Cincinnati - Who's winning this thing?

0:10Well, hello and welcome to the Tennis Podcast on this fine Friday morning, Friday the 15th of August, three days since we last spoke to you, Cincinnati edging towards its crescendo. We are midway through the quarterfinal stage in Cincinnati, so we're going to talk about everything that's happened in the last few days, look ahead to what might happen over the next few days. David, how are you doing? I'm all right on this bright, sunny day. I mean, I may as well just keep saying that really, because it's sunny every day at the moment in Solihull. Yes, I've been told to turn my fan down because it's audible, or it was audible.

0:49So I'm going to be getting sweatier over the course of this podcast. Everyone can listen out for the deterioration in the quality of my material as I grow more uncomfortable in the heatwave. It's lovely though and nowhere near as bad as Cincinnati which looks absolutely monstrous Matt in terms of conditions. It does yeah we've had a lot of conditions a lot of rain in the days since we last recorded but when it's not been raining it's just looked extremely unpleasant to be playing in those sorts of conditions with the heat and humidity, lots of retirements on the men's side. And yeah, here we are.

1:318 a.m. recording for us. I'm going to put out a statement in English and Spanish later, Alejandro Davidovich Fakina style. Who can expect me to be working at this time? Me. I asked for an 8 a.m. recording. Everybody was on the floor in shock when I sent that voice note. But I've got a haircut. I've got a pre-Ground Slam haircut. Victor's coming to town. God, imagine if I had a Victor. Right, just before we get into it, a PSA very quickly about our live show that we mentioned on Tuesday in... da-da-da-da-da-da-da... Wrexham. Yep, us and Ryan Reynolds, we are Wrexham people now. October the 22nd at the Grove Park Theatre in Wrexham.

2:21A lot of you have asked us to put on a show outside of London, so this is us doing just that. We're very excited. Tickets went on sale for Friends on Tuesday, and they go on general sale today. In fact, by the time you're listening to this, they're probably already on sale. The link will be in our show notes, in our newsletter, on our social media, and the tickets are available via Eventbrite. So if all else fails, just Google Eventbrite Tennis Podcast Wrexham. Wrexham, of course, with a W. And we hope to see you there. We're very, very excited. So, yeah, come to Wrexham. We'll be there. My first time.

3:04My first time in Wrexham. I've never been before. I've been to other places in Wales, but never Wrexham. Have you been to North Wales? Yes, yes. I used to go on family holidays to North Wales when I was about seven or eight years of age. I think some members of my extended family might come because I have family in North Wales so that'll be interesting I'm not sure they are into tennis or will be able to appreciate much of the material We can turn them And they're into you Yeah, a bit, you know, once a year Anyway, it's going to be fun October 22nd Bonus gathering for them Yeah, exactly. Probably, probably too much.

3:49Right. Let's get into it with Cincinnati. And let's start the Terence Atman apology tour. Who is this guy? He has now beaten Joel Fonseca, Flavio Caboli, Taylor Fritz, Holger Runa. And he will now have the chance to take on Yannick Sinner. He's 23 years old, career high ranking of 118 in the world, doesn't have a kit sponsor, doesn't have an agent. Last time he was on our radar, he was being booed off Court Philippe Châtrier by his own fans after having lost to Richard Gasquet. What on earth is happening in the world of Terence Atman, Matt? And last week he lost to Fakundo Bagnis on a hard court.

4:41and has now put together the best run of his career. And as you said, he's going to have jumped 67 spots in the rankings. He's going to be inside the top 70 now. He's due to play US Open qualifying next week. If he beats Yannick Sinner in the semis, he will be playing the final of Cincinnati on the same day that US Open qualifying starts. So that's a very, very wild situation that we're in. and yeah honestly the only times we've referenced him in the past has has been in relation to some sort of slightly dramatic incidents that he'd been involved in I remember the match against Medvedev at the Australian Open where they were both really struggling physically and Medvedev said that he was he was cramping but he also saw that Atman was cramping down the other end and I think Atman ended up retiring in that match and then of course the Richard Gasquet match at the French Open this year.

5:40Those were really what I knew Atman for. But this week, I've had my eyes open to the quite extraordinary nature of the upper level of his game that he's been displaying against the likes of Fritz and Runa. I mean, this guy absolutely cracks the forehand in particular. That's the shot where he's got this incredible racket head speed. He's also got it on the serve. He's got a low ball toss and you don't really know where the serve's going. But the forehand has done so much damage against Fritz and against Runa. The backhand's more sort of slightly one pace, slightly flatter. He slices it as well.

6:23He's a lefty, I should say. And he's just been playing with such incredible confidence against these top 10 players. and it's really been an interesting sort of case study of sort of there are these guys ranked 100, 150 in the world who've got this incredible level in them. It's not the level necessarily that's been the thing blocking them to having these sorts of results. I think it's a week in, week out consistency. I think keeping kind of emotions in check on court has often been stuff that Atman has struggled with. But this week, everything has come together. And he's been awesome. I mean, like, legitimately brilliant tennis.

7:08I've watched, you know, I've woken up to watch these matches back and sort of been expecting, like, a disaster from Fritz. And it wasn't that. I don't think Runa played particularly well. But basically, they've just been beaten by a better player playing at their absolute peak. and now we've got like the ultimate test of whether this run, this incredible form that he's piecing together can actually hurt Yannick Sinner. We were talking about players that can do damage to Yannick Sinner on the pod the other day and I don't know, Atman feels like a perfect case study. Sinner's not going to know that much about him.

7:51He's playing absolute best tennis of his life. can Atman do damage to Sinner is now a question that I'm intrigued by. And if you said that a week ago, I'd have laughed you off the podcast. Whereas what we should have been laughing at was the proposal yesterday by David, which I seconded, of can Felix Orgelia seem do damage to Yannick Sinner being a potentially intriguing question because of the head-to-head. And I was like, yeah, it does add a layer of intrigue. And that all aged absolutely terribly. He's got one of France's biggest Pokemon collections, David, Terrence Zatman. He does magic tricks.

8:39He's nicknamed the magician. Not sure by who, but there you go. He has an IQ of 158. These are things I have urgently learned about Terrence Zatman in the last three days. And he wrote Fermi Paradox on the camera after the win over Horga Runa. He's different, isn't he? He's different. He's coached by Guillaume Peir, who I imagine is a name. He previously coached Richard Gasquet and Marcus Bagdades. It wasn't a name that particularly landed with me, but I've read some articles about him where he has credited this coach with a lot of what's been happening to him. He's won a couple of Challenger titles.

9:26He said the fact that a coach of that calibre with that CV believed in him meant a lot to him because I think that belief in his emotions generally is something that he's really struggled with. It's an interesting one, isn't it? Because you'll sometimes watch Challengers or you'll see qualifying and you'll see a player that really stands out for their skill set, for their weapons, and you think, wow, I'm really going to follow the progress of this player. And then you'll not really see them in relevant tournaments to the tennis podcast, for instance, the tour events, because they're just not getting in them.

10:07They're not able to string it together for whatever reason, whether it is a hitch in their game or more often something like that, just not really believing in themselves, not really being dedicated professionals in maybe the way they need to in order to actually crack it and fulfil their potential. I love it when somebody comes out of the pack like this and clearly is shocking these top players to the boots because they're just... Taylor Fritz is a perfect example because he's Mr. Reliable. He's the guy who I always bank on, particularly in American hardcore tournaments. as long as Taylor Fritz is not injured he's going to reach his seeding, that's what I always feel and he looked so shocked towards the end of this match I don't know what's happening I'm doing my thing and this guy's beating me and the same sort of thought occurred to me when he was being beaten by Gael Monfils in Australia at the start of this year, he just couldn't believe it, you know I've cracked the sort of be a top pro and fulfilled potential elements of my career and now I'm running into a French guy playing out of his mind and that's a couple of times that's happened this year to Taylor Fritz.

11:26It's quite it is quite interesting watching just the way Atman goes about it the way he'll he'll sort of totally gamble on running around his forehand knowing that he's leaving the entire court I mean he is off the the shot of the camera he's so far out in the tram lines to hit the forehand knowing he's got to hit a cold winner if he's gonna win the point and he gambles on that and he falls away from the ball to give himself extra power and extra leverage and extra flatness to the strike and look I I would imagine that Yannick Sinner will have answers to that and I think there is also the question of well is there a point at which Atman's going to hit the wall but But equally, I'm far more intrigued by it than probably watching Sinner against Dimonor at this point, who we've seen him play so many times.

12:21And we just know that's a tough matchup for Dimonor. So, yeah, I like it. I'm enjoying this tournament because it's the last one before the US Open. And watching these players try to jockey for position and find their form and tweak their games. And then watching a guy like this just gatecrash everything. It's excellent. Yeah, apparently he broke 25 rackets last year. It's good going. I remember when Marit Safin told me he broke over 40-odd in 2000, and he seemed quite pleased to himself. Well, I think the difference here is that Atman's had a total transformation on this front. I haven't followed him closely over the summer.

13:05but as of early summer which is when this article I've been reading is dated from the ATP tour he hadn't broken a single one that was, you know that's interesting he's made a real point of trying to clean up those areas of his mental approach and I think this coach has been a big part of that he says I'm more emotional than the usual guy because I'm thinking more I have more thoughts in my head which is a takedown of all tennis players isn't it he said I've always been someone very sensitive very nice I was always really nervous on the court I remember when I was 10 years old I was already breaking rackets it was always a part of me so taking this off took a lot of time he's really interesting he's I'm into it I did I mean is he only chance did he really have a chance against Yannick Sinner?

14:01I mean, as much as anyone else does, I think. I mean, maybe other than Carlos Alcaraz. But honestly, like, a different look, total form and confidence. I think one of the keys is to get Sinner out of his rhythm. Like, you've got to be... Like, you can't just play a baseline slugfest against Yannick Sinner. You will lose. He has got probably a better forehand and backhand than you. And he moves better than you. And he's more locked in than you in the big moments. Like, you're going to lose. So you've got to do something else. And actually, again, I can't believe these words are coming out of my mouth.

14:46I don't think he particularly enjoyed playing Adrian Manorino the other night, Yannick Sinner. Oh, no. I really enjoyed that. With that low ball and, again, the leftiness. It's just a different look. And I think those different looks are what are going to be challenging for Sinner. Sinner will probably still come through and he'll still win. I think he's able to negate even some of the fancier games on tour. But as David said the other day, look at one of the losses he's taken this year, Bublik. A guy who's not interested in just going toe-to-toe in topspin rallies necessarily from the back of the court.

15:24He's got a slice. He comes forward. he's quite chaotic with his serve speeds you know these sorts of things i think it's very hard to pull off it's very hard to do that over the course of a match and actually win but that man's been doing it against fritz and against runa it's a big step to do it against sinner and i'd be stunned i think the by far the most likely outcome is sinner in straight sets but like let's have a let's have And that's interesting to me in a way that, as David said, we're getting used to a lot of these matchups, maybe, you know, against Sinner. And we know what's going to happen going into them.

16:07This one, I think I know what's going to happen, but I don't know for sure. And yeah, thank you, Terence Atman, for providing us with that intrigue this week. It's been a lot of fun. just staying on Yannick Sinner sort of Adrian Manorino aside where I'm not quite sure there was jeopardy but there was a little bit of fun there certainly the questions that Adrian Manorino asked Yannick Sinner it was fun to see him work out how to come up with the answers which of course he inevitably did but I continue to be so struck David by how happy and chill and relaxed he looks. It's like he's on holiday. And I know he's had a three-month break in the middle of the season, hasn't he?

16:59But he looks, like, alarmingly chilled out, but in a way that isn't taking any kind of edge off his tennis at all. Yeah, well, and if you think it was a year ago, he would have been on all of these calls for hours on end to talk about and find out about his case and what was going to happen to him and all that sort of thing. And I think he is freed up by all of it now. He did an incredible job of compartmentalizing that a year ago. Whatever you think about it how he did that I will never know to go and win back-to-back hardcourt majors with all that going on um but yeah he's he just seems very at ease with his life where he is and and as you say I mean the freshness is is different to everybody else they've all been grinding you know I can't remember a really a week that Alexander Zverev hasn't been playing a tournament really when there have been significant tournaments going on and I mean I'm amazed that he manages to keep just grinding out tournaments like that to me it would it would get on top of you really but yeah Sinner's just not had that and uh and here he is ready to go and he's he's the man to beat yeah I mean he just what can you say Matt Sinner looks awesome doesn't he yeah and look there was actually a huge awkwardness i felt to sinner or jay aliasim last night i mean look i know that the big picture is sinners rise since they last met and orjali aliasim's decline i think even by orjali aliasim standards this was a particularly bad day like he just had no feel on the ball at all he was double faulting at really inopportune moments you know to give away breaks of serve he didn't hit a single winner in the first set anyone nine points sinner broke himself at the start of the second set but then just won six games in a row again so sinner won six games in a row in both sets to win six love six two and like it was it was a horrible performance from Felix Orgelia's scene.

19:24Like, I've just, I've rarely seen a top player play that poorly, to be honest. Like, I kind of felt like just, you could tell in the handshake at the net. Like, they both sort of just had a sort of slight look on their face like, well, that was rubbish, wasn't it? Like, just, like, I think Orgelia's scene was kind of embarrassed. Like me and David at the Albert Hall. Right. The funny thing is they had a handshake like that when they played their first match. It's just that it was Ogielia Seen winning 6-2, 6-1. And I remember Sinner doing exactly then. It just tapped him on the chest as if to say, good match, well done.

20:05And this time it was more like, bad luck, I know how you feel sort of thing. But, oh my word. I mean, maybe this was an outlier in how bad things are for Felix. I know he's not playing like that all the time. But when you look at his 2022 record, he won 60 matches that year, six in the world, wins the Davis Cup. He's a Grand Slam semi-finalist. He looks like he's going places way beyond where he is right there. And here he is now. He's in the 20s and 30s in the world. And he just isn't a factor at the sharp end of big tournaments anymore. I can't understand why he's fallen away like this. And I mean, I know injuries play a factor in careers, but still this is, it's rare that you see a player in his early 20s actually decline over a three-year spell like this.

21:04Yeah, it was awkward. Yeah, it was really, really uncomfortable, actually. so Cinerat Man is a semi-final we have two more men's quarterfinals to come later on today which will decide the other semi-final we have Carlos Alcarazza against Andrei Rublev and we have Ben Shelton against Alexander Zverev Shelton kind of backing up Canada incredibly well even if it ends here I still think this is an incredibly good run from him And this is an interesting one because, you know, Zverev thinks of himself as the guy outside of Alkaraz and Sinner, doesn't he? He very much thinks of himself as best of the rest.

21:54And Shelton is trying to muscle in there maybe right at this moment actually in real terms is best of the rest. This potentially, with Jack Draper on the injury sidelines for another few more days until the US Open, and OK, Novak Djokovic, but Novak Djokovic doesn't really play outside of the slams. Is this a bit of a point to prove about best of the rest matchup, David? I think it is really interesting because it's Shelton, and I think he's carrying himself a little bit differently to how everybody else is in this sequence of tournaments. I think a lot of players, I saw it against Khachanov the other night, he broke Zverev back to level up at 5-0, then he got broken to lose the set 7-5, loses three games in a row, and suddenly, I mean, I don't know whether it was, it didn't look like injury to me for Khachanov when he retired, it looked like a guy who's just hit the wall a bit, is tired, it keeps raining he did really well in Canada and all these matches got to the final and looked like he'd had enough he said he said he felt something in his back but it sounded like kind of a precaution yeah the Shelton is not carrying himself like that now I realize Shelton may not have the thing in the back great but he's carrying himself like I remember Andy Roddick carried himself in 2003 which is I'm going to win all these matches I'm just going to try and win them all i'm not going to try and conserve anything i'm not i'm just just he said on his show the other day i'm going to ride the confidence you know everybody's complaining about how many tournaments there are and it is a real problem still i think i think this is too much length of tournament uh in this period all congested um but you know he he won 20 out of 21 matches that summer the only bloke to beat him all summer was tim henman incredibly um but here's shelton kind of playing better as he's going along, even if he might be fatigued.

23:54And he's riding this confidence of just winning loads and loads of matches. I think he's getting a real buzz from it. I think he's getting a buzz from the Cincinnati crowd. And I agree with you, particularly about Zverev. He's never beaten him. It's 3-0, that record. But they played each other last year very close, 3-6, 7-6, 7-5 for Zverev. I think Shelton is desperate to get a win over Zverev. And at the same time, I think Zverev has found something these last couple of weeks. He now looks like he did at the start of the year. And he's got what I talked about a week ago. Definitely in his mind, he's trying to make himself do things on big points and go to the net and become difficult to pass.

24:41He still has the odd shocker of a game where he loses his rhythm and suddenly you realise he's playing terribly defensive tennis and he's like he has to remind himself. But I think this now is a huge match for these two. Going into the US Open, if Shelton was to get this win, he no longer feels just like a guy who might have a good quarterfinal run. And he feels like he would go in thinking of himself a little bit like when Roddick beat Federer in 03 Canada after Federer had won Wimbledon. You could sense that that was just such a massive deal. He beat him 7-6 in the third, did Roddick. And he carried himself a bit differently after that.

25:21And then when he won the US Open. Look, obviously, Shelton's got other people ahead in Sinner and Alcraz that are far more established than Federer was at that stage ahead of him. And he's also, I don't know whether he's as good as Roddick, you know, but there's something there. There's something about the way he's carrying himself that makes you feel he can produce more than his talent alone, just the shots. He can inject something that hurts the opposition and he gets this crowd going. And yeah, him and Zverev's a good one. Zverev, obviously with that head-to-head over Shelton and does traditionally like playing lefties, doesn't he?

26:00He's got a very good record. He's very over against lefties. He grew up obviously playing a lefty in his brother, and his backhand is absolutely world-class, and that's generally the sort of angle of attack that a lefty brings. But I don't know. I think it would be... I agree with David. It would be big for Shelton in terms of keeping riding this confidence and going into the US Open in the best kind of possible place. and yes it would kind of mark him out as you know maybe right now the best of the rest i think i think for it to truly like move the needle going into the us open or be really like meaningful for how i see that tournament one of these guys needs a meaningful win over sinner or alcaraz like as david said those two are just so far above everyone else right now especially at the majors that you know even if shelton's really convincing against verev and wins it it doesn't massively change the picture for me because he okay he then maybe have a shot at doing against alcaraz in the semis potentially like that then i think we're talking about a guy going into us open in a totally different place to where he's been before as long as as long as those two remain ahead I don't know how much you can take from wins over other players on tour.

27:28It all helps a bit but I don't know, I just think Sinner and Alcaraz are just at such a different level to these guys. We've seen it with Djokovic, right? We've seen him beat up the rest of the tour and then try and play Sinner and Alcaraz, particularly Sinner this year and he can't do the things that he does against them and I think that would be the same for Shelton. What about Carlos Alcaraz? I'm finding it quite hard to tell where he's at Okay, he took this scenic route against Amir Jumher in the opening round He's since then had two very convincing straight sets, victories Hamad Majenovic 4-4, Majenovic was really struggling physically in that match I mean, to be honest, Alcaraz was struggling a bit physically in that match The conditions were absolutely brutal and then he's taking care of Luke and Nardi as well but I just I mean that's that's man against boy really he got grouchy over some water bottles it was our man Greg Allensworth again of course it was in the chair it was to do with the fact that he had I think he's using his Evian water bottles and Evian isn't an official sponsor or something so he needs to cover up the labels and he was like, and he was like, no, I'm not going to do that.

28:52Well, he was expected to go and get some sort of masking tape mid-match. I'm not entirely sure whether Greg was asking him to do that or pointing out that he needs to do it in his matches going forward or something. I'm honestly not sure. It was a very odd exchange, but Alcraz really held his ground. He did. Yeah, he did. He did, yeah, in a very sort of charming way. He's got Rublev next, which, I mean, even Rublev, I don't feel like that's the sort of test necessarily where we'll learn that much. I feel like you just need... Give me Shelton Elkaraz now, and let's figure out where these guys are both really at.

29:40It was that match at Wimbledon, though, that was the one that kind of ignited Al Kraz at Wimbledon, I thought. The Riblet match. Yeah, even in that match, he was sort of not quite there. I mean, he was playing well, but not winning the big points. And then suddenly he was, and then he wins the match. And then he looks like a different proposition altogether. And I think it might be quite a good one for him. Like, he... Probably one of the best impersonations of Sinner, in a way, is Rublev. He's nowhere near as good. But it's that kind of relentlessness that he's got to try to make sure he's on for and get everything in place.

30:28Even in the Nardi match, he managed to go 4-2 behind in the second set. You know, reel off four games in a row and win it. but um but you know it's still stuff that he he will want to be trying to smooth out of his his runs at these these tournament but it's not really surprising i mean that is who he is i think fundamentally anyway but this is his first tournament since wimbledon you know this looking back i was mentioning that roddick run of course wimbledon was a week earlier back then and there were other tournaments that were were crammed in everything just felt a bit more spaced out you've got more time so for him to have had this proper break which which we clearly need this is about getting the wrist the rust out of the system i think as much as anything okay um everyone's pick from this point onwards in the men's oh sinner

31:24pretty difficult not to to pick sinner i think you're picking sinner to be alcaraz in the final probably i'm not convinced alcaraz gets there um but probably sinner over alcaraz i actually think i actually think it's very probably dangerous for alcaraz in the in the semis okay it's i mean it's just it's so boring doing men's predictions at the moment isn't it like Oh, it's a hardcore, is it? Yannick Sinner. Right. Great. Next. Next is, of course, talking about the women's event. Just before we do that, it probably hasn't escaped your notice that it is only a few days now until the first week of the US Open.

32:13And by that, of course, I'm talking about Fan Week. David's been to Fan Week. Last year. It was great. Loved it. My whole family came. We had a brilliant time. David and family fan week photos. They were great. Week one of a three-week tennis spectacular. And how about this? Admission is completely free. You can watch the world's best tennis players up close as they prepare for the championships in featured practice sessions. They hold those on the two biggest courts, on Ash and on Armstrong. And, of course, you can see main draw hopefuls battling it out in the qualifying competition. What did we see back in 2021?

32:52Emma Raducanu coming through qualifying and then going all the way through the main draw to win the title so who knows, you might even spot the champions during fan week The grounds will be buzzing, that is for sure live DJ sets, special guests, giveaways and lots more, including fun for all the family with Arthur Ashe, Kids Day, powered by Net Generation I hate Kids Day, but support it I support it existing with my whole being it's a brilliant thing I just don't want to be there for it I want to be there if I was a kid I'd want to be there it's an amazing thing

33:40so you've got all of that and of course on August the 19th and August the 20th you've got the reimagined mixed doubles championship presented by Vital Proteins and that's followed by Stars of the Open presented by Chase on August 21st and that'll feature Coco Gough, Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick and it's going to be really, really cool, honestly, US Open Fan Week is a really cool thing they really, really put on a show so to look at the full schedule go to usopen.org slash fan week and we'll be there so if you do come, give us a wave or come and say hello So, right, on to part two and the women's event in Cincinnati, where it's all a bit simpler.

34:27We are at the quarterfinal stage. We have quarterfinals of Irina Sabalenka against Elena Rabakina, Igor Shontek against Anna Kalinskaya, Vavara Gracheva against Veronica Kudomitova, and Jasmine Paolini against Coco Gough. Now, aside from Anna Kalinskaya's dog, which obviously goes without saying, who's been the star of the show in Cincinnati this week. What, for you, Matt, on the women's side over the past three days has jumped out the most? It's a good question, because I think what we've actually got there is other than the Gracheva-Kudomatova quarterfinal, which is, you know, quite left field, we've actually got, you know, a couple of really big-name match-ups in terms of Sabalenka-Rubacano and Paolini-Goff.

35:18So I think that's the sort of overarching story, how most of the top names have stayed in and set up these big clashes. And obviously Igor Sviantek's still there. I think maybe the sort of result that jumped out to me most was Jessica Pagula losing to Magda Lynette. You know, I can't work out Jessica Pagula this year. She's having a very sort of un-Jessica Pagula-like year in that she seems to be really inconsistent. You know, there have been moments, she won three titles. She's won Austin, she's won Charleston, she's won Bad Homburg. And of course, she beat Yggers Viontek in that Bad Homburg final, who then went on to win Wimbledon.