Does Sinner’s injury open US Open door?

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1:16Matt Roberts: Well, hello and welcome to the Tennis Podcast. It is Monday the 10th of August. The US Open hard court swing is very much swinging in two weeks time David I will be in New York City two weeks from now that's exciting yeah you two won't quite be yet Matt will be on route to Fulham for the first game of the season yes we are having to move our post

1:48Catherine Whitaker: Cincinnati live show to accommodate my Fulham plans more on that nearer the time but yeah we'll be going to Fulham Chelsea and then to New York the very next day yeah yeah that's uh yeah I went

2:03Matt Roberts: when I I thought there was an extra week I don't I don't know what happened but I when I realized that in two weeks time well less than two weeks time now I'm going to be in New York I well I had a frisson of excitement a little bit of panic and a sort of where did that extra week go feeling. But yeah, just book tickets, Matt, to see a Bruce Brigstein tribute act on the beach in New Jersey on the night I land.

2:31Catherine Whitaker: Wow. Wow, you can't spring that on me. Wow, okay, that's a lot to process. Matt's reorganising his trip immediately.

2:39Matt Roberts: In fact, dare I say, the US is number one. Well, they claim, I'm not sure what the metrics being used here are they're the US's number one Springsteen and E Street Band tribute act and they're playing on C Street Beach and I decided that was unmissable. I will be there. Yeah. If you were, that I'm putting you on the spot here, if you were naming a Springsteen tribute act, what would you call them?

3:09Catherine Whitaker: I don't know. What are they called?

3:11Matt Roberts: They're called Tramps Like Us.

3:14Catherine Whitaker: I wouldn't call it that.

3:18Matt Roberts: I think it's a rule that if you're a tribute act, you have to have a NAF name. I think you've got to lean into the NAF of it all, haven't you?

3:27Catherine Whitaker: Yes, because otherwise you're just nowhere near as good and you're trying to be Bruce Springsteen in New Jersey and it's all a bit sad.

3:37Matt Roberts: Great, well, pumped for that occasion.

3:41Catherine Whitaker: Covering's pumped. I am pumped.

3:45Matt Roberts: Look, it's a band on a beach. I will be happy.

3:48Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, good vibes.

3:50Matt Roberts: Yeah. I thought I'd get some good vibes in early because we are starting the show today with what is now becoming a regular feature, Injury and Withdrawal Corner. because we had the news a few days ago, having given reassurances in our last show that yes, there were reports that Yannick Sinner's knee was giving him a bit of jip, but there were also later reports that it was fine and he would be travelling to Cincinnati. Well, we now have the most recent reports that Yannick Sinner has withdrawn from Cincinnati. The quote is, my right knee has been bothering me and even though we have been working hard with my medical team, I have to accept that I'm not ready to compete yet.

4:32Matt Roberts: I'm now focusing on getting ready for the US Open. This is not good, David. No, it's not. It's not good for him. It's not good for the tournament. I mean, I have to say I simultaneously then get excited about the alternative possibilities, but I don't want to not be able to see Yannick Sinner and I feel bad for him. And this, to me, I don't know about you, but this has really come out of the blue to me because I didn't notice anything going on with him at Wimbledon at all. You know, that's the last time we saw him on a tennis court is rolling around with victory after winning his second Wimbledon in a row.

5:12Matt Roberts: I mean, only that fall. There was the really dramatic fall. Of course, yeah. In the first round with the bloody foot. I mean, obviously, he won six matches and a Wimbledon trophy after that. Yeah, things kind of worked out. but yeah that's all I can think of really and I mean they're doing their best to play it down at least sort of not to make you feel as though his US Open is at risk really and that it's a serious injury but well he's never been into this tournament before with nothing you know it's not that is it we I expected him to pull out of Canada or even if he hadn't got a bad knee for a bit of extra rest.

5:54But, or at least I thought it was at least 50-50, given that this weird record was potentially on the line. But no, to pull out of Cincinnati and need to go in cold into the US Open, having played no hard court tournaments at all after winning Wimbledon, far from ideal and clearly an issue.

6:17Matt Roberts: And I know he does this as his typical routine now going into the Australian Open. He doesn't play a warm-up tournament. He rocks up there, hard-court grand slam, backs himself to shake off the rust in the early rounds because of just the level gap between him and almost everybody else. But that's off the back of an off-season and feeling physically peak and mentally fresh. That just feels like such a different scenario to me than going into the US Open cold match. Like, this feels really suboptimal. And, like, what a wild season he's had. He's had this first half of the season where I think, you know, once he does the accounting, maybe he already has for that part of the season, he would say, I played too much tennis.

7:10Matt Roberts: And now he's having this second half where he's played seven matches since losing to Juan Manuel Sorundolo in the second round of Roland Garros.

7:22Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, assuming he plays the US Open, his three tournaments in a row will be French Open, Wimbledon and the US Open, which as much as we talk about there's too much tennis and everyone wants to just focus on the slams, I don't think anyone really wants tennis to look like that either and just do that. And we saw how vulnerable he was at Wimbledon in his first match, having not played for a little while. I know that was grass, and that is, I think, a bit different and does take a bit more adjustment. And he was probably feeling a bit shaken after what happened to him at the French Open. But he never really found his top gear at Wimbledon until the latter stages of that tournament.

8:06Catherine Whitaker: All along, we were waiting for someone to come along and really push him. And it's possible that that might happen at the US Open if he's undercooked going into it. And there's this stat, isn't there, going around that no one on the men's side has won the US Open without playing either Canada or Cincinnati in the lead up since the 1000 category was introduced in 1990. And obviously that's the situation that Alcaraz and Sina are both in going into the US Open. So it does feel like it's pretty open. And it does, as you say, feel different to when players have come into the Australian Open without any tournaments because of the back of the offseason.

8:48Catherine Whitaker: Because of generally the fact that no one has played all that much going into the Australian Open. It feels like a leveller in that sense. But right away, Sinner is going to be playing catch up. And there's the question of how much of an issue is the knee injury? Is he going to be affected in any matches? It does put a different complexion, I think, on New York heading into it without Sinner playing in Cincinnati. And sharpens, David, this sense of opportunity that there has been among the rest of the field in men's tennis since Alcraz's injury and since Yannick

9:31Matt Roberts: Sinner did what he did against Sorundolo at the French Open. Obviously, Wimbledon was different. But, you know, we've seen a lot of weird stuff happen to a lot of the guys that we thought would be the ones to capitalise from this situation. And that microscope is going to be even more acute now. We've seen guys ditch their coaches. we've seen guys you know kind of crumble under the under the force the the weight of this this opportunity and now look even as Matt says even if he plays the US Open and that is very much in doubt this is this is a serious question mark hanging over him now if I'm Ben Shelton or Alex de Manor or Francis Tiafoe, this is a big moment.

10:24Yeah, it is. And I'd go lower down there and look at some of the younger guys like Jakob Mensik and Rafael Hodder and now Artifis. You know, there's several there that somebody has got to step up and just peak, peak and play their best tennis at the US Open. Whether it's enough to win them, the thing is another matter. But people haven't been peaking. That must be so tough for Shelton and Taylor Fritz, Tommy Paul, Alex de Minot to come to terms with, that they're just not playing the best tennis that they know how when there's suddenly this gaping opportunity. I mean, the one slight dampener I'd put on that statistic about 1990, which I found fascinating, you know, I've followed, I've basically been a tennis fan ever since then.

11:10So I followed all the Pete Sampras and Rafter and the wins they've had and Agassi needing these tournaments in order to get themselves ready. But I cannot even remember anybody trying to win the US Open without playing those tournaments. So, you know, nobody's done it. But then I don't even remember anybody at the top end going into the US Open having not played it or Cincinnati.

11:36Catherine Whitaker: and like how many things have we seen sinner and alcaraz do that no one else has done before you know no one had ever won the first five masters of a season and he and he rewrote that rule book and you know alcaraz the youngest to win the career slam like they are doing things that haven't been done before so yeah it's well within the realm of possibility that he could at the very least katherine to to your point i mean if i'm going to look at it from a positive standpoint which i'm i i am going to do it makes for an absolutely mouthwatering us open as you say whether our crowds or if they play okay you've got the two clearly best players in the world in men's tennis going in completely cold obviously one of them more than the other um and then you so how are they going to play and all these guys have got that same opportunity even though it's not quite the same as if they're not there.

12:31It's a hell of a difference to a year ago when they were going in and it just felt like, right, okay, what time is the final again?

12:39Matt Roberts: Yeah, that's kind of the ideal scenario to me, that they both play and that they're both fit. I don't want to see anyone injured, but that they're rusty or undercooked or just an unknown quantity. As much as I love the Sincaraz rivalry and love their matches, I do not like a feeling of two weeks of trudging towards a known destination. I don't enjoy that. So, yeah, we're potentially on for like an incredibly fun scenario of them both playing but being real unknown quantities and there still being this feeling of opportunity among the rest of the field and us getting to test and find out who can respond to that.

13:25Matt Roberts: there's also you know the scenario where the two best and most exciting players in the world are both fucked and you know Bertik van der Zanskamp wins the US Open I mean obviously I would quite enjoy that but you know what I mean like there's also some some bad scenarios on the table but

13:47Catherine Whitaker: well there's the possibility of what happened at the French Open and everyone going who's who's it going to be in this big land of opportunity and it's just Alexander Zverev like that's also possible I think yeah

14:02Matt Roberts: and Flavio Caboli seen his new hair in fact that's the sort of hair that makes David predict big things for someone oh is it? oh right okay he's buzzed it okay fine I did send the picture on the group chat with a sad emoji. When this sort of Cabali, oh my God reactions, I'm now at a point where I don't want to sort of ruin Flavia Cabali for myself. So I'm being careful about what I expose myself to. There was some Cabali on the golf course content. Soft launching, new hair and a comical outfit. it's as ever david it's a roller coaster being a cabali guy but but we're never quite sure with cabali hairstyles whether they're ai or not are we regrettably uh this one seems to not be ai but it's a buzz cut so i'm all in cool you're all in maybe he heard that podcast maybe he was just watching replays of alcaraz with the buzz cut maybe maybe he hired what's that hairdresser's name?

15:16Matt Roberts: Victor. Victor. I think Victor's a one-client guy. Carla, seeing as you're not using Victor at the moment because you're not a player, any chance I could draft him in? In fact, do you think there's anybody in the world that's got a better work-life balance going on than Victor the barber? He survived the problem with the machine. I know, was that his brother that did that? I don't, I can't remember. His brother had the problem with the machine. that was the problem. That was a great moment for Victor's aura. The issue was lack of Victor. Why didn't Victor show up then? Probably on a yacht somewhere.

15:54I mean, you've only got the one job. God.

15:59Matt Roberts: Right, folks. Let's tie a bow on the injury slash haircut portion of the show. Let's call it a day for part one and let's come back in part two and talk about some tennis. 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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18:21Matt Roberts: Welcome back to part two of today's tennis podcast. Let's start in Toronto, shall we? And the women's quarterfinal lineup, which is set and is thus. Ekaterina Alexandrova to take on Alina Svitolina later on tonight. as is Deanna Schneider against Igor Svjontek and then the two quarterfinals to be played tomorrow, Tuesday are Belinda Bencic against Coco Goff and Naomi Osaka against Elena Rabakina. I feel like we should start here by going back a couple of days and talking about Irina Sabalenka's defeat at the hands of Ekaterina Alexandrovich. 7-6, 4-6, 6-4, David. a cracking match and maybe not a shock result, maybe not one that we should overanalyse from a Sabalenka point of view because she's had a lot of issues with Ekaterina Alexandrovna over the course of her career.

19:20Matt Roberts: And yet it does feel like we are not and haven't been seeing peak Sabalenka for a little while now this summer. What do you think? yeah i think statistically you can make a an argument given that they are 5-5 now in a head to head that alexandreva is a a really good player we know that she got to the top 10 last year and b she's caused sabalenka problems before i don't think that that tells the story of this match and this situation anywhere near i watched all of this it was a bonkers match and there was some incredible shot making from both players particularly the sort of strikes of vanis andro she's a lovely timer of a tennis ball when she's playing well and sabalenka was sort of pulling rabbits out of hats to to sort of stay with her but that in itself tells you its own story she was having to hit almost desperate winners to cover up the fact that she was playing terribly for large parts of this match to give you an idea of just how how out of the ordinary this run for Alexandra Vries, she's had a terrible year.

20:28She's won 11 matches out of 31 coming into this tournament. 11 and 18. This is a player who normally have double the wins to losses in a year. She's had a really tough time and you could see that she would play well and then doubts would come in and she would struggle. Sabalenka was just not in control of the ball. Didn't have feel she was coming up with some incredible shots to survive and she she saved two match points with aces one of them on a second serve out wide which was like a second serve kick serve out wide it was a genius shot but it was also daredevil stuff because she didn't rely have confidence in her normal game um so she is really wrestling with her game right now you know it has not been a good six months or something since the spring you know when she was doing so well in the sunshine double this has been a tough period and and i don't look at a player who's confident in her own game right now um and alexandreva was just a picture of relief in the interview afterwards she says i there's been no happiness on the court for me this year but i feel great right now you know But it was that kind of thing.

21:46We're looking at a player in Sabalenka who's lost a tiebreak in this match again. She's searching.

21:53Matt Roberts: Her record, Matt, since the early days of the clay court season, quarterfinal defeat to Hayley Baptiste. This is Sabalenka. Third round defeat in Rome to Sarana Castella. That Roland Garros quarterfinal defeat to Diana Schneider with the six love sets. Semifinals in Berlin. That's the standout result lost to Jessica Bagula. Wimbledon round of 16, lost to Naomi Osaka, and now this round of 16 defeat to Katarina Alexandrova in Toronto. No finals in there either. I mean, in Arina Sabalenka terms, this is a slump. What's different? What's going on? I think if you look at those matches,

22:41Catherine Whitaker: You can kind of divide them into two types of losses broadly. There's been a couple, the Schneider one and the Pagula one, where she just faded at the end and kind of checked out of the match, had absolutely no game, was beaten easily in the closing moments. And they were very uncharacteristic for Sabalenka because you expect a real fight from her. We've also got the Osaka one, which is a little bit of an anomaly, but that was the first one where she lost in straight sets of the slam for a very long time, wasn't it? Again, it was uncharacteristic for Sabalenka. But the others, the Baptiste, the Kostea, the Alexandre one, these are all players that, OK, I know Alexandre has caused her problems in the past, but Sabalenka is a lot better than all of those players.

23:33Catherine Whitaker: And really, she should be winning, but she's ending up in tussles, and it's like her nerve has gone in some of these big moments and there's a lot of angst in her game right now. She's always played with quite a lot of angst but has largely through the last few years been on the right side of it and found a force in closing moments to get through matches but that is not happening at the moment and there seems to be a lot of doubt and she's not winning close matches. You know, she's already got a negative record on the season in deciding sets. And she looks rattled in those moments. And I think her footwork looks bad, like close to the ball.

24:19Catherine Whitaker: She looks out of position a lot of the time. It's a worry. It's a big worry. Because I think players already knew that there was, you know, a little bit of vulnerability with Sabalenka that you could get at and you could maybe make her stress, but most of the time she will still overwhelm you with her game. That overwhelming you with her game is kind of gone and the stress is left and players are taking advantage of it and seizing opportunities in big moments. And she feels very vulnerable now in tournaments in a way that she didn't for such a long time. Okay, she might not win them, but you could bank on her consistency to be getting to at least the semis, probably the final of repeatedly big tournaments.

25:06Catherine Whitaker: And yes, a considerable chunk of time now where that's not happening. And we talk about the different complexion going into the men's US Open. Well, unless something drastic happens in Cincinnati and Sabalenka comes out dominant and wins that tournament, we're going to have a very different complexion going into the women's US Open as well because Sabalenka has felt like a sure thing either to win the title or at very least be there at the business end. And I wouldn't really say that right now. And we haven't experienced that at a hard court slam for quite a while. I still think she's the player to beat.

25:45Catherine Whitaker: I'd still just give her, I think she's got just enough like credit in the bank with her hard court major results over the last few years that I'm still going to be going into the US Open kind of seeing her as the bar. Maybe that's wrong. Maybe I'm placing too much weight there on the past and not reading into form enough. But it's what we always say, majors are different, aren't they?

26:11Matt Roberts: And look, at the moment, there isn't a standout alternative, is there? Maybe in a couple of weeks' time, if somebody's done the Canada-Cincinnati double and is marking themselves out as an obvious player to beat, maybe then you'll feel differently. But right now, I think I agree with you. In terms of Alexandrova, she faces Alina Svitolina now in the quarterfinals. Svitolina, who fought off a late surge, a rally from Amanda Anisimova. But overall, Matt, a tough scene for Amanda Anisimova. A tearful moment for her on the court. Woke up to a message from you saying another day, another fave in tears on the tennis court.

26:57Matt Roberts: And I thought, oh, God, it was the Anisimova match. overnight surely not uh but so it was i've seen the footage i've watched the highlights um what's

27:07Catherine Whitaker: going on yeah the cruelest game shout out matt fatterman feels like feels like quite a time to have released that book um story of the year really like gets a win in the tournament but is a bit of a struggle but just can't like level up in the next round and can't get any momentum going in these tournaments and came out pretty flat against Svitolina and ended up with 12 winners and 47 unforced errors in this one. That's 70 % of the points that Svitolina won were Nisimova unforced errors. And I do think Svitolina does a lot of things very well in that matchup and constricts Nisimova and almost like Svitolina's solidity makes Anissimova panic a little bit and feel like she has to do a lot with the ball and force Anissimova to create angles which she doesn't really like doing quite so much either and she's dominated that head to head and it's not a shock to me that Svitolina won this match she's been by far a better player than Anissimova this season it's just a shame that like you saw the potential that Anisimova has in the very late stages of it, where she fought really hard and won three games in a row and saved a load of match points.

28:33Catherine Whitaker: And it looked like maybe she could get back into it, but she gave herself too much to do. And Svitolina was definitely a worthy winner. And she's searching Anisimova. And I think, you know, she's back now with Rick Vleeshowers. She's talked about how maybe they needed a little bit of time apart. Maybe they were just starting to clash a little bit at the end of their partnership the first time round. But I think she's realised that it's still a partnership that works. And she's hoping that she can get back to where she was last year. But I don't think it's going to be a quick fix. There's still some real problems in the game as well.

29:12Catherine Whitaker: You know, the forehand being the big one.

29:14Matt Roberts: I feel like she just needs to get this summer of defending points out of the way. really try and see the US Open as a free hit I know that's impossible but you know go into it thinking you're not going to reach the final like you did last year but whatever let's just you know anything's a bonus let's just have a nice loose hit obviously that mind game doesn't work and life is so much more complicated than that but at least try and perform that that magic trick on your on your mind i i get it like defend this the whole mentality of defending points is is i i don't know it's a it's a just like if you were designing like a mental prison for an athlete that's that's pretty much it isn't it but yeah it's going to be

30:07Catherine Whitaker: interesting whether alexandreva can do the thing that so many winners over sabalenka haven't been able to do and back up the big win problem is like we know how much vitolina what we know how well she's playing one and we know how extra motivated and how she seems to lift her game when she plays russian opponents as well like it's pretty much the worst person i would have thought to have to play after coming through a win like that against Sabalenka to have to face Vitalina. So I wouldn't be shocked if we're in another scenario where Sabalenka is looking at it and seeing herself beaten and thinking, oh, that person's going to go out in the very next round again.

30:52Matt Roberts: Can they keep it up? No, they can't, Irina. Elena Rabakina because of Sabalenka's defeat can now get within four ranking points of Sabalenka if she goes on to win the title in Toronto this week. I don't know how it's four because I've never heard of anything other than numbers being numbers divisible by 10 or at least five being awarded as ranking points. I don't know how it's four. But anyway, it is four. On the basis of what I saw in her match against Lidmila Samsonova last night, she ain't going on to win this title. But of course, stranger things have happened. It's sport. She got over the finish line.

31:39Matt Roberts: She gets to go again and hopefully play better. But my God, was this an absolute hot mess of a tennis match. David, did you put yourself through any of Rabakina Samsonova? It's one of those that I've watched so much tennis this week. You know, the time zone has kind of worked well for me to just sort of wake up at 6am and watch the entire night before's play our time. But this one was in the evening time, sort of in our waking hours. And so I wasn't watching every ball and I wasn't in front of the TV, but I had it on the iPad while I was cooking. I didn't really have the sound on. I was just sort of glancing over.

32:25And it's like you said, the scoreline was all over the place. I mean, Sam Sonneva had, I think, a three-love lead in the deciding set and ended up losing the match from there.

32:33Matt Roberts: Three-love serving she was. Double break. And, I mean, she looks like a player devoid of kind of confidence when it matters, but I think she's always sort of been that player. Dangerous, but, you know, doesn't really have that kind of final, piece of jigsaw of belief that you need. And Rybakina, isn't it strange how the ranking system works? Here she is, she could go to world number one in the next sort of month or so. Probably will because Sabalenka's defending the US Open title. And yet she's playing the worst tennis of the year that she's played, basically, because she was absolutely unplayable at the start of the year and the end of last year.

33:13And now she can barely hit a barn door. You know, she looks totally devoid of, again, a little bit like Sabalenka, just doesn't seem to be feeling the ball and feeling the conditions and looks beatable in a way that she so often doesn't look beatable, as though somebody could play their best tennis and it might not get nearer because she stops you. But her serve is getting broken a lot. And that is a weird scenario, isn't it? For somebody with the, I would have thought the best serve in the game when it's working well to just be getting broken like this.

33:49Matt Roberts: yeah that's the that's the big distinction between you know convincing peak rebachina and the back rebachina that we're seeing at the moment yeah there's other issues the forehand is is unconvincing she looks sort of kind of mentally pretty frazzled some of the decision making isn't great but i think all that stems from you know if you're not holding serve um you know the the rest of your game can start to feel quite frail every time she steps up to the service line I'm like well certainly yes in yesterday's match I was like well this is probably going to be a break here it was such a weird match yeah I mean Samsonova was a breakup three times in the opening set and didn't even didn't even take it to a tie break or anything didn't even win the

34:36Catherine Whitaker: set like she just every time she went to break up Samsonova she just gave it back straight away and then yeah had that three love double break lead and didn't even get that to anything close to a tie break, just sort of capitulated as soon as she had the lead. She kept being broken from 40 love up as well, Sam Sonova. It was one of those matches which was so weird. And all throughout it, I was, you know, well, certainly when Rebecca was three love down, I was thinking, well, this opportunity to get to world number one has been there for Rebecca over the last few months. And actually, she's had worse losses than Sabalenka in that time.

35:18Catherine Whitaker: You know, if you think to Stara Dupseva at the French Open, she lost to Bolta on the grass, didn't she? She lost to Mertens at Wimbledon. And then I was thinking, oh, she's going to lose to Samsonova. Like, it's been there for her and she just hasn't been able to do it. She did eventually get through, as we say, in a very unconvincing manner, first serve percentage below 50%. I think Osaka's taking her out in the next round. They've never met before, interestingly.

35:47Matt Roberts: She's crazy. And she's looked very convincing. She's been so good. Hasn't dropped a set. Yeah.

35:54Catherine Whitaker: She's been really good.

35:55Matt Roberts: Like really good in a way. Because she's been really good for a while now. You know, obviously Wimbledon was a massive breakthrough for her on grass. Like, is this another level up from Osaka?

36:09Catherine Whitaker: Potentially, yeah. Look, I think the thing with Osaka is what happens when she doesn't quite have her game and she's put under a little bit of stress. I suppose we haven't seen that this run. We obviously saw it in Washington. We saw it at Wimbledon when she obviously served Sabalenka off the court but then didn't have that weapon against Mukova and wasn't quite able to win it. But I don't know, just watching the two of them, Osaka seems so much more convincing than Rebecca at the moment. I'm not sure she will necessarily need to be testing that thing of what happens if it gets really tight. I think she, I mean, if we're back in a serve like that, I think Osaka will win quite comfortably based on how they've been playing so far.

36:56Catherine Whitaker: She's looked brilliant, Osaka, striking the ball so well, good numbers, really clean matches. Okay, she had a little wobble at the start against Fernandes, but immediately got back on track. And yeah, I've been seriously impressed.

37:12Matt Roberts: Yeah, I watched quite a lot of that Fernandes match last night. And the crowd wasn't quite as feral as it was for Mboko in Montreal last year, just because I think, you know, the youth and the unexpectedness and the fairy tale story of Mboko really heightened the senses. But it was still an incredibly partisan Canadian crowd. And that's obviously a situation last year that Naomi Osaka had a very difficult time with and didn't necessarily cope with all that well. And last night it was it was blinkers on stuff. It was very impressive from Osaka. Just cycling back around or a couple of days, Leila Fernandez's win over Mira Andreva, 6-1, 6-4.

37:56Matt Roberts: That was the worst performance I've seen of the week, that Mira Andreva performance. And I, as we've established, watched Rebecca Nisamsonova. Andrava was awful. I was quite taken aback, Matt, by what I saw from Mir Andrava.

38:16Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, again, one of those matches where the scoreline in the second set makes it look a little bit closer than it felt because she had a late rally. but it was 6-1-5-1 to Fernandes and she was absolutely cruising. Fernandes was really good. I was really impressed with her and thought she had great energy and played really well. But Andreva was all at sea. I mean, her forehand was so bad. I mean, it's always been the weaker wing, but it's been a fairly consistent shot. I don't look at it and I'm not on edge thinking it's going to be an error. I'm just thinking, can she actually do much with the ball?

38:59Catherine Whitaker: But it was just error after error. And it was a mix of like real lifelessness. Like I didn't feel like she was there for a lot of the match. And then occasionally she'd get really frustrated and they would cut to Conchita in the stands. And she'd be shaking her head, you know, in the way that she does. And honestly, it just it couldn't have looked more different to the person who won the French Open a few months ago, largely without fuss, really. I mean, the defining feature of that run was how controlled Andreeva was throughout it in matches that she was the favourite in in pretty much all of them.

39:38Catherine Whitaker: She never let that bother her, which we have seen in the past. Well, we seem to be back to the Andreva that we saw sort of back in the last season or through the spring. And it's understandable to an extent when, you know, you win your first Grand Sam title. We've talked about this before. Things change and it feels different. And maybe there's also some fatigue from winning a Grand Sam title that's still there. But I was quite shocked by the state of her game, considering that she'd seemed to have, you know, she'd had a bit of a rest after Wimbledon, and I thought there was going to be a real freshness to her, but there wasn't.

40:19Matt Roberts: Iga Svantec, David, into the quarterfinal, she'll now face Deanna Schneider, who beat Jessica Pagula quite comfortably, actually, three and three for Schneider over Pagula. In terms of Svantec, She'd had those couple of very comfortable victories and then a 3-6, 6-1, 6-2 win over Marta Kostchuk. A pretty frazzled and frustrated Marta Kostchuk by the end of this match. Yeah, a little bit like Andreeva. She just had not got a forehand in this match. I mean, she won that first set. I didn't watch the first set, but I saw the stats that Matt sent us through that I think Shvantec had won one point on a serve in the entire first set.

41:05I mean, that's extraordinary. So you can tell me about the servers. I can tell you what happened late on, which is that Shvantec definitely started to package her game well and tighten things up and play well and allow Kostchuk to just spray the ball all over the shop. And so, you know, I kind of take heart from a Shvantec point of view that she's getting through matches is where she's having the odd bad patch. But, well, what happened in that first set?

41:37Catherine Whitaker: Honestly, like, neither of them could really serve. Like, there was a lot of breaks, but Svantec in particular, it wasn't like her percentage was bad. She was over 60 % first serves in, but it was just a nothing ball. It was so ineffective. And Kostik was doing that thing of stepping in on the return and crushing it, which she kept up through the match. And by the end, Kostiuk just kept missing on those returns and spraying. It was like she was being too stubborn. She needed to rein that in, I think, because it stopped working. But in the first set, it was really working. Could I just clarify here?

42:15Matt Roberts: Iga Shantek won one point on her own serve. Yes. In the opening set of this tennis match.

42:22Catherine Whitaker: And then won the match. It's one of the craziest turnarounds. I don't think I've ever seen a stat like that. Like, no matter how good Kostiuk's return is, Svantec should not be at a point with her serve where she's only winning one point on it in an entire set. It was staggering. But I do feel like she felt like it was a big win. Like, the celebration at the end was big from Svantec, and we just haven't seen that trajectory of match all that much where she's able to turn it around, you know? I felt like that was big for her. Normally it's gone the other way. She's faced some pressure. She's buckled a bit and never got it back.

43:06Catherine Whitaker: Well, she was under severe pressure in that first set, but she turned it around. And yeah, so it's one of those where you come out of it thinking, well, do we focus on the disastrous first set where she couldn't do anything on serve? Or do we focus on the real positive of the next couple of sets where she turned it around? I guess we'll have to wait and see as the tournament goes on. but it could be a breakthrough moment for her. Do you know what I would focus on a little bit is what she said on the court at the end of it, which is, I feel, in a completely different place to earlier in the year.

43:41She was asked about the sort of last match she'd played against Kostiuk and how she'd talked at the French Open about feeling stress and feeling on the edge. You know, she says, I just don't feel like that now. Clearly, she's had a break. She had a bit of time off and she seems a lot happier out there on the court, a lot fresher.

44:01Matt Roberts: Coco Goff, this is a quarterfinal Goff against Bencic. Goff, a very comfortable winner yesterday against Alina Korneva who had beaten Nivy Jovic in straight sets in the previous round. I watched both of those two matches and when I watched Korneva against Jovic, I was like, my God, I think I sent a text to the group saying, does Corneva just not do unforced errors? Because that seems like a great tennis hack. It was such a clean, clinical, tidy performance from Corneva. And then seeing her against Goff was... It was fascinating, actually, because Goff is kind of the nightmare opponent for a young, clean, sort of junior transitioning player because shots that are winners against other players aren't against Coco Goff.

44:50Matt Roberts: You hit this lovely shot, Your whole life, that's been a winner against everybody you've played. And Goff is getting it back into an awkward position. And you just want to be standing there admiring what you did 10 seconds ago. Very relatable for me. But yeah, it was a sort of fascinating case study seeing those two matches back to back. I mean, Jovic is a fantastic mover and hustler on the tennis court. But Goff is just unmatched in that department, isn't she? And is looking quite convincing, Coco Goff? I feel quite convinced by Coco Goff right now.

45:33Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, and it's very different scorelines to what we're used to for Coco Goff. Think of all her good runs this season, Miami, Rome, Wimbledon. And she had so many three-set matches along the way to get there. And we were praising her fighting spirit all the time. But there was part of you thinking, be nice if she won a bit more convincingly. Well, she's been doing that this tournament. She's barely dropping games, really, in sets. Certainly in her last couple of matches, I think she's looked really good. The serve has definitely improved on where it was earlier in the season. And yeah, like the pressure she was able to apply to Kornava on return and in defence was just, I'm sure, unlike anything Kornava had ever experienced.

46:24Catherine Whitaker: And yeah, tasty one against Benchik. That's been a pretty good rivalry, actually, over the last 18 months or so. This will be their seventh meeting since the start of 2025. and five of those six have been won by Goff, but five have also been deciding sets. They're tussles generally when those two play. There's a little bit of edge to it as well and I can't wait for that one.

46:52Matt Roberts: Bencic was the one, David, to end Alexandra Eala's run late last night, well, overnight for us. Eala had won this absolute thriller against Katie McNally a couple of nights before, 6-3, 5-7, 6-4, which I watched quite a lot of, David. I know you watched pretty much in its entirety the next morning. You've got a weird sort of, you're recreating the 90s with VHS with your tennis set up at the moment. It's good, isn't it? It's good stuff. And it was a great match and Ayala was wonderful, but you did say that looked like it might have been the end of the road for Iale. It looked like she might have had to drop the last gasps of what she had in the canister in order to get through that.

47:42Matt Roberts: And last night against Bencic, six love, second set, that take, well, it aged very well. Yeah, McNally's a player I love to watch. And watching her and Iale go toe-to-toe, that is a match I could watch again happily. They're very different type of rallies that you get normally and lots of drop shots, lots of unusual angles visually and a really good tussle. And I mean, you're right, Iala was pushed to the absolute limit in this thing and the atmosphere is so incredible and it sort of pulled her over the line and she said but then the moment she won she sort of her emotions came out and it was sort of as though she was just broken by the weight of it by by the sort of what it had taken for her to get over the line just just made her crumple under the weight of it all she just her features immediately went from this stern intense concentration focus to oh i've done it and i I just can't take any more it looked like it just finished her off really she was very very grateful and happy that she'd managed to she actually sort of said it's so important that I could set up another match to enable this atmosphere she'd managed to get one more occasion out of it and for a few games she did pretty well in this match overnight but honestly she just she was just on empty she was just pushing accelerator when there's no gas left in the tank um and bencic cleaned her up in the second set six love in no time at all and and i was sort of watching the first set thinking again great atmosphere but at what point does iala's progress cost her going forwards at she's i was thinking if she can because she didn't look tired in the first few games.

49:48She looked fine. And I thought, if she goes and wins this and keeps this run going, a bit like Rafael Hodares, you know, and go and win this tournament, say, I think if she wins this tournament, she's got to pull out as Cincinnati because at some point she needs a rest. And actually now she's kind of been made to have a rest because she's lost. So I suspect she will be on the start line at Cincinnati. But yeah, it's an interesting process to watch. And yeah, Bencic. And actually, just a word from McNally. McNally loved that atmosphere the other night. And she sort of wanted to almost tell Iala, thank you for bringing this to our sport and for me to be able to get to share in this.

50:30And that's a lovely feeling.

50:34Catherine Whitaker: I loved that moment so much. And there's a line on the WTA website where apparently McNally got a 10 ,000 plus Instagram following boost after the match with all the Filipino fans like really loving McNally as well. And sending her a lot of nice messages apparently. So that was really nice to see.

51:00Matt Roberts: They're just so positive, aren't they? It's not just the volume of the fandom. but it's the vibe and the positivity. Discovering a sport as well as cheering their own player. They're discovering a sport, it seems. Yeah, that's wonderful. Okay, who are your two finalists and your champion from here? Alexandre vs. Vitalina, winner of that to face the winner of Schneider Svjantek, winner of Bencic Goff to play the winner of Osaka Rabakina. who's coming through each half of the draw. I'm going Svitolina. Svitolina Osaka, I might go. Svitolina Gough. You're going for a Gough-Osaka semi-final? Yeah.

51:52Catherine Whitaker: Yeah.

51:52Matt Roberts: Yeah, me too. Yes, please. Okay. Yeah, I think I'm going Svitolina Gough as well. I think it's Vitalina for the title for me. Yeah. Matt?

52:12Catherine Whitaker: I might go Osaka, you know. Just watching that and thinking, bloody hell, she's playing well. She's in my fantasy team. No trouble at all.

52:23Matt Roberts: OK, that's it for part two. I'll warn you now, I will be doing the same game with the men's in part three. So I don't want any eye rolls when we get to the prediction stage. See you in part three. AI is only as powerful as the platform it's built into. That's why it's no surprise that more than 85 % of the Fortune 500 use the ServiceNow AI platform. While other platforms duct tape tools together, ServiceNow seamlessly unifies people, data, workflows, and AI, connecting every corner of your business. And with AI agents working together autonomously, anyone in any department can focus on the work that matters most.

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53:55Matt Roberts: Welcome back to part three of today's tennis podcast. Heading to Montreal now, where the men's quarterfinals look like this. Daniel Merida will take on Leonard Tien on Tuesday, the winner of that, to face the winner of Jakub Mensik against Ben Shelton also on Tuesday. Tonight's quarterfinals are Rafael Hodder against Artur Fis and Luciano Darderi against Brandon Nakashima. Let's start with Hodder Fis, which in terms of a match-up, probably the one, well, look, it jumps out to us the most, but I'm sure it jumps out to a lot of casuals the most as well. Not just because of the names, the fact that they're young and exciting, but the form they're in as well.

54:41Matt Roberts: Hodder with a 3-3 victory over Yirila Hetchka, Artifis, lit it up against Cameron Norrie, David 6-2, 7-6. And he takes some beating, Cameron Norrie. You have to put that guy away. and that was a real, okay, he'd got those two victories prior to this one, Art of Feast, varying levels of convincing, I would say, in those two matches. He had the racket smash moment in the Schweider match, didn't he, Feast? I was still feeling quite cautious about Art of Feast before this Kamnari match. Now, David, I'm all in. I am pumped. you can only imagine when i am uh he was awesome he was awesome and he was awesome in the first game of this match he hit three winners in his first three points on forehand i mean his forehand is always heavy and it's a good finisher but he doesn't often pull the trigger out of nowhere unless he's really feeling it and he was just they were in a rally cross court forehands and then suddenly he just went down the line and finished the finished the point with no real obvious opportunity to do so just he was hitting it that cleanly um won the first set six two and i mean i i'm amazed that nori managed to get it close in that second set and he got it really close he got two set points in in the tie break but what he does nori as well as fighting incredibly hard i thought he actually played really quite well as well in this match he lost six two seven but uh but you know his level was high i thought nori he is one of the most irritating opponents i think on the tour for an opponent for a tennis player he was shouting allay after every one of the points that he won including on feast errors and including when the ball hadn't even landed from a feast shot you know feast would hit a shot and he would tell that it was going out and he'd You go, Ellie.

56:49And I mean, I'm thinking, you must be getting into his skin because you're getting under my skin. And I'm just sitting there watching.

56:56Matt Roberts: He's really lent into the villain arc, I think, Cam Norrie. He always had a bit of that in him. And, you know, he went to US College, didn't he? And all that sort of sledging, dark arts, shithousery stuff is quite a big thing at US College. but I feel like in the last few years he's really embraced the dark side, don't you think? I wasn't expecting this. Yeah, I think so. I think he had a knock-up against Hodder, didn't he, where he was almost trying to hit him with the ball. Like he was hitting the ball as hard as he possibly could in the knock-up. I think maybe, do you think the aggro he had with Djokovic in Rome, do you think that was like his villain origin story?

57:41Matt Roberts: That was like, okay, I'll be this guy. and the funny thing is he doesn't give you any he doesn't have anything confrontational about him he doesn't sort of then go up to the net and yeah he just he you wouldn't know i mean he's and he's a really nice fellow when you talk to him he's very polite and very helpful and very accommodating but he's just constantly doing this stuff and he doesn't seem to have any conscience about it whatsoever and he knows what he's doing he knows it's here it's i mean and actually to be honest I'm looking at Feast thinking well it doesn't appear to be irritating you at all and I'm waiting for the moment where I mean like I said he got to I think I think Feast had about six match points before he eventually won this match and several of them before the tie break as well and then in the tie break he's facing two set points and I'm thinking if he loses this set after being clearly the better player in it but is it going to come out this this stuff that Norrie's doing I mean And my 14-year-old son joined me for the second set of this match.

58:44And he's a big feast guy, right? He loves artifacts almost as much as I do. Shocking.

58:48Matt Roberts: I wonder where that's from. Yeah. And I said, listen to this. Listen to when he shouts, Allé, to a Frenchman after the Frenchman's missed a shot and the ball hasn't even landed yet. And he listened and he was like, he was really shocked by it that people did that. And it happened two more times. And my son just went, Dad, I really want to say a word that I'm not allowed to say.

59:13Because he was really getting wound up. Yeah, he was getting really wound up by it. And then by the end of it, when Feast won, my son's like jumping around the room. Yes, come on, I'll let you, you know, it's that kind of thing. So look, Feast was really, really good. And I think mentally strong, I think the caution you have to have is always, is he going to pull up lame? Is there going to be a moment where the back or the hip causes a problem? doesn't look like it at the moment. He looks great.

59:43Matt Roberts: And he looks to me like he's developed some confidence in his body. Looking back now at performances from Washington and from the early rounds here, he was probably really nervous about his body and on edge about that. That same anxiety we have about is it going to break down, he's probably got that too. and it looks tentatively like that's fading from certainly the forefront of his mind. I feel more relaxed watching him than I have in a long time. Hodder next. Who's the favourite in that? It's 50-50 to me. I mean, I think on paper you'd say Hodder. He won last week in Washington in straight sets.

1:00:30Matt Roberts: When is Hodder going to run out of gas? Well, he's getting better again. This is the interesting thing. It's almost as though he's hit the ball. He's been really good. And he's having his second win now. Because he's now playing the tennis he was in Madrid and Barcelona when he was destructive. I mean, to beat Lehechka, 3-3. I'm going to go Feiss. Because I actually think... I still think Feiss is a better player. I mean, look, maybe I would say that. But I just think he's... I think his top level is the closest to the very top three in the world, but three or four, if you include Djokovic, obviously.

1:01:10But Hodder is impressing me that he is not just tail-spinning away.

1:01:19Catherine Whitaker: The thing that gets me about Hodder is his return of serve. it is already among the very very best in the world you look up the returning stats on on tour and the players who are always at the top of those stats are the best players return of serve is massive in men's tennis over the last few years and hoddar is right there with like cinema and Alcaraz in the top 10 of all the stats on return. And he's just hurting people on that shot off either wing. It's incredible. And I found the Hodder experience so weird this season. We talked about it a bit the other day. But I think that I've kind of let my own, like, I don't quite know how this guy plays.

1:02:12Catherine Whitaker: I don't quite know what to make of him. And it's been a bit of a weird period without Alcaraz as well. I think I've let that slightly get in the way of just how remarkable what he's doing is. He is, if you take away team events, Opta had this stat, take away team events, Hodder has claimed the most wins of any teenager within their first 50 matches at ATP tour level in the open era. And think of like, there've been some amazing teenagers in that time. and Hodder has racked up so many wins. The consistency is crazy. And what gets me even more is they have this behind-the-scenes cam at Montreal and you can see into the gym.

1:02:58Catherine Whitaker: And there's all these people with their big teams and their physios going through a big workout before a match. Hodder's dad is taking him through his stretching routine. He's the only guy there. and yet it's working it's like he's breaking the mold of these people having big teams now i still think he might need to go down that route in the future but it's remarkable to see it working so well at this time it's so like uncomplicated which is kind of what his tennis is when it's at his when he's at his best as well and i look at feasts and i'm more excited by feasts like way more like his explosiveness and his personality on court and his potential with the you know with that forehand in particular but i do think it's possible that hodd are just like And he chops him up a bit in the way that he sort of keeps doing to people.

1:03:58Catherine Whitaker: Like he sees the serve and he just sort of destroys it. And it's just hard to grasp, I think, with Hodder in a way that Feast, I get Feast. I know what Feast is about.

1:04:12Matt Roberts: Yeah, yeah.

1:04:13Catherine Whitaker: I'm just struggling a bit more with Hodder. But that's not to say he's not as good.

1:04:18Matt Roberts: He's 13 in the live rankings. there's a potential for him to break the record of shortest gap on the ATP between breaking the top 100 and breaking the top 10, which is currently held by Boris Becker, who won Queen's and Wimbledon back-to-back as a 17-year-old.

1:04:36Catherine Whitaker: Decent.

1:04:37Matt Roberts: Yeah, that'll do it.

1:04:39Catherine Whitaker: And there's potential for him to obliterate it.

1:04:41Matt Roberts: Yeah, absolutely. And do it without winning a slap. Do it with, you know, obviously he's had big results, but do it kind of with consistency, which isn't how teenagers tend to break records like this. That's what both of these two guys have done, actually. This season is, I mean, I think Fies has now reached his fourth Masters 1000 quarterfinal of the year and has got a decent ranking. And he's only played the one Grand Slam tournament. And Hardai, yes, he got to the quarterfinals of the French. which I still don't quite know how he pulled that off, given the state he looked. But yeah, just the consistency and the refusal to just tail away.

1:05:28Amazing.

1:05:29Matt Roberts: The winner of Hod 'ar Feast places the winner of Darderi Nakashima. The agenda, David, informs me that you have Nakashima takes, which I think might be a first on the tennis podcast. I don't know whether I would say takes, but I'm interested in a fact and a correlation of results with that fact. The fact is that Wayne Ferreira is now his coach and has been with him since Queens. He reached the semifinals of Queens. He had big wins in Washington. He went deep in Washington. And I just, I mean, look, I haven't spoken to Wayne. I saw Wayne in Wimbledon, and he's always really nice to us, you know, Wayne Ferreira.

1:06:18We've had a lot of dealings with him over the years, and he's done a lot of coaching. I mean, he had great success with Francis Tiafoe. I think Tiafoe played the best tennis of his career whilst Wayne Ferreira was his coach. He had a short period of time with Jack Draper. He had a fairly short time with Alexi Popperin. and like I say I'm wary of drawing sort of cause and effect with things but semifinals of Queens in Washington he went and beat Jakub Menchik he beat Alex de Menor, did Nakashima he pushed Taylor Fritz very close to a third set and here he's gone and beaten Artur Indeknes he's got to the quarterfinals you know he's had two long three set wins feels like that partnership has has definitely added an extra something to him and and he's he's always been a really consistent accurate server and he's got a good solid baseline game with a really good backhand everything sort of works well he's like classic american player on a hard court of being at his best there um so he he takes some putting away and yeah i'm just interested to see whether that partnership and ferrera's got a bit of spike to him hasn't he you know we we know him well enough and nakashima always seems to lack that at least you can't get a read on well how much of a sort of mongrel is he on a court is he is he got some of that scrappiness that i certainly think wayne ferrera will want to you'll want to see some confrontational tennis almost from him certainly some scrapping that yeah that's a great point look i

1:08:02Matt Roberts: he's a distinct personality Wayne isn't he I can see why it doesn't work with some players and it doesn't work quite quickly and dramatically I can see why you know he's got into things Jack Draper for example and it's just clearly not been not been the right fit but I can also see why when it does click it really clicks and it it really works you know we saw that with his partnership with Tiafoe for a long time. Those remain Francis Tiafoe's best results. He clearly had Tiafoe's ear and Tiafoe was prepared to listen and buy in. I think if he gets someone's buy in, I can see why that yields results.

1:08:47Matt Roberts: I've been to some weird places with Wayne Ferreira. Just want to clarify that?

1:08:57Matt Roberts: stranded in Chengdu crumpled in tears crumpled in tears on the floor of Beijing airport nightclubs in Chile in the back of a cab with a drunk Mark Philippou nursing a drunk Mark Philippou you were running the public relations for the Champions Tour weren't you and he was on it well you were running the public relations for the Champions Tour I was... Representing me. Representing David, yeah. In the back of a cab with the drunk Mark Philopousis. In the middle seat, no less.

1:09:42Catherine Whitaker: He's the oldest player left in the field, Nakashima, and he only turned 25 last week.

1:09:51Matt Roberts: Yeah, new balls please, David.

1:09:53Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, it's the first time ever that all eight quarter finalists at an HEP event have been born in the 2000s. Oh, God.

1:10:03Matt Roberts: Everyone was so desperate for Bertic van der Zanderskamp to lose so that they could have that stat. Leave my guy Bertic alone. Bertic's not good for the movement. He's not good for the movement. Absolutely not. like as much as this has been a weird tournament like i would say tn menship shelton hodd our

1:10:31Catherine Whitaker: feast like they're the they're the young guys who are exciting to me and like they're there in this draw and fonseca was there in the previous round and like there's there's just this thing where some of the players you maybe expect to take advantage of the situation ATP Tau's in at the moment can't quite capitalise on it, like a Medvedev and an Augerius Seam and a Dimonor. But then you've got this, as David was talking about, this newer wave, this younger wave, and they're kind of here in Canada right now. And it's going to be interesting to see which one of them it is, I suppose.

1:11:16Matt Roberts: Ben Shelton faces Jakub Menchik, winner of that to face Merida or Tien. Shelton getting the better of Fonseca last night 6-3, 7-6. He was three love in that second set was Fonseca. Got broken back and then seemed to tweak something in his foot or in his ankle. And we're reassured that it's fine. He didn't call the trainer at the time. And yet he totally went off the boil after that moment. I think he was shocked. I think he was worried. He lost all the momentum in the match, immediately lost serve, just wasn't the same player. His whole vibe changed, Fonseca. But Shelton was good in this match.

1:12:02Matt Roberts: David, I know you watched it as well. looking at it through the lens of what Matt was saying about Hodder and the return you know the return stats pretty much correlating with the rankings you know and the return has been one of the areas that Ben Shelton has had to work on and improve in his game and I had the commentators I think it was Colin Fleming in this match and in Shelton's previous match talk about how that was what he went back to the practice court to work on after his defeat to Otto Werthinen at Wimbledon in the opening round, which was a shocker, really, for Ben Shelton, given his expectations and the level of opportunity.

1:12:44Matt Roberts: Where does the Shelton return look like it's at to you, David? Yeah, I think his game looks like it is rounding into form nicely now. That was a good performance, I agree with you. and actually he got his serve broken in the very first game by Fonseca who came out feeling the incredibly well I thought eventually had that that nasty little ankle turn that he had in the second set but I think Shelton did well to kind of immediately break back and get into that first set and turn it around and just I just got the sense that obviously the serve is always going to be a weapon but you need more than that and you need more than serving big forehand these days you need the backhand to stand up you need to be able to as you say be able to make returns he just looks like he's training in the right direction when there's so many players of the big names I don't feel like that about they're either struggling or they're injured Shelton I mean he did it last year you know he won this tournament last year kind of need kind of hit the wall in cincinnati and then played the best tennis i think he's ever felt he's played at a grand slam in the u.s open and then had a terrible injury so rounding around nicely into form and hopefully

1:14:06Catherine Whitaker: you can stay full of it i think the matchup with menship will be interesting from a shelton return perspective because i do think that one of the things about the fonseca serve is that he likes to kick it and you know his his natural kick is to the Shelton forehand and I felt like Shelton was able to just take a step back in the court and actually take a full swing at the return and he was pretty comfortable doing that I think it's situations like at Werton and on a quick grass court at Wimbledon where he's not got the time what are his hand skills like on the on the return and I think there's still some question marks there and I think Menship will test that a little bit more than Fonseca, whose serve was kind of in and out through the match, I think.

1:14:51Matt Roberts: Yeah, he wasn't happy with his serve yesterday, Fonseca. It was a lovely match in terms of the amount that they both were at the net. Really pleasing from that point of view. And Brian Shelton is encouraging Ben to be there. He was there a lot anyway, and Brian Shelton still wanted more of that. and Fonseca was up there a lot as well. It was a nice tennis match. Peace was watching. Yes. And Merida. He was. Yes, and Merida. And Trinity Rodman surprised him. He shut the door in her face. Then reopened it, but yeah. Menchik, David, he was your pick for the title in the last pod. we could talk about Eka Menshik or we could talk about Greg Allensworth yes he delivered a shutdown of a spectator who apparently was sort of heckling the players and delivering his own advice which which Menshik was at pains to tell Greg Allensworth this is the second time it's happened same guy and Greg just when it went quiet he just said ladies and gentlemen the players have their own coaches who they pay money to and and so could you please stop giving them advice they have their own fantastic coaches and menshe just sort of went

1:16:26Catherine Whitaker: it was the perfect level of umpire sass yeah perfect little twinkle in the eye This is why Craig Tiley's idea is to put umpires in bunkers beneath the court. It's something I just can't get on board with. We need those moments.

1:16:47Matt Roberts: Keep Greg out in the open. A little mention for Bertic's shot of the tournament, please. Oh, I mean.

1:17:00Catherine Whitaker: What a play. Unbelievable. Herkacz smashes the ball at him And he sort of swerves his body out the way But moves his racket Like the Matrix Yeah, it's unbelievable Gets his racket on it Has the control on it To get it back And yeah, he saved a couple of match points Didn't he, to beat Hubert Herkacz But then, as we predicted He will eventually lose

1:17:26Matt Roberts: Yes, absolutely

1:17:27Catherine Whitaker: Nice run Classic Nice run for him

1:17:29Matt Roberts: So Merida Tien, winner to face the winner of Menchik Shelton Hodda Feast, the winner to face Darderi Nakashima

1:17:38Catherine Whitaker: Merida, by the way Yeah He'd never won a match on a hardcore On a hardcore, right? At tour level before this Bonkers And is now in the quarters And like, he's now in the top 40 And obviously he's been overshadowed by Hodda and everything he's done But this has been a pretty crazy breakout season for him as well.

1:18:00Matt Roberts: And I like his backhand a lot. Spain have got going. Could do the World Cup-Davis Cup double this year. I'd have thought.

1:18:09Catherine Whitaker: And Tien, I've been a bit worried about his arm. Like even before yesterday, I thought there were times where the last few matches I've seen him play, going back a bit. I felt like maybe something's bothering him on his arm. His forehand hasn't been quite so good. and then yesterday had the tape against Tarante. And yet he's also been quite good and beating people pretty convincingly. So I don't quite know what to make of that one.

1:18:36Matt Roberts: Who are your finalists? Who is your winner? David, you went Menchik in the last pod. Is he still your champion? Yeah, I am. Inevitably, now that Antovisa's started to get going, I've got whipped up and I'm starting to regret that because I think it's going to be a feast Menchik final Do you think Menchik's taking out Shelton? Yeah I do I think he'll win a serving contest I just think he's taking care of business really straightforwardly I think that'll probably be 7-6 in the third or something and I kind of feel like Menchik will get the better of it Very funny moment by the way with Lerner Tien and Tommy Paul at the net the other day where Tien showed Tommy Paul his cramping leg after just having beaten him 6-3, 6-2.

1:19:23And Paul's like, you know, don't tell me that now. You know, you've just destroyed me and you've got cramp. I mean, bloody hell. And by the way, just one of the final little note before I hand over to Matt for his predictions. I'm going to go for Mensik over Feast in the final. I wasn't quite aware of the fact that Montreal's planning this huge stadium renovation and building a new stadium, I think for probably in about five or six years time. and a lot of protests being had about it because it's going to take up a bit more of the park that the thing's built on. But it's going to be 15 ,000 seats up from 11 now and it will have a retractable roof.

1:20:01So that would be quite a moment.

1:20:04Matt Roberts: Yeah, they do suffer with rain. Yeah, they need a roof really, don't they? I like that stadium, I really do. But yeah, that seems like a good plan.

1:20:14Catherine Whitaker: Do you have a favourite out of Montreal, Toronto when you watch it, the look of it on the telly?

1:20:20Matt Roberts: It's tough for me because I've been to both. So it's hard for me to just go on the telly. But Montreal is my strong... I enjoyed both very much, but I really love Montreal. I do like that stadium. The press room is fantastic there. So it's really hard for me to divorce that experience and just drill it down to the televisual experience. What about you?

1:20:52Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, I feel like Montreal just feels on the telly a little bit more intimate, like the crowd's just a little bit more on top of the players.

1:20:59Matt Roberts: That's how it feels when you're there as well.

1:21:02Catherine Whitaker: Right. I do like that. I feel like you get atmospheres whipped up in Montreal in quite a way. But they're both great. They both look good on the telly, I think.

1:21:15Matt Roberts: Matt, your predictions?

1:21:19Catherine Whitaker: I will go with Shelton.

1:21:22Matt Roberts: For the title?

1:21:24Catherine Whitaker: For the final.

1:21:26Matt Roberts: Yeah.

1:21:27Catherine Whitaker: Coming through that sort of coin flip match against Mensik.

1:21:37Catherine Whitaker: I'm feeling Hodder, you know. so I'm going to go Shelton Hodder final with Hodder to win yeah

1:21:49Matt Roberts: and then pull out of Cincinnati you can't keep going I think he should surely I think he should

1:21:56Catherine Whitaker: because like if we're talking if we're talking about doubts over Sino and Alcaraz yeah like absolutely Hodder's got a shot at the US Open but I don't think he would pull out no No, doesn't seem to be in his DNA, does it?

1:22:14Matt Roberts: Certainly not at the moment. OK, so we've got Monday, Tuesday is when the quarterfinals in Canada are being played. The semifinals are all on Wednesday in Montreal and in Toronto. Thursday are the finals and it is also the first day of Cincinnati because there aren't enough days in the tennis calendar as we've established. And that means that Friday is our next show, our post-Canada live. YouTube show, 8pm live on YouTube, also available as a podcast, of course. And we will be talking about everything that happens between now and Friday in Canada and the first day of Cincinnati when probably absolutely nothing of note will have happened because it takes about five days for these tournaments to get going.

1:23:01Matt Roberts: But we'll talk about it anyway because that's what we do here on the Tennis Podcast. So Friday at 8pm is our next show, my dad's birthday. Oh, so that's his evening entertainment lined up. Did your mum have a good birthday, Matt? She did.

1:23:19Catherine Whitaker: Yes, she had a lovely day. I would highly recommend the David Bowie Lightroom thing. Great. Very cool.

1:23:30Matt Roberts: Very pleased to hear that. I had a sneaky peek at the mascot today. It was like I knew it was going to be a good one. So I let myself have a scroll to the bottom. It's a double header. It is two dogs that are very clearly friends and are wearing matching bandanas. It is Archie and Alfie. We know Archie and Alfie. They are owned by Amanda Kirkland and they are three Peters. Archie is a mini golden doodle and Alfie is a petite golden doodle. both doodles love watching tennis with their parents Amanda says I didn't mention my husband in last year's blurb and got in trouble and they live it's not a shout out for your husband Amanda it's a shout out for Archie and Alfie I think that's fine you still haven't mentioned his name but you have mentioned that there is a husband that exists and they live in New Jersey look at these dogs come on they've got tennis ball bandanas on I think their paws are touching I think they might be I think that Archie's back paw is sort of holding paws with no no Alfie's back paw and Archie's front paw they are wonderful I love them very much thank you for getting my week off to the perfect start by looking at two doodles being friends thank you Amanda Thank you, Archie and Alfie, for being three Pete mascots.

1:25:06Matt Roberts: We love that. Hello to our mascots, Bodhi, Maisie and Roger. Hello to our top folks and executive producers, Greg, Chris and Jeff. And we'll head to Matt for some shout outs.

1:25:18Catherine Whitaker: We have Andrew Greenhoff from Bristol. We know Andrew. Hello, Andrew. Hi, Andrew. Andrew says, I met David Catherwood and Matt at the US Open in 2023 at the Alcaraz Medvedev semifinal, and we had a wide-ranging conversation about a few things, including VPNs and ticket prices.

1:25:38Matt Roberts: I remember that. Didn't we recommend NordVPN?

1:25:42Catherine Whitaker: Probably.

1:25:43Matt Roberts: It's served us well for many years. That was... Do you remember that Medvedev performance? Yeah.

1:25:51Catherine Whitaker: Yeah. Didn't he say he needed to play, like, 11 out of 10 or something? And then he very much did.

1:25:56Matt Roberts: and then was bad against Djokovic in the final. He had one set against Djokovic that lasted two hours

1:26:06Catherine Whitaker: and then the rest of it was pretty mad. I think I saw you, David, after you've been commentating on that and you were shoving a chocolate muffin in. You were like, I need sugar. I was finished. I needed the US Open to end right then.

1:26:24Matt Roberts: Well, it did. Thank goodness. Andrew, thank you very much for allowing us to have this mini tennis relived.

1:26:35Catherine Whitaker: We also have Jen Amadeo, who is from Wilton, Connecticut.

1:26:41Matt Roberts: What a name, Jen.

1:26:44Catherine Whitaker: Right, Jen. She's put in brackets like Amadeus Mozart, which is rather excellent.

1:26:50Matt Roberts: I watched the film Amadeus when I was really little at a music camp and it gave me nightmares. Have you seen the film Amadeus? No, I remember it being advertised. I'm still afraid to watch it as an adult because it gave me terrible nightmares.

1:27:11Catherine Whitaker: What was music camp? What did you play?

1:27:18Matt Roberts: Well, at the time I played the piano and I was in the early stages of the viola. I took up the viola with my friend Sarah Sue, who Matt has met in Dublin. At the same time that she took up violin. She is now a professional violinist.

1:27:33Catherine Whitaker: You took different pals. We took...

1:27:37Matt Roberts: Yeah, and our talent gap was quite clear from early on. And I was at music camp with Sarah. And she's got that thing, David, that you've got where she can just hear a tune and play it, which is the most extraordinary skill that I don't know why you don't talk about more. Yeah. And it very much felt like one of us belongs here and one of us should probably be at sport camp. And I couldn't be a professional whatever she is. But I appreciate the... By Linus, David. By Linus. so yeah anyway jen like jen says brady yeah yes jen says i always feel like i'm spending time with

1:28:22Catherine Whitaker: my friends when i listen to this podcast i'm hoping to finally meet you at the u.s open this year it seems like it should have happened already but i'm determined to find you and say hello in september good idea david is very easy to spot yeah i just hang about in case people find me

1:28:42Matt Roberts: He has actually been known to do that.

1:28:45Catherine Whitaker: Yeah.

1:28:46Matt Roberts: Thank you, Jen. See you in New York.

1:28:49Catherine Whitaker: And finally, we have Debbie Goldstein from Israel.

1:28:55Matt Roberts: Hello, Debbie. Hi, Debbie.

1:28:57Catherine Whitaker: And we met Debbie, David and I did, at Wimbledon this year. Debbie was part of the Barger meetup on the hill. And Debbie says, being there for the first time after so many years of only watching on TV was truly a dream come true. I met so many fellow bargers as well as Matt and David in person. I'm still hoping to meet Catherine. Unfortunately, we weren't allowed in on time before the pod started. Still, I had a lovely chat with Catherine's father, which made the day even more memorable.

1:29:34Matt Roberts: That's better than meeting me, Debbie, meeting the captain. oh that's so lovely there's been some incredible Rachel Barge birthday content this week, I mean she's birthdaying like Hilton John Rachel go on Rachel it's incredible yeah there's been some lovely wholesome Barge, but Barge is celebrating Rachel and her birthday and she was at the Barge meet up at Wimbledon as well wasn't she it's very heartwarming stuff so thank you Debbie for being a part of that community it's very very special to us Debbie Andrew and Jen thank you very much for being friends of the tennis podcast if you'd like to become a friend of the pod then the link to do that is in our show notes we are part of the athletic podcast network our next show is Friday and it is live on YouTube at 8pm UK time if you would like to join us for that and get involved in the chat.

1:30:36Matt Roberts: We will see you and speak to you then.

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