As world events unfold, what happens to tennis?

35:30He basically said, I need some moral support here. Please, would you mind coming out and hanging out with me for a couple of weeks? And she did. And obviously Delray Beach was where he turned his season around, pretty much. I mean, he had lost to Arthur Ferry, Luke Anardi and Jack Pennington-Jones. Those were his three consecutive losses after, you know, before Delray Beach, he'd won one match all season and it was against a 40-year-old and he'd squeezed it out, to quote Mary Carrillo. It was not going well. Squirted it out. Squirted it out.

36:11and in the midst of that run of embarrassing defeats he'd got himself a hulk tattoo like it was a chaotic it was shaping up to be a chaotic year for Flavio Caballi and he hits the panic button he asked his girlfriend to come out because he's having a crisis of confidence and he told us about that um and he said oh she's had to go she had to go back home now because she's got a because she's got a job. But I really like that about him, Matt. He's not trying to be the hard man. Like he's an excellent tennis player. He lets us know how he's feeling. It is very Alcaraz-esque, I think. And he spoke, I think, in the Italian press about, yeah, the off-season was hard because he was the hero at the end of last season, right?

37:02getting them the Davis Cup and a lot more attention on him, a lot more demands on him. He did do a training block, didn't he, with Carlos Alcarez. Their expectations were high and suddenly you get to the Australian Open and you've got the watery shits in your first match and everything's... First match on the first day and you've got the watery shits. And everything's thrown off. It was so bad. so yeah really good that he's managed to reset this week and I think I think that the secret in terms of as a tennis player to being more like Carlos Alcaraz because the thing about Carlos Alcaraz is yes he's a showman yes he's a shot maker and it's easy to look at a player and see shot making and go wow the thing about Alcaraz is he's he's an incredible match player as well and he wins in the big moments and he brings his best tennis in the big moments and that okay at a lower level you know I'm not I'm not saying that Caballi has done an Alcaraz here but I was impressed that he won the big moments this week in Acapulco he won five tie breaks out of five that he played and that was crucial to him winning this title and even in that final I think Tiafoe was a little compromised I think he was slightly under the weather he'd been struggling with illness a little bit that week i think everyone in acapulco has to just manage the conditions it is so hot you almost feel like everyone is is going in and out a little bit in matches because you can't go 100 the whole time otherwise you will you will sort of fall foul to those conditions but in the second set there he's up a break cabali and his serve suddenly goes off He throws in double folds and it gets back on level terms at four all.

38:56And I just thought that could be a moment where all unraveled for Caballi. But actually, fair play to him. He just recovered it in the next game and started hitting some of those blistering forehands that David's talking about to get the break back. And then he served it out pretty comfortably. And he does have pretty much everything, right? Firepower, great in defence, great in attack. he gets real pop on his serve considering he's not one of the taller players I remember at Wimbledon last year his return of serve was much talked about as well as he made that run there on the grass like he's got everything I think he's going he doesn't strike me as someone who's going to be really consistent you know I think we are going to have to ride the highs and lows with Flavio Caballi and there will be sometimes he's going to be Bruce Banner there will be periods where he can't win a match and you think oh Kabali what's going on but I think he's going to keep turning it around because he's seriously good and of course we get the Acapulco trophy ceremony and the attendant photos which are always a treat such a highlight this time of year the sombreros, the big pear-shaped trophy.

40:20It's all very good stuff. Ketsmanovic beat Zverev en route to the semi-final that he lost to Flavio Caboli. David, I think you watched that one. I mean, this tournament, especially with Alex de Manor losing in his opener, it looked just on a plate for Zverev to win, quite frankly. yeah yeah and I saw Zvere's first round match against Corentin Mute and we know he's got a great record against left-handers and goodness me he beat he beat Mute so comfortably I just knocked him off the court in in as aggressive a manner as I can remember seeing him play and after that he was he was really full of of determination in terms of this is how I play now This is the 2026 me.

41:11I go to the net, I stand inside the baseline and I hit the ball hard. And I don't really care too much about the results overall. I don't want to just be a baseliner winning matches. I want to be this. And honestly, that is what I would have prescribed for him over the last 10 years as the best way forwards. and I realised that a player's technique does dictate how much they're able to do that, but his sheer size and the difficulty of passing the bloke and lobbing him, he's got such a great overhead. Why wouldn't you do that? And I know it's probably because he's won so many matches by scrambling at the baseline and being consistent and so forth, but we've seen the ceiling.

41:58Well, I thought after seeing that that there's nobody going to get near him in this tournament. and actually, to go back to the scoreline thing, Ketsmanovic had won his first round 6-2, 6-2, and I did just think, oh, crikey, that's a player he's beaten comfortably that I wouldn't have expected to be that lopsided. It'll be interesting to see what he's liking against Verev. The timing of Ketsmanovic from the baseline was awesome, and he just planted his feet on the baseline and said, okay, then I'm going to do the same. So it was table tennis type rallies. And he won the first set of 6-3. Zverev came back, eked out the second set on a tyre break, and he really got the crowd involved.

42:44Third went to a tyre break. It was very, very close. But even with this new approach from Zverev, you still saw that thing where if somebody can stand up to it, if somebody's playing well enough and just doesn't back off, then they can still get to him. And I think he's probably going to end up taking a few losses that maybe he wouldn't have taken if he'd have reverted and been consistent. That's the interesting thing. Can Zverev stick with it? Can he accept those losses without thinking, oh, this doesn't work? Because he's talking the right game, I would say. I think he's saying the things in the right way.

43:23If he actually ever wants to get over the line, I think this is his best chance. but he may find that he loses matches he wouldn't have otherwise lost as well. So it's an interesting time. Matt, Alex de Minot, that very surprising loss to Patrick Kipson in his opener and then some very chaotic TikTok behaviour. Are we worried about Alex de Minot? All of this is very, very out of character. I'm trying to remember the timeline. did the did the tiktoks precede the loss or were they after the loss like i can't remember i think they might have been before i think they might have been just before there might have been a little hint that things were about to go wrong on course i mean i quite enjoyed you know taking time to answer fans questions it was just the way he did it during about 10 separate videos when he could have just probably stitched them together in in one video but anyway i feel like that's very dim and all i feel like he is a bit of a sort of would do the same.

44:24Yeah. A bit of boomer in a young man's body. Strange loss for Dimonor, but I'm not going to read too much into it. You know, he's had a good start because Dimonor isn't somebody that has strange losses generally. Like that's why it's, yeah. Yeah. Maybe he was distracted by trying to figure out how TikTok works. Okay. That's it for Acapulco. We head to Santiago where Luciano Darderi has won the ATP 250 there. He beat Yannick Hanfman 7.675 in the final to win his fifth career title. My dad watched quite a bit of Santiago this week and is now planning a trip to Santiago, David. That is how much my dad loved the look of this event.

45:21And it did just, it was in the dregs of winter here when we're just sort of desperately trying to bring forth spring, like the pop of the clay and the sun and the atmos, like it was a sight for sore eyes, this event on my telly. Oh, you're talking to the right guy. I've just watched the highlights of that final before we came on. I mean, the centre court looked amazing. They've really got themselves a fantastic platform for a tournament. And the tennis was big and strong from Darderi, who won the title, and Hanfman in the final. Really beefy stuff, those two hitting belts in the ball at each other.

46:04And, yeah, sort of a centre court with really expansive surrounds, so you could run out wide and far back, and it just felt big. It felt like a big tournament. and even though it's only a 250 on paper it felt bigger than that um and uh and yeah great atmosphere as well actually that's that's one of the things that struck me in acapulco and santiago just great crowds you know in in those finals that make you feel like you're talking about bigger level higher level tennis than than it is on paper it'll be interesting to see whether Darderi can kind of level up on the European clay court swing right like he's he's he's ranked high enough to you know to sort of be in the conversation for second week of Roland Garros or second week of Masters 1000 events and he you sort of feel like on clay should be there at least one or two of those big tournaments on the European clay coming up he's won five titles on the clay but they have generally been at the clay court events that aren't packed with the best players.

47:12It's a little bit difficult to gauge what his actual sort of ranking would be on a clay court, for example. But I think he's dangerous. He hits such a big ball. But, you know, we've seen players like Baez win a lot of tournaments at this sort of time of year and then not really been able to transfer it to the European clay. I do think the European clay and the South American clay plays differently. The conditions are very different. So that's going to be one to watch, I think, on the clay in the coming months. Darderi, like, what can he do? He's an interesting proposition. The very definition of agricultural, isn't he?

47:53Darderi, this was beefy tennis.

48:00OK, that is it for part one. In part two, we will look at the women's events that have taken place this week. Welcome back to part two of today's tennis podcast. Two WTA events taking place in the past week. Let's first head to Austin, Texas and the WTA 250 there won by America's Peyton Stern. She beat Taylor Townsend 7-6, 7-5 in the All-American Final. Matt you watched this? I did yes and let me first of all say that we've just talked about how great Santiago looked on the telly and I'm afraid the WTA event in Austin is the complete opposite of that it's actually incredibly hard to see the ball on the main court in Austin we had we had some emails about it and talking to friends about it like when it's down this end of the court it's okay but the ball disappears down the other end you know it's a green it's a green court and the clearly the position of the sun and the camera it just doesn't work it's too bright you can't see the ball so honestly watching austin throughout the week was was a bit of a struggle um but i did enjoy this final Stearns against Townsend because it sort of mattered a lot to both of them you know Townsend had you know she's been around a long time Taylor Townsend she'd never reached a tour level semi-final let alone a final so to for her to have a week like this really really mattered to her and then Peyton Stearns you know played college tennis in in Texas she She played for the Texas Longhorns.

49:47And she talked about how Austin is like a grand slam for her. You know, she treats it that seriously. She's desperate to win this event. Tell that to the centre court, which looks like my local club. But good for you, Peyton. And honestly, like I've felt this for a while. If you're rooting for Peyton Stearns to win a match, it must be very stressful. Is she on your fantasy team? She was last year, wasn't she? She was last year. So you've got first-hand experience of this. And we talked about this. I've got 20, 25 memories of you being very stressed watching Paine and Sterling. And we talked about this last year in her run in Rome.

50:27She is simultaneously clutch and unclutch within seconds of each other. You know, like there's no rhythm to it. And in this one, I mean, she was a breakdown in the opening set, recovered it as Townsend threw in a bit of a bad game but then had four set points and on two of those set points opening set a couple of the worst misses you will see all year particularly the first one literally on top of the net not quite a smash but like a high forehand put away had the whole court gaping and just dumped it in the net I mean literally all of us could have made that shot it was a horror miss from Stern she missed a drop volley on another set point and you're thinking, how is she going to get over the line here?

51:13She's too tight. And then she comes up with an absolutely crazy forehand on the back of the line to win the set. And you sort of think, well, how has she pulled that out the bag after those misses I've just seen? She fluctuates so much, Peyton Stearns. And again, in the second set, twice up a break, twice gets pegged back, goes up a break a third time. And I was thinking, well, she's probably going to get broken again. it's going to go to a tie break but fair play she served it out and she ends up winning winning in straight sets even though it was a very long match and she had a lot of long matches in this tournament three three setters to get there so she battled hard it was a fun final um but yeah stern's stern's is a fun watch but a stressful watch if you're rooting for her there's a there's a little bit of the sort of saccharis about her right where you don't trust her with a lead and yet when she's free and liberated she's got a hell of a forehand on her uh real gets real revs on it reps on it and can do big damage and she's a good athlete as well um so yeah fun final but a a struggle of a tournament for me like it it's it's not one that i particularly enjoy watching from afar Yeah, and I really tried to watch the Andreescu, the Bianca Andreescu tour level comeback.

52:39She faced Dalma Galfi in round one, but I couldn't see the ball for quite a lot of it, which was a problem. I thought, you know, biggest takeaway from this, she looked like fit and strong and healthy. I wasn't worried about her body. I thought that it all looks the same doesn't it Matt I know you I know you watch a lot of this as well not the ball obviously but she just needs to get something going get some confidence going like I can see I can see her indecision especially as a player with who's got so many options and so many shots at her disposal, I can see her indecision about when to deploy what.

53:32She's not playing on instinct anymore and maybe she never will be able to again. That's something that Emma Raducanu is trying to rediscover, isn't it? Playing that just free flowing, youthful tennis where you're not thinking about it and maybe you can't rediscover that. and that is tragic and let's not dwell on that too long. But maybe you can, maybe she can somehow. But a few wins would definitely help. So she's got a world card into Indian Wells, hasn't she, as a former champion. So let's see. They had a rage room in Austin. Fun. This is a, yeah, fun. And they actually called it a rage room.

54:22Yeah. Yeah, you feel like... Which makes it doubly fun. Yeah, I mean, you feel like a... I don't know, maybe they were planning this anyway, but it feels like a direct response to, you know, Coco Gauff at the Australian Open saying that... Sensed an opportunity. Exactly, yeah. Where obviously she was caught on the cameras that are everywhere smashing her racket and she was very unhappy about not having a sort of private space other than the locker room where she could get that post-match frustration out. And I think everyone sort of agreed with that and it seemed like a very sensible thing for Coco Gauff to say and for a tournament to have.

54:57And yeah, they called it the rage room. And I don't know how many players used it. I suppose that's the point, right? It's not for us to know. It's private and it should be. And yeah, there's a tick for Austin, having just written it off as an event. They saw an open goal there and they slotted it home. So well done to them. The WTA event in Merida, the 500 event, obviously one of two tennis events happening in Mexico this week with Acapulco as well. We talked about that last week, the unrest that there has been in Mexico recently after the death of the leader of one of the country's biggest cartels, a lot of unsettlement.

55:45There was significant increased security at both of these two events. And thankfully, both of them seem to have gone off without incident, which is a great relief. And Merida was won by Christina Bookshire. She beat Magdalena Frech 6-1, 4-6, 6-4. Her first career title, she also won the doubles. She beat Jasmine Paolini in the semifinals. like this will probably be the highlight of Christina Bookshare's career right I mean she might have another week like this but if I had to say now I'd probably say it's not going to get better much better than this for Christina Bookshare like what a week for her David.

56:33Yeah she was amazing and pretty flawless all week long and actually that is going to be interesting to follow is is is the more to come from her because it certainly looked like there was a lot there over the course of this week i've often thought of her as a as a player who's tough to beat but i don't necessarily expect her to beat people higher than her and and that this week gave me reason to think differently um and and this this this final was really hard fought you know two players who aren't talked about a lot, let's be honest. They don't typically make agendas very often in Freck and Bookshare, but they earned their way into this final.

57:21Penultimate point, 38 strokes. Amazing point that Bookshare just sort of set up at the end, stayed really solid and then set up at the end and finished off. Then poor old Freck, who was just completely out on a feet after that, double faulted um to give her the title at the end um but great effort from her as as well um and uh and just just a word as well given the stick we've given the look of the the austin court beautiful court in merida vivid purple um with a sort of gray surround you're picking out the ball on that court i'm telling you and it looks great yeah how well you can see the ball really needs to be something significant that court makers, tournament directors are factoring in to their decisions.

58:17Probably should touch upon Emma Navarro, Matt, who, I mean, talk about the wilderness. Like, she's in the wilderness of the wilderness. Yeah, I mean, just really struggling and has been for a little while now. and it's almost the reverse of how she came to our attention, right? Like I remember at the time it was thinking, how is Emma Navarro winning so many matches? How is she ranked where she is? And then she really did cement herself as a top player for a while there and was incredibly consistent and tough to beat. She had a great three-set record. And now it's a bit like, well, how is she not winning matches anymore?

58:59Like the drop-off has been significant. I didn't see her straight sets lost to Zhang Shui in her opening match in Merida. But not what either her, who was the second seed, or Paolini, the top seed, were really looking for, I don't think, for Merida. Okay, Paolini did at least get some wins. But, you know, I think she'd have been definitely having her eyes on the title there. And she's struggling. She's searching for confidence. I think she's talked, hasn't she, about belief being the big difference maker in her game over the last few years and allowing her to step in the court and hit more aggressively with her forehand and, you know, take time away from opponents.

59:45And it just feels like that belief has drained a little bit at the moment. It's also seeped into her doubles results. You know, they've not been as good this year. And, yeah, everything's just a bit off with Paolini at the moment. And it's a shame because she has been such a breath of fresh air for two years. But maybe it's, you know, for someone to make such a big leap, how long can that last? It just feels like there's been a little bit of a sort of regression this year. And I hope she gets it back to some extent, though. I miss fun Paolini. The TTP meets curse? Well, possibly. Oh, my hands up.

1:00:26I'd say it's all your fault, Matt. But that is the last time I saw her laugh.

1:00:34Yeah, it's such a missed opportunity, isn't it, for those top players when they enter these sort of inflated WTA 500s? Because let's be honest, this is one of those 500s that doesn't feel like a 500 in terms of its feel. And there are quite a few of those on the WCA tour. And I do wonder if that's something that's going to be looked at in the architecture by the Architecture Council. But, you know, that's a lot of points on offer in a in a fairly weak field. So to not take advantage, particularly looking at Emma Navarro here, I mean, that's something that she's done really well, isn't it? Like kind of play the calendar, really play the calendar and mop up maximum available points.

1:01:24So, yeah, tough week for Paolini, but even more so Navarro. OK, that's it for part two. We'll be back in part three with a look ahead to this week. and a new segment, probably a one-week-only thing, could come back again in the future, called Worst Kept Secrets in Tennis News. We'll see you in part three. Welcome back to part three of today's tennis podcast where it's finally official. We can finally talk about it without using hypotheticals. Craig Tiley is leaving Tennis Australia and he's heading to the USTA. not to be the tournament director of the US Open, although I'm sure he will have his fingers in the US Open pie, but he's going to be the CEO of the USTA and oversee all of the redevelopment plans and all of the plans that they've got going on over in New York.

1:02:31Have you anything new to say about this, David, that we didn't say in the very long speculative phase when we absolutely knew this news was happening, but it wasn't yet fully confirmed? Not really. I mean, I suspect he will be very visible because I think that that has been part of his tenure over 20 years and he's made him a huge star in Australia. I mean, people really know about Craig Tiley in Australia. I mean, obviously, he won't have anything like the same impact on the visuals in America because it's such a bigger platform and environment. But I think I am fascinated to see what he does do because he's not somebody who comes in to just do things quietly.

1:03:25He's not somebody who just wants to take a big paycheck and quietly let things carry on as they have been. That's not him at all. he's somebody who will come in and shake things up I would think same way as he did when he left Tennis Australia saying that all the things he'd like to see which seem some of them a little bit counter to maybe what the association he's joining might do but maybe he's going to change things so I'm interested I'm also very interested to see what Tennis Australia does in terms of replacing him do they i mean they they've got they had a the head of australian tennis as the tournament director as well you know there's talk about splitting those two roles up um having two people don't know um but yeah it'll be interesting to see what they do i thought uh matt futterman's article in the athletic laid out how different the sort of picture of the usta is compared to tennis australia where basically craig tiley completely ran the show in tennis australia and could do what he liked but he's going into a place the usta which in matt's words is more unwieldy you know with representation from from all over and and the question is can he have the same level of impact there as he had in in australia he's gonna he's gonna have more resource you know like the the usta revenue is about 250 million dollars more than tennis australia's uh matt wrote um but whether he can actually sort of make the same impact will be will be something to kind of monitor um but presumably from the usta standpoint you don't bring craig craig tiley in unless you unless you sort of want him to to have an impact and you know and sort of shake things up.

1:05:25And then there's also the question of the fact that with Tennis Australia aligning itself more with the PTPA and sort of coming to that agreement with them versus the approach that the other slams have taken. Will the US Open go in the same direction? Sorry, will the USTA go in the same direction as Tennis Australia? We don't know. So that's something that's going to be sort of interesting to watch unfold over the next few months as well. It is a very interesting time. Yeah, having got rid of that lawsuit at Tennis Australia, obviously they're the only slam that have settled that lawsuit to then walk into the USTA.

1:06:08It's hard to imagine that he's going to be okay with sort of walking back into that lawsuit at the USTA, isn't it? But then he's not going to be the only sheriff in town at the USTA in the way that he was at Tennis Australia it's not going to be a case of him just going, you know, make it so. I do wonder how many feathers that will ruffle at the USTA. But as you say, you know, presumably they've had these conversations about what his expectations are and you don't go for Craig Tiley unless you want someone who's going to be the sheriff of the town. So we will see. I think none of us really expected the successor at Tennis Australia to be announced alongside the Craig Tiley exit announcement.

1:06:58I think the Craig Tiley exit announcement was always going to have its own designated oxygen and lots of it. But I'm interested. I'd love to know whether it has been decided but just hasn't been announced yet or whether it hasn't been decided. I'd love to know if, you know, Tylee's doing Ferguson and Moyes and appointing his successor on the way out. My sense is not. My sense is there is a process underway. And not to say that they haven't got some idea, but, you know, the fact that it hasn't been already announced, I think, tells you that they're now working it out. um i mean i don't think there'll be any shortage of people wanting to do it but being qualified to do it um is another matter you know it's it's a long time there's a lot of tournament directors out there david that aren't qualified to do it though like that's it is having been a tennis player qualification for being a tournament director i certainly i certainly don't i view that as useful on certain counts but yeah I mean look the two best tournament directors I ever worked with were Chris Kommerden and Stephen Farah who's actually at Tennis Australia and they both worked at Queen's and Chris went on to be the boss at the ATP and Stephen I would hope is in the running at Tennis Australia because I certainly can't think of any better administrator and front person and reliable set of hands to run a tournament like that personally um but you know that's just a personal opinion okay watch this space we'll be watching it we'll be keeping you updated uh also in badly kept tennis secret news emma radhikanu is now a uniglo ambassador uh nike out uniglo in from radhikanu rumored to be a a huge a huge pay uplift on what she was getting from Nike.

1:09:07She's Uniqlo's first female brand ambassador, which is embarrassing from Uniqlo. I hadn't quite sort of processed that. They've invested a lot in male athletes, obviously most notably Roger Federer. And this is their first female athlete. So good that they're obviously looking hopefully to correct that. But there's a lot more, lot more correcting to do. She's been pictured in Indian Wells, training in Uniqlo, and as was first reported by The Times, training again with Mark Petchy, who is coming back in to the Emirati Karnu team in no different capacity. We understand to previous times he's come into the Emirati Karnu team it's all around his broadcast work this isn't a formal he's my new coach situation this is a he's there I'm there I I feel comfortable with him I know this works so let's make the most of it for this period while we can um is is what it seems like to me and and I don't know there's there's going to be a lot of attention on it Matt because it's emir adekano and it's a coaching decision and there is you know for for a lot of very good reasons there is always a lot of attention on that yeah and i think um you know they've had some good results and certainly good performances together uh and in the short term i think it you know it does sort of make sense as a move but i do think in the long term what does it say about sort of constantly going back to someone who's not going to be available for you long term you know is that is that the best sort of move for your career sort of strategically and um yeah it'd be it'd be interesting to watch i i do think madocanu is has been consistent with her comments in terms of how she wants to to get back to playing and you know taking the ball early and being aggressive and hitting down the line and going for the corners all this sort of stuff and i imagine i imagine we'll see her trying to to do that in indian wells i think some of those i think could be tricky conditions for that um just the way the ball bounces up there is is is always a little bit tricky i think um but yeah like short term i i suspect we will see a little uplift in the in the sort of manner of the way she's playing and and some of her performances but i think it still leaves question marks about the long-term sort of shape of of her career and her coaching decisions it's philosophically so interesting this experiment of emma adekanu trying to go back to how she played when she was 18.

1:12:07Because obviously on paper that makes a ton of sense. Go back to how you played when you were playing your best tennis, when you looked most sure of yourself and you looked like you were most enjoying your tennis and you had your best results. But maybe you can only play that way when you're young enough not to have any doubt, for life not to have beat you. you down, you know, maybe it's just not possible to play that kind of free flowing instinctive tennis later in your career. She's still incredibly young, but she's had a lot of knocks, you know, like with Bianca Andreescu, you can see the indecision.

1:12:57And that this period of the career is all about sort of making up for what you lose in that the naivety of youth with you've got to make up for that with what you gain from experience, right? But if experience is sort of more negative than positive, it's hard to make that equation work. So it's a fascinating kind of tennis and existential experiment that she's enacting at the moment. Maybe we're that young anymore. In the words of David Whittaker, you really are ticking off those decades, aren't you? In a FaceTime call to me and Matt at about three o 'clock in the morning at the Australian Open.

1:13:43Other tennis news from this week. About a week ago now, I think just after we recorded the last podcast, we had the news that Tara Moore, the British player, is suing the WTA. she's 33 now former British doubles number one she's being backed by the PTPA in this plight PTPA obviously already sewing both tours and the Grand Slams in that situation we mentioned earlier in relation to Craig Tiley but this reporting by Matt Hughes in The Guardian Tara Moore has brought legal action for negligence against the WTA after being handed a four-year ban for doping. She's using lawyers from the PTPA's legal partner King and Spalding.

1:14:45And PTPA sources told The Guardian that it is not paying Moore's legal bills but is supportive of her claim, with King and Spalding understood to have been engaged on a pro bono. So that's a free of charge basis. Now, Tara Moore was first suspended in June 2022 after testing positive for bouldernone and nandrolone at a tournament in Bogota. She's always denied doping. And in December 2023, she was cleared by an independent tribunal, which found that contaminated meat was the likely source of the positive tests. But there was an appeal by the ITIA, the International Tennis Integrity Unit, to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which overturned the ruling, the ruling that cleared Tara Moore, that is.

1:15:37And then in July 2025, Cass reimposed Tara Moore's original four-year ban, removing the 19 months she'd already served. So that is where Tara Moore now stands. And she is suing the WTA for negligence, arguing that it failed to warn players about the risk of contamination from eating meat. Specifically before the tournament in the Colombian capital, she's seeking$20 million in compensation for what the claim describes as reputational and financial ruin, arguing that the WTA failed in its duty of care to protect athletes. She also alleges that the authorities, specifically the ITIA, showed preferential treatment to more high profile players such as Yannick Sinner and Igor Svantec, who were handed bans of three months and one month respectively following contamination.

1:16:28WTA statement says we are aware of Tara Moore's filing in the US District Court and will respond to the appropriate legal process. The arbitration was conducted by a neutral arbitrator and there is no basis to vacate the arbitrator's award. We respect the judicial process and will not comment further while the matter is pending. The ITIA was unavailable for comments. So another one that we will keep an eye on and keep you posted. This week, the tours, both tours head to Indian Wells for the start of a two week long or 12, 12, 13 days, 12 days, I think, combined 1000 event. The draw is being live streamed on Tennis Channel later tonight, Matt.

1:17:19Word is spreading. The campaign is thoroughly off the ground. We're calling it a movement, I think. Yeah. Are you taking total credit for it? Yep.

1:17:35Yeah, it's great. It's a great thing. We still don't know what the draw will look like. No, it's possible. What would you like to see? I would like to, well, ideally, I'd like to see them pull names out of a velvet bag, Wynwood and style, but that's the dream. What I would accept is a draw happening live in real time, even if it's, you know, electronically, which I'm sure it will be. That's fine. I can very much accept that. What I don't want is here's the draw we did behind the scenes 20 minutes ago. Here it all is in one go. No, that's bad. That's not a proper draw process. So show it absolutely and do it live.

1:18:24What would you like in terms of sort of ceremony and setting, ideally? Do you know, I'm not too fussy about that. You're all about process. absolutely big big big workflow guy uh i received a tournament email actually um which uh i must be on a mailing list of some kind because i received a tournament email inviting me to that public area with the big screen that uh that you may remember we we walked past uh with all the place where you you did a big interview with your with your name behind you in no no it's not it's not there that That was sort of where all the eating places were. This was a place with a big screen.

1:19:09I can't remember exactly where. It's on the back of one of the stadiums. Is it where John McEnroe performed Glory Days? Might have been there. I don't know. Well, David, that sounds perfect. They did say it would be revealed there. Yeah. So I was a little bit concerned. I'm worried about that. That sounds very PDF-y, doesn't it? I'm worried about that word, revealed. We'll see. and they're going to live stream it so you know live streaming and reveal here we are, here's the PDF see you later you can't do that I'm worried it's just going to be nonsense I'm worried the actual draw 20 minutes build up mention all the sponsors invite them all out to say something yeah get some sort of mid range tennis players out say some I bet Emi Navarro will pop up.

1:20:08Could be defending champions. Could be. Yeah, Mirandreva, maybe. Maybe. Yeah. Be up for it. Yeah, could be. Well, we'll be watching and we'll be judging. Yeah. Head to our Instagram for sort of live reactions from Matt Roberts to the Indian Miles draw ceremony. I've just come up with that idea, Matt. I hope you're comfortable with it. But I do like your draw reactions. I think it's 11pm here. That's OK. I'll be awake. If you'd made me be awake at 3am for live reactions, I'm not that into draws. OK. 11pm, folks, on our Instagram, live Matt Roberts reactions. We should note, by the way, I think it would be remiss of us not to.

1:21:06Lots of players already in Indian Wells, players currently stranded in Dubai, desperately trying to get to Indian Wells. Indian Wells is owned by Larry Ellison and he is a man that is very closely aligned with Donald Trump. He owns Paramount, who are currently involved in trying to become the biggest media conglomerate in the world by buying Warner Brothers and HBO and who else is involved? It's Warner Brothers, TNT, HBO, all of that lot together. And yeah, he's very closely aligned with Donald Trump. He's just moved his primary home to be 20 minutes from Mar-a-Lago. Mar-a-Lago where Donald Trump was when he made the decision and announced the strikes on Iran.

1:22:05And he's also, Larry Ellison, a huge financial supporter of the IDF, the Israel Defense Forces. So again, you know, this is already a time when tennis cannot detach itself from world events much as it would like to. And, you know, Larry Ellison is going to be sitting front and centre of this event. He's very, very much the public face of it, particularly during Carlos Alcaraz matches. Don't see him front and centre of many women's tennis matches, but he'll be there for every Carlos Alcaraz match. I guarantee that. And that element of the whole event cannot be however you feel about it. It absolutely cannot be overlooked or hidden from, I don't think, over the course of the next couple of weeks.

1:22:59In terms of our next couple of weeks or this week, more particularly, we're recording our next tennis relived show, our second tennis relived show of 2026. And we are extremely excited about it. We revealed what it was going to be about in the newsletter this week. for anybody that hasn't seen Matt Roberts. Could you do the reveal on... I know you hate a reveal, but here we go. Could you do the reveal, well, right now, please? Yes, we're going to be talking about the life of Alice Marble, who was, well, has been a real character in a lot of episodes of Tennis Relived for us. She's come up a lot.

1:23:46and when that happens we all think right we need to do a full show on Alice Marble if you don't know played before the Second World War one a lot was was the best player in the world for a little period there but there's a there's a whole lot of mystery surrounding her life and sort of what she did during during the war and she's also very well known for writing a very important letter of support about Althea Gibson and helping Althea Gibson to be able to play the the US Nationals so fascinating career fascinating person a very important person in tennis history and yeah it's been it's been brilliant reading all about her and also the fun double announcement is that Hannah Wilkes, our Hannah, is going to be on that show this week.

1:24:45She'll hate me for saying this, but she's somewhat of an expert on Alice Marble, having talked at the Wimwood Tennis History Conference last year all about Teach Tennant, who played a very important role in Alice Marble's life. And Hannah did a lot of research into Alice Marble. that was left sort of on the shelf that she couldn't get into her speech at the history conference. But she's going to bring it to Tennis Relived this week, which I'm very excited about. It is incredible work that Hannah's done. And yeah, can't wait to share it with friends. Yeah, Hannah's left on the shelf work is better than any work I've ever done, which is sort of amazing from a Hannah perspective and slightly demoralising from a Catherine Whittaker perspective.

1:25:35Hannah was like, sorry for the delay in sending this over. And she sent it over in like two days and it was extraordinary. Yeah, I'm really, really excited about this show. We also had our first Q &A show of 2026 last year. We've got another one of those coming up soon for Friends of the Tennis Podcast. Hannah's new column is also out this week. So lots going on for Friends of the Pod. So yeah, all of that happening for Friends of the Pod. If you'd like to become a friend, the link is in our show notes. Speaking of special Friends of the Pod, here is Biscuit, our mascot for this week. Biscuit is owned by Corey and Ian.

1:26:23Now, Corey, I think this is talking, says, We had just got married and moved to London from America in 2019. far away from our families we knew we needed a companion we put ourselves on the list of the lovely charity friends of animals whales and that is how biscuit who's on the left hand side of this picture that you'll be looking at right now if you're watching us on youtube after her mum was rescued pregnant from a puppy mill biscuit is the most food motivated pooch pooch we have ever come across which has made her quite easy to train she enjoys nothing more than hunting squirrels squirrel oh yep Billie Jean has stood to attention snuggling and serving as our own personal vacuum cleaner after our four year old is finished with mealtime she did have some anxiety if we had to leave her alone once in a while so we got our dog we got our dog a dog her younger brother a crumpet you could end up with this sort of Russian dolls of dogs situation and what's living the dream, if not that.

1:27:31Yeah, we got our dog, a dog, her younger brother Crumpet, pictured on the right. And the two of them have been the sweetest bonded pair ever since. Dogs being friends. Yes, please. They'll keep us company on long walks in the park as we listen to the tennis podcast. They're pictured here after eagerly opening some Christmas presents after they were on the very, very much on the nice list. They are so lovely. Corey doesn't say what breed Biscuit is. I think there is some Westie in there, maybe a bit of Havanese. That's my diagnosis. but Corey, Ian please do let me know how accurate how accurate I've been there what a smiley dog that's really appropriate for spring I think even though that's a festive photo yeah that has really cheered me up Biscuit and Crumpet Biscuit and Crumpet, great names so thank you Corey and Ian for our mascot for this week We, of course, have our mascots, Bodhi.

1:28:50It's all coming up, Bodhi and Cabali. David and Maisie, OK week for you, David? No, it's terrible, but Maisie, I still love you. Matt and Roger? Yeah, we did not see Patrick Kipson coming. Took out Alex Dimonor, who I was pretty hopeful of getting a good bulk of points there, but no, gone in round one. We have our top folks and executive producers, Greg, Chris and Jeff. Hello to you. Matt, let's have some shout outs. We have just one shout out today. A special, special birthday shout out for Tuya Arala, who is Robert McNichol's girlfriend. Oh, we've met Tuya. We've had dinner with Tuya. We have.

1:29:43She is the loveliest. is this at Robert's request? It is a surprise for Tuya this week at Robert's request and Tuya is from Finland and Robert says there aren't any tennis Tuyas to mention but you could say there's a precedent for successful Finnish-British partnerships Henry Continent and Heather Watson and Harry Heliovara and Henry Patton Very good, Robert that's something that Robert and Tuya have discussed, isn't it? I think so. And Robert says, please say that life is more fun with a Finn. Oh, Robert, that's so lovely. Tuya, have a wonderful birthday. Hope to get to see you again soon. It was lovely meeting Tuya.

1:30:39And I know you'd met her before, Matt. You'd met her before? Yes, I've had dinner twice with two years. Lovely. And in fact, you had updates on the sort of the Robert two year, you know, relationship progression from the start. We were all very invested once we heard that Robert had gone on a date with a tennis podcast listener. We were all in. So we're very happy that we've got to the giving a birthday shout out stage. I'm sure you are too, two year. happy birthday we are part of the Athletic Podcast Network we'll be back next Monday then we've got two shows next week and then we'll be back after Indian Wells with our show our weekly show that week live on YouTube at 8pm UK time on Monday the 16th of March so lots coming up for Tennis Podcast listeners thank you for listening today we'll speak to you soon You