US Open Day 5 - Is Coco Gauff the title favourite?

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1:36Matt Roberts: Hello and welcome to the Tennis Podcast recording tonight alongside the player practice courts on what has been a pretty thrilling day five of the US Open. I'm Catherine Whittaker, alongside David Law and Matt Roberts. As always, together we are the Tennis Podcast here in New York to bring you daily shows from the US Open and all four majors of the tennis season. It is shortly before 10pm as we record the majority of this show and it's still outrageously humid as it has been all day here in New York. There are still a couple of matches still to be completed And rest assured, we will be back in part three to cover off top seed Alexander Zverev taking on Conta Alice on Ash.

2:18Matt Roberts: And Elena are back in his latest fitness test against Jessica Boutas-Maneiro that it's about to kick off on Armstrong. In the first match on Ash tonight, we saw tournament favorite Coco Goff come through a battle, a big battle against former world number two Paola Bedosa. 6-4, 7-6. Matt, you were up in the stands for this. You described it as a vibe.

2:43Catherine Whitaker: It was a vibe, particularly after the match, actually, when everyone was high on the Coco Gauff win and then there was a Pride Night light show, which I did find myself thinking, God, this is good. This is a vibe. They're playing some absolute bangers. But then I caught myself and was like, oh, it is all so faff. It's really pulling me in different directions.

3:04Matt Roberts: Do you know, Matt, it is tough when the faff is good. Yeah, it's really good faff. And you're like, this is great. Why is it happening at 10 p.m.? And we've got a best of five set match to come. Like, I want to be able to enjoy this, but it's competing with my heart that says... But like, do it at seven p... There was three hours of intentionally blank. There's time for the fun light show and the bangers. And the time is not 10 p.m. But I'm glad you had a good time. Did Coco Gough have a good time? How good did she need to be to beat Paola Bedossa tonight?

3:37Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, and I'm interested in your takes on this, having seen it from a different vantage point to me. I thought it was a really good match. I really enjoyed this one. And Bedossa came out firing, you know, middling the ball, really going after her shots and was putting Coco Goff under pressure repeatedly on serve in the early stages. and Goff was rising to that pressure and holding firm and then Goff was the one who actually got the first break and won the first set and went up a break in the second and seemed to have the match under total control really, playing well, I thought, without being absolutely incredible.

4:18Catherine Whitaker: But then a couple more occasions where Bedosa just went for broke and broke back once and then got broken and then broke back again, just going after it on the return. and really did put Goff under pressure there, and she had to rise to it. And I think you could see from her reaction after she got through that second set tie break just how much she was pushed today and how close this match was to going to a deciding set. And overall, I thought, pretty good performance from Goff. Her numbers were very clean in terms of decent, very similar number of winners and unforced errors, put under a lot of pressure from an opponent who has played well against her in the past.

5:02Catherine Whitaker: She talked about some nerves with playing that night session again. Bearing in mind all of that this early in the tournament to be pushed that hard in a set, I think Goff did well to come through it in straight sets.

5:18Matt Roberts: Especially given we think she might be struggling just a little bit with some kind of illness, a cold maybe.

5:25David Law: Yeah, that's what she was overheard saying on the TV broadcast. It was picked up by the commentators. She was overheard saying that to the communications staff representative who would have been organising her next couple of hours, press conferences, one-to-one TV interviews, etc. She did her interview with Chris Eubanks on the court. No discussion of that, but I did sort of look at her and think, she is a bit glazed over. She does look a little bit under the weather here. I don't think it affected her performance in a sort of visible way. And to answer your question about our vantage point, I thought she played really well, and I think she was pushed to the limit by an opponent who has got truly destructive withering power when she connects and lands properly.

6:15David Law: And I felt this was on a bit of a knife edge when she went into that tiebreak second set because we didn't expect one to come. she's setting a break up. I'm expecting her to close this out. And when she goes into a tie break, you know, what if she'd have lost that tie break? Suddenly you could have had Badosa just putting the foot down if Goff is feeling a bit under the weather. This could have, we could have been sitting in deep in a third set right now with a bad situation for Coco Goff. So I think this is a huge win for her because there's a lot of opponents that just won't give her that degree of challenge, I think.

6:50Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, I suppose what I felt was that the moment Bedosa got the brakes back in the second set, to me it was like she was having to kind of redline.

7:02David Law: Yeah.

7:02Catherine Whitaker: And I just always thought that that would be really hard to sustain. It's one of Kohagov's greatest strengths, the way she forces you to be so accurate and consistent and relentless with your attack. If she's playing as she was tonight, where the game wasn't breaking down, it was really solid, and she can use that blend. Decent attack, but also just amazing defence and retrieval and just put you under pressure to hit the lines. And Padosa did a really good job of doing that enough to make the set close, but I didn't feel like Padosa really was likely to be able to fully sustain that form all the way through, which was what it was requiring to beat Goff tonight.

7:49Matt Roberts: We've seen pretty much everybody play two matches now, just Elena Rabakina to go, and we'll cover off her in part three. Is she still the tournament favourite for both of you on the basis of what we've seen?

8:02Catherine Whitaker: Yes, I think so, because I think she's had a tougher draw than some of the other top players, and she's passed both tests in straight sets. But I was kind of expecting everyone to get through these rounds. I wasn't expecting to learn too much, I suppose, in these early stages with all these top WTA players. So no reason for me to have changed my mind, I suppose.

8:29David Law: Yeah, I feel the same. As long as that cold doesn't inhibit her ability to perform at a top level, as long as it doesn't get much worse, if she continues playing like this, I still think that the fact that she's had a tough run of opponents could end up benefiting her because she's still handling them.

8:47Matt Roberts: Is Naomi Osaka in your mix for this title, David? She beat Katarina Siniarkova today 6-2, 5-7, 6-1. Comfortable in the end. She did serve for the match at 5-3 in the second set, ended up losing four games in a row. Siniarkova then goes off court and the air kind of came out of the match at that point. Once she returned, Osaka really refocused and shed the nerves, I think, which seemed to be affecting her. She talked in press after the match about battling against perfectionism, which is one of the tennis player bear traps, isn't it? She said, I was wanting to be perfect out there, and that's the irony of tennis, isn't it?

9:31Matt Roberts: They all are perfectionists in a sport where, well, in a world and a life where perfection is completely impossible. How convinced have you been by what you've seen? She's a two-time former champion. She is coming in here in some form, in better form. Well, I suppose she came in here off the back of a final last year too. But I don't know, are you convinced to the point where you'd put her in the mix?

9:56David Law: Yes, I would, but it's quite a big mix, and I would put her at the bottom end of it. I don't feel that she is one of the favourites, and yet I still wouldn't be surprised if she ended up finding form that doesn't have these little detours because I think the manner in which she's dropping off and letting opponents back in would alarm me if I were her and her team. And she won't win the title if that carries on, but I still think she's somebody with such a high ceiling and we're seeing it in flashes. She's won it before, so I would still have her in the mix.

10:36Matt Roberts: I think she's just outside the mix for me. I think I would be surprised if Naomi Osaka won this US Open not sure on the floor shocked but that is our metric for the mix and I do think I would be surprised still Matt, how do you feel?

10:55Catherine Whitaker: I think I'm just with David I think I had her in before the tournament that confidence has been shaken a little bit by how she's come out playing we hadn't seen her for a couple of weeks had she because she didn't play Cincinnati. And she's looked not quite at her best, you know, in the two matches, as you said, had leads, let players back in.

11:18Matt Roberts: It feels like she might be a bit of a victim of, sorry to always be banging this drum, but the two-week Masters, because it's now too much to play. If you go deep in both, it's basically too much to play both Canada and Cincinnati, but it's too long a gap to play Canada, go deep as she did, and then not play until the US Open. Neither scenario really optimises you for the US Open. And big events as they are in themselves, for all the top players, the ultimate goal is getting in prime shape for the Grand Slam at the end of it all.

11:54Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, no, I think that's a great point. And one thing that kind of encouraged me, I suppose, from her press conference today, I liked her answer. It was really interesting where she talked about the fact now that she's fitter and feeling stronger in terms of her movement she says she sometimes does lapse into waiting for her opponent and responding to them because she can now because she can fall back on that but she was like what i need to do more is push myself and be the one taking the initiative and to me she's not going to win this tournament by being in the mode where she's waiting for her opponent.

12:33Catherine Whitaker: I think it's great string to have to her bow, and I think it's helped raise her floor in this last year or so that she's got that movement back. But, you know, Naomi Osaka, I think if she's going to win this, it's going to be with the sort of performance we saw against Sabalenka at Wimbledon, big serving, front foot tennis. And if she's got that in her mind, that that's her goal for the rest of the tournament, then that's a good sign, I think. But to me, she's also more vulnerable to lose, lose kind of any match than the ones I really do put at the top of the mix. You know, like I think Goff and Sviontek and those players are more upset proof.

13:15Catherine Whitaker: And I think Osaka has shown in the first two rounds that there's a bit more vulnerability there.

13:21Matt Roberts: Amanda Onisimova, mix, question mark. She beat Lily Taggart today, 6-3, 3-6, 6-1. Really, really put Matt through it on grandstand. And it was always going to be sweaty, Matt, regardless of how the match played out, just because no shade on grandstand and heat of the day. And my goodness me, it has been a... I mean, it's felt like you've been... Stepping outside is like stepping into a shower in New York today. Is Amanda Onisimova in the mix? Can you resist putting her in the mix?

13:56Catherine Whitaker: I'm still going to just say no. But you are tempted. I'm always tempted.

14:03David Law: But she's, based on the couple of appearances you've seen, I mean, that was a really good match. It was a good match. She's played well. I really enjoyed what I saw of that match. I didn't see all of it like you, but are you looking at her level and thinking, crike, we're really going on an upward trajectory here?

14:21Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, I think the level is really encouraging. I think what's stopping me is the sheer number of players who are still left in this draw and that likely Anissimova is going to have to string together several good wins. And I just think there's still a bit too much of a hitch on the forehand, a bit too much of a tendency to lose her way at a match that she just hasn't ironed out through the year because she's just not done as much winning as she did last year. So I don't really have the confidence that she's going to be able to have three great wins here to win the tournament. but I do think she might have one or two and she's looking dangerous again and terrible start to this match against Lily Taggart she lost the first seven points, went down a break and I was thinking, oh my goodness is it going to be one of those performances but she settled quickly after that and was absolutely dominating won the first set pretty easily in the end was up a break and the second had points to go up a double break and didn't take them and got broken by a point that, like, if that had happened to me, I just would have never recovered in a match.

15:34Catherine Whitaker: Lily Taggart shanked a return and it went so high up in the air and landed in. And Anissimova lost the point by then approaching and Taggart hitting a neckcord winner. Like, imagine that happening to you. And then the next point, Anissimova double-faults. And I was like, well, of course, like the baggage from that happening to you. And that just seemed to linger for a little bit, that negative energy. And Taggart really upped her game and played really nicely in the second set. And it felt on an eye face going into the third. But Anissimova went off court and put herself back in the position she'd been in in the second set, up a break, points to go up a double break.

16:17Catherine Whitaker: And this time she converted. And that just calmed her down and settled things. And, yeah, she sort of, you know, it was a lovely match to watch. The best backhand on tour against the single-hander that everyone's talking about. And there were moments where the tagger backhand did deliver. I think she needs more of a slice, tagger. It's a bit floaty. I'd like to see that get a bit more knifed. But it's actually tagger's forehand, which is her bigger weapon. She can pull people off the court with that. And she showed a lot of promise and fought well. but Anissa Mova had more firepower and greater weight of shot and managed to stay calm in the big moments in the third set and came through it and, yeah, she's looking good.

17:00Matt Roberts: It's Potapova next for Anissa Mova. It is Bookshare next for Goff and it is Elisa Mertens next for Naomi Osaka. That's a real one to circle, I think, Osaka against Mertens. You mentioned Svjantek. Not a whole lot to report from her today, 6-3, 6-2. comfortable as you like against Nadia Podoroska. She's got Marie Burjkova next. Not so comfortable for Madison Keys.

17:29Catherine Whitaker: Tell me about this.

17:31Matt Roberts: 5-7, 6-4, 7-6 against Anna Bondar, saving four match points and coming from 5-2 down in the deciding set. I mean, talk about things that normal human beings wouldn't be able to come back from. And to be fair, Anna Bondar didn't come back from this in the match. I hope she bounces back in life. But a shanked forehand from Madison Keyes on the first of the four match points.

18:01David Law: Oh, that one. It was the middle of them, actually. She'd already put on the pressure. There were two incredible spurts from Keyes that ultimately won her this match. But first thing to say is Bondar just played so well. She constructed things so well and made life a nightmare for Keyes. She gets it right where she wants her. Keyes has a good old... Just decides to go for broke, basically, when she was down. But still, the succession of match points came for Bondar. I think it was the second of the four in a game that she had where Keyes is just teeing off, just teeing off with every shot. She forces a real moon ball on the defence from Bondar, and Keyes has already decided, I'm going to hit the living daylights out of this, basically on the rise.

19:04David Law: So she runs in towards this moon ball. It bounces a pine. and she still throws everything she's got into this forehand and shanks it. Like, it sort of feels like it's hit both sides of the frame. But she's hit it so hard that it's gone off at this weird cross-court angle and it's pretty much hit the sideline where the service line is. Clean winner. And, you know, you're watching this and thinking, that looks incredible. The crowd are going wild, but that was lucky. That was lucky. She just carried on swinging. She just sort of wrestled the match away from Bondar, but she didn't put her away immediately.

19:46David Law: That was the fascinating thing. You know, like, that got her to sort of five all in the deciding set. And you're thinking, OK, well, Bondar's just going to choke now. She didn't. She hold on to a serve, got into the tiebreak, the 10-point tiebreak, took a healthy advantage in that. She's like 5-1 up against Keyes in the tiebreak. And then Keyes just turned it around, which is just the most fearless-looking hitting. I'm sure she wasn't fearless, but it was daredevil stuff, wasn't it, Catherine? It was a wonderful, wonderful match. I left it feeling terribly sorry for Anna Bondar, and yet you couldn't help but love the way that Keyes didn't give up, kept on swinging.

20:32David Law: She knows that she was a little bit fortunate here. She took the mick out of her own mishit on that forehand in the interview afterwards. But, yeah, talk about having nine lives. She's used one of them there.

20:43Matt Roberts: Yeah, it's live by the sword, die by the sword, isn't it? And that is how she won her Australian Open. More often than not, it's die by the sword. There's a reason why that tennis is considered risky, right? Sometimes it pays off. A lot of the time it doesn't. Chances are she's going to come unstuck. But if she ever is going to win a slam again or go deep again, it will be playing this kind of tennis, this casino tennis. She does come up against Jung Chin Wen in the next round.

21:12David Law: That is a match I'm looking forward to.

21:14Matt Roberts: What a story she is at this tournament. She's come through qualifying. She's a former established top ten player, reigning Olympic gold medalist, beat Igor Sviontek at Roland Garros to win that gold medal where Nígy Shvontek felt totally unbeatable on that court. And she's had elbow surgery about a year ago, just under a year ago, and it has been a rocky road back to... Well, she's ranked outside the world's top 200, not even to the top again. Rocky road back to just being a professional tennis player. She is into the third round here, having won through qualifying, so that's five match wins. I know you want to talk about the match today, which we absolutely should, 6-4, 2-6, 6-1 against Yulia Putin-Saver, a match that had a bit of everything.

22:11Matt Roberts: It had shoonanigans, which are on the rise in tennis, folks, and it also had retaliatory shoonanigans, which I think might be a first. Thank you, Yulia Putin-Saver, for your service.

22:23David Law: And thank you to Hannah. Hannah Wilkes, who's part of our team, who was keeping us abreast of this match and resulted in me going out to courtside because there were reports of so much aggro happening in this match. And, yeah, they were both losing their mind with the umpire, Damien de Messoa. They were both accusing him of bias. Both players. You've got to laugh, haven't you? And both sort of you're always against me type of thing. As you say, there were complaints about shoes. Putin's save was getting really irate with the crowd that were there supporting Jung Chin Wen. I mean, when I arrived out there, it was all very serene because Putin's save was winning quite comfortably in the second set.

23:10David Law: And to be honest, Jung Chin Wen couldn't hit a barn door. She was just, it was kind of like, if she didn't hit a winner in two shots, she was bailing out of it. She knew the set was gone. there was a long delay at the end of the second set for bathroom breaks etc. Jung-Chin Wen came back a different player. She showed the difference in level between these two players. She played immaculately in that third set and Putin Saver had to resort to moon balls in order to try to disrupt her and occasionally it worked but just not enough and as the match reached its conclusion, the crowd were getting louder and louder for Jung Shin-wen and Putin's favor was just getting more irritated by them and she was putting her finger to her head as if to say, these people are crazy, you know, and she just couldn't handle it.

24:06David Law: She was gesticulating at them with her hands and look, she gives you everything, she gives you everything, but Jung Shin-wen collapsed onto her back in victory at the end of this match, like she'd just won the title. You can tell that this isn't the same as when she used to win rounds before that injury. It just feels like it means everything to her right now.

24:32Matt Roberts: I think it does. It was an incredible press conference she gave afterwards in one of the smaller rooms, so it was very intimate. she just told you anything you wanted to hear about with humour and with sort of poise and just like her tennis really, an incredible combination of sort of strength and softness. I think she's extremely special and I'm so pleased to see her a factor in tennis again. She said winning used to be like running water, basically saying I took it for granted and now it feels completely different. She said she'd forgotten how to compete. She said when I first came back eventually from the surgery, she said I was too relaxed.

25:27Matt Roberts: She said I did get into some pretty competitive matches with top players, but I lost them all because I forgot how to compete. And she said, I found it. This week I have found it and that feels amazing. And she was asked about having to come through qualifying. She was asked, you know, do you think that actually benefited you? And she made this face like, well, I'd rather not have had to come through qualifying. It was amazing. There was a sort of such a strut and a confidence about her answer, but also a total humility. She's like, I'm completely accepting of it. I'm not too big for qualifying.

26:06I know where I am in tennis's pecking order right now,

26:13Matt Roberts: but this isn't where I want to be, and it's not where I feel like I deserve to be. I asked her, I said, do you know who you play next? Because they don't always. And she said, yeah, I've just been told. And it's Madison Keyes. And I said, well, you know, because of who that is and who you are, I imagine that's going to be on a very big stage. How much have you missed those big stages? And she was like, oh, you wouldn't believe. She said, I wanted to see a big name next to mine in the draw so that I know I'll be on a big stage. She said, because I don't warrant that in myself anymore. I need other people to be my vehicle to the big stages.

26:58Matt Roberts: and again, totally accepting of that. She's like, I hope I will be again in my own right, but at the moment I need a bit of help and I wish her so well. I think she is not like anybody else in this sport, the way she carries herself, the way she plays, that heavy topspin, it's a big serve, it's pretty unusual in the women's game. I think there's something quite ethereal about her.

27:30Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, and that thing you say about learning to compete again and win again, that's been a real pattern of her last three matches. The final one in qualifying and then the two in the main draw, she's dropped a set, either the first one or the second one, and then absolutely surged in the third and played this just business mode tennis against, you know, tricky opponents. And it's like she's finding herself in these matches and she's amped up with adrenaline by the end of them. It's like she wants more, you know. It's like the match is kind of only just getting started because she's feeling like herself again on the court.

28:13David Law: A bit like Alcraz, isn't it, really? There are some similarities there. It's been amazing, yeah.

28:18Catherine Whitaker: Look, I think it's obviously a tough match for her in the next round. It's a tough match for Madison Keys as well. It's a tough one to call. I just hope this is, at the very least, the start of Jung becoming a presence on tour again regularly. I think the win's got her back in the top 100. So, you know, the climb back to where she was has begun. And, yeah, I echo everything you say about what a great presence she is on tour.

28:46Matt Roberts: Can't wait for that match in a couple of days' time. Last player we should absolutely touch upon, Alexandra Iala, 6-1, 6-2, over Alexandra Olenakova today. You and I were out there for this one, David. The last couple of games felt like a fever dream. I was that sweaty and struggling so much in the humidity. But not the case for Alexandra Iala, who was awesome today. And it so quickly became apparent watching this. just what an absolutely nightmare matchup it was for Oleksandr Olenikova because of the timing of Eala and her ability to take the ball early and do something that is outrageously difficult in tennis and make it look easy.

29:36David Law: Yeah, quite often we've seen Olenikova this year with this mix of moon balls looping the ball high up into the air as if she's lobbing her opponent. landing them on the baseline, then chopping down on the next ball and bringing the opponent forwards and just messing with their minds, you know. And she tried her absolute best to do that against Iala. But in that first set, I mean, it was sort of full love after about 12 minutes. And what was happening was Ola Nikova would send up these balls. And the moment Iala could see that happening, she took two steps forward and half-followed it with power, real power.

30:15David Law: and then if Olenikova did another one of those into the air, she then stepped in further and did a drive volley and just put it away. And to the point of what Catherine was saying about the timing, it just didn't worry her. The trajectory of the balls just wasn't worrying her. The way it worries... I mean, it was bothering Jung Chin Wen against Putin's over at times. She didn't know whether to go back or forwards. Iala instinctively seems to know what to do. I compared it when we were watching it to sort of a left-handed Martini Hingis I remember Hingis playing against Conchita Martinez at one of the grand slams back in the early 90s and she was looping these balls up with masses of top spin and Hingis was just sort of half volleying double-handed back ends and putting her on the defence and that's what was happening here it's kind of like when you're at a club, a tennis club at a much lower level and somebody's hacking away.

31:15Catherine Whitaker: I thought Dave was going to talk about being at the club.

31:18David Law: Well, you know, I mean, that's the other thing I do in my spare time. But when somebody's trying to mess you about by smacking it up in the air and not playing proper tennis and those are the sort of players that just make me beat myself. But then somebody else will come along who's just a way better player and just make that game look ridiculous, you know, by swatting the ball away. And that's what Ayala did. She was great.

31:45Matt Roberts: She's... I mean, we're seeing so much evidence, I think, of what a fast learner she is. I mean, you talked a couple of nights ago, Matt, about how quickly she's gone from it being a story just for her to win a match at a Grand Slam, as it was here last year, that epic win against Clara Towson, to a player who, OK, I don't think any of us are quite pitting her in the mix, but we're having conversations about her being in the mix. that's happened in the space of 12 months and she lost Ola Nikova in Strasbourg in May of this year. And OK, that's Klay, which is by far Ola Nikova's favourite surface and she was in a different vein of form at that time on Nikova than she is now.

32:26Matt Roberts: But honestly, the way this match-up looked today, it looked like if Iola is anywhere close to in form, Olnikova's not going to have a chance on any surface, quite frankly. And she talked about that in press afterwards and how she remembers that match from Strasbourg and having a strategy meeting, like you imagine Yelena Ostopenko apparently having, Matt. I think Iala might be having them more regularly than Yelena Ostopenko. She said, I had a great meeting with my coach after that match. And I knew what to do today. just all, you know, just extremely clear to me. And she went out there and she did it.

33:07Matt Roberts: And, like, I think that is going to be the story quite a lot in Alexandra Iala's career.

33:13Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, and that's going to be put to the test again in the next round. She plays Ivo Jovic. The first thing to say about that is they're very close friends, Jovic and Iala. They've played doubles together before. They hang out a lot together. They get on extremely well. So there's that to factor into the match. but also Jovic is 2-0 against Iala this season. One of them was at the French Open, Clay, which I do think is probably the surface where Iala finds it the hardest to do the things she's so good at, taking the ball early. And then one of them was Gras at Queen's, but again a bit of context for that is that Iala had played the week before in Birmingham and it was her first match in Queen's, it was early in Queen's and I think maybe she was a little bit out of gas in that one.

34:00Catherine Whitaker: But those matches have not been close. Jovic has won them in straight sets and three of the four sets have been 6-2. So she's really had Iala's number. But that's where what you've just talked about comes into it. And now meeting on a hard court and with Iala's growth over the last few months, it is absolutely fascinating. That one is one of the third round matches I'm most excited about.

34:25Matt Roberts: Yeah, so much good stuff set up today. Okay, that is it for the women's section. We will be back in part two to talk about the men.

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36:44Matt Roberts: Welcome back to part two of today's tennis podcast. On to the men now. All the men apart from Alexander Zverev, the top seed, who we'll be covering in part three. We have lost two top ten seeds today. We lost the third seed, Felix Auger-Aliassime, and we lost the sixth seed, Alex de Menor. Let's talk first about Felix Auger-Aliassime. Defeated 6-7, 6-3, 6-2, 6-2 by Karen Hashanov, who we all identified as a very dangerous unseeded floater in this draw pre-tournament. I think everybody looked at this as a round two match and thought, well, that's a tough draw. Felix is going to have his hands full today.

37:25Matt Roberts: And yet the shape of this match, David, what it ended up looking like was a real shock.

37:31David Law: Yeah, because the first two sets were probably exactly what we expected with them duking it out and lots of big hitting from the baseline and Felix kind of looking like his top level was higher than Hashinov's. And then suddenly Felix Ogilio seemed just faded. It was a draining of the battery out there for him and Hashinov didn't. He just kept up his slightly plodding way of playing tennis, huge battering of the ball from the baseline, relentlessness. And he did very well. I mean, look, I'm not trying to do him down as such, but, you know, he has kind of one level of playing tennis, and if he plays that level, he's tough to beat.

38:19David Law: And Urgele Asim just could not deal with those conditions today, it seemed. He was struggling in the heat. He had no energy. I thought he might be injured when I saw him sort of, you know, lurching forwards and messing around with his ankles. But, you know, from what we understand, Catherine, this was a heat-related problem that he got. and it's surprising because we've seen him cramp a couple of times this year. He ended up withdrawing from a match to the Australian Open and here we are with him struggling against Hashinov and being comprehensively beaten in the end.

38:55Matt Roberts: Yeah, I mean, I wouldn't worry too much about doing Karin Hashinov down because Felix Auger-Liasim has done that a little bit with his post-match quotes. Not in a disrespectful way, but Felix can quite often be perfectly nice, but quite stiff in press. He's not a great quote, is he? I was expecting him to say, didn't feel my best today, but all credit to Karen, he played a great match. That's not what we got at all today. He was asked about how well the opponent played, and he said, it's tough to talk about anything else other than how I feel physically. After a set and a half, I just couldn't feel well.

39:33Matt Roberts: I was dizzy, seeing spots, and I couldn't recover. I thought maybe it would pass, but it didn't. Karen is a great player, but look, I cannot beat him or anybody in this draw feeling the way I felt today. If I can't move, we're not talking about tennis here. He said it's unfortunate. I wish we were talking about tennis.

39:56Matt Roberts: But that's not the case. Reminds me of Kasparuda.

40:00David Law: The French, remember when he had his horrible tone? He managed to win that.

40:05Matt Roberts: Yeah, I mean, he's a bit lost as to exactly what went on, and that must feel so disarming as an athlete. And look, he's not the only player that we've seen that from today. We saw something quite similar, Matt, from Lorenzo Mazzetti. He went down 3-6-6-1, 6-2, 6-2, three very one-sided sets to unseeded Australian Dane Sweeney. I mean, talk about upsets that weren't on the watch list at the start of today.

40:37Catherine Whitaker: No, absolutely not. He's the reciprocal wildcard, I think, Dane Sweeney. That's how he got into this draw. And look, he's a very admirable player because he's tiny. You know, like he's really small. He has to work very hard to win points against these guys. And he's been grinding away at the lower levels, and this is going to be a huge moment for him in his career, earning close to US$300 ,000. That's probably going to go a long way for someone like Dane Sweeney. So great for him, but we did see in the first set what this match looked like when they were both kind of at full pelt. and it was close for a little bit, but Mazzetti just had a level, an acceleration, a gear that Sweeney couldn't live with.

41:27Catherine Whitaker: And I thought Mazzetti was actually playing with great intensity at the end of the first set. He was ramping his serve up to 130 miles an hour. It was good stuff from Mazzetti. But quite quickly after that, in fact, right at the end of the first set, after he'd won it, Mazzetti doused himself in water. and I thought, OK, like it is really hot today. Maybe that's a really sensible thing to do but I looked at him and I thought, he's struggling physically more than I would have expected after a set like that and then in the second set, what happened I think was that inwardly he was feeling the physical struggles and he was expressing it outwardly by having this really poor attitude.

42:14Catherine Whitaker: He was moaning a lot. He kicked the towel bin and his game sort of fell apart. But I think, reflecting on it, I think he knew that the physical fade was coming and there was nothing he could do about it. And he was really frustrated and worried about it. And then very quickly in the third set became obvious that he could barely move. I mean, he was not swinging properly at the ball. He wasn't moving with any intensity. He took a medical timeout off court, came back, briefly looked like he might recover some energy, but then faded again. And yeah, those last two sets, he was barely present on the court.

42:54Catherine Whitaker: He was a ghost, really. And it's devastating for him. I mean, talk about a Grand Slam season. He's been playing the best tennis of his life in Australia and has to retire up two sets to love against Djokovic. He actually misses the two slams that have been his best traditionally, where he's gone the furthest in the French Open in Wimbledon. He's a semi-finalist there previously, and he couldn't play them this year. He returns for the US Open, having had a full American hard-court swing to get ready for it, and he's gradually been improving. And then he feels like this and suffers something like heat stroke, we think.

43:37Catherine Whitaker: And he mentioned feeling dizzy and no power in the legs, and, yeah, just a real shame for his tournament to end like that.

43:45Matt Roberts: Yeah, absolutely brutal. And just to complete the kind of brutal trio of losses, Alex de Menor going down in straight sets to Bertik van der Zanskopp, who is such a talented player. Like, we saw Bertik van der Zanskopp do this in the second round, same round, against Carlos Alcaraz on the Arthrasch Stadium two years ago. he's a total mystery of a human being I find him utterly hilarious he looks inconvenienced to be on the tennis court inconvenienced to be winning the match because he's it means he's probably got to come back and play tennis again um and yeah he's just he's just so nonchalant about about everything and yet such a smooth talented tennis player I do find him endlessly fascinating.

44:39Matt Roberts: And look, this is a continuation of a theme for Alex Diminor, a theme that goes back to Rotterdam, really, in February, where he won the title, had a great run, had a solid Australian Open, reached his seeding there, lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the quarterfinals. No shame in that. Went on and won Rotterdam, looked like he was potentially on for a career-best season. and it is nosedived from there, quite frankly. He hasn't beaten a top 30 player since May. That was Luciano Darderi, the world number 16 at the time in Hamburg. And the average rank of opponents he's lost to since that title in Rotterdam in February is 48.

45:25It's been a drastic drop-off in form

45:30Matt Roberts: And we had that very sad, moving but sad press conference with him after his defeat at Wimbledon, where he talked about his childhood dreams being shattered, feeling them slipping away, feeling like he's given everything to this sport and it's just not good enough. and he's getting further away, not closer. And, you know, he wants it so desperately, but feels like he might never get it. And, you know, it was all heartbreaking, but incredibly open. And I went to his press conference probably only about an hour ago now expecting a very similar Alex de Menor, and it could not have been more different in terms of what he was saying.

46:16Matt Roberts: His demeanour was the same. He looked sad, but he was back to having the walls up and trotting out the things that you have to say to make all the losses palatable, to make it possible to keep going. It was all, you know, well, on to the next one. Some you win, some you lose. Not playing my best right now, but hopefully I can find it. And there was just this glazed expression. You know, it was kind of dead behind the eyes. And I... In a lot of ways, I found it sadder than the Wimbledon press conference.

46:58David Law: I wonder whether he was a little taken aback by just how much cut through his very raw emotional reaction at Wimbledon had in the world.

47:09Matt Roberts: Quite possibly. And I realise this might, it might be a decision. He might be exactly the same behind the scenes as he was at Wimbledon. He's just made the decision to not give that publicly. I totally realise that's a possibility. But the way he was asked, like, are you ready for a break now? Or certainly the pressure valve coming off a bit with the Grand Slam season being over. and he said, no, next on the calendar is Davis Cup in Brisbane. Tennis moves on, you know, hope to get back on track. And I just felt exhausted hearing him say that, you know, just always the next one, always the next one, just sort of suck it up and move on.

47:57Matt Roberts: It's the cruelest game, isn't it? But Burtick van der Zandkorp, what a player. What a guy. What a guy he is. Let's talk about Taylor Fritz. I mean, I don't know how much time to give to Taylor Fritz because he didn't give an awful lot of time to the tennis that he played today. 6-love, 6-1, 6-1, an hour and 38 minutes over Thomas Bellucci. He's feeling it. He is feeling it. You've done it again, by the way.

48:32Catherine Whitaker: You've mixed up your Bellucci's.

48:35Matt Roberts: At least I didn't say Monica. Can I have some credit for that?

48:38David Law: Did you say Thomas, the Brazilian from about 15 years ago? Whereas this is Mateo.

48:47Matt Roberts: Mateo Bellucci.

48:48David Law: Mateo Bellucci.

48:49Matt Roberts: Thank goodness we've got Matt, David. Taylor Fritz is, you know, he's not been tested today.

48:56David Law: But, you know, that's also credit to him. He's very efficient. He's really good at these things. There's not much point in taking much time up talking about it, as you say, but you went in his press comments.

49:08Matt Roberts: I did, yeah. And, look, it's just so obvious that he... ..he is owning this opportunity. He's like, right, game face on, this is it now. I am in form. It is all coming together. It's up to me now. And he was asked about how... It was a very well phrased question actually about, you know, the drawer opening up and the usual, basically Sinner and Alcaraz not quite being, well, Sinner not being here, although still thanking the hotel. He's not staying out on Instagram. Might be my moment of the day. And Alcaraz being, well, in theory, not quite being the Alcaraz that we've come to know in recent years.

50:01Matt Roberts: and he was asked about that in the context not just of himself but all the Americans you know this being an opportunity for an American male champion which obviously we haven't seen here since Andy Roddick and he he said it was it was a perfect answer I thought he said look that doesn't affect me until the semi-finals though I would never I would never play one of those until the semi-finals so logically I don't think about that until the semis but if I get to the semis and I'm not playing Yannick Sinner great like you know not taking anything for granted all due respect etc to who he might play in the semi-finals and it might be, could be no it would be Carlos Alcres in the final wouldn't it be Alexander Zverev in the semi-finals who he did lose to at Wimbledon But I thought it was the perfect answer to that question.

50:59Matt Roberts: He's not denying that this is an opportunity or trying to trick himself into not feeling any pressure. I think he's putting just the right amount of pressure on himself. And I think he's able to do that because he's peaking at the right time. And his best might not be good enough. He's not Carlos Alcaraz, he's Taylor Fritz. But I think he's giving himself the absolute best opportunity. And he is still my pick to reach the final and lose that final.

51:31David Law: Yeah, same.

51:34Matt Roberts: David?

51:36David Law: Yeah, same, but by a different opponent. Look, yeah, he's got such a reliable game. The only question mark is, has he got reliable knees? We saw him look in very good shape heading into that match against Ferev, and then suddenly he experienced pain in it. And Zverev played out of his mind that day. I do think this is different. I do think he looks totally at home at the US Open, which is why he is in the final for all three of us. But, yeah, still a long way to go, of course.

52:11Matt Roberts: As it is for Flavio Caballi, particularly because he's very much taking the scenic route, I'll just give you some Flavio Caballi quotes to sum up his victory over Tristan Schoolkate. He said, of the largely Italian crowd, are there lots of locals as well, that were all out there to support him, he said, I feel incredibly involved with you. He said, today I loved to be Flavio Caballi. And when asked about his policy on what and when to get a new tattoo, he said, just tell me and I do. He said, if I wake up tomorrow and want to make a tattoo, I do it. And then he invited the interviewer to sort of tell him what tattoo she'd like him to get, and she took the high road with that one.

53:01David Law: Oh.

53:02Matt Roberts: I mean, he's already got an Incredible Hulk tattoo. What would you have come up with? Ooh. What would you have come up with?

53:13David Law: Some sort of animal. OK. Yeah.

53:17Matt Roberts: Right, we'll workshop that, folks. Matt, to close out part two, Tell us about the end of Gael Monfils' Grand Slam career.

53:26Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, he was beaten on Armstrong back in that slot where he won the other night. He was beaten by Lerner Tien. They'd met a couple of weeks ago in Cincinnati and Tien had won that one. And this was exactly what you'd expect, really. Moments from Gael Monfils and the crowd roaring him on in the third set as he was spending most of the time between points hunched over and trying to suck in as much air as he possibly could against this guy half his age down the other end of the court who's an incredible ball striker. And, yeah, Tien definitely just had too much game and did well to keep his head.

54:07Catherine Whitaker: But, you know, it was a weird experience because Tien is this coming American player, young, and I think a lot of people here are very excited about him. I know I am, personally. I'm very excited about Leonard Thiem's game but all the support was for the retiring Frenchman and that must have been an odd experience I suppose for Thiem but I think he also very much gets it and knows what Monfils means to people I have just seen by the way perhaps the shock of the tournament so far

54:41Matt Roberts: I've just seen this too

54:42Catherine Whitaker: Ben Rothenberg's

54:43Matt Roberts: Hang on a second let's do a quiz here David, what do you think Guillaume Monfils' next career move is going to be?

54:51David Law: Well, that's not fair because I've also just seen it.

54:55Matt Roberts: Would that have been your guess? No. Drop the bomb, Matt.

55:00Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, Ben Rothenberg saying, here's an unexpected answer. I asked Guillaume Monfils what his post-retirement plans are, if he plans to stay in tennis as a coach or commentator, perhaps. No, he said. He's already signed on to work an office job next year for a Swiss wealth management company.

55:16Matt Roberts: I find that deeply depressing. I want to see him in his suit and tie.

55:27Matt Roberts: I mean, good luck to him. Good luck to him. If that makes him happy, then fine. But... Corporate Gael Monfils?

55:39Catherine Whitaker: I don't know, yeah. I mean, look, maybe so many years being the showman, he wants a bit of peace and quiet for a time, perhaps.

55:51Matt Roberts: Go to a retreat in Bali for peace and quiet. My suggestion. Go to a wealth management. What do you think is happening at wealth management companies, Matt? People getting rich. Cool. Yeah, good luck to you, Gail. That is it for part two. We'll be back in part three to wrap up the day's action and to look ahead to tomorrow. AI is only as powerful as the platform it's built into. That's why it's no surprise that more than 85 % of the Fortune 500 use the ServiceNow AI platform. While other platforms duct tape tools together, ServiceNow seamlessly unifies people, data, workflows and AI, connecting every corner of your business.

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57:38Matt Roberts: Well, welcome back to part three of today's tennis podcast, where it is now 2.24 a.m. And I feel quite silly about the message that I sent to our editor four hours ago saying might be an early night tonight, Jib. Because, of course, no such thing in tennis. Apparently no such thing at this U.S. Open because we've just had the latest finish yet. 2.15 is when Alexander Zverev, the top seed, finally sealed the deal. 6-3 in the fifth. Another epic for him. This time over Quentin Alize. Another four hours and 33 minutes on the match clock for Zverev. What are we all doing, David?

58:23David Law: Well, that's a very good question. I mean, it is absolutely absurd. absurd yet they at one moment they're very careful with the way they sort of frame the tv shots to show the uh the few people that are in the stadium at one point they did pan into the into the rest of it and it was totally deserted which is just a joke isn't it anyway we've done that so many times and we have to because each night we sit here at 1 or 2 a.m um but huge credit to the two players for the battle they've just had. Kontanelis, I think, played brilliantly. That's probably the best I've ever seen him play. And I really felt he had chances to win that match because he had Zverev in all sorts of trouble.

59:07David Law: I mean, it was quite a shock to see Zverev lose his way the way he did. He held serve very comfortably all the way through the first set in a bit and won the first set 6-4. And then it just completely deserted him. He lost his serve three times in a row. he had a break point against him for 5-1 in the third set when it was one set all he looked a bit gone to be honest I think there were periods where he just had massive energy drops um and and his form just isn't there really he's sort of hanging on by a thread in a lot of these in both of these first two matches and you know he deserves huge credit because he manages to get over the line and win these matches and stay alive in the tournament.

59:51David Law: Because in his words, when he just gave his interview at the end, my performance was shit. Well, it kind of was most of the time. I mean, he's bouncing the ball sometimes 40 times between two first and second serves, you know. He's playing incredibly sort of passive tennis for the majority and then occasionally hits out and reminds you that he's got power. but I think he just doesn't have any feel. He doesn't really have any rhythm and now he's got, as you say, what is it, about eight and a half, nine hours in his legs?

1:00:24Matt Roberts: Yeah, four hours, 53 minutes for his first match and now four hours, 33 for his second match and in incredibly draining conditions tonight. Okay, it was a night session but the humidity is kind of the most draining of all the condition types to play in and Matt, he's now in this rhythm of playing the night session. He's going to have to play the night session again in two days' time. I don't see how it's fair that he doesn't risk again of another late finish. Like, he's just in this sort of nightmare cycle now, really. Yes, he's stuck. Partly of his own making, partly of shit scheduling's making, but, yeah, he's stuck.

1:01:08Catherine Whitaker: Yes, I think that's it. I mean, we've got this weird situation where he's not playing well. He's spent nine and a half hours on court. He's going to bed at 5am every other night. We can tell you what that's like. Yeah, but he's in a very easy, really, section of the draw for him. You know, he's got Tabilo next, who's a very good player, but he's a lefty. And Zverev always beats lefties. and he will like that draw, I suspect. And then it's Darderi or Sweeney to make the quarters. And then in the quarters, it's Zheng, Jaya, Burgs or Van der Zanskopp. So I think it's very likely that Zverev still manages to work his way through to the latter stage of this tournament, the semifinals.

1:02:07Catherine Whitaker: And that's where, see previous chat about Taylor Fritz, we kind of expect him to be. But it's all pretty joyless and tough to watch if it's going to keep being like this in the middle of the night, slugfests.

1:02:23Matt Roberts: I think it is breaking, Matt.

1:02:26Catherine Whitaker: Oh, so over it.

1:02:27David Law: I mean, we've seen Matt like this at every single Grand Slam tournament that he's ever participated in. But it's always been day 10, day 11, day 12. You know, this is the second time. Second time, we're only on day what? Four? Five?

1:02:46Matt Roberts: Five, but now bleeding into six. Yeah.

1:02:49David Law: We've already had two Matt Wall hits.

1:02:52Matt Roberts: I had such a good day.

1:02:54Catherine Whitaker: I spent like eight hours in the sun watching tennis. You're not then supposed to still be watching tennis at 2am. I just kind of want to round off this section by coming back to

1:03:10Matt Roberts: actually something that Taylor Fritz said in his press conference earlier, way before Zverev had even taken to the court. Obviously, Fritz has had these two remarkably straightforward victories in the opening two rounds and is scheduled to be Zverev's semifinal opponent who's had a completely opposite route through to the third round. And Fritz said in his press conference, I think it's really important to not kill yourself in the first couple of matches because you need to have the energy to potentially do that later on in the week. You know, at the end of the day, you do get a day off, but anyone will tell you one day is not enough to recover from a five-set match.

1:03:47Matt Roberts: It's just not. You can come back and still play good, but it's not enough to fully recover. It's good to get through these the way that I've gotten through these. And I think the one today gives me a lot more confidence than the first round match. and so if you know if look as matt says the the draw is is falling kind falling kindly for zverev now until the semi-finals but he's playing poorly enough that it feels like he could get himself into a sticky situation against almost anyone i could definitely see bertick van der zantykel

1:04:23David Law: causing him problems well i mean it depends which bertick turns up though doesn't it i mean serious point we've seen him throw in some absolute stinkers here i mean that one against jack draper a couple of years ago that was an embarrassment and yet today he was fantastic and he's capable of of both extremes of the spectrum i think the interesting thing with zverev is he just looks delirious out there at the moment he's sort of getting through but he looks like he's he's not really fully conscious of what's going on at times he's just a born fighter in these situations but it's got it's surely going to catch up to him his only hope is that he has a couple of easy matches against players that are far inferior to him and he kind of gets chance to get his energy back and find some timing I mean I think these are big ifs would you are we all in agreement that

1:05:19Catherine Whitaker: you'd rather be Fritz right now, even though he's facing down potentially Surundalo, Kabali, TN to even get to that Zverev match?

1:05:31Matt Roberts: I'd rather be Fritz. I'll take form. I'll just always take form.

1:05:37David Law: I will almost always take form. I agree with that. I think one thing you could say, though, is when they end up, let's assume they do both get to the semifinals to play each other, Fritz and Zverev, they may be in different positions physically to how they are now. Fritz may have had a couple of epics by then of his own. So, you know, I just, you can't take it for granted that Zverev isn't going to win this tournament. He is very good at surviving and coming back and, and so forth, but usually it catches up with him. I mean, even him, we've seen it many times, including against Alcaraz at the Australian Open this year.

1:06:22David Law: You know, eventually it caught up with him. There was that one against Medvedev when he was two sets to love up at the Australian Open after having five setters in the previous rounds. You know, I think Fritz puts it very well and he's going to know more than anybody, isn't he, what it's like trying to get these matches out of your system.

1:06:43Catherine Whitaker: We had shenanigans, by the way.

1:06:46Matt Roberts: We did. Twice in a day.

1:06:49David Law: Really is on the rise. This was a bad one, I thought. I thought so. They shouldn't have let him do this. This was Verev, wasn't it? Yeah, he changed his shoes on break point.

1:07:01Matt Roberts: The opponent's break point.

1:07:01Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, at least serving break point down. 15-40. Verev's changing his shoes.

1:07:06Matt Roberts: I mean, it just shouldn't be allowed, should it? No.

1:07:09David Law: No.

1:07:09Matt Roberts: Should not be allowed.

1:07:10David Law: If you want to change your shoes, okay, finish this game, and then you can.

1:07:14Matt Roberts: We have tennis a lot's time for you to do stuff like this. Well, he did it again.

1:07:22Catherine Whitaker: He changed his shoes on break point, the game finished, and then he changed them again at the change of ends. It was crazy. And he's Adidas as well, isn't he?

1:07:30Matt Roberts: Same as Rodar. Yeah. I'm actually an Adidas shoe wearer. This is a worry. Elena Rabakina, I think it's time to change our policy on Elena Rabakina and just assume she's physically okay.

1:07:48David Law: Oh, yeah, she's with her.

1:07:49Matt Roberts: Until proven otherwise. She's the next world number one. I've spent a week telling people she can't walk. And here she is comfortably winning three matches against good players. 6-2, 6-4 tonight over Jessica Boutas-Monaro. Very comfortable. Let's assume Rabakina is fine until proven otherwise. She's got Starob Dupdaseva. Yulia stabbed a saver in the next round, which is a rematch of quite a dramatic clash they had at Roland Garros this year.

1:08:19Catherine Whitaker: Yes, when Rebecca's forehand went completely missing and she ended up losing that one. So we'll see.

1:08:31Matt Roberts: We will see. That'll be in a couple of days' time. Let's talk you through what we've got for you tomorrow, or rather today. That gag just never gets old, does it? 11.30, less than nine hours from now, folks, things kick off on the Arthur Ashe Stadium with Jessica Begula against Leila Fernandez. Second on in the day session is Wu Yibing against Carlos Alcaraz. Night session tomorrow night opens with women's doubles first round action and Serena and Venus Williams against Maya Joint, who is seeing Serena Williams in her sleep at the moment and Hao Ching Chan, my joint doubles partner for this US Open.

1:09:20Matt Roberts: I mean, I suppose Serena Williams was never going to be scheduled anywhere other than Ash, was she?

1:09:25David Law: It's pretty cool, I think, that they get this night session slot and the place is going to go bananas.

1:09:33Matt Roberts: Do you know who I think probably disagrees with you?

1:09:36David Law: Who's that?

1:09:36Matt Roberts: Irina Sabalenka.

1:09:38David Law: Yeah, you're probably right.

1:09:40Matt Roberts: Ben Shelton, Denis Shapovalov, second on the night session. Ash, tomorrow over on Armstrong, we open in the day session with Irina Sabalenka against Camilla Rakimova. Second on is Alexander Bublik against Tommy Paul. And then the night session is Valentin Vashiro, who we haven't talked about a lot. the shanghai champion of last year a tournament with gross heat and humidity he was kind of the last man standing wasn't he in that one um and backed it up well vashiro that that shock tournament victory until he got injured just before the french open or during the french open wasn't it that he ended up having to pull out but he's he's a real unknown quantity in a dark horse here and He's taking on a Tiafoe who we've now heard because he did an interview, didn't he, with Gil Gross for US Open Radio, confessing that he ain't feeling great.

1:10:41Matt Roberts: I mean, I know we perhaps suspected that he wasn't feeling great, but he's very much confirmed without giving specifics that his body is not feeling fantastic at the moment. So I do just wonder about Vachero tomorrow.

1:10:56David Law: Yeah, he's not somebody who puts limits on himself. I suspect he likes these conditions right now. He's a big strapping guy who can hit through the heavy conditions. I think they're going to liven up from what we understand over the weekend and cool down, actually, as well. I don't think we're going to have quite the level of humidity. But, yeah, it's still going to be a factor, I think, tomorrow. He likes a big stage. which Tiafoe has kind of been hanging on a bit. Like you say, that interview was very telling. Gil was pushing him on whether it was his game that was the problem at the moment.

1:11:40David Law: And he kind of said it's everything, but really it all comes from the fact that physically he's just not in a good place.

1:11:46Matt Roberts: Second on the Armstrong night session tomorrow is Alina Svitolina against Anna Kalinskaya, one of those awkward Ukrainian-Russian match-ups. and we've got another one of those to open grandstand with Marta Kostryk and Ekaterina Alexandreva. Second on is the piece of work clash between Daniel Medvedev and Arta Rindeknesh. Third on is Karolina Mukova and Emma Navarro. Expect that to be a nice looking clash. And Yurila Hetchka is last on grandstand tomorrow against Stefano Sitsipas, who backed up his big feast win and has made it into round three. Stadium 17 tomorrow. Jasmine Paulini and Saronica Steyer first on.

1:12:27Matt Roberts: Taylor Townsend against Diana Schneider second on. That's a fun match and winner of that likely to face Irina Sabalenka, Anne Lee. And then Dinozkova third on. And fourth on is Alex Mickelson against Daniel Merida. Any big upsets we're seeing tomorrow? Is Tiafo the most likely?

1:12:46David Law: That's the one that jumps out to me.

1:12:48Matt Roberts: Matt?

1:12:51Catherine Whitaker: Yes, I'm always on Medvedev upset watch. So could see something happening there, I suppose.

1:13:00Matt Roberts: Permanent state of Medvedev alert.

1:13:02Catherine Whitaker: Can I draw your attention to court 12, where not before 2.30, Contalys in doubles.

1:13:14Matt Roberts: Absolutely extraordinary. Pierre Ugebert is going to wake up in the morning, check his phone and go, oh, fuck. That is Alice's doubles partner, if that isn't obvious. Whereas Simone Bolelli and Andrea Bavisori are going to wake up, check their phones and go, brilliant.

1:13:35Catherine Whitaker: And that court is also for fans of B. Nakashima.

1:13:40Matt Roberts: Yes. Did we know there were two?

1:13:44Catherine Whitaker: I did think perhaps it was an error

1:13:46Matt Roberts: Well hang on

1:13:47Catherine Whitaker: It's Brandon and Bryce

1:13:48Matt Roberts: There's a Bryce

1:13:49Catherine Whitaker: There's a Bryce Younger brother There's a Preston Stearns

1:13:57Matt Roberts: There's a Bryce Nakashima Yep What a time to be finding that out And there's two Penichcoves We did know there were two Penichcoves Didn't we But both of them are playing also on court 12 tomorrow. It's the place to be for niche fun stuff.

1:14:16Catherine Whitaker: Whereas court 13 for the Kitchen Ox.

1:14:22Matt Roberts: Any others we can find? Where is the junior, Matt, the ambidextrous junior playing tomorrow and what's his name?

1:14:31Catherine Whitaker: Oh, I don't think he is playing tomorrow, but he will. He's playing at some stage, right? Yes, he'll be playing soon. Tio Davidov, ambidextrous junior, switches hands, one to look out for when he gets on the schedule.

1:14:47Matt Roberts: Okay, I think we should probably call it a day at that, except to draw your attention to our lovely mascot, Leo. Leo says, with all the rain, he's considering floating to the championships. Here he is. Oh my gosh, he's a border raft. He's aboard a raft with US Open branding on it. What a photo shoot. My goodness. Wow. Yes, perhaps he could dry the court. Yeah, well, that is the technology they use. It is just towels and children. So Leo could probably do as good a job as anyone. Thank you, Leo, for that little boost at nearly three o 'clock in the morning. Hello to our mascots, Bodie, Maisie and Roger.

1:15:29Matt Roberts: Hello to our top folks and executive producers, Greg, Chris and Jeff. I will not be asking for shout outs because I think Matt might resign from the podcast if I did. But I will tell you that we are part of the Athletic Podcast Network. And if you're an NFL fan, the Athletic has something really exciting that is starting next week, which I guess is when the NFL season starts, David.

1:15:54David Law: Correct.

1:15:55Matt Roberts: I just saw a trailer for some NFL that seems to be happening in Australia.

1:16:00Catherine Whitaker: Yeah. That's almost as ludicrous as tennis happening at 2.30am, isn't it? It's the same genre. Absolutely bonkers. What are we doing?

1:16:09Matt Roberts: What The Athletic is doing is The Athletic Live, presented by Google Gemini, which is a brand new YouTube watch-along on NFL game days, featuring the biggest and best beach reporters The Athletic has to offer. You can even become part of the show in the interactive chat on YouTube. It all starts from September the 8th. And if you're into the NFL, it does sound really fun. So do check that out if you're an NFL fan. We will be back tomorrow, hopefully with Matt, TBC, on whether he is ever prepared to watch tennis again at this point. But people bounce back.

1:16:47Catherine Whitaker: I'll bounce back. I'm always up for tennis. I'd just rather be watching, you know, Pagula at 11.30am in the stadium than whatever the hell that was tonight at 2.30am. But that's not going to be possible.

1:17:03Matt Roberts: And on that note, folks, we say thank you for listening and we'll speak to you tomorrow.

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