Indian Wells - The story so far

37:04This was very funny. he's two match points down is dardari and the decider against hijikata and mid rally he's having to stretch for a forehand he puts up he puts up a defensive lob and stops the point and asks for a hindrance basically to be called on his opponent he seems to think that hijikata had said oh my god mid rally um actually what had happened is that someone in the crowd had said something and therefore the umpire was like well all you've done there is call a hindrance on yourself like you you're the one who has stopped the rally and put heji kata off by making by making a fuss out of this therefore you're going to lose the point and the match on on this point i mean i've never seen that before like trying to call a hindrance on your opponent and the umpire like no it was it was you who's caused the hindrance there and therefore this match is over because it's match point the umpire went through the sort of process of checking the video review and was like nope i'm sticking by my decision um and ardaria was absolutely furious about it um yeah wild scenes this is only anecdotal but I really feel like hindrance drama is massively on the rise we've over-indexed on hindrance drama for 2026 right yeah I think you might be right we've we have talked about it quite a lot long may it continue because it's perked Matt right up yeah it has I do love a bit of hindrance drama and I also like I do love the crowd getting involved um obviously shouting out mid-rally isn't great, but I just find it a tough scene sometimes when the crowd gets blamed for being excited about tennis.

38:58I sort of think that's what we want from the sport. Obviously, there's going to be some individuals who are annoying, but generally, the crowd being excited, I think, is a good thing. And it has been a bit of a blow in Indian Wells seeing what they've done to Stadium 2. Have you seen this? where they... Yeah, I wonder if they'll row back on this because it's such a clear misstep, isn't it? It's so bad. So you used to be able to get into Stadium 2 which is the second court at Indian Wells, a big court. And it's big. It's big. It's really big. Sometimes I see it on the telly and I'm like, what, is that centre court?

39:32And obviously centre court is even more enormous. But you used to be able to get into that court with a grounds pass and it seems that now you can't. And unfortunately, a A lot of the matches on that stadium have been suffering. Clearly, like, the thing to do, if you're going to buy a stadium... Particularly the ones later in the day. If you're going to buy a stadium ticket, you'll buy it for the main stadium. And, yeah, just the crowds have been down on that court, which just feels like such an open goal, really. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. There have been some really, really tough scenes out there because they're also stacked in Indian Wells.

40:11Stadium 2 gets some awesome matches. I mean, Stadium 4 gets awesome matches, but Stadium 2 is getting sort of Grand Slam quarter final level matches in these early rounds. And yeah, it's tough to see them not have the crowd that they deserve. OK, that's it for part two. We'll be back in part three to talk about the women. Welcome back to part three of today's tennis podcast. the women's matches that we've seen so far in Indian Wells. Let's start with Coco Gough and the incredibly rare sight of her retiring last night against Alexandra Ayala, only the second retirement of her career. She described it as a weird pain in her left arm that she was experiencing.

41:01Obviously a great worry. I mean, you know, worry for everybody. it goes without saying but like Coco Goff's physicality and her physical robustness David is such a huge pillar of her game and her identity as a tennis player um I don't know it just it feels like the world is out of order seeing seeing Coco Goff having to retire yeah I don't really remember seeing that before I don't remember seeing her retire before I don't really remember seeing her look bothered physically by something that often um maybe there is something that i'm that i'm just forgetting but but it was really jarring seeing her come to the net and explain it to alexandreala and and she's got she's got that sleeve on her forearm and and and so was obviously already experiencing some issue and and was just looked really worried about it you know This is a player she'd beaten handily a couple of weeks ago.

42:03Suddenly she's winning a couple of games out of 10. And just looked, oh, I need to get off the court and find out what's going on here because she was worried. And yeah, we don't need that. Nobody does. Yeah, fingers crossed for Coco Gough. That's as much as we know at the moment, but we will keep you posted. Matt let's continue the Matt good mood from Hindrance Drama to an absolutely sublime performance from Amanda Anisimova 6-1, 6-1 against Emma Adekanu late last night, she was she was a steam train it was, I mean that just must have felt amazing for her to be hitting the ball like that and for you obviously yeah it was one of those I was wondering am I going to be able to make it to the end of this match you know it was pushing I think maybe 11 gone 11 in the UK by the time it started the two matches before had both gone to deciding sets but I definitely had an hour still in me and that was that was all that was that was needed and look I take I take no pleasure in seeing Emerita Khan sort of beaten like that um but from a amanda nissimova perspective it was an astonishingly good performance and so quickly you knew oh she's playing well here she's hitting she's hitting the ball like a dream just in the first game there was power and control coming off her racket and it was a absolute demolition really i think we all remember the radhakanu and nissimova match from the Australian Open last year where Raducanu really caused Anissimova a lot of problems and put the ball in awkward spots.

43:56But I think we're seeing in this matchup, you kind of see the progress that Anissimova has made since then. And she beat her very handily in Canada last year. And this match looked a lot more like the Canada one than the Australian Open one. Just a huge discrepancy in the ball striking and the power coming off the strings. It was all Anissimova, really. She won 53 points to 21. She hit 21 winners to two. She absolutely destroyed Raducanu's serve. And she served really well herself, Anissimova, only losing six points on serve in the entire match. And, you know, I'd watched Raducanu in the previous round against Zakharova, and she'd been really good.

44:45I thought was her best performance of the season. She was convincing. She was playing with conviction, hitting her shots, going after her shots, playing in the way that she's talked about wanting to play. And look, I don't think she was at her best last night, but it was just a reminder of like, you can't always do that against certain opponents. And it reminded me a little bit of Raducanu's match against Rabakina at the US Open last year. And I remember thinking, oh, Raducanu's looked quite good this tournament. I think she might push Rebecca in it. And then she can't get the strike in. The first strike is just coming from down the other end.

45:23And you sort of kind of want Raducanu to maybe mix. That's where you want her to sort of try and mix some things up and use the other parts of her game because there are bigger and better hitters of a tennis ball than her. She's not going to be able to and out hit an Anissamova and she just couldn't. but I do think as you say the main story of this match was how brilliant Anisimova was and just how how comfortable she seemed on court and coming off the back of the opening set she played against Blinkover in this tournament which was a mess just unforced error after unforced error and she lost it she's then played four brilliant sets having having having dropped that initial one so yeah Yeah, it's been a very good tournament so far for her.

46:10But she's in a section of the draw that is absolutely stacked because she now plays Mboko, like first meeting between them. Cannot wait for that. And then the winner of that... When is that? SOS wins that. I think it might be Tuesday again. Tuesday. It's all happening on Tuesday. And then the winner of that will play the winner of Sabalenko-Osaka. Like that section of the draw is just so good. Yeah, Sabalenka-Osaka happening for the first time since 2018. Yes, please. She's looked good, I think, Naomi Osaka so far. And that US Open match in 2018. Yeah, the fourth round. The only set, I think, that Osaka dropped en route to that title.

47:00and it really did feel like the winner of that could go on to win the title even when it was happening. And you just think of the different directions their careers have gone in and taken since that moment and they've had such different trajectories to, what is it, four Slam titles each. I can't wait for it. Yeah, such a good point. Can't wait for it. She did good, Asaka, hasn't she, David? yeah I was not convinced you may remember a couple of months ago about Osaka's form coming into that Australian Open I don't know there was something in her performances and even the way she was speaking that everything just felt a little bit off and I thought oh she doesn't seem like she's in the good place she was heading into that US Open last year it feels different again this time I watched this match against Camilla Osorio and yes she dropped the second set but I felt like that was an aberration I felt like that was one dodgy game and then she didn't quite get back on serve but the rest of it was honestly a demolition she was moving incredibly well she looked in a great space sort of mentally out there just looked happy and excited to be out there and and was hitting the ball a ton you know just crushing it.

48:22Now, I do remember seeing the first round that Raducanu played and thinking, oh, she's hitting the ball well. And what you're facing can dictate what you're able to do. And Isamova was just giving her a totally different ball to Raducanu. She couldn't handle it at all. Obviously, Sabalenka's ball is going to be very different to Osorio. So how Osaka adapts to that is going to be fascinating. I still think back to the US Open match she played against the Nisimovar where she looked, even though she almost won it, she looked really shocked by how she wasn't really able to play it on her own racket in the way she was used to because of the sheer weight of shot coming her way.

49:05So she's going to have to be so light on her feet. But I actually think if she has a good day and can get into the match, she could win it. I think you'd make Sabalenka the favourite if you've got any sense because of all the last few years. But this looked like Naomi Osaka to me. OK. Jasmine Paolini has been winning tennis matches, Matt, which in 2026 is a headline because she hasn't been. I mean, she's been doing it the hard way. She's been toughing them out. I think Anastasia Potapova and Ilya Tomljanovic, two three-set wins. and now she's got sensation, Talia Gibson, who qualified and has beaten Anne Lee, Katerina Alexandrova and Clara Towson.

49:58It's been a tough old season for Jasmine Paolini and she needed this. Big time. Yeah, big time. I mean, she got a few wins, didn't she, in Merida, but then was poor against Bookshare, wasn't she, in that match. And here she's, yeah, I think you're right. I think the nature of the wins has been important, toughing out some wins, you know, because she's probably still not at her best, but trying to just get over the line and build confidence that way, I think has been helpful. And she is in the section of the draw that has opened up a bit with Goff going out. So there is an opportunity there for whoever.

50:42I mean, there's plenty of good players still, including Ayala herself, who beat Paolini the other week and obviously was playing well against Goff before Goff retired. So there's an opportunity, I guess, for Paolini. But I think everyone in that section will be thinking there's an opportunity as well. But it is good to see. I'm happier when Jasmine Paolini is winning tennis matches. you just don't want the you don't want to have cursed her with tennis podcast meets you don't want to be the problem it's very important it's very important that like david didn't david didn't like cause the jasmine paolini like surge by by the good draw thing and then me to end it by the tennis podcast meets curse we can't have a sort of bookended tennis pub girl Jasmine Paolini situation going on.

51:35David, Elena Rabachner needed three sets against Hayley Baptiste. This is a really entertaining match. Yeah, three very different sets though. It was never a question of them both playing well at the same time. I mean, Rabachner had a really bad second set and lost it one-sidedly. But Baptiste is such a clever player. She gets her off balance a little more than I think a lot of players do. She was able to use the wind to her benefit. And I actually think Rebecca did well in the end to come through this match. But I don't quite know where she is form-wise yet. I don't know how comfortable she is when it is windy.

52:20I often think, stick Rebecca in her indoors and how the heck do you beat her? because these still conditions enable her to just tee off and time the ball perfectly. But that isn't the case in these conditions. You know, Baptiste feels like she's definitely still got more to come in her game. I feel like she'll have a higher ranking in the future than she has right now. But, you know, in the end, you saw why one of them is kind of a champion who's used to winning tight matches, I suppose, in the end. Yeah. Defending champion Mira Andrava, double bageled, poor old Solana Sierra. David, Antonia Ruzic, she knocked out Jung Chinwen, who's still very much on the comeback trail, 6-4, 7-5.

53:12Did you ever get a reply from Coran about Antonia Ruzic? I feel like we need to know some stuff about her. She's popping up more and more. yeah I don't know whether it's possible to sort of light up in a whatsapp message but I got the sense that Goran was lighting up talking about a fellow Croatian doing good things on the tennis tour you know and he didn't seem particularly surprised he said she's good but I think maybe I'm surprised at the nature of some of the wins and look that is a player coming back to the sport who's probably not at her best at the moment but this isn't isolated isolated either researches is just running into people that are top players who who are all got problems or she's actually a better player than that and i think that's the truth i think she is a better player than that good sort of solid base to her game um you know not about my wife's creation and her first response when i tell her about a player like rizic is oh is she young you know is she is she new you know and and she kind of is new but she's not that young she's sort of she's not old but she's sort of she's been around a little while and made her way through the through the rankings and is is kind of certainly doing more than i think most people i i know thought she would have done um but sometimes people just get comfortable don't they at a level they get to they get into a a draw like a dubai or a doha and then get into an indian wells and they realize oh my game isn't isn't out of its comfort zone here, I can play.

54:52Yeah, one to watch for sure. Matt. The WTA website says that Rucic was a karate champion in Croatia growing up, which is quite fun. Yeah, okay. I haven't got anything else. Do you trust the WTA website? On that sort of thing, yeah, it'd be an odd thing to make up, wouldn't it? Yeah, that would be absolutely wild. Even for the WCA website. Matt, Iger Svjantek. It's like a bizarre match against Kayla Day. Six love, seven six. What did we make of Iger Svjantek and this match in general? She got Maria Sakharina next to Svjantek. Probably on Tuesday. Nothing's today, actually. No.

55:46Honestly, Svantec is so fascinating to me right now and has been for a while, to be honest. And it's second sets. I sort of really realised that it's second sets with Igor Svantec that are so compelling right now. Having a look at her record, her two losses at the WTA finals last year were both from a set up, went wrong in the second set. the United Cup if we remember she had those horror second sets against Benchich which she lost six love and Goff which she could easily have lost six love before a little rally at the end in Australia she had that strange second set against Kalinskaya and then she got blown out by Rabakina in the second set and what makes it so interesting against Sakari now is that it was against Sakari in Doha when she lost from a set up and that was the first time she'd lost at a 1000 event from a set up you know she is the great front runner of the wta tour over the last few years fiontech so it's really odd to see things just going a bit wrong in the second set and i think part of it is you know the way tennis matches work right like if you've lost the first set and suddenly you're down in the score as an opponent i think opponents are freeing up a little bit maybe more in these second sets and playing playing with fewer inhibitions and putting therefore a bit more pressure on Igor Shviontek that's certainly what happened here Kayla Day was just a totally different player in that second set compared to the first one but then she found it difficult to actually close it out and win it and and and Shviontek managed to rally from from a real deficit in that second set to still win in straight sets but something is something's different right because she used to shviontek just keep it up all the time and keep the foot on the gas and once she was ahead in a match she was so hard to come back against these days could it be as we've talked about a lot you know serve being less reliable and leading to pressure that she's facing on serve and opponents i think just i think the aura has been chipped away at a little bit as well and i think players know now that there is an opportunity and they they're not just beaten as soon as they start that second set having lost the first so it's really interesting to follow there's a lot of good tennis in that match from sviontek and she does like these conditions in indian wells um and i would expect her still to beat zachary personally um but yeah like there's there's a pattern developing i suppose is what i'm saying and that's been interesting to observe and the thing for Sakari in this match is suddenly there's a bit of expectation on her because she beat Shontek last time around and that really changes the dynamic for her so I think I'd still back Shontek but it's yeah I mean she's utterly compelling at the moment is Igor Shontek and there's a lot of fascinating matches been set up on mostly Tuesday by the sounds of things but there must be some happening today as well.

58:54We've seen everybody play now at least once. At this point, with a week to go of Indian Wells, who are you picking to win the titles?

59:09Well, Alcaraz. Yeah, I mean, Alcaraz. Women's is hard. Women's is very hard. but look, screw it, and it's over.

59:27There we go. David, Matt didn't buy you much time there to think, did he? Oh, this is... I thought he was going to deliberate a bit longer. It's difficult, isn't it? You're going Alcaraz, right? Yes. I mean, based on what I've seen, certainly Sinner and Alcaraz look the best place in the draw. Also, I have noticed the forecast for the end of the tournament is very very hot like really hot you know put like over 90 fahrenheit pushing 100 and like you know if we if if for example we were to get an alcaraz sinner in those latter stages in those sorts of conditions you'd be sort of backing alcaraz as well so that's that's a factor um but obviously the main factor is just how good alcaraz is yeah yeah it's crikey it's it's it's really difficult this um i i mean i think the sensible thing to do is to go for sabalenka but i'm actually i i think i'm going to say i think it's going to be the winner of sabalenka and usaka because i think usaka could win you find usaka so hard to resist i do prediction i do i love that a big one is going to come her way at some point if she if she plays her best tennis and I felt she was getting towards it in September last year.

1:00:51I think she's getting towards it now. It's the US Open 2018 all over again. The winner of Osaka Savalenka wins the title. Do you have a hunch, Catherine? Well, the last tennis I watched was that Anna Simova performance and that looked absolutely unplayable, but also it looked like you know it looked like sort of flow state you can't expect to be turning up on a tennis court and playing like you know that the sort of match you play once or twice a season isn't it but my god she looked good and that's interesting isn't it like Asaka, Sabalenka Nisimova the players we talked about they're all in that bit of the draw together that I've talked about like I do think the other half seems a little bit more open like you've got you've got Rabatkinner and you've got Svantec I mean yeah she should probably be saying Rabatkinner shouldn't we I mean it's she's or Pagula yeah although Pagula didn't even make the agenda David although Pagula talks about not liking the Indian Wells conditions yeah I don't think if there is an Indian Wells girl but it wouldn't shock me if she managed to if she managed to figure them out and win she beat Vekic didn't she in three sets having said that in the opening set she was blinded by Vekic she's diamonds good promo for the diamonds there for vekic i think she'd take that probably over the win yeah yeah um i mean there's andreva as well you know defending champion she loves it there she like she's we know the tennis is good enough it's it's all a kind of temperament question with with andreva at the moment isn't it but um i don't know maybe i'll go for an just because recency bias.

1:02:46The last two performances I watched were Alcaraz and Anisimova and my thoughts during both of them were, well, no one can beat this. So let's go with that. What can go wrong? I can't believe it's taken me this long to mention the Eisenhower Cup. My apologies to the Eisenhower Cup. it's the event that I imagine is probably a bit annoyed that it's been somewhat gazumped by US Open mixed doubles because it used to sort of... On one point slam? Yeah, I guess so. Because it used to be the flag bearer for these sort of novelty mixed pre-event events. And now it's just sort of a shit version of something that happens elsewhere.

1:03:38But look, it gets good crowds. It is fun. It is fun. I'm being rude. It is fun. Taylor Fritz frigging loves it. The odd couple vibes between him and Elena Rabachner were just endlessly fascinating to me. And they've defended their title. And that's quite funny. Yeah, it is. It is a debate. They beat Anissimova and Tien. Oh, I wasn't across this, as you can tell. Anissimova was supposed to play with Rublev, but he was detained in Dubai, so she got potentially an upgrade. And then the interview at the end of the event, it was Coco Vanderwey doing the interview, she asked, um learner tn are you gonna gonna partner with with anissa over again next year and he said i'm very proud of our efforts

1:04:48and then realized i think that that sounded like a no and uh said uh now it's great to be partnered with with someone so good as anissa or a champion like her um she did have a bit that's still a no She did have a bit of a disaster in that final, and it's some over, it has to be said. I did also like Tien's ATP content video the other week when he was asked for his sort of, what's your sort of dream in life? He said not to have an office job. Yes, I saw that. Yeah. Tennis player in being relatable. shocker initially they said what was your biggest fear was to have an office shark

1:05:41some people are saying sharks but no that's like my my friend Monique in her GCSE French oral her mind went a bit blank the role play she got was eating meals food, food and drink, eating out and the first question was what food do you not like? Are there any foods you don't like? And her mind went blank and all she could remember was viande, which is meat. So she said, I don't like meat. And then she was asked, what do you like to eat? And obviously the only vocabulary at this point she had been able to remember was meat and she'd already ruled that out. so she'd driven herself down a bit of a cul-de-sac was that relevant?

1:06:32who can say? there was a

1:06:42I didn't think there was going to be more to that story laughter

1:06:51well she ended up just saying viand in answer to everything in answer to what she did like and what she didn't like because it was the only vocabulary she could remember. Yeah. She didn't end up in a languages profession.

1:07:08There was that uncomfortable moment in the trophy ceremony or in the photo shoot bit after the trophy ceremony, which has gone a bit viral of a couple of men involved with the tournament, presenting Fritz and Rabatkinner with the trophy and standing there to have photos taken and one of them's got his arm around Rabatkinner in a, I mean, fairly innocuous way, but, you know, just a bit too much. And she eventually removes it very, very subtly from her back. And it's, I mean, it's the sort of thing that women will watch and go, oh yeah, this shit's happening all the time, everywhere, and good for her for doing something about it.

1:07:56She was asked about it by Charlie Eccleshare, in fact, in press, and she said, not a big deal, nothing to see here. But we did see it, and it's bullshit. So there we go. Happy International Women's Day to everybody. Speaking of International Women's Day, we recorded our latest edition of Tennis Relived on Friday. Matt, would you like to tell the people, give them a little tease or a little promo, entice everybody to listen to our Alice Marble Relived episode? yeah Alice Marble a fascinating person um so much mystery surrounding her life she's a sort of unreliable narrator of her own life um and there are there are a couple of extraordinary tales that she tells in her memoir that that we got into of a wartime romance and a wartime spy saga um and you know did those events happen did they not happen what does it say about Alice Marble and the time that she felt like she needed to say those events as though they as though they did happen we sort of got into all that as well we talked about her career that saw her overcome a bout of real illness and then come back to the sport and win major titles and be the dominant player before the Second World War broke out.

1:09:40And, you know, she wasn't sort of able to then go on winning the major titles because everything stopped. So it's kind of what could have been about her career as well. we talked about her important allies ship in the in the fight for social justice and breaking down the color barrier in tennis she was a big supporter of athier Gibson and very very powerful moving letter which went a long way to helping Arthur Gibson be able to play at the top of the sport and we did all of that with Hannah, Hannah Wilkes, our phenomenal writer and captain of the barge and she knows all about Alice Marble from having researched Eleanor Teach-Tenant who was Alice Marble's coach and Hannah just brought a lot of incredible research and perspective on that relationship and the boundaries that were crossed in it and the complicated sort of messy nature of that sort of coaching relationship, very relevant to a lot of what we talk about today in the tennis world as well.

1:10:55So, so many different aspects of Alice Marble's story and it took us two hours to talk about it all. But yeah, it's up now for friends and yeah, it was a very special show. It was a very long promo, I apologise. well it's a long show so that's that's fitting it's still shorter than our Andy Murray's near misses the Australian Open show which which tells you something yeah that's the that's the depth and breadth of Tennis Relived 100 years apart there we've got our two opening our two opening shows yeah I loved it um and it is up now for Friends of the Pod and if you'd like to become a friend of the pod get access to that and all of our bonus content then the link of course is in our show notes folks I would like to introduce you to our mascot for this episode it is Ludo Ludo is owned by Gail and this is what Gail tells us about Ludo who is what a good boy Ludo is a seven-year-old black German shepherd living in Brooklyn New York he loves long park walks hiking summers at the beach begging for cheese and rearranging pillows to his liking.

1:12:08That could be a description of me. He adores tennis balls and can even sniff them out. He knows where the tennis courts are in our neighbourhood and will inspect the surrounding bushes until he finds a souvenir ball. His favourite player is Yannick Sinner. He has a large toy carrot to show his support. I think you'll find Gail that he ought to have a fox but he's all right with carrots as David established at the French Open but he relates to Matteo Berrettini because of his devastating good looks, barrel chest and tendency to carry an injury. Last summer Ludo needed an emergency surgery and was in the hospital during the first few days of the US Open.

1:12:49I got the call that he was out of surgery and doing well while attending the mixed doubles to distract myself. I was quite literally sitting behind Shulton and Townsend while they were serving. So I will always associate the good vibes of the mixed doubles with Ludo's Road to Recovery, as well as the many, many hours of Catherine, David and Matt that have filled my ears on our walks throughout the year. That is a lovely description and tribute to a gorgeous dog. What a good boy he is. Very slobbery, but we don't mind that. hello and hello and thank you to ludo and to gail uh hello to our mascots to bodie we continue to ride that cabali wave bodie to uh maizey and to roger as well hello to our top folks and executive producers greg chris and jeff and it's over to matt for some shout outs and we start with ian Farrand who is from Winchester.

1:13:52Hi Ian. Hello Ian. Ian says I had a quick chat with Matt and Catherine when making my debut spectating at Flushing Meadows last year and we shared some words about just how bad Madison Keyes had been. Ah yes. I mean she was bad yeah. Yeah. I'd forgotten that. Lost to Zara Zua. Ian says that got me halfway in my podcast slam. having previously spoken to you on him and hill a few years ago. So he's trying to speak to us at all the slams, which is fantastic. Great idea, Ian. OK, that's new terminology. I love that, a new concept. He says he couldn't find any of us in Paris two years ago, so that's an excuse to return.

1:14:42You don't need an excuse. Dennis Ian's. Ian Flanagan, Flamania. I love it when you talk about flan mania me too fantastic thank you Ian see you somewhere soon Paris or Paris or Melbourne maybe we've also got Andrew who wants to also shout out his 8 year old Spoodle Cockapoo he's written Spoodle slash Cockapoo who he calls Harry, like Harry Hopman, he says.

1:15:25Well, I appreciate that effort. A spoodle slash cockapoo. Yes, I'm a bit confused by the... OK. By that. Because a spoodle... Well, there's a spoodle, which is a springer and a poodle. OK. Intriguing. Very intriguing. How many Spaniels were involved in this creation? and Andrew says Rafael Nadal is our favourite player and we were lucky enough to grab last minute tickets to the 2022 Australian Open final oh good work Andrew wow Andrew well I mean you've had the definitive Rafael Nadal experience I suppose you could say Roland Garros but I don't think it gets better than the miracle in Melbourne Andrew like Andrew Richardson incredible former coach Yes, who coached...

1:16:16Emerita Canu to US Open glory. I wonder what would happen if that had carried on. Who knows? Wow. Very good, David. You're on fire. And finally, we have Alison Heather, who has got this shout-out for Philip Wong as a prize for winning their own 2025 Tennis Predictions competition. Oh, that's so cool. They've been friends since journalism school 25 years ago. They're from Toronto, Canada. And Philip got Alison into tennis over six years ago and they talk incessantly about the pod all the time. Philip's hope is that Alison will join him doing the fan slam. For years, Alison's mum Susan and Philip's sister Sandra would join them on a Google Doc to predict the singles quarterfinals finals to winners of all the slams the thousands as well um sadly they lost sandra in 2022 and susan in 2024 so this shout out also goes to them sandra wong and susan painter and alison says now it's the two of us left making predictions we miss them immensely but thank you to the tennis podcast team for seeing us through these challenging times we gladly show you the real Toronto if you're ever in town because the tournament venue up north is not at all representative of what Toronto has to offer so thank you for that Alison and Philip that's really really beautiful Alison like Risk and Philip like Kohlschreiber very good yeah really lovely thank you Alison and Philip like Kohlschreiber But folks, we are part of the Athletic Podcast Network.

1:18:14It's a two podcast week because it's a combined 1000 weeks. So that means we'll be back on Thursday with our next show. And then our post Indian Wells show will be live on YouTube on Monday at 8pm UK time. It'll also be available to watch whenever you like after going up and be available to listen to a podcast as normal. but if you'd like to join us live on YouTube, 8pm UK time is when it'll be next Monday. So mark your cards for that. Thank you for listening today and we'll speak to you again on Thursday.