Good Game Spotlight: The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast

We’re spreading the love this week and introducing you slices to some of the other excellent podcasts on the iHeart Women’s Sports Network! Today we’ve got an episode of the The Rennae Stubbs Tennis podcast from April 22nd, featuring Rennae and producer Caitlin Thompson. They dive deep into clay season, share some hot takes on when drug testing gets too personal, and discuss the players they’re most worried about at this point in the tennis season. 

• Subscribe to The Rennae Stubbs Tennis Podcast here
• Follow Rennae on Instagram here, and follow Caitlin here
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• Follow Sarah on social! Bluesky: @sarahspain.com Instagram: @Spain2323
• Follow producer Misha Jones! Bluesky: @mishthejrnalist.bsky.social Instagram: @mishthejrnalist
• Follow producer Alex Azzi! Bluesky: @byalexazzi.bsky.social

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Good Game with Sarah Spain, where love is Love,
but also where love is sometime zero. It's Thursday, May first,
and on today's show, we're continuing our iHeart Women's Sports Week,
spotlighting great podcasts from our slate of shows. Today's special
the Renee Stubbs Tennis Podcast. Now, we've had Renee on
the show before, and producer Alex and I also got
to sit next to her for Last Balls Billy Jean

(00:22):
King Cup Finals. Did we ask her all of our
burning tennis questions?

Speaker 2 (00:26):
Yes?

Speaker 1 (00:27):
Do we also now know exactly why tennis players compare
fuzz levels before choosing a ball to serve with.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
Also yes. To get your prep for.

Speaker 1 (00:34):
Today's episode, we asked Renee to send over her best
elevator pitch for the show.

Speaker 3 (00:38):
Take a listen.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
Hi, everyone, my name's Renee Stubbs and I'm the host
of the Renee Stubbs Tennis Podcast. If you love tennis,
you'll love this podcast. I'm a former six time major
champion and i played on tour for twenty two years,
so I've got some stories, i know some people, and
we have a bit of a laugh. So if you
love the sport of tennis, you'll love this podcast. I'm
joined by my friends On Thompson and Andrea Pekovic, and

(01:03):
we just love the sport and we hope you love
it as much as we do.

Speaker 1 (01:07):
Today you'll hear the episode from April twenty second, featuring
Renee and producer Caitlin Thompson. Renee also gave us a
little preview of that episode.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
We get into all things clay season in Europe, Stuttgart, Munich,
and so much more. We also talk about the worry Index,
which players are we worried about. Yeah, we're worried about
some greats including Novak, Djokovic, Iger Schiantek and so many others.
Leaning up of course to the French Open.

Speaker 1 (01:34):
All right, Slaicer's That episode of the Renee Stubs Tennis
podcast is coming up right after this.

Speaker 2 (02:00):
Hi, everybody, Welcome to the Renee Stubbs Tennis Podcast. Caitlin
and I are back together. We had a little of
sabbatical last week. Hope you didn't mind.

Speaker 3 (02:07):
You were on school holiday.

Speaker 2 (02:08):
Where were you?

Speaker 3 (02:09):
It was a tennis camp with my family.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Oh, that's allowed. I was just gillant.

Speaker 3 (02:13):
Actually that's you deserve that.

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Thank you. I do deserve that. From time to time.
But we are back. We are back in regards to
the last couple of weeks. Let's talk about the last
couple of weeks. But more importantly, there was a lot
of very interesting results this past week, including before we
get to anything, the fact that Germany took an entire
day off at a tournament for Easter.

Speaker 3 (02:34):
Didn't realize Germany was that Catholic.

Speaker 4 (02:37):
Well, apparently are for good Friday, because I was like,
this is your prime time, this is Sammi Final's day.

Speaker 3 (02:42):
They just skip a d do they always do that?

Speaker 2 (02:44):
District always sky don't formber Remember Easter moves around, right, great,
you don't know. Remember the whole Biden situation where they
had trans Visibility Day and I was on the same
day as Easter Sunday and people in the right lost
their money. I lost their mind and money. Oh I'm
losing my money right now looking at the stock market.
But yeah, they all lost in mind because they're like,

(03:05):
how can Biden do that? It's like, well, Eastern comes
around and changes all the time, and it just so
happens it was on trans visibility Day. So he honored both,
which is what the president is supposed to do.

Speaker 3 (03:17):
Normal presidents do that.

Speaker 4 (03:18):
I was shocked because it was a Monday final, which
meant that we did not know the results of Shue
Cart until this morning on Monday.

Speaker 2 (03:26):
I mean, come on, like, I mean listen, I'm all
for it, like celebrating Easter. And I had an amazing
event last night that I went to. It was called
later Sada. I had my Jewish friends here in New
York invited me for this really fun event and it
was great. And like everyone like, I'm all for people
celebrating the way they want to celebrate.

Speaker 3 (03:47):
You're a pretty goal.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
But to take a whole day off at tennis tournament
for well, one thing.

Speaker 4 (03:50):
I was thinking to myself when I was watching Corlos
Alcaraz and Hulgaruna play in Barcelona in their.

Speaker 3 (03:57):
Final, which we will talk about on Sunday. On say
is you know I've lived in Spain. I love Spain.

Speaker 4 (04:02):
They are very very progressive there, but they're also a
majority Catholic country. Oh, this is interesting that they are
playing on Easter. H they played on Good Friday and Germany,
which is not I just think of Germany as like
very secular.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Apparently from our very German Cohort Pekovich apparently that area
Stuttgart is quite catholic and conservative.

Speaker 4 (04:27):
Okay, that makes more sense, because why I don't think
they were shutting down stuff in Berlin on Friday.

Speaker 2 (04:31):
No, But I just don't even remember that happened. I
don't think I've ever heard that in a tennis event.
And I played a long time, and I played over Easter.

Speaker 4 (04:38):
I was shocked to see no tennis on my TV
from Stutgart on Friday, but I was very happy to and.

Speaker 2 (04:44):
I was like, did it rain? And I was like, wait,
it's indoors.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
Right, it's indoors.

Speaker 4 (04:47):
I was happy to have a little extra tennis on
Monday morning from Stutgart a final. Usually you just see
the beginning rounds of a tournament. Shall we start with
Stutgart as a result, and sugar back, let's.

Speaker 2 (04:57):
Get to it, let's get let's get to I want
to get to some really sort of funny things that
happened also in the tennis world this past week or so.
But Elena Olona Osta Penco, like when she's on forget
it seriously, Like she's that type of player that you
just pray and hope that she has one of those days.
That's just things don't really go her way, and then

(05:18):
it can be pretty horrendous the tennis that she plays.
But when she's on and she's confident and especially indoors, okay.
And also this court suits her because it's a bit
of a slippery clay court. It's not great for footing.
Like you know, even even the great movers and arguably
Eager Chiante is by far the best mover on clay,
and Coco Gough, you see them, they're kind of slipping

(05:39):
a little bit. They don't really have that same ability
to slide and be controlled into the shot, and they're
a little bit It's kind of like how Charleston as
Charlston is also very so.

Speaker 3 (05:49):
Brief aus of the horror. True being that different.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
In particular is pretty well. I've played on them both.
I did not play on Stuttgart's hard court. It was
I played it when I was a hard court tournament,
so clearly the footing was much better.

Speaker 4 (06:01):
But now that you say that, Sugarat has been the
scene to some horrific, horrific injuries actually on the women's tour,
I'm thinking actually of our friend a drapack of it,
so I think had to pull out of a tournament.
Had to put out of the tournament a couple of
years ago with a high ankle spreen. I feel like
it was one of the worst injuries I've ever seen.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
So maybe there is something to the fact that it's
slippery in there and indoor clay. I don't know, indoor
clear it seems.

Speaker 2 (06:24):
Strange to me. I think what it is is is
when you do an indoor clay court like that, that
they're bringing the clay in and they're laying it down
over a certain amount of time and hoping it settles
and then they play. Whereas when you're playing outside on
a clay court that is like a Barcelona or a
Munich or any of these other tournaments. Those clay courts
are there all year long. They're being played on all
the time, they're getting warded all the time, they're getting

(06:46):
packed down all the time, they're getting you know, rolled,
all the time. So they are perfect clay court. So
when the ball when you're sliding, it's the same feel,
whereas indoors they're sort of laying that down and it's
kind of just like it's not really the same anyway.
Having said that, Ostapenko's game lends itself really well to
that because she serves big and she hits it into

(07:08):
the corners hard, and it's not as easy. Like if
Eager was ever going to play on clay court, which
most of us would say, if she was going to
beat Ostapenko, it would be on a clay court, right absolutely.
But if there was a clay court for her to
not play her on, it would be this one. It
would be this SMAs and so I think that's why
it wasn't that big of a shock that that Eager

(07:28):
did lose to her on clay, even though now it's
zero to six, it's starting to be a little mental,
but it's also that surface that clay court did not
suit Eager. It'll be interesting because they're going to play
each other if they win their subsequent rounds in Madrid
this week, again not ideal for Eager. It's a little

(07:49):
altitude and Madrid, so that ball does like fly on you.
The serve is important and the biggest issue for me,
if we go back before Ostapenko beating Saberlenca, et cetera,
the biggest issue for me when Eager plays her is
the serve is so vulnerable. And I have talked about
this adnauseum, and I will talk about it when it

(08:09):
comes to players like Eger, when it comes to players
like Coco, the serve is so bloody important, and Eger
hits the same serve almost every time. On the second serve,
it's that kickserve that goes right into Ostapenko's best shot
her backhand. She's deadly on the returns. Ega has got
to figure out a better way to get more first
serves in the court. Her service motion is so discombobulated,

(08:31):
there's no fluidity to it, and you know when she
hits it well, she hits it really well. And you've
got to serve well against Ostapenco because if you don't,
she's crushing returns on you. And she can serve you
off the court as well, because indoors, particularly Penko, serves well.

Speaker 4 (08:46):
So here's the question that we got into it a
little bit over the weekend because there's so many people
who've been watching the Ostapenko Schiantec matchup for years now
and sort of marveling that there is such a Lapseidded
had to head one thing. That's you know, you started
the show by saying, you know, if Ostapenko is on

(09:06):
watch out sure, but the truth is Elene Ostapenko is
not on.

Speaker 3 (09:12):
All the time.

Speaker 4 (09:12):
Otherwise she would be winning more than one Grand Slam
and winning more than you know, one tournament.

Speaker 3 (09:16):
A year basically, which is kind of where she's.

Speaker 4 (09:18):
Netting out, which is not bad. I make that career
in artbeat but well, you.

Speaker 3 (09:22):
Know, sure, but.

Speaker 4 (09:24):
There does seem something particular about this matchup if some
of us find it sort of comical or nuts or unexpected.
But because you have coached against and with players who
have maybe matchups that are certainly unfavorable and at a
certain point become a little bit mental, which I have
to imagine, you know. One of the face, Yeah, one
of the folks that I that I talk to a

(09:45):
lot on the internet is Anastasia from the Grounds Past podcast,
and she was like, you know, maybe I'm just crazy,
but it looked like Ego went out there and was
sort of expecting to lose, and the fact that she
got three sets was actually sort of positive.

Speaker 2 (09:57):
You know.

Speaker 4 (09:57):
But there's so much fraughtness about this particul their matchup
that yes, of course you and ask Deepenko want on
to beat her in a so abalanca, in a pretty
you know, close but decided affair today, But like, what
is it about that matchup other than you know the server,
you know, talk to me about how important sort of
matchups are and why this is maybe something that's festered
between the two of them.

Speaker 2 (10:16):
Yeah, listen, it's it's always going to be a matchup.
It's always going to be how someone plays, you know,
whether it be myself in my playing days, you would
walk on a certain court against a certain play and
just be like, I have their number, I know exactly
what they do under pressure. I know exactly what I
can do under pressure against them to hurt them. And
so there's that sense of comfort level when you walk

(10:38):
on the court knowing that your best or your you
know a game will always beat their a game. And
that's a good feeling, right. So Ostapenko knows that she
is going to take advantage of the second serves. That's
for one. She knows that if Eager is not controlling
the point, she's not a great defender, particular on the
forehand side. And so you know, oster Penko uses her

(11:04):
flat ball striking and aggressive play. And also Osta Penko
and I have coached against her a bunch of times.
She's a play that you go, hmm, what's her strengths
and weaknesses and where does she go under pressure? And
a lot of coaches will tell you that they don't
really know, you know, because she she has a tendsity
like the forehand cross call, there's no question about that.

(11:24):
But then she can pop one down the line and
you're like, Jesus, where does that come from? And it
could be on the biggest point of the match. So
the unpredictability of how she plays is actually such a
positive thing for her.

Speaker 3 (11:34):
Yeah, And it's honestly, it's what I like about her game.
And I realize she has a lot of haters and
a lot.

Speaker 2 (11:38):
Of sometimes you don't know. I don't even know if
she thinks she knows where she's going with it.

Speaker 3 (11:42):
Like, I like watching her because she's a chaos She's
a chaos agent. That's what I like.

Speaker 4 (11:46):
I recognize that it's not that you know, enjoyable probably
to play against. But also I think you're right, she
doesn't necessarily know. Yeah, she doesn't seem that connected to
reality in always.

Speaker 2 (11:57):
And I want to see eager start pretty rejuicing a
little bit of variety when she plays against her. I
didn't see one drop shot. I didn't see one attempted
real slice. There's no attempt now it is let me backtrack.
It is not easy to do that against Ostapenko. She's
hitting the ball so hard and flat immediately. But there

(12:19):
were times where I felt she could have done a
drop shot, hit a bit of a different shot, and
she chose not to. There was a huge point in
the third set to go. I think it may have
been to even it up in the third set when
she went down that break and she had a second
serve backhand, I think it was maybe to go fifteen forty,
et cetera. And she chose to go for her backhand

(12:41):
down the line, which is a very good shot for her.
But every now and again, i'd like to see her
do it on shabburt, just like hit a little drop
shot off that you know osta Penko's running backwards. She's
not a great mover on play. She's definitely not a
great mover. So you've got to get her moving, and
sometimes you've got to get her moving in uncomfortable areas

(13:02):
on the court like slice the ball, short jop shot
once or twice in your life in a match, because
when you become predictable that's predictable for them to be
able to read what you're doing. Offer them return all
the things, and Eger made some really bad, bad choices
of shot and bad errors in the third set, particularly
offer return. Like she'd be getting into the third set

(13:25):
or getting into the game, it'd be fifteen thirty on
Ostabanco serve or fifty you know, love thirty and she
would just miss a return and it's just like what
is that? And that is pressure because she knows if
I don't hit a great shot, she's going to hit
a winner. But sometimes you have to force your opponent,
particularly in really critical moments, to hit a winner. And

(13:45):
it was very similar to what Runa did to Akarez today.
We'll get into that, but I just feel like eager panics.
She doesn't play the ball behind Ostapanco enough. She doesn't
play enough variety. She doesn't hit a couple of high
balls like Osabnka loves the ball in her hitting zone,
get it above her shoulder, particularly on the forehand. She
doesn't like that shot, but she doesn't try the variety.

Speaker 4 (14:06):
So the next time they're projected to play and I
don't like doing the like, well, you know they're probably
going to beat in the quarterfinals, they'll probably you know,
because I feel like tennis, one of the things we
like about it all right, I like about it is
it's so unpredictable, you don't know, you know, making projections
into the semis and finals just feels like an exercise
and stupidity.

Speaker 3 (14:23):
But there's a chance they could play again very soon.

Speaker 2 (14:26):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (14:26):
On the surface, which is also Madrid at elevation, is
a fast court which even though it's clay, will probably
also favor.

Speaker 2 (14:33):
Well, it's certainly why we do play. It won't be
a massive like if it will be the advance you
get places against Ostapenko on in Rome or in Paris,
I think it will be a different result. But if
I was coaching her and we were got to sort
of getting to this before we start the pod, is
that how do you change that mindset for the player?
And it's kind of like a you know, a reset

(14:54):
in their own brains. And I would say to her,
look all these other times before you've done this, you've
done that, you've tried this. You need to go out
there without a doubt in your mind that you're winning
this match. Ye, And you know, I had a situation
where I was coaching Caroline Plishkova and she had lost many,
many many times to Patrick Viteva country her country rooman.

(15:16):
They played a club levels. They weren't exactly great friends.
They you know, she didn't necessarily like losing. And I
gave Carolina three things only to think about in that match.
I wanted her to cover a certain forehand, I wanted
her to cover a certain serve on a big point,
and I wanted her to hit it to one spot

(15:37):
in particular. And I literally gave her two or three things,
and I said, and you're not losing this fucking match today,
Like no, And even her husband said to me, what
do you think? You know, he would always sort of
say what do you think? And clearly I was always
positive with ever whoever she played. But I was like, oh, no,
she's winning today, and he looked at me, are you serious?
I go, oh, yeah, she's winning today because I knew

(15:58):
that there was two shots that that Petra particularly liked.
And I think that once you know that, it's sort
of like knowing what your opponent's strengths and weaknesses are.
When you walk on the court. You know what they're
going to do, and you think oh, oh, I've got that.
And I think that that helped in the very first
game when Petra, you know, hit a certain shot or
two and it was almost like Carolina looked at me like, oh,

(16:21):
I've got this. So you've got to be very, very
positive to your player, tell them one or two things
and tell them you're not losing this fucking match today,
And that's the way you have to be. I would
be with Eager, I would give her two or three things.
I would definitely tell her to hit some drop shots
more and make her move and hit some angles, get
her off the court, and then drive the ball. But
if you're going to just try and hit with her,

(16:42):
you're not going to win.

Speaker 3 (16:43):
Last thing and your serve.

Speaker 2 (16:45):
You've got to change your serf.

Speaker 3 (16:46):
So yeah, last thing.

Speaker 4 (16:46):
I need to because some of the things you talked
about and I was asking you about were like a
matchup specific strategy.

Speaker 3 (16:53):
More broadly, you know.

Speaker 4 (16:55):
I think obviously this is the part of the season
that Eager tends to emerge as our dominent. Obviously, Clay Quarter,
she's got, you know, some competition maybe from the Elina's
Fidelina's of the world.

Speaker 3 (17:06):
At the Cocoa Goths.

Speaker 4 (17:07):
You know, it was nice to see Mukhova obviously get
to the French Open final last year. But by and large,
like when the clay season goes outdoors to a slower surface,
it's egos to lose any concern for you with egas
play so far this year, this isn't typically when she
does that. Well anyway, she doesn't typically have a good
Australia or a good Middle East. She doesn't, you know, typically,

(17:27):
But yeah, like, I mean, she's had hard court season,
she's had periods in the Sunshine doubles.

Speaker 3 (17:32):
You'd want her to i think, be better looking than
she has looked so far this year. Well for sure,
and he look.

Speaker 2 (17:38):
At two or three years ago. She had a thirty
seven match win streak, right, I mean from the Straine Open,
the moment ash Body pulled out as number one player
in the world EGA one, you know, Indian Wells, Miami,
every clay court tournament, the French Open. I mean, she
was on fire. So you can't say it is starting
to okay. I call it plock on the brain. Right

(17:59):
when you have a little bit of you know, where
you're not confident, you start there's little things that start
getting into your brain and you got to chip away
at them, and so you got to chip away at
this eager match up with Oscar pan Cope in some way.
But a lot of it is she now has this
like scared feeling of I'm not winning what I should

(18:20):
be winning and I'm not getting the wins on Clay.
What's happening to me? And so is there concern? Yeah? Absolutely,
I think there's a little bit of concern. Can she
get it back and write the Ship and Madrid Rome
and the French for sure? But if she doesn't, yes,
I do worry about her psyche going forward because her
game is so predicated on confidence, and that's where I

(18:42):
would like to see her get a little bit more variety,
because when game Plan A is not on, she can
start tapping into game plan B and see and it does.
It confuses me because she started the year so well,
like that match she played against Keys, and I talked
about this with Petcirl a couple of weeks ago. I
think that lost Keys just really hurt hers.

Speaker 3 (19:01):
A sliding door moment.

Speaker 2 (19:02):
Of that might have been a sliding door of twenty
twenty five, the beginning of it, because if she wins
that match, maybe even even if she loses in the final,
I don't think that would have bothered her that much.
Losing to Sableanca in the finals the straight up and
just getting to the final would have been a thing
for her. But having a match point and losing that,
I don't know that that has sort of put a
little chip or a little plark in the brain. Maybe

(19:23):
she's lost the confidence to finish matches or I don't know, because.

Speaker 3 (19:28):
Yeah, she's definitely one of the more mental players.

Speaker 4 (19:32):
Yeah, you know, and I think, you know, unlike confident
to Peca, who just looks like she's literally kind of
just hitting balls and whatever happens happens.

Speaker 2 (19:40):
Yeah, it's a different pressure level too, let's be.

Speaker 3 (19:42):
On one percent.

Speaker 4 (19:43):
Yeah, it's easy to go out and take out a
take out a number one seed when you have no
pressure and everyone's sort of you know, you can smile.
I mean, even in the magic up against Sabilenca, Sabulenka
had all the pressure then the Pega playing with house
money for sure, whereas Eager. I think she has a
lot of expectations, you know, and I think compounded by
the fact that she's already a player who's like pretty
mentally you know on or off, and I think.

Speaker 2 (20:06):
That, yeah, sort of believes that she's going to beat
everybody on any day, whether she goes or not.

Speaker 3 (20:12):
She doesn't.

Speaker 2 (20:12):
She's like, well, it was just me, I played terrible.
It's never about her opponent playing well. She's either I
played great and I won. Yeah, you know, never never
mind the fact that they played like crap. She played
great that sight. But she is that type of player
and if she loses, it's because she played terrible.

Speaker 3 (20:30):
It's never good string.

Speaker 2 (20:31):
It's always on her streets. To be honest with you,
it is a lot of the time. But also there
are times where you hit a shot that was just
so dumb as well, like, but she doesn't look at
it like that.

Speaker 4 (20:40):
So the delusion part of her ballroom dancing career. With
this amount of delusion, do you think she's like, I
am the world's greatest dancer.

Speaker 2 (20:48):
Oh yeah, for sure.

Speaker 3 (20:50):
I love that.

Speaker 2 (20:50):
I mean, but that, you know, the ego. The ego
fest out in the final today with Saberlenca, because let's
face it, Arena definitely has her own like behind the
ship kind of feel, and she should, by the way,
because she's arguably the best player in the world. But
at the same time, today I think a little bit
of horse's mental as well in Stuttgart, having lost in

(21:12):
the final so many times there that I actually think
that hurt her today.

Speaker 4 (21:17):
I was gonna say, you know, Arena Sablinka doesn't usually
suffer in the self confidence department, until all of a
sudden she does, and that's catastrophic. Yeah, so she still
has that. I'm really impressed by her in the last
couple of years. You know, we've obviously talked about the
yips on the serve and getting over the semi final hurdle,
which for a while in Grand Slams was like her
big yeah, you know, gating mechanism where she just kind
of couldn't get there even if she was superior to

(21:38):
the person she was playing on that day. So I think, yeah, Like,
I think one of the things that I've had really
endearing about Arena Sebleca. She's so confident, she's so tough,
and she's such a valkyrie and all this stuff, except
sometimes she's not and she's scared and it's a you know,
emotional But again, I think that's part of the inherent
drama of watching her and being her fan that I
kind of like, but it seemed like that was at
play today.

Speaker 2 (21:56):
One thing, I am getting a little bit tied of
with a Rae and listen, we all love the historyonics
and the crazy and the speeches, but I'm really tired
of her going after her team when she loses with sarcasm.
I'm over it when she loses, that's funny. It's just
like at that point, at this point, it's like, all right,
stop telling your team, hey, guys, great job today. You know,

(22:17):
it's just every time it's gotten, it's gotten stale. So
we got it, Rena, we got it up that we
just got to thank your team or night and just
stop yeap giving them ship because it's so passive, aggressive
and it's a little.

Speaker 3 (22:30):
Annoying, not funny.

Speaker 2 (22:32):
It's just not changing. And then she tries to laugh
and I's like, oh no, it's not funny. You've give
the guys ship.

Speaker 4 (22:36):
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (22:36):
Also, they're your PETE employees, Like are they gonna.

Speaker 2 (22:38):
Yeah, they're not gonna say yeah, they can't put a
mental finger up.

Speaker 3 (22:42):
It's like to see them doing, like to see them.
So you mentioned Runa and O crast should we get
to that match?

Speaker 2 (22:48):
Yes, let's get to that Barcelona.

Speaker 4 (22:49):
Wow.

Speaker 2 (22:49):
That was you know, it was interesting because we we
sort of talked about a bunch of years ago that
Runa sinner our caress, We're going to be the next
big three, right totally, that was what everyone talked about,
Oh this is the next big three. Runa, who was
in he had that amazing couple of weeks being jo.

Speaker 3 (23:07):
Blah blah blah.

Speaker 2 (23:08):
We didn't even write down Djokovic. We got to get
to that at one stage. But let me just say,
Runa reminds me so much of Al Karaz when they
played earlier on I was like, oh God, these guys
are going to go at it for years because they
are very similar with the way they play, very unbelievably athletic,
that both of them are so quick. They don't have
massive serves, but they have great serves. They like to

(23:29):
come in, they like to hit that little slidy, little
touch forehand volley like there was a volley today. There
was a there was a point yesterday that Runa played
I think it was four all or five all in
the first set, thirty all and he served and bollied
and he hit an unbelievable little touch forehand volly which
you know has to be perfect yence oucres because he's
going to run it down. But when he hit that,

(23:50):
I'm like, man, that was so gutsy of him to
do that. And then to see him he was the
more disciplined, And this is the difference because know it,
I wouldn't say he wasn't disciplined before, maybe because he
was young, but also I think technically he struggled a little.
On the forehand, he was a little bit this in way.
In this way, I think he's starting to really come
into his own. He's had the same guy coaching him

(24:13):
now for years. I think he had too many voices
in his head. He had this coach and that coach,
and he's had that same guy.

Speaker 3 (24:19):
And that was his childhood coach.

Speaker 4 (24:21):
Then he returned to and I think that can't knew
what he shows. It looks like he's getting the same
consistent messaging, which for him and I kind of like
this about him, like he's kind of been a punk
in the past, but he sort of owns it in
a way that I find.

Speaker 2 (24:34):
I've once said famously on this podcast, sometimes he's got
a punishable face because he did act like a douchebag,
like three or four years ago.

Speaker 3 (24:41):
And way to go Hilgaruna, for he has.

Speaker 2 (24:45):
Been chewed so much. He's he's you know on the court.
I mean what he here's displayed today, particularly in the
first day. Look, second set, there's no question in my
mind that olcraz was absolutely hampered with that right quad
sorry groin area, hip flexa. You could tell particularly he
served that he was struggling with. And look, Auterrez is
not a bullshitter. He's not gonna be like, yoh, my
leg hurts because I lost the first set. He's the

(25:07):
type of guy that would love the challenge of playing
in Barcelona, winning a match with three sets yep. So
he was definitely hampered, but the first set he wasn't.
And that was a difference that Holgaruna was way more disciplined,
particularly in the time break. I mean, oucre has tried
to hit that back end drop shot like at three
to two up on the midi break, and it was
terrible shot, Like there were just choices and his forehand

(25:29):
goes off.

Speaker 3 (25:30):
His fore hand.

Speaker 4 (25:31):
He missed some of those five feet fay sic shit,
basic shit, And I think that's sort of, you know,
one of the things that's so endearing I think.

Speaker 3 (25:37):
About, Oh God, I loves which everyone loves it. I mean,
he moves feathery light like Fetterer.

Speaker 4 (25:41):
He's got the battle intensity of Nadal, He's got the
flexibility of you know, Djokovic, Like he.

Speaker 3 (25:47):
Really does have all the tools.

Speaker 4 (25:48):
But the one thing he's missing, and this he could
really learn from Djokovic, is the mental fortitude and the
ability to stay disciplined and stay in because he certainly
does not have that, and it doesn't show a match
because he's so good.

Speaker 3 (26:00):
Well, look, he's so fun.

Speaker 4 (26:01):
But in a match like this where it actually comes
down to a tie break and a few points and
a few choices, he's taking mental vacations. He's like doing
dumb shit, which I kind of again sort of like
about it about him because it makes when he's able
to keep it together almost a much better. But you
kind of forget, like, oh, this is actually his big hurdle.
It's not physical, it's not you know, creative, it's actually
he's just you know, a space is too creative.

Speaker 2 (26:23):
He's got too many shots and that's just making them,
knows it. Sometimes did better than him in the final yesterday.
He was more disciplined, fresh line, and you know he
was rewarded for it, and for me, I'm super happy
about it because I absolutely you know how I feel
about Carlos. I love this guy so much. He is
so good for the game. He's the very nicest kid
you could ever meet in your tire life. And when

(26:43):
I say, I've not met a nicer young man, he
is nice to every single person. Stuff I did got.

Speaker 4 (26:50):
Fun gossip, Oh, good, give me some. Apparently the ladies
really love Carlos. Yeah, and he's gotten himself into some
hot water among some prominent Spanish business honors because of
his prowess. Prowess unless then makes me love him memore
because he's twenty years of age and.

Speaker 2 (27:07):
Let him have fun. Yeah, he's like, get the world
need to be tied down at this point in his life? No,
he certainly doesn't, and I'm happy about it.

Speaker 4 (27:13):
But it is really funny just because you're like, oh, yeah,
he's a twenty year old, sort of cultish young talent.
But yeah, I can imagine Holgaruna walking into bunk Sabadel
Stadium in Barcelona spin basically the closest thing you get
to a home turf.

Speaker 3 (27:26):
Yeah, for Carlos Alkaraz.

Speaker 2 (27:27):
But it's interesting because Nadal. They showed Nadal winning that
tournament twelve times, and I was like, fucking hell. First
of all, what And then I thought the difference with
Carlos and Rafa, because you know, everyone wants to compare
these two Spanish greats. You know, Carlos is are great.
I mean, what he's achieved in his career is phenomenal. Yeah, sure,
but like Rafa would never pick the shots that Raff

(27:48):
that Carlos does. You know, even he had an opportunity
to actually break back.

Speaker 4 (27:52):
In the.

Speaker 2 (27:55):
Maybe it's in the tie break, and he came running
in and he just hit. He chose a shot that
you know, I hate coming in on the forehand cross court.
He hid an inside in fourhand in a huge point
and ran in and got passed, and everyone's like, what
a shot.

Speaker 3 (28:08):
From Actually I'm like, actually that decision.

Speaker 2 (28:10):
Easiest shot to hit in tennis as a running foehand
cross court. So he like, those are mental decisions that
someone like Ruffa wouldn't do, which is why Ruffa could
win the French Open fourteen times because his discipline was
through the roof. But anyway, I'm happy about Runa winning
because it adds that little extra spice of you. How
about the French Open, because Carlos is by father favorite,
so why can't Runa, Why can't Severev? We know Sverev

(28:34):
will have a hard time because he chokes when it
comes to the finals.

Speaker 3 (28:37):
But he didn't choke yesterday.

Speaker 2 (28:39):
But yes he did not choke essay. But again he's
won that tournament now three times in a row. You
feel comfortable and unique? Is this little for him to
lose to Ben Shelton on clay? That should never happen? Correct, Okay,
I don't care what you think about no bendness game.
You should not lose that match, and he showed why
he's the better player on clay. But I think I
think Severev and Runa uh saying to everyone just hold

(29:02):
the phone a little bit. Carlos is not the overwhelming
favorite at the French So if you want to put
a little money on those two players, you should because
they're probably well outside the favorite betting. And I think
that there's an opportunity there for someone to come in
and say, Okay, maybe it's my turn this year.

Speaker 4 (29:31):
Just like we talked about Eger and like you know,
let's get the worried index.

Speaker 3 (29:36):
I am the.

Speaker 4 (29:36):
Only person I think who cares about Stephano's teeth buss.
But I am worried about him because he put out
with the back injury. And I love him, and he's
been in years past a pretty solid performer on clay.

Speaker 3 (29:46):
He's one Monte Carlo, He's gotten to the French Open finals.

Speaker 4 (29:49):
I want him to get better because I like watching
his beautiful one head of backhand and all of his shenanigans.
But a player that I think you're gonna actually feel
a little bit more excited.

Speaker 3 (29:57):
About talking about for the worry in deck is Novak Djokovic.

Speaker 2 (30:01):
Yeah. I don't know. I don't know what's going on.
You know, we cannot overemphasize this is the greatest player
of all time. He's won more than anyone else. But
he is not getting younger. And at some point, when
you start getting this scar tissue, which is what I'm saying,
that plark on your brain, you have lost the confidence

(30:22):
to win matches. Even I don't care how great you
are as a player. When you're not winning matches, it
is not easy anymore, and everybody starts to think you're
vulnerable making you're making errors that you didn't make before
that you are not the discipline player that you used
to be, and at some point you do. You're getting
older and your legs aren't quite there, you're missing a

(30:43):
shot because you're pulling the trigger too early, or you
just don't have the discipline. And I just feel like
he has won one tournament, one tournament and a year
and what four months? Yeah, five months going into five months.
One tournament that was the Olympics, and you get it
over best of three sets, which I can say that

(31:04):
I think that was the best tennis I've ever seen
him play. Yes, but if it was best of five,
would he have won that Olympics? I don't know. I
don't think so. I mean because I actually mentioned that
to Carlos when I saw him two weeks later. I said, oh,
you know, bad luck, maybe in five sets you win.
He goes, yeah, I feel like two, you know, And
I was like yeah, because he feels like you can
grind those matches out against someone like Novak and best
of five.

Speaker 4 (31:24):
But which is ironic because what I think has helped
Novak Djokovic so much in his career is the quantity
of five set matches and we've seen him be vulnerable
in three set matches and the irony now that that's
hopefully playing into his favor. Although let's see, I mean
he's been winning neither five set tournaments nor three set tournaments.
He's tournaments outside of the Olympics, which again is a

(31:45):
staggering cool achievement, which obviously he was very focused on
and I know a lot of his fans were like
happy because that completes.

Speaker 3 (31:51):
The trophy case.

Speaker 4 (31:52):
But it is a little bit of a question mark
because usually I think at this time of the year,
we're used to, even in years where he doesn't start well,
seeing him be viable contender.

Speaker 2 (32:01):
And I think we felt that last year too. Remember
what's happening last year and we were like, oh, well,
he'll turn up at the French you'll do what he
didn't and then of course he you know, the Olympics
was I think it was just meant to be. I
just do. I think there was a calmer thing there
and it was meant to be, and that Raffle wasn't
there at the French You know, he was there at
the Olympics, but he wasn't the player that we know
he is, and it just there was something serendipitous about

(32:24):
it was his time, right, But everything else since then,
I don't know. I don't know, and I'm I'm going
to go on the record, and I think I think
he might. I think we might. We've seen the best
of Nova choko it. I think he might surprise us
with one random tournament win before he retires. But I
think that we might not see him next year, Okay,

(32:47):
because I don't care who you are. When you're that great,
losing sucks, yeah, And I don't care how much discipline
you have to want to be better. Losing sucks. And
when you're used to winning everything, losing sucks, and so
you start to it starts to really affect you and
your personal life and you and yourself everything. And it's like,

(33:09):
why do I want to keep dragging myself away from
my kids who are getting older? And I told you
this that the US Open two years ago, it was
the first time I interviewed him before he went on
the court, and I thought, huh, he doesn't sound overly
pumped about going out now this match. It was the
first time where I was shipping the Yeah, it was like,

(33:32):
you know, how do you get up? I think I
asked him along the lines of something like, how do
you get up for these you know, what is it
about Arthur ash at night or getting up for these
matches and putting yourself through this kind of thing, And
he was like, yeah, sometimes I wonder myself and I
it was something along that side. I wasn't that verbata,
but I remember in my brain going, huh, that's the
first time I've ever heard him be a little bit
sort of like negative and over going on the court.

(33:55):
It was weird, and since then he has not done well.
So I'm just I just think that at some point
it's hard to keep digging yourself out and keep pretending
that you're still this great when when you're not having
the results and you know, having Andy maybe was trying to,
I don't know, get a little spark going, or get

(34:16):
a little of Andy's sort of ideas to make him better.
But I just think at some point we all get old.

Speaker 4 (34:22):
Well, as you were talking about Novak Djokovic and losing,
sucking and not wanting to go out there after, you know,
a time of feeling like you know, you're not who.

Speaker 3 (34:33):
You used to be.

Speaker 4 (34:35):
The interesting thing about this is I think Andy fought
until the bitter end. He did he didn't, he didn't
go out on top.

Speaker 2 (34:42):
Yeah, but also Caitlin Andy was great, but he wasn't Novak.
No like and and Andy had gone through his ups
and downs, and Andy loved. Andy loves tennis.

Speaker 4 (34:53):
He loves the I think he loves the grist, whereas
I think the difference might be I think Novak loves
the battle, but I think ultimately he loves prevailing over
every type of obstacle, even those he makes himself.

Speaker 2 (35:04):
Yeah, happened. I just I mean, listen, Wimbledon will tell
the story.

Speaker 4 (35:07):
Yeah, I think the first player at the friend I
feel like it's done necessarily an indicator, but I think
Lodon is the indicator.

Speaker 2 (35:13):
Now. Interestingly enough, Sinner will be back and we'll see
sin in Rome, so we'll see what Janick Sinner has
been up to in is three months.

Speaker 4 (35:20):
This is what I'm talking about. These are the storylines
we've needed and been missing.

Speaker 3 (35:24):
I love it.

Speaker 2 (35:24):
And while we're on the subject of Sinner, there was
an interesting tweet that John Wartime put out and highlighted
the fact that the Itia is now having the urine
sample people that follow you off the court watch you
in the showers and I'm like, wait a second, that's
always been the facts. And people were shocked about that,
like what that's that's so you know, that's diving into

(35:47):
your privacy and moratherele. It's like, yeah, the moment you lose,
you would know as a player, you would see these people.
I was going to say something bad then, but I'm like,
they're just people doing their jobs right now. But we
would see these people with the as and gentlemen.

Speaker 3 (36:00):
That's just goodness, some real growth.

Speaker 2 (36:01):
But it's gonna get worse. Here are these people sitting
there in the corner with their fucking what do you
call those things? Clipboards? You see the clipboard people. You
just know I'm not showering alone in how even if
you win a match or lose a match, you know
the clip people are there and they're gonna clip you
and make your pee. And so the moment you walk
off the court, they are literally behind you like they
are velco on you. They're like a hemorrhoid. They just

(36:23):
follow you into the locker room. Clearly you have women,
So the women come into.

Speaker 3 (36:27):
The locker rooms, You're just doing your jobs.

Speaker 2 (36:29):
They come it, you just doing your jobs, go into
the locker room, you take your clothes off. You want
to shower. Now, a lot of people shower, including myself,
because you know, when the water starts in the shower,
you're like, oh my god, they've gotta go to the
toilets so bad, right, Yeah, And some people pee in
the shower, okay, and those that deny it are lying. Okay,
because everyone pee is in the shower, so fuck off.

(36:50):
Those that you don't pee in the shower, you're not normal, okay.
So I would go and have a shower because I'm like,
oh my god, I've got a peace so bad. But
I would hang on to it. I would hang on
to it, Caitlin, and then I'll would come out of
that shower.

Speaker 3 (37:00):
This is TMIO accepted, it's not because.

Speaker 2 (37:03):
It's important, and I would go okay, I would tell off,
I put my clothes on, I go to okay, let's
go pee. And I would go pee. Right Because when
you come off the court, you dehydrated. You've been out
there for an hour, two hours, three hours, you're not hydrated,
so it's really hard to pee immediately off the court.
And some people pee during the match. I never did
that because I wasn't a person that went off the
fucking tennis court like everybody else does on tour now,

(37:24):
which is so annoying. And so now they're saying, well,
they're going to be looking at you. I was like
they were always looking at us in the shower. So
why is this all of a sudden used to everybody.

Speaker 3 (37:35):
I don't know.

Speaker 4 (37:35):
I've been trying to figure out exactly what is new
about this to people, but I don't think there is
anything now.

Speaker 2 (37:41):
Caitlyn, there was one time, right, just so people out
there know how invasive it is. I was peeing in
the cup, okay, and we ladies, you know, it's not
that easy to get it into that cup, right, because
the stream sometimes doesn't go the way you want it to. Okay,
I know, we get into TMI, but this is a fact.
And I've got the cup underneath me and I'm trying
to find it, and literally the lady is standing three

(38:04):
feet from me, right in front of me, okay, and
she looks at me and she goes, I can't see
the cup.

Speaker 3 (38:09):
I excuse me. That makes two of us.

Speaker 2 (38:11):
She goes, I can't see the cup. I can't see
if the if and I go, well, lady, I'm sorry.
If you want to see the cup, then you wouldn't
have to test me because I'd be a dude.

Speaker 3 (38:20):
You'd be in here, okay here.

Speaker 2 (38:22):
You would see my you know what, going into the cup.
It's impossible to like, what do you want me to
stand up and do it? Like it's so invasive. So
people that say, you know, tennis is the most tested
sport in the world.

Speaker 3 (38:35):
It's insane.

Speaker 4 (38:37):
I want to perhaps suggest, because I think you're right
from what I can tell, it's not necessarily new. Maybe
they just they definitely reissued the rules, so maybe people
outside of the sport were surprised by it.

Speaker 3 (38:47):
Sounds like no player were surprised by yeah.

Speaker 4 (38:49):
But also the thing that I think was new, that
that Worth Times tweet maybe was illustrating, is that the
agency clarified that showering is not an entitlement, which sort
of is an ominis threat, which is basically like, if
you guys don't follow the rules, we're not even gonna
we're gonna make it outside the rules for you to
shower eat at all, which maybe is me reading into it,
but I think the the emphasis on showering not being

(39:12):
an entitlement Therefore the implication is you could lose your It's.

Speaker 2 (39:17):
So preposterous because you're going into the shower. You're not
you have seen.

Speaker 3 (39:21):
Look here's the thing.

Speaker 4 (39:23):
I think, maybe not to get to go down this
rabbit hole too much, but I think maybe the issue
here is not necessarily about showers and people peeing in
the shower. I think maybe it is if you were
using a cream or topical substance on your body. Maybe
the rule emphasis go to wash it off is that

(39:45):
they were going to wash off.

Speaker 3 (39:46):
I'm not an expert. I'm not.

Speaker 2 (39:48):
And you are telling you about absorption of you have just.

Speaker 4 (39:51):
Come up because with you know, with with the But
I think maybe that's sort of again I'm reading to
some of us which might.

Speaker 2 (40:00):
Be putting testosterone cream on them.

Speaker 3 (40:02):
Would they oh, okay, yeah, and.

Speaker 2 (40:04):
Of course this is what happens. Oh but here's the thing, Caitlin.
It absorbs in like five seconds. Second. Of all, you're
on a tennis court for two fucking hours playing a
tennis match where you're sweating and toweling yourself off all
the time.

Speaker 3 (40:17):
Yeah, so if they.

Speaker 2 (40:18):
Think you're coming off a tennis court to wash off
your your your testatone cream your creams, you are out
of your mind. So the fact that they're putting that
out there is just to make everybody think, oh, we're
so stringent. You guys have been stringent on the fucking
players forever, So it's just nonsense that they put that
out Anyway, different subjects.

Speaker 4 (40:37):
I think the one conclusion we can clearly draw is that, I.

Speaker 2 (40:42):
Mean, did people not watch Icarus?

Speaker 3 (40:44):
People should watch Icarus. What a great film Icress.

Speaker 2 (40:47):
Is, and they were passing the p under the door.

Speaker 4 (40:49):
Yes, that's for anybody who doesn't know. Is about a
man who sets out to because he is a recreational cyclist,
take advantage of the fact that he's a recreational cyclist
and begin a doping program and again begins as a recreational.

Speaker 2 (41:03):
Innocence like you taking meldonia.

Speaker 4 (41:05):
Exactly like me taking meldonium, which is like, well, it's
technically not illegal.

Speaker 3 (41:09):
I'm a recreational level player.

Speaker 4 (41:10):
Maybe this will help, Will it help? Let me find
out meets the guy. The guy who's helping him turns
out to be helping the entire Soviet U and I
guess later Russian Soviet, the entire Russian Olympic team skirt
doping protocols and he like set up the whole system
and then it becomes this expos a on which results
even way too much. People need to realize what they're

(41:30):
in for, which is amazing. Anyways, a great film.

Speaker 2 (41:33):
It won the one thing we can.

Speaker 4 (41:34):
Be sure about, which is the tennis is doping protocols,
agencies and approach still leaves a lot to be desired.

Speaker 2 (41:44):
It is, but also trust me, they're not doing anything
nefarious in the bloody shower because people are staring at you.
Can we talk about little Harriet.

Speaker 3 (41:53):
Dot and how showering sort of factors into this as well.

Speaker 4 (41:56):
Speaking of showering, Speaking of showering, Harriet Dart, the British
player losing a match in the first take around, she
was not happy with her opponent's body odor on the
tennis court.

Speaker 2 (42:07):
Now, listen, we've all been there. I've all been there.
I've had opponents that didn't smell good and it wasn't fun.
But the fact that she said something.

Speaker 3 (42:15):
To the umpire can you make this girl? Were you orderant?

Speaker 2 (42:18):
Like if you're going to be that person and listen,
let me just say Harriett is great. She's funny, she's
a sweetheart. She lost her mind a little bit here,
and she did apologize, and it wasn't a great look.
The opponent her name is a skipping me, but she
put out a great opponent Instagram later for a Dove commercial,
which I thought was hilarious.

Speaker 4 (42:37):
Yeah, she would basically said, hey, Dove, sounds like I
need a sponsorship.

Speaker 2 (42:41):
Yes, which I thought apparently probably does. But I thought
that if you're going to do that, Harriet, just say
it to your opponent. Just go you stink, like if
you're going to do something on the court, just because
then nobody hears it, right, you just say it to
her and maybe you get under a skin no pun,
all right, but I did. I did. It's not a

(43:02):
good look, but I did have a laugh about it.
It wasn't great, but.

Speaker 4 (43:05):
I think because it ended well with Harriet apologizing and
the French woman making a joke about it, it is all.

Speaker 3 (43:14):
I guess so.

Speaker 2 (43:14):
And I do feel like sometimes we lose our mind
on the tennis.

Speaker 3 (43:17):
Court because people lose their minds.

Speaker 2 (43:18):
We've all done some crisy shit.

Speaker 3 (43:20):
Should we talk about.

Speaker 4 (43:21):
A player who is losing her mind at the WTA
right now doing them? Let's see Serenko one of the
Ukrainian players who has been very very vocal about feeling
like the Ukrainian players have not been supported enough.

Speaker 3 (43:35):
And this is not the first time she's made UH
a statement about this. She's been very vocal from has
been very vocal.

Speaker 4 (43:43):
She's one of the players and to be clear, the
Ukrainian players who have refused to shake the hands of
Russian and Bello Russian players.

Speaker 3 (43:50):
She's not alone in this. It's also Elena's Fitelina.

Speaker 4 (43:52):
I mean, I don't blame them Marchakostiac, Yeah, but Lesio
Cerenko has pulled out and withdrawn and UH had.

Speaker 3 (44:01):
Covers to her opponents.

Speaker 4 (44:02):
She's the one who sort of stands out as being
the most sort of intense about this.

Speaker 3 (44:07):
I'm not saying she's wrong to be intense.

Speaker 4 (44:08):
About it, but now she issuing the WTA FO Essentially,
it sounds like kind of a combination of creating a
hustle work environment and not supporting the Ukrainian players enough.

Speaker 2 (44:17):
Against She's claiming that Steve Simon, the former CEO of
the WTA, was not essentially not supportive of her and
very flippant towards her. That's how she felt if you
read the complaint and basically sort of going after Steve
in a lot of ways and the WTA and saying
you weren't supportive of us, etcetera, etcetera, and you said

(44:37):
things that made me feel uncomfortable that all might be
well and true. And I'm sure, I'm sure that she
felt that way. But listen, I do know Steve. You know,
think what you think about him as a CEO or
some of the things that he did as a CEO,
But he's a good man. He's a good man, and
he I would find very unusual for him to be

(44:59):
not caring or not empathetic towards someone like Lisa Lisia Cerenko.
I just can't imagine him being just, you know, kind
of like dismissive, bugger off like kind of thing. I
can't imagine that at all.

Speaker 3 (45:11):
What do you think is behind this?

Speaker 4 (45:13):
I don't understand this, bringing this into the courts.

Speaker 2 (45:16):
I don't understand this at all. I don't understand this
at all. Look, Lisia Serenko is a little bit of
a drama coint. Any any player will tell you that.
Any person on the tour will tell you that she
sometimes pulls some like drama stuff on the court, whether
it be injuries or sicknesses or whatever's going on.

Speaker 4 (45:32):
It's just like, oh, I think she possesses one of
there's a stat oh the most defaults, defaults and withdrawals
for all reason, for all things, all things.

Speaker 2 (45:41):
So you know, unfortunately, it's kind of like the boy
that cries wolf. At some point people are going to
be like, I don't believe you. Yeah, kind of thing.

Speaker 3 (45:47):
So where is this coming from Ukraine? Or is this
about your mental state? Or is this about something else
or this?

Speaker 2 (45:52):
And again, what the Ukrainian players going through. I cannot
even fathom what they're going through. What Switzerlina has been
able to do over the last couple of years in
highlighting Ukraine talking about all the time, but going out
there and winning for her country like that, to me
is incredible, and she talks about it openly all the time. Now,

(46:14):
why isn't she saying or standing up and saying I
feel the same way. It feels a little bit unusual
and a little bit it doesn't feel like you would
think that all the Ukrainian players would be more supportive
of this situation.

Speaker 4 (46:28):
It is odd that and sort of maybe indicative of
what's motivating us to your point that the most dramatic,
the most sort of uh possessing of other stuff that's
going on. Player, I mean, to me, it's hard not
to draw some comparisons between this and the PTPA, which
is like, hey, have you know in the case.

Speaker 3 (46:49):
Of the PTPA last so it's like, hey, have the.

Speaker 4 (46:51):
Players gotten short tripted by the tournament with regards to
prize money and like the scheduling and s something this, Like, yeah,
there's some valid points here, like has it been extremely
hard for the Ukrainian players to you know, play even
after the governing body is not just you the WTA,
but also you know, the Slam countries and the international
competitions like the BJK Cup and Davis Cup have stripped

(47:14):
the Russian and Bell Russian players of being able to
play under their own flag, like you know, nobody's playing
the Russian or Bell Russian anthems. Like but I agree,
like there's you know, it's shitty, but it's kind of like, hey,
is this the format?

Speaker 3 (47:27):
What there is a lawsuit doing? What is the point
of this?

Speaker 2 (47:30):
And you can't She singled out a couple of particular tennis.

Speaker 3 (47:33):
Players, Steve Simon is named in this suit. Some of
the Russian players specifically are named in.

Speaker 4 (47:38):
This suit, and it's just kind of like it's the
same thing to me with the PTBA, which is like, hey,
you guys, there might be some validity here, but like,
why didn't you go and get some other support from
other people? So this feels like it's more of a
player movement. Similarly, if it was all the Ukrainian players,
men and women, you'd kind of be like, oh, this
seems like it's a systematic issue as opposed to an
individual grievance. Yeah, and I think that's kind of what
both goes down to it to me, Yeah, and I

(48:00):
mean it feels a little bit more individual grievance than
it does maybe systematic problem that should be disolved through
the court a lot.

Speaker 2 (48:05):
Yeah. I mean what I'm going to enjoy seeing is
Sitzelina playing against Daria Kasakina and getting to shake her
hand now because she represents Australia and that is indicative
of Derek Kasakino, who clearly has spoken up against you know,
the laws in Russia and Putin and feels a little
bit but you know, some of these Russian players probably

(48:25):
do feel very anti war and you but also at
the same time, it's an independent contracting sport. They've made
stipulations that clearly you can't come in with a Russian
flag and all that sort of stuff. But these are
individuals and yeah, you can have a word to them,
and look, I just think I just think it's it's

(48:46):
a shame. I feel sorry for her because clearly she's
going through something and this is to spend the money
she's going to have to spend to fight a lawsuit.
It's crazy. I don't think she's going to even remotely
come close to winning. But you know, I feel sorry
for Poorsha. Then you w t a c because she's
coming the serious shit between Rebaccna and now this situation.

(49:09):
It's just like, oh my god.

Speaker 3 (49:13):
Well let's let's end the segment.

Speaker 4 (49:16):
While we're talking about Ukrainian players to give a big
shout out to Ilinas Videlina, who won the title in Ruin. Yeah,
against a very exciting young player in Oga Danielovich, who
I think like she's always been a hard hitter and
she's somebody who I think is like kind of exciting
to watch because she's kind of a dynamic player. But
she's getting better, she's getting closer, she's maturing. But alnas Fidilina,
you know, at mid thirties, is still winning titles and

(49:37):
getting to give victory speeches and shout out her.

Speaker 3 (49:39):
Beloved husband, who we all love.

Speaker 4 (49:41):
Guy.

Speaker 3 (49:41):
I'm on FISTAA final, Like, that's awesome. That's a great outcome.

Speaker 2 (49:44):
No, she's so awesome.

Speaker 3 (49:45):
And it's just like another.

Speaker 4 (49:46):
Fun indicator of like tennis is being played all over
the world and all sorts of interesting people places with
great and interesting outcomes simultaneously. You know, Like yesterday I
was trying to watch the finals and they were all
on the same time, and I was like, Ah, which
one of these?

Speaker 3 (50:00):
Ah, what are we.

Speaker 2 (50:01):
Doing on forty two TVs? You need to be that person.

Speaker 3 (50:03):
Going into a kind of a good problem.

Speaker 2 (50:05):
Now we've got a good bar across the street from
me now called thirty love It. We should go check
it out. Apparently they've got some booths. We'll check that out.
But anyway, we do want to give a shout out
to the teams that made the BCHK Cup finals. It's
going to be in Shenzhen in September after the US Open,
which frankly I think is better. I think it's a
better time to have it right after the US seven
November instead of November, because everyone is absolutely tapped and

(50:29):
after the US Open. I've you know how I feel
about this. I'm always like, let's just get rid of
tournaments after the US Open, like the US Open.

Speaker 3 (50:36):
Should be and Sirri and Williams agree about that one.

Speaker 2 (50:38):
Hundred it should be the pun ultimate event and then
it should be this is the way I would do it,
the WTA finals and then Billy jan Kin Cup, like
do it big time, you know, and have the home
and away ties more to those.

Speaker 4 (50:51):
They should have it at the same time at the
same venue tennis festival.

Speaker 2 (50:56):
That certainly could be possible. That certainly could be possible.

Speaker 3 (50:59):
Certainly, it's like they do Ncuba's.

Speaker 4 (51:04):
Not for basketball necessarily because it's only team, but like
tennis sort of culminates like the team and the individual
competition are.

Speaker 3 (51:10):
Like pretty condensed.

Speaker 2 (51:10):
Yeah, that could be an idea.

Speaker 3 (51:11):
I mean a lot of times it's the same player.

Speaker 2 (51:13):
There's too many tournaments, there's too many they've played too late,
and the w you know, the wt schedule finishes super late,
as it does the ATP and then you have the
Davis Cup and the BJK Cup are at the end,
and it's just like, oh my god, everyone's like an indigo.
I need to have a holiday because I got to
be back in Australia in three weeks. So it's just
like you know. Anyway, So the teams that qualified were
a great Britain, Japan, Kazakhstan, Spain, Ukraine, so congrats to them.

(51:38):
It can't be cool if they wanted, actually USA Italy
because they are the defending champions, and of course the
host nation is China, so they are in there as well,
so there's some great There's gonna be some great matchups there. Unfortunately,
the Old Aussie's lost to Kazakhstan in Australia because Ribakina
went down there and played, so that was a big
help for them. And so yeah, so some great teams

(52:01):
are going.

Speaker 3 (52:01):
To be in the girl and I do really like
to first BJK Cup. I've never been to a single match.

Speaker 2 (52:07):
I have been to Shenzen.

Speaker 3 (52:08):
I've been to Shenzen as well.

Speaker 2 (52:10):
Yeah, you lived in China, so good to see that. Obviously,
we want to see the support there and so the
money for Billy Jean King Cup is so big, Like,
I'm really happy for them. And of course I'm not
going to bitch about this because Billy won like two
thousand dollars when she won Wimbledon singles. But they're winning
millions of dollars. It's crazy how much money they're winning

(52:30):
at Bella Jean King Cup. Like, the team is making
so much money and so good. I love to we
should be Yeah, you know how I feel like that,
But god damn, I played twenty two years to make sure.

Speaker 3 (52:41):
They didn't get that backed.

Speaker 2 (52:42):
I didn't get that prize money. So all these players
should be out there busting their asks for their country
because there's huge money on the line there.

Speaker 4 (52:50):
But anyway, anything that we're looking forward to, I'm going
to look forward to watching Madrid, which is a Master's
one thousand, and I'm going to use this opportunity to
once again call for the cowards who run it to
bring back the blue clay.

Speaker 2 (53:04):
No, it's too slippery. It was terrible.

Speaker 3 (53:07):
It was a beauty.

Speaker 2 (53:08):
I know it looked good, but it's one person. I
do want to see how she's going to go over
the next couple of weeks. Is Coca Golf as well.
She just kind of lost away a lot this year
losing to Paulini.

Speaker 3 (53:19):
They we're going to add her to the worry index.

Speaker 2 (53:21):
I'm I'm adding her to the worry index a little bit,
just because the serve and forehand again broke down against Pavolini.

Speaker 3 (53:28):
So it was fun to see Palini.

Speaker 2 (53:30):
Yeah, it was very fund to her back. She's got
some serious points of defense finals Paris and finals of wimbled,
and she has a new coach in her coaching box.

Speaker 3 (53:37):
It was fun to say Palini. But yes, Marcos, I
can't have expected to win that match.

Speaker 2 (53:41):
Mark Lopez, Yeah, yeah, I was a little bit surprised there.
Coca got up in the first set and then lost
her serve and then again at four or five in
the first set, down love fifteen. No big deal, right,
it's four or five, love fifteen, No big deal. Double fault,
double fault yep to go love forty and then missus
a easy back end white by mile and I was like,

(54:05):
what the hell is that? So, you know, technically pressure mental.
As soon as the pressure really gets on her, the
double faults, and that should not be happening indoors, and
it should definitely not be happening on clay because on clay,
you can get away with hitting an average serve because
you can run the ball down better. So those things
are a little bit of a concern. And you know

(54:25):
the service motion. She gets on the front foot too early.
Oh god, I could go on forever about it, but
I won't. There is a concern, Yeah, there is a concern.
I would like to see her an eager playing against
each other at the French at some point, maybe quarters
of Semis, and see who can battle their their brain
plak away the battle of the brain black. Yeah, but anyway,

(54:46):
all right, guys, it's been a great couple of weeks.

Speaker 4 (54:48):
Spring is really here about the just preponderance and skill comments,
it's still called here, although we had a couple of
nice days.

Speaker 3 (54:56):
I'm really excited about center coming back. I'm excited. I
am runa, as you said, ascending back up into the
Alcor's injuries. Okay, yeah, Alacrez is nursing. I'm going to
give a shot out to bask because I love him.
Silly backhand and it's silly whole.

Speaker 2 (55:10):
She's silly backhand. He's got beautiful back He's going to
be sliced. Needs to work.

Speaker 3 (55:13):
But yeah, I'm.

Speaker 2 (55:15):
Sabalanc is still out there being crazy.

Speaker 3 (55:18):
Oh one last call out.

Speaker 4 (55:20):
Nike just fatably gets a lot of ship on this
podcast because they've basically ignored tennis for what, like Kim
Kardashian like get out here. But the Lilac Springtime Easter
basket color that Sabilanca and Carlos Acaraz played in over
the weekend.

Speaker 3 (55:38):
It looks so good on that red clay. Do you
love it?

Speaker 2 (55:40):
Yeah, that looks great. I will say, I really like
new Balances looks on Coco.

Speaker 4 (55:45):
Yeah, she's They don't kill us, they don't mess with
they don't miss And also I think on the men's side,
Tommy Paul, they don't mess with him either. Yeah.

Speaker 2 (55:52):
They well, I mean both of them are beautiful attraction,
which the great parties and the whole thing.

Speaker 3 (55:56):
But the god they're just succeed with their kits.

Speaker 4 (56:00):
They both almost always look phenomenal and even if they
don't look their best, they look great. You know which
I think we should all be so lucky is to
walk out on to the court with a great kid
shout look good, play.

Speaker 2 (56:10):
Good, because you know, if you don't look good, you
can still play well. There are some players that do
that really well, they will remain nameless.

Speaker 3 (56:17):
Thanks for joinings, Thanks for joining us, everybody.

Speaker 2 (56:19):
We'll see you next week. Bye.