Are Czechia the best BJK Cup team ever?

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1:16Matt Roberts: Hello and welcome to the Tennis Podcast coming to you live tonight. It is Monday night here in the UK. It is good to see so many of you here with us. do join in the chat if you are with us here on YouTube a lot of you are already and remember to hit that like and subscribe button while you are here as well. David is in the house. David how are you doing?

1:40David Law: Well I haven't posted anything into the post box this week so laptops in place I've got all my technology I can't always make any of it work but I have it and I haven't posted

1:53Matt Roberts: it to jake is that the new bar for a good week not having posted any of your worldly possessions

2:02David Law: what one week on absolutely has jake received his biscuits yes i don't know received

2:09Matt Roberts: oh no i was hoping this would be the start of a beautiful i don't think so you know the

2:15David Law: the old tracking has not sort of shown up anything as as having arrived so it's a bit bit concerning what postage did you pay for what whatever they've got or you there was money was paying for things with the royal mail no no for jake anything so okay that wasn't an issue

2:38Matt Roberts: uh we'll keep you posted on the uh on the jake gifting situation folks uh i did have in my little agenda script here clean shaven matt is here because last week we forgot to referenced the fact that Matt had taken the plunge and was clean shaven. But that is now out of date news. I see. Hello, not clean shaven Matt Roberts.

3:04Catherine Whitaker: You didn't just forget to mention I spent a whole two hours on a Zoom call with you both and there was no one noticed. I thought that my, you know, I thought it'd be top of the agenda, but clearly not. And now I've just got three or four days. Superman. Now I've just got three or four days stubble and it's back on the agenda. So I don't know where we're at.

3:27Matt Roberts: Okay, so can you share with the class that the shaving of last week was a mistake with the machine?

3:36Catherine Whitaker: It was a mistake with the machine. Yeah, I bought a fancy new beard trimmer and got it all wrong and took off way more than I was aiming to do and then thought the whole thing's got to go now at least it'll be a good story for the pod because David and Catherine will notice straight away and now by the time I bring it up you've you've got stubble again and it's all out of date but anyway here we are here we are folks we're going to start today

4:06Matt Roberts: with the Billie Jean King Cup we have a lot to get through in today's show tennis has been Tennising. We'll start with the Billie Jean King Cup, which has been won by Czechia for the first time since 2018. They beat Ukraine 2-0 in the final to win their 12th title overall. Karolina Mukova kicked things off. She beat Angelina Kalinina 6-2, 6-3. And then Linda Noskova won through also in straight sets over Alina Svitolina, who'd performed real heroics to get Ukraine through to the finals, beating the defending champions Italy along the way. But ultimately, Czechia, I mean, we joked about the strength of the team, didn't we, in this show a week ago?

4:52Matt Roberts: Like, it looked absolutely ridiculous lining up on paper. And obviously, these tournaments aren't played on paper. But it was so undeniable, that strength of team. And they didn't need the doubles all week. Poor old Katarina Siniarkova was there just in a cheerleading capacity in the end. She didn't seem to mind, but that is just a marker, David, of how dominant this Czech team were. And they could have filled it three times over, I think, with a title contending team. That is how strong they are as a women's tennis nation.

5:26David Law: yeah the the fact that they opened up with bus cover and they kind of scraped through that one um against sunny cartel but they won it and then they brought out the big guns and it was like okay well this is over then i i still i thought they would be an amazing team but i still didn't think they would be this good i didn't think that noskova just wouldn't really have a wobble and like just seemed to rise. I mean, we know what a good player is. She's won Wimbledon this year, but she looked almost better in this environment. To take on Svitolina after the performance Svitolina had put up and to beat her in straight sets, I know the second set was very close, but that is a serious win.

6:16David Law: I mean, we forget how inexperienced Noskova is still, relatively speaking. you know she's been around for quite a few years now I suppose but she's so young she's so green at these big occasion matches and this is kind of the first time I've seen her in this spotlight and she just made it look so perfect for herself you know she just she just looked calm I'm sure she wasn't calm I'm sure she was nervous but she didn't look it and and her game almost relies on being able to keep that pulse rate down, I feel like, because it's very creative, it's very instinctive, as well as the power game. She's just got everything.

7:00David Law: And I think I didn't quite realise how good it was until she beat probably Muka at Wimbledon. But in this tie, in this series of ties, I don't know, I was just blown away by how good this team was. Like you said, the fact that they didn't even need the best doubles player in the world. I mean what's that this could be the best this could be the best Billie Jean King Cup team ever potentially you know in terms of like strength in depth manner in which they've just rolled through the opposition certainly it's as good as anything I would have thought I think with

7:47Matt Roberts: completely sustainable and repeatable, it feels, for her to play at about 90 % of her top level, particularly with that serve. I mean, the serve is just such an easy weapon, it looks like to me, Matt. Yes, and I think for a long time, I've probably just trotted out the line that Rabatkinah is the

8:15Catherine Whitaker: best server in women's tennis and she might still be you know she's just got to world number one she's just won another slam she may well still have that title but I think she's got competition now in Noskova because that serve is such a weapon for her and you saw it in the final against Svitolina she actually went down a break at the start of the match did Noskova and I thought okay Yeah, Svitolina, who had just been brilliant against Paolini in the semis, is just going to put her nation on her shoulders and she's going to bring it in this final. And she's going to give Noskova everything she can handle.

8:55Catherine Whitaker: But Noskova stayed so calm, to your point, got back into the match and then just did not give Svitolina a look. You know, like the first set, they'd had tussles and long games. But in the second set, just a total shutout. and Noskova is just absolutely cruising through her service games and then gets through the tiebreak and wins it. And I think for me, the thing with Noskova as well is how quickly she has become this player. You know, I was actually looking back and Czechia played Spain in the Billie Jean King Cup last year in the qualifiers and Spain won 2-0 and Spain put out Butcher and Bufas Monero and Czechia played Spain in the semifinals just a few days ago and put out, okay, Mukova, but also Noskova.

9:44Catherine Whitaker: And it was a total reversal. And I just feel like 18 months ago, playing Boutas Monero or Bukcia for Noskova, you would have thought, okay, maybe Noskova's the favourite, but she could definitely lose that match. Like there's absolutely no certainty that she's just going to handle that type of level. I just didn't even have a doubt that Noskova was going to handle that tie and just do her thing and lead her nation. And I think that's 18 months we're talking about there, but it might even have happened in the past three or four months. Since the grass court season and Wimbledon, she's just become a different category of player.

10:30Catherine Whitaker: And I think backing up that first Grand Sam title really well with a decent run at the US Open and now doing this, which is a really big thing. It's so impressive.

10:42Matt Roberts: And this is a player that, and this is clearly my mistake, but in the tournaments immediately after Wimbledon, the US hard court swing pre-US Open, I was at that point thinking I'm giving Nozkova a free pass for the rest of the year. Like, I don't expect anything from her. She's won her first slam. Tennis doesn't give you any chance to enjoy that or adjust to it. It just wants you to get back on the treadmill. And I kind of hope she's, you know, well, not hope, but like, it's totally normal if she's a bit all over the place for the rest of the year, like free pass. I'll sort of judge how much of a factor she's going to be consistently on the basis of 2027 and beyond.

11:30I really didn't think we'd see her playing as well as she did at the US Open,

11:36Matt Roberts: reaching quarterfinal there and playing incredible tennis. Could have gone further, really, I think, with the level she was playing. And then here leading Czechia, a nation with so, so much talent. And yet at 21, like so quickly, she's become the one, you know, it's really incredible stuff from Rojkova.

12:03David Law: Yeah, there was a moment when she played Anissa Mova. Was it last year, Matt? Was it at Wimbledon? I can't exactly remember where they played each other when you just kind of almost marked our cards a little bit that, oh, you know, we should watch out for her because she's really, really good. It's not that we didn't know she was good, but then there are levels, aren't there? And yeah, we're here and it's really exciting. And like, I always think these team events are another level. They take you to another level, another sort of you realize you can handle this thing that's another one ticked off and not that she doesn't want to win it again but she might be even more dangerous next year oh i mean tell me that czechia aren't going to win the billy jean king cup for the next decade like well i think i think the strange thing is that they haven't

12:58Catherine Whitaker: been winning it since since 2018 you know like it's not like they've had a bad team for seven or eight years and suddenly they found Noskova and Mukova and Siniarkova. You know, these players have been around, Buskova as well. But, you know, I think for a while they had some top players who were very, very injury prone. You know, Vondroshova and Krejcikova and Mukova have all missed big chunks of time on tour through injury. So they maybe didn't always have their best team together. They hadn't been very good in the new format of the Billie Jean King Cup, which I think it does slightly take away from that strength in depth, maybe.

13:42Catherine Whitaker: I think the longer ties where you can use your players twice, maybe that really favours the countries who have the real strength in depth. We've seen Italy be so good with just a great number one and a great doubles team. That's kind of all you've needed to win the Billie Jean King Cup in the last few years. But I don't know, it's just all come together for Czechia this year. And it feels right that they're the champions again. And yeah, if this team is competing, as David said, in terms of could it be one of the strongest Belgian King Cup teams, like they'd be up against themselves in terms of like who they'd be competing against for that category.

14:17Catherine Whitaker: Because you had, you know, you had the great teams who won, what, six Belgian King Cups in eight years, I think it was, in the mid-2010s when you had Kvitova and Pliskova and Safarova. You know, that was a great team as well. And this looks set to build on that, I would agree. I hope they commit to it now that they've, you know, won it the once. I hope Noskova doesn't think, right, that's it. I hope they can build a bit of a dynasty.

14:45Matt Roberts: It doesn't feel like that's the sort of tradition in Czechia with the Billie Jean King Cup and before that the Fed Cup, does it like it doesn't feel like a box sticky no thing for there in the way it does sometimes for for other nations it'd be great if usa could get their act together and um yeah you know like on paper they should have a team that can that can challenge czechia if ukraine could get kostyuk in the mix um that but i mean they've already reached the final without kostyuk um that would be that would be huge I think for them I would love Alina Svitolina to to get one of these trophies I really would I mean Ukraine obviously but I it would mean so much to Svitolina wouldn't it

15:35Catherine Whitaker: yeah it it really would and I think that was the you know the slight disappointment of of the last few days of this event that once again we had a you know we had a front-loaded event with loads of great ties going down to the doubles real drama and then from the semi-finals onwards you know it was it was one in in the singles and i just think kostyuk being there would have really elevated the final you know like that you know i think i think that could well have then gone to the doubles with the form that the form that everyone's been in this year you know it would have been really hard to call how those singles matches would have gone but you know i do think that's an amazing achievement still for ukraine to reach the final i think it's one of the best stories in tennis actually over the last few years the what this wave of ukrainian women who are having just remarkable results they've got six players in the top 50 and amid so much heartbreak and conflict going on at home and all their lives being upended how they've they've still managed to just play incredible tennis and represent their nation while doing that.

16:47Catherine Whitaker: And I think that's been amazing. So it would be amazing if Ukraine could win a Billie Jean King Cup in the next few years. But I agree, it does feel like to get past a Czechia or a US if they really commit or if Italy come again, I think Kostya being fit, she's obviously injured at the moment, would go a long way to helping them because it is a lot for just one person to be trying to hold it all together.

17:19Matt Roberts: And they've got the Kitschernok sisters, haven't they? Which is, you know, it's not, it might not quite be Katarina Siniarkova, but it's, you know, it's not a specific weakness for Ukraine, the double side of things. How do we reflect on kind of, we always do a bit of a like state of the the tournament reflection don't we? We're going to do the same with the Labour Cup as we do annually in part two. How do we feel about the Billie Jean King Cup final? Second year hosted in Shenzhen. We don't know where it's going to be next year. We don't know when it's going to be next year. We assume they're sticking with this calendar carve out that there are downsides to it but there are clear upsides as well.

18:05Matt Roberts: how did you feel about it David?

18:08David Law: Yeah obviously I'm only watching really from afar and on TV but I did watch a lot and it was amazing when China played and you know I'd love them to have had a bit of a run so that they could have just had the packed house and the incredible atmosphere all the way through. The last couple of days I felt like there were a decent number of people some decent sounds coming from the two teams but it's still not what I want you know that comes off the back of that incredible Davis Cup week when we had all those home and away ties and that's what you want from the from an atmosphere of these things that's that's really how I judge it I mean it looks perfectly slick and um you know Well run, it's just all so crowded, isn't it?

18:58David Law: Everything is just so jammed in to this calendar. And I'm not saying I, within this current setup, I don't even know what the answer would be. I don't even know if there is a better option for the Billie Jean King Cup. But I do feel like it should be made a big priority. I'd love that to be the case. And therefore, it would be easier to sort of stage it and people to attend and players to put their hand up. When you were talking about America earlier, I was just thinking, imagine if Coco Gauff and Jessica Begula were representing Team USA and Taylor Townsend and the doubles, and they were in this final eight, and then they got to play the Czechia.

19:39David Law: That would be amazing, wouldn't it? So, you know, I'd love to see that in the future. It's just, it's still not high enough a priority for every player. I mean, it is for some. Some really prioritize it, but I also get it. It's so bloody packed, this tennis calendar. But pretty good, I think. Just certainly not what I'm looking for. Like in terms of that isn't the World Cup, right? They brand it the World Cup of Tennis. And I understand why. But it's still not what I would love it to be, what I feel like it deserves to be.

20:17Matt Roberts: Matt, anything to add?

20:19Catherine Whitaker: David said it perfectly, honestly. I agree with all of that yeah I managed to say it all without mentioning how often you were

20:29Matt Roberts: reporting to us in the whatsapp group about when you could hear the vacuuming in the stadium David's assessment of the atmos the first few days I was hearing a lot of vacuum cleaner

20:44Catherine Whitaker: it's not what you want is it that's it David when I got to the 2002 for the labor cut i remembered how in those indoor arenas you you can hear the whirring of the aircon and i wonder if it was that but whatever it was you don't want to be hearing that do you want to be hearing cheers and support i think david knows this is the sound of a vacuum

21:06Matt Roberts: i do i do but it's like why the hell were they vacuuming during the match like

21:13Matt Roberts: when a job needs doing Matt it needs doing you're a homeowner now well I suppose yeah but by the way just a right if we if we told the tennis podcast listeners about you transporting your vacuum cleaner on on the London buses back and forth how many times

21:32Catherine Whitaker: I did it two or three times yeah I you know I don't have a car I wasn't going to pay for an Uber just to just to transport my vacuum it was a little bit too far to walk between my old flat and my new flat with my vacuum so on the bus I was people have carried stranger things on the bus

21:54David Law: I carried some pretty weird things in my first apartment I sent you both a picture of my first day in my new apartment in 1998 in Monte Carlo when I got my job at the ATP

22:05Matt Roberts: and I was having to like something from a horror movie yeah I was I was on my own I was having to

22:11David Law: go take the bus to the car for and then I was like coming back with individual stand-up lamps because there were no lights in the in the apartment and like these are massive like floor-to-ceiling lamps and I was carrying them one by one back and forth didn't get any cushions at the car for did you no didn't get any sun furnishings for i didn't have a podcast back

22:37Matt Roberts: then i didn't have to worry about sound with your permission david i will post that picture to our instagram it is an incredibly bleak scene two tiny candles before this was before lights

22:50David Law: had two tiny little candles uh a couple of bottles of water and i i had bought from the car for an entire chicken uh that was on a rotisserie and brought it back to my apartment and i just sort

23:06Matt Roberts: of carved it up and ate it neat you were just raw dogging a whole chicken yeah i mean i was a young

23:18David Law: lads you know i didn't know too much about sophistication back then i feel like katherine says raw dogging every other part at the moment it's so it's so uh applicable in so many different

23:35Matt Roberts: scenarios it turns out um okay move moving on uh let's just just gonna say a final word on the

23:43Catherine Whitaker: Billie Jean King Cup just something that we haven't mentioned yet was Barbora Stryzkova the Czechia captain her just incredible emotion while the national anthems were playing and then and then the way she rushed onto the court at the end like that that's the magic of the event you know that's why we want it to be so much bigger and better than it currently is because you just don't see scenes like that through the tennis season normally and like she was just so on the edge so moved by being part of that team and and and hearing her country's national anthem and you know for her she was someone who was part of the winning team as a player and now she gets to do it as a captain and they they said that she joins Margaret Court, Billie Jean King and Chris Evert as the only players who have won the Billie Jean King Cup as a player and a captain that's incredible company to be in and I just loved that you know that competition still means so much to her in this new role and that's what we need to protect and build on and grow from because you can't fake that emotion it was so real

25:03Matt Roberts: yeah incredibly well said Yeah, absolutely. Cosign. There were other WTA events happening last week while the Billie Jean King Cup finals were going on in Shenzhen. We had the 250 event in Seoul that was won by Matt's favourite, Kim Birrell. She won an All-Australian final, beating former backhand lister Maya Joint to win her first WTA title. First All-Australian final on the WTA Tour since 2017. and it means that your fave Kim Birrell Matt has broken the top 50 for the first time she's up at up at 41 I feel some sensations of the day awards coming her way in January

25:47David Law: is it this favoritism that has led the 250 to lead the agenda over the 500 event Matt

25:55Matt Roberts: I did that actually

25:56Catherine Whitaker: oh i feel like the number of times you said she's my favorite it's going to sound like i hate her like it's some kind of like it's some kind of bitch but it is genuine she is just the loves kim birrell she's just the loveliest person kim birrell and i'm very very happy for her that she's won the first title she missed a she missed a chunk of her career through injury kim birrell and I've never really thought of her as being like a big threat to top players. I always think she's actually, I always good draw her. You know, I'm always like, oh, if someone's playing Kim Birrell who's at the top, that is someone that they're probably going to get past.

26:36Catherine Whitaker: But she beat Pagula at the French Open this year. She's been upping her ranking bit by bit. And yeah, this was a nice moment for her to get. Kind of relatively late in her career. she's pushing 30 now but that's nice to get her first title and also nice to see Maya join winning matches, I just had a quick look, she won three matches all year before Wimbledon as was very well documented going into that match against Serena, she's won 12 since Wimbledon it's been a nice sort of point in her career where you can kind of say before and after the Serena match and I just really like that for her because she's a much better player than winning three matches before Wimbledon in a season.

27:19Like she kind of learnt something about herself or proved something to herself about herself

27:26Matt Roberts: in that Serena situation, which we all thought was going to be an absolute nightmare for her. And she said, no, hang on a second. I've got this. Yeah, that's a great stat. Thank you, Matt, for Australia Corner.

27:43David Law: Matt and I had a head-to-head over who was the nicest out of Kim Beryl and Madison Inglis, didn't we?

27:51Matt Roberts: I commentated on Madison Inglis this year, so I got a soft spot for her and she is undeniably delightful.

27:57David Law: I think a score draw.

27:59Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, I just can't imagine anyone being nicer than Kim Beryl.

28:02Matt Roberts: They wouldn't want anyone fighting over it, I don't think. They would want a score draw. Yeah. Okay, moving on to Singapore and the WTA 500 there. I put Seoul first, David, because there's just quite a lot of stuff with Singapore. And I sort of wanted to, no offence, Kim Birrell, just get that out of the way and make sure she didn't get lost in the melee of Singapore. Let's start with the title. Won by Leila Fernandez. She beat another Aussie. What a week for the Aussie women. Talia Gibson, 7-5, 6-love, to win her sixth career title. She beat Mira Andreeva in the quarterfinals, 6-2, 7-5. And then in the semis, she rallied from a set down to beat Maja Chvilinska, who had a fantastic week, which was being tracked very closely by David.

28:54Dave, I was waking up every day to Maja Chvilinska rock dates

28:58Matt Roberts: from the middle of the night from David.

29:00David Law: yes well the thing is i've i have tracked her a little bit since the french open because whenever somebody does something completely out the blue like valinska did at rylan garras i then suddenly think oh just imagine you know they're going to now be playing in all the big events you know i felt this a little bit about arthur ferry and there's various others over the years that i've felt this about and so i've tracked valinska's movements uh and of course she had that injury at Wimbledon and frankly she's not had any results at all ever since that that run and then suddenly she found it suddenly she found this form and I was just really taken by the fact that she she she'd lost like 11 games in six sets and I'm and I'm thinking crikey you know this is this is amazing form against good players um and then she won the first set 6-2 against Fernandez So on and on it goes, you know, and I'm thinking that this is just the same old thing.

30:04David Law: And I think she was five love up in that first set as well. She was just playing out of this world. She was toying with Fernandes, really. She was drop shotting, then lobbing off the drop shot, you know, after bringing her in. And then suddenly it was like Fernandes just said, I've had enough of this. And she started swiping full-blooded drives one after another that Valenska just couldn't deal with. And it was a reminder of what a rush Fernandes' game can be when she strikes form. And it's frustratingly not that often. You know, she sort of, at the moment I would say she's sort of tracking to do it once or twice a year.

30:47David Law: The other time, I mean, listen, mate, a lot of players say, look, you don't have your best form that often. And it's really, you've really got to enjoy it when you do the rest of the time. Maybe it's a bit of a scrap and a bit of hard work. So maybe that's just what this is. Maybe she's got a certain level that gets her to certain points in tournaments. I don't think she'd reached a semi-final before this one. But then when her top form comes, she's an irresistible player. She's so difficult to play against. I mean, Valinska had no answer in that semi-final at all. The final was very close for set, and then it was very one-sided there afterwards.

31:25David Law: I mean, Gibson, you know, she'd had that breakout at the start of the year where she was getting fantastic results and then had a real dip. So, again, nice to see them coming back to form. And some players need almost the freshness of, I guess, to have good results at the end of the year, you maybe need to have not had good results all the way through it because you're not out of energy. But anyway, pleased to see them both in the final. I love seeing Leila Fernandez win. She just seemed so thrilled and was very deserving of it.

32:02Matt Roberts: Yeah, she's one of those players where it's very tough to sort of think, oh, what does this mean? What platform, what springboard could this potentially be? Because I do think we've seen enough of her now to know that this is the kind of tennis player it is. She's streaky. She's going to pop up once or twice a year and look irresistible, as you've described but will probably pop back down again not you know into obscurity but I don't necessarily expect this now to necessarily mean all that much for Wuhan Beijing for example I would love it if it did but that has tended to be the pattern of her her career hasn't it she just she just clicks and becomes unstoppable yeah and i think half of her career titles have come in this

32:52Catherine Whitaker: portion of the season um and that's an interesting point david made about how you know maybe you only have your best tennis for one or two weeks a year perhaps like perhaps other players are better at one of mary's rules hiding your weaknesses and i think maybe if she's not just on that top form perhaps perhaps her floor is a little bit lower you know like she she needs to be dialed in taking the ball early rushing her opponents that way because she doesn't have a big serve doesn't have big weapons that that can sort of come to her aid if she's not really max sharp and tough and feeling really good so so perhaps there's something in that interesting that she does have a bit of a nice record forming against Stan Draver But she beat her earlier in the year in straight sets.

33:40Catherine Whitaker: She's beaten her again in straight sets. And, you know, I sort of, I always think of Andreeva as someone who can really handle players a bit like Fernandes who don't have huge power. Because so often it becomes about your hand skills and crafting rallies. But I think Fernandes is really honed in on how to play that match. And once again, we saw Andreeva really struggling. you know like we thought she was looking quite good at the start of the US Open wasn't she her scores were quite convincing but then obviously she had you know the the way she lost that match to Goff and and this unfortunately this performance was in keeping with with the Andreeva that we've seen post post French Open it it does feel like a bit of another season that she kind of needs to end and reset and and go again but she's still got she's still got quite a lot to play for obviously because she has done so well at the start of the year.

34:36Catherine Whitaker: She's going to be at the WTA finals. I hope she can get something going still this year because I think it's going to be a bit of a tough one otherwise if she's just in that rough headspace for a couple more months of the season.

34:55Matt Roberts: The other big story to come out of Singapore last week involved Tatiana Prozarova, who is a 22-year-old Russian player. She's played most of her tennis at the level below the WTA Tour. A few slam and main draw appearances here and there, but if you haven't heard of her, that's not a huge surprise. This was shaping up to be, or already was in fact, a career best week for her. but it was a run that was abruptly ended due to a concussion. So she beat Alexandra Ayala, a match that we talked about in Thursday's show. She then backed that up by beating Wong Jin Yu and she was due to play a semi-final against Talia Gibson.

35:45Matt Roberts: Now the day before that semi-final, she was playing doubles and she was struck in the face by a ball. she and her partner were three points from defeat when Miyukato inadvertently hit a regulation overhead into her face on the full there are clips of it doing the rounds they're not very pleasant but it doesn't look good there's no close up of it but from the angle that you can see it really looks like it's a full face on full impact it's not good She collapsed to the ground. She had her hands on her face. Ellen Perez and Miyukato rushed to the other side of the court to check on her immediately.

36:29Matt Roberts: There was a short delay and then Prozarova left the court for a medical timeout. And she then retired from the match, from that doubles match, and then withdrew from the singles the following day. but in a statement posted to her Instagram stories Prozarova said that the ball from Kato quote grazed my cheek and hit my shoulder before then detailing how she completed a balance exercise as part of that off-court assessment she said the physio called to the court insisted on taking me off-court to run a specific test unfortunately I didn't know that I could refuse the tests weren't easy given that I'd spent over three hours on court each of the last three days.

37:14Matt Roberts: I was fatigued and I struggled with some of the exercises, like standing on one leg with my eyes closed. To be honest, even when I'm fresh and well rested, I find that difficult anyway. I explained this to the physio too. Of all the exercises, that was the only one they weren't happy with, even though I passed all the others. Praserova said that the physio pressured her over withdrawing before she, her team and the Singapore Open organisers continued discussions with the physio over what Prozerova called a specific WTA protocol. She said, My team and I had a long discussion with the organisers.

37:51Matt Roberts: Throughout the process, the team pressured everyone present and even claimed I wasn't capable of taking responsibility for my own life. The organisers' decision really upset me. My dream week came to an end today. She called the decision an overreach of authority in another Instagram story. Now, in a statement sent to The Athletic, a WTA spokesperson said on the incident, player health and safety is the WTA's highest priority. Following the incident in Singapore, Tatiana was clinically assessed by the WTA's on-site sports medicine team and the tournament physician. Under the WTA physical incapacity rule and concussion protocol, a player who is diagnosed with a concussion is not permitted to compete and will be ruled physically unable to do so.

38:40Matt Roberts: The player may only return to competition once they have successfully completed the required graduated return to play protocol and have received appropriate medical clearance. The process is designed to protect the player's health and safety and to reduce the risk associated with returning to competition before adequate recovery. We fully understand that players want to compete whenever possible. However, following a head injury, our medical teams have a responsibility to protect player health and welfare and to follow established concussion protocols and internationally recognised guidelines when determining a player's return to competition.

39:14Matt Roberts: Return to play recommendations are determined on an individual basis and kept under medical review. We will continue to support Tatiana and wish her a full and speedy recovery. We haven't really had a chance to talk about this. I don't know where you guys are at on it. But what I feel, and particularly after reading those quotes in the WTA and the concussion protocol, is I have a lot of sympathy with Prozarova. This is a player playing the sport at a level at which semi-final and potentially beyond prize money is a huge deal. The points are a huge deal. She now is unable to play qualifying to try and get into Beijing.

40:03Matt Roberts: This is all really significant for a player of her level. I really understand her upset at the situation and the sort of feeling of lack of agency over the situation. I really do. But I think the right thing happened here. Like it should be out of her hands to determine whether or not she has concussion. That should be in the hands of medical professionals. In my experience, the WTA's physios and doctors are fantastic. I don't see any reason to doubt their intentions. I can't imagine what motivation they would have to not act in the best interests of the player. So I don't know. Do you have any differing feeling on that, David?

41:01Matt Roberts: I feel like the right thing was done here. And yet I still feel very sorry for Prozarova.

41:08David Law: Yeah, I feel exactly the same. I mean, in the sport of football that we all watch, they have concussion protocols about taking players off the pitch. And you often see those players arguing with the person, tending to them and saying, look, I'm fine, I'm fine. But you cannot be trusted to be the person deciding that, I'm afraid, when a head injury is the condition that you're assessing. you have to go through whatever those protocols are to make a medical evaluation and i think that that i really feel sorry for her but but sorry you just can't you can't be letting people make that decision for themselves when it's a head injury you just can't not not if you're a not if you're a legitimate organized event like this which has a sanctioned tour overseeing it it's just it's the only way as hard as it is i was pretty relieved to discover that the wta

42:14Matt Roberts: has a concussion yeah protocol because but they'd never i wasn't aware of any sort of test cases before this to to sort of have that revealed so i was very reassured that that that protocol does exist and on all the stuff that proserova said about you know i passed all the other tests again like I feel for her but there's a reason why why it is a suite of tests and you have to pass all of them right because you anybody that's had any kind of medical condition which I think is probably all of us present uh knows that you know you don't you you don't have all the symptoms that can be associated with a medical condition at any

42:57Catherine Whitaker: any one time yeah and look this may sound like a bit of a harsh thing to say but i do find it hard to like fully sort of be on board with her account of events because she's described what we all saw as the graze to the cheek and you know like we all saw it was it was quite a lot more than that in terms of the impact so like I think I think I could you totally have to be on erring on the side of caution here and I would I would I would rather that there'd be some unfortunate instances like this which is like an edge case and maybe she would have been fine to play in a few days time but it's a lot better that those players are protected by a policy than they can go out and play and people are causing themselves more damage because they've because they've not erred on the side of caution i i i feel for her but i i totally think that the right thing happened here and and that the right protocol was in place okay all in agreement then just before we head into part two

44:03Matt Roberts: uh i do have the photo of david in his apartment in monte carlo would we all like to see it happy days were they happy days they were interesting days catherine some of them were happy some of them were bloody awful but some were great so you're telling me what's on the plate there in your lap is an entire chicken i can't remember whether that was the day when i

44:30David Law: just ate a steak or when i just ate the chicken which one i did that i did both things i'm not sure i'd got the cooker working yet but something like that i'm the the fire safety situation with

44:45Matt Roberts: those candles on the floor is is that what they are candles on the floor that's quite stressful yeah i mean was that an attempt was that did you need those for lighting or was that an attempt to create atmos and mood lighting i think yeah yeah i think i think the rest of the illumination yeah

45:03David Law: the rest of the illumination is me putting that camera i think actually on a timer because i was

45:08Matt Roberts: very much on my own um oh god there's no there's not another human being taking this photo yeah

45:13David Law: it's posed yeah i was trying to capture the moment you know oh i think you did yeah

45:21Matt Roberts: so it's a scene from the blair witch project okay 28 years ago

45:28Matt Roberts: did you get other furniture or did it was that yeah is that how it remained yeah actually yeah

45:35David Law: yeah one or two bits that that was what um what the previous feel cozy no no that was what the previous owner um marco left for me um that that sofa that was my that was my bed as well my sofa the bed oh my god how long was that your bed for four years oh it's a nice bed i enjoyed it

46:01Matt Roberts: just got much darker four years i was delighted did you did you convert it into and out of a sofa every single day yeah

46:16David Law: did you really it's not as my son would say it's not that deep

46:24Catherine Whitaker: david four years is crazy not to get a bed i never thought twice about it i didn't have any money for it was there not was there not was there not room for a bed and a sofa no there wasn't room in my bank account for those i mean

46:39David Law: the bloody rent was my entire salary. Monte Carlo! It's nice when you walked out the door. You know? You were travelling a lot. Yeah. Exactly. So it was at least only two years worth, really.

46:58Matt Roberts: How did it feel to put your key in the door when you got back from a trip? I used to love it.

47:03David Law: Yeah? It was pretty cool, isn't it? To be, you know, living in Monte Carlo. You don't get to see the view out of the balcony.

47:09Matt Roberts: before I saw the photo.

47:10David Law: I'll send you the view of the balcony tomorrow, Catherine. I'll drip feed the memories into your WhatsApp.

47:17Matt Roberts: Thank you. You do that, David. And then I'll drip feed them onto our Instagram. OK, that's it for part two. We'll be back. That's it for part one. We'll be back in part two to talk about the Labour Cup. Today's show is brought to you by Vanguard. To all the financial advisors listening, let's talk about bonds for a minute. Capturing value in fixed income is not easy. Bond markets are massive, murky and let's be real, lots of firms throw a couple of flashy fans your way and call it a day. But not Vanguard. Vanguard bonds are institutional quality and that isn't just a tagline. It's a commitment to your clients.

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49:50Matt Roberts: Welcome back to part two of today's tennis podcast, turning our attention to the Laver Cup, which for Matt and I has been in town over the weekend. It's been at London's O2 Arena and it has seen a home victory for Team Europe. Let's all beat our chests as proud Europeans. They've done it for us. They beat Team World 13-5 with Alexander Zverev beating Lerner TN yesterday for the decisive point. Europe now lead World. The World? World? what is it?

50:26David Law: Team World they say apparently.

50:28Matt Roberts: Europe now lead World 6-3 from the nine previous editions of the event Matt you attended the Labour Cup for the first time tell us about your experience

50:43Catherine Whitaker: yes I went on Saturday and then I actually had such a good time I went again on Sunday and had less of a good time sunday was a little bit of a flop really it felt very in keeping with the 2026 tennis season i would say in that alexander zarev won and carlos alcaraz didn't play even though you know people people i think were very much hoping for carlos alcaraz to play um but you know the competition had been won so there was no need for him to play so just the two matches on sunday And that was, yeah, it was a bit of a damp squid, to be honest, on Sunday.

51:27Matt Roberts: How much of your enjoyment, therefore, do you think was attributable to Carlos Alcaraz?

51:34Catherine Whitaker: Look, I think quite a lot, I'll be honest. But in the same way that I think quite a lot of my enjoyment generally of men's tennis is often, it's often helped by Carlos Alcaraz. You know, what event isn't improved by the presence of Carlos Alcarez? And I think it's big for the Labour Cup that he is buying into it and he is wanting to play it. You know, like this event was set up 10 years ago or so. And it had the buy-in, obviously, of Federer because he'd set it up. But in those first few years, we saw Federer, Nadal, Djokovic. We saw the big players playing. And it was, you know, whatever you thought of the event and whether it works as a concept.

52:17Catherine Whitaker: to me there's been no denying that it's been quite cool to see those players interacting on the same team and it's been a sort of value add in that sense to the tennis calendar and now we get Carlos Alcaraz doing it and to me that's that's a good thing and people in London were loving it I mean the Alcaraz Fritz match was as electric as kind of any match I've really been at this season in person and yes that's Carlos Alcaraz but if this is a vehicle to get Carlos Alcaraz in fun situations then that's a good thing I think and I'm not blind to the issues that we've had with the Labour Cup in the past you know I think people probably think we're really really cynical about the Labour Cup I would say that I do feel like it's to some degree our responsibility maybe too bigger word but as tennis podcast people who follow the sport year round i think we have to just look beyond is this a bit of fun sometimes you know like i am i am asking the question all the time where does this fit into the calendar is the scoring system too contrived does europe against the world work as a concept why is it not mixed or at least why is there not a women's equivalent why is it taking itself so seriously and talking about labor breakers and trying to make that happen like all of these things are issues that i've had with the event in the past and still have really and still are trying to reconcile but the truth is it also offers i think a lot and for a sport that you know sometimes is hard for people to view and sometimes doesn't look very good on the tv even there is absolutely no denying that this looks great we've had what nine editions of this now so it's here to stay it feels a bit sort of pointless talking about it in really existential terms and there is a lot of fun and good to be had and enjoyed at this event you know like this week we had some great player interactions and really interesting bits of coaching nuggets and advice that they were sharing we saw all the usual funnies and we saw some genuinely really good tennis as well like Alcaraz Fritz was a was a really compelling tennis match And I think my realisation going on Saturday was that if someone came up to me and said, hey, I'm, you know, like a casual, was like, should I go to the labour car?

54:48Catherine Whitaker: I would say go on the Saturday. I would say just go to that event by, if you can, go for the whole day and go for the morning, have a break, go and get dinner somewhere and then go back for the evening. You get four matches. It's not going to go on crazy late because of the scoring system. you'll see the good players because that's the day that the good players play and I think tennis fans really casual ones or really dedicated ones can get an awful lot out of particularly the Saturday at Labour Cup I think that is a good day in the tennis calendar and there's and there's lots to

55:26Matt Roberts: be enjoyed there so I had a good time that's a good tip is it a problem with the format do you think that yesterday panned out as it did and you had Alcaraz there who okay there's the odd person out there that isn't that bothered about Carlos Alcaraz but most people are like I want to see Carlos Alcaraz and you've got him there wanting to play ready to play and the format doesn't allow him to play or is that the price you pay for trying to have some integrity to the

56:03Catherine Whitaker: format yeah look I think it's that probably you know like he did play the first day in doubles he played the second day in in singles you you know the Lever Cup got its Alcaraz fix I think the weird thing for me being in the stadium was that it it kind of exposed the floor of Europe and world because there's there's not this big partisan feeling you know like I I think most people were probably supporting Team Europe in that stadium. It was in London. But at the same time, they all wanted to see Carlos Alcaraz play. So to see Carlos Alcaraz play, you needed Lerner Tien to win. So Lerner Tien was getting quite a lot of support.

56:44Catherine Whitaker: I felt like people were there for the players rather than for the badge, you know? Yeah, I think the players are into which team wins,

56:56Matt Roberts: you know, and the captains are into that. I'm not sure the crowd are into that.

57:00Catherine Whitaker: Like a little bit, a little bit, but it doesn't feel really partisan. And I think the players are into it. I think what it is is they don't want to be the one to lose. And, you know, on the sidelines, they've got Yannick Noah or Andre Agassi. They want to sort of impress them. They want to impress their teammates. So they buy into it from that perspective, which I think is fine. I don't get the sense that people are really phoning it in. Maybe Bublik. I thought Bud Blick was a bit of a catastrophe across the two days. He was giving Monfils vibes, really, in terms of he was like, what do you want from me at this event those years ago?

57:39Catherine Whitaker: Bud Blick was a bit like that. But on the whole, I think it was, I think there were, you know, five of the six singles matches, I think, went to the match tie break. I've said labour breaker once. I don't need to say it again. Went to the match tie break and they were good. Did you have a contractual obligation?

57:58Matt Roberts: we said world cup of tennis we said labor breakers when you get your accreditation catherine you have to do you know it wouldn't shock me if that were true

58:12Catherine Whitaker: so sorry matt we interrupted you no i i think i i think i'd finish with it i'm interested in what david thought like watching it on on tv again and like i i think i think my experience not interested in what i thought well yeah but david i felt like david was watching more of it was my was my sense i just wasn't talking about it okay i was doing a lot of talking

58:37David Law: i had a great time honestly i i i think it's the first time certainly in a long time that i've just watched it for enjoyment's sake and like not not just being I've kind of accepted what it is you know that okay I've never agreed with their sales pitch that it's like you know it's like tennis is right a cup well it's not that and it never will be while you have world it just can't be and honestly I'm alright with that and I really enjoyed it I really had a great time watching the matches. I think I ended up watching a lot of the good ones on the Saturday, including the Dimonor against Zverev, which was an incredible comeback.

59:22David Law: And I mean, it showed real nerves and I think the thing is as well they want to win because that's how they're wired. Everybody was kind of doing what they do. But Blick does behave like an arse sometimes. Monfils sometimes looks disinterested in tennis matches or he used to. You know, Dimonor bloody puts his heart and soul out there you know and so everybody was doing what they do um and yeah i think i think you you've nailed it really well like i think the players couldn't have cared more in the moment about winning their matches they were absolutely ravenous to win i think in two weeks time they'll have forgotten all about it but that's all that's okay you know i personally couldn't give a stuffy one like i didn't you know whereas i was watching the President's Cup and I was quite into the who wins of out of USA and international team maybe that's because that's a lot of President's Cup messages as well I did yeah I got really into that and I

1:00:23Matt Roberts: think maybe that's also because sending photos of the scoreboard about every half an hour

1:00:28David Law: I think I think it might be because you know I don't work in that sport maybe that's part of it you know but I definitely for the first time kind of I think a lot of it is about like what frame of mind are you in when you go and watch it you know I feel like I'm in a good frame of mind so I was I was happy to just suspend all my disbelief of in terms of worrying about what it is and what it isn't and I just thought well actually this is this is great entertainment really good competition

1:00:57Matt Roberts: fun i really was i was trying to do that and i do agree with you like the frame of mind that you approach it in really affects the experience that you have and i was really really trying the problem is the the coverage feels like a sales pitch to me i feel like i'm watching an infomercial and that that will grate on people to different extents some people it won't bother them at all David, you've obviously found a way to just let that wash over you. It really, really bothers me. Like it spoils my enjoyment of what I'm watching that I feel like I'm being sold to all the time. That remains a big problem for me.

1:01:39Matt Roberts: And that could be very specific to me. I don't know. But I definitely know that that's not everybody and I'm particularly sensitive to it. I do think, look, I was supposed to go with Matt this weekend. I didn't feel very well on Saturday. I think I would have had a good time if I went. I'm sure I'd be talking about it differently. If I'd had the in-person experience, I've no doubt about that. But. And the, I think, in theory, one of the very, and for a lot of people in practice and reality, one of the very best things about the Labour Cup is the player interactions, both on the sort of fun and the tactical side.

1:02:23Matt Roberts: Like, look at that. That's really cool. I love Flavio Caballi doing Flavio Caballi things. Labour Cup was just like creating a scenario for him to do all his things. For me, the involvement of Alexander Zverev makes all of that not fun. Again, some people, that won't bother. I don't find Alexander Zverev fun and his involvement in all of that prevents me from enjoying it. I think it's a great thing in principle and I hope to be able to enjoy it at future editions of the Labour Cup. And I am fully aware that other people will feel differently about that. And I am, again, particularly sensitive to that element of it.

1:03:11Matt Roberts: But that is how I feel. And it's a really big problem for me. But I'm really glad you had a good time, Matt. And I loved watching Carlos Alcaraz. I love, you know, I will enjoy watching Carlos Alcaraz no matter what the format they put him in.

1:03:29Catherine Whitaker: Yeah. And I think, you know, to try and take some tennis things from it, you know, it was interesting seeing him obviously again for the first time since the US Open. And I felt like one big improvement from the US Open was his touch was totally back. You know, there were some rallies against Ben Shelton in that match where I thought, oh, OK, that maybe wasn't always there. He was so sharp with that this week, particularly against Fritz. I mean, the number of times he was going to the drop shot in key moments was just fantastic. He's still trying to make improvements on the serve. He's still not up to the pace that he was before.

1:04:13Catherine Whitaker: But, you know, I'm confident that's going to come. I really enjoyed his breakdown of Sarindolo's game. I think he was giving advice to Kasparud, wasn't it, on the first day? He was like, he's not good at the net. Just bring him into the net. And then he almost like toned it down because he was a bit like, yeah, I realise I can play these drop shots and these slices, but maybe for Rude it's not the best advice. I really enjoyed that. I really enjoyed Fritz on the bench. He's perfect for that. mic'd up on the bench.

1:04:50Matt Roberts: Fritz is probably my favorite because it's team world so I don't have the other issues so much and he's just he can't help there's no filter is there you can't help him so he's saying everything.

1:05:00Catherine Whitaker: No and it was it was genuinely really interesting to me to hear him break down Hodder's game. Bublik was being absolutely taken apart by Hodder and I just feel like because Hodder's been so new I don't really know what the tour thinks of him and what they you know like how to play him and fritz was very very clear he was like trust me his backhand is better than his forehand he was like you have to go to his forehand and like next time fritz plays hodder i'm going to be watching out for that now because i've heard fritz say a tactic against him out loud um i enjoyed agassi trying to input some tennis wisdom into learn a tn you feel like tn's really soaking all of that up like there's there's a lot he loves tn i think so andy murray said he

1:05:46Matt Roberts: loves tn he's like the players the players player isn't he yeah so like i i once again i enjoyed i

1:05:54Catherine Whitaker: enjoyed those elements um which admittedly you don't get in the stadium you know like the in stadium experience is really good it's a very comfortable place to to watch the lighting is nice it's not it's sort of vibesy but they're not really blaring music all the time it's it's it's just a nice atmosphere to be in very comfortable um but you do miss out on on hearing the interactions and i think the best feed to watch is the one that that david was on the world feed like where you don't get the ads because sky and tnt i felt like i got lucky there i i i found

1:06:32David Law: the best way to watch it and and i really got the agassi experience this year which i think last year all i i think i must have not been watching the right stuff because people were saying they were enjoying agassi and he was really winding me up last year with how kind of eyes bulging all

1:06:48Matt Roberts: the time he was about i think you were reading hard courts at the time as well weren't you yeah

1:06:53David Law: maybe I probably was yeah um whereas I just got I got all the yeah I love his tennis brain it was really fascinating because because what these guys are getting to do is pit their wits against some of the best players of the current generation albeit not with their own skill set but with somebody else's but there you could hear what he's saying a tee and a bat's verb you know if he says you can always go high up to that forehand always that's a safe place for you to go to and I mean I found Henman and Zverev pretty stomach-churning at times,

1:07:27Matt Roberts: but at the same time I found the advice he was giving or the way he was getting the best out of him

1:07:35David Law: was a very interesting listen, just tactically and kind of like as a human experiment almost. So yeah, you do hear things in this competition that you just don't get anywhere else. And I mean, a couple of the newish British tennis writers that have come to this event for the first time were writing about how they just feel like other events should be, and the sport generally, should be taking from this. this is an amazing opportunity to just sort of like see what tennis can be in certain areas that it isn't you know whether it's the length of it whether it's the presentation whether it's the the the people on the bench whatever it is you know and just steal stuff yeah but also

1:08:26Matt Roberts: the labour cup could steal something and make itself a mixed event certainly yeah and look

1:08:33Catherine Whitaker: Tony Godzik did a press conference, that is not going to be happening. They're not interested in that, which is a real blow. And one thing the tours should not take from the event is the court speed. It is comically slow, ludicrously slow. I do find speed sometimes a little hard to judge on the telly. Not at all with this one.

1:09:00Matt Roberts: But when you can tell this clearly on the telly,

1:09:03Catherine Whitaker: that it's slow it's like yeah and then in person you just i noticed i just waiting for the ball

1:09:09Matt Roberts: to come to them so but i don't think it's going to change because they've paid for the court right it's the same court they're logging it around the world yes and i believe it's i believe it

1:09:18Catherine Whitaker: might be something to do with the way that it's made to make it that color the black gray i think there's something in the way that it's made that makes it really slow but i feel like they've got they could do with trying to figure that out because I think it would be even better tennis if the court just had a little bit more in it.

1:09:40Matt Roberts: Al Karaz, we talked last week about some very... Was it last week? Anyway, we've been talking recently about Al Karaz's very punchy quotes about the tennis's schedule, both sort of in-event and the calendar more generally. well he's going even further um he is becoming tennis's or men's tennis's great advocate for for cut the faff for for bring in bring in um curfews he's he's he's on board with all our agendas folks uh he talked about wanting to be able to miss tennis and realizing during his period of absence that he was having the feeling of going to events because he was required to and not because he wants to and he wants to go to events feeling like I'm here because I want to be here he said that players need more practice weeks to show up to events physically ready and to avoid getting injured and he said all these things with such purpose and intention and clarity and articulation.

1:10:54Matt Roberts: He knew exactly what he was doing, exactly what he wanted to say. He's a hell of an advocate. And once again, if tennis doesn't listen to this, then idiots.

1:11:12Matt Roberts: Idiots. I mean, it could not be clearer.

1:11:16David Law: I think John Wertham tweeted that there were conversations being had just almost an attempt to sort of re-raise the idea of the premium tour um or that they had several years ago with the grand slams and kind of you know about streamlining and having this this and listen i i just unless you ripped it all up and kind of just decided like right we need to just make the perfect calendar and everybody needs to buy in then you're never going to get what Carlos Alcraz wants so his way of reacting to it will be fine well I'll just enter what I want then and I can afford not to play these tournaments but my word is it nice to hear somebody who's just not just prepared to go along there's so many really really rich ex-players who just don't stand up at all they might moan but then they'll go along with it and or they might just you know not get involved you know not want to get involved and i love the fact that he just speaks so

1:12:27Matt Roberts: straightforwardly about it and and you look he's i'm not saying he doesn't have his his own interests in mind at all. You know, he's had this injury in this period on the sidelines and he obviously personally wants to enjoy the sport as much as possible. But I feel like he has such genuine care for the sport. He wants it to be as good as possible. And so often I feel like we don't hear that genuine care from the sports decision makers, you know. So yeah, listen to Carlos, folks. He speaks sense. That's it for part two. We'll be back in part three to look ahead to this week's tennis and talk about a few other bits and bobs of news as well.

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1:14:19David Law: I would. You never do. No, I never do. So buy your car today on Carvana. Delivery fees may apply. See our seven day return policy at Carvana.com.

1:14:32Matt Roberts: Welcome back to part three of today's tennis podcast. Just before we look ahead to events this week or events, some starting this week, some that started last Wednesday and finished tomorrow. it's all pretty complicated folks but we'll hold your hand through it or we'll hold one another's hand through it but just before that David mentioned that some meetings have been happening in the sport over the last week or so and we now know that the Grand Slam Player Council has been formed this was one of the things that was granted in the kind of settlement between the Grand Slams and the top player group that never found a better name for their organisation and seem now to be largely defunct because they've achieved, well, certainly enough of their aims that they're satisfied, certainly for the time being.

1:15:29Matt Roberts: And one of those was this Grand Slam Player Council. On the women's side, we have Elena Rabakina, Irina Sablenka, Jessica Begula, Alina Svitolina, Eva Jovic and Maria Sakary. And on the men's side, we have Alexander Zverev, Ben Shelton, Novak Djokovic, Felix Auger Eliassime, Lorenzo Mazzetti and Arta Rindekinesh. What a ragtag bunch, Matt.

1:15:53Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, it would have taken me a lot of guesses to get Rindekinesh, I think.

1:15:59Matt Roberts: Right.

1:16:00Catherine Whitaker: I'd have said a lot of names before Rindekinesh. But, you know, I suppose I think good for all these people, really, in terms of, you know, getting on that council and trying to be involved in conversations. I think Djokovic is an interesting one, you know, sort of considering that he wasn't part of the group that were doing the, you know, 15-minute media boycott. But, you know, I suppose it is in keeping in the past. He's been on councils. Maybe that is the way he likes to sort of do these things. And then from the women's perspective, you know, I think it's great that you've got the two best players in the world on there.

1:16:46Catherine Whitaker: Pagulo as well is someone who speaks so well about this issue, I think, sees the big picture. I think it's great that she's on there.

1:16:51Matt Roberts: First name on the team sheet. Yeah, definitely. She'd have taken fewer guesses than Rindikne.

1:16:59Catherine Whitaker: Yes. I'm sort of intrigued how it's going to work with with Sambalenka and Svitolina I suppose being on being on the same council together but yeah and look Jovic is someone who's who's very young I think it's I think it's good that she's put herself forward so yeah we'll just have to see how it goes really

1:17:25Matt Roberts: Slight David issue

1:17:27Catherine Whitaker: David's gone

1:17:30Matt Roberts: it does seem to have gone uh do you feel do you feel you can um bear the weight of talking about hangzhou and chengdu solo we won't linger sure yeah uh hangzhou these are the events that started last Wednesday and they finish tomorrow Tuesday. Is that correct?

1:17:56Catherine Whitaker: Yes. These are a couple of 250s. They started a bit out of sync because of the concessions that the ATP Tour makes for the Davis Cup to give people a bit of a chance to try and play both. And yeah, in the Hangzhou final we have Andrei Rublev, Daniil Medvedev. There's a throwback match. it's the first time they've played since 2023

1:18:22Matt Roberts: wow and you think they were playing all the time David wouldn't have had that stat he is Andrei Rubev's godfather to at least one of Medvedev's children isn't he? they're genuinely very close David's had a power outage by the way that's your David update wow so I hope these takes are good Matt Alejandro Davidovich Fikina and Hubert Hercatch will play in the Chengdu final now if I said Hubert Hercatch is your favourite player like I did about Kim Birrell there perhaps would be a touch of irony

1:19:03Catherine Whitaker: yeah I think that's probably fair I watched a bit of Hercatch today beating Shapovalov and her catch hit 24 forehand winners, which must be a record for him. He was hitting that shot better than I've ever seen him hit it. And Davidovich Fikina didn't play the North American swing. He's been out injured for a little while. So nice to see him back. And it would be very Davidovich Fikina if he could, I feel like if he could back up winning his first title that took him ages to win by suddenly winning another one. so you know that's an interesting interesting little story about that match

1:19:44Matt Roberts: I've got a feeling David's there but in the dark certainly there's there's sort of the ghost of David he needs some candles like

1:19:54Catherine Whitaker: in his Monte Carlo days

1:19:57Matt Roberts: okay that's a negative on oh hang on the physical reality of David Lourf he's back are we okay i think you've got the wrong microphone selected david we'll keep talking about the tennis you sort yourself out uh we had the news in terms of events starting this week or that have already started have they already started this week who could say certainly qualifying has started we had the news last week that yannick sinner has withdrawn from Beijing. He was expected to play. There had been reports from Italian media that he wasn't going to play. Then there were reports from Italian media that he had booked his flight and that he was going to play.

1:20:40Matt Roberts: Then we had the news, the officially confirmed news. He said, my knee is not where I would like it to be and I'm not ready to compete yet. I will do everything possible to be there on court as soon as I can. So that means he still hasn't played since winning Wimbledon. And look, it could be not much, Matt, because I don't think Yannick Sinner is going to take any risk at all physically, certainly not for a 500 event post Grand Slam season. And certainly not after how playing all the tennis that he played in the spring period ended up panning out for him. So this really could be largely precautionary, nothing sinister.

1:21:31But it also could be, this could be a symbol, a sign of something,

1:21:37Matt Roberts: a quite worrying situation.

1:21:40Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, completely. And I think the thing is we don't know, do we? We just have so little information about this knee injury. You know, Corriera della Sport, which, you know, is a sort of fairly big website in Italy. I don't think it's always the most reliable. It's not Corriera della Sera. It's not one with the tier one sort of reporting and sources. But they published something that was a journalist in his sub stack talking about how it could be something to do with his IT band causing the issue with the knee. and that one, you know, surgery hasn't been ruled out was sort of what he was saying, even though they're hoping not to go down that route.

1:22:28And I think, you know, pulling out of Beijing,

1:22:31Catherine Whitaker: I think Shanghai would have to be in doubt as well. You know, that's only a week or so away. Like, I think it's just pushing further and further back. And it was clearly a setback, wasn't it? You know, he was clearly planning to be in Beijing. there was there was that clip going around of him talking to anna wintour and she was like i thought you're going to be in beijing and he was like i also thought um that's how the news broke isn't it initially via anna wintour it's perhaps i think i also saw him do a statement on uh on instagram

1:23:09Matt Roberts: i don't know which came maybe he did the statement because maybe someone was like yannick the

1:23:15Catherine Whitaker: Anna Wintour's gonna

1:23:17Matt Roberts: film your interaction with Anna Wintour yeah well look

1:23:20Catherine Whitaker: it's very it's concerning for sure like he hasn't played for months and you know it's concerning in the short term in terms of what the rest of the season looks like for him I'm sure he would absolutely be hoping to play in in Turin but I also think it's just concerning you know going into next year as well and again in that in that interview in that little exchange with Anna Wintour He was like, if it's not better by January, it's going to be a real problem. And he was sort of laughing it off and joking about it. But, you know, if he's not played at all since Wimbledon going into the new season and you go straight into a grand slam, that's suddenly like a really hard thing, I think, to do.

1:24:04Catherine Whitaker: So, yeah, big, big, big question marks. And I hope he's back soon. I think the tour has missed him. And now we've got Alcaraz back. It would be nice to get Sinner and Alcaraz back together.

1:24:14Matt Roberts: like ships in the night aren't they uh so we have the wta 1000 event beijing which starts on wednesday and runs through until next sunday the 11th of october we have also the atp 500 sorry the atp 500 which starts wednesday as well but only runs in through until tuesday the 6th of October. Clear on that? Yeah, very good. Quite a long list of withdrawals for the WTA event, including the defending champion, Amanda Inisimova, who we heard today has shut her season down. It was a wrist injury that caused her to pull out of Singapore in the end. And that same wrist injury seemingly is causing her to, yeah, shut the season down, regroup for 2027.

1:25:13Matt Roberts: It's a blow. But honestly, it's also a relief sometimes to see players make bold decisions about that and think about the long term. And yeah, there was a part of me that was relieved to see that decision. So no Manda Onisimova, no Pagula, no Kostiuk, no Iala, no Keys and no Emma Navarro. So we have the world number one, Lena Rabatkinah. She's, of course, at the top of the draw. In that half, you have Jung Chin Wen, Belinda Bencic, Lina Svitolina, Coco Goff, Ivi Jovic and Igor Svjantek. And in the bottom half, you have Linda Nozkova, Jasmine Paulini, Mira Andreeva, Karolina Mukova, Naomi Osaka and Irina Sabalenka.

1:25:58Matt Roberts: A lot of players in there that feel like they might be running on fumes a bit, kind of trying to keep the train on the tracks after exploits, either in Singapore or in Shenzhen this week. The ATP 500 in Beijing has Alexander Zverev. He's obviously the top seed. He starts against Cameron Norrie. Nuno Borges is there. He'll be playing Novak Djokovic. Alexander Bublik plays Jakub Menshik first round. Talon Greekspour against Andrei Rublev. Roman Sifuelin against Flavio Caboli. Lerna Tien against Hubert Hercatch and Karen Hashanov up against Felix Auger-Leasim. That is a stacked draw and those are some awesome round ones.

1:26:48Matt Roberts: Daniel Medvedev and Alex de Menor also in the field in Beijing. And you also have the ATP 500 in Tokyo this week, which is headlined by Carlos Alcaraz. And he's got Alex Mickelson in round one. Very much seated for that. You've also got Lorenzo Mazzetti against Arthur Ferry, which is a rematch of their US Open round one, I believe. Luciano Darderi's got Kasper Rude in round one. Alejandro Davidovic-Vicina has Matteo Berrettini. and you've got Kei Nishikori against Francis Tiafoe. And that is potentially Kei Nishikori's last ever professional tennis match because Tokyo is going to be his last ever professional event.

1:27:36Matt Roberts: We've got a few of these coming up. I think David Goffin's going to be retiring at the Brussels event. We've obviously got Stan Borinka, who's going to be retiring in Basel. And Guillaume Orfise, I know you might think he's already retired because of the number of retirement-related events. We've seen him have, but he is officially retiring at the Paris Indoors in a few weeks time. You've also got Raphael Hodaar, Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, Brandon Nakashima and Holger Runa all in the field in Tokyo. And you also possibly have Artifis, although he is going to have to make his way through qualifying.

1:28:13Matt Roberts: He's around one qualifying match against my guy Martin Dam. he's got another call of Martin oh god

1:28:26Matt Roberts: it's going to take a while to embed I think it's like when Matthew rebranded as Matthew Matt still sometimes slips out Martin Dahm anyways out of the draw who cares about Martin Dahm beaten by Arthur Feese who's qualifying because he his agent forgot to enter him in the main draw David? Yep

1:28:48David Law: that's what happened You've still got the wrong mic selected Have I? Not according to this but anyway yeah that's what happened I'm just thrilled to have you David

1:29:07Matt Roberts: Sitsabas is also in qualifying and Taylor Fritz and Raphael Hodar are both scheduled to play qualifiers in round ones there's some potentially tasty tasty matches there and i think i think one

1:29:21Catherine Whitaker: of my favorite things i've seen this week has been in beijing where obviously it's not a combined event as as we said they're running on different different timelines and one's a thousand one's a 500 but it does mean the men and women are together for a little bit and i saw a clip of Novak Djokovic giving Igor Tviontek some sort of coaching advice on court she was specifically asking him about the return position you can hear a little bit of what she's saying she says yeah arena does this I just absolutely love that kind of crossover stuff and um Victor Troitsky's in the Tony Godzik yes Victor Troitsky's in the in the back saying come on Novak we need to we need to practice and he's like eager we will talk more about this and yeah i just think oh that's cool with that and with the little bits of advice that we saw at the labor cup with agassiz and tn it was it's kind of been like the sort of you know the teachers sharing with the class this week and i've

1:30:21Matt Roberts: i've enjoyed enjoyed seeing that so that's input from nadal and djokovic that shantek has had this year.

1:30:31Catherine Whitaker: Yeah.

1:30:32Matt Roberts: Care to make some predictions for this week? I'll take a WTA Beijing prediction as well, even though it goes on for the next month, seemingly. I'll take predictions in all of these, please. Who's going to win Hangzhou out of Rublev and Medvedev?

1:30:53Catherine Whitaker: Oh, got to go Medvedev, I think. he normally beats like the guys of his generation doesn't he david i don't know whether you can hear

1:31:03Matt Roberts: me but i'm going medvedev yes you sound good now you're back you're back in the game medvedev davidovich vikina or her catch david let's make the most of this lovely rich sound davidovich vikina

1:31:18Matt Roberts: matt he's never going to pick you but her catch i think that might be a bit of a choke fest

1:31:24Catherine Whitaker: do you know what I mean that's got both of them getting very tight written all over I think I might go her catch actually he was very I thought he was I thought he was quite good today

1:31:34Matt Roberts: Beijing WTA David

1:31:42Matt Roberts: okay Matt

1:31:44Catherine Whitaker: I'm thinking I'll go NOS

1:31:46Matt Roberts: I know but it's radio David we're live it doesn't work

1:31:52Catherine Whitaker: I've got Noskova got to the final last year maybe she's burnt out from the Billie Jean King Cup

1:32:00Matt Roberts: Noskova and Rabakina I'll take that ATP Beijing

1:32:10David Law: Zverev

1:32:13Matt Roberts: probably Matt

1:32:16Catherine Whitaker: yeah probably

1:32:17David Law: hold on no Djokovic Djokovic always wins Beijing doesn't he never lost it so I'm going Djokovic yes

1:32:25Matt Roberts: a lot of that data is from when he was not 38 years old 39 years old I'm going Djokovic you're going Zverev Matt

1:32:39Catherine Whitaker: yeah yeah

1:32:42Matt Roberts: and ATP Tokyo who have you both got

1:32:47David Law: Art of Feast

1:32:50Catherine Whitaker: okay still in qualifying not seven wins for 500 points yeah it's it's one of those that

1:32:59David Law: he's got kamil mayer check first in qualifying and he could definitely lose to him uh because

1:33:06Matt Roberts: he lost the first set six two today he's already he's already beaten martin dahm i know but next

1:33:11David Law: up he won that two six six one six one what sort of scoreline is that but if he qualifies then he's going to roll through the draw and win okay matt i'm gonna go alcaraz yeah seems fair okay well

1:33:29Matt Roberts: we will be back on when's our next pod thursday friday who do you think is going to win them all I think Carlos Alcaraz I think

1:33:45Matt Roberts: I think somebody weird could win Beijing somebody not Zverev and not Djokovic you would not accept

1:33:56Catherine Whitaker: that from us no I know who's going to win somebody weird you know somebody

1:34:04Matt Roberts: like I mean, not Kabali, obviously. Somebody like TN or Menshik.

1:34:13Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, okay.

1:34:15Matt Roberts: Someone like that. WTA Beijing. I'm going to go... Let's go for Sviantek, powered by Novak Djokovic's... Nice. Advice. And that's it, I think. Not it. In Hangzhou, I'll go for Medvedev. And in Chengdu, I shudder when I say Chengdu. Dear, oh, dear.

1:34:49Matt Roberts: For anybody new in this parish, I had a very bad trip to Chengdu once for the Champions Tour. It's nothing personal to me, but it's nothing to do with the city, which I'm sure is glorious when you're not in the physical state that I was in. I will go for Davidovich Fakina. There we go. Can I move on to talk about animals now? Yeah. Because it's a double mascot week and they're friends. Introducing Peachy and Boo Boo, owned by Tim and Justina. Look at them.

1:35:28David Law: Looks like Alcaraz and Kabali.

1:35:31Catherine Whitaker: the mascot photos are getting better and better they are the bar is the bar is being raised so

1:35:38Matt Roberts: much it's just brilliant uh these cats are five-year-old brothers peach and bubble or boo boo as we affectionately call him uh they live in toronto canada and they were adopted from northern ontario when they were very young they were the last pair left from a litter of two orange cats and four black cats but we think we got the cuddliest ones. Peachy is our little rascal who's always zooming around the house or trying to steal chicken off our counter while we're cooking and Boobie was our sofa cat, content to lounge until Peachy inevitably comes over to start a chase and off they go They're the best of buds They're loved by their human sisters Mia and Aria who come along after them The girls, who came along after them rather.

1:36:22Matt Roberts: The girls brought a lot more noise into their lives, but the boys have slowly adjusted and now happily collect their warm cuddles and generous tweets. And for anybody that isn't looking at a picture of Peachy and Boo Boo right now, they are intertwined. That is the extent to which they are friends and love one another. It's very lovely. And And I had a ginger cat and a black cat growing up.

1:36:51David Law: Either that or the ginger one is pinning down the other one. Well, yes. Let's know who's won the wrestling match.

1:36:59Matt Roberts: You never know with cats, do you? Hello to our mascots. Hello, Bodhi. Hello, Maisie. Hello, Roger. Hello to our top folks and executive producers, Greg, Chris and Jeff. Let's have some shout outs, Matt.

1:37:12Catherine Whitaker: We have Alex Rylance from Bracknell, Bartshere. Oh.

1:37:19Matt Roberts: down the road from where I grew up, from where my parents are right now watching this show. That's where I went ice skating five times a week for a decade. Alex says... It doesn't exist anymore.

1:37:35Catherine Whitaker: Alex says, Catherine's likely to mention it's near her and where she used to ice skate.

1:37:44Matt Roberts: I hate you, Matt. You let me... Well done, Matt.

1:37:51Catherine Whitaker: that played out

1:37:52Matt Roberts: well anybody else got any bracknell material they'd like to share with the group no didn't think so

1:37:58Catherine Whitaker: no I do have another line from Alex in that Alex says I met David Law in 2003 when I worked as a steward at

1:38:06David Law: Queen's wow I might have only had the 28 ,000 grey hairs at that point I don't remember it sorry

1:38:18Matt Roberts: I'm too humiliated to continue What was our mate Dave's time of being a steward?

1:38:27David Law: Yeah, our mate Dave was somewhere around 2008 Something like that So they probably won't have overlapped Dave knows every steward that's ever left at Queen's anyway was delighted to meet you I'm sure thanks Alex delighted to have you as a friend Alex you're a top geezer geezer

1:38:59Catherine Whitaker: and finally we have Joseph Ha hey hi Joseph hello Joseph Joseph is originally from South Dakota but has been living in various parts of Asia since 2010. Including Singapore, I remember. We know Joseph, yeah.

1:39:20David Law: Yeah.

1:39:22Catherine Whitaker: And Joseph says, my first professional tennis match was an exhibition match between Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick in North Dakota in 2004. Who won? If you don't know, David, no one knows. and he says the Jensen brothers were also there

1:39:47David Law: excellent including ambidextrous Luke Jensen

1:39:53Matt Roberts: the Jensen brothers were also there is a very damning line somehow isn't it Joseph like

1:40:07Matt Roberts: Joe Salisbury Joseph Salisbury yeah Joseph that's all I've got yeah there are some people saying some things about Bracknell in the chat though if you want some other Bracknell material Gary says I had a short story published which is set in Bracknell a fantasy story it's not where I'd set a fantasy story but very intrigued by that Ruth says my grandparents are buried in Bracknell any other Bracknell material no that's all we've got Hannah says I've just looked up Bracknell on the wiki and apparently recent academic conjecture is that the name means a hidden place where bracken grows not a nook of land belonging to a man named Bracker evidence of human existence in Bracknell dates back to the end of the last ice age I'll remember that for the next time Alex has a shout out

1:41:10Matt Roberts: uh folks this has been the tennis podcast it's been a joy uh we'll be back on when did we decide

1:41:18Catherine Whitaker: friday i think it's in the calendar for friday yeah friday we'll be back on friday folks uh

1:41:25Matt Roberts: thank you for listening we're part of the athletic podcast network thank you for joining us on youtube tonight if you did remember to hit that like and subscribe button uh we'll be back on friday thank Thank you for listening and watching, and we'll speak to you and see you then.

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