French Open Day 4 - A frenzy of drama, injuries and upsets

30:59It was one of those Djokovic press conferences where he's too knackered and fed up with nonsense to bother with any pretense or trying to ingratiate himself with anybody or being polite or pandering to any nonsense jokes or anything. He was just saying it how he saw it. No filibustering with his answers. It was punchy stuff from Djokovic. He was pissed off that that match went as long as it did. He thought he was cruising to an efficient three sets to love win. And one of the first questions was from Charlie Eccleshire, an excellent question and it was couched in exactly the terms that you just described like not as not as long as it could have been you've had these two matches where you've been tested physically you've come through you haven't had to go the distance and and really put too much strain on your body but you've been tested and you seem all right and you know sometimes there are those lines in films where they like say say the film in a line like say the point of the film or the plot of the film in a line that's what Djokovic's answer was it was like it was almost like breaking the fourth wall of tennis he like his eyes eyes bulged out of his head and he said not a long match you think three and a half hours on clay is not a long match he said it is long and it is very exhausting and like we'll come on to talk about the rest of the men's tennis that we saw today but I feel like that is the plot of men's tennis at the moment that we are so institutionalized and have so normalized five and six hour matches that if we're not reaching that point we're like yeah it was a bit tough today but you know look it's all fine isn't it like we shouldn't be thinking of three hours 44 minutes in baking unhealthy heat as as a mid-length match that is absolutely wild but that is where we are and that and it's true It is what we all think.

33:24That's what I've said when I've summed up how his progress has looked. But, yeah, I mean, Djokovic is right. That is a tough afternoon. He said, I expended a lot of energy today, and the subtext there, which was shouting itself from the rooftops, was energy that I don't think I have to spare. Interesting. Very interesting. I feel like Charlie would have loved, in a way, having that picked apart. He's such a, like, loves the language of sport and what we use. It was so revealing. He got such a revealing answer from Djokovic. It was a brilliant exchange. And look, it's interesting. There was a piece I saw today about how, you know, in football, there were, like, rules about how you can't play matches within two days of each other.

34:18And look, footballers run further than tennis players, even over 90 minutes. But tennis players are out there for, well, four hours in this case, in brutal conditions, running a lot and being really explosive. And they have to come back in two days. There's no rule against that. And then they've got to do it seven times to win one of these things. It is brutal. and I don't know, I suppose the positive spin for Djokovic I would read on that is that, to David's point about his form, he's probably pissed off because he knows his form's getting there and he's good and spending this long on court can cost him.

35:04If he wasn't playing well or he didn't think he was going to be playing well by the end of the tournament. He might be a little bit less bothered about it because he doesn't see a route through. But I think that to me suggests that he thinks he can do really well here and he needs to be avoiding these sorts of matches. Yeah, fascinating. Absolutely. His next opponent in round three will be Joel Fonseca. This was absolutely one of today's high points. His coming back from two sets to love down to beat Dino Prismich, 3-6, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1, 6-2. Absolute scenes on court 14 with those Brazilian fans.

35:49Dino was soaring for a bit here. We had a message through from my brother Math on the group saying Dino is a guy that's only got 2.5 good sets of tennis in him at any point. And it was, you know, that was the case today. It was awesome. for two sets. Do we think that's because he's just not quite durable enough yet? I think so, yeah. And watching this, once it went to five, and Prismic did produce some good flashes of tennis in that fifth set, and I think it's huge for Fonseca that he's done this. You know, he's come through this physical battle because he's been getting a bit of grief about his physicality.

36:30He's been, you know, he's had a lot of grief generally. It's not his fault he's been hyped to the rafters and hasn't quite lived up to what we all thought he would. He's been doing his best. But a lot of that, a lot of the criticism has been aimed at his physicality. And that he hasn't performed an Alcaraz-esque physical transformation in one offseason as if that's normal. So I think this is huge for him. But as I went into the fifth set, I sort of looked at both of them and I don't think there's much difference in age, but I did think you need to be winning this, Fonseca, because this is all new to Prismic.

37:13Best of five set matches, playing a fifth set at slams. He is behind Fonseca on the progress scale. He's had a lot of time out with injury. You're the one with the experience here that is ready to take this next step. It felt important that he did it. And he did. And he'd had some recent experience against young players, Hodder, Majedovic, where he had lost his way in those matches. And he had almost looked like the younger, more inexperienced one. So for him to flip that and come out of this and do it in such thrilling fashion as well. Like he didn't just get over the line in this one. he started playing the kind of tennis that we associate with him.

38:02Explosive, exciting. Some of the winners he was hitting in those closing stages were extraordinary. You know, even like great touch shots. There was one that he hit cross-court past Prismic, which was, you know, Alcaraz-esque in terms of controlling the ball at the end of a long sprint. Brilliant, brilliant hands to go with all the power. And the scenes on court 14. I mean, I went out there for Kostiuk, the match before, and suddenly you realise there's so many Brazil shirts in this crowd. They had taken their seat on that court for the, you know... Where there is no shade. No shade, blazing sun, just so they could be there for Fonseca.

38:49The dedication is amazing. And they were rewarded with that comeback by Fonseca. Very, very special scenes out there. And I'm, look, I've got no real preference in that matchup, but I am pleased we're getting Fonseca Djokovic. We've seen Prismic Djokovic a couple of times, and it continues this trend of Fonseca playing all these guys for the first time. Alcaraz, Sinner, Zverev. Now he gets Djokovic. I can't wait for that one. You've been so quiet on Fonseca this year, David. Is this the point at which you get loud? Apart from signing him up to my fancy team, ditching Taylor Fritz. Listen, I didn't watch much of this match because I was watching others.

39:38I do feel like Fonseca deserves and needs a little bit of grace, really, to just not have idiots like me hyping him up because he's won a couple of rounds. But look, he's about to play Novak Djokovic. If he wins that, we'll be hyping him up. I will. OK, see you in two days' time then. I suspect tonight's session match. Yes. I thought so. I think that would work a treat. Rafael Hodah, a winner today. Just three hours and 22 for him over James Duckworth. 6-1, 6-7, 6-4, 7-5, more than twice the length of his round one match. and it looked like this match was going to follow the same pattern as his round one match.

40:25He was in cruise control, 6-1. He was, you know, destroying all before him and then suddenly things got so ragged for him, loses that second set and a tiebreaker. He goes off court at the end of that and he was all over the place. He was panicking, I think. And for the rest of the match, his legs didn't look great. I mean, it's tremendous credit that he came through it. I think so. I think there are two sides to it. It was concerning that it didn't take that long for him to look like he was struggling. I came out onto that court when it was one set all and he was playing without a hat for a few minutes.

41:04He won't be doing that again because he went a breakdown and he looked like this could tailspin dramatically. And the fact that he managed to turn that around and win it in four sets, I think is net positive. because this is all a learning curve, but it's not the destruction that I feel like is his route through to the latter stages of this tournament because I don't think he's going to be grinding people into the dirt over five sets every day. Alex Mickelson next for Hodder, who came through Nishes Basavaredi in four sets today. Next up to talk about, this is a tough one, Jakub Mensik over Mariano Navone.

41:47I mean, the most extraordinary match, Mensik winning this 13-11 in the fifth set tie break. And on match point, he collapses to the ground in full body cramps. He's convulsing, he's writhing, he's crying out in pain. And he's there for several minutes doing this before any medical staff get to him. The footage, the clip is doing the rounds on social media. I think it's going to have a lot of cut through. It, you know, obviously a clip like that doesn't tell the whole story, but it's an incredibly distressing thing to see. This guy just sort of being left out there. And look, I know there can't be a physio standing by at courtside for every match all the time, but this match had gone on for four hours and 41 minutes and he'd been cramping for a while leading up to this.

42:45He explained in the post-match press conference that he'd got to the point in the match where he felt so ill from the heat, he couldn't take on any more fluids and electrolytes. Or he'd have puked, quite frankly. And that then had a knock-on effect of him cramping towards the end of the match. I mean, unreal that he came through this. He had no legs at all in that tie-break. He had no backhand, and that's his best shot. Like, absolutely unreal. And he came to press afterwards. When the alert came through, Jakub Mensik is going to be in press in 20 minutes. We were all... What, in a wheelchair?

43:26...deeply shocked. Well, he got up... He did end up with the assistance of medical staff, a lot of medical staff. He ended up walking off the court. But then once he got to courtside, he was put in a wheelchair to get back to the locker room. He was in a bad way. And look, he was... I mean, it sounds like he's been through a real trauma today. He wasn't playing that down, but he was backing himself to recover physically. He walked in, didn't he? He walked into the press. He said, even in the last two hours since I came off the court, I feel like I've done... I feel a world away from how I was two hours ago.

44:06I still think there's a big unknown in there for him about how he pulls up from this. But remarkable that he was as OK as he was because this was a troubling scene. This is a guy who has a really poor fifth set record. He's really struggled in long matches in the past, I think, for a variety of reasons. So huge for him to have got through this one. But that scene at the end, I mean, I was over the other side of the grounds when this was all happening. But by the time I made my way to court six, well over five minutes had passed since the end of the match. And yet he was surrounded by ten or so medical staff, I would say, on hand.

45:00And then I saw him in that wheelchair and he had a huge ice pack on his head and he looked dazed. And yeah, it was it was a really troubling scene and not, you know, and the sort that we cannot normalize and we cannot just accept, you know. Or just go, that was extreme. Move on. This is happening. It's happening, yeah, absolutely. And, well, Djokovic talked about it in his press today, didn't he? Some sort of big picture things that the sport might be able to do, you know? Like, it's so hard seeing these players especially play five sets in this heat. I honestly think it's way too much. Yeah. He was shocked that there was no heat rule, wasn't he, Djokovic?

45:55Yeah, I mean, and he was like, well, if it wasn't brought into effect today, if today didn't trigger whatever measures they have in place, then, like, whatever would. Like, this is as extreme as you can imagine and whether being here in May, you know, this is absolutely wild what's happening and he couldn't believe that it wasn't possible for them to pull the roof over, you know, like they did in Australia during the Yannick Sinner-Eliott Spitzeri match. I know there was a lot of displeasure or suspicion about the manner in which that was deployed and the potential inconsistency of the rule. But I don't think anybody was taking issue with the measure existing for the health of these tennis players.

46:41Like, I do not want this sport to look like the Hunger Games. And sometimes it feels like, again, we're institutionalised to sort of celebrate it looking like the Hunger Games. Like, it is possible to give Jakub Mensik a massive pat on the back for coming through that and also say he absolutely should not be coming through that. And it, you know, who knows what knock-on effect... Let's not do this, huh? Who knows what knock-on effect that'll have on him. Like, tennis has a problem, and I think because it's so broad and wide-ranging and tennis's governance is so disparate and fractured and competing in its agendas that nobody's going to take responsibility for this big picture of a broken sport.

47:37quite frankly. Like it is not what we saw today. And yes, it's extreme, but it's not abnormal. I expect to see this again this year. I wasn't expecting to see it here at the French Open, but we'll probably see it in New York. We might see it at Wimbledon. We had extremes at Wimbledon last year. No, it's not. It's not abnormal. And actually I was interested, Novak Djokovic said, look, I don't want it just for me. I don't want it just a roof on a court. I'm well aware that there are loads and loads of players on outside courts that don't have roofs and I don't want them suffering either. But, you know, we need to have some sort of policy here.

48:11And obviously they do have a heat rule policy where they delay two, three, four hours. And certainly in Australia we've had that. But, you know, it feels like we're sticking plasters on things at the moment rather than coming up with a policy and a strategy that says, OK, well, we've got the next four days, five days, really, really hot. Let's move the order of play until it's late and we can just play five hours on 17 courts. Yeah, I mean, step one is for the sport to agree there's a problem and that we don't want tennis players to be playing for four hours in extreme heat like this, right? It feels like we're not even there yet, let alone finding solutions.

48:56But, yeah, let's hope we edge closer to it after today. Alexander Zverev in the night session tonight. 6-4, 6-2, 6-2 over Thomas Mahatch, the not best player in the world. Who would like to take this one? Well, I was in the press seats throughout the whole of this. I mean, I must admit, after a set and a half, I wasn't paying an enormous amount of attention because it was just uncompetitive. And listen, Alexander Zverev tonight was fantastic. He was clean the way he came out in the ball from the start. Mahatsch had a few flashes in the first set where you just thought he's clearly got the game to go toe-to-toe when he's at his best and trouble even Zverev at bits.

49:46He had a break-back point, but it was just loose. He just then lost his serve at the start of the second set, immediately went three-love down. He was complaining about some physical issues. that happens a lot with him he just didn't look like he was that enthused to be out there at any stage of the night and maybe big court occasions are just not for him because we know he can play really well but he was not good tonight and Zverev was so, so comfortable It's weird isn't it that the big occasions don't seem to be for him because he's such a Hollywood player you'd think he'd want as big a stage for that as possible but and maybe he does want it but that doesn't mean he maybe he yeah I don't know what's going on maybe he likes the idea of it and then he gets out there and feels stressed when he's out there freezes every time yeah I don't want to retire the bit but I am going to stop using best player in the world just for a while yeah because we're starting to look a bit silly I just need it almost it almost reinforces the bit because the idea of it is that this guy on the outside court you know it's ironic right this guy on the outside court is amazing he's the best player in the world and then you put him on the big stage and he he can't do it but I'm getting a little bit frustrated and tired now of these sorts of performances so I'm on a break is what I'm saying.

51:24The bit lives, but I'm not going to be engaging with it for an indefinite period of time. Well, Zverev was retiring the bit against Thomas Bahatch on Chattere. Kasparud was winning comfortably over Hamad Majedovic on Longland. He needed a comfortable win, did Kasparud, after what happened a couple of days ago, the weirdness of that Sifulin match. And there did seem to be a bit of a reset for Rude tonight. He was in good shape physically. He's got Tommy Paul. next so I'd suspect he'll need to be in good shape physically for that one yeah Tommy Paul's a really good player and it's interesting isn't it I think Rude a little bit like Svitolina they've come through these matches and they're so good at just plotting their way through match to match now very experienced players and and Rude's right back on track I mean it's not going to get any cooler for the next few days and Tommy Paul in the heat, I don't know that's not a match you really want to have to play if it ends up in the heat of the day but I do feel that he's weathered the worst of this Andrei Rublev a winner today, he will take on Nuno Borges next a couple of weird slash funny stories to end on for part two, just like we did with part one in part one we had Tamara Korpacz In part two, we have coachless Alejandro Davidovic Fikina.

52:54Tell us about this weird turn of events, Matt. A weird turn of events to Davidovic Fikina himself, right? Like, he was not coachless at the start of this tournament. Mariano Puerta was his coach. the 2005 runner-up here at the French Open who served a long drug span in his career and has coached Christian Gareen and Brandon Nakashima and yeah, he was Alejandro Davidovic Fakina's coach and he had that dramatic first round match that we talked about the other day against Demir Jumher and in his words they debriefed that match afterwards in a very normal way they then went their separate ways it sounds like david vikina you know did some more recovery and puerto went back to the hotel and a few hours passed and the next thing david vikina knows is he's getting a very very long text from puerto saying he's done he's out he's not coaching him anymore and he's flying back to miami mid tournament with david which fakina still going now he was so confused in the press conference like he was telling it and sort of nodding along as everyone was like what what are you like what is this tale you're telling doesn't make any sense he was like yeah i know it doesn't make any sense like in his version of events there was no dispute no sign at all that this was going to be on the cards.

54:30He said, I thought we had a really good relationship. But he said, as a person, he has failed. Talking about Puerta there with how he has conducted himself. And he says that he has talked to some other players and apparently, according to Davidovic Fakina, Puerta has done this with other players. And he said, you know, it's my mistake maybe. Maybe I should have known that he was like this and shouldn't have hired him in the first place. He's also apparently blocked Davidovich Fikina and his wife on social media. Bloody hell. It is, I mean, I use that word unsettling. This was one, I found this really unsettling.

55:12It's really weird and crazy and disturbing. And yeah, look, as I said, we've only got Davidovich Fikina's version there. I'm wary of that, but I did feel for him. Like that is, like a guy he thought he had a really good relationship with, someone who was helping him, so then just leave him like that. Awful. It's been written up in the Times and the headline is, my coach ghosted me between French Open matches and flew home. And that's about the size of it, isn't it? I've never heard anything like it. We do have a slightly more uplifting moment of the day to end part two on, David. Your reunion with the Dropshot Dragon.

56:00Yes. The Dropshot Dragon, who, let me remind you, is, was Albert Portas from Spain. He still is Albert Portas. He always will be. Yes. And he won the 2001 Hamburg tournament, the 1000 event at the time, beating world number one Leighton Hewitt and then one Carlos Ferreira, a French Open champion in the final. Beat them back to back. And I think he hit something like 50 drop shots over the course of the two matches. And I used to be the ACP's communication manager at the time. And I introduced him at his final press conference as the drop shot dragon Albert Portas, your champion. And that was a nickname I'd given to him because it was so devastating.

56:43Never seen the bloke since. 25 years ago, that is. And, however, he has been coaching for the last eight years Marco Trunjuliti. And Trunjuliti's having the best period of his career. He's finally got himself in the world's top 100 for the first time in his early 30s. And today he played Karen Hatchinov, an amazing match. It went deep into the trenches, this one. And it looked like Hatchinov was going to win. and he was four love up in the set. Suddenly, Trangeliti comes back, wins six out the next seven games, hitting just an extraordinary number of drop shots along the way. And Albert Portas loving it in the front row.

57:30And in the end, Hashinov won. And I'd been planning, if Albert and Marco were triumphant, to see if I could just have a quick word with Albert 25 years on. and, you know, given that he didn't win, I left him to it, you know, and I'm walking out. Suddenly he starts walking towards me. And, you know, he's passing the other way. And I thought, well, I won't, I won't, I won't interrupt it, you know. He stopped to talk to me. You're very memorable, David. And he shook my hand, he gave me a little hug and he had a little chat and he instigated a little chat about drop shots. and I said do people still call you the drop shot dragon from time to time well you know he hits a lot of them but actually he hits too many of them and he needs to learn how to cover it better well he's been coaching him for eight years I think he needs to take some responsibility for that but he said it affectionately he's got great hands Marco but it was great to see this guy I didn't know him well but you travel the world with these people in that role as communications person and we just happened to share this extraordinary moment in his career and I gave him this daft nickname that I tried to make happen and it kind of did happen.

58:52And anyway, we got a little photo together today, so it was very nice for me. It's on our Instagram and if you're bummed out by anything you've seen today, David's picture with the dropshot dragon is the antidote, I promise you that. yeah by by far my favorite moment of the day can i can i also just i know we're we're running long but can i just david get your description please of the hatchinov match point fail oh my word this was there were a couple of moments one one great moment where hatchinov hit a lob and it hit the the spider cam wire and he lost the point as a result of that and then he's worked his way into match point.

59:33He's pulling his hair out trying to get rid of Trunjoliti from this draw. Finally hammers his forehand, gets a short overhead to hit away, smacks it into the corner. Somehow Trunjoliti gets to it again, lifts it high up into the sky, but he can barely clear the net. It's just dropped over the net. Bounces up for Hachinov to put away and suddenly Trunjoliti out of nowhere just starts sprinting towards him and Hachinov top edges the smash into the crowd on match point. Never seen anything like it. I mean, thank God for Hatchinov's sake that he went on to win this match. Because I don't know how you would have recovered from not winning that point.

1:00:15Scenes. Absolute scenes. That's it for part two. We'll be back in part three to look ahead to tomorrow and award a slightly underwhelming musketer of the day. Welcome back to part three of today's tennis podcast, what a lot of ground we have covered already. We still have to award Musquatier of the day. There is only one contender and it is Conta Alice and he beat another Frenchman. So it's a little bit underwhelming because we have tried to discount Frenchmen that beat other Frenchmen but Alice is all we have. He beat Hugo Embert in three straight sets and we have no choice but to give him Musquatier of the day.

1:00:55He'll take on Alexander Zverev in two days' time to try and win it again. He is having a sneaky good year, Elise. He's somebody I've never really been particularly moved by, if I'm honest. But he beat Umber in straight sets today. And he's very matter-of-fact, Elise. Whereas Umber was complaining in the press comments about it being too noisy. But Elise seemed happy enough with it. But, you know, Elise, a little bit agricultural, by the way, and actually played Alexander Zverev earlier this year two tie-break sets. Very close match. Having said earlier, we all slam dunk said that Djokovic-Fonseca would be the night session match.

1:01:39Prime might want the French player at night. They might want Zverev-Alice. Maybe there will be more of a discussion to be had about what is in the night session. Speaking of night sessions, let's look ahead to tomorrow and there is one big headline from the Day 5 order of play, and that is that Matt Roberts knows the mind of Amelie Maresmo. It's worrying, isn't it? How so? In what way? Well, because Yannick Sinner is in the day session tomorrow. He takes on Juan Manuel Sorungelo first up, and in the night session, as predicted by Matt Roberts, Arturindeknes against Matteo Berrettini. yep i mean if that's your thing then enjoy the night session tomorrow uh look i think the most interesting part of that is sinner playing in the day and playing first which i find interesting i imagine that there have been some conversations there and i imagine he thought well the first up is the worst, is the best slot in the day in terms of heat.

1:02:51And I think he's right. Yeah, it's due to be 27 degrees when that match starts as opposed to 30... I mean, still full sun. What did you walk past today in the afternoon? 38 at 2pm. Yeah. Says it all. I mean, it's not going to be nice. He's not going to like it. No. But it is the best slot of the three. Maybe he's a morning person. Isn't it? In our predictions, challenge, a number of us, well, the three of us, obviously, and lots of fun people taking part in our French Open predictions this year. There are 1 ,000 points on offer for Yannick Sinner to lose this match in straight sets. Just for context, David, how many points did you get for Jasmine Paolini losing today?

1:03:3816. 16. Like several orders of magnitude difference. I don't think anyone's gone for it but I think someone might have gone for Sinner to lose in four which was 400 points Reggie right? I don't think it was Reggie actually I can't remember what Reggie's pick was Find out in the newsletter Was it Jim Parsons? I'll whiz you through the rest I mean actually maybe the headline of the day in terms of tomorrow's order of play is Anne Lee against Deanne Parry on Chattier. It's giving Priscilla Hanivajovic on Leiva, isn't it? Yeah, that's when I'll be having lunch. Good player, Adley. You've got to eat.

1:04:25You've got to pick your moments. We're just trying to survive. Irina Sabalenko against Elsa Giacomo is third on the day session tomorrow and then Rindeknesh Berrettini in the night session. Longland starts with Vallejo against Moise Kouam. I believe it's Kwan. We had a notification that there's no acute accent on the E. He doesn't have one of those audio files on his ATP bio yet because he's so young and inexperienced. But I believe that's the correct pronunciation. We'll try and get confirmation. David will go and do some loitering with some French journals. I'll go and have a chat with Julie and my mate.

1:05:05Yeah, there we go. Amanda Enissimova is second on Longland against Yulia. Grab her. Coco Goff and Maya Sharif third on. Ben Shelton Raphael Collignon fourth on. Mathieu tomorrow. Vekic against Tisaka first up. Sarundolo Gaston. The other Sarundolo I should say. The better Sarundolo. The 25th seed against Hugo Gaston. Felix Auger alias against Roman Burruchaga and Victoria Mboko taking on Katerina Siniarkova. Flavio Caboli is on court seven tomorrow. Jovic Navarro opens court 14. Luca Van Asch, David's favourite. Last on court seven tomorrow. Van Asch, Nakashima, David. Can't wait. What did you say about Alise just now?

1:05:50Never moved you. No, but I'm getting there. Right. With him. He's on a journey. I'm not so sure about Van Asch yet. A couple of years ago, we'd have been really excited about Arnaldi Sitsapas. We'll see. Maybe it'll rock our worlds. That is all tomorrow, folks. We'll be back at the end of it with another probably bumper tennis podcast. It's been such a frenzy day. I have not posted any Bashir content on our Instagram, for which I apologise to our followers because whose day is not enhanced by Bashir content. Looking so serene and put together, which is just not a vibe that I can relate to right now.

1:06:30The handsomest cat in all of the world. Hello to Bodhi, Maisie and Roger, our mascots. Hello to Greg, Chris and Geoff, our executive producers. Matt, let's have some shout-outs. We have Catherine Higgins from Fleet, Hampshire. Hi, Catherine. Hello, Catherine Higgins. Church and pew? Well, same church. Yeah, different pew. OK. Which pew? Quite a different pew. A Y? A K and a Y? A K. K, OK. Yeah. And an A in the middle. Catherine, oh, a K. someone sent me a great TikTok the other day about all the different types of Catherine and what they're like it actually really wasn't applicable to me but I did get a kick out of it Catherine, send me your Instagram handle and I'll forward on the forward on the link thank you Catherine Catherine would also like us to shout out her 19-year-old black cat, Jellybean.

1:07:35Consider it done, Catherine. I'm a Jellybean. We also have Brian Barker. Hello, Brian. Hi, Brian. From Homewood, Illinois. That'll be in Illinois in a couple of weeks. There was a tennis player called Brian Baker. Remember Brian Baker? I do remember Brian Baker. Yeah. Just one letter different. Very good. And Brian will be thrilled with that because he said, please not the Brian brothers. Well, you see, I'm a man of many options, Brian. Look out for Matt when he comes to Illinois. Yes. You look a bit overwhelmed at the mention of Illinois. Let's cross that bridge when we come to it. It's been on the schedule for a while, and right now I'll have a nice time when I'm there.

1:08:25Brian says, although I'm roughly David's age and all things considered, we should be friends. 35, are you, Brian? I fear we will be mortal enemies. I'm an Agassi guy. Oh, I don't know. I've come around to Agassi. David from the 90s, Brian, really wasn't into Agassi. In fact, hoped he would lose every single match he played. But David of the 2020s has come around to it. It's just a bit late, isn't it? There you go, Brian. You are mates with David. Yeah. And finally, we have Sofia Moniz Galval from Lisbon, Portugal. Hello, Sofia. Sofia is big on the barge. Oh, for sure she is. I know, Sofia. And I met Sofia at the Davis Cup in Malaga.

1:09:13Yay! On the barge today, somebody posted a picture of their dog with a dinosaur toy and a sad caption about Dino no longer soaring. It was just peak content. Good things happening on the barge, folks. And Sophia says, I'd like to dedicate my shout-out to the amazing community of fellow barges, especially Catherine, same church, same pew, Duffy, thanks to whom I will go to Wimbledon for the first time this year and with all the other day three barges. I believe there's a big Barge Wimbledon meet-up happening on day three, whom I cannot wait to meet. Get on the Barge. Join them. It's great. That is wonderful.

1:09:58Wonderful note to end today's show on. What a show it has been. We're going to all go and... Lie down. Yeah, rock back and forth for a bit. And then we'll bounce back for tomorrow. Yeah, come on. We're part of the Athletic Podcast Network. Thank you for listening. Let's do day five and we'll speak to you after it.