What's happened since the Australian Open?

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1:24Matt Roberts: Hello and welcome to the Tennis Podcast. our first weekly tennis podcast since crashing back down to earth post Melbourne and post Australian Open. David doesn't care. He's sleep deprived, but he's a Super Bowl champion. Hello, David. Yes, yes. Yes, I am. I've got props for the video watchers amongst you. And I'm wearing all the colours of the Seahawks because eight years after starting to support this team for no other reason than I liked the colours and having watched every game and all the disappointments, we are Super Bowl champions. So thank you very much. It was so boring, David. I stayed up and watched some of it.

2:15Yes.

2:16Matt Roberts: It was so dull. Between us, I think we watched the whole night, didn't we? Because I watched all the terrible sport which i loved every minute of despite the fact that the rest of the non-seahawks nation hated and you watched all the halftime show while i was making popcorn and tea yeah yeah so between us we watched all of the turgid super bowl yeah well done us yeah get me back to figure skating immediately uh matt this time a week ago we were on a plane with Carlos Alcaraz. How are you doing?

2:50Catherine Whitaker: Very well, thank you. I did not watch the Super Bowl. I sent David my best wishes and then went to sleep and woke up to a very happy selfie of David celebrating in front of the TV, which was exactly what I wanted. So yeah, I'm a happy man for David.

3:10Matt Roberts: Yeah, me too. And if you'd like to hear more about mine and Matt's experience of Carlos Alcaraz and his VIP movement, then that is available on our most recent show for Friends of the Tennis Podcast, our Australian Open Review, up now for friends. And if you'd like to become a friend and you aren't already, then the link to do that is in our show notes. Folks, quite a lot of tennis has been happening this week. I mean, I know that's not a surprise because the tennis never stops, But wow, before we'd even landed, we were knee deep in a WTA 500 in Abu Dhabi. One, surprisingly, an incredible story, really, by Sara Beylik, a Czech youngster.

3:58Matt Roberts: Where have you heard that before? Yes, this is a new Czech youngster. She beat Ekaterina Aleksandr, a 7-6-6-1 in the final to win her first WTA title. The semis were where it was at here. Maybe maybe 2026 is the year of the semifinals because these were two great ones in Abu Dhabi. Bailik beat Clara Towson in three sets and Alexandra beat Hayley Baptiste in three sets. Matt Roberts, you love a Czech youngster. Tell us about Sara Bailik.

4:32Catherine Whitaker: she is a good watch uh she has a very interesting game because she's only five foot two so she has a lot of like sort of making up to do with her game uh what she lacks in the sort of physical element of the game she really does make up for with her with her tennis iq she's a lefty um and And what she did this week in Abu Dhabi was really impressive. Three times earning her career best win. First over Ostopenko, then over Towson and then over Alexandrova. Each time beating a higher rank player. And you'll notice there that group of players, Ostopenko, Towson, Alexandrova, all big hitters. all the sort of people that you might expect to be able to blast someone who's only five foot two off the court.

5:28Catherine Whitaker: And I'm sure there will be some occasions where that does happen. But this week, she put her game together in a really compelling, interesting way. And she does it kind of what you would expect, really, like trying to change the pace, trying to extend rallies. She runs and runs and uses her foot speed. But she's also got really good sort of craft in rallies. You know, she'll loop balls. She'll throw in drop shots. She's very adept at the lob. I mean, the first point of the final was literally a drop shot lob combination on Alexandreva to sort of tell her what she's got coming. Yes. Like me. Like David in Dingles against Team Athletic.

6:14Catherine Whitaker: and she's gone from outside the top 100 to inside the top 40 in in one week here and yeah in in the final she had had a couple of set points before the first set tie break but couldn't take them and then alexandre went into a 4-2 lead in that tie break and i was thinking okay this is this is probably where alexandre takes over but balik responded beautifully hit a incredible forehand up the line at five all in that first set tie break it was one of those forehands that you thought was going out the whole way and it just landed in right at the last second and that was kind of the crucial shot and then she pinched the first set and then really sprinted through the second set winning 10 points in a row at one stage in it as alexanderer faded alexanderer was playing singles and doubles this week she ended up winning the doubles titles just a lot of tennis going on and she seemed a little gassed in that in that second set but yeah a really nice moment for Baelic who is someone who has been on our radar a little bit in the past I remember her playing a very good match against Leila Fernandes at the Australian Open a couple of years ago and she's beaten Marta Kostiuk at a slam like she's she's sort of been on the cusp of of climbing the rankings but not in this way and in in such a in such incredible fashion And yeah, I mean, beating a series of very, very good players and sort of changes the tournaments that she can get into.

7:44Catherine Whitaker: It's one of those weeks. So yeah, really, really nice story coming off the back of the Australian Open.

7:51Matt Roberts: There's this little cluster, isn't there, of these young players coming through that are similar sort of size and stature. Obviously, we had Evie Jovic making her big breakthrough at the Australian Open. And Emerson Jones, remember her? Think she won a sensation of the day at one point. Maybe not. Certainly tried to put herself in the running. But both of those two are taller than Berlick. But, you know, they're not Arena Savalenka, put it that way. And it's just interesting, isn't it? That as much as sort of sometimes you look at Savalenka's and Rabatkin's and you think the game is just evolving in a certain very specific direction, there are always also Bejelic's and Jovich's.

8:39Matt Roberts: And it really is a sport that really does accommodate pretty much anyone in terms of size and stature, which is pretty amazing. I think that is the shortest player that I can remember. I mean Dominika Sibylkova was about 5 '2 or 5 '3. But yeah that feels unusually short. How tall was Amanda Kurtzer David? Oh I think she was 5 '4 Catherine. Very good. I mean I'm saying that off the top of my head. I'm now frantically googling because now I want to know how tall Amanda Kurtzer actually was. and let's see Matt have you heard of Amanda Kurtzer? I have yes oh good okay she was 5 foot 2 very good so she was exactly the same we're good at this David we're good at this well I said 5 foot 4 should we quit while we're ahead or should we name more 5 foot 2 tennis players and she got to number 3 in the world in November 1997 and she reached the semi-final of the Australian Open twice and the French Open so you know there's plenty of form there and I know we are always saying this about young Czech female players but it is absolutely remarkable and it doesn't show any sign of stopping if anything the sort of the the Czechia's production of these talented youngsters seems to be quickening rather than slowing down and they're all such different types of player like it is it is the 9th of February and we have already spotlighted three young Czech female players.

10:25Matt Roberts: Teresa Valantova, who we've been talking about for a little while, but I actually think she might be the youngest of the three. And I interviewed her for Tennis Podcast Meets. She's an incredible talent. And then it ended up being Nicola Barton-Kova that kind of stole the young Czech female spotlight in Melbourne, those wins over Bencic and Kazikina and the way she won those matches, her really unique, watchable brand of tennis. And now you've got five foot two inch Baelic coming along and announcing herself. Like, yeah, it's I mean, it is a kind of production line, but it's also very much not in that they're producing such different types of tennis players.

11:09Matt Roberts: It's not a kind of factory package feel of this is how we do tennis. Come in, we'll coach you, you come out the other side. Like, I don't know, whatever's going on in Czechia, Matt, it needs to be studied. And like other federations need to be studying it. Surely they need to be sending spies over there. And it is also curious that I know they do have male players and they've got a good group of them at the moment. But it does seem to be quite a different scene in terms of churning out this female talent. It's incredible stuff.

11:47Catherine Whitaker: yeah it's like send send half your spies to czechia and the other half to italy and you will discover the secrets of of how to produce a line of excellent excellent tennis players you know if you want female players it's probably more czechia as you said and male players italy right now um yeah the two sort of envies of the of the rest of the tennis world i suppose and and And you're right, like I was thinking about it, I do always think that the Czech players have a very clean ball. I think there's often a very good technique embedded in the players. But you're right that there are very different game styles and a lot of them also have quite a lot of variety.

12:33Catherine Whitaker: If you think of Vondrosheva and Krejcikova and Mukova as the sort of leading ones of that generation at the moment, they were all blessed with a lot of variety whereas in the past it maybe was more sort of big hitters kind of like a Kvitova or Pliskova but it's really sort of evolved over time and now you don't really know what sort of style check you're going to get but the chances are they're going to be very good

12:59Matt Roberts: Karen Ian Pliskova current tennis player reached the third round of the Australian Open I'll have you know

13:05Catherine Whitaker: and play as Amanda Nissam over today so I better not speak too soon

13:12Matt Roberts: my god yeah the Doha is already underway talk about tennis coming at you fast we're already knee deep in a WTA 1000 we'll talk about that a little bit later on in the show let's head to Cluj Cluj Napoca in Romania and a title that was won by a Romanian in her final year on tour Two Romanian speakers in the final include Saronica Stea beating Emma Raducanu 6-2. Quite a lot of drama in this final, albeit with a not very dramatic scoreline. Emma Raducanu was suffering from, she's told us it was an infection. She had her blood pressure taken midway through this match. I think after the first set, she looked very, very out of sorts, which is obviously a real shame because this was her first final since the US Open in 2021.

14:13Matt Roberts: Like a really significant breakthrough for Emirati Kani. She was obviously playing a tournament for the first time since splitting from Francisco Roig. I don't think that was news that we actually reported at the time. I mean, in my head it had kind of already happened because it was so definitely going to happen after the way she was speaking in that press conference in Melbourne after losing in the second round to Anastasia Potapova. So, look, overall, net a huge week for Amarada Karnou. In particular, that three-set win over Oleksandra Olinikova, who, very pleased to be talking about her again, That was in the semi-finals.

14:59Matt Roberts: Yeah, overall, a great week for Amiradokhanu, David. Just a real bummer that it ended the way it did. Yeah, I think it's one of the blessings and curses of the sheer amount of attention that she garners is that her run to the final inevitably produced a lot of these headlines about this is the first time she's got through to a final since that US Open. and that could be looked at as a positive and a negative. And I think, absolutely, I agree with you. It's a positive. She spoke at the end of the Australian Open about wanting to kind of revert to an older game style and to just be putting the foot on the gas in rallies and moving people around.

15:44And look, she was doing that. And then, of course, she runs into Olinikova, who just has a game like nobody else in terms of spoiling and messing up your rhythm and throwing up moon balls and drop shots and angles and just doing it in a really aggressive fashion, which, honestly, I could see myself sort of seeking out her matches if she stays this relevant in the months and years to come because it's just so interesting watching players try to decode it. And the fact that Raducanu kind of got spun into that web and managed to get out of it and win the match, I think is a huge win. But look, I take on face value that she was feeling unwell or feeling underpowered in that final.

16:30And she didn't look very well. I mean, frankly, she didn't look great. But also, it's also another bit of a no-show in the end. And so I think you have to take that into account. I also think you have to take into account that she's playing in Serana Castella, somebody who's kind of i don't know she's retiring at the wrong time because she's getting better by the year um she's so good i remember her as a 21 year old and there was there was a lot of hype and and but it was there wasn't a didn't feel like there was a lot of thought going into the ball bashing really at the time and i'm not i'm not 100 sure her style has changed that much but she's just got better at it, you know, as the years have gone by.

17:21And I mean, yeah, she is still one heck of a player. And it's quite a thing, isn't it, to win in your home country in your final year. You know, this isn't just a ceremonial farewell tour. This is picking up a big deal title for you. So, you know, I wouldn't want to be too hard on Raducanu and would want to basically take that positive that she got there. but even so she was top seed she's kind of supposed to win that title um tennis doesn't work like that sport doesn't work like that necessarily but so yeah let's say net positive

17:57Matt Roberts: i think you got it right the first time yeah i'm i'm bracing myself for a danielle collins Sarana Castella not actually retiring situation. I'm just, I've put a pin in it. I'm prepared to do a rant about fake retirements at the end of the year. Did you see Boris Becker's tweet about Emerald Akane this week or a few days ago? It was a kind of, is that it? kind of tweet wasn't it in terms of her career accomplishments yeah somebody a I don't know what account it was but somebody an account a tennis news account just you know tweeted the result beaten on the cover first final since um US Open 2021 and he quote tweeted it and said that's it question mark and it was just the perfect example of how emma adekanu like brings out the petty pathetic often man in in so many people like why are you out here having a having a mean-spirited opinion about emma adekanu and putting it out into the universe like i don't know what it is about her that brings that out in people, but it is a fact that she does, whether it's Boris Becker or Man in Pub or Taxi Driver or, you know, whoever it is.

19:34Matt Roberts: And I just feel for her because as much as you say, you know, stay off social media, all of that, like she's, what, 22, 23 years old? Like it's not as simple as that, just staying off social media. A lot of life is lived on social media for people of that age and she just must be confronted with this absolutely bizarre wave of mean-spirited opinion about her. And obviously we're here doing a tennis podcast having opinions, but I just don't... Thank you, Billie Jean, I agree. Yeah, like, it's just... I don't know, it was such a... It was such a great example of what she's dealing with and what she evokes in people.

20:26Matt Roberts: And it's utterly bizarre. Yeah.

20:30Catherine Whitaker: And it's been like that, unfortunately, for a very long time. And yeah, I just hate that, like just punching down like that. And I think this is a classic example where she can't really win in the eyes of many people, right? Like if she doesn't reach the final, they're saying, oh well she hasn't she hasn't reached the final and if she does it's oh it's only it's only this level of tournament and these category of players and you know it's it is rough to see that actually and i think there are i think there are sort of valid potential sort of questions you could have over emir adekarnu's career over the over the past few years you know i think in particular again even some of this coverage is is is sort of a bit uncomfortable to read sometimes but I think you can question her decision making with coaches it's obviously like worked for her at the start of her career and that she's won the Grand Slam title that everyone is craving and people seem to forget that people seem to treat that as some kind of fluke or anomaly or it doesn't really count that she has done the thing that everyone is trying to do but I think you can have legitimate questions about the way she has sort of hired and fired coaches since then because it you know that strategy has sort of stopped being quite so beneficial for her but other than that i i don't really get the huge level of of criticism that the emirada canu gets and it it does feel it does feel hugely outsized and not in proportion with the with the career that she's trying to develop for herself having having had a start that was so extraordinary that sort of no one has ever had to tread that path before and you know she's she's doing her best I think um yeah and I think I I think the most sort of positive moment of the week for her, for me, was the third set against Ola Nikova, because we have seen a lot of third sets recently for Raducanu, where she's maybe lost the tight second set and then ended up really fading in the final set of a match, be it physically or maybe a bit more mentally in a match.

23:01Catherine Whitaker: But actually here, I thought that could happen again. She was up against a very tricky opponent, as we've discussed. And yet she actually leveled up in that final set and played probably her best portion of tennis in the whole week, really going after the ball in the way that she said she wanted to, won 16 points in a row to just take control of that final set. Got a little bit tight trying to win it, but then used a drop shot, which is an effective play, I think, against Olinikova, who is standing so far back. She just found that tactic right at the end of the match and it sort of got her over the line.

23:34Catherine Whitaker: And yeah, that was a really, really impressive effort from Raducanu. And I think maybe it took everything out of her. I think she ended up with nothing left in the final. Because I even thought earlier in the week against Yuvan, when she went five love down, she could well have been a little bit ill in that match or struggling physically. So I think it was something she was contending with the whole week. And she found a brilliant passage of tennis in the semis, but it probably did end up costing her in the final. But yeah, Ola Nakova, by the way. David said he's going to be seeking out her matches.

24:09Catherine Whitaker: I already am. She saved 21 of 23 break points against Wong Jin Yu in the quarterfinals. And I was thinking of the late, great Bud Collins all the time while watching her. Bud, who invented the word moon ball. like what a time he would have had watching her I mean like how fun to have like a professional moon baller like bringing that game and then occasionally really flattening it out or playing the drop shot like I want to see all the players have to pass the Olinikova test it's so fun to

24:47Matt Roberts: watch her matches right now I think I said this during the Australian Open but like she really highlights how much we've been calling things moon balls that aren't moon balls like that's a proper moon ball that she's doing yeah not just like a heavily top spun thing and it's the aggression she's doing it with she's doing it to mess you up and and like the look in the faces of her opponents when it's happening it's they they're almost looking around as if as if to say is this is this allowed you know you you permit so relatable to do this because this doesn't because that is how i used to feel if i would play club matches or university matches against somebody who just whacked it up in the air and i wasn't good enough to put it away enough times to win the match and i would i would just tend to look over and just can we just just play normal tennis will you and i'm sure most some of the players that have a period i I think Madison Keyes had a period of feeling like that.

25:51And then she just reined it in at the Australian Open and just socked her off the court. But crikey, you've got to play well. Or keep, you know, at some point she's going to play somebody who we're just going to watch unravel in a kind of, not figuring it out, just completely combust. And my money's on Yelena Ostapenko. I want to see that match.

26:14Matt Roberts: Yeah, that's almost too easy, isn't it? because it'll definitely happen against Yulayne Ostevenko. I kind of want to see it against somebody that you're not used to seeing unravel. But Olinikova will be the straw that breaks the camel's back. For what it's worth, I really liked the way that Emerita Kani was hitting the ball this week. I could see that much more conviction in her shots. And it really showed up what we could all see very plainly towards the end of her time with Francisco Roig, which was that she wasn't believing in what she was being told. There was such indecision in that ball strike.

26:54Matt Roberts: It ended up looking really feeble in the end. And look, I think this week having been indoors helps a lot. Obviously, you get a cleaner ball strike indoors than you do with conditions. And it was a little bit breezy in that match against Potapova. but that definitely wasn't the whole it. She clearly had a clarity about the way she wanted to play in the way that she hadn't for a while with Roig. And I think you can have those very, very legitimate questions about her general approach to coaches but also still think it was very much the right thing for her to split with Francisco Roig. Roy gets like football managers, isn't it?

27:39Matt Roberts: You can think that like, like generally we should be sacking football managers less, but let's definitely get rid of this one because he is rubbish. Is that relatable, David? Very, very. Right, let's head to Estrada and a final that was of course happening at exactly the same time as the final in Kluge because tennis, which is actually just, I mean, it's always tennis shooting itself in the foot, but given it was two Brits, a Brit in each of the finals, like, you're just decimating your audience, your potential audience in one of the biggest markets for these matches. The Emirati Kani match finished quite quickly, So Sky were able to go over to Estrada for Katie Bolter beating Tamara Korpach, 5-7, 6-2, 6-1.

28:41Matt Roberts: But still, just like tennis being absolutely ridiculous. David, you watched this win for Katie Bolter in the final, a very significant one. I mean, she has been in the wilderness as Katie Bolter. She needed these 250 points. yeah I mean she was kind of not not going to be getting into major draws and big masters 1000 draws unless she had a week like this and she was really down last year all the way through it she just couldn't get any form going at all she made a pretty significant coaching change which involved bringing in Michael Joyce, a former coach of Maria Sharapova and Jessica Begula and Johanna Conte.

29:36And that has paid pretty quick dividends, at least on the... I mean, I don't know whether it's down to him or what it is. I'm sure a big part of it is going indoors because Katie Bolter is head and shoulders a better player indoors than she is outdoors, quite honestly we're going to talk about Felix Ossiella a scene later and the same is true of him he's obviously had good results outdoors as well but when you go indoors you suddenly see the conditions settle, this ability to just strike through a tennis ball know where it's going, know what's coming off your racket know where you need to be when it comes towards you because there's no wind at play and all those sort of things but yeah I mean last year honestly if somebody had said to me that we had seen the last of her in kind of grand sum draws without wild cards the way things were going last year i would probably have believed that and that's proved she's proved that that's not right that there's more in her and she was speaking pretty bullishly at the start of the year that that was her intention was to to actually get to a ranking eventually that's higher than what she's been in before um but this was this was an amazing performance all week long She did lose one set early on in the tournament.

30:52But then if you look at her scorelines thereafter, they're all absolute decimations of the opposition. I mean, most sets, 6-1, 6-2 or 6-3, just wiping the floor with everybody. And I remember seeing this in the Fed Cup as it was then, the Billie Jean King Cup now, sort of pre-pandemic, that when she sets her feet and runs around a backhand to strike an inside-out forehand indoors, it's one of the better ones in the game and she was just like that all week everything was solid but aggressive so she flew through to the final plays Tamara Korpak she's in a similar position of just being outside the world's top 100 we all remember her because of the argument she had with Harmony Tan at Wimbledon when Tan had a run in the singles and ended up pulling out the doubles and Korpach got really arsy about it and said, you're just not professional on Instagram.

31:54And we found that very amusing. And there've been several moments where I think I found Tamara Korpach quite amusing. But actually this was an opportunity to see her as the tennis player. And similarly to Bolter, just get through to the final without dropping a set. She also won the first set of this final, despite it being 5-4 Bolter with Bolter serving in that first set. And I think actually that's a pretty big achievement from Bolter to not let that derail her because she dominated after that. And just a nice moment in the speeches on court afterwards because Korpach, there was a real warmth between them at the handshake, but there was also warmth in the words from Korpach to say, look, I was going through a hard time not that long ago.

32:41and in the locker room, Katie just asked after me, like asked if I was okay and showed genuine concern for me and I haven't forgotten that. And it was just a really nice moment of realising these are human beings and it's a tough sport and if you're going through bad times on or off the court and the loss is piling up, just having somebody ask after you who's kind of your peer but also somebody who could take your happiness away again on the court. That's really something. And so it's quite nice to hear.

33:20Matt Roberts: They've changed the trophy in Estrada. It's a tennis racket. It's a tennis racket. Now, it used to be a sort of more classical trophy. I don't mind the tennis racket, but it did remind me of the gorilla trophy that Katie Bolter won last year. Do you remember that? Just what an eclectic trophy cabinet Katie Bolter has. I swear Estrava used to have a sort of, you know, more standard trophy-ish trophy. It's still got its exclamation marks, that much I do know, because it's written on the court. The day that Estrava stops having exclamation marks, I'll refuse to talk about it. I don't think it's the only Estrava I recognise.

34:07Catherine Whitaker: One other little thing that caught my attention in Estrada was watching the semifinal between Korpach and Parry. And Diane Parry is doing something potentially very interesting and innovative. She is, as we know, Diane Parry is one of the very few players on the WTA Tour with a single-handed topspin backhand. but she is at the moment using a double-handed backhand on return, which is quite an interesting development. She's the only person I know who's doing that, but I think a lot of the thinking behind why the one-handed backhand has declined and disappeared is that on return these days it's such a disadvantage with the speeds and spins that people are putting on those serves.

35:04Catherine Whitaker: It's much harder to control. you've got less stability with just the one hand so the double-handed backhand and you can get over the ball a bit more easily has really taken over as we know but yeah, potential game changer if someone is able to use that effectively a double-hander on return and then going back to her single-hander in the rallies so definitely something to keep an eye on whether Parry can really make that work

35:31Matt Roberts: Take note indeed joe wilfrid songy used to alternate sometimes between a single hander and a double hander but i think really what that was was neither one of them were that good

35:50Matt Roberts: okay that's it for part one we'll be back in part two to talk about the return of art of feast david

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38:16Matt Roberts: Welcome back to part two of today's tennis podcast, where we head to Montpellier now and a title won by Félix Auger-Eliassime over Adrian Manorino in the final 6-3, 7-6. We will talk about that in a moment, but I think we should put David out of his misery first up and allow him to talk about the long-awaited return. And it really has been long-awaited. This has been a long, old time that he's been off the tour. Arta Fies won two matches, David. he beat Valentin Royer in three dramatic sets then he beat Hugo Blanchet in straight sets before losing to the eventual champion how was your artifice comeback experience this week it was great it was great to see him back on on court it was great to see him not look in pain certainly visibly I couldn't detect any issues and the fact that he kind of you know he rebounded from the first round, which was long and intense, and played again a couple of days later and won more handily.

39:24Then he had the back-to-back days, and obviously then he's running into a far, far better player in Felix Ogi Aliasim, and he lost 6-2, 6-4. But overall, I think that, I mean, as long as he hasn't come out with any real issues, I think that this is a major step, just to get back out there and kind of look like himself. It didn't look like there were compromises being made or if he'd lost stuff, he looked like he was hurtling towards balls. He was smacking his serve down. He hit some incredible sort of jumping overheads backwards. And so, yeah, I thought he was really good overall. And, I mean, it's great to see, frankly, any tournament in France, I will happily watch just because the sheer number of people that pack the stands.

40:15I mean, the final we'll come on to is incredibly well attended. But, you know, Feast in particular, I think that they know he's one that could not just be fun and they could get behind, but that could be a contender at the sharp end of big tournaments. But this is a first little step and it was great to see.

40:38Matt Roberts: Yeah, I mean, the vibe in that final was incredible. wasn't it? And talk about everything we've been saying about players that are different and transformed indoors. Felix Orgelia, seem, has to be the ultimate example of that, doesn't he? Like, I mean, would he be world number three if tennis were played indoors? I mean, probably not, given that Novak Djokovic has just reached the Australian Open final.

41:03Catherine Whitaker: But, like... I was kind of compiling a list in my head. I would confidently say Sinner, Alcaraz and Djokovic are better than him indoors I would probably put Zverev there as well but after that I genuinely think you're looking at Augie Eliasim in terms of being the next best in those conditions he's unbelievable he's 1-7 now in outdoor finals and he's 8-5 in indoor finals 8 of his 9 titles have come indoors and his record in the big matches just improves when he plays in those conditions. And yeah, I think what David was saying earlier about knowing the strike you can get on the ball just helps him so much indoors, particularly on the backhand.

41:54Catherine Whitaker: He's got a bit of an awkward technique on that side, but I think knowing where the ball's going to be in the slot, you saw it in the final, he just drove a couple of backhands down the line very early against Manorino. and it's just a shot which he doesn't play so confidently, I think, on the rest of the tour. And then, of course, his bread and butter is the big serve, big forehand, and he's able to set that up so consistently indoors. And, yeah, I was really impressed with him in this final against Manorino, who was playing his first final in France, which really shocked me. It was his 15th final overall, but the first time he'd managed to reach one in France.

42:37Unfortunately for him, he's coming up against someone who had won this tournament last year,

42:43Catherine Whitaker: was very comfortable in those conditions. Manorino was clearly a level below in the first set, but did really well in the second set to push it to a tie-break and actually led by a mini-break in that tie-break. And then Orjeliasim just totally locked his game down in that moment, came up with an absolutely brilliant combination that was, you know, big words, but kind of Alcaraz-esque in terms of using the short backhand slice low to then set up the forehand pass. How many times do you see Alcaraz do that? Orjali has executed that brilliantly to get the mini-brake back and then ended up racing through the last few points of the tie-brake to win it.

43:25Catherine Whitaker: And there's just such conviction about him indoors that you don't get necessarily the rest of the time. And yeah, like a really nice bounce back from him after that unfortunate sort of cramping that he had that took him out of the Australian Open so early.

43:41Matt Roberts: And he's given us an opportunity, thank you Felix, to finally mention that Milos Raonic has retired. Milos Raonic obviously did this about six weeks ago and we all responded to that news slightly perplexedly because we all thought Milos Raonic had already retired but he hadn't sort of officially announced it and we felt like we should mention it so we kept on putting it in agendas but it was the start of a grand slam and it just never felt quite editorially right to slip in the news that a player you haven't thought about for three years has retired. But here we go. So, Felix Auger-Aliassime's win in Montpellier means that he's now won more titles than any Canadian man.

44:29Matt Roberts: And that moves him ahead of Milos Raonic, who had eight and an incredible career. Milos Raonic. Happy retirement, Milos. Sorry it's taken us so long for us to mention you. And for anybody that hadn't heard about the Milos Raonic retirement, and sorry that you've been living in the dark for the last six weeks thinking that Milos Raonic is an active tennis player waiting for him to take to the court. But no, he's not going to be doing that again. No. And it is 10 years. I mean, it's not surprising in a way that he's kind of drifted out of our consciousness. I mean, as you say, it's some time since he played active tennis matches, but it's really 10 years ago when he had his heyday, If you think of it, that was the year that he reached the Wimbledon final and played Andy Murray in the final.

45:28It was the year 2016 that he very nearly beat Murray in the ATP finals and could have changed history there because Murray fought back and won that title and ended up finishing the year world number one. You know, that was a huge moment as well for him. and he was two sets to one up against Murray in Australia as well. So there was a period there where he was really causing some of the top players' problems, not all of them. I mean, Novak Djokovic used to really handle his big game very comfortably but having been on the other side of the court, sort of court level behind a glass window when his serve smacks into your window, So it's one heck of a force that he would hit that ball with.

46:16And I feel like he actually fulfilled his potential and actually exceeded what I would have expected he would have been able to do. I spent a little bit of time with him at Queen's, sort of behind the scenes. um i think it was 2017 he did a he he did one of these little sort of media uh color pieces where he was taken to the house of commons for a tour by the speaker of the house john burko and i went along so i got to know milos randits a little bit during that period and he was he was good company um and it'd be interesting to see what he goes on those tours are really good

46:53Matt Roberts: that was great i mean mine wasn't led by john burko so i probably had a slightly superior experience but still it was good fun and he he was he was a good laugh actually and he was quite an inquisitive person to be around you know he was very interested in how leicester city had won the premier league and lots of things like that was going on at the time um but i am interested to see what he goes on to do whether he keeps a foot in tennis in some way i kind of hope he does but not really sure what his plans will be. Just very quickly on that final with Oji Ali Oseem. His record as well is 70 % of his matches he wins indoors and only 56 % of them he wins outdoors.

47:39I mean, it's a heck of a differential. Manorino is trying to combat this by standing out really wide to serve with his left hand. So he was standing in like a doubles position and he was trying to put Oji Aliassime into the sort of sponsor hoardings on the side of the court and he was very nearly getting him to hit them as he hit the ball but it still wasn't quite enough.

48:05Matt Roberts: That is very Adrian Manorino, isn't it? Right, moving on to the Davis Cup and round one qualifiers that were played this weekend. There will be second round qualifiers. They'll be played in September involving the teams that won through these first round of qualifiers. So this is what we had. I think probably the headline is the fact that Great Britain beat Kasper Rudeless Norway. Rudel welcomed his first child kind of on the eve of this tie. So no great surprise that he wasn't part of Team Norway. although he did leave it to the very last minute to pull out or certainly Norway waited to the very last minute to announce that he was pulling out.

48:54Matt Roberts: So GB, the 3-0 winners with the returning Jack Draper, quite a big moment, similar to Art of Feast in Montpellier. Jack Draper's been out for a similar amount of time. And sort of good news, bad news, he returned, he played someone ranked outside the world's top 300, He looked to dream and then he didn't play again and he's now pulled out of Rotterdam. And, you know, he's talking down the significance of that. But I don't know, Matt, that doesn't that doesn't sound brilliant to me from a Jack Draper point of view. What do you think? I mean, I get why he's being absolutely totally cautious, if not overcautious.

49:37Matt Roberts: You know, you don't want to spend seven months on the sidelines and have it be for nothing, you know, for the sake of a week. But either you're ready to go or you're not kind of like. And if he's if he's if he's not ready to to properly play day in, day out tennis now, then I don't know that that's that's a worry. What do you think?

50:05Catherine Whitaker: yeah I was I was trying to figure out gauge how concerned to be about that about that Rotterdam withdrawal I assume it was his intention to play so therefore you know you feel like maybe he has felt something this week that he's not quite ready I can imagine there's a lot of anxiety for him about how best to handle this return when you've been on the sidelines for so long the last thing you want to do is set yourself back anymore in any kind of way. And I think now the plan is for him to play later this month in the Middle East. But yeah, like at one point, you've probably got to try playing a tournament where you're hopefully going to have sort of what Feast had this week, which is like multiple matches in a week and kind of see how you respond to that so i really hope that he didn't feel any unexpected pain or anything this week um and it's and it is just a decision in terms of being you know cautious and taking maybe all the necessary steps that he has to take um but yeah i was i was sort of ready and looking forward to seeing him in Rotterdam because you know the opponent he played I think he was called Duracevic wasn't he I think might have played in the United Cup as well you know he just wasn't he just wasn't really in in Draper's class really so it was it was quite difficult to gauge I mean as you said Draper looked really good he's got a new service motion he's he's changed from a pinpoint service motion where you bring your feet together to a platform where you keep them apart and I I think part of that is to do with trying to protect the arm a little bit more as well.

52:01Catherine Whitaker: But yeah, it'll have to be a few weeks until we see Draper again. But fingers crossed, everything is OK. But yeah, I'm a little concerned.

52:13Matt Roberts: Elsewhere in the Davis Cup qualifiers, South Korea beat Argentina, a team for South Korea that included Hyun Chung and Soon-woo Kwon. They won the final two matches for Korea. They came from one to down and they will now face India, who beat the Netherlands. And Matt has put an exclamation mark on that. And he texted the group about it yesterday. Matt is very excited about India beating the Netherlands. Tell us everything, Matt.

52:43Catherine Whitaker: Well, now we get South Korea versus India for a place at the Davis Cup finals, which is really cool. And, yeah, I mean, that Argentina team was very weak. They didn't have anyone who'd played Davis Cup before. But nice to see Young Chung get a moment again and sort of be the star. He got the winning point for them. And, yeah, Sun Woo Kwon is still completing his military service in Korea. So if you're wondering why you haven't seen him on the tour recently, it's because of that. but he is able to play those Davis Cup ties still. So that was a really big win for them against Argentina. And then India against the Netherlands, well, I mean, the Netherlands have been such a sneaky force in Davis Cup over the last few years, you know, reached the final a few years ago.

53:41Catherine Whitaker: But there's a real dispute currently at the heart of the Dutch Davis Cup team. And Gwikspur is essentially on strike. and not playing for the Netherlands anymore. He's very unhappy about the setup. He described the Dutch federation as amateurish and he's very unhappy with the fact that Jakko Elting, who's the director of Dutch tennis, is like never at the National Tennis Centre. He thinks that's amateurish. He's disagreed in the past about the decision about which fifth player to bring into the team. And he's upset about the quality of the courts at the federation. And he's basically said that he's not going to play until he sees change in his country in terms of the way that tennis is run and make it more professional and better.

54:40Catherine Whitaker: So there's a big dispute there. So he was out. Boertje van der Zanskiel also out. so a very weakened dutch team went over to india and ended up losing and this guy dk suresh who's at wake forest university beat jesper de jong then won the doubles with yuki bambri and then won the decider to get india through beating a dutch player called den udon and absolute scenes in India as they won that tie. You know, Suresh, he was a big, big guy, big lanky guy with a big serve and comes forward to the net. I'm not sure that that technique is going to stand up to the very best players in the world, but I enjoyed watching it.

55:31Catherine Whitaker: The ITF was streaming this on their YouTube page. And he just took it to his opponent, come forward, big game, trying to get the first strike in. and he ended up getting the win and he just fell directly backwards when he won the match point onto his back and his whole team came rushing on and suddenly there you've ended up now with a tie, South Korea versus India, where, you know, whoever wins that, that's going to be a huge moment for them to be at the Davis Cup finals. And I think, you know, this competition is still, we've talked about it endlessly haven't we it's still it's trying to find its place and you know it was a standard davis cup experience where there were these good stories if you dig into them but how do you watch it and who's seeing it and and yet this sort of story is classic davis cup a kind of unheralded name doing something brilliant for their nation and and sort of becoming an overnight hero.

56:38Catherine Whitaker: So I just can't wait for the South Korea-India tie later in the year to find out who ends up at the Davis Cup finals. That's the one I'm looking forward to most, I think.

56:50Matt Roberts: GB's opponent in the round two qualifiers will be Ecuador. They beat Australia, albeit a very depleted Australia, but they beat Australia 3-0, Matt.

57:01Catherine Whitaker: yes in Quito on the clay and yeah an Australian team they had lots of sensations Higgy Carter, Duckworth, Kubler Jordan Thompson but couldn't get it done and again that's going to be two years in a row now where Australia are not at the finals again they've been a really good team over the last few years lately Huwett's been desperate for some home and away ties and he's had some and he keeps losing them um they lost they lost at home to belgium last year didn't they and now they've just gone out to ecuador and now going out of this stage they now actually face a fight to sort of keep themselves at this at this level so yeah big big big uncertainty for australia there but an amazing amazing win for ecuador

57:53Matt Roberts: Spain are gonna have to head to Chile for their second round qualifier Chile beat Serbia I mean Carlos Alcaraz said didn't he in that post-Australian open press conference when he was asked after completing the career slam what his goals now were he said Davis Cup didn't he so So off to Chile you go, Carlos.

58:19Catherine Whitaker: Just days after completing the calendar slam.

58:22Matt Roberts: Yeah, watch this space to see if Carlos Alcaraz goes to Chile. Austria will be hosting Belgium. Austria came from 2-1 down to beat Japan. And Canada will be hosting France. Canada beat Brazil 3-2. USA, France, Belgium, Germany, Czechia. they were all very comfortable winners in these qualifiers. And that means we will see Czechia against the USA, a home tie for Czechia. We'll see that again this year in the second round qualifiers. It feels, Matt, like Czechia and the US are always playing one another.

59:03Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, it was the standout tie at that stage of the competition last year. It was in the US last year. and the US still had a pretty good team, but Jakub Mensik, I think, beat Francis Tiafa, I want to say, in the deciding match there. And those are two teams who, if they all commit, have got a lot of, you know, the sort of top 30 in the world are kind of from Czechia and the US. So you could get some great ties there. And I think both countries really have talked about really wanting to win this competition with this sort of crop of players that they've got. So yeah, like for them to come out on that part of the draw together, when you then got a tie like South Korea-India, who don't have anywhere near the calibre of player, it sort of just shows the way the draws go sometimes.

59:57Catherine Whitaker: But yeah, that's the sort of big headline tie, I would say, again, of that second round.

1:00:05Matt Roberts: Okay, that's it for part two. We'll be back in part three with a bit of news and a look ahead to this week in tennis.

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1:01:32Matt Roberts: Welcome back to part three of today's tennis podcast and a bit of news from the tennis world reported in the Guardian. Top players reject offer to have greater say in running of major tennis championships. So the Grand Slams, all of them except for the Australian Open, you might remember the Australian Open have kind of settled their dispute. So we've now got Wimbledon, the French Open and the US Open kind of negotiating with the top players on both the WTA and the ATP side. And the slams have proposed setting up a player council. And that has been that offer, which incorporates a number of other things, has been rejected by the players.

1:02:26Matt Roberts: in correspondence that's been sent to Wimbledon the French Open and the US Open last week the players turned down the offer of a meeting with representatives of the three slams at Indian Wells in March and accused the tournament organisers of ignoring their concerns about pay and player welfare what do we read into this David other than sort of

1:02:55more more unproductive tennis politics yeah well in short the players have made clear what they want but and they've done it both privately and kind of publicly as well they've said we want we want a bigger percentage of revenue we want an amount paid into the sort of player welfare pot and it seems the slams have come back and said why don't we set up a player council so we can have more more conversations and i suppose they want to have those conversations behind closed doors i think the players are accusing them of trying to kick the can down the road really and and and whilst they're saying yeah sure be nice to have that but can we sort out the money first you know And at the moment, the slams are just not doing that.

1:03:49I mean, they've got their own ongoing battle with the Professional Tennis Players Association in trying to sort of fight off this lawsuit. So they've got their hands full on a couple of counts there, aside from everything else. I mean, Wimbledon, for instance, are still trying to get their extra land in order to be able to build and do more in the future. So I think that they, I mean, they just don't want to be having to deal with these players asking for more money and they're not prepared it appears to just say sure let's just give you an extra seven percent or whatever it is and yeah I'm afraid this is just the nature of the standoff at the moment they're kind of telling the players they they understand their concerns and they have respect for them and etc but they're actually not doing what the players want so yes we continue

1:04:44Matt Roberts: It's alarming how far apart the two parties sound, doesn't it? Like the players are saying we want this much more money. And that's pretty much a red line. You know, OK, the exact sum might be negotiated, the exact percentage might be negotiable. As you said, 7 % sort of been floated. But, you know, that's the headline of what they want. And the slams are saying, let's just have a load of meetings about it. Let's just set up a platform in which we can just have more meetings. Yeah, I'm sure that will rumble on and will keep you posted as it does. Andrea Gaudenzi has been re-elected as head of the ATP.

1:05:27Matt Roberts: That's no great surprise. Is any ATP CEO not been re-elected, David? I mean, I think what's interesting is I think this is the second time he's been re-elected, whereas, say, Chris Commode was re-elected once. I think that... But then stood down, right? He never lost an election. Well, he was basically given a kind of vote of no confidence. He wasn't given another chance to get another term. Right. so I think it's one of those that you either move on to something else because you've got a better offer or it becomes clear that the players aren't into you and etc and I guess in this instance maybe there's not enough dissent to do anything about it What's interesting is that Gaudenzi has led this two-week Masters 1000 event move, and yet he's still getting re-elected, despite the fact that players are coming out and saying they're not happy about that.

1:06:43But then I also think if you don't have a clear plan of what you're going to go to, maybe you should just carry on and not rock the boat too much more. Maybe that's how they feel.

1:06:56Matt Roberts: No boat rocking here. This week in tennis, we have a WTA 1000 in Doha, which is very much already underway. In fact, it got underway yesterday, didn't it? So today is day two. We're in round one match territory still. We've got Nozkova against my joint, Maria Sakharov against Zeynep Sonmez, Alexandra Ayala versus Teresa Valantova that one's really fun and we've already had Alicia Parks beating Dana Schneider in a deciding set tie break we've got the return of Jung Chin Wen keeping everything crossed for her it feels like she's been out an age and she's been another one that's just been having to put back and put back and put back this comeback So, so, so many limbs crossed for the health of Jung Chin Wen.

1:07:52Matt Roberts: She faces Sophia Kennan in round one. Probably the biggest news of the tennis week is that Vera Zvonareva in the year 2026 qualified for WTA 1000 and beat Peyton Stearns in round one. Vera Zvonareva. David was commentating on her in Grand Slam finals in 2010. Yep. David, yep. It's quite something, isn't it? It's a heck of an achievement, really. And a testament to her love for the sport, I think. And, you know, because you've got to put yourself through a lot to be ready for these tournaments. And, yeah, she can still do it, clearly. And I'm impressed. Yeah. I didn't even realise she was still trying to play singles.

1:08:42Matt Roberts: I thought she was just exclusively a doubles player. But a bit like Andrea Bavisori, I guess, if you're at these tournaments playing doubles, you've got a gap in your schedule and a spot opens up in singles qualifying. It's kind of like, well, nothing to lose. Why not? Situation. She faces Mboko next, by the way, is Von Areva, and that's a 22-year age gap between the two players. Irina Sabalenka is withdrawn. So we've got Igor Sviontek as the top seed. Elena Rabakina is playing. She's the second seed. And of course, Amanda Inisimova is the defending champion. And as Matt said, she starts against Karolina Pliskova.

1:09:22Matt Roberts: This is an interesting one, Matt, isn't it? Inisimova defending this title, because this is sort of where new Inisimova began last year. This is where defending the points of being a top 10, top 5 player, this is where it begins for Anisimov.

1:09:39Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, absolutely. It was a great run to the title she had last year. And I remember she was always playing late. She was last on every day. And it was a real accumulation of late nights and physical matches. And she really showed something there that she'd never really shown before in terms of that resilience, I think. She had a little bit of a drop-off, I think. sort of through the clay. There'll definitely be some points that she can still gain on the clay this year. But yeah, it's a hefty load of points she's defending this week. And I think interesting as well to monitor Shiontek's scheduling over the next few weeks, right?

1:10:25Catherine Whitaker: You know, she talked about how she's going to do things differently this year and she is going to miss events. And yet here she is still playing the 1 ,000 immediately after the Grand Slam where she's just gone, you know, fairly deep getting to the quarterfinals. Sabalenka, who is, you know, she's been jostling with at the top of the sport is opting to miss this one. Like I get why Stjontek's playing it. She always tends to play really well in Doha. You know, like maybe she'll skip one where the conditions do suit her a bit less, you know, but frankly, she's played well kind of most places on tour.

1:11:02Catherine Whitaker: so that's going to be something to monitor I did think maybe she might skip this one but no she's there as the top seed

1:11:09Matt Roberts: and I thought Rabatkin might as well but she likes to play a lot so yeah the ATP have two 500s this week in Rotterdam and in Dallas and obviously Carlos Alcres is a defending champion in Rotterdam he had been down to play he has very predictably withdrawn from Rotterdam so the two-time runner-up from the past two years Alex de Mino is the top seed and he faces David Art of Feast in round one it's it's a tough old draw that isn't it for Art of Yes yes and quite a test for the Feast forehand even if he is fully fit because one thing Alex de Mino does is rush you and uh and the the wind-up forehand doesn't like being rushed necessarily um although they did have a good match at wimbledon a couple of years ago and and and that went deep um so but again look you know thesis if he's physically okay he's just got to keep exposing himself to this stuff and getting used to it again this is part of it he shouldn't expect to be winning that match I don't think he should be disheartened if he doesn't but yeah if to me it's a win if he can get through matches without suffering setbacks physically.

1:12:32Matt Roberts: There's a round one between Stefanos Tsitsipas and Arta Rindeknes where Arta Rindeknes is the seeded player that's kind of a real state of tennis situation we've got a round one between Daniel Medvedev and Ugo and Baer between Hubert Hercatch and Alexander Bublik and between Alexei Popperin and Felix Auger alias Seem. You've also got Zizou Berg, Stan Ravrinka, Giovanni Pesci-Perikar, Karen Hashanov, Cameron Norrie and Bertik van der Zanschulp all in the draw. Thank you, Matt, for putting Bertik in the agenda. Not sure he carries any editorial relevance there, but I do love to see his name. in in dallas he's a marvel david in dallas taylor fritz is a man of his word he is headlining the field in dallas david with his dodgy knee i mean up to him i suppose and he knows his body better than i do but i don't get that i just don't And listen, maybe I should be taking the view of, oh, he's supporting the tour and he's made a commitment.

1:13:51So here he is. He's playing. It's good. But it's not good if you're never going to get yourself fully physically fit. And I don't see that the state he was in the last time I saw him can become that in the space of a couple of weeks. I hope I'm wrong, but I just want him to do whatever it takes to get fully physically fit because he doesn't need to be playing things unless he is.

1:14:20Matt Roberts: He's got Marcus Girone in round one. Ben Shelton's the second seed. He's got Gabriel Diallo in round one. We've got Michael Zheng. Remember him from the Australian Open? Well, he's got a rematch of that thriller he won in Melbourne against Sebastian Corder in round one. Apparently he lost a college match last week. Yeah, it's giving Oliver Tarvit, isn't it? Don't you diss Oliver, he's going to be back this year.

1:14:51Matt Roberts: We've also got a first round between Lernard Tien and Marin Cilic. I'm going to call that intergenerational. Tommy Paul and Jenson Brooksby, Grigel Dimitrov, more limbs crossed for him. He's got Alex Mickelson and Terence Atman against Francis Tiafo. Denis Shapovalov in the draw. He's the defending champion. Remember that? Remember Denis Shapovalov winning Dallas last year? We were high on him very briefly. Led to me interviewing Janko Tipsarevic who was also briefly a coach of his. Also in the draw which is a very sort of withering way of putting it, Matt. in the agenda. Also in the draw, Flavio Caballi, which is, I suppose, what he deserves after losing in straight sets to Luca Nardi last week.

1:15:41Matt Roberts: I've got to say, being a Caballi guy has been a rough ride in 2026. There have to be better days ahead.

1:15:52Catherine Whitaker: It's rinse and repeat for Caballi, isn't it? He started last year terribly and you thought, OK, he's got a chance to make up some points and yet he's struggling again.

1:16:01Matt Roberts: but struggling, watery shits and a loss to Luca Nardi. I don't think there is a worse start to a season than that other than a career-ending injury. You don't want to jump off the bandwagon now though, Catherine, because then when he has his surge, it's horrible when he starts doing well and you're not on it. Yeah, yeah, I've got a comfy seat, don't worry. But it has been catastrophic.

1:16:27Catherine Whitaker: Did he get a win at the United Cup? He got one, maybe, didn't he? One, he got one. Against Warenka. Was that right?

1:16:33Matt Roberts: Yeah, that was a struggle.

1:16:35Catherine Whitaker: Well, Warenka's been great, though. That ended up not being a bad win. To be clear, being highlighted on my list in the draw is a huge compliment. It's just that... It's an honour. Yeah, it's just that he wasn't playing anyone interesting in the first round, so I didn't list it there. But yeah, I wanted to let you know he was playing.

1:16:55Matt Roberts: Him and Bertic. and Alejandro Davidovich for Kina also in Dallas

1:16:59Catherine Whitaker: two good draws actually like yeah they are good weeks the 500s

1:17:04Matt Roberts: they are yeah they're a good time the 500s there's also a 250 in Buenos Aires the South American swing before Indian Wells Francisco Sorundolo and Luciano Darderi are the top two seeds you've also got Joel Fonseca more limbs crossed for fitness Matteo Bertini I'm running out of limbs but he can have one or two and Sebastian Baez all in the draw. Did you see the little social video from last week? I think it was the LTA one of Jack Draper. And he was asked for the last text he received from a non-British tennis player. And it was Matteo Berrettini just sort of checking in on his health. I like the idea that he's the sort of the doyen of injured ATP players just checking in on them all one by one.

1:17:57Matt Roberts: Oh, bless him. Okay, that's this week in tennis. Actually quite a busy, fun week ahead. We'll, of course, be back with a podcast at the end of all of it. We have got quite a mascot this week, folks. Our mascot is Teddy. Teddy is owned by David Ragsdale, amazing name, and Teddy is a toy poodle. he's seven years old and aside from eating and going for walks his main interest is snuggling he's always looking for a soft soft lap to settle down in um he's very um coco andrescu is teddy um and billy jean is half toy poodle so i've got a got a soft spot in my heart for them and teddy is gorgeous and very well camouflaged with the furniture in this photo i'm looking at Yeah, which will be in the newsletter.

1:18:51Matt Roberts: And well, you're looking at it now if you're watching us on YouTube. Enjoy. Thank you, David. And thank you, Teddy. Hello. And thank you to our mascot, Bodhi. It's tough being a Kabali guy, but we're hanging in there, Bodhi. Maisie and Roger are David and Matt's mascots. And you're both in sort of handsome mid-table territory in the Fantasy League. So no disgrace on Maisie and Roger. We have our top folks and executive producers, Greg, Chris and Jeff. Hello to you. And let's have some shout outs, Matt.

1:19:26Catherine Whitaker: We have two shout outs today and they're both excellent. And we start with Kelsey Turner from Philadelphia. And Kelsey is Kelsey of shouting out her dad, who's big with dad's fame. Oh, Kelsey. and Kelsey says my dad Brett the dad sister Devin and I are headed to Charleston for the first time I'll be sure to head to all the Yonex sponsored players in an attempt to say hi to Pam don't know whether Pam's going to be in Charleston but Pam if you're listening this is the call out from Kelsey head to Charleston and say hi to her and her excellent dad

1:20:15Matt Roberts: I love that so much Kelsey you have given us such a gift on the tennis podcast over the last couple of years you and your dad Brett thank you and have a wonderful time in Charleston

1:20:31Catherine Whitaker: and finally we have Andrew H and we know Andrew Andrew of course spoke at the history conference last year spoke brilliantly Andrew would like to give a mega birthday shout out for his husband Alessandro. And Alessandro shares his birthday with Catherine on Tuesday. Andrew's birthday is today, the 9th.

1:20:59Matt Roberts: Today. And Alessandro's is tomorrow.

1:21:01Catherine Whitaker: And Alessandro's is tomorrow, like you.

1:21:03Matt Roberts: Wow. Happy birthday, all of you. Back-to-back birthdays. Wow. Wow, that's like me and my friends Sarah and Grace from school, my two oldest friends. Our birthdays are the 9th, 10th and 11th of February. And when we were young, we thought that was the most interesting fact that had ever existed in the world. It was like our whole personality for a time there. It's quite interesting. It's very good.

1:21:36Matt Roberts: Andrew and Alessandro, what are you doing to celebrate your joint? but I bet they've had some good joint parties over the years. That's really cool.

1:21:46Catherine Whitaker: Let's see what have I got here. Andrew says that unfortunately Alessandro is working. He's working at the Bologna Opera House, which is apparently in the area.

1:21:56Matt Roberts: Sounds tough for Alessandro, that gig.

1:21:59Catherine Whitaker: It's in the area where the Davis Cup was held last year.

1:22:05Matt Roberts: well I hope you have a wonderful combined birthday 48 hours of celebration or and more if you fancy it I'm having a whole whole week of fun um and yeah happy birthday to all all who celebrate this week myself included um Andrew Alessandro and Kelsey and Brett uh thank you very much for being friends of the tennis podcast of course if you'd like to become a friend And the link is in our show notes. You get access to that Australian Open review show. And significantly fewer ads in your listening experience. You get access to The Barge, our community platform, monthly live Q &A shows, our tennis relived episodes.

1:22:51Matt Roberts: All sorts of fun to be had with being a friend of the tennis podcast. So the link for that is in our show notes. We are part of the Athletic Podcast Network. And just before we go today, unfortunately, we've had some pretty devastating news in the tennis media journalism community over the last couple of days. The former Telegraph tennis correspondent, Mark Hodgkinson, somebody that we all knew, David, you knew in particular, particularly well. We got the news yesterday that he's died at the age of just 46. you might have seen quite a lot of tributes pouring into him across various platforms obviously the Telegraph have written him an obituary I know he's been doing quite a lot of work for the ATP recently and they're writing a tribute to him as well he was so young and we're all still very much in shock about this news because he was a very significant figure in the tennis world over the last 20 years, David.

1:23:58Yeah, and this was sudden. He was taken ill, the Telegraph says, on Wednesday and died the following day in hospital. Just 46 years of age, as you say. Mark was Simon Briggs' predecessor as tennis correspondent for the Telegraph. He followed in the footsteps of the great John Parsons, who was the long-time correspondent. They only had five correspondents, I believe, in the history of the newspaper in tennis. And Mark was effectively chosen by John to succeed him. I remember John introducing me to Mark in 2004 at the Royal Albert Hall, where I was running the media operation for the Champions Tour event there.

1:24:40And Mark, I mean, he was fresh out of university. In fact, I think he was still at university. He had a sort of scrapbook of articles with him that he'd had published while he was at university. and you could just tell how impressed John was with him. And John died a couple of years later. Mark was appointed the Telegraph tennis correspondent and still only in his mid-twenties at the time. And that was totally unheard of, really, to be that young in such a role. And he was in that position for six years. In my experience, he was a gentle soul. And, I mean, he had a sharp pen when he felt the need arise.

1:25:20I remember one eviscerating takedown of the money he perceived that had been wasted by the British Federation, the LTA, on expensive coaches in the mid-2000s. But, you know, to deal with him sort of one-to-one, he was a very gentle fellow. And I would say he was more a writer than a story-breaker. He had a lovely way with words. And it was no surprise to me that he later flourished as an author. and he's produced books such as Searching for Novak on an unauthorised biography of Novak Djokovic that has been very popular and more recently Being Carlos Alcaraz. Just 46 and our thoughts in particular go out to his partner Amy and their two daughters Molly, 15 and Rosie, 12.

1:26:14Matt Roberts: Yeah, well said David. I remember he was one of the first British tennis journalists that I really sort of spoke to because he was always there at the Albert Hall, as you said, for those first few years that I worked on that event. I think did the Telegraph have a sort of media partnership with that event? And the fact that he was so young, you know, it was really stark how young and fresh he was compared to all the other tennis journalists. And that made that sort of profession feel that much more achievable for me. I remember having some conversations with him. And yeah, gentle is a very, very good word to describe how I think pretty much everybody found him.

1:27:05Matt Roberts: So exactly as you say, our thoughts are with all of his friends, family and loved ones at the moment. It's a terrible shock. And he will be missed by the tennis media community. That is for sure. That's it for this week's tennis podcast. We will be back next week. Thank you for listening.

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1:28:14Catherine Whitaker: This episode is sponsored by Michael's, your destination for all things birthday parties.

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