Will Nadal inspire a Swiatek surge?

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1:08Matt Roberts: Hello and welcome to the Tennis Podcast, the first Monday tennis pod of the 2026 clay court season, the part of the year where world-beating Argentines start crawling out of the woodwork seemingly from nowhere. And when David Law texts the group chat to tell you that a Cam Norrie match is engrossing. David, what have you got to say for yourself?

1:33David Law: Well, I seem to remember it was on this show a year ago that I also texted the group to tell you about a Stefanos and Petros Sitsa past doubles match that I was watching in Monte Carlo. I was so into Monte Carlo that I was just seeking out doubles before the singles had started. And actually, I was doing that again yesterday with Yannick Sinners doubles. That was the first match on the main court and very much enjoyed it. So yes, I've had a lovely time. This is what comes over David Law at this time of year. Matt Roberts is back. Don't call it a comeback. We missed you, Matt. How are you doing?

2:10Very well, thank you. I did miss an extra show than had been planned. So thank you, Matt Futterman, for stepping in last week on the live show. I very much enjoyed being a listener for a couple of shows, but it's good to be back.

2:25Catherine Whitaker: And yeah, this is one of the great weeks of the sporting calendar, I think, with Monte Carlo in the tennis, the Masters golf. Yeah, it's a good time to be a fan of those two sports. Yeah, it is.

2:39Matt Roberts: It's one of those very, very special weeks. Monte Carlo is already underway. We'll be talking about that later in the show. We'll be looking back on the tournaments that have just wrapped up in Charleston and Bogota and Houston and Marrakesh and Bucharest. But before all of that, we need to start, I think, with some headline coaching news, a little coaching carousel segment. Now, usually these segments come at the end of the year, but there's been quite a lot of action this week. And the biggest of it all is the news that Iga Svantec has unveiled her new coach. We knew that she was training at the Rafael Nadal Academy, which perhaps was a little teaser of the fact that her new coach is from the former Rafael Nadal stable.

3:35Matt Roberts: It is, drumroll please, Francisco Roig. Francisco Roig is her new coach. There has been an official announcement. There has been training footage. there has been, not to overshadow the big Francisco Roig news that I've just given a drumroll, but he has already been rather overshadowed by quite a lot of footage emerging of Igor Shontek on the practice court with Rafael Nadal, who doesn't seem to be involved in an official capacity, but does at least for the time being seem to be very involved, which is a pretty just cool thing to witness I'm glad that footage exists. David your reaction to the Francisco Roig news please.

4:27David Law: It's not where my mind went to immediately when she stopped working with Wim Fissette I must admit partly because Francisco Roig has just gone to two different players really in the last couple of months because he's been to Emerita Cano and then he's been with Giovanni Pesci-Perica which you can't imagine two very more different tennis players than each other and then to move on to Igui Svantec it just seems like a surprising run of appointments but I have said for a while that I'm not convinced that Igui Svantec is really understanding or buying in or being able to process everything she's been working on with winning for a set.

5:17David Law: And I don't necessarily blame him for that. It just doesn't seem to fit to me. I know she won Wimbledon last year, which is enough in itself to call that partnership successful to a point. But just generally, her approach, her dominant stuff has been her playing a very baseline, smack the ball about incredibly hard and accurately game. And I think that that's what, well, she's talked about wanting to get back to a solidity to her game, a security, just knowing what she's doing from the baseline. And I think that that might work. And I mean, look, clearly her absolute love of Rafael Nadal as a hero of hers, I think is probably part of it.

6:04David Law: You know, if he's good enough for Rafael Nadal, then he's good enough for me. And I think whatever gets her going in her mind at this point and giving it a new freshness should be a positive. I think I actually think this could work.

6:23Matt Roberts: Yeah, the Rafael Nadal of it is both like a cool novelty, isn't it? But I also think it could be really quite significant for Igor Shantek. Like certainly in the short term, like suddenly I think, well, she's probably going to win the French Open. I did like longer term. I do think there are some mental, psychological sort of sounds like quite deeply ingrained things that I suspect will resurface. Like I don't think some training sessions with Rafael Nadal can necessarily cure those ills. But in the sort of short to medium term, I'm buying Igor Shantek stock, put it that way. It makes me think of, do you remember when Andy Murray got back together with Ivan Lendl the final time?

7:18Matt Roberts: And it all felt a bit kind of like, well, what's this for? You've got a metal hip. We know you're not competing for Grand Slams like you were last time you were with Ivan Lendl and the time before that. And he gave that quote just saying, just the fact of Ivan Lendl saying yes to it and believing in me was what I needed. And I feel like that is as big as anything for Iguer Chiantic right now, just like Rafael Nadal investing his time and energy with her on the practice court and Francisco Roy kind of just by association. that will be very meaningful to Igui Shvantec and a big boost because, you know, she's still the same player that won all those French Opens and US Opens in Wimbledon last year.

8:14Matt Roberts: Like the game is there if she can get her head in the right place, I believe. Matt, what do you think?

8:22Catherine Whitaker: Yes, seeing Shvantec and Nadal on the practice court together was such a highlight of last week for me. It was like something, and I mean this as the greatest possible compliment, it was like something out of David's fantasy brain when we're being asked, like, which two players would you like to see working together in a Q &A? And David will immediately go for, like, the most optimistic, positive, like, fantasy world thing of, like, why don't we put... No, he'll go for someone that's dead, you know, like... it's like Arthur Ashe and yeah it can happen yeah like why don't we put the greatest clay court player of all time alongside the current best on clay and see how that goes like isn't that going to be amazing right and it's like suddenly we get to we get to live that and experience that and like I'm buzzing from it I can't imagine how Igor Shiontek is feeling as a, you know, Rafa Nadal disciple and, you know, sort of worshipper.

9:34Catherine Whitaker: She must be getting such a kick out of this. And I agree with both of you, really, that like that kick, that buzz, that boost surely is a good thing. I feel like it might only raise those expectations on Klay, you know, and we've talked about, you know, how sort of tough it's been for her recently to manage expectations. But I really am on board this, certainly in the short term. I think it's exactly what she needed from that sort of low ebb that she was in to just get a real boost like this. And I'm sure also a hell of a lot of knowledge, you know, like obviously Nadal knows what he's talking about on a clay court.

10:18Catherine Whitaker: And I think Francisco Roig, in terms of being able to shape a player to play on clay, I think he's probably got an awful lot of useful knowledge as well, having been in the Nadal camp for so long. I'm interested in the on-court dynamic between those two. Like Francisco Roig is quite loud. Like we heard that during his time with Emirado Karno. He is constantly talking. And if he's like that on court in a stressful moment, I don't know how that's going to go down with Igor Sviante. I don't know if that's going to be the sort of helpful energy that she needs. I do sort of have some concerns about the sort of match reality of that coaching partnership.

11:00Catherine Whitaker: But I can't wait to see it. And Igor Shvinsic was already, I think, the player I was most intrigued about seeing on clay. And that has just doubled my intrigue because there's so much potential for this to be really exciting, I think.

11:17Matt Roberts: He's got something a bit to prove, hasn't he, Francisco Roig? I mean, obviously, he's always going to have Rafael Nadal on his CV, and that's great. No one's taken that away from him. Like, probably he can have nothing but disasters for the rest of his career, and he'll still be net positive. But he's tried working with a few WTA players now, and success has been limited. We'll talk about Giovanni Mbeshiberikar and his chaotic week in a moment. But, you know, his most recent kind of longer term association was with Emma Raducanu. And that was, I know she had some OK results in that period, but I think it really was a failure.

11:58Matt Roberts: Like I witnessed a lot of their sort of coaching dynamic together at the United Cup. And it was so clearly a mismatch. You know, it felt like Francisco Roig was telling her to do the Francisco Roig things and not kind of tailoring his coaching to the player that he had in front of him. And eventually, Emma Raducanu kind of snapped with that and was like, hang on a second, this just isn't my game. Trying to make my forehand this kind of spinny, loopy clay court shot, that's not the right way to go for me. so I do you know it on the face of it that that might just might not be a problem with with Iga Shontek you know because his style is so much more aligned with her style but that does just give me poor you know I do think the very best coaches are able to adapt what they do and say to the player rather than just saying here is my template for for how you should play play tennis

13:10Catherine Whitaker: off you go yeah he's kind of been successful in the camp he already knew the nadal camp where you know he wasn't the main coach ever um okay he was you know sometimes he was like the traveling coach but there was always a tony nadal or a carlos moya you know like someone else whereas when he's gone in to a camp as the main head coach trying to establish his blueprint and And, you know, that's where it hasn't really been all that successful for him. But I suppose this is a bit of a halfway between those things. I do think, you know, I think he is the head coach now, you would say. But it feels like there's this sort of slightly bigger overall influence of like the Rafael Nadal sort of name that Ygris Viontech is sort of aligning herself with and training at the academy.

14:04Catherine Whitaker: And Francisco Roig is the sort of travelling figurehead of that of that Svantec move to buy into that. So maybe it can work. But I do have some of the same concerns about you in terms of Roig as a, you know, as a head coach. I do still think he has something to prove there.

14:24Matt Roberts: Do we think, predictions please, we're going to see Rafael Nadal rock up in a coaching box, in a Shvantec coaching box at any point this season? Maybe this will be the thing that convinces him that equal prize money is a good thing.

14:43David Law: Are we going to see it? I don't think so either. I don't. Yeah, I don't see that. I mean, I think he would need to, like, I don't know whether he has any designs on coaching in the future. I've not got the sense that he does, really. But if he did, I think he'd want to be the guy. I don't think he'd want to be Francisco Roig's mate. I think he's fine to do it at the Academy for a little bit. Good promo for the Academy, though, isn't it? Yeah. I can't see it at this point. but it's the other thing just on Roy generally because it's Svantec she is also such a different proposition as a champion that I don't think he's going to be leading it in quite the same way I don't think she's just going to do whatever he says I think this is about tailoring as much as anything it's a bit of a reset like she's just decided to do away with with the with the investment in variety and counter-punching it seems that she's been convinced that she needed to to adopt which i i've never been completely sure about i like the idea of seeing what else is in a game and reminding myself but i just don't think there was need for such a kind of overhaul from i mean this is a woman who was dominating the French Open and the clay court season.

16:12David Law: And yes, I can see that there might have been more to come in other areas, but I think it was net negative in terms of what she ended up losing. And maybe she would have lost that anyway. Maybe it was just a crisis of confidence. So I read one point saying that maybe people had found her out a little bit. I just don't buy that. I don't buy that. I don't think players, when she was playing her best stuff, could deal with it. So try and get back to that.

16:43Matt Roberts: But I also don't think Roig is an out-and-out attack guy in the way that Witkarowski was. I don't think it's going to be going back to like, bam, look to pull the trigger on the forehand as early as you possibly can. Roig's a hang-back, hang-in-the-rally, shape-on-the-forehand. I hear the name Francisco Roig and I hear a man shouting, more shape, more shape. Yeah, like he's a rally extender. He's a margin guy. He's a margin guy, exactly. So, yeah, he might not be necessarily about the variety that Wimphus Set was going to bring back. But I also don't think it's back to the like meat and potatoes route one, just look to pull the trigger as soon as you can.

17:35Matt Roberts: And that has been the sort of pattern of things going wrong for Shuntik, hasn't it? Like, when do I pull the trigger, sort of making those decisions? So it's going to be interesting. But yeah, in terms of like short term boost and new manager bounce. But like, yeah, it feels like Shontek's winning Stuttgart, doesn't it?

18:06Catherine Whitaker: I think the other interesting element is going to be, you know, David, I think very rightly talked about how Shontek is a different proposition for Roig in terms of her status and her pedigree to some of the other sort of head coach roles. he's had but also Svantec's team you know like how does Roig go into that team and I think we've we you know I think Wim Fassett and some of the sort of reading between the lines of some of what he's said he's done an interview with The Athletic this week with Matt Futterman you know like I think it's I think it's quite hard for a head coach to go in there and be the voice you know I think with with Daria the psychologist who's already part of that team like she is such a strong voice in there and I think it's just going to be interesting how Fiontech sort of navigates that with the team that's always been there telling her things and then the new guy, like that is just a dynamic that is going to be at play and Roig is going to have to have to fit into that I suppose because I don't think Daria is going anywhere as Fiontech has said

19:17Matt Roberts: Yeah Yeah, fascinating. In terms of how Francisco Roig came upon this role, this appointment as Iga Shontek's new head coach. Well, we have had some revelations from Giovanni Mpeshi Perikar this week. What a week Giovanni Mpeshi Perikar has had. And he started the week, well, I mean, as far as we knew, he started the week being coached by Francisco Roig, a partnership that I certainly think I found. As far as he knew as well, for sure. Right.

19:57A partnership that I think we found out about during Miami, extremely recently. Anyway, we're talking like a couple of weeks, maybe three. So we're all thinking, OK, well, you know, you understand when Igor Shontek comes a calling. Hopefully there was, you know, an amicable agreement that this was an opportunity that was too enticing for Francisco to turn down. Not so, says Giovanni. Some quotes from him in Le Keep this week. He says, it was my agent who informed me that Francisco would be leaving his post.

20:42Matt Roberts: He didn't inform me directly, Francisco. I thought I could trust his words. To throw that all away so quickly, it's a shame. It's a ruthless world. I'd never seen that before. Now, obviously, that's only one side of the story. We don't have the response to that from Francisco Roig. but it doesn't sound like the most graceful handling David does. He's right, it is a ruthless world, but there's ways of handling the ruthlessness, right?

21:17David Law: Yeah, I mean, as you say, we've only had the one side there, but he does seem like he's so young, isn't he, Pescik Pericard, and so new and green, really, within this environment, and he does sound like he's just a bit shell-shocked about how things work. He's just had a bit of a kind of savage baptism of fire there, hasn't he? So poor old Giovanni Pesci Perikar left coachless in need of some help.

21:51Matt Roberts: Now, Matt Roberts, you've had some Giovanni Pesci Perikar takes in the past. Doesn't the internet know it? If you were advising Giovanni Mpeshi-Perikar, what kind of coach, what areas of his game do you think he might want some outside help with? What sort of appointment do you think he might be looking for? Oh, this is such a stitch up. Because I saw him hire Francisco Roig and I thought, well, that doesn't really make sense. It's like, how is the guy who wants to put a load of shape on the ball going to help Mpeshi Perikar? Surely Mpeshi Perikar should hire someone who sort of can help him with the bits of the game he's already good at and make the most of those.

22:40And then he has hired one of those. And now I'm thinking, but you're already good at those. So why do you need that help? Surely you need help on everything else. Maybe I just think he's a lost cause and no coach can help Mpeshi Perikar. Maybe this is a me problem. But yeah, I would suggest return of serve mainly, but also trying to figure out a way to be a bit more than just a big serve. Well, let's hope Greg Rosetsky is the guy to make Giovanni and Pesci Pericard more than just a big serve. In chaotic coaching announcements and subsequent event news, So we had Francisco Roy leaving Giovanni Pesci Pericard.

23:26We had Pesci Pericard's bombshell quotes about that departure. Then we had the big Greg Rosetsky news. Then we had the Giovanni Pesci Pericard's withdrawing from Monte Carlo news. Hot on the heels of Greg Rosetsky's Instagram post from Monte Carlo airport. um but i i am i'm so invested david in this little saga yeah so invested just when he when's he

23:58David Law: playing that's all i want to know i'll be there no not this week i don't know what's actually going to make him a lefty what can greg do well i mean it's it is quite interesting because i mean And it did tickle me, you know, the best server in the world being coached by the former best server in the world. Also, who couldn't really hit a backhand, certainly over the top. But, you know, maybe actually just having somebody who's a bit more like him, who can get the marginal gains of that kind of game itself, I think is what he's after. And which maybe makes sense. you know i mean greg greg got to the u.s open final as a player he got to four in the world he won paris indoors and he beat pete sampras you know in the final these these are bloody impressive results which i'm sure if pesci pericard gets anything like those in his career he'll be absolutely thrilled about and i wonder whether maybe you've just you have got to make the most of his weapons and try to sort of figure out some solutions for for the the areas where he's where he's not strong um so but it will be absolutely fascinating because you know greg's got plenty to say and uh and uh you know he speaks some french doesn't he so it'll be very interesting he does speak french yeah um hang on hang on do you think that coaching relationship is happening in french That's added a whole new dimension.

25:34I think it might be happening in French, Matt. Fantastic.

25:42Look, I know Greg's been desperate to coach and I know Greg's a big believer in, like, the, you know, compartmentalising coaching. Like, he thinks serve coaches should be a thing and that he should be a part of that thing. And, you know, if serve coaches were a thing, I'm sure he'd be or more of a thing. I'm sure he would be very, very well qualified for that.

26:08Matt Roberts: So I suppose it poses the sort of existential question about coaching, like whether it's better to invest the limited time that tennis players get on the practice court in reinforcing your strengths or in trying to improve your weaknesses. And I think it's very clear which of those lanes Giovanni Impessi Perico has chosen. at least in the very short term. But that's it. Like he's gone from one to the other. Like Francisco Roy, surely it was, right. I've got to work on getting some shape on the ball, being more consistent, maybe my return, you know, all of that to suddenly, no, the serve, that is what I'm going to work on and packaging my game with this big serve.

26:56It is chaotic. It is Fulham going from Savisa Yukanovic to Claudio Ranieri in the same season and getting relegated.

27:11We are not done with coaching news yet, folks.

27:15Matt Roberts: Gilles Savara, of course, former long-term coach of Daniel Medvedev, split up with him at the end of last season. and then very soon got together with talented American youngster Nishesh Basavaredi. He announced to Savara on Instagram that he stopped working with Basavaredi. Nothing bad or against, just an important parameter for me that explains this decision. Hasn't kicked on at all, Basavaredi. I've always kind of trumpeted about his talent and I don't quite understand why it hasn't happened this doesn't kind of, you know, he's not said enough Savara about this breakup to give me much info but it, you know, it is a red flag again, another sort of situation and player I'm going to be watching quite closely and this isn't news.

28:18Matt Roberts: We talked last week about Amanda Anasimova's surprise split with Rick Vleeshowers, the coach with whom she had so much success, those two Grand Slam finals, but it does feel surprising, newsworthy to me that we don't yet have news of who her new coach is. I was expecting an appointment to have been made by now. Look, maybe it has and it's just not public. Doesn't look like it from Instagram. But yeah, Matt Roberts, I feel like we should we should come to you for a download of all your thoughts and feelings about the past, present and future coaching situation of Amanda Anisimova.

29:03Catherine Whitaker: yeah do keep expecting the amanda anissimova instagram story that pops up to be the new coaching announcement and and it very much isn't that it's uh it's uh you know by a pool somewhere which you know great having a good time absolutely um yeah look i mean you said it last week i was i was pretty surprised by the by the split it felt like quite a drastic move considering you know the start to the season she'd had which you know okay hadn't been hitting the heights that she hit last summer but also hasn't been terrible you know she's she's sort of there or thereabouts in the in the top 10 in the race which you know given the overall perspective of her career is is is pretty good and um i do think maybe there's this element of lise howard being the perfect guy to transition her back onto the tour you know that was a that was a big thing for Nisimov getting back on the tour and I think Vlieshowers seemed like a very sort of amiable guy to have around on tour and to and to help make life on tour feel good again for her and they did a lot of great work but perhaps someone else is needed to come in and take you from that to her ultimate goals of winning a major title.

30:25Catherine Whitaker: And I do...

30:26Matt Roberts: Who would you like it to be, Matt, if you're being David Law, you know, fantasy partnerships for a moment? Well, the thing is, I would love to see someone come in and make this over serve better. But Greg Rosetsky is taken.

30:46David Law: Greg Thompson, Pesci Pericard.

30:52David Law: maybe a pesci pericard dumps rizetsky and becomes a coach and coaches an isomova serve maybe that's fantasy maybe a pesci pericard gets gets gazumped for the second time in two weeks hang on no matt the answer to this question is not greg is it no it's not but it is it is the serve like I do but I don't know I do buy into that that thing I think of specialist coaches a

31:24Catherine Whitaker: little bit more and I genuinely think I look at Anisimova's game and I think Vlis Howers obviously did a great job but I don't look at that and think he had a huge like massive impact on the technical qualities of Amanda Anisimova's game I think he helped her produce that But I think the single biggest element in Anissimova's rise has been Shady, her physio. And that is a tailored, specific role. And she has tailored Anissimova's training and just, I think, been the most important figure in that team in the last 12 months. She's still there. So the base is still there. The foundation is there.

32:02Catherine Whitaker: And I look at the game and I think, well, the serve does seem to me the element where I think, I don't know how easy it is to improve. But if I'm looking at a single element and thinking that would make her an even better player, I do think it is to serve. And someone coming in and working on that shot, I think, would be a real difference maker. There does seem to be only one of those. I've literally never heard of any biomechanist that's not Gavin McMillan. And he's trying to not brand himself as a biomechanist, isn't he? Absolutely, yeah. Yeah. For some reason, it's a dirty word. which makes everyone shudder a bit when biomechanist gets named now.

32:45Greg used to work with one. Another one. Are they available? You not only get Greg's expertise, but you also secondhand get the biomechanism expertise.

32:59Catherine Whitaker: And I think obviously the name that's jumping out is Wim Forsett, you know, because he's available. And look, I think he's a very good coach. I think I would be excited about that. What I would say is I don't think he helps Fiontech serve.

33:13Matt Roberts: I don't think he's a technical coach. I remember some...

33:18Catherine Whitaker: No, where's Roy? He very much is.

33:21Matt Roberts: Yeah, I remember Kim Clijsters talking about Wimforsett's style of coaching. And obviously, you know, they had great success together and she was very positive about him. But she said he's very much a kind of a tactician and kind of an analyst of the game rather than a than a technical, a technical coach.

33:43Catherine Whitaker: And I also, you know, I think kind of to David's point, like I think Anissa Mova is going to be at her best when things are simple and she's got a clear approach and strategy. Greg. Well, it all comes back to Greg. All roads lead to Greg. Yeah. Well, Goran, but he's been snapped up, hasn't he? That's going very well. Let's not break that up. That's going well. Trying to think of coaches that have had sort of tangible impacts on a player's serve.

34:19Matt Roberts: I feel like sort of Goran with Djokovic's serve is the one that's really, really jumping out to me. David's doing a face that says, hands off. Well, yeah, that is true. Imagine if Goran jumps ship from David's favourite player to Matt's favourite player. Incredible. No, the answer is Greg. We move on. OK, that is it for part one. Probably less Greg Rosetsky in part two, but who knows? Wasn't expecting that much Greg in part one. So we'll see.

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37:19Welcome back to part two of today's tennis podcast.

37:23Matt Roberts: Let's look back on the week that has been in the tennis world, starting with Charleston and back to back titles there. The WTA 500 for Jessica Pagula. She beat Yulia Starob Dubseva 6-2, 6-2 in the final. And that match, that scoreline, very much kind of the anomaly of the week for Jessica Pagula, because this was a case of winning pretty ugly for her. This was a very gritty start to the clay court season for Jessica Pagula, who won her first three matches from a set down against Julia Putin-Sever, Elisabetta Cotchioreto and Diana Schneider. and then also went three sets in her semi-final against Eva Jovic.

38:15Matt Roberts: This was quite a week, Matt, for Jessica Bergula. Yeah, every time I turned on the telly, Jessica Bergula was embroiled in a match in Charleston. And I love how she's so in on the bit, you know, like every interview afterwards, she'd be like, oh, yeah, just another day for me in Charleston.

38:36Catherine Whitaker: It's been a real theme for her at that tournament over the last few years. long sort of epic matches and honestly like she said it as well yulia putin saver in your first match on a on a clay court in a while is just a bit of a nightmare i think especially for pagula who i think of as like the best rhythm player in the world like she's so good when there's rhythm in the rallies and she can get into into her groove with her ground strokes but But Putin's saver denies you that, right, with the loopy balls, with the short slices. And it was just a really tricky match that she had to get through. And I was so impressed that she did.

39:21Catherine Whitaker: And then Coccioretto, who's been in really good form this season and had beaten Pagula at Wimbledon last year and takes the first set in much the same manner as she did at Wimbledon. And suddenly Pagula is embroiled in another one that she has to try and dig her way out of. And I think I think Coccioretto will regret a forehand that she missed that would have given her a match point in that one. That was a really, really close match for Pagula to get out of. But somehow I always trust her to get out of these matches. Right. Like she's so she's so good over three sets and she has such a strong record in these types of matches.

39:58Catherine Whitaker: I think her demeanor is so impressive always that you know she's annoyed by something or, you know, she's a little bit frustrated. but she's able to put it past her I think so quickly knuckle down get back to work get back to playing her game and focus on the task at hand and it's kind of like a microcosm of her whole career generally like she's she's reliable she shows up like you know there's that saying about sort of you know the best ability is availability and she's always there she's always capable of riding the ins and outs of matches and the ins and outs of the tour as well she's like a really durable player.

40:37Catherine Whitaker: I think that's become her greatest strength in a way. And we see it in matches, we see it within season, and she needed that quality this week because there was so much to bother her. Opponents playing well, long matches. She had to play every day in a row. She started on Wednesday. She played five days in a row. And yeah, I was never worried about her physically, you know, in a way that I would have been probably some other players. She's so impressive. And yeah, what a what a season she's having you know like she's lost four matches I think three of them have been to Rabakina against everyone else on tour pretty much she has been right there and I think playing the best tennis of her career right now and what is she 32 years old it's just it's just so impressive that she's continuing to get better and in her words working smarter not harder and I I think we're really sort of seeing the benefits of that.

41:33Catherine Whitaker: She's become a bit of a must-watch for me, Pagula, kind of since the US Open. There's just been so many good matches she's been part of and winning a lot. And yeah, I'm starting to think about the possibilities of her game rather than the limitations of it. I realise that I've so often thought about Pagula as, oh, she's so good, but she'll run into someone. I'm beginning to think like Hannah said it in the chat on the live show last week Hannah predicted a US Open for Pagula this year and I might be riding that train with Hannah I think something big is around the corner for Pagula I think she's playing so well and I think the US Open that end of season one could be the one that she knocks off this season I've made that mistake before I've put Pagula in Grand Slam mixes and been burnt, but I do think something is different this year.

42:28Catherine Whitaker: And yeah, I'm so impressed.

42:32Matt Roberts: You like that prediction, David?

42:34David Law: I like the prediction. I mean, I like Jessica Pagula. I definitely went through a spell of thinking that I wasn't into Jessica Pagula matches. I found it all a bit dull because she's not like a naturally explosive player that I tend to gravitate towards. but I've become won over by her retrieving skills. I just love watching her anticipate where the ball's going and just get it back and put it in a difficult position and just shrink the court for the opponent. But I would take a bit of issue with the... I mean, she still is running into somebody eventually. That's the thing. It's maybe only a small handful of players, but how do you get past Rebecca?

43:20David Law: at how do you get past Sabalenka that's the thing when you get to those tournaments and they're peaking I mean I would I'm at a stage where I would love to see it for Pegula because I have such admiration for her the way she comes through these three set matches I think that's 10 out of 11 she's won this year I just love seeing that I love the way she just digs in I mean she was she's kind of self deprecating and taking the mick out of herself the fact that she's so tired and she's in one of these again and she just seems to get a little bit world-weary and just doesn't care anymore in the moment.

44:00David Law: Yet she's fighting tooth and nail, but she's managed to sort of separate her mind from it. So I love the prediction. And actually, I would quite like to see it come true, but I'm not even as good as she's getting. She's been beaten handily by these players when it gets there. and I think that that hasn't changed.

44:20Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, she's 1-7 against Rabatkin and Sabalenka since the US Open last year, which has been this period I'm talking about where I think she's playing the best tennis of her career and yet those have been undeniable roadblocks. I suppose what I like about Hannah's call there is that it ties into this thing about the durability and the availability that I'm talking about with Pagula And I think the US Open is the one where, like, we've not seen Rabatkin play well at the US Open, for example. And I think come the end of the season, I think Rabatkin sitting here right now, to me, feels like the favourite for Wimbledon.

44:58Catherine Whitaker: But I think the US Open is just a bit of a different prospect. And, OK, she's lost to Sabalenka a couple of times at the US Open. But I think she's been close against Sabalenka. I think in that semifinal last year, Pagula played so well. She just had a bad game at the start of the third set and lost her serve and then didn't lose a point on serve for the rest of the set. But she was so good in that match. I think she shows up and she has got that win over Sabalenka the back end of last season. We haven't seen her play Sabalenka this year. It's been Rabatkinner, which has been the real issue. But I do take your point.

45:36Catherine Whitaker: I think Savalenka and Rebecca have definitely shown to be even a level above Pagula. But I don't know. It just feels like she's kind of playing good enough tennis to me to totally be in that conversation to win. Maybe not the French Open. I do think Klay isn't her best surface despite this title, albeit on the green Klay. But I think Wimbledon and definitely the US Open, if she keeps this up, she's going to have a hell of a shot. Matt, with a US Open prediction. I know, what am I doing? April. What am I doing? It's so stupid.

46:17David Law: That's my favourite thing about it.

46:20Matt Roberts: Just on Star of Double Save, the finalist, that was her first WTA Tour final. She won more than$200 ,000 for reaching that final. and that's a significant amount. Charleston is the first standalone WTA 500 tournament to offer equal prize money that is in line with a standalone ATP 500 event. So they've elevated their prize money beyond what the requirement is from the WTA for 500 level events. So the total prize package was$2.3 million and that's double what was on offer last year and more than one million more than that mandated minimum purse for a WTA 500 event. And, you know, obviously that's just significant generally for women's tennis, but just in terms of Yulia Starra dubbed Saver, her biggest prize money to date by far, This is a player that had a GoFundMe going a couple of years ago to try and kickstart her professional career.

47:36Matt Roberts: She hasn't been home to Ukraine in four years. She hasn't seen her dad in four years. She talked in her press conference after reaching the final, I think it was, about how this might enable her now to bring her physio on tour with her. But, you know, this is a top 100 player, well inside the top 100 now as a result of this year, that hasn't been able to travel with a physio because she can't afford it. And that is the case higher up the rankings in women's tennis, a lot higher up the rankings than it is in men's tennis. so she's a really I mean obviously equal prize money matters because it's just the right thing but also on a very practical level she's a great case study for why it is so significant and that's a really good news story I think so let's see what she can do, what a launchpad this can be for her in Bogota a WTA 250 there won by Marie Buskova she's just she's never far away from the picture somehow Marie Buskova is she beat Pana Rydvardi in the final 6-7 6-2 6-2 you watch this one David

49:02David Law: yeah and really emotional scenes at the end and and and something I hadn't quite clocked is that She's coached by Mark Lopez, another sort of Nadal link there. But this was her third title, her first on clay, and that fact seemed really to be big for her. I mean, I think the other thing that struck me, it's not the biggest tournament in the world. There's a lot of tournaments this week that are 250s, but the number of tournaments these players play where they don't end up winning the last match they play of that tournament. and she's had her third one and it meant the world to her it was a good final it looked like she got it won at 3-love in the decider then the comeback's on and it's suddenly 3-2 you can feel with these players nobody's immune to maybe Jessica Bagul is the only one who's immune to the nerves at the end of a match and getting over the line but Buzkova clearly wasn't but she did it anyway and this tournament run was also notable for her semi-final where she managed to win match point with a forehand down the middle looped into the middle of the court and her opponent stepped in to crunch it and misjudged the bounce and it went straight overhead and she did an air shot and that was the tournament one or the final sealed but yeah, nice You're right about Booska.

50:39David Law: She's always in the draws, playing top players, rarely beating them, but, you know, always a factor. And who knows, maybe her best is still to come, but this was a great week for her.

50:52Matt Roberts: In terms of the ATP events last week, three 250s, we had Houston, which was won for the first time by Tommy Paul and Howe. Matt and I were both up late watching this last night. I was just enjoying the tennis. Matt was watching for Greg Allensworth reasons, waiting for him to get his little trophy for umpiring the final. That never happened. Matt switched off in disgust. Why did that not happen? I've never seen a trophy ceremony where the umpire doesn't get some kind of recognition. No. Yeah, justice for Greg. Absolutely. Another Greg. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway, if you could swallow your disgust for Houston long enough to try and give some takes on the tournament, Matt, that would be great.

51:41Matt Roberts: Tommy Paul won the title and such a dramatic final against, quite frankly, a player I had not heard of a week ago. Roman Andres Buruchaga might be a name that you have heard of, might be a name that you have heard of, not for tennis reasons necessarily. 6-2-3-6-7-5 the score in the final. Three match points saved by Tommy Paul. Poor old Burrachaga. I mean, overall, obviously an incredible week for him, but pretty devastating scenes, seeing him sat there on the sidelines, having to sit through the trophy ceremony and everything. Did so well in the speech, did Burrachaga, because he was just a picture of devastation.

52:34Matt Roberts: So more on Burrachaga in a minute, but some flowers for Tommy Paul, I think. This is his fifth career title. It makes it a title for him on all surfaces. This was his first clay court title. And he was a good time this week in Houston, Tommy Paul. It was a reminder, I think, of what a good watch he can be, Matt.

53:01Catherine Whitaker: Yeah, definitely. I mean, obviously, he had that incredible match in Miami, didn't he, against Artifis, which I think everyone, very rightly, was viewing that through an Artifis lens. But at the same time, it takes two to make a good match. And Tommy Paul was absolutely part of that. And he is a good watch, I think. I really like watching Tommy Paul. And I think the fact that he has titles on all surfaces is kind of why I like watching Tommy Paul. I think he's quite adaptable. He's not got massive weaknesses. The forehand can get pretty error-strewn, as it did midway through this final. He sort of lost his way on that shot, and it can be quite attackable, I think, certainly for the very best players.

53:48Catherine Whitaker: But he's such a fluid mover on a tennis court. You know, like he covers the court so well. He's so fast. I would I would throw him into the fantasy ATP tour 100 meter race. You know, like I want Tommy Paul as part of that. You know, like I think he's he's a great athlete. He chases down drop shots incredibly well. He can redirect. I love his backhand, that flat backhand he's got. He can redirect so easily, which is a hard thing to do. And, you know, I always think of him as quite a good play court player. So I was kind of surprised that this was his first clay court final and title. But, you know, you can see that he's pretty comfortable on that surface.

54:32Catherine Whitaker: And, yeah, he did well here because he lost his way in this match. You know, he was all over Boruchaga in the first set, like totally outplaying him. But then he really lost his way, especially on that forehand, as I said. but he played the game where he saved the match points pretty well. That was on his serve, all of those match points. Boruchaga's forehand fell to pieces, unfortunately, for him. Totally. If I had to describe Boruchaga and what made him so good this run, I don't know. That's not as satisfactory, but there was nothing that really stood out to me. He seemed solid. He seemed really good sliding to his backhand corner, a strong in defence and he's got quite a he's got like a heavy forehand he's a good mover like there's a lot of good parts of his game but nothing that like wows you when you watch him you have to like spend time with him to sort of appreciate what a good player he is but you did notice when that forehand went it really went and unfortunately for him like those match points on the pool serve missed them all mostly with forehands that were errors and then he comes to serve for it and you're thinking oh goodness like having just having just lost the match points is going to be a tough game and he played a horrible game and then finally he's at five six serving bruichag and he's 40 love up and you're thinking okay he's passed the worst of it he's reset we're going to go into a final set tie break and both of them are going to be pretty nervous obviously bruichag is trying to do something totally like he's never done before but you know paul at this sort of big tournament for him he said the americans all want to play there like it's a bit kind of a big event for him he would have been nervous too but Boruchaga just couldn't get it into a tie break he just fell to pieces again and it was a it was a brutal brutal way to finish like you said like it's been all upside he's won a challenger last week he gets the final here he's riding a nine match winning streak like this should be a totally like positive only great career moment and yet when you finish like that it's just it's just devastating and i hope he can i'm sure he will in time take the positives from this he's gonna have a big rankings jump um but unfortunately like the bright lights of the victory and and and the first atp title were there and kind of too much for him but but paul kept it together and and he didn't and that was kind of the difference in those closing stages.

57:12Matt Roberts: And if you're thinking Burruchaga, where do I know that name from? Well, he is the son, is Roman Burruchaga, of Jorge Burruchaga, who scored the winning goal for Argentina against West Germany in the 1986 Men's Football World Cup final. which tangentially does give us an opportunity to mention the fact that David once played against Diego Maradona successfully. Law one, Maradona zero.

57:53And yeah, I'm assuming you remember that, David. I'm assuming as soon as you saw the name Burrachaga, you thought, huh.

58:02David Law: well when when we first referenced Burashaga's name within tennis I think was a was was in July last year and and I I just joked at the time I don't know who he is but I know who his dad is and I was joking because I remembered Burashaga the the football player who wore number seven for Argentina playing alongside Maradona those were the two most or they looked similar they They both had this mane of dark hair, you know, and there were squat figures who were just so powerful and great, great attackers. I assumed there were more than two of them in Argentina and therefore it wouldn't be father and son actually.

58:42David Law: And then I find out that it is. But yes. It's Martin Dam and Martin Dam Jr. all over again. Exactly. I did take this chance to yesterday. I was being asked about Boruchaga and I relayed to a tennis fan who works at my football club, West Bromwich, a friend of mine, I relayed the fact that Borussia Gens' dad was the Argentina goal scorer. And I said, by the way, have I ever told you about my Maradona story? Apparently I hadn't. So I listened back to my retelling of the story from 2020 and I sent it to him. So I've yet to have a reply to find out whether he's still talking to me. Was that a pandemic episode?

59:26when that came out.

59:27David Law: It was the COVID French Open. It was a reminder of how things have changed because I was drinking whiskey whilst telling that story and that was in the middle of the French Open. What a time. Hang on, during the middle of the actual French Open? No, the October.

59:41Matt Roberts: The October one. Yeah, the October one, 2020. Right, okay. Yeah. What a time. Scroll back in your archive if you're listening and you haven't heard that story and you don't have a direct WhatsApp line today. Could you just give the highlights? teaser highlights for people?

59:58David Law: What, the Maradona story? Yeah. Well, I got called in to play the match out of the blue because somebody got injured. This five-a-side match. This isn't a professional, this is like a... This is the World Cup final. Yeah, David's got the call-up. Yeah, Napoli got in touch. No, this is when Maradona was not in the greatest of health in 2005 but doing a tour of Europe and they laid a football pitch over the top of a clay court event on the champions tour and it was five a side and I just got the call up because somebody got injured and then nobody told me that nobody touches Maradona because he's not in the best of hell so when the ball came to him I smashed into him and knocked him over and got booed by 5 ,000 people so that's certainly part of the story and if you want to listen to the rest it's in the October 8th 2020 edition of the Tennis Podcast 20 minutes in God the optics of that 6 foot 7 inch David Law shoulder barging 5 foot 5 inch Diego Maradona oh amazing

1:01:16Matt Roberts: anything else from Houston last week. Ben Shelton won the doubles, so ended the week on a high, won it alongside Ecuadorian partner Andres Andrade, but worrying signs for him in the singles. He was a victim of another Argentine who had a great week last week, Thiago Tarante, and then Tarante ended up losing out to Burruchaga. But I don't think he was fully fit, David. His shoulder is a big worry, Ben Shelton, I think.

1:01:57David Law: Yeah, it was difficult to tell. Was it shoulder, was it back? It was kind of like that shoulder blade area that he was getting massaged face down. But I mean, look, we know he puts a heck of a lot into that serve. and yeah he was looking uncomfortable out there throughout that match I was actually quite surprised that he managed to make it out for the doubles so hopefully that's a good sign that maybe it was just a little bit of a I don't know a trap nerve or something like that but yes it's Ben Shelton has made strides this year and he's such a great watch I feel like he's really important to American tennis but it's such a physical game I think it's inevitable that he's going to get some issues.

1:02:44Matt Roberts: OK, that's Houston. Over to Marrakesh in the ATP 250 there that was won by 19-year-old Rafael Hodar. He beat Marco Trungaliti in the final 6-3, 6-2, Hodar's first ATP title. He did win three challenger titles in 2025 to qualify for the next gen finals at the end of last year. That was the first time he kind of came across my radar. And then this year, he's already won tour level matches at the Australian Open, Dallas, Acapulco and Miami. That already had taken him into the world's top 100. And with this run in Marrakesh, he's now up to 57 in the world, having been outside the top 900 a year ago.

1:03:39Matt Roberts: Now, we do. It's not unheard of to see these meteoric ranking rises for young, talented players. Like you do tend to get these big number shifts. We had it with Victoria and Boko last year, didn't we? But even by those standards, this is pretty eye-catching now from Rafael Holdar. And I know there's like the big bear trap there, isn't there? Like we've got this Spanish kid who's really talented and doing everything ahead. Who's called Rafa. Who's doing everything ahead of the curve. And everyone's like, is he the next, you know, insert Spanish great name here? but I think there is justification here Matt to be pretty excited about the talent of Rafael Hodar.

1:04:35Catherine Whitaker: Yeah I think this was only like the second time that I'd properly watched him. I remember watching a little bit of his match against Norrie in Acapulco earlier this year and what stood out from that one was the sheer number of winners Hodar here. I think he had over like 50 winners or something, like two relatively short sets. He just blew Norrie off the court. I remember thinking, well, that's quite an impressive game. Like, can you sort of, how repeatable is that? Well, he did it every match in Marrakesh. That might just be the way he plays. He is, he's impressive. Yeah, like he's six foot three.

1:05:16Catherine Whitaker: And the pace he generates on his forehand is absolutely outstanding. Really good technique, I think. Not much is going to go wrong with those ground strokes. He looks secure while hitting these winners. It doesn't really look like he's having to totally redline. And he's tall. As I said, 6 '3", he can get on top of the ball, which helps him on the clay. And yeah, he had a series of good wins. He beat Lejevic, Mahac and Ugo Carabelli. These are pretty good clay court players that he was just sort of handling, really. and yeah I went over to El Pais in Spain just to see what they were saying about him on there and yeah they're pretty excited in Spain the article said Jodar plays with a naturalness and maturity that are astonishing as if he knows the game inside out as if instead of being 19 years old with a whole world still to discover he were already over 30 and a seasoned pro He won his first final, biting into every return, hammering away with his serve and playing with the expansive, incisive and modern style that he unveiled at the beginning of the season.

1:06:27Catherine Whitaker: Let there be no mistake with Jodar. We're not talking about the future. We're talking about the present. So like they're excited in Spain and there's there's definite reason to be like just sheer pace and number of winners he can hear. like he's going to be a problem I think for a lot of players.

1:06:49Matt Roberts: Had a message from Idris on Instagram who said Hadar reminds me, the Hadar run in Marrakesh reminds me of Al Karaz winning Umag in 2021. There you go. The hype train has left. Yeah, look, that was Idris' hype train, not mine. I mean, just putting it out there. Trungaliti, thinking, where do I know that name from? He became the oldest first-time finalist in ATP history at the age of 36, beating the record previously held by Victor Estrella Burgos. The run takes him into the top 100 for the first time. He qualified and then he beat Maershack Mute. That was a good win. And Luciano Darderi as well.

1:07:45Matt Roberts: Now, he's best known for a couple of things, Marco Trungoliti. One being the role he has played in trying to expose match fixing, expose the truth and the reality of match fixing in the sport. The Athletic wrote about this this week. He's talked about how he was approached by match fixers in 2015. he reported that approach as the sports anti-corruption rules require. And after a three-year investigation, three of his compatriots were suspended for either match fixing or failing to report approaches to do so. So a really brave thing for him to have done for the good of the sport, Trungaliti. And of course, the other thing he is famous for is his 10 hour road trip with his grandma from Barcelona to Paris in 2018 after finding out he'd got a lucky loser spots into the main draw.

1:08:50Matt Roberts: I remember the, I think I interviewed him at that cinch open. Did I?

1:08:56David Law: Yeah. One for the show. I think everybody interviewed him. Yeah. He was the man. It was talking to everybody. It was the same day that you and I did a show. This is how things have changed. You were in Paris reporting for Eurosport. I was at the Cotswolds Wildlife Park with the family, with my phone out, watching the tennis on that. And we were trying to do podcasts remotely between us. And you had to cut short because you needed to go and speak to Marco Drunjaliti. what a memory wow okay oh well i'm sure he was great he's he's a he's a real character oh he's lovely yeah yeah great story and he's he's a heck of a watch as well i mean i really you know i've seen been watching him in draws for years without ever sort of actually watching any of his tennis matches because he's just not made it into the top 100 but because he got into the semi-finals here and he'd beaten Mute I started to really take an interest you know especially when the commentator referenced the drop shot dragon uh because of the the similarities of his own drop shot to the great Albert Portas who won Hamburg in 2001 his only ever title um uh and and he did it with the most extraordinary drop shot.

1:10:23David Law: Apparently, Portas, I was reading on Reddit, I can't verify whether this is correct, but apparently in that match against Juan Carlos Ferreira, he hit 35 drop shots. I mean, and this didn't used to happen back then. This was before Alcraz was doing all these things. But sure enough, Trinjoliti hits, he was at five all second set against Dardare. He's 30-40 down. He hits two back-to-back on back-to-back points, forehand drop shots just down the middle. He doesn't even bother for an angle. He's got it down to such a fine arc that he barely clears the net, just like Portas used to do all those years ago, and the opponent's just scrambling around in the dirt.

1:11:09David Law: And then the camera pans to Albert Portas, the drop shut dragon who it turns out has been his coach for the last eight years and i knew nothing about this eight years and he's finally in the top 100 he's truncili said after that after this match when he gets into the top 100 winning this semi-final he said it's been a long run um he says i don't know whether it's his fault or it's my fault that it's taken this long but we finally made it i feel like this is the david law greatest hits today. Yes, because I coined the phrase the dropshot dragon in 1999 when Portas played Jeff Tarango in Umag and drove him bananas.

1:11:56People have been using it without attribution ever since.

1:12:00David Law: Yes, I've had people actually dispute whether I ever coined it, but I sure did. That does explain why the commentator was using it. Like it would have been very niche for the commentator to be using it if our forecast wasn't coaching it. Yes. Do you know what I mean? I mean, my ears pricked up at the mention of it. And then suddenly I realised he's in the crowd. Yes. Nick Lester said it on air. So thanks, Nick. Well done. Good job. Over in Bucharest, Romania, Mariano Navone. Another Argentine coming out of the woodwork at this time of year.

1:12:42Matt Roberts: He beat Daniel Merida in the final there, 6-2, 4-6, 7-5, to win his first ATP title. Saved two match points in the second set of his semi-final, three hours, 32 minutes against Burtick van der Zanskulp, eventually winning 7-5 in the third. David, you dabbled in a bit of Bucharest this week.

1:13:06David Law: Well, yes, just on Merida, his run was remarkably similar to Jessica Bagula's because he played five three-set matches in a row and three of them he came back from a set down. And it was one of those where I turned on the semi-final commentary against Fabien Marajan and he's a set down. And the moment that he even gets to juice, the commentator said, oh, it's happening again. and so it made me go and look at his results and he's just got this thing going where he would just the moment he'd lost the first set he'd just turn into Alcaraz and he'd just start roaring back but yeah anyway he couldn't quite get over the line in this final 7-5 in the third set but again I just love these relatively small smaller tournaments where somebody just makes a name for themselves and has a heck of a run

1:14:02Matt Roberts: yeah absolutely okay that was the week that was uh after the break we'll have a look ahead to this week in 10. ai is only as powerful as the platform it's built into that's why it's no surprise that more than 85 percent of the 14 500 use the service now ai platform while other platforms duct tape tools together service now seamlessly unifies people data workflows and ai connecting every corner of your business. And with AI agents working together autonomously, anyone in any department can focus on the work that matters most. Learn how ServiceNow puts AI to work for people at servicenow.com.

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1:15:23Matt Roberts: Welcome back to part three of today's tennis podcast. Obviously, we have the ATP 1000 event in Monte Carlo, truly one of the most astonishingly picturesque sporting settings in the world. That event is already underway. Started yesterday, David has already been engrossed by Cam Norrie against Mir Mir Ketmanovic, and we still have seven days to go. We had the withdrawals of Jack Draper and Art of Feast ahead of the tournament, as well as the inevitable raft of American withdrawals. Fritz Shelton, Tien, Paul, Tiafoe, all absent from the draw. Feast and Draper missing, a bit of a bummer. Feast more of a kind of scheduling thing after his exploits in Indian Wells and Miami.

1:16:14Matt Roberts: Jack Draper, slightly more worrying signs, I would say. It sounds like it's a recurrence of the arm injury that's kept him out for a long time and has made his comeback a bit stuttering up to this point. I'd say that's quite a concern from a Jack Draper point of view. No Novak Djokovic either in last year's semi-finalist Alejandro Davidovic for Kina is out as well. So the draw looks like this. It's Carlos Alcaraz, the top seed for now. He's at the top of the draw. In his half is Lorenzo Mazzetti and Alex de Mino. And in the bottom half, Yannick Sinner hunting down that top spot in the rankings and the seedings.

1:17:00Matt Roberts: He's got Daniel Medvedev and Alexander Zverev in his half of the draw. Are we going to get, David, our first Sincaraz final of 2026 here?

1:17:14David Law: Yes, I think we will. I think we will, because I think Sinner is just playing outstanding tennis right now. I think Alcraz will be happier now he's got on clay, so I'm going to say yes, we will. But it is a very strong draw. I mean, even with all these departures, I feel like once you get on clay, certain people just come into the equation that maybe you don't think about so much on a hard court. and it becomes fun. So I'm going to say yes. And you're right, I did watch Norrie and Ketsmanovic yesterday and what a battle they had. Proper arm wrestler match and final set tie break. Norrie eventually got the win.

1:17:56David Law: And then I watched Gal Monfils just scrape through a win and then I saw young Moise Kwame play against Ugo and Bear. I was watching the whole lot last night. It was fun. Matt

1:18:11Matt Roberts: Sin Karaz final I don't know

1:18:16Catherine Whitaker: I've got a feeling maybe there might be there might be an upset along the way it was interesting hearing Al Karaz say that he was surprised that Sin is playing in Monte Carlo you know given his exploits in Indian Wells and Miami and you know sort of saying oh it just shows what a great athlete he is and what great condition he's in and I'm sure that absolutely is all true but I do think Sunshine Double into Monte Carlo is tough. I was looking and I think Djokovic is the only guy to have won the Sunshine Double and Monte Carlo in the same year doing that in 2015. I think it was there that year.

1:18:57It would be a hell of an effort I think for Sinner to back this up

1:19:04Catherine Whitaker: but then he's the most he's still the more reliable one so you sort of still think that he probably will do it but it'd be interesting I know he obviously had that incredible run at the French Open last year and he got to the Rome final after his ban but clay to me is still the surface a little bit where there's a tiny bit for Yannick Sinner to prove just because he didn't play on the clay up until Roman Roland Garros last year. We've not seen him much at this tournament before. And I think Alcarez, I know he won Monte Carlo last year, but it was by no means his best tennis, was it? Like he really had to, I think he found something in Monte Carlo last week, and it was last year.

1:19:51Catherine Whitaker: I think it was a really important event for him. But I think that first event on clay is, yes, obviously Alcarez is natural on it and is likely to get to the final. But I don't know, given the year we've had where one or two of them have been upset, it wouldn't shock me if we do get that here.

1:20:12Matt Roberts: Stan Morinke is desperate to play Carlos Alcaraz before he retires, which we know he's going to do at the end of this year. This is his last Monte Carlo, obviously a former champion. He only has to get through Sebastian Baez later today to get the chance to play Carlos Alcaraz. bearing in mind that most people when they're listening to this will already know the result of this match is Stan Ravinka going to get the chance to play Carlos Alcaraz?

1:20:43Baez is tough but let's go for it let's go Stan

1:20:47David Law: take out Baez and he'll be alright but then he'll absolutely hate chasing down the Alcaraz dropshets the crowd got got more feasts through last night didn't they against Greeks

1:20:59Matt Roberts: They were both out on their feet, but somehow Guillermo Fils had that little bit more juice in the tank. So, yeah, that is Monte Carlo. The WTA has a 500 event in Linz, which is now a clay event. Used to be an indoor hardcourt, is now a clay event. So it looks really quite different. They've got a decent field there. Mira Andreeva, Ekaterina Alexandrova, Lyudmila Samsonova, Yelena Ostapenko, Svrana Kastea and Alexandra Ayala all in the draw. And on the WTA side of things, we also have Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers taking place on Friday and Saturday of this week. And we will preview those in Thursday's show because this is a two-pod week, folks.

1:21:50Matt Roberts: In fact, if you're a friend of the pod, then it's a three-pod week because we have a Q &A for Friends on Wednesday that is live on YouTube at 8pm. We'll also be available as a podcast. If you'd like to become a friend between now and then and get yourself along to that live show or just have the chance to listen to it, then of course the link to become a friend is in our show notes. It gets you access to all of our bonus episodes, ad-free listening, The Barge, our community platform, all that jazz. Folks, we have a mascot for this episode and oh my, does she have some great ears on her. This is Roxy and Roxy is owned by Jessica Weaver and Roxy is making her fourth appearance as a tennis podcast mascot.

1:22:41Matt Roberts: She is a Belgian Malinois, German Shepherd, Collie Mix, who was adopted from the San Diego Humane Society in 2021. She is very smart, fiercely loyal and has endless energy. Jessica says my proudest moment so far has been when I was picking her up from daycare and was informed that she has been labelled a rabble rouser after she initiated a late night play session with her friends. She definitely enjoys chasing tennis balls more than watching them on TV, but the player she will watch the most is Taylor Townsend. And I'm looking at a picture of Roxy with ears pricked up and a very well-chewed looking tennis ball underneath her chin.

1:23:28Matt Roberts: And she looks absolutely thrilled with life. What a picture. Thank you, Roxy, for returning to be a tennis podcast mascot. We love you. We love all of our mascots. I've got Bodhi, David's got Maisie, Matt's got Roger. And we had a little bit of a reshuffle in our fantasy teams this week. David managed to pick up Jo Fonseca. Jo Fonseca couldn't offload Taylor Fritz quickly enough. David? I tried to get Tommy Paul. Was basically willing to accept anybody in exchange for Taylor Fritz. So when somebody offered him Joel Fonseca, bit their hand off.

1:24:09David Law: Yeah, that's true. I was pleasantly surprised, actually. Matt did his best to get Jessica Bagula, but got gazumped.

1:24:19Matt Roberts: And I sentimentally swapped out Emerson Jones because sensation season is over. And picked up Bianca Andreeski. Yeah. We have our top folks and executive producers, Greg, Chris and Jeff. Hello. We salute you. And Matt, let's have some shout outs.

1:24:45Catherine Whitaker: We have Skip Schwartzman.

1:24:49Matt Roberts: Hello, Skip.

1:24:51Catherine Whitaker: All right, Skip. Long time shout out is Skip from Philadelphia. And Skip says, I was a ball kid here in Philly for many top pros in the early 70s, including a Laver Rosewall final.

1:25:08Matt Roberts: Oh, wow.

1:25:12David Law: That's incredible. The former umpire, Richard Ings, used to be nicknamed Skip and he was an Australian as well from that sort of vintage. So that fits well. I might have already told this story for a previous Skip Schwartzman shout out

1:25:32Matt Roberts: But when we found out that my parents were going to become grandparents for the first time before my niece Nina was born, there was discussion of what my parents' grandparent names would be. And my mum floated skip for my dad. It was not well received or adopted, but it was floated.

1:25:58David Law: What did they go with? I think he's Grandpa David very different to Skip I'm going to call him Skip yeah I quite like Skip it's sort of slightly nautical yeah absolutely nautical thing actually I called him Mr Whittaker which feels very appropriate there we go thank you Skip

1:26:24Catherine Whitaker: we also have Seth Wussing from Hello, Seth. Toronto. Tennis Seths. I think that might be a bit of a black spot. That's what Seth thinks.

1:26:42David Law: Oh, yeah. Seth's done his own research and not even he can come up with anything.

1:26:48Catherine Whitaker: Good effort, Seth. So instead, Seth would like to shout out his boyfriend, Jose. he says we met at our local GLTA tennis tournament back in May last year GLTA hosts tournaments throughout the world and we'll be going to New York this year to compete in their tournament which is being hosted at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Centre he's going to play it's surreal being able to compete at the same venue as the pros you certainly get that extra push when you're tired mid-match and you look up and you see the Arthur Ash Stadium. That's so cool. Like Jose Acasuso. I was going to go Higueras, but I think Acasuso is better.

1:27:34It's a great name, that, isn't it? There we go. Thank you, Seth. That's really cool.

1:27:40Catherine Whitaker: And finally, exactly as it was entered into the shout-out form, we have Pamela Howard Shriver. From From Baltimore, then Los Angeles, Pamela writes, I was a good player in the 70s and 80s. I sliced a lot and came to the net at every opportunity. I still love tennis. Yay! We love you, Pamela Howard-Schriver. What an absolute legend. Yeah. And we love how much Pam loves tennis.

1:28:16Matt Roberts: Like, she just loves tennis, doesn't she? It's the best. the best it's infectious we love you Pam and Seth and Skip thank you ever so much for your support of the tennis podcast as I said two pod week we'll be back on Thursday we'll be back on Wednesday for friends we are part of the athletic podcast network thank you for listening we'll speak to you

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