Madrid - Sabalenka stopped, but what about Sinner?

30:03The men in Madrid are at the semi-final stage. We have Yannick Sinner against Artifis in the first semi-final. Both of them unbeaten on clay this season. And then we have the surprise package of Alexander Blocks. More on him in a moment, taking on the two-time former Madrid champion, Alexander Zverev, in the second semi-final. Let's talk Sinner and Fies. David, how big a chance do you give Art of Fies here? Both unbeaten on clay, tantalising. Yeah. I mean, look, I think Sinner is the heavy favourite. Obviously, he will be on paper, and I do think he is. I think he does things that could unsettle Feast.

30:52It'll be very interesting to see that in this current year, you know, with, as you say, Feast playing his best stuff, but also Sinner being another level altogether to when they played each other previously. What are the things he does that will unsettle him? He'll get him off balance. Not that Feast isn't a good enough athlete to deal with that. I think it's more just, you know, he does usually, he's used to settling into a back-end cross-court exchange and then trying to get his forehand going and dominating with that. Sinner just doesn't give players chance to do that. You know, we saw it in the Rafael Hodder match.

31:29You know, the power that Hodder has was difficult to invoke because he's not got his feet under him against Yannick Sinner. because Sinner's so often going down the line, both forehand and backhand, and he's got a great drop shot. He's become... Do you know, there was a moment in the Sinner match the other day when I think Matt referenced Carlos Alkraus. I think the two of you were talking about that. He's doing Carlos Alkraus things. He was. It was the drop shot followed by the backhand, the improbable angled backhand. Yes, it was to save a break point. To save a break point, absolutely. It was almost indulgently brilliant because there were probably other ways he could have hit that shot and he went for the touch backhand and there was the volley-knifed backhand cross court that hits the line.

32:24It's just unreal touch that he has. Do you know the person that he reminds me of more is Novak Djokovic because Djokovic, I think, is more like him anyway in terms of his fundamental game. And Djokovic developed all of these other layers, these other skills on top and became this master craftsman around the court. His understanding of the geometry of the court is pretty much unmatched to my mind, Novak Djokovic is. And I think that Sinner is developing this and becoming more and more difficult to beat. Which is fascinating, isn't it? Because one of the old adages of tennis is you can't really learn touch.

33:12Okay, you can learn angles and geometry and stuff, but Yannick Sinner's touch has improved. I remember seeing him play Daniel Medvedev in Miami a couple of years ago. back in the, it was at the tail end of Yannick Senna being unable to beat Daniel Medvedev. Remember those days? It wasn't that long ago. And I was there for this. It was my, one of my last tournaments for Amazon. And, you know, Daniel Medvedev was 400 metres behind the baseline. Yannick Senna was like, seems like a good idea to drop shot him, which it is a good idea to drop shot Daniel Medvedev. His drop shots were crap. He just didn't have the touch for them.

33:56And, OK, he's not Carlos Alcaraz, but that's the highest possible bar. His touch is really good. It's so impressive what he's done. There are actually drills that we're seeing of him practicing his drop shots. And I wonder whether ahead of that Daniel Medvedev match all those years ago, whether his practicing of that drop shot ahead of Medvedev was consigned to one day. Whereas we know since the US Open last year, he said, no, no, this is my new thing. I'm going to be trying to work on stuff. I'm prepared to take losses to make the games in the long term. And he hasn't taken those. Right, no. No, it's incredible, isn't it?

34:42I mean, in his own way, Zverev said the same about trying to impose a game. You know, he said, I'm prepared to lose some matches to try to get a level that I've not had before. And I respect that. I think that's a great way to go. It can derail some players who maybe aren't good enough or aren't trusting enough in the moment. With Art of Feast, what he has is a puncher's chance. And what he needs to do is be able to settle. If he can settle and feel like he can win service games and get his timing. Because Sinner, the reason I think Sinner has so many lopsided scorelines. I mean, he beats people so often really easily.

35:26Because the moment they get on the court, he owns the thing. He's directing the play and they are just off balance and not able to do all the things they're good at. And he may do that to Fees. but I've seen Feast settle in a few matches the last few weeks like against Lorenzo Mazzetti and the bad ones have come against probably inferior players who he just hasn't really settled against once he settles his game is so heavy and destructive and his aura is so kind of cocky in a positive way that I actually think he could do some damage against Sinner he could do I think he will with Al Krause gone he's number one for aura in men's tennis yeah I'll defeat one of these days he will beat he will beat Sinner or Al Krause or both on clay I believe that I'm not sure it's yet but bloody impressive isn't it the guy has been back since February he's played what eight or nine tournaments and he hasn't he hasn't gone out before the quarter finals he's fourth in the race right now and he didn't even play the Australian Open.

36:41He prayed for times like these. He didn't even play the Australian Open, the year's only Grandstand tournament and he's fourth in the race.

36:53Just cycling back to Sina Hodar, just for a minute. Did well, Hodar, didn't he, to make it as competitive as it was in that second set and it really was competitive. Sina was having to pull some rabbits out of hats to win pressure points, eventually won it on a tie-break, lopsided 7-0 tie-break, a match that, in my opinion, was almost completely ruined by the roof being closed for it. Sorry to be a damp squib. That was a bad decision. It's a disgrace. It was sunny outside the whole time. They hurt Hodder with that. Yeah, they hurt Hodder. I mean, look, it was still a great atmos because it's that match.

37:35But closing roofs because of risk of possible rain is an absolute nonsense. On clay in particular, but on anything really. These roofs close so quickly. On clay, I can't think of a single defence of it really. It's a disgrace. And obviously it impacts my enjoyment in particular because I hate indoor tennis so much and I hate indoor clay. I'm glad we have the roofs for when it is raining. But it's not a pleasant roof in Madrid. It's not one that lets any natural light in. It's a very imposing, as you can imagine, the Caja Magica. No matter what Matt Futterman tries to tell you about its architectural beauty, it is a monstrosity, folks.

38:24Bless you, Matt. I knew he was going to have a pro-Magic box agenda. I did enjoy his take back. It's horrible. And obviously that's me being an architectural, you know, non-appreciator of art apparently. But it's horrible and it's purpose-built. That I think is what riles me so much about the Kaha Magikos. They could have built anything. It was purpose-built from scratch a few years ago. They could have done anything and they did that. Anyway, back to Khadar. Sina wrote in his message on the camera, after the match. What a player. Which is very clever because it's ingratiating yourself with the Spanish crowd, paying a huge compliment to Rafael Holdar.

39:11He's also paying himself a compliment, isn't he? Very Federer-esque. Like, what a player. I've just beaten you in straight sets. Well done, both of us. Are we definitely sure he wasn't referring to himself as what a player? That would be quite good. Maybe. No, he wasn't doing that, folks. just to be clear but that would be really baller i'd love that i know we've talked about it but it's funny like i go into that match thinking oh i'm i feel i'm going to come out of this mostly thinking about hoda right i know about yannick sinner i'm interested in what hoda is going to bring here and yet i came out of it i was impressed with hoda i think he did really well he handled the occasion he pushed he pushed in a way but it's like the story it's like it's what men's tennis is doing at the moment you you think about someone else and then you end up thinking oh how good are sinner and alcaraz because that passage of play from sinner from three he was three four fifteen forty down and he barely missed a ball for the rest of the match it was just an absolute clinic you know and like a perfect like free demonstration for Hodder about everything that he can work on and improve in order to get to that level as we said Sinner's touch his drop shots he's hitting at the end of his range I think that's one of the things that Matt Futterman was hinting at there you know with Hodder when he gets on the run okay he might make a winner but he might also like blast it long Sinner is so good and this is a very Djokovic trait I think Sinner's maybe even better at it being stretched out wide on either wing and still managing to hit with great pace on his shots that it's remarkable how he does that depth to suffocate hollar and then just generally like the very just cold ability to just bring it under pressure you know like it's all very well being able to play good points all these people can play good points sinner can do it when he needs to do it and he's done it time and time again and yeah i think i think matt futterman's report wrote they hit one unforced error on the back end all match and he switched up his return position right at the end of the match became a bit more aggressive crowded the baseline put some doubt in Hodder's mind it was it was remarkable how how Sinner turned it on and that's that's what makes it so tantalizing today against Feast because I agree with David I think Feast is going to bring it I think he's going to I think he's going to worry him and he's going to shake him I think that power is enough to to hurt anyone but then I'm also just waiting for what Sinha does in response to that and that is kind of exciting as well did seeing as Alcaraz has got a couple of mentions we all saw the absolutely adorable footage of him going going out with his family to watch his younger brother Jaime in the junior tournament that they have in Madrid greeted his parents like he hadn't seen them in months we know they all live together I fancy seeing you here it was adorable and of course he's got his big quite cumbersome wrist support on which looks alarming but of course it's to just immobilise the joint isn't it and to give it just total rest but he's got this sort of limp modified clap that he was doing for Jaime and he couldn't help himself from fist pumping He sort of instinctively was fist pumping for his younger brother.

42:44But you could see him sort of remember like, oh, I can't I can't really do that. Yeah, it was it was all incredibly sweet. Let's talk about the other semifinal. Alexander Blocks against Alexander Zverev. Matt, tell us about your guy.

43:05Well, what a run he's had. He's beaten Orjali Asim, Francisco Sarundolo and Kasparud, the defending champion, all of them in straight sets. And that's three top 20 wins in a row right there. Kind of, I first saw, I think, Bloch's play in person, actually. It was only a practice session. It was at the Davis Cup last year when he was there for Belgium in Bologna. And he wasn't picked to play the singles. You know, it was Collignon and Burks who played the singles. But blocks kind of caught my eye. It's kind of my failing, I think, as a tennis analyst, potentially, that I just always come away with an outsized impression of how good someone is, having seen them play in person.

43:51Do you know what I mean? Like, I'm never not impressed by the way these guys hit the ball and move. You know, it's why we ended up with the best player in the world bit for Thomas Mahatch, isn't it? Like, you can just get lulled in. And I watched blocks and I just thought, bloody hell, he's a big guy, he's like six foot four, and he just hits such a clean, big ball. So I just thought, OK, he's kind of one to watch next year. And he obviously played the next-gen finals. And, you know, he had a pretty good season. There was a reason he was on that Belgium-Davis Cup squad. But frankly, this little run he's put together on the clay has really just catapulted him to a new level.

44:31You know, he's basically next to Hothar now. the live rankings he's right there with him in terms of you know 30-ish in in the world with this run in madrid and he'd also qualified in monte carlo he beat caballi in monte carlo got to the last 16 there won a match in munich and this is all happening on clay where you wouldn't necessarily have thought that was his preferred surface i think a lot of his junior good results are on hardcore indoors and that makes sense to me he's got this massive serve an absolutely enormous serve and a huge forehand as well but what's impressed me actually is the the blend of his game you know I think he's he's prepared to rally when he needs to rally he's pretty solid off both sides his backhand is not really a weapon but he's prepared to use it to kind of go toe to toe from the baseline he's very disconcerting for opponents isn't he they don't they don't know what's coming off his racket from the back of the court.

45:29And he's also got some decent touch. There was a moment early on against Kasparud where he chased down a drop shot and responded with a counter drop shot as he slid into it and just had the softest hands to be able to just kill it. And I just thought, wow, okay, that's real skill as well as big power. And then he was pretty nerveless down the stretch. Okay, he had a couple of match points that rude saved really well so then he had to serve it out against rude and he came forward he had a drive volley had a huge inside out forehand it was he just stepped up in in that moment as well and he in his interview afterwards on sky he was saying no i don't think i'm better than these guys i don't i don't sort of have this outsized belief in myself but i totally think i'm there with them and i belong and it it kind of came across like there's a there's a sort of quiet confidence to him, I suppose.

46:24And yeah, this run through the clay has put him on the cusp of being seeded at the French Open in a few weeks' time. We need all these fun players to not get seeded for the sake of orangery fun. Yeah, just, you can get to like 40 in the world, but just put the brakes on for the sake of orangery fun, please. And I do think to Matt Futterman's point, Madrid is this slight outlier event I think that's a good way of looking at it as well in terms of like you know then we get into Rome and suddenly it's serious and this is totally French Open prep but Madrid is a bit different and the conditions are different and I know that I know that Baptiste has generally like she's been on the rise and has had a steady consistent rise over the last few years and especially this year but it's not a shock to me that like her best tennis gets played in Madrid you know I think it helps the serve I think it helps the forehand and I think similarly with blocks as well you know these are conditions which are good for him so I'm kind of coming out of this thinking yes absolutely excited about Baptiste and blocks I'm not not trying to knock their achievements or anything but I think if we're trying to be sensible and sensible analysts as well you have to think about where they're playing and how helped are they by the conditions And I do think those game styles just seem like they fit Madrid really well for both of them.

47:48Much like Zverev. I definitely think that's the case for Blocks. Not that he doesn't have success elsewhere on clay as well, lots of it. But Madrid is just a dream for Alexander Zverev, I think, isn't it? And he has been impressive, particularly last night against Caballi, who was disappointing. It continues to be a roller coaster being a Caballi guy. um blocks incidentally if you're thinking where do i recognize that name from um it's interesting seeing him sort of emerge at the same time as hodar because hodar obviously went the u.s college route he um has been studying and playing for virginia i think university um so he's kind of been in in incubation and emerged as this butterfly from a chrysalis whereas blocks we knew about from juniors.

48:37He went the playing lots of juniors route. He was junior number one. He won the Australian Open juniors in 2023, beating Lerner Tien in the final. And he was runner-up in the doubles that year, partnering Joel Fonseca. So that tells you what vintage he is and what cohort he's a part of. And he does seem to have that slow heartbeat thing, David, that you often talk about. Never too high, never too low. Takes things in his stride. So look, Zverev, heavy favourite, but you know. Yeah, I would have thought so. I mean, it's actually that Zverev is a really fascinating story the next few weeks because he uses his experience very well against these sort of players because he knows how to get over the line and outlast them and make them choke, make them miss.

49:33And Bloch's just, I mean, I had been struggling to get a handle on what type of player he was because I saw the Auger Liasse match and he hit six forehand winners to Auger Liasse's 13. And yet you beat him in straight sets and he's supposed to have a big forehand. So what sort of player is he? So very interesting to hear your dissection of his game. I'm entertained by the matter-of-factness of his answers in interviews. and um but there was an actually interesting story i saw on on social media an interview with i think a belgian tv station um talking about how asking him about splitting from his coach of 16 years philip cassier and it was really funny the way he just sort of said look i i can't talk about that um but i can confirm it's true that's uh oh so you're not going to talk about it but you are I could have absolutely confirmed the story.

50:31I don't know the reason for it, I think, is what he's getting at. It's hard to see for Philippe Cassier for him to have split from and immediately had this total breakout run of form. Or maybe it's all down to Philippe Cassier's work. That's a bit Ferreiro and Alcaraz going and completing the career slam, isn't it? It is one of the hard things of coaching. I don't know the circumstances of this one, but very often you'll see formative coaches doing an incredible job and then kind of not getting to live off the glory at the end. But anyway, he's a nice addition to the mix, isn't he? He's got Ruben Bemelmans in his box now, who I think is coaching him a little bit.

51:17I feel like we should have an honourable mention for Kasparud and Stefanos Tsitsipas and their backhand-avoiding, drama-fuelled final set tie-break of a match. Sitsapas had two match points, I think. Just an utterly heartbreaking defeat for him to defending champion Kasparud, who went on to lose to blocks in the following match. I mean, I suppose it's positives and negatives for Sitsapas, isn't it? This week has been some of the best tennis we've seen from him in a long time, But also a loss like that is going to bloody hurt. And these tournaments are opportunities for him, you know, big opportunities and ones that, frankly, if he still has the aspirations that he once had of achieving things in the sport, opportunities that he needs to take advantage of.

52:14and look it was an absolutely thrilling watch but it was tough from a Sitsapas perspective at the end I think we were all watching this in various different ways Matt I know you were watching this Yes we were playing our hold or break game with the athletic group chat which is kind of what we do when there's a big game and we're all watching it do we think they're going to serve this out or not I had too much faith in Tsitsipas I thought he was going to serve it out and look he's had a we've talked a lot about Tsitsipas he had a strange year because he's had some good performances in there and he's beaten Fritz, Medvedev, Dimonor, Bublik these are all pretty good wins and he was so close to beating Kasparud in some of his favourite conditions there as the defending champion in Madrid and yet I agree Catherine like you know the clay court season's running running out you know like we're almost at Roland Garros and this is his time of year where you thought okay maybe he might still be able to get something together on the clay because his game does still you know kind of suit that that surface it wouldn't wouldn't shock me if he schedules differently this year and maybe play some of those clay court events after after Wimbledon like that might be a smart move like he needs to get his ranking going in the right direction and clay does feel like the casparude swing it does feel like his best shot at that um i mean he was talking afterwards about like feeling like himself again on the court and i think generally it kind of was a a positive week he did look better his game looked better looked look more damaging you know i think we talk a lot about to surpass his weaknesses and the areas he hasn't improved and i think we're right to do that but the other thing as well is that he doesn't hurt players as much as he used to you know his his strengths are maybe not quite as effective as they used to be you know we used to talk about him having one of the best forehands in the world when was the last time when was the last time you would have thought that you know it feels like that shot has maybe regressed a little bit but it was doing a bit more damage there were some there were some good signs if you're if you're if you're trying to clutch and see them but yeah it's it's still a it's still a tough scene for him did you see the um footage that came out on social media of him on the practice court with both his parents okay i mean we know we know this i feel like i've seen it before yeah we know it we've seen it but and yet somehow it's still quite shocking and i just feel so sorry for him it was his dad's on the baseline with him he's serving i think and then his mum steps in to try and give some advice and then his dad tells his mum to pipe down and it's just grim.

55:03I mean, you just don't stand a chance with that going on. I mean, in the context of that, the fact that he's in the world's top 100 is pretty damn impressive, to be honest. So yeah, we wish him well. And he still came and did a one-on-one with Matt Futterman after that defeat. So good on him. funny enough just watching him i got the same feeling watching him as he describes it was like watching stefanositsipas some of the time this week and i and i missed that and i because i love watching him when he's playing well and i and listen i think it's going to take a long time if he's going to come back to kind of get over the demons of of how to how to win you know how to win the big matches that he used to do without too much trouble but look you've you've just got to do it step by step you've got to just try to feel like yourself again okay that is it for part two we will be back in part three with some bits and bobs of news away from madrid including emir adekanu coaching exclusive or what we think is an exclusive maybe hopefully Welcome back to part three of today's tennis podcast.

56:21Some news you might have seen by now, and it was being rumoured for a few days, but it is now confirmed Jack Draper is out of the remainder of the clay court season, including, of course, Roland Garros. And that means that his ranking will drop outside of the world's top 100. He said in a social media post, my knee is on the mend and I've started back hitting balls. but unfortunately I've been advised not to play Roland Garros. As gutting as it is to miss another slam, the advice is not to rush straight back into playing five-set tennis on clay. Off the back of the arm, injury I sustained last year.

56:59I've been restricted with my training, and by giving myself the time to heal and build, I can be the player I want to be out there once again. See you soon. It's a relief that he's being so cautious with these injuries, in spite of what I imagine is an absolute desperation to get back out on the tour properly. But the Jack Draper mood music is out of tune at the moment, isn't it? It's a tough situation. He's lucky, I think, that the Wimbledon cutoff is as early as it is. He should get into Wimbledon, but I don't think he's going to get into... I think he's going to need a wildcard or have to play qualies at the US Open because of when the cutoff for that is, unless he wins Wimbledon or something.

57:53Yeah, US Open wildcards, I think, are going to be interesting because we've got a lot of retiring players that are going to be asking for them. I think potentially one of them, Keanu Shikori, former finalist, of course, at the US Open. He's announced that this will be his final season. saying, I still wish I could continue my career, which is pretty heartbreaking, to be honest. So the US Open will be his final Grand Slam, as it will be for Stan Brinka. I imagine Grigor Dimitrov's going to... He's needing wild cards to get into Grand Slam main draws, or else he'll have to play qualifying. Interesting wild card situation emerging over the course of the summer, I would think.

58:40Don't give any of them wild cards. what Catherine's really thinking. Get them all in qualies. Get rid of the wild cards. Yeah, get them in qualies, yeah. Well, look, if we're going to have wild cards, I'm happy for all of those people to get them. But I don't... The thought of some being left out is not great. Bianca Andreescu didn't get one last year. Just throw that out there. Anastasia Sevastova who also had some great results at the US Open didn't she I really associate her with that Grand Slam in particular she has announced her retirement again she first retired back in 2013 but she came back reached the quarterfinals of the US Open in 2016 and 2017 and then the semi-finals in 2018 career high ranking of 11 one of those really underrated tennis players, I think, and had some incredible peaks.

59:42So we wish Anastasia Sevastova a happy retirement. And finally, in our news section, we have been contacted by a tennis podcast listener who tells us that they have seen Emma Raducanu training with Andrew Richardson, the coach with whom she won the US Open in 2021. David, tell us more. Yes, this very much came out of the blue and into my email inbox. We were told where this took place, where she was seen practicing with Andrew Richardson in Spain. And that information does tally with where we understand Richardson has been based for a few years now basically since he finished working with Emma Raducanu coaching his son in recent years as the head coach there look we haven't had this information confirmed and also even if it is confirmed we don't know whether it's actually a meaningful development other than you know they may just be practicing together for a bit don't know.

1:01:01I did put it to Raducanu's representative a couple of times in messages over the last week just to ask if it was accurate and for any comments on it and I have not received a response to those messages despite them seemingly having been read. Now most of the time I do get a response from that particular agent so whether you can read anything into that who can say um that's all we can say really uh right now because we haven't been able to get any more on it um but it certainly hasn't been shot down either um so it's one to keep an eye out for not only because radicano's i mean she's always an interesting talking point on a coaching level because she's had so many of them since she won that us open with andrew richardson he was there by her side when she won it as a qualifier um he actually did an interview i Their relationship ended basically a couple of weeks after he was by her side when she won that tournament.

1:02:00And he did an interview with our late and much missed colleague Mike Dixon in the Daily Mail back in 2023, did Andrew Richardson. And he said at the time that he'd hoped to continue working with her after that US Open win, and they'd begun negotiations. And then he received a call from her agent the following week to say that she wanted to go in a different direction. so he then embarked on on an on a new career basically um as a head coach at this club and obviously his son's a promising junior too and he was coaching him so but because of their history because she she hasn't been able to reproduce that success despite having a lot of coaches and obviously a lot of injuries as well, it's inevitably an interesting development if indeed they have been training together.

1:02:55So we watch this space with interest. Especially in light of what she has told us and made very clear that she wants to get back to playing how she played as an 18-year-old when she won the US Open. Obviously, she wants to get back to those results, but she wants to get back to that style of playing, which she'd really, really drifted from, most notably with Francisco Roig. So it's really fascinating. I love it when players get back together with ex-coaches. Going back to your ex is one of life's risky and fascinating experiments. So we will watch that situation closely. in terms of us we of course will be back with our next show to wrap up Madrid talk about the finals talk about everything that is going to unfold over the next three days and that show will be live on Sunday night at 8pm UK time or if the men's final is a thrilling four hour epic then the final that our show will be whenever that final finishes but it is planned for 8pm UK time that'll be live on YouTube.

1:04:14We will send out the link in our newsletter. We will pop it on our Instagram or you can just follow our YouTube channel and then you never have to miss anything if you want to join our shows live. It'll be up shortly after as a podcast as well, of course. We also have a friend show next week on Wednesday night. That is a Q &A show, 6th of May, 8pm UK time, live on YouTube as always and up as a podcast. So if you want to join us for that, then the link to become a friend is in our show notes. And I didn't write this. I assume this was either Matt or David. But the agenda says, go and have a watch of Catherine's quiz on Instagram.

1:04:57Is that because you won the quiz, David? Well, I mean, it's definitely contributes. Yeah. If you want to see some very unexpected David winning a quiz content, then our Instagram is the place to go, folks. especially given the content content of that particular quiz if you're feeling down about ai um and and the the evils therein and look i'm not saying this content cancels all out all of those evils but it might make you feel a bit better about the upsides of ai is that enough of a tease that's pretty good yeah i mean it's no surprise that i've cut i've come up with it after the one that I won having not won the previous two Matt I don't know where this idea has come from that David is not good at tennis quizzes like David knows more about tennis that idea has not come from me I just wasn't expecting him to be good at this tennis quiz the world but David David loves the drama really and lived through the 90s and all the all the tennis celebrity breakups.

1:06:08David loves it. David lives for tennis. David's good at quizzes. I waited it towards the 90s just for you, David. I thought that. I did think there's a couple of things going on here that Matt just wasn't alive for. And I feel like this is being skewed in my favour and I'm all for it. Yeah, well, you know. We have not one but two mascots for this episode. Introducing Archer and Dot, who are owned by Greg and Beth. And this mascot-dom is a gift for her brother and sister-in-law from Greg's sister, Rachel. So it's a gift from Rachel to Greg and Beth. Is that right, Matt? Is that how you've interpreted that?

1:06:59Yes. And Archer and Dot are Greg and Beth's dogs. Archer is a red doodle and Dot is the party doodle. I don't understand that, but I'm obsessed with it. Archer was the OG pre-Greg. So before Greg came along, it was just Beth and Archer. and they welcomed the crazy, energetic and lovable Dot to the family a few years later. Archer and Dot commute between Boulder, Colorado, where their dad works part time, and Colorado Springs, where their mum works and lives. They love tennis balls, all balls for that matter, and are avid fans of the tennis podcast and tennis in general. Both are a joy and they love their Aunt Rachel.

1:07:49And I'm looking at a picture of them here where they're snuggled up on the couch a very comfortable looking couch by the way and they are nuzzled forehead to forehead and I could I could weep at the beauty of this photo so that is a lovely thing Rachel for you to have done for Greg and for Beth and for Archer and for Dot and I'm going to be googling red doodle and party doodle immediately after this. Hello to our mascots, Bodie, Maisie and Roger. Hello to our top folks and executive producers, Greg, Chris and Geoff. Matt, let's have some shout-outs. We have Stefan Kapolak from Seattle, home of the Seahawks, Stefan Wright.

1:08:37Yeah, great. And if you're watching us on YouTube, Stefan, you'll see that David is appropriately dressed for your shout-out. I mean, David is always wearing an item of Seahawks match. I could have a different outfit every day of the week with Seahawks. He's got his neck pillow for the play. It's not just clothes, is it, David? You've got accessories too? No, no, no. No, I'm fully kitted for life. I've rescued that neck pillow before. Yeah. What do we know about Stefan? Very good tennis name. Stefan would like to dedicate this shout out to my bestie John he says who's a new tennis podcast friend and a lifelong friend of Stefan Stefan says he always beats me in tennis but I love it every time Stefan consider it done and hello John welcome to the party Cheers Stefan Hi John We also have Jim Session from Melbourne Hello Jim Hi Jim Jim says Fulham fan here so a question for Matt is Harry Wilson's left foot the closest football comparison to the Anissim over backhand it's a great question I think I think we're too biased in favour of Fulham Jim you know when like next season when Harry Wilson scoring those left footed goals for Aston Villa having left on a free probably not going to be so into them you know but the fact he does them for fulham they do give me similar similar feelings of joy yes i see where you're coming from jim

1:10:26like jim parsons our listener jim courier oh jim courier

1:10:39but yeah hi Jim Parsons our listener Jim Currier who started the rumour about the shrimp yeah thank you Jim and finally we have Heather Day hello Heather alright Heather Heather says last spring I shared with the pod my overwhelming delight at getting to see my beloved Carlos Alcarez at Roland Garros, which was the first match I had ever seen live. This year, I went to Indian Wells for two days with two tennis friends from Seattle. Tennis, especially through your pod, brings me joy and I would not be going on these trips if it were not for you. Thank you, Catherine, David and Matt. That's lovely from Heather.

1:11:29That's so nice. Thank you, Heather. That is extremely lovely. And I'm sure Heather got this last time, but Heather Watson. Yeah.

1:11:42Heather, Jim, John and Stefan, thank you ever so much for your support of the Tennis Podcast. If you'd like to become a friend, the link is in our show notes. We are part of the Athletic Podcast Network. We will be back on Sunday evening with our next pod. So thank you for listening. we will see you and speak to you then