Two weeks of triumph and trouble in tennis

17:21Matt Roberts:I think I was guilty of that too. But it's like, are they actually good or do they just have a single-handed backhand? Because that is so kind of, there's something so improbable about a single-handed backhand. It's like, well, you must be good if that's how you're choosing to play tennis, because it just instinctively feels like it requires so much more skill than a double handed backhand. Certainly to someone like me who has a double handed backhand and the thought of even attempting to hit a single hander is just bonkers to me. I will defer to the expert. Matt does the and the expert that is you're not typically a single-handed backhand guy I think you had there has been one on the list previously Victoria Golubich but she was lucky to be there I thought was the energy that you had around around Golubich when she was when she was graced with being list worthy how do you feel about the Lily Taggart backhand

18:26Catherine Whitaker:excuse me i sent a renowned times journalist at wimbledon to to write a piece on the best backhand at wimbledon about victoria golyovic as she promptly lost about 6-1 6-1 to madison keys in 50 minutes and was dumped from the list soon after um yeah no you're right i i don't i don't think i'm as seduced maybe as as some people are by a single-handed backhand i i like to appreciate the double-hander for its for its beauty as well but we are monitoring the list the list is monitoring the lily tagger backhand and it does stand out on on the women's tour more but i i would be hesitant because i don't think actually the backhand is the biggest weapon i

19:19Matt Roberts:I was going to say, surely the problem here is that she's got a really good forehand.

19:23Catherine Whitaker:The forehand's great.

19:24Matt Roberts:Matt loves a stinker of a forehand and a great backhand. That's the winning combo for Matt Roberts.

19:34Catherine Whitaker:She's also tall, Lily Taggan. She's got a nice serve, which is doing a lot of good for her, I think. I think it's actually her forehand and her serve that are really the weapons in her game. but it's the backhand that is the reason why she stands out and everyone is excited. If she'd had the results she had and had a double-handed backhand, I don't think we'd be doing this section right now on Lily Taggart. Do you know what I mean? Yeah. But I think it's okay that she stands out because it is notable that she has a single-handed backhand. That is a dying art, especially on the women's tour.

20:09Matt Roberts:And she's coached by Skiavone. Exactly. Who also had one, obviously. And she's a junior Grand Slam champion, isn't she? she won French Open Juniors last year. So you're always kind of looking out for those names.

20:26Catherine Whitaker:Interestingly, Kraychikova gave an analysis of the backhand and thought that it's going to be most effective at this stage on slower surfaces. She thinks that actually that technique can be rushed a bit more on the quick surfaces. And that probably bears out with the results she's had so far coming on the indoor clay. And then I think it was pretty, pretty slow conditions in Prague. Whereas she didn't, she didn't do much over the grass court season, for example, but then it'd be interesting to see if she can bring her slice into play on those, on those quicker surfaces. So yeah, she's up into the top 50 and absolutely is a good, a really good name to be looking out for heading into the U S hardcore swing.

21:12Matt Roberts:We also had Tamara Korpach winning a home title in Hamburg. last week so uh those are your women's results outside of washington david looks like he's got

21:22David Law:something to say about tomorrow well patch i i i'll be i'd be lying if i said i saw the run i was on holiday with my factor 50 on uh but i did see her sort of celebration selfie which just made me light up as much as she seemed to be lighting up she she definitely makes you go on the journey with her for good and bad and i i kind of like tamara court i think she's fun yeah i do too

21:52Matt Roberts:bit chaotic which which we like uh in terms of the men's results starting with uh this most recent week the atp 250 in los cabos won by another french arter arter gaya he beat dennis who was the defending champion 6-3, 6-4 in the final. I saw Gil Gross tweeting a sort of quirky stat about Denis Shapovalov, which is that most of his points come from this area, this 500 square mile area on the globe, which covers Dallas and Los Cabos, because that is sort of the only place, those are the only places he seems to win tennis matches these days. But a fantastic week for him. Well done, tennis. And an even better week, David, for Artur Gere.

22:47Matt Roberts:I mean, on the men's side, I mean, I know this has kind of been the story with French men's tennis for a long time. Great depth, nobody at the top winning the Grand Slam titles. But I mean, it very much is the case right at this moment. I mean, they've got depth in Arthur's alone. Bonkers.

23:09David Law:Yeah, I can think of four straight off the bat when Rindy, Knesset, Kazo, Fies and now Jaya. And, I mean, yes. We've stolen a fairy. We've stolen a fairy, absolutely. And he seems to be the best one. So, you know, in a week when Fies made his sort of first hardcore appearance and played a very competitive match against Rafael Hodder in the first round and then had to leave the court for another medical timeout. You know, he's the one that they're still hoping is the breakout guy. I mean, I think further down the line, Moyes Kwame is definitely one they would hope to come into that conversation.

23:52David Law:Jaya doesn't have that sort of hype. You know, this is a guy who lost to Henry Searle in his run to the Wimbledon junior title. You know, he wasn't making the very latter stages of junior events. He sort of built it up. But, I mean, he is only 21. So this is, you know, quite a breakthrough week. It's got him, his win in the semifinals got him into the top 100 for the first time. And actually the guy he beat in the semis was Coleman Wong, who in the previous round had got himself into the top 100 for the first time. So those were lovely sort of milestone moments for them. And Jaya's route to the final alone, I mean, it was eventful.

24:35David Law:He lost two epic tie-breaks along the way. One in the first round against Su Woon Kwon, 10-8 in the second set, and still came back to win the third 6-2. Then he played Francisco Sarundolo, and he lost a first set 13-11 tie-break, came back and won the decider 6-love. And then after he'd had a really close first set tie-break against Wong, won that 9-7 his game went to a totally different level i mean i was i was sort of watched the highlights of all the matches to try to get a sense of what sort of player jay is and he's he's solid he's a really good mover he's got sort of nice he's he's classic i'm afraid the stereotypes are going to come out he's classically french and that when you if you hit a drop shot to him he's often got a flair full answer and and he will come up with a solution but i was watching it thinking well yeah but how do you how do you hurt people off the baseline with this game i you seem to be almost outlasting people really and then he just hit hit a turbo boost on his game particularly in the final his forehand went into a another zone of pace and and not other people who've watched more of him may say, well, yeah, that's normally how he plays.

25:52David Law:It really took me aback seeing what he did to Shapovalov in the final and in the second set against Coleman Wong. He was just throwing his body into the forehand and dictating. So, yeah, I just love these weeks where you get winners who've just done something they've never done before and the look on their face, you know, and the connection between them and their coaching team people who've been putting all this work in to try to try to build the foundations and then suddenly it all comes to fruition um so good on him interesting how you mentioned the

26:29Catherine Whitaker:coaching setup he's the he's the second second guy in quick succession to win a first title having just been unexpectedly dumped by their coach he was coached i saw this in le keep he'd been coached by Jürgen Meltzer's brother, Gerald Meltzer, who dumped him after Wimbledon qualifying. It was apparently totally out of the blue.

26:55Matt Roberts:Did he get on a plane to Miami and post about it on Instagram?

26:58David Law:With a champagne glass?

27:00Matt Roberts:Mariano Puerta style.

27:02Catherine Whitaker:I get the feeling Gerald Meltzer's a bit more low-key than Mariano Puerta, but it was the same sort of vibe. But, yeah, apparently Jaya was really left shocked by this but turn to someone, kind of as David said, who he's known for a long time, someone who'd been part of the sort of French tennis set up, I think, who he'd known for a long time.

27:23Matt Roberts:That must just feel fantastic, getting dumped and then just levelling up immediately.

27:31Catherine Whitaker:It does feel like there might be something psychologically, you know, happening there in terms of how they've then been able to go to the next level. Yeah, it's hard to believe that that's an accident.

27:42Matt Roberts:isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. F you, Gerald Melter. That's what that title says.

27:52Matt Roberts:Not quite a, well, to be discussed in terms of people having a week where they've done things they've never done before. Bernard Tomic has popped up again in Los Cabos this week. Always eventful with Bernard. Does any, Matt, tell the people what he got up to this week in Mexico.

28:19Catherine Whitaker:Well, he withdrew from qualifying. Then he got in as a lucky loser. So right there and then there's those questions already, isn't there, about whether that should even be allowed.

28:31Matt Roberts:This is this nonsense is happening too much. It happened in Washington as well. somebody retired from their qualifying I can't remember who it was Schweider wasn't it Schweider retired from his final round qualifying match against Cruz Hewitt and then got in as a lucky loser and played his first round I mean nonsense I know you can I don't know what the retirement was for maybe he like just had the shits or something and you can be fine Schweider had hand foot and mouth to play the next day oh crikey my nephews just had that that is highly contagious I hope he didn't do any joint press conferences with anyone

29:20Catherine Whitaker:I don't know what Tomek's reason was

29:23Matt Roberts:back to Tomek

29:24Catherine Whitaker:so after that hoo-ha he then won his opening match against a home player from Mexico 6-1-6-love in about 45 minutes

29:36Matt Roberts:he then beat Karen that was the quickest men's match at all level of the year that 6-1 6-1 wow

29:48Catherine Whitaker:from the guy who has been responsible for the quickest defeat in ATP history I believe so he then beat Hashinov like his best win in years years thrashed him 6-2 6-4 you're thinking okay he then plays Cameron Norrie and loses 6-1 6-love and I didn't see all of this match but the points I saw Tomek was I mean barely moving I mean

30:20Matt Roberts:oh it was a tank

30:21Catherine Whitaker:it was barely present it was a total tank I think he was one love 30 love up and then just barely moved or won another point in the in the entire match it was it was pretty farcical scene why would you play that out

30:39Matt Roberts:why wouldn't you retire i don't know i mean it's just textbook textbook tomic isn't it i suppose

30:45David Law:but it's weird as well because he he isn't ever present on the circuit now like he plays every week on the challenger circuit or trying to qualify you know i mean this is he's an interesting character isn't he i mean you know he's he's 33 years old now is is bernard tomic um and he is currently 160 in the world um you know he's been as high as 17 i mean that was that was 15 years ago when he was 17 in the world and then he sort of just disappeared didn't he off the circuit completely he looked like he'd completely lost interest i mean i guess he's probably not got much else to do or much else that he can do um he's tried some other things hasn't he's done

31:32Matt Roberts:some reality tv i think there was an only fans situation i mean he's won six six point eight

31:39David Law:million dollars in prize money in his career he's won a couple of hundred thousand this year you know he wins some matches he's still got this unpredictable game and sometimes he must really dig in because he's got he's got seven six and the third wins and stuff like that a pretty unglamorous destinations but yeah this was uh i mean and i always consider that he like he may not have been feeling well at all there was quite a prolonged conversation between him and nori at the net at the end where i got the sense he was trying to explain himself to nori um you know he might be insane look i just wasn't well or something like that you know i'm sorry about that i don't i don't know but uh but it seemed warm um but yeah he's an interesting character tomic that that he's still going along you know after this quite bizarre career of his yeah it's hard not to have sympathy for i mean totally

32:36Matt Roberts:abusive father look i know that's common in tennis and at some point you're an adult and it doesn't absolve your responsibility for your actions but you know even by tennis parents standards his dad was bad it was a harsh yeah yeah absolutely horrific um in terms of other men's events from the week prior we had luca van asch winning esteril which is a bit of an f you

33:02David Law:to david law because yeah luca van asch is a bit of a i don't know if we've ever said this on air

33:09Matt Roberts:before but when david's trying to sort of pluck a name you know how i always yeah he's david David's men's good draw, him and Federico Correa. Yeah.

33:21David Law:I mean, look, Correa's in a level of his own, right? He's the one who's...

33:26Catherine Whitaker:The thing is, the Van Asch thing is also related to Feast, isn't it?

33:31David Law:Yeah.

33:31Matt Roberts:David has a bee in his bonnet that people have grouped Luca Van Asch

33:37David Law:and Art of Feast together as two equivalent talents,

33:41Matt Roberts:which I'm not a Luca Van Asch defender. I'm a defender of the fact that I don't think anybody's ever

33:49Catherine Whitaker:talked about Luca Van Asch that way

33:51Matt Roberts:maybe they have in France maybe David's got some intel from Eric Salio that I haven't been across but I'm just not sure people have been trying to make Luca Van Asch happen in the way that David thinks they have

34:03David Law:I think that you're basing that on more recent times when Fies has been able to back up all of his well-placed hype with steadily improving results that have shown exactly why he's had all that hype in the first place. I definitely think when they first came along, it was Art of Feast and Luka Van Asch, the next generation of French player. And I would sometimes watch Luka Van Asch and I'd be like, I don't see it. I mean, not even getting any results, let alone what it looks like to the eye. Well, fair play. He's got some results this week. cousin he so good on him you know i take it and able to play that seems to be half the battle yeah i take that on the chin well done van ash

34:55Matt Roberts:and we also had content alice winning kitsch bill anyone got anything to say about that

35:01David Law:other than well done no i i don't have any i don't have any intel other than that he had some good wins along the way um and you know well done well done him um i'm afraid that was during my my uh my holiday week uh so so i'm not gonna lay claim to to massive amounts of knowledge however i can tell you uh that he beat alexander blocks in an absolute epic seven five in the third um to to win the title and he beat rublev as well i mean it's a great run really you know he beat Rublev in the quarterfinals. He beat Karina Busta the round before that. Hugo Gaston. You know, a bit of an all-French battle there.

35:43Matt Roberts:France have so many men's players, don't they? And so few female players. Like, that needs to be... I would hope people at the FFT are looking at that and trying to analyse it. I know it's not uncommon to have a disparity. in fact it's probably more uncommon to have sort of parity in representation across across men's men's and women's you know Czechia has a massive disparity in favor of in favor of women but for a grand slam nation with heritage in both the men's and women's game you know role models and all the rest of it and and resources in both sides of things that is it's an alarming disparity they have one wta player in the top 100 uh now france and uh yeah i don't know the stat on the men's but it feels like every other player is is french or italian uh and the atp an american i think yeah i think france and america make up a quarter of the men's top 100 now wow and they're in a very similar place aren't they in terms of

36:59Catherine Whitaker:you know this okay the strongest the strongest french generation was probably the one before this one but they didn't win a slam and they've had a good u.s generation currently but but haven't got a slam plenty of depth but just can't find that that slam champion on the men's side

37:18Matt Roberts:i know david wants to mention artifice right now but feels

37:25yeah instead he'll do a slightly sad face yeah i mean i listen it continues to be a worry

37:32David Law:about feast with the the fact that he plays a set and a half and then seems to get hurt but i don't i don't think from what i understand that he's he's not going to enter the tournaments coming up you know i mean look we've seen it with jack draper's situation is that just that it seems like this this load on the body really and they're trying to they're trying to get this sweet spot between playing but not playing too much and hurting themselves and you know it's what a nightmare

38:03Matt Roberts:yeah feast and draper practicing together and in montreal felt like a troll felt like a sort of tennis joke. Have a look at what you could have won

38:14David Law:tennis if these two were fit.

38:16Matt Roberts:Yeah. He's still honestly though injury prone Art of Feast still feels like their best bet to me for a major champion. Definitely. Okay that's it for your results round up. There is still a lot of stuff to cover though from the last two weeks in tennis so we'll be back in part two to talk about that. welcome back to part two of today's tennis podcast a lot of news to cover off in part two before we have a look ahead to uh the tournaments this week in canada in part three uh should we should we start with carlos alcaraz yeah let's let's do all things alcaraz well first and foremost we can talk about Alcaraz as a viable tennis player again on the basis of, oh really David?

39:10Matt Roberts:Well I was going to say on the basis of training footage we've seen over the past couple of weeks so first of all we saw the indoor training footage where he was starting to hit proper full pelt ground strokes again with the wrist unstrapped we had the news filtering through the Spanish press that he'd had some scans and they'd given him the all clear to start gradually building up the load in training. And then a few days ago, we had the drop of some outdoor training footage at the Carlos Alcaraz Academy where he really did seem to be going for it on the ground strokes. And we had a vamos. We had some new hair, which we will cover separately in just a moment's time.

39:58Matt Roberts:um i look maybe i'm maybe i'm seeing what i want to see david but i was very heartened by by what i saw they're telling us that the plan is for him to return in cincinnati cautiously they're still saying we're not going to take any risks if he's not ready doesn't play but that is plan a

40:17David Law:at the moment yeah and listen it'd be a bit um hypocritical of me to be getting excited about artifice on a practice court and not getting excited about Alcraz I suppose that's the thing it's just you're right, I mean look it's really encouraging the fact that he hasn't been doing anything like this since Barcelona so it's clearly trending in the right direction it's just I can't see it until he's there until he's on a court in a match as I I'm usually the last one who does the I'm not going to get excited thing because I because it'll only make the sort of heartache stronger uh when when it all goes wrong I usually don't do that I usually just go yeah let's just get excited let's get but I've got the shirt on that says pumped right now um on the back um but I think with Alcraz I'm just so wary of of the fact that tennis does need him i've i've tended to kind of slightly recoil when when you've said that in the past that tennis needs carlos alcrest like i've been quite protective of the rest of tennis and thought oh i'm quite enjoying this tennis without carlos alcrest and i am um but my god have i missed him the last four months and and and not just on a personal level i really feel that the tour has lacked something immensely and that's no slight on people like yannick sinner who's dominated i mean and he's he's wonderful but he's he's elevated by having his great rival but he's irreplaceable alcaraz and um and now i'm feeling a bit like that sort of i'm a bit scared to fully commit my excitement you you you're protecting yourself because you don't want to get hurt i know and i'm it's a new me it's a new side to me

42:23Matt Roberts:which makes me feel really out on the i know now i'm worried because i've let myself get quite excited by this by this practice footage especially because they've been so cautious and that makes me feel like right okay he wouldn't be doing this unless that wrist really had got the all clear now it's the sort of thing that could could recur it's it's inflammation of the the sheath in that part of the wrist that connects to the to the thumb apparently that injury can be known as golfer's thumb I do wonder if he has been um because there was a slam not that long ago where he was didn't he like play a round of golf with Andy Murray on an off day or something or maybe it was a 1000 but like I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing less Carlos Alcaraz playing golf uh footage on on Instagram I suspect want to look out for that yeah because definitely you know look I know it's good to be able to switch off and have things in your life that aren't just tennis but yeah i i do wonder if that's yeah it's not direct causation then

43:37Catherine Whitaker:yeah absolutely yeah no i i think you could well be right i think it would be also be interesting to know whether he's doing anything about tweaking his technique on his forehand or something i would have thought that they would look first at tennis things that they could potentially do because that's what he's doing most of the time i have to think that the the way hits the ball and the the speed and the force with which he hits the ball is probably more of the cause than the golf but the golf might not it's it's a less of a sacrifice than changing the

44:17Matt Roberts:best forehand in the sport isn't it to play a little bit less golf with andy murray but then

44:21Catherine Whitaker:but then he has said how important and we've talked about it he's he's liked getting in that rhythm of it's been his way of dealing with the pressure of being at the top of the sport and being Carlos Alcaraz he I think on the outside he's often worn that quite lightly but on the inside I think there has been a tremendous amount of pressure that he's felt there and finding the ways to cope with tour life has been one of the reasons why he's been able to flourish as he has done. So it is a tricky balance for him as he makes this comeback.

45:02Matt Roberts:Are you more with me on the excitement front, Matt? Are you letting yourself get excited? Yeah.

45:09David Law:Because how crass. I can't not be excited. So I'm the David Downer of the group. Yeah, but

45:15Matt Roberts:we know, David, first sign of a buzz cut and you'll be jumping in with both feet.

45:21David Law:Well, no question

45:22Matt Roberts:about it that actually okay so is this hair related reticence i mean it's a problem yeah okay let's do this folks so he does he does one of his now trademark instagram dumps which we all enjoy absolutely um and and with increasing frequency they do include hair updates he seemed to have been growing out a sort of mullet type situation which actually i thought looked quite good if you told me a few months ago Carlos Alcaraz is going to grow a mullet I'd have been concerned but he seemed to have been been pulling it off uh and then and then the next thing you know he drops a uh an an afro style cornrow reveal on his his instagram now I do need to declare something here and I resent Carlos Alcaraz for forcing me to declare this publicly.

46:20Matt Roberts:I have done this. 14-year-old Catherine, her birthday present was braids with cornrows, which I had done at a Reading-based Afro-Caribbean hair salon.

46:39Matt Roberts:I wouldn't do it now, to be clear.

46:43Catherine Whitaker:Yeah, you were a child.

46:44Matt Roberts:I was a child. Your parents? No. Look, it was a different time. I wasn't born in 2010. Look, I do, I don't know if regret is the right word, like I was, you know, 13, 14, but I absolutely wouldn't do it now. Like I do, I don't want to be the, it's not for it's not for for me to gatekeep and police what is cultural appropriation here but it it feels like cultural appropriation to me I think it's I think it's very innocent cultural appropriation that is very sort of forgivable not to be aware of um and I know I know this is sort of stripping all the fun out of it but i i do think it's a bit dodgy we've seen flavio caballi do it recently he posted a picture of it on his instagram he then deleted the picture of his instagram we don't know whether that means he's deleted the hair or just oh the hair's gone the

47:48Catherine Whitaker:hair's gone okay so much so that it makes me even wonder whether the picture was real you think he

47:54Matt Roberts:AI generated some cultural appropriation? Would that shock you? It would not.

48:02Catherine Whitaker:I don't know.

48:03Matt Roberts:Unfortunately, though, I don't think Alcaraz is AI generated.

48:09Catherine Whitaker:Oh, no, definitely not.

48:10Matt Roberts:No, okay. There we go. I've declared my situation. So if I'm getting cancelled, I'm going down with Carlos Alcaraz.

48:24Matt,

48:24Matt Roberts:your thoughts and feelings.

48:27Catherine Whitaker:You said it. You said it. I also think it looks bad. I think it's the first hairstyle that I can't get on board with.

48:38Matt Roberts:Victor Barber has done it. And look, I don't want to make this a Victor Barber problem, but that is specialist hair. And he's not a specialist in doing that type of hair. David?

48:55David Law:yeah I mean listen you've covered it all off I do think most likely Carlos Alcaraz is going to try out every hair imaginable between now and when he's 30 because I just think he's fascinated by it all and he's got this mane of hair he's got this incredibly thick hair that he thinks can do anything and I think he gets you know he gets bored yeah the sooner it's gone the better i i think in every way um i i think growing it long when he's when he's off was entirely appropriate i to just have a shaggy i'm not a tennis player look to him um but i but that's all the more reason to get rid of the whole lot on the day that he walks out for tennis again.

49:49Okay.

49:51Matt Roberts:Yep, I can get on board with that for all sorts of reasons. We have some coaching news in the tennis world. Some very intriguing Amanda Anisimova coaching news, Matt Roberts.

50:06Catherine Whitaker:Yes, leaked by Nick Saviano, former coach of Eugenie Bouchard. This was very odd. suddenly suddenly anisimova shares a photo to her story of her having a photo taken with nick saviano and the post accompanying that photo was good luck to amanda and coach rick fleashowers with the with the hard court season coming up and i was like huh what has nick saviano got this wrong or is amanda nissimova working again with rick fleas howers well i sent the photo to matt futterman matt futterman has checked with amanda nissimova's team and they confirmed and amanda nissimova herself has since confirmed and since been seen in toronto yes back with rick fleas howers the statement from the team was that it's just for the u.s hard court swing so these these few tournaments through to the end of the US Open and yeah let's see how it goes I mean I can understand why at the end of Wimbledon she felt like she needed a change it felt like she was in a similar place to what Emerita Khan it was in back at the start of the season where she'd just reached a point of no return with her forehand and that's not to say that you know It's not to say it was necessarily that coach's fault or that it wouldn't have developed into a better shot with time and all that kind of stuff.

51:46Catherine Whitaker:It's not to say he can't coach anyone else. It's just it felt like the wrong fit in the moment. And I'm not surprised that she's gone back. Well, no, I suppose I'm not surprised that the partnership ended. I'm surprised, I suppose, that she has gone back to Rick Vlieshawers, considering that they only broke up this year, that partnership. But it always seemed a bit hasty anyway that that coaching partnership ended. And getting back to the familiarity could be just what she needs right now. So we'll see.

52:19Matt Roberts:We've also had the textbook coaching carousel situation of two players that split with their coaches at the same time. One has snapped up the other's departing coach. So Yuri Lahechka is now working with Frederic Fontang, the longtime coach of Félix Auger Eliassime. They split up a couple of weeks ago. So we now have the Fontang-Lahechka partnership. Quite a lot of other sort of totally unrelated bits and bobs of news. I'm just going to power through them one by one. We had the International Tennis Integrity Agency release the full written verdict in the Marketa Vondroshova Independent Tribunal.

53:04Matt Roberts:We've all had a read of this. It doesn't, David, I don't know what your reaction to this was. It doesn't sort of reveal any major sort of cornerstone facts about the case, I don't think, that really changed for me how I feel about it. But I do think kind of optically from a sympathy point of view towards Marquetta von Droschever, it maybe is a bit damaging, the details of the case for her.

53:34David Law:Yeah, that was my takeaway from it. I mean, that's kind of like what was explained upon her putting her side of the case across publicly, the way she did. And the tribunal initial reaction and word we got was, it's not everything is as she's explaining it to a bean. Because I think she garnered immense sympathy publicly from all of her peers and lots of fans by the way she explained what had happened from her side of things. And then when you actually read all the detail, it's not quite like that. and I still have sympathy for the length of this sentence. I think it's too strong a sentence and yet I understand the importance of giving a sentence of that length and severity equivalent to a failed test so that players don't just miss a test in order to test positive, to avoid testing positive.

54:39David Law:I do understand that. I think that's probably not what's happened on the balance of probabilities. So I would prefer a lesser sentence. But, yeah, I mean, I totally understand why they have sentenced her.

54:56Matt Roberts:It paints the details that we have paint quite a worrying picture about the player's level of understanding of the doping rules. rules and look on the basis of the the interview that I did with Karen Morehouse the ITIA's position is that is not through lack of resource being put into education and lack of information being made available to the players I think they would say and I think Karen pretty much did say in her interview with me at some point the players need to take some responsibility for for something which is a big part of their job and carries serious consequences. And, you know, the information is out there and made very freely available to them.

55:45Matt Roberts:But whoever's responsibility it is, it's a, yeah, paints a very worrying picture, I would say.

55:53Catherine Whitaker:Yeah, I'll be honest. I think the full report is incredibly damning for von Rocheva. You know, she identified the person as being from the doping committee in the text she sent to her boyfriend. She signed the paper that informed her of the consequences of refusing to take a test. And then she walked past the officer and went to walk her dog. And she didn't know about the out of hours rules. and and it's different to the story that she originally posted on her instagram as as david said like i thought there was a chance i thought it was quite a big chance originally that that she'd get the suspension reduced through the court of arbitration for sport i would i would now be quite surprised if if that does happen yeah yeah there's the i just don't see what the

56:56Matt Roberts:defense would be you know i i i didn't know what the consequences would be okay well you're an adult it's your it's your job to know what the potential consequences to reduce the sentence i feel like

57:08David Law:they would need to be changing the framework um because whilst i feel a bit sorry for her i think she's done i think she doesn't really have a leg to stand on but i still feel a bit sorry yeah yeah um but the one thing i would say just about the players lack of and i and i realized there may be a lot of players who say well i knew about that you know i'd like to i'd like to hear from one or two that say no no i knew that i don't feel like we've heard hardly any say that most of them seem to be saying oh you know this is terrible and and uh and and that's not how it works and no no it is how it works so i'd be quite curious to know what the actual breakdown is there but then i also think whilst it is is for sure incumbent on those players and i i take the itia at face value that they're putting this information out there and it's just basically been blanked the small detail is being ignored or not not taken seriously enough i think the tours should be taking this on if they're not already this should be massive alarm bells for the tours that they need to help this process of are you getting this you know it should almost be like a test that you do if you want to be a professional tennis player you need to know this shit so you better do a you better do a test and pass it like a driving test so that you actually make

58:34Matt Roberts:sure you understand your responsibilities it's another good case for rookie school for players going to rookie school, which is something Billie Jean King is always advocating for. I know there is the ATP University, and David, you were involved in that back in the day, and they do have a sort of version of that now. But so many important areas of the sport the players seem completely oblivious about to me. I mean, look at Irina Sabalenka's tweet yesterday about press conferences and proposing that press conferences become Formula One style and all of the top ten come at the same time. And look, I know it's a throwaway bit of fun tweet aimed at provoking engagement, but she goes, would be fun, no?

59:21Matt Roberts:As if what's fun for her is in any way the point of press conferences. Like there's a failure there to understand the point and the purpose served by a significant part of her job. And, yeah, how much responsibility lies with the tours and how much responsibility lies with these athletes as adults

59:51Matt Roberts:is up for debate, I would say. I just feel like... It should ring alarm bells for the tours. Absolutely, David, I agree.

59:57David Law:To me, this is a lose-lose. Unless she is a drugstreet...

1:00:04Matt Roberts:But you could say, oh, the case. I was going to say with the sort of education thing, you can take a horse to water, you can't make it drink.

1:00:12David Law:No, but I mean, it's damaging the tours, right, to lose a top player like this or to have these instances if they are totally avoidable. If these are not people trying to cheat, but they are not understanding things, it is damaging them to.

1:00:27Matt Roberts:Any kind of doping case is damaging to the sport, isn't it? Yeah, but these feel... Especially so many casual fans just here. ban doping tennis that's what you remember

1:00:39David Law:although it is incredibly rare

1:00:42Matt Roberts:David it is avoidable but this was the first case of a refused test a refused out of competition test in tennis that's what Karen Morehouse told us in that interview like it is largely being avoided but yeah it's it's a it's a how is it described in the in the ruling an unfortunate an unfortunate case something like that just unfortunate for everybody if there's anything

1:01:17David Law:that is going to make players understand it it's this you know there probably aren't going to be any more cases.

1:01:25Matt Roberts:Yeah, absolutely. Bit of a pivot in terms of tone of news. The initial US Open mixed doubles entry list is out. Get your pinch of salt at the ready. Here are the teams that are announced to be playing the US Open mixed doubles with the caveat that the entry window will close at noon on Monday, August 17th, at which time the top six teams with the best combined singles ranking at the time will officially be directly accepted into the main draw field. Eight teams will be determined via wildcard and announced on a date to follow. Two teams will earn a main draw spot by advancing through the eight-team qualifying draw played on Monday, August 24th.

1:02:11Matt Roberts:The qualifying field will feature six direct entries and two wildcards. Got that? OK, great. Now here is the supposed list of teams. Irina Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic, Elena Rabakina and Taylor Fritz, of course, Mira Andreeva and Andrei Rublev, Iga Svjontek and Kasper Rude, Belinda Bencic and Flavio Caboli, Diana Schneider and Daniel Medvedev, Amanda Anisimova and Lerner Tien, Alex Ayala and Felix Auger-Aliassime, Leila Fernandez and Francis Tiafo, Taylor Townsend and Alexander Zverev. Here's a wild one. Elena Gabriela Rusa and Nuno Borges. They hard launched just in the nick of time, didn't they?

1:03:03Matt Roberts:Jessica Pegula getting the band back together with Jack Draper, Naomi Osaka and retiring Kay Nishikori, who's very anxious about what outfit he's going to wear. Defending champions Sara Irani and Andrea Vavasori. Katarina Siniarkova and Henry Patton rather suspect they'll have to go through qualifying and speaking of which Peyton Stearns and Preston Stearns of whom I had not heard until I saw this list thoughts and feelings everyone

1:03:43David Law:yeah well it's very much your long list isn't it And I don't think there's going to be quite a few that end up certainly not in the tournament and several that come along that aren't on that list. I actually really like the Cinearchiver and Patton combo, personally, because I think... If they get in. Yeah, but they'll enter the qualifying thing, won't they? That they've got the week before it. I think they'll need a wild card even to get into that, right?

1:04:16Catherine Whitaker:I think all the direct entries are done on combined singles ranking, aren't they?

1:04:21Matt Roberts:But then to put them on your big announcement and not give them a wild card would be... I mean, are these literally just the only teams that have entered?

1:04:32Catherine Whitaker:I think these are the ones that have entered, yeah. Oh, really? I don't think you'd be putting Stearns and Stearns on otherwise. Yeah.

1:04:39David Law:With all due respect.

1:04:41Matt Roberts:Do you remember last year there was a brief time when Sini Algarve was going to be playing with Yannick Sinner?

1:04:46David Law:Yeah. I mean, they are the two number one doubles players in the world on men's and women's tennis. Oh, it'd be great if they were in. I think that's really cool. and I think they'll just go and destroy everybody who's not Vavisori and Irani and probably them as well. And that's what I want out of this.

1:05:01Catherine Whitaker:I think it's notable the absentees from this list. I mean, obviously Sinner being one of them.

1:05:12Matt Roberts:Which, interesting, Sinner not being on the entry list eliminates the opportunity for him to boycott. if you're not entered it's not I mean maybe it's a long range boycott

1:05:25David Law:well yeah I think that's quite possible isn't it but then I mean but then the other players but then the other players that have been with him

1:05:34Matt Roberts:you know Rina Sabalenka has been a big proponent of the boycott she's not bothered is she

1:05:38David Law:then Novak Djokovic called up yeah

1:05:41Matt Roberts:so I don't really

1:05:44Catherine Whitaker:did Sabalenka say anything about the mixed or was that just just the sinner idea

1:05:49Matt Roberts:I mean we haven't heard any quotes from players on that I think that was a leak that's been reported

1:06:00Matt Roberts:but yeah Yannick Sinner seems to be the only one sticking his neck out but then of course the other

1:06:05Catherine Whitaker:I mean the other big notable person not on the list is Serena and okay maybe there's still some uncertainty over her fitness

1:06:17Matt Roberts:having very heavily hinted in Instagram comments that she and Alcaraz were going to be a team.

1:06:24Catherine Whitaker:But that's it. They can still enter, can't they? They've got until... And again, like with the Wimbledon wildcard

1:06:32Matt Roberts:and the Wimbledon pre-tournament press conference, she's not going to want to be on a list with Preston Stearns, is she? I think she wants her own announcement.

1:06:43David Law:And the US Open would be delighted with it all because they can just drip feed it all out and get more and more publicity. I mean, fair enough.

1:06:51Matt Roberts:The other reveal is, I'll assume Jack Draper's getting a wild card then. Well, I know Keina Shikori's talking about having to play quality, but I'm assuming from this list that Keina Shikori and Jack Draper have been assured they'll be getting wild cards into the US Open, or maybe some sort of deal has been done to play mixed doubles and you can have a singles wild card. I don't know. obviously they're in very different situations Nishikori's going to be retiring, isn't he? So it'll be his final slam. Jack Draper's just, his ranking's in such a place that he can't get direct entry into the main draw.

1:07:30Matt Roberts:Yeah, and no Coco Goth again as well. She's just not interested, is she?

1:07:35David Law:She's always so busy in that wig.

1:07:39Matt Roberts:Yeah, but they must be, they would be desperate for her. I'm sure that, you know, they've tried hard to lure her. Oh, yeah.

1:07:46David Law:Yeah. Yeah. I wonder whether she's a boycott. You know, she might be deciding to...

1:07:55Matt Roberts:Maybe. You'd be annoyed at Sabalenka signing up with Djokovic, though, wouldn't you? If you've done the boycott.

1:08:06Matt Roberts:Yeah, all very confusing. Taylor Townsend and Alexander Zverev. That's a bit of a shocker, isn't it?

1:08:14Yeah.

1:08:17Matt Roberts:anything else feeling good about Anisimova and TN Matt will they get in who knows

1:08:24Catherine Whitaker:I think they might get in they played together at Indian Wells didn't they I always think it's weird having a best backhand in the world playing with a lefty situation like surely they both want to be on the on the same side but you know maybe TN can hit some inside out four hands I'm so amused by Fritz and Rebecca still like Fritz just Fritz is determined

1:08:48Matt Roberts:he's a stubborn bastard isn't he

1:08:52Catherine Whitaker:he absolutely still thinks that they're going to win it yeah

1:08:59Matt Roberts:because he's a mixed doubles specialist yeah

1:09:04Catherine Whitaker:Leila Fernandez Francis Tiafoe I assume is a Lululemon thing

1:09:08Matt Roberts:oh yes good shout out interesting seeing Felix with Ayala and then Fernandes with Tiafoe. Yeah, but yeah, that makes sense. I think it's Lululemon. Yeah. Good shout. Pegula and Draper, awkwardness again. Great. Great.

1:09:26Catherine Whitaker:Yeah. Bring that on. Ben Chichikavali's kind of random. So random. It's good to be locked in, isn't it?

1:09:34David Law:It's good. It's not a crime.

1:09:39Matt Roberts:Look. Exhibition.

1:09:41Catherine Whitaker:Are you allowed to call it an exhibition? and we're going to have all that fun.

1:09:44Matt Roberts:I will be there and I will be so seated. No Arta Feast, David?

1:09:49David Law:So far. So far. Yeah. Yeah.

1:09:54Matt Roberts:We wait eagerly for the final entry list. Everybody wants to play with Arta, don't they? He's quite a big withdrawal risk.

1:10:03David Law:I know, but he's fun. He's a fun vibe.

1:10:07Matt Roberts:We've also had the news this week of what the tennis schedule is going to look like at the LA Olympics in 2028. Hold on to your hats, folks, because the tennis at the LA Olympics in two years' time starts two days after Wimbledon. Two days after Wimbledon. It's expanded. The Olympic tennis event from nine days to ten days, and it will be held from Wednesday the 19th until Friday the 28th of July. That's in the first week of the Olympics. In fact, the opening ceremony of the Olympics takes place during Wimbledon. So, yeah, the LA28 opening ceremony we held on Friday, the 14th of July, which is men's semifinals day at Wimbledon, 2028.

1:10:58Matt Roberts:The mixed doubles event will be held over the first two days with two rounds on Wednesday and the semifinals and medal matches on Thursday. So they're very much a US Open style mixed doubles at the Olympics. And yeah, that first day of competition will be mixed doubles only with men's and women's singles starting on day two. So the Thursday. So everybody, if you're in the final weekend of Wimbledon, you've got three days to get across the world to L.A. and get your head into the Olympics game and getting onto a different surface. and the medal matches for the four other events at the Olympics will be held on Thursday the 27th and Friday the 28th of July.

1:11:44Matt Roberts:I mean, I think this is absolutely bonkers. I mean, I know Olympic years in terms of the calendar and schedule are always a bit bonkers, but players are going to have to choose realistically between the Olympics and Wimbledon, not necessarily in terms of playing. I think there will be plenty of players that at least try and play both. I would expect there to be withdrawals from the Olympics. But in terms of peaking at both and really targeting, you know, the top players really targeting, you know, top players are aiming to win every Grand Slam they enter, plus the Olympics. And I just don't think that's feasible or realistic.

1:12:30David Law:The flip side is that Alkraza and Djokovic both reached both finals in 2024, albeit wasn't quite as close as this, was it? No, there was a week in between. But then additionally... And it was in Europe. It was one Eurostar away. They then lost back-to-back days at the US Open. You know, they were completely on fumes. Something has to go. it's just not it's not doable even for Wimbledon Olympics and US Open let alone poor old Canada and Cincinnati who are sandwiched in there somewhere

1:13:10Matt Roberts:I hate it, I hate that players can't tennis and the Olympics has spent decades building itself up as an Olympic sport and it's really done it well and I feel like this is going to be a massive regression because there will be top players that don't play.

1:13:36Catherine Whitaker:I couldn't agree more. What is the solution?

1:13:41David Law:Not having two-week Masters would be helpful. Less tennis generally. That would be useful.

1:13:49Catherine Whitaker:Yeah. But I'm not sure there's a way to solve this specific problem Wimbledon Olympic being so close together clash

1:14:00Matt Roberts:and again it's the fractured nature of the governance of the sport I don't know who has the most power at the negotiating table tennis is such relative small fry at the Olympics maybe none of these bodies have any but the tours would absolutely be pushing for the tours don't care about Wimbledon the tours care about Canada and Cincinnati and they would have been pushing hard for for it to be earlier but obviously for for tennis much as I really love Canada I feel like Canada's already been ruined by the tours like I would rather the Olympics be as big as it can be within the context of the calendar and canada take the hit unfortunately than have the situation that we we have now um yeah

1:14:53Catherine Whitaker:i think there's also some other events at the olympics taking place at the site where the tennis is happening so that's obviously all had to be factored in as well like i'm sure it's very very complicated but actually it does feel like a massive shame the final the final of the olympic

1:15:12David Law:tennis is I think on the 28th and the Olympics finishes on the 30th it is only just over two weeks long so there isn't that much room for manoeuvre given that the Olympic tennis is so long

1:15:25Matt Roberts:they've expanded it stop expanding everything make that seven days

1:15:31David Law:get that into seven days get the bloody Montreal and Cincinnati down to

1:15:37Matt Roberts:I know the what are they called now World Tennis, which was the ITF, and they're the governing body that govern the Olympics part of the sport. They're really keen that more tennis media come and cover tennis at the Olympics. They're really trying to encourage that. And it's just impossible. If you're covering Wimbledon, we had had a very, very basic discussion about, you know, I'd love to cover tennis at the Olympics, obviously. And, you know, we'd had a very, very basic discussion about maybe this could be the one and we could invite ourselves to stay at Pam's, Matt. And wouldn't that be fun?

1:16:20Matt Roberts:And starting two days after Wimbledon, it's just that's just not even a conversation. I mean, Matt's probably got a trip to Chicago in the diary anyway, maybe a house move as well. But like, it's just not it's not even worth discussing whether that is possible. We would we would die on the court.

1:16:43Matt Roberts:it's a shame it's such a shame

1:16:45Catherine Whitaker:it's such a shame

1:16:48Matt Roberts:last bit of sort of random news the Australian Open is going to cap grounds passes for the first time this reporting from Reuters the Australian Open will place daily limits on cheap tickets to the Grand Slam for the first time after long queues and crowding blighted the tournament in January of this year it's going to cap allocations of its $49 grounds passes during the first week of the main draw as they expected demand to be stronger than ever in 2027. This decision reflects the growing popularity of the AO and will help ensure fans are able to make the most of everything on offer across the precinct.

1:17:28Matt Roberts:Nothing takes me back to Australia like the word precinct.

1:17:31Catherine Whitaker:The precinct was in the statement.

1:17:34Matt Roberts:Grounds pass holders will be allowed to roam between matches outside the major show courts. A record of 1 ,368 ,043 fans attended the 2026 tournament throughout its three-week schedule. I thought alleluia at this news and I cynically thought it wouldn't come. You know, the way tournaments and the Australian Open is particularly bad for this, sort of trumpet their attendance records every day when you know you've just spent a day outside and we're receiving messages from listeners saying there's a real problem here with the number of people they're letting in and it is massively diminishing the experience of the tournament and then you hear the announcement every day of record attendance woohoo I thought there was such a disconnect between how the tournaments viewed this increasing demand and increasing numbers obviously in terms of revenue and success versus how the fans viewed it I feared that nothing would ever give and I'm very pleasantly surprised that this very common sense move has taken place it's I mean I suspect it will still be more crowded than will be pleasant however any sacrifice of revenue in these days of late stage capitalism david feels feels quite a

1:19:06David Law:a big move yeah i i mean it really came to a head didn't it this year at the australian open i feel like we've been talking about it quite a lot at the the the us open the last couple of years certainly in fan week and in the first couple of rounds but then at the australian open this this time with the wonderful arrival of all the Iala fans and so forth putting it putting an extra premium on the ability to get these these places to watch and it was wonderful but so many people we we know or or who listen to us were writing in and saying I'm just not going to get a grounds pass again because I can't see any tennis I can't I'm in a queue for goodness knows how long just to get onto any court and it's just not it's not worth it so i'm glad that they've at least recognized that and not you know i mean maybe it's no surprise that it's happened upon craig tyler leaving um because he loves those stats um and he does like he's done so many great things including the understanding of the importance of shade at the australian open i think he's brilliant like that.

1:20:21David Law:But I think that this needed addressing. More isn't always better.

1:20:28Matt Roberts:Yeah, it's great to see. Okay, that's it for part two. We'll be back in part three to talk Canada and the week ahead in tennis. Welcome back to part three of today's tennis podcast. Of course, a reminder that we're going to be talking about Washington in tomorrow's tennis podcast. It'll be out once the two finals have been played and we'll look back on the whole week's worth of tennis in Washington. Looking ahead to this week of tennis, we have the ATP in Montreal and we have the WTA in Toronto. Both events have already been massively impacted by rain and by withdrawals before the tournament even began.

1:21:10Matt Roberts:It was very much part of the tennis headlines with the news that Yannick Sinner and Novak Djokovic have both withdrawn from the men's edition of the tournament. And that prompted a statement from the tournament director in Montreal, Valérie Tretot. She said, We are obviously very disappointed that Yannick and Novak won't be joining us in Montreal this year, especially after they also withdrew from last year's tournament in Toronto. We respect their decisions and understand that with such a demanding schedule, players' health must remain the priority. That said, we believe the frequency of these last-minute withdrawals in the last few years raises a broader issue for our sport.

1:21:49Matt Roberts:Masters 1000 events are among the flagship tournaments on the tour and fans rightfully expect to see the world's best compete. We are already in discussions with the ATP to ensure this matter received serious consideration. We firmly believe adjustments are needed in the near future to better protect the integrity of our Masters 1000 events while remaining mindful of the realities players face. an inevitability, David, in my view, that this pinch point has come. I was very pleased to see that statement from the Montreal tournament director. I was pleased to see it as punchy as it was, because I think they've been screwed over here.

1:22:27Matt Roberts:And I was a bit shocked by the statement that came from the Toronto counterpart last year, which very much felt like they had swallowed the ATP PR statement, and they had a similar after withdrawals on the men's side and on the women's side yesterday, last year. Sabalenka didn't play, did she? It felt like they had received some reassurances from the tours that they were swallowing. And it feels like 12 months on, they are not swallowing it anymore. And I really hope the tours are sitting up and taking notice here not only because the tournament is clearly making some noise about this, but Yannick Sinner with his withdrawal, David, is passing up the opportunity to complete what has limply been titled the calendar golden Masters, which is winning all nine of them in one season.

1:23:27Matt Roberts:It's hard to think that he will ever have the chance to do that again, given what happened in Paris last year after he played the full set of Masters 1000s leading up to that tournament. I doubt he'll ever be in a position again, going into this stage of the season, having played and won them all. And so not only is his withdrawal a blow for the tournament, but it also sends a message that doing that achievement is not a big deal. I'm not prepared to sacrifice my chances of winning the US Open one bit by going for that achievement and that should tell them something.

1:24:07David Law:Yeah, it really should. It's not a thing and it's sort of a manufactured thing because it's so unlikely anyway and because Yannick Sinner somehow has managed to win as many of them as he has, like all of them to this point. But when you're in that position to be able to do it and to choose just not to enter it, yeah, I mean, that just tells you all you need to know, doesn't it? um but i i just i don't what what more information do they need that this is an unsustainable format that they've put together and it's going to get worse isn't it because i mean what's it going to be like in 2028 with this olympics um so really i think that realistically they're probably going to have to wait for the cycle of whatever they've committed and promised to and I think there's probably some sort of break point from what I understood from Matt Futterman's reporting a while back that there's going to be some sort of break point where maybe you could change things if people if everybody's not happy enough well I don't know many people that seem very happy about uh about these these lengthy Masters 1000 events at the moment at all um but I suspect that that PR wise that the tours are probably going to have to say they're working towards a solution that will probably not come for about three years um but yeah i i and part of the move towards that as you say is a tournament leader saying oh my god this doesn't work

1:25:42Matt Roberts:the problem is this has been gaudenzi like i know the wta have agreed to it as well but it was led by gaudenzi this is his big this is his biggest change this is his biggest move in the sport so So now this change is linked, you know, it's sort of Gaudenzi's legacy and ego is now directly tethered to this decision. A backtrack on it is, you know, this is sort of potentially tennis's Infantino situation, like the ego swallowing and the admission of failure, which would be required in order to fully backtrack on this and admit what a catastrophic mistake it has been. Like it unequivocally has. And look, the players agreed to it.

1:26:32Matt Roberts:The tournaments agreed to it. Everybody was lured by more money. That is what happened here. The tournaments were lured by extra days, extra days ticket revenue, concession stand revenue. The players were lured by extra prize money. And they're now citing that extra prize money to the slams as their revenue benchmark. They're saying to the slams, well, the tours are offering 22 % of revenue at the thousands as prize money. Why can't you do the same? And while they're offering it, they were able to up it to 22 % because of the two week long masters, which you're now railing against. And I'm with them on railing against that.

1:27:12Matt Roberts:But, you know, everything, you can't have your cake and eat it all the time as much as late stage capitalism does make us feel like maybe we can. and I just worry that we don't have the leaders in the sport and we don't have the structure in the sport where anybody's really motivated by the good of the game and prepared to put their ego to one side in the way that is required to actually make positive changes I don't know, maybe I'm maybe I'm too cynical, Matt, what do you think?

1:27:48Catherine Whitaker:No, I completely agree I completely agree I think you only have to know the calendar and count the number of days and realize that these tournaments do not fit in this period. One already has to start on a weekend and have its final on a Thursday. They are manufacturing this to try and make it work. It does not fit into this period of the calendar to have these tournaments like this. And I think it's really interesting from a Sinner perspective because actually, okay, Djokovic is a bit of a separate case because he's almost 40. Alkraz is injured. The women's field is absolutely stacked this year.

1:28:38Catherine Whitaker:We haven't got the withdrawals. It's the Sinner one that I think is the most interesting because as you said, he had this potential thing to go for of winning all nine. But he's not prepared to sacrifice the US Open at all. And I think that's what he feels that playing these two events back-to-back would be. Because you only have to look at his season. This is not, I don't think, a post-Wimbledon recovery thing. He has played seven tennis matches, Sinner, since he lost to Sarindolo in Paris. He's played seven tennis matches in 67 days. And five of those were straight sets. There hasn't been this huge load on him.

1:29:20Catherine Whitaker:However, if he plays Canada and Cincinnati back to back, he would expect to go deep in both. All of a sudden, he's got 12 matches in his legs in about 20 days leading into New York, which we expect to be hot and humid and stressful. And he's the favourite. And suddenly we're back in a Roland Garros situation again. and he's played too much in the lead up. So he's clearly taken the decision to not do that. But as you say, as you both say, well, that means that he's going to make that decision, I think, going forward probably for the rest of time. I don't think he'll ever play Monte Carlo, Madrid and Rome in their current guises leading into the French Open again.

1:30:04Catherine Whitaker:And I don't think he'll play Canada and Cincinnati two-week events leading into the US Open.

1:30:12Matt Roberts:again so i don't think alcaraz will either given given the risk given he'll have been seen he'll have seen what happened to sinner

1:30:23Catherine Whitaker:like it was it was already hard to win all of the leading events and and the slam i think nadal was the only one who's done it what the last one to do on clay and on hard he did it on clay in 2010 and hard in 2013 before the US Open. But it was hard then. It's extra hard now with the length of these events. I think, you know, Canada should be beginning the week of the 10th and it should be five matches to win it rather than six. And Cincinnati should be beginning the week of the 17th and it should be five matches to win it rather than six.

1:31:01Matt Roberts:Yeah, I mean, I went back and looked at the statement that Gaudenzi, the tours made at the time of this decision and the whole plan was let's make the Masters more like the Grand Slams, let's try and level them up and they've done the opposite. This has diminished them and highlighted

1:31:23Matt Roberts:how relatively little they matter to the top players compared to Slams.

1:31:28Catherine Whitaker:They've made them like poor imitations. They've lost what was unique about them which was the packed schedule, the one week, the buzz, the great matches from start to finish. Now they just don't have the prestige of the slams and they truck along and you get days where not much is happening.

1:31:49Matt Roberts:Buys, endless buys. You know, day one of Grand Slam. Yeah, great. You know, half, okay, their three-day first round. Day one of Wimbledon, you're getting the men's defending champion. Great. there's this tournament it's called Wimbledon in terms of the tennis in Montreal and Toronto there was only one round of qualifying at both events which I don't understand at all usually it's two round qualifying Cincinnati is two round qualifying Zheng Chin Wen lost in qualifying for Toronto I'm sure we'll talk about her a little bit in our Washington show tomorrow but the comeback is just not comebacking for Jung Chin Wen it's a tough scene at the moment but we do have notable qualifiers in the form of Sloane Stevens Lois Boisson on the women's side Stefano Sitsapas on the men's side and Michael Zheng as well so your draws are looking like this in Montreal the men's event we have the top half with the top seed Alexander Zverev Lerna Thien is in there Tommy Paul Taylor Fritz Daniel Medvedev Jakob Mensik Kasper Rude Joel Fonseca and Ben Shelton.

1:33:04Matt Roberts:And then in the bottom half, you've got Felix Auger-Eliassime, the second seed. Francis Tiafoe, Flavio Caboli, Artur Fies, Alex de Mino, Lorenzo Mazzetti, Rafael Hodar and Yuri Dehechka. And in terms of interesting round ones, we have Zachary Schweider, recovered apparently from hand, foot and mouth, taking on Denis Shapovalov, fresh from the Los Cabos final. Terence Atman against wildcard Jack Draper. We'll talk more about him in tomorrow's Washington show. And we have Giovanni Mpesci-Perikar against Burtick van der Zandtschulp. Why did you pick that one out, Matt? Just for the fun.

1:33:43Catherine Whitaker:I thought it was funny.

1:33:45Matt Roberts:In terms of Toronto and the WTA... I won't be watching it. Absolutely not. Toronto WTA, defending champion Victoria Mboko, out with the injuries she sustained at Queen's. and she's not on the entry list for the US Open. She's such a loss to the tour at the moment. It's such a shame. Her and Hayley Baptiste being out as well long term. It's just a rough scene. Relena Rabakina will become world number one if she wins the title in Toronto. It would require Rina Sabalenka to fall before the quarterfinal. So the scenario is Rabakina wins the title. Sabalenka loses before the quarters and Rabakina becomes number one.

1:34:33Matt Roberts:So it's unlikely this week, but not impossible. Sabalenka is the top seed in the top half with Maja Kvelinska, Jelena Ostapenko, Elena Svitolina, Amanda Anisimova, Jessica Begula, Marta Kostchuk, Madison Keyes and Iga Sviantek. And the bottom half is also stacked with Rabakina, Barbara Krojcikova, Naomi Osaka, Mira Andreeva, Coco Goff, Iva Jovic, Belinda Bencic, Alexandra Ayala and Wimbledon champion Linda Nozkova. We have fascinating round ones in the form of Nikola Bartonkova against wildcard Bianca Andreescu, Teresa Valantova against Taylor Townsend, Solana Sierra against qualifier Sloane Stephens and Alexandra Olinikova against Karina Pliskova.

1:35:21Matt Roberts:So we will be back tomorrow, Tuesday, to talk about Washington. we will today hopefully watch the finals of Washington. I'm saying we'll be back tomorrow. Has anybody checked the weather forecast in Washington?

1:35:36Catherine Whitaker:I think it's OK.

1:35:38Matt Roberts:Is it OK? Right. Weather permitting, we'll be back tomorrow. We are also live on Wednesday night of this week for Friends of the Tennis Podcast. If you'd like it to be a three pod week, then the link to become a friend of the pod is in the show notes. And let me tell you, it's going to be a fun time on Wednesday because we are doing a special episode called What to Do About Doubles. We've been very aware of the double story that broke during Wimbledon, the ATPs proposed plans to kind of diminish doubles, certainly diminish the amount of doubles and the prize money on offer for doubles and the backlash that that has caused in some parts.

1:36:21Matt Roberts:I think everybody in the sport is probably in agreement that something needs to be done about doubles, but there is very little consensus about what that something or some things needs to be. Well, we're going to discuss and debate that on Wednesday night of this week with special guest Pam Shriver. I'm really excited about that show and it feels an important one, one that needs doing. and I feel really good about sort of really comprehensively covering and tackling that very big topic. So if you'd like to become a friend of the Tennis Podcast and join us live on Wednesday night or listen to that episode as a pod anytime, then the link to do that is in our show notes.

1:37:03Matt Roberts:We'll also be back with a pod on Friday. So actually it will be a four pod week if you're a friend of the pod. That is a two thumbs up from David. back with a pod on Friday to discuss the first few days of Canada. Again, weather permitting.

1:37:22Matt Roberts:No, there'll be enough to talk about by Friday. A reminder that Matt Futterman's book, The Cruelest Game, is out tomorrow, Tuesday, the 4th of August. Our pod from last week was an interview with Matt that we recorded in the Wimbledon Library. So that will be available to buy from tomorrow to pre-order from now. It is also available as an audio book that I did the reading for and I'm very proud of. And it really is a brilliant book. So enjoy everybody that is pre-ordered that. I can't wait to hear what everybody thinks about it. And I'm sure there'll be a thread on the barge for everybody to share their thoughts as well.

1:38:02Matt Roberts:We'll have our first newsletter going out for a couple of weeks in the next couple of days. The link to subscribe to that newsletter is in our show notes. It's free and it's excellent. It's the place to get Matt's stats and to follow our assorted humiliations in predictions and fantasy league competitions. We have the return of our mascots. The return of me getting to look at cute dogs and other animals at the end of the show. We have the mascot today. Very into this. We have Racer. Racer is owned by Emily and John, and they tell us that Racer is an 18-month-old rescue, a miniature poodle mixed with basically every type of small terrier.

1:38:46Matt Roberts:His whole litter of puppies ended up with a foster family who named them all after Speed Racer characters. Racer was named after Racer X, the dark, mysterious racer, because he was the one fluffy black puppy in a litter of wiry white terriers. we dropped the X but he proved to us quickly that the name racer suited him as he loves nothing more than to run after tennis ball for hours on end his mood visibly shifts when his parents call Coco Goth and Ben Shelton their favourite tennis players and we have to remind him that he is still his parents' favourite fetch player and the photo that I'm looking at and you're looking at as well if you're watching us on YouTube is if racer mid-fetch and I feel like it tells me everything I need to know about Racer.

1:39:34Matt Roberts:Ears aloft, flapping in the wind, just like Billie Jean's do when she's running for a tennis ball, which she isn't doing very much at the moment because she's been stung by a wasp and she is so sad. So I look forward to her being back on Racer-esque form ASAP.

1:39:56Catherine Whitaker:Sad Billie Jean and worried about Alcaraz David.

1:40:00Matt Roberts:No, no. the world is off its axis folks. We have our mascots. Hello to Bodhi, Maisie and Roger. Hello to our top folks and executive producers, Greg, Chris and Jeff. Let's have some shout outs, Matt.

1:40:15Catherine Whitaker:We have one special shout out today and it is a birthday shout out for Rachel and it comes from the Wimbledon Barge group. They say this is a special shout out for barge legend Rachel's 50th birthday from her friends on the barge. We hope she's having a wonderful time in Toronto watching the tennis and catching up with barges. Many of us have good reason to be grateful to Rachel who dedicates so much energy to the tennis podcast community. Rachel is one of life's connectors. Her kindness, creativity, generosity and enthusiasm really has made the barge what it is today. I can't tell you how many times I've walked up to Rachel at a tournament and found her telling someone how great the pod and the barge are.

1:41:07Catherine Whitaker:She's the queen of getting selfies and she's made many of us brave enough to venture out and make new connections too. Thank you so much for bringing us all together, Rachel. Best wishes, your friends on the barge and beyond.

1:41:22Matt Roberts:It's the best! And best wishes from your friends at the tennis podcast as well from all three of us uh rachel's a special one and uh yeah if reggie's the spirit of wimbledon rachel is the spirit of the barge um absolutely yeah we absolutely echo everything that your barge friends have said there and i'm so sorry that it rained all day for you yesterday in toronto i was thinking of rachel and i know natalie's out there as well and they were hanging out together. And yeah, I hope, I think they're there again today and I hope they are rewarded with a brighter day in Toronto. Absolutely.

1:42:03Catherine Whitaker:Still got a lot of good selfies. Great cheek of a, a sorio.

1:42:07Matt Roberts:I think Maya Joint, certainly Maya Joint was being targeted in a non-threatening way. I've made that sound bad. No, Rachel, all happy happy birthday um it's so wonderful to have you as part of the the tennis podcast barge family so yeah you deserve a good one uh we are part of the athletic podcast network folks it's a good day the it's a good job the washington finals were delayed because this would have been five hour pod i've forgotten how to do timing discipline folks uh we'll be back tomorrow and then we'll be back again on Wednesday for Friends of the Pod and then we'll be back on Friday.

1:42:49Matt Roberts:It's a full pod week, folks. It is good to be back and we will speak to you soon.