Hello, and welcome to the tennis It's draft day. Who will we pick in our Wimbledon fantasy teams?
Who?
Who maya on fire Aussie teen Sensation takes out the British number one at Eastbourne and Wimbledon's Smokies, the players nobody wants to face at the Championships.
Not having a dart out in the back.
Of the No, that's all ahead with me, Brie st you it next to me is my co host said yea more buck, I'm.
Here and you said my name right.
That's really great, that's really exciting. But moving on to the most important people across the table, We've got the mathemagician from Match Labs, Levi Houston.
Hey, guys, it's fun to be here.
I really like your outfit. You've really done the Wimbledon colors.
Well, well, you know, I try. You know, I was looking through the wardrobe, wasn't sure what I was going to find, and then sometimes you do find that thing.
You're like, oh, that's a perfect And we did have to explain it to our next scarce who has just come from France, Spain and Portugal, Dan Imhoff, because he's color blind.
Thanks, everyone knows that totally to be ashamed of.
Now we know why you always wear odd socks, not.
Your own font. Feeling fresh, ready to go?
Yeah, and how was the wedding that you went to overseas?
Was amazing? Still recovering. That was only on this Sunday. Okay, it's Thursday now five am in Portugal.
That Dan, we're over forty speak for you.
You guys should fine, we're not. Isn't it funny we look the youngest?
Well, anyway, I'm wearing white because Wimbledon Levi's got proper purple and green. Your look like you've had a lamar on and you're wearing a dnim shirt.
But did you think it was white? It was all I had clean.
I think it's fair. He only hopped off a plane Tuesday night. How was Roland Garross before we get.
Into it was incredible, as you would have all discussed in the wash up.
Both finals were great. You don't always get the men's just finished, didn't it pretty much had to bail halfway through for dinner.
But the ending was incredible, amazing, amazing, and the crowd was superb.
Fell a bit sorry for sinner, but you know that's the game.
Yeah, he'll be right, he'll be okay. Well, it's great to have you all here. We have got a massive WI and preview show ahead of us, Lots to get in, so let's kick things off though by crossing to our wonderful reporters, our very own Todd wood Bridge and Duncan Mackenzie mccague, who are calling in to us from the Tennis Australia House in Wimbledon.
Yes, guys, strawberries and cream, pims and lemonade and grass takes center stage. Wimbledon is here. It's my absolute pleasure to be joined by a nine time men's doubles champion, a one time mixed doubles champion, and this time of year dinner party host.
Well, the dinner party hosting is about the Australian barbecue that happens on the Friday of.
That happens here Tennis Australia.
Yeah, and so this year will normally I come in and do the interviews. I think this year Mark wood and I are celebrating an anniversary, so I know it's like interviewing yourself at your own wake, but I'm going to be there.
Yes, twenty five years since you won the men's doubles in the year two thousand and thirty years since you wanted in nineteen ninety five, What do you remember from those years to Oh?
Look, I think I remember, you win it once and you think how lucky you are.
Then you come back and we want it again, and we and we won five in a row, and I look back at that now, going how did we do that? We lost the final of six, and obviously I want a few more after that, but I just I just the thing I remember is coming back to wimbled and feeling like I could win it again. And that was never defending, and it's such a mindset for people when you get, you know, defend your points and rankings, you go, oh, get scared.
Can I do it?
It never felt like that was just this great feeling of walking down on the hill of Marriott Road from Wimbledon Veeley's to the club.
And just going, I love this place.
And so I don't know why that happened, It just did, but I'm glad it did.
Yeah.
The other one is it was twenty years this tournament that I retired, played the last match, So there's all these numbers, thirty, twenty five, twenty Yeah, I still feel like I'm twenty.
That's a lifetime of memories. I want to talk about the Australians. We've got thirteen and counting in the men's and women's singles draws. I started off at the men first. Yeah, and Alex Demono. Obviously, he experienced an incredible high this time last year, made his first Wimbledon quarterfinal, and then a devastating low. Couldn't play in that quarter final match against Novak Chokovic because of that heap injury. What do you make of Alex's chances in twenty twenty five.
I think they're good.
Obviously comes with a very different preparation. He was disappointed with the loss in Paris and then didn't get as many grasscourt matches as he would have liked. But for him, I actually feel like as long as he's okay with it, it's a great prep because he needs to refresh a little bit.
He was tired.
He said that he puts so much into the clay court season. He knows he can play brilliant on grass. The one thing he does need to do is lower his expectation. He wants it so badly and that has hindered him hindered his performance here in the past, so I'm hoping very much so that he goes let it all sort of be, not get hung up on it, and then yes, he can definitely make a semi here. Seating's going to be really important. He's just outside the top ten now, so it depends where he falls in
the draw. But if he can keep away from those those quarters of our Karaz and Sinner, then I think a semi can beckon.
It's a really exciting time in the women's game for the Yeah, Aaria Casina, we can.
Call her our own now, and my joints just crack the worst. I've been chatting on the port a fair bit about Maya, you know, I.
Could say I sort of. I think it was like thirty twenty.
We can see her getting to so she got inside the top fifty wins over Radakanu at Eastbourne. The only thing for her that I worry about is that she's experiencing these big tournaments in the main draw for the first time, and like in Paris where she won the week before, she's had no time to settle in and
feel the conditions of the club. I just get used to what it's going to be like, she's going to come in late and she's hopefully has a little bit more experience from what happened in Paris that she can use here at Wimbledon, because if she does, the quality of ball striking and what she's playing, she's just continuing to rise. And I think if she can get through round one, then she's off and racing. I think then
she can really let it happen. And boy, anything's possible when you know you have no barriers, no fears, and that's exactly how she's playing.
Tod I'm going to put you on the spot now, who are going to be the champions for twenty twenty five? You're the men's and women's.
Yeah, I mean, I'm going with Carlos three people. I find it hard not to be able to go with him. You know, he has to stay healthy, injury free. If he does, he has the confidence. Played brilliantly at Queen's. He's just a level above on grass. Sinner has closed the gap. I think he's very close and Novak, let's not. You know, I know that Novak is pulling out every stop to be as fit and ready as he can be for here.
But I think the other two just are.
A step above and nobody volleys and moves like ol chorasm Grass.
For me and for the women, I think it's a wide open tournament.
I think Saberlenka is the obvious favorite, but I think it's going to be difficult mentally for her to recover from what happened in Paris. I think she wants everybody to really like to love her, to feel good for her, and she's going to be really trying to get people back on side after the reactions of a press conference and the like in Paris. So I'm going to go a little bit left field, not way left, but I'm going to go with Mira Andreva.
I like it.
She's my biggest one.
I just think the way that she has been building and if you know, sometimes women's draws can open up, and I think she's ready to now go through and do that. I think Coco has a great chance, but I think going back to back might be more difficult for Coco.
So interesting tournament no matter what.
Finally, Todd Bree came to Rolling Garross for the very first time this year, Yes, and I hijacked her top five and I gave her my top five for rolling Garross. So I'm gonna put you on the spot now, Okay, Todd's top five. How do you experience the perfect day watching tennis here at Wimbledon.
Okay, so let's start with five. I'm going to go.
You must go and view the queue, of course, and snake their weight snakes down into the park, even if you're lucky enough not to have to line up in it, go and have a look at it.
Let's go to four. Okay. When you get in, you've got to try pims.
Make sure there's a bit of cucumber, some orange and mint that finishes it off beautifully delicious. Now, then you get towards afternoon tea, so we'll go three. We'll go strawberries and you've got to have the fresh cream. Make sure you get the big plump ones because they're magnificent
as well. Now the next thing is you've got to get out to the outside courts leader in the afternoon and watch a bit of doubles, yep, right, because that's where some great viewing happens, and particularly those first few days too, where you get those matches on the outside courts that mean so much to players that we don't see sometimes on the center at number one court. And finally you've got to find a way to get into the center court. Absolutely, that is what I call the
mecha of tennis. This is the home of tennis. Now, if you don't have a ticket, what do you do?
You go up to the booth what do we call that? The resale booth? The resale booth, and you get your ticket.
Most people get the chance to get in, and it's unique to all of the majors that you can get that chance to get in and spend maybe it's a set or something late in the evening on the center court. But don't leave without trying to get into the Senate court.
There you go, Grand Slam Champion, LOGI nominee and now tour guide Todd Woobridge, thanks for joining.
Good on you dunk in so Todd's called out. Andreva is his dark horse wind. Now you pulled quite the face there, Dan, I did.
She has matches leading in and she had I thought she was a.
Yeah, okay, even in Paris, I thought she was. I thought she was a roughie to win it. Not that there was any shame in losing in the quarters, but she lost to boss On, which was a big upset, really, and I thought she might have challenged golf in the semis, but that's been and go on different surface, she'll have reset.
And yeah, she hasn't done a huge amount.
On grass wimbling yet, but she hasn't played many either, so you can't read too much into her record.
And what do we think about his other pick of our chias? Is that just a no brainer? Is that a lazy pick from Todd?
Possibly a safe bet, It's a very safe bet, y lazy. Yeah, but you want him on your team, don't you. Well, yeah, you're teasing out upcoming best dressed on that one.
Honestly, I haven't realized about my fantasy team, and we all know might will be the worst, don't we know?
You might get real lucky.
You know, there's traffic on the way to Wimbledon and doesn't make it, So what.
Are you gonna take?
What do we think of Alcaraz?
Yeah, yeah, I mean it's hard to look past his success in the past. And I think sometimes with Alcaraz, the hard court season is the majority of the year and people kind of think, oh, he's down, he's not playing as well as he was, And then it comes to rolling Garrels and Wimbledon and then he just is surging again. So I think it's fair to, you know,
to pick Alcaraz. He's got huge pace on his groundstrokes and you know, it just opens the court up for him, and his serve has been improving too, So yeah, I mean, I think he was a solid pick last year and it doesn't seem like he's he's doing better this year. So yeah, I would I would give him an edge to.
That he's in a better position now than he was.
Yeah, I think so. Obviously like ebbs and flows in tennis, but I think this this run is a bit stronger.
And the guy can volley, which we haven't always said about spinach players in the past. I'm more traditionally better on the clay, but he can play on any surface really, and I'm not afraid to come to net moves as well as anyone anticipates. So he's really the complete package, as we saw in Paris.
I've got a question and before we move on to the big week that we've had with the Aussies, but on a lot of you know, literature, I've been reading for.
Literature, literature at I was on Google's Skull.
I'm actually paid for the pdfall literature going probably can.
But I've been reading a lot of articles about and they always go, oh, they really moved to the net. Well, and are we losing a little bit from some of the modern day tennis the art of the volley?
Yeah, because it's it's more difficult now than the pace of the shot. The modern technology, the rackets, the strings make it a lot easier to pass someone at net, so there's less incentive to get there.
Yeah.
But Olcz is someone who's still mixes it up enough and has the power and the variety with dropshots that he can approaching.
That a bit more than some guys.
Yeah.
Cool, Well you've just answered some questions that I picked up from literature.
So what we will literature? Everybody?
Literature. Let's move on to how good of a week we have had for the Aussies? And Dan, did you want to kick us off with some Maya joint?
Yes, so touched on it.
There Maya three to the quarterfinals in Eastbourne, and she's had two great winds there. The one over first round I think she beat our which is Wimbledon finalists, and then she led I think five to three against Emma Ratikanu failed to serve it out but still ended up getting across the line, which was no mean feat. You've got the whole British crowd there, windy down on the southern coast there. If she makes the semis, I think she's due to play blink of her vitals.
She'll be favorite there.
If she made the semis, she would have made three this year, all on different surfaces, So she's starting to She's on the map as an awful player.
Yeah yeah, And as Todd said from London, he will wimbled in he has picked that. She'll just keep rising and she's definitely someone that could be big for us trainer.
And she made good comment after beating Radakanu that she was going for the lines and that's a good sign if she's confident.
In making those shots.
Becau's one thing to say you're going for them, but if you're spraying them and it's a complete disaster, then you can't keep doing that.
Explain that term for some of our less tennis.
It means hosts going for the line.
It means your margins for error smaller going you know, you go literally for the risky bold. Yeah, not that she's playing like completely risky tennis star still measured.
Instead of going center mass, you're trying to push the other.
She was maneuvering Radakoni beautifully and even there was one point she played a pretty ordinary drop shot, but she moved and anticipated so well that she managed to whip it past her anyway, so's she's really hitting form at the right time.
As todd sattled after her Rebat title, she.
Struggled to then make an impact in Paris, ran into Eiler first round, So it'll be interesting how she finds her feet as soon she hits wimbled and which will be a little bit different to the grass.
I also think and this could I don't know how this will affect her in Wimbledon, but watching her against Eiler, it looked like she was tired because she'd just run Rabat and she's kind of doing the same thing against.
Yeah as well, so she definitely would have been she doubled a little bit a little bit time.
Yeah, it will be exciting to see what happens next for my joint.
She's only nineteen, so on with and upwards.
Yeah, but what have you got for a save?
Oh it is time once again it's Grand Slam season.
Fantasy draft time, Fantasy fantasy fantasy tennis tennisness. We'll have to make my own sting because and he didn't. I've not even asking for one anyway. So fantasy draft. We've got three teams. We've got Team Dan, Team Levi, and Team Bree. Each of you will be selecting from the field two men and two women who you believe will go furthest into Wimbledon, maybe even win the thing. And there are points associated, so if they get to the
second round, they get one point. If they are the champion of the whole event, you get ten points, and you get points along the way. So over the next couple of weeks we'll keep tabs on this, see how you go. It's also a little sneaky way of previewing the event, seeing who's who in the zoo.
But it's so I can understand who is doing what. It's gonna be fun. So we've mixed it up. It's a snake draft order.
It doesn't really matter what that means, but basically pick number one goes to Levi.
Whoo the girl?
Were is that your work?
Photo?
Yeah?
And Instagram?
No, I don't use it on dating apps.
That's a nice photo.
Thank you. Maybe I should after this update.
No, none of that. Well, I'm going to choose Carlos Alcaaz I got first round picks rigged.
No, I'm sorry, but the check squid.
I mean there's no money changing hands and it's fun. Thank you, Dave, appreciate that. I mean, like I said, it's hard to look past him. He's done so well in the past.
I just can't.
I can't not pick him as a first round pick, and like he might.
Even if he doesn't win, he's going to go deep, so safe bet well played.
Thank you all right, number two on our pick list. Three M. I see you put a lot of thought into this in advent I have.
I'm still thinking out loud. I'm giving the people some fun. I don't know where this is a good move, but I'm going to go without Jasmine Palini.
Pealini put on the board.
Yeah, why am I going with her? I just feel like she's in great form. I just have a weird spidy feeling and I'm going to go with my psychic abilities.
Cool. I mean, she's she's cool.
She made the final last year, Yeah she did, so that's and remember everyone was like, oh, she's not going to win this, and she didn't.
But they didn't think she'd go as far. But yeah, I just got good feeling for her her time.
All Right, Palini on the board for Team Brie.
All right, Imhoff, all right, number one, I'm going to go with a women's pick first.
Yeah, I did too good ones.
It just happened not one of the obvious ones, but she has won it before. I'm going to go with Elena Rebaka, the Rebecca. I thought about it, Okay, eleventh c. She's a bit of an enigma. You never quite know where she said at the moment.
Physical, but when she is on, she is arguably one of the best in the world, particularly on grass, which we saw in twenty twenty two when she beat on to Birth to become the Wimblin champion.
She's also done well there subsequent two years.
I think she made the quarters the following year, Semis again last year, which kind of went unnoticed a bit. But yeah, look, it depends a lot on her own mental state. She has had a few wins on the grass coming in. She narrowly lost to Sablenka in the Berlin quarter finals, so that's.
Not a bad result.
Yeah, and like with the nature of the draw, like you don't need to get both champions. If you get an, you get four to go deep.
Yeah.
I mean the only thing against her is she's the eleventh seat. She's dropped out of the top ten, so she's at the mercy of the draw. Could run into one of the top seeds, so she did in Paris, she ran into Eager in the fourth round.
Okay, all right.
Watching brief, Yeah, okay, round two, we're going to stick with you Dan, Okay, hit me with your next month.
Hit me with your best shirt.
Fire away. I'm gonna sw to the men's end and we'll go with.
Really interesting.
He's got a few trophies from the old Wimbi. Yeah, kind of well known.
Ye from me.
I reckon he could do well here.
Yep, yep. I feel like because he's an omnipresent goat well. He still thinks he's got another slam. He thinks he's got another gold medal in him, so he could do it. He wouldn't put it past him, but if there's a slam, he might get another one out. I think Wemblin could be his best chance. I think that's a good pick, ye.
Keep in mind is probably going to have to beat one of for both, which is not easy to do. But he Look, he beat Alcoraz quarterfinals at AO this year, beat Verev quarterfinals in Paris, so he's still got.
Those big wins in him. He's thereabouts. Yeah, so I'm going to lock him in my first men's pick. Very good, All right, thank you, Dan Bri.
I'm going to make a purely strategic move here. And also because he just brought out a song with Andrea Forcelli and it feels appropriate to.
Honor that was that ultimately master. I love and like, don't get me wrong, songs in my childhood, but that was I.
Listened to it a couple of times and just couldn't get into it. But it is a nice clash of culture and tennis, and to honor that, I'm going to pick Yannick Sinner.
Oh sorry, yes, and.
I was.
Blind, But.
Obviously he's had some good runs this year. AO champion finalist Roland Garrison Rome twenty twenty five grass court season so far saw him lose to Public at Halle, so who knows what's ahead for him, but the song is interesting and we're going with him and.
His top seed, so good pick. Yeah, yeah, I don't know, but.
Like I've got to put a big one in there from a point.
Got a big dog in there somewhere. Fair enough, Okay, Levi hit us up with your pick number two.
Well, I'm going to go with a women's pick, and I'm going to go with the number one seed a gable anka good. Well, I was at number two soon.
I mean, like again, going the big dog watching the little box.
It's really fun.
Yeah.
I mean, you know, she's had strong results there in the past. She hasn't she hasn't won it yet, but I think she's in great form. She hits the crap out of the ball. I mean, she just slugs it. She's got a big.
Serve and a big mouth. Lightly but she's talked a lot back.
Yeah, you know, semi final there in Berlin. I think I think she has a good chance of taking the title.
Honestly. Yeah, great, okay, thank you Levi. Third round. We're going to stick with you, mister Levi. What's feeling in your jeans?
Now?
That's good?
Why it twice?
Because order? Yeah, hey break go read something. You stepped on my Jane's joke I'll carry on. You just don't get it, That's fine.
My grandpa called me Briches growing up.
Got it, I just got it the last time I finish.
I didn't get it until it was about twelve.
I never.
Oh dear, I'm gonna have a glass water.
Yeah, but on camera that does look a lot like one, and that's fun.
It's definitely water good.
But for my pick, I'm gonna go with Madison Keys. I think you know, it's similar. I'm building kind of a similar arsenal Ao champion is a lot of power there, a lot of power, and they've been in good form recently. It will be interesting to see how she does Wimbledon. But I'm gonna back. I'm in back Keys.
Yeah.
I think she's going to be going in with a lot of positive thoughts and really good fitness, like she's at a pretty top notch.
Level of her game at the moment. Good one, All right, thanks Leeby.
Okay, yes, okay, I want to take Draper?
Okay, Draper next up? Did you want him?
I am going with Draper because he is in good form, although he was a bit sick recently with ton sliders and I'm a little bit frustrated as well during his match at Queen's when he lost to Lahechka, but he still made it to the semi finals. So I also think playing at Wimbledon with a home crowd could either be make or break, but hopefully it pushes him through. And I think he's the hot thing right now.
Well, he's going to have some boisterous crowds behind him one.
I imagine how good the energy will be for his matches. Him and Katie Boult like the sweethearts of English tennis.
So yeah, I'm really even.
Sweethearts of they're not together.
Oh sorry, I thought you were saying that they're just both English.
No, but I am very happy with that pick, and I'm really happy I took it off.
Yeah.
That actually makes it so much better.
Doesn't it. No One, no one seemed worried about Paulini's.
Worried about Paolini. I'm going to pivot, you are correct. I'm going to pivot to the women then twice.
Because it's okay, come down, Everything's fine, it's snake orderbris just follow the system, Dan, what's in XP.
I'm going to pivot back and clinch one of the favorites. So I don't end up with some outsiders here and go with golf. Yeah, Coco Loko, why not?
Why not?
She got one back and yet she was understandably a bit exhausted after Paris lost the match on grass?
Where was that in Berlin?
Her first match that I wouldn't read into that at all. She'll appreciate the extra time now to reset, and she has.
A history there.
She qualified obviously, is a fifteen year old in twenty nineteen went to the fourth round beat Venus Williams on rude. I mean, if anything, if Paris showed us anything, it's her fighting qualities when she's not even may not be playing her absolute best, so she's always.
In for me.
Mental strength, mental strengths is she's.
Got the mental strength of someone much older than herself. She's the maturity on and off court.
That can translate into a great family. I reckon that part of it, definite part of it. And maybe a lot of trust and great relationship.
With her coaching team and those around her like not surrounded by yes people, not surrounded by those who are trying to bring her down, unless when you speak to.
You, you think you're talking to someone late twenties she's been around six years or so on tour, but still she's got this maturity.
And I would love to say a Saboleca golf final like that would be pretty good on the grass.
The press conference after, haven't we seen that before? Not this one, I've seen two now?
All right, Well Dan, okay, hold on to your hat, Brie. We're going to stay with Dan for his final.
I'm in the middle. I'd never get a double.
Correct, got you, but you never last either. Yeah, so we'll go to my final. Men's pick.
Here we go, and it is a bit left field, but I'm going to go with Yushi Lehechka. Oh yeah, I know he's not top ten, he's not even top twenty for that matter.
You have twenty third seed. But the checks do love the grass and he showed that this week with the run to the final in Queens.
Yeah.
I took a set there off El Kraz. I know it's not slam, but yeah, he can play on the surface. Reached the fourth round there two.
Years ago, so okay, and he could have a reasonably friendly draw being that low seeded.
Player twenty well at the moment he's number twenty five, so yeah, it depends a lot on the draw for him.
Which is Tomorrow Brie our time.
Yeah, Tomorrow wins and queens over Draper and demon Or on route. So there, it wasn't a soft doll foring brainy stretch, right, yeah.
Good pick.
All right, He's there so far the roughest of the rouffies on our board, so I'll be watching that one with breath.
That is baited. Okay, we pick the interesting pick up over to your final pick.
My final pick, and I'm so glad I haven't missed out on this. But I'm guessing no one else wanted her. I'm going with Mira Andreva, which is also who Todd had picked. I'm going with Mirror. Firstly, I love her and she's one of my favorite players on the tours. I think she's amazing. She obviously twenty twenty five highlights, she was a champ at Indian Wells and Dubai quarter fi finalist at Roland Garross. Her best progress Wimbledon in
the past was fourth round in twenty twenty three. Obviously, in the past two years a lot has changed in her maturity, style, co all of that stuff, so she hasn't had a great grass court season as yet because she lost round one at Berlin. But she does play no Kova next at the quarterfinal of bad Homburg, so she, you know, might have some form. So I'm going with her and I love her a bit.
She just has every time she's here in Melbourne. She's just she's so good after the.
Game, she's so good. So go Mirror, I you have all my support.
All right, you're locked in now, bree good lit there.
I think I've got a good mix, all right.
And now for the final pick of this year's women have finish the shark himself, Dan Danham Dan Dan Dan Denim.
So, I mean, I know this is a bit out there, but I'm going to go with a dark course. I'm going to go with Alexander Bubleck.
That's not a.
Dark horse at the moment, but like he have you seen what he's no, you probably haven't seen what he's been doing lately. Is performing really well?
I knew what his seed was, yeah, yeah, No, I mean I think Bublick has, like Breeze said, he's been on a tear and I think he's still a bit of a dark chrus. But what he's showing out there, I think he can go quite far. And I'm you know, I'm hoping to get in and talk a little bit more about that.
You do have some of your Levi's long shots coming up, Yeah, a little bit later. So Team Levi, Albaraz, Sabelenka, Keys and Bublock, Team Brie, Paulini, Sinner, Draper and Andreva and Team Dan bringing it Home, Rebecca ar Djokovic, Cocoa Goff and Leahechka the check twenty third seed. So follow along at home, give us your picks. See who you would pick yourself. Which of our teams is going to win? It won't be Bre and we'll go from there.
Sorry, Bray, you're gonna send us to an AD break.
We're going to go to an AD break, and after that we will check in with Levi's long.
Shot, Levi's Levi's long long long Shot.
This is getting all okay, welcome back. We are going to hand over to Levi now in a segment we called Levi's Longsholtz, and he's going to talk about some players that could be considered dark horses and why they could cause some troubles at Wimbledon.
And also why you picked one of course, Yes, yeah, yeah.
So you know, the work that we do, it really focuses on game analysis, and we don't try to help the players and the coaches understand, you know, what's happening on the court. And so our team really focuses on diving into that type of data. So my picks, which I did pick this player Bubliic, Alexander Bublick, and Marquetta von Drusova, And so I want to really highlight Bublic in terms of just the change that he's kind of
undergone in the last year. I mean, this is a guy who was coming into this spring saying I'm not sure if I'm going to continue playing tennis, and now he's he went to Vegas and then he went to Vegas a man and he had you love him?
Yeah, yeah, I mean put himself on my right up, Yeah, craps to kind of center himself.
Genius.
I mean, it's such an interesting story and if you dive in deeper into it. Basically he was overtraining, is what he said. He said, I was too serious about it, and I was too robotic. I was trying to be like the other players and I couldn't quite It wasn't for him, and so he went to Vegas, he had a change of a mindset, and he's come back, and he's actually come back so strong. I mean, you look at his mentality and the mentality in terms of his
fortitude out there breakpoints save those are really hard. That's a lot of pressure that's being put on you. If you lose your serve in tennis, that's a huge blow. Obviously up thirty percent from last year in terms of like grass court performance, so thirty percent.
That's crazy.
So not only is he, you know, serving really well, but then he's fending off these points, so it's like basically nine out of ten breakpoints he's saving.
WHOA isn't that crazy? Yeah, that's impressive.
And in order to do that, he would have to be so multi purpose really yeah, not just you know, get lucky with what he's been thrown at him. You'll do the long rallies, the short rallies, go to the baseline, the whole shebang everything.
So what's really interesting is, and I don't know if it's part of this mentality of letting go, but he's actually hitting harder on both wings. So he's hitting fifteen k's harder on his forehand and his backhand, so he's increasing. Yeah, so he's really amping it up. And if you see the people he's playing against, they're standing farther and farther back.
They try to distorb his pace to him.
Yeah right, but now he's pointing out the drop shots and so now they're having to run and try to get these drop shots. And he's known as a showman, he knows how to do that. So he has this pace where he's pushing them back and he's bringing them in with these drop shots. And then, like you're talking about, there's kind of a loss of the volley game as we.
You know, get into this era.
But his hands are really quite good up there too, so he'll do the drop shot, they'll run and get it, and he'll be right there to put away the volley. So I think, you know, his game has really changed since his mindset changed, and I'll just yeah, I'm very curious to see how he'll do at Wimbledon because obviously that's a little bit more pressure.
Then his title run at Halla.
So there's definitely a mindset shift. Because he didn't make second weeks of slams much at all.
In Paris. He not only made it, he then beat Draper.
Well, yeah, and I remember watching him against Alex Demanon. I know Alex probably didn't have the best match, but you could tell that he was a different playoff.
Yeah.
Well, he was at about twenty last year and then he dropped to eighty. It's only been in the last couple months that he's actually skyrocketed back up to thirty.
And if you look at his range, he was from seventy six to thirty. Didn't he just crazy?
Yeah, decent run at Wimbledon. Then could scarrok at him again towards the top ten?
Yeah, yeah, but.
Towards him no, Yeah, I mean so it's just interesting to think about how not everything works the same way for every player. You know, you can't be this robot out there if that's not your personality. And I think that's a that's an interesting story, interesting takeaway to say, Okay, who are the robots? I think a lot of people would think Center Yep, you know, he Djokovic. You know, they have these patterns and these routines and a doll.
They do the same things. They're out there training. But Bublic, I think trying to put himself into that. You know, he's a square trying to go into the round shape. Paul, it's it's it's hard, and so I think it's an interesting realization that, like, maybe I have to pivot the way I play the game.
You've always seen him as more of an entertainer, and while Curios held that mantle for a long time, Bublic was often considered like a lesser version of that. But he's clearly got the ability and just needed to unlock that. As you said in a different manner, it's not not one size fits all for a player that don't all have to train exactly the same.
I've seen that with our cries too. He needs more time off.
Yea get away still came back and on the title, So yeah.
I love it.
He partied hard, he played harder good.
And then who do we have next? Well?
Yeah, so for the second pick, I'm going with von Drosova. Yeah, so you know, she just had the Berlin title.
And again if she has an injury recently.
Yeah, twenty twenty four, she had surgery on her rotator cluff after the US opened, and I can relate to that. So I tore on my shoulder, I thought.
Because you were playing gresson tennis.
No, no, no, he did it pay I was in the stands. Actually, I was throwing back one of the balls that could really get you. Yeah, I really can't because you know, there's a lot of pressure there, but no, I think to have that so the shoulder heels super slow because there's very little blood flow that gets in there.
And so for her to win a title, you know, less than a year after that is incredible and it's just a testament to probably how much work she had to put in in terms of the rehab to get her shoulder mobile and to start servying and everything like that. So it's it's really cool to see her take that title. And I think the question on everyone's mind is, Okay, she's won at Wimbledon before, Now is she in the
same form that she was previously? And so if we look at kind of some of that big big picture stuff in terms of her return game, is it as good as we would think is expected of the top ten?
And so it actually is.
She's winning return games about four percentage points above the top ten at forty five percent, so's she's doing well on.
Her return game.
And then what really makes up that return game when you break is your breakpoint conversions, So how often are you capitalizing on the opportunities that you have? And so her breakpoint conversions is actually six points above the top ten have fifty four percent. So her return game is there and it's at the top ten level, exceeding the top ten level, But where she's maybe lacking a little bit is on her serve right, So her serve is just not going in as much as it should. It's
at you know, minus seven of the top ten. So really what she needs to be able to do on grass especially is to get that first serve in and that's going to increase her ability to hold. So she has the ability to break with her impressive return game, but she's really going to need to be able to hold and get those first serves in.
So looking at her movement, like, what's the problem that you've been able to say using the data? Is it her accuracy shot placement rating the other player? Yeah, So she has this really good tactic that she uses.
So she's a lefty, right, and if you've played tennis and you're getting served at from a lefty, what they often do, especially on the ad side, is they'll serve you out wide on the backhand and so you have this really terrible choice to make. Do I either go cross court and that's the easier shot. I'm out of position, but I could go cross court, but then I'm hitting it right at their forehand. Or do I try to go over the high point of the net and go
down the line. It's a tough choice to make, and so often when you look at the patterns there, people are choosing to go back cross court to her forehand. She can open up the field and either hit down the line, or she does this really loopy forehand back to the backhand, and it's just a nightmare to deal with. So she has this really good plate. Again, when her first serve goes in, she can set up that mechanism where she's going to target the backhand or open up
the court and go down the line. And so I think that could be a real strength for her. So that's kind of where I see your strengths on the serve patterns. I think she could mix it up a bit. Like I said, she likes to use those patterns of going to the backhand. They can get a little bit predictable. So for instance, she only hit about one percent of serves to the forehand on the second serve on the
I think it's the deuce side. So it's like, well, if you're not hitting that, obviously you don't want to hit a second serve to the forehand too often. But if you're never doing it, it becomes easier to read and say, oh, she's never going to hit a fourhand. I'm just gonna think on this backhand. So yes, that's her plan, and she's just yeah, So I think you know she's she's got all the talent there, and she
has what it takes. She's she's won it before. I think that she's a real contender there, and we'll just have to see what happens.
Well.
The insights yourself and Simon Ray, both from Match Labs, our in house data science gurus you bring are always phenomenal and I have a lot to think about now based on.
I'll tell you what I just said. If they're both out in the first round, you're sure shit will be deleting this episode.
No, I'll take it on board for later.
All very useful.
You never can predict everything, but it's interesting.
Literally your job literally the wind predictor, yeah.
The wind predictor. Anyway, we're going to roll into everyone's favorite segment.
We are your thing.
We've got a wimbled and white squiz, and obviously we have five questions. Okay, we're going to go with number wow. Okay, first question. Wimbledon's streaket dress code has existed in some form since the eighteen hundreds, But in what decade was the predominantly white guideline first formalized in.
Writing nineteen fifties, lev nineteen fifties.
Wrong sixties, xavior sixties, nineteen sixties, eighteen sixties, well nineteen eighties, ten, ninety ten, nineteen eighties, Yeah no, nineteen ten, eighteen eighties, le Ohuddlestone, Yes.
Yeah.
The predominantly white concept became formalized in the late nineteenth century as tennis grew in popularity among the upper classes.
Eighteen eighties, not THEO, not the Leader, sport down, here we go, wild your fluros, Williams, beads in your hair.
Let's do it.
Under the Okay, number two. Under the current Wimbledon regulations, how wide can a colored trem or stripe be on any piece of plate? Oh, you don't want multiple choice? Okay, go who was in first? Dan?
Let's go with one centimeter. I think it's literally half five mil.
Dan was right. Yeah, the colored trem rule is famously strict, no wider than ten millimeters, which is a centimeter on any gar. Do you know I actually dreamt about this last night, like, and a player went out on court and she had like colors everywhere, and I was like, how is she getting away with this? That was my dreams? And whites have infiltrated me. There's a little bit of insight by Psyche. We're going to move on to number three. Okay,
true or false? Even players underwear must be white. If it has any false, it is false now because it used.
To be true because didn't Wasn't there a female player who got called out and then everyone was like, well that's a bit stuffed up.
Well no, it's been brought in because the women spoke about how when they're menstrating, wearing white is not ideal. And as a woman, I can say, hand up, not ideal. So women are now.
Women usually are playing in an attire where they can expose.
The Yeah, we've not yet seen a man play in a skirt, which could.
Be the year.
I know out there a nice little pleated number.
I'm into it. Okay, everyone's got one point each. We're moving on to number four.
Where's my full button four machine? We're running here.
The strict enforcement of the all white rule was dramatically increased following which controversial incidents.
Dan Tatyana Golovin wearing red you know, compression shorts or underpin.
That would be wrong. Would we like to go to the multiple choices? Okay, we have a Serena Williams wore a pink headband in two thousand and four. B Andre Agassi refused to play due to the dress code. In the early nineties see Roger Federer's orange souls in twenty thirteen or d John Muckinroe's logo protest in nineteen eighty one.
Buzz Xavier may yeah, please I reckon it's Fetterer's souls.
It was Fetterer's orange sold shoes, made global headlines and triggered a crackdown and an enforcement further of the rules.
Well done, nice Ques. So strict, isn't it.
It's so strict, and part of me like, yeah, you know, that's the rules, but a part of me is like, ugh, that's my thought.
They're very good at keeping tradition alive. Then I'll give them that. Okay, we're going on to our final question. Number you are get in? Oh god, never do that again. Number five, which famous British tennis figure once remarked, you can never wear too much white at Wimbledon. We have multiple choice A Fred Perry, B Virginia Wade, C. Tim Henman or D Sue Barker.
Let's go Sue Barker.
You're right, so.
Sue Barker, the former player and iconic BBC broadcaster, famously defended the tradition with that quote. The draw between Xavier and is there.
A choicer weapon?
Is there are?
Question?
Yeah? Okay, let me think it's something. Do I know something about? What year did Todd wood Bridge come runner up in singles at wimbededed semi.
Make the final. I'm going to go nineteen ninety seven semi finalist.
Is he right?
Questions?
You're still figuring out the question I said wrong?
You stuffed it up. I'm outraged. I demand to recout. That is why I could never go to pologies birthday. That was good.
Okay, thank you so much, guys. I always love a book giving me some time to shine and thank you to my team to help.
Me fact team, which as a team. Now, god, we're just jealous. Sorry, I am incredibly jealous.
So we're just moving on now to Ace of the Week, and we'll start with you say.
Okay, it's my favorite part of the show. So normally I struggle, but I have an Ace of the week. Technically though, it's Ace of next week, which ironically I think mine will be your Ace of the week next week.
Yeah, I'm going on holidays, so taking the fan kids and yeah, OFFI we know what happens and you go overseas.
Yeah, everyone is pleasant, no one has any missing memories, and they don't come back with a weird tattoo.
It gets sick.
Last year, yeah, I might have caught a little little, little little sliver of dengky fever. That wasn't super fun. But no, I've got all my jabs, shots, vaccines, whatever. Its staying nice place. No, it's gonna be hoot. And don't think about tennis for a week. Great, I'll still be checking on Wimban.
How about you.
My Ace of the week.
It's just a small one, but I was able to play video games with my nephew who's over in the us. Oh that's cool, and so him and my brother we played. So that was really cool to get on there and just have some family time.
So that was nice.
Oh god love that. Do you wear a headset?
Yeah?
Yeah, and you just go to town. You're gonna die, little man.
It's a team based game, so its versus another team.
But it's pretty funny. They're like, who is this guy?
He's terrible, he's only.
Nine, and how about you?
Daniel im Hoff has just.
Come backack into It was about a week ago on a trip to Mauritia with my partner.
Last week in Spain, which is not a touristy part of Spain.
And even less touristy on the outskirts is a little place called El Palomar, which is the hometown of Carlos z.
Oh wow, okay, it is not a tourist hotsport whatsoever. There is Amurror Majorca. It's our charaze from its humble, humble beginnings, and there's one mural there.
A woman her child got out of their car laughing at me for even taking a photo of it. So I don't think they really get what all the fuss is about. It was a nice little stop one to Maurthia.
I mean, yeah, I'll get some TV's guys. He's kind of a big deal in the tennis world. It was a fascinating im Hoff stopping traffic everywhere it goes. Good, All right, I'll I'll step in here, Bree. What about yourself? What's your age?
Guys who are going to love this? So on Saturday, I am going to Castlemaine with one of my girlfriends and we are going to see one of our favorite spiritual guides, one of our favorite tarot readers, Melo, who now operates.
Her name's Mellow mel mel Oh.
She operates out of Castle, Maine in a cute little witchy shop up there, and that is I. I will come in on Monday knowing exactly what my future holds and knowing exactly how to find the man in my dreams.
Okay, so you have you never seen her before?
I've seen her so many times.
So what happened?
That?
An issue?
I don't know.
I just my friend this morning told me you just need to manifest. I was like, I've been manifesting for twenty five years.
Maybe stop because I feel like Mellow looks forward to your Yeah, exactly, I'm guessing it's a cashy guys.
I've got multiple spiritual guides and they all see me coming and they rub their hands to exactly anyway.
That's really exciting for me, doesn't but also customers.
Yeah, we're going to the pub and Dumpling the Dog is coming, so it'll be lovely.
The Railway pub particularly good.
I think that's where we're going. Yeah, but thank you to Dan and LEVI are amazing guests for being here today. Save who can't wait to have you off next and have a little break. But we are going to throw it to our lovely production team to bring us home and tell you what to do and we'll see you next week.
Bye.
Hey everyone, Harps and Andy here just want to remind you that you can watch every episode of the Tennis on our YouTube channel, Australian Open Tv.
And we have an email as well podcast at Tennis dot com dot au. If you thought the show was amazing or you thought it was terrible, we are keen to hear from you will read it, so feedback comments, whatever it is, get in touch with us email and we'll catch you on the next one.
Catch you later, mm hm.