In short
Day 1 of the 2026 US Open, centered on Novak Djokovic’s first-round loss and broader tournament storylines, plus match scheduling issues and notable men’s/women’s results.
Guests
Catherine Mitko, David Law, Matt Roberts (hosts). No external guests are interviewed in the transcript.
Key claims
- Djokovic (39) looked unwell early, felt nauseous, became dehydrated, and “despised every moment,” suggesting a health problem beyond normal ageing; match ended with him barely moving.
- Mariano Navone played “impressively ruthless” tennis to win.
- US Open scheduling is criticized: Venus Williams vs Sophia Kenyon started after midnight, with ESPN noting it was later than any US Open match ever; the hosts argue for rules to prevent late starts.
Notable examples
- Djokovic def. by Navone 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 (Arthur Ashe).
- Venus Williams vs Kenyon: first set 6-2 (at recording time).
- Men: Farrier def. Brooksby 6-3, 7-6, 4-6, 1-6, 6-2; Atman beat by Munar after Atman’s severe cramping.
- Women: Jessica Pegula beat Elena Gabriela Ruse 6-3, 6-2; Barbora Krejcikova lost to Camilla Rakimova 7-6, 6-2; Donna Vekic beat Talia Gibson 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.
Written by AI. May contain mistakes. Listen to the episode to check what was said.
Chapters
Tap a time to open that second in VODjokovic's Unfamiliar Loss
0:45 to 4:30
Discussion of Djokovic's unexpected first-round loss at the US Open.
“of watching 39-year-old Novak Djokovic lose in the first round of a Grand Slam tournament for only the third time in his more than two-decade career, and the first time since January 2006.”
Physical Struggles and Emotions
4:30 to 8:00
Analysis of Djokovic's physical condition and emotional state during the match.
“Or it's been at the end of a tournament against a Sinner or an Alcaraz, and he's not had much left against them, but it's been a sort of vaguely competitive defeat.”
Unusual Match Dynamics
8:00 to 10:00
Exploration of the unusual dynamics in Djokovic's match compared to his past defeats.
“We watched him reach a semifinal in the last Grand Slam.”
Djokovic's Future and Olympic Goals
10:00 to 13:00
Discussion on Djokovic's future in tennis and his goal to compete until the 2028 Olympics.
“He's crying his way through a service game.”
Health Concerns and Longevity
13:00 to 14:00
Insights into Djokovic's health concerns and the impact on his career longevity.
“So look, maybe there's a scenario where he's got this specific health problem that he's dealing with and he can make it better and he can go forward and not look like this again in tournaments.”
Djokovic's Performance and Future Prospects
14:00 to 20:22
Discussion on Djokovic's recent match, his health issues, and future in tennis.
“I don't know whether he's going to be prepared to do that.”
Late Matches and Scheduling Issues
20:30 to 28:00
Analysis of the scheduling problems at the US Open and their impact on players and fans.
“where it is 12 minutes before 1am and Venus Williams and Sophia Kennan have just completed the first set of their match on the Arthur Ashe Stadium where there is still a sprinkling of fans in the stands.”
Farrier vs. Brooksby: A Thrilling Encounter
28:00 to 31:20
Discussion on the dramatic match between Farrier and Brooksby, highlighting key moments and player dynamics.
“and he sort of lined them all up in a sort of four-by-four box.”
Atman's Cramping Crisis
31:20 to 37:20
An in-depth look at Terence Atman's struggle with cramps during his match against Jaume Munar and its implications.
“But I do think Farrier waiting there in the second round is tricky as well, because he's just so much tough at the moment.”
Debate on Tennis Medical Rules
37:20 to 39:20
Discussion on the controversial rules about medical timeouts for cramping and the impact on players.
“but it is a rule that is invoked and features a lot in the sport and in a sport which is getting longer and more gruelling and being played in a world which is getting hotter and more brutal in terms of its conditions.”
Show all 19 chapters
Munar's Coaching Controversy
39:20 to 41:20
Insights into Munar's frustrations regarding coaching rules and his past experiences with cramps.
“They're allowed to have a sit-down and have a drink and you can't have it.”
Pagula's Performance Review
41:20 to 42:00
Analysis of Jessica Pagula's first-round match at the US Open and her pre-match nerves.
Pagula's Journey and Aspirations
42:00 to 45:56
Discussion on Jessica Pagula's serving technique and her goals in tennis.
“and it was actually, you know, as well as she did in Cincinnati, she didn't feel that she was serving all that well and I do think that's an underrated shot when it's working, the Jessica Pagula serve.”
Analyzing the Shock Exits
45:56 to 49:17
An analysis of surprising results in the tournament, including Kraychikova's defeat.
“Well, Goff and Pagula can reach number one if they win the title and Rabatkinah doesn't reach the semis.”
Pam Shriver's Dedication
49:17 to 51:35
A tribute to Pam Shriver's commitment and impact on Donna Vekic's performance.
“I don't think she had won a match since she won Queen's before Wimbledon, Donna Vekic.”
Previewing Day Two Matches
51:35 to 56:00
A preview of key matches and predictions for day two of the US Open.
“We'll be back in part three to preview day two of the US Open.”
Discussion on Upcoming Matches
56:00 to 1:03:19
Analyzing the upcoming US Open matches and player performances.
“But I don't think you can take the excellent player out of him completely when he's still only, what, 27?”
Listener Shout-outs and Tournament Updates
1:05:15 to 1:09:23
Engaging with listeners and providing updates from the US Open.
“Hello to our mascots, Bodie, Maisie and Roger.”
Closing Remarks
1:10:00 to 1:10:41
The hosts wrap up the discussion and thank the audience.
Transcript
Automatic transcript. May contain errors.0:10Hello and welcome to the tennis podcast coming to you from New York on day one of the 2026 US Open, the final major of the tennis season. I'm Catherine Mitko. Alongside me, as always, are David Law and Matt Roberts. And together we are the Tennis Podcast, bringing you daily shows right the way through until the end of the tournament in 14 short days from now. It is half past midnight as we record this show on day one of the Open, and we have all just shared the very unfamiliar experience of watching 39-year-old Novak Djokovic lose in the first round of a Grand Slam tournament for only the third time in his more than two-decade career, and the first time since January 2006.
1:01He was beaten tonight by world number 49, Mariano Navone, 75, 57, 4-6, 6-2, 6-1 in a gruelling match on the Arthur Ashe Stadium that finished up just a few minutes ago.
1:17Matt Roberts:David, so much of what we saw tonight was actually very familiar. The Djokovic theatrics, the improbable revivals, the running forehands hit from full splits. we've seen all of that for years from Djokovic we've come to expect it and yet we've also come to expect him to get there in the end to get over the line somehow certainly in majors and against players ranked 49 in the world but what we saw for the final hour of tonight's match was not the same Djokovic that we've been watching for years not even the same one that we've been watching this year for me anyway that was a that was an incredibly tough watch certainly the last hour of tonight I don't know how you experienced it yeah it was
2:10David Law:truly sad to witness that and I think that's how he felt as well because he was rendered completely unable to play uh for for a couple of sets there at the end he was fighting it throughout he was fighting his own body from a very early stage and the way he described it in the in the sort of press comments that he's just given is that you know he starts to feel nauseous and i mean he was actually fully sick tonight on the court which was a really
2:40Matt Roberts:gruesome don't remind me david espn ran a ran a slow-mo replay of that yes um and and then the
2:51David Law:He gets more and more dehydrated. His body starts to lock up, and he just can't really cope with what this sport is asking him to do anymore. And particularly in New York, in the sort of humid conditions, he hates the humidity. He always has, really. But he's 39 years old. You know, it's a very particular thing he's trying to pull off in a very physical way. and it overcame him really tonight and that's what's unusual that's the unusual part usually he's he's able to find something choreograph something almost with a crowd conduct a situation make the opponent nervous and fall off and then get his own adrenaline going something he can usually find something but there was a look of resignation about him in the latter stages of the match which I'm just not used to seeing I mean he has retired in the past and he said he considered it tonight in the earlier sets but he just didn't feel in the fourth and fifth he could retire but to see him crying mid-match and I can only guess as to why he's crying but my guess is that it's the realization that I just can't do it I'm trying hard and I'm at a grand slam I've got 20 ,000 people chanting my name to give them more and to provide more and to try to push myself more and I just can't and maybe maybe he's sort of seeing his own tennis and athletic mortality really at the top level in real time I I'm only guessing but that's that's kind of what it looked
4:35Catherine Whitaker:like and felt like out there yeah it felt like the moment it felt like the moment we're all gonna look back on is the time djokovic couldn't do it anymore to be honest like there were two things about this that were really unusual and different from his grand slam defeats recently obviously the end as you've as you've talked about when we've seen him lose at Grand Slams, typically it's either been, you know, a defiant and brilliant performance early in a draw, like against Fonseca at the French Open, where he was still going after almost five hours, playing really well, looking strong, just beaten by a great performance.
5:23Catherine Whitaker:Or it's been at the end of a tournament against a Sinner or an Alcaraz, and he's not had much left against them, but it's been a sort of vaguely competitive defeat. But he's been amazing along the way to get there and he's defied everything. So it was very different from that sense. But to me, I think the thing that was most different was how early he looked gone in this match.
5:50Matt Roberts:Four games. Four games. We all said it, didn't we, after four games? And actually in the little huddle press conference that he's just given, And he confirmed that, didn't he? That he was starting, well, not starting to, he was feeling pretty rough after, yeah, just the opening 20 minutes of that match.
6:08Catherine Whitaker:And he looked flat. He looked pale. He looked unwell. He looked like he wasn't enjoying it. His tennis wasn't good. His serve was really bad. His forehand was off. He lost that opening set. And I was on alert for this a little bit because of what we'd seen in Cincinnati, obviously against Tarante where he actually started that match really well and physically faded after about 45 minutes an hour maybe but it was brutal conditions in Cincinnati really bad conditions and heat and humidity totally and you know Tarante looked like he was having a terrible time as well today it's humid for sure but it's you know by tennis standards it's it's not that bad it was it was hard to explain it in terms of the conditions it felt more like a djokovic problem and it just happened so quickly to him out there and he was fighting it all the way until eventually he no longer could and and then when his back gave out that was like the final moment and and the final stretch of of this match if anyone hasn't seen it was just Djokovic completely going through the motions.
7:25Catherine Whitaker:Like he was barely moving.
7:27Matt Roberts:It was over. He just didn't want to retire. It made me think of, I haven't had the chance to watch all of The Wolf in Winter, the Novak Djokovic documentary, which came out last week. It's on Amazon Prime, isn't it? I haven't had a chance to watch all of it, but I have seen the line from Andre Agassi on there saying, the end always comes fast. And that is what I had in mind tonight, because I know that this year we have watched this man reach a Grand Slam final. We watched him reach a semifinal in the last Grand Slam. He has been repeatedly telling us throughout and despite all of the ups and downs and increasing downs that he's had over the past few months and years.
8:16Matt Roberts:his plan is and has always been to play until the la olympics in the summer of 2028 and he's never in his own mind deviated from that plan if his body allows him that's the plan and i i believe him i i take him at his word on that and for that reason i've sort of steered us away we've all steered away from god is this it though is he going to be back next year really can he keep doing this for another year because he's telling us that's his plan so we've got to take him at face value on that but it did become quite hard tonight to to imagine him being able to do this for another two years the LA think you said in the middle of the match tonight think how long ago the Paris Olympics already feels well it's that amount of time again to LA 2028 and the the crucial line and look this is how it looked all evening this evening but he's just told us in plain words moments ago in his press huddle he said i despised every moment that i spent on the
9:25David Law:court yeah and that's kind of that was hard to witness really because he loves this sport he he speaks in such childlike terms about it when he's away from the combat in the immediate aftermath of a defeat like that. He talks with such warmth and I think that is one of the problems for the athletes who really love it, you know, is giving it up. But to watch him for four and a half hours like that with his wife and his two young kids there right till the very end and him just unable to be the kind of superhero that everybody's used to seeing i could see you could see that that that's that feeling that but to it to to articulate it by saying i despised it all well i think it says a lot and i think the thing is he he is a fairly part-time tennis player these days the reason he's playing is for these events and obviously the olympics as you say in two years time but he's got this impossible equation whereby most most players need to play other events a lot of other events in order to prepare for these to become battle hardened to become robust enough to handle these sort of tournaments and he doesn't want to play many of those i totally understand he's been a pro for 20 years he's nearly 40 he just wants to play these and he wants to keep enough energy in the tank and stamina and reserves so and and yet he's come out here and after four games he can he's just a shadow of himself and it's fair you know he managed to get two sets to one up it's it's easy to forget almost that he actually turned the match around but he couldn't finish it off and that's the first time i've ever seen him get the upper hand like that and just fade into nothingness and navoni played really well and it's it's one of those things where you know this the story isn't navoni you know it just isn't so it's but but i will give him the flowers to say i think he actually played really well and made sure that he won and took advantage of what djokovic was giving him there he was pretty ruthless at the end actually wasn't he got you
11:44Matt Roberts:You've got the 20 ,000 people chanting your childhood heroes' names. He's crying his way through a service game. That's pretty distracting stuff for a guy that's never been anything like that situation before. And there he was drop-shotting away, giving his 39-year-old hero the runaround. It was impressively ruthless, I thought.
12:08David Law:The other thing is with all of the resources that Djokovic has got and all of the kind of intelligence he approaches health with because he is the most fussy of players that I've seen. And I mean that in a positive sense as somebody who just leaves nothing to chance, conscientious, you know, he is so deliberate about everything he does to maximise his physical performance. and he said, I don't know what's happening. That's what I've got to find an answer to and figure out.
12:45Catherine Whitaker:That's it. I mean, he is talking about it in terms of something that he might be able to fix. A specific problem that has a solution out there
12:55Matt Roberts:if only he could find it rather than the problem of ageing, which as far as I can tell... No one's solved. Nobody's solved.
13:03Catherine Whitaker:Yeah. So look, maybe there's a scenario where he's got this specific health problem that he's dealing with and he can make it better and he can go forward and not look like this again in tournaments. Perhaps that's possible. But I don't know. I mean, thinking about his stated goal of the Olympics, two years is just such a long time. especially if more and more events are going to look like this. And one of the things he does say in the documentary is what David's talking about. Everything in life is geared towards performing on a tennis court, everything he does in his life. And. Two years is an awful long time to keep that up if you're despising moments on the tennis court.
14:03Catherine Whitaker:I don't know whether he's going to be prepared to do that. I would have thought not.
14:12Matt Roberts:Despise is quite a word. It's such a strong word. I know that's fresh from the moment, but he was pretty composed speaking there. It didn't feel like rash. And, okay, this experience of losing in the first round is new and a shock to him, but this health issue that's a bit of a mystery to us in terms of its detail is something he's been aware of and worried about for a long time he first kind of revealed it to us after the loss in in Cincinnati but he yeah he he knows he knows what's up here and he knows how serious it is I don't think it was a shock to him that it was it was a problem tonight even if the result ended up being a bit of a shock to the system.
15:04Matt Roberts:But, yeah, I mean, it's always something, isn't it? This is ageing. Ageing isn't... I mean, I suppose it also is a steady, slow decline. But Federer, it was a knee injury, wasn't it? He didn't stop just because he incrementally reached a stage where it seemed like maybe he had crossed over the line from competitive to just not quite competitive enough. There was a thing. There's usually a thing. Things happen more frequently as you get older. That is how it goes. Yeah, and, well, Nadal's last Grand Slam match
15:47Catherine Whitaker:was a round one loss, and Federer's last Grand Slam match was a round... Four? four loss but bad and a six-love set a six-love set you know um yeah and i'm not saying that this is never jokovic's last grand slam loss like i do think we probably will see him again but it felt like a it felt like something that might change his plans yeah because and this is also you know we've talked so much about the moment that men's tennis is in right now and even coming into this one given the uncertainty around alcaraz and sinner being out and djokovic having just reached the semi of the of the previous slam it felt like okay it's going to be a long shot but at least he's still got a shot and and he's
16:41David Law:always said that he wants if he's going to carry on he wants to be able to contend for the title He wants to feel that he's actually able to win the thing. And I think, I don't think it's impossible that he might be able to play two more years in order to play that Olympics. But how many horrible defeats might he have to accept in the meantime and despise time on a tennis court? I mean, I don't wish that for him. I don't wish to tell him what to do either. It's his life, it's his career. he can do whatever he likes with it if he's if he's if he's okay with that fine but but i i can't imagine that's great for your mental health to just keep going out there and having a terrible terrible time at something you were so good at for so many years so um i'm sure he'll figure it out about what's best to do for himself but it but that was a pretty yeah pretty upsetting night really do you think we'll see him again in 2026 yeah i do i do oh sorry this year um that's a good question i'm not i'm not convinced about that actually no i'm i'm not convinced we will um i think what he will want to try to do is is get right if he possibly can for australia and that might mean taking time off again the problem is how then do you build up some fitness some match fitness.
18:15David Law:I know that's really tough, but the bigger point is there's something that's going on that's making his body react in the matches and get overwhelmed. Maybe he's just got to take the time to try and find out what that is, but why isn't he already if there's a solution out there? That would be my concern. So I'm not convinced he'll play again because I think he might struggle to get motivated.
18:43Matt Roberts:Well, he hasn't played the ATP finals for, certainly didn't play last year. I think maybe it's even been a couple of years that he's qualified and not played. So I know he does love to play in China. And that's a big one for sponsors, isn't it? I'm sure, you know, there are. Yes.
19:01Catherine Whitaker:And last year he played Athens, didn't he? Instead, kind of instead of the ATP finals, he's relocated to Athens. his home tournament essentially yes it's possible we might yeah might see him but
19:17Matt Roberts:wouldn't be confident of that yeah will we see him here again if i had to say now i would say yes
19:24Catherine Whitaker:because i still think as as david said the the goal probably remains the same maybe the route there is a little bit different but i still think he might want a a moment of knowing it's his last match at all the slams if possible. So I would say yes, but not with much confidence.
19:50Matt Roberts:It was tough tonight. It was. It was really sad. It was really sad to see that. I wasn't, I was braced for elongated drama, to quote David. You know, I was braced for tonight to be sensory overload, but I wasn't braced for that.
20:07David Law:No, that wasn't elongated drama. That was elongated suffering.
20:15Matt Roberts:And on that note, that's it for part one. And we'll be back in part two to talk about the rest of day one. And we'll look ahead to day two as well. Welcome back to part two of today's tennis podcast. Just before we get on to the other results that we've had today on day one of the US Open here in New York, where it is 12 minutes before 1am and Venus Williams and Sophia Kennan have just completed the first set of their match on the Arthur Ashe Stadium where there is still a sprinkling of fans in the stands. But as you can imagine, most people have left. I'm sure most of the TV audience in the US, certainly elsewhere too.
20:58Matt Roberts:I know, you know, it's a global sport and I'm sure people in Australia are thrilled at the time of day that this match is happening. But this is an all-American match. Venus Williams has been given a wild card here on the basis of her appeal and how box office she is. And here is absolutely nobody having the chance to watch her and her and Sophia Kennan as athletes being put through a quite ridiculous experience of starting a competitive major tennis match after midnight. And, okay, Novak Djokovic played a long match. Long matches happen at tennis tournaments a lot. That was not an unusual situation.
21:41Matt Roberts:That was not an unpredictable situation. And here we are again. Here we are again with the sport in a completely preventable nonsense situation, David.
21:56David Law:They've just put up a graphic on ESPN saying that the two players, Venus Williams and Sophia Kenyon, took to the court later than any player ever has at the US Open.
22:09Catherine Whitaker:Yeah, five minutes later than Sabalenka-Alexandreva a couple of years ago.
22:15David Law:So it's a record. And it's not a record to be proud of at all. um it's and and it and it it just feels exacerbated by the fact that it is the great venus williams being put through this ignominy really of of stepping out there and and she should be if she's going to have a wild card if this is going to happen and i i think there are there are arguments to say well maybe maybe you don't give her a wild card she's lost the first at 6-2 here. Maybe the second set will be more competitive. But if she's going to be given an Arthur Ashe Stadium court slot, you've got to give it the best chance of being played at a time that people...
23:01David Law:And a lot of people who will have wanted to come for her. I know there's a lot of people who wanted to come for Novak Djokovic as well. But Venus Williams is a huge draw. And when she's on the order of play, people buy tickets and want to come. And a lot of people cannot be here at this time of night um totally understandably i mean you know maybe the west coast is perhaps just getting a bid in around about 10 15 at night but i mean this is a bad situation for and as you say entirely predictable because matches are getting longer we know that
23:35Catherine Whitaker:yeah the simplest thing to do would be to have a rule about not having a best of three women's match starting after a best of five men's match at night by the way we may well be having this conversation again tomorrow because that is the order again tomorrow that would be the simplest like avoiding a crazy late walkout for players. But I don't know. I still think slams need an overhaul and a restructuring to reflect the way modern tennis is played and how long it goes on. The Arthrash Stadium courts are empty today for three hours in the middle of the day, intentionally blank, so that they can have a night session and a staging of the night session, which is amazing and is a cool thing.
24:32Catherine Whitaker:But so often we pay the price with these crazy late finishes and fans not even in the stadium at the end of the session. And players, I mean, Venus Williams must have been stretching for about four hours today. Every time they cut to the gym, it was Venus stretching. Players being put through that, people working at the tournament. And, you know, it's we've said it all before, but it's it's staggering to me that it just it just keeps happening and no one does anything about it.
Read the full transcript
25:04Matt Roberts:Can you imagine just imagine a world where women play best of five and men played best of three? Men just wouldn't it just wouldn't happen that men were scheduled after that men would they just wouldn't stand for it. The world wouldn't stand for it for men to be shafted in that way by women's tennis. Like if it ever happened, it would stop happening immediately. And yet here we are. And as Matt says, might be here again tomorrow. Can't wait, folks. Other things that have happened today. Look, we we talked about this yesterday in terms of an order of play today. Well, look, we've obviously had this huge story.
25:45Matt Roberts:But in terms of what the order of play looked like on paper today, it was a soft launch for the tournament, for sure. There is far more eye-catching stuff on the schedule for tomorrow. And look, tennis can surprise you. Stories and drama can come out of unexpected places. And we've had a bit of that today, but none of it, Djokovic aside, clearly involving the bigger names. Daniel Medvedev against Ugo Gaston, I think a lot of people, including me thought that might be fun and there might be some drama and maybe a bit of nonsense and actually it was a it was a pretty straightforward victory for for Daniel Medvedev yeah I didn't see
26:22David Law:all of it but from from what the commentators were saying it was entertaining there were some good rallies it didn't last very long though it's very straightforward and straight sets and when they the handshake at the end, you know, I mean, the men of towering above Gaston, playing clean today, clean tennis. And if he plays clean tennis, Gaston's got no chance, really, and that's kind of what happened. But, you know, there were sort of some epics that I will remember today for, because they sort of became meaty and spicy, and we had fun. We actually had a lot of fun watching them. But as you say, in terms of things that you could hang your hat on and sell as the sport or put up in lights as a headline, it was shown really by the fact that we got to about 8 or 9 o 'clock at night and that we'd only had two press conferences in the main room with Tommy Paul and Jessica Bikula because there just weren't the stars on the schedule having meaningful matches really.
27:29David Law:He was being a bit gross, Medvedev? Yes, he was being very gross. I say clean. His tennis was clean. I mean, I thought it was gross. He was chewing gum virtually the whole time in the match. Which is new for him, I think. And he said, I've got a bit of a dry mouth and I've seen the baseball players do it and he got a few laughs from that. But when the camera panned to his court chair and after each stick of gum that he chewed, He took it out and he stuck it down on his chair and he sort of lined them all up in a sort of four-by-four box. And I did look at that and think, that is a bit gross, Daniel.
28:15I'd love you, but please stick them in the bin.
28:19Matt Roberts:Yeah, that is absolutely rank. That plus the Djokovic puke slow-mo. Tonight has been rancid. absolutely gross uh in terms of the the fun david that you described coming from some unexpected places uh farrier against brooksby on court 17 i think this one which is a a great like mini amphitheater style court sort of right in the corner of the grounds if you if you come to the billy jing king national tennis center it's yeah it it it's a great cauldron quite often seems to create good matches they they schedule this sort of like you know indie match there uh and it delivered 6-3 7-6 4-6 1-6 6-2 farrier with the was it fingers in the ear celebration or fingers to
29:15David Law:the year in the year basically you know farrier he's um he likes an argument he's quite happy to get into it with opponents with umpires with crowds and the crowds on brooks beside the american locals they were giving it to him because you know for a start they were trying to cheer for their guy but some maybe take a little bit too far and ferrier didn't like it so he gives them some back he eventually gets over the line poor old jensen brooks he's kind of physically spent at the end, nice handshake between the two of them, and then immediately Furrier just puts his two index fingers in his ears.
29:59David Law:Then he goes and shakes hands, then he goes back into the centre of the court and he does it again. And he was just, he was really trying to sort of troll the crowd that were giving him a hard time. But he has had a hell of a year. All the other three Grand Slams he's qualified successfully for, he's halved his ranking in nine months from 150 to 70, and now he could play Carlos Alcraz in the second round. And I think he's a hell of a player. I really do think he's talented. And I don't think he'll fear the occasion or the opponent if it ends up happening.
30:34Catherine Whitaker:Yes, he's the third Portuguese man, I believe, to win a match at every slam. There's only been three of them who've done it. Sousa and Nuno Borges. And yet he's significantly younger at the time that he's completed that. You know, he he's sort of the Portuguese player who's had this level of success. But at a younger age where you feel like, OK, maybe maybe you can build on it and keep going and do the most in the sport that a Portuguese man has has done so far. So it's kind of interesting times for them. And yes, look, Alcafaz has got around one match to to win first. and that's by no means guaranteed, given we haven't seen him in four months.
31:20Catherine Whitaker:But I do think Farrier waiting there in the second round is tricky as well, because he's just so much tough at the moment.
31:32Matt Roberts:Yeah, that's... Yeah, tough. Tough, whatever... Potentially tough, whatever version of Alcaraz we end up getting.
31:41Catherine Whitaker:Yeah, and I also think... This is, again, coming on to Alcaraz, But I also think there's a world where Alcarez comes out looking really good in his first match. He's just happy to be back and he's vibing. And then sometimes it can be the second match where the rust sets in and you realise you haven't actually played in a while. I think he also might, the opposite might happen. He might be really nervous in the first match. But just because he might play well in the first match doesn't necessarily mean that he's going to... Win the tournament. That he's back and he's going to win the tournament.
32:13He's going to play like that every round.
32:14David Law:Which is, it'd be so easy for us to sit in here in 24 hours' time thinking, OK, Alcruz is going to win the USA. Literally one forehand winner, and we'll probably be thinking that.
32:27Matt Roberts:Jaume Munar and Terence Atman. Boy, was the drama here. Matt, talk us through, well, Munar's eventual victory, 7-5 in the fifth, but the journey of Terence Atman over the course of the match. Yeah, this one definitely wins my award for wasn't even on my radar, really. And then suddenly it's all I can think about and watch for a little bit.
32:57David Law:We had a great half an hour, didn't we, with the fifth set of this and the fifth set of Brooks being furrier. Yeah, exactly. And this one was chaos, really. in the in the words of James Hansen in The Athletic. That man was serving up 7-6, 6-3, 1-love against Jaume Munar when he suddenly froze, gripping his upper right leg and lumbering about the baseline like he was doing a physical comedy performance. And that's because he suddenly started cramping.
33:30Catherine Whitaker:And first of all, it was his leg. and then it was various other parts of his body. At one stage, his hand, he actually had to, he's left-handed at man. He actually had to put his racket in his right hand and do an underarm serve with his right hand, his wrong hand, an underarm serve. That's how badly he was affected by the cramps. And yeah, the middle of the portion of this match, he couldn't move, he couldn't hit. He was trying everything, sometimes hitting out, sometimes drop shots you know everything just to try and get through games and points but his his body was cramping badly and his two sets to love lead just got chipped away at by munar and i say chipped chippy munar i mean he you know we got jaim farrier who's a bit spiky jaume munar who's a bit spiky playing at the same time and munar was constantly going at the umpire about the fact that he thought Atman was taking too long and getting treatment and you know all this kind of stuff and it all kind of came to a head actually at the start of the fifth set with Munar having leveled it at two sets all and Atman called the trainer again for treatment on his legs but during the evaluation the trainer declined to treat him and said I can't treat that it's cramp.
34:59Catherine Whitaker:Because the
35:00Matt Roberts:The rules are you can't receive treatment for, you can't receive a medical timeout for cramp because it's viewed by the sports rules as a symptom of loss of conditioning. And we can talk about that in a moment, but that is why you can't receive a medical timeout. You can receive like a leg rub three times. Yeah, three times, yeah. During a changeover, so during a pause in play anyway. So that's maximum 60 seconds and a maximum of three times over the course of the match.
35:30Catherine Whitaker:Yeah, and yeah, Atman said, it's pain, not cramp. And yet the trainer declined to treat him. And Atman said, stop acting stupid and treat me. I have pain. And then the trainer left and he asked the trainer's name. It was a right scene.
35:52Matt Roberts:As we learned during the Australian Open semifinal involving Carlos Alcaraz and Alexander Verov now Kraz in quite a similar position, albeit coming through and ending up winning that match and going on to win the title, there is some softness or greyness in the way the rules are written about Kramp and in the sort of – well, first and foremost, the physio has to take what the player says at face value, I believe. You know, you had Alcaraz and we don't know for sure what Alcaraz was experiencing in Australia. It looked a lot like cramp. My unprofessional medical opinion is that that was cramp. But he just said to the physio, I have pain in my leg muscle.
36:49Matt Roberts:Help me. You know, you're not the doctor. You don't have to say I've got cramp. And the physio has to take that at face value, I believe. and at the very least do an assessment. The other thing I believe that we learned during that same match was that there is some leeway for heat and for cramp being a symptom of heat stress. And that, again, might have come into play specifically in that Alcaraz match. So it's not quite a hard and fast rule, but it is a rule that is invoked and features a lot in the sport and in a sport which is getting longer and more gruelling and being played in a world which is getting hotter and more brutal in terms of its conditions.
37:43Matt Roberts:And, I mean, even personally, I think regardless of that, cramp can be symptomatic of a loss of conditioning, but is very rarely, is often utterly unrelated to that. I think it's archaic nonsense, really, to treat cramp as a loss in conditioning. And nobody wants to see a match end or be diminished for a medical situation which could be easily aided.
38:12David Law:Yeah, it's ridiculous. If you, I mean, if you've got cramp, you've got pain or your leg's locking up. why can't that be released with some treatment i mean i know it can with you can have a rub and whatnot but why why is this distinct this distinction now is is nonsense and outdated and and to me it is the you can't coach your player from the sidelines of 2026 you know that happened in 2019 or whatever it was 2018 with um with patrick morotoglu and serena williams eventually they change that rule this rule's gotta go i i understand you'll get the the players from the past banging on about condition and all this sort of thing sorry yeah there is definitely
39:01Matt Roberts:a sort of a very out of date and sort of toxic masculine strain of commentary that you hear in the sport about you know you just got to tough it out and if if you you can't that sucks for you but that sport which yeah i i think that's a load of a load of waft but you you're right david we if the rule does change we've got to brace ourselves for for a lot of that i don't care i mean and my
39:31David Law:view is i i think you've got to limit how many medical timeouts you get the same way as you do for anything else but a a physio coming on and rubbing somebody's legs during the the sit down that they're allowed to have. They're allowed to have a sit-down and have a drink and you can't have it. Let them rub their bloody legs for as long as they need. By the way, it's funny you mention coaching because that also happened in this match. Munar was annoyed that Atman was getting the type of coaching that you're not allowed to get. Munar is very eggy, isn't he? He also, in this match, talked about a loss that he had in 2018 to Diego Schwarzman because of cramping.
40:11David Law:He had all the receipts. Munar's a receipts guy. I do like that about him. I mean, it would wind me up if I was his opponent. The handshake was funny because Munar sort of came to the net very slowly as if he was waiting to see what Atman might do when they got there. And Atman never took his eyes off him until the moment of hand contact That's when he completely did the sort of head turn Ostopenko style and walked off. It was great.
40:46Matt Roberts:OK, that's it for men's results from today. On to the women's results. Nothing massive happening in the women's today. Certainly nothing Djokovic-sized. Jessica Begula opened the Arthrasch Stadium, first match of the day, at midday earlier on today. comfortable for her against Elena Gabriela Rusa 6-3, 6-2 she said in her on court interview that she was incredibly nervous and always is before Grand Slam first rounds particularly here at the US Open and she's the US number one which is a big deal and I think something she's very proud of but impressive given all of that
41:27Catherine Whitaker:yes and I think those nerves came out at the start of the match and failing to take her chances she had eight break points early on here and just could not convert and then actually had to save a break point herself before eventually she did manage to take one and once she did it was like you know pressure valve released and she was pretty comfortable from that point on she actually went out to the practice court afterwards and hit some serves um and they were she was saying that she felt like she was serving a lot better at the start of the season and it was actually, you know, as well as she did in Cincinnati, she didn't feel that she was serving all that well and I do think that's an underrated shot when it's working, the Jessica Pagula serve.
42:14Catherine Whitaker:It's not the biggest but she's quite accurate with it and sets up her game well and she's going to need that if she's going to do the kind of things that I predicted her to do and win this tournament, she better start serving well. so yeah I think interesting that she went out to the practice court and and probably also like because of the rhythm of her tournament now where she's got a couple of days off they were saying that it might be better to actually like do some serving practice on the day you've played a match and then you maybe don't need to do it on a on another day and she can spread out her practice now so yeah like a like a nice start for Pagula yeah quite an
42:54David Law:interesting press comment she had as as well because um she was asked whether she would rather be a grand slam champion win a win a major or become world number one and she says well given where the rankings are at the moment if i won a major then i would be number one so then i could be both but she she did say that when she was a a young girl sort of seven or eight years of age she said she didn't dream of winning wimbledon or the u.s open or any anything like that she dreamed of being world number one and she said the reason was because wouldn't it be the best thing to just be the best at something out of everyone um that was her sort of childlike view of things i don't think she necessarily understood the the importance of the majors at that time but she says that has stayed with me that that memory and and i could kind of love to fulfill that but
43:48Matt Roberts:obviously she'd love to win a major which would you choose if you could only have one major yeah same
43:54David Law:yeah I'd be the same for instance I would rather be Marin Cilic in just about every way than Marcella Ria
44:05Matt Roberts:having had personal experience of them both
44:10yes
44:13Matt Roberts:it's maybe an unfair debate because there is such stigma and potentially very unfair stigma I don't know around the number ones that don't have a slam, right? It's like, oh. Yeah. You know, did the ranking system mess up? Yeah. Should it be possible to reach number one without winning a major?
44:37David Law:I am, I'm afraid, a little bit in that camp. I don't take you completely seriously if you haven't won a major.
44:44Matt Roberts:That is how bad David's personal experience of Marcelo Rios is, everyone. And we probably should say the world number one scenarios are quite interesting at this tournament. We haven't really talked about them that much.
44:58David Law:Particularly because the one who's most likely to get there can barely walk. Exactly, in Elena Rabatkinner. She can guarantee it by reaching the semifinals. It doesn't matter what anyone else does. If Rabatkinner reaches the semifinals, she will be the number one.
45:13Catherine Whitaker:But that seems a very long way off for someone who can barely walk and we've seen her on the practice court and is clearly still struggling. But Sabalenka can retain it and then Pagula and Goff can also get it. So there is quite a race on for that. And honestly, that does feel right to me that there's a race on for WTA number one. I'm finding it quite hard to know right now who is the best player in the world. It does feel like there's a group of them who are all jostling.
45:47David Law:Just from a US Open perspective, it would take quite a sequence of events for Goff or Pagula to get to world number one. But obviously, if they did win, either one of them won the US Open, they would be in prime position to do it at some point soon. Well, Goff and Pagula can reach number one if they win the title and Rabatkinah doesn't reach the semis.
46:07Matt Roberts:Right. And I don't think Rabatkinah's reaching the semis. I mean, she could barely walk a few days ago. It would be shocking if she reached the semis, I think. So feels more possible once you take Rebacca and potentially out of the equation, I think. Yeah, it's fun. It's really fun to have that storyline on the go. Comfortable wins for Alina Svitolina today over Solana Sierra. Good news for my credibility if you listened to yesterday's preview show. Yeah, you nailed that one, Catherine. Yeah, one and two for Svitolina. Ina Marta Kostjik, 6-4, 6-1 over Storm Hunter. Karolina Pliskova saved a match point today to win 6-3 in the third over Hannah van der Winkle.
46:58Barbora Krojcikova, though, is out. This is probably the shock of the day on the women's side, beaten by Camilla Rakimova, 7-6, 6-2. It's a huge boost for Sabalenka because we had all circled this scheduled meeting with two-time Grand Sam champion Kraychikova in the third round as a massive problem for an out-of-form Sabalenka.
47:21Catherine Whitaker:Yeah, hands up. Misread the volcanic activity there. I was thinking, you know, the form Kraychikova was in Wimbledon with a decent run there. And then particularly after Wimbledon, she played a lot of matches. She did a lot of winning. I thought she had a bit of a shot here. She didn't actually perform very well on the on the US hard court. She had round one losses. So the North American, of course, she had round one losses in Canada and Cincinnati and just had no form today, you know, just racked up a lot of errors. And even even when she loses the first set, I don't usually panic for her that much.
48:07Catherine Whitaker:You know, we had a Q &A show recently where we talked about her as a bit of a diesel, someone who has a lot of experience of losing an opening set, getting back into it and going on to win. Her record shows that. And she went up a break in the second set. And you thought, okay, right, she's starting to get going, but not a good day for her. And, you know, Rakimova is a good player. She's beaten Jasmine Paolini in early stage of a slam when Paolini was the former finalist at Wimbledon and took advantage. and definitely was the better player. And yes, it feels like a boost for Sabalenka. I mean, she's actually got a good record against Kraychikova, has Sabalenka.
48:50But I don't know, I still feel like a full firing Kraychikova
48:54Catherine Whitaker:is not someone you want to see in your draw, no matter your record against her. And yeah, it's a curious season. She's had Kraychikova, like a lot of, I think three first round exits at slams. But then, as I said, that period around Wimbledon, either side of it where she was pretty dangerous and talking quite a big game um yeah shame to see her go actually i i think she's a great presence in drawers great me too yeah absolutely she's something a bit different isn't she paulini incidentally that you mentioned she was a winner today three sets for her she hasn't played since wimbledon had a had a bit of an injury off the back of the grass court season so good to see paulini get back over the line and last shout out from day one goes to, well, Donna Vekic for winning her match 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 against Talia Gibson.
49:45I don't think she had won a match since she won Queen's before Wimbledon, Donna Vekic. So that's pretty big for her. But also shout out to Pam. Pam Shriver, who has coached Donna Vekic personally, but now works with Donna Vekic as part of the Yonex Mindset programme. Donna Vekic is a Yonex player. And Pam left Rhode Island this morning where we all were last night for the inductions at the International Tennis Hall of Fame. She left Rhode Island this morning at 6am and managed to get to the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre for 9am. 9am, she was trying to get there for the start of play and she actually got there two hours early.
50:29And having had the I-95 experience that we all had today, I cannot tell you how in awe of Pam I am for doing that
50:40Matt Roberts:because, well, first and foremost, there was no way we were getting out of bed at 5.30 a.m. this morning. And second of all, we definitely didn't make as good time as Pam. Yeah, no, I mean, Pam left the after party with us and was out of bed several hours earlier. And yeah, that's a heck of a win for Vekic. and I'm sure looking over and seeing Pam in her corner was helpful for her because, yeah, that was a win for the mindset as well because she was up a set and two breaks and lost five games in a row to lose the second set, did Vekic, and had to reset and recover and win in three. So, yeah, big for Vekic, big for Pam.
51:24Love to see it.
51:25Matt Roberts:Close to six hours it took us to get from Rhode Island to Manhattan today.
51:32David Law:Pretty standard five-set match.
51:34Matt Roberts:You're very tennis of us. Okay, that's it for part two. We'll be back in part three to preview day two of the US Open. Welcome back to part three of today's US Open. Let's look ahead to what we have tomorrow on day two of the tournament. We have Arthrasch Stadium opening at midday with Irina Sabalenka against Camilla Osorio, Then second on in the day session in the heat of the day. I think it is going to be a little bit hotter tomorrow and certainly still humid as well. The long awaited return of the defending champion after four and a half months on the sidelines with a wrist injury. Carlos Alcaraz returns against Roman Cefiolin.
52:20Matt Roberts:Can I have a prediction?
52:23David Law:I think Al Kraus will shine and win a little bit like you were saying Matt I think of I know it's a couple of rounds later but I think of Roger Federer against Thomas Burdick that day when he just in the Australian Open when he just suddenly played out of his mind and I think sometimes when you haven't done something for a long time you might forget all your bad habits and just everything just rolls. But then I think it might get stickier against Ferrier in the second round. But Sifulin's good, as we know. Yeah, we've seen him. I mean, Wimbledon, he has a particularly good record, but he had that dramatic match with Caspar Rood at the French Open this year.
53:11Am I misremembering that? No, you're very much remembering it. I'd forgotten it
53:18Matt Roberts:Which he really should have won I was going to say I'm not sure that Is necessarily the example Of him being good though It was an example of something Catherine's the one
53:28David Law:Who throws shade At Caspar Rude Yeah but Rude was
53:32Matt Roberts:Like a ghost of a man So Fulham should have Should have won it Yes But he played good tennis Against a good player At a Grand Slam On a big stage That wasn't Wimbledon That wasn't Wimbledon Is the point I'm making He just didn't play it at the end of the match when it is the most crucial. There you go. Okay, night session on Ash tomorrow starts with Ben Shelton against Halon Greekspoor to follow a women's match, Naomi Osaka, against Anastasia Zakharova. That's tough for Shelton, Greekspoor. That's a really tough first round draw.
54:08David Law:It is because Greekspoor is a shot maker. I think he will probably be able to convince himself to go out there with that much to lose. and that probably makes him a bit more dangerous, likes the crowd. But I also think Ben Shelton is going to elevate even his own very high level in this environment. If he can stay fit, well, I've said I think he's going to win this tournament, so I think he's going to go roaring through. Okay, not just through, but roaring through, says David. I'm expecting you to think similarly about your guy, Artifice, Feast opening Armstrong tomorrow against Stefanos Sitzapas?
54:49David Law:Rather more concerned about that one, got to be honest, because Feast does not have a record here at this tournament of any great shakes. I've seen him lose in the second round, I think, certainly once to Gabriel Diallo. Seen him lose to Matteo Arnaldi here as well on court 17. I mean, look, Feast is a very different player now, but when you've not been beyond the second round of the tournament and you're playing a guy who's reached two Grand Slam finals before in Stefano Sitsapaz, I don't think you can afford to get too confident. He needs to come out and put in a really professional performance.
55:29David Law:Yes, I think he'll win. He has to win, David. I think this is protecting your guy. Well, he does have to win. If he loses this, I think this is a good draw. I know it's Sitsapas, I know it's a name, but come on. Sitsapas is a big six. Even in his pomp, Sitsapas, and he's so far from that now, it's sad, but that is the fact. Even in his pomp, Sitsapas was poor here. No, he's never played well here, I do agree with you. But I don't think you can take the excellent player out of him completely when he's still only, what, 27? I mean, he's still, he's not an old man. He seems fully fit. I know he's played terribly for a long time, really, and way below his ability levels, but I'd still less like to have him as an opponent than many, many others if I was a top seed.
56:32Second on Armstrong tomorrow, Aisling Kruger against Mats Faye, Amanda Ennisomova. David's chance to come back at me. Anissimova should win. That's what I'm saying. Yeah. You know, she's a big ball striker, Kruger, but generally I think Anissimova is better at that game style. Kruger's really tall, isn't she? She is, yeah. She's very tall.
56:56Catherine Whitaker:On her best day, she's got a good serve. But yeah, look, I think Anissimova will be trying to win in like a stress-free manner. No memes. That would definitely be a success. Free day is what Anisimova wants. Night session on Armstrong tomorrow. Wang Ji-Yu are taking on the eighth seed, former champion Iger Shviontek. And then it's an all-American clash between Martin Dam, who, is this a rebrand? He was Martin Dam Jr., son of, well, I'll shock you here, Martin Dam Sr. Or the original Martin Dam that David knew from his ATP days. Well, I assume this isn't a Martin Dam comeback. and this is the artist formerly known as Martin Dam Jr.
57:41He wants to be his own guy now.
57:44David Law:Maybe somebody just forgot the junior bit. Yeah, maybe. Anyway, I'll assume that this is the son. Martin Dam taking on Francis Tiafoe, who I'm a bit worried about Tiafoe's fitness and the hip injury that he was carrying in the Cincinnati final. Okay, he wasn't hampered to the point of being totally debilitated, but he wasn't 100 % and he also didn't reassure that he was totally fit in his pre-tournament press conference. He was bigging himself up and saying, I'll be ready, I'll be ready by Monday, but that was a way of not answering the question, are you fit now? Are you ready now? So, I don't know, I think we'll keep a close eye on that and see how Francis Tiafoe is doing.
58:35Grandstand tomorrow opens with Karolina Mukova. Then we have some matches to be resumed because it started raining in New York this evening and a lot of matches that were going on on the outside courts got suspended. There was actually a very bizarre situation where Armstrong, the second court, despite it having a roof, they didn't close the roof quickly enough. It quite malfunctioned apparently. Oh, really? so the court got rained on massively and there was a huge delay while that rain had to be mopped up by children in with towels which is the very sophisticated method that tennis has of dealing with water on the court um so yeah very weird and then public wolf finished just before Djokovic had finished and Venus and Kennan went out to Armstrong to to start playing on it but just as they got there Djokovic finished and they were asked whether they'd like to go back to Ash and play on Ash and they said yes so there was this whole confusion this evening about what court Kennan and Venus are actually going to be starting on and that confusion probably wouldn't have happened had the roof not malfunctioned and Bubblic Wolf finished an hour earlier.
59:57I'm sure Venus and Kenyon probably would have got on earlier. It's just a series of unfortunate events tonight. So that means that on Grandstand tomorrow, after the move of a Kraus match, we then have Emma Navarro against Lois Boisson to finish. It was a really nice looking match, actually. We watched some of that earlier. Navarro leading by Setna Breik over Boisson. Then we have Taylor Townsend against Maja Kvelinska. Really looking forward to that on grandstand tomorrow. In fact, whole schedule tomorrow on grandstand is great because that is followed by Matteo Bertini against Dan Rorinka. The winner to play Mariano Navone, not Novak Djokovic.
1:00:40And then finally on grandstand, I expect a late finish over on there. I have the floodlights on for sure. Felix Auger, Eliassime, the third seed, taking on Rinki Hijikata. Court 17 tomorrow, as I said, a great place to watch tennis. Jung Chin Wen opens against Christina Lutova, the 16-year-old Memphis champion. And Jung Chin Wen, the Olympic gold medalist who has been out with injury for a long time. Her ranking has dropped way off and she had to come through qualifying here. And she did that in impressive fashion. So, Jung against Lutova, a very interesting first round. Then we have Alex Mickelson against Sinner.
1:01:19not that one to finish, Francisco Sinner. They're a set deep in that match that was suspended today. Then we have Brandon Nakashima against Sebastian Byers. Now, Nakashima is a big beneficiary of Novak Djokovic going out. He's now kind of... It's now his section. It's his section now to get to the quarters, you'd have to say. So, yeah, going to be interesting to see how he responds to that opportunity, quite frankly. Staying on court 17 following Nakashima is Clara Townsend against Sloane Stephens, who was doing the coin toss on Arthur Ashe this evening. Which is very bizarre. She's in the draw.
1:02:03That was a surprise to me. In the tournament, Sloane Stephens. I believe it was for her foundation. Yeah. Which is lovely. Which is very nice. But yeah, it was just a surprise. And finally on 17 tomorrow, a really tough first round for Lerner Tien, the American against Nuno Borges, the Portuguese player. Looking forward to that match. Yeah, it's a really stylish match, that one. There are other great matches all over the shop. Jakub Menchik is playing on court five, as is first up tomorrow, Sara Belek, the very impressive young Czech player. She's a lefty. She had a brilliant run in Cincinnati just a couple of weeks ago, really announced herself onto the scene.
1:02:44She beat Irina Sabalenka, of course. she played a great match against madison keys um she's she's a heck of a player she's one to watch for sure and she's somebody that we wanted to get to know a little bit more and that is why we requested her for our latest edition of tennis podcast meets which is our uh series for friends of the tennis podcast it's part of our bonus content collection for friends where on the eve of every slam, we interview a bunch of players. We get to know them, try and tell their stories. And Sara Bailick is one of those that David has been speaking to for this edition of the Tennis Podcast Meets, which is up now for friends of the Tennis Podcast.
1:03:28Who else have you spoken to, David?
1:03:29David Law:I spoke to Tatiana Maria. I had a lovely 10 minutes with her. She is such great company. she's so open and punchy and revealing she's just just a great interviewee so i highly recommend you speaking listening to that particularly giving insights into the the slightly unusual game style that she has um how it came about and how she sort of manages it day to day you know with practice sessions and all that kind of thing um and also talks about how much her daughter wants to be a tennis player when she grows up so it was it was fascinating um and then um after after the the two player interviews i also while we were over there in the international tennis hall of fame i spoke to one of the inductees steve flink who is a great friend of ours he's a wonderful writer and author of tennis books some of the best tennis books that the sport has known and that includes one that he's just published actually called The Immortals of American Tennis.
1:04:35David Law:And so we had a chat about that. We spoke about his great friend, Mary Carrillo, a fellow inductee now, of course. And yeah, just spoke about International Tennis Hall of Fame life because it was our first time. And he's the man who kind of helped open the doors for us to get into the museum on the day yesterday. Literally, quite literally. He sort of smuggled us in, which was great. so I hope you enjoy all of that yeah it's a great show it's a lovely listen it is up now for Friends of the Tennis Podcast and if you'd like to become a friend of the pod then the link to do that is in our show notes you get access to all of our bonus content there's tons of it you get access to the barge our community platform for talking about tennis you get access to our brilliant writer Hannah all of her work you get significantly fewer ads in your listening experience as well that is all for Friends of the Tennis Podcast link to subscribe is in our show notes last bit of business for today is to tell you more about leo's bonnet leo is our mascot for the u.s open he's owned by cara and cara says that leo's bonnet is in tribute to my grandmother who was a lifelong tennis lover and an impassioned jimmy conners fan like leo she was a free spirit who loved life played the game well into her 80s played the game well into her 80s rather and occasionally brought a little Connor's fire to the court despite being quiet off the court seeing Leo in the bonnet just like hers sitting among the tennis balls reminds me that tennis is fun and that it's still okay to bark at bad line calls so lovely I can't get enough of Leo in the bonnet uh I'm gonna pop that on our Instagram folks thank Thank you, Cara, for that update.
1:06:23Hello to our mascots, Bodie, Maisie and Roger. Hello to our top folks and executive producers, Greg, Chris and Jeff. You're all legends. And we're going to go to Matt for some shout outs. We have Chris from Toronto. Hello, Chris. Hey, Chris. Chris says like Chris Everett, Chris Eubanks and Chris Lewis. Very good. Helpful that, Chris. Got nothing to add, Chris.
1:06:48David Law:When it's 1.30 in the morning and Venus Williams is making a comeback. I love Toronto, as you know, and as I've declared many a time in this podcast, but I am hoping for some Connecticut or Rhode Island-based shout-outs so that we can use our new material that we've gathered in the last 24 hours. But I've been to Toronto for the tournament there, went to Montreal as well. I love both cities. Toronto's great. Thank you, Chris. Is Toronto the one where you dangled off a building? I did, off the CN Tower. Oh, yeah. I learnt a lot about myself that day, David. None of it good. I am not as cool and gnarly as I like to think I am.
1:07:35And finally, we have Catherine Salter. Hello, Catherine. Hi, Catherine. Who is from East Sussex. Oh, what a place. What a name. And Catherine says, I'd much prefer to be associated with our very own Catherine, even though it's a different spelling, than Catherine Jordan, who she's come up with, an American top ten player from the 1980s. I remember her well. So are we talking Catherine with a K here? Yes, a K and a Y.
1:08:05David Law:Catherine Jordan, who I think I saw beat Chrissie Evers once, maybe even at Wimbledon. But, yes, she was a player from my childhood. A Catherine known as a Cathy, which is, I mean, not professional. In adulthood, no one calls me Cathy, but as a kid. And I fear I've made it sound there like, oh, Catherine's really got something against Catherine Jordan.
1:08:33Catherine Whitaker:That is not, I don't think, what she was saying. She's just saying she wants to be associated with you, Catherine.
1:08:40David Law:Yeah, and it was 1983 when I was just nine years old that I remember watching Cathy Jordan beat Chris Evert in the third round of Wimbledon. It's all up there.
1:08:53David Law:And Wikipedia as a backup. Catherine, thank you for giving us an opportunity for David to dig into his mind palace. Catherine and Chris, thank you very much for being friends of the Tennis Podcast. We are part of the Athletic Podcast Network. This is day one of 15, folks, and we're going to be daily at the end of every single, I'm saying day a lot, every single night. Mix it up. It'll be the night. It definitely will be the night. We'll be here every single night of the tournament bringing you all the news, all the match results, or all the important ones anyway, and we'll be looking ahead to the next day's play as well.
1:09:36So do join us for that. Thank you for listening to this one. We'll see you and speak to you then.
1:10:07Thank you.
1:10:39Thank you.
From the publisher
Catherine Whitaker, David Law and Matt Roberts react to Novak Djokovic’s first ever opening round defeat at the US Open as he vomited, winced and cried during a gruelling loss to Mariano Navone.
Part one - We discuss all the talking points from Djokovic’s exit, including the way Djokovic suffered physically throughout the match, his tears as he was unable to pull through, and why it leaves him facing an uncertain future in the sport.
Part two (20:24) - A round up of the day’s other results and stories including comfortable wins for Jessica Pegula and Daniil Medvedev, defeat for Barbora Krejcikova, and a comeback win for Jaume Munar over Terence Atmane in a dramatic match which brought the rules over cramping into sharp focus.
Part three (51:43) - A look ahead to Monday’s order of play which sees the long-awaited return of Carlos Alcaraz.
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