Aus Open - Inside The One Point Slam

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1:16Matt Roberts: Well, hello and welcome to Melbourne Park, Garden Square to be precise, and a beautiful Melbourne evening. It is 11pm and this is the first of 19 daily podcasts from the 2026 Australian Open and it's a bit of a bonus pod from us, this one, because the serious stuff gets underway tomorrow. That's when the draw is happening, media day is Friday and we'll be back with pods after all of that and a final hype show on Saturday ahead of the main draw getting underway on Sunday. But tonight is all about the one point slam. The event's second edition, although frankly, in many ways, it felt like an inaugural event tonight because it has been sexed up to the max, folks.

2:10Matt Roberts: Full TV production, sellout Rod Laver Arena crowd and most of the world's top tennis players. And yet the winner of the one million dollar prize was 29 year old Jordan Smith, an amateur tennis coach from New South Wales. En route to victory, he beat Yannick Sinner, sort of, Amanda Anisimova and Pedro Martinez, before in the final scoring a win over the iconic, the breakout star, more on her later, Joanna Garland. David, first of all, congratulations on still being awake. I think you've slept for four of the last 48 hours.

2:54David Law: Yeah, that's about right.

2:55Matt Roberts: How was your one-point slam experience?

2:59David Law: I think the only word that I disagreed with you in the entire intro there was not describing this as the serious stuff, because this kind of felt pretty serious in the end. It was fun, but my word was it a big, high-profile, glitzy event with actually some serious stakes for the ones at the end who ended up in the final, which I loved. It actually couldn't have gone better for the organisers, really. And it was actually, I mean, I felt like the first hour of it, and I think that that in itself gives you an idea of how long this thing was. It was builders three hours long, and it went even longer than that.

3:43David Law: The first hour dragged, but then it exploded into life. It was actually, it's just a brilliant concept, and it ended up with a fantastic result.

3:55Matt Roberts: Matt, marks out of 10 for your one-point slam experience.

4:01Catherine Whitaker: Is 8 out of 10 fair? That's probably where I am. You feel how you feel, Matt. Look, there was a lot about it that I found quite frustrating. But I think I found it frustrating because I think it could be, like, I'm going to use the word, sensational.

4:18Matt Roberts: It could be an 11, couldn't it?

4:19Catherine Whitaker: It's got so much potential. like the idea behind it amateurs playing points against pros trying to win like it's great I'm all in and I had a good time I thought it was really fun there was some fantastic highlight moments that we'll talk about unfortunately as a in-person experience I found a lot of it quite tedious like there was so much faff the first hour did drag there was so many pointless interviews and VTs that we just, I didn't think we needed and sucked a little bit out of it. Like that could have been a two hour event and it could have just been absolutely perfect. There's all this extra stuff, but the actual idea behind it remains extremely fun to me and I had a good time, I really did.

5:10Matt Roberts: I felt like a lot of the issues, and I'm with you, there was a point there at about 8.15, when I was extremely concerned and I was...

5:21Catherine Whitaker: I wrote it down, 8.12pm, Catherine, this sucks.

5:27Matt Roberts: Look, the one-point slam is always a rollercoaster of emotion for me. We've come to expect that. It's a space where I allow myself to feel my feelings and I just go with it. And things turned around massively very soon after that. And look, I ended up having a wonderful time and I pretty much exactly agree with you. I think my sort of umbrella take on the stuff that I didn't like about it, and this is a situation where the stuff that I like about it is just pretty much my favourite thing in tennis, and the stuff I don't like about it really irks me. And I think that's because, as you say, of how brilliant it could be.

6:10Matt Roberts: And interesting, your point about the seriousness, David, because it might be a semantic thing, but I'm not sure I come down in the same place as you on that. So we'll touch more upon that. But for me, the umbrella issue in terms of the in-stadium experience was it felt like they were making a TV show tonight. And we were, like, they were pleased we were there because we created Atmos, but we were inconsequential. And, you know, we were just left to flap in the wind during lots of very long ad breaks. and all of the interviews. I mean, it was a very slick operation in terms of the presenters and the reporters.

6:56Matt Roberts: This might just be a taste thing. Nobody really put a foot wrong, but I found it tedious. I was at the one of... There have been three sessions of qualifiers for amateurs and sort of lower-rent professionals to try and qualify for the grand final this evening and Blair Henley emceed all of those and she treated the event with respect and gave it hype but she also had a little twinkle in her eye of like, this is nonsense. This is brilliant nonsense. And that for me was what was missing tonight. It was a bit po-faced, well, quite a lot po-faced actually in places and just, yeah, it really irritated me quite a lot.

7:46Matt Roberts: And the fact that you're sitting there and you feel like, this isn't for me, is it? I'm sure it was an extremely slick production on TV where you're expecting ad breaks and it's an opportunity to get up and go to the loo or whatever, but it really interrupted the flow of the evening and created just a heck of a lot of faff. So much faff.

8:10David Law: Yes. I mean, the serious stuff reference, I was joking. No. But I mean, but actually what they, even though I was joking, they did actually create something tonight that feels like it's got legs for the future. This is their mixed doubles US Open, really.

8:28Matt Roberts: Well, you're absolutely, and the similarity to the mixed doubles US Open is that by accident, stakes came into play. Yeah. Like, the organisers did not want Andrea Vavasori and Sararani even entering that tournament, let alone winning it. But for them, it was everything, both financially and in terms of proving a point. Well, that ended up being the case today, tonight. Perhaps not the proving a point for Jordan Smith, but absolutely financially, he's changed his life tonight. And Joanna Garland, who he faced in the final, okay she's a pro but she's a pro of such a level when where a million dollars would have absolutely changed her life and career and and she in a very pressured setting where she clearly had very little experience she spoke incredibly well about that didn't she and and really shone up the difficulty that the pros have in these scenarios of walking the fine line of like the charade of we all know a million dollars is nothing to Yannick Sinner.

9:39Matt Roberts: But you don't want to patronise people by pretending this is the be-all and end-all for him but also you don't want to patronise them by making it incredibly clear that you arrived here by private jet and you don't give a toss about an extra million. so yeah it's accidental stakes that I don't know how to feel about that because I don't think it's what the organisers well the organisers would have if they told them that Jordan Smith from New South Wales could win tonight I think they'd have signed for that

10:11David Law: they didn't want Joanna Garland winning

10:14Matt Roberts: I wanted Joanna Garland winning I don't think they wanted Pedro Martinez winning

10:19Catherine Whitaker: none of us wanted Pedro Martinez winning

10:21David Law: Once they've got the final of Joanna Garland, and we'll be able to talk about how she got there and because of how she got there and the impact she had. I mean, people loved her in that stadium. And the fact that she was playing against the amateur guy, I think that that was a perfect case scenario for the organisers.

10:42Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, I think my big takeaway from this is about the type of people that need to be in the one-point slam going forward. It crystallised that, didn't it? Yeah, because last year we had, OK, we had Rublev and Herkac, but they really stood out as the top pros. You didn't have any massive, massive stars in the way that you had this time. And I was worried about the injection of stars into the one-point slam. I actually thought they walked that line really well in terms of what you've just talked about there, in terms of, yes, we know a million dollars is nothing to Yannick Sinner, but his presence there and Carlos Alcaraz and Coco Goff and Igor Svante, they raised the stakes and they made it more interesting.

11:26Catherine Whitaker: It was more interesting seeing Jordan Smith go up against Yannick Sinner than kind of anything. It was fun. It was great fun. So we need stars. You need the stars in this event because it elevates it. You need the amateurs, like absolutely. The state champions that they had, the state champions, good players who can really play. They can rally with the pros if the pros are a bit tight, as they're going to be. We need them. Pack the field with them. And they've got to be able to serve, haven't they?

11:55Matt Roberts: They've got to have a good serve.

11:57Catherine Whitaker: Right. You don't need celebrities. And you don't need middling pros.

12:05Matt Roberts: Yeah, Pedro Martinez and loser fruit. Get in the bin.

12:10David Law: Especially if you're going to look as pissed off as Pedro Martinez. He stormed off court. That was actually the best contribution he made of the night, was the fact that he tried really hard to win his semi-final against Smith, didn't win, and then looked really miffed that he hadn't. He's revealed...

12:30Matt Roberts: I previously had no opinions about Pedro Martinez, and now I have quite a lot.

12:35Catherine Whitaker: Well, you watched him in the qualifying.

12:36Matt Roberts: Yeah, I think he's been pretty graceless throughout the whole experience.

12:39Catherine Whitaker: He was squeaking his shoes when people were serving. Yeah, yeah. I mean, so is Nick Kyrgios, but like, do you want to be behaving like Nick Kyrgios? Don't like him either.

12:49Matt Roberts: No. Okay, other big picture takes about tonight?

12:59David Law: I don't have any others really, other than the format of playing one point between anybody makes it feel like anything is possible. and therefore they've got themselves an amazing format.

13:16Matt Roberts: And it truly does create nerves in even the best players in the world. Yeah.

13:23Catherine Whitaker: Well, and actually Joanna Garland, I thought, expressed that really well because the play was throughout the night, if you win the rock, paper, scissors, that's a big takeaway. People don't know how to play rock, paper, scissors. Like, that was chaos.

13:38Matt Roberts: Let us know, please. is that not a universal international thing, rock, paper, scissors? Or is it like a Gen Z don't know rock, paper, scissors? Is it a generational thing?

13:50Catherine Whitaker: I guess there is always that thing where people don't know whether to go on three or don't know whether to go on four.

13:54Matt Roberts: Yeah, Flavio Caballi definitely didn't.

13:56Catherine Whitaker: That seemed to be causing a lot of confusion. But what kept happening was that whoever won the rock, paper, scissors would choose to receive. That was the play throughout the night. Most people were doing that. But Garland's take on that was, if they're making me serve, that shows that they're tight, you know, because they don't want to serve. They're scared about serving. She kept saying that when she was beating Zverev and Kyrgios and all these people. And she was getting her one serve in. She was only allowed one serve because she's a pro. Despite what? Despite what she was called by the MC.

14:30Catherine Whitaker: And she was playing such brave tennis in those one points. She was going after it. She was attacking the ball.

14:36Matt Roberts: The list was getting mentioned.

14:38Catherine Whitaker: She leans into that shot.

14:40Matt Roberts: Can she go on the watch list?

14:41Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, absolutely. She needs something out of tonight.

14:45Matt Roberts: She didn't even get the Kia.

14:48Catherine Whitaker: No.

14:49Matt Roberts: Although we do like the guy that did get the Kia. He was great. It turned out there was a second prize, a big one, of a Kia EV3, I think it is. If you know your Kias, like David. Yeah. I mean, they're all good, aren't they? It's a nice one. Yeah, that's good. The best, well, we thought it was the best performing amateur takes home a Kia. So going into the final, we thought, OK, we can cheer for our Joanna, who has won our hearts tonight, and know that Jordan, for his effort, still gets a Kia. Great, everyone's a winner. Then it turns out that what actually happens is that the two best performing amateurs face off for the Kia right before the final.

15:36Matt Roberts: and so Jordan had to take on a guy called Alex, quite a player, Alex.

15:43Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, a kick serve and a lot of top spin on his forehands.

15:47Matt Roberts: And Alex had lost a couple of rounds before him.

15:52Catherine Whitaker: Yes, I think to McCartney Kessler, I want to say.

15:56Matt Roberts: Yeah, who, revelation tonight.

15:57Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, she was locked in. It's not a crime.

16:00David Law: She doesn't mess about.

16:03Matt Roberts: and poor old Jordan lost to Alex I mean fair and square Alex played a brilliant point took it to him he deserves that Kia I hope you drive it around town like a god Alex but poor old Jordan was going into this million dollar match with a face of thunder he was so pissed off about losing that Kia

16:26David Law: he didn't think he was going to win that final no given the way she'd been playing and I'm not surprised. And then her backhand let her down.

16:35Matt Roberts: She won the toss and she said, I'm going to stick with what I've been doing. I'm going to serve.

16:41David Law: It's the first time, though, she was playing a match that she should have won, probably. And I think because she kept saying in the interviews, throw in the pressure on the opponents by saying, well, they seem quite tight, I'll just carry on.

16:55Matt Roberts: She played a couple yesterday in qualifying and I think I wasn't there at qualifying, the final qualifying rounds this morning, but obviously it's different in front of 10 ,000 people. But, yeah, her backhand did let her down. Yeah, that was a shame. And that backhand list discussion quickly ended.

17:15David Law: Can we talk about what it did, though, to Alexander Zverev during their point? I mean, well, look, they get into it. She gets a serve and they get into a rally. Honestly, it was a little bit like watching Alexander Zverev against quite a lot of players on big points when they've got a big game and he's just absorbing their game. And, you know, you're expecting her to miss. I was anyway. I was just waiting for one of them to go out. And, you know, I also thought, well, she's not going to actually hit a winner, is she? You know, even though she was hitting nicely, I thought, I don't expect a winner to come from a racket.

17:52David Law: And then she hit one big shot that really shook him a little bit. She then hit another forehand behind it and he's slightly on the run and you're thinking, OK, here comes the miss. Except she torpedoed his backhand down the line. It was unbelievable, his shot. And he's scrabbling out to his right and he can only float it up into the air and into the tram lines. And, I mean, he was trying. Because I think there is a question mark. How much were the very top players trying full out tonight at all times? I think there were some moments where they were either extending rallies or they weren't locked in in the way they would be in a match.

18:35David Law: But I think that Zverev in that point, maybe he was trying to get a rally going, but suddenly he was knocked back on his heels and he couldn't get the ball back. It was just the most incredible backhand. You'll struggle to see a better shot all tournament than that one. And then she beat Kyrgios.

18:56Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, he missed a return maybe or something.

18:59David Law: Yes, he tried to take a backhand on the rise and charge in. Yeah. And he hit it long.

19:03Catherine Whitaker: Yeah.

19:04Matt Roberts: After having done sort of lots of dancing.

19:06Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, really trying to put her off with her one serve.

19:09Matt Roberts: Squeaking and threatening the sabre and, you know, whatever.

19:16Matt Roberts: That's sort of fine if you win the point. You look an absolute idiot if you don't.

19:20Catherine Whitaker: I mean, we did also get Amanda Nisimova beating Daniil Mephedev.

19:24Matt Roberts: Yeah, I think actually as a point, that might have been my favourite.

19:28Catherine Whitaker: Really good point. They were both with their flat, piercing ground strokes.

19:32Matt Roberts: We had a great vantage point for it, didn't we? Because we were at the side of the court, so you could really see the flight of the ball. And it was...

19:38Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, that was a fun moment.

19:39Matt Roberts: It was fantastic.

19:41David Law: I quite enjoyed an early rally between Vavara Lipchenko and Joanna Garland, which was the first proper rally we had all night. and somebody behind who I don't necessarily watches that much tellies just said, holy shit. That was great.

20:03Matt Roberts: That was fantastic, yeah. And it really, it injected a jolt of electricity through the stadium, didn't it? Because it had been a really tough start, I thought. The whole first round was quite tough. 8.12pm.

20:18David Law: The whole first round, I mean, was dragging. and I started to feel the jet lag at around the 50-minute mark or an hour mark and went out and came back in to Iguish Fiontech playing her first match and she'd got a bye in the first round, hadn't she?

20:33Catherine Whitaker: Yes, she beat Caballi. She dragged him all over the court. That was funny as well.

20:38David Law: The place was exploding after that, wasn't it?

20:41Catherine Whitaker: Oh, something we should have mentioned in terms of why the start was weird. Why was the roof on? Open the roofs.

20:50Matt Roberts: I'm actually, that's low-key the thing I'm angriest most about. Here we are at 11.18. It's the most beautiful Melbourne evening. Like, you couldn't have asked for anything more perfect. I've absolutely no idea why the roof was closed. But it just diminishes my enjoyment of watching tennis. Here in particular, you know, we've travelled 10 ,000 miles to be in the summer in January at an outdoor tournament. What a treat. and to be sitting in the slightly muggy indoors. And it's a particularly... Look, I'm very grateful to have the roof. Wouldn't have it any other way. But it's a visually very ugly roof, isn't it, when it's closed?

21:32It really feels quite imposing.

21:35Matt Roberts: Like, all the photos I take are just rubbish when the roof's closed. And you know there's a beautiful sunset happening outside. I cannot think why they would have closed that roof. And it really irritated me. just sort of diminished the experience of being in the stadium by 20%. I fear the answer is something to do with TV because the whole thing is geared towards TV. And maybe that's the smart thing to do. I suspect they've sold tonight broadcast-wise pretty well and I suspect they'll sell it for more next year.

22:07David Law: And the place was packed, wasn't it? I guess justifies any TV-led decisions,

22:13Matt Roberts: but it did affect the experience in there.

22:16David Law: One of the big takeaway I do have is in a month where we've had all this talk about how tiresome and sad it was seeing man against woman in that joke of a battle of the sexist match the other week, we found another format here where you can put men and women against each other on the court and it works. Absolutely, it's a great point. this and mixed doubles the United Cup and mixed doubles generally this works totally

22:50Catherine Whitaker: yeah well said and in fact we had the quarter finals didn't we which ended up with six women and two men

22:56Matt Roberts: and the two men were Pedro Martinez and Jordan Smith yeah

23:01Catherine Whitaker: like the women were coming out on top in those rallies and I think a lot of it was they were playing the boulder tennis in a lot of those points They were going after the ball a lot more. The men were kind of pushing, chipping, slicing. And it was really interesting to just observe that. Yeah, that was a fun, like, actual sort of tennis element to the night, which I enjoyed very much.

23:25Matt Roberts: On the celebrities thing, we should probably shout out...

23:28Catherine Whitaker: The most famous man there.

23:30Matt Roberts: The most famous man here that half the stadium seemed to have shown up for. I have forgotten his name. I didn't know it at the start of the night. Jay Chow. I don't know it now. Jay Chow. Yeah. my goodness me, people were excited about Jay Chow.

23:43David Law: Yeah, somebody behind us, as he was about to receive serve, I heard say, I'm not ready for this man. And I just wrote down, neither was he. He was aced by Peter Jovich. He didn't even move. No, he didn't move.

23:58Matt Roberts: I mean, and that really emphasised the point of, like, OK, again, like, we're not the target audience for celebrities being there and being involved. are we so like I'm sure there is value to having celebrities there don't have them playing unless they're really good at tennis there was a jockey wasn't there that could play a bit like he went around yeah that was sort of fine um but there's got to be a standard play yeah loser fruit a twitch

24:30Catherine Whitaker: person yeah and Jay Chow loser fruit serve wasn't the worst of the night though no it wasn't Matt our worst fears were realised.

24:41David Law: Wikipedia says that Jay Chow is a Taiwanese singer-songwriter, actor, director and businessman, widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in the Chinese speaking world.

24:52Matt Roberts: It felt like it. The place exploded when he came out.

24:56Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, so I say that about the celebrities but yeah, it obviously did get people here.

25:02Matt Roberts: Jay Chow involved where he doesn't have to hold a tennis racket. I was going to say hit a ball but he didn't hit a ball.

25:08Catherine Whitaker: Donna Vekic won like three rounds without hitting a ball.

25:11Matt Roberts: Then got to plug her diamond brand and leave. Yeah.

25:15Catherine Whitaker: That was something that really annoyed me. The pros all leaving.

25:19Matt Roberts: They should have been required to stay.

25:20Catherine Whitaker: Absolutely. Like stay there for the end and watch that final point.

25:24Matt Roberts: I'm seeing endless footage of them backstage watching the final. And, you know, it's great stuff. They're reacting. You know, Carlos Alcraz is going absolutely bananas. You needed that on the court.

25:34Catherine Whitaker: Big time. Because that's one of the fun things when you get people interacting together. I was watching the points, but I was also watching the interactions on the sidelines. And, yeah, it elevated it to have Carlos Alcaraz there on the side and Sinner and Goff and Svante. And then they suddenly all left and it was Diego Schwartzman in a suit. Talking to Craig Tiley.

25:54Matt Roberts: Has he taken a corporate job at Tennis Australia?

25:57Catherine Whitaker: Today would suggest so.

25:58Matt Roberts: Yeah, we'll investigate for you.

26:01Catherine Whitaker: We've teased that serve, haven't we?

26:02Matt Roberts: Yes, well, I'm looking at my timeline here, and I've got two tweets back-to-back. Carlos Alcaraz has just tweeted, Jordan Smith. That's all. Love that. And Coco Goff has tweeted, great event. Lol, I said when it started, I hoped an amateur one. Congrats, Jordan. So cold. That actually isn't the tweet that I was referencing from Coco Goff. There was one before that that said, I feel better about missing my serve now that Yannick and Foe did. And I'm glad she feels better. But like, bless her. Her service miss was in a different universe to anybody else's tonight.

26:46Catherine Whitaker: The stadium stood still, didn't it? In that couple of seconds before she went to serve. We all held her breath.

26:53Matt Roberts: Gavin, you have got work to do.

26:55Catherine Whitaker: So much work. She beat Iga Spiontek the other day playing brilliantly. She is never as high as you think. She is never as low as you think.

27:04Matt Roberts: We've never seen this kind of low point from her before.

27:08Catherine Whitaker: You've had this sort of pressure. She just collapsed on it and it went in the bottom of the net.

27:13Matt Roberts: Who was she playing again?

27:15Catherine Whitaker: Who could say?

27:16Matt Roberts: Someone like Pedro Martinez. She was out there yesterday. So I'm out there, court six for the qualifiers, or looking for the qualifiers. and when I arrived I got the time wrong I was there half an hour early and Tamara Korpatch was there playing a qualies match and I thought I'd been duped so went for a little walk came back I was figuring out which side to sit on I thought that looks like Coco Goff oh that looks like Gavin McMillan that looks like Coco Goff's mum anyway the entirety of team Goff was arriving at court six and just sat in the stands and watched pretty much all of this session of one point slam qualifiers.

27:58Matt Roberts: And I was sat pretty much dead opposite her. And she had the exact same experience. It looked to me like I had at the one point slam last year. Skeptical to start with. Hood up.

28:11Catherine Whitaker: Why am I here?

28:12Matt Roberts: A little bit moody. What is this nonsense? And after an hour, she was on her feet, whooping and hollering and roundhouse fist pumping. And it was incredible. And, yeah, the scouting did not help her for today. But I'm glad she got in the spirit of it.

28:34Catherine Whitaker: Yeah. And she took it well. She laughed it off. She did. She's tweeting about it. Yeah. That's great.

28:39David Law: What do you make of Yannick Sinner going out against Smith with not a double fault, a fault?

28:47Catherine Whitaker: Because his previous, I was going to say, match, which seems silly really, point, had been against Pablo Crenia Busta. And that was suddenly a real moment of, oh, this is a different level suddenly. Like people have been patting the ball back and Sinner just absolutely ripped it from the baseline.

29:04David Law: And like, Crenia Busta's playing good, normal tennis and he just hasn't got a chance.

29:09Catherine Whitaker: No. But then he comes up against, yeah, Jordan Smith as the Sinner.

29:14Matt Roberts: The most famous man in Australia. Australia are going to go nuts for this guy, aren't they? This is right in the Australia sweet spot, I think. A grassroots Aussie lad. His parents, his family own the tennis club that he coaches at. He's been playing since he was three. Salt of the earth. I think he's going to be on reality TV within the next few months.

29:38David Law: They've already said he's going to be on the breakfast shows in the morning. So we'll turn TJ on, see what he's got to say about it all. Today's show is brought to you by Vanguard. To all the financial advisors listening, let's talk bonds for a minute. Capturing value in fixed income isn't easy. Bond markets are massive, murky, and let's be real, lots of firms throw a couple of flashy funds your way and call it a day, but not Vanguard. Vanguard bonds are institutional quality. Institutional quality isn't a tagline, it's a commitment to your clients. It means top-grade products across the board.

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31:30Matt Roberts: Ivalice has just tweeted, so, so, so happy an amateur one. We need one-point slams at every Grand Slam, please. so fun to watch discuss

31:45Catherine Whitaker: and Taylor Fritz tweeted something similar didn't he like while it was on

31:48Matt Roberts: implied that he had said no

31:50Catherine Whitaker: yeah he said he's taking the L on this for not playing but he was having a lot of fun watching it

31:55Matt Roberts: and I know somebody at the United Cup that was asked to take part and declined I wonder how they're feeling yeah I mean because they're not going to struggle to get people to sign up for this now

32:07David Law: I personally I'm quite happy for it to just be an Australian Open event. And I hope it kind of, hope it remains that and that the others find something else because we had all this conversation when the mixed doubles happened. You know, everybody's saying, oh, all the Grand Slams need to do this. Well, no, no, they don't. You know, the French Open has kind of got this elevated qualifying with the use of court Susan Longland. You know, they're using the biggest courts for qualifying and it feels like this massive deal. Maybe they could come up with an event that has something of its own, but I think that they've got their thing.

32:45David Law: Wimbledon, of course, just isn't able to have a week at the moment. I mean, eventually it will. But I think everything is just about as it should be.

32:55Matt Roberts: I think the French Open is going to do one of the mixed doubles or the one-point slam. And I think they were probably waiting for tonight to decide. We had heard, hadn't we, that they were very keen on the mixed doubles. Yeah, I think they're going to. I don't think Wimbledon will, well, because they can't at the moment, and I also don't think they would sort of rush to follow this trend anyway. No, I mean, they do have a brand of their own as well.

33:28David Law: I mean, I think that this fits the Australian Open brand perfectly. Yeah, I kind of feel like I sort of hope the French doesn't do this and just copy.

33:39Matt Roberts: Assuming they do, which would you rather they do? The one-point slam or the mixed doubles?

33:48David Law: Probably the mixed doubles, I think.

33:53Matt Roberts: Interesting. Because you preferred the mixed doubles.

33:57David Law: No, not necessarily. I kind of just think that fits a bit better there. than this would. I think that this fits the Australian Open perfectly. Matt? But I kind of don't want them to do either.

34:11Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, ultimately I'm with David. I'd rather... I really do think they will. Yes, no, I think you're probably right. I think of all the... It's money, isn't it? Yeah. If we look at the mixed doubles and we look at this, I think the most fun I had at any one point was actually the first day of the mixed doubles. I loved that so much when we saw all the different teams. When they were all parading out.

34:39Matt Roberts: And they all came out when they were announced, unlike tonight.

34:42Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, and there was no faff. It was non-stop action, get the next match on. We were introduced to all these pairs. I loved that.

34:48Matt Roberts: Yeah.

34:49Catherine Whitaker: I really did. And I think they could elevate that element at the US Open next year. I think they could make that day bigger. so I would probably lean towards the mixed doubles ultimately but I had a great time unfortunately the same thing we said about the mixed doubles where I think they're going to go probably and lean into the stuff we don't want and then they're probably not going to make it with more doubles players I think this event will probably keep leaning into faff and celebrity and big production. And I don't know, I can't see them trimming the drawer, for example, so that you've got a streamlined set and getting it down to two hours.

35:34Catherine Whitaker: I think it's unlikely to go in that direction as much as it irks us.

35:39Matt Roberts: That's just not the direction of travel in the world, is it? It's not.

35:41David Law: Why would they have two hours of content when they can have three? Right. Right.

35:45Matt Roberts: But then by that logic, I suppose the US Open mixed doubles format gave you more sessions to sell.

35:56Matt Roberts: But, you know, I'm not looking at the balance sheets for both events. So I think, oh, this is big. I totally agree with you, David. This feels very fitting here. and yet I also think there's something about it being an entirely separate event that isn't compromising or butchering, isn't something you have to put on the bloody roll of honour.

36:24David Law: Yeah, this is the first proper exhibition that I've come to and really want to return to. I'm really chuffed for the fans that they get to see these exhibitions. I think, is it Federer and Agassi playing a doubles match? in a couple of nights' time.

36:43Matt Roberts: Cedro Agassi in Crowded House.

36:44David Law: Yeah. Listen, I mean, I'm not that into exhibitions personally anymore, and that's partly the privilege I have of being able to come to these tennis tournaments and cover them as they are. But that's irrelevant. The important thing is thousands and thousands of fans love it. But I personally prefer these ones that do feel, that end up making you feel like they matter, that they've got some stakes on it, that make you feel a bit nervous and anxious, and what's going to happen? and that's what we had tonight.

37:12Matt Roberts: But that's also what we had at the mixed doubles, isn't it? We had a really broad spectrum of caring. We had Naomi Osaka and Guillaume Fisse. She was wearing a similar outfit tonight, but she was basically wearing pyjamas, wasn't she? In the end, Tiafos ended Tiafos and Keys, was it? Yeah. That was not a good vibe. And then, of course, you had on the other end, Vavasori and Arani.

37:35David Law: I still hope they end up getting some more of that into it. And maybe if the French went the doubles route, maybe they would think, actually, we want to have a bit more credibility to this by having some more of the doubles teams in. I'm just thinking out loud there, you know.

37:50Matt Roberts: I wonder if they're a bit more wedded to tradition at Roland Garros than the US Open. They might try to strike more of a balance. I think it's a watch this space situation for what Roland Garros will announce. Craig Tiley and this could very well be his last Australian Open he was feeling smug tonight isn't he? His face was on the money Yes

38:18Catherine Whitaker: Yeah that was a low point

38:19David Law: Even he looked a little bit uncomfortable Yeah good on him for looking uncomfortable about that because it was They've got a massive glass box of the million dollars

38:30Matt Roberts: And they put it where they usually put the trophies during the

38:34David Law: And they sort of wallpapered it with Craig Tiley's face on some$100 bills. And yeah, I saw Andre Sarr, a former player who works for Tennis Australia, sort of laughing and tapping him on the shoulder. And I did think, oh, he looks a bit sheepish there, as though he'd rather that wasn't happening. But I don't know. I mean, you mentioned that is just an interesting point, that it may be his last Australian Open, because there was some very credible reporting recently linking him with the vacant US Open, USTA, chief exec job, I think it is, which is a massive job. And obviously he's been at the Australian Open for 20 years now in Tennis Australia.

39:18Matt Roberts: And he hasn't denied those reports, has he? Which if there was nothing in them, you suspect he might, but time will tell.

39:27David Law: It's a big one to watch over, isn't it?

39:30Matt Roberts: And he might be standing there thinking, well, I mean, not that he hasn't already built a legacy here. I mean, this is I heard someone call it the Craig Tiley slam earlier, like he has. But in terms of like a note to potentially end on, this is this is quite a legacy, isn't it?

39:49David Law: Well, it's another success story, this tonight, isn't it? If you think a year ago, I mean, it is pretty much the the anniversary of us going, just stopping by the Kia Arena to have a quick look in on our way to the media room at this thing called the One Point Slam, which none of us wanted to watch, particularly you, Catherine. But an hour later, we're all in on it, and we're watching the space for the next edition. And here, the thing has just packed out, the Rod Laver Arena, and a global television audience with the biggest names in the sport partaking. I mean, that is an example of Tennis Australia and Craig Tiley's vision for things and how they spot something, they go with it and they go 100%.

40:38David Law: And they really, I mean, this thing, this place has gone through so many iterations over the last 20 years. I mean, it's elevated itself to the equal of the others so quickly from where it was. And I think it pretty much was when I first came here in 2003. But the way they've managed to help it keep pace and done it by innovation is, I think, that they stand alone in that regard.

41:05Matt Roberts: There was a great moment where Flavio Gaboli kissed the money on his way out of the stadium. there were lots of nice little little moments like that weren't there?

41:16Catherine Whitaker: Yes I also want to give a shout out to I think the I think maybe even a worse shot than Gough's serve of the night which was the Mouté return

41:28Matt Roberts: quarantine Mouté feels a long time ago.

41:30Catherine Whitaker: It was maybe the first point of the whole evening I almost left at that point I mean he got this dolly of a serve

41:38David Law: and he just sliced it out. I did think at that stage, oh no this is going to be really lacklustre. All of it.

41:47Matt Roberts: Oh, the early stages were worrying.

41:49Catherine Whitaker: And look, it was an hour before Alcaraz, Sina, Svante, etc. all came out. There were buys. Which is

42:00Matt Roberts: just, I mean, buys are always unacceptable, but in a one point slam.

42:04Catherine Whitaker: What are we doing? That was it. They had their time through the qualifying to get the people that no one was really that interested in seeing through the qualifying and, you know, most of them will go out and those who win will make it through. It then felt like we had, like, another round of qualifying on the big night and then finally we got the real thing. It was a bad start. They should have started with a bang.

42:33Matt Roberts: They'd obviously sold it to the big players. It's maximum two hours of your time. Half of them had their accreditations in their pockets. They'd clearly just come. They hadn't been doing a full warm-up backstage and built their day around this. It was, look, it's an hour maximum to in the evening. Please do this. Maybe the balance of power next time will be somewhat different because players will be keener. You've seen that tweet from Taylor Fritz. But yeah, I think it was a combination of them wanting to guarantee three hours of content for broadcasters, but then feeling they couldn't get a three-hour commitment from the top players.

43:16Matt Roberts: That's exactly what it felt like. That was something else, by the way. But you can't have everything.

43:20David Law: Something else I loved, by the way, was the fact that there's just no warm-up whatsoever. There's not even like a one rally warm-up, which they could have done.

43:27Matt Roberts: And PS, actual tennis could be like that too, if people saw the light.

43:31David Law: Seeing them just go to the line and have to deliver.

43:34Matt Roberts: It was so institutionalised about FAF.

43:38Catherine Whitaker: They still managed to find FAF. That was the only bit of FAF they got rid of. They ramped up all the rest of it.

43:43Matt Roberts: The interviews, the VTs. We started getting VTs explaining to us who Igor Sviontek was.

43:50Catherine Whitaker: Insane. That wound me up so much.

43:53Matt Roberts: Yeah. But it was an extremely fun evening and a great start. Great fun.

43:58Catherine Whitaker: I had a really good time.

44:00David Law: Yeah, it was awesome.

44:01Matt Roberts: Yeah. It really, really was fun. Like, we're into this.

44:06Catherine Whitaker: Yeah. If you can't tell.

44:08Matt Roberts: Just for God's sake, get rid of the faff. Please, open the roofs and get rid of the faff.

44:14Catherine Whitaker: Exactly.

44:16Matt Roberts: We've got our agendas and we're sticking to them. Folks, as I said, this is the first of 19 daily tennis podcasts from the Australian Open.

44:30Catherine Whitaker: 19. It used to be 14. Yeah.

44:33Matt Roberts: Daily used to mean something very different. We are standing just at the entrance or one of the entrances to our Laver Arena. Over to my right is the statue of Leslie Bowery where, well, it was originally came to our attention when we recorded one of our first emergency podcasts there by Leslie when Serena Williams lost here to...

44:59Catherine Whitaker: Wong Chong. Wong Chong.

45:01Matt Roberts: Wow. and we met some lovely listeners there today. We did a bit of a meet and greet and hello and thank you to everybody that came to say hello and lots of them were at the One Point Slam tonight and I hope they had a good time too and also were cheering for Joanna. Cheering for Jordan, also entirely acceptable. I'm thrilled for Jordan, especially when he didn't win the Kia. folks for all 19 of our episodes this tournament we have a mascot a few weeks ago we put out an appeal for an australian open mascot slot uh it was it was open it needed filling and gus answered the call gus is owned by renee full name augustine which is pretty epic she's an eight-year-old British Labrador living in the Hudson Valley in upstate New York with her Australian human parents, which is perfect.

46:04Matt Roberts: Formerly a New York City dog, she's now fully embraced country life and works full-time as a winery dog. Guys, this is a variety of dog I didn't know existed. I could be tempted to live in the countryside now I know that winery dogs or a thing. She's embedded in her human's vineyard and closely involved in all aspects of operations. Her responsibilities include overseeing planting and picking, conducting regular inspections of the vines, lying strategically in inconvenient places and upholding extremely high standards when it comes to snacks, of which she firmly believes there should always be more.

46:45Matt Roberts: Like any true Labrador, food is not just love but of defining personality trait outside of vineyard duties gus is an authentic excuse me an enthusiastic swimmer in any body of water she can find an avid snow roller a committed destroyer of tennis balls and a loyal listener of the tennis podcast with her mum she's very excited to be the mascot for the australian open particularly given her australian parents even if she herself has no real concept of what Australia is beyond it being very important right now. If she were a tennis player, she's basically Coco Gough, a crowd favourite with a sky high joy index, big energy, universally adored and with just enough nervous sensitivity to make her relatable.

47:34Matt Roberts: And I think I've done a very good job to read all that out, given that Gus has been staring at me, staring into my soul the whole time. We've got the most wonderful picture of her. Yeah, Labradors are very close to my heart and she is a beautiful one and she can perform vineyard duties. So I'm pretty obsessed with that concept. Welcome, Gus. Happy Australian Open to you. It is an absolute joy to have you with us on this 19-episode journey.

48:06Catherine Whitaker: And what a beautifully written bio. Yeah, so great. written with so much love

48:11Matt Roberts: yeah René's done us proud there thank you René we of course have our mascots a big hello to Bodhi big day for us Bodhi one point slam day it's all downhill from here Maisie for David

48:25David Law: yeah Maisie you inspired me to pick my fantasy team today which we'll be revealing in the newsletter and I think it went pretty well

48:35Matt Roberts: yes fantasy team reveals in the newsletter So do sign up. Matt, you had first pick in the fantasy team.

48:44Catherine Whitaker: I did. It will shock everyone who I went for. Find out in the newsletter.

48:49Matt Roberts: Hello to Roger.

48:50Catherine Whitaker: And it's a big day for me tomorrow. You and me, Roger. It's the best day. The best day.

48:57Matt Roberts: Hello to executive producers Greg, Chris and Jeff. Should we have some shout outs?

49:02Catherine Whitaker: Let's do it. We have Sean, who also wants to shout out his wife, Brittany. Right, Sean. Sean says, we became enormous fans of the podcast in 2025, the same year we went to the US Open three times. As much as seeing Sinkaras was a lifetime event, I'm certain Brit's favourite moment was watching Irani and Vavasori win the mixed doubles and official Grand Slam tournament. Sean says, Brit, I love you. From both of us to the whole TTP crew, Thank you for so many smiles and for giving us, among so many other gems, Matt Lobbets. We randomly drop that into conversation several times a week.

49:51Matt Roberts: So do we!

49:55Matt Roberts: Oh, Sean gets it, doesn't he? Yeah. We like Sean. We love you too, Brittany. You two sound great. That's lovely. Thank you for that.

50:08Catherine Whitaker: we've also got Ryan Riley

50:11Matt Roberts: great name

50:12Catherine Whitaker: Ryan is from the US originally but now lives in London and Ryan says my wife and I completed the calendar fan slam in 2019 the same year we got married we had the chance to tell David at the Queen's Club live show and he mentioned how jealous he was because at that point he had not been to Roland Garros

50:34Matt Roberts: Wow. Goodness.

50:37David Law: Gosh. I've made it for lost time. That's exactly what Ryan says. That's wild because...

50:44Matt Roberts: 2019 still doesn't sound that long ago to me and yet you never having been to Roland Garros feels ages ago to me.

50:53David Law: Yeah, yeah. I mean, honestly, I'm going to sell it all to you all again. If you haven't been, you've got to try. You've got to find a way one day to go to Roland Garros because it's magical. And, yeah, I'm glad I managed to do as you have done as well.

51:16Catherine Whitaker: It's one of the most powerful things I've ever witnessed, you being at Roland Garros for the first time, having worked in tennis for so long and yet getting that new experience. It was so special.

51:29Matt Roberts: And if you want to get a taste of it, David did an episode for a little walk and talk.

51:36Catherine Whitaker: David's diary.

51:37Matt Roberts: David's diary from Roland Garros that year. It's in the archive for friends, isn't it?

51:44David Law: Anybody who's a friend of the Tennis Podcast gets access to a 100-plus show archive just for friends. And it's one of the very early ones. It's probably about episode 8 or 9 or something like that. and yeah it was one of those where I just I just said I'm just I'm just popping out before the final with my recorder

52:05Catherine Whitaker: David had been to Roland Garros recorded a pod and come back before

52:09Matt Roberts: well I was still asleep

52:12David Law: and I had no idea if it would be worth listening to at all but it seemed to work yeah it was really special thank you Ryan

52:20Catherine Whitaker: thank you Ryan for reminding us of that and finally we have Robbie McCarthy

52:25Matt Roberts: Another great name. Hello, Robbie. Hi, Robbie.

52:28Catherine Whitaker: Who says, I've been a listener since the pandemic and have not missed an episode since. The relived episodes, as well as the Grand Slam review shows, are some of my favourites. How could you not love a Mary Carrillo voice note?

52:42Matt Roberts: Oh, you are right, Robbie, like Ginepre. Robbie gets it too, doesn't he? What a great set of shout-outs tonight. Yeah, really. Superb. Top notch. We are back with a bang and 20. We are so back. We are so back. Robbie, Ryan, Brittany, and Sean. Thank you ever so much for that. You have rounded out a very, very beautiful evening. The perfect start to the Australian Open 2026. We are part of the Athletic Podcast Network. And folks, we'll be back tomorrow. We'll speak to you then.

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