Live from Wimbledon preview - Serena steals the show

19:25Matt Roberts:We all panicked, didn't we? We saw her Instagram. Yeah. She's not in Putney anymore. Right. Where's she gone?

19:30Catherine Whitaker:And she pulled out of Berlin, I think it was. I just thought, is that a bad sign? Is that a sign of maybe she's not going to play Wimbledon? She confirmed that it wasn't the original plan. She said, she kind of said it would be mad to plan a trip back to the States in this short grass court season just for a few days. But she said she really felt like she needed it because she said the last couple of months had got to her. They'd been tough. And I think we'd seen that on the match court. And she said she just needed to get away. you know she's been traveling in europe for a long time wanting to get back home see family have a bit of a reset and i think it's just a reminder that you know this is someone who found life on tour very difficult for a long time and just because last year had been had been so great doesn't mean that it's always going to be like that and she's still gonna probably have have moments where life on tour is tough but i think this time if it sounded to me like she'd recognized that and maybe in the past she wouldn't have done this trip but she knows herself a lot better now I think and took that trip and she came back she said I've just been feeling really great since and has enjoyed having a practice week here at Wimbledon she never plays the week before a slam she likes to be here and and practicing on site and yeah so look maybe you can't just click your fingers and all of those issues of the last couple of months go away but I just thought it was encouraging.

21:10Matt Roberts:That's great to hear. We had Emma Adekanu in less sort of buoyant news into the main room shortly after Jack Draper. Couldn't have been a more different vibe for Emma Adekanu to the vibe that we were so taken by in Paris. Even after she lost that first round in Paris, there was something so different about her demeanour and the way she was talking about her game. And look, maybe it just, regardless of injury, and the injury situation does seem quite bad, but even regardless of that, maybe it just necessarily always will be a slightly more walls up Emma Raducanu here at Wimbledon.

21:50David Law:Or at least for a while. It'd be quite understandable, wouldn't it?

21:54Matt Roberts:Yeah, yeah. But, you know, the walls were up. And the first question, Simon Briggs got straight into it, are you going to play?

22:02David Law:OK.

22:03Matt Roberts:and she clearly sort of had a line you know had words prepared and it was the plan is to play at the moment I'm going to do me and my team are going to do everything we can to be ready the plan is to play and then she also made it clear over the course of the press conference pretty much that if it weren't Wimbledon she wouldn't be playing she said there are certain tournaments you'll put your body on the line more for and she said Wimbledon is one of them and she was asked whether she's been assured by doctors that she won't be making it worse by playing and she said no doctors can tell me that so it would be taking a risk to play she said it's a lower leg niggle sounds like more than a niggle to me because you know all players are playing

22:52Catherine Whitaker:with niggles all the time yeah and she said she hasn't really played a lot since Queen's She's been very light since then.

22:59Matt Roberts:And she actually said she was carrying this ahead of Queen's and it obviously worsened with the load.

23:04Catherine Whitaker:She used the word load as athletes do.

23:06Matt Roberts:It's like low block, isn't it, load? Did people talk about load in the 90s, David? No. No. I didn't use any of these fangled words, honestly.

23:18David Law:I mean, to be honest, it almost sounds something like shin splints or something where you just... I've had those. Yeah, and then you carry on running on it And it just gets more and more painful and stiff, you know, and I don't know what it is, but it's it's must be so frustrating. Yeah. Yeah.

23:39Catherine Whitaker:She, you know, because the reports yesterday and we saw the footage that she'd practiced for 10 or 15 minutes with Canon Sky and lost those four games and then stopped the practice. you know I looked at that and thought well there's just absolutely no way she's playing she did say that she'd actually been hitting for an hour before that and you know tried to sort of play down the severity of stopping the practice but I think it's yeah it's it's touch and go whether she plays and in terms of like her prospects generally at this Wimbledon it's it's hard to it's hard to really look beyond you know the first round to be quite honest and Rizic is

24:22Matt Roberts:is a good player. She's beaten her already this year and a lot of people watching might not know anything about her, but she's a good player on the rise.

24:30David Law:Her rise has happened this year and she's won a lot of matches and comes in probably not feeling like she's got much to lose. She can play Raducanu at Wimbledon, have a swing, have a run around and maybe get a win. It's not ideal.

24:47Matt Roberts:Matt Di Nomia Sarka, press conference, sort of similar vibe ahead of this one to the Raducanu press conference, sort of braced for withdrawal news, or certainly doomful injury news but this one was slightly more upbeat than Raducanu's?

25:04Catherine Whitaker:Yes, I would say so. She said, I could be feeling better, but I could be feeling worse. Right. That's me every day. Pretty much my daily state. Yeah. And yeah, look, she was quite interesting about how her kind of approach has has changed you know like she i remember her talking at the french open about you know how she kind of said it's not the worst thing in the world if i if i lose and you know she had that kind of perspective on on her career and she and she said that her approach has changed so much that like now she actually is looking at the draw you know she's always been one of those players, Asaka, who you, you, you daren't mention the draw in a press conference because, well, in her words, it makes her nervous.

25:52Catherine Whitaker:It stresses her out knowing what's, what's coming up. But she said, actually, just she's changed in a way that she's a bit more carefree in the way she's approaching it and not putting so much pressure on herself. And she does feel like now she can look at a draw and not be really, really stressed out by it. So I found that, found that quite interesting. I don't know whether that's going to be like a sort of, hugely like something she does everywhere going forward or whether it was just sort of specific to the grass court season and this tournament and everything so I would still be careful talking about draws around Naomi Osaka in the future but for this specific tournament she has she has changed that approach and she talked about the changes she's feels like she's made to her game and how she's better now at staying low on the grass which you know I think is just so important on this surface and she was clearly very buoyed by the way she was playing last week it's just a real shame it ended the way it did so again I don't quite know what to make of her sort of tournament prospects really but I was quite encouraged by the sort of place she just seemed to be in Elsa Giacomo round one fun very fun

27:05Matt Roberts:just because Elsa Giacomo is on the court yeah that's tomorrow actually quite a lot of players that did press today that are playing tomorrow Bianca Andreescu as well

27:16Catherine Whitaker:yes because Mukova sort of gave a bit of a burn in the trophy ceremony that they had saying you know Osaka's just retired from the match and Mukova's like and we've both got to come back on Monday kind of like I don't think she was putting the pressure on but yeah It was quite an amusing comment from Mukova.

27:39Matt Roberts:And Mukova came to press today, but you had a chat with her coach today.

27:43David Law:Yes, Matt and I were doing a little bit of a tour of the ground here. Matt was showing me the best route to all the press seating, where we were allowed to sit and watch the matches. And, oh, got me so pumped for tomorrow. But anyway, when we were on our way out of the media centre, we ran in Sven Grunewald. We door-stopped him. Yeah. My first ever door-stopped him.

28:07Matt Roberts:Matt was doorstop adjacent.

28:10David Law:And it's the first time I've seen him in a long time. But, I mean, you know, I remember I knew him way back in the late 90s when he was coaching Greg Rozetzki and I was on the ATP tour. And he's coached so many people since then, Maria Sharapova and several others, Bianca Andreescu for a while. And I was sort of curious, you know, about why she just hasn't had these results on grass recently and what his general approach with her as a coach and player was. And he said a lot of it is just sort of structure, you know, building a structure for her. So, you know, it's exciting to think that somebody who we've thought should be a great grass court player, given her skill set, has a chance now.

28:58David Law:Coming in here off a title, I think he's a really good coach, really smart coach. and he said, you know, it's nice for me to have a player like this towards the end of my career. He's had a lot of different types of players that he's worked with, Sven Grunewald, and, you know, Karolina Mukova's got limitless ability.

29:16Matt Roberts:She plays on tomorrow. Another one that plays tomorrow is Zaharova, who's having a good season. And Mukova, as we've much discussed, lost four round ones at Wimbledon in a row. So we'll be keeping an eye on that. OK, I think that's it finally for two day media day. We've still got the order of play for tomorrow to go through. Right, it is time for part two, the time of the show, the time of the year that we invite Wimbledon tournament director Jamie Baker onto the show. Jamie, I know how busy it is for you. Thank you so much for joining us this evening. No, thanks for having me up. I love coming up here.

29:56Such a good spot. It's a nice temperature this evening as well, isn't it?

29:59Matt Roberts:yes you read my mind jamie i'd like to explain the drinks we were let we were led astray we don't do this every night you look good we were led astray by official wimbledon staff i will have you know they are the uh they're the signature cocktail and i they have the katherine wittica seal of approval if that if that matters at all um your time is valuable let's get straight into it please uh i'm going to start with the protest i don't think start with the light stuff start with the light stuff yeah i've done cocktails we've done cocktails jamie i'll ask you what you think the bear should be called at the end um yeah protest i don't know if protest is the right word but let's let's call it protest so um the wimbledon prize money was announced just over two weeks ago 20 increase the biggest year-on-year increase in in wimbledon prize money it represents 14.4 percent of tournament revenue which is 1.6 percent short of what this group of top players have been asking for.

30:59Matt Roberts:Their current target is 16%. At the time of that announcement, just a couple of weeks ago, the players' group, led by Larry Scott, described that as a genuine and significant step forward and a meaningful statement of intent. Given that, were you shocked to hear that they were planning to not only resume their protest here, but to escalate it? Because we were. Yes, yes, definitely. Look, disappointed, obviously, as well. I mean, I think if we've been very active, obviously, talking to Larry, working with Larry, who is who's working on behalf of these players. and this has been going on for a while but maybe it's best if I just kind of frame it since our last face-to-face meeting in Roland Garros but there's been a lot of conversation in between times you know there's three things that they're wanting to discuss it's kind of player voice and governance at a Grand Slam it's pension and welfare contributions and then it's prize money we feel like we have made really big steps forward not just in the conversations but actually in what we've been willing to commit to we've been saying for eight months and really upping our commitment to this and if you like not pressure but just reiterating we will do a player council tomorrow we have said that we are more than happy to do that unfortunately that has been rejected we want to do that because we think it would actually make the event better.

32:38I want to hear their views at the right time. We want to help shape this event. We employ kind of executives. We would like a few tracksuits as well just to balance that out. It really helps. On the pension and welfare, we've said the same thing. You have said you want to discuss that. That's the first thing on the agenda for this forum. What we don't feel comfortable doing is, because we're talking about such large sums of money now, We don't feel comfortable making a decision on our own that we're going to allocate X percent of somebody's income to some sort of deferred compensation scheme. The income bracket of even the top 100 tennis players now is very broad.

33:20So if we did that, it's basically guaranteed that we would get a significant cohort of players saying, hang on, we didn't want that. What are you doing? So it needs to really be shaped by the players with us. And we're completely up for that. So we feel like we've responded basically with what has been asked of us on the first two. And on the last one on prize money, which is obviously the more detailed and the more complicated one, we just, as you know, we have a real problem with being obsessed by prize money being pinned against this revenue metric. and we've explained in the discussions as to why that is.

34:04But fundamentally, we are committed to, always have been, and probably even more so now, that the players share in the success of the championships. That is what we see our future being. And we want that through prize money and we want that through the investment that we make in our facilities. And we know that we are not going to solve the issues of the lack of transparency in the tour numbers in the next three weeks. We're not going to solve that and we're not going to get to a place where everybody's happy with how we work out prize money, say, in the next 10 years and next few weeks. However, we've done the first two things and we were showing you that we have put a really big percentage of our anticipated revenue growth into prize money right now without knowing the outcome of these discussions.

34:52and so on that basis we feel like the spirit of the request and the dialogue has been really really uh heavily addressed in a really positive way and and so that was the basis of why we were we were really surprised on on the action that was uh decided i know it is something

35:11Matt Roberts:you have explained before but could you could you just explain again for our listeners and viewers why in your view the pinning pinning the amounts to revenue expressing it as a percentage of revenue and setting that as the parameters for the target why that doesn't feel right or appropriate for this model because we're constantly hearing about the comparison to u.s sports where it u.s team sports where it is expressed in terms of revenue what's so different well revenue revenue Revenue takes in money coming in only, and it doesn't take any account of costs or investments. So that's fundamentally the issue.

35:54So look around at this place. It costs a lot of money to stage the championships on an annual basis. But I would put two brackets in the cost. It costs a lot of money to stage a tournament, but it also costs a lot of money to invest in the brand. And that's the thing that's driving lots of the value for everybody, including the players. So our business model is actually, I would say, the most transparent in the sport. I'm happy to explain why I think that. But it's also one of the most, if not the most successful. And it's really simple. We spend money and invest in the championships. That allows us to do two things.

36:34Invest hugely in players through prize money. And invest hugely in British and international tennis. We do not exist to deliver a return for anybody else. There is every single penny that comes into this organization is spent in tennis. So I understand that there's other businesses out there that are more commercial and do exist to generate a return. That's normal. I'm not saying that's wrong in any way, shape or form. I'm just saying that that's not how Wimbledon works. And it doesn't mean that one is right and one is wrong. It's just that's not how it works. And sure, we absolutely we want to have the discussion about how our business can get better and how it can grow and how it can do better.

37:14But the current model right now generates on average 10 times as much revenue as a Masters 1000 and distributes four to five times as much prize money. So yes, it's not perfect, but it does work quite well and it is delivering value for everybody, not least the players.

37:34Catherine Whitaker:I'm just interested on the point of the players of ours for, or sort of, I think the word you used was sort of governance, a seat at the table, and you've offered a player council. Have they explained why they've rejected that offer? Look, I think that was because they wanted some sort of, you'd have to speak to them, but our interpretation is that they wanted some sort of clarity and commitment on money before getting into that.

38:11David Law:Would it be fair to say that the 20 % that you've increased it to has come about as a result of their action and their conversations from a year and a half ago? Would it be fair to say that you wouldn't be in that ballpark probably without it? I don't think it's as binary as that. Look, there's a lot of things going on in tennis right now. And, you know, right now we don't determine prize money, even internally, by a particular formula. This year we don't actually know what our revenue is going to be yet. We have a good idea, but we haven't run the tournament. There are some variable things.

38:53Matt Roberts:People could buy a lot of strawberries and cream this year. Yeah, exactly. Look, I'm not going to sit here and say we have no idea. Of course we do. But the point is, whatever figure anybody's talking about, it actually at this point is a forecast or it's a projection. It's not fact. But what is fact is the way that we go about our decision-making is we want the players to share in the success. We don't exist really for any other reason. That is what we want. But, you know, we're not going to, you know, we are absolutely committed to want to have the best partnership possible with the players.

39:31Regardless of these discussions, we're always going to make those decisions. But it would be, you know, I and the volunteers and the committee and the rest of my team, like we're, this is an institution that's 150 years old and we want it to be around for another thousand. It would be irresponsible for us to effectively abandon our business model that's been quite successful because of, and at this moment in time, it's because of a target that's been put in place, which actually is not based on any foundation. We're wanting that. Show us. Show us what it's based on. And then we can really move this dialogue forward, which we want to.

40:08Matt Roberts:Do you resent that the sort of tone of conversation is so adversarial, given what you've just said about you feel that your agendas actually are aligned and yet the protest makes it seem like it's the players against the slams? Yeah, look, that's not good for anyone. It doesn't help anybody move forward. We are completely and utterly focused on bringing the temperature down on this, working really positively with the players. Look at where we're sitting right now. We're on the eve of Wimbledon starting. It's one of the most amazing sporting events in the world. Let's talk about how we make this show the absolute best that it possibly can be.

40:43My team exists to do exactly that. They're working all year to make this thing the absolute best it can possibly be for the players. That's what I want the conversation to be. And, you know, hopefully we can get to that place really quickly.

40:57Matt Roberts:Can I just ask one more on the protest? because the one thing it's quite hard for us to gauge is how effective it is in terms of impacting the rights holders, which I get the impression that's their real, that's who they're really trying to hurt, right? Hurting us in the written press and podcasters in the press conference room. We don't really have any power to go stomping our feet and saying we didn't get as much time with Yannick Sinner as we want. Nobody cares, relatively speaking. but ESPN and the BBC that are paying loads of money for their rights and the access to the players comes with those rights, they do have the power to stomp their feet and for that to be heard.

41:38Matt Roberts:Are they stomping their feet? Is it having the desired effect in that way? I realise there's probably stuff you can't say, but it's very hard for us to get a sense of that. Look, I don't know because I haven't spoken to everybody and I think look these are also people who are operating kind of at a certain level in the sport and they get the big picture as well so they're completely focused also on getting the temperature down focusing on the championships and so I think they will actually everybody has a responsibility here as well to kind of do that and I think they would be in the same boat Okay Should we talk wild cards?

42:23Please another light one well i feel like i should i feel like i should leave this to these two because my

42:29Matt Roberts:position is i don't believe in wild cards at all interesting i've heard a few people say that i just think they're anti-competitive merit-based sport all that yeah i mean serena the serena situation is a real test for my position because obviously i'm i'm gonna be there with bells on watching that but well i've got my position i backed myself into a corner and this is where

42:50David Law:I'm fascinated to know who decides the wild cards here. Obviously, British tennis, the LTA, have an impact and a voice. And they put, I think, six on the men's side were British players. And two was Stan Wawrinka and Grigor Dimitrov. And then there was Dan Evans, who didn't get one. I'm curious, like, who made that decision not to give Dan Evans a wild card? And who makes the decisions to give the others? so actually it's an easy answer to that question so the decision makers for what we have a wild car committee right which is effectively a subcommittee of of the to be technical the committee of management of the championships involves all england board members lta board members so we have a wild car committee the way the pro so two two important parts of the process the the wild car committee and this hasn't changed for quite a while we have a criteria which is effectively guidelines it's not set in stone but it's guidelines and the way the process works is the LTA will put forward the LTA performance team will put forward nominations for players to us and we will obviously gather all wild card applications British players and overseas players and and that committee makes a decision based on the criteria and and and the guidelines.

44:10Matt Roberts:And in terms of the ones the non-British ones Stan Rorinkas say is that just an entirely subjective process? Because I'm sure Guillaume Fies applied for example, you know we've got a lot of retiring players that are asking for wild cards at the moment, people in that sort of category how are those decisions arrived at? So the committee as one of the guidelines there's very much a nod to Grand Slam champions that is you know it doesn't mean that every single person in that position is automatically going to get one but there is there is definitely you know there is something that we have that we continually consider is is what is their their grand slam record in terms of titles

44:57unfortunately and and the other i mean one of the other ones is is is kind of um support of form's the right word because it's more over long term but just grass court tennis you know somebody who's done well and supported um supported grass court tennis for a long long time and i think gregor probably would be would be going into that category but the the ultimate aim really is is for us within the criteria to get um to make the best decisions for the event that that is what we're and again there's there is there is no perfect answer um but that's that's the lens in which the the group of people um are are looking at it and from a british perspective at the moment certainly on the men's side you know it's it's actually it's a this has not always been the case since i've been working here but right now there is a really strong crop of players um which is you could you could make a strong argument for for more players than actually got the wild cards

46:00Catherine Whitaker:this year and that's that's a great place to be i'm kind of curious maybe with your former player hat on rather than your tournament director hat on like in terms of like trying to help british tennis and help players is there an argument that actually there's something that david's been talking about that actually like it might be more useful for your career to not be in the main draw and not get given that privilege year after year but actually get a maybe get a qualifying wild card or and like sort of improve that way like i'm kind of curious from your perspective as a former player like did you find it maybe more helpful to be sometimes sort of grinding your way through the lower levels you've got to make it through though for that to work you've got to make it through it's a high stakes gamble yeah exactly um no so i think you're absolutely right on the money there and that's you know primarily this is the this is the expertise of the the lta performance team that know these players like the back of their hand and their development journey and and they're weighing all they're weighing all that up look just for me i got five wild cards into the main draw here and every single time i got one every single time my thought was i wish i could have qualified and got in that i would have preferred that to be the case so i for a whole host of reasons just feeling like it wasn't a gift feeling like i'd really earned my place by right feeling like i was sharp i'd played i got three matches under my belt so i think there is a performance part to that definitely but you know i i i didn't manage to do that it wasn't good enough it's tough it's tough out there in rohampton but i remember you did you qualify in australia

47:34David Law:a couple of times a couple of times and this is what i'm getting at is is i just feel that maybe that might be good for british tennis not to be handing these wild cards i mean isn't there an argument of the of wimbledon just saying tell you what we'll just look after the wild cards you guys prepare your players yeah there there could be i mean that obviously i mean the the the federations of the grand slam nations and the other big tournaments in the world they would all performance seems obviously would all argue heavily against that they would they would put all sorts of data together that says look these opportunities are an amazing springboard for these players when you look at it not in isolation of that event but in the long term over their careers at player development and that's that's what they're looking at but you know it's not i don't think this you know the reason why this is a discussion is because actually it is an interesting point and people do

48:29Matt Roberts:have different views on it last tough topic yes the topic that everyone associated with wimbledon

48:35David Law:loves so much the wimbledon park development two years ago that we first talked to you about it here um what's the latest the latest is we have never been more convinced in the benefits of the plans for everybody um i'm sure you and your listeners don't want me to repeat every single aspect of it but you know the the plans are really exciting um without going into every single one and look actually it's it's so detailed that i wouldn't even know every aspect of this because we have a whole team looking at this and it's become very legal obviously but we're we're essentially working our way through the process of three different um well yeah legal processes you would you would call it and um we obviously fully respect the the planning and legal process in the country it's taking a lot of time um and you know we we can't really do anything other than that other than every day dust ourselves off and remember that the benefits that will come from doing this which I'm convinced will happen will will be amazing for every single stakeholder involved not least the people who live around here who are going to have a new public park that they never had access to I mean that's going to be we know that from speaking to thousands and thousands of the residents that they can't wait for that to be the case what's the best case scenario timeline

50:04Matt Roberts:line at the moment i know the i know it's how long is a piece of string but in an ideal world look i think if if you just if you just took um if you just took okay what's the best case scenario from from getting from where we are now to potentially starting the project um look i think it's too long but we can't we can't we can't be saying that it's if it went well we can't be saying that it's definitely going to be only months and not years like it's it's unfortunately there's still some pretty significant things that are going to take some time next hearing is october is that right uh i mean there's a there's a couple but you might know more than me on on the dates to be honest i'm focused on the tennis i'm like come on let's get this tournament started i'm on flo anderson's mailing list so yeah i might do i won't bore everybody just just very quickly on a

50:59David Law:Slightly lighter note, what is it, a week ago when you found out that Serena Williams was going to take your wildcard that you've been holding for her? How close to the deadline was she? She was, she still had a little bit. I just, I want, I was trying to get to a place where she made the decision before it impacted the rest of the draw when qualifying started. So normally we would have decided all the wildcards before that, but obviously, I mean, it's unbelievably exciting. So I wanted to give her as much time as possible. I mean I don't know what do you guys think what's the most anticipated moment on the first two days of the championships do you think?

51:37Matt Roberts:Oh it's Serena do you? Yeah

51:40David Law:I mean I think particularly the first match assuming if she manages to win and play more I think it's still incredibly interesting but I mean to not have seen her play for four years and to have heard her say today that when she stops she didn't expect to be back so and then we had I mean, it was a week ago that we were all speculating. Do we think she's going to try and play singles or not? And I changed my mind twice in 10 minutes because it just seemed so up in the air. What was that call like to receive that she was? Well, obviously, I was kind of... This was for quite some time the subject of daily discussions for me and daily updates.

52:21So when it happened, I obviously wasn't massively surprised from when the first conversation started. Look, the thing actually, I'm, I mean, it's all speculation, but I'm really excited that she's really decided to go for it. And that moment, as you've said, we haven't seen her play since, say, four or five years that she's chosen Wimbledon. And the US Open's only a few weeks away, which has given her a bit more time. And to me, that is, I like that. yeah and i was thinking today actually like she she did have an amazing send-off at the

52:56Catherine Whitaker:u.s open there was kind of some closure there like i do feel like maybe she's missing that a little bit at wimbledon like the way the way it ended here probably wasn't how she wanted and now she's come back and she's been the story she is the star and i think it's yeah i think that might be part of it of why wimbledon is is part of the comeback here i don't know how much of i haven't spoken to her about this I don't know how much of this is behind the motivation but for me having young kids and tennis is our life I work in tennis it was my life from a very young age they'd never seen me play like the idea of them watching me compete in my profession would would be like the best thing ever so I can only imagine what somebody like her who's you know one of the greatest athletes of all time to then her kids tomorrow we're going to it's Tuesday is going to

53:46Matt Roberts:see this is pretty amazing yeah it's there's a real premium on your kids thinking you're cool

53:54David Law:i've gone 16 years so far without achieving it but you know there's still time isn't there

53:59Matt Roberts:it's um serena comeback is going to take some topping for the 150th i know anniversary and who federer come back i know let's see we'll see if we can stir a few people um just finally jamie we need a name for this bear I'm trying to end on something light because we've hit Jamie I think you asked me that two years ago and I just came up with absolutely nothing two years ago we called him Jude because the Euros were on so we were thinking of a football name but then one of our colleagues came up with Ted Perry not bad and it's tough to no, not a 10 out of 10 yeah, I like it, it's good what about Bonnie, a little Scottish name it's not a tennis name though, is it?

54:41no, it's just random Scottish

54:43Matt Roberts:Maybe there's a Bonnie on our horizon from Scotland

54:46David Law:who's going to take the world by storm. Yeah, OK.

54:48Matt Roberts:A left-field suggestion. I don't mind it. Jamie, what a note to end on. Thank you so much. We really appreciate your time. Have a great fortnight. Thank you, thank you. Yeah, wishing you the best. We still have the order of play, our first 2026 Wimbledon order of play to talk about for Monday. It all starts at 11am on the outside courts, It's 1.30 on Centre Court, 1pm on Court No. 1. Let's start with Centre Court. Opening the play, of course, will be men's defending champion Yannick Sinner, the top seed, the dominant favourite for the title. I am very aware saying that, that that is something we said a lot in Paris.

55:30Matt Roberts:Things can happen, folks.

55:32Catherine Whitaker:We've also said it a lot and he's ended up being the dominant top seed.

55:35Matt Roberts:I'm going to keep saying it. He takes on Mirmir Ketsmanovic in the first match tomorrow. That is followed by Irina Sabalenka against Theodora Kostovic. And then finally on centre court tomorrow is Wu Yibing, the Chinese player taking on Novak Djokovic. Number one court tomorrow opens with Emma Raducanu against Antonia Ruzic. I suspect Daniel Medvedev and Marin Cilic will be poised and ready for a potential retirement there, realistically.

56:05David Law:So will I, because I'm commentating on Medvedev Cilic.

56:07Matt Roberts:David is commentating for BBC Radio, Medvedev Cilic, with Dan Evans, folks.

56:13David Law:I hope you say, yeah.

56:14Matt Roberts:I feel like you're being sort of potentially involuntarily put in a double act there.

56:20David Law:I've gone from tall persons correspondent to Brummie correspondent.

56:24Matt Roberts:Yeah. I'm very surprised they haven't got you on Felix Gill. Isn't he from your neck of the woods? He's from Redditch, yeah. Yeah. Not met him yet, though. Magdalene. I thought it was one of those things where all sort of Birmingham tennis people knew one another.

56:37David Law:Well, maybe he knows of me.

56:39Matt Roberts:I'm sure Dan knows him.

56:41Catherine Whitaker:I'm very Serena of you.

56:44Matt Roberts:Third on court one tomorrow, number one court, Magdalene Nett against Mira and Draver. Yeah, I must say, I do think that's... Tricky.

56:53Catherine Whitaker:Yeah, and like a good line-up generally on number one court. Like, OK, there's obviously great uncertainty about Raducanu. Like, that might be a real... That could be a blow for ticket holders. We don't know, but I think everyone's braced. but then you've got two really interesting first round matches there Cilic, Medvedev and Medvedev mentioned in press the other day didn't he that they played before at Wimbledon and Cilic was two sets to love up and that's a tricky, tricky match for a guy who's not had a great Grand Sam record in recent months and then speaking of tricky, Magdalene is tricky, certified and Andreva lost her only match since winning the French Open So, you know, like, I think there's, I'm pleased that there's a lot there for the number one court ticket holders.

57:38Matt Roberts:Number two court tomorrow opens with Jessica Pegula. Matt's pick for the final?

57:45Catherine Whitaker:Yes. Actually, no, I think if she gets to the final, I think she might be my pick for the title.

57:50Matt Roberts:Matt's pick for the title, Jessica Pegula. Like, just don't be out before breakfast, Jessica. She takes on Daria Vidmanova, a Czech player, I think. She's Czech. If it's not clear from how I'm saying that, I don't know a whole lot about her. But I think Matt's going to head out to number two court to take a look at his pick for the title.

58:12Catherine Whitaker:I'm not actually. I'm going to go somewhere else.

58:14Matt Roberts:Well, you gave me misleading information earlier then.

58:17Catherine Whitaker:No, I don't think I did.

58:19Matt Roberts:We'll talk about this later. A bit awkward. Second on number two court tomorrow.

58:25Catherine Whitaker:Matthew will back me up.

58:26Matt Roberts:He said Pegula, right? He said he mentioned Pegula.

58:30Catherine Whitaker:Matthew wasn't listening. No, he didn't. Thank you very much. For the tape, that was Matthew saying, no, he didn't.

58:37Matt Roberts:Michael Jeng against Cam Norrie is second on number two court tomorrow. Then Felix Auger-Eliassime with his shaved head, the number three seed. He's up against Alexander Shevchenko.

58:48David Law:He walked by me on the stairway earlier with his shaved head.

58:52Matt Roberts:It's good, I think. He nodded.

58:54David Law:He probably remembers me from tennis podcast Meats, which helped him reach the US Open semifinal. and I just thought he looks the business

59:05Matt Roberts:yeah suits him Tamara Korpach against Coco Gough finally on number two court tomorrow sort of sunset match for Gough against another awkward opponent like is that is that anything I think

59:23Catherine Whitaker:Gough has lost what is it four or five matches in a row on grass she desperately needs a win on this surface Corpac is awkward you know I do expect Goff to win I don't Court 2 is not really a graveyard of champions anymore that's the old Court 2 oh David's spirit's still there ok I think there's some ghosts the demons still lurking

59:47David Law:I think Goff's going to be alright

59:49Catherine Whitaker:yeah I do as well

59:50Matt Roberts:Hodda against the aforementioned Felix Gill from Redditch is first up on number 3 court then Kasper Ruud against Hubert Hercatch big upset watch there I think for the 11th seed not on the bingo card was Kasparud not attending the Bad Bunny concert last night but Novak Djokovic making a cameo in the Bad Bunny concert last night, have you seen this David?

1:00:17Catherine Whitaker:No He was on the big screen, he had a mic

1:00:22Matt Roberts:I actually haven't plucked up the courage to listen to it with sound on because I'm not sure I want to hear Novak Djokovic potentially singing. But good on him. I think I might check it out. Glad he's having fun. Third on number three court tomorrow. Good order of play on number three court, which is not ticketed. So free for all. I suspect you have to get in there early.

1:00:43David Law:Court three, some of it was ticketed, you were telling me earlier. Yes. Is that right? Yeah, it's about half and half, but there's a lot of unreserved. Yeah, absolutely.

1:00:50Matt Roberts:Elsa Giacomo against Naomi Osaka, third on and Barbora Krejcik, if I hope she's not listening, you play Hannah Klugman, Barbora. she doesn't like to know who she plays until the day of, ideally. Court 12 tomorrow opens with Maja Chvalinska. That is where you said you were going to go.

1:01:07David Law:That is where I'm going to go.

1:01:09Matt Roberts:You floated Pagula's name before you decided on Chvalinska.

1:01:13David Law:One he was going to watch first, the other one's going to win the title. That's where we were, I think.

1:01:18Matt Roberts:Court 12, second on tomorrow, Oliver Tarvit against Arta Rindeknesh.

1:01:23David Law:Tarvit time, I'll be there.

1:01:24Matt Roberts:Karolina Mukova against Anastasia Zakharova is third on and then Brandon Nakashima taking on Jack Pennington-Jones. Belinda Bencic up against the Brit Mika Stoj Savlevic, first on 18. Tommy Paul is second on. Joel Fonseca against Roberto Bautista Agu is third on. That's got to be an upset watch, I think.

1:01:46Catherine Whitaker:Yes, I think so. I mean, Bautista Agu in his final year is a good grass quarter. has been to the semis here at Wimbledon. And yeah, interesting choice, court 18 for that one. Like, you know, it's not, it's not the biggest court. I would say normally it's not sort of big enough for Fonseca, but actually I think it's quite an interesting choice. You know, you can get people coming up here on the roof and watching it over the sides. You can create a real atmosphere on 18. And I think it's, I sort of saw it and thought, oh, I don't know if that's going to work for Fonseca. Then I thought about it and I thought actually that, that could be, that could be brilliant.

1:02:20Matt Roberts:Leila Fernandez against Janice Chen is last on 18 tomorrow. I do love a two-day round one. A hard launch on the Monday.

1:02:29Catherine Whitaker:Yeah.

1:02:30Matt Roberts:I just, I know where I am with this order of play. I really like it.

1:02:34Catherine Whitaker:And it's really helpful this year that it's the top half in both the men's and women's draw on the opening day.

1:02:40Matt Roberts:It's really helping with my bandwidth issues. Marco Trangiliti, David, is first on court five. David's got a nickname for him that he's going to try and make happen if Trangiliti can make himself relevant enough. so he's got quite a lot riding on Marco.

1:02:56Catherine Whitaker:I'm quite enjoying how the order of play is saying Martin Dam rather than Martin Dam Jr. Yeah.

1:03:03David Law:His dad's going to... He's doing a Serena.

1:03:07Matt Roberts:No one's talking about him. He's had his thunder stolen by Serena Blumen-Williams.

1:03:12David Law:Well into his 50s. He's up for it.

1:03:15Matt Roberts:Martin Lander-Luthe is on court five tomorrow. Oleksandra Olenikova and Diana Stremska against Awi Ito. Oh, yes. Yeah, that's fun. And I suspect that's where you'll see Pam Shriver courtside tomorrow, if you fancy a bit of Pam spotting. Bianca Andreescu is second on court six tomorrow. And the other match that I wanted to pick out from the order of play is Stefanos Tsitsipas. He's here somewhere. I'm sure he plays tomorrow.

1:03:44David Law:Court 16. He's here somewhere tells a story, doesn't he?

1:03:47Matt Roberts:Yeah. Yeah, quite a lot of scrolling there. He's second on court 16 against Hugo Gaston. And the reason I wanted to mention Stefanos Tsitsipas is because we had the news a couple of hours ago broken by Vicky Georgiatou in Sports DNA, the Greek publication that Stefanos Tsitsipas has divorced professionally from his father, Apostolos, he says, for good this time. the quotes these are through google translate so you know just bear that in mind but the quotes say the older i get the more difficult it is for me to maintain a stable relationship with my father compared to when i was a kid 18 19 20 years old i believe that my father needs other things just as i need other things i felt it in the daily energy of our collaboration i feel that we have reached a point where i'm now looking for something completely different i've been feeling lately that having my father by my side brings me comfort, but is not the solution for me to take the next steps and do something different in my career.

1:04:51Matt Roberts:Of course, I love him very much and want the best for him, but right now I'm thinking about myself and what is best for me. Hope it sticks.

1:05:02David Law:Yeah, I wish him well, really. It's hard to believe, really, when you think of the age he is and the way he used to be ahead of Zverev, say, and he used to beat him all the time, and now Zverev's a Grand Stam champion and three in the world and Sitsapas is just nowhere. It's really sad. And I hope he can find something, find somebody that will work for him.

1:05:28Matt Roberts:Absolutely. I think he's working, at least in the interim, with somebody from the Morotoglu Academy that he's always had close ties with. So he's got somebody, but yeah, I agree. I wish him well. folks that is it for preview content there is nothing more except to get going which I am excited for but I also just love this period of

1:05:51Catherine Whitaker:living in the anticipation yeah I love it so much

1:05:55Matt Roberts:especially when it's so quiet when Matt took me this walk around

1:05:57David Law:I was like a kid and that was David's second tour of the day David had led a tour himself and then Matt showed me places I'd never been to it's awesome

1:06:08Matt Roberts:This is, yeah, it's Christmas Eve, isn't it?

1:06:11Catherine Whitaker:But it is great when the gates open and number one in the queue comes in. And yeah. Ladies and gentlemen, that's all to come tomorrow.

1:06:23Matt Roberts:All with Phoebe, our wonderful mascot. This is a particularly special photo of Phoebe,

1:06:28David Law:who looks like she's smiling in her sleep, which is very relatable stuff.

1:06:33Matt Roberts:It says, what have we got here? Phoebe is dreaming of how good day one is going to be. Very appropriate. Phoebe gets it. Hello to our mascots. Hello, Bodie. Hello, Maisie. And hello, Roger. Hello to our top folks and executive producers, Greg, Chris and Jeff. Matt, let's have some Wimbledon Eve shout outs.

1:06:54Catherine Whitaker:We have Amy Graham from Vancouver, Washington, USA. Hi, Amy. Hello, Amy. and Amy says this is also a shout out for my partner Avi he might not be into tennis as much as I am but he's always supportive of my tennis obsession and we always have the tennis podcast on during our road trips with our Australian cattle dog Ray

1:07:22Matt Roberts:I love hang on is an Australian cattle dog you'll be shocked

1:07:27Catherine Whitaker:to know

1:07:28Matt Roberts:is an Australian cattle dog the same as an Australian shepherd I think it is

1:07:33David Law:I love that you're asking Matt.

1:07:34Matt Roberts:But an Australian Shepherd is one of my absolute faves. Jessica Begula's dog is one of those. A miniature Australian Shepherd, I believe. And one of my favourite tennis dogs. So I hope they are the same. But if they're not, I do also love Australian cattle dogs, I'm sure.

1:07:52David Law:One of these days she's going to turn to you and say, I don't really like those sort of dogs. They're a bit duffers, aren't they? Duffers.

1:08:00Catherine Whitaker:No, she won't. Catherine would never use that language. No, never.

1:08:04Matt Roberts:You'd be able to see it in my eyes. Amy like Amy Frazier. Very good, David.

1:08:09Catherine Whitaker:Yeah.

1:08:10Matt Roberts:Very good. Thank you, Amy.

1:08:11Catherine Whitaker:And Amy and Avi just have Wimbledon left on their fan slam journey. Come, Amy.

1:08:17Matt Roberts:Look at it. It's amazing. Yeah. We'll see you here one day, Amy and Avi.

1:08:22Catherine Whitaker:And finally, we have Colin Davies from South Shropshire.

1:08:27Matt Roberts:Oh.

1:08:28Catherine Whitaker:Right, Colin.

1:08:29Matt Roberts:Where I was born. Well, in Shropshire.

1:08:31Catherine Whitaker:Shrewsbury? Shrewsbury

1:08:33Matt Roberts:Both I say Shrewsbury but apparently both are goers Right Yes

1:08:39Catherine Whitaker:and Colin says I've loved tennis since I saw Stan Smith beat Illy Nastassi in the Wimbledon final of 1972 I wanted Nastassi to win Colin says I only discovered your podcast last year Tell David I lived in Solihull for 25 years Good lad Cole And don't tell Matt I'm a lifelong supporter of the other club in Fulham. I don't know what Colin's talking about. Which club's that? There's only one team in Fulham.

1:09:08David Law:Is that Brentford? It's Chelsea.

1:09:10Catherine Whitaker:Oh.

1:09:13Matt Roberts:He just choked on his own laughter.

1:09:17Catherine Whitaker:Just the mention of Chelsea. Colin like Colin Fleming.

1:09:20David Law:Yes.

1:09:20Matt Roberts:Very good.

1:09:21David Law:Contemporary of Jamie Baker.

1:09:23Matt Roberts:Yeah.

1:09:24David Law:You could have come up with Colin, couldn't you? You came up with Bonnie.

1:09:29Matt Roberts:well David you've led me perfectly to our final bit of business for the show I think we've got to name this thing we've got to make it official

1:09:39David Law:Ted Perry I reckon

1:09:42Catherine Whitaker:yeah I mean originally I was keen on the football theme but I do think Ted Perry is so good we weren't very good last night let's be honest

1:09:53Matt Roberts:I'm not having that that's not you've turned me off now you're making me want to make an argument out of it

1:10:01David Law:big surprise

1:10:04Matt Roberts:this if we do go with Ted Perry it is not a reflection of our views of the England football team that is the conditions on which I will agree

1:10:12Catherine Whitaker:yeah sure absolutely I just think I love that Vicky came up with it as well

1:10:16Matt Roberts:I just think Ted Perry is hard to ignore as a stroke of genius isn't it

1:10:21David Law:we had a photo taken with the Fred Perry statue we did didn't we

1:10:25Catherine Whitaker:on our tour yeah

1:10:27Matt Roberts:that'll be on our Instagram if you want to want to give us a follow

1:10:29David Law:that's a sign isn't it

1:10:31Matt Roberts:okay everyone alright with Ted Perry yep you alright with Ted Perry Matthew yeah cool it's not it's not enthusiastic not as enthusiastically

1:10:41Catherine Whitaker:as you

1:10:41Matt Roberts:what's the matter with everybody it's a great name gaslit me about Jessica Baguda yeah I think that's I was expecting a bit more Jamie's reaction has taken me aback a bit I know

1:10:51David Law:great interview Jamie but

1:10:54Matt Roberts:Yeah. I thought he'd go, oh, yeah.

1:10:58Catherine Whitaker:Slam dunk. Yeah, one of Wimbledon's legends. And he was like, fine. Yeah, Bonnie.

1:11:05Matt Roberts:Bonnie's out, Jamie. Sorry about that. It's Ted Perry. We and Ted, folks, will be back tomorrow. This is how it works throughout the Wimbledon fortnight. We are here at the end of play on the show courts. We said a not-before-9pm time, so you know that it'll never be before 9pm but from 9pm onwards be alert for signs that we're going live. We make it as easy to find out as possible. We put it on our Instagram as soon as we have our time. We send out an alert to all our newsletter subscribers that is free to subscribe to. The link to do that is in our show notes and in our YouTube notes. What else do we do, David?

1:11:44David Law:We do Tennis Podcast Meets is what we do. I'm still doing the promo just now.

1:11:50Matt Roberts:just hold your horses that's another problem

1:11:52Catherine Whitaker:we tell friends directly

1:11:54Matt Roberts:we tell friends directly and friends get tennis

1:11:57Catherine Whitaker:for a curse meet

1:11:58Matt Roberts:no there was one more thing hit that like and subscribe button on YouTube and you can get alerts for when we're going live

1:12:07David Law:can you?

1:12:08Matt Roberts:I didn't know that yes you can get notified when we're going live that's the best thing to do if you want to join us live on YouTube

1:12:14Catherine Whitaker:I have those on for our own channel just in case we accidentally go live when we're doing a test, which we have done. So we can shut that down as quickly as possible.

1:12:24Matt Roberts:Yeah. If you can't wait till then, David has something to tell you about.

1:12:28David Law:Yeah, there's this thing called Tennis Podcast Meets where I loiter about in the press area and pop into little interview rooms and have conversations with all sorts of tennis players. I think we spoke to seven. Yes. Seven players, six of them me. Six of them. And one of them you two together. You're double teamed. But it was worth it.

1:12:47Matt Roberts:It's a tradition now. Yes.

1:12:49David Law:And actually, look, these are, even if I do say so myself, I think there's some great conversations there. You learn some stuff about players that maybe you wouldn't know and you get to know them. The idea is for you to get to know them in a sort of slightly more relaxed setting. And I also asked Korentan Moutet about the seven F words that he said in his Queen's interview and his reaction to the reaction.

1:13:13Matt Roberts:And no one else was there to ask him. I thought there might be quite a lot of Brits in that. press conference. I know there's a lot of other stories kicking about, but David's got the exclusive on that. So that is up now for Friends of the Tennis Podcast. If you'd like to become a friend of the pod, then the link is in our show notes. Folks, that is it for our final preview of Wimbledon 2026. We will be back tomorrow, not before 9pm, at the end of play on the show courts. We are part of the Athletic Podcast Network. We are here for the next 14 days of Wimbledon live from this incredible position overlooking the grounds.

1:13:51Matt Roberts:Thank you for listening. We'll speak to you tomorrow.