Wimbledon - Has Sinner conquered the heat?

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1:16Matt Roberts: Hello and welcome to the Tennis Podcast live from Wimbledon presented by Barclays, the official banking partner of Wimbledon. We are thrilled to have Barclays on board for the duration of the championships and our 18 shows from the championships in 2026. I say live from Wimbledon. I mean that in the loosest and most spiritual possible sense because we are neither live nor at Wimbledon.

1:47David Law: Not this time.

1:49Matt Roberts: We will be from tomorrow, folks. Right now, we are all together in the same vicinity. So we've sort of overcome that initial obstacle. We are down the road from Wimbledon at Tennis Podcast Towers in the Wimbledon area. And we will be in our usual wonderful spot at Wimbledon on the broadcast roof, overlooking the grounds, caught one in the background, live streamed on YouTube. We will be there from tomorrow. The plan for today was to do this show from Wimbledon qualifying at Roehampton. None of us made it to Wimbledon qualifying at Roehampton. It's been an eventful start to our 2026 Wimbledon journey, David.

2:36David Law: It wasn't our fault, folks. We had all the plans in place. We'd ordered a massive air conditioning unit for this apartment. And then it arrived and then it didn't work. and then troubleshooting started and the heat rose outside we were running out of time and we realized there's no possible way we can make this work so here we are here's plan b yeah we're just

2:58Matt Roberts: sweaty and putney instead we were going to be sweaty somewhere uh and we've decided to be sweaty and putney for tonight uh yeah it's another grand slam where we're talking about the weather folks hopefully once the tournament gets started we won't be because this heat wave is scheduled to break it's scheduled to break when the new air conditioning unit is is now scheduled to arrive in fact it's a long-term investment if you are considering a purchase from appliancesdirect.co.uk i would think very carefully about it let's put it that way uh but yeah it is look by by monday by the time things get underway we should be in okay shape but you'll have probably seen you know yannickson has been wearing a cooling vest on the practice courts you'll have seen the scenes from rahampton at qualifying the last couple of days they've been they um didn't use ball kids yesterday they swapped in adult stand-ins because i mean it's just not on to have kids out in in this weather it is it's worse than paris it is it it might say only only only 34 degrees on the app but like there's there's and my my algorithm is is clogged with this sort of content at the moment it's different here there's some sort of bubble going on some sort of meteorological event there is no air conditioning anywhere it is disgusting first code red that i think we've ever had for

4:25David Law: hot weather isn't it in the area like a public announcement yeah i mean the the the moment that

4:31Matt Roberts: all air conditioning units sold out online was i think the moment that i received a bbc news alert on Monday which included the words risk of death in it like it's it's a pretty it's a pretty serious situation like in all of of Europe at the moment and I'm sure a lot of players are very relieved to see that the the heat wave will be breaking just as our air conditioning unit arrives so So that's our day, folks. 90 minutes of troubleshooting. Four adults and a dog trying to fix a broken aircon unit. An hour of live chat with the manufacturers and an hour on the phone to the distributors. But in that time, we were also watching Oliver Tarvit.

5:20David Law: Tarvit time.

5:21Matt Roberts: It is actually, David, Tarvit time.

5:24David Law: Absolutely. I knew it was coming and here it is. I mean, all joking apart, he is quite a player. And he proved it today for the second year in a row, winning three qualifying matches. And I just feel like he's another example of how qualifying is a really useful journey to go on if you want to make waves in a tournament. I mean, he looks so match-died. He looked fantastic today. I'd kind of forgotten because Oliver Tavik became a bit of a bit for us because you signed you were impressed with him last year and he took on Alcaraz qualified one around took on Carlos Alcaraz on centre court and became a real tabloid

6:06Matt Roberts: darling story here. And then you signed him to your fantasy team not realising that he basically wasn't a professional tennis player and was going to return to UC San Diego for his final year, which is what he's been doing. I had forgotten that it originally became a bit you wanted to sign him because you were genuinely so impressed with him as a tennis player. Like, David really thinks Oliver Tarvitt is the business.

6:32David Law: I tell you, I think he's pretty electric because I was courtside commentating on that match he played against Al Kratz. And he went toe to toe, side to side with him and just didn't look, frankly, he didn't look like a British tennis player who's not named Andy Murray. You know, he looks like somebody who is from the sort of mold of the current day tennis player. Okay, he's not massively tall, but he has movement. You commented today on the sort of strength of his base, his legs. You know, he's really strongly built and he just moves incredibly well. And I found it, I mean, look, because you don't have any real life data, because we didn't see him play the second half of the year.

7:20David Law: And then when he did play, his results weren't great. And I found it really interesting listening to him say after the match, you know, that I probably thought it was going to happen after that Wimbledon. And I actually, it sounds like he put too much pressure on himself and he regressed. And he feels like he's got it back again now. because when I watch him play, and I realise I've only watched him on grass, I've never watched him on any other service, but I just see a player who's got great fundamental qualities and raw materials. So I was confident he would qualify from this draw. I mean, I do think he didn't have, it wasn't like an easy draw on paper.

8:00David Law: He had some quite tough opponents to beat. But I just thought, well, you know, this kid loves it. He's a bit like Norrie in that way. He's come through university, loves the battle and the occasion. So I am encouraged that he's got a future, a real future in this sport.

8:18Matt Roberts: One of three British men to qualify today. And they play best of five in the final round of men's qualifying at Wimbledon, which is a weird quirk that I personally could live without. But it is just one of those traditions that is just one of the things they do here at Wimbledon. Billy Harris qualified and Max Basing as well. So good on them for doing that. He's also a US college guy, Max Basing, Stanford. There has been a big push in the last five or so years, hasn't there, to send the guys that aren't Jack Draper, the ones that aren't ready at 17, 18 to go pro but have some unexplored potential.

9:05Matt Roberts: the LTA has been building relationships with US colleges I think and finding those I like it I

9:13David Law: think it is good for them and it gives them a base gives them other options in life but I think it does build maturity and this kind of competitiveness within a team I should have mentioned Jack Draper in my little not Andy Murray level conversation about Oliver Tarvit look I don't know what his his end result is i mean there's far more accomplished coaches and players and observers than me that might say yeah he's never going to make it because this but when i look at him i don't see that i don't see that obvious gap i see somebody who's who's raw materials should be able

9:46Matt Roberts: to live with the tour he's got good attitude as well great attitude good head on his shoulders no qualification romance story for dan evans he lost in the second round beat prado angelo the the Bolivian who had qualified in Paris in round one and seemed kind of set for this fairy tale story. So many people were invested in, but I lost to Tristan school Kate, Tristan Shulhate, as we call him. When the commentators were calling him school Kate, I was like, no, no, you're saying that wrong. It's, it's Shulhate. He's a good player, school Kate. I think he, he ought to be a top 100 player really. And that's, that's tough for Dan who I mean ultimately just wasn't good enough to qualify was he David I'm glad he's got that doubles wild card and he will we will see him at Wimbledon but um yeah it was

10:39David Law: tough and there may be some people say well there you go that's why he didn't get a wild card for the main draw he wasn't good enough and you're right he wasn't good enough he got beaten I don't think it was about that I think that lots and lots of wild cards are given to people who've contributed a lot um particularly to the british game when the lta has a say and they may say well yeah we you were moaning when we were giving them out to not encouraging young players i feel like the young players do better coming through the the qualifying draw i think tarvis is likely to do better than all the ones who've got a wild card personally draw dependent but that would be my view um i think he should have got one out of frankly sheer respect and just just being thanked really and given one last chance to see the crowds there but that's that's my opinion others will have different ones but in the first set there he was you know he was just down immediately against school kate who and he he provided a really good comeback he got into the match he in fact he got into the the school kate courtside team he started having a huge barney with them he went very early

11:45Matt Roberts: he was sledging the Australians didn't he?

11:47David Law: Yeah and it seemed to me he was doing it to get himself going giving himself a reason to be pissed off and that helped him he played one incredible diving shot Matt that was on the end of a long rally wasn't it? He'd done some incredible defence at the baseline, scampering and then yeah he had to move forward to a kind of drop volley-ish kind of shot from school Kate and he just threaded this pass up the line with the forehand while diving and then did a fun celebration where he was pretending to swim on the court afterwards. It was the best shot I saw in qualifying all week. It was unbelievable.

12:28A reminder of his racket skills and his hand skills and his talent. But yeah, I think actually qualifying was just a step too far.

12:38Matt Roberts: Who's he playing doubles with?

12:39David Law: he's playing with Henry Searle who he's been helping and coaching and he was out watching

12:45Matt Roberts: Henry Searle in qualifying just hours after he had lost his own match yeah that's right and he lost

12:50David Law: on two tie breaks in the second round of qualifying he you know he wasn't far away actually Searle and it's quite interesting that Evans was absolutely adamant that if he had been offered if Searle had been asked here's a wild card Evans said he would have rejected it because he said Searle isn't ready for getting main draw wildcards to Wimbledon. You know, it's kind of like he should be in the qualifying and until he proves that he's better than that, that's where he should be. So anyway, second round of qual is for him, but he's making progress. He won that Dublin challenger, I think, Henry Searle last week on grass.

13:25David Law: So, you know, and look, I think Evans wants to carry on with that collaboration. You know, he wants to carry on helping him. He's from Wolverhampton, so it's a Midlands area like Evans. I think that probably makes a difference. And that would be cool, wouldn't it, if he was able to influence immediately a young British player who did he win or get to the final of Wimbledon Juniors a few years ago, Henry Searle, I seem to remember. And so, you know, he's a very tall lad, big serve, again, raw materials, but what are you going to do with him?

14:01Matt Roberts: You might call it Tarvit time, David. I call it Andrescu time.

14:06David Law: quite understandably.

14:09Matt Roberts: Look, this might sound small fry for a player that has won a Grand Slam title, but I tell you what, in the recent career of Bianca Andreescu, this is such a big deal that she's qualified for a Grand Slam, that she's won three matches in a row against decent players. As qualifying goes, it's not an easy draw. Polona Herzog, who's passed her prime but had good grass court results, before Jill Teichman, who played brilliantly in Paris. OK, she had quite a lot of strapping on her leg, but she played some good ball, Teichman, and had won a round of qualifying. And then today she beat Alexandra Sastovich, who is definitive tricky, I think.

14:53Matt Roberts: You prepared to co-sign that, Matt? I'd certainly say unorthodox. Which is quite similar to tricky, isn't it? I think she looks trickier than she is maybe at this stage of her career but look I still think it's a nice win that for Andreescu Look I watch a lot of Andreescu matches and she looked a shadow of herself on clay quite frankly it was a tough watch like you could see the lack of confidence in her forehand in particular it was dropping so short all the time and because she's able to apply so much spin to it I mean she can flatten it out but she also has a very you know she's got a great moon ball on the forehand but it also means that if you're not hitting it heavy enough not connecting with it and not committing to it it's just dropping short and sitting up all the time and there were there are periods periods of the clay season okay not her favorite surface but where she looked kind of unable to hit winners anymore like the grit was still there she was hanging so tough in so many rallies um and thrashing around at the baseline but that sort of fearless go for broke tennis that she was able to pepper in with the the hanging tough in that incredible unique blend she used to have um that seemed to have gone and look she's not back back but this is something it really is something and I'm so pleased for her because she's getting some wild cards here and there but she's mostly you know she's mostly trying to make a go of it outside the world's top 130 at the moment you know qualifying at low level events just trying to get some kind of momentum going trying to get some proof that it's all worth it and i think it's been i think it's been trying for her and i'm i'm thrilled and it's another name that i'm very excited about coming out of the hat

17:07David Law: at the draw tomorrow who do you want it to be for andrescu katherine well i have given this

17:14Matt Roberts: some thought David I mean obviously if it's a if it's a proverbial good draw then that's you know that's good in a way but I'd quite like it to have a big show court moment really and you know obviously she'd need to be playing a big player these days to to get get that billing but I still think she could rise to that occasion and sort of walk out and remember a little bit who she really is so what i'm saying i guess is yes i am here for serena andrescu round one sign me up

17:52David Law: which would be a rematch of the 2019 us open final yeah wow hard to believe isn't it that that is seven years ago and yes i mean she gave a very emotional interview andrescu after qualifying and made it clear how tough things have been how much she's questioned whether she wanted to carry on I would love Wimbledon crowds to see what we saw back then I'd love I'd love all crowds to get to witness it because I'm living off memories really and I kind of almost want to go back and watch the highlights of that final that we've just talked about you know it's because she is so fun to watch she's such an engaging presence on the tennis court her tennis itself is is just so different and such a combination of all styles and yet but it's her general magnetism her vibe

18:45Matt Roberts: she was hitting those crouched forehands well of both wings but the you know the deeply crouched radvanska kerber-esque muscled winners which i think is it's the bellwether for andresco it's like the Nadal forehand down the line like okay you are you're yourself today I'm not you just named two Wimbledon finalists there can you tell I'm trying desperately not to get carried away but no look this is big regardless of what's what's next and I'm sad that this is that's where we are with Andreescu but you you've got to start somewhere and she's still got time on her side and it's it's a heck of a fun name to to be anticipating coming out of the hat tomorrow Matt and there's there's a few of those that have come out of qualifying there are yes uh sticking on the women's side I think the name which jumps out the most to me is probably Robin Montgomery she was a late qualifier this afternoon and that's interesting because she it's quite rare I think that someone will win a tour level title as she did a couple of weeks ago in Stoggenbosch but then be in qualifying for a major uh she only dropped one set through qualifying she did have a medical timeout today after the first set but then won the next two quite easily but yeah she's shown recently that she can win tour level matches on grass so I think she's going to be in our dangerous floater pool of players, I think, in that draw tomorrow.

20:25A couple of big hitters made it through. Aisling Kruger, Polina Kudomatova. I can imagine those games working on the grass and being a bit of a nightmare, potentially. A couple of names from the women's draw that didn't make it through. No Harmony Tan.

20:42Matt Roberts: Gutted. A bit gutted about that.

20:45David Law: And she's the player who last played Serena, was that right?

20:48Matt Roberts: Yeah, and beat her in an absolute shit show of a match.

20:53David Law: Albeit kind of a classic. You couldn't take your eyes off it.

20:58Matt Roberts: So compelling.

21:00David Law: We were in the press seats for that all together, weren't we? You kind of have to keep a bit of a straight face in the press seats. You're not supposed to react. But I was basically sitting on my hands to stop myself reacting because it was so everything was just heightened in that crowd that day yeah i mean the person that

21:20Matt Roberts: beat her is a is a cool story but i'm sad that we couldn't have had had harmony tan as well i'm not hoping someone gets injured but if a lucky loser spot is going i hope it goes to harmony do you think serena will well she's gonna have to play better isn't she than she's in that match I mean she did play better than that even a few months later at the US Open that year it was just such a horrible match up Harmony Tans bit of a junk baller and Serena didn't like it and another name not going to be in the Wimbledon main draw is Heather Watson she's going to be the first Wimbledon without Heather Watson in the main draw since 2009 wow she had played 15 main draws in a row at wimbledon um was distraught afterwards in in tears on on the bench her coach came on she was very very upset it was a real classic qualifying experience because the person who beat her maria tim of favor you know has had runs at slams before and feels like she's back in the main draw back where she belongs she was buzzing talking about how she's going to be at the pub tonight to celebrate with her team because her coaches are German and they want to watch the football in a British pub and experience all that.

22:45It was great vibes. And she was very respectful to Heather Watson, but absolutely gutting for Heather Watson not to make it. 2009. Crazy, right?

22:55Matt Roberts: And that was the year after she won the US Open Juniors. I think that was her age, wasn't it?

23:01David Law: It is one of those little moments of reminder of how long we've been covering tennis, I think, when Heather Watson, who we remember as a junior winning that US Open and coming on the scene with Laura Robson, and now one of them is out of the sport, but it's a player, but he's doing all these other roles so well and a broadcaster, and then Heather Watson is still trying to get into them, and she's only just missed this first one in all these years. You did very well not to say, speak for yourself there, David. How old were you in 2009, Matt? I was looking at you the whole time I was speaking, Cathy.

23:43David Law: I was 13, thank you very much. Secondary school and everything. Were you a Watson guy or a Robson guy? Robson. Oh, okay. You liked the lefty game.

23:53Matt Roberts: Matt was telling me about Mr... Mr Sims. Mr Sims earlier. My English teacher. What a guy he sounds like. Was he a bit of a legend, was he? He was a legend, yeah. He ushered Matt into a... Well, I hope I haven't made this sound creepy. He let me go into his office. He let Matt go into his office to watch Roger Federer against Alejandro Fire in 2010.

24:17David Law: Oh, I commentated on that.

24:19Matt Roberts: I was there in Centre Court with my dad. That's why we were reminiscing about it, because my dad was present today for the air conditioning fiasco.

24:29David Law: Federer coming back from a big deficit Two sets still up down

24:33Matt Roberts: Right Yeah Yes I remember the lesson very well We were reading Huckleberry Finn And Federer was in trouble As the defending champion First round And I was a huge Federer fan And everyone in my class was making fun of me That Federer was about to go out of Wimbledon And he saw I was in distress Mr. Sims And said You can read Huckleberry Finn in your own time go into my office, watch the tennis Oh what a legend

25:00David Law: I want to know what your walk was like when you came out of the office with him having fought back and confronted all your classes It was only like a 40 minute lesson so I didn't see the full comeback but I think I saw the start of the comeback

25:15Matt Roberts: I reckon Mr Sims somewhere is following the progress of Matt Roberts Get in touch Mr Sims

25:22David Law: I played a part He was a lovely man A few men to pick out from qualifying. We've got two guys this year who are 9-0 in Grand Slam qualifying in 2026. Jaime Faria and Michael Zheng have both qualified at all three slams this year. Faria's the guy who beat Dimitrov. Yes, at Roland Garros. And he pushed Tiafoe to five. so you know I think he's going to be a top 100 player now I think he's going to be getting into these main draws off the back of all the winning he's done this year and Michael Zhang is the guy that beat Corder at the Australian Open and he also beat Jesper de Jong in Roland Garros qualies and de Jong then got in as a lucky loser and and had a good run so yeah very impressive from both of those two I also wanted to flag Sunwoo Kwon who is playing his first grandstand main draw since the 2024 US Open and he's been doing military service in South Korea he's had some compensation from the athletic core of the South Korean military to play some challenges this year close to South Korea he's won a couple of them and he's now entered Wimbledon qualifying and and got through and is going to be in the main draw.

26:48Matt Roberts: He's one of the OG Next Gen class alumni, I think, Sunwoo Kwon. He's been up to around 50 in the world. So, you know, he was getting into Grand Sam main draws. Him and BTS back from military service.

27:09David Law: Who's BTS? I knew that was going to be the next bit of audio. K-pop.

27:16Matt Roberts: They're a K-pop band. Gotcha. I reckon your kids will definitely know BTS. If you can hear tittering in the background, that's Matthew, folks. He was only sticking around for this podcast because we promised him free dinner afterwards. Or else he'd be out of the door like a shot. Matthew was petitioning for pre-pod dinner. Yeah. so that he didn't have to listen to this nonsense.

27:48David Law: You can just imagine all the takes that are going through Matthew's mind when he's just thinking, well, that's rubbish. He's quite a tennis mind, Matthew.

27:55Matt Roberts: David's got his back to Matthew so he didn't see him absolutely lose his mind at the mention of Harmony Tan against Serena Williams. It's a triggering match for Matthew, I think. Big Serena guy. Okay, folks, that's it for your roundup of stories from qualifying. There is still a lot to talk about on today's show, though, so make sure you join us in part two for that.

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31:04Matt Roberts: Welcome back to part two of today's show. We're going to talk about the ban that has been handed out to Marketa Vondrosheva for refusing a doping test at the end of last year. We're also going to talk about some interesting news on the front of the player action over prize money that has broken in the last 24 hours. Just before we come on to those stories, a bit of a round-up of notable things we've seen at the events happening so far this week. We'll cover them in more detail over the weekend and in particular on our Sunday show when they've all wrapped up. But a few things to pick out. I think initially Igor Svantec's loss to Emi Navarro in Bad Homburg.

31:49Matt Roberts: Three sets, 7-5, 2-6, 6-3. Matt, you watched this. Navarro is a heck of a grass court player and coming into some really good form. How loud are the Shviontech alarm bells ringing for you at this defeat? I think the shocking thing is how unshocking it was to me that she lost. I remember Shviontech playing Navarro at the Australian Open start of 2025 and watching that match and just thinking well that is a match-up problem you know like navarro doesn't have big power how can navarro really hurt sviontek was kind of what i was thinking watching that match-up 18 months ago it's happened twice since and navarro has beaten sviontek both times but back in the last year and here on on the grass and look maybe i underestimated Navarro in that matchup 18 months ago but I do think this is the kind of thing that speaks to the Egos Fiontech decline quite frankly.

32:59Fiontech's serve was a problem again seven double faults in the first set alone in this one and we talked earlier in the year about the second set dip that Shvantec's been having that's still a thing I think but what we're also seeing now is a third set dip you know sometimes she's getting back into a match as she did here but then just not being able to extend it and carry it and carry it on in the third and it's it's just increasingly rare right now that I see Shvantec play brilliant matches from start to finish you know there's just way more dip she's way more vulnerable than than she was um and look it is a tough match as your first one on grass of the season and navara just reached the final in nottingham she had matches under her belt she was in form she played really well and it's it's it's good to see her back in in this kind of form but you know it it didn't really look like Igu Sviantek had you know cracked grass last year by winning the Wimbledon title and is now going to be really comfortable on this surface that's that's not I don't think what we're going to see and yeah you can't ride her off because of what she did last year I have to absolutely respect that but I don't know I'm not feeling hugely confident about her going into this Wimbledon mostly because of just the form she's been in for most of the season, really, beyond just specific grass court issues.

34:35Matt Roberts: Navarro, incidentally, lost out to Elena Gabriela Rusa in the next round. So the semi-final line-up in Bad Homburg is Rusa against Mukova and then Wang Jin Yu against Naomi Osaka, who had a great win today over Ekaterina Alexandrova. in Eastbourne the WTA event in Eastbourne the semi-final line-up there is Madison Keys against Petra Marchinko lucky loser who beat Katie McNally today 6-4 in the third and the other semi-final is Tatiana Maria against Yelena Ostapenko oh

35:07David Law: when is that on? tomorrow and what time? I need to be planning my day around that

35:14Matt Roberts: it is first up David 11am

35:17David Law: ok just after the Wimbledon draw just after the draw They are two of the most interesting names in the Wimbledon draw as well, aren't they? Like can both cause havoc in very different ways.

35:29Matt Roberts: On to the men's event this week. And the big story is, I think, the return of Jack Draper coming back in Eastbourne. And he's into the semifinals. He's beaten Marcus Garone, who ended up replacing Brandon Nakashima, who withdrew at the last minute. Then he beat Jack Pennington-Jones. And today he's beaten Gabriel Diallo. all of them in straight sets he's looked very comfortable Andy Murray's been there a bit but wasn't there today busy launching his new YouTube channel is Andy Murray um but it I don't know it looks pretty incredibly early days but it does look pretty positive for Jack Draper

36:11David Law: my view is i think it's just further insight into the he is he is a very very good tennis player who doesn't need an awful amount of tennis to produce good tennis i remember thinking that when he when he came out two or three months ago after his long layoff it was artifice was the same they're just clicking to gear very quickly and their games stand up um he he had questioned himself a lot last year about his level on grass and he told us in our interview in november that he really wanted to target his movement and be able to slide into the balls like he sees these other players do on grass not try to completely over overhaul his game for the surface in that way um i i think i heard a stat saying that that his clearance over the net is a lot lower than it was a couple of years ago in terms of the shape of his strokes, which makes sense to me on grass.

37:07David Law: But the bottom line is, there's just so little confidence that his body is not going to break down. And I say that hoping desperately that it does prove to be this time that it holds up. But it's very difficult to get properly optimistic about the career prospects of Jack Draper until the physicality is just not a huge question mark all the time. What I would say is I'm really pleased that he's had three matches because when he pulled out of Queen's, I did not expect this even. So I really do fingers crossed for Jack Draper. He's changed the service motion again.

37:49Matt Roberts: He's changed back closer to what he had originally. Yeah, absolutely. So he originally had what they call the pinpoint stance where you bring your feet together. He changed to a platform stance where you don't do that. I never really understood how that was meant to be helping the injury. But anyway, he's gone back to the pinpoint stance. I do think he looks more natural with it. So yeah, just something to keep an eye on. He's got Ugo Mbair in the semi-finals, so an all-lefty matchup. That would probably be a step up against Mbair. Good player on grass, isn't he? And the other semi-final is Zizou Berg against Toby Samuel.

38:30David Law: Yeah, who came in as a lucky loser. There are a lot of lucky losers in this draw. Six in total. And he lost in the second round of qualities in a close one, you know. But got into the main draw, made the most of it. Good for him.

38:46Matt Roberts: Could I just have a minor rant about a lucky loser situation in Eastbourne?

38:53David Law: Sure.

38:53Matt Roberts: So Taylor Fritz ended up withdrawing from Eastbourne. He went all the way there. And I do think he intended to play. He had a practice session. He ended up making the decision after his practice session on Wednesday. He was the top seed. He had a buy-in round one. So by Wednesday, you're deep into second round matches. Fritz was scheduled to play that day and they had to rejig the order of play as a result of his withdrawal, I think. but his freeing his withdrawing freed up a main draw place for a lucky loser even though they're already deep into round two so a lucky loser comes in and floats straight into round two yes same happened to samuel it doesn't that doesn't feel right no you say he's i mean samuel has won

39:42David Law: two matches to reach the semi-finals and look well done to him for taking advantages of his chance but it doesn't feel quite right does it i mean it also shows the the problem with these tournaments the week before wimbledon especially when most most of the players review view the one the week before is the big one i mean four of the top five seeds in eastbourne all are like on the draw sheet as withdrawals so have been replaced by lucky losers get rid of buys and you get rid of

40:12Matt Roberts: that problem. Totally. And a bunch of other problems. In Mallorca, the semi-final line-up is Nuno Borges against Ethan Quinn and Fabian Marijan against Alejandro Davidovich Fikina. Davidovich Fikina having beaten Grigor Dimitrov today. Is this the one? Is this Davidovich Fikina's time to win a title? Tough to get a better opportunity than this. How many finals has he had about now? I mean, several, isn't it? Several. So many. And he's often so close. He's choked

40:41David Law: He's knocked a couple of times, isn't he?

40:43Matt Roberts: Oh, big time. This feels like the one. But you know he's going to be so tight if he gets to the final. Yeah, big time. I hope he does it. Yeah. He's too good not to have a title, isn't he? And he does love Graz. It'll be a bit of a two fingers up to Puerta, who abandoned him mid-French Open as well, wouldn't it? If he can finally get another title. So many weird things happen at the French Open that that sort of got lost in the shuffle. It's one of the weirder things. My God, that was weird. Yeah. Okay, that is it for part two, but do join us in part three because we've got two pretty big bits of news to cover and a mascot to unveil.

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42:32Matt Roberts: Welcome back to part three of today's tennis podcast. I want to touch now upon the news from a few days ago that 2023 Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrosheva has received a four year ban from professional tennis after refusing a doping control test at her home in December of last year. four years was the maximum punishment available for that offence and despite explanations that she presented at an independent hearing that took place on june the 11th that as she claimed stress and her mental health had affected her decision making on that night in december when she refused the test um she was still she was handed the maximum punishment it's news that has received a lot of attention and debate this week I think because of the severity of the punishment and the profile of the player involved especially in the lead up to Wimbledon for that reason we did a special show yesterday where I interviewed Karen Morehouse the CEO of the International Tennis Integrity Unit about this case and this decision and more generally about doping cases of this kind because as I discovered during that conversation with Karen, this is a first of its kind.

43:53Matt Roberts: This is tennis's first case of a refused test outside of competition. There are cases in other sports and there have been refusal cases in tennis but in competition. So this is a first of its kind. A lot of people, the initial reaction is this band sounds incredibly harsh And I think it does, on the face of it, sound incredibly harsh. I do feel like I got a good understanding from Karen of why the ban is as harsh as it is. And I think ultimately what I've learned from deep diving on this case and speaking to Karen Morehouse over the last couple of days is how you feel about this probably comes down to the existential question of the price you are prepared to pay for clean sport or as close to clean sport as is practically possible.

45:01Matt Roberts: possible because I do think if clean sport is your absolute priority and understandably that is for the ITIA that is their brief that is their reason for existing I think this is the price I do logically understand why the punishment for a refused test has to be the same as the punishment for a failed test. But I think for some people, they would be prepared to strike more of a balance and maybe think that price sort of on the human front is too high to pay and maybe are prepared to take more of a risk on the doping front in order not to see potentially innocent athletes or at least athletes who have just made an innocent mistake or not with no sinister doping intention um receive such career destroying bans and i think you know i don't think there's a right or wrong there it just comes down to how you feel about that existential question of what price is

46:21David Law: worth it yeah i i suppose i come down somewhere in the in between because i think this is as heartbreaking as hard as it sounds like this is and understandably hard for makata mandroshova to be faced with this as your future even if it is like her fault um i i i feel this has been an important process to play out publicly for players to to be made to realize you know why this is all done why do we why do we as a sport do this this is why is because we test outside of your pre-agreed windows because we need to make sure that you're not trying to dodge the system or get around it that way it makes total logical sense and yet i do not think enough players are really aware of that i i wasn't really aware of that and former players that i've heard speaking weren't aware of that um and then you know there's a question of well whose fault's that are they not doing a good enough job of communicating it or is it just frankly that's on the individual to read the bloody rules they're all out there and we've we heard from carrie moorehouse that it's very clear that there's a whatsapp channel you can go to there's an app there's all this sort of information out there and we're available all the time to ask how it works you should be in control of your career and you should be on top of this stuff um and meanwhile you have the deterrent that this is providing but i do feel like in this case maybe it's just me being a certain kind of individual i hope she appeals to cass and gets a reduction because my sort of gut tells me that she's messed up but that she hasn't cheated and that she hasn't been taking something and I don't want this to be a career ender for her.

48:21David Law: I'd like her to get two years, not four, for instance. But I don't quite know how I reconcile that without diluting the deterrent. I do see the problem.

48:35Matt Roberts: Yeah, it's really tough. I feel the same. I feel for her. She's done some interviews. I mean, she's clearly just absolutely devastated and in shock and is talking about that publicly. There's some pretty tough quotes out there from Marketa von Drosheva and on a human level it's hard not to feel for her and yet I feel the same. like logically yeah as i said logically i understand why this has to be the system if you are if you if you're serious about policing doping yeah it makes total sense to me why the ban for refusing a test is as great as the ban for failing one because otherwise it wouldn't be enough of a deterrent i i get that logic failing a top level one though because i mean you know

49:32David Law: you could look at lots of failed tests recently that have led to not much in the way of sentence yeah yeah but i guess you i still think that logically makes sense that they have to that they have to make it the top level one um and look i think one of my frustrations with this is that the full verdict takes a while to come out and then in the meantime you get everyone forming their opinions on it before the full verdict is out we don't know when that's going to be released but you know I think there's going to be a lot more detail in that that that might also inform how you feel about the case it's just but that to me is a frustration with the system um and yeah bondrosh has spoken to to czech press and she's talked about stuff that she apparently brought up at the tribunal regarding the in in her opinion the doping patrol officer not identifying themselves very well or and showing her a bit of paper that talked about a two-year ban rather than a four-year ban i think all of this detail is going to be in the full verdict um and i think it would be easier to to make a sort of form an opinion then but you know right now all i can say is i totally understand it from the itia's point i thought karen explained it very well very logically rationally but also with empathy and at the same time i feel for von drosha on a on a human level and and the social media posts she's put out have been very very moving and yeah it's a it's a horrible situation and and look there's a

51:13Matt Roberts: lot of nuance to it and a lot of detail and if you're interested it's it's only 25 minutes but i would urge you to to listen to that show that that we put out yesterday it's it's well worth it i think uh we have had the news about 24 hours ago uh which honestly i found to be a really big shock when this dropped that player action over prize money is extending to not only Wimbledon Media Day as they did in Paris but to the entire first week. This was reported by the BBC and has now been reported very widely so not only a continuation of the action from Paris but an escalation as well. Russell Fuller writes leading tennis players will expand their prize money protest at Wimbledon despite a 20 % increase in this year's pot.

52:06Matt Roberts: Some players limited pre-tournament media to 15 minutes at the French Open but will go a step further at Wimbledon. They will not only limit the time they offer at the forthcoming media weekend but are also planning to restrict post-match appearances to 15 minutes throughout the first week of the championships which start on Monday and as was the case in Paris this will most heavily impact those TV rights holders that pay huge money and a lot of what they're paying for is the access to the players the set visits the sit-down interviews that they use for their glitzy VTs that set the scene for for all the big matches and help them tell the stories it might affect us a bit but on the basis of our experience in Paris that's who they're looking to hurt and logically that does make sense because they have the most power in the negotiating rooms and they have the most power to make their feelings heard to Wimbledon and Wimbledon want to listen because they're paying them a lot of money for their for their broadcast rights yeah i think in the same way that really

53:21David Law: this group have targeted the top 10 players on either tour and yeah they'd like others to come along with them but it doesn't really matter too much they're doing the same with the the top level of the media attack them or at least you know impact them and the ripple effect will be that much larger you don't need to get everybody on side you don't need to affect everybody if you affect the ones with the big enough pull you're going to get an you're going to get a result uh or at least a reaction i think i think where your surprise comes and i think i think mine too my initial surprise is that that was a really good increase of baseline prize money for those players to be getting i mean the the the first round defeated player is going to be getting £80 ,000.

54:15David Law: And that, you know, a few years ago that was£30 ,000. If you look at the actual amounts that have ended up in the players' pockets as a base figure, as just a monetary figure, it's a good increase the last few years. 20 % increase. And this is the biggest one Wimbledon's ever done in a year, isn't it? Yeah, so they got a result out of Wimbledon. Wimbledon listened, Wimbledon maybe were a bit shaken by the reaction and thought, okay, we need to do something here to to make them feel that they don't need to take any further action i would imagine i'm only sort of guessing based on what i've seen and heard and the players responded by saying that they they noted it they noted that this is a major step in the in the right direction they also commented that it's not what they've asked for they haven't got the contribution to player welfare.

55:10David Law: They haven't got the percentage of revenue that they wanted. It's an increase, but it's not what they were after. My initial reaction of being surprised because it seemed like such a good result for them, as you said, record prize money, I've tempered that today because I've thought, yeah, I get what they're doing. I don't... Whether or not I agree with it is beside the point. I get what they're doing. This is where they've had massive progress, but they still haven't got what they've asked for. So, okay, well, we're going to carry on. And as long as they're not worried about public perception, as long as they're not worried about people thinking, oh, you lot are just unreal with your money grabbing, as long as they're not worried about that, this is when they can strike and actually put more pressure on because who's going to stand up to them?

55:59David Law: That's what they're trying to find out.

56:01Matt Roberts: Don't you think they are a bit worried about that, though? you know judging by how they dealt with it during french open media day when they were very keen to sort of they were trying to have their cake and eat it a bit weren't they like we know we know we earn a lot of money and it's fine it's not about us it's about the look we're trying to fight for the the lower ranked players that suggested that there was an awareness or a wariness of how it how it could be perceived yeah they're not totally blind to that of course

56:34David Law: and they want the best result for them which is as you said they want a cake and they want to eat it too they want to get all the money and all the revenue share and they want everybody to think they're lovely of course they do it's it's more a question of how much risk are they prepared to take and i think that they thought that they could have all of it at the french open with that approach they're still not doing anything material to really piss people off they're not withdrawing their labor to to fans really i mean this is just this is going to annoy some some broadcasters and therefore impact the tournament i do get it it's a it's better to do that for them if they can get a result than going further annoying people that will hurt them in order to

57:20Matt Roberts: i was thinking about it today and i was wondering if this isn't actually about wimbledon at all if this is sending a message to the US.

57:28David Law: Yeah, I think it is, and I think it's to all of them.

57:30Matt Roberts: You know, they're saying, Wimbledon have put it up by 20%, and that's great, but it's not enough. You need to do more.

57:39David Law: And what is it they're taking? They're taking a four-year view here. They want 1.5 % increase every single year, not of prize money, but of revenue share increase. That is an astonishing amount of money if they're going to get to 22 % by 2030 of revenue. We are talking a totally different world to what they're getting now. And so that is, with that in mind, if they're serious, that doesn't just stop. This will happen again at the US Open, and they'll get a massive increase, but they'll still put pressure on somehow, so that the Australian Open have to do it. This will keep going on until they get to somewhere that they're satisfied.

58:20David Law: or to a point where the tournament just says no. No, we're not going any further. You've had your lot.

58:28Matt Roberts: And then what?

58:29David Law: Well, that would be interesting, wouldn't it? Because that point may well come as well. Because Wimbledon have said that they are surprised and disappointed with this reaction. I think that's what they said. Those were their words.

58:44Matt Roberts: I reckon they're probably a bit shocked.

58:46David Law: I would have thought so.

58:47Matt Roberts: Yeah.

58:47David Law: Yeah. Yeah.

58:49Matt Roberts: As I say, I thought they'd done enough. Yeah. Fascinating. On the subject of Yannick Sinner, by the way, obviously the sort of most prominent of the players in terms of leading this charge and talking about it publicly, certainly on the men's side, there was a fantastic athletic article about him yesterday. Charlie Eccleshare went to the Hurlingham Club to speak to him after his exhibition match against Cam Norrie. which was interesting in itself that he played that because if I haven't mentioned it enough, it is disgusting in London at the moment. It's Paris and then some. Novak Djokovic pulled out of his scheduled match at Hurlingham.

59:35Matt Roberts: He didn't fancy it. Yannick Sinner went ahead with it. And okay, it's an exhibition match. It was only ever going to be an hour and a bit. He was fine for an hour and a bit against Juan Manuel Surundolo in Paris. I don't think him beating Norrie in this match and looking OK, I mean, pretty frazzled, but aren't we all? I don't think that necessarily means anything. But the fact that he played it does, I think. And the comments that he made afterwards, Charlie reporting that he... And bear in mind, Yannick Sinner, after that extraordinary unfolding of events on court Philippe Chetrier, came to press and said, I don't have a problem with the heat, which we all know isn't true and totally understood why he doesn't want to make it a bigger thing.

1:00:28David Law: He certainly said that one wasn't about heat, didn't he?

1:00:31Matt Roberts: He did. Well, now, just four weeks later, he is owning it in a very big way. He was asked about the fact that there were reports that he had been to the hospital to do some medical tests after what happened in Paris. He said, yep, we did some testing. We tried to understand what happened. He said we came to a conclusion, which is very good. So we worked very much. we changed the work a little bit as well trying to see how my body reacts in different conditions we've made some changes in practice and we've made some changes in all other things said he couldn't predict the future but that they're doing everything they can to reduce the chances of what happened in Paris and Melbourne and Shanghai last year happening again He said today, speaking of his match at Hurlingham, he said today was no wind at all.

1:01:28Matt Roberts: So was maybe even warmer than Paris. But he said it's good. That's exactly what I need. A good preparation before starting the tournament in future. We will always try to practice where the warmer conditions could be because I feel like every tournament is getting warmer and warmer every year. So it's going to be important. But we did a lot of work and today was good. Was a good preparation. I'm pretty stunned by those quotes given what we heard from him in Paris I mean I'm not stunned that that is the case behind the scenes but I'm stunned that he's saying that publicly that is a massive shift from Sinner to confirm to us and all his opponents that this is what's going on with him and he's worried enough about it to be well making already some very significant changes by the sounds of things to how he how he trains Yeah it was quite interesting Charlie said to us that maybe you know maybe Sinner said too much here afterwards Sort of more than he intended to Yeah I think I think partly it is the difference of an immediate post-match press conference and one like this when he's when he's had a bit more time.

1:02:46And I mean, also, if I was an opponent of Yannick Sinner, the last thing I want him to do is get on top of this.

1:02:53David Law: I was thinking the same, yeah. I think you could read it as extra vulnerability, but it could also be him saying, yeah, I'm going to fix this. Then you're in trouble. I mean, I have to say, I'm no medic.

1:03:08Matt Roberts: I don't think it's fixable, is it? he's trying to sort of do everything in his power to mitigate. Well, as he said, to make it as low as possible. Low as, yeah. Yeah. I mean, look, this tournament, the weather's breaking on Sunday, right? Right when DPD ring my doorbell.

1:03:25David Law: He's wasted his time like we have.

1:03:30Matt Roberts: Was he also on the phone to appliancesdirect.co.uk? Like us, he will be prepared for the next heatwave. Exactly. Reports today that Emma Raducanu has been wearing an orthopedic boot. Clay magazine reporting that and then widespread reporting that she missed a scheduled practice session today. It's not good mood music from Camp Raducanu, which is, I mean, it's the same old, isn't it? It's just this tough sort of cycle you get into where she has a good run. you feel like she's getting something going and her body breaks down um and she needs to be able to harden herself to the cycle of the tour but to do that your body's got to not break down while you're trying to harden it and feels like she's stuck in this this vicious vicious circle so we will watch that situation closely uh and we will bring you updates on our many many shows over the next 18 days our next one is tomorrow which will be as advertised live from wimbledon hopefully the thing is david i've decided live from wimbledon is a brand yeah that's right yeah so we are live from wimbledon whether we are literally live from wimbledon or not they do

1:04:56David Law: it on no laying up don't they matt live from the kill house exactly they don't even live in the kill house for years no exactly they're all over the country but they make it work it sounds great

1:05:05Matt Roberts: Our show tomorrow covering the draw and any other shenanigans that take place tomorrow will be at 9pm UK time. There better not be any other shenanigans upstaging the draw. I think they'd have to be pretty good shenanigans, wouldn't they, to upstage this draw.

1:05:23David Law: Are there any shenanigans, Math, that you would accept? No.

1:05:28Matt Roberts: Tomorrow is draw day. Is this the most hotly anticipated draw in your memory as a tennis podcaster?

1:05:42David Law: I think it's got to be. Matt's most anticipated is the next one.

1:05:47Matt Roberts: But trying to be objective about it. Yeah, I think the Serena factor makes it that. And it's so great that it's happened at Wimbledon when we get the one-by-one drawing of names rather than Serena Williams just appearing in a PDF and us desperately trying to search and find her name. Or even happening electronically on the screen, like at the other ones. Yeah, imagine if she'd been in the bottom quarter of the French Open draw. We wouldn't have known for another hour. 20 minutes later. Flint in the way, man in the way, trophy in the way. But, like, the drama every time a name gets pulled out of the velvet bag.

1:06:23Is it Serena? It's going to be great.

1:06:27Matt Roberts: 10am tomorrow we will be there in the media theatre at the Wimbledon draw with the velvet bag Matt's favourite day of the year and then a mere 11 hours later we will have takes people we will have had 11 hours to percolate takes 9pm UK time we will be live on YouTube also available as a podcast as always Saturday our show is scheduled for 8pm plan is to be done in time for the football for your sake not for ours you you understand Matthew's got a booking at some sort of box park situation that he needs to get to there's not going to be air conditioning there Matthew I tell you it's all right they just

1:07:15David Law: throw the beer up in the air and then it just lands on them and they just cool down that way

1:07:20Matt Roberts: it just sounds just terrible anyway we did invite him to watch watch a tennis podcast us towers he didn't fancy it had other plans it's all right and other plans and then sunday we'll be back in the evening time tbc but uh we'll advertise it widely uh give us a a uh like or a subscribe at all both both would be great give us a like and subscribe on youtube uh subscribe to the newsletter follow us on instagram that way you will make sure you know when we're going live why are you laughing just feel like you've changed the script normally it's hit that like and subscribe button. I can't pull off hit that like and subscribe button.

1:07:59David Law: She will though when we're live tomorrow. I think during the week you'll be saying that. Live Catherine's different. First sentence it'll be

1:08:06Matt Roberts: When I'm less sweaty I will give it some gusto. Maybe not tomorrow then. I'm going to apologetically ask everybody to tap that like and subscribe button on YouTube folks. One last thing to do before we leave you live from Wimbledon for today And that is introduce our mascot for Wimbledon 2026. It is a returning mascot. It's a fave, a real hand on heart fave for me. I know I say that with all of them, but this is Phoebe.

1:08:40David Law: Oh, Phoebe's great.

1:08:42Matt Roberts: Phoebe the Corgi, owned by Priyanka. We love Priyanka. Phoebe was most recently a mascot for the Davis Cup last year. and we know from previous stints that she lives in New Jersey with her people Priyanka and Greg spending her days watching for deer and eating cheese can't wait to find out even more about her this time says Vicky we love Phoebe so welcome Phoebe for Wimbledon 2026 she's got such a great face I do like a corgi god they've got a lot of fur though oh she's in america she doesn't need to worry about the heat wave sorry i just can't get my mind off the heat they do have heat in certain parts of america not this heat david and they've got air conditioning over there they take this shit seriously not like appliancesdirect.co.uk get them drag them

1:09:45Matt Roberts: hello to our mascots hello Bodie hello Maisie and hello Roger hello to our top folks and executive producers Greg Chris and Jeff no shout outs tonight but they will be back when we are in fact live from Wimbledon but I did just want to end the show tonight by giving a shout out to somebody that we've worked with and obviously that everybody in the tennis community knows and that is Chris Evert who has told the world today that her ovarian cancer has returned. She is not going to be in London for Wimbledon this year. She's getting treatment and hopefully getting back on the road to recovery once again.

1:10:26Matt Roberts: It's been a tough few years for Chris Evert. I've worked with her. I know that you have as well, David. And she's a heck of a woman and we wish her very well indeed. So our shout out tonight is for the one and only Chris Evatt. Get well soon. We are part of the Athletic Podcast Network. We will be back tomorrow live from Wimbledon. We'll see you then.

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