Two weeks of triumph and trouble in tennis

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1:21Well, hello and welcome to the Tennis Podcast. We are back, everybody. Yeah, we are back from holiday, from house moves. It has not rained one single drop in the southeast of the UK since we were last with you for a tennis podcast, unlike in Washington, D.C. Rain over in that part of the world means that it is going to be a two-podcast week this week, folks.

1:48Matt Roberts: In fact, it's going to be a two-podcast 48 hours. We're going to save all the Washington stuff until tomorrow, Tuesday, until the finals have been completed. As we stand at the moment, half of the women's final between Alexandra Ayala and Jessica Begula has been played before it got rained off. And none of the men's final between Taylor Fritz and Raphael Hodder has been played. So we're going to come back tomorrow and we're going to talk all things Washington. Luckily, because it's been a couple of weeks since we've all podcasted together, there is plenty of other stuff to talk about on today's show.

2:24Matt Roberts: Not least, Holly David. David, welcome back. Refreshed, tanned, revitalised.

2:33David Law: Yeah, I mean, as much as this pasty white face can ever get tanned. but yes and I do I didn't go below factor 50 all all holiday because uh that's what we do in this era when we've actually understood skincare and uh and the dangers of the sun not something I did when I went on my 1994 holiday with my two mates um and ended up burnt on the first day but there we are you know you live and learn don't you 30 years have passed could definitely hear more about the 1994 holiday uh for david and his teammates tenerife i i classic i i i was in lineker's bar when i found out that jürgen klinsman had signed for spurs uh and nobody had smartphones or internet to be able to check this news so it was an amazing moment when the uh the announcement went over the loud speaker mid-dance and whilst drunk and we didn't know whether it was our uh alcohol talking or whether it was the actual reality of the situation.

3:33David Law: But yes, that was 1994, folks. Wow. Wow. What a comeback, David. Matt, follow that. Well, you can follow that because all change in Casa Roberts. Matt has moved house since you were last with us. And if you're watching on YouTube, you'll probably note that significant efforts have been made to create an atmospheric backdrop. Yes, it's still a work in progress, I would say, but we have moved on from where we were a few days ago for our friend's Q &A, where it was basically just, well, nothing behind me. You look like a hostage situation. I've repositioned this shelving unit and jazzed it up a little bit and we're getting there.

4:31I now have my own office, which is lovely. So I just need to make it right for the pod. So this is the same shelving unit that YouTube viewers will have got used to seeing previously? No. The new shelving. Matt Roberts has new shelving. This one came with the new flat. Wow. Two for the price of one. OK. Well, happy new home, Matt. Your efforts are appreciated. David has somehow managed to wangle a double podcast Monday, Tuesday situation when we were discussing how to handle the... Well, when everybody saw the weather forecast in Washington at the start of yesterday and were planning for Doom.

5:22I mean, at one point it looked like they just weren't going to get anything played. So we were cycling through the various scenarios and David was always keen for a double podcast situation. So here we are, folks. I haven't been on holiday since our last pod, but I have discovered peach beer, so my taste buds feel like they've been on holiday. If the good folks at Jubel want to get in touch, there is no better brand ambassador out there than me right now I'm doing I'm doing I'm doing the work anyway uh it no it's been um it's quite a summer in the UK isn't it does feel like

6:02Matt Roberts: all of the rain that we usually have has been sent over to to Canada and and Washington yeah we're all in a hosepipe ban situation hasn't rained for I think it hasn't rained in London since the Thursday of Queens, of men's Queens.

6:21David Law: Wow, it's pretty alarming, isn't it? Yeah. You know, and when I think three years ago, I was on holiday in Bordeaux, who are suffering those horrific wildfires, you know, and there's terrible wildfires in the Madrid area, isn't there? I mean, it's just, yeah. I hope people haven't been affected too much listening to this, but it's been it's it's it's pretty scary what's happening yeah there's wildfire warnings in

6:49Matt Roberts: richmond park i'm sure you've seen that matt you're um you're out and about in in richmond park it's yeah it's it's um it's serious stuff uh so yeah we have plenty to cover on today's show and on tomorrow's show as well but we'll start with the events outside of washington and we will start in Memphis with the WTA 250 event that has been taking place there this week or last week won by 16 year old Christina Lutova she qualified and then won the title all at her first ever WTA event she beat Daria Vimanova 166163 in the final yesterday these will be new names Matt very understandably for a lot of people including me I mean I'd vaguely I'd heard Vimanova's name and I think I'd vaguely heard Lutova's but honestly I knew nothing ahead of this week um tell us tell us what we know new to me as well I'll be honest but I've done some some deep diving and I watched this final last night in the absence of the Washington finals I thought, oh, OK, well, I guess I'm watching Memphis now.

8:08So that was the situation last night. And Lutova, it's a trajectory that is not entirely unfamiliar

8:16Catherine Whitaker: in terms of had a lot of success very recently at the level below the tour. You know, what used to be the ITFs, now the World Tennis Tour. We've seen a lot of players do that recently. Mboko, Boisson, Janis Chen won a lot of matches and then quite quickly transitioned to the tour. What is different and what is unfamiliar is just how young she is and how quickly she's done this. She is born, wait for it, I know we said 16, but I somehow think this makes it more impactful. Born in 2010.

8:56That's disgusting. Russia Federer had already won 16 Grand Sam titles by the time Lutova was born we're getting into I don't want to alarm you David but we're getting into these players being your kids ages certainly one of your kids ages yeah

9:16David Law: I have plenty of reason to be alarmed most days at the moment with my age not not least when i went to the gym over the weekend if matt's alone we're in trouble i went to the gym over the weekend that was alarming oh god not doing that again

9:40did you wrap yourself in a bin bag like i didn't i've grown maybe it's okay well

9:47David Law: probably done enough of growing but um i i feel like i've met i you you can't turn up at a gym in a bin bag, can you? You can do it around the cars in Monte Carlo like I did in 1998.

10:02Good, glad we've established those rules. Sorry, Matt, as you were. So, more on Lutova.

10:11Catherine Whitaker: She's now the youngest player in the top 500 and she's up to 126 in the live rankings this week enough to get her into US Open qualifying. The cut-off for qualifying is a bit later than the main draw so she's going to be able to play qualifying um she's the highest ranked player under 18 by over 100 places so really standing out and she's the youngest player to win a tour title since Coco Gough back in 2019 and the other little thing that really reinforced just how young she is she was playing in memphis at the same time as venus williams was playing in canada they were born 30 years apart venus williams born in 1980 and litova born in 2010 and they were playing tennis matches on the tour at the same time which i thought was pretty cool uh she had a pretty wild start to her tournament in memphis after qualifying she beat katrina alexandrova in a match that was really grueling and Alexandreva ended up having to retire from that one.

11:21But actually, even though she won it,

11:24Catherine Whitaker: Lutova was in tears at the end of that match. It was such a physical match, played in brutal conditions and she felt sorry for Alexandreva. It was an eventful start to the tournament. But then she just got better and better. She beat Maya Joint, she beat Katie McNally, despite being 3-1 and 4-0 down in both of those sets. She came back to win that match and reach the semi-final. and then in the final she played this absolutely wild match. Vidmanova was all over her to begin with, out hitting her, looking really dominant, looking like the sort of more experienced, better player to be honest. But Lutova just looks very, very steady off both wings.

12:11Catherine Whitaker: she's got a very high floor already incredibly solid technique I think on both strokes doesn't give much away the serve's a little bit of just a point starter she doesn't do a lot with it I could see some players trying to dominate that but as I said lovely technique and she just was the steadier player over this match Vidmanova ended up hitting quite a lot of unforced errors it looked like Lutova was going to win it very straightforwardly in the final set only for Vidmanova to have a bit of a spree and save a load of match points at 5-2 and it got to 5-3 and it was suddenly getting a little bit tense but finally Lutova got over the line and yeah, I was really impressed with her composure.

12:55Catherine Whitaker: She doesn't hold herself like a traditional 16-year-old. You know, she makes good decisions. She doesn't give a lot away and I was very impressed with that. she was born in Moscow but she's lived and trained in Redmond Washington since 2020 she has a green card and she said in 2025 that she would like to represent the US as soon as possible but I'm not exactly sure of the current situation but certainly when she was getting her green card it meant she couldn't leave the country so she's earned her points and done her winning in the US so I think it's probably likely that she will represent the US soon-ish once that process gets finalized.

13:46Catherine Whitaker: But yeah, like an incredible breakout week, someone I hadn't heard of to now win a tour level title. Okay, not the most stacked field, but you know, Katie McNally, Maya Joinn, Alexandreva, these are really, really good wins that she had. And yeah, quite a moment.

14:05Matt Roberts: and Vidmanova is a Russian-born Czech and I think she's 23, so ancient but she's been through the college system, hasn't she? So she's kind of a later breakthrough. I think she went to University of Georgia. I have a Czech stat. Oh, yeah. Since the start of the grass court season,

14:35Catherine Whitaker: We had week one on the grass, Krejcikova in the Huttogenbosch final. Week two of the grass, we had Noskova winning Berlin and Buzkova winning Nottingham. Week three of the grass, we had Mukova winning Bad Homburg. We had an all-Czech Wimbledon final. The week after Wimbledon, we had Krejcikova winning Athens. So that's five straight tournament weeks with Czechs in the final. then we get the Prague open no checks in the final for the first time we get a week without any checks even though it was in Czechia Valantova and Krojcikova lost in the semis that week but now we're back in Memphis and Vidmanova in the final checks back on track just an extraordinary few weeks of having checks in tour level finals should we just talk about Prague for a moment

15:27Matt Roberts: One by Lily Taggart, about whom excitement is very much mounting and for very good reason. She had an amazing win over Barbora Krejcikova in the semifinals. I mean, Krejcikova must just have been running on fumes by that point. It was definitely, if that hadn't been Prague, Krejcikova would surely have not played that week. But very understandably, she wanted to play because it was Prague. Tag is kind of she's still kind of an indie player because she hasn't had a big moment at a slam David but she's kind of doing doing everything but that isn't she in terms of marking everyone's card about how good and exciting she is

16:16David Law: yeah occasionally you get a player come along who everybody thinks imagine if this player could be good have results to go with whatever the thing is that sent everybody there to watch her in the first place. And I mean when you watch her, her backhand just stands out like a mile because it's single handed, it's so flourishing and when she gets it right she really hits it well. But then she's got a huge forehand, she just looks incredibly balanced, she looks like the sort of player you dream about being when you start playing tennis and fall in love with it. You know, anybody who's sort of grown up watching a Federer or a Mukhermer or people like this and thinking, oh, imagine if you could play tennis like that.

17:04David Law: Lily Taggart looks like she's sort of been raised in front of the TV watching these sort of players. And she's just got a great disposition, I think. She's very likable, very watchable as a tennis player. You just get drawn to her side of the court to see what she's doing with the ball and the racket. And actually when she had that sort of breakout run in Linz, it wasn't really followed up by that many results. She had a lot of tournaments that I think I ended up kind of looking out for her early on and she'd lose early. And so this is, I know absolutely you're right, this isn't sort of a big, big tournament, but it's a big result.

17:44David Law: It's a big sequence of results and a big step, I think. And because my concern was, gee, does this look good but not amount to much when you're playing against it at that level? That was my big concern. Is it sort of style over substance a little bit in terms of what an opponent's feeling down the other end? But, well, this gives cause for more optimism.

18:12Matt Roberts: That's kind of always the way I feel about single-handed backhand, certainly now. like everyone gets so excited about a player that has a single-handed backhand even more so in women's tennis because they're so rare do you remember people getting excited about margarita

18:28David Law: gasparian absolutely i mean people are still talking i think i think i think i was guilty of that too but it's like are they actually good or do they just have a single-handed backhand because that is so kind of is there something so improbable about a single-handed backhand it's like well you must be good if that's how you're choosing to play tennis because it just instinctively feels like it requires so much more skill than a double-handed backhand certainly to someone like

18:58Matt Roberts: me who has a double-handed backhand and the thought of even attempting to hit a single-hander is just bonkers to me I will defer to the expert Matt does the and the expert that is you're not typically a single handed backhand guy I think there has been one on the list previously Victoria Golubich but she was lucky to be there I thought was the energy that you had around Golubich when she was when she was graced with being list worthy uh how do you feel about the lily tagger backhand excuse me i sent a renowned times journalist at wimbledon to to write a piece on the best backhand at wimbledon about victoria golyavich as she promptly lost about 6-1 6-1 to madison keys in 50 minutes and was dumped from the this soon after um yeah no you're right i i don't i don't think i'm as seduced maybe as as some people are by a single-handed backhand i i like to appreciate the double-hander for its for its beauty as well but we are monitoring the list the list is monitoring the lily tagger backhand and it does stand out on the women's tour more.

20:25Catherine Whitaker: But I would be hesitant because I don't think actually that the backhand is the biggest weapon. I was going to say, surely the problem here is that she's got a really good forehand. The forehand's great and she really... Matt loves a stinker of a forehand and a great backhand. That's the winning combo for Matt Roberts. She's also tall, Lily Taggan. She's got a nice serve, which is doing a lot of good for her, I think. I think it's actually her forehand and her serve that are really the weapons in her game. But it's the backhand that is the reason why she stands out and everyone is excited. If she'd had the results she had and had a double-handed backhand, I don't think we'd be doing this section right now on Lily Taggart.

21:10Catherine Whitaker: Do you know what I mean? Yeah. But I think it's okay that she stands out, because it is notable that she has a single-handed backhand. That is a dying art, especially on the women's tour. And she's coached by Skiavone, who also had one, obviously. And she's a junior Grand Slam champion, isn't she? She won French Open Juniors last year. So you're always kind of looking out for those names. Interestingly, Craig Chicova gave an analysis of the backhand and thought that it's going to be most effective at this stage on slower surfaces. She thinks that actually that technique can be rushed a bit more on the quick surfaces.

21:53Catherine Whitaker: And that probably bears out with the results she's had so far coming on the indoor clay. And then I think it was pretty slow conditions in Prague. Whereas she didn't do much over the grass court season, for example. But then it'd be interesting to see if she can bring her slice into play on those quicker surfaces. So, yeah, she's up into the top 50 and absolutely is a good, really good name to be looking out for heading into the US hardcore swing.

22:23Matt Roberts: We also had Tamara Korpach winning a home title in Hamburg last week. So those are your women's results outside of Washington. David looks like he's got something to say about Tamara Korpach.

22:35David Law: Well, I'll be lying if I said I saw the run. I was on holiday with my Factor 50 on. but I did see her sort of celebration selfie which just made me light up as much as she seemed to be lighting up she she definitely makes you go on the journey with her for good and bad and I kind of like Tamara Korpesh I think she's fun yeah I do too bit chaotic which which we like In terms of the men's results, starting with this most recent week, the ATP 250 in Los Cabos won by another French arter, Arter Gere.

23:18Matt Roberts: He beat Denis Shapovalov, who was the defending champion, 6-3, 6-4 in the final. I saw Gil Gross tweeting a sort of quirky stat about Denis Shapovalov, which is that most of his points come from this area, this 500 square mile area on the globe, which covers Dallas and Los Cabos, because those are the only places he seems to win tennis matches these days. But a fantastic week for him. Well done, Denis. And an even better week, David, for Arthur Gere. I mean, on the men's side, I mean, I know this has kind of been the story with French men's tennis for a long time. Great depth, nobody at the top winning the Grand Slam titles.

24:10Matt Roberts: But I mean, it very much is the case right at this moment. I mean, they've got depth in Arthur's alone. Bonkers.

24:20David Law: yeah I can think of four straight off the bat when Rindy Knesset Kuzo, Fies and now Zeya and I mean yes we've stolen a ferry we've stolen a ferry absolutely and he seems to be the best one so you know in a week when Fies made his sort of first hardcore appearance and played a very competitive match against Rafael Hodder in the first round and then had to leave the court for another medical timeout. You know, he's the one that they're still hoping is the breakout guy. I mean, I think further down the line, Moise Kwame is definitely one they would hope to come into that conversation. Jaya doesn't have that sort of hype.

25:06David Law: You know, this is a guy who lost to Henry Searle in his run to the Wimbledon junior title. You know, he wasn't making the very latter stages of junior events. he sort of built it up. But, I mean, he is only 21, so this is quite a breakthrough week. It's got him, his win in the semifinals got him into the top 100 for the first time. And actually, the guy he beat in the semis was Coleman Wong, who in the previous round had got himself into the top 100 for the first time. So those were lovely sort of milestone moments for them. And Jaya's route to the final alone, I mean, it was eventful. He lost two epic tie-breaks along the way.

25:50David Law: One in the first round against Su Woon Kwon, 10-8 in the second set, and still came back to win the third 6-2. Then he played Francisco Sarundolo, and he lost a first set 13-11 tie-break, came back and won the decider 6-love. And then after he'd had a really close first set tie-break against Wong, won that 9-7, his game went to a totally different level. I mean, I watched the highlights of all the matches to try to get a sense of what sort of player Jair is. And he's solid. He's a really good mover. He's got sort of nice... I'm afraid the stereotypes are going to come out. He's classically French in that if you hit a drop shot to him, he's often got a flairful answer.

26:37David Law: And he will come up with a solution. but I was watching it thinking how do you hurt people off the baseline with this game you seem to be almost outlasting people really and then he just hit a turbo boost on his game particularly in the final his forehand went into another zone of pace and people who've watched more of him may say well yeah that's normally how he plays it really took me aback seeing what he did to Shapovalov in the final and in the second set against Coleman Wong. He was just throwing his body into the forehand and dictating. So, yeah, I just love these weeks where you get winners who've just done something they've never done before and the look on their face, you know, and the connection between them and their coaching team, people who've been putting all this work in to try to build the foundations and then suddenly it all comes to fruition.

27:36David Law: So, good on him.

27:38Catherine Whitaker: Interesting how you mentioned the coaching set up. He's the second guy in quick succession to win a first title, having just been unexpectedly dumped by their coach. He was coached, I saw this in L 'Equipe, he'd been coached by Jürgen Meltzer's brother, Gerald Meltzer, who dumped him after Wimbledon qualifying. It was apparently totally out of the blue.

28:06Matt Roberts: Did he get on a plane to Miami and post about it on Instagram?

28:10David Law: With a champagne glass.

28:11Matt Roberts: Mariano Puerta style. I get the feeling Jeya Melter's a bit more low key than Mariano Puerta, but it was the same sort of vibe. But yeah, apparently Jeya was really left shocked by this,

28:23Catherine Whitaker: but turned to someone, kind of as David said, who he's known for a long time. Someone who'd been part of the sort of French tennis set up, I think, who he'd known for a long time. That must just feel fantastic, getting dumped and then just levelling up immediately. It does feel like there might be something psychologically happening there in terms of how they've then been able to go to the next level. It's hard to believe that that's an accident, isn't it? F you, Gerald Meltzer. That's what that title says.

29:04not quite a well to be discussed in terms of people having a week where they've done things they've never done before. Bernard Tomic has popped up again in Los Cabos this week. Always eventful with Bernard. Matt, tell the people what he got up to this week in Mexico. well he withdrew from qualifying then he got in as a lucky loser so right there and then there's those questions already isn't there about whether that should even be allowed this is

29:43Matt Roberts: this nonsense is happening too much it happened in uh washington as well so somebody uh retired from their qualifying... I can't remember who it was. Yeah, Schweider, wasn't it? Schweider retired from his final round qualifying match against Cruz Hewitt and then got in as a lucky loser and played his first round. I mean, nonsense. I know you can... I don't know what the retirement was for. Maybe he just had the shits or something and you can be fine to play the next day. Oh, crikey. My nephew's just had that. That is highly contagious. I hope he didn't do any joint press conferences with anyone.

30:32I don't know what Tomek's reason was. Back to Tomek. Okay. Yeah. So after that, hoo-ha, he then won his opening match against a home player from Mexico, 6-1, 6-love, in about 45 minutes. He then beat Karen Hashanah. That was the quickest men's match at all level of the year.

30:56Matt Roberts: That 6-1, 6-1. Wow. From the guy who has been responsible for the quickest defeat in ATP history, I believe. So he then beat Hashinov. Like, his best win in years. Years. Thrashed him. 6-2, 6-4. You're thinking, okay. He then plays Cameron Norrie. And loses 6-1, 6-love. And I didn't see all of this match, but the points I saw, Tomek was, I mean, barely moving. I mean, he was barely present on the court. It was a total tank. I think he was one love, 30 love up. And then just barely moved or won another point in the entire match. It was a pretty farcical scene. Why would you play that out? Why wouldn't you retire?

31:52Matt Roberts: I don't know. I mean, it's just textbook, textbook Tomek, isn't it? I suppose. It's weird as well because he isn't ever present on the circuit now.

32:03David Law: Like he plays every week on the challenger circuit or trying to qualify. You know, I mean, this is, he's an interesting character, isn't he? I mean, you know, he's 33 years old now is Bernard Tomek. and he is currently 160 in the world. You know, he's been as high as 17. I mean, that was 15 years ago when he was 17 in the world. And then he sort of just disappeared, didn't he, off the circuit completely. He looked like he'd completely lost interest. I mean, I guess he's probably not got much else to do or much else that he can do.

32:41Matt Roberts: He's tried some other things, hasn't he? He's done some reality TV. I think there was an OnlyFans situation.

32:48David Law: I mean, he's won$6.8 million in prize money in his career. He's won a couple of hundred thousand this year. You know, he wins some matches. He's still got this unpredictable game, and sometimes he must really dig in because he's got seven six-and-a-third wins and stuff like that at pretty unglamorous destinations. But, yeah, this was... And I always consider that he may not have been feeling well at all. there was quite a prolonged conversation between him and Norrie at the net at the end where I got the sense he was trying to explain himself to Norrie. You know, he might be saying, look, I just wasn't well or something like that.

33:28David Law: You know, I'm sorry about that. I don't know, but it seemed warm. But yeah, he's an interesting character, Tomek, that he's still going along, you know, after this quite bizarre career of his.

33:44Matt Roberts: yeah it's hard not to have sympathy for i mean totally abusive father i know that's common in tennis and at some point you're an adult and it doesn't absolve your responsibility for your actions but you know even by tennis parents standards his dad was bad it was a harsh yeah yeah absolutely horrific um in terms of other men's events from the week prior we had luca van ash winning esteril which is a bit of an f you to david law because yeah luca van ash is a bit of a i don't know if we've ever said this on air before but when david's trying to sort of pluck a name you know how i always yeah he's david's men's good draw him and federico correa

34:32David Law: yeah i mean look correa's in a level of his own right he's he's the one who's The Van Asch thing is also related to Feast, isn't it? Yeah. David has a bee in his bonnet that people have grouped Luca Van Asch and Art of Feast together. Correct. As two equivalent talents, which I'm not a Luca Van Asch defender. I'm a defender of the fact that I don't think anybody's ever talked about Luca Van Asch that way. Maybe they have in France. Maybe David's got some intel from Eric Salio that I haven't been across. But I'm just not sure people have been trying to make Luca Van Asch happen in the way that David thinks they have.

35:15David Law: I think that you're basing that on more recent times when Feast has been able to back up all of his well-placed hype with steadily improving results that have shown exactly why he's had all that hype in the first place. I definitely think when they first came along it was Art of Feast and Luka Van Asch, the next generation of French player and I would sometimes watch Luka Van Asch and I'd be like I don't see it I mean, not even getting any results let alone what it looks like to the eye well, fair play he's got some results this week, hasn't he? so, good on him he's fit and able to play that seems to be half the battle yeah i take that on the chin well done van ash

36:06and we also had content alice winning kitsch bill anyone got anything to say about that

36:12David Law: other than well done no i i don't have any i don't have any intel other than that he had some good wins along the way um and you know well done well done him um i'm afraid that was during my holiday week so I'm not going to lay claim to massive amounts of knowledge however I can tell you that he beat Alexander Blocks in an absolute epic 7-5 in the third to win the title and he beat Rublev as well it's a great run really he beat Rublev in the quarter finals he beat Karina Busta the round before that, Hugo Gaston you know a bit of an all French battle there

36:54Matt Roberts: France have so many men's players don't they and so few female players like that needs to be I hope I would I would hope people at the FFT are looking at that and trying to analyze it I know it's not uncommon to have a disparity in fact it's probably more uncommon to have sort of parity in representation across across men's men's and women's you know Czechia has a massive disparity in favor of in favor of women but for a grand slam nation with heritage in both the men's and women's game you know role models and all the rest of it and and resources in both sides of things that is it's an alarming disparity they have one wta player in the top 100 uh now france and uh yeah i don't know the stat on the men's but it feels like every other player is is french or italian uh and the atp an american i think yeah i think france and america make up a quarter of the men's top 100 now wow and they're in a very similar place aren't they in terms of

38:10Catherine Whitaker: you know this the strongest French generation was probably the one before this one but they didn't win a slam and they've had a good US generation currently but haven't got a slam plenty of depth but just can't find that slam champion on the men's side

38:30Matt Roberts: I know David wants to mention Artifice right now but feels yeah instead he'll do a slightly sad face

38:39David Law: yeah I mean I listen it continues to be a worry about Feast with the the fact that he plays a set and a half and then seems to get hurt but I don't I don't think from what I understand that he's he's not going to enter the tournaments coming up you know I mean look we've seen it with Jack Draper's situation is that just that it seems like this this load on the body really and they're trying to get this sweet spot between playing but not playing too much and hurting themselves. And, you know, it's what a nightmare.

39:15Matt Roberts: Yeah, Feast and Draper practising together in Montreal felt like a troll. Felt like a sort of tennis joke.

39:24David Law: Have a look at what you could have won, tennis, if these two were fit.

39:28Matt Roberts: Yeah. He's still, honestly, though, injury-prone Art of Feast still feels like their best bet to me for a major champion definitely okay that's it for your results roundup there is still a lot of stuff to cover though from the last two weeks in tennis so we'll be back in part two to talk about that today's show is brought to you by vanguard to all the

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42:10Matt Roberts: Welcome back to part two of today's tennis podcast. A lot of news to cover off in part two before we have a look ahead to the tournaments this week in Canada in part three. Should we start with Carlos Alcaraz? Sure. Let's do all things Alcaraz. Well, first and foremost, we can talk about Alcaraz as a viable tennis player again on the basis of, oh really David? Well I was going to say on the basis of training footage we've seen over the past couple of weeks so first of all we saw the indoor training footage where he was starting to hit proper full pelt ground strokes again with the wrist unstrapped we had the news filtering through the Spanish press that he'd had some scans and they'd given him the all clear to start gradually building up the load in training.

43:09And then a few days ago, we had the drop of some outdoor training footage at the Carlos Alcaraz Academy where he really did seem to be going for it on the ground strokes.

43:21Matt Roberts: And we had a Vamos. We had some new hair, which we will cover separately in just a moment's time. um i look maybe i'm maybe i'm seeing what i want to see david but i was very heartened by by what i saw they're telling us that the plan is for him to return in cincinnati cautiously they're still saying we're not going to take any risks if he's not ready doesn't play but that is plan a

43:49David Law: at the moment yeah and listen it'd be a bit um hypocritical of me to be getting excited about artifice on a practice court and not getting excited about Alcraz I suppose that's the thing it's just you're right, it's really encouraging the fact that he hasn't been doing anything like this since Barcelona so it's clearly trending in the right direction it's just I can't see it until he's there until he's on a court in a match as I'm usually the last one who does the I'm not going to get excited thing because it'll only make the sort of heartache stronger when it all goes wrong. I usually don't do that.

44:39David Law: I usually just go, yeah, let's just get excited. Let's get, I've got the shirt on that says pumped right now on the back. but I think with Alcraz I'm just so wary of the fact that tennis does need him, I've tended to kind of slightly recoil when you've said that in the past that tennis needs Carlos Alcraz like I've been quite protective of the rest of tennis and thought oh I'm quite enjoying this tennis without Carlos Alcraz and I am but my god have I missed him the last four months and and and not just on a personal level i really feel that the the tour has lacked something immensely and that's no slight on people like yannick sinner who's dominated i mean and he's he's wonderful but he's he's elevated by having his great rival but he's irreplaceable alcaraz and um and now i'm feeling a bit like that sort of i'm a bit scared to fully commit my excitement you you're protecting yourself because you don't want to get hurt i know and i'm it's a new me it's a new side to me which makes me feel really out on the

45:58Matt Roberts: now i'm worried because i've let myself get quite excited by this by this practice footage especially because they've been so cautious and that makes me feel like right okay he wouldn't be doing this unless that wrist really had got the all clear now it's the sort of thing that could could recur it's it's inflammation of the the sheath in that part of the wrist that connects to the to the thumb apparently that injury can be known as golfer's thumb i do wonder if he has been um because there was a slam not that long ago where he was didn't he like play a round of golf with Andy Murray on an off day or something or maybe it was a 1000 but like I wouldn't be surprised if we start seeing less Carlos Alcaraz playing golf footage on on Instagram I suspect one to look out for that yeah because definitely you know look I know it's good to be able to switch off and have things in your life that aren't just tennis but yeah i i do wonder if that's yeah it's not direct causation then yeah absolutely

47:11Catherine Whitaker: yeah no i i think you could well be right i think it would be also be interesting to know whether he's doing anything about tweaking his technique on his forehand or something i would have thought that they would look first at tennis things that they could potentially do because that's what he's doing most of the time. I have to think that the way he hits the ball and the speed and the force with which he hits the ball is probably more of the cause than the golf. But the golf might not have been helping. It's less of a sacrifice than changing the best forehand in the sport, isn't it, to play a bit less golf with Andy Murray?

47:53Catherine Whitaker: But then he has said how important, and we've talked about it, he's liked getting in that rhythm. of it's been his way of dealing with the pressure of being at the top of the sport and being Carlos Alcaraz he I think on the outside he's often worn that quite lightly but on the inside I think there has been a tremendous amount of pressure that he's felt there and finding the ways to cope with tour life has been one of the reasons why he's been able to flourish as he has done. So it is a tricky balance for him as he makes this comeback.

48:34Matt Roberts: Are you more with me on the excitement front, Matt? Are you letting yourself get excited? Yeah.

48:40David Law: Yeah.

48:41Catherine Whitaker: Because how crass.

48:42David Law: I can't not be excited. So I'm the David Downer of the group. Yeah, but we know, David, first sign of a buzz cut and you'll be jumping in with both feet. Well, no question about it. Okay, so is this hair-related reticence? I mean, it's a problem, yeah. Okay, let's do this, folks. So he does one of his now trademark Instagram dumps, which we all enjoy, absolutely. And with increasing frequency, they do include hair updates. He seemed to have been growing out a sort of mullet-type situation,

49:19Matt Roberts: which actually I thought looked quite good. If you'd told me a few months ago, Carlos Alcaraz is going to grow a mullet, I'd have been concerned, but he seemed to have been been pulling it off. And then and then the next thing you know, he drops a an an Afro style cornrow reveal on his his Instagram. Now, I do need to declare something here and I resent Carlos Alcaraz for forcing me to declare this publicly. I have done this 14 year old Catherine her birthday present was braids with cornrows which I had done at a Reading based Afro-Caribbean hair salon

50:12I wouldn't do it now to be clear you were a child I was a child your parents no look it was a different time I wasn't born in 2010 I look I do I don't know if regret is the right word like I was you know 13 14 um but I absolutely wouldn't do it now like I I I do I don't want to be the I it's not for it's not for me to gatekeep and police what is cultural appropriation here but it it feels like cultural appropriation to me I think it's I think it's very innocent cultural appropriation that is very sort of forgivable not to be aware of and I know I know this is sort of stripping all the fun out of it but I I do think it's a bit dodgy we've seen Flavio Caballi do it recently he posted a picture of it on his Instagram

51:13Matt Roberts: he then deleted the picture of his Instagram we don't know whether that means he's deleted the hair oh the hair's gone the hair's gone so much so that it makes me even wonder whether the picture was real you think he AI generated some cultural appropriation would that shock you it would not I don't know unfortunately though I don't think Alcaraz is AI generated oh no definitely not No, okay. So there we go. I've declared my situation. So if I'm getting cancelled, I'm going down with Carlos Alcaraz. Yeah. Matt, your thoughts and feelings? You said it. You said it. I also think it looks bad. I think it's the first hairstyle that I can't get on board with.

52:11Matt Roberts: Victor Barber has done it. And look, I don't want to make this a Victor Barber problem, but that is specialist hair. And he's not a specialist in doing that type of hair. David?

52:28David Law: Yeah, I mean, listen, you've covered it all off. I do think most likely Carlos Alcaraz is going to try out every hair imaginable between now and when he's 30, because I just think he's fascinated by it all. and he's got this mane of hair, hasn't he? He's got this incredibly thick hair that he thinks can do anything. And I think he gets bored. Yeah, the sooner it's gone, the better, I think, in every way. I think growing it long when he's off was entirely appropriate, i.e. to just have a shaggy, I'm not a tennis player look to him. but that's all the more reason to get rid of the whole lot on the day that he walks out for tennis again.

53:21Okay. Yep, I can get on board with that for all sorts of reasons. We have some coaching news in the tennis world, some very intriguing Amanda Anisimova coaching news, Matt Roberts. yes leaked by nick saviano former coach of eugenie bouchard this was very odd suddenly suddenly anisimova shares a photo to her story of her having a photo taken with nick saviano and the post accompanying that photo was good luck to amanda and coach rick fleashowers with the with the hard court season coming up and i was like huh what has nick sabiano got this wrong or is amanda nissimova working again with rick fleas howers well i sent the photo to matt

54:19Catherine Whitaker: futterman matt futterman has checked with amanda nissimova's team and they confirmed and amanda nissimova herself has since confirmed and since been seen in toronto yes back with rick fleas hours the statement from the team was that it's just for the u.s hard court swing so these these few tournaments through to the end of the u.s open and yeah let's let's see how it goes i mean i can understand why at the end of wimbledon she felt like she needed a change it felt like she was in a similar place to what emirada khan who was in back at the start of the season where she just reached the point of no return with her forehand and that's not to say that you know it's not to say it was necessarily that coach's fault or that it wouldn't have developed into a into a better shot with time and all that kind of stuff it's not to say he can't coach anyone else it's just it felt like the wrong fit in the moment and i'm not surprised that she's gone back um well no i suppose i'm not surprised that the partnership ended i'm surprised i suppose that she has gone back to rick fleas howers considering that they only broke up this year that partnership but it always seemed a bit hasty anyway that that coaching partnership ended and getting back to the familiarity could be just what she needs right now so so we'll see we've also had the textbook coaching carousel situation of two players that

55:59Matt Roberts: split with their coaches at the same time one has snapped up the other's departing coach so Yuri Lahechka is now working with Frederik Fontang the long-time coach of Felix Auger Eliassime they split up a couple of weeks ago so we now have the Fontang-Lahechka partnership quite a lot of other sort of totally unrelated bits and bobs of news so I'm just going to power through them one by one we had the International Tennis Integrity Agency release the full written verdict in the Marketa Vondroshova Independent Tribunal we've all had a read of this it doesn't David I don't know I don't know what your reaction to this was it doesn't sort of reveal any major sort of cornerstone facts about the case I don't think that really changed for me how I feel about it I do think kind of optically from a sympathy point of view towards Marquetta von Droschever it maybe is a bit damaging the the details of the case for her

57:06David Law: Yeah, that was my takeaway from it. I mean, that's kind of like what was explained upon her putting her side of the case across publicly the way she did. And the tribunal initial reaction and word we got was it's not everything is as she's explaining it to a bean. Because I think she garnered immense sympathy publicly from all of her peers and lots of fans by the way she explained what had happened from her side of things. And then when you actually read all the detail, it's not quite like that. and I still have sympathy for the length of this sentence. I think it's too strong a sentence and yet I understand the importance of giving a sentence of that length and severity equivalent to a failed test so that players don't just miss a test in order to test positive, to avoid testing positive.

58:12David Law: I do understand that. I just I think that's probably not what's happened on the balance of probabilities. So I would prefer a lesser sentence. But yeah, I mean, I totally understand why they have sentenced her.

58:28Matt Roberts: It paints the details that we have paint quite a worrying picture about the player's level of understanding of the doping of the doping rules. And on the basis of the interview that I did with Karen Morehouse, the ITIA's position is that is not through lack of resource being put into education and lack of information being made available to the players. I think they would say, and I think Karen pretty much did say in her interview with me, at some point the players need to take some responsibility for something which is a big part of their job and carries serious consequences. And the information is out there and made very freely available to them.

59:18Matt Roberts: But whoever's responsibility it is, it paints a very worrying picture, I would say.

59:26Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, I'll be honest. I think the full report is incredibly damning for Vondrosheva. It's not good, is it? She identified the person as being from the doping committee in the text she sent to her boyfriend. She signed the paper that informed her of the consequences of refusing to take a test. And then she walked past the officer and went to walk her dog. and she didn't know about the out of hours rules. And it's different to the story that she originally posted on her Instagram, as David said. I thought there was a chance, I thought it was quite a big chance originally that she'd get the suspension reduced through the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

1:00:18Catherine Whitaker: I would now be quite surprised if that does happen.

1:00:25David Law: Yeah. Yeah.

1:00:27Matt Roberts: I just don't see what the defence would be. you know i i i didn't know what the consequences would be okay well you're an adult it's your it's your job to know what the potential consequences to reduce the sentence i feel

1:00:40David Law: like they would need to be changing the framework um because whilst i feel a bit sorry for her i think she's done i think she doesn't really have a link to stand on but i still feel a bit sorry for her. But the one thing I would say just about the players' lack of... And I realise there may be a lot of players who say, well, I knew about that. I'd like to hear from one or two that say, no, no, I knew that. I don't feel like we've heard hardly any say that. Most of them seem to be saying, oh, you know, this is terrible and that's not how it works. No, no, it is how it works. So I'd be quite curious to know what the actual breakdown is there.

1:01:23David Law: But then I also think whilst it is for sure incumbent on those players, and I take the ITAA at face value that they're putting this information out there and it's just basically been blanked, the small detail is being ignored or not taken seriously enough, I think the Tours should be taking this on. If they're not already, this should be massive alarm bells for the Tours that they need to help this process of are you getting this you know it should almost be like a test that you do if you want to be a professional tennis player you need to know this shit so you better do a you better do a test and pass it like a driving test so that you actually make

1:02:07Matt Roberts: sure you understand your responsibilities it's another good case for rookie school for players going to to rookie school which is something billy jim king is always advocating for I know there is the ATP University and David you were involved in that back in the back in the day and they do have a sort of version of that now but I was so many players so many important areas of the sport the players seem completely oblivious about to me I mean look at and Irina Sabalenka's tweet yesterday about press conferences and proposing that press conferences become Formula One style and all of the top ten come at the same time.

1:02:47Matt Roberts: And look, I know it's a throwaway bit of fun tweet aimed at provoking engagement, but she goes, would be fun, no? As if what's fun for her is in any way the point of press conferences. Like there's a failure there to understand the point and the purpose served by a significant part of her job and yeah how much responsibility lies with the tours and how much responsibility lies with these athletes as adults yeah is up for debate I would say it should ring a lot of bells for the tours absolutely David

1:03:29David Law: I agree to me this is a lose lose unless she is a drug cheat

1:03:36Matt Roberts: You could say, oh, the case. I was going to say with the sort of education thing, you can take a horse to water, you can't make it drink.

1:03:44David Law: No, but I mean, it's damaging the tours, right, to lose a top player like this or to have these instances if they are totally avoidable. If these are not people trying to cheat, but they are not understanding things, it is damaging them too.

1:04:00Matt Roberts: I think any kind of doping case is damaging to the sport, isn't it? Yeah, but these feel... Especially so many casual fans just here. ban doping tennis that's what you remember although it is incredibly rare David it is avoidable but this was the first case of a refused test a refused out of competition test in tennis that's what Karen Morehouse told us in that interview like it is largely being avoided but yeah it's it's a it's a how is it described in the in the ruling an unfortunate

1:04:44Matt Roberts: unfortunate case something like that just unfortunate for everybody if there's anything

1:04:50David Law: that is going to make players understand it it's this you know there probably aren't going to be any more cases.

1:04:58Matt Roberts: Yeah, absolutely. Bit of a pivot in terms of tone of news. The initial US Open mixed doubles entry list is out. Get your pinch of salt at the ready. Here are the teams that are announced to be playing the US Open mixed doubles with the caveat that the entry window will close at noon on Monday, August 17th, at which time the top six teams with the best combined singles ranking at the time will officially be directly accepted into the main draw field. Eight teams will be determined via wildcard and announced on a date to follow. Two teams will earn a main draw spot by advancing through the eight-team qualifying draw played on Monday, August 24th.

1:05:44The qualifying field will feature six direct entries and two wildcards. Got that? OK, great. Now here is the supposed list of teams. Irina Sabalenka and Novak Djokovic, Elena Rabakina and Taylor Fritz, of course, Mira Andreeva and Andrei Rublev, Iga Svjontek and Kasper Rude, Belinda Bencic and Flavio Caboli, Diana Schneider and Daniel Medvedev, Amanda Anisimova and Lerna Tien, Alex Ayala and Felix Auger-Aliassime, Leila Fernandez and Francis Tiafo, Taylor Townsend and Alexander Zverev. Here's a wild one. Elena Gabriela Rusa and Nuno Borges. They hard launched just in the nick of time, didn't they?

1:06:35Jessica Pegula getting the band back together with Jack Draper, Naomi Osaka and retiring Kay Nishikori, who's very anxious about what outfit he's going to wear. Defending champions Sara Irani and Andrea Vavasori. katerina syniagova and henry pattern rather suspect they'll have to go through qualifying and speaking of which peyton sterns and preston sterns of whom i had not heard until i saw this list thoughts and feelings everyone

1:07:15David Law: yeah well it's it's it's very much your long list isn't it and and and I don't think there's going to be quite a few that end up certainly not in the tournament and several that come along that are that aren't on that list I actually really like the Cinearchiva and Patton combo personally because I think that if they get in yeah but they'll enter the qualifying thing won't they that they've got the week before it I think they'll need a wild card even to get into

1:07:48Catherine Whitaker: that right Yeah, I think so. I think all the direct entries are done on combined singles ranking, aren't they?

1:07:53Matt Roberts: But then to put them on your big announcement and not give them a wild card would be...

1:08:01Catherine Whitaker: I mean, are these literally just the only teams that have entered? I think these are the ones that have entered, yeah. Oh, really? I don't think you'd be putting sterns and sterns on otherwise. Yeah.

1:08:12David Law: With all due respect. Do you remember last year there was a brief time when Sinegogov was going to be playing with Yannick Sinner? I mean they are the two number one doubles players in the world on men's and women's tennis and I think that's really cool and I think they'll just destroy everybody who's not Vavisori and Irani and probably them as well and that's what I want out of this

1:08:34Catherine Whitaker: I think it's notable the absentees from this list I mean obviously Sinner being one of them

1:08:45Matt Roberts: which interesting Sinner not being on the entry list eliminates the opportunity for him to boycott if you're not entered it's not I mean maybe it's a long range boycott he's already boycotting it but then I mean but then the other players that have been with him Rina Sabalenka has been a big proponent of the boycott she's not bothered is she

1:09:10David Law: then Novak Djokovic called up yeah so I don't really

1:09:16Matt Roberts: yeah

1:09:17Catherine Whitaker: did Savalinka say anything about the mixed or was that just just the Sinner idea

1:09:22Matt Roberts: I mean we haven't heard any quotes from players on that I think that was a leak that's been reported

1:09:32Matt Roberts: but yeah Yannick Sinner seems to be the only one sticking his neck out but then of course the other

1:09:38Catherine Whitaker: big notable person not on the list is Serena and okay maybe there's some still some uncertainty over her fitness having very heavily hinted in instagram comments that she and alcaraz were going to be a a team but that's it they can still enter

1:09:58Matt Roberts: can't they they've got until and again like with like with the wimbledon wild card and the wimbledon pre-tournament press conference she's not going to want to be on a list with with preston sterns is she i think she wants her own announcement and the u.s open would be delighted with it all

1:10:18David Law: because they can just drip feed it all out exactly more and more publicity i mean fair enough

1:10:23Matt Roberts: the other reveal is i'll assume jack draper is getting a wild card then because well i know kena shikori is talking about having to play quality but i assume i'm assuming from this list that Kei Nishikori and Jack Draper have been assured they'll be getting wild cards into the US Open or maybe some sort of deal has been done to play mixed doubles and you can have a singles wild card I don't I don't know obviously they're in very different situations Nishikori is going to be retiring isn't he so it'll be his final slam Jack Draper's just his rankings in such a place that he can't get direct entry into the main draw.

1:11:03Matt Roberts: Yeah, and no Coco Goth again as well. She's just not interested, is she?

1:11:08David Law: She's always so busy in that wig.

1:11:11Matt Roberts: Yeah, but they would be desperate for her. I'm sure they've tried hard to lure her. Oh, yeah.

1:11:19David Law: Yeah. Yeah. I wonder whether she's a boycott. she might be deciding to maybe

1:11:28Matt Roberts: you'd be annoyed at Sabalenka signing up with Djokovic though wouldn't you if you've done the boycott

1:11:38Matt Roberts: yeah all very confusing Taylor Townsend and Alexander Zverev that's a bit of a shocker isn't it

1:11:47yeah anything else feeling good about Anisimov in TN Matt will they get in who knows I think they might get in they played together at Indian Wells didn't they I always think it's weird having a best backhand in the world playing with a lefty situation like surely they both want to be on the on the same side but you know maybe Tien can hit some inside out four hands I'm so amused by Fritz and Rebecca still like Fritz just Fritz is determined He's a stubborn bastard, isn't he? Yeah, of course he is. He absolutely still thinks that they're going to win it. Yeah, because he's a mixed doubles specialist.

1:12:35Yeah. Leila Fernandez, Francis Tiafoe, I assume is a Lululemon thing.

1:12:42Matt Roberts: Oh, yes, good shout. It was interesting seeing Felix with Ayala and then Fernandez with Tiafoe. Yeah, but yeah, that makes sense. I think it's Lululemon. yeah good shout Pegula and Draper awkwardness again great great yeah bring that on Benchich Cavalli is kind of random it's good to be locked in isn't it it's good

1:13:08David Law: it's not a crime

1:13:13exhibition are you allowed to call it an exhibition we're going to have all that fun we'll be there and I will be so seated No Arta Feast, David? So far. So far. Yeah. Yeah. We wait eagerly for the final entry list. Everybody wants to play Arta, don't they? So he's quite a big withdrawal risk.

1:13:35David Law: I know, but he's fun. He's a fun vibe. We've also had the news this week of what the tennis schedule is going to look like at the LA Olympics in 2028. Hold on to your hats, folks, because the tennis at the LA Olympics in two years time starts two days after Wimbledon. Two days after Wimbledon. It's expanded the Olympic tennis event from nine days to 10 days, and it will be held from Wednesday the 19th until Friday the 28th of July. So that's in the first week of the Olympics. In fact, the opening ceremony of the Olympics takes place during Wimbledon. So, yeah, the LA28 opening ceremony we held on Friday, the 14th of July, which is men's semifinals day at Wimbledon, 2028.

1:14:31The mixed doubles event will be held over the first two days with two rounds on Wednesday and the semifinals and medal matches on Thursday. So they're very much a US Open style mixed doubles at the Olympics. and yeah that first day of competition will be mixed doubles only with men's and women's singles starting on day two so the Thursday so everybody if you're in the final weekend of Wimbledon you've got three days to get across the world to LA and get your head into the Olympics game and getting onto a different surface and the medal matches for the four other events at the Olympics will be held on Thursday the 27th and Friday the 28th of July.

1:15:17Matt Roberts: I mean, I think this is absolutely bonkers. I mean, I know Olympic years in terms of the calendar and schedule are always a bit bonkers, but players are going to have to choose realistically between the Olympics and Wimbledon, not necessarily in terms of playing. I think there will be plenty of players that at least try and play both. I would expect there to be withdrawals from the Olympics. But in terms of peaking at both and really targeting, you know, the top players really targeting, you know, top players are aiming to win every Grand Slam they enter, plus the Olympics. And I just don't think that's feasible or realistic.

1:16:03David Law: The flip side is that Alkraza and Djokovic both reached both finals in 2024, albeit wasn't quite as close as this, was it? No, there was a week in between. But then additionally... And it was in Europe. It was one Eurostar away. They then lost back-to-back days at the US Open. You know, they were completely on fumes. Something has to go. it's just not it's not doable even for Wimbledon Olympics and US Open let alone poor old Canada and Cincinnati who are sandwiched in there somewhere

1:16:43Matt Roberts: I hate it, I hate that players can't tennis and the Olympics has spent decades building itself up as an Olympic sport and it's really done it well and I feel like this is going to be a massive regression because there will be top players that don't play.

1:17:08I couldn't agree more. What is the solution?

1:17:14David Law: Not having two-week Masters would be helpful. Less tennis generally. That would be useful.

1:17:21Catherine Whitaker: Yeah. But I'm not sure there's a way to solve this specific problem Wimbledon Olympic being so close together clash

1:17:32Matt Roberts: and again it's the fractured nature of the governance of the sport I don't know who has the most power at the negotiating table tennis is such relative small fry at the Olympics maybe none of these bodies have any but the tours would absolutely be pushing for, the tours don't care about Wimbledon, the tours care about Canada and Cincinnati and they would have been pushing hard for for it to be earlier but obviously for for tennis much as I really love Canada I feel like Canada's already been ruined by the tours like I would rather the Olympics be as big as it can be within the context of the calendar and canada take the hit unfortunately than have the situation that we we have now um yeah

1:18:27Catherine Whitaker: i think there's also some other events at the olympics taking place at the site where the tennis is happening so that's obviously all had to be factored in as well like i'm sure it's very very complicated and actually does feel like a massive shame the final the final of the olympic

1:18:44David Law: tennis is i think on the 28th and the olympics finishes on the 30th it is only just over two weeks right wow um yeah so there isn't that much room for maneuver given that the olympic tennis is

1:18:56Matt Roberts: so long yeah they've expanded it i mean why is that expanding everything make that seven days

1:19:03David Law: get that into seven days and get me get get the bloody montreal and canada cincinnati down to

1:19:10Matt Roberts: and you know i know the um what are they called now world tennis which was the itf and they're the they're the governing body that are govern the the olympics part of the sport they're really they're really keen that more tennis media come and cover tennis at the olympics they're really trying to encourage that and it's just it's just impossible if you're covering wimbledon you know We had had a very, very basic discussion about, you know, I'd love to cover tennis at the Olympics, obviously. And we'd had a very, very basic discussion about maybe this could be the one and we could invite ourselves to stay at Pam's, Matt.

1:19:51And wouldn't that be fun? And starting two days after Wimbledon, that's just not even a conversation. I mean Matt's probably got a trip to Chicago in the diary anyway maybe a house move as well

1:20:03Matt Roberts: but like it's just not it's not even worth discussing whether that is possible we would die on the court

1:20:15Matt Roberts: it's a shame it's such a shame

1:20:18Catherine Whitaker: it's such a shame

1:20:21Matt Roberts: last bit of sort of random news The Australian Open is going to cap grounds passes for the first time. This reporting from Reuters. The Australian Open will place daily limits on cheap tickets to the Grand Slam for the first time after long queues and crowding blighted the tournament in January of this year. It's going to cap allocations of its$49 grounds passes during the first week of the main draw as they expected demand to be stronger than ever in 2027. This decision reflects the growing popularity of the AO and will help ensure fans are able to make the most of everything on offer across the precinct.

1:21:00Nothing takes me back to Australia like the word precinct. I'm so pleased that precinct was in the statement. Grounds pass holders will be allowed to roam between matches outside the major show courts. A record of 1 ,368 ,043 fans attended the 2026 tournament throughout its three-week schedule. I thought alleluia at this news and I cynically thought it wouldn't come. You know, the way tournaments and the Australian Open is particularly bad for this sort of trumpet their attendance records every day when, you know, you've just spent a day outside and we're receiving messages from listeners saying there's a real problem here with the number of people they're letting in and it is massively diminishing the experience of the tournament.

1:21:54And then you hear the announcement every day of record attendance. Woohoo! I thought there was such a disconnect between how the tournaments viewed this increasing demand and increasing numbers, obviously in terms of revenue and success, versus how the fans viewed it. I feared that nothing would ever give. And I'm very pleasantly surprised that this very common sense move has taken place. I mean, I suspect it will still be more crowded than will be pleasant. However, any sacrifice of revenue in these days of late stage capitalism, David, feels quite a big move.

1:22:40David Law: Yeah, I mean, it really came to a head, didn't it, this year at the Australian Open. I feel like we've been talking about it quite a lot at the US Open the last couple of years, certainly in fan week and in the first couple of rounds, but then the Australian Open this time. With the wonderful arrival of all the Iala fans and so forth, putting an extra premium on the ability to get these places to watch, and it was wonderful. But so many people we know or who listen to us were writing in and saying, I'm just not going to get a grounds pass again because I can't see any tennis. I can't, I'm in a queue for goodness knows how long just to get onto any court and it's just not, it's not worth it.

1:23:30David Law: So I'm glad that they've at least recognised that and not, you know, I mean, maybe it's no surprise that it's happened upon Craig Tiley leaving because he loves those stats. and he does he's done so many great things including the understanding of the importance of shade at the australian open i think he's brilliant like that but i think that this needed addressing um more isn't always better yeah it's great to see okay that's it for part two we'll be back in part three to talk canada and the week ahead in tennis ai is only as powerful as the

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1:25:29Welcome back to part three of today's tennis podcast. Of course, a reminder that we're going to be talking about Washington in tomorrow's tennis podcast. So it'll be out once the two finals have been played and we'll look back on the whole week's worth of tennis in Washington. Looking ahead to this week of tennis, we have the ATP in Montreal and we have the WTA in Toronto. Both events have already been massively impacted by rain and by withdrawals before the tournament even began. It was very much part of the tennis headlines with the news that Yannick Sinner and Novak Djokovic have both withdrawn from the men's edition of the tournament.

1:26:10And that prompted a statement from the tournament director in Montreal, Valérie Tretteau. She said, we are obviously very disappointed that Yannick and Novak won't be joining us in Montreal this year, especially after they also withdrew from last year's tournament in Toronto. We respect their decisions and understand that with such a demanding schedule, players' health must remain the priority. That said, we believe the frequency of these last-minute withdrawals in the last few years raises a broader issue for our sport. Masters 1000 events are among the flagship tournaments on the tour and fans rightfully expect to see the world's best compete.

1:26:46We are already in discussions with the ATP to ensure this matter received serious consideration. we firmly believe adjustments are needed in the near future to better protect the integrity of our Masters 1000 events while remaining mindful of the realities players face an inevitability David in my view that this pinch point has come I was very pleased to see that statement from the Montreal tournament director was pleased to see it as punchy as it was because I think they've been screwed over here and I was a bit shocked by the statement that It came from the Toronto counterpart last year, which very much felt like they had swallowed the ATP PR statement when they had a similar after withdrawals on the men's side and on the women's side yesterday, last year.

1:27:37Sabalenka didn't play, did she? It felt like they had received some reassurances from the tours that they were swallowing. and it feels like 12 months on, they are not swallowing it anymore.

1:27:52Matt Roberts: And I really hope the tours are sitting up and taking notice here, not only because the tournament is clearly making some noise about this, but Yannick Sinner, with his withdrawal, David, is passing up the opportunity to complete what has limply been titled the calendar golden masters, which is winning all nine of them in one season. It's hard to think that he will ever have the chance to do that again, given what happened in Paris last year after he played the full set of Masters 1000s leading up to that tournament. I doubt he'll ever be in a position again, going into this stage of the season, having played and won them all.

1:28:38Matt Roberts: And so not only is his withdrawal a blow for the tournament, but it also sends a message that doing that achievement is not a big deal. I'm not prepared to sacrifice my chances of winning the US Open one bit by going for that achievement and that should tell them something.

1:28:58David Law: Yeah, it really should. It's not a thing and it's sort of a manufactured thing because it's so unlikely anyway and because Yannick Sinner somehow has managed to win as many of them as he has, like all of them to this point but when you're in that position to be able to do it and to choose just not to enter it yeah, that just tells you all you need to know, doesn't it? But I just I don't, what more information do they need that this is an unsustainable format that they've put together and it's going to get worse, isn't it? Because what's it going to be like in 2028 with this Olympics. So really, I think that realistically, they're probably going to have to wait for the cycle of whatever they've committed and promised to.

1:29:49David Law: And I think there's probably some sort of break point from what I understood from Matt Futterman's reporting a while back, that there's going to be some sort of break point where maybe you could change things if everybody's not happy enough. Well, I don't know many people that seem very happy about these lengthy Masters 1000 events at the moment at all. But I suspect that PR-wise, the tours are probably going to have to say they're working towards a solution that will probably not come for about three years. But yeah, and part of the move towards that, as you say, is a tournament leader saying, oh my God, this doesn't work.

1:30:32Matt Roberts: The problem is this has been Gaudenzi. I know the WTA have agreed to it as well, but it was led by Gaudenzi. This is his biggest change. This is his biggest move in the sport. So now this change is linked. Gaudenzi's legacy and ego is now directly tethered to this decision. a backtrack on it is you know this is sort of potentially in tennis's infantino situation like the ego swallowing and the admission of failure which would be required in order to to fully backtrack on this and admit what a what a catastrophic mistake it has been like it unequivocally has and look the players agreed to it the tournaments agreed to it everybody was lured by more money.

1:31:27That is what happened here. The tournaments were lured by extra days, extra days, ticket revenue, concession stand revenue. The players were lured by extra prize money and they're now citing that extra prize money to the slams as their revenue benchmark. They're saying to the slams, well, the tours are offering 22 % of revenue at the thousands as prize money. Why can't you do the same? And while they're offering, they were able to up it to 22 percent because of the two week long masters, which you're now railing against. And I'm with them on railing against that. But, you know, everything, you can't have your cake and eat it all the time as much as late stage capitalism does make us feel like maybe we we can.

1:32:14Matt Roberts: and I just worry that we don't have the leaders in the sport and we don't have the structure in the sport where anybody's really motivated by the good of the game and prepared to put their ego to one side in the way that is required to actually make make positive changes I don't know, maybe I'm maybe I'm too cynical, Matt, what do you think?

1:32:39Catherine Whitaker: No, I completely agree I completely agree I think you only have to know the calendar and count the number of days and realise that these tournaments do not fit in this period one already has to start on a weekend and have its final on a Thursday they are manufacturing this to try and make it work it does not fit into this period of the calendar to have these tournaments like this and I think it's I think it's really interesting from a Sinner perspective because actually okay Djokovic is a bit of a separate case because he's almost 40 Alcraz is injured the women's field is absolutely stacked this year we haven't got the withdrawals it's the Sinner one that I think is the most interesting because as you said he had this potential thing to go for of winning all nine but he's not prepared to sacrifice the US Open at all and I think that's what he feels that playing these two events back-to-back would be because you only have to look at his season this is not, I don't think, a post-Wimbledon recovery thing he has played seven tennis matches, Sinner since he lost to Sarindolo in Paris he's played seven tennis matches in 67 days and five of those were straight sets there hasn't been this huge load on him however if he plays Canada and Cincinnati back to back he would expect to go deep in both all of a sudden he's got 12 matches in his legs in about 20 days leading into New York which we expect to be hot and humid and stressful and he's the favorite and suddenly we're back in a Roland Garros situation again and he's played too much in the lead up so he's clearly taken the decision to not do that but as you say as you both say well that means that he's going to make that decision I think going forward probably for the rest of time I don't think he'll ever play Monte Carlo Madrid and Rome in their current guises leading into the French Open again and I don't think he'll play Canada and Cincinnati two week events leaning into the US Open again so

1:35:03Matt Roberts: I don't think Al Karaz will either given the risk given he'll have been seen he'll have seen what happened to Sinner like it was

1:35:14Catherine Whitaker: it was already hard to win all of the leading events and the slam I think Nadal was the only one who's done it the last one to do it on clay and on hard he did it on clay in 2010 and hard in 2013 before the US Open. But it was hard then. It's extra hard now with the length of these events. I think, you know, Canada should be beginning the week of the 10th and it should be five matches to win it rather than six. And Cincinnati should be beginning the week of the 17th and it should be five matches to win it rather than six.

1:35:52Matt Roberts: Yeah, I mean, I went back and looked at the statement that Gaudenzi, the tours made at the time of this decision and the whole plan was let's make the Masters more like the Grand Slams. Let's try and level them up. And they've done the opposite. This has diminished them and highlighted

1:36:13Matt Roberts: how relatively little they matter to the top players compared to Slams. They've made them like poor imitations. They've lost what was unique about them,

1:36:25Catherine Whitaker: which was the packed schedule, the one week, the buzz, the great matches from start to finish. Now they just don't have the prestige of the slams and they truck along and you get days where not much is happening.

1:36:39Matt Roberts: Buys, endless buys. You know, day one of Grand Slam. Yeah, great. You know, half, okay, their three-day first round. Day one of Wimbledon, you're getting the men's defending champion. Great. there's this tournament it's called Wimbledon in terms of the tennis in Montreal and Toronto there was only one round of qualifying at both events which I don't understand at all usually it's two round qualifying Cincinnati is two round qualifying Zheng Chin Wen lost in qualifying for Toronto I'm sure we'll talk about her a little bit in our Washington show tomorrow but the comeback is just not comebacking for Jung Chin Wen it's a tough scene at the moment but we do have notable qualifiers in the form of Sloane Stevens Lois Boisson on the women's side Stefano Sitsapas on the men's side and Michael Zheng as well so your draws are looking like this in Montreal the men's event we have the top half with the top seed Alexander Zverev Lerna Thien is in there Tommy Paul Taylor Fritz Daniel Medvedev Jakob Mensik Kasper Rude Joel Fonseca and Ben Shelton.

1:37:55And then in the bottom half, you've got Felix Auger-Eliassime, the second seed. Francis Tiafoe, Flavio Caboli, Artur Fies, Alex de Menor, Lorenzo Mazzetti, Rafael Hodar and Yuri Dehechka. And in terms of interesting round ones, we have Zachary Schweider, recovered apparently from hand, foot and mouth, taking on Denis Shapovalov, fresh from the Los Cabos final. Terence Atman against wildcard Jack Draper. We'll talk more about him in tomorrow's Washington show. And we have Giovanni Mpesci Perikar against Bertik van der Zandskulp. Why did you pick that one out, Matt? Just for the fun. I thought it was funny.

1:38:36In terms of Toronto and the WTA... I won't be watching it, to be clear. Absolutely not. Toronto WTA, defending champion Victoria Mboko, out with the injuries she sustained at Queen's. and she's not on the entry list to the US Open. She's such a loss to the tour at the moment. It's such a shame. Her and Hayley Baptiste being out as well long term. It's just a rough scene. Relena Rabakina will become world number one if she wins the title in Toronto. It would require Rina Sabalenka to fall before the quarterfinal. So the scenario is Rabakina wins the title. Sabalenka loses before the quarters and Rabatkin becomes number one.

1:39:24So it's unlikely this week, but not impossible. Sabalenka is the top seed in the top half with Maja Kvelinska, Jelena Ostapenko, Elena Svitolina, Amanda Anisimova, Jessica Begula, Marta Kostchuk, Madison Keyes and Iga Sviantek. And the bottom half is also stacked with Rabatkin, Barbora Krojcikova, Naomi Osaka, Mira Andreeva, Coco Goff, Iva Jovic, Belinda Bencic, Alexandra Ayala and Wimbledon champion Linda Nozkova. We have fascinating round ones in the form of Nikola Bartonkova against wildcard Bianca Andreescu, Teresa Valantova against Taylor Townsend, Solana Sierra against qualifier Sloane Stephens and Alexandra Olinikova against Karina Pliskova.

1:40:12So we will be back tomorrow, Tuesday, to talk about Washington. we will today hopefully watch the finals of washington i'm saying we'll be back tomorrow has anybody checked the weather forecast in washington i think it's okay is it okay right weather permitting we'll be back tomorrow we are also live on wednesday night of this week for friends of the tennis podcast if you'd like it to be a three pod week then uh the link to become a friend of the pod is in the show notes and uh let me tell you it's going to be a fun time on Wednesday because we are doing a special episode called what to do about doubles we've been very aware of the the double story that broke during Wimbledon the ATPs proposed plans to kind of diminish doubles certainly diminish the amount of doubles and the prize money on offer for doubles and the backlash that that has caused in some parts.

1:41:12I think everybody in the sport is probably in agreement that something needs to be done about doubles, but there is very little consensus about what that something or some things needs to be. Well, we're going to discuss and debate that on Wednesday night of this week with special guest Pam Shriver. I'm really excited about that show and it feels an important one, one that needs doing and I feel really good about sort of really comprehensively covering and tackling that very big topic. So if you'd like to become a friend of the Tennis Podcast and join us live on Wednesday night or listen to that episode as a pod anytime then the link to do that is in our show notes.

1:41:53We'll also be back with a pod on Friday so actually it will be a four pod week if you're a friend of the pod. That is a two thumbs up from David. Back with a pod on Friday to discuss the first few days of Canada. Again, weather permitting.

1:42:13No, there'll be enough to talk about by Friday. A reminder that Matt Futterman's book, The Cruelest Game, is out tomorrow, Tuesday, the 4th of August. Our pod from last week was an interview with Matt that we recorded in the Wimbledon Library. So that will be available to buy from tomorrow to pre-order from now it is also available as an audio book that I did the reading for and I'm very proud of and it's it really is a brilliant book so enjoy everybody that is pre-ordered that I can't wait to to hear what everybody thinks about it and I'm sure there'll be a thread on the barge for everybody to to share their thoughts as well we'll have our first newsletter going out for a couple of weeks in the next couple of days.

1:42:58The link to subscribe to that newsletter is in our show notes. It's free and it's excellent. It's the place to get Matt's stats and to follow our assorted humiliations in predictions and fantasy league competitions. We have the return of our mascots, the return of me getting to look at cute dogs and other animals at the end of the show. We have the mascot today, very into this. we have racer racer is owned by emily and john and they tell us that racer is an 18 month old rescue a miniature poodle mixed with basically every type of small terrier his whole litter of puppies ended up with a foster family who named them all after speed racer characters racer was named after racer x the dark mysterious racer but he because he was the the one with the one fluffy black puppy in a litter of wiry white terriers.

1:43:54We dropped the X, but he proved to us quickly that the name racer suited him, as he loves nothing more than to run after tennis ball for hours on end. His mood visibly shifts when his parents call Coco Goth and Ben Shelton their favourite tennis players, and we have to remind him that he is still his parents' favourite fetch player. And the photo that I'm looking at, and you're looking at as well if you're watching us on YouTube, is if Racer mid-fetch, and I feel like it tells me everything I need to know about Racer, ears aloft, flapping in the wind, just like Billie Jean's do when she's running for a tennis ball, which she isn't doing very much at the moment because she's been stung by a wasp, and she is so sad.

1:44:40So I look forward to her being back on Racer-esque form ASAP. sad Billie Jean and worried about Alcaraz David. No, no. The world is off its axis, folks. We have our mascots. Hello to Bodhi, Maisie and Roger. Hello to our top folks and executive producers, Greg, Chris and Jeff. Let's have some shout outs, Matt.

1:45:06Catherine Whitaker: We have one special shout out today and it is a birthday shout out for Rachel and it comes from the Wimbledon Barge Group. They say this is a special shout out for barge legend Rachel's 50th birthday from her friends on the barge. We hope she's having a wonderful time in Toronto watching the tennis and catching up with barges. Many of us have good reason to be grateful to Rachel who dedicates so much energy to the tennis podcast community. Rachel is one of life's connectors. Her kindness, creativity, generosity and enthusiasm really has made the barge what it is today. I can't tell you how many times I've walked up to Rachel at a tournament and found her telling someone how great the pod and the barge are.

1:45:58Catherine Whitaker: She's the queen of getting selfies and she's made many of us brave enough to venture out and make new connections too. Thank you so much for bringing us all together, Rachel. Best wishes, your friends on the barge and beyond. it's the best and best wishes from your friends at the tennis podcast as well from all three of us uh rachel's a special one and uh yeah if reggie's the spirit of wimbledon rachel is the spirit of the barge um yeah we absolutely echo everything that your barge friends have said there and i'm so sorry that it rained all day for you yesterday in toronto i was thinking of rachel and i know Natalie's out there as well and they were hanging out together and um yeah I hope I think they're there again today and I hope they are rewarded with with with a brighter day in Toronto absolutely still got a lot of good selfies great cheek of a Osorio I think my adjoint certainly my joint was being targeted in a non-threatening way I've made that sound bad no Rachel happy happy birthday um it's so wonderful to have you as part of the the tennis podcast barge family so yeah you deserve a good one uh we are part of the athletic podcast network folks it's a good day the it's a good job the Washington finals were delayed because this would have been like a five hour pod I've forgotten how to do timing discipline folks.

1:47:35We'll be back tomorrow and then we'll be back again on Wednesday for Friends of the Pod and then we'll be back on Friday. It's a four pod week, folks. It is good to be back and we will speak to you soon.

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