US Open Day 4 - Ostapenko’s words mar Townsend’s win

0:10Hello and welcome to the tennis podcast coming to you from the Billie Jean King National Tennis centre where it's coming up to 11pm. There is still some play going on on Arthur Ashe and Louis Armstrong Stadiums but rest assured we'll bring you all the important stories from day four of the US Open even if that means a 1am re-record and edit but if you're hearing this now that means that hasn't been necessary. Hooray for us and in terms of stories there's probably not been a bigger one here today than the one that unfolded on court 11 earlier on this evening in a match involving Taylor Townsend and Yelena Ostapenko won by Townsend 7-5 6-1 progressing through to the third round we had earmarked this match as a potentially brilliant match and a really really good time and for that reason David you were out there for a lot of this and you were having a lot of fun for a while until the closing stages it and it had felt until that point like we were right in the elaine rostepenko aggro sweet spot where we wanted to be but things curdled yeah things took a turn and yeah if we if we just remind rewind to when i first went out there we'd been on court 17 the three of us together watching another match uh that that you'll come on to talk about which was of interest but I'd had my eye on Townsend against Ostapenko all day really and at that point I mean things were running quickly it was three love Ostapenko I thought crikey if I don't get over there soon I could miss basically the the heart of the match so I went over there and by the time I got there Townsend was working her way back this place was absolutely jam-packed court number 11 it's got one big stand and on the other side it's just sort of standing room on the ground basically and it was about six deep that's where my height comes in handy and i'm able to see everybody's over everybody's head just has a completely different us open experience for everybody else because you can you can beat the crowd it was great um but anyway i got there the crowd really into it and i could see that oster penko was starting to get riled she was starting to miss she was starting to be drawn into towns and tight rallies and if you haven't seen towns and play that much you may be a sinner in doubles but she's a very crafty left-hander who's able to put angles in and she's got great hands and and she was using her hands to great effect to sort of diffuse the the balls that that Ostapenga was blasting at her and at one point the crowd really getting behind Townsend as she broke back for three all that really got to Ostapenko she hit one winner and then she went straight up to the front row of spectators who'd been giving her well giving vocal support to Townsend and she sort of screamed in their faces and it became a real to and fro and then she was you know it was sort of pantomime stuff but it was it was getting more and more tetchy but Townsend was turning this match around she won the first set seven five Ostapenko then left the court to for a bathroom break and it's one of those courts where you I mean she walked right past me you you you have to just walk through the crowds there's no sort of stadium that you're in to go to to find a bathroom you you just walk with this with the public to find wherever the loos are and she was gone for 10 minutes and meanwhile Townsend's just Biden a time.

3:51She looked like she was taking all in her stride. She won the next three games, did Townsend. Yelena Rostepenko called a medical timeout. Maybe there's something wrong with her. I have my doubts. I've got to be honest, because she didn't look unwell. She didn't look injured. Doesn't mean she wasn't, but she had her temperature taken, etc. There was another lengthy delay and you know I think the crowd were were disbelieving of this I think Townsend was disbelieving it Townsend started to jump her skipping rope on her side of the court the the crowd started to sing the song this girl is on fire and and and that kind of went nicely with the the Townsend black dress which had flames coming out of the bottom of it really really spectacular look anyway so this is all happening and really Townsend is just toying with her beating her comprehensively Ostapenko's brain seemed scrambled to me and she was trying drop shots and she's not really a drop shot player and they were going in the middle of the net and it was all going wrong she lost that set and the match 6-1 and I sort of thought okay I'm just gonna I'm just gonna wait for the handshake because I always find it quite funny when you You see a Jelena Ostapenko drive-by handshake, you know, where she doesn't even look the opponent into the eye, walks off.

5:14I just thought, I'll just see this and then I'll leave. Didn't get that. We got a handshake in which Ostapenko held on to Townsend's hand and said something to her, which made Townsend react and go over to Ostapenko's chair. And then the two of them were in each other's faces. I was over the other side of the court. I couldn't hear anything. But this was prolonged. This was probably 30 seconds worth of confrontation at the chair of Jelena Ostapenko. Then the players separated. Townsend went over to her side of the court, really whipped up the crowd, not only to cheer for her, but also to kind of boo Ostapenko off, not that they needed any encouragement.

5:59And there was just very, very loud booing as Ostapenko departed the scene. And Townsend then went over to the ESPN reporter who was there in the corner of the court and didn't interview. And obviously she was asked about what had happened at the net and she immediately explained. And this is audible. Obviously, lots of people have gone back and looked at the broadcast. And Yelena Ostapenko is not denying that she says this, by the way. So we're pretty confident that it is accurate that Yelena Ostapenko said to Taylor Townsend, you have no class, no education, and you couldn't beat me outside of the US.

6:39Incidentally, the head-to-head between them is two and one in Townsend's favour in singles, including a win in Canada last year, which, despite the efforts of Donald Trump, is still outside of the US. So that's all kicked off. Everybody's reeling from everything that David has just described and from the revelations of going back and listening to the broadcast and how clear it seems to be what Elaine Rostepenko has said at the net. At this point, Taylor Townsend gives her her press conference time. She comes in pretty quickly. There's only about half an hour's delay. But in that intervening time, Elaine Rostepenko takes to Instagram and you think, ah, apology incoming.

7:23Not quite. Well, actually, not even close. Her first draft of messages said, small update about the match. Today after the match, I told my opponent, she never even speaks Taylor Townsend's name in this. Today after the match, I told my opponent that she was very disrespectful as she had a netball in a very deciding moment and didn't say sorry. But her answer was that she didn't have to say sorry at all. There are some rules in tennis which most of the players follow and it was the first time ever that this happened to me on tour. If she plays in her homeland, it doesn't mean that she can behave and do whatever she wants to be continued.

7:59She writes at the end of that post. Next page. In the beginning of the match, all players are supposed to start warm-up on the baseline. The opponent still doesn't name Taylor Townsend. The opponent came out and straightaway started the warm-up at the net, which is very disrespectful and against the rules of a tennis match. Thanks, all my fans, for your support. I will come back stronger. Situations like that motivate me to work even harder. then an hour later she comes in with wow how many messages i have received that i am a racist i was never in all caps racist in my life and i respect all nations in the world for me it doesn't matter where you come from there are some rules in tennis and unfortunately when the crowd is with you you can't use it in a disrespectful way to your opponent unfortunately for me coming from such a small country i don't have that huge support and a chance to play in homeland i always love to play in the US and the US Open, but this is the first time someone is approaching the match this disrespectful way.

9:00Now that last page of Instagram story wasn't out at the time of Taylor Townsend's press conference. The first few pages of it were Taylor Townsend hadn't seen them at the time, but she knew what was up. She knew exactly what had happened. And she wasn't surprised by any of it. And I found it very interesting. We'll talk more about the press conference. I did find it very interesting that up until that final post, Strimulain Ostapenko, which has been a bit delayed, it's come after the sort of initial raft of explanation. There was no mention of race by Ostapenko. And there was none by Taylor Townsend either until the very last question of the press conference when she was explicitly asked to comment on whether perceived racial undertones, whether there were perceived racial undertones to what Ostapenko has said.

9:59And yet race hung over this whole grim episode. And that, it felt really appropriate, actually, I thought, the non-explicitness of it all because that's so rarely what racism looks like, right? It's so rarely someone intending to sound overtly racist. Far more often it's insipid or unconscious or carries a good amount of plausible deniability with it. But when you're a white woman talking to or about a black woman, it's incumbent upon you to understand the dynamics at play that casually accusing somebody of having no education, which is a pretty popular genre of racist assumption by the way is simply unacceptable regardless of of the context or or what you intended and her lack of acknowledgement of any of those dynamics or even pause to consider them and their role here regardless of her stated intentions I'm afraid speaks volumes and also just finally on the Instagram story the high-handedness of it all is what really bothers me listing all the ways in which taylor townsend wasn't properly respecting the rules of tennis as if she is the geek gatekeeper of what is and isn't tennis well that carries a lot of racial undertones that she should be aware of as well plus a shitload of irony this is elena ostopenko we're talking about gatekeeping the rules of tennis and how they should be respected pretty staggering stuff to be quite honest with you and it was so striking David how unshocked Taylor Townsend was by what happened out there today yeah she didn't skip a beat did she she she's been in this situation before in different ways but you know I actually thought she she was pretty generous to to Yelena Rostepenko in the way she responded to it it could she certainly could have spoken differently I think in this press conference about this incident I was the first one to ask her a question to outline what had happened which was more or less a repeat of what had been said in the ESPN interview there and it was that final question and answer really that I think bears just running through that the question was for a lot of black people hearing no education no class would be interpreted and rightly so as a dog whistle do you believe that that that had racial undertones and for black people and black women who will hear about this and may have dealt with certain situations where they've had comments, where they've interpreted it as more than just competition, what would you say to them?

13:03Taylor Townsend responded, I can't speak on what her intentions were. I can only speak on how I handled the situation. She was upset about the outcome that occurred. You lost. You're upset about that, saying I have no education and no class. I don't really take that personally because I know that it's so far from the truth and so far from anything. Again, if I allow what other people have to say about me to affect me in that way, then they win. So ultimately, no, I stood up for myself. I kept in mind in the moment how I wanted to portray myself and how I wanted to show up. And if my son were to see this interaction, how would he view it?

13:39I think he'd be proud of the way I handle the situation. I'm very strong. I'm very proud as a black woman being out here, representing myself and representing us and our culture. I make sure that I do everything that I can to be the best representation possible every time I step on the court. So I can't say how she felt. That's something that you're going to have to ask her. I didn't take it in that way, but also that has been a stigma in our community of being not educated and all of the things when it's the furthest thing from the truth. The thing I'm most proud of is that I let my racket do the talking because ultimately I'm the one sitting here in front of you guys moving on to the next round, getting the next check, moving on, being able to still be here and speak to you guys.

14:20That's what's most important. She's packed up and gone. So whether it's racial undertones or not, that's something she can speak on. She's packed up and gone was absolutely iconic, wasn't it? I mean, she's incredible. Taylor Townsend.

14:41and I'm so excited to watch her play tennis again. Yeah, it's great to watch her playing singles like this, isn't it? Because she's the world number one doubles player. This is a woman who has absolutely strung it all together in doubles and she's such a great talent around the net. But she has only ever reached one fourth round of a Grand Slam in singles. That was here six years ago. She's now in the third round of this tournament. And it is a thrill to watch her brand of tennis. And, yeah, I'm really pleased to see that she's able to make it work in singles. I've kind of been waiting for this for a couple of years.

15:23And she was pretty bullish about her game in that press conference. You know, obviously, it wasn't, unfortunately, the main topic of discussion. but she's feeling herself this US Open. She does have Mira Andreva next though who is dismissing opponents for so far. I mean, okay, different calibre but 6-1, 6-3 over Anastasia Potapova today. She seems to be, Matt, in some form and she seems to be healthy. Yes, and we had doubts about both of those things, didn't we, coming in? particularly the health considering she she hadn't played in a little while but very impressive very efficient winning in her first couple of rounds here I think that's a absolutely fascinating matchup you know Taylor Townsend coming forward I think Andreva you know has good hands is will probably be able to handle quite a lot of what Townsend throws at her but maybe not everything And honestly, the last time we saw Andreeva going up against a home player at a slam, she did not handle that occasion well.

16:35You know, obviously I'm thinking of the Lois Poisson match at Roland Garros. So, you know, seeing her back in that situation, OK, will be a little bit different. But that's going to be a really fascinating element of this. just incidentally Ostapenko is in the doubles and is is partnered with Barbora Krejcikova here and obviously no one spoke to Ostapenko after the match today one of the one of the quirks one of the frustrations maybe with the way the system is is done in terms of which players come to press is you have to put those requests in very early there were obviously lots of requests for Taylor Townsend.

17:15No one requested Ostapenko and therefore she went without doing a press conference. But, you know, it's possible that we may hear from Ostapenko in the next few days. And I don't know, I don't really want to hear from Ostapenko at the moment. But at the same time, I think it's, you know, potentially an opportunity for her to right some of those wrongs of those statements on Instagram. I'm not convinced that she will. I think she's got a lot of work to do there, as you said, to realise Rachel undertones. Yeah, the hours gap between the statements suggests that in that time, someone said, you've got some making up to do it, Yelena, and that was what she came up with.

17:57It's pretty alarming. Yeah, big time. Moving on, we've been watching Irina Sabalenka having to battle against Polina Kudomitova, the lesser spotted Polina Kudomitova, who is some player, she's faded in this second set, but in the words of Mary Carrillo, she's a real smoothie. Couldn't wait over. I thought that was perfect. I didn't realise she was quite that good, to be honest. And I think it's really easy when you've got siblings, especially when there's one very established sibling and another one comes in the scene, you just sort of think, oh, they'll just be a less good version of their older sister or whatever.

18:39She's a really different player to Veronica. Kudomitova? Yeah, she hits a much flatter ball. I mean, Kudomitova is, sorry, Veronica Kudomitova is quite a flat hitter of a ball, but Polina takes it to a whole new level. And seeing that contrast with Sabalenka was kind of what Mary was getting at in that comment. You know, Sabalenka's power is forced and muscled and absolutely incredible in its own way. But Polina produces power very differently, it's much smoother. It's sort of a little bit resembled a Rabakina-Sabalenka matchup, didn't it? Which all adds up, doesn't it? And that was what I was thinking through this.

19:23These sorts of players who can generate very flat power, I think we do see them cause Sabalenka some problems. Rabakina is the obvious one. Madison Keyes has played Sabalenka tough in the past and obviously beaten her in a Grand Slam final. and then honestly Polina Kudematova herself got a set off Sabalenka in the Brisbane final earlier this year when she showed flashes of what she showed tonight. But what Sabalenka's got and she was nowhere near her best tonight, she was really struggling on return in particular, she's got her tie-break record. It is now something that she can really fall back on.

20:05If she can keep these sets close and get them to a tiebreak, how many times did we say that about Novak Djokovic? You know, just get it to a tiebreak and then the odds turn massively in your favour. Well, she won her 17th tiebreak in a row tonight, Sabalenka. She's 19-1 on the year in tiebreaks. It's a formidable record. I think she emboldens when she gets in those tiebreaks. I never assume the knowledge of tennis players about general tennis things because they can sometimes be very oblivious to things that we think are incredibly obvious. But I do think there's an aura that builds up. I imagine these players are aware of the Sabalenka tiebreak record and, you know, she's coming out on top of them.

20:53And it's pretty remarkable what she's doing right now. I'm just really, really into that record and seeing whether she can just keep it up. Who is going to be the next person to beat her in a tie break? Well, potentially Lisa Mertens, if Hannah is anything to go by. She's got Leila Fernandez next, Zarina Sabalenka, and then the winner of that to face the winner of the match set up today between Lisa Mertens and Christina Bookshire. Bookshire having ended the Alexandre Ayala fun in the first match of the day, four and three for Bookshire over Ayala. The match that we'd all been watching on court 17 earlier before David de-camped to court 11 to be our Taylor Townsend Elayna Ostapenko correspondent was Elena Rabakina beating very talented young Czech player.

21:45I've said those words before. Teresa Valantova, 6-3, 7-6 for Rabakina. and this match kind of, I loved watching it. I really loved watching this match. The press seats on court 17 are, I mean, they're practically on the court. They're like in the photographer's pit and it's both an excellent and non-excellent place to watch tennis. One end of the court is slightly obscured by the umpire's chair. You don't have that sort of big picture sense of what's going on very well, but you do have this incredibly intoxicating, intoxicating, visceral sense of what's going on down one end of the court. And what was going on out there was brutal hitting, absolutely brutal pummeling of the ball.

22:31And I thought the rally tolerance of both women, Matt, given how hard they were bolting the ball, was pretty extraordinary. Yes, agreed. I was blown away sitting in those seats, actually, by the quality of hitting on display. you really noticed how low over the net as well they were both hitting it, you know. Obviously, Rabatkinner with those flat hits. But what impressed me is that sort of Rabatkinner versus teenager has been a real theme of this year. You know, we've seen that a lot. And one of the big things we've noticed in those matchups has been a huge power gap. Well, it didn't really feel like there was one today.

23:14You know, there was one a little bit. Rabatkinu is kind of more powerful than most players, most fully formed players, let alone someone up and coming. But I really thought Valantova held her own in the power stakes very impressively. She's quite vocal as well. She's quite obviously fighting hard. That's very much a quality that she has. And she probably should have won the second set. She had multiple set points quite early in the set. She had multiple set points again in the tie break after she'd not served it out. She served for it, didn't she, and played a horrible game. Did well to even get it into a tie break, really.

23:54Could have all fallen apart there. But, yeah, really impressed with her. The ease of her stroke production was very notable. Her backhand is the more solid wing at the moment. The forehand can go in the net quite a lot. But, yeah, very impressive and certainly one to watch. And for Rabatkaner, who's played a lot of three-set matches recently, to get out of this one in straight sets, I think she'll be pretty relieved, actually. And set up a meeting with her doubles partner, or her brief doubles partner, Emma Raducanu. Not sure they're teaming up again. No. But it was fun while it lasted in Washington.

24:35Yeah, that's right. Yeah, Washington. Raducanu just manhandled Janice Chen today. 6-2, 6-1. This is emphatic statement stuff from Emerita Canu through two rounds. Yeah, this is the best tennis we've seen from Emerita Canu since she won the US Open. That's my assessment, and that's four years ago. She hasn't won any matches at the US Open since then until this year. Now, obviously, she was injured one of those, but two first-round defeats. but there's just a confidence and clarity of thought to what she's doing out there. She knows what's coming off her racket. She's confident in her body, it seems now.

25:20I don't sense niggles or concern that her body's going to break down. And this is the Emirat Okano we've been waiting for, the one that I always hoped, given enough time and given enough good health, could develop. Now, I still think she's got a long way to go. In her words, she's talked about how she feels that too. And it may be too early in the journey for her to knock off Elena Rybakina, who is just still one of the premium ball strikers in the world. And even if Raducanu reaches her peak and is at her best, she could still lose to Elena Rybakina, and that is OK, because Rybakina is that good.

26:03Yet I think she does have a chance, because she's such a clever match player and I'm wondering how she gets the ball out of the strike zone of Rabakina or gets her in a position where she can't always hurt her. I don't know whether she actually can, but if anybody can, she's the type of player I think is able to because I just think as a constructor of rallies, she really knows what she's doing and I'm fascinated to see how she gets on in this one. And there was a portion of the Rabatkinner match today in that second set where her forehand really started spraying and letting her down. And that is the wing where sometimes she can break down Rabatkinner.

26:46And basically, I'm completely in agreement with David. Like, I do think Raducanu will find ways to get the ball on the forehand and put it in slightly awkward positions. And I think, yes, she's taken those two losses to Sabalenka this year, just in terms of players with similar power to Rabatkin. Sabalenka is kind of an obvious example to go to because Raducanu's played her so recently. But even in those meetings, Raducanu found ways to be able to use her defence, use her hands, get the ball in awkward spots. and it took some Sabalenka tie-break records. You know, three of those recent tie-breaks that Sabalenka's won have been against Raducanu.

27:34And I'm not as high on Rabatkinner in those high-pressure situations as I am Sabalenka. And I think the way Raducanu's playing right now, I actually think it will be difficult for Rabatkinner to just sweep Raducanu off the court. I think there will be high-pressure, tense moments in this match. and Sabalenka rose to those against Raducanu. I'm not as convinced that Rabatkinah will. And it's interesting, you know, you mentioned the two losses to Sabalenka, but it's almost like Raducanu has processed those as victories because getting that close to Irina Sabalenka, the world number one, in the manner that she did to her was a victory, were victories.

28:21like she keeps on bringing up particularly the the Canada one Cincinnati Cincinnati but the Wimbledon one as well you know when she's asked about her confidence she talks about those those matches against Sabalenka rather than any particular recent wins she's had it's very interesting there was also a a moment at the start I think it was the very first question of Raducanu's press conference where she was asked about avoiding a banana skin in Janice Chen. Apparently Americans, they don't have that phrase here. Did you know that, that banana skin is a very British thing? No, I didn't know that.

28:58Let us know. Do you, do, because I feel like we say that quite a lot. Have American, have our American audience been confused all this time? But we don't say potential banana skin, which always slightly winds me up. Yes. Because either you slip on it or you don't. Yes, a banana skin is a banana skin. we've further confused our American audience. Sorry about that. Jasmine Paolini, a winner in the night session tonight on Armstrong. 3-3 for her over Eva Jovic. Pretty straightforward here, but it did get fun at the end, sort of in the nick of time. Jovic gave the crowd something to get their teeth into.

29:38She finally broke the Paolini serve. She's got a snazzy, sort of bespoke outfit, Paolini. She does, yes. It's a very night session as well. I feel like that's a level up for Paolini, getting her own US Open glitzy kit. Yeah, I think so. After her first round win, she was interviewed by Blair Henley and Blair said exactly that, what a great kit. She was pumped, wasn't she? She was pumped about it. She twirled and showed it off, which is just great Paolini vibes. I didn't see a huge amount of this, but I did hear Andrea Petkovic in commentary described as a tactical masterclass by Paolini and really picked out the way that she went after Jovic's second serve in particular.

30:28I think she was just a threat on return all night and maybe didn't quite have her best ball striking, but she's a smart player who's won a lot of matches in the last 18 months or so, and she put those things into practice tonight. It's Marquetta von Drosheva next for Jasmine Paolini. It's a great section of the draw. Who is just quietly having a mini eruption. I don't know if third round counts as an eruption. McCabe Kessler is a tough opponent to beat. She's brewing up to an eruption. Put it that way. And that's the Rabakina-Radicano section. Yeah, so the winner of Paolini Vondrosseva faces the winner of Rabakina-Radicano and that is a fun section of this draw.

31:08Oh, it's so good. Yeah, really great. We had a win for Jessica Bagula in the first match of the day on the Arthur Ashe Stadium. She beat Anna Blinkova. That's a banana skin avoided. Yeah. 6-2, 6-3. And she now plays Victoria Azarenka, who beat Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova today in a match that took place in 2009. 3-3. Didn't watch much of this, but Hannah, of course, watched every ball. Yeah. And said that Pavlyuchenkova was really struggling physically in this one. Very tough year of health, Pavlyuchenkova. Azarenka ranked 132 in the world at the moment. That's how tough times have been for her. But I love the fact that she's still out here and she's getting through to the third round like this.

32:00Still hungry for it. Barbora Krejcikova, the other kind of really notable winner on the women's side today. She beat Muka Uchijima comfortably 4-2 and faces Emma Navarro next. So we've got some good little match-ups being set up. Brewing nicely, isn't it? Yeah, brewing nicely. Like a cup of English tea. Yes. Right, that's it for part one. We'll be back in part two to talk about the men. Welcome back to part two of the tennis podcast, where players wrapped up for the day. Sabalenka's won, Ben Shelton's won. Comfortable in the end for them both. In fact, Ben Shelton, comfortable throughout. He looked great tonight against Pablo Carreña Busta.

32:42Before we get into the matches that we've seen today, you should probably start with the Jack Draper news that dropped early afternoon today, his withdrawal ahead of his scheduled second round match with Zizi Berg's. I mean, a surprise and not a surprise. I suppose more not a surprise than surprise, David. Yeah, I mean, certainly on the whole, given the injury that he's described having to his arm and the fact that it's kept him out since Wimbledon and the fact that he's talked about having pain and playing through it and so forth. The surprise comes because after the first round match where he lost the set and he was talking about how I need sets and I wanted to lose that set in a way so I could have another one.

33:32I assumed he was good to go really, at least to play. so I guess once you've played an intense match then there's the period of how does the body react to it because you just haven't done it for such a long time and there we are, it must have flared up and that's dispiriting for him isn't it because for the first time we were talking earlier about how Emma Raducanu is finally able to piece matches together and not have to think about physicality and really for a good six or eight months it's felt like that with Jack Draper and look what he's achieved. Look at the title he won and the ranking he's managed to put together.

34:12And we're back where we were. He's back where he was. And I bet it's a tough one to swallow. Yeah, and on reflection, I think Matt's take a few days ago, I think on the eve of the tournament, about the pressure of having this new kit sponsor and what a big deal that is for him and what a big deal it clearly was for Vrory. I can't believe that that wasn't a factor in him deciding to play here at all. I don't think it's as binary as, you know, someone from Rory picking up the phone and saying, better not pull out of this tournament, Jack, because your face is all over Manhattan. I don't think that happened at all.

34:50But he will have been aware of the atmosphere of, you know, he'll have been aware of all the plans being made and everything. It's like calling off a wedding, isn't it? It's like leaving someone at the altar. and that's a tough thing to do it does just make me worry about the rest of the season for Jack Draper not that I judge him for being susceptible to that pressure but like there's going to keep being pressures like that he'll be desperate to qualify for Turin absolutely desperate and he's got points to defend in Vienna coming up and he's already sat on the sidelines for big chunks of his early stages of his career and watched his peers go past him like i think he's going to find this hard and it's going to be a real test of his decision making yeah and we've had a few of them this year and he's actually been quite cautious in terms of not playing certain events which which i think is sensible i think he gets it and and that makes me think it's not all about just ranking points and prize money um and and even even if he were to to think well no no it's it's not the clothing thing that's not what it what it is i mean i do think that all feeds into the sort of general sense of anxiety of responsibility and and so forth but he is a natural born competitor who wants to be maximizing his opportunity to make the most of his incredible talent and the fact that he's kind of cracked it this year in the last 12 months jack draper has proved he's a top five player in the world who can hurt people and who could maybe win a grandstand tournament and not it's not like the time's ticking down but this is where he wants to be doing it he's he's a young man who's got it all before him and now his arm is stopping him play tennis it must be gutting and I agree with you how do you handle this I don't know what the the physical diagnosis and prognosis is what the most sensible course of action is but there's a big part of me that just wishes he would see us in January and you know I know there's loads of points and there's loads of prizemen all the rest of it but if if him coming out for the Australian open in January, 100 % fit, was the option.