Hello, and welcome to the tennis Mayhem in Madrid. Spain's back online after a mass power outage causes major disruptions, Clay caught confusion, the introduction of Hawkeye has players reaching for their phones, and Max's remorse her cell band for eighteen months due to a doping violation. That's all I had with me, Brice Stewart. I'm in the hosting chair today is Abe's away on conference studio. So good.
Not if somebody didn't I know, it's.
Been a long time time. I was here first too. Across the table, we have got a twenty two time Grand Slam champion at todd wood Bridge.
Thank you lovely to be here. Yeah, I love this.
Every time you're hear we remind everyone that you're a twenty two time grand Beside me, my friend and our friend from the sit down, Matriloe.
Thanks for having you. It's been a while since I've been on this pod, so it's this is good to us. Having a big group is nice.
Yeah, it's so nice. And our wonderful expectant mother and this week we won't have to cut it out when Dave, you know, with the information we've got Sam Stowzer.
She's a Grand Slam Singles champion.
I know she's not.
Just that wipes twenty two of mine off the shop to say, you know.
What are you saying? Eight time eight?
Yeah?
I think so.
Yeah, that's pretty cool too.
It sounds all right, it's amazing, Yeah, thank you? What a we none and that we have one?
No grass lies, but we watch a.
Lot of it, and then we've got a headline of our own today, which is this is our three hundredth episode.
How exciting, right here we go the same one and go.
That's very nice.
Imagine does.
That's a lot of episodes. It's a lot of a lot of chat.
I wonder how many of you of them you were featured those top.
I don't know, suspect No, I'm not as many as you think. Yeah, yeah, I'm consistent. Yeah, I come in and then I give my my worth. I mean it's no, you don't want to dilute your importance.
No, I know.
Scarcity is like ye give chance people a chance to be it's more weight. But it's been going for seven years now or something. I think I believe it's seven years. We're going in there. During the Australian Open, it was a daily and then yeah, three years of weekly.
Well since I've been here.
The interesting part is just before we came in, Matt because is this being filmed? I said, yeah, this is always been filmed. Now he goes, oh god, God, some product in that. You had to get yourself done.
Well, on that note, let's move into what's caught your eye, So we're going to a head to you first sent Okay, Clay caught electronic line calling, which so far it seemed like a bit of a disaster. I mean, there's a reason why it had never been used before because it wasn't as accurate as.
A hardcore and showing up hasn't it.
It's still been proven that they've still got a way to go before they really can use it, and the plays trust it because that Zverev situation Saberlenka the week before, and it's in Stuttgart.
You just can't have that. I do hope that the tour recognize that they can't find Alex for taking the phone, although you're allowed to take your phone out, and I mean, it was so wrong and so blatant, and he's pointed it out and you know, yeah, maybe he shouldn't have, but how else are you going to get across it? The thing was just so far out taking the wrong line and so forth, So I hope they act on that.
Well.
I think it's last year.
Wasn't there a situation with Taylor Fritz on one of the other things that we can check now whether it's leaning over the net or a double something and the video evidence exactly, so whatever the case that was, and they said, Okay, no, we actual we will step in now and make that call. Maybe in this situation the umpire does need to get out of the chair instead of yes that might be written in the rule box.
Maybe this will instigate Okay, that is the rule. But if it looks like that, we will still get out of the home.
Can you imagine a little asterixk it says let common sense prevail.
That's what I was going to say. That's currently what the umpire is. Are hamstrung by that rule that the electronic line calling ruling is final, so they currently can't come out of the chair and overrule it. Is that right?
Yeah?
Yeah, So you know what if I was fair of because I read some things where people are like, oh, it's a bit immature what he's doing. Putting it on social and whatnot. I've got to say, if I was him, I would have done what he did because it's so blatantly obvious and wrong of course for himself, and listening to him speak to Muhammad as well, he was like, don't change it.
That's fine. I know you're not going to overrule it, but just come and look at it.
He actually kept a pretty cool head through that whole exchange. He knew that it wasn't gonna get overturned, but he just wanted him to come and see it so that maybe after the fact things can get a.
Little bit better.
And that's my point about taking the photo, because it was just platant. Yeah, so there do Roland garros usid it was their plan. Do we know their plan? I'm not sure.
I didn't know it was in I believe, not camera.
And this would this would make it like for them, Okay, no, no, we'll wait. We'll wait, and that's probably a good thing. So we'll have umpires up and down, up and.
Down a bit and bickering over the ball mark, which is always killed me.
Can I can I explain that clay court players back in the day, that was a skill they were They were masters of finding a different mark. You weren't a good clay court player unless you could do that, you know. Yeah, But I'm haven't.
For stuffing out of the market. But I've seen them like looking at the same mark and the place like it's in and there like, no, it's out because it's doing this, and the player's like, no, but it's doing this.
And I still don't have full faith on the mark either, because you can't tell how much a ball is squashed and how much sand was actually around there, or how much clay is sitting there if you're actually yeah, and sometimes there's a really like on a very windy day there's there's a piece near the light's got nothing left to it and so it goes quite thin the ballmark as opposed to when it's covered in clay. So it's it's certainly not an exact science. Do I feel like I got ripped off a lot?
I agree with you, But at the end of that, I think everyone knows it. Then that's that's what we got.
What we're having it out with it part of it.
I do love the fact that every time the umpire gets out of the chair at the French Open, the crowd starts whist league and they start dooing and how dare you check the mark? And it kind of it does add to the little bit exactly. And there, especially at Roland Garross, they love it when the umpires to get out or someone questions it is a part of.
The feel of the tournament.
Yeah.
Well, I suppose we'll see what happens with Roland Garris in the future, but obviously some problems currently like Clay moving over to you Todd, what's been happening.
Well, I haven't been on the pod since we had the Village and King Cup, and I got to really focus on my joint in a commentary. B We had her on chatting to her in between matches on day two and I was just really really impressed. I didn't see a lot of her at the AO because predominantly I work on men's matches, not women's matches. I thought her ball striking was fantastic. I think she for me just as I watch now. She's potentially a fifteen player in the world, and if you can get to there,
you can be better than that. And I say fifteen for the moment, because I think she'll be fifty or better by year's end. I also think that she needs a couple of years to work on the physicality, her physical strength, and Sam, you know, one of the best physical athletes in the women's game, will understand totally and I'm sure you'll be passing that on because when she was in the extremities of the court, she was just
a little bit weak in terms of defense. So if she starts to she can move well, but she just needs movement dynamically from corner to corner. And you put that into play and you've got a really great young Australian player that I was so excited about. I wanted to put that there and not put pressure on her butt. But I thought that what I was witnessing was great because then she goes on into Madrid, gets through qualities,
wins around, goes what five and five with Navarro. She's contending against the top women in the world, and although the scoreline for her in Bjka Cup wasn't ideal in the first match, she was in every one of it, it was actually a lot closer to the So I just thought, she's contending against all those top fifty women all and she's going to start beating more the one thing that's exciting. She's going to all of these big tournaments for the first time, so she's taking in so
much information. And that's what I impressed me as well, because she actually was handling it all. I wasn't over overawed by the occasion or the opponent. And I'm really I can't wait to see if she get a good drawer in Paris and at Wimbledon. Watch out she's she's going to go through several rounds and really.
One to watch love because we really saw Maya's name come more to the front of.
The US opening.
Yeah, it was crazy. Yeah, I remember watching.
Some of it. She hasn't even been to awful majors yet, she.
Can only go this way at the moment. All of this is brand new.
Yeah.
She lost in qualities during French and wimbled and last year, so now she'll be main drawer. And yeah, you win those matches in main draw it makes such a difference to the ranking. It's exciting.
That's great. Yeah, and I love how quickly she plays. That's another thing, you know, how like like time between points is always a bit of a bug, but for some people, she really just gets on with it. Like I love how she just kind of and very focused and plays quickly as well. I think not the time between points, but she takes the ball really early, and she's really fun to watch. Yes, she's just all about the tennis.
She just want okay, you think I should do that, I'll go do that, I'll do this, I'll do this, And it's all about just trying to be better. And one I have to say one quality. Obviously you got four hands back in so blah blah blah, but she will not let a ball go past her on the practice court, whether it's in this.
Far or out by meter, she will run for everything.
So she's obviously to your point about her movement and still needs to get a little bit better in those end ranges. Sorry, but of course she's young, she's still developing as well. But she is putting that to practice
every single day. And the first session we had she was absolutely gassing with her breath and I think she was a bit nervous and whatever, but she still ran for every single ball and did not let anything go past like that is such a great quality to have when I could tell she couldn't barely take a breath, but she wasn't letting that one go past.
So two players that did that on the men's side for US Latin Heart Alex dimon Or.
And do you think that would be her greatest strength or does she have a weapon or what do you think is going.
To be thing?
She can hit through people's that's her. There are moments when I'm watching her and I could see a bit of a Rancher Sanchez Viccario in the backhand because she she just would move to the right and take the backhand go pinpoint corners. Then you know, obviously I was sitting side by side with Elena, there was a little bit of the way Elena would take points on when she was coming through you know fourand's backhands just aggressive, not scared. So there she's kind of and I don't
think she's modeled her game on anyone in particular. They're just the things that she seems to have naturally. So I think in the women's game, you have to have something that stands out. For me, it's the quality of the hit and the ball striking ability to hit through players. And so at her age, she's got a big bonus by having what she's doing currently, and I.
Think she's the second highest second second highest ranked teenager in the world. Yeah, behind and Rover. Yes, oh my god, Dala might just be ahead. I can't remember, but maybe mine's ahead. I don't know, but she certainly was before Miami anyway, but two or three. Yeah, so that's an incredible step. Yeah, definitely one to watch.
Well, you can listen to the sit Down next week with Matt and viv Actually, well just Matt actually sat down with Maya for a great chat.
So let her go off the practice, go and talk to me.
That was great.
Got to meet her properly in Brisbane. Chatted to her for like more than half an hour, and the same thing as what you said, Todd, like really impressed with how she came across. She hasn't done a ton night of media, so she told me it was her first podcast interview, so that was we got the first one podcast.
Yeah history.
Yeah. So she'll be coming up on Monday on sit Down, so yeah, cool, look out for it.
I wanted to talk about the power outage in Madrid, which was crazy and it didn't just hit Spain, it actually hit all of Portugal. On Monday afternoon, Miro and Drever's match ended with the chair umpire calling the lines as she defeated. Thank you.
I had to learn that a couple of years ago.
Thank you, because I tried it earlier. Well, I tried it last night. I was sitting at home saying it over and over again. I don't know if it was correct, but I got something else. It sounded better than what I was saying. Coco Golf was in the midst of her on court interview when the microphone just cut out, which we watched yesterday, and it was pretty funny. Dimitrov was serving for the match when the play had to be stopped and drever quote was that this is my
first blackout. It's actually kind of fun because I've never expected it. So it's been a really crazy time for the countries because obviously lots of people impacted. But I wanted to call out to storm Hunter, our very own Aussie. I was watching her Instagram yesterday thinking, oh my god, you poor thing. They got trapped on a train for fourteen hours, so it's very good to hear that she has now arrived in Spain and she is okay. But I think that was probably the longest train trip of
her life. It's probably only supposed to be a couple of hours.
That sounds claustrophobic.
Yeah, being trapped on the only thing I thought storm Love's reading, So hopefully she had a good book and she could have like foot hours straight.
There wasn't a lot of water, and you couldn't go the low no, you know, that's troublesome.
I don't think they could open the doors of the train. And it wasn't that the electricity came back on that they could keep going. They had to be evacuated from the train, I think.
And the power didn't come back on I think until like ten thirty or eleven that night or something. Was it was it out for fourteen.
Hours or something. They found their way, yeah, and then we even heard of some players who couldn't get home from the courts. But who was it they had to walk for two hours?
Ellen walking?
Yeah. I think it was two thousand and three when the whole eastern seaboard of Canada and the US had that big blackout.
I was playing in the Bronx and it was.
Like a great place to walk home.
Oh my god, but we did.
So.
It was two or three in the afternoon, bright sunshine, and they're like play cancer.
I'm like, what are you talking about?
And because we had police, we're playing in the park, so all the cops had to get into the city to do whatever that anyway transport couldn't get to us, so we walked from the Bronx.
Back into Manhattan.
I was a bit of a hairy experience through different parts of town and same thing, no water, barely could get into the hotel. I think I was sharing a room with Rachel McQuillan. We were on the fifteenth floor.
She'd blown out her knee and I just remember going up and down and no kidding, running through Times Square with a takeaway pizza with no lights on was the most eerie, bizarre, and an American girl who was meant to be staying in a friend's place could only get in through the lift that wasn't working.
So Teran Ashley slept in her tennis.
Clothes on our floor because she couldn't get in anywhere, and we just were like, we'll come and stay with us and whatever. So I absolutely no, it would and it was so bizarre and chaotic and but yeah, eventually you work it out.
But you know, my take away from the thing that happened in Madrid and Portugal compared to what similar scenarios. I bet you you had money in your wallet back then. Oh yeah, you need to travel with cash because you This was a point that really exemplifies if you don't have any money, how are you going to get anything
anywhere or whatever? Because you couldn't. I have made the decision that, like when I go away this year, last year, I think I went through all my European trip without hard cash, I'm going to have some as a backup.
I'm very old school. I still at the airport will like exchange two hundred dollars to have the currency just in case I get stuck.
Well, I feel like if.
There was an uber driver willing to take you, you can click him a couple of bucks to get where you needed. Oh god is my takeaway?
Yeah it's a good a good lesson.
But my favorite tweet during the whole experience was Alex saying that he didn't mind being off the grid, and Katie wrote, imagine blaming a country blackout for not texting me back all day? Elite red flag behavior. And I'm going to say, I know this is a side point, but I can't get enough of their banter. It is so good. There's such a funny couple and yeah but yeah, play has resumed in Madrid and the lights are back
on as of yesterday, which is good news. Yes, and before we go to a break, we might touch on some of those things that happening in Madrid. Probably one of the biggest thing is is maybe Djokovic and how he went in Madrid. And we've now heard that he's pulled out of Rome.
Well about what six weeks ago or maybe just before Miami. At the end of Miami, I made the point that if he's going to win a major this year, he has to play a lot of matches and he hasn't been able to do that, and should he play Rome and Geneva perhaps, which you did the year before. Probably needs to win more. But he's now starting. Here's the new scenario and the thing he's got to worry about.
He's now losing to people he's never lost too, and they're all starting to go out there going, oh, this could be my chance. Now the invincibility factor has worn down and he's got to make that decision, which it seems made by pulling out of Rome. I'm going to go on what I've done before. I'm going to go on my reputation, on my aura into rolling Garrison and see if I can pull that off. It's hard though, because physically you can see he's not bouncing back the
way that he was before. So there these are These next five six weeks are critical for Novak. If he can perform well in Paris, we'll see him stick around. Yeah, if he doesn't Wimbledon, most definitely he's a contender and he'll be there. But then I think the rest of the season and his future, we're going to have to
wait and see what he decides to do. And ultimately, given the way that he has spoken in the media, he may be looking at a time where we see, you know him join Rafa and Roger and the game will have moved on past one of the greatest years of all time.
Yeah, and he also speculated like, I think he's alluded to the fact that I'm not sure if I'll be back next year in Madrid. I could be, but maybe not in a playing capacity or whatever. So there was not even a commitment that, oh, yeah, I'll be back next year. And then I said it was interesting. Rome's tweet was like, see you next year Novak, And I just thought to myself, well maybe not. You don't know.
I just wonder Novak's ability to do the one percent has been better than anybody, to be honest, Yeah, you know, certainly he sits in the in the top one percent. He now knows to do more by winning, Mate, he's got to do more. Where do you find it? Where does he find the extra one percent when he's already done everything possible And perhaps he's looking at that guy, I just got no more to give. And if he does decide that, well, you deserve to do whatever you
want to do. But that's the hard part, now, isn't it. I mean you've been through it. You've got to a point. Probably I got to a point with my own self. You go, I can't practice more, I can't work harder. Maybe that's it.
Yeah, it's amazing how quickly things can move past you, and even for the greatest of all time, say, probably we're definitely at that crossroads of all right, is this the time which I think it's unfathoon on ball.
That you could ever get to that point when I watch him at the moment and he's still winning matches. But if you go back a few years when he was he was never a bullied within a rally around the court. You'd see him in the corners, and you know, he could be flat out like a lizard drinking so and be still making balls and back into neutral. If you go back and you have a look at the opening set of Mentic in Miami, he couldn't do that.
He was being blasted through the corners a little bit like what we saw Alcoraz do in The Acres's first one Wooden File. He just blew him away. He isn't able to absorb as much as the firepower as he was now. That could be two reasons for that. One. Maybe he's just half a step slower. I'm not sure that that is the case. I think the game of this current crop coming is even bigger than anything that he had to face before.
Yeah, well he will be thirty eight. He turns thirty only May, doesn't he, So he'll be thirty eight when Rolling Garrol starts. No player in the open era has won a Slam at thirty eight. The oldest was Rosewall at thirty seven. So that's man or woman. So if he was to do it, that would be another incredible record.
Plus he get the twenty fifth Slam, which no one's ever done before, so there's plenty of There is still motivation because a lot of people are speculated that since he won the gold medal at the Olympics and that kind of like complete that was the one thing he'd never won, and it was kind of like I achieve that and just kind of let go and they're just it's hard to get back again. But there is still the cross of the all time Grand Slam.
I think mentally he still wants it.
Well.
He made the Australian Open semis I could have his results when I was playing, he's having a bad run.
And then the other one I wanted to call out and feel free to call anything else out as well from Madrid was our very own Alex Stamenor who is He's now won twenty four matches. He's the top match winning guy on the tour for twenty twenty five so far, tying with Alex Alex, tying with Ala kraz.
It's have an amazing twenty two. I see him sneaking a SAMMI this year. One of the majors. You need to get everything about, how good you a need a little bit of luck with your drawer, right, You've got to get there. But again I mentioned the big hitters. If he can avoid some of those or they fall out of a section of his draw he's the one that goes through because he's got the aura at the moment where you cannot get a ball past him. He doesn't miss. His competitive spirit has already got him a
breaker serve when he walks out onto the court. Is how I see it at the moment.
But it's also that and it's the most open it's been on the men's side for as long as I can remember working in tennis. It's not consistent in the same way. You know what do we have in Indian Wells? The full semi finalists all bombed out in the first round of Miami, and you've got different winners of all the thousands, and Novak's not winning as much. Siner's not here, pulled injured, and he's been inconsistent, like demon All is the consistent one.
Our Koraz pull out. For me, it's just timing, I mean, just to regenerate put the You know, I had a great run, win and a final. You can't keep playing at the level he was, but he got injured.
In the Barcelona Final, didn't he.
Yeah, supposedly you had it here first. Seriously though, I mean, yes, if he gets a tweak, then he's got to take your rest. But he'd be happy with his prep. Yeah, he'd be very happy. How you get the body back into shape, you just charge up again. You know, it's like the ev you got to put it in. You can't let it it too low. So yeah, and.
I did want to touch one more thing, Sidelina. I'd be remissive me not to mention her. She is yet to drop a set on clay this season, which you guys can tell me that must be pretty massive.
Absolutely go through, win.
A title two fifty and then now you know, obviously beat Rebarkner and to be going through. I mean, I think we've we've seen Spiderlina since her comeback be a little bit more aggressive as a player. She's very physical when she does play, but she's another one where if she needs to grind out four or five, six, eight shots whatever it may be, she can also do that. And she's just tough day in day out. And I think these kind of results are proving I'm here, I'm still someone to be worried about.
I saw a quote from her. Someone asked her this week, you know, how are you still managing in what motivates you to be still playing like this level? She goes Gail and in a way that he's still playing great and so I've been pushing each other, which is quite extraordinary.
But how old this Fidelina? People talk about her like she's this grizzled veteran and she's his mother. But she had a child when she was twenty six, didn't she Or twenty seven, she'd still only be early third. Yeah, she's thirty, so yeah, I mean that's yeah, that's yeah. Like she might be comparatively fresh to some of the other mothers we've seen comeback like you convit, as was Niyakis. They're like mid a cerber. She's half a decad younger than that.
But the difference coming back after having her baby is that she's like a bit of a different player. She was such a counterpuncher that was unwilling to take a chance before and then she comes back and it's a different type of mindset, which is actually taken her to a different level.
And one that she had to because I think tennis talking about moving past had moved to that point, whereas I think when was Niyaki came back, she didn't adapt her game, and.
I don't I don't even know if was this still playing, to be honest with you, but it's just pregnant that.
Yeah, so I forget things.
Yeah, but that's really really smart from Switzerlina, and maybe it's you know, advised from Gail and then people around under as well, Hey we come back, you can't come back exactly the same and hats off to her an incredible effort.
Cool.
Well, we're going to take a very quick break and then we will return with a little bit. Who invited you?
We need a break, we'll come back to you.
Yeah, the systems, the system.
What are you talking about? The tennis?
Yeah, take a break, and then we were going to get into the quis and ace of the week and wrap things up. We thought we'd invite any fun stuff.
No, no, no, no very much. Here. I'm currently at let me unblur and I can show you some cool stuff. I'm at the Singapore Cricket Club of all places.
Oh yes, tennis courts there. I've played on those tennis courts.
Is that weird.
Beautiful, yeah, beautiful tennis courts. There's no cricket pitch though I'm not sure what that's about.
That.
It's very nice here and I just wanted too a bit sweaty about three hundred. It's not sweat sadly, it's sunburn, as you know. Bre I hit the all at the hotel yesterday and it was a little bit overpassed and I was a little overconfident in my own malatonin levels.
I shouldn't have been. Hey, Dave, I have a bunch have a little tennis story about the Cricket Club, because it has nothing really to do with when I was playing. I was actually in Singapore commentating on the World Champion World Championship Women's LPGA, and a group of us went to have dinner at the club and there it was night, and I might have had a little tiple or two, and there was a group of four younger guys playing doubles down on the court and they said, why do
you go play with them? And I said, O, God, all right, I will. And so I go down under the fence and I said, oh, look, you know I used to play a little bit. Would you let me have a hit and they've looked at me like, oh jeez, and I said no, no, no, I could play. I could play, And they go, oh, we'll just live finished a couple
of our set and then we'll yeah, okay. So I go out there and I'm in full like I'm in Chino's and a shirt, and I'm out playing with these these three young guys who then finally worked out that I could play a little bit anyway. Then I went back to having another little tipple. I love.
That's a good story that we're probably thinking, Oh, who's Grandpa's It's okay, old fella.
But there you go.
At least you didn't get some thumped by them. No.
I wasn't gonna let him win.
No.
Well, I'll let you get back to your celebrations. I just want to say a big gooday and thank you all for your ongoing support of the show.
Sam.
Good luck with all the things that you've got upcoming.
Oh yeah, we've told, We've told everybody.
Now everyone knows. Now today we won't have to.
Yeah. There's so many times that I've said things and it's just like, well that's going under the Congratulations. Huge result, three hundred episodes, a great show.
I'm going to go back.
I think I'm up next talking about everything that is tennis digital sport, and I'll see you later in the week and I'm back home in Melbourne. Good luck, behave, Thanks Simile.
We will now take a break and we will see you after that for the quiz and our Ace of the Week, plus a couple other little news stories. Nice welcome back. We wanted to touch on something that is big news here in Australia and as well as globally, Max Percell. Yesterday it announced that they have issued him with an eighteen month banfollowing the use of a prohibited method. I wanted to get your thoughts, Todd on this and unpack it a little bit for us and our listeners.
Well. Obviously disappointing for Max and for tennis in general, and the thing that we've got to get our heads around with all of this. And I can't reiterate enough to everybody that when these reports come out they are public, go and read them and get all of them before giving your opinion on them. And I think when you do that, then when you then have the ability to give your proper thoughts. There's a lot of people giving
a view whether it's too much too little. I think if you can read the report the same as with Janick Sinner and Egoschiontech, you get a better understanding that every one of these cases is different and is dealt with accordingly, and so already people are trying to put Sinner and per Sel case together, and why is one outcome different to the other. You must read the rulings
to find those things out. In Max's case, he was not taking a banned substance of any kind with the infusion, but it is clear within the rules that the infusion was wrong and you weren't able to I think he's pretty well educated in what was right and wrong, and he missed it. And I don't know that that. I can't mean it wasn't intentional to miss it would seem. But I can just say, read it and you'll have a better understanding and an opinion before you make a statement.
And that's all I can say about with what I've read.
Thank you for that, Todd. We can put a link to the ruling should anyone want to read more on that topic, and I'm sure we'll see more unfold over the next couple of days, weeks, months, but we're going to move on to something a little bit lighter and one of my favorite things to do, which is breeze top five.
What's the topic?
Okay, Well, to celebrate our three hundredth episode, we're doing centuries in tennis?
Okay, centrue?
Yeah?
How many centuries in tennis have there been? Or is that the first question?
It may be one of the questions one, So for every question you get, right, feel free to pop a popp up?
Oh, just not the broken one.
Well, okay, we're ready to go. Let's get this show on the road. Let me find my number number one question. Novak Djokovic is on the brink of his one hundredth ATP title, a feet achieved only by Jimmy Connors and Roger Federer. In Which year did Federer win a personal record twelve titles?
Do we have to buzz?
No?
You just yell.
Yes?
Do you want to pop a pop up?
Why can't I do it?
Okay?
Well, it's called technique problems six did you say yeah?
Which included Io, Wimbledon and US Open situation?
Anyway, okay, we're.
Going to move on from you, Matt. Number two. Now this is a maths question and I'd like to indicate I didn't do this. The producers did, and they are bloody smart. So let's say I'm playing a tennis match against Todd wood Bridge with unlimited sets. I've won the first one hundred points of the match. What's the score?
Oh, okay, I can't do maths, so it's the fifth Hang on, wait a.
Minute, it's six love six love six love six love four love no close, ish like it's.
Twenty four points to win a six twenty four times four would be ninety something. So how many are left? Maybe it's two love? Yes, I did the work for you. I think we got a dodgy bag.
I went four games, not four points. Yeah, first, well done. You should have sent me trying to Todd.
You're getting killed six six class six L six Rocky.
She's getting confident in Okay.
Three?
And which century did Louis the tenth of France construct the first modern style indoor tennis court.
Okay, I'm going to see in the fifteen hundreds.
Which would be the sixteenth century?
So no, is it?
So?
Well? The eighth built a court at Hampton Court in the fifteen hundreds, didn't he? So did he? So I had to be the next late like the early century before that?
What would that be, Well.
That must have been the fourteen hundreds.
No, well when was it thirteenth century? So Louis was a keen player of Joe depalm. I probably said that wrong, or real tennis, and became notable as the first person to construct indoor tennis courts in the modern style. He was unhappy with playing tennis outdoors and accordingly had indoor in closed courts made in Paris around the end of the thirteenth century. Wowing the history.
I jould depart. That's the one where they hit it with the hand, right? Is that what that means?
Play tennis?
Palm could be a different word. Getting the walls.
Yes, doing a tennis And he was born in fourteen ninety one.
Okay, yeah, okay, so the.
Guy before I played, before he.
Played, they had to do before surface is it like it's all sports?
Yeah, and you play off the tambour and the holes in the wall. It's very very difficult game.
Wow, Okay, let's off and go play to four. Okay. Another tricky one. Who was the first player born in the twenty first century, male or female to win a Grand Slam title, was it Alcroz, No, she was in there, but no. Acres was in there, but no, not the first.
Born in the twenty first centuries of two thousand or beyond, who was really young.
Coco, She's in there. Coco's in there. You've now said all the people one, yes, you get a popper?
Oh, here we go.
Come on, come on, Matt, Oh no, it's not going okay, on to five. We'll bring the baby hard.
On five popper Cracker.
Since since the w TWA rankings were introduced in nineteen seventy five, five women have been ranked number one for more than one hundred consecutive weeks. Who were the five?
They would be Chris have it, yep, yeah, stepigraph Ye, Monica Sells, No well Srina Williams ye, and Ashy.
Yes you getta poppa you one ready?
I thought Hins was going to be in that.
Yeah, thank you, thank you great, thank you.
For another quiz. But now we're going to move on to ace of the week. Shall we say.
You got yours?
Seem so excited. I was thinking about this on the way in, and you know, I was like, it's been a pretty quiet week. But on Saturday went to a bit of a party Liz's mother's group from when we had ev there was.
Like three no, three others that we've stayed.
Really they wanted to throw me a baby shower, and so it was them and partners and all the kids now extra siblings, and it was actually just such a fun party. Basically everyone else was drinking. I wasn't take but it was just a really lovely thing for them to do for me as the partner from that group. So yeah, if I got a mother's group at all like this bunch.
I'll be very, very lucky. It's kind of like what real life's like when you finish playing tennis. Welcome to real life.
But no, it was really lovely Saturday night.
It was fun, amazing. So Matt, we'll move to you.
I guess. Well, speaking of Saturday nights, it's the it's the election on Saturday, which I've got to remember. Oh did I sorry? Okay, Well, what I was thinking was, I was like, I'll get on the bandwagon to do the whole early voting thing because that's becoming an.
Increasing about democratic sauce.
It Well, exactly, so there's been apparently all of these cues at early voting stations and I just figured, well, I'll just go back. I'll just vote on the original day I'm doing. Hues will be smaller because everyone will have early voted, and then I can have the democracy sausage for our international listeners. A lot of the pole What is that, like the polling boosts. Yea barbecues and you can get a sausage and bread and it's great
and it's everyone amazing. Yeah, there's a website where you can it's Democracy Sausage dot com and you can go find the voting booths that have barbecue. Because of where I used to vote didn't have barbecue. People would always talk about, oh, my democracy sausage. I don't have a sausage when you vote. No, not if you go to a place that doesn't have sausages. Yeah, so find your place that has a sausage if you haven't early voted.
And then that I'm going to my first election party, like a specific when someone's hosting watch the election because I used to work in camera and they're like the political nerds and the play and it's also yeah slash housewarming, so they're throwing open their doors and election party.
What's it called that famous play?
Oh?
It's it's it's on election night and the removalists. I don't anyway I find it. It's not really an ace of the week, although I can I can say that Wimbledon last year, UK were having their election.
I remember on the.
First Thursday and it was a non event. It was glorious because in the UK there's no advertising, there's no negativity coming at you on television, there is no signs on people's fences. They're not allowed to do that. And I thought, how good would that be if we had that in Australia and the text messages don't get text messages they are you don't Well, it's not compulsory to vote there, which I was very surprised about. I thought it was no tis not and which I think maybe
they could sort that bit out. But I just thought my ace of the week would be to have no political advertising shoved in my face every where I go. So well done to the UK on that.
Yeah, I like that too. My week is very simple. It's getting colder here in Melbourne, especially this week it's been a little bit chillier. I have been in Melbourne from New South Wales for about eight years and I love Melbourne. I hate the cold. I think I'm starting to light the cold and it's really good news because every winter rolls around it and I become a moaning insert myrtle. Yeah, I'm oaning myrtle. And I actually am
waking up in the morning. It was like, I felt like nine degrees this morning when I got up and walking the dog, and I'm like, this is actually quite nice. So I think I'm finally, after eight years acclimatized to Melbourne. Now I'm Melbourne gone out, which is good.
So, yeah, you're not from.
I haven't quite found that love for that yet really well, but you're from Queensland. I think Queensland's harder. Like at least I had a bit of like I was saying to my friends, if it got to fourteen Newcastle, you'd like, it is freezing here fourteen it's like, oh it's nice and barbing my legs out anyway, on that. On that note, thank you all for being here today. Happy, Thank you to our listeners for joining us for those three hundred and please make sure to send on to all your
friends to join in the laughs with us. Next week we will head to Rome for another joint w t A and A t P one thousand events. But in the meantime, don't forget. You can watch this episode and every other episode of the Tennis on our YouTube channel, the Australian Open TV, And while you're there, be sure to hit the bell and subscribe to stay across the tennis all year, all year long. Thanks team, and have a wonderful week in tennis. Done by the way, thank you, thank you.
Startlingly hosted Should we pop next today?
Yes?
Yeah, oh,