Live from Wimbledon Day 1 - Sinner survives scare

0:10Hello and welcome to the tennis podcast live from Wimbledon and presented by Barclays, the official banking partner of Wimbledon. Thank you very much for the applause from the very modest but wonderful crowd on day one of the championships here at SW19. What a breathless first day it has been. I'm trying to exhale but it's kind of all so much and so overwhelming and so brilliant. I'm Catherine Whittaker, this is Matt Roberts, this is David Law. We have accidentally all worn white tonight. Yes, so you'll be able to see the bugs dive bombing us during this live show. You'll be able to see exactly how real our struggle with bugs is, although they don't go for Matt.

0:56He's too pure. Anyway, we're all pure tonight. Here we all are. Two white human beings away from a Backstreet Boys video. And it's very appropriate. Wimbledon whites. Honestly, what a first day it has been. I already had an absolutely breathless agenda for today's show. And then, of course, of course, I should have allowed room for Novak Djokovic drama, because this is the Novak Djokovic that exists now in the tennis world, right? This, like, how naive I was a few hours ago to think that it would be anything but this from Novak Djokovic and from Wu Yi Bing, who I have become a huge fan of tonight.

1:39Novak Djokovic just moments ago getting the better of Wu. 6-4, 5-7, 7-5, 6-4 in three hours and 12 dramatic minutes on centre court. David, how much real trouble do you think Djokovic was in tonight? I don't think he was in really big trouble, but I think he wasn't far away from it becoming a bit of a crisis. I think he just kept it sufficiently at arm's length when it was most important, so that he was never really pushed onto the ropes and kept there, and that would have been a fifth set. and he said himself in his post-match on-court interview with Lee McKenzie there that really he should have lost the fourth set in his eyes because his opponent had break points and there was a smash that Wu missed.

2:32It was one of those rallies where his incredibly live arm, Wu, just opened up the court for him. They're going toe-to-toe. He's going toe-to-toe with the greatest baseline player we've seen in men's tennis and he was getting the better of him But he couldn't decide whether to hit a topspin forehand with power or to try and hurtle forwards and hit it as a smash, which he did. The ball fell a bit too low and he hits underspin on it and knocks it out, floats up a little bit into the air. But even though that all seemed very close on the scoreboard, it was in a false set. He's two sets to one up. And it is, Catherine, what you've said.

3:13It's the sort of match we've been seeing in play for years. Holger Rune, the one where very similar circumstances late at night. And on this occasion, the crowd are chanting woo, you know, and back then it was run, you know, for Holger Rune. And he was mistaking some of that. Matt thinks it's Bruce. Right. OK. That's what he likes to tell himself. It is in my heart. And I mean, look, Djokovic last time got really pissed off, frankly, because he thought people were booing. and maybe some of them were but there was a lot of a lot of the opponent this time I don't think he quite got there he got irritated a bit at certain points but I don't feel like he ever thought he was going to lose I think he was a bit anxious at the level that Wu was playing and hold on if he keeps this up I am going to be in trouble but he's got so much experience that if he puts people in a position on a Grand Slam stage, eventually they will falter.

4:12That's what pretty much always happens with this level of player, as good as Wu was. Yeah, I found the fourth set to be a kind of... Do you trust history? In which case you're probably thinking Djokovic is going to get this done in force somehow, some way. Or do you go with what your eyes are showing you? And actually, I think what they were showing, certainly for me, was Djokovic was in trouble in that fourth set. His legs were going. He was stretching out his back. And as David said, Wu had break points at 2-1. Then he had triple break point at 3-2. Djokovic was clinging on in that moment. And I don't know if he was in, I agree with David, I don't know if he was in real danger of, like, losing this match tonight.

4:59But I think he was in danger of having to come back tomorrow, potentially, and finish it off. even if he'd lost that fourth set, you know. And that would have messed up his rhythm already in this tournament. And we know that he's in a situation where he needs to be as efficient as possible. And he's finding that hard right now. It's all a push. It's all a struggle. Je sais, one of my favourite Twitter accounts had the stat that for the first time in his career, Novak Djokovic has lost at least one set in seven consecutive Grand Slam matches now. like he's struggling to get wins in straight sets and that's kind of what he needs most right more than ever exactly he's struggling more than ever to get the efficient wins but he needs him more than ever because he's yeah he's superhuman it's unreal that he's doing this at 39 years of age but he is 39 years of age and look a lot of it was about Wu's level today he was superb absolutely brilliant that fast arm hitting lines quite a nasty slice backhand as well like i'll say really really impressed with him tonight it's one of those slice backhands that's not just sort of oh i'm playing on grass i feel like i should do a slice this is sort of which we're going to see from sitzapast in the next round this is going to keep me in the rally and not do any damage but also you know not hurt me either it was knifed and vicious and i think Djokovic had a lot of respect for that shot this evening and I don't think there's many sliced backhands out there that Djokovic has all that much respect for.

6:34I think there aren't that many players that he thinks are going to be that good for that long. I think that's what was getting him a little bit anxious but he trusted the history I think. But I felt that I was watching sort of flashy Djokovic over the other side of the net it was a similar type of game just it's you look at the ranking you think 102 in the world how on earth is a player who can play like this 102 in the world but he's had the most awful time with injury illness things just derailing him and i think the first time we saw him play and really noticed him was three years ago in dallas um won the title beat big names became the first Chinese man to win an ATP title that week.

7:21And then pretty much, you know, that's near the top of his Wikipedia entry for 2023. And there's nothing else pretty much after it, because, I mean, he's basically never been able to complete a full season before. Yeah, it was in 2023 when he had some heart issues. He actually collapsed in a match here at Wimbledon against Francis Tiafoe when his heart rate spiked up to 187 beats per minute. I think it happened again to him in Washington later that summer. And then shortly after, he had surgery on his left foot. He's had lower back issues. He's been around 50 in the world after that Dallas title, but he dropped way down.

8:02He was way, way down, 500 or so in the world. And yeah, just back in the last year, he started winning a lot more matches, got back into the top 200. and this year he's gone from, yeah, about 180 in the world and he just broke the top 100 a week or so ago again. You know, so he's really jumped this season. He's been doing a lot of winning on the Challenger Tour and, yeah, just able to play consistently. You know, he's played the slams, he's won matches and it makes all the difference. And, yeah, I'd love for him to keep climbing the rankings because I think there's such a good player in there.

8:40Yeah, US Open junior champion a lot of years ago now. But yeah, who saw this coming from Wu? Matt Roberts saw this coming. Put him in his fantasy team at the start of the year. You've been very humble not to mention that. But, you know, for a couple of hours earlier, there was sort of murmurs going around the press room. Like, who is this guy? Like, how's he doing this? And Matt was like, Wu's really good. How do you not all know how good Wu Ye Bing is? yeah the less said about my other fantasy picks the better so maybe I should have shouted from the rooftops about Wu I will be seeking out his matches from now on I will be making a point of doing that on Novak Djokovic and the efficiency point here you know how struck I was by that Roland Garros press conference where it felt like he just knew that even though he'd won the match in the second round he'd he'd spent too much time out there on the court time that he didn't have to despair is it different because this is grass and it's wimbledon or has he potentially expended energy and effort there that he simply can't afford to anymore at 39 years of age he did look very stiff towards the end of the match now he hasn't played a match in in a few weeks maybe that's understandable and it wouldn't as he plays himself into the tournament it wouldn't happen but he looked his age by the end of that match I I would have been worried for him in a fifth set I think he just got away with it I think you know maybe further down the line we'll we'll look back at this one and and think what if he'd got it done in straight sets because he you know he actually started this match incredibly efficiently and well he only made two unforced errors in the opening set he was looking very clean but you know I think the big difference to Paris is okay the time it's it's just over three hours rather than over four hours that that is quite a difference but also it wasn't in the heat of the day yeah you know and he didn't have the sun beating down on him and and it wasn't on clay and the rallies weren't really physical and the taking loads out of his legs like he was feeling it definitely but I I got the sense that he's just hung on there to be able to not derail his tournament and he had a bit of a look in his die at the end of the match that was that was more about okay more to come rather than i remember those look i remember the looks he had at the end of that second round match in in paris and even then you kind of knew that he was pissed off and i don't think he quite had that energy today it was more determined i think but he can't be doing this every round absolutely the problem is i think by having in the first round he's now in just the second round going to face a guy who's reached two Grand Slam finals.

11:26I know Stefanos Tsitsipas is a shadow of what he used to be. Post-divorce Tsitsipas though. Yeah, he's separated from his dad again. Which, I mean, on the face of things, I think, hallelujah, thank goodness that he's done that because I just think it's an unhealthy relationship at this point for him to be going around with his dad just constantly in his ear, just not leaving him alone, just not letting him do anything without commenting on it. and I don't know whether Sitsipas has it in him at this point. I'm not saying ever again because he's still young. He's still young enough to do things in the sport, I think.

12:09But if you put him in this position against Djokovic in a false set, I'd be more worried for Djokovic. On this surface, Sitsipas is not at his best. So he probably won't get that close. But he's got kind of muscle memory of how to win big matches. Maybe not against Djokovic. He's lost most of those. But even so, if Djokovic is a bit depleted because of his age and there's only so much left in the tank, I think the problem is even if he were to win the second round match, that's when you could see the accumulation start to become a factor. I actually think tonight might help him because he hasn't played since the French.

12:53And I think, you know, now he's got the surface under his feet. He's got used to it. He's got the nerves out of the system of playing a big match and being threatened a little bit and coming through it. So I think he's the right side just at the moment. It's just that I don't think the draw is that favourable in that regard. No, no, absolutely. Well, there's only one way to find out, isn't there? The proof will be in the pudding. There are some people coming in, joining us a little late on the live stream. I would like to tell those people this was an accident.

13:27I'm delighted with mine. The problem here is that I've got it in the agenda to slag off the Yannick's in a team. For all wearing the same. For all wearing the same outfits, because I hate that. Are we going to have to do a sort of pre-day chat about clothes? Maybe. Maybe. Do you remember two years ago when we had the same shirt? Yeah. And I've got the same shirt on as Matt had yesterday underneath here. Right. So you knew you were safe to wear it today because mine's in the wash. Yes, exactly. So I thought, well, I'll cover it up anyway. And then this happens. The thing is, Matthew loves it when we wear white colours against the dark night.

14:06He did say, this is too much. But then he was like, contrast is nice. Yeah. I mean, this is cream and that's white. if that's anything. And what they wouldn't. So, you know, it can't be cool. Yeah, but I'm seeing it on the screen, David, and it does... Do we look like three snowmen? It just... We'll work on it for tomorrow. OK. Right, so Novak Djokovic steamrolling in, stealing the limelight and making himself the main character and the main story as always. The grounds will be closing in around 15 minutes. Please make your way to the exit gates and make sure you take all your belongings with you.

14:51We hope you've enjoyed your day here at Wimbledon and wish you a pleasant and safe journey home. Thank you. Oh, we are so back. Couple of misses in there, but I got the words right. I think hesitations rather than misses. OK, I got the words right, just the cadence. Like Djokovic on grass. Finding my feet. Not played it for a year. Yeah, nothing like the slip that Yannick Sinner suffered in his match earlier on today. I've recovered the segue there. Well done me. Yannick Sinner, five sets for him over Mirmir Ketamanovic, 4-6, 6-3, 6-7, 6-2, 6-3. For those of you watching on the YouTube, you'll have just seen a picture of this fall that Yannick Sinner sustained in the third set of this match.

15:41an absolutely horrendous looking fall. I thought he was out of the tournament. I thought, you know, that could be the end of his year. Like his knees, his feet slid outwards in opposite directions. His knees went together and that was sort of stage one of the fall and that looked terrible. And then he sort of exploded backwards, seemingly in agony from it, like his body had convulsed. It was horrendous and he was shaking. by it and he was clutching at his hip for a while afterwards but he gave the thumbs up to Alison Hughes pretty quickly, I mean he is a flexible limbed guy isn't he and thank goodness for that, I can't believe that that fall hasn't done him damage but it seems not to.

16:29Well I saw a few like that today, very similar, Oliver Tarvat had one like that and he just said it made him feel sick and made him want to pass out because of the shock of it all um and I was sitting with Dan Evans in the commentary box when Sinner had that fall and he had one just like that at Queens a couple of years ago and that basically ruled him out for weeks you know it's just really I think he said he did his medial ligaments in that in that fall in his knee um so yeah that was a real concern for Sinner and And the way he finished the match made me feel like he's actually okay. But, yeah, I reckon you're right.

17:13The flexibility came to his rescue a little bit there. But it was heart and mouth stuff. So he had that going on. And then he also had this sort of horror story, horror movie situation developing with his foot mat that was one of the weirder plot lines of a tennis match that I've ever seen. and the sort of strange thing of the viewer, obviously the cameras picked up on it, the commentators picked up on it, it became this big thing, but you didn't know if Sinner, I mean, he obviously would have known that something was going on because presumably he could feel it, but did he know that his shoe was slowly turning red due to blood soakage?

17:53Oh God. Did he know that we knew? And he went off court and I thought, okay, maybe surely he's going to sort that out whatever's going on under there and he came back and it was still blood red i mean i've never seen anything like that it was it was haunting yeah after that fall was kind of when when people noticed it i think and yeah it just it became something you couldn't really take your eyes off it was it was extraordinary and look he had a lot of problems today yannick sinner the the fall and the bloody shoe one of them for sure his own level I mean talk about Rusty I mean it was poor wasn't it he pulled it together at the end by the time I went out to watch when he was two sets to one down and I was quite impressed what I with what I saw but the reason why I went out was because I really did think he was in trouble because not only was he in that situation in the score but he wasn't playing well so many sprayed forehands you know that that was my overall take i think the forehand just looked so often it's actually a shot he mentioned as needing to improve also he didn't he didn't really have the touch you know like like a lot of uh poor forehand drop shots today and just to be clear he he says the the foot the bloody foot which sounds like a clue in a murder mystery situation doesn't it he says the bloody shoe foot it was just a a nail a nail that i didn't want to disturb and wasn't bothering him today in terms of his level and his his tennis yeah so we have to kind of have to take that at face value and then the third problem he had was kept manovic playing out of his mind at times i mean the i think we've seen the rally of the tournament like just a crazy rally from Ketsmanovic in that third set tie break to save set point had me jumping out my seat in the in the media center you know yeah yes I might have heard you like just extraordinary and Sinner played his part in that extraordinary rally he he dived backwards at one stage and retrieved something that looked like it was past him and Ketsmanovic ended up having to hit a really really hard half volley to win this this rally but it was amazing and I genuinely thought that two sets to one down with Ketsmanovic playing like that with Sinner playing as he was and with all the concern going on about the the hip and the and the foot in that in that moment I really thought he was in trouble I really did so I think it's an important point you make Catherine that he did steady well in that fourth and fifth sets and regroup and he let out a huge roar a big come on actually you don't often hear that from Yannick Sinner but when he got the crucial break in the fourth he did that and yeah I don't know look he didn't he didn't reach his his mag his time you know his three hour 48 minute mark it didn't quite get there it was about three and a half hours but he'd I think he'd only won one of his last nine five sets Yannick Sinner you know and I just sort of think that this kind of win is actually quite useful for him I think weirdly I think you build up a bit more invincibility and aura when you win these sorts of matches you kind of have to be pushed a little bit and get out of something Alcoraz has traditionally done it a lot he did it in the first round here himself last year didn't he against Vanini and and I think it I it just it will help him in the long run if he if he has more wins like this and obviously like the straight set sufficient winning is is great and that's mostly what he wants but just generally I think for his career this is a big moment for him to have won this kind of match because he's he's so rarely in it um but yeah you know if you think of all the greats you can remember a lot of epic wins that they've had and there's just fewer for Yannick Sinner and I just I just think this this might be one we look back on is really really pivotal in in his tournament and career potentially it's a great point while that was all developing on center center court the fall the bloody foot the the peril for yannick sinner our eyes were mostly on court number two and my chvalinska who regardless of whether there was going to be an upset we had all wanted to keep an eye on today because just so much intrigue about her playing on grass this is a player that we barely knew about before the french open and we really fell in love with and fell in love with her tennis during the course of that fortnight and theoretically it felt like a game that could really work on grass and we were all just so excited to see it here and for two sets matt and David, I know you watched some of this as well, we kind of saw exactly what we were hoping to see in the best case scenario.

22:54And then this match took the most drastic and sad turn at the most, I mean, well, the most improbable of moments. Yeah, match point for Maja Walinska, you know? like she's 6-2, 5-2 up and playing so beautifully. I went out to court 12 to watch this one and, you know, it was the loopy forehand that really stood out to me at the French Open. There was a lot of stuff going on with her game, obviously, but that forehand was causing so many problems on the clay. And here immediately, you're like, oh, it's other parts of her game that can thrive on the grass. And it was in particular the slice and the drop shots.

23:39I'd been watching this match for about 10 minutes and I'd already seen so many drop shot lob combinations and drop shot returns, you know, things like this. And when she broke for four love to go up a double break in that opening set, I looked up the draw. I was like, well, this game is working beautifully on this surface. OK, there's not a lot of power coming down the other end. She's able to play her game. And I saw Mukova in the third round and I just got really excited about that possible matchup. And then she gets to the match point in the second set and slips and slides out to the ball. A rally that she wasn't going to win anyway, I think, even if she hadn't done what she did.

24:21Which makes it even crueler, I think. But she went over on her ankle and it just changed everything. It changed the whole feel and mood of the match immediately. And she had a medical timeout. She got broken back. She lost the set. She went off court. She came back. And in the third, she was just, she was moving more gingerly and she was also powered down. She had cramps and she was getting, she was getting some rubs at the change of ends for that. But it just all changed on match point, like so, so cruel. And yeah, real, really tough start to the tournament actually, because this one just flipped from being such a joy to a bit of a tough watch.

25:05And it didn't look dramatic in the way that Sinner's Fall did, but she was so changed after it. It was a completely different match. And look, Manantraja Svankiaw did incredibly well. There were still moments from Kvilinska after that fall and she had to play well, Svankiaw, but yeah, the match just took such a sad turn and just so many examples today on and off the court of this sport just being so devastatingly cruel because while all that was happening, Vilinska on court number two, Yannick Sinner on centre court, in amongst all of it, we get the news that Jack Draper has withdrawn from this tournament.

25:50Jack Draper, who, albeit with a note of caution because of what the last year has looked like, but who we were so taken with in press yesterday, David, we had no reason to think he was holding back, really. It all felt very genuine. and I think it was genuine. I'm not suggesting he was being untruthful, maybe in denial, I don't know. But we were upbeat after his press conference yesterday. Not necessarily about his prospects here because he had Taylor Fritz in the first round, but generally about Jack Draper. And then we get the news that he's withdrawing due to the arm injury, the bone bruising, the issue that has plagued him for a year now.

26:33Yeah, it is, isn't it? We saw him play Marin Cilic here a year ago, and we then didn't see him again until the US Open in the mixed doubles there. And then he pulled out of the main draw, and then you don't see him again for another, what, seven months? I mean, it's just... And we saw him in the interim in November when he was rehabbing and resting and doing all the things you're supposed to do. and you've taken that long off to protect this bone bruising in your arm and allow it to do what it needs to do. And he's so, I don't want to say upbeat, but he's so sort of prepared to go with it, to persevere, to be patient, to be optimistic for the long term that if he plays the long game, he'll have his chance.

27:26and he's going to use this sort of adversity to make him stronger and be mentally tougher and try to boost other areas of his game. And he keeps coming back from these setbacks like that with that mentality. And then he had some results, didn't he, in the Sunshine Double and then has more problems when he plays in Spain and hurts his knee and then he's pulled out of another bunch of tournaments. as he misses the French Open and he's back out, does OK in Eastbourne. And here we are again. And he can't play Wimbledon. And I realise he's still a relatively young man at 24. In theory, he should have hopefully another 10 years minimum, you know, in terms of time on the circuit.

28:16But what do you do if your body just is not allowing you to play the sport? Historically, are there examples of players as good as him whose body just isn't fit for purpose to be a professional tennis player. I mean, you know, Kyle Edmund is a name that comes up a lot, certainly from a British perspective. And I know he reached a Grand Slam semi-final. Technically, they've both got that same peak to their career. But I think Jack's upside is a lot bigger than that. I think Kyle was a good player. I think Jack Draper has the raw materials to be a Grand Slam champion. I really do. I think the way he was trending last year, around this time, four in the world, and hurting people, hurting big-name players from the baseline with his power, it looked like the ultimate was possible for him.

29:19And it may still be. And Yannick Sinner said that in press today. I know they're friends, but I don't think he dishes out platitudes. And there's a video circulating, actually, because it was during a BBC interview that Yannick Sinner found out that Jack Draper had pulled out injured. And you can see his face fall. It's such genuine devastation for him. And then he comes into press and speaks so highly of the potential in his game. and yeah and the determination the dedication he has to the sport he lives and breathes the sport we we had a chance to spend a lot of time in his company in the last seven or eight months leading up to that interview we did in november and and he just loves it he loves the battle he loves the process he's and lives for it you know i do worry about i worry about his mental health he's a he's a sensitive chap and he's had a lot of i mean this is just he said in his statement i'm devastated to share that I've had to withdraw from my first round match due to a recurrence of the arm injury I hope that having Andy Murray around can can be critical with helping him through this but I do worry about him yeah me too I I think hearing that it's the bone bruising is like kind of the worst thing that it that it could have been really now I was quite encouraged by some of the quotes he was giving yesterday and I said it about the way that he'd gone back to the the service motion but I suppose there what he was talking about was kind of a few weeks ago he felt good about the arm that he went back to the serve and in truth I think there were little signs in Eastbourne the way he I don't know but the way he went to the sleeve in the second match that his serve speeds were down that in the final he wasn't really hitting through the ball like he can so semi-final sorry in the semi-final yeah so I actually haven't covered the Eastbourne final tomorrow there were little signs but I was still shocked I was really shocked by by the withdrawal because of how he seemed in the press conference yesterday and oh it's yeah it's the worst brutal and it comes on the heels of look a totally less shocking but still extremely sad withdrawal from Emma Raducanu about an hour after we finished the show last night and look we were braced for at the very least a potential retirement in her match tomorrow but she had told us in her press conference during the afternoon the plan was to play she then had a another scan on her leg I think and this time it showed a stress fracture which I mean there's just no way around that is there um and I believe there's kind of there's no cheating the recovery from that it's just it's just rest yeah uh and it's it's same old isn't it for emiradakarni rinse and repeat and it's it's absolutely brutal and obviously you know jack draper and emiradakarni it's it's a their contribution to to the stats that we're about to talk about is is very different to others contribution but it heaps misery onto what has been an absolutely dismal day for great britain on day one at Wimbledon.

32:38They have had 10 players complete matches today and all 10 have lost. Yeah, and Robert McNichol, Wimbledon historian, has been in the library, I believe, with Matt Lamwell of the Daily Mail and they've been trying to put this in historical context and they've come up that they think it's the worst day one ever. Certainly in the open era for Brits in terms of number of Brits losing, you know. And like, you know, of course, there have been years that arguably have been worse because there have been just not that many British players in the draw. So there weren't 10 to be able to lose. You know, these stats are a little hard to sort of quantify.

33:23But yeah, basically the headline is just a historically bad day for British tennis. It could have been 11. Jack Pennington-Jones is two sets of love down. A stay of execution. Darkness fell on court 18 behind us, and he'll come back tomorrow. And there's eight more Brits on court tomorrow. And the worst in terms of most Brits losing in round one since draws were 128, so we're talking since 1983, was 16. We had 16 Brits losing round one in 1988, that was. so I think that's definitely possible that we that we hit that number here I think all but one are probably underdogs in their matches tomorrow probably Katie Bolter the only one that on paper you'd expect to win her match but then historically actually at Wimbledon she's performed better when she's been the underdog here so I don't know you never know we'll we'll resume this discussion tomorrow i guess yeah and 2010 is the is is the year that a lot of people point to as the worst one because 88 percent of the brits who were in the draws lost in round one and it was only andy murray who who made it through to the second round but that was seven losses out of eight you know we had 19 brits in in the draw this year across across men's and women's plus also radhakanu and drape who withdrew so yeah like there's a lot of numbers there but like we're tracking for a very very bad women unless something dramatic changes tomorrow of course but even this was was bad enough i'd imagine you'd like to asterisk oliver tarvit david sort of being lumped in this into the statistic of british failure well he he played very very well against Arta Rindiknesh he lost in four sets he only had his serve broken once that was the last game of the match after four hours and 10 minutes um he lost the first two on tie breaks he won the third despite and he actually he got the first break of the of the match and in at the same time as he won that break point he fell to the ground in that horrible moment that I referenced, which really knocked the stuffing out of him.

35:45He had to go off the court for a medical timeout, came back out and served it out, and then got very close in the fourth set as well. And there was a way that Rinderknecht sort of sent him off where you could tell he was saying, you know, you really should be proud of yourself because you really fought hard. You did not give me a ball. Because that's what Tarvit's like. He's a terrier of a player. Rindekanesh, I thought, did really well to come through it. Nine break points, Tarvit set up. Only five Rindekanesh set up. So it just tells you the story of the match, doesn't it? David's memorised all the Tarvit stats.

36:22Well, you know, honestly, I really enjoyed it. And actually, you were talking about Valinska's play early on that you got to witness. This match followed Valinska onto court number 12. and we get to sit in press seats, which are the front row on the side of the court, you are a few metres away from the players sitting there, side on. And the trajectory of these balls and the intensity of the play, it was a great watch. And I think that Tarvat has got a real future because his attitude just doesn't falter in matches. and I just feel as though I saw a lot of British players today where that cannot be said.

37:08Yeah, I think the other British match to shout out would be the Harriet Dart-Yelena Ostapenko match. That was moved to number one court to replace Raducanu and Paul Rusick went all the way down to court 17. Did Yelena Ostapenko get her Tesco sponsorship deal? after the upgrade to court one did tesco come a calling once they saw she was getting the upgrade to bbc2 you're gonna have to ask her yeah i mean i really that is actually a terrible dereliction of my journalistic duty that i didn't go to a press conference and ask that if she keeps winning yeah i will seek out the answer it's my favorite tennis sponsorship if she if she's on court nine in the next round and it's gone has it mysteriously gone it looked very hastily it looked like it might have even been a sticky label that you get at like mingling events

38:10to identify yourself hi i'm katherine i do not want to chat yeah i mean this was a bit like for much of it like hot mess with simmering aggro ostapenko sarcasm to the crowd crowd frenzy they were so into this one on number one court martina neverettalova was commentating and been pretty scathing about ostapenko throughout but then like i felt like by the end ostapenko won martina over because the surge Ostopenko had at the end. You could not deny it. And it was just too good for Dart. But Dart, she's quite scrappy in these matches and puts up a fight and did that, was chasing balls down. And the crowd were really into it.

39:00But ultimately, Ostopenko just had enough firepower. And poor old Cam Norrie lost out in a fifth set tie break to Michael Zhang. He's a good player, Michael Zhang. And I'm not sure Cam Norrie is 100%. physically at the moment, but that's a toughie. Shing had a surge of his own in the 10-point tiebreak. You know, you kind of feel... That's a well-timed surge, isn't it? That's Norrie's sweet spot normally, isn't it? I mean, I'm maybe compromised a little bit. Shing just suddenly started to play lights-up tennis in the 10-point tiebreak. He's a tough cook, he is. OK, that's it for kind of the dramatic portion of the day.

39:41We'll talk about some of the other key results. in just a moment. Irina Sabalenka, she beat Teodora Kostovic 6-2, 6-3. I bet the tournament organisers were grateful to her because they'd had this marathon Yannick Sinner match. You knew you had Djokovic drama to come. She got the schedule back on track with a statement win in first round. yes and it did seem like maybe Sabalenka had had read some Kostovic quotes because Kostovic was very much sort of talking up her her own game she's she's she's very young I I liked the the sort of self-belief that she went into this match with you know um and she talked about having power that she thought might be able to to hurt Sabalenka and it was almost as though Sabalenka was like no you do not and just quick as a flash was was ahead in this one and yeah pretty uh pretty nice start for her Coco Goff similar which is not something we often say about Coco Goff here okay this is a kinder draw than some she's had in the first round at Wimbledon but 6-2-6-1 over Tamara Corpatch in 54 minutes yeah and true to her word going after the serve a lot more uh multiple above 120 miles an hour I think I saw one at 126 miles an hour like she was she was going for it and uh that that was really the thing I was looking for the most because I did I know she'd lost a lot of matches in a row on grass but I really did think she would she would beat Corp actually I wanted to see sort of how she beat her and yeah I was I was encouraged by that uh David my gift to you is a question about Naomi Osaka's outfit you've only got yourself to blame for this right uh it It was a custom Hannah Yagi outfit inspired by Japanese ceremonial dress.

41:36Thought so, yeah. Yeah. And it inspired her to a straight set swing over Elsa Giacomo. The scene at the net during the coin toss when Osaka is wearing this incredible elaborate outfit. But it was sort of sprawling all over the court at the net. And Elsa Giacomo is there in her tiny shorts. yes i mean she's always just limb elsa jacomo there was there was about 400 times as much fabric on naomi osaka as there was on on elsa jacomo but she looked fit which is the most important thing for for naomi osaka i mean yeah i mean i think actually at this stage that's all that matters isn't it and getting through because there must have been you know they were talking about this turnaround with Mukovo, wasn't she, in that ceremony, that, gee, we're out there tomorrow, so, you know, we better be all right.

42:37And here she is, she's pulled up in that match. It must have been pretty anxiety-inducing. But in a way, I feel like the fashion that she brings to the court gets her in the right frame of mind for things and stops her maybe overthinking tennis. she really loves this she loves to walk out into into into the court in something she has worked on and uh come up with as an idea put herself in the designers yeah and really just spent months on you know and then suddenly just to walk out and deliver it you know display it present it to the world and um and i think it helps her mentally when she gets out there it seemed it's it's increasingly seen to me and and particularly probably when you're when you are a bit nervous about what you're going to be like and she's never done that well here has she so i think i think it's really quite helpful mentally for her we all know how it feels when you put an outfit on it not only you love and you feel great in but you feel like it's you and it's expressing i mean we've all done it in exactly the same way tonight I mean I don't I don't know I don't really know how to describe her outfit I just know that when I saw the picture I just went whoa that is extraordinary I've never seen anything like that on a tennis court before it's so elaborate to be clear she didn't she didn't play in the in the robe no but she walked out onto the court I mean if you were a spectator you did not know this was her thing you would probably wonder what on earth's going on just covering off the fashion section.