US Open Day 7 - Gauff, Jovic rescue bad day for USA

23:36David Law:And Anissimova was very keen to say, look, when somebody said, maybe now the pressure's off you now that you've lost this match. She says, what, you think I might be relieved that I've lost this match? and of course she wasn't going to accept that but actually maybe in order to have a reboot and to feel better going forwards maybe the clean slate does help and I can't be sure that these are the reasons they have been struggling but it stands to reason that that could be the case

24:05Matt Roberts:It was an unreal effort by Jung though this is a woman that two days ago after her second round victory told us that the thing that she struggled with most since her comeback is competition and being competitive, feeling competitive, getting those juices flowing. And that is never required more than when you're love five down in a deciding set, convincing yourself that you still have a chance. And she said, I just told myself, you don't want to go out on a six-love set. And she wins that 5-1 game, and that makes Madison Keys tighten up. And OK, she was given an assist by what happened to Madison Keys in that deciding set.

24:55Matt Roberts:But that was also helped along by what Jung was doing and the pressure she was applying and how she rose to the occasion. It was a tremendous effort from Jung.

25:08Catherine Whitaker:Yeah, it really was. It was... There was a strange arc to the match because Jung came out really playing poorly, didn't have her range, wasn't serving well.

25:18David Law:29 % first serves in in the first serve.

25:21Catherine Whitaker:It's a real no-show.

25:22Matt Roberts:I think she was really shocked by Madison Keyes as an opponent. They've played before pre-injury, but she said, I just hadn't played anybody that hit the ball like her in a really long time, and I think she was rocked on her heels by it.

25:38Catherine Whitaker:And, you know, there was a point in this match where I was thinking, wow, Madison Keyes liberated after saving all those match points and playing really well. And I think she could have won it in straight sets. So credit to Jung for hanging in there in that second set and managing to take it. And then I was expecting actually the third set to be nip and tuck and really close. And that just didn't happen at all with Keyes building that lead. You just thought it was over. And, yeah, it was a case of two things happening at the same time. Key's definitely struggled a lot and was missing repeatedly and by quite big margins.

26:17Catherine Whitaker:But Jung was steely and did that thing that she's done in every match and end up finding her game and finding her range and taking over with her shots. And, yeah, there's real momentum behind Jung at the moment.

26:37Matt Roberts:And now we get Jung against Fiontek, which a couple of years ago was one of my very favourite WTA match-ups. I have missed this rivalry.

26:49Catherine Whitaker:It feels like a seminal moment in the career of Yigash Fiontek, that loss that she took to Jung Shinwen at the Olympics in the semi-finals. You know, like there's been a lot happening in Iga Sviante's world over the last couple of years and why she's not been as dominant to force as she was leading up to that point. But it feels like you can you can start things there in terms of things going a bit wrong for Sviante. You know, like and I think mostly that was the Olympics. It didn't really matter who the opponent was, but just losing at the Olympics at Roland Garros, it was always going to be a tough one for her to stomach.

27:30Catherine Whitaker:But there were just so few players that you thought actually could beat Igor Shiantic at that point on clay at Roland Garros. And Jung did it. And it's real shame what's happened to Jung since then and not being able to build on it. But here she is getting it back, getting the fire back.

27:50Matt Roberts:I cannot wait for Jean Svantec. It was a scratchy day for Svantec today.

27:56Catherine Whitaker:It was a really interesting match against Bruscovo, actually, because Bruscovo is an opponent who I think has improved a lot this year. She's always been in that kind of awkward, tricky category, but you always expect the best players to actually beat her. And Svantec generally has handled her pretty well. But, wow, if we're talking about this new version of Igor Svantec under Francisco Roig, this was it. There was absolutely zero what we call ball bashing, you know, where she just hits out and hits out and keeps going for her shots. There was almost too much patience for you, Svantec. You kind of wanted her to pull the trigger a little bit more, perhaps, or certainly I did, because she was just getting involved in these very long extended rallies against Buzkova, and that's kind of what Buzkova wants.

28:45Catherine Whitaker:and it felt a lot like Buzkova was the one bossing Sviontech around and I think one reason for that was Sviontech's serve. She didn't really have much going on that shot today. She wasn't winning many free points so it was creating a lot of these games where she was in tussles but I really liked Sviontech's... As I said, she was maybe a little bit too patient. She could have gone for a little bit more but generally that is what I want to see from Sviontech. I think it's better to have this kind of match because she's going to be so hard to beat if she's keeping the ball in the court. Because she's hitting it pretty relentlessly with topspin.

29:23Catherine Whitaker:She's moving well. And, okay, she might not cut through opponents like she was in the past, but she's not going to beat herself. And we've seen that a little bit. So whether she can find a bit more aggression, a bit more width on her shots and a better serve remains to be seen. I think she'll need all of that later in the tournament against the best players. But this was, I think, a good performance for the Froig, the Froig, the Francisco Roig era of, like, raising her floor a little bit.

29:54David Law:Shorthand it, Froig.

29:57Matt Roberts:A lot of what you said strikes me, Matt, could also be applicable to Coco Gough today. One of her scratchier days, 6-3, 6-4 over Christina Bookshire, the second match on the Arthur Ashe Stadium today. She said in her post-match interview on the court, she said, well, my weapons, my attacking weapons weren't really with me today. So I had to rely on my defence. It's like, oh, we've got the best defence in the world, possibly, that women's tennis has ever seen. So, well, you're going to be fine then, aren't you? Like, what a thing to fall back on.

30:33Catherine Whitaker:Yeah. And look, I didn't see all of this match. But in the opening stages, Bookshare was on top and had a break. and at 3-2, Bookshare serving, she played, well, first of all, she had a lovely serve volley. I was like, okay, Christina, haven't seen that before. And then she won one of the best points I've seen all tournament, coming to the net, really long rally, she ended up winning it, and you're thinking, wow, Bookshare is on fire. She lost the game. That's kind of what Koko Goff draws out of opponents. You can play all of this great tennis, but Goff's going to be there point after point. and doing it consistently enough to beat her is so hard.

31:12Catherine Whitaker:And, yeah, my friend Matthew, who's a very big Coco Goff fan, said she normally has one bad match a tournament and if that was it, then she's in a pretty good spot and maybe this wasn't the worst round to have it in against an opponent who is playing well, but she knows she can rely on that defence against Butcher.

31:32David Law:It did occur to me that she probably, Coco Goff, knew of some of these other results that were going on with American players. And you start to think, oh, my word, they're all going to go like dominoes here and just all fall over. And, of course, she's such a strong mental player that in the end, I trust her to find the answers. And it was interesting that even when this is somebody who wasn't having her best service day, and yet she was averaging 110 miles an hour on her first serve. It shows you that the bar is raised as to what she expects on that shot.

32:12Matt Roberts:Absolutely. And look, we'll talk more about Coco Goff in part two once we know who she faces in the fourth round because Iyala and Jovic is still to come. They're kicking off on the Arthrasch Stadium in about 15 minutes from now, probably about 25, 30 minutes from now if we're including Faf in our schedule. so we'll be back in part two to talk about that and the rest of the tennis that we're going to see for the rest of the evening, probably through until 3am.

32:40David Law:Because that's what we do.

32:42Matt Roberts:So we'll make a date to see you then, folks. But just before we see you on the other side, a word from our sponsors at Steve Fogel's International Tennis Tours, the premium hospitality and experience provider. David, you have to do it on your own if you miss it.

32:58David Law:the premium hospitality and experience provider.

33:01Matt Roberts:Very good. And Steve Fergels can sort you out with a dream trip to the Miami Open from March the 14th to the 28th next year. Combined men's and women's events are always the best kind of events. We're always saying that. And Miami is one of the biggest outside of the slams. Plus, it's in one of the US's most vibrant cities, something which really is reflected in the tournament site and everything they do there. It has a real cool festival vibe about it. I can highly recommend it for vibes. So if that sounds good to you and you want to check out the Magic City, then you should definitely do it with Steve Fergels.

33:40Matt Roberts:They can sort you out with awesome tickets, premium accommodation, plus VIP hospitality at the 72 Club, all with no faff in sight. Just head to tours4tennis.com forward slash podcast. That's tours4tennis.com forward slash podcast. Click the Miami Open banner and use code DEUCE5, D-E-U-C-E-5, for 5 % off your choice of official travel packages. Welcome back to part two of today's Day 7 tennis podcast from the US Open, where since we came to you in part one, we have experienced an absolutely electric few hours of Grand Slam tennis, It's one of those spells where the magic feels contagious and everywhere you look, special, memorable things are happening.

34:30I will remember that period for a long time.

34:34Catherine Whitaker:Yeah, it was one of those nights where at various points I was out on Armstrong, then I was out on Ash, and then I was like, I need to get to the screen because there's too much happening and I need to keep across all four matches at once. And, yeah, you would look up and every single match was, you know, the point was like 30 all or break point. It was like all these big points happening at once. The tennis was brilliant, I thought, in all the matches we were watching, just an absolute humdinger of a night session. Yeah.

35:09David Law:One of the great ones, one of those where, after I'd seen the first set and a bit of Alex Iala's match in the stadium, just wanted to get, as you said, back to the screens. And we were talking about going and seeing one of the other matches, Baltic van der Zensselbe, because, you know, we've got a certain interest in him, particularly you. And we thought it would be quite funny to go and just watch that court side in these incredible press seats on court 17. But we couldn't get away from the screens, which you can divide into four and see all four matches at the same time. I was standing up. I couldn't sit down.

35:47David Law:I felt like I'd got an electric current going through me, really, watching each one of them and all of them just producing incredible moments and stories.

35:58Matt Roberts:We left off part one talking about Coco Gauff. We now know who she will play in round number four, and it will be fellow American 18-year-old Eva Jovic. She came through that match with Iala. 7-5, 3-6, 7-5. As high-quality a contest as I have seen this US Open.

36:21David Law:Yeah, I think that's right. Particularly in sets two and three. The first set was there were a lot of breaks of serve. And in fact, Jovic went up two breaks. And Iala got them both back. And they were just exchanging them like that. but they didn't hit the heights in certainly Ayala. She was sort of very patchy. Jovic does an incredible job of sort of absorbing pace. She is such a great athlete and competitor and she's just strategically very clever. But then it just sort of descended into this toe-to-toe battle. I say descended, it kind of ascended into it because it was just so dramatic, you know, each one of them trying to knock lumps out of the other.

37:10David Law:And they're best friends, you know, they're great friends. And the shot making was audacious. The movement was incredible. The crowd were just totally absorbed in it. And it was a capacity crowd. I mean, you're looking at more than three hours of battle. And I can't think of a part of the court that wasn't used, whether it was drop shots or angled spearing drives or lobs. lobs, everything was on show. It's just one of the great matches, really, certainly at this tournament.

37:39Catherine Whitaker:There was no faff, Catherine. No, I know. You know, there was absolutely nothing apart from, like, the tennis that was doing the talking. Do you know what I mean? Like, they're so evenly matched that they both got enough power but not overwhelming power, and they were having to just throw themselves into the ball to try and get it past each other. I think they know each other's games well. There was a lot of times where I felt like Ijala was reading where Jovic was going to go and you were thinking, God, Jovic, put it away. But I think Ijala was just anticipating it so well and the rallies were therefore really extended.

38:18Catherine Whitaker:I was a bit worried about the match at the end of the second set when Jovic had the trainer out and had quite a long consultation about that and did seem to be struggling at that point and went down a break in the third, but she came on so strong for the comeback that I stopped thinking about that as the match went on. Jovic had a match point and didn't take it and you thought maybe Iala could still win it from there, but it was an absolute treat. I'm desperate to see these two play many more matches on this kind of stage.

38:56Matt Roberts:I know it feels lazy to jump to the Djokovic comparisons with Jovic because she's got Serbian and Croatian heritage, doesn't she? She spends a lot of time there and we know she has had a lot of input from Novak Djokovic. She's sort of mentored her a bit and given her spots of advice with her game. But, I mean, you can see it in the game, the way she plays so precisely to a line and length. Like, that is so Djokovic-ian. But in her steel. I mean, Djokovic shouldn't have that at 18. No. It's pretty extraordinary, her steel and her poise and her composure. I know there was one moment of fluster on the first match point where she made a very uncharacteristic error.

39:44Matt Roberts:but then immediately regrouped. It was unreal for an 18-year-old. And it's also remarkable how little I think about or we talk about her age.

39:54David Law:Yeah. It's happened so quickly, really, hasn't it? I mean, I think when she was announced onto the court, the reference point was two years ago she made her debut here and look what she's already become. And, you know, this isn't a player with just brutal power. She has to package an entire game in order to make inroads like this. And a lot of it is built around this mental strength and this incredible movement and this consistency. And as you say, Djokovic, it's a perfect description. Although game-wise, he was kind of a bit like that at that age, mentally he wasn't like that at all. She is a colossus already mentally on the circuit.

40:40David Law:and I think you only realise just how much she was sort of propping up in this match when it ended and you saw it all kind of disintegrate into emotion and she said I don't get emotional very often but you know I feel really emotional right now that's what this has meant to me.

41:01Matt Roberts:Yeah that's exactly it David just remarkable how quickly it's happened I mean I commentated on her at the Australian Open in January of last year, so just over 18 months ago, 19 months ago, and she got blown away by Lena Rabakina. It was adult against child. And you could see the talent of Jovic, absolutely, but she looked a long way away from being able to keep up with the big girls. And here she is, and it looks so normal. It doesn't look like she's having to redline her game in any way. Her technique is so compact and balanced. It just looks so sustainable, all of it, provided that back's OK.

41:49Matt Roberts:I back her to be able to keep up this level. I do wonder how her game will match up with Goff's, Matt.

41:57Catherine Whitaker:Yes, we saw them play earlier in the season and it was a three-set win for Goff on the clay. now I think Goff's in better form than she was on the clay. She was really searching for her game still at that time. But, you know, obviously Goff's a very good clay quarter and I think Jovic is still learning on that surface. So there's enough, I think, there in that matchup to suggest that Jovic can hurt Goff. I think what gets me is that Jovic is so good in those types of exchanges she had today against Iala where it's back and forth, toe-to-toe, I think what Goff will do is try and mix up the heights a little bit more and maybe her court position a little bit more than what Ayala did to try and get out of just the quick back-and-forth exchanges and make it more about movement side-to-side, you know, and front and back, you know.

42:55Catherine Whitaker:I think Goff will try and make the match look a bit like that. And I just think, you know, as tough as Ayala to be, Goff is just that little bit extra hard to beat as well. So I would expect Goff to win still, despite how brilliant Jovic was tonight. I agree with you. That was some of the very highest quality tennis I've seen all tournament. But I just think Goff has an ability to cause people's level to drop a little bit sometimes. And I could see that happening. I do think Goff goes in as the favourite, but it's another... I mean, we knew whoever came out of that match. it was going to be very exciting against Coco Goff.

43:34And I think, you know, if it had been Ayala,

43:37Catherine Whitaker:there would have been the whole crowd element. There would have been just how many people are going to be watching this tennis match around the world. But with it being Jovic, there's a kind of different reason why it's really compelling as well.

43:50Matt Roberts:How are we already at the point where Coco Goff is playing players four years younger than her?

43:58David Law:Yes.

44:00Matt Roberts:How are we here? Bonkers stuff.

44:02David Law:Where's that going? One other factor, just to consider as well, is how physically ready Jovic might be. Three hours plus of battle and seemingly a set in a bit of being in some kind of discomfort. Maybe that was cramp-induced or something like that and will wear off, but I got the sense that it was more than that. Yeah, absolutely.

44:26Matt Roberts:One to watch. Can't wait for it. Assuming she's fit. Cannot wait for that match. Also cannot wait for the other match that was set up this evening that will be played on Monday between Naomi Osaka and Elena Rabakna. Rabakna has just got the better of Yara. Yulia, I've done it again. Got it wrong in a different way this time. Yulia, star of Dubseva, 7-6-6-3 in the last match of the night on Grandstand. and Naomi Osaka coming through in rather more dramatic fashion on Armstrong over a Lisa Merton 6-3, 3-6, 7-5, a match that Naomi Osaka herself, in her post-match interview on Court with Blair Henley, was in utter disbelief, Matt, at having won.

45:16Matt Roberts:She kept on saying over and over, I can't believe I won this match. She said, I'm literally shocked that I won.

45:22Catherine Whitaker:Yeah, and she looked it. She was struggling to get words out in that interview at times. And, yeah, she said she put her heart, left her heart on the court tonight. And you wouldn't have thought that she'd be having to say these things after the first set and a bit of this one, which was fairly comfortable, really, for Osaka. You know, she wasn't in her absolute best form and Mertens was sticking around in games and threatening to get the break back at the end of the first set. But Osaka was in charge and you felt like she just had too much game. But we saw what has happened a few times this tournament where she can't just put her foot down on a lead and accelerate to the finish.

46:09Catherine Whitaker:There's bumps along the road and she lost the second set and ended up a breakdown in the third. and Mertens is such a good competitor and you don't want to end up in a match like that with Elise Mertens, it just becomes tricky. And then she had treatment herself, Osaka, for her calf, I think. I was pretty worried at that point. Me too, she was really stretching it out and she was struggling in the match at that point but my goodness, she came on strong. She surged. At the end, she really did. She needed a lot of match points to get through and it was still a battle right to the end. And she was down at five all and then ended up serving her way through that and then, you know, eventually ended up winning it.

46:58Catherine Whitaker:There was a jumping backhand winner cross-court towards the end, which I'd never seen Osaka do, let alone on a doggy calf. Just fantastic match. I don't think Osaka was quite at her best. She admitted that, but there was a period where her attitude was kind of poor and she actually apologised to little kids watching, saying that she wasn't happy with her behaviour. I think she was shuntering away at her box and Thomas Rick Karofsky was heard saying, I'm not your opponent, she is at one point. But she overcame that, you know, and by the end I thought she was really back on track and did have a really good attitude and she needed it.

47:43Catherine Whitaker:And yeah, that's a fascinating match in the next round now against Rabakina.

47:50Matt Roberts:Only played once before and that was just a few weeks ago. It was this summer. Won by Rabakina in Toronto, 6-4 in the third.

47:58David Law:That was a good match and it was one that Osaka should have won. I watched that and she had that on her racket. She was due to win that in straight sets and just couldn't quite put Rabakina away. and then it got away from her. And I think that flawed her. I mean, I think that's why she pulled out of Cincinnati. I think she was so flawed by that. She needed to kind of rest up and just feel enthused again as much as the physical elements. So, yeah, it'll be really interesting because we still have to watch Rebecca in a little bit, don't we, even though she seems to be coming through these physical challenges.

48:38Matt Roberts:Yeah, there were a couple of moments tonight It was a marathon first set against Arab Dubsoe. A couple of moments, particularly moving forward to the net, where she maybe didn't look the most comfortable pushing off on that ankle. But, you know, this is a player that beat her at the French Open. By and large, she's looking pretty remarkably OK, is Rebecca Knoe. And she's now two wins away from world number one. Two wins away. Regardless of what anyone else does, if she wins two more matches here, she becomes the world number one. so that's it for women's matches from today which brings us to the Bertic section

49:17Catherine Whitaker:I'm surprised she didn't lead with it to be honest they were strained of you Catherine

49:20Matt Roberts:Bertic van der Zanschelp ladies and gentlemen 3676 467663 in 4 hours and 29 minutes over poor old Zizi Berg so I've just walked past in the interview area looking utterly devastated. Bertic though, quote, really glad he won. Even gave the odd fist pump in the fifth set of this, didn't he?

49:46David Law:We did not know what to do with ourselves when we saw that. Is this an imposter? Never seen him given one before. But, you know, if you're going to give a fist pump, it's after a fifth set epic in one of your best ground slams ever.

50:00Matt Roberts:Yeah, he has been to the quarterfinals here before 2021. I think this, you know, has been his most successful slam. But as always with Burtick, this run is out of nowhere.

50:12Catherine Whitaker:Of course.

50:13Matt Roberts:And look, it wasn't always the highest level this match. It was in and out from both of them. I would say Burtick's definitely fancied his chances of the comeback in the fifth set if his body language was anything to go by.

50:27Catherine Whitaker:Well, he hit a purple patch where everything he tried suddenly came off for a few games.

50:33David Law:Even when he was fall-up down. He was fall-up down. He did fall-up down. And he won one point and he's sort of pointing at the core as if he owns the place. You love four. But anyway.

50:42Matt Roberts:It was a very funny fifth set. And Bertic actually said in his on-court interview that he loves big courts and big vibes. I mean, tell your face, Bertic. Actually, no, don't, because I love his weirdness. I really love it. And he will play Artur Zeya in the fourth round of the US Open. Zeya against van der Zanskrupp, replacing the quarterfinals. Zeya, a lucky loser. Got his clock cleaned by Nishes Basavaredi in the final round of qualifying. Basavaredi, I think, went out in the second round here. And here's lucky loser Zeya. First round. He lost to Schulhatay. Crikey. That seems a long time ago.

51:28Matt Roberts:So lucky loser Zeya threw, obviously, his own five-set battle over Michael Zhang, the American over on grandstand. And Zeya, the last Frenchman standing after Benjamin Bonzi lost out to Karen Hashanov in the... Earlier on today, wasn't it? Hashanov imperious in that. Hashanov of old, they're saying.

51:53Catherine Whitaker:Yeah, unseeded Hashanov, very much like seeded Hashanov, really. just sort of doing his thing, making quiet, good progress through the draw.

52:03Matt Roberts:Awaiting the winner of the match currently on court between Jakub Menchik and Lerner-Tien. Okay, that is it for part two. Now, in terms of part three of today's pod, if you are hearing this right now, it means that Alexander Zverev managed to win his third-round match against Alejandro Tabilo without elongated drama for once. And therefore, we have taken the strategic decision not to wait till 3am to record part three for once. So you'll be hearing our bright, sunny pre-midnight voices looking ahead to tomorrow in just a moment's time.

52:38Catherine Whitaker:Welcome back to part three of today's tennis podcast.

52:41Matt Roberts:Let's look ahead to tomorrow, day eight of the US Open. And it's a big, is tomorrow Labor Day? Is Monday Labor Day? Monday. It's Monday, but tomorrow is, it's very much part of the Labor Day celebration. Yeah. And that affects the order of play in a way that I hadn't accounted for when we talked about and we looked ahead to the Taylor Townsend against Arena Sabalenka match tomorrow because the day session is a bigger deal. on, I mean, generally at the weekends, but particularly Labour Day weekend. And I guess for that reason, they have put Sabalenka Townsend first up on the Arthur Ashe Stadium at 11.30am, followed by Tommy Paul against Carlos Alcaraz.

53:27Matt Roberts:Who's picking any upsets there on the Ashe Day session?

53:31David Law:No, I'm not picking an upset. It will be Sabalenka and Alcaraz for me.

53:36Matt Roberts:Matt?

53:38Catherine Whitaker:yes for me too I kind of think maybe Townsend had a better shot if it was the night session I don't know why I think that just a bit more chaos potentially that may well not end up being true but I do think Sabalenka and Alcres will step it up and come through

53:58Matt Roberts:night session starting at 7pm although it's actually always 7.20 because Faf Ben Shelton takes on Stefanos Sitzapas first up and then following that a women's match which is rough scheduling. I think Anna Kaninskaya against Emma Navarro the last match of the day on Ash. Over on Armstrong it opens with men's doubles. Harry Heliovaro and Henry Patton taking on Mateo Arnaldi and Jan-Leonard Struth. Then not before 12.30

54:26Catherine Whitaker:It's a random pairing isn't it?

54:27Matt Roberts:Totally random. Not before 12.30 the singles action starts with Marta Kostiuk against Wimbledon champion Linda Nozkova, then not before 3pm Daniel Medvedev against Francis Tiafoe and then that is followed by Jessica Pagula against Sarana Castella. No official night session on Armstrong tomorrow, just a sequence of good-looking matches. Pagula on Armstrong for the first time. That'll be interesting because everybody says it does play a little bit differently. And then grandstand tomorrow is all doubles except for your guy, David, Alex Mickelson against Thomas Martin Echeverry. That is a not-before-2.30.

55:13David Law:OK, I'll be keeping an eye out on that whilst I'm commentating on Al Karaz against Tommy Paul on BBC Radio. So that'll be good. I'll have my screens in front of me. I'll be across everything.

55:26Matt Roberts:We love screens. Matt, do you see any upsets anywhere tomorrow?

55:32Catherine Whitaker:I guess Kostiuk over Noskova would count as an upset. I don't... Yeah, go on then. I'll go for that one. I think the way Kostiuk... You know, she lost to her in the Wimbledon semi-final and we've already seen her get revenge on Andreeva, who she lost to in the Royal Ngaros semi-final. I think those semi-final performances have hurt Kostiuk a little bit, the way she's played in those slam semi-finals. Not that the Wimbledon one was terrible, but I think she'll be keen for revenge. And I think Nosikov has been good this tournament. I think already reaching round four is quite a good backing up of Wimbledon, like low key.

56:13Catherine Whitaker:It's nothing amazing, but it's pretty good. But she was really pushed against Anli, and I could see Kostiuk beating her, I suppose. That feels pretty close to me, that one. Medvedev-Tiafoe I guess Tiafoe winning would be the upset

56:31Matt Roberts:I guess so I mean pre-tournament

56:34Catherine Whitaker:pre-tournament you wouldn't have said so

56:35Matt Roberts:you'd have said Medvedev but then you've got

56:37Catherine Whitaker:the head-to-head is so in Medvedev's favour that's a heck of an order of play on Armstrong those two matches back-to-back and then Pagula I'm going to lean Medvedev I think I was very impressed with Tiafoe the other night but I'm going to lean Medvedev I just when a head-to-head is that strong in someone's favour. Something's going on there. Feels like something's happening.

57:01Matt Roberts:OK, well, we'll be back tomorrow at the end of all of it to talk about it. Can't wait. Looking currently at a picture of Leo, our US Open mascot, who's, of course, celebrating Labor Day weekend. Leo has a honey juice in front of him, which I can only assume is a homemade one by Cara, Leo's lovely owner. But I cannot tell you how faithful to the real honey juices that you buy here at Flushing Meadows this is. I mean, you would not know.

57:32Catherine Whitaker:No. It's either a homemade one or Leo is in our midst. Right.

57:36Matt Roberts:In which case, why have we not been hanging out with Leo? Like the melon balls are the perfect size. The colour, I mean, it's an official US Open Cup that has obviously come from Flushing Meadows. But honestly, I mean, these are like pro-quality photo shoots we're getting from Leo and Cara. So thank you very much, Leo. That looks like a very delicious honey juice. Hello to our mascots, Bodhi, Maisie and Roger. Hello to our top folks and executive producers, Greg, Chris and Jeff. Now, we were going to have the big return of shout outs tonight because it's incredibly pre-midnight. but we do have a bus to catch.

58:21Matt Roberts:What's the verdict, Matt?

58:23Catherine Whitaker:We could do two quick ones. Quick ones. We have Jane Ballman. Hello, Jane. Hey, Jane. Who is from New Jersey.

58:33Matt Roberts:Oh. We've got New Jersey stickers now. We do.

58:39Catherine Whitaker:Shout out Kelly and Marianne, who made those for us. I've got one on my laptop.

58:44Matt Roberts:Love them. They say TTP loves New Jersey. and... Accurate. No, they say New Jersey loves TTP, but TTP does love New Jersey. It's a mutual thing. It's a mutual thing. Yeah, it's all love. Thank you, Jane. Like Jane O'Donoghue?

58:59David Law:Yes. Very good, shall. Who occasionally coaches Emma Raducanu, if my memory serves me correctly.

59:08Matt Roberts:Correct. Thank you, Jane.

59:11Catherine Whitaker:And finally, we have Kate Sale from Sydney.

59:14Matt Roberts:Hello, Kate. Hello, Kate. like sail on a boat you're on the boat kate it's that time of night and kate like kate's always a bit of a problem for us isn't it we're good for katie sometimes i mention my friend

59:33David Law:kate that works for the atp sometimes we mention katie's yeah swan bolter yeah all seems a bit unsatisfactory.

59:44Catherine Whitaker:I think Kate who works for the ATP deserves a shout out.

59:47Matt Roberts:Is it the same church, same queue? Yeah, it is. Like my friend Kate that works for the ATP.

59:52David Law:I'm not saying you're unsatisfactory, Kate, who works for the ATP, by the way.

59:58Matt Roberts:Kate, thank you very much for being a friend of the tennis podcast. Jane, too. We are part of the Athletic Podcast Network. And just a quick note before we go, a reminder that if you're an NFL fan, And The Athletic has this really cool, exciting thing starting next week. It's The Athletic Live presented by Google Gemini. And it's a brand new YouTube watch along on NFL game days. It features the biggest and the best beat reporters The Athletic has to offer. And you can even become part of the show in the interactive chat on YouTube. It all starts from September 8th. And it sounds super cool if you're a fan of the NFL.

1:00:35Matt Roberts:Thank you ever so much for listening. however you have enjoyed the pod tonight. We will be back tomorrow and we'll speak to you then.