US Open Day 15 - Alcaraz has final answer, Sinner seeks change

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Hello and welcome to the Tennis Podcast on the 15th and final day of the US Open here in Flushing Meadows, New York. A day that has seen 22-year-old Carlos Alcaraz lift. his sixth Grand Slam and second US Open trophy with a four-set win over rival Yannick Sinner. In so doing, reclaiming the world number one position. He truly has gone. from bald to blooming throughout i had to i had to throughout the course of what he himself has just described in a press conference we have just come from

as the best tournament that he has ever played. Before we get any further, thank you to Alex for introducing today's stat-tastic show. No pressure, Matt. And a very big happy birthday to David Law. Thank you very much. Yeah. David, my birthday gift to you, or rather maybe your own birthday gift to yourself, a while ago. was a correct prediction both ahead of the final and ahead of the tournament. You always felt like this was Carlos Alcaraz's title to win.

Was today the performance that you were expecting to see from him? Pretty much, yeah. Except I didn't see the drop-off coming in set two. I thought it might... I mean, I said four sets. but i was really my my sort of gut was telling me three sets because just of how convincing he's looked to me apart from semi-finals day when the standard Novak Djokovic freakout occurred, I actually have thought that he would win this title since the first game of the Cincinnati final. When he...

I think he broke serve in the first game of the Cincinnati final. And I accept that Yannick Sinnoh, we would discover within a couple of games, was short physically. But there was just something about the convincing nature with which... Alcraz was hitting the ball in the rallies with Sinner that day that looked a bit different to me. It didn't look like he was...

trying tricks. It didn't look like he was trying variety for variety's sake. It didn't look like he needed to fall back on the variety. It looked to me like he was happy to stand toe to toe with him and say I can handle you. And that's not to say that he would have done against a fully fit sinner that day. But that just gave me pause for thought. I thought, okay, I think

I said at the time, Alcaz is going to win one of these next two matches that they play at Cincinnati or the US Open, assuming they play both. And at the time... the sort of received wisdom and I think what all of us thought generally is that well Sin is the better hard court player so that doesn't seem likely and now he's just beaten him at Wimbledon and then when he shaved his head

I know it was an accident initially, but the moment he shaved his head and the way he was going about his business in this tournament just looked like a new player to me. It looked like something I've not seen before. Hang on, jokes aside, do you think the mistake with the machine...

Alvaro's mistake with the machine actually was a factor in Alcraz's victory here. I mean, I don't know what plan A was with the hair. I kind of would love to know what that was. But I genuinely think that it... focused his helped focus his mind everybody's talking about this hair and when you look in the mirror and see that hair how can you not be pumped it's just so crazily i'm bald i'm pumped it's marine like it's it's it's

I'm ready to go to war. I know it's an exaggeration, but in a tennis sense, I'm ready to go and battle. And I just think he felt business-like all the way through. You know what he's like, he's a little... cuddly bear of a man, isn't he? And he believes this stuff, I'm sure of it. He goes with his gut and I'm sure when he saw himself in the mirror he thought, I'm ready to go every day.

Bore out. Bit of a blow for the hard-hitting tennis analysis that Matt has inevitably prepared for this podcast. I've got some of that too, but no, I mean... That we're going with... I don't know, I was cooking up a sort of Carlos Alcaraz's tennis, the art, and Alvarez... the artist oh okay we're all on the same page yeah I just okay I mean I have thought to all the way through the tournament and there's just been little flickers

with Sinner, where I've been not entirely convinced in the way that I was at Wimbledon. It is gut at the time. I mean, look, your gut can be wrong. I've got loads of things wrong, as we know. But when we got to the... eve of wimbledon final i think we were all thinking cinema just looks the more convincing and and and also i do believe in this thing of

Who won the last one? What's the other guy going to do about it? And I mean, these guys, you know, will get onto the press conferences, but they have put that into words in a more explicit way than I ever thought I would hear.

It makes total sense to me when you've got two players that are at the stratospheric levels these two are, who have separated themselves from the rest. And I'm not going to include Novak Djokovic in that, because he's 38. He deserves a pass from that. The rest of them, by comparison... are duffers you know they're really really good players but if you're comparing like for like

These two have just separated themselves and they are judging themselves by each other. They are planning for each other every week of their lives. And if they can do that, then they can beat all the others because it's about this guy. And I just think that this is what's happened over the course of the year. They pass the baton on to each other because they keep raising the stakes.

My favourite thing is when David says Duffers. And listen, I know that sounds terrible, and people like Taylor Fritz and all the other players, they're really good players. Yeah, they're doing their best. It's just like for like is what I'm saying. I mean, we just had a look at the rankings and what is it, 5,000 point differential between the top two and the rest? I mean, what's that?

I just don't feel like speaking. David's just on such a role. Let's have David say Duffus some more. Yeah, look, I mean, I thought Alcruz would win today. I didn't feel like David before the tournament. I think I was more in on, you know, Sinner's just beating him at Wimbledon. Sinner's the best hardcourt player in the world. I thought coming into this tournament that Sinner would win.

As the tournament went on, I did change my mind on that, but I thought it would be closer than this. I was less convinced than you two that he would be able to do what David's described there in terms of going toe-to-toe with... with Sinner and beating him in that way without the spectacular. You know, Alcresa Tennis is always spectacular, but, you know, what I mean there is without that magic, without that stardust, no, you didn't need that today. This was just...

This was just the level that he's brought to this tournament and it was far, far superior. I think, you know, I'm sure we'll get more into the match, but Yannick Sinner wasn't quite as good today as I thought he was going to be. And I'm sure a lot of that is because of how good Carlos Alcres was, but I was expecting the Sinner that showed up for a run of games in the second set to show up a little bit more today.

But from an Elkraz perspective, you know, we highlighted it all tournament. The serve is what continues to just absolutely blow me away if Alex wants a stat. I'm going to give you a serve stat right at the start here. Every other slam that he's won in his career, he'd lost his serve at least 11 times.

Carlos Alcarez. Three of the slams that he'd won, he'd lost serve over 20 times through the tournament. He lost serve three times this whole tournament. And one of those was when he'd jarred his knee and kind of doesn't... count because he was he was panicking Pete Sampras is the other guy who has won slams only losing serve three times and Yannick Sinner had one break point today

Yannick Sinner won. Like, you know, we all went big on serve bot Alcaraz during the grass court season, didn't we? And it didn't...

Didn't quite come off for him there in that Wimbledon final against Sinner when we thought the serve was going to be massive for him. But all the development that he's done on his serve... throughout this season is coming to fruition in this tournament that was like the foundational block I think for his for his tennis and everything else which David's talked about flowed from there for me that would be my big one

one bit of important part of his game that was firing that serve. Unbelievable. 6-2, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4 was the scoreline. Four sets... matches can feel so different, can't they? They can feel uber competitive and uber close and totally in the balance at various different stages of the match. How much...

in the balance did this match really feel? I know this is easy to say in hindsight, but my feeling was that even when Yannick Sinner had won that second set, Alcaraz felt fully in charge. Like there wasn't... ever a moment where I didn't think Alcaraz was going to win this I know that's easy to say in hindsight but that was my read on the match how do you feel about that

My sense is I did feel that it was in balance because of the scoreline at one set all in as much as I really expected Sinner not to win that second set. When it started off, the manner in which he'd manhandle Sinner in the first set, 6-2, and he'd done it by saying, come on, toe to toe.

Let's play Yannick Sinner tennis, shall we? That wasn't a misleading scoreline. 6-2 was, if anything, flattering to Yannick Sinner. He dismantled him in that first set. And that wasn't just about the serve. That was, let's go toe-to-toe and see who comes out on top. I'm ready to do it. And actually, the biggest concern I had in that set on Alcaz's behalf is when he played the most worldy of low backhand drop volleys that one of the best shots I've ever seen.

And it was when he was already 3-1 up and... and i think he went to love 30 and he hit this shot this stop volley off his ankles off a missile and he just turned around and he smiled and he just you saw him mouth wow it was just an amazing moment and then he lost the next three points

and he lost the game. He was only 3-2 up. And then he held for 4-2, and I thought, OK, he's fine. And then he went toe-to-toe again, and he won the next two games. It was an amazing spell of tennis. Probably the best tennis... that I've seen over the course of an entire set from Carlos Alcaraz. The tie break at the French Open will always be the moment that I think we look at and think that, OK, we're now playing a different sport altogether. But that...

is a 10-point tie-break. This was a set of 6-2. The second set, he started off the better as well. I mean, he was putting pressure on right at the start of it, and then he just started to lose his way a bit, and the big thing was that Sinner decided to...

to really go after his shots. And with every shot, it was almost like faking to making. It was almost Tim Henman's stuff with the clenched fist because after every single point he won from the first game onwards, he was turning around with his fist clenched. looking over at Darren Cahill and Simone Vagnotti and looking even over at Carlos Alcres, I think, and trying to say, I'm here. I'm not going away. I'm coming for you. And I thought, fair play to you. He's not going to lie down here.

It was almost like the first set, Carlos Alcraz did a Yannick Sinner impersonation, and then the second set, Yannick Sinner did a Carlos Alcraz impersonation, because he even did... finger celebrations to the ear it was like he was trying to get something else out of him some adrenaline whipped up and at that stage at once at all he's lost his first set of the entire championship outcast and i did think okay i've

and maybe have gone too far with this, and maybe this just becomes another one of their classics. And then Alcaraz won the next five games. And the match was over for me there. Obviously, he's about to go to... two sets to one up but it just felt like Sinner was almost having to do the pulling rabbits out of hat stuff that his opponent does because the base game that normally dominates wasn't quite there.

Yeah, I agree with that. I did feel that one said, oh, like this was in the balance. But those five games that David references went by in a flash. Alcaraz went up five love in that third set. And at that point, it felt like he had such authority on the match. Alcaraz. It was a strange match because I think if you look back on it, if you watch a highlights package, it will look phenomenal.

There were some absolutely stunning moments, particularly from Alcaraz. Sinner had a couple himself. But what I think makes a great match is that...

Those shots need to happen when there's jeopardy in the scoreline. That was what was so incredible about that French Open final. As the match got tighter, the shots got... better you know the tennis scoring system provides the framework for the drama of the match it's like you always say if it's one o'clock in the morning the tennis is going to be great right because it's it's deep in a fifth set and all that kind of thing whereas

What I think was slightly lacking from this match as a spectacle was that as soon as someone went ahead in a set, there was no break back, you know, like the first... break in each set ended up being the decisive break and it you know Alcrest broke multiple times in some of the sets and raced ahead but it kind of like there were these great moments in terms of tennis but there weren't these there weren't very many

what felt like pivotal games and pivotal moments in the match. I don't know, it just... It left me wanting a little bit more in that sense, but I think that's just because... Alcares was too good. Like, this trilogy of Grand Slam finals they've played now, Sinner was too good at Wimbledon. The French Open, they were both unbelievable.

And today, Alcaraz was too good. And that's kind of how we ended up with this four-set win. I really enjoyed the highs of it, but as a sort of... guy who wanted a really competitive let's see them both pushing each other to to greater and greater heights. I just felt like we didn't quite get that one from this match, but that's fine. It was still better than a lot of other grandstand finals and still like...

The electricity and the level they were bringing was just so different to anything else in the men's draw that we'd seen all tournament. It still stood out to me. Yeah, it looked like a different sport to anything else we'd seen in the men's.

men's tournament thus far they are they're playing a different sport these two and yet this wasn't this absolutely wasn't a classic i agree with you i think if you're catching up with this and you watch the highlights i think they will probably be quite misleading in terms of how it felt to be there and look there are a lot of reasons why today was a bit weird and we'll come on to those but just in terms of the match

I was kind of struggling to make cohesive sense of it all beyond the point of what Alcaraz is just playing unbelievably. Yeah.

But the press conferences that we've just been to, Carlos Alcaraz, Yannick Sinner and Juan Carlos Ferreira, David, who came in to kind of help fill the time while we were waiting for Carlos Alcaraz. Thank you, Juan Carlos. They have really helped me make sense of this match. They were some incredibly illuminating press conferences. Well, one Carlos Ferreira said in a question I asked him about...

what they did after Wimbledon because I was pretty shook by that Wimbledon final. I was taken by how comprehensive that win was. I know it's four sets and our crowns won the first. But he was 4-2 down in that first set in that Wimbledon final. And he kind of reeled off four games of genius in order to win that set. But he was never convincing. He was never his best self. And I thought Senna was awesome. And just...

dissected him really. And I did wonder after that, now what does Alcrast do? You know, what does Juan Carlos Ferrero do? you know where'd you go from here you've just you've shared these two grand sum finals but the one you won you've kind of pulled out of a hat because you were going to lose that one as well and the one you've lost you've got pretty comprehensively beaten

And now you're going to play on Yannick Sinner's favourite surface. And he's clearly the favourite. So what did they do? Well, Juan Carlos Ferreira said, we went straight out there. Because I thought they just had a holiday. But no, he said we spent 15 days planning for the next time we played against Yannick Sinner.

working on things, looking at his game, working on things specifically for this one player. And look, I'm sure by doing that, you prepare yourself for everybody else because Sin is so much better than all of them. So if it's going to work against Sinner, it'll work against the rest of them. And I think that is so interesting. I don't think I've heard too many... I don't think I've heard, probably aside from Federer, Djokovic, Nadal, maybe. players talk about a specific opponent.

Tiquito Oda. Tiquito Oda. Talking about, yeah. It's what it made me think of. That's the only other example I can think of off the top of my head. I'm sure Chrissy Everton, Martina Navratilova were like this. That's the sort of rivalries we're talking about now. And it is kind of damning. For the rest of men's tennis, isn't it? I'm just going to train for this guy. Those duffers. Yeah, the duffers. Everybody wants to give due respect other than me. Everybody wants to give due respect to...

to the rest of the field. And Al Kraus was asked a question in the press conference about how different it is playing Sinner to playing everybody else. And he could feel himself about to maybe say something that might be considered disrespectful to them. And he pulled himself back. And he really didn't want to do that. And the rest of the field don't deserve that in that. But look...

We also can't paper over the cracks of the fact that these two are way, way better than all the others. Let's not pretend that's not the case. So Ferrer has laid this out and... I then did try to say, can you tell us what you decided were the things that you needed? And he said, no, I'm not going to tell you that. Simone might be watching, he said. Look, I completely understand that.

And then Carlos himself came in and I tried to put the same question to him. And I said, when did you first start to think about Yannick and how you're going to... figure this out because one carlos had explained to us that you went straight out to work on it and he said oh as soon as the match was over as soon as the match was over i was already thinking about what i need to do i had a holiday first for a week but then i then i got to work and i just thought

isn't this great we're finding this out but what yannick sinner told us was even more shocking right because it sounds like he is right now or was in that press conference exactly where Carlos Sánchez has just described to us that he was after the Wimbledon final. His press conference was extraordinary, Yannick Sinner.

It really was, because he was asked quite a generic question about the future of the rivalry with Carlos Alcaraz. Yeah. And he went in on a... Softball question, Yannick. Here you go. And... I think I may have looked down at my phone or something, thinking, oh, this answer won't be all that interesting. But no, he just went into great detail about his own game. describing it as predictable, and talking about...

the fact that he needs to be more unpredictable as a player. He said he needs that against Carlos. He needs to be prepared to lose to become a better player. He wants to try stuff out. And it was really, really fascinating stuff for a guy who has been, you know, a pretty dominant world number one to have won so much over the last... couple of years to be talking like that about his own game really did emphasize the effect that I think this match

in the moment had had on him, where he just realised he was well short against Carlos Alcarez. And, you know, I'm... I'm not... convinced that he needs to do the wholesale changes that he's talking about there like I think there's a very clear decline in one shot of sinners over the last few months or so and again I'm going to sound boring but it's the serve. He was at 48% on his serve today.

first serves in. And the final set was even more spectacular as a differential between the two. Alcaraz was at 72% and... Sinner was 36% first serves beer. And like... Literally double. That used to be a... edge that Sinner had over Alcaraz you know his serve was such a foundation it would then set up the rest of his game it's the other way around at the moment you know Alcaraz is serving better it's setting up the rest of his game and I think

We all probably think that Alcaraz, yes, does have more in his game. Variety, changes of spin, changes of pace. So it's kind of even... more important therefore that Sinner gets his serve working because he can't fall back on the other stuff quite so much like yes I think some added variety would be helpful for Yannick Sinner but I I do think he, to some extent, he's already brought that in, but he was sort of saying that...

He wasn't feeling confident enough with it through the tournament and he wasn't using it like serve and volley or drop shots and therefore he got to play in Carlos Alcaraz today and he didn't... feel like he could bring any of that out because he hadn't been using it he's not feeling good with that element at the moment and therefore he was quite

predictable, and he was, but I kind of think at his absolute best, in his predictability and his repeatability and his reliability, is his biggest strength and his edge over Carlos Alcaraz. The fact that... He can keep hitting these laser ground strokes with such pace off both wings, backed up by a good serve.

OK, it won't always be enough to beat Carlos Alcaraz, but at its best, he will beat Carlos Alcaraz. It was interesting that he was having such seemingly existential doubts about his own game. He was having an existential crisis about his... game, Yannick Senna. He wasn't sort of... He wasn't devastated and emotional in the way that... Also outwardly emotional in the way that Amanda Anderson-Mova was yesterday in press or the way that...

beaten grandstand finalists sometimes are. Emotionally, he seemed very controlled. He's Yannick Sinner, you would expect that. But in terms of the way he was talking, it was like, I've got to hit the panic button. Yeah, it was... He said... He said, I'm a very solid bassliner, a big hitter, I'm a good player. That elicited a laugh from the room, like the way he said, I'm a good player. Kind of in a sort of slightly ironic, like, I'm good, but I'm not good enough. And everyone was like...

Mate. You're Yannick Sinner. It was almost like he was jealous of Carlos today. Yeah. And he wanted to be like him. And... um and i do think that that was his version of a real emotional reaction to today and and they're sort of looking at himself as if i'm rubbish i'm nowhere near as good as him you know look at all the stuff he can do i can't do that i want

be able to do that um i i do think it's listen it's straight it's straight after the match we've always got to factor that in and i do think he's fundamentally wrong because I don't think what he's, if he's serious, I think he's going to be disappointed because he's not going to be able to turn himself into Carlos Alcres. Not the way Alcres is.

kind of being able to turn himself into Yannick Sinner today. It's easier for somebody with that array of skills, if you can get the right mental approach, to lock down and do one thing a lot better, serve and be more solid from the baseline than it is.

for a player who's a great baseliner well the best baseliner as a just a standard baseliner like Yannick Sinner is to suddenly expect him to be able to do all the stuff that than our crowds cannot have that degree of variety maybe maybe maybe that's not what he's seeing maybe it's a maybe it is more incremental than that really and i think the incremental changes

would make sense to be a little less predictable. And I already think he's added those things to his game over the last couple of years. But come on, Yannick. You know... I know this head-to-head looks like Siena has a problem with our crowds, but it really doesn't feel like that. One of them was a retirement. Another one, you had three championship points.

He often looks like he hurries Alcaraz to me and causes Alcaraz trouble. I just, I loved the line. I'm prepared to lose some matches in order to become better at sort of this variety. I kind of want to see that happen because I think it would be just a fascinating experiment, but I don't think it's necessary. I think you just need to get your game going again, sort your serve out, make sure you're fresh and fit and...

Ready to go. You're going to lose some of these against this guy, sure. But come on, you're right there. Yeah, he had a line towards the end of the press conference saying... secret is patience and I think that was just a little way of saying It's not going to be a big change quickly. He had a funny quip about that, saying he's not going to be a lefty in Beijing, which was very amusing. But I think what he was getting at there is, yes, he is going to make some changes, but...

There might not be changes that you can really tell he's made unless you've got a very keen eye. He mentioned the serve again, didn't he? He said a couple of tweaks on the serve which can end up making a big difference. I think that is going to be a real... area of focus for him but it really was fascinating there's back-to-back press conferences illustrating the various ways to which the other is has lived in

In the other's head. I've never seen cinema like that before. Really interesting. Is this a new level that we can reasonably expect from Carlos Alcaraz? from now on in terms of this consistency the way he answered that question about it was put directly to him is this the best you've ever played and there was no pause and well it was yes

And unequivocally, yes, he was busting to tell everybody, yeah, this is the best I've ever played in a tournament consistently. And I'm really frigging proud of myself for that. Is it reasonable to... expect this from now on from Carlos Alcaraz at Grand Slam level or was the way he played this tournament for you specific to the circumstances or more specific to the circumstances?

The reaction to Wimbledon is what I think has triggered it and the rest he's taken after Wimbledon which I think was very sensible to just freshen himself up mentally and then to go again and to be just this dedicated. But I also do think something Juan Carlos Ferreira said is also fair comment and stands up to scrutiny. He's getting a little older. He's maturing. He's learning.

about himself and about circumstances and situations. He's blooming, David. He's blooming. I am still worried, maybe irrationally, but I am worried about the number of exhibitions that he signs up to. You signed up to the... the Saudi Arabia one. He signed up to one in December. Laver Cup's kind of an exhibition, you know.

I don't think you need to play all these things. And I worry that he, for his sake, that he gets injured or he gets burnt out. But, you know, look, I was saying that a year ago. gone pretty well this year hasn't it so my expectation more is that he comes out with this massive target to the question that you asked him Catherine about wanting that career slam and he was

Quick to say, look, it doesn't have to happen next year. I just want to do it one day. But he's going to be jumping out of his skin trying to win that Australian Open. Yeah, he said, it's my number one goal now, but it doesn't have to be next year. I think what he was trying to say is, it's not about beating Yannick Sinner. Yeah, it's not a race. It's not a race. Although it is a race. I think it was basically like, we're both going to do it. It doesn't matter who does it first, but...

He was trying to be respectful. I would quite like to do it first. Clearly he'd love it. He's desperate to do it. That's what he wants. In answer to your first question, I do think that this can be a more new normal for him. I think he's liked the consistency that he's shown. Yeah, that's what I think.

The fact that he's enjoyed clearly taking such satisfaction from this consistency, from being a little bit more boring, proving to himself that he can still have fun and still take... the enjoyment that take what he needs to take from the sport doing it this way you know he was so pleased but he was he was one of the first questions in the press conference was about how

Juan Carlos Ferreira, who had been in just before him, had described it as the perfect match today that he had played. He was so pleased to have pleased Juan Carlos Ferreira in that way. It was a really sweet moment. He's taking so much pleasure from all elements of this. I think that's real nourishment for him in terms of like a new template of how the sport can be for him.

Yeah, he's always been this incredible blend of someone who is absolutely desperate to win, but also absolutely desperate to entertain. There are examples of the former, there are examples of the latter. But getting that blend is so unique. And it seems that the game style he was playing... this tournament is compatible with that. So I absolutely think he's gonna want to keep this up. I think from a...

You know, from a US Open perspective, it's quite interesting that this tournament, he's barely played night sessions. You know, that was one of our big concerns about Carlos Alcaraz here. We've seen him not have his best stuff in the night sessions, in the big matches. Here he played quarter-final in the day, semi-final in the day, the final now is a day session. I feel like we didn't quite get that.

test of him. I'm sure he would have passed it. He was so clearly the best player in this tournament. We did get indoors, which was interesting. We got indoors against Yannick Sitner. We got sleeveless and we got indoors. Those are two things ticked off. And he got a win over...

Novak Djokovic on a hard court for the first time. So look, he's absolutely proved himself. But I just wonder going into Australia, you know, whether that's going to be a factor that we're thinking about again, you know, when he plays those latter... stage matches can he can he be as focused can he be as controlled in those in those night sessions I think he can but it's it's just a little something in terms of the big picture

race that isn't a race to complete the the career slam what's interesting is obviously they've gone two and two now over the last two years they've split the slams Senna and Alcaraz and the one that Sinner needs is the one that Alcaraz has won both times in the last two years, the French Open, and the one that Alcaraz needs is the one that Sinner's won both times in the last two years. So it really does feel like...

they each need to break serve, right, to try and complete that career slam, which I think is also what's made this summer interesting. Because if you'd said to me that... Sinner would win Wimbledon, I'd have been surprised. And if you'd said that outcryers would get the US Open on the hardcourt, I'd have been surprised. And I think...

The rivalry is in a good place because it's not like they're just doing the things we expect them to do. You know, they're constantly responding to each other and improving their games as a result of it and proving that they can beat each other on every surface.

comparing it to Fedor Nadal back in 2006, 7, 8, which is kind of what it feels like a little bit in terms of this duopoly.

That was much more for a long period. Federer's winning on the grass at Wimbledon. Nadal's winning all of the matches on the clay. And maybe they're not going to meet in that many hard-court finals because Federer's so... ahead and other players can beat Nadal that was a pattern for a few years and it took Nadal winning at Wynwood in 08 to break that and throw the whole thing open and then obviously Djokovic comes along but this rivalry is already

open like I really think they can each beat each other on every surface at every event and it does leave us in a really enticing place With those two. Because I think our point about the bigger picture of men's tennis does stand. But as long as Sinu and Alcaraz are there, we are going to be left with...

A fascinating plot line, I think, kind of going into every slam and at the moment at the end of every slam as well because they just keep meeting. I mean, as you say, it is the second consecutive year that they've split. the slams between them. It's really hard to see that not being the case for the foreseeable, right? I know there's probably some recency bias in there, but like...

Do you see this going on for a while? Yeah. I mean, look. You've already said duffers. I know I'd had a few drinks that night when I said 12 in a row back in 2023, but he's won five out of ten.

And between them, they've won nine out of ten. I know I didn't know cinema was going to be this good, but it's actually not quite as absurd when you think of it in those terms, because I think that they could... if they stay fit i don't see who's stopping them at the moment i think it's going to take somebody else but injuries can happen and likely will happen But I don't see them losing their motivation. I don't see them losing their ability, their focus, any of it.

So, yeah, I think that this is going to be something to get used to. Do you think Al Graz will do it in Australia? I've already said he will. Him and Svantec will win Australia. I said that months ago. You don't feel as strongly about the sort of sinner ability to respond in a way that you've described the Alcaraz ability to respond post Wimbledon.

Oh, listen, absolutely. I think he will respond. But Alcres will still just have enough. Listen, it could easily go the other way. Sinner could easily win that tournament. I would strongly advise against trying to overhaul your game, Yannick, as a way to do it, because you just don't need to. Yeah, double down on...

making plan A even better. There's nothing wrong with being a bassliner, Yannick. He sort of spat it out in the press conference, didn't he? Like, I'm a really good bassliner as if, like, you know, the way people spit out the word, the way the Labour Cup... spits out we're not an exhibition it's okay there's nothing wrong with being an exhibition it's not a dirty word again I haven't even had any beers and I'm a bit high on Alcaraz so that

that can account for some of what I might be saying. And there is a recency bias to things because the moment that Wimbledon ended... It really felt like Sinra had got hold of him, even though the head-to-head said something different. It was only when I saw Al Kraz again the next time, even in that just first game of Cincinnati, and I thought, OK, I just feel like I'm looking at something different here.

So we'll see what's next. And look, Alcaraz has just navigated this period of the season much better this year than he did last year. I know last year had the Olympics and that threw a real element in. Now I think the challenge for him is to navigate this end of the season where he's never really looked himself, has he, in the latter portion of the season, in the indoor swing.

And then figuring out what best to do as his preparation for the Australian Open. I think Sinner likes the indoor swing. He sort of keeps up the momentum post the US Open. I think he also... has kind of just really figured out how best to perform at the Australian Open, clearly. He's won it the last two years. Like, he's, I think, from that sense, he's got nothing that he needs to really change, Sina. Alcraz has got...

This has traditionally been his weakest time of year, the next few months leading into the Australian Open. And the Australian Open is clearly his weakest slam. So game-wise, I think Alcaraz now seems like he's got the edge. But like, just... knowing how to perform in Australia and bring your best and be ready for that tournament, Sinner's kind of got the edge. So right now I would probably go Alcaraz.

to win Australia in a way that I think before I would have said sinner. But it's so close. It's so hard, isn't it, to see what you've seen today and just not pick Alcoraz to win everything, right?

That's the bear trap. That's the feeling it gives you. Incidentally, the clang that you probably just heard, there have been slightly softer clangs throughout the show, but that was a pretty dramatic clang. That is the sound of the... Pretty extreme airport-style security that we've had in place today here at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre being dismantled before our eyes. This has been a big...

feature of today, of the final day of action here at the US Open. We were warned about it in advance. We knew this was going to be the case because of the president. attending the tennis today as a guest of Rolex in their suite. That obviously comes with major, major security implications. We saw the trucks arriving last night. We saw them putting up.

the airport-style security just on the main forecourt of the US Open in front of the Arthrasch Stadium by these sort of iconic fountains that you see. It was a pretty dramatic... an arresting site as we were leaving last night seeing them put that up so we kind of knew on paper what it meant we all made very

unusual arrangements in terms of leaving all our laptops here at the Tornham. We were told to travel very, very light today because of the very intense... bag searches and security that we'd be subjected to actually we all got in we arrived early we all got in fairly smoothly relative to to what we might have been expecting that wasn't the case for an awful lot of fans that came to the tennis today at about...

1.30 in the afternoon. The final was scheduled to begin at 2pm. At about 1.30, the start time was delayed until 2.30, and then there was a further delay announced until 2.37pm. I don't know. I don't know where they came up with the specificity of 2.37pm, but I could see on the build-up coverage that I was watching how slowly the Arthur Ashe Stadium was filling up.

how much time it was taking to get the thousands and thousands of people that we could see filling that forecourt through the security gates and into the stadium. And that is the only entrance into Ash.

anyway you know it's it's always a bit slow getting into ash because you've got what is it over 20 000 people going through one entrance a large entrance but one it's not like there's entrances at all corners of the stadium and suddenly you had that number of people having to go through that entrance with incredibly enhanced security it was always going to take much longer to get the people into the stadium than it normally would and it just

did not seem like they had accounted for that. It was a mess. Yeah, it was a disaster. I mean, thousands and thousands of people that had paid thousands and thousands of dollars missed at least a set. of this final. Now, I know the USDA didn't invite the president to the final today. Rolex did, and of course they made accommodations.

you know for for a whole bunch of reasons they're not going to block that that happening but it happened and it was it was a disaster for a lot of fans I mean I spoke to I bumped into some lovely listeners who were on the barge and have had a shout out and who were in great spirits. They weren't... They didn't come over to me to have a moan, but I asked them about their experience of the day, and they had each paid $2,590.

to sit in the top bowl, in the loge level, which is the same level I think that the media seats are in, the upper tier media seats were in. And they got in two games into the second set after having arrived at about 1.30pm. It's... it was a catastrophe today you know i went out matt and i at first weren't given a media seat a lot of white house reporters were here today and a lot of the seats that

well, a lot of the media seats were allocated to them. No additional provisions were made for the political reporters that come with the president attending an event. The USTA communications team did eventually come through for us and give us a pass, but at first we didn't have one, so I went out and got a flavour of what was going on. out here during the opening set here in the concourse. And it was pandemonium. It was a disaster. It was chanting. It was unrest. It was grim. And look, I know...

I know not everybody will feel the same about the president having been there today. But, David, you were in the stadium when he was first presented to the crowd, albeit a half... empty stadium because half the crowd were out here in the concourse as planned as we reported yesterday he was shown during the national anthem and you gotta

flavour of what the reaction was. Yeah, I just stepped out the commentary box to try to see with my own eyes and listen with my own ears because I didn't really know what the TV... company was going to do the production arm of the tournament here, whether they were going to, I don't know, maybe mute the crowd a little bit or something like that. So I went out and had a listen.

When he was shown during the National Anthem, I mean, like you say, there were a couple of thousand at that point in a 24,000-seat stadium, and there were boos. There were quite loud boos. Not everybody. Some people, one or two, were cheering, but the vast majority were booing that were there. but it wasn't that loud because there just weren't that many people. However, contrary to what was expected...

The anticipation was that he would only be shown on screen once during that opening ceremony. But a few games in, at a sit-down, he got shown again for quite some time, picked up. put on the big screen for quite some time when the place was fairly full by then and it was i would say 80 booze it was loud and it was clear um

And it was quite an arresting moment. And listen, I heard that through my, I don't know what it sounded like on TV, but I was listening on the radio of our BBC Five Live coverage. And so that was coming through the feed. So I could hear it on there. And I would assume, therefore, people could hear it on TV. But yeah, that was loud. And I'm sure a lot of people were thinking.

I've missed a set because of this, so I'm going to boo because of that. But I also think, look, a lot of people let their feelings known from within this city about how they feel about how their country's being run.

Yeah, and obviously I understand not everybody feels the same way, but a lot of people will have felt like that was a significant cloud over today. It was certainly... a significant feature of today however you felt about it like it was undeniable these these these two athletes being being made to wait before i mean there were It eased as the match went on. But at times in the build-up, it felt... You could almost forget that there was a tennis match about to happen. Like, it felt...

Not even secondary, it felt tertiary. It felt like a footnote to the circus. Oh, absolutely. It was all so distracting. I think it was a... massive embarrassment for the tournament having to move the start time of the final extremely late notice my heart was breaking for those fans stuck outside you know like you might get one chance to come to a Grand Slam final you know like I think

We can probably be guilty of taking going to tennis for granted, but we hear a lot of stories of people who are here for the one time and something they've been desperately looking forward to and they've spent a lot of money on. The experience was ruined. Look, I know that I'm sure Alcraz and Sinnoh, when they got in their seats, they would have made up for it to some extent, but not fully.

Like there was a lot of people there who had their day torpedoed by that. And yeah, it was pretty grim, actually. Personally, I found it really hard to get into the match. until about an hour in and when things had settled down and you could tell that the stadium was filling up. It was a really tough scene. Yeah. Honestly, it was a tough day for a lot of people with a few saving graces. Obviously, Carlos Alcraz and Yannick Sinner being a biggie.

The fact that the trophy that was placed in front of Donald Trump turned out to be a fake, a sort of shiny toy for him to... have at his disposal that was also a great moment and of course the final most important saving grace was the moment we found out that bruce was here

We were on the subway on the way in. Guessed Bruce Springsteen. I still don't think people are getting... No one gets it enough. How iconic it was. Make them get it, Matt. Well... I went to a couple of Bruce's shows this year and he started those shows by saying America is in the hands of a corrupt, incompetent, treasonous administration. And then he carries on throughout the entire show, slamming that administration and curating a set list on the Land of Hope and Dreams tour. And then...

He's there in the stadium when Trump's there. Like, it was just remarkable. Like, he just couldn't let Trump have the stage, you know, and you know that Trump was raging. When Bruce got shown on the big screen, there were cheers. Courtney Cox came over, of course. That was iconic. Having been in the Dancing in the Dark video, like, my guy. He just showed up. Not when Amanda Nissimova was playing. He was unavailable. He was unavailable. Yeah. Yeah. He's the boss. He is the boss, yeah.

Incredible. Shaggy also there. Shaggy and Sting, the duo that nobody knew they needed. Yeah, well done, Bruce. Big moment. That is it for part one. Join us in part two when we look ahead a little bit. It's time to level up your game, introducing the all-new ESPN app. All of ESPN, all in one place. Your home for the most live sports and the best championship moments. The electricity is palpable.

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Welcome back to part two of this final tennis podcast from the US Open 2025. Let's talk about what we have coming up, folks. David's giving me a look of like... more podcasts. I've got the bandwidth to remember what it is. If Dave is looking like that, we're all in trouble. Yeah.

Shall I tell you how in trouble we all are? We will be back next Monday, the 15th of September. You've got a week, David. Yes, I'm ready. Is that enough? I can do it. Okay. Monday, the 15th of September, live on YouTube. Oh, no, it's all... Nowhere to hide. To launch and look ahead to the Billie Jean King Cup finals, which take place in Shenzhen, China, from Tuesday the 16th to Sunday the 21st of September. You might have heard this week.

As reported in the British press, Emma Raducanu has withdrawn from the Great Britain team. But Jasmine Paolini will be part of Team Italy, defending their title. Madison Keyes is down to compete for the US. It should be a good field. event that we we love and we enjoy supporting yeah it is and you know even when you maybe don't get the biggest names at the team events all the time

It always feels okay to me because it ends up unearthing other players and the team spirit and we find out about a few different players. Listen, team competition...

Playing for your nation never gets old, really. Even if I feel like it should be on a higher stage and in a better spot in the... calendar often and and you you should have all the players supporting and and why don't they make more room for it in the calendar and all these things i wish it was all better than than kind of it's treated at times by tennis as a whole but i still look forward to it

wait to cover it yeah very well said so that'll be next Monday the 15th of September live on YouTube 8pm UK time that is 3pm here in the US East Coast Trying to get back in the UK groove. I think you've nailed it. 3pm East Coast time, and that means midday West Coast time. I've... I've... I've taken myself down a rabbit hole here. I didn't intend to. You're all over it. That's our next...

main feed podcast which will be live on YouTube before then though to help you with the Grand Slam Blues we have several shows planned for friends of the Tennis Podcast subscribers in the next few days we'll be posting our US Open review show featuring voice notes from some of our very favourite contributors. Those are some of our very favourite shows to produce, sort of our opportunity to reflect on these major tournaments.

in a big picture way that we don't necessarily get to do when we're kind of in pumped reactive mode which is which is brilliant and fun too, but there are other ways to look at these Grand Slams, and these review shows give us the chance to do that, also with the benefit of the jumping-off point of these.

These voice notes that we get from some incredible people that are very generous with their time and energy. They sure are, and they... allow us to think about things that we've not thought of or think about things in a slightly different way yeah we always get incredible contributions to these shows and they make them Fun and easy to record and I think I think these ones are popular with friends

So that'll be coming this week. We also have our happy hour show, a new edition for 2025. It's essentially the best bits of our US Open fortnight put together by the brilliant Vicky Spreadbury. That'll be up this week as well for friends. A little later than scheduled, but absolutely worth the wait. Coming soon will be Pam Shriver relived. And the story of her run to the US Open final here in 1978 at the age of 16. And everything... that came after it we'll hear from pam herself and and we've

We've heard a preview of this. Pam, in conversation with the two players she faced in the final two rounds, Martina Navratilova and Chrissie Everett. Trust me, you... Don't want to miss this one. So to gain access to all of those bonus shows, plus our whole back catalogue, we do eight new Tennis Relived shows each year, Grand Slam Review podcasts after every major, and a live Q&A stream.

every month you can become a friend of the tennis podcast to get access to all of that by going to tennis.supportingcast.fm tennis.supportingcast You can also find the link in our show notes. I probably didn't need to spell that out for everybody. I like it. Better safe than sorry. get a pre-sale window to our live audience shows, access to our incredible writer Hannah Wilkes and her monthly comment and her monthly column and access to The Barge, our online community message board.

safe, special, heartwarming space for tennis fans to exchange their views about the sport. It's been an incredible thing to see flourish. over the last couple of years. So tennis.supportingcast.fm for more or the link in our show notes. And speaking of tickets to our live audience shows, folks. Do you fancy a trip to Wrexham? Of course you do. If you want to see us live, then the final opportunity to do that is in Wrexham, Wales, if that's...

That's not obvious. Wrexham, Wales, on Wednesday the 22nd of October. Tickets are now nearly gone. Yeah.

Better be quick. They've flown off the shelves thanks to considerable promos. But they are nearly gone. So if you want to come, get in there quick. Friends of the Tennis Podcast, buying a ticket to the show. Also get 50% off tickets to... the W100 tennis event being held in Wrexham during the week and that's a great show put on by Dave Courtine up there in Wrexham and it's a great thing to support as well so we'll pop the link to that

in our show notes which brings us to our incredible mascots phoebe maizey and roger thank you for your unwavering support through Each of our mediocre performances in the predictions this fortnight, none of us have covered ourselves in glory. I think it's been just about respectable. But no one's excelled. To me, my predictions...

run is a bit like my golf game. It doesn't matter what happened on the first 17 holes as long as on the 18th I hit one good shot that I remember and that's kind of what's happened in the last 24 hours. Understood. I hope to soon feel that way about my own golf game. Hello and thank you to our top folks and executive producers Greg, Chris and Jeff. We had another lovely visit from Chris today. Aww.

How lovely. We did. He's a lovely man with a lot of very interesting insight as well. Thank you, Greg, Chris and Geoff. Thank you to The Athletic. We are, of course, part of The Athletic. podcast network and it is a great pleasure to be so for our first US Open as part of the athletic family which leaves us just to thank our incredible team without whom we really

couldn't do what we do. We actually used to do this without them and I really don't know how. No clue. What on earth were we playing at? So thank you to Hannah, Vicky, Gorona and Jib for... truly making this possible and making making our mental health possible I think honestly you are all the most incredible team and we're so lucky to get to work with you all sorts of hours of the day and all sorts of different time zones. Yeah, thanks to them, we're a real 24-hour operation. We can...

We can actually go to sleep and stuff is still happening. Hannah's on the boat. She's making clips. Vicky's making Instagram carousels. She's doing a lot of admin for us. Goran is helping out with those. Instagram carousels she's designing the newsletters and then there's Jib who is editing these podcasts and just generally being a legend yeah and also planning

Planning trail runs on the side. And not getting arrested. Yeah. We love you all. Jib, we're a bit obsessed with you. And they're all so fun. Yeah. Fun. Fun is the absolute key. You cannot do three weeks of a, as much as we love this, you cannot do three weeks of Grand Slam finishing at three o'clock in the morning without fun. You have to find it funny. Yeah.

it has to be silly so we are tremendously grateful to all of you for doing just that we're tremendously grateful to all of you for listening because if you weren't we'd just be three fools talking to ourselves at three o'clock in the morning I'd be up for it but this is better So honestly, thank you ever so much for listening, for supporting us, for saying nice things on the barge about us if you do that for generally.

being there with us along the way and making this all worthwhile. We're very grateful. We will be back next Monday. And before that, for Friends of the Tennis Podcast, one last time from New York for 2025. Thank you for listening. We'll speak to you soon. Popsicles, sprinklers, a cool breeze. Talk about refreshing. You know what else is refreshing this summer? A brand new phone with Verizon.

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