Will Nadal inspire a Swiatek surge?

35:37Like she's so good when there's rhythm in the rallies and she can get into into her groove with her ground strokes. But Putin's favor denies you that. Right. With the with the loopy balls, with the short slices. And it was just a really tricky match that she had to get through. And I was so impressed that she did. And then Cogciareto, who's been in really good form this season and had beaten Pagula at Wimbledon last year and takes the first set in much the same manner as she did at Wimbledon. And suddenly Pagula is embroiled in another one that she has to try and dig her way out of. And I think Cogciareto will regret a forehand that she missed that would have given her a match point in that one.

36:21That was a really, really close match for Pagula to get out of. But somehow I always trust her to get out of these matches. Right. Like she's so she's so good over three sets and she has such a strong record in these types of matches. I think her demeanor is so impressive always that you know she's annoyed by something or, you know, she's a little bit frustrated, but she's able to put it past her. I think so quickly knuckle down, get back to work, get back to playing her game and focus on the task at hand. And it's kind of like a microcosm of her whole career generally. Like she's she's reliable.

36:59She shows up like, you know, there's that saying about sort of, you know, the best ability is availability. And she's always there. She's always capable of riding the ins and outs of matches and the ins and outs of the tour as well. She's like a really durable player. I think that's become like her greatest strength in a way. And we see it in matches. We see it within season. And she needed that quality this week because there was so much that like to bother her. Opponents playing well, long matches. She had to play every day in a row. She started on Wednesday. She played five days in a row. And yeah, I was never worried about her physically, you know, in a way that I would have been probably some other players.

37:38She's so impressive. And yeah, what a what a season. she's having you know like she's lost four matches i think three of them have been to rebakina against everyone else on tour pretty much she has been right there and i think playing the best tennis of her career right now and what is she 32 years old it's just it's just so impressive that she's continuing to get better and in her words working smarter not harder and i think we're really sort of seeing the benefits of that. She's become a bit of a must-watch for me, Pagula, kind of since the US Open. There's just been so many good matches she's been part of and winning a lot.

38:19And yeah, I'm starting to think about the possibilities of her game rather than the limitations of it. I realise that I've so often thought about Pagula as, oh, she's so good, but she'll run into someone. I'm beginning to think, like, Hannah said it in the chat on the live show last week, Hannah predicted a US Open for Pagula this year. And I might be riding that train with Hannah. Like, I think something big is around the corner for Pagula. I think she's playing so well. And I think the US Open, that end of season one, could be the one that she knocks off this season. I've made that mistake before.

39:00I've put Pagula in Grand Slam mixes and been burned. But I do think something is different this year. and yeah I'm I'm so impressed you like that prediction David I like the prediction I mean I like Jessica Bagula I definitely went through a spell of thinking that I wasn't into Jessica Bagula matches um I found it all a bit dull because she's not like a naturally explosive player that I tend to gravitate towards but I've I've become won over by her retrieving skills I I just love watching her anticipate where the ball's going and just get it back and put it in a difficult position and just shrink the court for the opponent.

39:42But I would take a bit of issue with the... I mean, she still is running into somebody eventually. That's the thing. It's maybe only a small handful of players, but how do you get past Rebecca? How do you get past Sabalenka? That's the thing. when you get to those tournaments and they're peaking. I mean, I'm at a stage where I would love to see it for Pegula because I have such admiration for her. The way she comes through these three-set matches, I think that's 10 out of 11 she's won this year. I mean, I just love seeing that. I love the way she just digs in. I mean, she's kind of self-deprecating and taking the mick out of herself.

40:27the fact that she's in she's so tired and she's in one of these again and she just seems to get a little bit world weary and just doesn't care anymore in the moment yet she's fighting tooth and nail but she's managed to sort of separate her her mind from it so i love the prediction and actually i would quite like to see it come true but i'm not even as good as she's getting you know that she's been beaten handily by these players when it gets there and and i think that that hasn't changed. Yeah, she's 1-7 against Rabatkin and Sabalenka since the US Open last year, which has been this period I'm talking about where I think she's playing the best tennis of her career.

41:10And yet those have been undeniable roadblocks. I suppose what I like about Hannah's call there is that it ties into this thing about the durability and the availability that I'm talking about with Pagula. And I think the US Open is the one where, like we've not seen Rabatkin play well at the US Open, for example. And I think come the end of the season, I think Rabatkin sitting here right now, to me feels like the favourite for Wimbledon. But I think the US Open is just a bit of a different prospect. And okay, she's lost to Sabalenka a couple of times at US Open, but I think she's been close against Sabalenka.

41:48I think in that semi-final last year, Pagula played so well. She just had a bad game at the start of the third set and lost her serve and then didn't lose a point on serve for the rest of the set. But she was so good in that match. I think she shows up and she has got that win over Sabalenka the back end of last season. We haven't seen her play Sabalenka this year. It's been Rabatkinner, which has been the real issue. But I do take your point. I think Sabalenka and Rabatkinner have definitely shown to be even a level above Pagula. But I don't know, it just feels like she's kind of playing good enough tennis to me to totally be in that conversation to win.

42:33Maybe not the French Open. I do think clay isn't her best surface despite this title, albeit on the green clay. But I think Wimbledon and definitely the US Open, if she keeps this up, she's going to have a hell of a shot. Matt with a US Open prediction I know, what am I doing? April What am I doing? It's so stupid That's my favourite thing about it Just on Star of Double Saver the finalist that was her first WTA Tour final she won more than$200 ,000 for reaching that final and that's a significant amount Charleston is the first standalone WTA 500 tournament to offer equal prize money that is in line with a standalone ATP 500 event.

43:26So they've elevated their prize money beyond what the requirement is from the WTA for 500 level events. So the total prize package was$2.3 million and that's double what was on offer last year and more than 1 million more than that mandated minimum purse for WTA 500 event and you know obviously that's just significant generally for for women's tennis but just in terms of Yulia Starabdubtsava her biggest prize money to date by far this is a player that that had a GoFundMe going a couple of years ago to try and kickstart her professional career. She hasn't been home to Ukraine in four years. She hasn't seen her dad in four years.

44:20She talked in her press conference after reaching the final, I think it was, about how this might enable her now to bring her physio on tour with her. You know, this is a top 100 player, well inside the top 100 now as a result of this year, that hasn't been able to travel with a physio because she can't afford it. And that is the case higher up the rankings in women's tennis, a lot higher up the rankings than it is in men's tennis. So she's a really, I mean, obviously, like equal prize money matters because it's just the right thing, but also on a very practical level. She's a great case study for why it is so significant.

45:10And that's, you know, that's a really good news story, I think. So let's see. Let's see what she can do, what a launch pad this can be for her. in Bogota a WTA 250 there won by Marie Buskova she's just she's never far away from the picture somehow Marie Buskova is she beat Pana Rydvardi in the final 6-7 6-2 6-2 you watched this one David yeah and really emotional scenes at the end and and and something I hadn't quite clocked is that She's coached by Mark Lopez, another sort of Nadal link there. But this was her third title, her first on clay, and that fact seemed really to be big for her. I mean, I think the other thing that struck me, it's not the biggest tournament in the world.

46:06There's a lot of tournaments this week that are 250s, but the number of tournaments these players play where they don't end up winning the last match they play of that tournament. and she's had her third one and it meant the world to her. It was a good final. It looked like she'd got it won at 3-love in the decider. Then the comeback's on and it's suddenly 3-2 and you can feel with these players. Nobody's immune to... Maybe Jessica Bagul is the only one who's immune to the nerves at the end of a match and getting over the line but Buzkova clearly wasn't um but she did it anyway and and this uh this tournament run was uh was also notable for for her semi-final where where she managed to to win match point with a forehand down the middle looped into the middle of the court and her opponent stepped in to crunch it and misjudged the bounce and it went straight overhead and she did an air shot and that was the that was the tournament one or the final sealed um but yeah nice you're right about Booska she's she's always in the the draws playing top players rarely beating them but you know always a factor and who knows maybe her best is still to come but this was a great week for her in terms of the ATP events last week three 250s uh we had Houston which was won for the first time by Tommy Paul and Howe.

47:42Matt and I were both up late watching this last night. I was just enjoying the tennis. Matt was watching for Greg Allensworth reasons, waiting for him to get his little trophy for umpiring the final. That never happened. Matt switched off in disgust. Why did that not happen? I've never seen a trophy ceremony where the umpire doesn't get some kind of recognition. No. Yeah, justice for Greg. Absolutely. Another Greg. Just, yeah. Anyway, if you could swallow your disgust for Houston long enough to try and give some takes on the tournament, Matt, that would be great. Tommy Paul won the title in such a dramatic final against, quite frankly, a player I had not heard of a week ago.

48:29Roman Andres Buruchaga might be a name that you have heard of, might be a name that you have heard of, not for tennis reasons necessarily. 6-2-3-6-7-5 the score in the final. Three match points saved by Tommy Paul. Poor old Burrachaga. I mean, overall, obviously an incredible week for him, but pretty devastating scenes, seeing him sat there on the sidelines, having to sit through the trophy ceremony and everything. Did so well in the speech, did Burrachaga, because he was just a picture of devastation. So more on Burrachaga in a minute, but some flowers for Tommy Paul, I think. This is his fifth career title.

49:19It makes it a title for him on all surfaces. This was his first clay court title. And he was a good time this week in Houston, Tommy Paul. It was a reminder, I think, of what a good watch he can be, Matt. Yeah, definitely. I mean, obviously, he had that incredible match in Miami, didn't he, against Artifis, which I think everyone, very rightly, was viewing that through an Artifis lens. But at the same time, it takes two to make a good match. And Tommy Paul was absolutely part of that. And he is a good watch, I think. I really like watching Tommy Paul. And I think the fact that he has titles on all surfaces is kind of why I like watching Tommy Paul.

50:07I think he's quite adaptable. You know, he's not got massive weaknesses. OK, the forehand can get pretty error strewn, as it did midway through this final. He sort of lost his way on that shot, and it can be quite attackable, I think, certainly for the very best players. But he's such a fluid mover on a tennis court. You know, like he covers the court so well. He's so fast. I would throw him into the fantasy ATP Tour 100-meter race. You know, like I want Tommy Paul as part of that. You know, like I think he's a great athlete. He chases down drop shots incredibly well. He can redirect. I love his backhand, that flat backhand he's got.

50:51He can redirect so easily, which is a hard thing to do. And, you know, I always think of him as quite a good clay court player. So I was kind of surprised that this was his first clay court final and title. But, you know, you can see that he's pretty comfortable on that surface. And, yeah, he did well here because he lost his way in this match. You know, he was all over Burujaga in the first set, like totally outplaying him. But then he really lost his way, especially on that forehand, as I said. but he played the game where he saved the match points pretty well. That was on his serve, all of those match points.

51:33Boruchaga's forehand fell to pieces, unfortunately, for him, totally. If I had to describe Boruchaga and what made him so good this run, I don't know. That's not satisfactory, but there was nothing that really stood out to me. He seemed solid. He seemed really good sliding to his backhand corner, a strong in defence and he's got quite a he's got like a heavy forehand he's a good mover like there's a lot of good parts of his game but nothing that like wows you when you watch him you have to like spend time with him to sort of appreciate what a good player he is but you did notice when that forehand went it really went and unfortunately for him like those match points on the pool serve missed them all mostly with forehands that were errors and then he comes to serve for it and you're thinking oh goodness like having just having just lost the match points this is going to be a tough game he played a horrible game and then finally he's at five six serving Burug Shaggo he's fully love up and you're thinking okay he's passed the worst of it he's reset we're going to go into a final set tie break and both of them are going to be pretty nervous obviously Burug Shaggo is trying to do something totally like he's never done before but you know Paul at this sort of big tournament for him he said the Americans all want to play there like it's a bit kind of a big event for him he would have been nervous too but Boruchaga just couldn't get it into a tiebreak he just fell to pieces again and it was a it was a brutal brutal way to finish like you said like it's been all upside he's won a challenger last week he gets the final here he's riding a nine match winning streak like this should be a totally like positive only great career moment and yet when you finish like that it's just it's just devastating and i hope he can i'm sure he will in time take the positives from this he's gonna have a big rankings jump um but unfortunately like the bright lights of the victory and and and the first atp title were there and kind of too much for him but but paul kept it together and and he didn't and that was kind of the difference in those closing stages and if you thinking Burruchaga, where do I know that name from?

53:55Well, he is the son, is Roman Burruchaga, of Jorge Burruchaga, who scored the winning goal for Argentina against West Germany in the 1986 Men's Football World Cup final, which tangentially does give us an opportunity to mention the fact that David once played against Diego Maradona successfully. Law one, Maradona zero.

54:31And yeah, I'm assuming you remember that, David. I'm assuming as soon as you saw the name Boruchaga, you thought, huh. Well, when we first referenced Boruchaga's name within tennis, I think it was in July last year. and I just joked at the time, I don't know who he is but I know who his dad is, and I was joking because I remembered Borussia Gaglia, the football player who wore number 7 for Argentina playing alongside Maradona those were the two most they looked similar, they both had this mane of dark hair and there were squat figures who were just so powerful and great attackers I assumed there were more than two of them in Argentina and therefore it wouldn't be father and son actually and then i find out that it is um but yes it's martin dam and martin dam jr all over again exactly i did take this chance to uh yesterday i i i was being asked about borachaga and i i relayed uh to a a tennis fan who works at my football club west from a jambin jazz um friend of mine i relayed the fact that uh borachaga's dad was the argentina goal scorer and i said by the way have i ever told you about my maridona story apparently i hadn't so i i listened back to my retelling of the story from 2020 and i sent it to him so i've yet to have a reply to to find out whether he's still was that a pandemic episode when that came out it was the covid french open it was a reminder of how things have changed because i was drinking whiskey whilst telling that story um and that was in the middle of the french open so what a time you know hang on during the middle of the actual french open no the october the october one yeah the october one 2020 right okay yeah what a time scroll back in your archive if you're listening and you haven't heard that story and you don't have a direct whatsapp line could you give the very could you just give the highlights the teaser highlights for people what the meridona story yeah uh well i i got called in to play the match out of the blue because somebody got injured.

56:45This isn't a professional, this is like a... This is a... This is the World Cup final. Yeah, David's got the call up. Yeah, Napoli got in touch. No, this is when Maradona was not in the greatest of health in 2005, but doing a tour of Europe and they'd laid a football pitch over the top of a clay court event on the champions tour um and it was five aside and i i just got the call up because somebody got injured um and and then i nobody told me that nobody touches maradona because he's not in the best of hell so when the ball came to him i smashed into him and knocked him over and got booed by 5 000 people um so that that's certainly part of the story and if you want who listened to the rest.

57:35It's in the October 8th, 2020 edition of the Tennis Podcast. 20 minutes in. God, the optics of that six foot, seven inch David Law, shoulder barging, five foot, five inch Diego Maradona. Oh, amazing. Anything else from Houston last week? Ben Shelton won the doubles. So ended the week on a high, won it alongside Ecuadorian partner Andres Andrade. But worrying signs for him in the singles. He was a victim of another Argentine who had a great week last week, Thiago Tarante. And then Tarante ended up losing out to Boruchaga. But I don't think he was fully fit, David. his shoulder is a big worry Ben Shelton I think Yeah it was difficult to tell was it shoulder or was it back it was kind of like that shoulder blade area that he was getting massaged face down but I mean look we know he puts a heck of a lot into that serve and yeah he was looking uncomfortable out there throughout that match I was actually quite surprised that he managed to make it out for the doubles So hopefully that's a good sign that maybe it was just a little bit of a trap nerve or something like that.

59:03But yes, Ben Shelton has made strides this year and he's such a great watch. I feel like he's really important to American tennis, but it's such a physical game. I think it's inevitable that he's going to get some issues. OK, that's that's Houston over to Marrakesh in the ATP 250 there that was won by 19 year old Rafael Hodar. He beat Marco Trungaliti in the final 6-3, 6-2, Hodar's first ATP title. He did win three challenger titles in 2025 to qualify for the next-gen finals at the end of last year. That was the first time he kind of came across my radar. And then this year, he's already won tour level matches at the Australian Open, Dallas, Acapulco and Miami.

1:00:04That already had taken him into the world's top 100. And with this run in Marrakesh, he's now up to 57 in the world, having been outside the top 900 a year ago. Now, it's not unheard of to see these meteoric ranking rises for young, talented players. You do tend to get these big number shifts. We had it with Victorian Boco last year, didn't we? But even by those standards, this is pretty eye-catching now from Rafael Holdar. And I know there's like the big bear trap there, isn't there? Like we've got this Spanish kid who's really talented and doing everything ahead. Who's called Rafa. Who's doing everything ahead of the curve.

1:00:53And everyone's like, is he the next, you know, insert Spanish great name here? But I think there is justification here, Matt, to be pretty excited about the talent of Rafael Jodar. Yeah, I think this was only like the second time that I'd properly watched him. I remember watching a little bit of his match against Norrie in Acapulco earlier this year. And what stood out from that one was the sheer number of winners Hodder hit. I think he had over like 50 winners or something in like two relatively short sets. He just blew Norrie off the court. I remember thinking, well, that's quite an impressive game.

1:01:40Like, can you sort of, how repeatable is that? Well, he did it every match in Marrakesh. That might just be the way he plays. He is impressive. Yeah, he's 6 '3", and the pace he generates on his forehand is absolutely outstanding. Really good technique, I think. Not much is going to go wrong with those ground strokes. He looks secure while hitting these winners. It doesn't really look like he's having to totally redline. And he's tall. As I said, 6 '3", he can get on top of the ball, which helps him on the clay. And yeah, he had a series of good wins. Like he beat Lejevic, Mahac and Ugo Carabelli.

1:02:21Like these are pretty good clay court players that he was just sort of handling really. And yeah, I went over to El Pais in Spain just to see what they were saying about him on there. And yeah, they're pretty excited in Spain. The article said, Jodar plays with a naturalness and maturity that are astonishing. as if he knows the game inside out as if instead of being 19 years old with a whole world still to discover he were already over 30 and a seasoned pro he won his first final biting into every return hammering away with his serve and playing with the expansive incisive and modern style that he unveiled at the beginning of the season let there be no mistake with hodd we're not talking about the future we're talking about the present so like they're excited in spain and there's there's definite reason to to be like just sheer pace and number of winners he can hit like he's gonna be a problem i think for for a lot of players had a message from idris on instagram he said hadar reminds me uh the hadar run in uh marrakesh reminds me of alcaraz winning umag in 2021.

1:03:41There you go. The hype train has left. Yeah, look, that was Idris' hype train, not mine. Just putting it out there. Trungaliti, thinking, where do I know that name from? He became the oldest first-time finalist in ATP history at the age of 36, beating the record previously held by Victor Estrella Burgos. The run takes him into the top 100 for the first time. He qualified and then he beat Maershac, Moutet, that was a good win, and Luciano Darderi as well. Now, he's best known for a couple of things, Marco Trungoliti. one being the role he has played in trying to expose match fixing expose the truth and the reality of match fixing in the sport The Athletic wrote about this this week he's talked about how he was approached by match fixers in 2015 he reported that approach as the sports anti-corruption rules require And after a three year investigation, three of his compatriots were suspended for either match fixing or failing to report approaches to do so.

1:05:05So a really brave thing for him to have done for the good of the sport, Trungoliti. And of course, the other thing he is famous for is his 10 hour road trip with his grandma from Barcelona to Paris in 2018 after finding out he'd got a lucky loser spots into the main draw. I remember the I think I interviewed him at that cinch open. Did I? Yeah. One for the show. I think everybody interviewed him. Yeah. He was the man. It was talking to everybody. It was the same day that you and I did a show. This is how things have changed. You were in Paris reporting for Eurosport. I was at the Cotswolds Wildlife Park with the family with my phone out watching the tennis on there.

1:05:59And we were trying to do podcasts remotely between us. And you had to cut short because you needed to go and speak to Marco Drunjaliti. what a memory wow okay oh well i'm sure he was great he's he's a he's a real character oh he's lovely yeah yeah great story and he's he's a heck of a watch as well i mean i really you know i've seen been watching him in drawers for years without ever sort of actually watching any of his tennis matches because he's just not made it into the top 100 but because he got into the semi-finals here and he'd beaten Mute I started to really take an interest you know especially when the commentator referenced the drop shot dragon uh because of the the similarities of his own drop shot to the great Albert Portas who won Hamburg in 2001 his only ever title um and and he did it with the the most extraordinary drop shot apparently Portas I was reading on reddit i can't verify whether this is correct but apparently in that match against one cars ferro he hit 35 drop shots um along i mean and this didn't used to happen back then this was before alcaraz was doing all these things but sure enough trinjeliti hits he he was he was at five all second set against dardair he's 30 40 down he hits two back to back on back-to-back points forehand drop shots just down the middle.

1:07:32He doesn't even bother for an angle. He's got it down to such a fine art that he barely clears the net just like Portas used to do all those years ago and the opponent's just scrambling around in the dirt. And then the camera pans to Albert Portas, the drop shot dragon, who it turns out has been his coach for the last eight years. And I knew nothing about this. Eight years. And he's finally in the top 100. Trunjalici said after this match, when he gets into the top 100, winning this semifinal, he said, it's been a long run. He says, I don't know whether it's his fault or it's my fault that it's taken this long, but we finally made it.

1:08:19I feel like this is a David Law greatest hits today. Yes, because I coined the phrase the drop shot dragon in 1999 when Portas played Jeff Tarango in Umag and drove him bananas. People have been using it without attribution ever since. Yes, I've had people actually dispute whether I ever coined it, but I sure did. That does explain why the commentator was using it. Like, it would have been very niche for the commentator to be using it if Howard Portas wasn't coaching it. Yes. Do you know what I mean? My ears pricked up at the mention of it, and then suddenly I realised he's in the crowd. Yes. Nick Lester said it on air, so thanks, Nick.

1:09:07Well done. Good job. Over in Bucharest, Romania, Mariano Navone, another Argentine coming out of the woodwork at this time of year. He beat Daniel Merida in the final there, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, to win his first ATP title, saved two match points in the second set of his semi-final, three hours, 32 minutes against Burtick van der Zanskulp, eventually winning 7-5 in the third. David, you dabbled in a bit of Bucharest this week. Well, yes, just on Merida, his run was remarkably similar to Jessica Begula's because he played five three-set matches in a row and three of them he came back from a set down. And it was one of those where I turned on the semi-final commentary against Fabian Marjan and he's a set down.

1:10:05And the moment that he even gets to juice, the commentator said, uh-oh, it's happening again. And so it made me go and look at his results and he's just got this thing going where he would just, the moment he'd lost the first set, he'd just turn into Alcaraz and he'd just start roaring back. But yeah, anyway, he couldn't quite get over the line in this final. 7-5 in the third set. But again, I just love these relatively smaller tournaments where somebody just makes a name for themselves and has a heck of a run. Yeah, absolutely. Okay, that was the week that was after the break. We'll have a look ahead to this week in tennis.

1:10:51Welcome back to part three of today's tennis podcast. Obviously, we have the ATP 1000 event in Monte Carlo, truly one of the most astonishingly picturesque sporting settings in the world. That event is already underway. Started yesterday, David has already been engrossed by Cam Norrie against Mir Mir Ketmanovic, and we still have seven days to go. We had the withdrawals of Jack Draper and Art of Feast ahead of the tournament, as well as the inevitable raft of American withdrawals, Fritz Shelton, Tien, Paul, Tiafoe, all absent from the draw. Feast and Draper missing, a bit of a bummer. Feast more of a kind of scheduling thing after his exploits in Indian Wells and Miami.

1:11:42Jack Draper, slightly more worrying signs, I would say. It sounds like it's a recurrence of the arm injury that's kept him out for a long time and has made his comeback a bit stuttering up to this point. I'd say that's quite a concern from a Jack Draper point of view. No Novak Djokovic either in last year's semi-finalist Alejandro Davidovic for Kina is out as well. So the draw looks like this. Carlos Alcaraz, the top seed for now. He's at the top of the draw. In his half is Lorenzo Mazzetti and Alex de Mino. And in the bottom half, Yannick Sinner hunting down that top spot in the rankings, in the seedings.

1:12:28He's got Daniel Medvedev and Alexander Zverev in his half of the draw. Are we going to get, David, our first Sincaraz final of 2026 here? yes i think we will i think we will because i think sinner is just playing outstanding tennis right now i think al kraz will be happier now he's got on clay so i'm going to say yes we will but it is a very strong draw i mean even even with all these departures i feel like once you get on clay certain people just come into the the equation that maybe you don't think about so much on a hard court um and and and it becomes fun so i'm going to say yes and and you're right i did watch uh nori and ketsmanovic yesterday and what a what a battle they had proper arm wrestler match and final said tie break nori eventually got the win and then i watched gal monfils just scrape through a win and then i saw uh young Moise Kwame play against Hugo and Bear I was watching the whole lot last night it was fun Matt Sin Kauras final I don't know I've got a feeling maybe there might be there might be an upset along the way it was interesting hearing Al Kauras say that he was surprised that Sin is playing in Monte Carlo you know given his exploits in Indian Wells and Miami and, you know, sort of saying, oh, it just shows what a great athlete he is and what great condition he's in.

1:14:06And I'm sure that absolutely is all true. But I do think Sunshine Double into Monte Carlo is tough. I was looking and I think Djokovic is the only guy to have won the Sunshine Double and Monte Carlo in the same year, doing that in 2015. I think it was there that year. It would be a hell of an effort, I think, for Sinner to back this up. But then he's the most, he's still the more reliable one. So you sort of still think that he probably will do it. But it'd be interesting. I know he obviously had that, you know, incredible run at the French Open last year. And he obviously got to the Rome final after his ban.

1:14:51But Klay, to me, is still the surface a little bit where there's a tiny bit for Yannick Sinner to prove. Just because he didn't play on the clay up until Roman Roland Garros last year. We've not seen him much at this tournament before. And I think Alcarez, I know he won Monte Carlo last year, but it was by no means his best tennis, was it? Like he really had to, I think he found something in Monte Carlo last week. I think it was a really important event for him. But I think that first event on clay is, yes, obviously Alcarez is natural on it. and is likely to get to the final. But I don't know, given the year we've had where one or two of them have been upset, it wouldn't shock me if we do get that here.

1:15:40Stan Marenka is desperate to play Carlos Alcaraz before he retires, which we know he's going to do at the end of this year. So this is his last Monte Carlo, obviously a former champion. he only has to get through Sebastian Baez later today to get the chance to play Carlos Alcaraz. Bearing in mind that most people, when they're listening to this, will already know the result of this match, is Stan Ravrinka going to get the chance to play Carlos Alcaraz?

1:16:12Baez is tough, but let's go for it. Let's go, Stan. He can take out Baez and he'll be all right. Daniel will absolutely hate chasing down the Alkraut's dropshids. The crowd got Monfils through last night, didn't they, against Greeksport. They were both out on their feet, but somehow, again, Monfils had that little bit more juice in the tank. So, yeah, that is Monte Carlo. The WTA has a 500 event in Linz, which is now a clay event. used to be an indoor hardcourt, is now a clay event. So it looks really quite different. They've got a decent field there. Mira Andreeva, Ekaterina Alexandrova, Lyudmila Samsonova, Yelena Ostapenko, Sarana Kastea and Alexandra Ayala all in the draw.

1:17:03And on the WTA side of things, we also have Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers taking place on Friday and Saturday of this week. And we will preview those in Thursday's show because this is a two pod week, folks. In fact, if you're a friend of the pod, then it's a three pod week because we have a Q &A for friends on Wednesday that is live on YouTube at 8pm. We'll also be available as a podcast. If you'd like to become a friend between now and then and get yourself along to that live show or just have the chance to listen to it, then of course the link to become a friend is in our show notes. It gets you access to all of our bonus episodes, ad-free listening, The Barge, our community platform, all that jazz.

1:17:50Folks, we have a mascot for this episode. And oh my, does she have some great ears on her. This is Roxy. And Roxy is owned by Jessica Weaver. And Roxy is making her fourth appearance as a tennis podcast mascot. She is a Belgian Malinois, German Shepherd, Collie Mix, who was adopted from the San Diego Humane Society in 2021. She is very smart, fiercely loyal and has endless energy. Jessica says, my proudest moment so far has been when I was picking her up from daycare and was informed that she's been labelled a rabble rouser after she initiated a late night play session with her friends. She definitely enjoys chasing tennis balls more than watching them on TV, but the player she will watch the most is Taylor Townsend.

1:18:46And I'm looking at a picture of Roxy with ears pricked up and a very well-chewed looking tennis ball underneath her chin. And she looks absolutely thrilled with life. What a picture. Thank you, Roxy, for returning to be a tennis podcast mascot. We love you. We love all of our mascots. I've got Bodhi, David's got Maisie, Matt's got Roger. And we had a little bit of a reshuffle in our fantasy teams this week. David managed to pick up Joao Fonseca. Joao Fonseca couldn't offload Taylor Fritz quickly enough, could David? I tried to get Tommy Paul. Was basically willing to accept anybody in exchange for Taylor Fritz.

1:19:33So when somebody offered him Joel Fonseca, bit their hand off. Yeah, that's true. I was pleasantly surprised, actually. Matt did his best to get Jessica Bergula, but got gazumped. And I sentimentally swapped out Emerson Jones because sensation season is over. And picked up Bianca Andreeski. Yeah. We have our top folks and executive producers, Greg, Chris and Jeff. Hello. We salute you. And Matt, let's have some shout outs. We have Skip Schwartzman. Hello, Skip. All right, Skip. Long time shout out is Skip from Philadelphia. And Skip says, I was a ball kid here in Philly for many top pros in the early 70s, including a Laver Rosewall final.

1:20:36Oh, wow. Gosh, that's incredible. The former umpire, Richard Ings, used to be nicknamed Skip and he was an Australian as well from that sort of vintage. So that fits well. I might have already told this story for a previous Skip Schwartzman shout out But when we found out that my parents were going to become grandparents for the first time before my niece Nina was born, there was discussion of what my parents' grandparent names would be. And my mum floated skip for my dad. It was not well received or adopted, but it was floated. What did they go with? I think he's Grandpa David Very different to Skip I'm going to call him Skip Yeah I quite like Skip It's sort of slightly nautical Yeah absolutely Nautical thing Actually I called him Mr Whittaker Which feels very appropriate There we go Thank you Skip We also have Seth Wussing from Toronto.

1:22:00Toronto. Tennis Seths. I think that might be a bit of a black spot. That's what Seth thinks. Oh, yeah. Seth's done his own research and not even he can come up with anything. Good effort, Seth. So instead, Seth would like to shout out his boyfriend, Jose. He says, We met at our local GLTA tennis tournament back in May last year. GLTA hosts tournaments throughout the world, and we'll be going to New York this year to compete in their tournament, which is being hosted at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre. Oh, he's going to play. He's going to play at the US Open venue. It's surreal being able to compete at the same venue as the pros.

1:22:44You certainly get that extra push when you're tired mid-match, and you look up and you see the Arthur Ashe Stadium. that's so cool like Jose Akasuso I was going to go Higueras but I think Akasuso is better it's a great name that isn't it there we go thank you Seth that's really cool and finally exactly as it was entered into the shout out form we have Pamela Howard Shriver from Baltimore then Los Angeles Pamela writes I was a good player in the 70s and 80s I sliced a lot and came to the net at every opportunity I still love tennis Yay! We love you Pamela Howard-Shriver What an absolute legend Yeah And we love how much Pam loves tennis Like she just loves tennis doesn't she?

1:23:47It's the best The best It's infectious We love you Pam and Seth and Skip thank you ever so much for your support of the Tennis Podcast as I said, 2PodWeek we'll be back on Thursday we'll be back on Wednesday for Friends we are part of the Athletic Podcast Network thank you for listening we'll speak to you then