want to beat this guy I want to do it and all of a sudden like he feels great and yeah like that I'm sure that happens to all of them and if that in your case and in Taylor Fritz's case like if that is internally generated then like okay fair enough like that decisions on you but I guess that's a that's a kind of separate separate thing I suppose to the culture of how we talk about players playing through injury how how we glorify it I think that is

what Carolyn Garcia is calling out, right? Okay, if you want to do that, that's on you, that's your call, but we shouldn't hold people up as heroes necessarily for... for doing that because that comes from a slightly archaic place of sort of macho-ness i think and you know not respecting or not having boundaries for yourself or i don't know if it was a contact sport What you have is the other thing which is you have people playing with concussions like that I used to have is

People used to bang their heads and wake up dizzy and they were having concussion syndromes. glorified because like you know yeah you just play through this you get your teeth it's an important match or a game or you know whatever and you know what you end up with is a lot of ex-athletes with brain damage for having done that so like that tennis is not a contact sport but I'm sure there are many tennis players whose careers were cut short because they played through what worked.

hardcore injuries that they shouldn't have. Or whose later years are marred by intense chronic pain. Sure. Yeah, I mean, Del Pocho, we know, obviously. There's probably also some not great doctors. There's some doctors who have dual incentives. There's all these trainers that come out and they're with the tours and with the tournaments. They know the players want to... I guess I am questioning, like, Are they always? telling the players exactly what they need to hear.

or are they in the middle of a stadium with 15,000 people and don't want to be the one to say, yeah, it's a terrible idea for you to keep playing. Is this Roger Federer's fault? Because everybody celebrated and celebrates his record of never having retired from a match. Yeah, it feels harsh to say it's his fault. Maybe it's, you know, those people who put such an emphasis on that record. As you're saying, the way we talk about it, I think probably needs to...

Evolve doesn't it, but it does strike me that it's it's interesting it's It's obviously been a talking point today, and I think it is one of those talking point that does I remember Rafael Nadal probably 15 years ago talking about how the ranking system needs to be based on a two-year system rather than a one-year so that you can protect players

when they're injured more you know that would be terrible for players trying to break through there would be obvious drawbacks to that but in terms of trying to Protect players a little bit when they're injured and take the pressure off them feeling like they have to play because of

They've got to protect ranking points and all that kind of thing. But the way it works now on the one-year cycle, like a two-year ranking system would help that. And maybe there are some other ways that we can alleviate those pressures. I mean, I think it's... I actually think there's a really simple solution, which is to lower the number of tournaments that count towards your ranking. You know, if you want to be Taylor Fritz and you're addicted to competing, like, great. Have at it.

but you're not going to improve your... That's one way to do it, or lower the number of mandatory tournaments. But don't you think the market would recalibrate to that adjustment if players were required? to play fewer tournaments. than the guarantee market for lower tournaments. lower status, lower ranking point tournaments to try and persuade players to come and play there, that market would adjust, they'd offer high guarantees to players and then the incentive...

the financial incentive would elevate to kind of compensate for the lost ranking incentive. And look, different things matter more to different... People, not everybody would consider the financial incentive equivalent to the ranking, but I don't know. I certainly think it wouldn't hurt. But there's so much at play here and there does seem to be just a very broad cultural issue. And there's also...

Carlos Alcaraz commercial on Netflix. That whole weird scene of the doctors in training saying, don't worry about the pain. It's not going to do any long-term damage. And I don't know he had to do I remember we were here talking about it with him last year and He was and he was explaining how the doctor told me like What is it? Is it like phantom pain? Isn't pain an indication of something? And I just, I don't know.

I've never heard a doctor tell me not to pay attention to the pain that... It sounded like he was being gaslit about his pain and maybe that's a... an impression we have now after that documentary but there was that i found it a really chilling moment when they showed Alcaraz playing in the early rounds of Madrid with the sleeve on his arm when he was first coming back from the injury and he's holding back on the forehand as we know he was all the way through Madrid he explained that to us.

here didn't didn't he um last year and Juan Carlos Rivera turns to um turns to um Albert Molina at the agent and says soft he's being soft I found that really great. I know it's just a snapshot, but that's problematic. Yeah. But it is also part of sport, isn't it? to be tough as well sometimes you know we've just We've just been watching Novak Djokovic, who will talk about playing through injuries. We talk about Thomas Mahatchy, who's had a lot of retirements, and we judge that sometimes, right?

I don't judge the fact of him retiring. I'm making a judgment on the fact he's getting injured so much, not the fact that he's retiring because of those injuries. But I mean, I suppose... I don't wish you were playing through the injuries and not retiring. But there are different levels of injury, aren't there? And some players will... will find a reason not to play with an injury that might not be that serious.

you know they're not all gonna be the same yeah like injury and pain is an unfortunate fact of sport right like the human body is maybe not supposed to do what these people put themselves through like how often do you hear players say I think Rude said it today didn't he like he's barely played a match in his life without

some level of pain in his body. He said it's probably a good job I didn't know that when I was starting out that I'd be in this much pain this often. But I suppose... I suppose what we're talking about is that Mr. Taking that an extreme and there's a problematic element there. Ideally these people would have absolutely no pain at all, but then the sport might not exist.

Matt, you had a one-on-one chat with Naomi Osaka after a press conference. How was that? It was great. She's engaging and what I always like about Naomi is that I think what we could all agree is, you know, a gas bag culture that we live in, like, she doesn't really waste a word. You know, she's sort of... revealing and careful at the same time and

you know, doesn't go on and on. And, you know, I've talked to her a number of times, you know, just one-on-one. And, you know, I always find it pretty rewarding and um You know we were talking about her sort of climbing the ladder. now, or attempting to, compared with trying to climb the ladder as a teenager and going through it differently.

It's a topic I'm pretty interested in because I think there's a number of players who are trying to claw their way back to a spot and some of them broke through sooner than others did.

having them compare that experience and you know what they've learned what they know now things like that and so we were talking some about that and yeah I mean I think it's I'm endlessly fascinated by this Naomi 2.0 or 3.0 journey that she's on she was she was Really interesting in her press conference about the decision to go and play that 125 in San Malo wasn't she that she ended up

winning like she was like yes that was very humbling for me to do that and I did take some persuading yeah she said she had she had quite a lot of pride yeah I was in Rome and we talked about that quite a bit with a few of us who were there. I had the same experience as you did in Rome where it was the first time I think since the us open in 2021 where i felt like i was like standing with like

a quasi-regular person. There weren't that many of us there, and the availabilities in Rome are much more, and a lot of tour events are much more informal. I like it a lot. It's much better. They do this mix zone thing, which is just It can be a little bit shorter, but the players are so much more relaxed when they're not sitting at a table behind a microphone. Area energy. Yeah, and you're just sort of like...

You're just sort of shooting the breeze with them, and that was the sense I got from Raticano, and it was really... it's really like nice to see like oh i found it really uplifting yeah i was not expecting that but naomi had said yes this was all like patrick had said this and it was different and it was weird and and you know I really sort of like had to win every match and

You know, there was moments... I mean, she's so... I had written this in a story that I wrote about her at the time a couple weeks ago, how she... and I talk about being revealing how she said like in Madrid when she was losing that match and you know she was really disappointed and not having a good time she was

falling behind in his third set or something and she's standing there getting ready to serve and she's actually thinking about flight schedules and looking at the time and trying to figure out if she can catch a late flight.

and go see her daughter for a couple of days. And Tim Emin at the French Open. Yeah, in 2004. He's thinking about flight schedules as well. Yeah, so she's thinking about that. And then she... she was behind in one of the Sam Malone matches as well and she said she said it sort of drifted to that for a minute and she's like okay I gotta stop doing that I gotta stop doing that You know, it's just your basic sort of fight or flee battle.

everybody's brain has at some point and you know she got through it and she won and you know she sort of She's got it. It was just really good for her to just win a bunch of matches. And I had talked to Martogu about this as well. And he said he. She was great in practice. It was like going back to my academy or wherever they were going to go and training. She was going to get nothing out of that. She was going to hit the ball.

She was a great ball striker. She was going to hit the ball great on a practice court, like what she needed practice doing. was competing and like being in hard situations and fighting her way through them and you know when she did that and was doing that in the first few matches in Rome and then you know lost that you know, nail biter. against Peyton Stearns? Yeah, I think, right, right. I was about to say, wait a minute. Peyton Stearns beat...

Madison Keyes in a third set tiebreaker. And then I was like, am I confusing them? No, she actually didn't. She actually beat Naomi in a third set tiebreaker. Beat three puns. Right, exactly. Seven-six in the third set. So yeah, I think the idea was that she had moments in those matches when she... fell behind and wasn't competing but so yeah that was some of what we've been talking about

There was also an interesting comment from Masaka on the topic of going through injury, wasn't there, about how, kind of linked to what you've just said there, Matt, about maybe sometimes, you know, the mind can wander. She said...

she she feels like sometimes she plays better when she's injured because it kind of focuses the mind it's like you can only really maybe play in one way and we saw that member in Australia this year she's okay eventually reached the point where she couldn't play but like There were moments where she was clearly injured, but just hitting the ball like a dream. We saw it with Djokovic in Australia as well. Absolutely, yeah. So that kind of comes into the equation as well.

there's that dual thing like they put maybe know they're doing damage but they they can also win and they love that feeling too so it's it's it's a it's a fascinating subject anything else to report from from Media Day, for Media Days.

Inspiration. Yeah, I did enjoy Kasper's company. I know you do and Charlie does as well whenever we speak to you both. Because he's just so considered. He just comes in and he seems like a pretty open book. Norwegians are perfect, aren't they? They just are. We should just say it. They're just perfect. I've gotten to know them from covering the Winter Olympics. covering both alpine skiing and Nordic skiing and biathlon and it's like

one after another. The Vikings were great. Clabo is the best cross-country skier in the world. He can be a little bit of an iconoclast, but the rest of them, they're all... The Vikings? sketchy cv Yeah, I guess so, but like you know, maybe this modern version of the Vikings. They've evolved. It's all that oil money, I guess. He was asked about the Cinematch in Rome.

He said, yeah, I practiced with him the other day and I found myself four love down in about 12 minutes. I thought, I love this honesty, you know. He says, fortunately, after a while, I got myself together and I got a few games. But he was giving an idea of just how hard it is to play against Yannick Sinner right now. He's got his maybe two modes of playing against players and neither one of them was working against this guy if he played it. you know, big and hard trying to dominate.

Zeno could handle it and you can move out of the corners if you tried the loopy ball and just steps in and takes it on the rise it just sounds like a nightmare but are they in the same they're not in the same half of the draw are they Because I don't want to see that match again. No, Kasparud is a potential quarterfinal opponent for Alcaraz. So, you know, again, he's just a straightforward talker. And, yeah, I enjoyed speaking to him.

Okay, well, that's Media Day, done and dusted. And that's it for part one. We'll be back in part two to talk about the titles that have been won today and, of course, title number 100 for Novak Djokovic.

Welcome back to part two of the tennis podcast where we have to talk now we want to talk now about Novak Djokovic winning his 100th title in Geneva 7-6 in the third over poor old Hubert Hercatch thoughts and prayers with him at the moment 100th title something that The organisers of Geneva, Matt, seem rather more excited about the Novak Djokovic. Yeah, I was expecting there to be a hundred t-shirt that Noah Djokovic had in his bag. Yeah, exactly. When the sun had the hat. Right. Oh, did he? Out.

There's an L on... No, L is 50. L is 50? Oh, what am I thinking? I'm thinking... Oh, God. Right. So I thought, okay. That would have been incorrect. That would have been very sophisticated. Yeah. I thought that should be L. Well, then good for him for wearing an L hat. That's strong self-esteem. I mean, Djokovic won this. pretty epic match really it was about three hours long it took him two tie breaks from a set down a deciding set tie break He won it and he just sort of

consoled a pretty desolate Hubert Herc action, sat down with his kids. He looked like he was enjoying it, but I really thought that was going to be a huge celebration from him. Maybe it's because I was with him in Miami and like It was almost like he didn't even know it was a hundred like oh is it a hundred? Okay, I guess it is a hundred great like he knows but it's on but like

He's not bothered. He is bothered, though. Like, he would care if it was a hundred and three main career goals. Well, yeah, it'd be nice, but, like... Let's see him if he gets to 103. I think 103 and 104. Right. I agree that's a bigger deal, but you have to do 100 to get to 103. So how many is federal?

103 yeah like I think he's like it's a nice number but it means nothing you know it's like every number is arbitrary his body language would certainly suggest yeah not the numbers that are better than anybody else No, true. Yeah, I agree. 103 is a way bigger deal. But I was expecting something. I don't know whether it's because the second the match was over, his mind went to Roland Garros.

or whether it was the manner of the victory. I mean, yes, he was consoling a desolate Hubert Hercatch, but he also, in his post-match interview with the World Feed, moments after match point, absolutely savage. Quote of the week that was. Better than anything we've had at Media Day. He said...

Well, you know, I mean, he kind of broke himself, didn't he? And he's not wrong. There was just no way that Hubert Hurkacz was going to win this match against Novak Djokovic in those circumstances. Absolutely no way. We are talking about... two players at complete opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of that quality of and I will use the word since Matt is here and he is American I can use it that quality of being clutch Like now Adyakovich is as clutch as you get and Hubert Hurk actually

the opposite of that and we saw that in the final set tie break he made five four-hand errors per catch like that's a weak spot that breaks under pressure and Djokovic has now won six consecutive tie breaks against This always happens in their matches. It was just extraordinary to see it unfold over three hours, and yet you knew the ending. You knew it. And that's kind of what makes Novak Djokovic so great.

So you had a totally unmoved Novak Djokovic there in the trophy ceremony while the Geneva ball kids forming the shape of 100 on the clay. And then they brought out some balloons. They made up for it. Like when you throw a party for somebody that's not into parties. Or doesn't want to celebrate the fact that they've just turned 60. He's not like Djokovic. He can't go nuts for winning a 250. I agree. I think it was really cool of him. I thought he could have... You know, smile.

I did think it was cool that he was unbothered. We all know why I'm here, what I'm doing. I'm trying to get ready for the French Open. This is great. Thank you for giving me a nice week. So what does it mean for the French Open, for Novak Djokovic then?

You were quite convinced by his tennis David at the end. Yeah It was only once he would have got you broken himself after that happened Suddenly that thing happens that I see from, well, I was going to say from time to time, but let's be honest, a lot of Novak Djokovic's career, where he finds a gear, and I relate it to him relaxing in a manner.

suddenly it's like he finds a zen and he stops trying to muscle the ball and it just starts coming out of the center of the strings like a trampoline and that Began to happen at about five six in that third set and and I thought You've got no chance now. I mean not only have you got to deal with your own nerves here You're dealing with an opponent who suddenly is reminding you why he's won all these titles and

He's got one of the most powerful ball strikes in the world in those moments, even though you don't think of him as the big forehand guy or the big server. It's just elastic, liquid power. It only happens when he's totally confident, when he's totally zen-like, and I think he's basically unbeatable in that situation. I only saw it for about the last 10 minutes of the match, but I haven't seen that.

all year. Maybe, no I have, I saw it against Alcaraz. When he came back against Alcaraz, we saw it then. So if you can find that timing therefore is still there. It's the movement that is still surely a question mark. Yeah, it kind of looked like he wasn't fully...

fully committing to like some slides, to like some defensive plays. A bit like at Wimbledon last year when he was tentative on that knee just after surgery. Is that because of the knee? Is that because he doesn't want to get injured with Ronan Garros and Wimbledon like right here given he's not bothered about a hundred like the bigger things on the horizon like I don't know we'll find out but I definitely think he...

As David said, he found some form. That was my reading of the movement. They were both being really careful, and I think the court was shit. Yeah, there was a terrible bounce. There was a terrible bounce that got Herc after a key break in the third. There was several rounds in the match. Yeah, they had to call the guys out to like...

to fix the court in between sets. I'm like, no, no, no, come back. There was other moments where he lost his foot and he started laughing and he picked up his foot. I think they were not comfortable on that court with a grand slam. starting in today or the next day and they're not gonna play tomorrow but like I think that was they were I think they played those first.

two and a half sets at about 75%. This is supposed to be the most exciting day in the Geneva Open's history and the court's been called shit and Novak Djokovic is utterly unbothered exciting proud moment great crowd it was incredible it's beautiful setting isn't it the wide shot of that center court with the the mountains in the background is it's stunning Okay, does anyone think Novak Djokovic is making it past the quarterfinals here then? Semis. Thank you.

I think he's making it to the semis and he'll lose. to sinner would be my prediction at this stage yeah david that sounds about right i would think but i don't know i i'm still not that convinced right by sinners draw for instance i still think I think that top-off the draw could be fun. I think we could see stuff happen that isn't just run-of-the-mill. Other mat. Where's Djokovic getting to? Yeah, I think the big takeaway for me from Geneva was he was able to convince himself that he can be...

the sorts of players who are going to Geneva the week before the French Open, which is the players that he's going to face in the first few matches. And those are the players that have been beating him, frankly, the last couple of months. I think he had lost a lot of confidence and was feeling like, can I beat anyone anymore? And like, okay. I can beat those players. I know how to compete with them again. I think I know what I have to do.

And so I do have a lot of confidence in him getting through the first week. And yeah, sure, I guess that... to me puts him, if he can, look a lot of this is predicated on his body holding up and he's just played several matches this week and now he's got to play you know many three out of five is that one so like I think I think a lot of it is. I mean for much of the year it was like the body's not there and the tennis isn't there.

If both are there, then sure, he's going to play a semi-final against Yannick Center. I don't really like that matchup these days for him, but on clay, you know. certainly give him a decent chance.

It was a second title of the year and a first at 500 level for Flavio Caballi. He beat Andrei Rublev 6-2, 6-4 to win Hamburg. Incidentally, Caballi... plays round one here Roland Garros against lucky loser Marin Cilic he got in as a lucky loser yesterday and Rublev plays round one here against the guy that beat Cilic in the final round of qualifying Lloyd Harris

David, you're a big Caballi guy. Yes, I am a bit. Ever since that match we watched here against Holgaruna last year, which I think is probably my highlight of the tournament from last year, on one of the slightly smaller chords i mean not not small i think 14 14 is that about the fourth show court something like that or fifth something something like that and and it's just a sunken court where you sit on

steps and and it was rammed that day and it went to a fifth set 10 point tie break it was just brilliant and and his forehand really stands up under pressure and he's exciting I find I think he brings a crowd and he really gets people engaged but he's had such a terrible start to this year he lost the first eight matches he played in the whole year Then he wins a 250 about a month and a half ago.

This was big that, you know, to go and win a 500 and come through and kind of dominate Rublev. It was, I thought, really impressive. And I do think it's a tough turnaround to win a tournament like that. you know, take a flight, come here and then just be ready to go for best of five straight away. I'm never that sure if it's going to help them or not, really. I like him.

I certainly don't really want to see Marin Cilic lose matches very much because I like Marin Cilic, but I'd quite like to see a Flavia Caballi run. And the same goes, whether it's a good thing. For the Grand Slam to win the week before the Grand Slam applies to Elena Rabatkin as she beat Ludmilla Sampsonova 6-1, 6-7. 6-1 to win the Strasbourg 500 title. She plays lucky loser Yulia Riera in round one here and she, a reminder, is in the sort of Ostapenko-Swiątek section.

the draw and anyone see the trophy in Strasbourg. It's like kind of pottery vibes. Looks like a stack of moon cups to me. Weird trophy. Maya Joint, the 19-year-old Australian. defeated Jacqueline Christian to win Rabat without dropping a set all tournament. She's due to play Isla Tomljanovic in round one here on Monday. Although Tomljanovic was the player that retired against Maya Joint in the semifinals in Rabat. So it could be another lucky loser situation there.

My joint remains on the backhand watch list, I believe. For sure, for sure. And the world might get a sort of bigger look at my joint if she does come through the first round. because her second round likely opponent is Jasmine Paolini. So there'll be sort of eyes on that one, I would have thought. Yeah, very much on the watch.

watch this Anna Bogdan did lose in the first round of qualifying here and remains perennially in backhandless danger and peril. Okay, that's it for part two. We'll be back in part three to look ahead to tomorrow's order of play.

Welcome back to part three of the tennis podcast where we can look now at our first order of play. for Roland Garros 2025. This is the order of play for Sunday on Philippe Chatre. We start with Women in the vibeless death slot. Women in the vibeless death slot. It's the world number one. Irina Sabalenka against Kamila Rakimova. Then it's... Women! Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova, former finalist against Jung Chin Wen. You have to remember Catherine, they take a holistic approach.

My god. It's so holistic. Third up. It is Lorenzo Mazzetti against Yannick Hanfman and Matt in the night session on Philippe Chatrier tomorrow. Men! And therefore, I've decided to just rename it the Men's Session.

Ben Shelton against Lorenzo Sonego. Look, we're not going to harp on about it, you know, how we feel. It's ridiculous. But we did genuinely, well, I genuinely in my... deep naivety looked at because yesterday they released the list of matches that would be played on Sunday without releasing the actual schedule and the court assignments and I looked at the list of women's matches.

and the list of men's matches and i thought there isn't a men's match here that you can put on the night session there just isn't an you know the biggest name playing tomorrow on the men's side is Lorenzo Mazzetti. There were no obvious French players to put there. I think the sort of biggest French name is Impeci Pericard. He can't hold up a night session. I really thought, like,

You've got nowhere to go here but to put Irina Sabalenka on your night session. Like, here's an open goal. She'd love it. And yet, here we are. Susanne Longland tomorrow opens with Zeynep Sonmez against the Turkish player against Alina Svitolina. Then it is Giovanni and Pesci Pericard. against zizu bergs francis tiafoe third on longland against roman sefuelin and then jasmine paulini taking on yuan yui

On court Simone Mathieu, I feel like Matt might be making his way over there for this one. Tommy Paul against Elmer Moller. Who people are watching montages of fellow professionals, Caspar Rood. And Joao Fonseca, they're watching montages on YouTube of this guy's backup. Matt spotted it first. It's an incredibly extravagant backhand. He hits it like... No one I've ever seen hit a backhand before throws his whole body into it.

Yeah, it's a great shot. I'd be very surprised if he's able to beat Tommy Paul. But I think you might be right. That might be where I'm starting my day tomorrow. That's a bit of a fun one. Has he gotten help with the kit? The kit? Yeah. I think a couple weeks ago we was playing and... Naked? No, but it sort of looked like, I mean, I'm gonna, this is, you know, whatever designer makes his kid. It's not like Nike or Adidas or something like that.

It kind of looked like he had gone to Costco and grabbed something out of the bin. And it was kind of gray and it didn't really fit. I think I might have texted you and been like, what is this? Who is this guy? It's entirely plausible that that was just Nike's latest range. Oh, it wasn't. Have you seen their kit? recently some of them yeah it was this one was a specially bizarre you're right we discussed his kit and his

Well, both of his ground strokes stand out. The backhand because of how extraordinary it is, and the forehand. for other reasons it's this kit sponsor do you recognize that can you identify that label i think it i think it's some french No, no, no, it's not. I'm mixing it up. I don't know. Never said it before. Yeah. Well, there we go. This is what those are. Anyway, great back end kit in progress. Do you remember that Australian Opelman Dan Evans was getting his kit from Kmart? Yeah. Bye-bye.

Remember it fondly. You had a good run. Yeah, great run, yeah. What else have we got on the schedule tomorrow? I actually think Simon Mathieu is a really good place to be tomorrow. That's the most eye-catching schedule. Moller against Tommy Paul first up. Then Schneider against a qualifier, Ukrainian qualifier. Anastasia Sobolyeva. Then Donna Vekic against Anna Blinkova. And Thomas Mahatch against Frenchman Conta-Alice.

that could be a scene court 14 mariano navone against brandon nakashima alex mickelson against

Juan Manuel Surundolo, the lower ranked qualifier Surundolo. Then it's Amanda Anderson-Mofa against Nina Stojanovic. I've got notifications on for that result because it very much impacts my day. And Marta Kostiuk against the young Czech qualifier Sara Bejelic is last on court 14. Petrika Vitova is on.

I might take a little look at that. It's near the media centre court seven. Alexandra Ayala is second on court six after Peyton Stearns against Ava Lees. That could be worth catching a little bit of her live.

for the first time or certainly for me for the first time um luca nadia against fabian marajan is on court eight that uh that stands out to me a little bit hamad majedovic opens up on on court eight victoria mboko Matt opens court 9 tomorrow against Lulu Sun, which I'm declaring a very good draw. For who? For Victoria. Yeah, I mean, I think you could argue it probably both ways. I mean, Lulu's son's playing somebody who's never played a Grand Slam main draw match before.

Yeah. She's lost to worse this year, Matt, let me tell you. David Jensen-Brixby's on court nine tomorrow and he is one of the guys that you spoke to for loitering with law. Part one, because of course. loitering with Law and Robert.

still to come absolutely don't do it again and advertise an interview that isn't in the bag but matt's looking on his website yeah that's just standard you don't you don't brag before you've got it um it's not a brag it's a bit but yeah i will be looking out for jensen brooksbury it was it was good to talk to him and uh yes i hope you all enjoy uh the uh the results of the loitering alongside my my good friend Matt Futterman here who is sat with me asking some frankly better questions than me.

It's a great show and it's up now. for friends of the tennis podcast or very shortly, depending on when you're listening to this. It's going up today and there are really only a few hours left of today.

just something else to flag for tomorrow there will be this ceremony to honor and celebrate 14 time champion rafael nadal he'll be there for that ceremony and we thought we were going to have a big exclusive bit of information because David overheard something fortuitously. shortly after recording last night but unfortunately that tidbit of information is now being widely reported in global media and that is that Roger Federer will be attending we think

this ceremony? Well, I overheard the rehearsal on Court Philippe Chatrier yesterday, where the master of ceremonies... said Roger Federer and I thought okay unless that's just sort of a placeholder for you know imagine if we had somebody to announce I think that that is Yeah, that was nailed on. And he should be here. Absolutely. It's going to be my fifth Raphael and the Doll send-off, I just want to say. They're all worth it, though.

Are they? Yeah. I've sat through, I've sat through, you know, I just wish there could have been just like one grand one, but every tournament's got to have, I mean, it's just, I mean, and there would have been like seven or eight had he not stalked off, you know, in Barcelona and Rome after doing disasters. He's on the same page as you. He would have quite happily just had one, I think. Well, I'm like, you know, he had the power to do that, and he didn't, so...

Let's all remember there is like a Rafael Nadal museum at the Rafael Nadal Academy I mean like I think he talks a good game of like you know I don't need anything very humble, but then all of a sudden there's all these celebrations of him. Chris Clary wrote in his book, he is not averse to the cult of Nadal. Yeah, I've read the book as well and I 100% agree with Chris and have discussed this with him.

So, yeah, I'm on the same page as him. I mean, there was quite a lot of... dissatisfaction in Spain with the send-off that he got at the Davis Cup you know because it was David Ferrer's fault wasn't it because everyone was everyone was planning to be there on the Friday you know I think the King I think Djokovic We're all going to be there, but it had to happen earlier because Spain lost. there was a feeling that Nadal was kind of

left out on his own in the middle of the court and it was all kind of sad and lonely. It was. And it was, a little bit. I thought it was quite touching as well, but there was a lot of criticism in Spain. As soon as Spain went out of the Davis Cup, all the Spanish journalists wrote about for the rest of that tournament was how bad the ceremony was for Nadal.

It sounds like this one's going to be a lot more sort of joyous and he's going to be joined by a lot more people. They've all been like this because they've all happened after he's lost and they've all been pretty awkward. I wonder who played the role of Roger Federer in the rehearsal. What a moment for that guy. so that'll be tomorrow at the end of the day session I believe it'll be the day session crowd that

that get that. And his academy are advertising it as a ceremony full of surprises, which maybe just means Federer, which has, as you said, been leaked. But I wonder whether they'll do anything else for Nadal. You know, like, he's got his statue here. They went early on the statue, didn't they? There's already a Pista Rafael Nadal in Barcelona. Okay. Like, I don't know. I just wonder whether there'll be another...

another announcement of another honouring or whether it's literally just a ceremony. I kind of hope there is something more. We'll let you know tomorrow, folks, where we'll be back with our day one Roland Garros podcast.

We have our mascots, Phoebe, Maisie and Roger. Hello to you all. We have our executive producers and top folks, Greg, Chris and Jeff. And we have some shout outs. We have Michael Toth, who says, Catherine's Putney neighbour. Yes! Right, Michael. Michael Shtick, who once reached the final here, believe it or not, in 1996. Do we know what part of Putney? East Putney, West Putney, Putney Hill? No? Might be weird if he'd given us his exact address. What else do we know about Michael?

We know that he has done the calendar career attendance slam. Although he says, like Serena, it was over two seasons. So he's calling it a Michael slam. as is your right Michael which I really enjoyed and he's also watched pod favourite Dominic Thiem's first round match at each one so he's got a team watching slam too Don't bring up Dominic Thiem in the presence of Matt Futterman. How many of those did he win, I wonder?

Well, we don't know the years. Well, he did his mic slam in 2017-18, which is a good team. Good team time. Oh, good. So let's hope it was then. Nothing to say about Dominic Thiem, Matt. He got a great tribute when he played in Austria for the last... I think it's better that they handle the first of them. Now he's just showing up for coin tosses like a mascot. Thank you, Michael. We've also got Elaine Hayworth, who is Irish but living in the UK. Hello, Elaine. Hello. and Elaine

Has been listening for five years and was introduced by another friend of the pod, Laura Vaghani. This is what I like to hear. This is how it should work. Spread the word, folks. Just like Elaine. Elaine, well done. Laura's doing just that. Laura, well done. I don't think Laura will have enjoyed the... No, the Matt Futterman on Rafa Nadal section of this pod. She might be coming for you, Matt. She's not here at this point. She's just thrown the phone down. That is a worry.

Google has revealed a Maltese tennis player called Elaine Genovese. That's good, isn't it? That is good. What else do we know about Elaine? Older than David, she says. Is that the new high or lower? That's perfectly good age. I love his flights of fancy back to Pete Sampras times. Yes. Don't we all, Elaine? Thank you very much. And finally, we have...

Stephen Malloy from County Clare in Ireland. And Stephen says, I'm always described as being good on Twitter during my shoutouts, but I've abandoned that burning shit. Maybe I can be good on the barge instead. You are. You are Steven. Yeah. steven is we love steven thank you steven for your uh your continued support of the tennis podcast and your excellent work on the barge like steven Farrah. That's good actually because they're basically with a PA.

Yes. Well done. New ones. Stephen Haas, who once won Wimbledon doubles. There you go. Also a PH. Yes. Very good. Also one of my middle names. Oh yeah, you've got many, haven't you? How many?

He's posher than you think, Matt Roberts. Folks, let's get this show off the road. This is our final preview tomorrow. The fun. truly begins a reminder that every episode of the tennis podcast is now available wherever you get your podcasts. And that includes YouTube, Matt Futterman. Thank you very much for joining us. The tennis podcast is proudly part of the athletic podcast network. And this is three down, 15 to go. We'll speak to you tomorrow.