Is this the Amanda Anisimova era?

37:53Yeah, they're aesthetically. Yeah, they are, they are, they're not like, sort of garish. No, they're just enormous from a mantelpiece point of view. I'd love to know what size the replicas are. Right, that is it for your Beijing WTA Roundup. Join us in part two and we'll turn our attention to the swamp that is Shanghai this week. Welcome back to part two of the tennis podcast where we turn our attention now to Shanghai and the ATP 1000 event happening there in incredibly challenging conditions. The conditions are the biggest feature and the biggest talking point of this tournament so far. I know it can be and has been hot before this tournament, this time of year, but from what I've gathered, this year's edition has been like nothing anybody's ever experienced before there in terms of the heat and I think in particular the humidity.

38:52It has been honestly quite hard to watch at times. These tennis players that are already, you know they're already on fumes at this time of the season, kind of being thrown out into this torture chamber, really, of conditions. And that all came to a head yesterday, watching Yannick Sinner retire after two and a half hours and a settle with Talon Greeksport in the most appalling state. The fact that he tried to play on for as long as he did when he was physically unable to move. He was either convulsing or stock still like a statue because his legs wouldn't allow him to move. He had to be helped off court by a tall physio.

39:46It was a really, really shocking scene in Shanghai. And there've been, this was the most extreme, but there've been quite a few like that. And I don't know how you felt watching it, Matt, but I was quite distressed by those images. Yeah, massively. there hasn't been a match I've watched in Shanghai over the last few days that hasn't been in some way impacted by the conditions you know I mean we're talking mid 30 degrees Celsius right through to like the end of the day and 90 95 percent humidity as far as I understand it like absolutely brutal Alex Dimonor said in his interview afterwards and you could see it like He walked onto court with basically a full suitcase.

40:39He said, I've got eight shirts. I've got four pairs of shoes. I've got shorts to change into. They're just sweating immediately as soon as these matches are starting. And Novak Djokovic was sick a couple of times in his match on the court. It is brutal. And you've got these combination of factors. those conditions, the end of the season where everyone's running on fumes anyway, and the super slow conditions in Shanghai, which means it's extremely hard to sort of hit through the court. So we're getting these really long rallies as well. I mean, Taylor Fritz was another one, absolutely broken at the end of his match against Mpeshi Perikar.

41:23And, you know, these are, you know, top level tennis players are some of the most incredible athletes on the planet. And yet they're all just absolutely exhausted by these conditions. And yes, Sinner, I think, was the most stark example. I would say, first of all, credit to Greek Spore for going two and a half hours with Yannick Sinner and not just getting blown off court like we see so many do. We still have that thing, don't we, with Yannick Sinner and his three-hour, 50-minute record where he's never won a match. and I'm not convinced it's this huge thing because, you know, look at the tennis we saw him play after five hours against Alcarez in the French Open final but mostly it's not that much of a thing because players can't get him to that point.

42:12Well, Grixbo played a brilliant match and got him to two hours 30 and managed to sort of win that match just totally physically but yeah, absolutely horrible to see Yannick Sinner like that, cramping so much and look I think these were particularly extreme conditions I mostly look at the conditions there as a factor not sure how applicable it is to sort of other events but it does feel like Sinner's two biggest obstacles right now are Carlos Alcaraz and his own health you know if you look back on the last 18 months or so he's tended to either lose to Alcaraz or have to withdraw from a tournament because of illness or suffer a loss in which he's physically compromised.

42:57And that factor does still remain, I think, for Yannick Sinner. I'm not really blaming his conditioning in terms of this match and this performance. I think it was extreme, especially for him off the back of just playing a tournament and winning in Beijing. but if you know if we're kind of looking for little signs of Yannick Sinner I don't want to say weakness but kind of some of his worst elements it does seem to be that sort of durability in terms of tour and in some of these matches and conditions like we do see him cramp we do see him struggle a little bit and yeah it does feel like something an area where he can still hopefully improve but yeah it was a brutal watch.

43:45It's the sort of thing the locker room will take note of right when you've got a locker room of people that are thinking and saying things like public like this guy's a machine can't get near him like it just ever so slightly chips away at that machine like aura doesn't it which I know Sinner really really rejects that kind of rhetoric and I really respect why, because it kind of undermines and minimises how hard what he does is to kind of write it off as him just being a machine. But it just, you know, gives that little bit of a glimpse if you are a player that, for whom fitness is one of your great, great strengths, you know, I don't know, a Cam Norrie with his horse lungs.

44:29You can go out there and think, okay, I can't beat him in a hitting contest, but if I can just get this to four hours in a slam match, you know, maybe I've got a chance. But yet looking at these matches and these conditions, like, okay, this is extreme and it's unlucky. But we are encountering extreme conditions more and more often. The world, on tour, in the world, the world is, despite what the sociopath woman at the buses in New York thinks, The world is heating up and tennis is just another thing that tennis is ignoring. Like the stat you gave us last week, Matt, about how top players aren't necessarily playing more matches than they were 10, 15 years ago.

45:15But matches are different now. They're longer. Things are changing. If you're not making accommodations for that, then you're breaking your own system. And yeah, tennis is just making no accommodations for the fact that the world is getting a harder and harder place to exist in, but certainly to do perform athletic feats outside in. in yeah i i was i just kept having the image of medvedev at that u.s open match can't exactly remember when it was where he sort of breaks the fourth wall and looks into the camera and says something like someone's gonna die and then they're gonna see you know and like obviously that's you know medvedev saying that but there's a point there like it's being pushed so far and i think the tennis calendar is almost certainly going to look very very different in 25 years 50 years i don't know like but it's going to have to make accommodations and you just hope that they don't make the accommodations like literally when it's too late like we we should be sort of ahead of the game on this and seeing the direction it's going and just thinking about as a sport what we can do to combat it.

46:38And I just don't get the sense that that's really happening. And yeah, it's shocking to watch. We're at a tipping point, but we're not going to tip to quote Matt Roberts again. And yet, David, despite all of this, 38-year-old Novak Djokovic is probably favourite to win this title, especially now we've just seen Alexander Zverev crash out to credible Arta the revelation of 2025, Arta Rindeknesh. Marvel. He's a marvel. Novak Djokovic is definitely a marvel. Yeah. I mean, it's a good question, isn't it? A really interesting case study that Djokovic is the one left in without Sinner, without Al-Kraas, without Zverevnau, without Fritz.

47:28Now, look, Fritz has never caused Djokovic any problems, we know. But this is the one to test the theory that Djokovic in 2025 is head and shoulders the third best player in the world. And if it's not the other two, then it's him. That said, these conditions do make me feel differently about that. I don't know how he won yesterday. He was playing Yannick Hanfman. who is, look, maybe that's part of the reason he's playing a player who's significantly less of a player than he is and than certain other opponents are. Hanferman, who had beaten Francis Tiafoe, played brilliantly to get a set-up against Djokovic, but when put under pressure, eventually was broken down mentally and his game as well.

48:19Djokovic was fantastic, I thought, to come through that, you know, and to withstand, we know he hates heat and humidity. He's always hated it. And yet he's the one left standing of these very top guys. So huge credit to him for that. But I'm not convinced that he wins this tournament because these conditions are not improving. He could do, of course he could. And I wonder what's going through his mind. I mean, the way he's talking, he seems to just be loving being there again, having not been there necessarily for a while and not necessarily knowing whether he would. He gets a lot of love in China, doesn't he?

48:57Oh, yeah. I mean, it's huge. He's pretty open about the love being a big motivator for him at the moment. Yeah, he's buzzing from it. But I don't know whether he'll be buzzing to have to go through these conditions much more. He's got Jaumun-Munar next. One of that to face Diallo or Bergs. And then in that section of the draw, You've got Greekspor, Vachero, Runa and Pesciperikar. When you reel off those sort of names, Catherine, and it's Monday now as we talk to you and this thing's going on until Sunday, there is a dearth of big names in this draw. And if that isn't alarm bells to the ATP, I don't know what is because I'm telling you, Yannick Sinner this time next year is probably going to be having a bit of a think about whether he wants to put himself through this again.

49:48you know choices will be made He's probably seen the pictures of Carlos Alcraz at a wedding over the weekend sort of feeling pretty darn good about his life choices and Djokovic and Sabalenka they took last week off I mean Djokovic is taking a lot of weeks off but Sabalenka didn't play Beijing and Djokovic and Sabalenka seem to be going on double dates with their respective other halves in Greece you know just having a grand old time yeah i yeah i agree with you um yeah i i just i just think it's are we gonna reach a point where there's a reckoning about this i mean how many tournaments can you can you end up with with not your star names when they're supposed to be your biggest events um i i'd like to think that that will be getting taken in as part of the consideration at some point yeah i think we've had six or seven uh retirements in shanghai already and if you look at the history of masters 1000 events this year has provided three of the top six most amount of retirements in a masters 1000 event and look part of that is because there are more matches now in masters 1000 events you've got more players in the draw like mathematically statistically you probably would expect the number of retirements to go up but like it's not a good thing it's not a good thing that number of retirements seem to be going up and whether that's because there are more players in the draw partly i also think it's massively because of the general load on these players now and the and the extended time that they're spending at tournaments and you know we've talked about it but we're seeing tournaments be compromised and players either not enter or have to pull out halfway through.

51:53And it's just happening a lot right now. Yes, seven. Sinner, Mahach, Rude, Goffin, Mijedovic, Atman and Wu. And then, of course, withdrawals as well. Alcaraz, Draper, Sitsapas withdrew, I think. and a lot of players playing through degrees of injury as well. I mean, I don't know how much Alexander Zvere's back was troubling him over the course of that defeat to Arta Rindeknesh. I mean, he lost to Arta Rindeknesh at Wimbledon when fully fit, didn't he? So maybe even suggesting that is doing our friend Arta, or certainly your friend Arta, David, a disservice. or maybe, David, it's the court speed conspiracy at play.

52:44Yeah. Yeah, our friend Zverev thinks that everything's being organised to suit Alcaraz and Sinner by tournament directors who want them in the final, correct? Correct, but Roger Federer thinks it too. So we had Alexander Zverev after his win in the previous round over... Who did he beat? Somebody. He beat Valentin Royer. Yeah. He did an on-court interview with the ATP and he was asked about court speed. And it is slow in Shanghai. It would be better if the court were faster in Shanghai for all the reasons we just laid out. That is incontrovertible. but Alexander Zverev said I hate when it's the same to be honest he said I think tournament directors are going towards that direction that direction being slowing down courts because obviously they want Yannick and Carlos to do well every tournament and that's what they prefer nowadays you can play almost the same way on every surface well you certainly can I don't like it I'm not a fan of it I think tennis needs different game styles.

54:13Tennis needs a little bit of variety. And I think we're lacking that right now. Which, you know, maybe that's a fair point. But I mean, quite a lot of irony coming from Alexander Zverev and his game style. But anyway, those comments were then put to Yannick Sinner after his victory. And I almost don't want to read out the quotes because the quotes are by the by. The real response was in his facial expression, which was an absolute 10 out of 10 when those quotes were put to him. It's just tremendous face from Yannick Sinner. He said, me and Carlos, we don't make the courts. It's not our decision.

54:57We try to adapt ourselves in every situation. I feel still like every week is a bit different. I've played some great tennis, even when it was faster courts, but I'm not making the courts. So I just try and adapt and play my best tennis, the best tennis I can. And that's it. And just for background, because Alexander Zverev isn't plucking this from thin air, it sounded pretty salty when he said it. but Roger Federer had said it less than two weeks before, appearing on Andy Roddick's podcast Serve during the Labour Cup. He said, we need to have not only fast courts, but what we would want to see is Al-Khraza Osina figure it out on lightning fast courts and then have the same match on super slow courts and see how that matches up.

55:49It's because the tournament directors have allowed with the ball speed and the court speed that every week is basically the same. And that's why you can just go from winning French Wimbledon US Open and just play the same way. So Roger Federer has kind of handed Alexander Zverev there a kind of excuse for his shortcomings, which it doesn't surprise me at all that Alexander Zverev is gladly accepted with open arms. I kind of don't, I don't want words from you. I want face from you both like Yannick Sinner gave us, but that doesn't really work on a podcast unless you're with us on YouTube. But your reactions, please, to this conspiracy theory that Federer and Zverev have hatched in Vancouver.

56:43No, not Vancouver, San Francisco. go i i do i do think federer's got a point that that that there is too much similar speed tennis generally i don't that i'd like to see some statistics put up to back that up so that we know exactly what the speeds that we're talking about are and i think that they do do some speeds out there um that i would love to sort of probably be able to analyze but there's no question that Wimbledon and the French Open are not what they used to be in terms of their differential. And more generally, courts are slower than they used to be. And that is just an eye test, I think is clear.

57:27And whether that is the surface or the ball speeds or the strings or whatever it might be, I think most people would agree that they are slower. but I don't think that anybody can judge Alcaraz and Sinner's relative successes based on that. I mean, come on. This is not like Rafael Nadal's won 14 French Opens because he's really good on clay. Sinner and Alcaraz are so by far and away better than all of you, you being Alexander Zverev at the top of the list, that that is the reason that they're winning all these titles, not because poor you, they're on a surface that suits them more than it suits you.

58:10And there's also the suggestion that this is a big conspiracy by tournament directors to conspire to get Sinner and Alcaraz finals, which I find very odd because that's kind of the one thing you don't need to even try to engineer in tennis at the moment, the success of Sinner and Alcaraz. Like, I don't know, I just find that I am usually very happy to be cynical about stuff. And this is, I just don't think that is what is happening from tournament directors. Courts might be being slowed down, generally. I don't think that is a conspiracy to ensure that Alcaraz and Sinner are reaching the final.

58:58I really don't. Yeah, it struck me that Federer's comments on this were kind of stuck for maybe like a decade or two decades ago when Federer came through in that era where, you know, I think in the sort of mid-2000s and sort of peaking in the sort of, what we would think of as like the main crux of the big four era, sort of 2007 to 2014 or so, the courts were slow and there had been a definite slowing down of courts. You know, like we lost, for example, the lightning quick Wimbledon. We lost the sort of indoor carpet courts that we talked about with Pam Shriver on that show. You know, like that surface went and generally courts were slower.

59:42And it strikes me that Federer is still sort of thinking about that time. What's actually happened in the last few years, if you do look at the data and you look at stuff like ace rates or average rally length, which are good tells for sort of court speed, is that in the last few years, we've actually, okay, we're not fast. We're not like really fast like it was back in the 90s. But the speed of the surface has gone up a little bit and there is some variation on the tour. Like we haven't got the extremes. We haven't got like super fast and we haven't got super slow. But there are courts that you would define as fast and there are courts that you would define as slow or medium slow.

1:00:20and the thing is Alcron and Sina are winning events on the slow courts and the fast courts they're winning not because of the court surface but because of their games and the variation that they have in their games the great irony here I think is that Zverev would massively benefit from all courts being exactly the same because he only really has that one way of playing and he could play the same way on all surfaces and maybe have some success on it but it it it takes variety and Alcres and Sinner are able to succeed in spite of difference in surfaces not because of it but I think sort of to me Zverev sort of discarded his his right to speak about this when he gave that analysis of the Mazzetti match in Rome do you remember his analysis on that match when he sort of I mean he sort of claimed that Mazzetti was one-dimensional and not playing attacking and defensive all the time and it was like you were playing that match like how on earth is that your analysis of it and it just it just goes to show that I think you can sort of a classic it's a classic example is where I'm thinking that the world is sort of conspired against him and you know finding excuses for sort of why he's he's not winning winning all the time.

1:01:49He's also just put, I mean, obviously we've been recording during it, so we haven't watched every point, but he's just been beaten by a guy playing a lot of variety. With twice the number of winners. Yeah.

1:02:04He seems to be all right. Go and ask Arta if it's too slow. Tournament directors are conspiring to get Arta Rindeknesh into the latter stages of these tournaments, and who can blame them? He's a good time, David. Yes, that's right. I tell you what, he is playing some bloody great stuff. I mean, this is not isolated now. I mean, the laughingstock of it all came from his five-game run against Yannick Sinner when he went five love up in one of the sets there, and he was just absolutely out of this world, and then he barely won another point in the whole match. And I found that really amusing at the time, and I just thought that, okay, that's him.

1:02:45He can have a flashy spell in a match, but he can't string anything together. And since then, he's gone and beaten Zverev twice. He doesn't lose early very often. He had a run at the US Open. I mean, this is the best period of his career. And, you know, he might be the man to come through this draw. That'd be quite fun. To win Shanghai? Why not? I mean, who else are you picking? If it's not Djokovic, who else are you picking? Alex Diminor maybe if it's not Djokovic it's I sort of think Diminor's like got a lot to play for in terms of you know trying to secure a place Felix has got something to play for hasn't he Mazzetti that's a very that's a very interesting match next up Urgealli Asim against Mazzetti because they're they're sort of rivals in terms of trying to get into Turin this year I think Urgealli Asim's quite a bit behind Mazzetti but But if he were to beat him and even go on to win this tournament, he would make up the gap.

1:03:46So, yeah, I think I am probably looking at those names. Djokovic, Orjeliasim, Dimonor, probably. Rindiknesh. And Rindiknesh, obviously. Medvedev's in there. He's about to play Davidovic for Kina. Impressive from Tien to be, I mean, he's setting a break on Cameron Norrie at the moment to be keeping this up after reaching the final in Beijing. Yeah, good on him for keeping going. Came through the big Mute match in the first round. Yes. Top seed-ish Mute. Yeah. There were some amazing rounds. It's all up for grabs now that Mute's out. If you want to go back and watch some fun, go back and watch those two left-handers against each other.

1:04:38It's so much fun. Right, and join us in part three as well once you've done that for a little look ahead to this week in Wuhan, a rarely spotted one-week-long 1 ,000 event. We are pumped. Join us in part three. Welcome back to part three of the Tennis Podcast where we look ahead now to Wuhan. Hold the front page. It's a week-long 1 ,000 event that tried to sort of call itself Wuhan-Bulden for a while. Or certainly people tried to make Wuhan-Bulden happen because it's such a fast court surface, apparently. Alexander Zverev, get thee to Wuhan, where Irina Sabalenka is the three-time defending champion.

1:05:27I really associate Wuhan, David, with Irina Sabalenka. She won this title in, I'm going to say 2018. And I think off the back of that, we started making big, big predictions for her about winning slams in 2019. Obviously, it took a bit longer, didn't it? But yeah, this was where she really, really announced herself, I feel. She's in the top half of the draw with Naomi Osaka, Elena Rabakina, Amanda Enesimova, Emma Adekanu and Jessica Pagula. Shontek is in the bottom half with Jasmine Paolini, Coco Goff and Mira Andreeva. We've got first round matches that include Osaka against Fernandes, Alexandrova Mboko, Kostiuk Mukova and Bencic Vekic.

1:06:19I really am excited about Wuhan this week. I mean, in a sort of conflicted way, because I do think tennis just needs to stop. Just everybody just down tools for a bit. But if we are going to carry on, I like this draw. Yeah. And three times, actually, Sabalenka won Wuhan, including last year. Yeah, she's just perfectly equipped for it. And I do love the fact that she's given up the chance of all the extra points and all the extra money in Beijing. And she's just decided, OK, I'm going to be ready for that one. And whatever follows that with the WCA finals. But you're right. I mean, when you come across the seven-day 1 ,000 event now, and we'll have it with Paris-Bercy still?

1:07:07Is that still a seven-day event? I mean... Paris-Bercy is hanging on. Is it no longer at Bercy? I don't know where it is in Paris anymore. Yes, no, it's Paris. It's Paris. It's Paris somewhere. Paris somewhere else. Paris Accor Arena. When you have these seven-day events, and we have it with Stuttgart earlier in the year, and we have it with Monte Carlo, you know, you suddenly realise and remember how good they are because you've got that point of comparison. Yeah, we're going to make the most of it. Yeah, it's that strange quirk with Sabalenka, as you said, three-time defending champion, but two of those are 2018 and 2019 because the event didn't happen for so long for various reasons.

1:07:50And yes, then she won it last year as well. And look, it is a fun draw. It's a great coming together of all the big names. Sabalenka being back is great for the tournament. And then, you know, you just sort of expect there's going to be some big clashes, which you want to see. And yeah, I really like the look of this draw. Nodare Kazikina in the draw. She released a really moving statement, actually, about why she is choosing to shut down her season. Last week we had Alina Svitolina announcing that she was shutting down her season early this week. We've got Kazakina. She said, quote, I'm fine.

1:08:33Words I'm sure we've all heard from many women from many different walks of life, knowing they're not fine, they're far from fine, but they continue breaking themselves a little more each time. This is me. 2025 has been my I'm fine year. I've been far from fine for a long time. and truth be told my results and performances show that. The fans aren't stupid, they can see it too. I've kept a lid on my feelings because I don't want to seem like I'm moaning, weak or God forbid ungrateful or unappreciative of this amazing life we live as professional tennis players. Truth is, I've hit a wall and I can't continue.

1:09:09I need a break, a break from the monotonous daily grind of life on tour, the suitcases, the results, the pressure, the same faces, sorry girls, everything that comes with this life. The schedule is too much, mentally and emotionally, I'm at breaking point and sadly, I'm not alone. Add into the mix the emotional mental stress related to my nationality switch, not being able to see my parents four years now for my father and I, plus the ongoing battles to gain full Australian competition eligibility. It's a lot and there is only so much I can deal with and take as an individual woman, all whilst competing with the best female athletes in the world.

1:09:48If this makes me weak, then so be it. I'm weak. However, I know I'm strong and I will get stronger by being away, recharging, regrouping and re-energising. It's time I listen to myself for a change. My heart, my mind, my body. 2025 is done for me and like me, it's been far from fine. So I'm joining the 2025 Tap Out Club. I will be just fine though and look forward to seeing you in 2026, energised and ready to rock with love. Dasher. Now that should be printed out as a manifesto and put up on the wall in an emergency meeting of the powers that be, quite frankly. And I know she's got, as she's laid out there, she's got specific circumstances, that nationality switch and how draining that must have been on her and as brave as all that has been what she's what she's taken on um i'm sure it's taken a lot out of her as well but you know we have enough examples of this now that um that something should be done um yeah yeah yeah she is not weak in any way that is the epitome of strength to me is to is to accept how you feel and do something about it like that.

1:11:12And I have enormous admiration for her for loads of ways and loads of reasons. And I just, I hope she does feel way better in January because, you know, that's all that anybody would want. I hope she's going to come out in January and get so much love from the Australian crowd, isn't she? that's going to be awesome and I really hope she's in a good mental and physical place to be able to enjoy that because I think that's going to be really cool to see some other news that we had this week it dropped in fact while we were recording our last podcast the hall of fame nominations are out big year for the hall of fame we've got some I mean I think there's going to be quite a few big years over the next few because we've got some big names coming into eligibility for the Hall of Fame.

1:12:09In the player category, the nominations are Svetlana Kaznetsova, Juan Martin Del Potro and Roger Federer, who I think all will be rubber stamped. And in the contributor category, there are two nominees. The first is Marshall Happer, a very esteemed administrator in the sport. He helped form the Rally Racket Club and influenced professional tennis at the international level, skilled player and lawyer by trade. He has left his mark as a player, promoter and tournament director, founder of the Rally Racket Club, an executive at the USDA and administrator of the Men's Tennis Council, a predecessor to the ATP.

1:12:59And the second nominee in the contributor category, which Billie Jean and we are very excited about, is the one and only Mary Carrello. Yeah, agreed. Yeah. Billie Jean. Yeah, that's Billie Jean. What a hell, yeah. What a great shout. Yeah, she'd better get in. She'll get in, right? I don't quite understand how all that works. If she doesn't, we riot. Yeah, if she doesn't, we riot. Exactly. Billie Jean is already rioting. She's just warming up for a riot. She's practising on Next Door's dog. And speaking of dogs, our mascot for this week's show, I did accidentally scroll down a bit too far earlier.

1:13:53So I had a little preview of Rosie and I got very excited about it. So I knew a big a big floof was coming. Rosie is nominated by Karen Ray. Karen says, I was delighted when my grand dog Rosie moved to New Mexico from Michigan with my daughter, whom I also enjoy having around. That is definitely reflective of how my dad feels about me and Billie Jean. Rosie is a two-year-old miniature poodle with two modes, play and cuddle. She greets the day and her friends with a doggy smile on her face, picking up new friends everywhere she goes. When she can't get someone to throw a ball for her, she works on her technique for making a squeaky sandwich by folding her bed or flipping it over with a squeaky toy inside.

1:14:41Most of all, she always seems glad to visit and in spite of her youth exuberance, youth and exuberance. She is patient and loving with her much older cousin, Charlie. Oh, there's a picture of them together. Oh, that's adorable. Oh, she is absolutely gorgeous. A miniature poodle, of course, a great sort of tennis dog breed. That is famously what, oh no, Coco Andreescu is a toy poodle, I think, but close, very close. Great dogs. Anyway, Billie Jean is half toy poodle. So I'm biased, but I'm also right. And Rosie is wonderful. So thank you, Karen. And Karen's daughter, she doesn't say her daughter's name, not important.

1:15:30Only the dog's name is important. I respect that, Karen. Hello to our mascots. Hello to Phoebe, Maisie and Roger. Hello to our top folks and executive producers, Greg, Chris and Jeff. Let's have some shout-outs, Matt. We start with Koda Farha from Sydney, Australia. Hello, Koda. Hi, Koda. Koda says, if I could change anything in tennis, I'd get rid of let's. I also like the idea of best of three for men and women until the quarters and then best of five for all. I love both those proposals. proposals, I would sign them off in a heartbeat. I think let's are ludicrous.

1:16:21Absolutely ludicrous.

1:16:26Oh, you've hit the net, have another go. Why do we explain it to me?

1:16:37Not wanting to win something on a lucky bounce So then why don't we do it when it happens in the points? I guess it's so to sort of get the point started off cleanly, right? You know, when they were sort of writing the rules of tennis, you sort of let's get into it cleanly. Let's have a nice clean, lovely start Yes Ludicrous Don't you think that would have been important back then? I could imagine it being Yeah, I feel like it hasn't been important for more than a century. I'd love to see Catherine's rules if she was starting tennis. If anybody was starting tennis now, would you write that rule?

1:17:23No. You'd be laughed out of town. I'm not sure, you know, about that. It's one of those things that does not bother me at all. I don't spend much... I'm not sitting here getting wound up at let's all the time. Literally are. Impacted my life. When it comes up, well, it's been presented to me on a plate. It's not like every time I see a let happen, I'm losing my cool. Like, I can live with it. But seeing as it's come up, they're frigging ludicrous. Are you saying, therefore, you've just had an unbelievable match and you'd be happy for a ball to hit a net, dribble over, and that's it on a serve?

1:18:02Loads of matches end on lucky net calls, just not on the serve. No, but on the serve. Why is it different on the serve? Match point. We've just had four and a half hours. Boom. Dribbles over. We've not even had a rally. Well, that happens all the time. Well, not if you've had a rally. Why is it different on the serve? Because then you've had a rally. If your issue is with luck. Your issue is with luck dictating the outcome of a point. Well, sorry, but sport isn't for you, David. Coda, you're on. Next.

1:18:38right next next let's see what Carrie can spark Carrie is our is our next shout out from Springfield Illinois Carrie Carrie what would you change about tennis well Carrie says I'm lost in a post-Rafa world I like Shiontek and rude Rafa's kids as Iga said but no one rises to the level of Nadal

1:19:09it's quite a thing that isn't it it's a sorry state of affairs trying to fill a rafan adal shaped hole in your life with caspar rude isn't it that is grasping gary agrees it is it is one of those though where you've if you've got a favorite sports person or single or anything who stops trying to work out what on earth you do then tough

1:19:39good news about those Caspar Roods though yeah someone will come along Carrie they always do in the end just sit down have you tried Alcaraz like not enough topspin No, clearly. Yeah. Thanks, Carrie. Thanks, Carrie. And finally, we have Richard Higgins. Hello, Richard. What's your manifesto? Well, Richard volunteers at the Wrexham W100 ITF tournament. Richard! Go, Richard! Let's get on. Richard better be coming to our show. if you're not Richard please buy a ticket Richard says shout out to the excellent Dave Courtine and his team yes co-sign that that's a good manifesto Richard like Richard Krychek and can I suggest as well we'll see you on October 22nd yes can I also make a shout for Artifice for Carrie's Rafa and our replacement because he's got a similar level of rotations on his forehand.

1:20:59Do we know that rotations on the forehand are Carrie's? Well, she's chosen Iger Schoenze and Kasparud as her fill-ins. They're the next ones in, aren't they? For top spins. She's just got a fetish for top spins. Let us know, Carrie. They're just Nadal fans, right? They both talk about having Nadal as the sort of obvious idol. They're being his kids Right, okay Well I'm still suggesting Artifis Because you know, you can't go wrong with him Aside from the broken back problem

1:21:34Richard Carey, Coda Thank you ever so much For being friends with the Tennis Podcast If you'd like to become a friend The link is in our show notes We have our next live show Coming up this week, Wednesday This week 8pm We decided on the topic this morning I'm very excited about it It's going to be good. 8pm. Do you want to give it away? It will be an hour because the Celebrity Traitors starts at 9pm. So if you're here for a short, sharp, on time, no faff live show, this is the one. Yeah. It's going to be punchy and faff free. But I'm so glad you said that, Matt. I did look at my diary and think, oh, no, there's a clash.

1:22:18But no, an hour. We can do a live show. It's going to be really punchy. Do they not do videotapes in 2025? No, that's the beauty of Traitors, David. It's that rare sort of shared TV watching experience. Billie Jean's into it. And this is our chance to have that because, you know, woe is us. We normally have to watch Traitors during the Australian Open where we can't watch it with the nation. This is big for us, David. This is big. It's very big. Gotcha. but not so big that it impinges on our live show plans. Well, it does though because we're having to curtail it. No, we're not. An hour is a completely legitimate length of show.

1:23:02It's going to be great. Yeah, it's going to be great. We are appealing for submissions for our topic on the barge. So if you're a barger, head to the barge to have your say on Wednesday's show. We're going to do a whose career would you rather have? We're going to have couplets of tennis players and we're going to debate whose career we would rather have. Like a sort of Dementiava or Meskina, Cilic or Henman type of thing. I mean, the answer is Cilic, isn't it? So not Cilic and Henman. Even Henman wanted Cilic, didn't he? Yeah, you know, you get the idea. so if you're a friend of the pod head to the barge to submit your couplet for debate on Wednesday's show and if you'd like to become a friend of the pod and get access to the barge add free listening those live shows the tennis relived shows all of that jazz then the link is in our show notes folks we are part of the Athletic Podcast Network we will be back on Monday after Monday after the Friends show on Wednesday yeah Friends Wednesday everybody else on Monday Mondays reliable, you know where to find us thanks for listening, we'll speak to you then