US Open Day 9 - Awesome Osaka sends Gauff back to drawing board

17:40Matt Roberts:Let's talk about Naomi Osaka. Mary, I know you were very taken with her body language in today's match. I loved it right away. Right away. I mean, there was some old lady with this big-ass bonnet on her head who was doing the coin toss. and she came out, Naomi came out and she was already smiling and she looked very relaxed and then this little old lady, Naomi wanted to see who she was, like she ducked underneath the bonnet to say hi to her. She was a hundred years old. No.

18:11Catherine Whitaker:She was a hundred years old, yeah. Oh my God. Yeah, she was, and right then I knew that she was in a great frame of mind, you know. I mean, a happy warrior. She just wanted to be there. She felt good about it. You know, she looked under the bonnet just as she's looked under the hood of her own game. What a ridiculous metaphor. Yeah, I just I like where she's going. I don't know why you knew, David, that Osaka was going to have this kind of a U.S. Open. And I'm a bit indignant that you did know. But I'm happy for you.

18:46David Law:So are these two.

18:49Matt Roberts:I'm not indignant. I'm jury's out.

18:52David Law:All right. I love Charming. She's just gone and beaten Koga Gough. jury's still out.

18:56Matt Roberts:Yeah, you said she'd win it.

18:58David Law:True. I've saved myself from humiliation. Now I've not got to move on to the...

19:03Matt Roberts:Yes, I do think that hurdle has been cleared.

19:05David Law:There are three stages. There's save yourself from humiliation, then there's reply to the doubters, and then there's gloating.

19:12Matt Roberts:Okay. Stage one. Okay.

19:16David Law:So it's like a rocket ship. You know, you just lose those various pieces of the ship.

19:21Matt Roberts:All right, very good. We're still in the Earth's atmosphere just.

19:23David Law:I mean, look, I have been at every Osaka match this week, and watching her body language has been one of the great fascinations because she is very different depending on the match. That's what I've seen, and we saw it as well. I referenced it to her in the press conference about the Montreal final body language. I know there was a lot going on there, and the crowd were involved, but she went from being a set-up to being really looking like She just couldn't handle this situation at all and looked terribly unhappy out there. And in the first couple of rounds, she kept talking about needing to have a good attitude.

20:00David Law:Those were her buzzwords, really. And yet she would still be very hyper on herself, really up in terms of celebrating winners, really giving herself come-ons, but also very hard on herself when she was missing. And then you could see her trying to process these misses and get over them. Today, there was none of that. The moment that Coco Gauff hit 210 mile an hour in returnable serves in the third game, Osaka just smiled. She smiled it up. Yeah, and you could see her features were relaxed all the way through the match. She just looked like somebody happy to be there, happy to have this stage again, and she was enjoying herself.

20:44I didn't see her coming back like this. I really didn't. And now, I mean, we've gone months without seeing Naomi's teeth, right? Like she barely smiles at all. And now she's, I'm very happy for her. It's the LeBuboos, Mary. What's that?

21:00Matt Roberts:It's the LeBuboos. Don't even, I don't, stop that. I'm too old for LeBuboos. Me too. Thank you. As much as this run is a great advert for David Law's predictive powers, Do you know what it's not a great advert for? The services of Patrick Morotoglu.

21:21David Law:Yeah, well, I've referenced that a few times over the last year as well.

21:26Matt Roberts:She's so different. Like, I know it's not, it's too, it's too binary to draw just total cause and effect between results and coach. coach but I mean everything just looks so different about her that clarity it was so muddy for for so long for Naomi Osaka yeah and and I like how Naomi described Ritkarowski like he he's actually a teddy bear he he looks you know stern and you know he's a grown-up isn't he and it's not about him exactly oh he's not getting in the way he's not talking

22:06David Law:and getting himself up in headlines, saying there are no stars in women's tennis when he's coaching one of the biggest ones in the sport. He's just quietly doing his job.

22:14Matt Roberts:Matt came in with a big Witkarowski, Marco Silva comparison earlier, which really is the highest praise he can give anyone.

22:24Catherine Whitaker:This is the manager of my football team, Mary. And he followed, well, a bit of a Muppet, really, was our manager before him. So, you know, draw your own conclusions about what I was getting at.

22:41Matt Roberts:Naomi Osaka has Karolina Mukova next. You're Mookie, Mary. Mookie. I love the Mukster. I mean, one of the most stylish players. But again, I don't see her hurting. I'm trying to figure out where she might hurt Osaka, and I'm not feeling it. Mookie's so good, but she had to get treated for what looked like a back injury. I mean, she's perpetually injured, you know. And that's been such a tragedy for her career. I'm glad she's gotten this far. She's a pleasure to watch. But what is she going to do against Osaka? I don't know what she can do. Where does she attack Osaka from?

23:19David Law:I don't know. It's interesting because she beat her last year, but it was a very different Osaka than this. And she has reached two semifinals. I think the big thing is how can you play your proper game when you're clearly physically as impeded as she is right now. I mean, there's a lot going on there.

23:39Catherine Whitaker:And physically impeded, and there's an accumulation every round. She's played three sets every round, going right back to the first round against Venus Williams. She's just been on court a lot. She's got 12 sets in her legs. I think we've kind of said it after every round, haven't we? Like, we're expecting Mukova to hit the wall. and with every time that she doesn't, it becomes more likely that she will in the next one because, I don't know, I think that game, her ability to come forward, her ability to be so precise with her attack, I think at her best she's a handful for anyone but I do think that Osaka can take over that match with the way she's striking the ball right now and some of the physical doubts that I think we'll have in a couple of days' time over Mukova.

24:31Matt Roberts:In the on-court interview, Karolina Mukova, after her win over Marta Kostiuk today on grandstand, she was asked about, she said, you're the queen of the marathon matches. You've gone three sets in all of them. She was like, I would like to hand back that title, please. That's not what I want to be. Give me a quick, easy match, please. So everyone's backing Osaka to reach the semis? I am.

24:57Catherine Whitaker:I am. It's the... Look, it's the tournament of the dormant volcanoes. And she's, as we said the other week, she's been the most dormant and she is the most volcano when she erupts. So, by the way, Mukova, another dormant volcano, you know, like not often around. But when she is, she can get into the latter stage of these majors. So there could be a lot of lava going on in this quarterfinals. So much.

25:24David Law:I like the idea of that. You don't even need to ask me.

25:28Catherine Whitaker:It'd be amazing if he went, no, I think, Rukovar. Just a change of heart.

25:33Matt Roberts:Igor Shvontek, incredibly comfortable today. 6-3, 6-1 in 64 minutes over Katerina Alexandrova. It was so comfortable. She did the most damning thing possible to her opponent and she hit the practice court afterwards.

25:46David Law:That was very funny in the post-match. interview on courts because she was before she started speaking she was sending somebody a text and fair play to the interviewer he said um we're going to get onto the match but first of all who is who are you sending the text to and she said oh just to my coach to go and book a practice court because i'm going to go straight out there oh boy please tell me her opponent had left the court

26:08Matt Roberts:i think so fortunately she wasn't doing a medvedev and just hanging around while benjamin bonzi

26:19Matt Roberts:Robbed it in her face. Yeah, I mean, she was awesome today, Shontek. Her first and only outing of the tournament on Armstrong, she awaits the winner of Amanda Anisamova and Birgit Sadajmaier, who play in the last match tonight. So we'll talk about that in part two. Matt.

26:36Catherine Whitaker:How are you feeling, Matt? I'm feeling good, and that's what makes me nervous.

26:44Matt Roberts:It's an opportunity, isn't it?

26:45Catherine Whitaker:They're not like me, Mary. I just assume it's all going to be fine. Yeah, just on Svantec today, I thought this could be a stressful match for her against Alexandrova with those flat hits. There was a real, to me anyway, obvious turning point in this match when, I mean, Alexandrova miss of the tournament to get broken in that first set for 4-3, literally on top of the net and she just tried to just caress the ball over the net and it went straight down into the net it was a horrible miss and she didn't recover for about 20 minutes she was kind of sulky kind of slumpy after that and Svantec just took it and ran with it and just because it had been a bit of a tense start she did a couple of double faults Svantec in her first service game and got broken and they were even to three all but then from that point on Svantec was absolutely sublime in this match.

27:46And yeah, I think probably her best performance of the tournament,

27:51Catherine Whitaker:actually, just at the right time after, you know, a couple of trickier performances leading into this.

27:57Matt Roberts:Let's talk about the men's matches we've seen today. Let's start with one you commentated on, Mary. Felix Auger-Aliassime. 7-6, 6-3, 6-4. Comprehensive over Andre Roblev. A man that he had lost seven of... 7-1, yeah. previous meetings with. So he had overturned the head-to-head deficit against Zverev in the previous round, and now he does it against Ryblev. Is that evidence of a new Felix? I would love that to be true. I really would. I mean, I've always... He's just such a gentleman. I mean, he's a class above in those ways to a lot of the guys in that locker room. And I've always liked his game.

28:37Jim Currier did such a great... He explained so well why Félix Auger-Aliasseum hasn't done what Jim thought he would do. And it's off of the backhand. He thinks he rolls the backhand too much. And it becomes, it's less a weapon than it should be.

28:55Matt Roberts:Just on that, I was listening to that and I was mouth agape, lapping in. It was such a like, gosh, someone's finally explained it. It was incredible analysis. He says there's just so much topspin on his backhand that he's unable to, just makes him unable to be aggressive in backhand to backhand exchanges. He can't hit down on the ball at all. But it does make him, when his backhand is able to come into its own, when he's able to use width and angles and he's good with a target. He's good at backhand passing shots. But in terms of backhand to backhand exchanges, it's just easy meat for your top players that have a reliable backhand that can be a weapon when they need it.

29:44Matt Roberts:Because they just know they can sit into those rallies and Felix cannot hurt them. The only thing I like more than sitting next to Jim Currier when there's a real match going on is when we're sitting there watching a stinker. Because then he really goes off the rails. We love that too. We had a message. We had a message from Hannah in the first set of this match. Let's just say this wasn't a Hannah Wilkes coded tennis match.

30:11David Law:She wasn't into this one.

30:12Matt Roberts:Rubler against Orgelia's team. It's just not her vibe. She's a Mook of a gal. Different folks, different strokes. She said, you know this match is everything you feared it would be when Carrillo's busting out the Boletieri impression in set one. That is definitely the warning sign.

30:31David Law:But it did prove fertile ground for just a fantastic conversation and the picking of Jim Currier's brain. Yes, well, that's what I try to do. I mean, and I try to do it early in set so we don't get in the way of, you know, of any kind of tension. And he did the Rublev second serve as well. Exactly right. I mean, he's just so damn good. What's wrong with him? How have I not noticed that before? No, because he always middles. He always goes body.

30:57Matt Roberts:Same place, every time. Jim Currier said pretty much on the second Rublev service point of the match. Watch. Yeah, he said watch. Watch every single time it's going to go here. I staked my reputation on it. And it did. Went to the same place every time. Yeah, I'm just crazy about Jim. I'm so lucky to work with him a lot. What I don't understand though, Mary, is when there's something that obvious, maybe not to me, but to obviously people that know the game, Like, why isn't Rublev doing something about that? It'll be interesting to see what Marat Safin will bring to this party, right?

31:40Jim, at some point...

31:41Matt Roberts:I have some slanderous answers speculating about what Marat Safin might be bringing to the party. Well, at one point, Jim said that Marat... Because I had mentioned that Rublev had said he doesn't talk much, but, you know, only when he really has something to say, he's a sensei. and I had to bring up the fact that Sensei Safin dropped his shorts in the middle of a match during a French Open

32:04David Law:this is true that did happen

32:10Matt Roberts:is this a different Felix?

32:12David Law:and what is different? is this just he's suddenly feeling a bit of confidence off a couple of wins and probably isn't that repeatable or has he found something? has he found some missing link I wonder? He was just so focused. It was such a nice tight match from him. It was so contained. He never got rattled. It's not like he has a huge weapon that he can throw down against people. He's got to build points. Clearly he's worked very hard to make his game more solid, more difficult to play against. and I don't know, I've always liked him so much as a man that I'm very happy that he seems to be putting in the work.

33:02He says, I've had to learn patience. I've had to learn to be humble. He's had some injuries that have really set him back, a knee, a back. You know, he's lost some valuable time. And he must feel like players like Sinner and Alcarez have stormed away from him because they do have so much more game. but if the game he has is held together well I really hope he reaches the top of his game is that what you think?

33:34Catherine Whitaker:Yes, it is I'm always impressed when someone backs up a big win and that was a big win he had over Sparrow he could well have got up for that match and then I really thought this could be a nervy affair with two players with a big opportunity in front of them. And to me, OJ Elias didn't seem nervous at all. He seemed very focused. He's a grown-up. And there was a moment at the end of the first set where he had some set points and his forehand got away from him. I think Jim was pretty much calling it a choke in commentary.

34:14David Law:He said, that was an outright gag. Right. That's my man. My main man, Jim Curry.

34:22Catherine Whitaker:And look, part of it is, you know, he got another opportunity. Had he been playing a Sinner or an Alcaraz, you get one chance against them. And, you know, that might have been it. But against Rublev, he got another chance and he jumped on it. And he started hitting his forehand a lot better again as this match went on. And he overpowered Rublev, I thought. Like the ease of Orgelia Sim's power today really struck me. I was courtside for this one. Yeah, I was impressed with him. It did feel like what we always thought his game would be. Athletic. Yes. Contained in a way that it often doesn't look that way.

35:04Catherine Whitaker:He can often spray the ball, but he wasn't doing any of that today. But imposing. He's a thoroughgoing professional, right? Totally. And again, him against De Manor in the quarterfinals is another one of those big opportunity matches.

35:18Matt Roberts:For both of them. I mean, this is the good news for both of them. They don't have to face either Sinner or Alcraz, which makes it just so tantalising. Is this going to be about who deals with that size of opportunity the best?

35:36David Law:Good question, because I remember the Ogielia Seam-Diminor-Davis Cup match in the final of three years ago. and you know Felix was flying high at that time he was the best player in that tournament and it was clear that he was going into that final as the best player and Diminor you know what he's like he's a warrior he's he's happy to just throw himself to the dogs in order to try to win any point but he couldn't cope he couldn't cope with the power that day and since then Felix has dropped like a stone really in terms of the ranking and his confidence and Diminor's just gradually built and become a better tennis player.

36:16David Law:I think that Oji Aliassim showed he had the blueprint. He has the game to beat Dimonor. I don't know. But, you know, is he going to keep repeating, this is the thing, or is it just a couple of confident matches and then maybe he returns to the mean of what his game has been the last three years? I hope this becomes his base. Me too. You know? What do you think? Who do you think is going to win that? Dimonor and Oji Aliassim. Who do I think will win? I'm going to give a slight edge to Felix. Yeah, I would say the same.

36:51Matt Roberts:Mazzetti, the other winner that we've had so far today in the singles, incredibly comfortable 6-3, 6-love, 6-1, continuing to fill the Jack Draper role at the 2025 US Open. I said everyone who plays Mazzetti falling apart in front of him.

37:09Catherine Whitaker:I just was chatting with the Spanish journalists. Muna has laryngitis. oh poor bloke like poor bloke but like again what is going on with this Mazzetti draw like I just I'm pleased for him I'm thrilled he's in the quarterfinals he's one of my favorite players to watch and he's had a he said it in his post-match interview he said last month has been terrible I've been sad about my games had about my results but he was you know kind of joking about it he's changed his serve um and he's in the quarterfinals i still have no idea how he's playing it's and it was the it might be even more extreme than draper last year i mean draper's carried on to the semis because he played diman or in the quarters who had that hip problem and really couldn't couldn't move very well so that's my mazetti analysis like i think he's doing he's he's intending he's intending to do really good things I think his intentions are good but they've not been tested yet we know as much as he does right and I'm usually so high on Muzetti and I am pleased about this but this draw it's a good ranking

38:23David Law:builder isn't it great

38:24Matt Roberts:it's going to get even better when he faces Alexander Bublik in the quarterfinals isn't it well how silly is that going to sound when people come back for part two

38:36Matt Roberts:Mary thank you so much for joining us I love being with you guys I'll let you sip the dregs of your Aperol spritz like the dregs of summer that we are so enjoying here in New York this fortnight and we will join you in part two to find out exactly how silly that line about Alexander Bublik turns out to be Welcome back to part two of tonight's tennis podcast recording at Flushing Meadows, New York, it is now 10.45 in the evening and all play is done for the day. And that's because we've seen two absolute blowouts on the Arthur Ashe Stadium tonight. Oh, how you must have all been laughing at me when I suggested that Alexander Bublik had even the faintest chance against Yannick Sinner.

39:21Matt Roberts:Let's start there. Sinner defeating Bublik 6-1, 6-1, 6-1. What on earth happened to Alexander Bublik, David?

39:30David Law:Well, Catherine, I think I might have used the word ambushed last night. Well, somebody got ambushed. It's just that it was the other bloke. And, I mean, I did couch it by saying if he played his best, then I thought that that could happen. He was so far from his best, Alexander Bublik, that it was unrecognisable from the player that we have seen play at his best against Jack Draper, against Yannick Sinner, beating him on the grass earlier this year. and in the previous round against Tommy Paul. And having been a player who had not dropped his serve all tournament, the first thing he did in the very first game of the match was to lose his serve.

40:13David Law:And Matt and I were sitting together at that time and we kind of looked at one another and thought, ah, OK, his serve's not working. And nothing was working. He fought faulted. He was hitting drop shots. I think the first eight drop shots that he hit, he lost the point. He hit a double fault of underarm serves, one after another, in the first set. And I think what actually happened, I mean, I think it's very easy to look at the score and think, oh, Sinner must have been absolutely awesome all the way through. And I definitely feel like Bublik was trying to paint it as that, in the way that he kind of joshed with Sinner at the net and did his little social media post of AI or whatever it was and tried to make out, like, this guy's unbeatable, of course I lost.

41:05David Law:Well, actually, in the first set, Sinner didn't really have much of a say in any of it. Bublik was absolutely awful, and I think he came out cold for whatever reason, whether it was nerves or whether it was just one of those days. He was so bad, he couldn't do any of the things that he's famous for. And therefore, it was sort of fall of after 14 minutes. And thereafter, I think Sinner was so relaxed that he did start to play really well. But Bublik never got going.

41:36Matt Roberts:It's all straight from the Nick Kyrgios playbook, isn't it? If you don't try, you can't fail. And I'm not saying he was outright tanking tonight. but there was a he was searching for the narrative of this guy's this guy's this guy's AI this guy's that that's a bailout that is an absolute psychological bailout this guy is just absolutely too good I think he has a a serious mental situation going on which he can probably function pretty well with for the majority of his career I think it only is I think it's dormant unless he plays the very top guys that he doesn't think he can beat fair and square.

42:21Matt Roberts:I think that's when it comes into play. I think most players he thinks he can beat fair and square, so he's happy to be himself and try. But he didn't. My armchair psychoanalysis of tonight is he didn't think he and his game were enough to beat Yannick Sinner tonight, so he psychologically bailed out. That's what it felt like to me.

42:43David Law:I think it's fair enough. and given that we'll come on to talk about another player who was very heavily beaten tonight, who didn't stop trying from point one to point at the end, I think you see a very different approach to the sport. And look, you know, it's easy for me to sit here and say what he could and should have done, but it was really disappointing. And I'm sitting there in front of an absolutely packed crowd of people, 24 ,000 people who've paid top dollar to be there. and when he threw the underarm serves in, they booed. They let him off the hook after that because he hit one worldie when he was 6-1, 6-1 down and he waved his hand as if to say, come on, give me some love and they did.

43:27David Law:And they sort of cheered him off the court after he'd lost in an hour and 12 minutes. Okay, I mean, look, losing to Yannick Sinner is no disgrace.

43:37Matt Roberts:That's it, that's why it's an easy bailout option though, isn't it? It's there, sit at your fingertips.

43:41David Law:I'd love to have seen him dig in, like really dig in and just think, OK, these shots aren't working. I'm going to do something. I'm just going to make the guy work or something.

43:51Matt Roberts:Is anyone in the world compiling stats on underarm serve double faults? I'm sad to say I'm not sure even Matt Roberts has stats on underarm serve double faults, but I would love to declare that a first.

44:06Catherine Whitaker:Certainly the first I've heard of. Right. That's enough for me.

44:10Matt Roberts:we had a foot fault double fault from Maxime Cressy I believe. Iconic Iconic in itself at the Australian Open a while back but this is the first underarm serve double fault and I'm please don't misinterpret my laughing at this as any kind of slight on the art of the underarm serve I love nothing more but an under-observed double fault is iconically bad. And quite funny.

44:47Catherine Whitaker:Yeah and look I said that Bublik I felt was the second most likely guy in this draw to beat Sinner. Look let's not let's not rewrite what we said about this we we did think that this was a genuine threat to Yannick Sinner tonight given Bublik's top level. The flip side of that is he was also probably the most likely guy to get absolutely blown out. I thought Sinner would win. I didn't think it would look like this. I thought there would be at least a moment where Bublik rattled him and scared him and brought some of what he could to the match. But, you know, he lost his opening service game, as David's described.

45:33Catherine Whitaker:He lost his next service game as well. and yeah, then there wasn't really that much resistance from him. But I do think Sina, from what I saw, played well tonight.

45:47Catherine Whitaker:And honestly, like his draw now, Muzetti, Auger Aliasim and Dimonor are the players left in his half. All very, very good players. but I really don't look at any of them as threats to Yannick Sinner. We know the head-to-head against De Menor, we saw him play Orgiela Asim just a few weeks ago, I know Orgiela Asim's been a lot better this tournament but even so it's hard to believe that that would be that tough for Sinner and then, you know, Mazzetti in the quarter-finals, his fellow Italian, just think he's going to be able to rush him and kind of hit him off the court is my feeling.

46:37Matt Roberts:Our resident Mazzetti guy isn't doing a great job of hyping up for that match,

46:41Catherine Whitaker:which is a worry. So, like, this is, I guess what I'm saying is, like, not only has he won this match tonight, Yannick Sinner, but just feels like big picture has been a really good day for Sinner in terms of his draw and his prospects and his, you know, his chances of getting to that final, which were high anyway. but just feel not a dead cert because nothing is but almost as close to that as you could get right now it feels like.

47:13Matt Roberts:Second match on Ash tonight, another blowout quite frankly but as David hinted at quite a different one in terms of feel just a total golfing class between Amanda Anisimova and Beatriz Hadadjmaier but no golf and effort whatsoever. Six love, six three for Anisimova who Matt, we watched a period of this together and you said she's feeling it tonight, Anisimova. She was going for everything and okay, she missed a few. There were some errors in there but the type of errors she was making I think indicated how she was feeling about her game.

47:54Catherine Whitaker:Yeah, she was trying audacious shots because the way she was hitting the ball tonight, they had a chance of going in. They weren't bail-out shots, she genuinely thought she could make them. But she just jumped all over Hadash Maia right from the start of this match. I said in part one, I felt like Anisimova was going to win. I think match-up-wise, the lefty Hadash Maia serve and forehand into the Anisimova backhand is just great for Anisimova. The Hadash Maia serve is a weak shot anyway, especially the second serve, and Anissimova can get on top of that. Anissimova's serving really well this tournament, I mentioned that the other day, and she kept up her high percentage tonight.

48:41Catherine Whitaker:She was great, and I think what I like most about the performance is she was up a set and a break, she got pegged back, but that put her to work. She just immediately made sure that this match didn't get away from her, it was fully in her control and she was also desperate for the double break she didn't she didn't get it at 4-2 but she was pushing for it and she knew that she needed to do that because hadash maya doesn't let max's go and always competes to the very end and had a lot of brazilian support tonight like it could have gone another way but anisimovi just didn't let it these conditions, cool night, absolutely perfect for her I think and yeah definitely her best performance of the tournament, her best ball striking day so far where you've just thought okay the game's clicking, she's feeling confident, best she's played all tournament.

49:36David Law:There was a moment I think in the third game when Hadad Shumaya was serving, she'd already lost the serve and it was very clear that Anisimova is on it like you say, the ball is just pinging out the centre of the racket. Both sides, that's the other thing. She can hurt you so much with both forehand and backhand.

49:53Catherine Whitaker:Forehand has got so much better.

49:55David Law:Yeah, but in the second Tadajmaja service game, I think she's loved 15 down, she did a first serve where she tried to go down the middle and she missed the centre service line to the side by about eight feet. It was just completely going in the wrong direction. And I thought, oh, this is like Bublik. She's just completely frozen here. She's got no feel, no timing at all. And then she double-faulted. And then it was just a disaster. It was both things at the same time. Brilliant and Isomova, the worst version of Hannajmaja. And then she won one point when she was about five love down. And she just goes, come on!

50:41David Law:And it's not one of those where you think, don't be ridiculous. You're way behind. she's trying to will her way back into this contest. And she actually ended up making the second set games competitive. And she held on. I thought we were looking at a double bagel when it was six love, one love. I thought, I don't think she wins a game here. But fair play to her. She just dug in. And I do wonder what would have happened if you stuck that attitude in Bublik. But anyway, they're two different people. And I accept that. You probably don't get the heights of Bublik if you have a completely different personality.

51:19David Law:I don't know. But Hadaj Maia is somebody I have enormous respect for. But Anissa Mova is somebody I have great excitement and anticipation for. Because she has bounced back from that Wimbledon. I realise that that isn't a fully formed bounce back until she actually plays the woman she ended up on the other end of a Six Love Six Love from. but it's good going this isn't it well the good news for her is she doesn't have to wait too long

51:48Matt Roberts:now to to get the opportunity to fully bounce back because the wimbledon final repeat is on matt how you feeling oh the ptsd

52:04Catherine Whitaker:no look i asked her about it at the start of the tournament do you want to play igles viontech and And she said yes. I don't necessarily think she knew her draw, I don't think she knew that that was on as early as this in the quarter-finals, but it's here now. And she said, I want to play her when I'm like myself. Because there are definitely aspects of that match-up that I think are problematic for Anisimova. The width that Svjantek just naturally generates on her ground strokes is going to be a problem. It's a problem for better movers than Anissimova. You know, it's world-class, that of Svantec.

52:44Catherine Whitaker:But I genuinely think there are parts of Anissimova's game that she just didn't bring to that Wimbledon final because of nerves and because of exhaustion and because of the moment that can hurt Svantec as well. Like, the ball striking... Svantec's not going to like that if Anissimova can bring it. if she can serve like she has done and if she can take advantage of maybe Svantec not serving like she was earlier in the year, which she generally hasn't been this tournament. All the reasons I was excited about Anissimova's chances going into the Wimbledon final are still there. They've been a little bit dampened by what happened in that Wimbledon final, but I do genuinely think she's a big threat here, Anissimova.

53:34Catherine Whitaker:and she has a good day if she has a good day it's going to be so much about the start i think like yeah if she goes like if she goes three love down or something like that and trauma starts flooding back to to her and to you right and look maybe then the crowd can carry her a little bit and she just needs to get over the wimbledon yeah experience however win the toss choose to serve hold. Right. You're in the match.

54:06Matt Roberts:You're in credit. Boom. Everything from here is upside.

54:10Catherine Whitaker:She's not exhausted physically. Totally. It's a big difference. Big deal that.

54:15David Law:She's expended very little energy.

54:17Catherine Whitaker:And she just had the biggest moment of her life beating Sabalenko in that Wimbledon semi-final. That would have felt like a summit

54:25Matt Roberts:in itself. Right.

54:26Catherine Whitaker:She had a very stressful route through to that Wimbledon final in terms of three set matches and tight moments that you know she's not really had that this tournament

54:39David Law:she's gonna do a lot better and she has i feel good about she hasn't got the whole wimbledon final paraphernalia the occasion to deal with the walk you know eager sviontek who's won every grandstand final she's played in like there was just so much that was intimidating about this This is more like just another tennis match. It's a big one.

55:02Matt Roberts:And in front of a crowd that'll be supporting her big time.

55:06Catherine Whitaker:It's exciting.

55:08Matt Roberts:And you'll be fit and well this time?

55:12Catherine Whitaker:Well, let's hope. I thought it was going to be last time.

55:19Matt Roberts:Last result to cover from today, the run of Venus Williams and Leila Fernandes continues. Probably the match of the day in terms of, in fact, not probably, The match of the day in terms of the two main show courts today, this over on Armstrong, the final match of the day there, 6-3, 6-4. I mean, still not a thriller in itself, but it's a pretty low bar to clear to be the match of the day on Ash and Armstrong. And look, the crowd just lapped this up. Absolutely lapped it up.

55:47David Law:Wonderful. It was the story of the grounds today. Everybody was talking about it. and Venus Williams is saying that she is going to be on her sister's case to come and be part of it all because she wants her here.

56:02Catherine Whitaker:She's got to get here tomorrow, not before four, I think, against Townsend and Sinearchiva. Yeah, against the top seeds. It's a hell of a match. That's cool.

56:11Matt Roberts:Yeah, it really is cool. Okay, that's it for part two. We'll be back in part three to look ahead to tomorrow. Welcome back to part three of tonight's tennis podcast. Let's look ahead to tomorrow, Tuesday, September 2nd, day 10 of this US Open. The quarterfinal stage is upon us. We still start at 11.30 on Arthur Ashe Stadium with Jessica Pagula against Barbora Krejcikova. Predictions, please.

56:42David Law:I find this a really difficult one to predict. It's about Krachikova who's just dashed the hopes of a couple of Americans and is so capable. I'm going to go Pagula. I think Krachikova might run out of gas a little bit this time. These have been hard-fought matches. Pagula's had things straightforwardly. She's relentless and consistent and is going to be her best self, I think, with the crowd behind her. I think she'll enjoy that. I'm going to go Pagula.

57:12Catherine Whitaker:Matt? Finding this really hard because Pagula has just not played anyone in the class and calibre of Krejcikova on this run. She's had a very kind draw and look, she's done well because she's lost to those sorts of players at the slams this year. Those have been the sorts of players to trip her up. So it's a good run from Pagula and she's been really clinical in first sets. and, you know, in her most recent match, she was better in the second set as well. But I don't know, I pause on, like, Pagula's playing brilliantly, because we just haven't seen her against that standard of opponent. But I do agree with David on the critique of her hitting the wall thing.

58:04Catherine Whitaker:Like, I don't know how many matches, like, the last two she's got left in her, where she has a slow, sluggish start and works her way in. I guess I think Pagula's playing at a level that if she does start like that again, Kraychikova, Pagula might be able to put her away in a way that Townsend wasn't.

58:32Catherine Whitaker:So I think I'm leaning Pagula as well, but mostly on reasons of potential Kraychikova exhaustion. All things being equal, tennis against tennis, I think I will be back in Kraychikova.

58:48Matt Roberts:Lehechka Alcaraz, second matchup. I think we're all going for an Alcaraz victory.

58:52Catherine Whitaker:Yeah, that one's easier. Yes.

58:55Matt Roberts:Yeah. Night session.

58:57Catherine Whitaker:I remember how boring their Queen's final was. I do.

58:59Matt Roberts:That's why I'm moving on quickly, Matt.

59:01Catherine Whitaker:Yeah. It was turgid. It was the grass, right? Lehechka.

59:05Matt Roberts:But Le Hetchke loved, I think grass is his best surface.

59:08Catherine Whitaker:But it was boring because of the grass and the way they were serving and just a few chances.

59:14David Law:Yuri Le Hetchke have made Carlos Alcaraz boring. He did.

59:19Catherine Whitaker:I remember having a real moment during that thinking, oh God, please don't ruin Alcaraz.

59:29Matt Roberts:Well, that's a good hype job for tomorrow.

59:33David Law:I do think it's different on grass. I think so. I actually think tomorrow will be a good match, like a good rally. He's got a win over him on hardcore.

59:44Catherine Whitaker:He beat him in Doha, I want to say.

59:46David Law:Yes, I think so. And I saw highlights of that in the run-up to that Queen's match. And it was one of those where Alcaraz was pulling rabbits out of hats in order to win amazing points, but he wasn't winning the run-of-the-mill stuff. That's where he's doing more now. But I think Le Hedgier will give a good account of himself, but I just feel more confident in Alcaraz's state of mind and approach and solidity than I ever have. So, yeah, I think it'll be him.

1:00:19Matt Roberts:The predictions don't get any easier here because night session starts with Arina Savalenka against Marketa Vondrosheva. I'm going to ask for a Vondrosheva prediction from you both.

1:00:31Catherine Whitaker:Not allowed.

1:00:34Matt Roberts:the faces these two are making. I make the rules here. I want a prediction.

1:00:40David Law:I'm going Sabalenka as well. I'll go Sabalenka in three.

1:00:44Catherine Whitaker:Yeah, I like that. I do just have a lot of faith in Sabalenka in these matches, in this sort of time, in a slam. She's got that really good record against Vondrosha on hard courts. I think that was such a good performance from Vondrosheva against Rabatkinner, like seeing that again. She's capable, but I guess I would be a bit surprised if she plays as well again. And Sabalenka's got her tie-break record, you know, like Vondrosheva's probably going to have to do it, not with tie-breaks, and maybe that feels difficult. Yeah, I'm going Sabalenka, but I'm really looking forward to that one. That's the match I'm most looking forward to tomorrow.

1:01:29Matt Roberts:Last match of the day tomorrow, Djokovic against Fritz.

1:01:34David Law:I'm going Djokovic.

1:01:35Matt Roberts:Everyone's going Djokovic. I would like sets, please.

1:01:38David Law:I'm also going four close, tight, hard-fought sets for Novak Djokovic. I do think that Fritz, if he could just turn an extra one of those sets in his favour and take it long, I think he might be able to wear Djokovic down. and maybe even impose an injury or something like that. I know that sounds horrible, but that has been happening more and more to Djokovic. But ultimately, I think Djokovic will probably just play those bigger points, the better of the two, and end up winning it in four.

1:02:12Matt Roberts:OK, well, we'll be back with the tennis podcast at the end of all of it. I will say hello to our mascots, Maisie, Phoebe and Roger. Hello to our top folks and executive producers, Greg and Jeff and Chris. who we saw today. Yeah. Lovely Chris. Popped up on our row in the media centre. What a delight.

1:02:34Catherine Whitaker:Yeah, that was great. And we're going to catch up later in the week as well.

1:02:38Matt Roberts:Yeah. Matt's going to share views about draws. Try and be an influencer. We love you, Chris. Thank you very much for your support. We are, of course, part of the Athletic Podcast Network. Matt, let's have some shout-outs.

1:02:54Catherine Whitaker:We start with Adam Maundrell. in Sydney.

1:02:58Matt Roberts:All right, Adam. Hello, Adam.

1:03:00Catherine Whitaker:Adam says, I've been listening since 2018. My first episode was Matt's Hatchinov takes.

1:03:07David Law:Oh, big. Wow. Which is wild to me. Adam, you were there at the start of an era. Wow.

1:03:15Catherine Whitaker:Adam says, I love the pod and lurking on the barge. Just has Wimbledon to go to complete his fan career golden slam. So must have been to an Olympics.

1:03:27David Law:Adam. Like Adam Hogg, the ATP Finals Tournament Director. There you go.

1:03:37Matt Roberts:Are there no tennis-playing Adams?

1:03:40David Law:I can't think of any. We've had this before.

1:03:42Matt Roberts:Have we? Is Adam a perpetual black spot?

1:03:43Catherine Whitaker:I've got a name in mind. Pavlaszek? Yes, Adam Pavlaszek. Adam Pavlaszek. Check.

1:03:50David Law:Yeah, very well done. Love the way you're saying that, Catherine.

1:03:53Matt Roberts:It's like, oh, yeah, Adam Pavlaszek. Pavlaszek and Hogg. the big two. And this one, the big three. Adam from Sydney, Adam Hogg, Adam Pavliszek, the big three.

1:04:05Catherine Whitaker:Correct.

1:04:06Matt Roberts:Thank you, Adam.

1:04:07Catherine Whitaker:And next up, we have two birthday shout outs. Oh, lovely. The first one is from Emma Gillette for her husband, Sam.

1:04:17Matt Roberts:Aw.

1:04:18Catherine Whitaker:Splendid work, Emma. It was Sam who introduced Emma to the pod during COVID. Well done, Sam. She thought it'd be lovely please give him a US Open shout out for his birthday on September 1st, which is today as we're recording.

1:04:34David Law:Happy birthday, Sam.

1:04:35Matt Roberts:Happy birthday, Sam. Yeah, you're probably listening to this on September 2nd, but I promise you as we are speaking, it is your birthday, September 1st, and we are wishing you a very happy one. That's a lovely birthday thing to do. Yeah, it sounds like Sam Quarry. Yeah, we've seen a lot of Sam Quarry this tournament. We have, yeah.

1:04:55David Law:I heard him commentating today.

1:04:57Catherine Whitaker:And our second birthday shout-out is for Jeff McAvoy. And Jeff's birthday is the 2nd of September. So, presumably, hopefully, when he's listening to this.

1:05:12Matt Roberts:Happy birthday, Jeff.

1:05:14Catherine Whitaker:Happy birthday, Jeff. And this comes from Jeff's partner, Ricky. Good work, Ricky. Ricky says, my name is Ricky. And this is a birthday shout-out from my partner, Jeff, who stumbled across the tennis podcast earlier this year and suddenly introduced us to a whole new pastime we did not know we craved so much. Though not playing tennis often, Jeff is an avid tennis fan. It's not unusual to find him consulting the latest score updates, planning the next tournament escapade, or hiding away from the TV when his favourite player, Yannick Sinner, loses more than two points in a row. So not much hiding tonight.

1:05:55Matt Roberts:Not much hiding at all. Wow, brilliant night.

1:06:00Catherine Whitaker:Thank you for bringing so much fun into our week. We hope to be able to see one of your live shows and we look forward to seeing blonde Matt soon. Don't we all? Happy birthday, Jeff.

1:06:12Matt Roberts:Jeff, we hope to deliver the ultimate birthday present come Saturday.

1:06:17David Law:What would I rather, though? Would I rather Osaka win it and I get all the credits or would I rather Matt go blonde? the choices

1:06:26Catherine Whitaker:they're both good outcomes

1:06:27Matt Roberts:we are so up we are so so up folks thank you ever so much for listening Jeff, Adam and who am I missing Sam, courtesy of Emma birthday Sam, Jeff, Adam and Sam thank you ever so much for listening to and supporting the tennis podcast if you would like to get yourself a shout out, an intro a pet mascot slot then the link to do all of that is in our show notes and being a friend of the tennis podcast gets you access to all of our bonus episodes it gets you access to the barge our safe community space to chat about tennis it gets you access to hannah's column she's just posted her week one thoughts which are of course excellent um it gets you ad free listening it gets you all sorts of things um so we'll post the link to that in our show notes as always check it out if you fancy it Do check out our Instagram, which is where we post all of our BTS and other fun stuff.

1:07:28Matt Roberts:We'll post a link to subscribe to our newsletter in the show notes as well. That's where you can find Matt Statt. And we will also post a link to get tickets to our upcoming live show in Wrexham. Yes, Wrexham of Welcome to Wrexham fame. We can welcome you to Wrexham on October the 22nd. Come and see us, folks. link in the show notes. Thank you for listening. We'll speak to you tomorrow.