Live from Wimbledon Day 10 - The Fery tale continues!

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1:26Hello and welcome to the tennis podcast live from Wimbledon and presented by Barclays,

1:32Matt Roberts: the official banking partner of Wimbledon coming to you on day 10 of the championships, the day that 23-year-old British wildcard Arthur Ferry became just the second man to reach a Wimbledon semi-final. As a wildcard, these are not hecklers for the tennis podcast. We are being caught in the crossfire of some John McEnroe heckling. Come on, John, boy! You cannot be serious. Excuse me, four-graph. I love you, bud. I love you, mate. I've been here for ages. Just two cents of your life. I'm a doggone you are. I'm a sconceman. I've been blind. We're live here, John. We're live on air at the moment.

2:26Thank you, John. Yeah, you are, yeah. Yeah. Well, he's delivered. Thankfully.

2:40In case you didn't hear that, it was, can I have a photo with my wife? She calls you the silver fox.

2:48Just standard day here on the Wimbledon roof, have to play. I had so many Arthur Ferry puns lined up. Let's use them up. Now feel so much after the Lord Mayor show. Wow, what a...

3:09Hello and welcome to the Chinese podcast. Live from Wimbledon, coming to you on day 10 of the championships, the day that 23-year-old British wildcard Arthur Ferry became just the second man to reach a Wimbledon semifinal as a wildcard. The first, of course, being your friend of mine, David Goran, Eva Nizovich, who ended up going all the way back in 2001, before Arthur Ferry was born. David, you were out there in Arthur's Barmy Army on Centre Court. Matt, you were reporting from the hill, or the seat. The seat, you might say.

3:50Matt Roberts: The seat, if you like, where it was standing room only. I think, in fact, I heard they were turning people away from the hill. Such was its level of busyness.

3:58Catherine Whitaker: They were indeed. I was introduced to the one-way system of the hill, which I'm sure is very familiar to a lot of people who spend time on the hill. But it was my first time experiencing it that busy in recent years that they had put this one-way system in. And I went to try and find your brother, got told I'd gone the wrong way around the hill and had to walk all the way around. It was packed out there. A lot of sunburn. Couldn't even find a six-foot-six-inch man in a Panama hat. That's how busy it was out there. David, brace yourselves for an hour of this folks is it safe to say that fairy fever is sweeping the nation?

4:35The fairy tale continues I'll just cross them off as we go along Let's just stop immediately I hate it already even though I've partaken in it

4:47David Law: Yeah, but there was fairy fever out inside that stadium and I'm getting messages from all sorts of people in my life who don't really follow tennis, who are interested in Arthur Ferry. And it's not surprising the way he's playing. I mean, this is an absolutely incredible run that he is putting together. And the matter-of-fact nature of how he's doing it, both on the court as a player and then in the interview room afterwards, is astounding to me. Where are his nerves? He says he's nervous. He says he comes out onto the court nervous. He doesn't look nervous. I mean, in his post-match press conference, he was asked you know if I if I'd have asked you um or if I'd have told you you were going to be in the semi-finals of this tournament two weeks ago what would you have said he said yeah yeah um you know um I've always thought I'm one of the best you know I'm capable of playing against some of the best players in the world and you know I thought I could do it and I've done it and I thought this is great I love this I love this attitude but in terms of how he played I mean he was even better than he was against Dimitrov.

5:56David Law: He's had some pretty significant dips in level and energy during matches over the course of this fortnight. He was a set and a breakdown against Damir Jumma in the first round. Let's not forget that. He was on his way out against Sisu Berg. He was a very, very good player. That's okay if he'd have lost that match. I'm amazed that he didn't lose it, quite honestly, given he was 4-1 double breakdown in the fourth set, 4-1 down in the fifth set. He managed to win that match. He's two sets to one down and a breakdown against Grigor Dimitrov the next round. But today, there were no dips. He came out from ball one and he dominated Flavio Caballi.

6:36David Law: It was absolutely incredible tennis. The timing of this guy, the cleanliness of the hit, the way he hits the tennis ball on the backhand side in particular, is right up there. It was a gorgeous performance. and then he kind of broke Cabali. In that third set, Cabali was a broken man who was resorting to sort of asking the crowd to cheer him because he was feeling down in the dumps. That was a tough moment, was it, when he did the finger to the ear? Talk about reading the room wrong. I mean, I love you, Flavio, but that was a bad moment for you. And he was appealing line calls that were just never going to be changed, you know because he basically because he couldn't believe what was happening to him how it how

7:24Matt Roberts: comprehensively he was being outplayed yeah and look we'll come on to the caballi of it all in a minute but for arthur ferry to play his best match of the tournament in the quarterfinals is you just

7:36Catherine Whitaker: don't do that yeah it was outrageous he totally outplayed caballi like completely in all departments and you know he talked a lot in the press conference very about how comfortable he felt going on to the court because he'd already played caballi in australia i quite enjoyed by the way all the all the different variations of watery shits that people were coming up with today like claire balding on the bbc said caballi had trouble with his tummy yeah other people have to adhere to ofcom regulations when they're describing flavia caballi's bowel issues simon briggs went with acute gastric distress that was really enjoyable to me uh and yeah he looked comfortable right from the start it was it was it was similar to what you said immediately when we watched him against Dimitrov David you were like oh his game is handling Dimitrov's game and causing him problems it's just that today as you said he didn't have the dips he just kept it going the whole match and the better player throughout and the scoreline actually looked very very similar to their match in Australia and this one today was because Ferry outplayed him so much and there was a moment where he went up a break at the start of the third having already gone two sets of love up but Caballi had breakback points right there and then and I think I think that was the only moment in the match where I thought okay if Caballi can get this game Ferry might feel the moment because he's been he's got in such a good position here and caballi threw everything at him in that game and ferry resisted he he produced two breakpoint saves both with these back pedaling smashes that was just awesome athleticism and hand skills up at the net and that blend and combination of tennis he had today playing on the front foot dictating when he could but also moving so well at the back and neutralising everything that Caballi had in defence, throwing in drop shots, willingness to come forward.

9:41Catherine Whitaker: Everything we've talked about as being elements of his game all came to the fore today. It was superb. He was really very good against a poor Caballi. I do think that was a part of this match as well, that Caballi didn't really turn up, to be quite honest. and said in his press conference that, to me, he sounded underprepared. You know, in the press conference, he was like, I don't know whether that was better than his other matches this tournament because I've not watched them. I would have thought that he should have probably watched Ferry coming into this match.

10:18Matt Roberts: It was so weird because I was so on alert for this performance from Flavio Caballi all the way through his French Open run. but because it never came I then sort of let my guard down with Flavio.

10:32Catherine Whitaker: And I was on alert for it right at the start of this tournament.

10:34Matt Roberts: Right, exactly.

10:35Catherine Whitaker: I thought that turnaround from Roland Garros was going to be really, really tough but given he'd got into the tournament and started playing really well I didn't see this one coming today.

10:45Matt Roberts: Yeah, and look, I do think largely he was just outplayed. I think the third set was really poor from Caballi. I thought there was a lack of effort issue there which I know it's been a tough few weeks and months, but I don't love to see that at a slam in a quarterfinal. I didn't love that from Flavio. I'll get over it, but it was very not Hulk-like.

11:09David Law: He certainly didn't dig in, did he? No. He went for some shots. There was one rally where he read the serve and he stepped around it and tried to crash a forehand, which he did. But Ferry got back into the rally and the amount of times he just turned a rally around, which I think really shocked Caballi. As quick as he is and good hands of his own, but he was being one-upped in every facet of the game.

11:33Matt Roberts: Incredible quote, I thought, from Caballi, who was down in the dumps in press and made it clear that he'd already booked his flight home. I think he had mentally booked his flight home during the third set, hadn't he? But in between the match and the press conference, which was not very much time, he'd already booked his flight home, could not wait to get out of there. he said maybe I wasn't so humble today basically he said the guy is 114 in the world he's here on a wild card he's played way more tennis than I have particularly in the last round most notably he just expected to win today and that came with pressure and it also came with I think totally underestimating his opponents you know in his mind and honestly in my mind ahead of this match He was thinking, OK, I lost to him in Australia, but I had the watery shits.

12:24Matt Roberts: Whereas Ferry was thinking, I beat this guy in Australia. OK, he wasn't 100%, but I beat him. And he took a lot from that and Caballi dismissed it. And I think, you know, good on him for admitting that maybe he took Ferry lightly. But I do think maybe that is what happened today.

12:46Catherine Whitaker: yeah it was definitely my sense from watching it and then confirmed i think in in the press conference with those with those comments and yeah look ferry did did play very very well he really did i i think we've i think we've done the cabali chat there and we should probably go back to go back to ferry and like the thing is i do you know i was surprised by the level he brought today and I have been watching Ferry's matches through the tournament. I thought he brought an even better level today. And all along his coaches have been saying he does well under pressure and he likes it when the moments are big and all that kind of thing, which you kind of expect coaches to say.

13:27Catherine Whitaker: They're not going to say, oh, my play is a disaster when the pressure is on. But actually I really do feel like he's lived up to that word. In a lot of these matches when he's been down in the score, he's played well. and today stepping on centre core he was he was so comfortable so quickly and i was very very

13:46Matt Roberts: impressed could i just say pam shriver is in the chat right now live from a transatlantic flight

13:54Catherine Whitaker: that's good stuff but that's good tech yeah from pam very well done virgin atlantic

14:02um hannah's trying to ask what she thinks of marty kostrick's forehand so we might have those

14:07Matt Roberts: takes for later in the show. Going back to Arthur Ferry's analysis of his own game from that press conference, bit of a tough scene for you, Matt, trying to make the David Goffin comp happen.

14:22Catherine Whitaker: I know.

14:23Matt Roberts: Because he mentioned quite a few names and none of them were David Goffin.

14:26Catherine Whitaker: I almost shouted out, what about Goffin?

14:30Matt Roberts: He mentioned Kei Nishikori.

14:32Catherine Whitaker: Well, that was put to him, I think, wasn't it? Yes, it was. He was told that he'd been, you know, that Nishikori is... Yes, bigger forehand Nishikori. A coach has described him a bit like Nishikori. It's a good comparison. It is, yeah.

14:45Matt Roberts: Similarly sort of compact and fast arm, similar size.

14:49Catherine Whitaker: I think he's more natural coming to the net than Nishikori was, to be honest. Nishikori was a very, very good baseliner, but he would stay on the baseline, whereas Ferry likes to get forward.

15:03Matt Roberts: He said, I know I've been compared to Agassi. which I thought, oh, you've given them their headline there. Wow. What do you make of that, David? King of the 90s? Agassi comparison?

15:14David Law: Listen, production of strokes, Matthew's just questioning whether I'm the king of the 90s here. Let's not forget who actually won the competition, Matthew, two years ago. We have the receipts, so don't try and question it. What do you think of the Agassi comparison, Matthew? Okay, Matthew's getting asked now. He turned off serve early board, but Agassi never came to the net.

15:35Matt Roberts: he said return of serve early ball yes but Agassi never came to the net true and and I think that I

15:41David Law: asked Arthur about what he thinks of his own return of serve in the press comments because he's plumbly well going to need it against Alexander Zverev um and he he rates it you won't be surprised he said uh yeah I'm a great returner um you know but um obviously he's got a world-class serve etc but i love the fact that he just sort of yeah he says i've been really working on my return but i've got i've got a good one um i've been watching a lot of agassiz on youtube on the way home from these shows we're trying to chat to david and he's just on his phone watching highlights of not even wimbledon from the 90s youtube just suggests stuff doesn't it you know and that it just seems to know me and suddenly i'm like it's offering me paris bercy in 1994 between Sampras and Agassi.

16:35And I'm like, you've nailed it. Hang on, I'm right up for this. Hell yeah. And so I watch it and then it offers me another one. Amazing. So maybe that's the algorithm.

16:46David Law: So I've been watching a lot of this and nobody returned like Agassi. I've just been listening to John McInern on his show talking about Jimmy Connors was the toughest returner on grass. And I really believe, I watched a lot of that, but I believe Agassi was superior. He was returning the serve of Goran Ivanovic and Pete Sampras on grass and hitting them for clean winners when they're coming in. Now, those are kind of comparisons that are apt of what Ferry's going to face here from such a height. The only thing is Zverev doesn't come in that much. But he's going to have to return like that. I don't know whether...

17:25David Law: The problem is I don't even know if he can reach the ball. It's one thing to be able to make good contact on a super fast ball. He did that against Dimitrov. He was able to clean. He's got a great hand-eye coordination. That's where I really do see the Agassi comparison. But in terms of reaching a ball that's coming down at those angles, I think that's a problem.

17:46Matt Roberts: Yeah, I mean, Luxveria's serve is a problem for anyone. And the first serve percentage too, Catherine. Yeah.

17:51David Law: Like 80-odd percent.

17:53Matt Roberts: Yeah. There was a very elegant distancing of himself from being French in the press conference, wasn't there? Like, my parents are French, love France, very much British. But I am a British man at Wimbledon, please treat me as such.

18:11Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, he said if you'd asked me ten years ago, I might have had a different answer. But I've gone to school here. Our French colleagues keep on asking. And I respect it.

18:20Matt Roberts: He does have, he doesn't, he doesn't speak English with a French accent at all. But there is something in the way he says, uh, that is very, very French. Yeah, I really enjoy it. It's sort of, yeah, it's, if you know, you know, I think. And yeah, he speaks beautiful French, obviously. Both his parents are French, aren't they? But he, he went to, I mean, he went to school. He went to the private school down the road in, in Wimbledon. Did I see a member's badge on his mum? yeah I think they kept camera kept cutting to his mum who was not I mean you know maybe it was different inside than on the outside but she seemed to be having a great time you know when you see Yannick Sinner's mum watching him it's like someone tell her he's the best player in the world and it's probably going to be fine because she's not having fun Arthur Ferry's mum's having a whale of a time and that fits entirely with the way Arthur seems to be going about it so like I don't really see what the big deal it.

19:20Catherine Whitaker: By the way you mentioned Yannick Sinner do you want to know something that Yannick Sinner and Arthur Ferry have got in common? Well Wimbledon semi-finals Yep Their last match before this tournament they both lost to Juan Manuel Sorundelo Wow. Arthur Ferry on the grass in Eastbourne and Sinner of course in Paris.

19:42Matt Roberts: So we need to be looking out for Juan Manuel Sorundelo's activity in Cincinnati Right. Okay noted regular listeners and viewers of the tennis podcast will know that Matthew pledged to go blonde if Arthur Ferry wins Wimbledon I don't know if Matthew went blonde before Matt stole my bit still up for that Matthew? are you starting to become a bit worried that that might actually happen? the answer is yes folks his face is saying yes

20:16Catherine Whitaker: for the first time all fortnight speechless.

20:20Matt Roberts: Could it actually happen? I mean, it could. You know, if somebody had told me he'd be in the semi-finals, I wouldn't have believed that. Like, does he... Is he in the mix? Yeah, is he in the mix? Will you be surprised?

20:34Catherine Whitaker: No, he's not in the mix. I agree. It's still a surprise, isn't it?

20:38Matt Roberts: So he's the only one not in the mix. He's a Leeds Mons. He absolutely can. I mean, he's got two tennis matches to win. it's not many and anything can happen that's what I love about it he's in the mix to reach the final isn't he, you give him a chance against Verov do you? yeah

21:01David Law: heavy underdog in my assessment of it when I was watching the first set with you Catherine we were in the restaurant just because I'd done the commentary of the Kostjuk against Paulini match

21:12Matt Roberts: because it was air conditioned it has been hotter than the sun

21:15David Law: We were there for different reasons, but we were enjoying ourselves nonetheless. We were watching the match, and it was close in the Kabbalith Ferry, but there was still no suggestion that, okay, Ferry's definitely going to win this match. And I just said to you, if Ferry plays Zverev, it's going to be awful for him because of the way his ball comes through. I just think Zverev is going to love it, and he's going to just serve him off the court. and that may well still be the case because i kind of thought you know the the backhand just gets neutralized because ferr's got an even better backhand from the baseline at least um good nice slice and then i was starting to get down very low very closely and the way the sheer repertoire that ferry has um and how unperturbed he seems and i did sort of think well maybe that's not right we won't know for sure until we actually see the match happen, what the pattern's like, whether he can get the returns back he knows he's got a nice looking serve but it's going to be returned a lot so can he get into enough can he get through enough service games, can he get into enough serve service games but his instincts are just wonderful, who knows whether he'll be able to be like that yet again you know it's he's still new to all this there may be a match that he comes out and he's sudden a realization that he's actually not as good as these guys yet i think you could put him

22:47Matt Roberts: in against norway for england on saturday and he'd be like yeah okay yeah i'll give that a go yeah no problem i'll probably be all right at this yeah look and he is very he is very confident but

23:03Catherine Whitaker: But I was very taken by how much he kept talking about how comfortable he was because he'd faced Koboli before. I do think facing Zverev is just so different.

23:17David Law: That's why I wanted to ask him about facing big servers. Whether he's got any idea what he's in for.

23:23Catherine Whitaker: And the thing is there just aren't that many people who serve as well as Zverev and have the ground game that Zverev has. I imagine he's faced big servers but he probably would back himself from the ground. against a lot of them but Zverev is so consistent from the ground as well and like he doesn't really have dips Zverev you know like he's not going to do what Kabbali did today that's for sure so it's I think it's such a tall order for him to actually beat Zverev who looks released to be honest and is playing, well, I think maybe better than he did in Paris. Yeah, I think so.

24:03Matt Roberts: Look, we'll come on to that in just a moment. First, should we just do some puns? Should we just get some out of the way? Get them out of our system? Reel them off, Catherine. Okay. The fairy tale continues. That one was mine. Just tell me which ones you like.

24:16David Law: That one was mine, so I think it was amazing, didn't you? Yeah. The fairy tale continues. The fairy best plucky Brit. It's a bit long. I'm less keen on that one. Yeah, okay. Okay, ferry cruises past Cabali. I do like that. It's a decent headline. Yeah.

24:30Matt Roberts: All the fun of the ferry. That's a fair pun, all the fun of the ferry. No, okay. I perhaps needed to... All the fun of the ferry. I needed to give that one a bit of a boost. Ferry throws Flavio overboard.

24:45Catherine Whitaker: Flavio overboard. Sorry, yeah. Ferry throws Flavio overboard. I think my dad would approve of that one because my dad did very much throw Flavio Caboli off the boat today. Yes, he said he walks the plank. Arthur sprinkles fairy dust on Centre Court. That's good, isn't it? Lovely. Arthur ferries the hopes of a nation. Yeah. All aboard the cross-channel ferry. That's a sort of sophisticated English-French reference. I think that's really good. Yeah, I like that it's got levels to it, you know. I hate them all. Apart from mine. Well, you came up with one of them. Well, mine was good. I just feel like...

25:24Catherine Whitaker: Ferry go round, I saw, doing the rounds as well.

25:28Matt Roberts: Yeah, anything else?

25:29Catherine Whitaker: I think it's decent. I think...

25:32Matt Roberts: It's a very big deal.

25:37Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, nice. I think I like the ones where fairy's substituting for very the least.

25:42Matt Roberts: Yeah, okay. Fairy tale? Do you like the fairy more than the boat stuff?

25:47Catherine Whitaker: No, I think I quite like the boat stuff, actually.

25:49Matt Roberts: Yeah, okay. yeah okay well it's a rich scene there'll be more to come david's hoping this is a one-time section unless we get rob maul on his son who's going to have his own branch of options they've got sort of sinking puns they're really going deep with the boats i heard him say something about king arthur and i thought go on rob fill your boots okay uh well Well, I feel like we just got that out of our system there. Yeah, nice. Certainly until Friday, anyway. Or until tomorrow when we're previewing Friday. Have we got any for if he gets completely destroyed? Yeah, well, sinking. I think that would be the ferry sinks.

26:33Okay, right. Yeah. Iceberg stuff, probably. That's just off the top of my head. It's kind of a bit dark, isn't it? Just off the top of my head. Okay, Alexander Zverev. He played bergs. Yes. David. Did anybody use anything? I don't know. Ferry rocks the boat on centre. Sorry, they're coming thicker and faster than I can keep up with. Stop it, Jess. Stop it. Right. Alexander Zverev. Not the match we were expecting here. Straight sets over Taylor Fritz.

27:07Matt Roberts: 6-4, 6-4, 6-2. A player that has had his number for a couple of years now in Taylor Fritz. a total turnaround of what that matchup has looked like in recent times. Two things going on here. Zverev is a serious contender for this title, and maybe we've been sleeping on that a little bit. And Taylor Fritz, who has been so boosted and buoyed so far this tournament by finally feeling free of the knee pain that has been plaguing him for months, started feeling his knee tendinitis three games into this match, and it felt like the match kind of died at that point. He was already a breakdown, he admits.

27:53Matt Roberts: He was already up against it and he was very effusive about this much more aggressive version of Alexander Zverev that he was facing today. But also, he wasn't able to make any kind of match of it because he was physically hampered and it was one of those injuries where it wasn't... it wasn't really obvious that if you'd just landed from space and never seen Taylor Fritz play before, I don't think it would have been really obvious that he was hampered, but he so relies on his rally tolerance, doesn't he, Fritz? And it just wasn't there. As soon as he was pulled wide on either side, really, he was hitting the ball long.

28:35Matt Roberts: And it just, yeah, that 10 % taken off his game was enough to make it incredibly one-sided, perhaps even more one-sided than the scoreline suggested in Fritz's favour?

28:48Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, look, as you said, it wasn't the sort of injury that he was going to retire from the match from. You knew that he would play this one out, but yeah, he didn't have much say in this one at all. Zverev was excellent, like really good. Fritz said it, he's going to be extremely tough to beat, the way he's serving. he was very aggressive with his forehand and his backhand very aggressive hit the ball great he played really well and I just don't feel like you know that's been said about Zverev all that often I think the big test for Zverev will will still come in terms of whether he can do that if he gets to the final and faces Sinner I think that's the real test of this new sort of game style or approach that he's trying but at the moment he's implementing it very well And, yes, David said, when he's serving 80 % first serves, as he was in this one, it's very, very tough to beat that tennis.

29:44Catherine Whitaker: And, yeah, I didn't know how it would go after the French Open. I thought there was a chance that he might have a bit of a little bit of a slump. Having finally done the thing that he'd been hoping to do for so long, there could have been a letdown. But it seems to have gone the other way. And he seems to have freed up, playing with a lot more confidence. Feels like he's playing with less to lose. and he seems very focused and look it's very hard to back up your first major title at the very next major, I believe it's only Medvedev and Murray I think who have gone from winning a major title for the first time and then reaching the final of the very next major on the men's side and they both did it on hard courts and Svera's trying to do it on this clay to grass transition I think a part of that is because his first major has come very late into his career and he's got a lot of experience already it's a slightly different case to a lot of first time major winners but he's he's navigating this thing which is hard to back up your first major title he's doing it he's doing it well and like he's a he's a huge favorite in the Wimbledon semi-final to reach the final.

30:57Catherine Whitaker: And for a guy who had not really had results on grass before, it's going very, very well for him.

31:06Matt Roberts: That serve, David, not dismissing Arthur Ferry in the semi-final, but if he gets to the final, even against Djokovic and Sinner, two best returners in the world, that serve is a serious problem even for them, I think, how it's looked so far anyway.

31:24David Law: yes I don't think he's ever served better than this I don't think he's ever played better than this in all honesty I don't think he's ever looked this convincing I would still reserve judgment against particularly Sinner based on the fact that they I mean I realize he's just turned around a rivalry against Fritz but Sinner has beaten him so comfortably so many times this year that I would still expect that well expect to win but the thing is that serve I think if you do get it to 80 % or there about 78 and you're hitting the corners of the box the way he is from the angle he is you can get through so many service games even when Fritz and I saw this earlier in the tournament against Lechka and others even when they get to they might win a couple of points they might get to 30 all and then the game's over you know and then it's two serves and the game's over.

32:17David Law: And that must be really demoralising for players who are not used to that against Verev. He's just so mentally tough and strong and full of self-belief right now. And why wouldn't you be when you've just done the thing? Nobody has to ask him about being one of the best players, not to have won a grand slam. He's always going to be that now. And it has released him. yeah he's had a pretty kind route again through to this point and he's got a fairly kind semi-final really on paper but Djokovic or Sinner in the final well they are another level altogether

33:02Matt Roberts: Do you think he will cope better than Caballi did today with the crowd being against him? Way better because yeah i mean i did i i wondered how caballi would cope with it and yet still didn't think that he would cope with it as badly as he did today and be sort of as shocked by it as he

33:23David Law: as he was i'm sorry to say that he was a bit childish today and i love the guy i think he's great fun but he was like a boy really um getting a bit of a tantrum because he didn't like it

33:37Catherine Whitaker: He was going against him. The popped cork as he was serving to stay in the first set. And then he lost three points in a row after that and the set was over.

33:47David Law: I think he'll end up as a better player as a result of it. Because I think he will reflect on it and be better for this sort of thing next time. That's tended to be what's happened. Remember that loss he had to Nadal in Barcelona where it was embarrassing. He just couldn't play tennis. He was up against a hero. He's had a few like that. and then he's got better.

34:10Matt Roberts: I'm not sure players necessarily expect it here, though, do they? Like Paris, playing a Frenchman or woman, but I think particularly the men, you know you're in for a tough time. I don't think players prepare themselves for a tough time.

34:25Catherine Whitaker: No, and they always say that they're very fair. Yeah. British crowd are very fair.

34:28David Law: I've kept saying that, and he also made the point, look, I'm nearly 30 now, but I've played in all the environments, and I think he played Cam Norrie here, a few years ago. I think it's a bit different. But I was taken aback by the noise for Arthur Ferry. Like, it really is something. But Arthur Ferry's got to get into the match for that happen.

34:48Catherine Whitaker: And also, like, this will be after Djokovic-Sinna. And if Djokovic-Sinna goes really long, I know there'll be a little break between... 35 degrees. But it'd be tough for that stadium to be packed when it starts. And if he doesn't get off to a good start... Is Matt campaigning for split session men's semi-finals? Touche. No, absolutely not.

35:12David Law: But it could be 5-1 in 20 minutes in a half-empty stadium because people need a break after a long match.

35:19Catherine Whitaker: And today, Ferry's able to get into the service games of Kabbali and put pressure on, and that's exciting. If Ferry's rolling through his service games, it's hard to get into it. It kills the vibe, doesn't it? It kills the vibe. Yeah, so it's different, I think.

35:32Matt Roberts: What percentage chance do you give Arthur Ferry on Friday against Varev?

35:36Catherine Whitaker: 20. That was a number I had.

35:39Matt Roberts: Matthew? 70. 70. Did you say 17 or 70?

35:46Catherine Whitaker: 7-0. 7-0. 4-ferry. I love you, Matthew.

35:50David Law: You seem to be saying this with a straight face. And what's your reasoning for that, Matthew? Just free-flowing. Free-flowing. And he has the crown on his side. And he will disrupt Sasha. He will disrupt. Disrupt.

36:05Catherine Whitaker: Remember Brooksby's winning five of his next nine against Sinner. Yeah, and Sitsapas beating Djokovic. Yeah. He's a no Paul the Octopus, this guy, is he? But this might be... But he has called Ferry. Yes. He's very in tune with Ferry. He's about to go blonde. He spent his five hours on court 18 with Arthur Ferry and... Very in tune. And he was... Look, Matthew was very confident he would beat Caballi. Very confident. Just imagine. Imagine if Ferries in the Wimbledon final. That would be amazing. We would find it more amazing than he would. Honestly, this room was packed full of journalists. Do you realise what you're doing?

36:50Amazing, isn't it? How do you do it? And, you know, if I'd have told you. And he's like, yeah.

36:55David Law: I mean, I just knew I could do it and I did it. But he's not arrogant. No, he's not arrogant.

37:02Matt Roberts: Very self-assured and he's a not too high, not too low guy.

37:11Catherine Whitaker: I'll say.

37:12Matt Roberts: Not sure he's deeping it right now. Maybe he'll do that afterwards.

37:17Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, but it's interesting how we've just had Maja Kvelinska reach the Prank Show Open final. And all along she was talking about being in this sort of bubble. but you you sort of got the sense that she was you know having to go through a process to kind of block kind of block everything out she was she was doing a good job of taking in her stride but you felt like she was she was sensing how kind of crazy it all was and just trying not to get disrupted by that but this is this is a different vibe fairy dusts verev is a is a pun that

37:54Matt Roberts: Tennis Tracer has got ready for Friday. That's good. I mean, you could have Ferry Dust's Kabali. I mean, that's applicable regardless of who he's beating. Very good stuff. They just keep coming. I said we were getting them out of our system, but it's such a rich seam. And I've also got, I have to mention this because it's from Vicky, Zverev gives tailored fritz a dressing down. Yeah? Yeah, anyone? It's pretty good. Anyone?

38:21David Law: Vicky, I can do no wrong in my eyes, but can we stop now?

38:26Catherine Whitaker: We shall stop now. Of course, the final thing to mention on Ferry is that his birthday is finals day. Matthew just didn't see. Matthew just raised it to 80 % chance.

38:42Even seeing the Queen right before, I mean, she picked a dodgy time to say hello to the players, didn't she? They're literally backstage about to be called on court and the Queen pops up. Catherine slams Queen. Well, I'd find it a bit annoying.

38:59Matt Roberts: You've got to think, oh God, what's the protocol? Do I curtsy? Am I allowed to shake their hand?

39:07Catherine Whitaker: It didn't seem like Ferry was deeping all that, though.

39:09Matt Roberts: Not fussing the slices. He was like, yep, she wished me good luck. Yep, it was nice. All good. Yep. Arthur Ferry, ladies and gentlemen. Wimbledon semi-finalists.

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41:36Matt Roberts: Right then, let's talk about the women's quarterfinals today. Also, two straight sets matches and wins for Marta Kostyuk and Lyndon Nozkova. We will have a Kostryk-Nozkova Wimbledon semifinal tomorrow, of course, the second of the two semifinals. Let's talk about Kostryk first on Centre Court, her Centre Court debut, her first win. She'd been there as a fan before nine years ago. She said she was watching Roger Federer beat Paolini today 6-3, 6-2. She was sublime, David.

42:11David Law: It was hard to believe that there could be a better performance than Arthur Ferries on centre court today, but I think maybe Marta Kosciuszczuk was even better. She was pretty much perfect from ball one. Just, it's all clicked. It's all clicked on grass. This is a player who'd never been beyond the third round. She'd twice lost in the third round to Madison Keys. No disgrace in doing that. But it's this year, isn't it? This year her game has just come together, and this is the year that she's realised that she can play on a grass court and her game is so suited to it. Her movement, well, is pretty peerless.

42:52David Law: Her and Coco Goff. That's it, really, I would say, in terms of movement. And then these sort of lacerating strokes that she hits down both wings and it was destructive. It was incredible to watch Paolini just kind of have no answer to this game. We've seen that in a couple of matches for paulini even in the two really good seasons she had where she would run into one of the very best players and they would show her another level that she didn't quite have and that happened today against a player that wasn't one of those but kostic is becoming one um i do think paulini showed some fragility today there was some once things weren't going away and once the the sheer weight of shot was too much for her she did start making errors as well um she worked her socks off to try to get back into it she tried lots of different things but this was incredibly one-sided and uh just huge credit to Kostya who finished it with an amazing winner as well it was one of those sort of perfect ways to finish it with a running passing shot down the line and uh and yeah she's right she's she's another one sort of playing with house's money you know she just looks like she's just going to come out and swing.

44:09David Law: I'm wondering whether she'll get nervous at some point, but never been on centre court in her life before. When did that?

44:16Matt Roberts: 9.7 out of 10 shot quality on the forehand for Kostiuk today.

44:21Catherine Whitaker: That shot was unreal today. It would not have been long ago that I would have thought and described the Kostiuk forehand as a bit of a weakness in her game. It's always been the shot that could break down, but it was awesome the intent with which she was hitting it like going for winners and they were just flying by paulini it's come on so much that shot and yeah it has felt like we've been talking a lot about forehands in the women's draw this year you know with with mukova and the round you know the round before this paulini's forehand really stood out against the arlo and kostiuk today took it to another level all together I think um yeah she was absolutely brilliant and look she's she's lost one match since the end of Miami one match she's won 22 of her last 23 matches and look that match was a grand slam semi-final and we see her in that situation

45:21Matt Roberts: and it was it was again tomorrow and it was a bad performance um noticeably worse than all of her

45:27Catherine Whitaker: others but I think she'll be better for that experience I do too I don't think she's a learner I really think she's a learner so I'm definitely expecting her to play a lot better tomorrow

45:38Matt Roberts: it's somebody's just I was going to bring this up but somebody's also just picked up on it in the chat it it's not an accident is it that the two best athletes on tour are in the Wimbledon semi-finals Goff and and Kostiuk and I think they are the two the two best athletes yeah but something

45:55Catherine Whitaker: mary corello always says isn't it good athletes win on grass um and look that's there's there's plenty of other qualities that you can have as well but these these two do move so well and also i think you know you have to take the wimbledon that you're experiencing and it's been a very hot wimbledon and the grass is playing differently to how it sometimes does there's not there's not a lot of grass left on these on these courts and it's bouncing up in the heat yeah and i think that is helping Goff and I think it is helping Kostiuk. It's grass court tennis, of course it is, but it's playing a little bit more like a hard court than it maybe has done in some years when we've had wetter Wimbledons.

46:38Catherine Whitaker: Grounds will be closing in around 15 minutes. Please make your way to the exit gate and make sure you take all your belongings with you. We hope you've enjoyed your day here at Wimbledon and wish you a pleasant and safe journey home. Thank you. Thank you. It's like you're a sleeper cell that gets activated when that announcement starts happening. I keep expecting one of you to come with me at Wimbledon.

47:06Matt Roberts: I always want to come with you. I think you should. But I feel like I'd be treading on your toes. Please do. I can do it too. I feel like we've got to

47:11Catherine Whitaker: change this up a little bit. Oh really? Okay. David doesn't look like he wants to go with it. I think it'll be fun. Right, I'm up for it. okay there we go that'd be fun i don't know what that means for matthew's tight zoom on matt but we'll we'll style it out

47:32what were we saying athletes kostjuk yeah do i think i actually had finished my point

47:38Matt Roberts: and it quite seamlessly went into the announcement great um she she talks so much about sandra Zanevska her her longtime coach I mean obviously a fantastic partnership together yielding great results but it didn't yield great results straight away and she was asked about the longevity of their relationship today and how important that's been to her having that consistency and settlement within within the within the setup and she said yeah I used to feel like when the results weren't happening that I just need to change everything kind of a knee jerk or I've got to do something different and again you know on this therapy journey she's she's been on she's realized that that no that's not that's not the answer she said they sometimes they try and bring someone extra into the team she said tantalizing actually she said they tried to bring some somebody extra onto the team before the clay season but they said no so i'm absolutely dying to know who that was and whether they have regrets about turning down the opportunity to be part of this this wild kostuk ride although it's not a ride is it it just feels like this is who she is This is probably the rest of her career now, or certainly a few years at the peak of her career.

49:09Matt Roberts: I mean, she's 23, I think. She's been around so long.

49:14Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, it's really discombobulating when you hear Gough's age and you hear Kostiuk's age. They must be older than that. We've known about them for so long.

49:22Matt Roberts: She's the same age as Arthur Ferry, but most people have only heard of Arthur Ferry this month. And Kostiuk's been around since she was 15. same as Goff

49:33Catherine Whitaker: by the way you mentioned Sandra Zaniewska great piece with Matt Futterman in The Athletic earlier this tournament where Matt had talked to Sandra about her real desire in life is to be an author and a writer and I've shouted out her substack before, The Unseen Court and I absolutely recommend that, it doesn't come out that often but when it does it's gold and her writing in a second language is just fantastic and yeah, it's a really good interview with Matt Futterman and I do recommend subscribing to that sub-stack as well.

50:08Matt Roberts: Great shout out. She's 24, apparently, Kostrick. If man on the internet is to be believed. I think that is right, yeah.

50:16Catherine Whitaker: Like Arthur Ferry when he turns 24 on Sunday when he plays the Wimbledon final. Exactly.

50:21Matt Roberts: Same day that Matt's going. Imagine if they're both in the Wimbledon final. Well, David, is Marta Kostrick going to be in the Wimbledon final? Kostiuk against Nozkova will be the semi-final tomorrow. Nozkova today 6-3, 7-5 against Elise Mertens, channelling Petra Kvitova as her inspiration.

50:40David Law: Yeah, I find this one a very tough one to pick because as convincing as Kostiuk was today, I think Nozkova is just made for Grand Slam sharp end tennis. You know, she's another one who's just sort of cold when she goes for winners. She just delivers, you know. It's fantastic to watch. Although she did have, there was a, I don't know whether it was a wobble on her side of the net or whether it was Elisa Mertens playing really well late in the second set. But it got a bit dicey there, didn't it? What did you think?

51:11Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, it was a good match, this. I do, I do think Mertens hit the two most memorable shots. There was a, there was a volley that almost came back over the net. It had so much backspin on it. and then towards the end there was an incredible lob that Mertens hit that was honestly Goff-esque at the end of her reach having done a lot of defending managed to get it over Noskova and save a break point and hold in that game and basically what happened in this match is that Mertens was the one constantly under pressure on serve she was having to fight off way more break points but when she kept doing it Mertens and kept holding serve that increased the pressure on Noskova to be like, well, you're not taking your chances.

51:53Catherine Whitaker: And there was quite a lot of occasions where Noskova maybe had a lot of room to play with but went a little bit too close to the line, I would say, with some of her big shots. But she was always in charge, Noskova. She's got the power advantage. She's such a sweet, pure strike of the ball. Catherine, your brother, is now a very much certified Noskova guy, having been on number one court today. he was like different watching it in person that kind of ball strike i always just think about it i used to think the same about thomas burdick you know he had a lovely ball strike when you would watch that in person in particular i think pagula is similar and and noskova is definitely one she can generate pace she can handle pace she's got a two-handed slice that she hits on the backhand side which stays so low she's pretty comfortable coming forward it's not like it's not the cleanest volleys but she she she makes it work up there and yeah it was a very complete assured performance i would say this one from noskova and they they met recently uh kostiuk and noskova on the clay in in madrid and it was a very close opening set and then a six love second set i think for kostiuk but kostiuk destroyed noskova's second serve that day i was looking at the stats Noskova won 20 % of her second serve points and I think that's a big battleground for tomorrow's semi-final because Kostiuk's such a good return and trying to be so aggressive off it and Noskova's second serve is definitely less stands out less than her first serve which is devastating but I think Kostiuk's second serve can sometimes be a bit of a weakness as well and on this surface I expect Noskova to be stepping in and trying to attack it I'm going to go Kostiuk because of that exposure to centre court today

53:46David Law: and how comfortable out there she looked. And having already been in a Grand Slam semi-final

53:54Matt Roberts: and so recently and kind of... I actually think the fact that she laid a bit of an egg in Paris, that's probably harsh, but it was a flat performance from her. I think that makes it quite unlikely that it happens tomorrow. I don't know, I just, I really don't think that's going to happen again. I think it's totally understandable that it happened the first time, but I would be really surprised if that happened again. I think she's going to show up, not put much pressure on herself, play free. I think I back Kostryk too. Interestingly, Kostryk and Nozkova are 8-9 in the WTA race this year, and Goff and Mukova are 6-7 in the WTA race this year.

54:37Matt Roberts: So the 8th and 9th best players in 2026 facing off and the 6th and 7th best players in 2026 facing off.

54:47Catherine Whitaker: And that's why it's such an interesting crop of players, isn't it? Because, yes, we've had the upsets, but we've still got players here who've just been so good all season, knocking on the door, all capable of doing something like this. None of them really feel like totally out of the blue semi-finalists. I wouldn't have picked a lot of them. I wouldn't have picked Kostiuk and Goff coming in. I know Charlie Akashay obviously picked Goff. You also picked Fritz today. I did have Noskova absolutely on my radar to do well here and Mukova. And actually if we get Mukova and Noskova, it will break the curse of winning a pre-tournament Wimbledon event.

55:32Catherine Whitaker: I don't think anyone has won Wimbledon on the women's side having won a tune-up event since Sharapova all the way back in 2004. I know it's a lot because Serena and Venus wouldn't play them, but it's been a lot of years when they didn't win as well. And yeah, so it's a really interesting semi-final line-up.

55:50Matt Roberts: Interesting, Nozkova said that she first played on grass only in 2023. Again, it's another one where sort of being reminded of how young she is still is useful. And she said she felt totally lost. on the surface, which for somebody that looks like, oh, it's so obvious that your game would suit grass. She said her first ever hit on grass was Barbora Stritzover. Remember her? Yeah. She's playing in the Invitational event here. The Legends. Alongside Dominika Sibylkova. Oh. There we go. You've been watching. Who else is in the Legends?

56:25Catherine Whitaker: I think someone who took Carlos Alcaraz to five sets last year is in the Legends this year. Is it Fabio Fanini? Yep. Amazing. I saw his name on the scoreboard earlier. I thought, what's he doing in the legends?

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57:47So are your finalists Gough and Kostiuk? Well, shall I do the order of play tomorrow? Sure. I mean, it's probably quite self-explanatory at this point but here we go centre court starting at 1.30

58:00Matt Roberts: with the first women's singles semi-final Karolina Mukova against Coco Goff followed by Marta Kostyuk against Lyndon Nozkova and finally on the centre court as is tradition now the mixed doubles final and it's Mark Polman's and Storm Hunter great to see her back in a Grand Slam final because She basically missed all of last year with an Achilles injury. Just devastating. World number one in doubles and all taken away from her. And they take on Marcelo Arevalo and Yelena Ostapenko. And we all know about the route they've had through to this final.

58:39Catherine Whitaker: And Ostapenko could not be more different. This one.

58:45Matt Roberts: so I'll take a prediction for that mixed doubles as well as the um the singles matches Mukova and Goff folks I'm sticking with Goff because of the Charlie Eccleshire effect that's all I've got to

58:58Catherine Whitaker: choose between these two what are you going for I think I'm just leaning Goff as well mostly for head-to-head reasons and i know that mukova got the win recently and they haven't met on grass before and it's very possible i think it is i do think it's a scenario here that mukova is able to hurt goff more on this surface than she is on on other surfaces but goff looking like this with her teeth into a grand slam tournament I think I'm going to go Goff David?

59:38David Law: Well I understand why you're doing that but I'm going Mukava I think it could be a classic I think if it is a classic actually that could be problematic for Mukava because how do you beat Goff when it gets really nails

59:54Catherine Whitaker: Do you think it's possible Mukava just has it done in two before Goff is able to find her game

1:00:01David Law: I definitely think that's possible as well because I just think she's so talented and so good. She can do things that can make people so uncomfortable and not really give them much of a chance. I'm going to go for her, but what I love is that we're guaranteed exciting finalists, I feel, no matter what happens from here.

1:00:22Matt Roberts: Kostryk Nozkova.

1:00:27Kostryk for me.

1:00:29Matt Roberts: Yeah, for me too. I'll go Noskova Matthew who are your women's finalists? Goff and Kostchuk for Paul the Octopus over there just by the way

1:00:43Catherine Whitaker: one last stat on this, it's the first time in Wimbledon open area history that the four semi-finalists are four first time Wimbledon semi-finalists which again leads it emphasises what an interesting set of semi-finalists it is like they've all got obviously got a lot of experience generally but not necessarily at at this tournament is that not matt stat now is matt stat about the weather uh that was somebody tipped me off that was yesterday that was in today's newsletter yeah sign up for the newsletter even if katherine hasn't given it the greatest promo of all time I do usually it's free we've got a lot on I'm busy it's a great stat I'm busy documenting the puns do you want to feel Catherine in no I think she should go and read it Matthew's done a hard zoom on me on me being exposed good Polman's Polman's and Hunter or Aravalo and Ostapenko and what sponsor patch will Yelena Ostapenko be wearing on Centre Court I think TK Maxx and Hunter and Polmans

1:02:00David Law: yeah I think no patch and I think Hunter and Polmans she's on centre court prime time I had a word with Laura Siegmund and they found out that this isn't somebody they should be patching up I'm joking I still think no patch and I still think Polmans and Hunter I think she'll have TK Maxx I think if they were with her on court 14 when she was starting a fight with She was starting a fight in an empty room with them Who was it?

1:02:35Catherine Whitaker: TK No, no, but who was her partner that she was Edouard Roger Vassalan Edouard Roger Vassalan, that's who it was that's who she had it out with Yeah, I think it'll be TK Max I think they're with her through thick and thin and I think they are the second seeds

1:02:49Matt Roberts: Yeah, let's go for it Ostapenko-Aravallo to win there we go okay uh let's wrap this up so i can go and read the newsletter yesterday's and today's i've got some catching up to do but not before we say hello to phoebe the happiest dog in town uh vicky says like all of us phoebe is thrilled to be doing a show before 11 p.m yes phoebe that is the spirit of course that we were like you know fritz verev cabal-y, you know, we were so prepared for today to be a late one and then we ended up waiting two hours after the match is finished to go live, so you never know, David, that's the lesson from today, so hello Phoebe Hello to our mascots, Bodhi, Maisie and Roger Hello to our top folks and executive producers Greg, Chris and Jeff and it's over to Matt for some shout-outs We have

1:03:50Catherine Whitaker: Noemi Fernandez Noemi, what a beautiful name Noemi says Noemi Basiletti is currently a 20 year old Italian player who lost to Svitolina in the second round of Rome this year good to know and has also given us Mary Jo Gigi and Leila for Fernandez really doing our work for us that's excellent stuff brilliant, that's really useful I really do think Noemi is a beautiful name and Noemi says my 5 year old thinks all tennis players are either Coco Goff or Ben Shelton after we were lucky enough to see them play at the 2023 US Open that Goff won. He's always desperately disappointed when I tell him other players exist.

1:04:32Matt Roberts: OK. Noemi from Call My Agent, says Hannah. Which is a great show. Not seen it. David definitely has no clue what I'm talking about. But we know, Hannah. We know. Thank you, Noemi.

1:04:48Catherine Whitaker: And finally we have Hannah Dunning who is in our Wimbledon predictions group. Hello Hannah. How's Hannah getting on in the predictions? Shall I consult the newsletter? Yep, that'd be a good idea. Hannah is mid-table, tenth out of seventeen. Like Fulham. That's all I aim for quite frankly in the predictions. Respectable mid-table. And Hannah is from Wimbledon, but currently living in California. Wow.

1:05:20Matt Roberts: Whereabouts in California?

1:05:21Catherine Whitaker: Oakland.

1:05:22Matt Roberts: Oh, yeah. Okay. Like, that's where the Raiders used to be. Check you out, Catherine. Well, because when I went on my family holiday to California, we did a tour when I was 11. I got an Oakland Raiders cap and only discovered about 18 months ago that they don't exist anymore. Yeah, can you put a marker over it with Las Vegas? I didn't realise American sports teams could do that. It's blown my mind a bit. And they call them franchises. Let's move the franchise to a completely different city. What would you do if Fulham was suddenly in Lincoln?

1:06:02Catherine Whitaker: I'd have to move to Lincoln. But wouldn't you be so annoyed with them that they'd done that? It happened in Wimbledon. Wimbledon, yeah.

1:06:10Matt Roberts: But that was a total exception. They won the 1988 or whatever it was, well, FA Cup, ended up in Milton Keynes. I mean... Yeah, but that was a... It's a bit of a downer. That was a real exceptional set of circumstances. That wasn't normal. And then they started another Wimbledon up.

1:06:28Catherine Whitaker: AFC. Yeah.

1:06:29Matt Roberts: Yeah, the real Wimbledon, I think, is...

1:06:31Catherine Whitaker: Maybe I'd do that. Maybe I'd start up a new Fulham.

1:06:35Matt Roberts: Okay.

1:06:35Catherine Whitaker: That would go well.

1:06:36Matt Roberts: Well, Hannah, thank you for sparking this important debate at the end of the show.

1:06:39Catherine Whitaker: Our Hannah's going to be saying more pointless football chat. Yes, that's absolutely, absolutely what she is saying on the chat. Hannah, thank you. Great to have you part of the predictions competition. If you'd like to keep across the predictions competition, do subscribe to the newsletter. Great stuff in there. I am going to go and read it now straight away because I have been shamed by my dear friends and colleagues and by the Matthew Zoom. So a great end to the show for me. also a pretty poor start to the show from me. So what a day 10 I'm having. That was definitely not your fault. And that chap who was shouting very loudly as if he was the only place person to hear.

1:07:20Are we going to edit that out of the audio version? I think so. Do I need to wrap this up so we can re-record the audio intro?

1:07:28Catherine Whitaker: I'll certainly cut it down on the audio. I think the 30 seconds of silence from us can probably go on the audio version. So that was your treat, live viewers. All extra incentive to join us live tomorrow night at the end of play, not before 8pm. But I think it's likely to, I mean, it would have to be a heck of a long day of tennis. Let's not jinx us. Not before 8pm or whenever play finishes on centre court tomorrow. We will be here. I was going to say John McEnroe won't, but he actually might be back tomorrow, mightn't he? So you never know what's going to happen on tomorrow's show. You'll have to be here to find out.

1:08:11Thank you all for joining us tonight. However you have joined us, we'll be back tomorrow. We are part of the Athletic Podcast Network and we'll speak to you then.

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