Alcaraz asks for end to late night tennis

0:10Hello and welcome to the tennis podcast, your midweek tennis podcast to bring you up to date, mostly with what's happened so far in the Billie Jean King Cup finals. But we'll cover off some other stuff as well, including the double breasted suits that the good and the great of men's tennis have been forced to wear for the Labour Cup photo shoot. Don't you worry, that is on our agenda. Before we get to any of that important stuff though, David, how has your week been? Great. It's been great, thanks. Yep. Tell us more, David. What you're trying to get at, Catherine, is a bit of a mishap ad yesterday, isn't it?

0:58It is, yeah. yeah okay let's get straight in let's just get it let's come clean what the people want daily given it's been on instagram already in pictorial form i did ask permission for that just to be clear i mean and i took the photos myself so it's not as though i really you know was shrinking away from it but um this story i will warn my mother um is not something she's heard yet and and yet she's somewhat involved. I keep a lot of my mishaps from my mum. Do you tell her about them in front of thousands on the podcast? She doesn't know about my big mishap in New York, put it that way. No.

1:46Right. Do you want to get into that? No, no, no. It's too delicate. Okay, fine. Everyone survived. It's fine. On to your mishap, David. And I should say, Mum, it's not that bad. In the end. Anyway, I went around to my mother's house yesterday to be a very, very good son and help out with some stuff. That stuff required me to bring my iPad and my laptop and my phone and spend an hour at the kitchen table and do various things, which I did. And then I took my mum to her weekly bowls. Um, and I did that and she asked me if I would post something for her while I was out. And if you've never been to England, uh, if something is already got a stamp on it and is ready to go, you can put it in one of those big, tall cylindrical, uh, red post boxes, uh, where you stick your letters.

2:47And one of the things that she gave me was a brochure, a holiday brochure that she'd, she'd got hold of about three years ago. and as they do, they then sent her one every single month thereafter and she decided, don't want these anymore, don't want to go on these holidays, I'm going to return it to the sender, could you put it in the postbox with the rest of the stuff? Sure mum, no problem. So I dropped her off at the bowls, went over to the postbox, put the letters in, put the brochure in. I did think at the time, crikey, that's quite a heavy brochure that and it's quite hard but anyway um i i shoved it shoved it into the post box just about fit um went home spent a couple of hours at home chatting away to you trying to make you laugh um about stuff and then thought oh i better do the newsletter better better edit the newsletter so So off I went to get my laptop.

3:49Couldn't find my laptop. Went around my mum's. Mum, I think I've left my laptop on your kitchen table. She said, oh, don't think so. She says, must be in your car. Okay, yeah, that's a good idea. Must be in my car. It's not in my car. Thinking, I'm trying to go through it. I mean, I literally had it two hours ago. I couldn't have done anything with it. and I'm thinking

4:16have I put it in the post box? I'm thinking no I couldn't possibly I've never done that before I'm 53 I've never I'd have done that by now if I was going to do that no one's ever done that no one's ever done that and I thought and I just kept going over my steps and I still couldn't find it and then I suddenly thought I think I think I've picked it up with all the other things and I've put it in the post box so off I went to the post box to find out that the emptying of it was going to be at 5 p.m which was in a few hours time and so I thought I'll intercept the postman at 4 45 and come clean and see if you'll save me um 4 30 so 15 minutes ahead of me leaving I get a call from Jake at a place called Money Doctor Wealth Management in the nearby town.

5:18He said, David Law, I said, yes. He said, I've got your laptop here. I said, first of all, who are you? I said to him. Second of all, how have you got my laptop? Third of all, why isn't it in the post box still? Anyway, according to him, after I'd explained myself to him, and he must have thought I was an absolute buffoon, he said the postman just didn't know what to do with it, and we were the last on his round, so he thought it might be ours because we've got lots of computers here. So I opened it up. And the amazing thing is there was about a 10-minute window when he was able to open my laptop, find out my email address, and email me before the thing locked.

6:09Yeah, not a great security situation on this laptop, David. Not great. Not great. I'm definitely going to have to rethink things. But I had 10 minutes before the thing locked. He had a 10-minute window to access all of your critical data. Correct. Including my contact details. Otherwise, I would not be on this podcast right now. And presumably, everybody in your phone, presumably our contact details. Yeah. Have you had a call or? Very nice. Anyway, I went home, saw Jake, and he still had the laptop, and he handed it over, and he was very nice, and I've sent him a gift, which I think arrives tomorrow.

6:47So I'm very excited. It's an excellent gift as well. I'm going to put that on Instagram. But not before Jake's received it, because I wouldn't want to spoil the surprise. Don't think Jake's a tennis fan. Is that official Royal Mail protocol, that when they find a high-value, likely erroneously placed item in the postbox, they just give it to whoever was last on the round and go, wondered if this was yours. Just hang on to it if not. It's not what I was expecting. Let's put it that way. And so, yeah, I think we might say I got away with one there, folks. don't put your laptop in a post box kids don't do it i got away with it you might not be so lucky so david that you got away with it hang on you didn't tell your mum did you tell your kids yeah i've told my kids i haven't told my wife yet waiting for the right moment okay she might have seen Instagram I suppose the tennis stuff is going to be a terrible disappointment after that lead to today's pod but we'll we'll give it a go we'll give it a good go to make it live up to the to the opener I don't think my kids believed it they were just looking at me as though that can't possibly be real dad

8:26The thing is, I believed it straight away.

8:33It was quite early in the telling of the story that I realised he's posted his laptop, but I still was like, no, he hasn't posted his laptop. Who does that? He'd posted his laptop. Okay, tennis. that you were able to watch, David, on your laptop today. I know, I just double screened in today. It's great. You'll never take that thing for granted again. We have our Billie Jean King Cup Finals semi-final line-up over in Shenzhen. So the four quarterfinals have been played. We had one on Tuesday, one on Wednesday, and two today on Thursday. They started at 3 a.m. our time and they finished at 6 p.m.

9:22our time. So very tennis, tennis just going on all hours of the day. I think that was a 1 a.m. finish local time. And that all leaves us with a lineup of Czechia versus Spain in the first semifinal tomorrow, Friday. Ukraine against Italy in the second semifinal on Saturday. and the winner of those two ties to meet in the final on Sunday. So we've had Czechia handily beat Great Britain, two rubbers to nothing. We've had Spain beat Kazakhstan in the decisive doubles, 2-1. The same for Ukraine's win over Belgium. And then earlier on this evening, we all watched a thrilling victory for Italy over China, two rubbers to one with Sara Arani and Jasmine Paolini doing it in the doubles, making it two victories for Jasmine Paolini.

10:18David, what do you have to say for yourself? I was nearly right.

10:28And then I wasn't. That's the angle you're going with, isn't it? Yep. At least my predictions are fun. and sorry Jasmine, I did it again. Let's get into the tie a little bit. Zhang Shui thrashed Elisabetta Cotillareto in the first match of the day. Six love, six two. I know she's been in pretty rotten form, Cotillareto, but I thought she might just turn up and turn it on because it's the Billie Jean King Cup and she has done that in the past. And you do see that happen to players in team competitions. But that was too much to ask, I think, on reflection. I mean, very easy to say in hindsight, but this was a reflection of the Elisabetta Cotillareto we've seen over the last 12 months, which has been a very out-of-form player, Matt.

11:27Yeah, she got totally blown away, to be quite honest. Six loves, six two. There was one game of resistance in the second set where she had some breakback points, but otherwise totally outplayed. And, you know, great to see Zhang Shui playing like that. You know, it's that sort of tennis that I think at the time her losing streak was fairly inexplicable, wasn't it? You thought this is not a player who should be losing that many matches in a row. But you see her play the tennis like that and you realize, I think, how mental that that losing streak was. because she's a very, very good player and can really, she can sort of take the racket out of people's hands and hit a lot of winners and just be really, really good.

12:13And she was, and it was probably the tie, as you would expect, with the home nation in, with the best atmosphere, and she was feeding off that, and it really felt like China might have some momentum. Because, of course, this was actually the same quarterfinal tie last year it was China Italy in that stadium and both Chinese singles players Yuan Yui at the time and Wang Jin Yu served for those matches against Coccioretto and Jasmine Paolini they nearly beat them 2-0 in the singles but they both ended up losing and both Wang Jin Yu and Yuan Yui conspicuously absent from the team this year and when when that selection decision was made Wang Jin-yu made her displeasure known about that on Instagram saying, I'm shocked not to be picked.

13:05Shenzhen's my home country. I was ready to play. She was the number one Chinese player at the time. So Zheng Ji, the captain, has, you know, totally switched up the team and Zhang Shui has come in, been trusted as the number two singles player. And obviously the improved form of Zheng Xinwen and her fitness now has made her an option to pick at number one. And, you know, you have to say they gave it a right good go in the singles and certainly Zhang Shui got them off to a good start. Right, interesting. Jung Chinwen, sort of the counterpoint to Cotteretto and that being like a continuation of the form we've seen from her all year, this was not the US Open Jung Chinwen.

13:49There was a little flurry at the end of the second set and at the beginning of the tie break but it was short-lived unlike at the US Open where we saw those comeback flurries and they flurried all the way to the finish line. This wasn't great overall, David, was my impression of this Junqin Wen performance against Paolini. No, I don't think she ever hit top form at all. She had just these little spells, as you say. but I think I was really quite surprised that she didn't play better given she had a 4-0 head-to-head record against Paolini coming in but I'll be the first to say I was surprised by how good Paolini was she actually looked like somebody who'd got some freshness back and was really, really locked in I mean she bloody brings it at this competition and she was just she was so solid she was so quick to everything she was she made you wonder really how is she 4-0 down in the head to head because she reaches so many balls she asks so many questions of of of jung that you feel like jung's got to be playing bang on it to to hit through this because she's being asked to play so many extra balls um i think i think coming to the doubles i I think she tired a little bit.

15:20Paolini coming as the day progressed, and that's not surprising, but that could have got away from her. If you consider that Jung is coming into that match with her partner having won her rubber, so she can, it's perfect really for her on paper. She's the big hitting player. She can come out swinging. Paolini's got to win this rubber in order to keep the thing alive. And it seemed to just make her play better. and it didn't have the effect on Zheng Chen Wen that I was expecting it to. I'm not saying she wasn't liberated, but she just never found top form. And partly that is because of the opponent.

16:00But it's some going, isn't it, to go into China. That was the tie with, as you would expect, the packed crowd. I mean, some of them have been sparsely attended by comparison, but this one was humming with noise and atmosphere. And it was perfectly set up for Jung Jin-wen, to be honest. And I think she'll be pretty gutted not to have got over the line there. Yeah, I think what we have to just remember with Jung Jin-wen at the US Open as well is that she did play a lot of bad tennis at the US Open, you know? And, like, she dug herself out of holes. And it was incredible how she did that. But it required a very special, I think, something that she just tapped into into those few weeks when she talked about finding herself on the court again.

16:53Like, I'm not surprised that there was a little bit of a come down. But, you know, maybe if she'd been able to keep the good tennis going in that tie break and pinch that second set tie break, maybe it then would have felt like the US Open again. But she just couldn't get it going. There was a brilliant Paolini pass on the backhand down the line to get one of those mini breaks back. And then Jung made a total mess of a smash. And that seemed to throw her off for the rest of the match, to be quite honest. But it was, you know, I think it was a fine line at the US Open between defeat and victory.

17:28And she just managed to pull it off time and again. I think just this time she was just the wrong side of that. And against someone, as you say, who was inspired in this competition. Nine wins in a row now for Paolini in the Billie Jean King Cup. It's brilliant. And at the time that Paolini levels that tie for Italy, you're thinking, well, they've got momentum and they've now got Irani Paolini coming up in the doubles, like kind of a slam dunk at this point for Italy. And look, they did end up winning that doubles. But my God, the Chinese pair gave it a good go. This was the match of the quarterfinal stage, I think.

18:08this decisive doubles in this tie. Yeah, this was fantastic. And Irani and Paolini did their thing at the start of the match and took the first set, even went up a break at the start of the second set. And I was kind of thinking at that point, OK, this is the proven pair. You know, Jiang and Guo are doubles players. They're very good doubles players, but they don't always play together. They don't have the natural chemistry and synergy that Irani and Paolini have. and honestly I haven't watched a lot of Irani and Paolini this year. They've been such a feature of other years for me but this year I haven't watched much of them and it was a joy to be reminded of the way the points develop when they play.

18:51There's so much lobbying. They might start at the back and both end up at the net or Irani will just come forward while Paolini's back. The rallies have so much depth and texture to them when Irani and Paolini are playing and they were doing their thing but they just couldn't hold serve in the second set. And Jiang and Guo just kept being broken, but then breaking back. And this kept happening, and they kept getting a little bit more of a foothold in the match, did the Chinese pair. And the crowd, I think, started to believe that they could come back into it. And Jiang, in particular, was absolutely teeing off.

19:28And what they started to do was totally dominate Irani's serve. I mean, they broke Irani in that second set. She was reduced to either rolling in a kind of 60-mile-an-hour serve or just doing an underarm serve. And it didn't feel like a tactic in the way that it sometimes does for her. It felt like, oh, my God, this is all I've got because they're destroying my normal serve. I'm going to have to do something else. I might double fault. And they just totally got on top, did Jiang and Guo. And I honestly thought they had the momentum going into the third with the crowd. And I thought they might go on and win it because they were playing so well.

20:07They seem to have really honed in on what to do tactically in the match. So enormous credit to Irani and Paolini that they found a second wind in that match. Because as David said, I thought Paolini was just tiring a little bit. The shoulders were slumping at times. And I think Irani did have to really pick her up. But they managed somehow to get over the line at 1am in Shenzhen after a brutally long day. And yeah, they just know how to navigate these Billie Jean King Cup finals in this format now. It's been pretty amazing for a sustained period. And you just thought Italy will be favourites in the semifinals, although maybe not heavy favourites.

20:55Ukraine is who they'll face. Ukraine having beaten Belgium 2-1. Before I even realised there was tennis on this morning when I checked my phone, bleary-eyed, Matt had sent a message about Gritminen. You know it's Billie Jean King Cup week, Gwen.

21:18Something about Gritminen being on fire, and I was like, what?

21:26yeah i mean alina svitolina you know to to to not go away you know it's one thing to start well and have a really close first set but you just expect the gulf eventually to to realize itself and and Grietman to go away and Svitolina having gone to Shenzhen and played well in China before and you know committed to this event and is giving everything I just you're just not used to that really in a best of three set match when it goes the distance like that but yeah Grietman and just got better as it's going along I think the big problem for Ukraine is that if last year's anything to go by italy just get better as this competition goes on you know i thought that we're going to lose today against china hence why i said china would win the whole thing uh anyway that's not going to happen but you know this was way closer this whole tie than than i would have expected yeah because the belgium team you know they did an amazing job to get here they beat the US and earned their place in the finals that way.

22:40But then they had sickness and injury on their team. Van Der Winkle's sick. Van Drom is injured. And Merton's interesting little wrinkle in the calendar here. She's not at the Billie Jean King Cup finals. She won Singapore last year when it was played in February. And I think she's trying to defend those points. It's now moved into this week of the Billie Jean King Cup finals. And, you know, Mertens has been Belgium, really, for the last few years in terms of the Billie Jean King Cup. Singles, doubles. Without her, they're a far weaker team. They had two debutants playing in the finals today and yet really did push this Ukraine team thanks to that Minnan win.

23:26Yeah, it's the Venus Williams prophecy from 2023 coming true when Griet Minnan beat Venus at the US Open and Venus said, I have to give the credit to her. If she can play like that, she can be top 10 or perhaps number one or win a Grand Slam. And now Griet Minnan has got her second career top 10 win. And yeah, to beat Svitolina in a third set, Svetlina was 16 and 4 in deciding sets this year and has won them over Goff and Sviontek and Rabatkinner. But Grietminen got her and that was quite a performance. You read out that quote, the way you read out messages from Matthew with his takes about like Monica Seles.

24:16Yeah, absolutely. Which he is sending us with regularity. So Ukraine against Italy, and then we've got Czechia against Spain, which is tomorrow's semifinals. I mean, good luck Spain, quite frankly. Czechia arrested Karolina Mukova and still had marathon woman Marie Buzkova to come in. And look, she needed to be darn good, Buzkova, to beat Sone Cartel, who gave it such a good go. So I think her first match back from a pretty long-term injury, Sane Cartel, it was a heck of an effort from her. But this is what Marie Buscova lives for, isn't it? I mean, Matt called it. We were having a meeting in the early stages of this match and in the first game, Matt said, I think Buscova's going to win, but it's going to take forever.

25:11And that was, I mean, there's your match summary right there. and very different for Linda Nozkova over Katie Bolter and they've got Sini Arkova in the doubles who hasn't been used yet. They've got Karolina Mukova waiting in the wings. Sarah Baylech there on the side. Like it's... And not to mention all the ones that aren't there. I mean, Barbora Krzykova was playing in Singapore this week and pulled out, didn't she? injured which is tough to see but oh i mean this is probably as good a go as great britain could give it and but yeah just a massive gulf i thought they were good i thought britain really brought it and and you know it i don't think bolter could have done more than she did do really she you know she the the first set was one side and you read just a reminder of just how good noshkiver is because she somebody can blast the ball at her and bolter was just realized she's just got to roll the dice and hit everything hard and nuska was just handling that with with ease really in the first set second set bolter really hit her straps and i thought i thought she could turn it around and actually certainly get it into a third set the way it was going um but i don't i i'd have been interested to have seen what would happen if cartel had won the first one you know she she's right with buskiver all the way and she's a it's a heck of an effort that to to not play would have happened well yeah that's true yeah i mean but yeah they're an incredible team more interesting yeah they are they are an incredible team and they are the favorites i mean i think spain are are a good take good team but i think czechia are a great team What chance do you give Spain, Matt?

27:11More than GB, which David put at 15%, I thought was a bit lower than that. I think Spain have got a better chance than that. I think they've got a bit more depth. Even in the doubles, you know, Bookshare and Sribes Tormo, the Olympics bronze medalists, you know, they play together. They had a right fight on their hands against Kazakhstan. I mean, that tie was close. Kazakhstan almost managed to win that. The Spanish pair had to save so many break points in that second set of the doubles, and that really could have gone either way. And Putin's saver had done her thing in the singles with a fantastic win over Bookshare.

27:54Just the full range of her shot-making and talent was on display in that match. And it's the first Billie Jean King Cup semifinal since 2008 for Spain. So this is definitely a nice run for them. And yeah, Boutas, Monero, Bookshare, and then Sribes, Tormo, and Bookshare in the doubles is a good team. But I struggle to see them getting it to the doubles. They won an Olympic bronze, didn't they? Yeah. Bookshare and Sribes, Tormo, yeah. Heck, that's a proper doubles team. But yeah, you've got to get it there. Yeah. It's tough. I'm interested in whether it was properly resting Mukova or whether she's carrying something that meant she couldn't play because I do think as good as Buzkova is, and she's a real menace in those matches over three hours, like she's really hard to put away, I think she gives you a bit more of a chance.

28:53I do think Mukova-Noskova lining up, that's just so formidable. but you see Buskova and there's a glimmer of hope for the opposition, if that makes sense. I want to see Buskova against Cerebe's Tormo. We need the tournament to end at some point, David. The Monday show is live.

29:19Yes, we will be back on Monday to wrap up the finals weekend from the Billie Jean King Cup. Yeah, and I think my main hope is that we get a really close final because we've not had that in the Billie Jean King Cup. So far, this has followed the pattern of all the other revamped Billie Jean King Cups we had, which is incredibly close matches at the start. The day where they do the two ties, both of them go to the doubles and go on forever. And it finishes at one in the morning and all the matches are competitive and close. but then every single final of the new Billie Jean King Cup finals has been 2-0.

29:57We've not had one go down to the doubles and I think it would be nice if we could get that. It's just with Czechia being so strong, someone's going to have to really pull something out of the bag, I think. Maybe Paulini. Well, I mean, if anyone's pulling anything out of bags, it's Saru Rani in an underarm serve, isn't it? We'll be back on Monday to talk about the final weekend of the Billie Jean King Cup. That show is live at 8pm UK time. We'll also talk about the Labour Cup, which is what we're going to talk about in part two. Welcome back to part two of the tennis podcast, recording it in the evening on Thursday UK time here.

30:47and we've had a day of content spam from the Labour Cup. Well, we've had a week of content spam for the Labour Cup, but it's really ramped up today. No draws, of course, in the Labour Cup, so you just get this sort of content day where there's a big photo shoot and there's a press conference and there are outfits. Who would like to address the outfits? well they they seem to have taken over the mantle at the o2 arena from the old atp finals don't they of deciding okay we're gonna go to a a location a glamorous london location and dress everybody up uh for a sort of group two-team photos so how many did you have 15 of them something like that captains, vice captains, all that sort of thing.

31:47But unlike previous years of the ATP finals, where they would have sharp suits and ties, and more recently, Catherine shared a picture of an edition a few years ago where they seemed to almost wear whatever they want. This time, I mean, I'm going to have to have some help here, But they came out in an assortment of light beige sand, light grey. Shades of beige, I would say. Shades of beige suits of which many were double breasted. Yeah. Yeah. And some of them didn't look like they were fitting particularly well to my eye. and generally I didn't love it. I'm not a fashion guru, as you may well know, but I thought they looked bad.