You're fun to watch. You're refreshing to be part of our tour. The fans love you.
Welcome to the quarter finals of the Straight and Open again again.
Good day and welcome to the tennis For Day nine of AO twenty twenty five, John Huvena's with all the big news from Melbourne Park every day of the main draw. Today on the tennis Sinner, unrepenting, demon unrelenting.
I don't believe in coincidences. I think when you're happy off the court, you play some good tennis on the court.
Maddie grabs the keys to the quarters.
Hard to believe that it was ten years ago that I made my first semi final.
Plus lucky loser Lisa's luck runs out a preview of Day ten and Corey Goth I'm fathering a superstar.
There was no doubt in my mind at that point because athletically she was gifted.
That's all ahead on the tennis.
High ball from Demonal floating.
Back that way makers, it's a beast that's had for the first time in his career, the Australian Alex Dimenor.
He's through to the quarter finals of his home major.
Alex Demonor is the first Australian man in ten years to reach the last eight of his home Slam. Following an impressive straight sets defeat of Alex Michelson. The Aussie eighth seed was in devastating touch early, winning eighty three percent of first serve points in a twenty seven minute
first set avalanche without dropping a game. It took until the third game of the second set for Mickelson to open his account, which ignited a contest as the American raised his level, making inroads on his opponent serve to draw level at five all, but with the home crowd in his corner. During a second set tiebreak, Demenor found an edge with a two hundred and fifteen kilometer an hour ace before forcing an error off the Mickelson racket
to snatch a two set lead. With his opponent on the ropes, the Aussie went for the jugular in the third set, breaking for four to two. He hit nine winners, including three unbelievable passing shots, to put the result beyond doubt to the quarterfinals six love seven, six six ' three in just over two hours, much to the delight of the Rod Labor Arena crowd.
There's nothing I want to do more than play well here in Australia in front of you guys. So I'm glad, I'm glad, I'm finally finally made it to a quarterfinals here. But yes, let's go for bigger and better things come on.
It brings to an end and outstanding campaign by the young American Micholson's best Grand Slam results from six attempts.
Yeah, I'm super happy with the way I fought. And you know, I put myself in a position to almost want to set playing poorly off a top ten player, So I was super happy with that. He came up with the goods and the breaker, hit that four in pass at five to four and the ace and five all so creds to him there. But super happy with even getting a breaker there. And that's it because it was it did not feel very good. The first hour of the match was really poor. So super happy to
just compete and almost find a way. And that's it's her.
Serves down the t the fourhand return from lease rise long over the baseline.
It's a job done.
One hour exactly.
Egoiontek through to the quarterfinals. She wins six love six one against the valiant very impressive ever Lise in many ways, but had absolutely no chance against the world number two Iigish.
Fiontech has pulled the rug from underneath Everlease, ending the charmed run of the world's luckiest lucky loser. Well Lease only managed a single winner in the opening set. She absorbed some of the pressure in the second to earn her only hold four games in, but it was the Poll's night, dominating with twenty eight winners and exquisite netplay en route to a six love, six to one whitewash off the court in under an hour. It's Fiontec's first quarterfinal in Melbourne since twenty twenty two.
You know, I'm still what's twenty three, yeah, twenty three, So there's a lot to improve. Like always, you know, I don't feel like I'm in my peak yet, you know, And yeah, that's for sure, much just like that giving confidence and I feel like I'm playing a good game.
You know.
I usually didn't feel.
Comfortable when I was trying to open, you know, with my game, but this year it's a bit better. So I'm just enjoying being on accord and of the court as well, because for sure, I have an amazing time here and hopefully it's gonna last even longer.
Finally able to board her flight, lease leaves Melbourne almost half a million dollars richer.
It's definitely, I think the nicest week I've had in my life, just because it wasn't really only about the result, but also about the whole story. I mean, getting in as a lucky loser last minute on the last day, where it was possible changing the flights, winning first time, winning second time, making it to top hundred. I mean, this is the week I've been working for for ages,
and I was always waiting for that moment. I've had a lot of nights where I was actually talking to my parents, often with tears, asking when when will the time come? Because I know I have the potential, but sometimes I was the only person that's really standing in my own way. So everything just came down to this week where on one sete it's definitely the tennis they played, but also it was the luck in the beginning, and it was just the momentum that made it so special.
So I'm definitely enjoying every second I had here.
Sreontek's quarter final opponent will be Emma Navarro, who scrapped her way past Daria Kasutkina in a match featuring seventeen breaks of serve. The eighth the ninth seeds were tenacious in their tug of war, Navarro breaking to love to take the first set six ' four, while the American boosted her win account in the second set. Cassutkina capitalized
when it mattered and claimed the second set. Safe shooting was the name of the game in the deciding set, which ultimately was on the Kasutkinna racket, the ninth seed hitting four unforced eras in a row in the final game to give Navarro's safe passage, and She's become the Queen of three set tennis, progressing as the only player in the last eight to have played twelve sets across four matches. That's ten and a quarter hours on court.
For me, I feel like it's more of a test of mental will than anything. I've worked really hard on my fitness to be able to go three sets and play over two hours, three hours, whatever it takes. So yeah, I feel like my fitness is definitely paid off here in the in my first four matches.
Navarro is preparing for another grind against Sriontech, having not played her since their first meeting in twenty eighteen.
I felt like I didn't have the power, I didn't have speed, I didn't have really anything that that could challenge her. You know. I felt like I would I would just put balls in the court and she would hit winners. It was kind of like a little bit of a clinic. So yeah, but I feel like I've you know, I'm a totally different player now.
Sensational stuff.
Madison Keys sixteen into the quarterfinals at the Australian Open.
What a performance, three set winner over a Larner. We're Barkinger.
What a magnificent campaign. Madison Keys is putting together back into the quarterfinals in Melbourne for the third time and shares the first of our spotlight matches. Fort day nine. Blair Henley is back from the Blue Zone. How's it been.
It's been fantastic. I hope everyone is watching for m local time.
Keep Jinny and guys. Levi a Hudderston from gig with the numbers. Welcome back, Levi. Thanks for having me and for the first time for this tournament a regular on the podcast. John Fitzgerald, congratulations a second time grandfather today.
Thank you, Jonathan. Yes, it's a special day.
It doesn't happen too often, does it twice in my life so far.
But it's a big day. We're very, very happy and relieved.
And you've got to share this name, the full name place.
Well, I've only just learned it myself, so it might take me a while to remember it. Walt, Yeah, James Huckleberry Harrison.
Walt James HUCKLEBERR Harrison. There you get strong one tennis family. Well, Madison Keys is a name a little bit easier to remember. And today Blair, she put on a show and has dispatched the women's sixth seed, Elena Rabaikna to the tune of sixty three one sixty three.
Impressive stuff, extremely impressive, and I think Maddie said it best and press she said, I need to get on offense early and then we're going to see who can sustain that level for longer. And so it was a little bit of a roller coaster those first two sets, but when you look at the third set, she played riskier tennis and she played really big tennis. On the important point she saved five of six breakpoints and converted on three of four. And we know in tennis, yes,
it's great to have those flashy points. We'd love a hot shot, but you have to be able to do it when the pressure's on, and she did that in the third set today.
Yeah, we have this thing we call pressure points, so it's anything that can lead to a break or a break point. And so Madison Keys total points one eighty seven to eighty six, incredibly tight, but in terms of those pressure points thirty four to twenty two. So she just, like you said, kind of one where it counted.
I love it when that backs me up, apparently by great.
Stuff of course, great minds, FITZI. Madison Keys has just been so sensational. We saw it again against Daniel Collins in the previous round and also with today against Elena Rebikina. The long rally. She manages to really dig in. Even though she's a tall woman, She's got a great endurance in those longer rallies.
Yeah, I think she's too good a plan not to win a major as a shew. I mean, I'm sort of disappointed she has one one already, but I you know, talking about shot selection, I think if she improves out of fraction, she's going to win a major. Sometimes I feel like she gives away too many points at the wrong time, Madison. But boy is she a hitter of the ball. And you know what, we know how well she times it. It's a heavy, heavy ball, and she puts it together. She can I think she can win
the whole thing, and I hope she does. She's not as young as she was. I hope she can win one before her time's up, LeBell.
What else is she doing, Well, we'll talk about hitting a heavy ball. She had stats, you know, one hundred and twenty nine kilometers per hour on that forehand versus one hundred and nineteen for Rebakena, and those two are those are huge numbers. The average is one hundred and sixteen, so they're both eclipsing the average by quite a margin. And one hundred and twenty nine that's some of the
highest that we've seen. That's an average shot. She's hitting that, So just crazy great ball striking from Madison Keys And yeah, she won those long rallies. So she won nine or sorry, seven out of nine of those long rallies. So any rally that went over eight shots, she was winning a majority of those.
What about the campaign of eleanor Rebaikana then form a final? Will this fourth round loss go down in the book as a fail mark in the Gorin Evanizovitch copybook.
I don't think so, because if you think back to last fall, she pulled out of the US Open in the second round and then didn't play again until the WTA finals, and during that time she was off court for most of it. So in my mind, she's still trying to find her rhythm again. Obviously there's a lot going on off the court as well, and in her previous match against Diania Estromska, she also potentially had some back issues coming into this match, which obviously can affect
the serve, which is her best shot. So I think it's just a stepping stone in twenty twenty five for her.
Yeah, I find her one of my favorite players to watch because she's got multi dimensions, you know, in the men's and the women's game. A little bit, there was a rumor she had a bit of an issue with her back, So I don't know if that's true, And maybe I shouldn't even mention that because you don't want to take away from a winner from Madison today. She deserves it. She's out there, she deserves a win. But I'm not one hundred percent sure. I didn't see the match.
I was actually on the Cinner match at the same time. So but it's a great win. I'm happy for Madison. I really do hope she can go all away. If you know, if someone hasn't won one, it's a nice thing, I think, and I like, I'm one of those guys that likes more winners at majors to create more more stars, and now I want Madison to win one now.
So Keys goes through to take on Ellinas Fitalina in the quarterfinals. Our second spotlight match for day nine is the one you alluded to, Fitzi Janick Sinner coming through in four sets over Holgaruna score line six three three six six three six two. And it wasn't easy going for the world number one and defending champion.
Commentating you, we couldn't pick who was injured, who was sick, who was playing well at one stage and then who the table seemed to turn but the better man one I think at the end of the day. He wasn't well in the first two sets and we thought he might have had a tweak in his back. But because we didn't know that he been ill in the morning, but we found out afterwards and it became apparent that it wasn't an injury. He was just feeling off color.
So he was gussy today and hold garun. I think whether he can become a Grand Slam champion or not, I don't know. It's a rare beast that wins. They have to be special, special players to win majors. Center already is he's one of three or four I think that can win this event. But I thought Runa he's such a great hitter of the ball, but he's still a bit underwhelming with some of his variety, and he's got to improve some facets of his game, I think
to have a realistic chance to win. He's a heck of a player, but to win a major is something different.
Levit, It was a dramatic third set, particularly take us through what happened from a numbers perspective.
Yeah, well, I mean we saw that there was this moment before the medical time out where I think Runa had a chance to break center and just didn't win any of those break points and really struggled to capitalize on center serve. But it's not easy, you know, breaking center. He served an incredible match in that third set, he won ninety four percent of his first serves and like for reference and Petchy pair Card, the top server the ATP wins eighty percent, So ninety four percent. He just
blew that out of the water. Even when he's feeling dizzy. You know, he's serving at two hundred and five kilometers per hour. You know the benchmarks one hundred and on one hundred and ninety one. So I mean, just really difficult to break him. And so you know, credit to Holgaruna for putting up the fight that he did. He actually hit more winners than Yonick did, but just had probably too many unforced errors.
My favorite social media post of the day today came from Marty Fish on formerly Twitter now x and I'm paraphrasing a bit. I don't have it in front of me, but I thought it summed up Holgaruna well. He said, Holegreena is so good? Why is he not good? And that is what you see when you watch him play.
He's so flashy, he has a disruptive game. He has every shot in the book, but just can't quite put it together consistently like we saw him do a year and a half ish ago when he was beating Novak Djokovic and he seemed to be impenetrable, so he just got it. Maybe it's a confidence thing, just to get his flow, to feel confident doing it point after point after point.
Maybe it's just shot choice thing. Not sure.
He does have a member of his team, Mike James, who's there solely to analyze the numbers. I do think as Lee is so nice to have Levi sitting here at this table. I would imagine it's great to have somebody like that on your team. But there are always flashes of lightning. We would just love to see him be able to put that together just a little bit more.
And then another very important question, guys, because at the beginning of the fourth set, I saw something that I had never seen on a professional tennis court before, and that was not just the net strap breaking, but the actual screw that was screwed into the court broken half And big question here, was it on Nevedev that compromised the structural integrity of that screw?
It was quite distrust Could he tell us take us through that twenty minutes of drama?
Well, I can't answer whether it was Daniel Medvedev or not. It was a strange thing.
You see a netstrap break occasionally the umpire. He was like lightening himself. He was down out of it. I was impressed. He was down out of that chest fast and he got to the net and realized that it was actually a metal screw that had snapped. I think so it was unusual and it did. There were other breaks at one stage. I think we played about five
or six. They played five or six games in about forty five minutes at one stage because they went off separately at different times, and then at the end of sets and then they had this extra break. So it was a strange topsy turvy match.
Well Sinner has provided some context around his physical well being during his postmatch media conference.
I don't want to dog you know so much, how I how I felt today. I was not feeling really well, you know. I think beside that today I was struggling, you know, physically. I came here as late as possible. You know, I knew that it was going to be very very difficult today, uh, you know, playing against a tough opponent, but also playing against myself a little bit.
And I knew this before I tried to handle the situation on the court as as as good as as I could, which I think today I handled, you know, as as well as as possible, and you know, happy to be in the next round.
Seener yet to lose to Alex demen Or in their nine previous meetings. Yeah, class, and.
In her first tournament back since foot surgery, she takes a huge step forward into the last day once again here Happy Australian Open.
As mentioned earlier, Madison Keys has locked in a quarter final battle with Alinas Fittalina. The twenty eighth seed found her fighting spirit to dispatch Veronica Kudemeteva in straight sets. Kuldemteva got the jump in a first set featuring five breaks of serve, but the Ukrainian's sensible shot making saw her rally to claim five games on the trot and win the set. From there, the Ukrainian found her sweet spot and dropped just a single game to cruise into
the quarters six four six ' one. It's her first time among the last eight here in Melbourne since twenty nineteen.
For me not to find the way to win matches, to find a way to bring a little light, a little win for Ukrainian people is something that I feel. I am responsible of and to bring the fighter is the least I can do well.
What could have been a battle of epic proportions, unfortunately has ended in retirement on Margaret Corderina, American rocket launcher Ben Shelton and fan favorite Gaiale montfees went toe to toe in three breathtaking sets until the Frenchman was unable to carry on. Neither player gave an inch until the first set tiebreak, when Montfeese coughed up the first set
with a double fault on set point. Virtually inseparable in set two, Montfeese was determined to not let history repeat, forcing Shelton into three consecutive errors in a second set breaker to draw level, but the thirty eight year old began to fatigue in the third set, at times playing from an almost stationary position and leaning on his court
craft to send it to another tiebreak. He was out of gas, though two winners was all it took for Shelton to snatch a two sets to one lead and extinguish any hopes of a French resurgence before Montfeese pulled the pin early in the fourth.
Obviously, he's played a lot of long matches. I want to make it as physical as possible. There's a lot of things that he does unbelievably well, counterpunching, making you feel uncomfortable on the court, and getting to net and being able to shorten some of those points where he likes to run was really important. So being able to find that balance. It was really tricky today to do some of that stuff because he was serving so well.
But I've seen he's been doing that all week, and yeah, there's a lot of things that makes that guy a nightmare to player. I can't imagine playing him when he was, you know, twenty one twenty two.
Like me, well face, disappointed to not be joining wife Elena Sitelina in the quarters, but ever gracious in defeat.
I love Ben, you know, I love I love him. You know, this kid is amazing. He's full of energy. He's a great guy, a great kid. Of course, he's always too bad to play someone that you love. And when we put the fighting spirits, you know, that's why I still I want to make it tough for him. But at the end, you know, of course, now I'm routine for him. He's a guy that I really appreciate, spend time with him, talking with him, sharing anything you know, we love and he's just an amazing kid.
Shelton's quarter final opponent will be Lorenzo Sanago, who pulled the brake on the Lerner Tien locomotive, the American teenager responsible for the eliminations of Daniel Medvedev and Corentin Mute, Eventually running out of puff in the fourth round, Senego smacked twenty aces among fifty eight winners to put Tien on the back foot, pushing through to a six three six two three six six ' one victory into the last eight for the first time in his career. Lorenzo spoke to producer Alexia.
Mitchell Lorenzo, Congratulations, you're the seventh highest ranked Italian man and you're into the final eight here in Melbourne. Can you put into words how that achievement feels.
Yeah, I figure that's one of my best tournament in my life.
For sure. I work hard for each some biggers or something like that, and I'm so so.
You learnt meditation in the off season. Tell me more about that and some of the work you've done off the court.
I need to start with a brief on my brief and yeah, I like meditation. I tried something different for the holiday and this day is from my girlfriend. She want to do something different than the holiday, and yeah I did, and I learned about the meditation and the Buddhismo.
It must be paying off. Now that you're in the quarters. What do you think the biggest factor is she making your first Grand Slam quarter final.
I think the work that I did in the pre season. We worked really hard in the procedure with my team. And yeah, I think the attitude on the court is different than last year and more have more confidence and I more trust in me.
You have Ben Shelton next. Tell me more about that match up.
Yeah, he's a nice guy and he's a young player. He reached the semi final in New York. He has a big surve and he played really aggressive and start to return, and.
Yeah, I need to just enjoy.
This this tournament and every match and just enjoying the time.
You've released a few songs. How does your music and your tennis inspire each other?
But the music is not really good.
Yeah, I need to improve, but it's it's just some different time to spend with my best friend out of the court, and yeah, it's it starts like a like a joke, but it's nice to see that we have one million of view more and yeah we want to work to another song maybe soon.
Well.
Best of luck on and off the court.
Thank you, thank you, thank you so much.
In other Day nine results, women's double second seeds Gabriella Dobrovski and Aaron Rutliff came from a set down to topple Bertrice Haudajmeia and Lara Siegemund. Joining them in the quarters are mirr Andreva and Diana Schneider, Christina Blandenovich and Jung Schwai and Camilla Rakimova and Sara Serebes Tormo, who won a third set super tiebreak. Also top seeds Katerina
Sineakiva and Taylor Townsend threw in straight sets. In men's doubles, fourth seeds Kevin Kravitz and Tim Puetz have been put to the test by Sande Gye and Jan Zalinski, prevailing six seven, six four sixty four. They set up a Germany versus UK quarter final meeting Britz, Julian Cash and Lloyd Glasspool, who progressed in three Also into the quarters Uger Nice and Edouard Raja Vassalon alongside Hari Helievara and Henry Pattin. Let's turn our attention to date ten then Blair.
A couple of matches we're going to have a look at. First of all will be the women's quarter final between Arena Sablenka and Anastasia Pablia Chhenkova. I've always been a fan of her, and she's had another giant killing campaign to reach the last date.
My favorite thing that I've seen nasty of Pabla Chhenkova do this week is sign the lens after her win over donnavekch.
Too old but still here.
Oops, just stumbled right into the quarterfinals here at AO twenty five. She's going to have a tough one against Arena Sablanka. She does have a two in one record against her. The one thing I think Pablia Tchhenkova does so well is redirect power. She handles power coming at her quite well and that could serve her well against Arena Savalenka. But I gotta say she looked real good against Tamiera Andreva.
Yeah, so right now we have the win predictor favoring Sablenka. We have her at eighty six to fourteen, so the heavy favorite here, but we have seeing that she's not undefeated against this player and actually losing the head ahead as you mentioned. But what we can look out for, I think in this match is that Sabalanka really likes to take that third shot forehand after she hits her serve quite often and dominating. She hits that about sixty seven percent, so I think we can we can really
look for her to dictate off that first shot. But pavlu Chankova, you know, she's just really gripping the baseline and she's applying so much pressure, So she's like making a lot of contact inside the baseline on that second serve return about eighty percent of the time versus Sabolenka's sixty one, So she's going to be applying a little bit more pressure on that second serve. But I think
it's going to be a really interesting match. Can probably chink of a get a sit, do you think in this in this battle.
I think she could.
I think she can chin humane.
I do think she can.
Again, this is why we go out and compete, because you just never know how both players are going to come out, And Sabalenka was a little scratchier in her first couple of rounds here than maybe some people expected, and Pablia Chenkova has nothing to lose. She's also been to the quarterfinals here four times in her career, so she knows what it's like. The big question for me
is it's going to be hot again tomorrow. Will her partner once again come cheer her on in silk pajamas because that has been his uniform This week, she talked about the fact that they've got a little style competition going behind the scenes. She says she is the most stylish and quick. Side note for those interested in fashion, she's actually wearing her own clothing brand here, which she designed herself. She wanted to express herself in that way, which we always.
Think is kind of cool.
We love that.
What's the brand name?
I don't know what the brand name, and I don't actually know if it has a name. She but she walked us through the entire thing. She has a couple of designs and love it when players have something off court that can maybe take their mind off the seriousness of tennis.
She's got nothing to lose, which is always nice.
It was not well, we've come to that time. We predicted it Pray Tournament, the Superstar Blockbuster quarterfinal between Novak Djokovic and Carlos Alkaz and Fitz. It has arrived in our lapse on day ten.
If I have to pick someone, I'm going Colidos. You know his tennis. His tennis some days is extraordinary. Sometimes I wonder whether his diverse ability to hit so many different shots in his game causes him to lose the odd match, whereas Janick Sinner is more solid, if you will.
Playing within the lines sort of thing.
Yeah, without without so much variety. He's got every shot. But Carlos is just he must have a confused mind every time he goes hit the ball because he's got so many options. But you know, I think if he plays his best, he'll win. But Novak knows how.
To win here. He obviously does, and you.
Cannot count him out. He can win the tournament. I think there's only four guys now that can wink, and he's one of them. Yeah, well, I think Zverev can win, although he hasn't yet. Surely, if you're two in the world, and he said to himself to be one in the world, you probably need to win a major, you know, but I think he can, and of course Yannick, especially if he's well again. He struggled today with his health, I think, but those four guys for me, and if it's someone else,
so put my hand up and sells wrong. But I think it's one of those four.
Okay, lev where is this match going to be won and lost?
Well, oftentimes we have a battle of the server and the returner, but these are two really excellent returners, so you know, looking at where they return the ball is going to be important. And we've seen Carlos actually start moving up and taking that first serve a little bit closer to the baseline, about seven percent more now than he did in twenty twenty four, so he's really creeping up and I think that could be a big difference
maker and controlling the point early on. But Novak's also an excellent returner, so we'll have to see where that goes. But in terms of you know, as the rallies grow longer, we actually favor Novak on these long rallies about sixty five percent of a time. He's going to win those long rallies compared to Carlos winning only about fifty one percent. So if the rallies go a little bit longer. Novak has that consistent consistency, and I think we can expect him to win those long ones.
Jay Z was phenomenal against Slahechka.
Yes, and I actually went to his postmatch transcript to see if I could see his answer to when he was surely asked about Carlos Alcaraz next. He was not because the entire presser was about the postmatch interview.
Courts yes, that we had last night.
So no feedback from Novak Djokovic on this match. But I do think the way that five sets once benefited Novak Djokovic, it was really hard to beat him over five. I think that now has maybe shifted just a little bit, and I think that probably benefits Carlos Alcaraz at this point. And I do also think back to Carlito's signing the lens. It was after his first or second round match, and he wrote, am I a serve bot because his performance on the serve was so impressive. I know he's put
a lot of work into that in the offseason. We'll see how that plays out on court.
He's serving is definitely better. I think I've done a couple of these matches and it's big. He's getting more free points. That's going to help him a little bit.
I think, Yeah, he's winning eighty one percent of his first serves here and Novak's at seventy eight, both high numbers. But I mean we don't typically think of Carlos being a serve bot, and so those numbers are quite high. We talked about Mpachi being at eighty percent, so he's doing well.
Any other ways we can skin this match well.
I think a really interesting thing about Carlos is his drop shot, and so I just have a couple of stats about that that was quite interesting. So typically on the drop shot players would win about fifty one percent and the margins are super slim. For Carlos, he actually has a win rate of sixty one percent and by UCX he uses it about five percent of the time, so use and effectiveness. He is the best drop shotter in the game.
Is that on hardcourt or is that on all surfaces?
That would be all surfaces, so yes.
It's harder on hardcourt, very hard.
Yeah, So I think that would be something to look for. Obviously, Novak has such a great match against Laheka, you know, playing those drop shots getting into those balls.
But let's see.
You know, if it goes five stats and there's a lot of physicality out there, maybe that drop shot becomes more effective.
Go ahead, Well, I you know, I have a lot of respect for Lahgekip, but he is not Carlos, so I'm not sure it'll be se affected.
But look the phenomenon that is Novak.
Djokovic is and we say Djokovic and you guys say Djokovic, so potato. But Novak is you know, the player that he is through years and years if near perfection, so you cannot count him out. But he is thirty eight years of age in May, and I agree with the I don't.
I just wonder.
About the five sets, the deep in the fifth set, and also whether he is not lost half a yard but maybe maybe just a few inches.
You know, I'm not quite sure how can he.
Be as good as he was at this stage but still awfully good.
We had Gorn in here yesterday recording for a different podcast, and he says he definitely thinks Novak's got another Grand Slam title in him.
Yeah, I'll be listening to Gora even.
Though his player went out today. But I think whichever way this falls is going to be a spectacular battle tomorrow where al Karaz and Djokovic go head to head. You'd be hard pressed to find anyone who hasn't heard the name Coco Gough, such as the power of her brand thanks to her unique name and prodigious talent. Less known, perhaps, is the story behind the rise of the world number three, who won the US Open at nineteen years of age and who at twenty is already the highest paid sportswoman
in the world. Matt and viv from our sister podcast to Sit Down, had the chance to speak to her father, Corey Goff, about how he raised a superstar.
What age was Coco when she got her first recond.
Just five, so that would have been Serena's second to last Australian victory. I believe fifteen years ago would be twenty ten ten.
Yeah, she bit Hennen, she beat Hennon.
Okay, that's hin.
So I remember that match.
It was a twenty ten that I watch and then I went out and bought her a little Prince racket fantastic and a little soft spongy ball. As she started hitting against the garage and she just kind of stayed there hitting and hit and my mind started turning like maybe it's a possibility, but we didn't do much with it. At five, we kind of revisited the whole thing when she turned seven.
Did young Coco ever sort of you talked about you Wes sitting and watching his Joy and Open Wimwood and all the matches sort of at different times around the world. Did you ever sit with Coco and watch some of those matches together?
Back then, I wasn't really thinking about it, and I think she'd be interested. She's just interested because her dad's sitting there watching TV, so she'd be playing around. And keep in mind that was early in the morning. Of course, we never watched the US Open because it was late at night. She's asleep, so most of the matches that night and I'm working during the day. So uh so, now we didn't really get to sit and watch any matches together. But I started to take her to matches when she was six.
We saw that great vision of her at the Kid's Day, so yeah, she's getting That was such a great video. A lot about the story for tennis parents is how much you have to do. All tennis families is how much you have to sacrifice to I guess, pursue the dream. There's a lot of travel, there's a lot of money investment in time. How much was that the case for you guys?
I hear people say that a lot about the sacrifice, but I'd argue and say most parents sacrifice to some degree when they have children. I mean, you make that decision when you decide to have children, and what happens
is a lot more planning goes on. Right then, it is so much sacrifice because you know, whether your kids, you know, smart like Einstein, invest something in him the learning, more of it, better computer equipment or maybe interaction with a tutor or a violinist or a musician, or some type of investment financially that you'll make in your children. Tennis is a heavy lift because of the travel and the privatization of it where it's not really accessible in
a group format. At least she can't get very good in a group format. So a lot of that was planning. I was fortunate enough, my wife and I were fortunate enough that, you know, financially, we were finding we were able to afford a lot of her growth and development
into the sports. So it wasn't such a burden. It was more like we had to choose not to do something to do something some more of this for her, so that it was about, you know, planning and choices, not as much to sacrifice the sacrifices that it takes you away from other things.
Of course, at what point did you sort of say that a professional tennis future was a real estate path for Cocard?
Probably when I saw it was she won Little mo when she was maybe seven or eight years old, and I saw her determination. I said, man, you know, she could probably, uh, she'll probably be a pro tennis player. And so there was no doubt in my mind at that point because she athletically she was gifted, and then she had the ability to concentrate for long periods of time, which at that age, even with my son's they can't
concentrate that long. So you know, if you can silk up information in twenty to thirty minute increments, and no matter what you do, you're going to be pretty successful at it because you can really focus.
And you can hear that episode in full, plus other great interviews with notable tennis identities by searching for the sit down wherever you get your podcasts. That's all for Day nine of the Australian Open. Join us again tomorrow for all the big stories from day ten. Be sure to subscribe to never miss an episode, and please consider leaving a rating or review so more fans can discover
the tennis. You can also catch our daily spotlight segment on our YouTube channel, Australian Open TV and I'll catch you tomorrow for more of the tennis