US Open Day 14 - Rybakina shows why she is No.1

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1:25Matt Roberts: Hello and welcome to the Tennis Podcast coming to you from Flushing Meadows, New York on the night of the US Open Women's Singles Final a final which saw Elena Rabakina confirm herself as the best player in the world Thursday, she confirmed herself as the new world number one. And just an hour or so ago here on the Arthrasch Stadium, she became a US Open champion for the first time, adding to a total of now three major titles. If you don't already know, I'm Catherine Whittaker. And alongside me tonight and every night of this US Open are my co-hosts David Law and Matt Roberts. All of us were lucky enough to watch that final tonight.

2:07Matt Roberts: A pretty engrossing tennis match, in my opinion, with moments of great jeopardy, even great attention. And I think all of us came away, David, feeling like we have watched the best player in the world win that trophy tonight.

2:26David Law: Yeah, she really underlined it tonight. You know, it was one of those strange ranking situations whereby she'd already earned the world number one ranking on Monday. and yet she might lose to the player that she's about to displace, which would have been kind of a bit unsatisfactory in a sort of narrative sense, even though she absolutely deserved it. But to see her underline it like this leaves you in no doubt. And to have done it, having come into the tournament with question marks over her ankle, her achilles, if you think it was only a couple of weeks ago, she could barely walk. and she's just gradually built herself into this tournament, didn't even know if she'd get to the start line.

3:08David Law: And then tonight, she just showed you what makes her so special in a number of ways, you know, from the peerless serve. And it wasn't peerless all the way through because she had a really tough start with it. But once it got cranking, I mean, there's just not another weapon out there in the women's game like that Elena Rabakina serve to the piercing ground strokes, which just put Sabalenka on the back foot in a way that nobody else can. And also the nerve, the nerve at the end. She did wobble at times because she's human. Anybody wobbles and it's just fine. But she found a way to still win. And having never gone beyond the fourth round of the tournament before, that she's now won.

3:54David Law: It's massively impressive.

3:57Catherine Whitaker: You are welcome, Elena. I feel like we sealed this for her yesterday when we all, one after another, predicted Irina Savalinka to win, as we had one after another done for the semifinals as well, getting them wrong. And lots of people on the barge being like, yeah, that was the moment I knew Ravakina was going to win. And we definitely have to hold our hands up there. but she was fantastic really. The whole match I was blown away by how well Rebecca Kenev was playing. It was six and a half games until she made an unforced error. She was hitting the ball so sweetly and the commentators on Sky were saying that was a very harsh unforced error that they thought was given to her there.

4:45Catherine Whitaker: It was a pretty flawless opening set from the ground And, you know, as David said, for her to then lose that second set and be totally unaffected by that momentum change, heading into a deciding set of a Grand Slam final and to just play that one with such authority as well was so impressive. and yeah, I really enjoyed the match and have really enjoyed this trilogy of Sabalenka, Rabatkinner, Grand San Finals that they've now played against each other, two in Australia and one here. They've all gone to deciding sets. They're all really compelling to me and yeah, Rabatkinner, a deserving winner today.

5:30Catherine Whitaker: She was definitely the better player on the court.

5:32Matt Roberts: And do you remember how worried we were ahead of the first Grand San Finals they played against one another in Australia three years ago? I remember doing the preview for that final on that pod and being really worried that there'd be no rallies. It would be this style matchup. They'd be too similar in styles and it would be bitty and difficult to get your teeth into. And, you know, we've got quite a lot of evidence now that this matchup delivers, even when the tension is highest.

6:06David Law: Yeah, I think it's a testament to their hand-eye coordination as much as anything else, their athleticism as well, that shots that would normally just go past an opponent or be shanked by an opponent because of the sheer velocity of them, these two players are able to middle back time after time. You know, they may have the odd bad patch within these contests, but you do feel like you get a fair bit of them playing well at the same time, which is the ultimate, isn't it?

6:40Matt Roberts: I do find that statistic that Matt cited a moment ago about it being six and a half games before Rebecca can hit an unforced error pretty staggering given the type of tennis that she plays. You know, she's not looping the ball over, getting into rallies, hoping to grind out an error, she's going for it. She's looking constantly for opportunities to get the first strike in.

7:06Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, but I think what she does so well in this matchup against Sabalenka is she absolutely goes for it, but she goes for it to really big targets generally, and a lot of it is down the middle. She is heading down the middle a lot of the time to rush Sabalenka, but also to not give her the angle and to not allow her to use her greater athleticism, I would say. I think Rabatkinner does a really good job of turning it more into a straight-line, ground-stroke hitting contest, and that's where she really backs herself. That's where I think she has an edge over Sabalenka. Even the great Sabalenka, the brilliant ball striker herself, I think Rabatkinow is another level of timing and precision on those ground strokes.

7:58And, yes, she makes the match like that rather than, you know, side to side, athletic, dynamic rallies.

8:08Catherine Whitaker: That's where Sapolenka wants to live. That's the egg she has. So it's super smart tennis from Rabatkinow. And all this while her serve was, as David said, failing her in that first set. She made eight first serves in the entire set out of 30 and won the set. And it just goes totally against what we always say about how for any player, really, but especially someone like Rebecca Kinnett, whose serve is such a foundational pillar of her game, so often we'll say if that's not working, it can seep into the rest of the game and cause you to overthink other things or for errors to creep in. and that just wasn't the case at all.

8:50Catherine Whitaker: I mean, she's fortunate in that she can miss that many first serves and back it up with a great second serve. Like, there is a big difference between her first serve and her second serve because her first serve is so good, but she also has one of the best second serves. So it's not like Sabalenka was just getting a look at absolute dolly second serves. They're still tough to return, but I do think that probably was an area that Sabalenka will look back on and think I could have done a bit more on the second serve return in the first set. She was serving like that, Rabatkin, and she didn't get broken.

9:28Catherine Whitaker: And if you're Sabalenka, you would have signed every day of the week for Rabatkin to have that first serve percentage and she'd have backed herself to take advantage and she didn't.

9:38Matt Roberts: David, you commentated on the second set probably in terms of contest, the most thrilling set of the three. You could maybe argue set three had the greatest drama, but in terms of a tennis contest, I felt like set two had it, really, for me. Talk us through it a little bit.

9:57David Law: Yeah, I mean, that was the set that was required to turn this into a contest, because really you wouldn't have been that surprised if Rebecca had run away with this. And the way the second set started, that continued to be my thought process, is that she is the better player here tonight. She is giving Sabalenka nightmares with the way she's striking the ball, rushing her, frustrating her. But she wasn't winning the big points early on in that set, so she didn't break. Then both things happened at the same time. Sabalenka started to find something, but equally, Rybakina, I think, tightened. She lost her game for a short while.

10:41David Law: She'd had two break points early on in that set and didn't take them. Huge credit to Sabalenka for sort of fighting them off. But then she suddenly lost her backhand. And her backhand, I mean, Matt and I, we were having a little talk about it earlier because I sort of joked at the time, you know, that's six backhand errors in a row from a backhand lister. You know, it's terrible. But that's against the backdrop of one of the great sets of backhand hitting that you will see. So she really just dropped off quite dramatically. And I think she was tight in that moment. And, you know, Sabalenka is a bit like a shark.

11:24David Law: You know, when she smells blood, she is all over you. And she just wrestled that set away from her. I mean, it was dramatic stuff, really tense. she hit one absolute world of a drop shot did Sabalenka with the backhand I think that is the best drop shot of the championships she hit it from behind the baseline with a sliced backhand she hit it low and flat over the net and it still dropped down even with that trajectory and was unreachable, it was an incredible shot and that's a shot that was a real signature of hers last year and in the sort of March time around the Sunshine Double. So when she won that second set, 7-5, I really thought we've got a 50-50 match here.

12:21David Law: We're going to have a knockdown drag-out affair. It's going to go all the way to probably a tie break. And that's not what happened. So given that, was not necessarily how this start of set three

12:34Matt Roberts: played out tennis-wise, but maybe the demeanour of Irina Sabalenka at the start of set three, was that a shock to you, Matt? I think maybe it was a shock to you.

12:45Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, it was a little bit, and I caveat this with the fact that I was in the stadium and quite high up, so I can't really see facial expressions, and I'm not getting replays and all that kind of stuff. But my sense was that quite early on in that third set, despite having won the second, Sabalenka felt very tense and tight. And her first service game was a bit of an ordeal. She got through it, but it wasn't confident. And then in her second service game, she got broken. And then she was just on the back foot there. And I think, you know, it was something she was actually asked in her press conference by Ben Rothenberg.

13:29Catherine Whitaker: I've been thinking of the same question. He said, so often experience is a good thing. For someone, you know, you think if you have experience of something, it'll be easier for you. And he said to her, for you, is the experience of playing these Grandstand finals actually not helping you because you've got some bad experiences now? And it's almost like, oh, my God, it's happening again. And she very much played that down and didn't didn't lean into it and said she said, you're overthinking it. I'm just out there competing. But all I can give is how it feels as I'm watching it. And it feels a bit like Sabalenka is thinking, oh, my God, it's happening again in that third set.

14:11Catherine Whitaker: And suddenly she's lost the composure that I felt she did really well in the second set to find. And she found her game against someone who was playing so well. And she just lost it a little bit in the third. And by the end, I thought she was actually rushing and not really fully engaged. It was almost like she'd gone a bit mentally by the end and I felt the seeds of that were there at the start of the third. But the opposite force at play here is just how good Rabatkin was and she went back to playing a really high level in that third set.

14:52Matt Roberts: Yeah, I did feel like the speed with which that atmosphere seemed to overtake Sabalenka, that sense of, oh, my goodness, it's happening again, given that she'd just won the second set, wrestled it from Rabakina like a shark, smelling blood, David, exactly as you've described. It did shock me a little bit and gave the impression to me, now sort of looking at the whole match as a big picture, maybe the whole tournament as a big picture, that she was waiting for that to happen. And there was a bit of sort of self-fulfillment about that. And maybe this is me trying to wrestle some kind of good take from this tournament where there are none to be had from potentially any of us.

15:45Matt Roberts: Maybe you, David, can wrestle something for us tomorrow. And look, I'm fully aware that I abandoned this yesterday with my prediction, but I did just have this feeling all along that Sabalenka is not going to win this US Open and that she has been waiting for it to go wrong. And that is the feeling that I had from her early in that third set, that she had been waiting for it. And you know that feeling when you're in a negative mindset and something goes wrong, you're like, well, I knew this was going to happen. We've all been there.

16:18David Law: Yeah, listen, I think it's not surprising that there would be some scar tissue, some remnants of what's happened over the last six or eight months. She has not been winning a lot, Irina Sabalenka, and it's felt weird to witness that because she's not old. She's not past it. She still looks as good as she's ever looked when she's on her game. But there is something of a fragility about her now once she's in a dogfight, whereas it used to feel inevitable. And in the past, I would have thought when she'd won that second set, right, she's on a roll, forget it. And I must admit, I did think, and because of what happened yesterday or two days ago in the match against Pegula, the reason I went for her is because I thought, OK, she's clicked.

17:15David Law: We haven't seen this tennis from her all year long. She's ready. And the quality was there, But she wasn't pushed in the same way there. And I think the big, actually the biggest surprise to me was the way Rybakina rebounded off that second set, as though it had not even happened. And she was just straight back to set one form, but with a serve as well. She added the great serve to this already imperious baseline game. And I think that shocked Sabalenka to her boots, that Rebecca was doing that and that she kind of had no answer to it. And then I think all those sort of, why me? I knew this would happen, this kind of, and pointing almost at the support team and just that's when the sort of, the frustration just overtakes her and I totally understand it.

18:14But I think it's two things at play.

18:17David Law: It's the brilliance of Rybakkena forcing the demons to come out.

18:23Catherine Whitaker: And I think playing Rybakkena must be a little bit maddening for Sabalenka because, you know, she's having to exert so much Sabalenka and give so much of herself, even in the way she produces the shots and in the way she reacts to them. and when she makes an error, she feels it. And then she's down the other end of the court and Rabacchino is producing just as much power, just as many winners. And it all just seems quieter and easier for her.

19:00David Law: Silently devastating.

19:02Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, and there must... I don't know. Maybe I'm thinking too much about this again, but I can just feel the frustration boiling when that happens to her. We're like, God, I kind of wish I could do it like that and be so calm and so in control about it. And, yeah, Rebecca in that final set was stunning. And there were a couple of little things she added to her game, I thought, as well, where we saw her up at the net. Just a couple of occasions where she either hit a drop shot and followed it in or hit the forehand and sensed that coming forward would be the right thing to do.

19:40Matt Roberts: Karen Hashanoff, take note.

19:43Catherine Whitaker: there's a lot of things that Karina Hashinov could take note from Milena Ravakina like it was so good in that final set from Ravakina and that is how I come out feeling like you know does Irina Sabalenka have a Grand Slam problem is I'm sure something that we'll be talking about you know she's got a losing record now in these Grand Slams but I come out of this today thinking I don't think she lost that necessarily because it was a Grand Sam final, I think she was outplayed. And maybe the Grand Sam final was part of the reason why she couldn't surge in that third set. But ultimately, I do think she was beaten by a better tennis player right now.

20:28Catherine Whitaker: And that is Elena Rebecca.

20:31Matt Roberts: It was very stressed, Sabalenka, and at the end, very despondent and angry Sabalenka. but it wasn't Skrambalenka. No. I don't think. It wasn't the major final Sabalenka that Coco Goff has turned her into.

20:53Catherine Whitaker: Absolutely not.

20:53Matt Roberts: In the past, I don't think.

20:55Catherine Whitaker: No, and I think you can divide her five Grand Sam losses into the two against Coco Goff and the other three. And the other three have been two against Rebecca and one against Madison Keys. They're similar type players, big hitters, easy power, and they all kind of caught fire. And maybe Sabalenka could have done more. I certainly think this year's Australian Open final, Sabalenka let go from three love up in the third. I thought she really let that one go. But this one and the one against Keyes, I think she was outplayed in the big moment. Obviously the two against Goff, Scrambalenka, Wind, Crowd, Coco Goff retrieving, Sabalenka unable to hit through, unforced errors.

21:45Catherine Whitaker: They've been kind of their own things. Again, is that Grandstand Finals? Is that Coco Goff? Is that all the other elements? It's very difficult to come up with a clear narrative and that's something that I know that Charlie Ackleshares.

21:58Matt Roberts: To isolate factors.

21:59Catherine Whitaker: Something I know that Charlie Ackleshares talks a lot about with Sabalenka. You know, if you try and pigeonhole her, but you can't, she's complex.

22:07David Law: Who came up with Scrambalenka and how does one define her?

22:11Catherine Whitaker: I think that's a Hannah-ism from the barge. And it's just, you know, scrambled eggs. I think it stems from that.

22:19Matt Roberts: You know, head's gone. Bit all over the place, head's gone, errors. Her head might have been gone in one sense of that term, but I mean just sort of confused thinking is what we've seen in her finals against Goff, haven't we? Whereas today, she was just seething, still seething when she came into the press conference very soon after the match, still wearing her kit.

22:41Catherine Whitaker: Yes, in the match kit and keen to answer questions before most journalists had got into the room. You know, like she was like, come on, let's get on with this. I'm here, which I totally understand. And, yeah, she was definitely keeping a lid on it, but you could tell she was annoyed, and I think just annoyed about the big-picture situation of where she finds herself. You know, Rabatkin has not only taken her world number one ranking, she's taken her US Open trophy, she mentioned the streak she'd been on here, and she's lost that now, and she hasn't won a slam all season, and I think there was a realisation of that.

23:23Catherine Whitaker: and yeah, she was annoyed but I totally understand why. Like, that is... That's a very annoying place to be in.

23:33Matt Roberts: Some people are annoyed about or some people are uncomfortable or upset or clutching their pearls or whatever about the way she's expressed that annoyance on the court in particular and sort of in the aftermath of the match, smashing a racket, throwing a ball away, going to sit with her team while they're doing the FAF and setting up the stage, pushing the camera away. How do we all feel about that?

24:02David Law: I mean, look, I didn't love the last game. I think she gave up a bit, really. I think she tanked because her mind was gone. She couldn't take it. She couldn't believe that she was losing because she has to be one of the most competitive human beings I've ever come across. I think she just is a born competitor and she expects to win. And then when it was all going wrong, she just lost it. This was kind of, it is a kind of mini version of what happened with Goff. Okay, she may have maybe more respect for the power game of Rabakina than she did for the game of Goff that day, but it comes from the same place.

24:45David Law: It's just, I cannot handle this and I'm pissed off and I want to tell everybody about it, but I'm not supposed to because the last time I did that, I got in massive trouble and everybody was telling me I'm a bad sport and all this sort of thing. But in the moment, in that last game, she did lose it. She lost it completely and the racket went... I mean, I just... I can't... Personally, I can't get that worked up about that. I don't... I don't love that we end up talking about Sabalenka more than Rebecca, who's just won the title. I think the eye does get drawn to her more, and I think that's a bit of a shame, but I also don't think that's necessarily Sabalenka's responsibility to lose in a satisfactory way for everybody.

25:34David Law: I know some people love to see a certain sporting response, which I also like.

25:42Matt Roberts: Was she unsporting, though?

25:44David Law: Was she not?

25:45Matt Roberts: No, I don't think she was unsporting

25:47David Law: because she went to the net, She gave a hug to her opponent. She congratulated her. I think that took everything that she got in her to do. I think she was so, so sad and upset. And the fact that she overrode that to give her a hug and tell her, well done, you deserved it, I respect her for. Going off and sitting with a team, I have no problem with whatsoever. um yes it it is she's she's dramatic person that is who she is but then she went up and she gave a lovely speech i thought and she was fighting back the tears i mean and in some ways not succeeding because she was clearly very upset and i kind of want my grand slam defeated players to be upset i don't not because i want them to be sad but it's nice to see how much it means um i thought she spoke well i i get it i get why some people don't like him like my mom hates it like when i speak to her she can't stand the way sabalenka turns around and shouts at her team all the time and she will have takes about about what she saw today and i i think we've already had a couple of emails in, you know, just thinking, yeah, that it's not very sporting or it's just a bit, it's too much.

27:11David Law: And for me, I just think that's who she is. And she was upset. And it's OK to be upset when you lose a Grand Slam final. And she still was very sporting with the opponent.

27:22Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, the only time I've ever had a problem with something Sabalenka's done in defeat would be when she mentioned in the on-court speech at Roland Garros about how terribly she thought she'd played with Coco Gauff standing right there. I didn't think that was the place or time. And then there was the comment in the press conference about, oh, well, Iga would have beaten her today. You know, to me, those comments crossed the line in terms of not being sporting to her opponent. but I think the outcry at Roland Garros about the press conference far outweighed the sort of crime, in inverted commas, that Sabalenka had committed there with her comments.

28:09Here, I have no problem at all.

28:13Catherine Whitaker: It was an instinctive racket smash on match point. She was gracious with Rabakina at the net and she smashed the racket a bit more when she was sat down. She went off the court. She went over and sat with her team and her loved ones in a moment of difficulty while she's waiting for a stage to be built. And then she comes into the press conference and yes, she's annoyed, but she's incredibly full of praise for how Rabatkinner had played. And she ended it with a joke about how, yes, my streaks ended, but, you know, let's see if Rabatkinner can beat me with 99 weeks at number one. It was a nice note to end the press conference on, and she leaves.

28:55Catherine Whitaker: I have absolutely no problem with a competitor being annoyed that they've lost. Yeah, I feel exactly the same, honestly.

29:06Matt Roberts: And I'm not your mum, David, but I dare say a lot of the people out there that have an issue with how Sabalenka was behaving would also be annoyed or certainly dissatisfied with the lack of emotion from Rebecca. We see and hear that a lot and have done a lot over the years. She's not being emotional enough. Sabalenka's being too emotional. There's such a narrow corridor of behaviour for women that's getting it right. And, yeah, I thought she was sporting, perfectly sporting. and I do think the requirement that tennis has for its losers to stay on court while a stage is built for the person that's beaten them, I think it's a huge ask and I think it's remarkable how well tennis players cope with that generally.

30:06David Law: Yeah, I agree with that.

30:07Matt Roberts: Other sports aren't doing that. other sports aren't requiring that of its losers in the biggest moments.

30:14David Law: You know, at least they will give people a bit more grace, the other sports, won't they? I was thinking about the Ryder Cup and stuff like that, you know. You might be able to go away before you come back and just have your say and things like that.

30:30Matt Roberts: And her pushing the camera away, she's saying, look, I'm trying to have a raw moment with my team here and, like, I need to just feel my feelings for a minute. like give me a second and I know she could go off court if she wanted you know the WTA Commons managers do say if you need to go off I do know that but also they know they've got to be there for that they know how it looks if they're not you know she'd get criticised for that wouldn't she if she's not being sporting enough by being there for that ceremony

31:00David Law: I understand why you would want to be sitting with your people as well at that particular moment

31:04Matt Roberts: I do also I think with Sabalenka it's so theatrical There's such an element of, like, camp. I do find it funny. And that takes the sting out of anything, doesn't it, when it can be funny.

31:17David Law: And she can often laugh at herself, too.

31:20Matt Roberts: Exactly, exactly. And that's kind of the secret sauce. I do share your view about the last game, though. If there was any behaviour from Sabalenka that I was going to criticise, I didn't love those last couple of points. I mean, not giving full effort on any point in a Grand Slam final is not great, even if understandable. Matt, Elena Rabachner's first US Open trophy, but also someone else's first US Open trophy.

31:56Catherine Whitaker: Talking about Greg Allen's work. I am. I believe he has done a... I think he might have done the 2023 men's final. Oh. So it's his first women's trophy at the US Open. He's done the double now. Yeah, he had a lovely final, didn't he? He gave a little ball abuse warning quite early on for Savalenka. He got himself in there. He told some people to sit down and be quiet, turn the flash off. Well done, Greg.

32:30Matt Roberts: Matt was so thrilled when he saw it was Greg in the chair.

32:34Catherine Whitaker: I took a little photo of him as he went up to get his trophy. Why did you like him again? I felt everyone was very mean to him a few years ago. He was at the centre of a series of controversial matches and it was like, oh, it's always Greg in the chair. And Riley Opelka tweeted about him and said he was the worst umpire.

32:52Matt Roberts: He's got such a jolly face. Yeah, he's got rosy cheeks.

32:57David Law: Riley Opelka was saying I was the worst anything. I'd take that as a massive compliment.

33:00Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, I tend to just take the other side to Riley Opelka in things. That tends to be my policy.

33:07Matt Roberts: A couple of last Rabatkin things. Like, we were talking so much about sort of projecting forward into a world where Carlos Alcaraz won this title after four and a half months not playing and what an extraordinary, unprecedented achievement that would have been. And it would have been. and it's not the same as what Elena Rabachner has done in here. It's obviously far more micro, but I genuinely did not think she would be able to play this tournament and if she did, I thought it would be, you know, to collect the first round prize money, pretty much. Like, I was staggered that she was remotely competitive here.

33:50Matt Roberts: My day two prediction was Elena Rabachner to lose to someone whose name I've already forgotten, Thea Froden. Is that her name?

33:57Catherine Whitaker: Yeah. A junior, essentially.

33:59Matt Roberts: Right, a junior, a child. And she's now lifted the title. And obviously that's partly I'm an idiot. But she...

34:08David Law: There were a lot of idiots that day.

34:10Matt Roberts: She did not pick up a tennis racket for the week leading up to this tournament. That is what she's told ESPN on their set just now. It is true that she could barely walk on the practice court a week ahead of this US Open. This is pretty nuts what she's done here.

34:30David Law: When I was watching that match live when she pulled up in Cincinnati, I thought she was out of the US Open right then and there. I was worried that she'd ruptured her Achilles, quite honestly. She'd strained it in some way. But, yeah, for the first handful of rounds, I was thinking, OK, well, I think she played Jessica Berthes-Maneiro. Second round, yeah. And I thought, OK, well, Froden didn't make a move. This player will. And she absolutely thrashed her. So, yeah, Elena Rebecca has cost me a lot of predictions for us this fortnight. But, no, I mean, it's remarkable medical treatment that she's had that has been successful.

35:16David Law: So credit to them for that. But also I think she deserves credit for just not panicking, just working her way into this tournament and probably having to kind of work around the injury early on, you know, and just use what she'd got. And by the time she got to the final, she looked like she was at her absolute best.

35:37Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, it was the Osaka performance for me that changed everything, changed how I looked at Rebecca in this tournament. She was sublime in that one. and then she had to survive against Jung Chin-wen, didn't she? Jung had that backhand pass deep in the third that if she'd made, maybe, you know, maybe there was a bit of a sliding doors there, but she hangs on. And then for her to beat Coco Goff and Sabalenka back-to-back in three setters is a remarkable achievement, I think. Opta had a stat that she's the first player to defeat former champions in the semi-final and final of a Grandstand event since Azarenka back at the Australian Open in 2012.

36:20Catherine Whitaker: It's very hard to do to beat two players of that quality with that reputation at a tournament, back-to-back like that. And she's also the second player to defeat the world number one in multiple Grandstand finals in a season after Steffi Graf. It's an absolutely amazing couple of stats there. And, yeah, I do think there's that short-term, wow, she's put together this run. I also think, you know, if you go back a year, I would not have thought that Rabatkinner would have won two more slams in that time. Not that she wasn't capable. You know, we've all seen the game that she's got over the years.

37:01Catherine Whitaker: But you think last year she didn't even make a quarterfinal at a slam. She only made one semi-final in the 11 slams she played after each in the Australian Open final. You know, like her slam form was a little bit of an issue and she's really turned it around this year to produce two great runs to titles. And now we're in a really exciting situation where we have another player. We have another quest. We have another quest. We have another player one away from completing the career slam. and look, I think everyone would say the French Open is the hardest one for Rebecca to win. It makes sense that she's got that one left, I suppose, and there's so many good players and movers on clay on the WTA Tour, but she's reached a couple of quarterfinals there.

37:56Matt Roberts: She had a better record there than here before this year.

37:59Catherine Whitaker: Absolutely, yep, that's exactly right. a better record on hard courts generally, but at that major, yeah. So that's really fascinating to me that Rabatkinner has put herself in that conversation and, yeah, to think that she's only one slam behind Sabalenka in that race when you think of how consistent and how dominant and for how long Sabalenka's been. Like, Rabatkinner's conversion rate, when she gets there, is a little bit better than Sabalenka's.

38:31Matt Roberts: Yeah, we've got Rabatkin on three slams, one of each of Australia, Wimbledon and the US, so a French Open away from the Korea Slam. Sabalenka on four, two here and two in Australia. Goff on two, so one French Open, one US Open. Shontek on six and she's an Australian Open away from the Korea Slam. Then you've got Andreeva on one French Open. and then you've obviously got Osaka on four, Madison Keys on one, Barbara Krejcikova on a couple too, but they kind of maybe feel less in the conversation for the career slam and the total records really.

39:17Catherine Whitaker: Maybe Rabakna could have a little word with Sharapova who gave her the trophy because she was actually in the same position, wasn't she? having won three slams, one each at Australia, Wynwood and the US, and then won two French Opens to complete a set and actually weirdly end up with more French Opens than any of the others. And, yeah, it's that path that Rebecca could potentially follow.

39:44David Law: Yeah, and she wasn't expected to ever conquer Clay because she described herself as like a deer on ice. and you saw them standing next to each other on the podium there and Sharapova, maybe she was wearing heels, but she's a little taller than Rybakina and similar builds. And if movement is a bit more of a challenge for Rybakina, which it makes sense that it would be, Sharapova's a blueprint.

40:12Matt Roberts: She's 27, Rybakina. Do you think she'll do it?

40:18David Law: Not sure. Not sure. It's not a given, is it?

40:21Matt Roberts: It's very easy in the aftermath of seeing someone play that well to casually say, yeah, of course. Yeah, yeah.

40:28David Law: I think she'll win more Grand Sam titles, but I'm not sure it'll be the French Open. I think if I was going to... I'd be curious to see what you two think of this. If I was going to say one of those players that's most likely to complete the set, it would still be Svante for me. I think she has the game to win the Australian Open.

40:50Catherine Whitaker: I agree with that yeah I think she's won the other hard court majors she's won so much on hard courts it doesn't feel like a surface issue as to why she hasn't won

41:02Matt Roberts: the Australian Open Fiontech winning one Australian Open I think still feels more likely to me than Rabakina winning a French yeah I mean not that long ago we did think we did feel fairly confident that Sabalenka would get a French in a Wimbledon at some point?

41:23David Law: Yeah, I feel less confident, a lot less confident. The fact that we've had a year without her winning any of them and for certainly a six... In her prime as well. I just wasn't expecting a six-month spell like she's had because we've not really seen that since she started winning majors. I do feel like Rybakken of all the players is the one I tend to underestimate the most at the very top level. So, yeah, certainly wouldn't count her out.

41:55Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, I think Goff's season has been, to me, maybe the biggest needle mover in terms of how I see potentially being able to win a career slam. And I know she hasn't won a major this season, but I had really thought Goff, Wimbledon, that's not going to work. But, you know, she got to the semis this year, very nearly got to the final. Like, that's come into view for her, I think, this year. So, yeah, you've absolutely got a group of them there. All of them have a legitimate shot at doing it, I think. Sabalenka, Sviontek, Goff and Rabatkinner. But it's a bloody hard thing to do. So it's fascinating.

42:40Matt Roberts: I love a quest. To have so many players on a quest together.

42:45Catherine Whitaker: And then throw in Sinner on the men's side.

42:48Matt Roberts: Right, yeah. And then, you know, Alcaraz come the Olympics. Don't get me started on the Olympics, not now. OK, that's it for part one. We'll be back in part two to talk about some other results from the day, including the completion of a calendar Grand Slam. But just before we get to part two, folks, a quick word from our sponsors for this US Open at Steve Fergal's International Tennis Tours. Of course, the premium hospitality and experience provider. And Steve Fogles can sort you out with a dream trip to the Miami Open, which is from March the 14th to the 28th of next year. It is, of course, a combined men's and women's event at 1000 level.

43:30Matt Roberts: They are such cool events. And Miami is one of the best cities you can visit here in the US. It is vibrant. It is fun. It is artsy. and all of that is reflected in the tournament site, which has a cool festival vibe about it. So if that sounds good and you want to check out the Magic City, you should definitely do that with Steve Fogles. They can sort you out with awesome tickets, premium accommodation plus VIP hospitality at the 72 Club, all with not a single bit of faff in sight. Just head to toursfortennis.com forward slash podcast. That is tours, the number four, tennis.com forward slash podcast.

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45:00Catherine Whitaker: Season 3 of the Talent Transformation Podcast is here.

45:05Matt Roberts: Join Avature CEO Dimitri Boylan as he talks with HR leaders who are leveraging disruption

45:11Catherine Whitaker: to stay ahead. Hear from the brilliant minds behind the talent strategies at IBM, Siemens Energy, Transcom, and many more. Subscribe now so you never miss an episode. The Talent Transformation Podcast, redefining talent, one conversation at a time.

45:32Matt Roberts: welcome back to part two of today's tennis podcast some other big results to bring you up to date with from today the penultimate day of action from the 2026 us open we were telling you yesterday about how 20 year old taquito oda who has already completed the career golden slam in men's wheelchair singles titles was going for the calendar Grand Slam today in the men's wheelchair singles final against his rival, his great rival, Alfie Hewitt. He had won Australia. He had won Paris. He had won Wimbledon. He only needed the US Open. He loses the first set six love to Alfie Hewitt, who hasn't beaten him at a major since Australia 2025.

46:19Matt Roberts: so more than 18 months now, Alfie Hewitt has been suffering heartbreak after heartbreak against Tiquito Oda, and somehow today, in his own words, today I just wanted to be possessed. And he was. Six love, 7 '6", his first major title since Australia in January 2025, and denying Tiquito Oda the calendar Grand Slam, David. It was triumph and disaster and every emotion you could possibly want from sport all in one place.

46:58David Law: Yeah, and whilst Oda got to the final and they're great rivals, as you say, that is maybe one of the biggest shocks of the tournament because Oda is so dominant right now, 20 years of age, he's so incredibly good. and Alfie, we've spoken to him a few times just about the challenge and how daunting it is and they played each other at Wimbledon and Oda won 6-1, 6-1 in the final. You know, it's a really big ask and obviously Alfie's getting older. He's not old by any means, but, you know, this kid's getting better all the time, Oda.

47:40Matt Roberts: And he's geared his whole career, really, his whole training towards trying to find a way to solve the Oda problem, hasn't he?

47:49David Law: Yeah, I mean, he told me just over a year ago that he'd started playing a lot more with a left-hander and even travelling with a left-hander to try to replicate what he was going to be up against. This time, he said, it was all about him as opposed to his opponent. Rather than trying to prepare for Taquito Oda, he was trying to get himself back, he said. I was trying to rediscover myself because I felt like that wasn't me out there at Wimbledon. And that's quite an empowering attitude to have, isn't it? And he kind of achieved that. And I think he would have been okay with the result, therefore more if he hadn't have won.

48:31David Law: But it's probably helped him to win. But also, surely the Oda quest has come into play. To lose a six-love set, he must have been a little tight, I think, unless he was injured.

48:45Catherine Whitaker: Yes, absolutely. I think it's interesting, you know, to think about what a calendar slam can do even to someone as great as Taquito Oda. And I think he was feeling the pressure of that in that moment today. And, yeah, for Hewitt, just to pick up on what David was saying, he said, I'm known for just being fearless, brave and courageous in big moments. And I felt I was everything but that at Wimbledon. I was quiet, I was timid, I was a shell of myself. I've had six weeks of chomping at the bit to come out and prove to myself that I can be more like that person. And, you know, that was what we saw today.

49:26Catherine Whitaker: And Hannah was watching this very closely, I know, and she thought that Hewitt did a very good job of avoiding the Oda forehand and not letting him take over with that. And Oda built a lead in the second set and Hewitt got it back. and when Hewitt won, I mean, the emotion he let out, he sort of sat back in his chair and put both arms out and absolutely roared and then had a nice moment with Oda at the net and then celebrated again afterwards. This was huge for him. You know, it's like proving that all the work is worth it, isn't it? It's still possible. Still possible, you must make him think about what's going to be possible in the future.

50:08Catherine Whitaker: I'm sure Oda will respond to this and come back hungry for more. It's a great thing about a rivalry.

50:15Matt Roberts: It's a true rivalry, isn't it? Alfie said after the match, he's made me such a better player. And that is the essence of rivalry, isn't it? Speaking of which, Yui Kimiji got the better of Dido Dukut today, 6-2, 6-1, 6-3. Kimiji's fourth US Open singles title. Dukut is getting closer to Kimiji. She lost six love, six love to her in the Wimbledon final. And, yeah, that's sort of a revived rivalry. Kimiji faded a bit. I think she's in her early 30s now. Derud obviously was out for a year following hip surgery. I think it was after the Paris Olympics. So, yeah, that's a fascinating one. And it feels like Derud is edging closer and closer to toppling Kimiji again.

51:05Matt Roberts: but she's holding firm at the top there, is Kimiji. So three different women taking the US Open women's singles wheelchair titles. Sorry, taking the major wheelchair women's singles titles in 2026. In terms of the quad wheelchair singles, that was won by Niels Vink, who beat Sam Schroeder 6-2, 7-5 in the final to complete the calendar slam. and he and the other wheelchair champions were introduced to the crowd during a set break, was it? During the women's singles final tonight and it was a really nice moment. I thought that was really well done, actually, and sort of proof of how you can do these things without faff.

51:54Catherine Whitaker: Yes, you know, tennis has natural breaks. Set break or changeover, I can't exactly remember what it was, But yeah, they had all the wheelchair champions on the court and introduced them to the crowd and told the crowd that Niels Wink had completed the calendar slam. And yeah, it was a nice moment to give them that recognition. I will say I do think the tournament could probably do a better job with the actual staging of the finals. They're all on at the same time. They're not given quite the same profile that some of the other slams give them.

52:35Matt Roberts: All on at the same time is crap, isn't it? Because if you're a wheelchair tennis fan, you can't watch...

52:45Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, it'd be like having the men's singles and women's singles final on at the same time. Just wouldn't do it. And there is time. There's time to spread it out.

52:58Matt Roberts: Yeah. In the words of Matthew, cameraman Matthew, you've got all day. He texted that in all caps yesterday and I really enjoyed it. So congratulations to Niels Vink, an incredible achievement. He's beaten Sam Schroeder in three out of the four major finals this year. In the junior finals, Sun Jinran of China beat Anna Pushkareva, 6-4, 4-6, 6-love, to win the girls' title. until she was the top seed. She's 16. As I say, she's from China. So that's definitely a name to look and listen out for. And in the boys, unseeded Marcel Latak beat top seed Guto Miguel. So an American player against a Brazilian player, as we established on last night's pod.

53:47Matt Roberts: 3-6, 7-5, 7-6. And I was reading about Marcel Latak earlier. He's from Chicago, Matt. but trains in San Diego and he's known for his grit. Apparently he was very, very lazy in his early years. He was a talent, but just, you know, totally by his own admission, like just didn't want to work hard at all. We're talking about Megan. His older sister was a player and I think sort of set the, or is a player. She's only a couple of years older, I think, and can kind of set the standard for what's required if you want to give it a go. And I think some people gave him some truth-telling. And here he is, using all his grit to win in a deciding set tie-break over the top seed.

54:39Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, it was a dramatic finish to this one. Match points coming and going. And, yeah, he ended up winning LaTac. And he's the first American boys champion here since Taylor Fritz in 2015, Dean, I think that was.

54:54Matt Roberts: And I think he's working with some of the same coaches that Taylor Fritz worked with in his development as well and Brandon Nakashima too. So he's in good hands. He's going to Stanford next August, I think is the plan. I do fear the puns that will happen, the sort of attack puns.

55:12Catherine Whitaker: Oh, OK.

55:12Matt Roberts: If he makes it. I don't wish for him not to make it. Good luck, Marcel. But I'm just bracing myself for that.

55:20Catherine Whitaker: It was fine for Ferry. He managed, despite the puns.

55:25David Law: It was additive.

55:27Catherine Whitaker: And that was a lovely moment on the Arthur Ashe Stadium. They had the junior champions come out as well. And when Latak saw that he was on the screen and heard the rapturous applause that he got when it was announced that he was American, his face lit up. It was great. It was like, oh, I've made it. I've done it.

55:48Matt Roberts: How motivating for him.

55:49Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, it was really nice.

55:51Matt Roberts: Yeah. The men's doubles title. This final was played on the Arthrasch Stadium before the women's singles final. It was won by Christian Harrison and Neil Skubski. They beat Tim Putz and Kevin Kravitz 6-4, 7-6, their second slam of the year. They also won the title in Australia, moves them up to second in L race to Turin after Henry Patton and Harry Heliovaro. So congratulations to Harrison and Skubski, the American-British pairing who beat the Germans today. That is it for part two. We'll be back in part three to look ahead to the one remaining match at this 2026 US Open. AI is only as powerful as the platform it's built into.

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57:38Matt Roberts: Welcome back to part three of today's tennis podcast. There really is only one match left at this US Open. It is 2 p.m. tomorrow, Sunday on the Arthur Ashe Stadium. It is the top seed Alexander Zverev against the man aiming to become the first American man to win this US Open title since Andy Roddick in 2003. Ben Shelton. David, who's going to win and why?

58:10David Law: You know, this is a really difficult one, I think, to call. It's so easy to make a strong case for both of these two players. Alexander Zverev has been there and done that. OK, he didn't have a good time at the US Open final in 2020, but he's proved himself this year. He's won a Grand Slam. He's got to several others, and he's put up a good account of himself against Carlos Alcaraz and Yannick Sinner, the two best players in the world at the moment. You know, he really has elevated his game this year and been good to his word, really, at the start of the year that he was going to make some changes.

58:51David Law: Even though I do feel like in his previous match, for the most part, he kind of decided to move back into his old way of winning and just soak it up. And I think a lot of that is because I don't think he's feeling in as good a form as he was at Wimbledon. So I think he's more in a sort of, OK, okay, well, I'll rely on my wheels, my legs, and just my racket skill from the back of the court. He's very good at kind of manipulating the ball so that you can't get past him often enough. That having been said, he's up against a guy who's improved even more in Ben Shelton. When he came along, when he was in the semifinals three years ago and he lost to Novak Djokovic, I liked his chutzpah.

59:37David Law: I liked the fact that he stared Djokovic down at the net at the end. But honestly, his game looked pretty one-dimensional and with a number of holes in it. And I just don't see those holes in quite the same way now. It's not perfect. I still think he's got room for improvement, and I think there are maybe one or two things he'll never be as good at, certainly as Sinner and Alkraza at. But he has strengthened his strengths, and he has bolstered his weaknesses significantly on the backhand side. We spoke a lot about that last night. The record of 5-0 is problematic for him against Zverev and for any left-hander playing Zverev because to my knowledge, apart from Nadal, I can only remember one guy once ever beating him who's a left-hander.

1:00:36Catherine Whitaker: Zverev's won 43 of his last 44 matches against left-handers.

1:00:41David Law: OK.

1:00:42Catherine Whitaker: That's the stat.

1:00:43David Law: And that tells you the magnitude of the task facing Ben Shelton.

1:00:50Matt Roberts: And OK, he's the top seed, but he is a guy that has lost to lower-ranked... Last year, you had the bit of listing all the guys that he had lost to in 2025. That does mean something. That is a meaningful stat, I think. It's not just top player doesn't look...

1:01:11Catherine Whitaker: Yes, I think part of it is that there aren't that many lefties of Ben Shelton's quality. But last year, players who were right-handed and not in Ben Shelton's quality were beating Alexander Zverev. But that pool of players who were lefties were not beating Alexander Merritt.

1:01:31David Law: But Brian Shelton, Ben's dad and coach, came into the press conference room last night. I always love listening to Brian. And he puts things very succinctly, and I think he's very honest. And he says, the only thing is, he said, Ben's very good on a Sunday. And I thought, oh, OK. because I'd got in my mind, well, I remember Ben losing to Zverev in Munich, I think last year, in the final on a Sunday. So I went and looked at the record. He's won his last five finals. He's seven and two in finals, is Ben Shelton, and he's won his last five. I think that's who he is. I think he's a big-time player.

1:02:17David Law: My mind still goes back to the first round here against Talon Grigspoor when he lost the first set of that match, 6-1. You know, he was so bad. That's the worst I've ever seen in play. And he really, if he wasn't careful, he could have been bounced out of the tournament at that stage. And he's just gradually improved. And now he's significantly improved. I do wonder whether it being a final may produce some of the nerves and the response that he had on that first round day. you know there's a possibility you could go and lose the first set 6-1 or 6-2 tomorrow because he freezes or because he just can't get his timing all that sort of thing so i think it's imperative that he serves well enough so that he can keep the score close while he finds his feet that's my that's my guess he might come out absolutely blitzing it from the off and have his timing immediately but he didn't last night against tfo and and he hasn't tended to but i but but I'm encouraged for him that he had a good hard-fought win over Hubert Hercatch, who I don't think plays that dissimilarly to Zverev in terms of the difficulty of handling his serve.

1:03:32David Law: So that all being said, who's going to win? I said Shelton at the start of the tournament. I know I had my little detour when I saw the form Carlos Alcraz appeared to be in when he beat Tommy Paul, but I'm sticking with Ben Shelton.

1:03:48Catherine Whitaker: Have you got a set hunch or is that too much to ask? Four. Four. Matt.

1:03:58Catherine Whitaker: I am leaning Zverev. And the reason really is because there's just unknowns for Shelton in a way that there isn't for Zverev, I think, you know? I feel like I know what Zverev's going to do tomorrow I feel like I know how he's going to play I feel like I know that he's going to bring a pretty constant level over a certain number of sets I think he's going to raise the bar to here and it's going to be up to Shelton to clear it and I just don't know whether Ben Shelton will because he's never been in this situation before And I just personally find it hard to predict people to do things that they've never done before.

1:04:48Catherine Whitaker: And of course, that's that's ludicrous, really, because people are doing things they've never done before all the time. And you have to win a first one eventually. If you're going to win a load, you know, but. I am a little concerned about it feeling like a very different Sunday to the Sundays Shelton's had before. I think there's a world, as you say, where it totally inspires him and he plays maybe even better because of it. But he's talked a lot in his press conferences about how mentally locked in he's been. And I trust him to absolutely try and do that. I just think it's really hard to do that in a grand slam final with the weight of a country's expectation on you against a guy who is going to be there asking questions and who likes the matchup and who has this incredible wingspan and will make a lot of returns, probably, even off that serve.

1:05:47Catherine Whitaker: So I think there's definitely a world where Shelton responds to all of that really well and does have it in him to seize the moment in a way that Hachinov didn't, in a way that a lot of Zverev's opponents haven't done this tournament. Shelton, to my mind, has all the tools to be that guy and to do it. if you just ask me for a prediction though, I'm going to lean on the guy who's already been there and done it and just has a few less question marks, I think, against them. And the other one little wrinkle is the day session nature of it and the fact that Shelton hasn't played day session since that second round against Hubert Herc.

1:06:28Catherine Whitaker: Actually, that's going to be a little adjustment. The energy just feels different in that stadium compared to at night. that might be another reason for a potential slow start if he does start slow. But I think it's really close. I think he's got more of a shot than Caballi had at the French Open.

1:06:51Matt Roberts: I'm not sure how high a bar that is.

1:06:54Catherine Whitaker: But we talked ourselves kind of into Caballi.

1:06:56David Law: And look, Caballi was very close. And he was close.

1:06:59Matt Roberts: He did, but I'm just talking about how we felt before the fight. He surprised us with how close he made it, Caballi.

1:07:05Catherine Whitaker: And also how he's out here.

1:07:07Matt Roberts: Yeah, this equivalent show before the French final. We weren't... Not sure anyone was predicting Flavio to do what he did.

1:07:19David Law: No, they weren't. And listen, one big difference is Zverev was so tight that day. I mean, he just about conquered his nerves. he wasn't nervous in the Wimbledon final. No. He was flying in the Wimbledon final. I don't think he's playing anywhere near as well as he did in the Wimbledon final. That's why I think he's doing what he's doing with absorbing. I think he's more likely to go lockdown mode and just try to make Shelton punch himself out and miss enough. Because if you've got a game that's that solid, that's an option for you. You can't do that against Sinner and Alcruz because they're too good.

1:08:01David Law: And the gamble is, if I do it, is he actually good enough? And I think he might back himself to think, all right, I'll sting him when the ball's there to be hit, but otherwise I'm just going to serve well, absorb, and I think he'll miss too many.

1:08:19Matt Roberts: Okay, it's tantalising. We'll be back with a podcast at the end of it all, our final US Open podcast from Flushing Meadows for the tournament this year. We'll, of course, be back with our review show for Friends of the Tennis Podcast in a few days' time as well. We say hello to our mascots, to my mascot Bodhi, to David's Maisie and to Matt's Roger, to our top folks and executive producers, Greg, Chris and Jeff, and a big finals weekend hello to Leo, who, David, is pumped and celebrating in style. Here is Leo with two bottles of champagne on ice, no less, some champagne glasses with tennis balls perched atop.

1:09:08Matt Roberts: The life that Leo is living, my goodness.

1:09:11David Law: No wonder he's got a big smile on his face.

1:09:14Matt Roberts: What a dog.

1:09:18David Law: And you can see that smile in the newsletter tomorrow.

1:09:20Matt Roberts: Yes, lovely Leo and his lovely smile will be in the newsletter tomorrow. Now, the US Open may be drawing to a conclusion, sadly, but Formula One fans still have two races to look forward to in the US in what promises to be a thrilling 2026 title run-in. This weekend, the drivers took on the brand new Madring circuit in Spain. The Grand Prix is tomorrow, I think, isn't it? It was qualifying today. I was trying to follow that amid all the madness. Rumour has it Carlos Alcaraz is going to be at the Grand Prix tomorrow. And if you want to catch up on all the action from Madrid, check out our stablemates at the Race F1 podcast.

1:10:07Matt Roberts: Like us, they're always on site in the thick of the action, covering all the stories that matter as a gripping F1 season edges towards its climax. Search The Race F1 Podcast to subscribe on YouTube, Apple, Spotify and everywhere else, wherever you get your podcasts. Folks, we are part of the Athletic Podcast Network. No shout outs tonight, even though it's a mere 9.39pm. You slacking off, Matt?

1:10:34Catherine Whitaker: Bus time.

1:10:35Matt Roberts: Bus time. Can't miss that bus.

1:10:38Catherine Whitaker: They're on the hour today. Not every half hour.

1:10:40Matt Roberts: Bus permitting. We and shout outs. Well, no, we will be back, whatever, tomorrow. Shoutouts, we'll be back unless we're in a very stressful bus situation. We can't get stranded at the US Open on the final night because we'll have to spend another 49 weeks here. So we'll be back tomorrow as will shoutouts. Thank you very much for listening, folks. We'll speak to you then.

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