US Open Day 3 - Gauff survives, but for how long?

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Well, hello and welcome to the tennis podcast on day three of the US Open, where you find us in the media garden approaching 11pm with, of course, a tennis match just getting underway on the Arthur Ashe Stadium. and one having just

finished. A three-hour thriller between Coco Goff and Isla Tomljanovic won eventually, and at times excruciatingly, by Goff. 6-4, 6-7, 7-5. A real... museum exhibit of a Coco Goff match I feel like David if your grandchildren your future grandchildren one day ask you what was Coco Goff like as a tennis player you might just be able to stick that match on whatever YouTube exists at this point in the future and over the course of three hours they will come to understand. Yeah, it's summed up.

Everything that she is really, the good and the bad. I mean, mostly good because she's one of the great competitors I've ever seen pick up a tennis racket. She's one of the great athletes I've ever seen pick up a tennis racket. And yet she remains... a top player who plays more bad tennis than I think any that I've ever seen really and I mean really top player.

And I don't mean that in a disparaging way, and I'm sure that some might take it that way, but the truth is she has glaring weaknesses in her game that she's just... been unable to iron out of it to this point and she's had another one rear its head on the eve of this tournament she's talked in the aftermath of this match kind of about the stress and the exhausting

nature of trying to deal with it in her on-court interview there. But the bottom line is she's got the job done yet again. And how many times have we said that? We've seen a win two Grand Sam titles where that has been the kind of...

feature elements of the journey and here she is again getting through somehow. Yeah, we'll talk about the... the nitty-gritty of it all and obviously a lot of focus and attention on Coco Goths serve tonight but just kind of big picture Matt like how different was tonight or not from Coco Gough to the winning ugly that we've seen Coco Gough do en route to Grand Slam titles in the past? I think that's a really good question because I went...

into this match really expecting it to be a bit different because of all the talk about the serve. I was thinking what is that serve going to look like? I felt like I'd be thinking about the serve the entire match. And that was very much... the story of the opening stages of this match where in her first service game she got broken she didn't hit her first server over 90 miles an hour there were a couple in the 70s she was just rolling it in

And I thought, wow, OK, we could be in for a very, very difficult night for Coco Gauff on serve. But actually, as the match progressed, her serve speeds remained down, quite significantly down. But she only hit 10 double faults across three hours. This was a very, very long match compared to some of the numbers we've seen of double faults. It was relatively fewer.

from Coco Gauff tonight. The serve wasn't really a weapon like it can be. It does look like she's in a sort of intermediary stage with it, where she's just trying to make it and work through it. But... There were other elements that were very much like past Coco Golf matches where, you know... The forehand would sometimes break down, but then at other times she was having incredible long exchanges with Tomjanovic and the forehand was holding up. There were...

very traditional Coco Gauff elements of the movement, getting her out of trouble and coming up with blazing winners on the run, including fantastic backhand down the line to actually win the match. These were very Coco Gauff things. I think what... was perhaps a bit different from Coco Goff tonight was that she didn't play all that well in some big moments you know like the end of the second set I really felt like when she had

5-6, love 30. I really thought she was going to close the match there. She played a really poor second set tie break. These were things I wasn't expecting from Coco Golf and maybe our...

illustrative of the fact that she's having to think a lot on court at the moment. Mary Crillo in the World Feed commentary was doing her excellent Nick Politieri impersonation and... saying what you know what he would used to say is don't think you know like thinking is such a enemy for tennis players and I think Goff's got a lot in her head right now something that she's chosen to take on

the week before the u.s open she's very aware of what she's doing here with gavin mcmillan but she said in that encore interview she hinted at kind of the stress and the the frustration i think that is in her mind at the moment because she's having to think about a lot and maybe just in some of those big moments, there was a lot in her mind. I thought Tom Janovich played a pretty good match considering where her form has been for a while now. It was a dangerous opponent for her.

Lots of traditional Coco Gough things as you said, but just that That really big moment in the second set surprised me. I thought she was going to wrap it up in two. And even in the third, when she was a breakup, it never really felt like she had the match under control. She was always vulnerable. So I don't know if I've answered your question there, but that was...

Definitely elements of traditional Coco Gauff matches we've seen, but with some slightly new things as well. Did we, and by we I include Mary Carrillo in this, because I know you watched with her... with her commentary lucky you i i had my own dose of mary carillo commentary earlier in the day and it it's going to sustain me for the rest of 2025 it was it was that good um did

Did we see any technical changes to the service motion other than that she was obviously not hitting full pelt? She was obviously taking a cautious, conservative approach to serving.

That was the main one I noticed. Yeah, it looked to me like the same. But I think that was, you know, she was doing that as a result of the fact that she was... kind of rolling it in a little bit more she wasn't collapsing on it because she wasn't going for it quite so much which we can only assume look as it stands at the moment golf hasn't come in into press obviously when she does we will

We'll let you know news of that. We were deciding whether or not to wait until after a press conference to do this pod. And Matt said, there are plenty of pods. There's always another pod. Anything urgent, I'll put it on her Instagram. Obviously, whatever she says, we'll cover it in tomorrow's podcast. But, yeah, I mean, look... You can see from the stats that she was taking massive pace off that server. Her average did...

Her average speed did increase a bit over the course of the match, dipped in the second set, did end up at 96 miles per hour, her average first serve speed. She upped the pace a bit in that deciding set, but that's way down on where she would usually be. So she's obviously sacrificing the highs to protect herself from the lows as an interim measure, David, on serve to stop the hemorrhage.

you know stem the flow of double faults which seems sensible but it's obviously not the sustainable long-term solution that she's brought gavin mcmillan onto the team to do yeah i think it's probably just not the tennis she wants to be playing but it is a way to get herself into rallies without clocking up double faults i mean as you said 10 in the match but

over three hours i mean she she's been putting not far off 10 in sets at times sometimes more than that on really bad days and a baseline game is still absolutely world-class yes there is There is a forehand issue at times. But, yeah, she was sustaining those forehand exchanges against a player really going after her forehand and trying to break it down. And for the most part, it was standing up. So I guess the view is, well...

Make sure you get into rallies because you're still a brilliant bassliner. But to have to go three hours with... with not one of the very best players and only just squeak it out and having made such a fundamental overhaul of her backroom staff in the week before the US Open because of a specific... and, like, the most important shot in the game in many ways. You can...

She wasn't trying to hide the stress she was feeling in that interview on court. I felt for her. This has clearly been a lot. She's exhausted already. The reaction... The immediate aftermath of the match was fascinating, I thought, because she celebrated like she'd won the US Open. You know, that was the Coco Gough we...

We know, and it was a very dramatic match point, wasn't it? And obviously it felt right on a knife edge, right up until the very last moment. She'd already tried and failed to serve out the match, went back to five all, she broke again and had a second. and bite of the cherry when she which she did eventually take but it really was in the balance right up until the very end and she

Roared, you know, huge, huge moment when she leapt into the air. And I know Mary gave it the big one in commentary. It was a huge moment. And then so quickly, she looked sad.

Like in that on-court interview, which was a good interview, good questions, you know, the crowd were with her, the crowd were into it. She looked concerned and... sad very very quickly and you saw some backstage images of her getting onto the the exercise bike in the gym backstage where she seemed to continue to look pretty sad yeah she she's made it very clear in all the interviews we've done with her over the years in press conferences we've seen her after a lot of sad

defeats and she doesn't hide how much it means to her i just think her performances and her success and her career you know she puts such a lot into it and she's at kind of one of the the biggest tournaments in the world for her maybe maybe maybe the biggest and certainly the one that she won two years ago and everybody's looking at her and she's come out here and she's

She's tinkering in this manner with her game and she obviously just hates that feeling. That's what it feels like when you listen to her. And I was struck by what you said about how she seems a bit... exhausted maybe mentally because I had this feeling throughout this whole this whole match like can't believe this is only round one you know the sense of occasion that there was tonight the the intensity of the match the nerves i think on display the

quality at times it felt to me like a you know middle of the tournament maybe even second week match in terms of like stage i found it enthralling i loved it i really want to get that across that i had a great time watching this match But then to see that Gough is feeling like that at the end, that's another point that it didn't feel like the first round. It already feels like she's done.

So much work like tonight in the in the build up to the event I just in terms of like where this leaves Coco goth I just don't know how many More times she can do that. I mean like I know that she's got an incredible quality to be able to get out of these sorts of matches but when she's playing like that she does tend to eventually lose.

Yeah, I don't know. I find it compelling. And also, like, there's this whole thing, isn't there, with Gough where I don't think she necessarily wants the night session slot. You know, like, I think she'd be pretty happy playing in the day. She always says she likes playing in the day. And you use her physicality in the heat and not that it is that hot at the moment, but you get more off the ball probably. Yeah. And that kind of thing.

And yet, she's so obviously the biggest star of this tournament, the biggest, you know. player for the USTA. She's primetime. They call the night session primetime. Right. And she's that. And they want her in that slot. And yet it comes with a heightened... Every 7pm night session slot on Ash is heightened. I suppose in some ways there's parallels to when she played that opening round night session match against Siegmund.

a couple of years ago and ended up coming through it, but it was a bit of an ordeal. It always is with Siegmund. Ask Dana Schneider. as the tournament went on okay she didn't always play her best tennis in that tournament but it wasn't like that again so maybe that will be the case again here but it feels like she's battling something a bit different this time um yeah as always coco goff

compelling yeah utterly utterly enthralling yeah all of it absolutely all of it she's she's gonna get asked a big question and a different question in in the next match, isn't she, against Donna Vekic, who has power that Tom Ljanovic doesn't and weaponry that Tom Ljanovic doesn't. She's a great absorber of pace, Tom Ljanovic. She was dealing with the...

the depth and heaviness of Goff's shots really well. I think she's a very up and down player. She wasn't having a lot of ideas out there. Donna Vekic doesn't move as well, but... she's going to be able to go hard into the goth forehand, which is what Tomljanovic was desperately trying to do at the end there. You know, there were no secrets to the tactic. It was just, she wasn't trying to move her. She was just...

hammering into her forehand hitting zone. And Donna Vekic is going to be able to do that with a bigger, flatter hit. And also with the ability to then switch it and go down the line, which Tom Ljanovic clearly felt uncomfortable doing. She tried a few times, but that's not her game. Her game is more backhand heavy, but such was the onus on... going into the golf forehand and probably the safest shot for her was the cross court forehand. She kept doing it.

Vekic likes nothing more than to stand in the middle of the court or maybe a little further to our left so she can run around it and hit the big forehand and just bludgeon either way, frankly, and that's... That's danger times for Koko Goff. I think Goff has the ability to move her. And if she gets her on the run, she's going to have a massive advantage there. But a good Donna Vekic.

is a problem for Coco Gauff in this form. And she'll love the stage, she'll love the occasion. I don't think she'll be bothered by the New York crowd being against her at all. Like, I expect Donna Vekic to show up. and come to play for this match. And I know she's coming in here unseeded. She's not had half the season that she had last year. She's kind of got no form at all. But I do think today's win over Jessica Bouthas-Monaro is...

Pretty significant for Vekic to feed off in terms of confidence going into this match. I can't wait for it. It's going to be night session, isn't it, two days from now? I'd have thought so. Yeah, it's a mouth-watering match when you consider... Exactly what you've just described in terms of what Vekic is capable of there. Big win for her over Brutas Monero. I thought Brutas Monero would win that.

Pam, I know, went out and saw the closing stages of that and was impressed with what she saw from Donna Vekic. And, yeah, that word you use, stage, like, you know, we know Gough likes the stage, but Vekic, I think, will... we'll get up for that. And, you know, we might see a much better Donna Vekic than we've seen this year. And that's, yeah, that's dangerous. I suppose the only competition for that women's night session slot might be Naomi Osaka.

who, David, you watched win tonight on Armstrong, in the night session slot on Armstrong, 6-3, 6-4, over Gruet Menon. in a sparkly red dress. My word, what an outfit she came onto the court with. Actually, orange, I would say. It's interesting what the TV can do to the look of an outfit. I've seen this a couple of times and in person.

and to my eye it looked orange, but one of the most spectacular outfits I think I've ever seen a tennis player walk out onto the court with, because she actually had a sort of, I mean, you might have to help me out with the terminology here, but basically she had a hairpiece.

as she walked out with a huge ponytail and a shimmering crystal orange montage on top of it that she then removed ahead of the knock-up and and then carried on and she had a sort of crystal bow in her hair orange crystal bow and crystals in sort of patches on the dress, which, I mean, it was spectacular. And she said afterwards that, I mean, most of the press conference was about the outfit and she actually wore the entire ensemble to the press conference, the hair and all.

But she said it had been a year in the making, that outfit. I really liked that it still looked like a tennis dress. prime time and razzle dazzle in theatrical you know good luck to her that that's cool and it brings attention to the sport and all the rest of it i have i didn't love the big bow situation last year no no I know what you mean but I thought this was cool yeah she did touch on something that I

i have to say goes through my mind a little bit when when i know she because she's been talking about this dress for a little while but my dress is going to be fire i can't wait to wear it at the us open she meant literally yeah that was a taylor swift easter egg wasn't it what happened if you then lose first round. Like Zverev in the knee-high socks in 2017. That would have been a tough scene and I've got to be honest with you.

I don't think she played that well, really, tonight. I mean, started off, Griet Minnan hits a massive ball in terms of... playing assertive tennis. She's a good doubles player and there was a lot of that sort of leaning on the ball, trying to take it early, hitting slice backhands, trying to basically finish the point on her own terms and she got Osaka to 3-all.

one or two nervy moments there for Osaka, then she just sped off into the distance, wins the next six games and you think, oh, this match is over. then she gets broken back and it gets nervy really in the second set as well and it it felt more on a knife edge than six three six four sounds and i think she's still some way she's not playing like she was

when things were going well in Canada yet. But she said I was nervous and you just want to get your feet wet by getting into the tournament. The issue she has is that she now faces Hayley Baptiste.

who is a very accomplished player. She's kind of Greek minimum and then some, because she's got the slice and the awkwardness. She can make life difficult. They had a really close match in Miami earlier this year, which Osaka won. But this is going to be a big test for Osaka and for my prediction. How do you feel about the prediction after watching tonight? Well, she didn't look like the champion, but...

I have to say, I think it's in there. I still believe that level that I have predicted will come out is in there. It's just that... a bit like how she beat Ludmilla Samsonova in Canada, she now needs to do that against Hailey Baptiste and I think if she could she'd be off and running. Baptiste has not had the greatest... of summers. She had a wonderful spring, had a great run at the French Open but she's lost.

She's not really going to be on the second round in any of the matches she's played. And I just dipped in on her press conference on the way out of Osaka's and she said that, you know, I haven't been winning as many matches as I'd like.

But, you know, she's also really pumped to be here at the US Open and getting a lot of noise from crowd members realising who she is and going for the American anyway. I don't want to create inter... TTP aggro, but as a big Baptiste believer and an early Baptiste adopter, do you think she's got a good chance to beat Osaka in a couple of days' time?

I do, yes. I mean, I would make Osaka the favourite, but it was actually the Baptista-Saka match in Miami earlier this year that David referenced that really... put me on to Baptiste. I remember watching that and being so impressed with her game. The changes of pace that she has, the shot-making ability that she has, just really liked her vibe on court. And then she played a great match against Vitolino and then...

in Rome and I was just all in on Baptiste after that. She said today, I think in the Encore interview, that she wasn't quite feeling herself. I think maybe she was a little bit under the weather.

You know, even taking that into account, that's a pretty good win against Sini Arcavo. It was back and forth. Sini Arcavo probably should have won the first set today. And Sini Arcavo gets quite... stressed on court gets quite down on herself and with Baptiste is much more on an even keel you know she's just pretty cool on court I think Baptiste to go back to the match-up with Osaka

Baptiste has an ability to take the backhand early and rush a soccer. She has an ability to change the pace. She has an ability to hit hard on the run. She can do a lot of things, I think, that can mess a soccer up a little bit. It's not there all the time for Baptiste. It has come and go in these matches. Honestly, I can't wait for it. Ever since the draw came out, I've been wanting to see Baptiste de Sarko. There's a world in which they make this the night session in...

Goff-Vekic the day session, especially if Goff is requesting day session. Yeah. Yeah, I think that's possible. And I certainly think it would... It would carry the night session as a match and an occasion. I mean, this is... Naomi Osaka tells us her night dress. She says, I'm hoping I can wear my day dress in the next round. But I guess we'll have to wait and see. I mean, she was really pleased with her own serve today. But...

My reading was that her backhand was world-class for most of the match, her forehand. was spraying and loose and losing herself a lot of points in kind of clusters. But, yeah, she talked about, and I think this is a little bit of a... a nod to what happened in that final in Canada. She said the main thing I was concentrating on was my attitude and to try to not give myself a hard time. And I think overall she achieved that. Yeah. I think...

I don't know how much of a big deal Baptiste is. I get the feeling that she's not that well known still. I mean, she was on court 17 today. I don't think she can carry that match on her own necessarily here. But I think Osaka's a big deal. This was Baptiste's first US Open win today. I kind of feel like it is an opportunity to... give Baptiste the stage but that might be that might be an advantage for Osaka you know like Baptiste really unfamiliar with that setting having the

Having the support can go both ways. It might be useful, but it might also be a lot. I kind of think the bigger the stage, the bigger the court here favours Osaka. a little bit if they go all in and make that the match just because I know she's not been that used to it recently and we saw what happened in Montreal it's a it's a concern but

that there's an experience gap there that she's got the advantage over Baptiste. Ash opened with Iger Svantec beating Emilia Rango 6162 in exactly an hour. If Osaka's... Press conference David was dominated by dress chat. Then Shontex was dominated by Taylor Swift engagement chat. And she seemed to love it. She seemed to be perfectly happy to spend her time in the press conference room talking about Taylor Swift's engagement. News that was broken to me by Mary Carrillo. And me. In commentary.

That's pretty epic, isn't it? Yes. And she was so giddy about it. It was so perfect. Yeah, I was... I sustained a deodorant-related eye injury and so wasn't able to open my eyes for a couple of hours this morning. So I couldn't look at my phone. I was late to the news, but there was Mary Carrillo for me in my moment of need. Even I was quite pumped. Yeah, I mean, this is what an informed Shvantec does.

in opening rounds of slams isn't it frankly it's what an outer form shantek does too like she doesn't lose early at slams typically she i know she doesn't like this but she dishes out bagels and breadsticks like She's a machine in these sorts of matches, and that's exactly what she was today. While she was playing on Ash, Amanda Renesimova.

was over on Armstrong, and of course that's where Matt was. One down, six to go on the road to bleach. We're back. We are so back. And we've got the blonde-haired eye with us, right? We do. Right, good. Although we also live within a sort of 200 metre radius of about eight different pharmacies selling all manner of different blonde hair dyes. So we are catered for. Well... Anissa Mova said today that she's put some blonde highlights back in.

So she's leaning in to the blonde. It's all coming together. And our friend and colleague Itamar sent me some very detailed instructions of what I should be doing. We are so back. I think given our location, you know, everything at our fingertips here in the Big Apple, I think we can stretch to a professional job. If it comes to it. That would be great. And a relief. But anyway, the tennis. The tennis, seven out of ten, I would say today.

Absolutely enough. Look, Kim Birrell is truly one of the nicest tennis players on the tour. But every time I watch her, I do think... What is there in that game? To be able to harm any top players, really, I think Kim Birrell is a pretty dream. opening round draw. She hits a nice ball, she doesn't really have any weapons and it was just obvious immediately that Anisimova was going to win this match. She was very comfy in the match-up, a different energy to a lot of her.

windwarden matches when she was stressed I think because her opponents were causing her a lot of problems yeah she was she was very very comfy in this one it took a little while for her to find her level but once she did Very, very comfortable. Maya Joint next, which is uncomfortable for you. It is two members of the backhand list and you know I have a, I don't know, sort of crisis of...

Is the list even a thing when I see someone else's backhand against Amanda and the Samovas? Isn't it just fascinating, though, to watch the backhands against one another? Not when it's on its move, I don't think. I'd love to see it. Yes, you're right. It should be. What's your problem? But for some reason, it isn't. For some reason, I've seen a lot of those matches and I've not liked them.

Well, you're going to see another one. I'm pumped for it. Maybe boycotts ones that... It's going to be interesting because... Joint is the, you know, it's quite an impulsive decision of me to put her on the backhand list. I've enjoyed the backhand. I stand by it.

It's absolutely correct. She's not done much since, has she? It's absolutely correct that she's on the list. You're not regretting it? No, I'm not regretting it, but I'm interested to see it in the elite company of the Anisimova backhand. It's going to be a good test of it. Will you wear the T-shirt?

No. I won't be wearing it. Because you're a professional. I'm a professional. You're a professional talking about how you're going to dye your hair blonde when the man running some over wins the US Open. I have standards and boundaries. It is a great T-shirt. Thank you, Ethan, for making the T-shirt with the list on it. But Matt's got credibility to try and claw back. Well, I'm not going to be wearing it with my accreditation around my neck. Will you wear it whilst the dyeing is happening? Sure.

yeah we'll wear it in the salon

Yeah, sure. Okay. A few other women's results from today. Aisling Kruger won a three-setter against Saphir Kennan, 5-7, 6-4, 6-2. I watched the very end of this, and it was some of the worst professional tennis I've ever... I'm aware that there was a lot of matches before that during which, or at least during some of which, she must have played well. But my God, did she end the match badly. It was, I mean, we often talk about...

the gap between ceiling and floor for players like Kennen's got to have one of the biggest gaps. Got to be a contender for that. Yeah, when it goes, it goes. It was so gone. And it was so gone. It was kind of a vibeless match. I think the people on grandstand didn't really know what to do with this match because... there weren't many rallies they were both american so it wasn't like a clear and obvious favorite

Honestly, I kind of hated this match. It was interesting because of the scoreboard. Like, it was close. I didn't really know which way it was going to go. That kept it interesting, but, like, stylistically... they didn't match up in an interesting way against each other and yeah it ended. Kenin probably should have won it in straight sets but once she didn't close that second set.

third set was a struggle and then it just it just ended yeah in a just a whirlwind of cannon unforced areas which was which was tough it was it was happening at a time when all sorts of fun things were happening well fun i mean jenna schneider wouldn't call them fun. She was getting Siegmunded on court six. 762663 for Laura Siegmund. She's at it again. Every time I looked up at the screen, Diana Schneider had a... a very familiar face of desperation and despair.

written all over her. I mean, this is a pretty extraordinary Grand Slam season that Siegmund's putting together here, you know. She beat Jung in Australia, didn't she? She made the Wimbledon quarterfinals and played a... really good match against Sabalenka and now she's just beaten Schneider coming off a title a couple of days ago in Monterey like unseeded in her mid to late 30s and just causing

Havoc. And embracing it. Totally. It is a hell of a season. Just her outfit today, even that was distracting. Right. David went out to what? It was standing room only. on court six. Only David was able to rock up and watch because David can stand at the back and see over the sort of six deep. crowd that were there to watch Laura Siegmund. And we bumped into David. We were coming away from Grandstand and we bumped into David coming away from Schneider Siegmund after the second set had finished.

and David said, you won't be surprised to know there's quite an extensive delay in between sets. So I've decided to leave them to it. And the last two points that Sigmund had lost to level that. that match. She was in such a stinking mood. I don't know what language she was speaking but I know she was swearing when she was walking towards her team because you could just tell by the look of her as she was delivering these words.

It was on the adjacent court to Ivelisse winning the Tennis Podcast Meets Derby. 6-7 against Fran Jones. A great battle. Turned into a great match, actually, in the end. But Lisse just... She's a lovely player to watch, lovely, smooth, smooth player. She's in a good section of the draw. I think she'll be, you know, perhaps not backing herself, but having designs on perhaps doing equaling what she did.

in Australia. And Marta Kosciuk as well. Good section of the draw for her. Four and four over Katie Bolter in the first match of the day. OK, that's it for the women. We'll be back in part two to talk about the men.

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Welcome back to part two of the tennis podcast where we can get our teeth stuck into the men's event now as we come to you. Alexander Zverev is 6-2-2 all against Alejandro Tabilo. If you're listening to this now. It's because that score preceded as we expect and we haven't come back to redo the ending to the podcast in the event of an Alexander Zverev defeat.

rather. So I'll keep an eye on that. Let's talk about Yannick Sinner, shall we? 616162 over Vit Capriva. as big a mismatch as you can ever see. All intrigue dissipated from this match once the triple bagel was off. David's disappointment at Capriva winning the game was... Very un-David Law, actually. It was borderline cruel, but it was what we were all thinking.

I was going to say, as big a mismatch as you could possibly have seen since the match before it on the Arthur Ashe Stadium. Well, yeah. It was not a good... The day session was over by 2.51pm. Yeah, they had no choice but to book Dalma Gelfie.

And Linda Noskova. And Linda Noskova on Arthur Ashe to bring some vibes. 6-1, 6-1, 6-2. And the people in the stadium wouldn't have had the Mary Carrillo, Jim Currier commentary that... that we had well and and that told you everything they they were putting on their own show really because the truth is the tennis in mary's words was

dull as a contest. Jim Currier said, look, there's not really anything I can tell you about what we're watching because it's not really a contest. And they weren't trying to be disrespectful to the opponent of Yannick Sinner. These were just two players in completely different class categories of ability and performance. And honestly, I do think that Yannick Sinner at his absolute best today would not have lost a game.

he he he played well um but you know he he just didn't need to against a player who's underpowered who just didn't have anything to trouble him with at all, and just the perfect first-round opponent for Yannick Sinner. And look, he does that to a lot of players. We saw him do the same sort of thing to Yuri Lohetschke, a very good player at Roland Garros earlier this year.

But, yeah, this was exactly what he wanted, particularly to put to bed any suggestions that his ill health of a few days ago might be lingering. He's the anti-Kenan, isn't he? Like, almost zero gap between ceiling and floor. for Yannick Sinner. Yeah.

I don't really have much to say about this, mate. You're going to start doing Ivan Lendl impersonations and riffing about Taylor Swift's engagement. And there was so much... great stuff being talked about, including Jim Currier suggesting that he'd got a solution to the shadow problem of tennis stadium. Did he say what the solution was? He does have a solution to the shadow problem, and he took it to the USDA. and they weren't into it. And that conversation was mysteriously halted soon after.

broadcasting for the USDA. So at the very point that this conversation began, half of the court was covered in shade and the other half in bright sunshine. And that is very difficult, certainly for us.

as TV viewers to see where the ball's going a lot of the time because it's in and out of the shadow. The exposure of the cameras is constantly having to be adjusted as a result. It's difficult for the players and Currier's suggestion was look you've got a retractable why not just shut the roof a little bit so that it brings shade across the whole of the the court surface and therefore that's no longer an issue oh gosh it's it's

Get rid of the shadows versus open the roofs. The Matt Roberts paradox. On the spot, what are you choosing? Still open, just not fully. Get rid of the shadow. You've had a few blows to your Open the Roofs campaign. I feel like it's the one, if one has to go, it's the one you'll most easily let go of.

I don't know about that. Catherine's just fighting back because you come at her about the wild cards. I've had some blows to my get rid of wild cards campaign. I think the French Open was really good for my... Open the roofs campaign. Yes, it was. There were some bad roof moments. There were some absolutely egregious roof moments. I mean, we have some at Wimbledon too, don't we? Yeah.

It is a frustration. But, I mean, these shadows. In this instance. Why is that a problem, though? You know, I mean, look, you're not closing the thing totally. It's still outdoors. No, I mean, I'm joking, really. So you're all in. I am saying... Courier for president. I am saying the shadows annoy me a lot and I would... I would really support a solution to those. It's so much worse on TV. Yeah. It's not an...

Well, I mean, it's bad for the players, I think. It's not that much of a problem for in-stadium spectators. Like, a little bit. It's not ideal, but it's the TV experience where it's the biggest issue. If there's one agenda hill you have to die on... only have one which one is it curfew i think it's i think there's this tournament it's called wimbledon yeah it's not necessarily curfew it's just

Don't play in the middle of the night. Don't play at three o'clock in the morning. Yeah. Ideally, I would say reconfigure the schedule and not have two matches in a night session, all that kind of thing. rather than necessarily a hard curfew. What's the one agenda hill you'd die on, David? David's less agenda-driven.

Yeah, I can't think I want off the top of my head. Do you want to jump on board my get rid of the ceremonies agenda? That's my current agenda du jour. You see, that feeds into stop playing at three o'clock in the morning. It all comes back to playing at three o'clock. come back to FAF. Yeah. Which comes back to three o'clock in the morning. They were, I mean...

There was a point, I think, in the third set of the Cinematch where Mary and Jim were just riffing on various different... Mary was firing names at Jim Currier. Stefano Sitsipas, Alexander Zverev.

just having him give his takes on where they are and where they might be going and whether they'll ever win a slam. And his Zverev takes were particularly interesting. Yeah, I mean, he... pointed towards what he believes is a fundamental issue still with the forehand side but that he he thinks with the encouragement of Rafael Nadal in the conversation that Zverev had that he saw changes in Cincinnati Courier and he even pointed to the match that...

I mean, Zverev lost heavily against Zverev. Until the point at which he started to feel unwell, Zverev, he said, look, he looked like a different player. And he looked like he was starting to take the initiative in a way that he just hasn't and the way everybody's been calling for. And so, you know, Mary was saying, well, yeah, but...

Why does that mean that he still hasn't won a Grand Slam? Shouldn't he have won like five if he's got a serve that can do this and a backhand that can do that? And I think... Courier just feels that he might not be that far away. I think the biggest issue is that, unlike the players before him, the suggestion was made that, you know, Stamford Rinker managed to get in amongst... the big four and win three grand slams.

My argument would be that Zverev is further away ability level from Sinner and Alcraz than Wawrinka was away when he was playing at his best from... the other guys there. I mean we saw it in the way that he thrashed Novak Djokovic in the French Open final that time. I just, I don't think there's quite the same degree of golf. There's potential for a sit-to-pass Zverev matchup a little further down the line. Would that be a quarter-final? Quarter-final. It is a long way away.

And what did you see from Tsitsipas today to suggest that he might make it there, if at all? You know, I attended his press conference afterwards and he said, I feel revitalised after that one single win. over it, Alexandra Muller. And I think that that really tells you just how low he's gone in the last 18 months. And if you look at his Grand Slam results, he just hasn't gone beyond the second round. I mean, he's been losing...

to Alex Mikkelsen in the first round of the Australian Open. I think he lost second round of the French Open. He lost first round. He had to retire after a couple of sets at Wimbledon. He's lost so many matches at Grand Slams. So this is... suddenly big moment time that he's managed to actually win a match. I mean, he lost the first set to Muller. Then he lost the only single game in the next two sets. The fourth set got a bit tense.

I mean, I don't know whether this is any, I certainly don't think it's a sort of eureka moment for Sidsapast that he's just cracked it, but... you know he talked about what he lacks right now above all else is confidence and he says i can only rebuild the confidence playing set by set i need to win he says it's not even about getting match wins under my belt it's about sets if i if i if i would go

sets with somebody I would still have more sets won under my belt than I had before the match and I said you know when you think back two or three years to when you were at your peak what feels different and he said he said it is the confidence he says that the footwork And the shots used to just come naturally to me. I didn't even think about them. He said, but when you start getting a few injuries, you start thinking. And this goes a little bit with what Venus Williams was saying last night.

I really hope, for Tsitsipas' sake, that this is the start of something. But, I mean, his road is tough. If he wants to end up playing Zverev in the quarterfinals, he's probably going to have to get through Hachinov and... Dimonor. You know, that is tough. But at the same time, he's got a very lopsided winning record against both of those. 11-1 against Dimonor, 9-1 against Hachinov.

If he did get to play Zverev, and I realise there's a lot of ifs going on here, but if he got to play Zverev, having got those wins, then he's probably playing a different level of tennis than we've seen in a long time. So, you know... There's a long way to go, but it's something, isn't it? That was court seven he was on today. It's actually not as an out there a court as you might think. It's actually quite big stands on it, but still, this is a guy who's reached...

multiple Grand Slam finals and was one of the big players of the generation. So he's really fallen heavily. I do really want to see Sitza pass De Menor in the third round. I think that's a fascinating... just test of, like, form versus head-to-head, right? Because, as you said, Tsitsipas absolutely dominates that head-to-head. He has... just totally had Alex Dimonor's number but right now like they couldn't be at more different points in their career you know I know Alex Dimonor's

talked a little bit about burnout this year and maybe isn't quite feeling his best but some of his results have been have been really good and like just alex de menor is going to want to play since the past like at this point right where they're at different moments in their career when he's full of confidence and when Tsitsipas is searching for it desperately. But when the match-up starts happening, does...

Does the old elements of the matchup, do they start coming back? I think that would be a brilliant test. to see where both players are. So no disrespect to whoever they're playing in the second round. I'm not entirely sure, actually. Well, it's Daniel Altmaier for Sitza Pass, who beat Hamad Majedovic in a... grind of a five-setter. The remains of Daniel Altmaier for Sitsapas. But he's a tough player. If Sitsapas isn't on it, he could lose that.

Yeah, staying with single-handed backhands, Muzetti, Lorenzo Muzetti, proving the doubters wrong with a four-set win over Giovanni Pesciperica. Only one tie-break set in this, the biggest shock of the day, and that was this... The opening set, the set that Musetti lost, he managed to break the Pesci Pericard serve and all the subsequent sets. Does this tell you anything about Musetti?

And anything new about Mazzetti on a hardcore? Or is this just Pesciperi cars in tough form and Mazzetti has handled him well in the past, albeit on different surfaces? Well, the new Mazzetti element was his surf. He's got a bit of a new technique on the surf. Again? Yeah. Didn't he change it a little bit at the start of the year as well? Yeah. This is more to do with his footwork. He's basically trying to move his feet less, and I think he realised that he was sort of falling into it too much.

Yeah, he had a really poor first serve percentage in his recent matches, so he's tweaked that. It worked really well today. I mean, Mpeshi Perikar, I'm going to say this, I think... is the worst returner I've ever seen. We watched Riley Apelka last night. He was like Andre Agassi compared to Ambushy Perry. I have some stats to back this up. It was only the second time in a Grand Slam match that Mazzetti's not faced a break point. The other one being against Yannick Hanfman on clay.

And this is courtesy of Josette Imat on Twitter. It's a very good stats account in French. And Pesci Perry car has gone, wait for it, 103. consecutive return games at slams on hard courts and grass courts without generating a break point. Not without breaking, without generating a break point. 103 return games in a row on those surfaces. He just has no clue. I've never seen anything like it.

His serve is extraordinary, like absolutely extraordinary, the way he throws himself into that shot. I always think of Gary Nathan's description of it as, you know, he watched Corder's serve and, you know, it was a pretty big serve. And then he watched Mpeshi Perikaz's serve and it made him realise that Corda's serve was like an apple falling from a tree and Mpeshi Perikaz's was like a meteor hitting earth. I thought it was just a perfect...

illustration of what the Mpeshi Perry car serve is like but his return is just as extraordinary but for all the wrong reasons. I mean it's kind of fascinating. I liked the very obvious tactical element, the very obvious challenge that Mazzetti had here, holding on to his own serve. that wasn't too much problem obviously but just trying to figure out how to break the Mpeshi Perry car serve I enjoyed that and what happened was you could see that as soon as he got the break in each set he freed up.

and he started becoming the shot maker that he is. It was stressful for him I think at points and particularly at the end of that first set he was... He was stressed, he didn't play a great tie-break, he had a couple of passes that he missed, couldn't land them. But once he just got... got those breaks, a couple of times he was helped by Mpeci Pericard, double faulting, we started to see much better Lorenzo Mazzetti stuff and yeah it just needs to try and

come on to court i think on a hard court with a bit of that freedom a bit of that more daring play trying to step in the court take charge he's just not quite himself on this surface so yeah i I think a lot of people probably would have found this match really, really boring. I quite enjoyed it. I found it quite amusing actually. I've enjoyed seeing it through your eyes. I did not enjoy the 20 minutes of it I watched earlier. But this is...

Rewritten that history, so thank you for that. Tommy Paul, a very comfortable winner over Elmer Moller early on this evening on Armstrong. Felix Auger, Eliasim, a winner. It's actually been a... It's been a good tournament so far, or one round of it, for Tennis Podcast Meets. Everybody's won except for Fran Jones, who played a fellow Tennis Podcast Meets. So people will be... clamouring to be interviewed by us if we've got a reverse curse situation going on. Alexander Bublik.

In less good news for our credibility... Don't think you'll be clamouring. Got the better of Marin Cilic. David and I both picked Cilic for that win today. I'm zero for three. And we've both had our pants pulled down by... Alexander Bublik, thank you. You just don't know when he's going to erupt. No, which is why you shouldn't make predictions. Absolutely, yeah. I'm going to... try and have learned my lesson. Some sad scenes for Gael Monfils, lost out in a five setter to Roman Sifuelin on...

On court five this evening. I went out there for the last few games for the party. Tall people privileged. Tall people can do this. Yeah, it is good. And you needed to be tall, right? Yeah. It was extraordinary. When I got out there, there's basically three courts in a line and side by side, but the two either side of the court that Monfils and Sifulin were on had both been closed for the night.

their matches, but all the people that had been on those courts had stayed in their seats and were craning their necks in order to see diagonally over other people's heads the scenes on this court. as Monfils roared back and set up a fifth set and off I went out at sort of three games all on the decider and then he was terrible and then it wasn't all exciting at the end. barely to a ripple of applause and got the win and everybody left. And that was that. Tough 24 hours for Gem's life.

Anything else Matt? Well the other thing is... David, what was the umpire calling Tristan Schoolkate as he won in five sets over Lorenzo Sonego? David and I were pissing ourselves. I've actually... you had to write it down phonetically in order to because it takes some but you know this is this is the umpires anyone we know never heard of this from but i mean this is this is a player who came on our radar i think at the australian open he played

Yannick Sinner and he actually put up a good... Excuse me, I watched him here last year with Stan Smith. Oh! Against Jakub Menchik? Against Jakub Menchik. What were you doing hanging out with Stan Smith? He just happened to be there. Oh, okay. He was on a random outside court. I was just going for a... wonder oh yeah and there was nobody watching this one so I didn't have to be a tall person to be able to see it and the only other person there was Dan Smith but yeah he is like textbook

Sensation. Yes. And so he's Australian. And we thought we'd got a handle on his name. And the umpire was calling, was announcing the score thus, advantage. That is not how you say it. We went on the ATP website. What's this information that we're just learning? Is he from another country with an accent that nobody knew about? I mean, bear in mind that the name is spelled S-C-H-O-O-L, so school, and then Kate, like the name, right? I'm pretty certain it's school.

because I remember checking with the ATP. Oh, Catherine, it is school cake. Let me remind you, the umpire was saying shulhatay. And you play the biography audio and it is Tristan Schoolcade. And we were like, yes, Tristan, we know that. Thank you. This has reminded me that the stadium announcer here... Oh, my God, yeah. I mean, look, he's generally great. But he is still saying Carloth Alcaraz, which is absolutely inexplicable. It's insane. It's mad. How are Carloth's people not having a word?

Just to confirm, that is not a Spanish thing, is it? It's not any. It's absolutely mad. Right, that's it for part two. We'll be back in part three to look ahead to tomorrow.

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Welcome back to part three of the tennis podcast where it's time now to turn our attention to tomorrow. We're embarking upon round two. Folks, the interminable round one is over. It's round two. It's the time of the tournament during these 15-day slams when we finally figure out what side of the draw people are on. We know where we are. Yeah. It's a big moment. We start on Ash tomorrow with Nomat Djokovic in the day session against Zachary Schweider. Very rare.

11.30am start for Djokovic. I'm waiting for the Instagram post about how difficult it's going to be for him. And second on Ash in the day session is Jessica Begula against Anna Blinkova. The night session is Mattia Bellucci against... Carlos Alcaraz, and second on Polina Kudomitova against Irina Sabalenka. Anyone see any upsets tomorrow on Ash? No, but I would say... If there's gonna be one, I would probably look at Blinkova. She's done it before. She's just...

Blinkiver of the tiebreak that we covered that time. It's just a bit tricky. I think Pagula will win, but that would be the one that I would look at there. Armstrong starts at 11am with Emma Raducanu against Janice Chen. Fun. Looking forward to that. Yeah, good start to the day. Second on is Lloyd Harris against Taylor Fritz. And the night session on Armstrong is Ivo Jovic, the talented young American, against Jasmine Paolini. And Ben Shelton against Pablo Carreño.

Jovic Paolini jumps out to me. Yeah. Any upsets we're seeing on Armstrong tomorrow? No, I don't think so. No, I don't either. Okay. Grandstand, maybe you see some here, opens with Emma Navarro against Katie McNally, All-American Clash. I could believe that. I've got my eye on that one. Have had since the draw came out.

Second up, Joel Fonseca against Thomas Mahatch. Can't wait. Matt will be there. Can't wait. Fonseca would be an upset if anybody wants to pick that. Would he? Yeah, 21st seed match. Yeah, but I mean, he's been playing like rubbish. Look, that's... It's a... Don't make me explain rankings to you, David. Tiafoe against M. Dam. Third on grandstand tomorrow, Martindam. Yes, and he...

played the role of Mattia Bellucci today, practicing with Alcaraz, because he's a lefty. Ah. Yeah. Good knowledge. I need to know whether he's the son of a Martin Dam who was on the tennis circuit when I was on the ATP tour. But he was Czech. But anyway, Martin Dam is six foot eight inches tall. Wow. Yeah. He's my kind of guy. On the base of the last 24 hours, he's probably not going to be one of the world's great returners, is he? But we'll find out. I know someone will be better than.

Last on Grandstand tomorrow, Anna Potapova against Mira Andreva. Incidentally, just going back to Alcaraz, David, I'd love to one day. Ask Yannick Sinner what his opinion of David Law is. Why? This guy who comes into press conferences and asks him great questions, but slightly jokey ones. The whole...

The whole room rejoices when David asks the questions that really everybody wants to ask but is too afraid to. I was sitting there going, can I ask him about Alcaraz's hair? Turns out I didn't need to because hero David did it for me and got a great answer.

Of course, everybody is lapping up and algorithms everywhere are pushing. Yeah, it's the sort of question that elicits a lot of people on the internet being like, oh, these journalists are not serious, while enjoying the content. Exactly. Everybody enjoys... You alright with carrots? Yeah, I mean, I think I phrased it quite well because when I said it, he...

He sort of smiled a little bit and then he said a funny that made everybody laugh. There was the perfect amount of pause. He's got good dry humour, Yannick Sinner. Yeah. You asked him, have you seen it? And there was a perfect amount of pause. And he sort of chuckled and went, yeah. And then he voted diplomatically. He said, Carlos can pull off anything. Yes. And then Alcarez. replied on Instagram to the clip of that and said, I hope Tiafoe's seen this.

That's very good. It's all great stuff. By the way, Martin Dam is the son of Martin Dam. Yes, Martin Dam Jr. this is, and his father is the guy I knew. He just called his son also Martin Dam. On reflection, of course, it was Martin Dam's son. Why did we dance it? But I'm glad Google is confirmed. Stadium 17 as a renker against Pavlyuchenkova. That is very 2011 coded, isn't it? Yeah. We have a Raphael Collignon, a Belgian player. He's...

He's improving, I believe. Yeah, I can see that. He is taking on Kasper Rude. Third on is Elena Rabatkinner against Teresa Valantova. I'm interested in that one. She's a very talented Valantova. And last on... is Holger Runa against Jan-Leonard Struff. Could have his hands full, Runa, although Struff...

Striff hasn't been the player that he once was recently. What have we got on court five? We've got Leila Fernandez last on, who's going to be playing doubles with Venus Williams. That was announced today. That's great. Yeah, it's fun, isn't it? Cameron Norrie there, Yurida Hetschke, Elisa Mertens. Look out for her because she's apparently going to be beating Irina Sabalenka later in the tournament. Court seven is you've got Jakub Menchik.

there. McCartney Kessler against Marketa Vondrosheva. Arta Rindeknesh, David. You can go out there and get some alley shuffle time. I will. Jelena Stopenko against Taylor Townsend is second on court 11. Yeah, I was really shocked by that. by that scheduling. Yeah. But very fun. Like, unfortunately, it clashes with Fonseca Mahatch, so I'm going to have to do it. A lot of clashing. Why haven't they made a big fuss of that match? A Grand Slam champion against an American...

name who people would love to see. I don't understand why they don't stage that. You know, it's such a crowd-pleasing style of play, isn't it? Yeah, couldn't agree more, but... Well, David will be out there because he'll be able to look over the throngs of other fans. Yeah, I will be. You and Martin Dam, Jr. I'm going to be looking out for you. Is Martin Dam tall?

The original? He's about 6'3", so not really. How tall is or was Mrs. Dam? Not sure. I reckon she was tall. Well, my parents aren't that tall. So... You're a medical marvel. True.

OK, that is all for tomorrow. We'll be back, of course, with another podcast. But in terms of tonight's podcast, I would like to introduce you to Lyra. What an absolute beauty. Sorry, I'm briefly distracted by Lyra's intense gaze and beautiful smile. Lyra is a 10-year-old pickball mix. And that is Aiva Ivanov. Am I saying that right?

I don't know why you're looking at me. Well, because just for a bit of backup. Yeah. Even of? Yes, even of. I think you might have said it better the first time. Look. I'm confident I'm pronouncing Lyra correctly. Lyra was adopted in Washington, D.C. when she was allegedly five months old. We named her after Lyra... Lyra... Lyra... God, I've lost Lyra.

She was named after Lyra Belacqua, like Casey Delacqua, continuing the tradition of naming dogs after book characters. Her predecessor was Dorian, yes, of stabbing his own portrait fame, Dorian Gray. In addition to DC, Lyra has lived in the Bay Area and now Seattle. Wow, grass season is extremely important to her. Aside from sleeping, which takes up roughly 18 hours of her day, sunning and rolling in the grass are her absolute favourite things. She hasn't said...

so explicitly, but we're pretty sure she's excited about Raducanu and Alcaraz's Wimbledon runs. And certainly for the Alcaranu. I think we have settled on Raducaraz, but... for Lyra anything certainly for the Alkaranu mixed doubles sorry David she says what an absolute beauty absolute beauty great Great face on that dog. Yeah, she's smiling right at me. What a lovely dog. David opened the agenda earlier and went, what a tongue!

Right, we of course have our mascots, Phoebe, Maisie and Roger. We have our top folks and executive producers, Greg, Chris and Jeff. And Matt, we have some shout outs. We do. We have... Sean Fitzpatrick from London. Hi, Sean. Hello, Sean. And when asked for any extra information, Sean just says, obsessed with tennis. It's all you need to know, isn't it? Good thing to be, Sean. Yeah. Like Sean the Sheep. Different spelling. Come on, tell us Sean's. It's a popular name.

I can't even think of any human Seans at the moment. Sean Connery. Yes, who David interviewed here at the US Open when Andy Murray won it in 2012. That's right, doorstepped. 007. What a lot of connections we have to 007 in our lives. We do. That one's for you, Pam. Sean, thank you. We've also got Andy Thorpe. from Loughborough. Right Andy. Hello Andy. I went to university in Loughborough. That's great.

Amazing three years. Andy Roddick and Andy Murray. Absolutely. Two US Open champions. And Andy has been listening to the pod since about a year into it starting. Wow, Andy, you are the man. Andy's been through some things with us. Andy, thank you very much for sticking with us and for your loyalty. We appreciate that. Cheers, Andy. And finally we have Michael Anderson from New York City. Right, Michael. Hello, Michael.

How perfect. And Michael says he's been listening since the very beginning. Whoa. He's really been through some things with us. Amazing he's stuck with us. Indeed, yeah. And then it says, my puppy Albie really loved seeing you all on the Tennis Channel during Queen's this year. He watched with rapt attention. Well, that is lovely. Any more info on the puppy? I knew you were going to ask that. And no, I don't, I'm afraid. Michael, like Michael Chang, who was here coaching Learner Tien.

Correct. A few nights ago. Michael. Thank you very much, Michael, Andy and Sean. We thank you. If you'd like to become a friend of the Tennis Podcast, get yourself a shout out, get access to ad-free listening, to The Barge, to all of the bonus episodes that we produce and plenty more besides, then the link is in. our show notes thank you for listening we will be back tomorrow

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