Live from Wimbledon Day 5 - Osaka peaks for Sabalenka clash

33:00Winner of that to take on the winner of Hubert Hercatch and Jan-Leonard Struff. Félix Auger Eliassim to take on Alejandro Davidovich Fikina and the winner of that to take on Novak Djokovic against Roman Sifuilin Let's start with Djokovic, shall we? 7-5, 6-4, 1-6, 7-6 against credible Arta Rindeknesh We're the sprinkling, David, of... Fun The fun Arta Rindeknesh The circus act Arta Rindeknesh Has he found the perfect balance of the two Rindekaneshs? I did think he found it just right today. If anything, he needed a little bit more fun in the first two sets. He was a little bit in his shell, I thought.

33:50And Djokovic was right there for him to get at early on. Djokovic was in grouchy mood early on in this match. Everything was irritating him. He got an early break. He then got broken back. Everything was a problem. His shoes didn't work. It was the box's fault. They're all panicking and looking for new ones. You know, nothing seemed quite right in his world, you know, and he was irritable. He was really irritable all match, and he made that point pretty much in his interview on court at the end that he felt much better in the previous match, beating Stefan Assisi Pass in straight sets. I mean, that stands to reason, given the scoreline, but I didn't feel like Rinderkanej was doing enough to be warranting this level of irritability from Djokovic at that time but he got himself a two sets to love advantage then he seemed to lose focus Rinderkanej started to play really well and went three love up and honestly he got to five love and I asked you to look up for me the group has he ever lost a six love set at Wimbledon Djokovic and he never has he's lost four in his career you told me in slams sorry um and he did manage to get a game so he and he actually got the game after he's five left down he when he's five left down he punched himself in the thigh 11 times really thumped himself with frustration and he well he was asked about that in the press conference afterwards about hitting his legs and he said it's nothing major he said I was just trying to wake my muscles up yeah sometimes sometimes for some reason they shut down he said so I was trying to lift my spirit lift my energy I get that if you've sat in the one position for two my leg's gone to sleep anyway that's what I do you're not trying to win the Wimbledon title that is true I'm just sat here talking about the tennis I've seen for a day um but in the in the fire in the fourth set it was really good it was great stuff both players brought it jokovic dialed back in rindiknes was playing the best tennis he'd played all match and then he started to win a couple of rallies that jokovic was playing well in you know and rindiknes is chasing down drop shots hitting winners and then starting to showboat it was So it was great stuff.

36:22He's going up to the crowd, you know, and doing like this in their face, because he's just in a winner. And then they get into the ladder stages. They have an extended rally, and they both ended up on the floor on match point, having dived for a shot. I mean, Djokovic, I felt, probably dived for a ball to put it away that he probably didn't need to, but it was very, very entertaining and theatrical. It was great. It was great stuff. made for an excellent photo and they're both sort of looking at one another through the net yeah weren't they as they both lay on the ground at the end of the it was a good it was a good it was a really quite uplifting hour of tennis that was um and jokovic needed that yeah and it's classic like it was a classic example of how like he's still got the thing jokovic of being able to win big moments you know like against like Rindekinesh really pushed him today played great tennis Djokovic said after the time pressed he was and it was the first time he'd ever met and I think he was actually quite pleasantly surprised by the game that Rindekinesh had he had probably seen the Rindekinesh against Sinner who's a joker in my drawer if I can survive those five games where he's blooming Alcaraz plus Sinner plus Bublik but that ability to just like hyper focus in the big moment.

37:45And he was, what, three, four down in that fourth set tie break? In a bit of trouble, Djokovic, and he served back-to-back aces. He just finds this within him. Still, he can do that. He's so proud of the level that he found in that tie break. And I think I agree with David that the final shot he hit was kind of for dramatic effect. He didn't need to fall over. But the one before it that made Rindekanesh fall over was an incredible piece of skill. On the run, he just hit this deft slice that barely went over the net. Like, the skill level of that man is a joke. And, yeah, I just think it's that thing, isn't it?

38:26Like, we saw it in Australia where he was really good at the start of the tournament. And then he sort of lost his form a little bit halfway through it and had the Mazzetti match where he got lucky because Mazzetti retired. But he says that happens to him more now. Every day is more unpredictable, he was talking about, and how he can lose form a little bit from one day to another. And I think that's probably his biggest problem until he gets to Sinner, I would say. Because I don't think... Look, Felix Orjaliacin was excellent tonight. Roman Cefiulian was excellent today. But I'm not sure they're beating Djokovic in his top form.

39:06but I think they might be able to beat the Djokovic that we saw for large patches of today you know like certainly Felix so that's something he's going to have to navigate over the next few days because I think we just assume that Djokovic is always going to play the same because no about Djokovic but at this stage in his career he has to ride those ups and downs a bit more yeah I mean he has told us today that sometimes for some reason he doesn't know his muscles shut down that's not ideal no I suppose when you're 39 maybe you do it's entirely normal and okay but yeah potentially I don't know you guys could be a problem just on Sifulin that he plays next might be my performance of the day Roman Sifulin definitely mine Joel Fonseca he was absolutely unbelievable Fonseca looked a bit shell-shocked actually he was kind of in a daze throughout this whole match like what is what is happening here this guy is 132 in the world he's a he's a qualified not in a disrespectful way but I think Fonseca was like whoa like really rocked on his heels by Sifulin who was sublime and it reminded me that he's he reached the quarterfinals here three years ago Roman Sifulin 2023 lost to lost to Yannick Sinner he's had horrendous injuries I did not have on my bingo card for today being emotional about Roman Safuelin but his post-match interview got me in the gut he was he was a wreck out there he said I didn't know whether I would be able to come back to play tennis let alone be reaching the second week of of Wimbledon and how I mean I have questions about whether he's a big stage big occasion player I my my question is whether he brings what he brought today against Djokovic on what I assume will be sent to court but if he does that's serious grass court tennis yeah it is he's very comfortable on this surface he he takes the ball quite early hits it flat he's comfortable up at the net and he just kind of ambushed Fonseca today and schooled him really about about how to play on this surface and yeah we've looked we've known about Sifulin for a little while as you said with that run a few years ago even before that he was part of the um hp cup team i think back uh back when russia were playing and medvedev was talking about how he would always lose swimming juniors and he was a good player and he kind of didn't break through in the way that medvedev hakshanov rublev did but he's a good player and yeah he's already won three five set matches this tournament He won one in qualifying and then he won his first two rounds here in deciding set tie breaks.

42:01One of them against Rublev. He's had to fight through, but he's so much tough. And I thought he sensed the moments today against Fonseca where he could raise it. And I have the same feeling as you. Centre court against Djokovic is different. It's, you know, you might freeze. Or not freeze, but he might not be able to play with quite the sharpness that he did today. and Djokovic will make him more uncomfortable, I think, than Fonseca did. But he was fantastic today and, yeah, he absolutely deserved to get through. Winner of that, Djokovic against the Fuel Interface, the winner of Felix Rogeliasim and Alejandro Davidovic-Vikina.

42:43Felix, very comfortable tonight against Michael Zhang. Final match on centre court, 7-6, 6-2, 6-1. Dialed in, Felix, David, you were very impressed. I really was. And it was a satisfying watch to me because it was so clean. There was a thud to the ball. Every shot was hit with intent. Every shot was hit to hurt. You know, he doesn't go for wild swings to try and hit one-shot winners, but he just bludgeoned him into the turf, really. I mean, Zheng's a good player. And he lost his way late on, but only because when he was playing well it wasn't enough you know this is the Argelia scene that beat Zverev at the US Open where he was a bit he was taking more risks but he was playing there then he was playing sort of underdog tennis and playing above his level I felt he found a level here he's playing favorite tennis you know he's third seed and he's playing like it you know it's like he he owned that court he he was i think it was his first time on center right and and he just he just made you feel like yeah i am the third seed i belong in that position because of my ranking i'm out here to get to my seeding which means right in the end zone of the the tournament now the truth is because jokovic is the seventh seed that's a bit misleading um but I'd be very surprised if they don't meet and the way he's playing Djokovic would have to be really on it I think Is David underestimating Alejandro Davidovic for Kina there Matt?

44:29No I don't think he is Just won a title into the fourth round He's very good and I'm so impressed how he's backed up that title it would have been easy for him to have had a real crash after finally winning I was expecting a crash. After finally winning a title after all this time. But he's kept it going. And he's done really well, I think, to get to this stage. But I owe backing Felix in that one. I think he's more convincing. I think his plan A is more effective than anything Davidovich Fakina's got. He's got firepower, Davidovich Fakina, and he can be electric. but he doesn't have the nuts and bolts plan of how to win a point that Orgelia Seam has got.

45:21I hear you. You know, the big serve, the big forehand. He has the bread and butter. Exactly. If that's firing as it is this tournament, he's rock solid, Orgelia Seam. And especially tonight under the roof. I mean, that was just perfect for him when that roof came on for sets two and three. We know he's a better player indoors. He'll be asking for last on assignment so much as possible. A couple more last ons. It's a game changer for him, I think. All but one of his titles have come indoors. One of the best indoor tennis players in the world. So that's the second quarter, those two round of 16 matches.

46:00In terms of the top, Yannick Sinner beat Jenson Bricksby today 6-4, 6-3, 6-4. Did a finger to the ear celebration. Oh, we like that. Yeah. And he was really, he was asked about it a lot. He was asked about it on the court and in the press conference. And I think he was a bit sort of taken aback by how much people really picked up on it. Like, oh, I didn't mean to make a big deal out of this. Is this you missing Alcaraz? I'm not trying to be Carlos Alcaraz. Yeah, obviously the internet is loving it. He played better, I thought, and he thought that too. He described it as a small step forward. I still have some gap to gain.

46:42In fact, I found a lot of his comments in the post-match press conference today, Matt, very validating of your take that he's potentially regretting not playing a warm-up event. Or not regretting, but certainly maybe feeling like he underestimated how different that would be. If he goes on to win it, then it won't matter, will it, that it took him a bit longer to find his feet. But right at the moment, I think he might be feeling like, oh, OK, this just rocking up here and playing well isn't isn't as easy as I hoped. Yeah, that feeling of I'd like to be playing a bit better by now in this in this tournament.

47:23And look, he was better today. He served really well to start this match, like so convincing on on the serve. of immediately when I got out to number one court, you could tell the difference in the sound that Sinner's ground strokes make compared to Brooksby's. Brooksby's were thin off the strings. There's not a real pop to it or a thud, which there is with Sinner when he goes after the ball. And he was pretty comfortable, I would say, but you weren't watching it in the way you often watch Sinner and just think, well, he's winning the tournament. Who will ever beat him? Yeah, like he's so convincing.

48:05Where do you go? And looks so in his comfort zone. Totally. It's not giving that at the moment. It's not like that at the moment. And what I would say is that he played the match well because there are little moments that Brooksby had break points in the middle of the second set. Sinner saved them and then broke in the next game. And it just felt like it was a two-game swing that kind of just broke Brooksby's spirit a bit. He didn't break and then he gets broken. and then in the third set he went down a break sinner but got it back immediately and he got broken when trying to serve it out but then broke back to win he just he just didn't let any small fires grow into something bigger he just stopped them quickly so that was that was good um and and he also as the match went on i thought he started to play with a bit more variety you know first first set was very much big serving big hitting but actually he sprinkled in a little some slice He's sprinkled in some serve volley.

48:59He was trying to get to the net a little bit more as this match went on. And I think that was hopefully a good sign that he's feeling a bit more comfortable on the court. But look, I think he's been helped by the draw here. Because really the two names I was most worried about for him in his section before a potential semi-final. and I wasn't that worried but a little bit were Medvedev and Tommy Paul. We're coming on to Medvedev and they've both gone today so I just think he's still got the time to find what he wants to find on the surface Just one point I wanted to highlight from Sinner, a couple of lines from him, one from the on-court interview and a similar one from the post-match interview in the on-court interview he said I tried to rush to the finish line he said and then in the post in the press conference he said it was really important to finish when I did it could mean nothing he's speaking a second language it could have just meant like yeah you want to get the job done as quickly as possible and get your feet up and move on it's the sort of line that if he ends up losing at some point or suffering from physical issues in a long match we will go back to and with hindsight say well the signs were there.

50:21I just wanted to circle those because I immediately, my ears pricked up when I heard him say that in the on-court interview and then to hear him repeat it in the press conference, I just thought, hmm, that's a slightly curious thing to be saying sort of after a straight set, fairly comfortable, not lengthy win. Another thing he said in his press conference, I think this was in the Italian section because I've seen it reported by the Italian journalists, you know, Moe Iguishvantec's parents were in the Royal Box on Tuesday when she came out as the defending champion. He said that his parents were invited on Monday to come and watch him be the defending champion.

51:01I guess that's maybe something the club are doing, which is lovely, I think. He said, I was offered to bring my parents, but I didn't even ask them. He didn't tell them that the offer was there. He said, I know them and it wasn't even up for discussion. Wow. Okay. As in, I think they would have hated it. Right. Watching. I think they have quite a bad time watching. Oh, yeah. Stressful situations, don't they? Do you want to be next to Cliff Richard when that's happening? I mean, the food. Cliff Richard not in the Royal Box today. Really? The food does seem quite nice. Cliff Richard was in front of Robert McNichol today, wasn't he?

51:40I sent that screenshot to Robert McNichol and he replied, oh dear. Does he know it's on our Instagram? No, he does not. He does now. I don't think he has Instagram. So I needn't have outed myself there. No. OK. The people are loving it, Robert. Don't worry. Yeah, absolutely loving it. He says that Cliff does watch a lot of the tennis. I said he's gone. I was in Centre Court watching Felix Orgello's scene. I could see Robert McNichol, but I couldn't see Cliff. I said, where's he gone? He said he's just left. But to be fair to him, he does see him watch a lot of it. He is responsible for my first ever live tennis experience.

52:19He used to put on Cliff Richard and Friends. Like Gale and Friends. Every Christmas, just before Christmas, I went down. My mum would always get tickets. And we went down to Brighton and we watched Cliff Richard. And he invited various tennis players. Back then it was Claire Wood, who was the British number one, and various other British tennis players. and Frank Bruno turned up because he's his friend as well. It's great fun. I feel like I've just watched an episode of Alan Partridge. It was incredible. Frank Bruno turned up.

53:05Well, you came back to tennis. It didn't put you off forever. I loved it. I had a great time. So are you saying we wouldn't all be here without Cliff Richard right now? Probably, yeah. Cliff we thank you Incidentally we've probably lost all of our American viewers and listeners because the first conversation I had when I got in today, this morning, was well it was a conversation that was already going on that I walked into in the media work room between Matt and Team Athletic they were having a debate and I was confronted with the question, Catherine, name a name a British pop culture figure, what was the question?

53:43I believe it was a sort of British institution that an American wouldn't know. Yeah, somebody that's a 10 out of 10 household name here that an American wouldn't know. And the answer was Cliff Richard. And Ava Wallace, our friend and colleague from The Athletic, was being given a hard time as an American for not knowing who Cliff Richard is. And I said, I think that's completely acceptable. I wouldn't expect anybody outside of the UK to know Cliff Richard. You alright with that as a Cliff fan? Yeah, it's fine. He's a, just like Arthur Ferry's a budget Alcaraz, Cliff's a budget Elvis, right? That's exactly how Charlie described it.

54:27I think he'd be alright with that description. Where are we? Shintaro Mochizuki, Yannick Sinners. Could you just talk amongst yourselves while I get rid of the bugs, please? Yeah, yeah. Mokshizuki we love him oh yeah tell me what it's like as a player to watch him I mean I know what he's like coming out of his mouth because I went to his press conference well he is like by ATP player standards teeny tiny yep there's not much I stood next to him I could tell you that but he loves the grass he's a he's a junior champion here at Wimbledon from a few years ago and you can tell that when he gets on this surface he's just a lot more dangerous.

55:12He can make up for the size gap. He doesn't have like a big weapon but he takes the ball early and he's so comfortable at the net. Loves coming forward. Won 40 of 46 points at the net today against Hodder. That is an incredible record. So good. Is Hodder's passing and lobbing not up too much? I mean, no. like he's still a bit stiff I think in the tennis player and Mochizuki can exploit that and once he got into this match he lost the first set 6-1 Mochizuki once he got into it he was comfortable out there he had a massive support on court 18 and he first came to my attention really I saw him beat Fritz in Tokyo a few years ago and he went on a run in that tournament and he hasn't really happened since then I think he has found the transition hard because he is undersized compared to a lot of the tour and I think that is always going to hold him back to some extent but I think he's going to have weeks where it all comes together all comes alive and he's going to be I think he could be like a sneaky Wimbledon guy like if he can get himself into the draw I think he can have runs at this tournament and yeah he was awesome and so pleased for him he managed to get the win and then David you went to his press conference yeah I mean he's already won six matches you know there is one more for a Grand Slam normally but he qualified so he came through all those rounds he's an endearing guy I mean he came in the first thing he did was sat down looked at the little Evian can that was on the table and he looked at me and he said am I allowed to drink this and I said yeah I think we can allow that that's fine I mean it's not mine but you know go ahead um and anyway i i asked him um about playing sinner next you know do you know how how well do you know sinner what do you think about playing him he gave such a fascinating answer he doesn't know him personally but he says you know to me he's a celebrity and he said uh i said he said to be honest if i if i play normal tennis he's probably going to destroy me um i said okay so what are you going to do he goes he says i think i'm going to try to distract him i said how do you mean what are you gonna do and i think what he meant was um disrupt him yeah

57:42hindrance drama is gonna be on the rise in that match it was great stuff and he said no look i i i don't play like most of the other players i hit very flat i hit very low and that will be what I'm trying to do. Maybe it can make it more uncomfortable for him. He said that there was a period where the coaches that he worked with, I mean, he's come through the IMG Academy. There was a period where the coaches were all trying to get him to play bigger tennis, you know, top spin tennis. And he said, it just didn't really work for me at all. So I went, I've gone back to what, what I know, what works for me.

58:21And, um, and, and that's what he's going to do, you know, and he was great and then when we're on the way out i i waited and didn't because often when you have two languages the english language journalists will leave after that portion and and leave the the japanese journalists to to ask their questions i stayed um and then mainly because i feel really i felt a bit a bit awkward especially in that room you know it's a small room and i didn't want to be i didn't want to be rude so i thought i'm going to just sit and and i also like watching his body language you know and um and then we walked out and i just said to him um did you know naomi sarka was watching you today and uh and he said yeah i've just seen it on my phone um i said do you know her well what's uh have you had any dealings and he said yeah she's she's really nice to me she's been really good to me and uh and i thought good for you best of luck that's what I said godspeed gave him a little bit of a pep talk I'm so glad you had a lot of Mochizuki material because I had a lot of bug situation to deal with there how are we are we ok if we are going to continue with this live broadcast I am going to need you to tell me if there's a bug in my hair because I've just seen from the live chat that that was the case can we all have an agreement that if there's a bug in my hair if I see a bug in your hair I will let you know I drew the attention to the one on you.

59:44Maybe it was after the strawberry. Could we all just be on the case here? Thank you very much. Daniel Medvedev. What was he up to today? Insert bug pun here. Daniel Medvedev led in every set of his straight set's defeat to Jan-Nenad Strouf. At least one break in every set. He had two in the deciding set. Finished this match on a double fault. utterly inexplicable because this wasn't the French Open. And you could tell from his comments after the match this was so different to him, to the French Open. This wasn't a sort of, oh, well, I was never going to win this anyway. This was a, I'm really disappointed.

1:00:29I thought I had a chance of going deep at this tournament and I've absolutely blown it today. He was a bit at a loss, actually, about how that ended up happening. I mean, even Strouf in his on-court interview was like, I was surprised to win every set of that. But here we are. Glad I did. Yeah, I don't really know what to say. How can you be 5-2 up, double break, on grass, with Medvedev's abilities, against Struff, who's, you know, not exactly, know about Djokovic on return, and lose, serve three times in a row to lose the match. Like, I don't understand it. He was, he was so bad. And look, he's become really poor in majors.

1:01:23You know, round two, round one, round one, round one, round four, round one, round three. It's his last seven majors, going back to the start of last season. you know, like it's, it's bizarre to me. And look, the weird thing is, I actually think he had a better shot of the French Open. The way that draw ended up being. You have sort of tried to tell him that and he wasn't. He wasn't having that at all. But like he's, he's, he's picking out the French Open as the slam he can't play at. Well, you're playing well at any slam at the moment. It's, I'm pretty disappointed actually, because I like having Medvedev in draws and we've seen the tennis he's played at points this season.

1:02:05I know he's up and down. And Strouf played very well at the start of this match. Matthew was out there and was very impressed with how Strouf was playing and we should say that and he applied pressure and he is a good player, Strouf. But he let this one go, Medvedev. He had it, certainly in sets two and three. Big time, yeah. And look, as I say, I think Strouf knew that. But it is his first fourth round at Wimbledon. at the age of 36, Striff. And that's a heck of an achievement. OK, let's look ahead to tomorrow, shall we? If the bugs allow that to happen. They're into the show. Day six. How about this?

1:02:48For a centre-court order of play tomorrow, starting at 1.30 with Alexandra Ayala against Iga Svjantek. Second on Amanda Anisimova. Her return to centre-court after the final last year. as she takes on Madison Keys and third on the pretty match between Grigor Dimitrov and Matteo Berrettini. Not my words, the words of Dimitrov himself. Matt, just on Anasimova and the return to centre court, is that anything, the fact that this match is on centre court and she hasn't been back there since that moment last year? We know she's processed it incredibly well, but that is still a new experience. Yeah, I agree.

1:03:31I think it's a factor. Just get a game on the board, you know? Work from there. Go from there. One game at a time. Okay. Yeah, let's take nothing for granted. Number one court tomorrow starts with Elena Rabakina against Elisa Mertens. Second on Alexander Zverev against Marcus Girone. And third on Francis Tiafoe against Alexander Bublik. How worried are you, David, about your prediction there? quite worried um look he's the highest seed public yeah i the thing is he can ambush anybody um and i think he's more likely to ambush somebody who's who likes to be the the guy you know and that's tiafo he's gonna be he likes to disrupt um i sort of feel like Bublik against Fritz Fritz would ride that out over the best of five sets I think He's had some no-shows hasn't he Bublik on big stages where he just has been flat and not very good and at a time when people are starting to talk him up Yeah when more's been expected of him but this might be just before we get to that stage?

1:04:49In our row of desks we sit with the team from the athletic and uh charlie of course shares a couple of desks down from us when we were talking about this match earlier because i was panicking over my prediction and he didn't help quite honestly he said uh he said the thing is public's breakout year was last year and he came into this tournament everybody was talking about him and then he'd lost first round and he said quite often you can find that the the actual breakthrough at a at a tournament comes the year after than to when everyone's forgotten about it yeah exactly and I did say well Charlie I've got I've got a lot a lot of credibility on the line here it's the only chance you can revise that for you but anyway he wasn't prepared to do that so listen it also depends which Francis Tiafoe turns up because the guy that was in Haller was awesome and I would back him against anybody I'm still backing him yeah David is so confident in his prediction he suggested we get the Francis Tiafoe ad reads in early in the tournament.

1:05:55Make of that what you will. That's just sensible. Number two court tomorrow. This is a great court two schedule, I think. Emi Navarro against Marta Kostiuk. Second on Flavio Caballi against Karen Hashanov. And third on Taylor Fritz against Lorenzo Sonnego. Court three tomorrow, Diminor Schweider. Backing up the French Open. Really well. good on him. Jasmine Paulini against Maria Sakari and third on Sronika Stea against Lyndon Norskova. Court 12. Samsonova Buzkova, Jarman Mouna against Yuri Lahetschka and then you've got Sinyakov Townsend in doubles. Third on court 12 and then court 18 tomorrow is where you'll find Darius Snigur and Ashlyn Kruger and where you'll find Zizou Burgs against the last Brit standing Arthur Ferry and David it has been controversial among the Brits that the last Brit standing has been scheduled on court 18 the lowest, the smallest court available for singles action tomorrow and that that will mean there hasn't been a British player on centre all week I'm okay with it I do understand where some of the British coverage is coming from, I do think it's possible that Arthur Ferry knew that he wasn't going to get centre or one.

1:07:21And within those parameters, he requested court 18 over, say, a court two or a court three because that's where he played his last match and won. I don't know, but I certainly think it's possible. I've seen some reporting that he requested it. Yeah, and we should say, listen, court 18 isn't as bad as it sounds. It's not the 19th worst court behind centre and the other 17. seen it's it's this one right down here and it is it's a gorgeous court isn't it with a big stand um but but at the same time you know when it when you only have one british player left in the third round i think there was an argument for for putting him on one of the two main show courts it's just that there are a lot of good players and a lot of good matches i wouldn't change a thing about that centre court schedule tomorrow.

1:08:08I think they've got that bang on. I think there was an argument for putting Zverev on court two, you know, tomorrow. It's not a high profile contest of a match. We've seen Coco Goff on court two without any trouble and various other top players. But I also, I don't mind. I kind of feel like Ferry's probably got more of a chance if he's on a court like this, I would say. just because he won't be freaked out. And then if he wins that one, then he absolutely would go on a show court, I think. I thought you were going to say that he absolutely will be freaked out in the next round. Probably. The other thing to say about tomorrow's schedule is that as it stands, Venus and Serena Williams are on it.

1:08:54In the vaguest possible way, they are scheduled to play first round women's doubles against Camilla Osorio and Solana Sierra not before 4.30 on a match to be announced or arranged. Arranged, I think, is what the A stands for. So we don't know exactly when or where or if, quite frankly, there is still time for things to change. But as it stands, they will be playing tomorrow. And I would be surprised if it were on anything other than centre or one. I think that's a let's see if one of those finishes early type situation. Makes sense, yeah. Don't you think? Do you think, though, if, like, let's say Centre and One are going on and Two is finishing early, I think it's...

1:09:41Maybe. I think they would want to get it on rather than roll it over to another day. Do you think Serena will accept Court Two? Do you think she'll just pull out? Maybe. I don't know. That would be quite funny. Potentially. I don't know. Like, Court Two? No, I'm out. Centre, One, or... Yeah, I don't know. I mean, there's going to be people, there's going to be teams tomorrow going through to the third round before Venus and Serena have played their first round. So they've like, if there's, if they're going to do this, they've got to play tomorrow. They've got the curfew to consider. Yes. Yeah, but Court 2 doesn't have.

1:10:19Yeah. No. But it's only three matches from 11. Yeah. Whereas centre and one are three matches from one and 130. I think centre, you know, I think they've been doing two women's matches on that side of the draw anyway, because, you know, there's so many good players and the men's half of the draw is less filled with names. But I imagine they're hoping that with two women's matches on centre, they can maybe get it on late. But I don't know. I think those women's matches could be three sets. I think Dimitrov Berrettini could be four or five sets. Like, I'm not sure it's getting on centre. Something's tickled Matthew.

1:10:58I think it's the mid-concept of Serena Williams playing on court too. Okay. Is it that, Matthew? No. Is there a bug on my head? No. No, something else. Let me know after. Okay, great. Let's talk about Phoebe. Phoebe's picture today is the best yet, and that is saying something because Phoebe takes a good picture. Here she is with tennis pasta, which I can only assume has strawberries in it. Do you remember strawberry pasta from last year? I was hoping to have blanked that. Do you remember what a thing that was? It was like Von Droshofer's cat. We tried that live on the show. It was one of the worst moments of the time we'd been doing this.

1:11:38Yeah. We'd love Felicity very much, but I did hate that strawberry pasta that she made. Well, I'd forgotten that we were kindly made that. I don't think your issue was necessarily with how she... No, it was just it. That's not for you. Yeah. Yeah, I didn't mind that. I quite liked the taste. My objection was to it being cold. Yeah, and that's an immediate no for me. That was a bizarre thing. I'm a pasta. I was so offended by the concept of cold pasta. Please remove the bug. Let's carry on. OK, thank you. Hello, Phoebe. Hello to our mascots, Bodie, Maisie and Roger. Hello to our top folks and executive producers, Greg, Chris and Jeff.

1:12:17Matt, let's have our shout outs. We have two shout outs tonight and the first is for Alex Tresedon, also known as Teach Trez. Hello Teach Trez. He was here today. Trez was here today on his 30th birthday. And Trez always comes to Wimbledon on his birthday. That is his tradition and he says it's the greatest present of all. He says on a personal level it's already been an epic year. I went to the Australian Open in January to complete my career at Fan Slam, a bucket list moment. We also went to Roland Garros and survived the heat, and now we're here at Wimbledon. On a professional level, Teach Trez says, it's been a mixed year to be Matt's coach.

1:13:03We had the coming together of minds with Pam Shriver on the barge in Melbourne, which was a real treat, followed immediately by Matt doing a disaster at the media one-point slam. Oh, that was a low point, wasn't it? Luckily, Matt has shown faith and retained my services as his coach, and I look forward to him conquering the tournament next year. Our rooftop training sessions in Australia were a particular highlight, along with regular London hits with our good pals Luke and Dan, who were also here today. And we had a lovely moment on Centre Court where we all spotted each other and waved. And yeah, happy birthday, Trez, and you're a great guy.

1:13:45what a ledge and a great friend happy birthday Trez well done for making Matt better at tennis but not when it counted I've bottled it this time there's another time coming do you know a mental coach do you have an associate mental coach excuse me that's my job isn't it well you were there David yeah but he wasn't consulting Pam's a mindset coach I know a lot it's my fault I don't think us talking about it the experience like this is going to help change things for next time is it uh trez i hope you had a wonderful birthday uh it has been great to get to know you you're excellent thank you for being a friend of the pod um and for for everything hope you had a wonderful birthday genuinely so thank you and finally we have kevin from indiana and kevin is in our predictions competition hello Kevin and Kevin would like to shout out his wife and tennis watching buddy Steph.

1:14:45Kevin says today was supposed to be the cap of our 25th anniversary vacation with a day on court one but it turns out that Steph couldn't travel unfortunately she had a medical emergency two weeks before this trip and had a few days in hospital so they had to cancel their plans to to come to London but Kevin says the likelihood of a full recovery is is very very high they're going to take their time and hope to be back at Wimbledon in a couple of years so even if it's just on the television they're still watching Wimbledon this year Kevin is still in the predictions competition and yeah we want to send our best wishes to Kevin and to Steph very best wishes Kevin and Steph Wimbledon on the telly is still excellent Wimbledon with the pod hopefully is still excellent and Wimbledon isn't going anywhere so it'll it'll be here when you're ready and it'll be extra sweet I would imagine so thank you very much for being a friend of the pod and for being in the predictions.

1:15:58How's Kevin doing in the predictions? If you give me a little moment, I can tell you exactly how he's doing. I had a good time today. Oh, no. Kevin's on zero points. Things can only get better, Kevin. Is that me up to second? Yeah, we're top of the leaderboard, David. Excellent. Check us out. Where's Catherine? Kevin. It all changes in week two. Above Kevin. Okay. Kevin. Things are... We're going to turn a corner. still more than half the tournament to go Kevin's going for Caballi tomorrow yes Kevin Caballi guys unite Caballi guys unite, Kevin thank you very much for being a friend of the tennis podcast Kevin, Trez thank you shout out to you if you'd like to become a friend of the tennis podcast then the link is in our show notes do make sure you smash that like and subscribe button we are part of the Athletic Podcast Network we will be back tomorrow at the close of play on the show courts live here from Wimbledon available shortly afterwards as a podcast as well.

1:17:00Thank you for joining us tonight. We'll speak to you tomorrow.