Live from Wimbledon Day 7 - Will Naomi Osaka win Wimbledon?

0:10Hello and welcome to the Tennis Podcast live from Wimbledon and presented by Barclays, the official banking partner of Wimbledon. Day seven has just concluded once again in absolutely thrilling fashion. This time, as I'm sure many of you have just seen, with Coco Goff winning the race against Time and squeaking in her victory 90 seconds before the clock struck curfew here at Wimbledon. Coco, thank you. Lots to discuss tonight. I'll be doing it with David and Charlie Eccleshire of The Athletic. We are learning from past experience and mistakes, David. And last year, we very famously made Matt podcast through the Lurgy on Women's Finals Day.

0:57And he ended up having, for various reasons, one of the most traumatic days of his life. So Matt is resting up today. Get well soon, Matt. And this could not be a more perfect night to get bonus Charlie Eccleshare on the show because Charlie, Charlie, and we have the receipts for this. Charlie, since the start of this tournament has been big on Coco Gauff, would it be right to say predicted a Coco Gauff Wimbledon victory? Very much so. How smug are you feeling right now? I'm relieved because I was, well, firstly when I made that prediction, I was like, at least last a little bit. A bit like with David Zsaquan at the US Open.

1:33And now I feel like it's got beyond, it's not silly now. And if I'd come on and she'd just gone out, I wouldn't have even had the chance to build it up as a thing. Whereas now it's got 48 hours or just under.

1:45David Law:Like my Tiafo one. Exactly. It's got a little under 48 hours to at least percolate with the listeners and viewers. And, you know, I think it's credible at this point. Look, this is already new ground, isn't it? She's never been to a Wimbledon quarterfinal before. 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 over Belinda Bencic. We were introduced to Deadline Coco tonight. I loved, we did have time for a very quick on-court interview and she knew she was right up against deadline. I always wonder sort of how in the zone they are. Are they aware of Denise Parnell loitering in the corner of the court, pretty much tapping her watch, but she did the tapping her own wrist celebration, did Coco Goff.

2:27David, what do you think of Charlie's prediction on the back of what you've seen throughout the tournament and tonight?

2:32David Law:I was quite shocked by that prediction when you first told me about it, Charlie, just because of how uncomfortable she's often seemed on grass over the last few years. And because when you told me about it two or three days ago, and I realised you'd made it earlier than that, but when you told me about it, there were still some serious grass court players in this draw who were Grand Slam champions. Rybakina was still in at that point. Sviantek was still in at that point. um obviously Sabalenka maybe not a grass court specialist but every single one of those I think I would have identified as maybe certainly having more grass court pedigree and comfort than Coco Goff does I think I think if you asked me which is Coco Goff's weakest surface I would say grass but when you explained your reasoning to me I thought okay I get where you're coming from actually i mean look it wasn't it's not my pick it's it's all yours and if you get this one right hats off you know as the person who likes to make loud proud predictions and have to just walk them back at the end of the tournament um i'm i mean you you get a lot of this stuff right so uh i like the fact that you've i like i like the fact that you've gone for it and i like your reasoning you better tell us your reasoning yeah i mean the logic is in a way that it's illogical i mean if you're trying to pick a wimbledon winner on the women's side well there's always been a different one now for basically a decade so you're picking a new winner and you're picking someone who's therefore going to surprise you I mean I guess the sort of conservative play in that regard would be someone like Sabalenka who's the world number one and you could say well eventually she's just surely going to win one I mean it was partly because of well in large part because of Sviantek last year because I just remember how much that seemed like a ludicrous proposition you know Sviantek was never going to win on the grass you know the forehand wouldn't work she all of that sort of stuff and exactly the same conversations we've had about Coco Gough and the other thing that I felt with her is she's just never even been able to get her teeth into a Wimbledon really like since that fourth round in 2019 when she was 15 she's had one fourth round where she lost to Emma Navarro but she was pretty bad throughout and then had that really bad Navarro loss and I just felt if she could actually get into one of them she might be a little bit liberated and be like oh actually maybe I can play on this and this is quite fun she also went out fairly early in Paris so I thought that might be a factor whereas last year I think she just came here and was so knackered after all the kind of post-French Open you know hullabaloo so that was kind of why and look it's not to say she's looked like hugely convincing so far but I did think tonight was really impressive and I felt that second round against Sierra which I was saying to you at the time was kind of like that is the kind of win you need if often if you're going to go on a run and we we've got two players now from this half of the draw through to the quarterfinals that are kind of on the arc of doing what Shontek did last year in Goff and Osaka right the whole them being brilliant Grand Slam champions not being a surprise but them doing it here now potentially a tremendous surprise how were you feeling about your prediction Charlie I know you're out on court one for the duration of this when she served five double faults in one game and to be fair to her did win the game yeah i mean in the opening set were you thinking okay well if she can win games serving five double faults we're we're on here it was very it was very coco in microcosm wasn't it i mean it was like five double faults and yet somehow gets away with it in the way that she's been able to win matches when serving huge numbers of double faults um i mean i did like her intent right from the start and some of those double faults were at least good in a verticomis double fault so they weren't she was at least going for it she was cracking serves at around 120 miles an hour so I like the intent from the start but obviously yes it was a concern when she hit that many what was what I was more concerned with was how the forehand then broke down I think she she had points uh two break points to go up five three in the first set and she missed the first one and then at 30 40 she made three forehand errors in a row and then got broken herself and lost the set.

6:43But I did think, you know, she is very good at recovering from, you know, losing the first set. But yes, there were concerns then. Problem solving is such a key skill though. And we're going to talk about Jessica Begula, who she faces in the quarterfinals in a minute. And that is a skill that sets her apart as well. And that is what Goff is showing throughout this run, isn't it?

7:07David Law:Yeah, and the interesting thing is I've just looked up at the stats for the match, and she served five double faults in five minutes. She only served another four in two hours and 15. You know, nine in total. And I think that that's a good sign. She sort of, whatever it was that was going wrong, she corrected, because that was early on. And I liked, and I asked her about this in the press conference after the previous match, that she's going after the serve. I think it is freeing her mind and it's freeing the rest of her game. Even though there were some errors on the forehand, there was a lot of her going forwards and she really volleys well.

7:45David Law:There's some amazing athleticism at the net and she's just, it seems like she simplifies things as a result of that. And now that we're getting into the sharp end of the tournament, this is where she takes off. She's a different player at this level. And the intent to go forward, I think, helps her be attacking on the forehand. 100 you could see that with a lot of forehands there were one or two actually where she was a little bit hesitant and got caught in between but that was the intention and i really liked that and i think that that really helped her when things were getting a bit tense as well it focused her she didn't really let up from that approach and i thought that was really impressive especially having lost the first set and she could easily at that point been like well this isn't really working but it what like the the process was good um and it was funny at the end because she said the time pressure contributed to her getting forward so much, just really wanting to end points quickly.

8:36That blows my mind, that the time pressure like that, that a player could respond to time pressure in that way and not totally fall apart in those circumstances. But of course, it's Coco Goff. Goff will play, as I said, Jessica Pagula in the next round. Sluggish start from her today against Eva Jovic, 4-6, 6-3, 6-1. I mean, she said it herself. Sometimes it just takes me a second to get going, she said in her press conference afterwards, where she was wearing England colours, by the way. Don't know if that was an accident, but good for you, Jessica Pagula. Who's the favourite in Pagula Goff? Well, I do worry about that a bit from a Goff perspective.

9:18I mean, I'm still backing Goff, obviously, but I think rationally speaking,

9:25maybe you would make Pagula the slight favourite. I'd be interested to see actually with, you know, who is with the bookies. I mean, I guess it would be pretty close. I think Pagula has maybe played at a more sort of steady level throughout. Goff's had more kind of fluctuations. And obviously Pagula has shown some good grass court form already this year in a way that Goff hasn't. But it's a really tight one. I mean, it's a great kind of heavyweight quarterfinal. And I think the way that the draws often have kind of fallen apart at Wimbledon on the women's side, we haven't had too many of them.

9:59So this is such an exciting quarterfinal. And it's kind of a great balance. The draw feels like it's in a great balance of like having fallen apart a little bit. Like Shvantech, Sebelenka, Rabakina all being gone. Like those are at the moment with Goff not currently holding a slam. Those are the biggest dogs in tennis. And yet it doesn't feel like a draw that's in disarray. it feels like a draw with stars and reliable bankable players everywhere even without even

10:28David Law:without those three names and exciting possibilities because I think Alexandra Iala just adds something extra all together but Naomi Osaka who will come on to talk about today is is a true superstar that we've been waiting to have her moment again and she's kind of had that today and yeah there's just lots of stories everywhere you look really i mean the kalin imukova today i think is a nice story um another one that we've been waiting for so yeah it's it's been enough excitement on the day it's not like australia where we had all these names left that we were waiting to sort of clash and then they still ended up having duds until the last couple of days so we've had upsets but there's actually still enough intrigue and excitement to get your teeth into definitely yeah and nor is it one of those slams where there are way too many and then you're left with kind of slightly unsatisfying matches in the quarterfinals it's it has been a really perfect balance and those two top half quarters mukhaver asaka gof pagula i mean i can't remember a better you know we're going to get those that pair on tuesday both of those are just proper heavyweight matches 2026 australian open still catching strays six months later how long can that It's going to keep...

11:45David Law:There will always be the benchmark, won't it? Absolutely. Just, David, quickly before we move on to talk about Osaka, Pagula Goff, who's the favourite there for you? I would say Pagula is the favourite for that. I mean, she's won five of their eight meetings and I just feel she's still that little bit more natural on this surface. Her flatter strikes, I think, really suit this surface. So it's a great test for Goff. I think she can test the Charlie test the mine and Matt's friendship because that's going to be me and him going head to head isn't it we can't watch it together Matt Roberts he's been a Pagula advocate from the start it's only her second Rimbledon quarterfinal that's quite something good win for her today because a set down to Jovic who took her to three sets in one of their other two meetings she hasn't beaten Pagula but to me she's sort of like mini Pagula.

12:45David Law:She's going to be that player, that really tough nut to crack, and she already is, but Pagula had to weather that first time she's lost the first set against her and she still came back and won. She doesn't panic. I still think of the Cotillareta match last year, how easy it would be to panic. Now she's in that stage of the tournament where she doesn't have to worry about things like that anymore. As you said, heavyweight clash. I think her stability will come through but Coco Goff is a Grand Slam champion and a superstar who gets better when you get into the stage of the tournament so it's pretty much a pick-em-one there Matt's in the chat and accusing you, David of having forgotten about him already Sorry, who?

13:31Not Matt David's a live-in-the-moment kind of a guy you know he just deals with what's in front of him Love you, Matt. OK, Gough Bencic probably takes the cake as match of the day, but story of the day, result of the day, has to go to Naomi Osaka beating Irina Sabalenka 6-2, 7-6. Matt's going to hate this because I'm about to reel off a load of stats. And, well, he lives for stats. But enjoy watching this, Matt. It is the, well, it's the first Wimbledon quarterfinal for Naomi Osaka, her first centre-court win, unbelievably.

14:06David Law:Wow. She broke today Irina Sabalenka's streak of 21 Grand Slam tie breaks won in a row. She broke her streak of 14 consecutive Grand Slam quarterfinals in a row, going back to Roland Garros 2022. And she broke Sabalenka's streak of not losing a Grand Slam match in straight sets, going all the way back to the US Open in 2020. Azarenka, wasn't it? Azarenka 2020. I mean combining all those three things to get well no all of the more than that even the fact that you know first grand first Wimbledon quarterfinal for Osaka like that makes all of this result sound so improbable and yet watching what Osaka did today against Sabalenka really looked like the most normal thing in the world you look at that tennis player and like yeah okay of course she's going to win absolutely everything because she's unbelievable and it was a it was a very strange experience seeing Irina Sabalenka look that impotent on a tennis court and by all accounts for her I mean she used the word herself voluntarily in the opening line of her press conference she said I was overpowered today and my question to her was how strange and unsettling a feeling is that to be overpowered and the answer was very like I'm not sure I've ever seen that to that extent maybe the Serena match where the famous you want to see power I'll give you power match of a few years ago but not with this iteration of Sabalenka David no and I think it is twofold I think it is both sides of the net that um this is the first time we've seen Osaka in a big tournament serve like that you know like she used to she just served Sabalenka off the court she wasn't giving a look in she was racing through service games and that puts pressure on she was hitting lines she's got a really big first serve and it was just being struck so confidently very interesting to hear Osaka talk not about working on grass court tennis with Thomas Witkowski but actually working on her own patterns and trying to make her tennis tell i if it if it's there it'll work on anything particularly on grass um so I thought she played really really well she was hitting the living daylights out of the out of both ground strokes but Irina Sabalenka was off you know she may she she was giving credit as well to her opponent there but she was so far off her game as I saw it.

16:47David Law:There was an 80 mile an hour serve that she had to attack and I saw her just blow the return. It just doesn't happen normally. It's been happening more recently. You know, when I think of that French Open tailspin and there have been others since then as well, she hasn't looked herself for a while now and this was like an imposter to me. And a good amount of that is due to her opponent. But, yeah, I just didn't think she'd got it from ball one tonight. Yeah, I think I'd put it slightly more on the Osaka, emphasize slightly more how good Osaka was. I agree with you. I mean, of course, Sabalenka wasn't her best, but I do think this was just an unbelievable performance.

17:34I mean, I think it was 33 out of 38 first half points won from Osaka. I mean, Sabalenka just could not get anything. I mean, my only, the only hope I thought she had was, do you remember that semi-final against Pagula last year at the US Open when Sabalenka won four returning points in the deciding set and won the set 6-4? All the other games were left holds. It had that fear. It was like she was getting nothing. And admittedly, then that was probably because she was slightly letting those games go. Here, there was none of that. I mean, I asked Sabalenka as well, like, what's worse or more concerning?

18:06Normally, when you lose, you can at least say, well, I've messed up. it was on my racket and I messed up today it wasn't even on her racket and I wondered if that was you know more of a concern obviously her answer was basically like well both are crap to be honest which is fair enough um but it was a little bit concerned you know she was just she was a complete antagonist like this was this was not about her Osaka dominated from the start yeah Hannah's line that she sent to us in the group uh was Sabalenka demoted from Grand Slam main character to supporting player for the first time in five years which i think yeah totally really summed it up i mean my theory here and i did i put this to arena sabalenka and she disagreed we were putting all sorts of theories to her that she wasn't agreeing but she disagreed in a way that i don't know if you're interpreting it in a certain way maybe maybe it could have struck a nerve I don't know but my theory or potential theory is that this emotional control that she's trying to introduce to her game in these stressful highest stakes situations the emotional control that or lack thereof that has cost her big matches of late obviously most recently Dana Schneider at the French Open but the examples have seemed to be mounting up and we know she's been working with the psychologist again we know she's recognized this is a problem i need to work on it i need to sort it out and then there was one or two moments today she hit the ball into the roof didn't she but basically i thought i was sort of waiting for the outburst that never came today i thought the emotional control was there but it made her look shackled and a shadow of herself that those two things could be unrelated but my theory is that that emotional wildness is Irina Sabalenka so to to eliminate it is she's she's feeling like she can't be herself out there at the moment maybe she will find a way to do the emotional control and feel like she's being Irina Sabalenka but whereas you've got Naomi Osaka with all the fashion and and this freedom that she's playing with it's so clear that she's figuring out who she is and how to express that through her tennis and and everything else that goes into tennis and that's yielding results I kind of see the opposite with Sabalenka based on a small sample size yeah I think that's a really interesting theory and and as you were saying it made me think of Novak Djokovic do you remember when he kind of neutered himself for a period and the fire went and and it actually didn't really work for him and I think he realized that and was like sod this I'm just gonna I'm gonna let my frustration out when it's there this is me this is who I am as evidenced by today yeah exactly he's still doing it and and yes there are times when it probably isn't helpful but he's found the right balance of you know letting out his frustration and his anger and maybe this is all part of that process of Sabalenka that she needs to almost go too far the other way before she can find that right balance.

21:16But yeah, it was concerning. I mean, it did contribute to that flatness that it felt that she had today, that she just could never really get herself going until, as you say, she whacked the ball out of the court. Quite impressively, I thought, actually, that she cleared it. I mean, that is a big roof, right? I was watching that and she smacked up. But the match was over.

21:34David Law:Yeah, it landed on the retractable roof on top of it and it actually didn't come back down. I know, I'm curious to know what happened. Still up there. Yeah, it was a really impressive strike. But yeah, that was once the match was done. So it was like she clearly had all this pent up frustration. And we've seen that with Novak. Sometimes he does let it all out. And then he really goes on a run of games or something. But yeah, I guess she does have to figure that out. But I can understand from her perspective why she is scarred by how she's unraveled quite often. And I don't know. I mean, I think maybe...

22:07And the US Open is now so massive for her. because if she doesn't win it's the first time in ages she won't hold any of this any of the slams which again feels crazy to even be talking about that given how long she's been the world number one for and how dominant she's been but if she does win it I think maybe that just is kind of roughly where and who she is like she's not going to be someone who can keep it all together regularly enough to really dominate and be winning multiple majors in a year and but you know that's still obviously a great achievement if she can keep you know winning one a year but yeah it's hard to imagine her really going beyond that and really dominating like she's threatened to quite often because a defeat is always slightly in the offing like this wasn't really a shock today we should say as well just on Osaka how impressive all this was given she'd lost to her three times already this year I mean she could easily you know we talk how often do we talk about match-up problems and that sort of thing and players going in and it getting in their head there was none of that like you would have had no idea watching this that she'd lost their previous three meetings

23:09David Law:and yet it did feel as though in those meetings Sabalenka was her kryptonite that her weapons don't really work against Sabalenka and I think what we saw today I mean a the surface I think is part of it yeah um I think it it's one of those that certain players just suddenly click on a surface but but I think the main thing is the serve I just think it started everything off so well for Osaka and it put put Sabalanka on the back foot Can Naomi Osaka win Wimbledon? Yeah Is it is it fanciful or is it No I mean I don't I don't I don't necessarily think I'd put it as the favourite but absolutely she can win it Yeah I think she really can I mean I think after that performance she almost has talked herself into a position of being one of the favourites I mean I don't know and so much can change I'm not saying that just by winning this she will sustain that form.

24:05But her top level, I don't think anyone in the rest of the draw can match that top level. Or certainly no one's produced a top level better than what we saw from her today. There was an incredible, very subtle bit of saltiness from Sabalenka in her BBC TV interview. She came straight to press off the court. Always makes me laugh. Which is an alarm bell. Everyone was rubbing their hands with glee, weren't they? She was still in her dress, she was still sweaty and everyone was like, oh, okay. We've seen this before. And halfway through, she kind of broke the fourth wall. And she said, if you're expecting me to be salty and a bad loser, you're not going to get that from me today because hashtag learning and growing.

24:45And, you know, it's a real, I think it's a real battle for her to give the opponent credit, which I think is very genuine and she does feel that. But I also think she just has this inbuilt feeling that if I play my best, I win. Just like Serena had, you know. So to reconcile she played great, all credit to her, with, yeah, but I didn't play great. It was down to me not playing great. I thought she walked that line very well, actually. But then I saw a clip of her BBC TV interview with Russell Fuller, and she gave Naomi Sarko the credit. She said, she played great today. There's lots of other girls left in the draw playing great.

25:27Let's see if they can keep this level of consistency, shall we? Let's see if they can do it consistently.

25:33David Law:because I'm going to be back I'm going to be even more motivated and I'm going to be playing at that level, let's see if they can but I mean that's a bit like how Serena always said players played their best against her going all the way back to Alex Ferguson used to complain how much teams would raise their game against Manchester United and that was all part of his mind games and that sort of thing I think for Sabalenka to be fair to her you can understand why she generally thinks if I play my best I'll win because that nine times out of 10 or more, I mean, like we said, until today, that generally has always been the case.

26:08But that's what was so striking about today. She was just completely outplayed by a player, again, who's top level here. I mean, I can't think of many Sabalenka Wimbledon performances that she's ever produced that would have got that close to Osaka today. Agreed. So Osaka against Karolina Mukova for the Wimbledon semifinals. Mukova beating Krejcikova today. 7-5, 5-7, 6-3. This was a bit of an ordeal for Karolina Mukova. She served for it to win in straight sets in the second set. She served for it at 5-3. She had led 5-2. She lost five games in a row to lose that set. Krychikova was out on her feet physically by the end of this.

26:50And her loss means that we will be getting a 10th new champion here, 10th new women's champion in 10 years. That is guaranteed. So, yeah, I guess they can. They win. We're probably at the any of them can stage at this point. Definitely.

27:07David Law:It's exciting, isn't it? Yeah. I like it. And I did find this, as we expected, a connoisseurs match, the way these two play rallies throughout it. I think I joined it at five all in the first set when I really managed to focus on that as the main match. and Mukova was just almost like a younger version of Krachikova. She looked a little fresher out there. I mean, I think Krachikova's had some tennis, you know, but she looked so organised. And then when she went sprinting off into the distance in the second set, I mean, it really looked like a significant gap between the two and everything Mukova was doing was working.

27:53David Law:Her big forehand was working. She was covering the net beautifully. She was just generally moving around the court, coming up with some of the most extraordinary shots that Kritikova clearly quite enjoyed watching, even though she was on the end of them at times. But then when the wheels fell off, I mean, I think Mukova did a fantastic job of regrouping there. And at the end of the second set, she went down to the end of the court with Sven Grunewald, her coach. And she just had this really matter-of-fact conversation. there was no visible frustration there was no kind of looking for somebody to blame or something to blame she just sort of tried to take in the advice and and put her couple of questions to him and then came out and just dominated the third set and got herself into exactly the same position of 5-3 and then when she got a chance to serve it out she was just ruthless um she was very worthy with her and Krachikov has offered a lot at this tournament.

28:54David Law:But yeah, there's no reason why Mukhova can't win the tournament either. I love this. I love these possibilities that exist for so many players. Yeah, and there's so many of them are players that it feels overdue, like Mukhova. I mean, obviously we've talked about her poor record here, but I dug into it a bit. And I mean, I remember because the previous two, one of them in 2024, she was basically straight back out of wrist surgery. she barely played for a year so I mean I think that was a bit of a write-off she lost to Bedossa and then last year you remember her wrist was in such bad condition she couldn't hit a topspin backhand she was in that Del Potro space of having to slice everything and then the previous couple won she was just got to the French Open final and I think that contributed lost to Niemeyer as well which was you know had been in the quarters the year before and then in the previous one she lost to Halep um you know who was a former winner and all of that so I think like that's partly why it feels like this is so overdue because in fact she hadn't won a match since getting to the quarters in 2021 we know how much her game should suit grass i mean she's always been one of my absolute favorite players to watch so i'm so pleased she gets to play on a stage a stage that kind of befits her game and will probably introduce her to some people or quite a lot of people who won't necessarily have seen her before and i think they're just going to be like wow this yeah what a player and i mean the she won the match with this kind of improvised lob she hit a single handed backhand pass earlier in the match great fun great contrast of styles against the saka hannah is absolutely losing her mind that you've mentioned julian niemeyer and juan martin del potro in the same sentence that's like porn for hannah Mukava Osaka who's the favorite?

30:40Osaka

30:41David Law:yeah I think she's the favorite and I remember their US Open match that they played last year that Osaka won but which she kind of had to dig herself out of trouble in that and I think that Mukava was she'd had lots of long matches she was struggling physically a little she's not struggling physically now by the looks of it touch wood I think she could carve Osaka up if Osaka doesn't play serve well she could make her feel very uncomfortable I really don't know about that one yet I'm going to give myself 24 hours to pick that David buys himself time as if something's going to change in the next 24 hours I know what you mean you get feelings don't you like this Goff that was a premonition it just suddenly came to me and sometimes I like to wait until something hits I think you'll always be the guy that had the Vondroshova premonition.

31:35Exactly, yeah. In this very spot. In this spot, yeah. There was a Saka premonition before the Euros final that came true. Gosh, yeah.

31:43David Law:Who's winning tonight in the England-Mexico match? I think England. But I must confess, I haven't had a strong premonition. But I do think England will probably win. Okay, like that, Charlie. Only an hour and 15 minutes to go. Goff and Bencic really helped us fill that pre-England gap. We're just going to push on through, aren't we, Catherine? Yeah, exactly. So, on to the men's today. I'm going to go in reverse order here, and I'm going to start because he is the main character, of course, with Novak Djokovic, who beat Roman Sifulin today, 7-6, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3. David, you described this as one to get through for Novak Djokovic.

32:25David Law:Yes, he did not enjoy this one bit. um so fueling played well i thought and he started really well um and i think he after once he got that sort of exchanged breaks at the start and then he kind of found his feet so fueling and really djokovic just it was bitty he wasn't flowing you know the the retired the the the the difference between his game when he's just trying to piece things together and when it starts to flow is so much different to the other big two in in out of the big three for instance Nadal was never like that Nadal pretty much it was always there you know um can you beat it that's the question mark Federer I think was mostly or it was pretty much just like turn it on you know turn on the switch and I think Djokovic has to find it when he finds it it's just pretty much unstoppable as we saw this year at the Australian Open in that semi-final but this was a another irritable performance he looks hot and bothered as though why am I having to play this guy you know not that he's trying to be disrespectful but he's all about the latter stages playing people that are a massive challenge and having to find a higher level.

33:46David Law:And I don't think he really has found that yet. Yeah, I think that's bang on. I always think with Novak, he's so much better to watch against top-level opponents because then he has to raise his level to a level to beat them. And he can do that. His top level is obviously ludicrous. It's better than basically everyone. But he doesn't always bring it out unless he absolutely has to. I mean, another comparison with Sabalenka, I felt his attitude today and is quite often a little bit, you know how Sabalenka has said that she needs to remind herself that she's not the only player on the court and that her opponent wants to win as well.