BONUS - April Q&A!

0:10Hello, friends, and welcome to the Tennis Podcast and our April live Q &A episode for friends of the Tennis Podcast, the first of two live shows that we have for friends in the month of April. This one is guest edited by Chrissie, who we kind of hope isn't with us live tonight because Chrissie is based in Sydney, Australia. And Matt Roberts, we worked out the time for her currently is what? It has just ticked past 5 a.m. So Chrissie, I hope you're enjoying this at some time of your own convenience, but not live. I hope you're asleep right now. Morning, Chrissie. It was Chrissie's birthday yesterday, or I suppose five o 'clock in the morning for her.

1:03Two days ago, I don't know why I'm tying myself up and not with this. As we come to you in the UK, it was Chrissie's birthday yesterday. And she says this is a nice little present to herself, which is something I'm very much in favour of, self-gifting. She says, I've been listening to the pod since 2019, which means she she listened to the Maradona episode first time around, David. And she absolutely loves it. She says, I'm also a Swifty and a Succession fan. So always love when you drop in those references. Chrissy, I reckon you and I could be friends. It also says, and Matt wrote this agenda, you can call me Chrissy.

1:48and honestly Chrissy I don't know what else I would call you because it says guest editor Chrissy what else would I call Chrissy Matt? I haven't successfully changed the agenda originally it was Christina then we got chatting about the Q &A back and forth and she was like you can call me Chrissy and I put that in the agenda but forgot to say that her you know I knew her first as christina right but i'm i'm just gonna call her chrissy and keep calling her chrissy because i have author authorization to do that and it's well what a tennis name uh so thank you chrissy for guest editing today's show we've got some questions from chrissy some questions that chrissy has selected from an incredible selection on the barge i i woke up this morning to a message from my dad saying have you seen all the questions you've had in on the barge they're so good um as they always are david but they really are good questions i can't believe there's still good questions out there but yeah it's seemingly an endless supply matt matt and i have just been planning that we we can you know store a few away for the next one because there's too many uh so this is great this is just what we wanted so thank you very much everybody week.

3:13Yes, absolutely. Some fantastic questions in. None of them. I was hoping we'd have a question about Daniel Medvedev's performance this morning against Matteo Berrettini. I was hoping one of those would squeak in just before deadline and we could spend like half an hour talking about that because it's kind of all I want to talk about. But we have a pod tomorrow for that. So that's where you'll find our Daniel Medvedev takes. For now, let's start with our first question selected by Chrissie from John on the Barge. John says, after each major over the last two seasons, you've debated whether five set tennis has outlived its usefulness for mainly two reasons, inequity and the burden on the bodies of the men.

4:00What do you think of best of four with a match tie break for men and women? So in lieu of a fifth set, a 10 point tie break. John says this could serve several purposes. Make all men's and women's matches at least three sets. Removing the Roland Garros excuse for not scheduling women's matches in the night session. Remove the disadvantage women have playing after men in the night sessions. Reduce the wear and tear on the men in those marathon sessions. make the majors truly different from the 1000s other than seeded players getting a bye for the women make the majors the same for men and women as the other tournaments are and John says looking at the majors since 2023 and we love it when people do stats for us 20.5 % of men's matches went to a fifth set Australia has the highest rate on 20.7 % of matches the US Open the lowest at 17.1 % Wimbledon 2024 had the most five set matches in that period at 37.

5:03And the US Open 2024 had the fewest at 20. David, what do you think of John's proposal? Four regular sets and, if required, a tiebreak fifth set? well I'm really grateful to John for bringing this as a question that has made me have to think about it because this is actually something that has been raised a few times by Mary Carrillo when we've when we've spoken to her and I've heard her say it publicly as well that you know she she thinks that it's time to to go two sets all and then have a 10-point tie break and I've just never kind of, it's often come up in the middle of a Grand Slam and I've just never had the bandwidth I think by the time we've got to talk about it.

5:57I haven't had the bandwidth to think about it and I've tried to give it some proper thought. Generally speaking I do like it. I like the idea because I think it is, it's achieving several things. It's achieving same format for men and women which I think is very very desirable and frankly required uh for the future but it's not it's not adding a huge number of a huge percentage difference for for women and it's not completely taking away from men I like the difference between the tour and the slams that you would still get. I think my reservation about it, and this has only come to me in the last few minutes where you were setting it up, is a little bit like in our football, in soccer, where you have a 90-minute match and then you go to extra time and you end up often having teams just sort of playing for penalties.

7:06and I think that you could get two sets to one for somebody and the player who's two sets to one up might give it a go at the start of the set to try to win it in four but quite quickly just decide to ditch it and think, well, I've got a 10-point tiebreaker I can handle. I can't handle the rest of this set. I'll let this player just tire themselves out and then I'll take them out in a 10-point tiebreak. I do think that there is a bit of a danger of that but you know I don't think there is a perfect system out there as such so I like it but that is my reservation I don't know whether that whether that makes any sense to you whether you feel that that might be a problem or not yeah look I mean there isn't a perfect solution that will satisfy everybody and and have no downsides you know whatever whatever changes are made you would be losing French Open finals French Open men's finals the like of which we had last year you know like so everything is a question of which benefits are worth which costs to you and which what what weight you assign to each of the benefits and costs I obviously assign huge weight to equality and I basically think that's worth any cost I do I do acknowledge the costs and they would be costs to to me as much as anybody but I I kind of think like just just do what do do whatever you need to do to achieve that really but I guess the like on the face of it everything that John's described everything you've described there kind of on the face of it it sounds like a really good idea I like the idea of a format where that would elevate the women's to being something different to to to the tour format um but I I feel like there would be unintended consequences one big one I think you've identified there and I just I've been trying to sort of game it out in my head to to think through what the unintended consequences would be.

9:28And that makes it kind of harder to do the cost-benefit analysis, I suppose. Matt, what are your thoughts? Yeah, I like it. I do think it's a good idea. I think my reservation was similar in terms of like match flow reasons was kind of what I had. I think if you had a fourth set tie break and then you had another tie break immediately after, I just think that's a little bit weird. And equally, I sort of think a tie break should come at the end of a long, hard set. You know, like it's kind of it's kind of the ebb and flow of a tennis match. A tie break sits there when you can't separate them in a set for me, rather than being like a fully standalone set itself, personally.

10:22I'm also not convinced that you could do two of these matches at night, as kind of John is hinting at in this question. I think even if this were the format, I don't think you could do two of these because that's guaranteed at least six sets. Like that's too many for a night session, I think. Is it a bit of a fudge? like it doesn't quite solve enough of the problems but it also just wouldn't upset people as much as doing the radical change that would solve the problems albeit at a cost. I was thinking about this and I was thinking do I prefer this over best of three and I'm just not sure that I do and I think Hannah's made a good point in the chat one that I really agree with.

11:04I think maybe my favourite form of tennis is one we don't really get which is best of three with a long third set without a deciding set tie break you know playing it out and i think it is it is a travesty that they took that away from women to solve a men's tennis problem yeah no one ever thought that was a problem over best of three having those long sets play out look and i like a deciding set tie break i'm not i'm not saying i don't like a deciding set tie break but i love a long set as well when you don't know who's going to win it and they keep holding serve and you know that someone's got to break to win it.

11:39And we just don't get that anymore. And that was because of... I prefer the tie break, by the way. Just to say, personally, I do prefer the six-all tie break. Even in a third set. And you're happy to have that across the board always. You don't miss... I don't really. No, I like that moment where everybody knows, right, here it is. It's all on the line. i mean the tiebreaker might get silly but it's not gonna get into the night silly you know i mean or at least there's a once you're there you know you're the end is in sight and i like the drama of that personally but i get i understand why you why you feel as you do i do i do get that yeah i just think in that especially in women's tennis where the serve is nowhere near as dominant like you we didn't get crazy third sets going on into the night is number who style you know you might you might get a 10-8 or an 11-9 or 12-10 but there will be a break you know um yeah that that would probably be my my preferred but like this is the problem here right we've got three people we've all we've all probably got different opinions on what the on what the ideal one is There is no perfect solution.

12:58I don't think it's my preferred scenario, but I would absolutely take it. Like, just we need to bloody well do something. Like, I'm prepared to not have my ideal scenario. You still have the best of three for the first four rounds and then the five thereafter. Would that be still your preference to this for Grand Slabs? No, I think if we were doing this, I think this would need to be the format across the board. And there again, going to Matt's point, I don't think that solves enough of the problems. I don't think that clears up the... But my question is, if you could decide whether you were going to have a three set and then a five set halfway through, or just scrap all that and just go best of four sets.

13:51I think I would have three set and five set. But I don't feel strongly enough about that that I would... The scheduling one's an interesting one, isn't it? It would be up in arms. The night session thing, that's the one thing I feel that I've not really considered with the best of three through the first four rounds and the quarterfinals on. How do you get all those quarterfinals in if they're best of five, men and women? You know, I haven't really considered what that might look like in terms of where to put them all. I think you'd probably have to do what Wimbledon still does and use the second court for quarterfinals day.

14:33You know, all the other slams. Which I think is fine. I think it's fine too. When you get to quarterfinals day, all the other slams, they just use the main court and it's one match after another. I don't have a problem with quarterfinals still happening concurrently. I know people do I know people like the fact that at the other slams they can watch every match and there's nothing else on Yeah, I know, there's no escape It's a real bummer And also you would have to you know, there's that tricky thing of the way the slams are currently scheduled, some women have to play back-to-back days currently.

15:18And if that were all sort of five sets as well. Well, they don't have to. They are required to by the structure that everybody just accepts. Yeah, like the way that, just to David's point in terms of rethinking those final days of scheduling, if everyone's playing best of five, you do have to give it some thought because you cannot have anyone play Yeah, you couldn't just transpose the current kind of cadence of a grand slam that we have with a new format. It would all need to be kind of shaken up and rethought, which should be within the capabilities of tennis's powers that be, and yet. So if you were offered, I think the answer is that, John, this is none of our sort of preferred solutions to the problems that we're all agreed upon.

16:11but if you were offered it now if this was on the table would you sign for it or would you think no this is there's too much wrong with this i'm going to hold out and try and try and and hope that the sport can negotiate a better solution i think i'd hold out for it and put a deadline on myself okay but john mary carilla's with you so i mean who needs us Yeah, frankly, John, who cares? Since I learned that this is Mary's idea, I'm struggling to disagree with Mary more than I am John. Sorry, John. Yeah, I'm going to tell her after. Mary's really added weight to it, John. Yeah, we don't agree, John, in conclusion, but it doesn't matter because you've got Mary Carrillo.

17:01Next question comes from Carol Ray on the barge. Hello, Carol. We love Carol. we don't have favourite listeners but if we did Carol would be one of them You're all our favourites Carol says OK the clay season is just starting up it feels like a new beginning to the year yes Carol it does I'd like to hear each of the three of our TTP presenters saying who will win the remaining Grand Slams of the year women and men any weird predictions there or is it all Sabah Sinkaraz. See what Carol's done there? And from Chrissy, so we kind of have a combined question here. Chrissy says, a WTA player outside the top 14, so ranked 15 or lower, has won a slam every year for the last nine years.

17:55Will this stat survive a 10th year and who will it be? And she's listed for as the WTA slam winners ranked 15 and lower from 2017 through to 2025. You've got Keyes, Krojcikova, Vondroshova, Rabakina, Radhikarni, Svantec, Andreescu. Brutal. Osaka, Ostapenko and Sloane Stevens. Matt, lots to take in there. Hell of a stat, by the way, from Chrissie. Hell of a stat. Yeah. Lots of elements to this question. Off you go. okay yeah lots to go um if if we start with the men just because i think that's a little bit easier it's i'm feeling you know we're what are we a few months into the season and alcaraz and sinner have have won all the you know the big events i'm i'm feeling an alcaraz sinner continued dominance of the slams and that's it's hardly hardly a controversial thing to say I was trying to work out what I think I've settled on a 3-1 split I'm going to go Alcaraz gets 3 and Sinner gets 1 this year which is changing it up from which one?

19:21I'm going to go Alcaraz gets the natural surfaces and goes into the US Open heading for a calendar slam and then Sinner gets him at the US Open I just got goosebumps I kind of said it on the pod the other week. I think Alcaraz is heading for an all-time a year. And I can't just abandon that take when I think he's still playing really, really well. I know Sinner has stepped up in the last few weeks as well. But I do think Alcaraz has a bit of an edge over best of five. So, yeah, I'm going to go Alcaraz for the first three slams this year and then Sinner to get the US Open. I don't feel strongly about that, but I think it'd be fun.

20:07Okay, let's stay with the men and David, let's get your men's prediction. I'll win the lot. Oh, you've seen me and you've raised me. I said that at the Australian Open and I'm sticking with it. And that would be five in a row. Only seven to go then. It's all reachable. okay well that was easy wow it's taking a moment to take that in David's just predicted our first men's calendar slam since Rod Laver this is it right because I always predict Alcaraz and I like there's even more evidence to do that now than there ever has been in the past when I've always picked Alcaraz because he's the best men's tennis player I've ever seen.

21:06And yet there is a reason nobody's done it since Rod Laver, right? There's a reason why not even Novak Djokovic in 2021 could do it. You know, not even Serena Williams in 2015 could do it. So I think there's a chance he could. I think he has a chance to do it this year. But I think predicting it feels... And this isn't a slight at you, David. I love that you've predicted. But I always think it feels kind of disrespectful to the greats that haven't done it. Because, you know, there is a reason that they haven't. So that leaves me having to predict which one or ones that he won't win. and then that that leads me down the path of like well I think he's going to win the French Open okay I think he's going to win Wimbledon okay I think he'll probably win the US Open um I I I kind of like kind of like the US the US Open is the world card one right defending the US Open is something that people have found incredibly hard to do men in particular so statistically and also the fact that if he were in the situation of going into the US Open having won the past three that like the added pressure and everything that that would bring I think trying to apply some logic to it it makes the most sense to to pick the US Open.

22:48But Sinner winning the next three wouldn't shock me either. But anyone other than Sinner or Alcaraz winning, any of them would shock me. David, women. Well, I think to answer Chrissie's question, I do think the streak will be broken. I don't think that player outside the, was it top 14? I don't think that's going to happen this time in fact I think it's going to be kind of the names are going to not be surprising to you maybe the order will be a little surprising maybe not the first one I'm actually going to go Svantec for the French Open the Nadal bounce yeah quite big into those I think the next one maybe I actually think Sabalenka and Rebacchner will win the next two but in that order and and that sort of instinctively feels a bit counterintuitive to me because I think that perhaps they're better equipped for the other way around you know obviously Sabalenka is one US Open and Rebacchner has won Wimbledon I think I just don't think Sabalenka is going to end her career without i think she'll end up completing the career slam and now at least now i don't know whether i said that at the end of the year when we were asked that question but i kind of feel that she will now and i think she'll get one of them this year but i think it'll it's more likely to be wimbledon um and then i think rebeckina i mean i remember i think catherine you said the other day that i don't think our record is great rebeck and us at the us open overall i can't exactly remember what her best result is point but yeah right it hasn't been but i just feel like game wise it should it should work a treat there and and i think she's she's trending in a direction of just playing her best tennis at the biggest events right now so i think she's going to win one more of them and I'd already won Australia so the hard court slam yeah that's what I'm going with Matt I got in a bit of a pickle answering this question because I ran out of majors to assign to people that I think are going to win them having you know well we know who you think is winning the US Open exactly I'm sticking with that I'm going to I'm going to go out on a limb and say that Pagula pinches the US Open this year.

25:34So then suddenly I've only got two slams left and a whole lot of people that I think can win majors. Similar to David, I've gone with this being the year that Sabalenka wins a slam on a surface other than hard courts. I've actually gone with the French. I could see a scenario where Sviante wins it, absolutely. But I think right now, if you ask me, I think Fiontech improves, but I think Sabalenka might get the French. I think she'd be so determined after what happened last year in the final. I think she's going to go all out for that French Open. So I'm giving the French Open to Sabalenka at this stage.

26:17And then I've gone Rabatkinner for Wimbledon. I know, I haven't done it. I haven't gone Anissimova. I've gone Rabatkinner. I think the tennis she's played this season has been so good. Her game makes so much sense on the grass, especially with her serve. And, OK, she's won it before. I think she probably feels like she should have won it in the cray cheek of her year, leading that semi-final by a set with Paolini to face in the final. That feels like a Wimbledon that Rebecca probably should have won. Don't want to disrespect Kraychikova there. But I just think in that situation, again, the Rabatkinner we've seen this year is more convincing.

27:04And I think we'll get that done. So that's my three. Sabalenka, Rabatkinner, Pagula. Which means no slam for Sviontek this year, which feels bold. Which unfortunately means no slam for Inesimova or Goff. but I do therefore agree with David that this streak is going to close and I think the picture of women's tennis right now is that we have a group we have six, seven players, something like that who are going into these majors who are constantly qualifying for the year-end finals they're really consistent and if there would have been someone from outside the top 15 who'd sort of fit in that bracket you would have kind of thought or maybe be a player like Mboko who's charging.

27:54But she's kind of got herself now into the top 15, into the top 10. Not eligible. So she wouldn't count for that. So, yeah, I think we're going to stick with those big names winning it. But, by the way, don't feel that confident about any of those picks. But that's one of the fun things, right? Like all of the women's majors are open, but they have a bunch of contenders. But yeah, right now, that's what I'm going with. On Chrissie's question about the player ranked outside the world's top 14, it's so hard, that question, because the whole point of that stat and those results is that they were unexpected, with the possible exception of Andreescu's US Open in 2019, which on the eve of it, some people were predicting, David was predicting it.

28:48She had just won Canada. She'd won Indian Wells next year. She was kind of the imboko of the moment, except she'd had that success directly before she was riding that wave. So with that possible exception, although she's the highest ranked in the list, she was 15 when she won that US Open. All the others were unexpected and wouldn't have been predicted. Right. So it would kind of be ludicrous to predict an unpredictable thing to happen. I guess the difference is that, as you've both laid out, like the picture of women's tennis does just feel different now in the sense that the top players are showing up consistently and feeling, yeah, feeling, you know, with the odd exception here and there, feeling pretty reliable at the majors.

29:48I think the only the only slam where they don't feel like they've had a grip of it has been Wimbledon in Chrissie's list there two of the last three have been at Wimbledon with players outside of the top 14 winning, you know, Kraychikova and Vondrosheva and obviously Svantec won Wimbledon last year so that was kind of one of the very best players in the world winning it and yet it doesn't feel to me, I don't know whether other people would disagree, but it doesn't feel to me like, oh, she's going to take a crack to Wimbledon. She's going to go and win it several years and dominate. I still feel like Wimbledon does feel pretty open, but to me, not open beyond those big names unless we get something sort of unpredictable.

30:31I feel like Pagula could win Wimbledon. If you told me Pagula's going to win a slam this year and I'm with you, Matt, on her feeling different this year. If you told me she's going to win a slam, I think I would probably think it would be Wimbledon. Perhaps because of the rest of the field not being quite as reliable necessarily at Wimbledon and that being a bit more of an open slam. She was maybe a roof away from winning Wimbledon in 2023. That Von Droshova match is a bit of a one that got away for her. Real anomaly last year, losing that match to Cotillareto, who just peaked. Pagula was coming in off that title in Berlin.

31:16I think that game works brilliantly on grass. I could really see that. Is that a prediction? Go on then. Pagula for Wimbledon. I think I'm going to go Sabalenka for the French Open. I believe in the Nadal bounce. I think it will bounce her a certain way. I could see a Svantec-Sabalenka final finally happening, but I think I would pick Sabalenka. And then that leaves me with the US Open. I'm going to go Coco Gauff. She's never as high as you think, and she's never as low as you think. Who said that? That sounds smart. Yeah, no one was picking her for either of the ones that she did win. and she's going to be there or thereabouts she's not going anywhere Coco Goff is she so I'd love to see a Coco Goff Pegula match at the US Open you know or a big Grand Slam match have we seen a big Grand Slam match between those two no I know what you mean but I'd love to see it at a slam I kind of feel like when the stakes are at the highest it would be really fun David's all about the retrieval skills I do love seeing people do it it's one of the I do, they are my two favourites in that regard it's one of the things I've loved about the return to clay is watching Burashaga slide into the ball and get the most ridiculous balls back and I'm just thinking imagine if you're the opponent you go, oh my god, it's another one I just love watching what these guys are able to do, these players.

33:10Next question from Heather C on the barge. Would you rather peak early with something massive like winning a Grand Slam as a teenager and spend the rest of your career chasing that high like Emma Raducanu or grind for years, keep showing up and finally break through later like Madison Keyes? I'll be quick. I'll go first. the latter Heather absolutely the latter I mean the the case studies you've picked there feel pretty stark to me like I know which one of those two people seems happier I hope you know that won't always be the case for Amarada Karnou you know Madison Keyes has had to go on quite a journey to to achieve the kind of peace and sense of self that she that she has and that eventually unable to to win that Grand Slam but um yeah I don't envy Emma Raducanu at all like I would not swap places with her I and again I know there are situational there are specifics to her situation you know being from a Grand Slam nation with a very aggressive tabloid press um although I think people's opinions on the internet are a bigger problem than that.

34:32But yeah, I think a lot about Emma Raducanu's sort of life and circumstances since winning that US Open seems like a bit of a nightmare to me, quite honestly. This is an absolute no-brainer, frankly. I guess, again, the sort of hidden trick in the question is that Madison Keyes didn't know it was going to come, right? Like if, you know, she'd done this bargain at the start of her career and she was going through her whole career knowing, don't worry, there's a grand slam coming when you're 30. Like obviously that's the whole point is that while you're going through the shit stuff, you don't know there's that honeypot at the end of the rainbow.

35:19But being presented with those two like known outcomes, it's an absolute no-brainer for me. Matt, what about you? Same. I had the same answer as you. I think, you know, there'd be something satisfying if you did win a slam really early and, you know, being able to say you've done it, you've done the thing, rather than constantly being, you know, chasing something. But in terms of, like, as you said, those known outcomes, I think it'd be really hard as well to be, if you do win a slam early and don't win another one constantly measuring yourself against the younger version of yourself and you know trying to live up to that um and i just think winning late would really help the sort of retrospective on a on a career you know like everything would kind of seem like a means to an end when you looked back on it you know everything along the way when you maybe didn't quite win it was all feeding into getting you there eventually and And yeah, I think I would go for the Madison Keys option there of winning late.

36:28I'm also drawn to those careers generally, you know, where there is this progression and this year on year improvement, sort of upward trend. I do find all of that pretty satisfying. I actually find those careers, even without a major, I can see the satisfaction in those careers, like a Pagula or like a Dimonor, you know, people who just constantly get that little bit better. I really do admire those careers, even if they don't get the major. So to get a major with that type of career is kind of pretty perfect, really. It's quite a kind of existential question, isn't it? I mean, how do you emotionally and on a human level cope with the knowledge that you did the best thing you'll ever do at 18?

37:22like that's a really fucked up thing to to try and reckon with and and process i think and i hope that emir adekanu like is getting or gets help with that because i think it's just i think it's mad really um and look she might she might do it again who knows i'm i'm not predicting that but like even if she does it again she's only equaling the thing she did at 18 like she can never she can't do better than that and that's a that's a not sure that's good for the soul really david what about you yeah i i mean i i i feel like um taking a little bit of a leaf out of madison key's book if if radicarno was sort of happy within herself and then won again and he And won a Wimbledon.

38:16I mean, that Wimbledon would be an enormous new achievement, wouldn't it? But I think if she was happy, something that really struck me about the way Key spoke is that I don't need this to complete my happiness, like to cause my happiness in isolation. But it really obviously added to her life. And I mean, I really instinctively really worry about young people who win so big, so young. I've seen so many examples. My daughter was talking to me. I was telling her about Jennifer Capriati the other day because she came up on the screen and I told her about when she won the Australian Open, but that was after a period in rehab and that she'd come on the scene at 14.

39:03My daughter's two years older than her and she just couldn't get her head around the fact that she's two years older than this young girl and what it would have been like if she suddenly had all these eyes on her at that age. I mean, yeah. So absolutely have the same answer as you both for the reasons you've identified. I actually think the best time to win, really, if you are going to win just one, is in the middle of your career, really. You know, you don't have all the agony that Goran had and Madison Keys has had and, you know, and then you win one and then you're able to handle it and then, you know, a few more years and then off you go.

39:48Like a Marin Cilic. Yeah, I mean, Ostopenko even seems... He seems happy with things, doesn't he? If you ask Ostopenko about it, she still sort of talks wistfully about it all. Yeah. yeah yeah she says it was not not easy really and i can't it's been hard really to kind of it was all a bit much you know and it was all um and she's she's making a really good career out of out of things but i i don't think she's ever going to win another one um and i and i think she'll be all right with that i think she's i mean i think she's very motivated to try to keep winning but i don't i think she's got to appear a sort of feeling of peace and she seems very content as a tennis player seems to love being a player i love that she plays doubles all the time she's winning big titles in doubles you know and she's got the record against fiontech but she's fine with all that you know but clearly there was a i think a feeling after she won that one that more would follow you know i think why wouldn't you feel like that when you're 18 yeah um but um i mean i look at some like you mentioned andrescu earlier on and i know she's quite an extreme but the thought that somebody with that breakout wouldn't wouldn't be able to follow that up with what she'd got it's i just i mean i do i do think the pandemic is quite a big thing for Andreeski I don't think that's a textbook case of no the the the weight around the neck of the expectation of winning so young I do think you know she she she got a bad injury and then the pandemic happened but you're right but it's but it's also you know there is an element of that she she's had tremendous emotional struggles with it all hasn't she and I get the sense kind of struggled for for a sense of purpose um yeah as john candy said in cool runnings if you're not enough without a gold medal you'll never be enough with one john candy he knew things um chris watt on the barge hi tennis pod hi chris as a proud aussie he says i'm a huge ash Ash Barty fan, Ash Barty.

42:23So I've got a hypothetical for you. And he says, sorry, Catherine. And I appreciate that because these make my heart hurt, particularly, Chris, ones involving Ash Barty, because it's, I just find it devastating thinking about what we could have won with Ash Barty being on tour with Sabalenka and Shiontek and, you know, this generation of greats. Chris asks, since Ash retired after winning the 2022 Australian Open, How has the women's game evolved at the very top level? If she had continued playing, how do you think her game style would hold up against the current field? And would she still be a factor at the very top of the game?