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Acast.com Hi, this is Billie Jean King. This is Marion Bartotti. I'm Matt Svillander. This is Mary Carillo. This is Pam Shriver. This is Janik Noah, and you're listening to the tennis podcast. Hello and welcome to tennis podcast hours, where it's two minutes past midnight, and we are all reeling from the fact that the defending champion and current world number one for another 48-ish hours is out. Carlos Algras beaten in four sets at the hands of 2021 US Open Champion Daniel Medvedev.
Who saw that coming? Well, I'm sure there are some people out there that did, but categorically, the tennis podcast did not. Can confirm. Gee, that was some performance blow by Daniel Medvedev, is my first takeaway. I mean, he was amazing. I still thought Carlos Algras would have won, but he didn't. Yeah, I mean, Matt and I have a certain amount of shame, and Egon faced to deal with it. David, your predicted run of 12 Grand Slam's for Carlos Algras has ended, has fallen at the first hurdle.
Yeah, that's a bit of a shame. So, you know, I mean, it'll just start in Australia, you see. It's just a new prediction. It's just a new 12. I very much enjoyed your treat and we, the after the match, saying, okay, next 11 then. Matt, what do we have to say for ourselves? I have to say sorry to Daniel Medvedev. I feel like I have... It's an apology in episode at the moment. It really is. I feel like I've overlooked him. And I think mainly what I overlooked was this rivalry with Carlos Algras.
Having watched their previous two matches this year, you know, with my own eyes on the court at Wimbledon and at Indian Wells, it was so stark to me. So clear to me that he had a Carlos Algras problem. And I just, even with the US Open, and I did say the other day, you know, the US Open feels like the best place for Medvedev to play Algras, because of how good he is on this call. We know Indian Wells wasn't the proper hardcore, and Medvedev doesn't love grass, I don't think.
And Algras was great on that surface this year. So, you know, I felt like Medvedev would do better, but I totally did not see this coming at all. I really thought Algras would win in straight sets, as I said yesterday, because of the matchup. And for Medvedev to solve that matchup problem took an extraordinary performance. I thought it would... I thought if he won, he might... We'd be talking about a really bad performance from Carlos Algras.
And I feel bad saying that, you know, De Nile Medvedev is a former number one, he's a Grand Sam champion, he's a great, great player. But I thought it would take a bad Algras performance for Medvedev to beat him. And I... Look, I don't think it was peak Algras tonight by any stretch of the imagination, but he played some phenomenal tennis and Medvedev lived with him and stuck with him and was better than him. And I'm... hats off, De Nile, and sorry.
Yeah, that is the best performance I've ever seen from Daniel Medvedev taking everything into consideration, the opponent, the crowd, everything that was going on there. I've never seen anything quite like that from him. It was absolutely postage stamp tennis in terms of where he was placing those ground strikes. I just... There just wasn't even a question mark in my mind about whether he was going to miss or whether he was going to drop one short.
And yet, it wasn't just metronomic drilling deep. There was also angles in there. I don't know how he creates angles with his technique. I honestly don't. I don't know how he moves so well. I mean, I don't know how he moves so well, full stop with that frame. But I don't know how he moves so well up to short balls.
And then, once he's there, manages to scoop underneath him and with his incredibly flat bunts, somehow get the ball up and down over the knitted cue tangle out of the incredible athlete Carlos Alcarez's reach. I don't know how he does any of that. We've seen him do it before, but tonight he executed everything to absolute perfection. He was 12 out of 10. In his own words, he said, except for the third set, I was 12 out of 10. And I don't think it was a great Alcarez tonight.
Honestly, I don't think it was awful. I don't think bad Alcarez is the reason Daniel Mepvedev won this match at all. But I don't think it was particularly good Alcarez. I did have a feeling of, oh, when the ball... There were periods of the match when the ball was going on to his forehand where I did have my heart in my mouth a little bit. And the touch came in and out throughout the match.
And I think the biggest surprise to me in terms of what the match looked like is how little a feature the drop shop was. And I don't know how much that is about Alcarez just not deploying it, whether he was afraid of how well Mepvedev was moving tonight, he moved like a dream. The guy... Is an octopus. The guy is an octopus. Honestly, looking at the two of them on a tennis court, it looks like... You know the movie Twins? David will know the movie Twins, but that probably doesn't.
I've heard you two talk about the movie Twins before. It looks like there's some sort of factory where they've got a load of perfect human genetic material together to create the perfect tennis player. And then there was a load left over that they just sort of scrambled in a frying pan and out came Daniel Mepvedev. That is what it looked like watching the two of them out there today.
Yeah, I mean it's one of the beauties of the sport, isn't it, that it can take so many different shapes and sizes and physiques and heights. And that is a beautiful, beautiful thing, I think. But when you're looking at it, your eyes bug out of your head a little bit. It shouldn't so much if Daniel Mepvedev should not work. And yet it does. Yeah, it's kind of joyful really to watch it. I didn't see much of the first set because I was going into Ben Shelton and Novak Chokovic's press conference.
Obviously Novak Chokovic was half an hour late. So that was a bit of an ordeal to get actually to be able to see the Arkras Mepvedev match. But there was a period when we were waiting for him because he was delayed. Where I was in the media restaurant and Arkras had 1540 on the Mepvedev serve quite early on. Sort of first half a dozen games. I can't remember the exact game. And he just sort of let them go.
They didn't, they came and went and you start to realise when we went back in the press conference, oh the scores are close, it's four all. Oh hold on, Arkras is a love 34 all. Oh he served that out a little bit of danger and he gets himself into the tie break. And then I was able to watch. And the tie break was a mess really. And I don't want to take credit away from him because he was brilliant. That's the best I've seen in play since he won the title against Chokovic in straight sets.
I mean that was an awesome performance as well. Although Chokovic was well short that night. Part of that was caused by Mepvedev. But Arkras was having to play his spell binding stuff to turn it around even a little bit. And by then he's too tough to love down. I mean he was poor in the second set. Mepvedev was brilliant but the touch was gone in that second set. He couldn't rely on anything. Well we've just had a look at the Arkras transcript from his press conference.
And he said that he quote lost his mind in the second half of that tie break and had a hangover basically in the second set. And I think that's true because honestly through that first set I thought Arkras played really well. And I think there was maybe a bit shocking to him that as you said Mepvedev was living with him. You know Arkras was doing the things that traditionally work against Mepvedev. And a lot of the time they were working. He was so successful up at the net.
Taking advantage of the space that Mepvedev was leaving. But Mepvedev was serving really well. I mean he was throwing in some double faults but he was protecting his serve much better. He suddenly found the serve. I've been talking about all summer. It hasn't been there. It was there today. And it was putting Arkras under threat. And sort of as the match went on Mepvedev was completely locked in in the baseline rally. He's not missing. I wasn't even thinking about the possibility of him missing.
And Arkras I felt came to actually have to rely a bit on the serve volley. You know he was needing that to be working. And Mepvedev was growing wise to that as well. And some of the dipping returns that Mepvedev was heading from way out wide. He would get it right down in Arkras' feet and either hit a clean winner or then win it a couple of shots later. It was brilliant returning as well from Mepvedev as the match went on.
So suddenly this match which all, which tactically has always looked so good for Arkras. Suddenly it looked like he's really struggling to actually find ways to win points. And I think that's partly because as you said, Arkras didn't quite have his game. He couldn't quite trust it perhaps. But also just immense credit to Mepvedev for playing at such a high level for so long. In nine aces for Mepvedev there were ten double faults as well, which I know doesn't sound great in terms of ratios.
But that was a calculated risk that he was taking. The ten double faults if you like were priced in because he was for a lot of that match hitting two first serves instead of a first and a second serve. His second serves were frequently in the 120's. So yeah, I think that's great tactics. I often, when I'm watching a match and seeing a player get killed on the second serve, I often think, why does it not occur to players more to just go for two first serves?
Sometimes the data, the numbers on that work out. And I feel like Mepvedev is doing those calculations in his mind in a way that other players aren't. Whereas Arkras got not a single ace. I mean, in terms of the number of three points they were getting, it was chalk and cheese. Arkras was having to work so, so hard to hold his serve. And so often Mepvedev was just rolling through service games in the blink of an eye. He plays so goddamn quick. And generally, I love that about him.
I love players that play quick. God bless the big three. Well, actually big two really. And when I take Fedor out of this, he played pretty quick. God bless Nadal and Jokovic. But the absolute worst thing about them is what they've done in terms of dragging out the time between points and the time between serves and all of that. I find it very seductive when players play quickly.
But there were moments in the matter that was on his joke, and he was playing quickly, he was playing such that it had to have been a tactic. Yes, suck the life out of it by just racing through points. Don't let the crowd get involved because as much as possible anyway. What do we think of the crowd tonight? I thought it was fine. I thought it was rowdy in there. It was Friday night in the biggest tennis stadium in the world, and I thought it was a bit of a marker as to win.
But I'm sure that was hard for Daniel Mepvedev, but I thought it was by and large the right side of the line. Yeah, I thought so. I mean, and I think Mepvedev did until the final game where, quote, a thousand Spanish guys started screaming, it didn't help, they can go to sleep now. And I think that was really the only moment of the match where I thought, I was out of hand, there was a lot of noise, it felt like during the rallies, it felt like between first and second serve.
But mainly people were just into it, I think. I didn't feel like it was really outrageously bad, crowd behaviour, or like it was massively affecting the players. It was a big moment. People were just excited. They wanted the comeback. They love Alcras, and he was two sets to love Dan, and the comeback is on. There was a moment he came through, went out to get us some drinks and a pretzel, and there were massive cues, because you said that they're all stocking up for a five-setting.
They were fueling for five sets. This was, I went out at two-one in the third set. So Alcras hasn't even broken serve at this point. I missed that. You missed the best game. In the pretzel queue. But it felt like everybody there was, yeah, getting their supplies in for a five-setting. Maybe they've heard us and the podcast talking about the importance of strategic snacking during a best-of-five-set match. And I applaud them. But... Would you like to tell you about the game?
It was very long then. It was incredible. I mean, the thing is, Medvedev's level did not dip in that game. He was brilliant still, and a 30-all having been skewered a couple of times in passing shots. He then knocked down an ace to go 40-30. And you just think, here we go again, he's just... He's just sucking the life out of the match. And what a great tactic, if an achievement from him by doing that. And he started trying to do the same again.
And Alcras stayed with him, and then just started to turn on the magic. Didn't he? There were passing shots. There was the bringing him in, and then there was the lob. It just didn't matter what Medvedev did, Alcras had the talent to provide an answer. And the problem is, you could only do that in a small pocket of the match. Two or three pockets of the match when he exerted pressure, because he won that third set. He then had break points, didn't he? And the third game of the fourth set.
And the moment he didn't take them, you just felt that Medvedev's level is not dipping enough to get away with this. Yeah, it was such a good performance from Medvedev. There was a moment when Alcras won that third set. I think we all started having little flashbacks to when Medvedev lost from two sets up to Rafa and Adal, that in the Australian Open, not that the match was similar, because I really don't think it was.
But just, you know, the circumstance was, okay, is Medvedev going to lose from two sets up again? And I don't think Medvedev has been quite the same since that lost to Rafa and Adal in Australia. I mean, all of last season after that, he was not really himself. There was potentially lots of other reasons for that. You know, his her and your operation, the war, he became a father. You know, there was lots of stuff going on outside his tennis.
It's tough to know, you know, how much of his dipping form was caused by that loss. But for sure, there was a hangover there. And he came back to Australia this year, didn't he, and he said, I needed to get over Australia by coming back here. And then this season, he'd been good on Alcords through the spring, but hadn't been performing that well in the slams and got rolled by Alcras at Wimbledon.
And so I think that's exactly why, you know, there's sort of Medvedev performance that we would compare this to. It would be the one here, two years ago. We haven't seen this Medvedev for two years, really. And I was just thinking during this match, it's kind of important that he wins this from this position, because we've seen what happens when he doesn't close a big match from a winning position. It did seem to affect him for a while.
So so much credit that he did manage to close that, because Carlos Alcras coming at you as he was is a force. And he did so well to just hold it off. Look, I was thinking about that moment much a lot in the early stages of that fourth set. And I was wondering a lot about how much Daniel Medvedev was thinking about it, and wondering how on earth he could not be thinking about it. I mean, that is deep, deep sporting drama that was inflicted on him that day.
And okay, the actual match in terms of patterns and forehands and backhands was very different. But it felt similar to me sitting in that stadium. We were in the stadium for both of those matches. And the energy felt extremely similar. And I was having flash forwards to being that in the press conference room Medvedev delivering a soul-crushing monologue about his inner child dying at the hands of the New York crowd. And I was sort of preemptively worried for him.
And I think, look, he's in press right now. Maybe he'll say, no, that didn't occur to me at all. But it's in his bones, isn't it? I don't see how losing a grandson final from two sets of up can't sort of alter your sporting DNA. So even if it wasn't on his mind, I think it's a additionally tremendous achievement that he stopped the famous Carlos Algaraz in his comeback tracks today. Yeah, I agree with you. Because the crowd is such a factor, because Alcrous and crowds work together.
They get each other going. And he's so magnetic because of the way he connects with the crowd as well as anybody I've ever seen. And it just wins you over. So, yeah, got a hand it to you, Daniel. It deserves that 100%. Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, it was thrilling tennis. If you've done that against anyone else, except Carlos Algaraz would be, I feel so guilty that we have a slight feeling of deflation. That's nothing to do with Daniel Meverev.
We make no secret of how much we like Daniel Meverev and how much better a tournament feels for having him in it on the court and in the press conference room. But it just feels like Carlos Algaraz is the magic sprinkles in men's tennis. As is the rivalry that we were waiting for in the final, which we've been building up to for weeks. Exactly. And honestly, I'm not as deflated as I thought I would be.
If you'd said, you know, it's going to be a bit of a doubt of a men's tournament and you're not going to get Carlos Algaraz no doubt at the archivic in the final, I thought. It's got a bit of a doubt of a men's tournament. And we're not getting our crurs, the archivic in the tournament. But actually, Meverev was so good tonight. It was such an incredible performance. And we've got a guy who, I feel like we've still got a really good final. Yeah, absolutely.
Like it's not like we're now going into the final where it's like, oh, well, they've got no chance against no archivic. He has beaten no archivic in this very match. And he's got other occasions too. And he's a real problem for no archivic at time. So it's not as thrilling. It's not as sort of historically interesting, I suppose, those intersection of generations. But it's still a really interesting final, I think. Does the US Open have a rivalry curse?
Yes, it does. Because Ralph Hunderdown and Roger Federer spent, how long were playing together? 18 years on the circuit together, have an amazing matches. Every were in the world, except one grandstaff tournament that they both played the vast majority of years. The fact that they never played each other in all those years when they were so often one match away was extraordinary. And I don't know. We were laughing about it yesterday.
I would just imagine if they don't end up playing each other now. Even when Jockovich is one. But it just sort of felt like that could happen because of this place. And the truth is, this isn't a 15-year rivalry that we're looking at right now. Jockovich still looks amazing as good as ever. But even he said in his press conference, you know what I mean? When I start losing to people early, early arounds that I wouldn't have done in the past. That's when I'll call it a day.
So it's not going to be that many years, is it? So yeah, it's got a rivalry problem. Swet yourselves out together. Yeah, Matt said before this tournament, there's one match I want to see in the men's. And it's not happening. Just pack up your bags and go home after the women's time. You're a wigs getting ready and we're one match away. That is a very memorable trolley move. Oh, it's perfect. 27 in the press conference on the TV press. He loves being a disruptor.
Actually, he was saying how much he was quite happy to be vocal. They're the favourites. But I quite like the idea of winning a disruptor. You know, you can see he's loving this. And it's pressures off. He is playing well again. Really? That was as well as he can play today. He was fantastic. We'd rather given the game away about who won the other. Sorry, yeah. I assume people knew that. We're going to talk about Novert's Jacović in just a moment.
But first, I am going to remind you that we are brought to you this fortnight in partnership with AO Travel. They, if you don't already know, operate the travel programme for the Australian Open in Melbourne in January. They take care of your flights, premium accommodation, tickets to the event behind the scenes experiences. And of course, as we've been telling you, those experiences include the all new AO Travel lounge.
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The way to enter the prize draw is to click on the link provided in your show notes you have until Monday 18 September at 11.59pm New York time to enter terms and conditions do apply very best of luck. Now then, no bad joke of it. Be Ben Shelton, 636-766 in the first semi-final of the day today. This match felt similar to me to the Goff-Mookever match of last night in that there were extremely uncompetitive, quite flat periods of it. But I probably won't remember any of those.
I will remember the end. And the end was brilliant. I actually described it as life affirming to Hannah. Earlier on today, she sent us a text saying, because somebody described what it was like to be in the stadium as Ben Shelton was making his mini-come back at the end of the third set. And I said it was life affirming because for a moment there, that's exactly how it felt. And why is that? Because I was watching that element by that time on a monitor because I'd been called away.
I was devastated. He'd just gone five, four up. I was watching you guys. And I had to go down to do some reports on the radio. And the place was jumping at that time. But then I mean, it just seemed to get more and more dramatic. Well, it's very similar to what you said about Al Krasn and the crowd sort of being a team. I felt like the New York crowd and Ben Shelton work as a team. When it's firing, you know, which it was, well, more to do with no bad joke of it,
which then Ben Shelton. But when he had a little spell like he did in that third set, it makes you feel alive. You feel a jolt of electricity go through your body. It's like it made me think of when I interviewed him on the eve of Queens this year. And that was a very low key thing at the time. He had done nothing since the Australian open at that point. And he didn't feel like a contender for the title. But it was his first time playing at Queens.
He was interviewing anybody that was brought to us. And you could tell when he sat down, it was a conveyor belt of tennis players. And I can't remember exactly who else was there at the time. But you could tell that everybody just wanted to be in his orbit, that they just wanted a bit of the Ben Shelton energy to rub off on them. And that's how I felt today. I felt like he's so good at transmitting his energy to a crowd. That it feels like a little bit of it is rubbing off on you.
And even a little bit of it is completely intoxicating. And yet someone who I don't think loves Ben Shelton's energy is no of that job of it. I'm so glad you took us there. Nice and early. Let's get to the good stuff. Well, I mean, honestly, I noticed when I got job of each one the first set. And it was a completely unremarkable first set. I enjoyed the way Shelton came out straight away. Like the 138-month-and-a-second serve at the body, followed by a little spin of the record on the hand.
Yeah. I like that one too. It was like, that is what you need to do. You are not going to be able to keep that up. I know that. I think probably you know that. Deep down, but no matter how much of each definitely knows that. And sure enough, after a couple of games, Shelton plays a really loose service game. No but Yolk and Vick breaks any, you know.
We're just dealing with a difference in experience, which I realised was so stark that no but Yolk and Vick had played more grand slam semi-finals than Ben Shelton has played ATP matches. And Ben Shelton... Ben Shelton... That's not Matt's dad. Ben Shelton has a losing record in ATP matches. And obviously no at Yolk and Vick has an incredible winning record in grand slam semi-finals. It couldn't have been more different. Yolk and Vick was so comfortable.
And yeah, at the end of that first set, he roared in the direction of Ben Shelton and Ben Shelton's team. Which is the extremely wholesome Shelton family, mostly. Yeah, and so I thought, oh, okay, that's maybe... Matt Klopp's it, it was an aggray watch. I was sitting there thinking, how could he not love this guy? And Matt was like, I'm looking out for something here.
And I have heard a bit of chatter that, you know, as popular as Ben Shelton is, I think, in terms of people's personal interactions with him, I don't think the way he behaves on court always goes down that well with his opponents. Because, you know, he's very in your face and his celebrations are big, not big moments necessarily. And that might be annoying for opponents. I love it as a spectator. I love the energy he brings. But I do think it perhaps rubs opponents up the wrong way a little bit.
And clearly now that Yolk and Vick was a little bit... I don't want to say necessarily annoyed at Shelton, but he was just sort of out to put him in his place a little bit, I think, right from the start of the match. And in that third set, Jokovic is absolutely cruising to a straight set's win. It doesn't look like there's any jeopardy at all. But then Shelton has this comeback that you've talked about and even has a set point. And it was quite a long rally and he missed a forehand up the line.
And Jokovic, it was sort of classic Jokovic in that he was brilliant at getting himself out of the holes. But it was weird Jokovic and that he was putting himself in the holes in the first place. A lot of errors. A lot of errors. He lost his game. Shelton was sort of studied to slow-ball him. And Jokovic was just unable to... He didn't really know what to do. He said to start missing his forehand a lot. It became such a like through the looking glass match for a short period.
Ben Shelton's slow-balling and no doubt Jokovic is just coughing up on four starrers. Yeah. So bizarre. He was winning when they showed the stat of winning the long rallies beyond a certain number of shots. Shelton was winning quite a lot more often than Jokovic was. And I think Jokovic said in his press conference that it was just tension in that final set. And you know, just an important reminder that even with 23 slam titles he gets tense.
So yeah, there was this slightly tense atmosphere between them I felt throughout the whole match. Not like nothing major. I never felt like they were going to sort of come to blows or anything. You know, but it was just a slightly simmering tension. And then... Oh, I love how you've built this up. Please describe. This is the build-up it deserved. No, no, no, no, no. No, you must. You must continue, Matt. You're doing it justice. Well, on the... So it goes to a tie break.
No, Jokovic wins the tie break, of course, because it's no Jokovic. And then he does Ben Shelton's celebration, which he's been doing all tournament, which is that sort of dialed in, you know, sort of making a phone with his fingers and then slamming it down as though he's hanging up the phone, hanging up the landline. He's been doing it all tournament. Like it's the 80s. Yeah, that was great. And over at Jokovic did that celebration. And I loved it. Oh, that is...
Matt and I lost our minds when that happened. And Shelton looked... He denies that he saw it on the court. He says... He said, impressed that I've seen it now, back on Twitter or Tick-Soll, or whatever, but I didn't see it happen live. I don't believe him, because we've all seen the stare that he gave no Jokovic at the neck. I've looked at that hand. I've looked at a still of that hand shake for... Yeah, Linda. ...quite a long time, exactly. He won the most intense hand shakes and stairs.
That was like looking at two boxes about to the weigh-in. You know, they are eyeballing each other at point blank range. And that was genuinely stressful, like, tense, in a good way. I mean, I loved that. But I agree with you. I mean, there was a lot of people talking about whether no Vat Jokovic, who's won all these grand slams at his 36-year-old, who should be doing this with a young lad. Is it really necessary? Is it the sort of thing that is near above all that?
And I'm thinking, maybe it isn't necessary, but it's bloody funny. And if it's wound him up, great. I've had my fill over the last 15 years. I've no Vat Jokovic hugging these opponents and them hugging him back and telling him that, well, they've played well and them saying, oh, it's an honor to share the court with you. And all is very nice. All of that's lovely. But give me the real thing. Please. And this was the real thing. These two wanted to beat each other into the dirt on that court.
And Jokovic is the man who won. And he won handily. And he fed up, I reckon, of Ben Shelton, having the show and doing... For whatever reason, this celebration... I mean, it was very funny when we asked... when he was asked about the celebration and why he did it. He said, I like that celebration. So I thought I'd impersonate it. And I really wish I'd been given chance to do a follow-up question because I just wanted to push that. Because that's clearly not true. He said it with a broad grin.
Yeah, smiling through it. I just... I like him owning the... the kind of... not the villain as such, but the pantomime villain, the heel in wrestling, as they used to call it. Not just not putting some gloss on how you're feeling. These 23,500 people are in your face for hours. And Shelton's whipping them up, and they have every right to do it. Shelton's to every right to do it. And you've got every right to give it them back. And I have no problem with that at all. And I loved the handshake.
I loved everything about him. And I can't wait for them to play again. It's right in the sweet spot, isn't it? It was... And I also equally loved how grown-up Ben Shelton was about it in press. He really took the high road, didn't he? He had a steady look in his eye. Like, we know how he felt about that. But he said, as a kid, I learned that imitation is the most sincere form of flattery. So that's all I have to say about that. It was a great line.
And it does make you feel as though he's the sort of lad who, at the moment, isn't of the view that know that Jockovich is completely untouchable and always will be. He carries himself as if... And we heard it from Brian in last night's interview. Doesn't put limits on himself. Just thinks, well, I'm going to grow, and I'm going to get stronger and bigger, and my technical get better, and I'll eventually beat these guys.
And he even applies that, not in as many words, but I mean, I see no reason why he wouldn't be feeling that about Jockovich, our presence, all the rest. Yeah, I mean, that third set made me think back to the discussion we had after the Jockovich Fritz max the other day, where, you know, I think we all concluded, Fritz doesn't have the level to beat no about Jockovich over five sets if Jockovich is playing anywhere close to his best. He just doesn't.
And Nord has been Shelton yet at this stage in his career with him still being so raw. But Fritz got down on himself quite early in that match, and Ben Shelton didn't. Okay, there were maybe little periods where he wasn't quite himself, but the way he fired himself up in that third set, and did genuinely seem to keep believing, I thought was really admirable. And maybe that was what, you know, slightly pissed Jockovich off, perhaps.
But, you know, again, maybe easier for Ben Shelton to do it, first time he's playing no about Jockovich, come back when you've already lost to him seven or eight times as Taylor Fritz has, and that baggage has built up. But I was impressed with that attitude from Ben Shelton today in that third set. But, yeah, I mean, just to go back to the, go back to the celebration. That is the version of no about Jockovich. I love the most. And we saw it a lot at Wimbledon, didn't we?
Where he was, you know, doing the crying to the crowd. And he was really, again, embracing being the heel. I think we're seeing a bit more of that now, after years of him being kind of inauthentic, really, with crowds. And I understood why, you know, people want to be liked. He was desperate to be liked, but this is the real no about Jockovich. And I find it much easier to sort of get behind, really.
I love that Shelton was prepared to piss Jockovich off, just be himself, regardless of whether it pissed him off. And I loved that Jockovich was prepared to show us that it pissed him off. Yeah. And to give it back. Yeah. It was great. It was fantastic. And we do have a fantastic final to look forward to. It's just taking a bit of adjustment, isn't it? Because... Give us twenty four hours. Yeah. And again, I go back to something we said pretty tournament.
I wonder how much of an adjustment this will be for no about Jockovich. You know, we've spoken about how defined he feels now by the rivalry with Alcras. I think he would have been expecting to play Carlos Alcras in the final. Now suddenly he's got to play the Neil Medvedev. He knows that challenge as well. So I'm sure he'll be prepared for it. But he was flat against Medvedev two years ago. And I think that was because of just mentally exhausted, I think.
He was trying to go for the calendar slide. He did say he was kind of overwhelmed. He was anxious. Yeah. He got to him. That's not on the line here. Exactly. But I think it will affect his preparation for this. I think he'll be hyper-tuned in not to have that make him end up coming out flat. Because chances are Medvedev is going to bring it. And he's going to need to be ready. So it's an interesting one. Just one stat that I thought was interesting today that came up.
This is now the third time in his career for Jockovich. He's made the final of all four slams in the same season, which equals Federer, who also did it three times. But what I find so interesting is that Federer's were all mostly towards the start of his career. 2006, 2007, and 2009, he did it. Jockovich has done it. 2015, obviously, his best season, maybe the best season, men's tennis has seen. And then 2021 and 2023. Like two of the last three years in his 30s.
He's got better at playing slams as he's got older in terms of his consistency and just how hard he is to be. And some of that is some of his biggest rivals and not what they were and he's kept going. But it just feels like he's figured this out completely how to play best of five. I realize that's not a new point that I'm making, but it sort of stat like that really underlines it. It is about the rivals thing, but it's also about scaring off all these young pretenders.
How many of the mousy just put fear into their eyes? We've got generation after generation of lost boys. Lost boys, exactly. And I just, there's hope for Shelton that he won't become like, he's wanting to keep being in Djokovic's face, doing that celebration, even though Djokovic has done it back to him. Don't be cowed by it. You've got to keep being in his face and he's going to keep giving it back to you. And that's everything about this is fine.
Everybody just keep being themselves and will he be enjoying it? Great. He just has a lot of improvement to do if he's going to actually, I mean, obviously, the Djokovic may come back to the group with the age, but he was really error-strune in the first couple of sets. And I think there are some technical things overall, but he's spoken his press conference about having been satisfied generally with his rally tolerance, I think, particularly into the third set.
And it wasn't impressive, actually. He was rallying with no doubt Djokovic and he was winning a lot of them. So, yeah, I mean, I think the thing is because of what happened in Australia and a great run to the quarterfinals, I just didn't think he would get this good this quickly. So I am very interested to see what another year will bring, how much more he can improve. Telling your credit, Carbana, is this easiest? As easy as pie? Sure. All you have to do is enter your license plate or bin.
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Right, we're going to look ahead to tomorrow's Women's Singles final in just a moment. Firstly, I will take you through some other significant results that we had today at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre. Raji Ram and Joe Soltzbury won the men's doubles title beating, Matt Ebton and Rohan Bapana 266364 in the final. This is a three-peat for Ram and Soltzbury, which is quite extraordinary actually because doubles can be pretty random.
There can be not a lot of consistency in the doubles games if for them to win three back to back. First and more. 100 years. Is unreal, I think, for them. Because, I mean, let you say that, they often don't stay together very long and they've had a terrible year. Soltzbury and Ram, they were so down about their results and they came in without much confidence. I commented on this final. And at the end, honestly, they lost the first set 6-2 and they were broken in the very first game.
They were very nearly double-broken and they were not good. And Ebton and Bapana were fantastic. I mean, Bapana is 43 years and 6 months old now. He's the oldest bloke ever to reach one of these finals. And when I came back for the third set, I really couldn't believe that there was going to be one. And I commented on that as well and they just turned it around, they just stuck at it. And then there was so emotional afterwards that Joe Soltzbury was sobbing into his towel.
He said, I've never been like that winning one of these before. But I think it's just the build-up, the doubt. There have been really doubt in themselves. And to get that line as well, to have not the first team to have won three in a row in Men's tennis at the US Open in more than 100 years. And I think that really hit Raji Rami, said, I'm really a tennis junkie for history and things like that. So that really means something. Yeah, really cool. Nice insight, thanks David.
And by the way, there was an incredible piece of sportsmanship. And whether you heard about that, absolutely astonishing that right in the most important part of the match, Matt Ebtan is at the baseline swipes a forehand winner across court. And everybody returns to the spot and they're about to carry on. And then Rahant Bapana goes up to the umpire and says, that passing shot just touched my arm as it was going past.
And he called the point on himself and gave it to the opponents who were in shock. But what are you saying? And then they just got the whole crowd that the Solspirion ran to applaud them. It was an amazing moment. Yeah, love to see that. Love it. The Women's doubles final will be contested by Vera's Wanna Merva, Matt. I told you. He said, Vera's Wanna Merva is going to win the US Open and it could still be true.
With Pat and Elora Seagman, they will take on Gabi Debrowski and Erin Routliff as Wanna Merva's Seagman today beat Jen Brady and Waterplayer Luisa Stefani 6-6-1. It's good run now. And Debrowski in Routliff beats Shesuway and... No. No, go on. I'm one genused, 6-1-7-6. Yeah, I was just going to make a point that I really think Debrowski is good. She might be my water player or my Tim Perth. You've already got Nicholas Jerry. Yeah, but he needs a double wall. I need a doubles player.
We all need a doubles one more. Yeah, it's my Tim Perth. I think it is. He is good. And I think Debrowski is great. Whenever I watch her, I always think she can make a difference in a doubles pool. They're the ones who won against Townsend and Fernandez the other day. Yes. And they were a dramatically good match. And beating Che and Wong was impressive.
I mean, they'd won, I think, well, Che had won 16 straight matches in majors this year, having won the French and Wimbledon and threw to the semis here. Alfie, Hughitt and Gordon Reed will contest the men's wheelchair singles final. Hughitt is the defending champion. He's going for a fourth USA Open Title. Gordon Reed going for a first USA Open Title in singles. This one and the French opener, both missing from his trophy cabinet. So that would be interesting.
The women's wheelchair final will be between Uyke Meijie. And I'm going to have to do a check here because at the time I wrote the agenda. The opponent was not yet known and it still might not be known. But I can confirm that Uyke Meijie is in that final. Did it a root? Of course it's did it a root. Sorry, folks. I could have guessed that. If in doubt, it's did it a root. Kameeji is going for a third USA Open singles title. And a first since 2017. Well, hmm.
The men's quad wheelchair singles final will be contested by the world. Number one and two. Neilsvink and Sam Schroeder. Think is the defending champion. He's 20 years old and he's already going for a second USA Open singles title. Sam Schroeder also going for a second USA Open title. His last one was in 2020. So all of those finals to look forward to over the weekend. What's going to happen between Coco Gough and Arena, Sabilekka. Wrong answers only as always. Oh, well, I better go then.
She's going that. I think I'm going to pick Arena Sabilekka in the newsletter. And that's been going well. Exactly. So congratulations Coco Gough. I mean, it's tricky. It's one of those matches where the head to head doesn't feel that relevant to me. I mean, it's, I think they've played five times. There are quite a lot of matches that they've played. But Gough is a different player on this run right now. And Sabilekka is a different player compared to a lot of their previous meetings.
They've had a couple of seven-sixes in the third. There's been a six-four in the third. These have been very, very close. Which I probably do expect again. I think it will be tight. Sabilekka has played a lot of hitters this tournament. Junction, when, Madison Keys. Okay, she played Cacichina. But Cacichina doesn't have the movement or either the weapons of Coco Gough. And I just think Gough will be able to extend rallies in a way that the number of Sabilekka's opponents haven't.
But, and this may be a complete oversimplification. But I almost feel like every match is on the arena Sabilekka's racket. With her power, her game, her ability. And she played so well in that Australian open final. That I don't quite have the same doubts about her in the final, that I had in the semi-final, which again, maybe that sounds weird as well. But it doesn't given the history because I mean the... I think she's going to play well.
And I didn't know whether she would play well at all in the semi-final. But I think she will. And I think her best is so good. And maybe a little bit better than Coco Gough right now. So that's all my reasoning and my logic. But very, very, very tough to call. One of the most interesting finals in a long time. Is it Dream Final? Great final on paper that. I think it is pretty much the Dream Final. Top American... You're against the World No. 1. Against the World No. 1.
And the crowd will know exactly who they want to win. It will be... It's perfect on paper. I hope it's a great match. It deserves it. I am not going to be going for a arena Sabilekka. I'm going to decide overnight as to how... David No. But I am going to go for Coco Gough. Just flipping teeth. Too late to be that annoying, David. You've been nice to me. Very nice to be the last 24 hours. Don't ruin it. But I just feel like we're going to get a lot of loopy forehands from Coco Gough.
And I think they're going to drive arena Sabilekka around the bend. I really do. And she's got the movement then to track down these bullet ground strikes that Sabilekka throws at her. And then I think she'll diffuse with this loop forehand. I just think it's become such a clever tactic down the line with that shot. Yeah, I think it's Gough's. I think I'm going to go for Gough. Well, you went with Gough from the start of the tournament. Not confidently though. Don't ruin it. Cutthread.
Honestly, we think it's amazing. Yeah, I was a Carlos Alcaraz away from having a full set of finalists. Thank you, Carlos. Carlos. Carlos. They've been introducing him. Maybe it's for the best he didn't win because he can't introduce your winner as Carloth Alcaraz. That would have been a tough scene. I'm sure they weren't doing that last year. Everyone's gone mad about that. Everyone's over thinking of this business. Right. That's your lock for today, folks. Sorry. No, Matt's got more.
I was just going to say there was something that amused me in the transcripts of the Gough press conference after her semifinal because she did her press conference during the key Sabelanka semifinal and clearly she did it right when it looked like Madison Keys was going to win. So I'm really feel for all the sort of journalists who have to write preview articles with quotes because there are no quotes about what Gough thinks of Arena Sabelanka in the final.
It was all about Madison Keys because it looked like Madison Keys was going to win. The time we recorded last night, we hadn't seen that press conference and it was a tough scene. We perhaps underestimated exactly how emotional she was going to be. I did. I thought she would be philosophical and maybe with some time she will be. She certainly treated that she knows deep down. She's got a lot to be proud of and I think she has.
But yeah, that was a crushing press conference and I've never seen that upset before and I feel for her. Same. Wishing you well, Madison Keys. We're back tomorrow, folks. We've got two more tennis podcasts to come from this US Open Plus, the Boko that comes your way, post-Grantslam or a Viewshow or Q&A show. They're coming up for friends of the tennis podcast. We're going to record them.
While we're still in New York before we head to the MetLife Stadium to watch the jets against the bills, I'm all over it guys. I am all over the NFL. Check me out. I feel like Catherine does the NFL could be a sort of new cold Pilkington style series. We have our lovely mascot, Willow, for another few days. Hello to Willow. Hello, Willow. You are lovely. We have our mascots. I've got Zenia. We scored not many points but points are points, Zenia. We're in the game. You're doing very well.
Amazing. We were a set point for Ben Shelton away from getting points and we didn't. So Ben Shelton needs to book his ideas up the next time. Darwin, we were nowhere near but you know that. Billie Jean is sponsored by Billie Jean King and Alana Klass. As you all know, we have top folks and executive producers on three, everyone. Jamie. Hello. I didn't say one, two, three. Three, two, one. Jamie Hanna and Drew. Hello to you all. And we have shout outs.
We have James Lynn, who says, my life journey, born in Taiwan, raised in Lexington, Massachusetts, matured in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and now raising a family in Rye, New York. Oh, wow. What a cool life. Where's Ann Arbor? Ann Arbor, there's a university in Ann Arbor, isn't there? Maybe. Nope. Lexington. Well, this is a different Lexington to the, when you say Lexington, I think of Lexington, Kentucky, or. I think of Serena Williams and Venus Williams, playing in a car park.
Playing in a car park of COVID, come back tournament fame that we. Where we. That was the best thing that had ever happened at the time. Oh my god. Professional sport is happening. This is so exciting. You look back now and it's absolutely dystopian. Where I discovered Jennifer Brady. That's what I was going to say. Yeah. This thing is where the world discovered Jennifer Brady. Marie Buskeva. One the title. All certainly in the final. Jennifer Brady, right? Yeah, you're right.
It was a Buskeva Brady final. There you go. And that was where Venus Williams. Tonked Victoria Azarenka. And we were like, Azarenka's over, isn't she? Time for her to retire and then she reached the US Open Final. So. Thanks James. Thanks James. We've been a friend of the tennis club guys. Thank you. James Blake. Yes. Well done. We've also got Eleanor Hawkins in Toronto. Toronto. Right. Hello, Eleanor. They don't say like that. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.
I don't know. They don't say like that. Do they? Do they? There's a man that's never watched or I'll go. Correct. Great film. Okay. We'll add it to the list. Like Eleanor... Old Royde? That's a radio person. A very nice one. A very good one. Sometimes it's all Wimbledon. It's tenuous, but it... Okay. Eleanor Crooks. Eleanor Crooks from Press Association who is a tennis correspondent. Do we have any players? I've played tennis with Eleanor Crooks. Oh, well, there we are. How did you get on?
She's good player, isn't she? She's a good player, especially on your favourite surface, David Astro-Turf. Oh, well, I mean, I'm unbeatable on that. Well, Eleanor would beat you. Do you want to test that out? Thank you, Eleanor. I wasn't expecting to be deep diving on Eleanor Crooks. He's getting... And finally, we have Chris. And finally, we have Chris Marty from San Francisco. Chris says, whenever I face a difficult decision, I think to myself, what would those on the boat do?
And then I have my answer. I'm always striving to get on the boat. Oh. Chris, tell us more about yourself, and I will submit your application to my dad until, let you know. Chris is a massive Caroline Wasn't the Aki fan. Do we think Caroline Wasn't the Aki fan? I don't think Caroline Wasn't the Aki fan is on the boat. I'll wake up to a text tomorrow to confirm, but I would be surprised. I did have some on the boat updates this tournament. Oh, yeah.
And if anybody wants to know the criteria for being on the boat, just generally speaking, there is a tennis podcast terminology section of the tennis podcast website. So go to tennispodcast.net, go to the About section, and click on the terminology page, and yeah. Just keep talking, David. You can find out. You can find out. You can find out how in the mix came about. You can find out about Pac Hunters from Matt Roberts.
You can find out about Mary Carrillo's three rules for a great tennis player. You can find out about how agricultural came about, and why I used it all that time ago. Oh, there's so much good terminology on there from the old tennis podcast days. You find out when Paul thought was invented. When Catherine threatened to stop the podcast forever off the back of it. Um... The link to the terminology page is always in our show notes.
That's correct alongside the New York Times profile, and the link to become a friend of the tennis podcast, so you can get all this extra stuff, which is going to be coming your way next week, and there are 50 shows in the archive only available to the friends of the tennis podcast, and you can get instant access for them. And, uh, yeah, so sign up and become a friend. You've done God's work there, David.
I have now found the WhatsApp chat, and we can end tonight on some on-the-boat updates that I saw directly from the skip at earlier this tournament. It's splendid. I woke up one morning. Last Friday it was to a message that simply said, Chisels Features describes Tommy Paul. Okay, Dad. On the boat, question mark, they asked... Was that Arthur David had described him as... What was it? Not particularly remarkable to look at. I don't know. I don't know whether it was a direct response.
Anyway, he said, yes, he is on the boat. As is Manorino, I believe these messages came at the time of Manorino T.F. I don't know if there's that Manorino. Got himself on the boat. I did query it, David. I need for me to get myself cancelled by reading out the exact... Okay. ...exact J-N-Messages. But he said, Manorino, on the boat. I said, Mukava, he said, on the boat, definitely. Well, I mean, I would 100% agree with that. I said Draper, he said, not sure about him, but I think probably yes.
Not quite yet, though. Why, bit immature. No, just, you got to prove, you know, you could serve you time. Right, okay. I guess Manorino has done that to be fair. It's certainly done now. So Mukava, Paul, Manorino, on board Draper, waiting on the dock. Yeah. Okay. Good updates. Thank you, Mr. Whitaker. Thank you, Dad. Thank you, everyone, for listening. Thank you for... ...bearing with these... ...stragally ends to the show. It's one o'clock in the morning, folks.
We're very grateful to you for listening. We've got two more of these to go. I will speak to you tomorrow. This episode is brought to you by Starfield. Embark on an epic journey through space in the first new universe in over 25 years from Bethesda Game Studios, the award-winning creators of the Elder Scrolls V, Skyrim, and Fallout 4. In this next-generation role-playing game, you decide who you are and what you will become.
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