Hi, this is Billie Jean King. This is Marion Bartotti. I'm Matt's Vellander. This is Mary Carrillo. This is Pam Shriver. This is Yannick Noah. Hey, this is Mark Helman. Hey, Paul Helman. We're in New York City for the US Open. And you're listening to The Tennis Podcast. Hello and welcome to the tennis podcast on the final day of the US Open 2020-23.
You find myself David and Matt back at tennis podcast hours, which was quite frankly not plan A. Plan A was very much to record on site in the media garden, just as we did yesterday after Coco Goss famous victory buzzing and in the moment, however, as is apparently now customary on the last day of Grand Slam's The Heavens Opened and we got absolutely drenched. It's been it's been quite an evening. A second time in a day for me. So yes, a bit soggy.
When it rains here, it doesn't mess about, does it? And when you two walked into the media room, I didn't know whether it's a laugh or cry. Yeah, look, we documented it. Every misfortune is an opportunity for content here at The Tennis Podcast. So it's on our Instagram if you want to check that out.
But yeah, we did have a bit of a shit the microphone's moment to end our time on site at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center for 20-23, where Novak Djokovic has become a 24-time Grand Slam champion and a four-time US Open champion and lots else besides that's what we're going to talk about mostly in today's episode. Before we do that, a hello to Mark and Paul Hilman that you heard there introducing the show. We met Mark at the French Open earlier this year, didn't we?
And Mark has told us that he will be completing the fan Grand Slam with his 13-year-old son in Australia in January. And he booked that via AO Travel. Our partners for the US Open and I'll be telling you all about the incredible competition that we're running in association with AO Travel later on in the show. And of course, if you'd like to introduce a show, never want to miss an opportunity to promote this.
If you would like to introduce a show, or get a shout-out, or become a friend of the tennis podcast and get access to the two podcasts that we will be recording in New York after this one, one tomorrow and one on Tuesday. The way to do that is to become a friend of the pod and the link to do that is in our show notes now.
On to Novak Djokovic, a straight set winner over Daniel Mervedev today, avenging his defeat to Mervedev two years ago by a very similar scoreline, the oldest ever US Open Men's Champion, a 24-time Grand Slam Champion. I always panic about Djokovic's podcast, because what can you possibly say about the greatest male tennis player of all time that hasn't been said before?
I mean, I am officially out of Superlative's David, and I imagine you were as well during that one hour and 44 minutes second set that you commentated on on BBC Radio. There's not much new you can say about what he's achieving. It's another number, 24, in this instance. What he's doing, he's been doing for so long now, and he's doing it just as well as he ever has.
It is astonishing for somebody of 36 years of age to be able to do this and still have the same drive and perfectionism as Goraniv and Isovich that are called it in his press comments, which we can talk about a little bit later. But yeah, I mean, it's same old, same old, in many ways, he's the best, and they've all got to try to find a way to combat that.
The one thing that does interest me is that all three of their Grand Slam finals have all been straight sets and all kind of every one of them I thought would be a classic and didn't end up being. There was a classic set in this one, I mean, I've never commentated on the set that long before. That was even longer than set to against Carlos Alcras. But I am interested that they haven't materialised into classics where there are multiple sets.
These two have played fantastic matches against one another in the past, where they've both peaked at the same time in those matches. They just haven't been in any of the Grand Slam finals that they've played, I think, right? Yeah, I think that's very fair. I did thoroughly enjoy the second set and I'm sure most of our match analysis will be focused on that second set. There was quite a lot going on there both sides of the court. I saw David in the media canteen after that second set.
I was refueling quite no-why because after that second set I really did think that the match was probably going to end in three sets. Matt was refueling after an hour and 44 minutes of just sitting down and watching it. And David was refueling after an hour and 44 minutes of describing the whole thing. I was pleased to run into David because during that second set, exactly.
During that second set I was having these conflicting thoughts of so pleased, David, it's getting this good set to commentate on. And I'm sure he's going to be punctuating these really great rallies with the perfect commentary. And then I was also thinking, oh, that's going to take it out of him an hour and 45 minutes. So I was pleased to run into you. Make sure you're okay. You had a coffee, you had a cookie. I was pleased that you would do that.
Matt came back up, says, and said, I think David took the last cookie in the media rest. I didn't. I brought my own one down from town step from up step. But then I went back in and I had a whole dinner. And then I had one of those massive cookies. I found one of those. So next to the Till Mat, you were just looking in the wrong place. I was looking in the wrong place. I was going to find one. I thought, David's taken the last cookie, but I'm not going to hold it against him.
Because I've been sat down watching tennis for almost two hours. And David's been commentating on it. He is more deserving of it than I am. But yeah, I mean, honestly, even though at Jokovic is having to repeat himself, he started his speech on court by saying, well, I'm sorry to repeat myself. But I gave this speech in Australia this year. And I'm going to give it again, because I think it's really good and interesting. And it's like, well, yeah, like sure.
You're doing a sort of victory lap of the tennis tour. You're going to say what you need to say everywhere. And for us, it is hard to find new things to say. The one thing I would say is I've never seen Novat Jokovic serve in volley, so effectively. And that is a new element to his game in his 30s that he's developed. And I think he may well have developed it potentially with tonight's opponent in mind. Because it's suction-effective tactic.
I mean, Carlos Alcarez, we've seen him use it effectively against Medvedev. He struggled to do that the other night. But Novat Jokovic, you're actually lost his first serve in volley point, other match. And I thought, oh, that's interesting. He's tried it. Medvedev's wise to it. And then he did it on the very next point. It. And got it right. And I was like, that was fascinating. We've been in the first game where Jokovic was serving. He, there was, I didn't even was the first point.
I think maybe the second point in the match. It wasn't a serve in volley, but he approached the net and ended up losing the point. Lost the net point. Then the second, the next point after that, he served in volley lost the point. And the point after that, he served in volley again. And I felt like he was saying, I'm really not afraid. You won those two, fine, but I'm not afraid. I know this is the right tactic. I'm not going to be count, but this is by a couple of missed ones.
And I thought that was so baller from Jokovic. Real. I mean, he had champions mentality and then some. He won 20 of 22 serve volley points in the match. That's a lot of points. And I feel about that. I don't know where one thing ends. And another one begins because he was sublime on serving volley tonight. I felt like he did it at all the right times. Just the right amount.
The execution was, I can't remember a point where I thought, oh, he could have played that volley a bit better or, you know, that didn't feel like the right time to come in. That was all honestly perfection. But Mavada, I've didn't ask him many questions. Not only could he do two days before. Not anywhere near what he did two days ago. I mean, his passing game was extremely poor tonight.
I think execution and decision making will come on to the set point he had in the second set, but he picked the wrong way, didn't he? Should have gone down the line and he went cross-court. And Jokovic was, he made it look so easy. He was just there waiting for it, just middling it into the open court.
And I, I, I, I, I, not finally tuned enough to the intricacies of maybe there was percentages on Jokovic's serve that Alkaraz didn't have two nights ago that was preventing Mavada from doing what he did to Alkaraz on the serve and volley. But those serve and volley points from Jokovic looked how I was expecting a lot of the points to look two nights ago with Alkaraz.
Yes. And, well, and history suggests that that's what's helped Alkaraz to have this great record previously against Mavada and very one-sided matches. He, he, he, I think had a bit of, bit taken out of him by the Alkaraz match. He, he intimated that. But because he just, he didn't have the bite in his shot.
He wasn't as aggressive. And when we, we watched the whole of the 2021 final together last night, whilst we were just sort of doing a bit of work and, and it ended up being great preparation for me to just understand how Mavada had hurt Jokovic. Or be it Jokovic, you know, 17 hours on court on the way to the final versus 11 hours of Mavada, 15 or 15 this year. But it was a totally different approach then. It was a totally different approach.
I felt against Alkaraz. It was, it was just jumping on Jokovic. And it was the other way around in this match. He looked, he looked anemic to me in this match, Mavada. Now, I, I didn't, I didn't watch that match two years ago in the final from, from, from the stadium like I did today. I watched it from 5,000 miles away in, in the UK. We weren't able to be here because of COVID. And I, I am aware that your frames of reference when you watch in the stadium are different,
when you watch on TV. And that was something that we talked about with the writer, Gary Nathan, yesterday. And he put his finger on something that I quite often think about that, but, but, unable obviously to express as well as him because he's a brilliant writer. But it is, it's a very different experience in your frames of reference, so completely different. But against a non-power player tonight, I mean, no, Jokovic is capable of injections. He's not a, a weak player, but, you know,
it's not, it's not Ben Chalens' forehand out there, is it? I thought Mavada looked underpowered tonight. He didn't have the injections of pace. And I absolutely did not think that he nights ago against Alcharez. He had zip on the ball. There was penetration, even if there wasn't brute power and pace. There was bite, I think, bites are a great word. And it just didn't feel like that tonight to me. Strikes me, and I don't want to recycle a take that I used to have,
but strikes me that there's potentially a bit of pack hunter element here. Like beating Alcharez and Jokovic back to back, I think I perhaps underestimated the size of that task. Like, previously, if someone had just beaten Nadal and then had to play Jokovic, I would think, well, they're not doing that. You can't play two matches that well back to back. And I think it took, as David said, and Mavada hinted at it in his press conference, it took a lot out of
Mavadaev to put that performance in against Alcharez. And I saw that and thought, oh, that's how well Mavadaev's playing, he can do that again. But I think the reality was, that was his peak, and he came down off that tonight. I mean, he said he played what 12 out of 10 against Alcharez. He was 8 out of 10 tonight. If that, I was thinking 7 or 8, but nowhere near good enough to be able to beat. 8 out of 10 and he said 2, maybe. Yes, exactly. I had a bit of a
different reaction to you to you. I just never felt like Mavadaev was really there. Again, it was the feeling, like he was, he had more opportunities and he was hanging tough more and he he erased the errors that he was making in set one. But I still felt that way against about the bite on his shots throughout the set. It never was extending rallies and making jocquery uncomfortable. But I never felt like, right, peak, Daniel Mavadaev is showing up here or
is showing signs of a bout to show up. I always felt like it was making the best of a bad lot with a subpar medvadaev. Didn't execute when he really needed to. Never took it to him in the match. And actually, I asked him the first question, the press conference and I said, you know, when you analyse, would you have any regrets about set number two? And he said, yeah, I would. I mean, he instantly said, I should have gone down along with that back I'm passing shot for
the first start. Obviously, I should have won the set. I said, I should have won the set. And so there's loads of things I think he felt he could have done better. He said, I really see much point in analysing it because I know what I know about Junkovich plays like. I don't feel like I'm going to learn that much for the future, but he was clearly irritated at his inability to win that second set. But just one thing that did interest me was that he said, I was too stubborn with my return
position. I should have got closer to the base. And we just thought I could adjust the height of the returns or I was returning well off because let's face it, he was returning well enough against our crowds. It's kind of understandable if you feel you can get away with it. But if it's not there, you've got to change something. And we think that that's what Gilles Savara was shouting at him about at the start of the third set. Again, I'm going off reports online because we're in the stadium
and we're not hearing the on-court microphones. People watching on TV will have had a better sense of this than we did. But they speak in French to another, of course. And there was an extremely heated exchange between Mevletev and his coach, Savara. And it was Savara giving it to Mevletev. And I kind of love that. I think the power and balance in coaching relationships is often off-kilter. And I know it can be uncomfortable seeing Mevletev give it to Savara the way he does
sometimes. But I think it kind of works because Savara feels able to give it back when necessary. And I think he did tonight and by all accounts it was the return position that he was just exasperated with him about. But, but, Jochovic Savara great, Mevletev didn't serve great. You know, there were, it was interesting that there weren't, it wasn't about the numbers of double faults, but the double faults were so different to two nights ago. Two nights ago the double faults
were aggressive double faults. Tonight it was, you know, 85 mile per hour second serves that were missing sort of almost miss hit. It was, it just felt like such a different match for Mevletev. And of course so much of that is about the opponent, not that Algris isn't fantastic, but it's, he doesn't strangulate you the way that Jochovic does. Exactly. And I think Mevletev was quite flat
the whole match. Like I, and we've never seen Agro Agi Mevletev really against Jochovic. Like I, I think he knows that he can be a tough matchup for him, but there, there is almost, there's almost a complex that Mevletev's got, I think sort of mentally when he plays Jochovic, that he isn't going to be Agro Mevletev. And I think he, I think he maybe needed to be in that second set. He needed to show a bit more because he was right there with Jochovic,
isn't that set. And the, and the interesting tale of that set was what was happening to know about Jochovic physically. I mean, he was, he was shaking out his legs, he was collapsing after points at times. He was using a lot of ice at the changeovers, he was using the aircon that they get given and blasting it in his face. He was taking sips of water after points in the middle of games. Yeah, he was, I do believe he was struggling physically in that set.
And of course, whenever you see Nevletev Jochovic's like that in a five set match, you have to tell yourself, well, it's a five set match, he's an absolute master at these, and he will get a second wind, he will, he will, he will be able to power through this. And I was telling myself that the entire time. But I did think that if Mevletev could win that second set after, you know, an hour and 45 minutes, I did think he might get a payoff and a benefit
from trying to take Jochovic's legs away later in the match. But it all depended on whether he could actually win that second set. And of course, he didn't. And then Jochovic gets his second wind at the start of the third and pretty much rolls through that third set, one, one bad game aside. But there was a moment there when Jochovic's legs seem to be going. The fact it was against Mevletev made me think this is a big set for Jochovic's, because he is going to need his legs
later in this match if it goes deep. If that was happening against a player who he can generally beat a bit more easily than Mevletev, I wouldn't have been that worried for Jochovic's at all during that second set. But because it was Mevletev and we know what Mevletev's capable of, I did think that there was a premium on Jochovic's trying to win that second set. And of course, eventually he got it into a tie break and then there was this classic Novat Jochovic's, where he
loses the best point of the match, an absolutely epic rally at four all in the tie break. Mevletev goes five-four out and the stadium is buzzing at this point. It feels like a momentum shift, a game changing moment. Mevletev doesn't win another point in the tie break. And it was such a classic of the genre. Win Epic point against Novat Jochovic. Think that the match is going to turn and then he just is a mental giant, locks down, wins the next three points and it was kind of over.
Yeah, Mevletev knew to tune by the way he spoke afterwards that it was pretty much over there. He was going to still try, but how'd you come back from that? And Goroniv and Isavic gave the most wonderfully blunt assessment of the Wimbledon final and this in one am say. He just said, well, at Wimbledon, he lost the second set when it was like that. If he'd have won it, it would have been
three sets. Here, he wins it. It's three sets. Simple as that in Goron's eyes, he thinks that all the history on it, all the drama would never have happened at Wimbledon, had Jochovic won that second set. He may be wrong and he was keen to give credit to, he loves Alkaraz. He can tell that Goron really loves Alkaraz as well. He uses into the rivalry as we are and he wants to see that match. Well, he presumably spent the fortnight doing scouting reports on Alkaraz which he never got
put to use. That line about Mevletev knowing the match was over pretty much after the second set and we all felt that it was over as well. Leonardo DiCaprio left after the second set. I finally spotted where he was sitting which was quite near to us and was quite distracted by sort of watching him watch tennis and he jogged on after set to. My colleague Vasos, when he was on BBC Radio, we found DiCaprio one year and tried to doorstep interview him.
I can imagine how that went. Because he doesn't even sit down in the box because he doesn't want to be seen. He wears black cap, black sunglasses and tonight he was standing with two blocs in front of him on his tiptoes looking over them. What to try and watch the tennis because he didn't want to be on camera. I mean being famous is just crap. I don't have to check with Vasos but I think the answer was something like, do I look like I want to interview with you? Something like that.
Yeah, look, my eyes wondered during that third set to celebrity spotting because some of them, they do do a great job at the US Open of showing you people on camera and playing associated music where appropriate. They played some music from Hamilton when Lin-Mamanda came up on the screen. What else did they play? I can't remember. So just in Timberlake, I think, when he came up on the screen. It was very amusing that Virginia Wade was sitting right behind him.
Well, shortly before Virginia was shown on the screen, Timothy Chalemy and Kylie Jenner arrived to who were David's nodding. I am curious who they are. There are hot new couple, David. What did they do? They only went officially public about a week ago. I think this was their second public appearance. It was a big deal that they came today. Are they famous for anything other than being the couple? Timothy Chalemy is a Oscar-nominated actor, a young Oscar-nominated actor.
Have you seen Doon? Have you seen Pomegranate? I've heard of Doon when it was in the 80s. It was a version of that. Beautiful boy? I've seen beautiful mind. Kylie Jenner is a member of the Kardashian family. David, it's not who I thought Timothy Chalemy would go for either, but here we are. Anyway, I'm not judging. Anyway, they're both extremely famous. They're now an official couple and they showed up at the US Open but halfway through. I got the early word that they're
showing up at the US Open. Max couldn't even contact to work, David. They've got a new source. They had launched it. Their relationship, is that what they've done? We're just hearing about Max's source. Okay. My new source at People Magazine. No way. Hmm. Sports reporter at People Magazine. Honestly, it next to me in the press. If I know, it's a sports reporter at People Magazine was a job then I might not be sitting here.
She was living her best life. Anyway, Timothy Chalemy and Kylie Jenner come into the stadium and I spot them and I think, right, they're definitely being, whether they like it or not, they're being shown on camera at the next change of ends who pops up for Ginny Wade. Excellent. I loved it. She had no ideas. She was on the screen. She was just texting away. It got on for Ginny. It was brilliant. Anyway, what was I saying? I was saying
for the third set. I think you were going to get that. It's very pragmatic and realistic. We were all thinking it too. Is it a problem that Mephidaev was thinking that? I just like with Sabolei and Kalaasnay, I was disappointed in his resistance in that third set quite honestly. Yeah. I think, I mean, he was still trying. He was still, he is a winner, I think. He really wants to like, prolifically win tennis matches. That's kind of what he's always talking about. He plays all
the time. But I did feel like I didn't see any comeback coming there. You know, when Jokovic goes to his head to love down, I realized he's a different beast than a different level. He has different level of tennis in his bones. But it's just two stages of a five stage act at this point when it's Novak Jokovic. I didn't think Mephidaev really believed from there at all. Yeah. I don't disagree, although I would say out of the three sets, I think the third set was
kind of the most understandable in that he's just lost this one hour, 45 minutes set. Like, you have to be kind of an all-time great, I think, to be able to come back from there, two sets down again. Yeah, that's true. No matter how much Jokovic. I think Mephidaev would be very disappointed in how he came out in that match. He was not good in that first set at all. I think Jokovic played well, but pretty much within himself in that first set, he didn't need to dig deep to win it.
And then the set sort of locked down. Yeah, he was good. He was changing the direction well. He was hitting it up the line nicely and he was, as we said, certain bullying and at the net was good. And the second set, Mephidaev was a lot better for sure, but that was the set way he had his chances and he didn't take them, as David said, whenever he even the half chances, even the sort of 30-alls and he would miss a return. A lot of unforced errors, really. I kept thinking,
he's got himself in position. How has he missed that return? I kept saying it in commentary. How has he missed that Mephidaev doesn't miss these? Why is he missing them all? So yeah, I agree. I was a bit disappointed by the lack of fight in that third set. You know, he got it back on serve, he was gifted again by no match Jokovic and then he just gifted it right back. That was disappointing, but I think the match was lost in those first two sets, right? Yeah.
I agree, even if he had shown fight, I wouldn't have thought that would lead to anything. Yeah, set all would have been interesting. It would have been. It would have been. You just wanted to see him make that third set really united, fed stuff at the very least, and I think he just gone out there really. Can we talk about
just the res... There needs to be a new word for it, doesn't it? But the resilience of no match Jokovic is going back to that Wembleden defeat and specifically the fact that that Wembleden defeat burst the calendar slam bubble. I honestly really wondered if this US Open would be a 2017 Australian Open type situation for no Vat Jokovic.
You know, a random loss to Dennis' system in the second or third round, or I really thought that he might just not have the appetite to go to dark places and might need an offseason and a reset to get back mentally where he has to go to do what he does on a tennis court. To think that he's here just having shrugged that off. It's understandable, I think.
Unreal. That you had that reaction. I think if it were not for Carlos Alcras, I would be more inclined to think that that was going to happen because I just think Alcras has got him buzzing. And I think deep down, he would probably be a bit disappointed that he didn't get to play it. Even though he's won the title, even though he knows Medvede was really good, he loves it. He wants to come on, bring it on Carlos. You and me, let's just play every day.
Well, that's it. I think Cincinnati was big for Jokovic in that respect in terms of getting over Wimbledon. He got to play Alcras at his very next tournament. He beat him over four hours. I don't want to say reignited him because clearly he hadn't lost that fuel and that desire because it was there in Cincinnati at his very next tournament. The beliefs though are reckon. But I think the belief, absolutely. I think getting that win over Alcras on a hard core,
leading into the US Open, teed him up kind of perfectly for this US Open. And once the tournament started, I wasn't worried about him. But Gaurin said that Wimbledon never came up. When they went to Cincinnati, it was never mentioned. Very interesting, isn't it? And it is something he's done his whole career. Other than that weird patch in, as you said,
end of 2016, 2017, where he definitely did lose motivation. He has been astonishingly good at bouncing back from disappointment or getting revenge on players who've just beaten him. He's so good at that. And in many ways, it makes total sense that he's won the next tournament after a kind of heartbreaking Wimbledon defeat. You always mentioned that. 2015. 2015. French Open to Wimbledon bounce back. It struck me as remarkable at the time. He finally was in a French Open final, not against
my father Nadal, desperately trying to win the career Grand Slam. He won the first set, I think, against Wimbledon. That match. It was all set up for him. He loses. And he's in tears on the court afterwards. And his very next tournament was Wimbledon. He didn't play a grass court warm-up. He won Wimbledon, beating Federer in the final. I just thought...
With Federer playing Wimbledon. Federer playing Wimbledon. We were talking about last night, that semi-final against Murray, that Federer played is probably some of the best and has ever seen. And yet, and or everybody assumed myself included that Federer would take that on. A bit like mehverdevin, a way. Take it on now and give it to Jacovitch. But Jacovitch,
you use the word resilience, Catherine. It is mind-blowing how resilient he is. How he finds a way to reset in his own way it's an adult skill of putting the past behind you really quickly. He does it in a different way and not quite so... It's a calculated way, like a process, but bloody hell it works. Can we talk about the white 24 t-shirts? Wimbledon left over? That is exactly what I was going to put to you. They have to be right.
Surely. They had those radio Wimbledon. Why are they white? Yeah, I think they're probably well. They were like jackets and they all had them on, didn't they? The term in family members. Stefan is little son, had one on. Gauron had one on. I was thinking, God, they'll have worked hard to get Gauron in that. A notice he came into his press conference without it. It's a conversation we often have. The grand slam
garb that never gets to see the light of day. We've heard about a couple of items that have been produced for players to celebrate massive moments that never happened. It's like drafts in your tweets. Tweets in your drafts, isn't it? It's just not one of those things that we ever get to see. But I mean, yeah, they were straight out with those. I remember when Raffa on the dial won his 21st slam in Australia last year. He wore a T-shirt that had said Raffa and it had a 21 sort of
sort of etched into that Raffa. And the 21 was in orange as though it was ready for Roland Garros the previous year. It was clay. It was a clay themed shirt. And he reused that in when he got to 21 in Melbourne the following year. And I think I think know about Jacović has reused and recycled his 24 jacket that was ready for Wimbledon. I mean, eco. Absolutely. People are doing their feet to stadium. Stadia's
it's the least that LeCost can do. We didn't touch upon Coco Gough's team T-shirts yesterday, did we? No. What was it called? Call me? Call me on the words of Call Me Coco. Because when she when she first erupted onto the scene they had T-shirts, didn't they call me and then Call me Call Me Coco because Call Me Coco because her real name is Corey. That's it. But was there something crossed out? Was Corey crossed out? No, no. Just call me Coco.
Yeah. But in this one they crossed out Coco and replaced it with champion. Champion. Look, I don't love these things. I don't really. I understand why they're doing it. Yeah. And it is just a thing that everybody does. Yeah. I like that it exists for fans to have. Yeah. Like if I was a big co-worker of a golf fan, I would want a call me and a new website. I think that would be great.
And I would want a if I was an event, a joke of it's fan. Like to like tall merch. Yeah, it's the whipping it out and just something about knowing it's in the bag the whole time. From there to about 28 of them in a bag today. Yeah, I, I don't know. We were talking about this yesterday and I desperately now want to know if there was a Casper Rude World No. 1 to be fair to ask you. Such a good conversation to be able to about.
What are you talking about? Which one's a somewhere that we're talking about? I want to go to a museum of sporting artifacts that never were. I want to do a show on it. I remember in the Bundesliga last year, Dortmunds were all set to win the title over Bayern. And they had their champion t-shirts out. People were wearing them to the game.
Then they lost and didn't end up winning the title. Yeah, there were Dortmund fans wearing those like people with them 23, 24 season full of shirts of Mietro on the back too soon. Or it's like people who... Damn, he's laughing. He's laughing. People who do a tattoo of a player who then gets sold to them to the nearest rivals. I mean that's always a risk isn't it? Sort of serves you right. Yeah, it's like if
Vandrosa had done the tattoo before the final. And then last. There was a guy at my school who's birthday was January 31st, which is transfer deadline day. And he very proudly came in once with his Andy Carroll new cast of shirt bought for him on that day. And that was the day he signed for Liverpool. By the way, slight tangent. You know how Ones Jiber has the trophy and so forth on a screen same. And yesterday we had Coco Gough saying I don't, I would banish thoughts of myself with the
trophy whenever I would have them. I'd quickly try to erase those because I think it's problem. It's interesting, isn't it? Is visualization of holding a trophy good or is it actually maybe in Jiberse case? Was that the problem? Yeah, I mean psychology is such a complex thing, isn't it? I mean, I think the answer is horses for courses as boring as is that is. It depends where you are, mentally and emotionally how developed you are. What kind of trauma and baggage you're
or you're carrying around? Yeah, one person's visualization is another person's, I don't know, sort of I feel like I've quoted this in all sorts of other, but another person is a dream alive, if it don't come true type type situation. And there's a lot of that in sport, you know, one person's delusion is another person's self belief. Where does... And actually just to bring in the line. Bring in it back to Jokovych, maybe of all the things
that he does well. It's approaching these occasions and delivering. Not, yes two years ago, we saw this Medvedev match again last night, he just couldn't quite cope. It was too much, he'd been expended too much, he got two worked up and he actually made a big point of how that was his goal to not get so worked up. And he's come on a lot in those two years, I think he's
mentally stronger now than he was two years ago. He's beefed himself up, he's muscular now, he's feeling that shirt in a way, we were really taken aback by how scrawny he was in that final two years ago. And I don't know, he could be getting better. It's going to turn eventually, obviously, age will defeat him eventually or bring him down. Just don't know how long that's going to be. I think we're definitely in for at least another year, maybe two years of him
and Alkraz just go in at it. I do find next year particularly interesting because it's an Olympic year and that's particularly interesting for Jokovych because it's pretty much the only thing missing from his trophy cabinet. Go ahead and say today he wants to play L.A. 28. Bloody hell. He'll be his forces. We all laugh but he didn't seem like he was making it up. I don't know. He says you'll have to ask him. When he was asked how many more could he say
that you'll have to ask him but I think he'll be playing for ages. Was the gist of it. I mean, okay, can't quite process that. Looking at Paris next year, I mean, how does that change his year? Because it has to be a massive goal, right? Massive, massive target. I think you'd be targeting a calendar slot. Again, why would he not be? Those are the two things missing from his trophy cabinet record, not cabinet. Record list, record collection. I don't know.
So I think that's what next year will revolve around. It'll be interesting. Let's say he wins Australia and Paris, which with Carlos Alkraz on the scene, I know is a huge if. But then he's got this sort of grass court straight into Olympics back on clay situation to manage. I don't just, it just puts a really fascinating extra complexion on 2024. And I love it when the Olympics
matters to players and it's not just a nice bonus that they'll have a go at. And I have to think that that will be as much of a priority for no matter how much of it next year is anything else. But he does turn 37 next year and I know he keeps defining a defying age but at some point, at some point it'll start to come to bear. And that's effectively an extra ground slam next season, isn't it? It's amazing. It's like you had any serious injuries apart from the elbow.
He had like lower body injuries. He never has knee injuries or anything like that. Or he had his hamstring issue in Australia and muscle problems. But I mean most of these players, by this age, one of their joints is starting to wear out. He said something in his press conference after the semi final, which I didn't take too much notice of at the time. But it's quite interesting now just thinking about it in terms of next year with the Olympics of complicating and jamming up
the schedule. He said, I don't know how many years I have ahead of me. I don't know how many of the years where I play four slams in the whole season. Do I have in front of me? And he may well have been talking about, you know, he might be injured and miss a slam. But it would be interesting if, I agree, I still think calendar slam, he's going to be thinking in those terms. I mean, why wouldn't he be? He's just gone what, 27 and 1 in slams this year? He probably thinks he
can turn that into 28 and 0. But it, you know, we saw Federer towards the end of his career cut out. The clay court swing and focus on the grass. Like, I've never really considered that with Jacob. It's just because he's always been chasing slams and he's so good on all surfaces. It doesn't feel like he needs to do that. But I wonder whether next season, I find it very hard to think he would let go of a slam to play the Olympics. But I don't know.
It might be something that as his creative elements, it might be something that he thinks about. For sure. Yeah. And it has to eventually. And he's already really slimming it down, isn't it? I mean, like he only played Cincinnati before this one. He doesn't play grass court warm-ups. He only pretty much plays Rome these days, doesn't he before the French? And yeah, I mean, he's definitely cracked it to a large degree to be coming in as fresh as ever. But this is a new
one. The Olympics is another element altogether. And that'll be on clay at Roland Garros, right? So that's an interesting switch. That's sticking that between Wimbledon and the USO. Absolutely. It's quite a clay-gross clay hard in the space of six weeks. It's not nothing. It makes it just a really interesting story to follow throughout the year. Absolutely. Can the years start now? I know there's still some of the 2023
teniseys in still to go. And we will get pumped about it when the time comes. We're going to be back with you in a week's time doing a regular weekly show talking about Davis Cup Ties coming next weekend. And I'm very glad we're doing that because otherwise I'll have the post-Gran Slam Blues. But it feels like a long time to wait before the next slam, doesn't it? Yeah, I mean, when you go Paris Wimbledon, New York, when you get to the eve of the French Open and suddenly
realise all of this is coming and it's in this three month period, four months period. It's just amazing. And there are two quite big gaps between the next ones. But at least teniseys ones are quite long. Rather than the golf majors which are four days. True. And we have, we've already started making plans at the Australian Open haven't we? Oh yes. Biktor accommodation, looking at dates. Can you tell we can't quite wait for the Australian Open and if you would like to go
in style AO Travel can sort you out. They operate the official travel programme for the Australian Open, the first Wandslam of the calendar year in Melbourne. They take care of everything for you. Everything but the packing, flights, premium accommodation, tournament tickets and behind the scenes experiences which now include of course access to the AO Travel Lounge. They even have walk on
experiences onto the actual Rodlava Arena. Plus we have a five hundred Australian dollar discount code for AO Travel Lounge packages available to all friends of the tennis podcast yet another reason to become a friend of the tennis podcast. And the link to do that as always is in our show night. So to celebrate the launch of the AO Travel Lounge one lucky tennis podcast listener will be winning big folks. They will win an AO Travel premium lounge package for yourself and a friend
to visit the Australian Open next January. You'll get two return economy flights to Melbourne, tickets to the Rodlava Arena over the middle weekend of the Open. Three nights accommodation at the five star Pullman on the park hotel in Melbourne and two day access to that incredible AO Travel Lounge. You can enter the competition today by clicking the link provided in your show notes. You have until Monday the 18th of September at 11.59 pm New York time to enter terms and
conditions apply very best of luck. We also have a live show coming for friends tomorrow. Today potentially as you're listening to this we'll be recording it right here in tennis podcast hours at 1 pm New York time that is 6 pm UK time 10 am East no 10 am West Coast time we're on East Coast time and that is exclusively live and will be available as a podcast but exclusively available
two friends of the tennis podcast we've got a guest editor in place that is Phil. Matt's been in touch with Phil with all the brilliant questions we've gotten he has been curating them and all of our guest editors do an incredible job with that so we can't wait and that will be tomorrow as I mentioned earlier we have our next daily show coming a week tomorrow we'll be reviewing the Davis Cup qualifiers taking place over next weekend and we also have a very special announcement for you
regarding a live show towards the end of the year I am I'm traveling back to my hometown. I'm going to be Jenny from the block for a couple of days David we're going to Shrewsbury yeah why don't I say it like that I was going to say hang on a minute oh my god it's Shrewsbury Matt and I had a big conversation yesterday saying I'm so I said I said I say
Shrewsbury Shrewsbury interchangeably I don't know how to pronounce that word and knowing Catherine is is an expert I lived there for the first six months of my life I'm all over it I consulted you and you confidently said it was Shrewsbury and now you just said Shrewsbury I've got
the Yips it's Blake Shelton all over again when I was little I used to think it was Shrewsbury and now I say Shrewsbury but I don't know which one's right either and what I do know though is that we are going there and we're going there on Wednesday the 18th of October for tennis podcast
live so you could be in the audience as we take your questions and have a good old chat and it's not just Shrewsbury picked out of at as a place to go they actually stage a W100 tennis event there and your ticket will include court side seats for a Kraken doubles match that they're going
to have on on that evening on Wednesday the 18th of October you'll then get Shrewsbury or Shrewsbury style street food yeah I'm telling you it's nice it's it's a really top not stuff what's the local cuisine of Shrewsbury you'll find out but I'm I'm assured by Dave Cortean who's one of our
listeners and friends of the tennis podcast and who runs the most fantastic tennis event there that it's blooming nice and it's all part of your ticket so you get to see some tennis you get to have some brilliant street food and whilst you're sitting waiting for us to come out
for tennis podcast live so you could be in the audience tickets are on sound now and as a friend of the tennis podcast you'll also get a 20% discount code if you get in touch with us friends at tennispodcast.net if you'd like the discount code and we'll also stick it in a newsletter
in a few days time and general I'm very excited about Shrewsbury street food yes and camera my Matthew revival of King of the 90s it's next incarnation is he looking for a bit of a rematch I think I'm making him look for a rematch King of the Noughties I wrote hell yes
I don't know whether I want to change the criteria but you know I'm happy to take him on yeah Matt and I are the games masters so watch this space folks what are you us open I mean not necessarily in terms of matches I don't think we probably
probably should front up about that it's it's been short-changed it's been on the duddish side matches wise obviously there's been the odd one like they're all ways is but realistically I don't think we're going to look back on this as a classic are we no I don't think so matches wise
there's there was women semi final night which I don't think were great quality matches but they delivered a lot of drama and intrigue cocoa gaufe winning the title is obviously narrative wise just extremely special no at jokovic winning 24 is is a massive story in the sport as well but
yeah honestly a shortage of great matches I I said this the other day I feel like I haven't in the first week I didn't feel like I watched a huge amount of tennis in person because you know I'm always watching my screens when there's so much going on and I will suddenly decide to go
out to a match that's really great and there was a lot of occasions where I thought I'll go if that happens and it never never quite happened it never quite ignited most of the time but you know maybe it was a tournament when narrative took over from matches and that's fine you know we're
lucky we get four of these a year and we've had three already this year which were filled with great matches your big viewers won a rave of predictions didn't even come true Matt she teased and teased you she reached the doubles final with Laura Seagmund and then they lost in the final
match to Gabi Debrowski and Erin Rauchliff 7663 for Debrowski and Rauchliff incredible result for them I I was going to find it funny if Laura Seagmund and did not believe I said the trophy after all of this I sorted that would have been the virus yeah there's not say champions ball is there
you're so can you imagine if Seagmund did one and then had to sort of share that space we can go go go again oh yes congratulations to the ball ski and Rauchliff we had the conclusion of the singles events for all of the wheelchair tournaments today you'll be unsurprised to hear that did a
dirt fault one the women's wheelchair singles title that is has sixth at the US Open which is outrageous she's only 20 she's only 26 years old I mean look look look at Stephanie Day these these players you know fitness permitting King I'm on for a long time and she's already one
six at this slam alone 20 overall Grand Slam singles titles it's it's mad it's mad what she's doing incredible stuff Alfie Hewitt one the men's wheelchair singles title beating his long-time doubles partner and compatriot Gordon Reed in the final 6463 it blew my mind David that this
was the first time they'd met in a Grand Slam final yeah I had a chat with Alfie afterwards and he did say that that they used to play in each other now even though the doubles partners they've they've got over though sort of slight awkwardness you might get and so forth but it was a big deal
for Gordon to get to this finally isn't meaning one of those for a bit but yeah that bookends the year for Alfie Hewitt who won the Australian Open he had disappointing time in the middle there with the French Open and Wilmwell they're not winning those and he's you know Wimbledon he's the one he
still hasn't won I asked a bit of a difficult question in my last question to him I said if I could just give you one tournament that you could win next year bear in mind it's Paralympic yeah what would you go for and he just he went around in circles about a Paralympic gold or
or or Wimbledon title and in the end he said a very very sensible thing and he said honestly I do I'm gonna look to dominate and I want to win them all no he said he said that was a he said that was a tough one anyway yeah that's what me for Alfie congratulations Alfie and the
final wheelchair result of the tournament was the quad wheelchair singles being won by the second seed over the first seed some showed a defeating Consumen Niels Vinc 6 3 7 5 that his second US Open singles title and here's 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8th Grand Sum singles title overall they've got a
great little rivalry those two going on yeah it's good stuff good stuff good stuff good stuff and that's it for the US Open 2023 and for the Grand Slam year 2023 as I say we still have our review show to calm we'll be recording that on Tuesday and we have our Q&A show that will be
recording tomorrow both of those for friends in the tennis podcast the latter the Q&A show tomorrow will also be a live YouTube show for any friends that want to watch it in that format and see our tired tired faces willow has been our incredible US Open mascot let's say a big hello and thank you
to willow willow featured prominently on our Instagram today and she is a hit yeah unsurprisingly great pics thank you willow we have our mascots I'm sorry Kath and this is a devastating show this is a tough portion look we tasted we tasted what victory might feel like and it was
so sweet and it is it is indeed the hope that kills and Zenia it was a valiant effort from us what ruined it well no that's a joke of it what was what needed to happen for Catherine to win Catherine needed four sets yeah any four or five sets any any result in four or five sets
in Catherine would have won if it had been mebbed Evan three then top folk and executive producer Drew would have won but because it was Djokovicson three then top folk and executive producer Hannah well done one congrats Hannah and fun group with the newsletter predictions this tournament
I've enjoyed being part of that WhatsApp group immensely so thanks to thanks to all of them that was that was great yeah well done Hannah David mazy right mazy I blew it sorry not as badly as Matt and Darwin yeah just disastrous year Darwin I'm sorry
Darwin switched to me this year in the hope of success and I feel like I've let Darwin down Darwin might be going for Catherine yeah she seems to be under the upward trend this is one tournament only Billy Jean is sponsored by Billy Jean King and Alana class Billy
Jean I'll be home soon cuddles are coming although she's absolutely not short of cuddles at all and frankly doesn't notice my absence but I notice hers so looking forward to not true um we have our top folks and executive producers Jamie and Drew thank you thank you to you and we have
our final US open shout out Matt we start with Karen Varley who is in Gernsey oh like dear friend and colleague Woolie Sarah Willand and I get the feeling Woolie knows most people in yes I reckon I reckon Karen knows Woolie I feel pretty confident about that yeah hello Karen
hi Karen Hatchinov Rinaldi is that right no that's Kathy I think that's not going very well is it only another drink I mean Karen is Hatchinov is yeah that's the correct answer that's the correct spelling yeah don't even need a
different pew okay thank you Karen and let us know if you know Woolie yeah thanks Karen only if you like her I mean how could you not I will yeah and if you don't know Woolie we'll put your intact well is it a lot yeah absolutely thank you Karen we've also got um well this comes
from Bethan but it's a shout out for her husband Adam who is in Melbourne in Australia and it was Adam's birthday on the 5th of September so a belated happy birthday happy birthday Adam Bethan and all of us hello Adam and thank you Bethan for doing such a nice thing for Adam
I feel like we've been in the situation of trying to think of tennis Adams before and I think we got sent one and I can't remember who it is sorry I must be tennis Adams there must be but we don't know any of them Katrina Adams I mean that's at this point that will take it that is
clutching I feel bad that I look it'll do I think there was a tennis player in the 90s called Chuck Adams so there you are thank you Adam and finally we've got Kristen who is originally from Long Island New York but currently living in Durham North Carolina all right Kristen Kristen Kristen all right Kristen different church different P Kristen says I love starting my day with the podcast and most often listen while driving into work if you're ever looking for a new merch idea I would infuse
yesdically buy and I'm listening to the tennis podcast bumper sticker oh that's cool very good idea that's a great idea Kristen Matt went to university in Durham different Durham but different Durham yeah what's the what's the church pew situation there same pew different
church I think yeah yeah which is which is odd but I think that's true thank you Kristen Chuck Adams is a former professional tennis player who won one 80b singles title and achieved a career high of singles ranking of world number 34 in 1995 he's definitely American wasn't he Chuck
oh that's impressive thank you tenuous but impressive thank you Kristen oh yeah thank you so much Kristen I can't think of anybody who's Kristen no but we've talked about Durham oh that's right we haven't let Kristen down too bad and a massive thanks Kristen massive thanks Kristen
massive thanks to all of our shout out friends our intro friends our pet mascots willow of course everybody that supports this tennis podcast in what we do without you without friends of the tennis podcast we wouldn't be able to be here we wouldn't be able to be doing what we're doing
and making plans to do more of it and making it bigger and better and doing is good a job of talking about this sport that we love for as many of you as want to listen and yeah it is it is heartfelt thanks to you for for making it possible and we hope you do enjoy the extra content that
you get in exchange and there'll be plenty more of that to come over the coming days and weeks so if you'd like to become a friend of the tennis podcast this is your last call to action and reminder that the link to do so is in the show notes which leaves me to say thank you David
thank you Matt thank you to everybody that is contributed to the tennis podcast over the course of the past two weeks there are so many people without whom we wouldn't be able to do this and it really is an incredible team that we have and thank you most importantly to you for listening
it'd just be us speaking into avoid without you so we thank you for it. Pike it was in 2012 so we thank you for for saving us from ourselves and we'll be back back tomorrow for friends and for real else we'll be back in a week speak to you then