December 23, 2024 • 43 mins
Will 2024 be Iga's year of purging demons so 2025 can come back stronger? What was with Paula Badosa's strange US Open ender? Yes, Rennae and Petko finally discuss some of the men and what they might get up to next year (including Rybakina's new coach, Goran)!
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Speaker 1 (00:15):
Anyway, we're back, so let's talk about some other cheeky
babes Igsciontek. Yes, how is she going to handle all
of this newfound fame that she doesn't want?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
So my prediction is that she will struggle in the
first month of the season. I think that we talked
about it. She's such a nervous, anxious person. I think
there will be some residue of all of this in
the first month of the year. And I think she
will struggle at Australia, which is generally and traditionally hasn't
(00:48):
really been the best surface for her because it's quite
quick and flat. And I think she will let everything
behind her latest by February and we'll start playing really
well in the Middle East and win Anian wells again.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Oh look at you. You're just like just letting everyone know.
There's the future bets for you everyone out there.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah, well that's what I think, because I think I
thought differently. Put I thought, although she has a new coach,
maybe that will give her a new impetus. But I
thought that this was going to be the year twenty
twenty five where EGA will do really well at the
Australian Open, because I know how her brain functions, and
I know that she wants to get better at the
things that she's not as good yet as she is
(01:29):
and others like on Clay, and I know that she
has worked specifically in the off season on that. I
just think, with her personality, her anxiousness, that there might
still be some residue for her in the first month,
and that she will shake it off. I hope it's not.
I really hope it's not, because there shouldn't be, but
I but once she shakes it off, I think she
(01:49):
will stop playing really well again. I think that this
was also like sometimes when these things happen, I always
explain it this way. So the best tournament I've played
in my comeback was I won Charleston and then I
went on a winning spree. I made the semi finals
of French Open in Miami. I had this terrible stomach
virus and I was puking for three I'm so sorry,
(02:13):
but I was puking for three days and it felt
almost like a purging, like a cleansing of the system.
And I feel like maybe this whole thing for Ega,
the nervousness, the doping, the having to hide it and
coming forward with it now, leaving it behind can be something,
and to be honest, even before that it was a
difficult season for Ega. She's so good that she still
(02:36):
did incredible results despite her nervousness and anxiousness. But to
be fair, all this anxiousness was there before and everyone's like,
is she doing okay? She looks a lot more stressed
than she usually does, and I think this season was
her purging and cleansing, and she will be great in
twenty twenty five, even better than she was this year.
(02:56):
I just don't know whether she can already bring it
in the first month on a surface that traditionally doesn't
suit her well, with all the residue of what happened
in the end of the season.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yeah, I think it's a little bit of the I
think it's more of the court in Australia doesn't really
suit her until I really slow it down, which I
am hearing that they're not this year. I think it's
still going to be quite fast. I think that's going to.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Be difficult to correct.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah, I said house to Court, and I think I
think he said it was going to be pretty fast,
so which is fine with me. I don't mind that
we've had that conversation. You know, it lends itself to
people being more aggressive coming into the net, hitting big serves.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I think we talked about it. I think it's great
that they have different surfaces. That's what separates tennis from
all the other pussy sports because you have to adjust
every single week to other.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Yeah, those pussy ice hockey players, you know, they play
on the same ice.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Every way for rugby players.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yeah, I'm just joking, but hey, take it up with Andrea,
not me.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
I just have a problem. We talked about it. When
it's like in the middle of the US hardcourt season,
Cincinnati is bloody fast and then they go back to something.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Let's hope that listen. We're putting it out and right now,
USTA make sure the court surfaces are the same speed
over the summer, please. Now, as far as the Australian Open,
do I think that Eger can win it? Sure, I'm
never going to say that she can't win it. I
do think it's interesting, you know, with her, with everything
that she's you know, gone through. I like that she
(04:21):
put out a couple of statements recently too, and a
lot of it was about the fact that, look, she
could afford it, right, She could afford to pay for
the the investigation.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
She could afford to she gave for example.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Yeah, and she said, you know, I could afford to
pay the lawyers. I could afford to, you know, have
the have the best lawyer, have the best this, have
the best at And she said, you know, I think
she's the type of person that will fight for that.
She will continue to talk about it and be like, look,
it's not right, it's not right that I could get away,
not get away with it. I could get the help
I needed, Yeah, to be able to quickly move this
(04:52):
along and.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Have the lowest impact possible on the on her career, right, Yeah,
that's all what these players hope for. It's the lowest
possible impact on their career when something like this happens. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
And I just feel like with Eager, you know, she's
the type of person I think will sort of pick
up the you know, pick up the bat in a
little bit for other players to say, like, it probably
isn't fair because if this happens to somebody else, like
a Tara More that couldn't afford to pay for lawyers
right away, and you know her at the extent of
her suspension was long, you know. I think that's what
(05:27):
we need to differentiate though, and we've talked about it
already in the pot, but everyone was a little bit different,
you know, Hallup, it took a long time for her
to find it. I'm a bit surprised with Hallop going
hard though publicly. I don't think that's a good look
for her. I think she's just she's angry, obviously, yes,
but don't be angry at eager, be angry at the
system like she's. You know, there's a lot of players
(05:48):
have been angry at the player. Be angry at the system.
It's not it wasn't their fault. They played within the rules.
If they didn't, they wouldn't be playing right now. I mean, so,
I just that's for me, that's I think.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
No, I think you mentioned it exactly or you said
it exactly right. She's angry, she's acting from emotions. She's
not making rational decisions, and you can feel the tie
turning on her a little bit. I think the one
thing that Simona had through all of this was sympathy.
People really were on her side, and it's turning this
year just because she hasn't let go and Honestly, I
(06:18):
don't know if I could let go, Like, I don't
know if I could if I had been in her situation,
I don't know that I could have let go. And
either I have to say because it's.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I wouldn't have been able to do as well, like
if I felt like so emotionally like, I would not.
But I wouldn't be throwing it on the player, right,
I would throw it on the system. I would be
throwing it on the I A TA, I'd be throwing
on what I'd be. I'd be throwing it on everyone
else but the player.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
And I think it's because she should.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Understand if if the tables are turned.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
She would have done the same, like.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
She wouldn't want if if Ego had gone through what
she went through, she wouldn't want Ego throwing darts at her.
That's what I'd understand.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
That's what you mean. Well, I I thought like if
Simona had known what if Simona had known right away
where the was, she would have done exactly the same
thing that Eiga has or Yannick has, and she would
have tried to get away with the least impact possible
on her career. And I think that's where she's losing
(07:18):
people slightly. Is because until now it was against the system.
It was why am I not being heard? Why is
cast taking eight months to get back to me?
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Why?
Speaker 3 (07:27):
You know?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yeah, that's the system and that's exactly, and that's and
that she's right to talk about this because why isn't
she being hurt when her career is on the line.
She's not twenty anymore, she doesn't have fifteen years.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
I mean, that's where I think, you know, if anything,
really her and Eager could get together and discuss this
and actually make a difference because they both can afford
to help.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Maybe you should get them on the podcast and talk
to them about it together. That would be amazing, not
even on a podcast, I think on a TV thing
like sit down with you moderating the whole thing and
then just rationally as rationally as possible, trying to talk
things through. How was it for you? How was it
for you? Why does just make you angry? You know?
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Hadj Maas come out recently too and talked about it
because she felt like she got hard done by as well,
and so, you know, I think the system is what
we need to change. But anyway, let's not talk about
that anymore, because it's beating a dead horse at this point.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
So you think that it will be the surface that
will refuse Ego the title if it does not the
residue of what has happened in the last two months.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
I don't think so. I think that she's able to
hopefully move on Australia be inviting and welcoming, welcoming for her,
There's no doubt about it. The people in Australian part
of them probably don't even know what the hell happened,
so they were just like, what, no, don't worry about it, mate,
ye ja yeah yea. But so yeah, So I think
it's going to be it's more about but again, new coach,
(08:56):
new perspective. Definitely a lot different personnel to Thomas Swikiowski,
who's a little demure and a little dour on his
good days.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
The man who never smiles, the man who never smiles.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
And I think that, you know, Eger doesn't. I think
Egan needs to be far from that personality because she's
already pretty uptight and you know, a pretty quiet person
in and of itself, and I think you need somebody
around there. It's going to make this sport.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Fun Rebeccaa does. She obviously came out firing in the
beginning of this year twenty twenty four. She dominated Brisbane,
destroyed Arena who was going to win? They just a
week later, two weeks later in the Brisbane Final. How
do you see her her Australian Open playing out.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
I still there's still some unknowns about her physicality, her mentality,
her emotional you know, state state where she's at with
all of that. If all of those things are aligned
and you can tell fairly quickly with her, I think
because a late like three four months of the year,
she did not look good like, she looked thin, she
(10:04):
looked her skin was all messed up, like she was
just she was not looking like herself. If I if
she turns up in Australia and looks healthy, look out
because I think she's going to be the player to
watch next year, there is no doubt about it. If
she can emotionally get through things, if she can physically
handle herself. New coach as well, with Goran Ivanissovitch, and
Goron's such a light guy, and he's such a nice guy,
(10:27):
and he's so you know, I think he's going to
be great for her. Because he's going to simplify everything.
He's not going to be talking to her twenty four
to seven like the old coach used to do, and
let her play like of all the players that you
don't need to tell what to do half the time,
it's her. So I think that's going to be a
good coaching situation for her, and I think she will
(10:48):
be the player to watch if she's healthy and if
she's ready and mentally ready to go, and if she
is look out, she might be the player to be
to this train open if she's healthy.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
So my prediction for her is also that she will
play one of her best seasons ever, but starting from
March on. I do think just because not because of
her tennis. I think, as you say, when she's on,
she's right away one of.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
The under her belt.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
No, I think that she needs a bit of security
because she's been together with the old coach for so
long and she's gotten used to the pattern of constant
talking so much that she will just need a month
or two to shake it off and trust herself, trust
her instincts again, which which Goran is just said, almost
Novak imagine Novak Djokovic coaching Rebaccina. That would be amazing.
(11:36):
That would be amazing, which Goran was also. He was
also an instinctual play and I think that's what he
supported also in Novak, and that's what he will supporting Rebecca.
And I just think that type of work needs a
little bit of time in getting used to it and
finding the trust in Goran and in herself, and then
she will be.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Whoa look out where Yeah, beware, beware, listen. And I
think she's gonna be sneaky.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Okay, I think going to be. And she traditionally feels
incredibly well at the Australia I mean final between her
and Rebecca, between Rebecca and it's one of the best
I've ever seen, one of the best women's matches.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
So sabal Anca favorite going in. Loves Australia, loves the
court there, loves the atmosphere, loves the people.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
So particular about her off seasons and that's what I
love about her. There is a reason why she always
she there's a reason she always plays her best in Australia.
She really is accurate and precise about her off season.
She works on weaknesses, she improves her game, she develops
her game and that's why she plays so well.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
So we're both in agreement that she's the favorite.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Is there a player dark horse?
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Is there a dark horse in the tournament that you
feel like we're not talking about at all?
Speaker 2 (12:52):
What is with she plays? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:55):
I don't know what's not with. I think Maria Sakari
and we were talking like players that were ranked two
and three in the world essentially like two years ago.
You know, Bodosa is coming back from injury. She certainly
played a great last six months of the year.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
I see her doing making a quarter final. I was
just really weirded out, to be honest, with how she
played the quarterfinal against Emma na Vara at the US Open.
Did you see that?
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Yeah, I commentated the match. She tanked to the last
couple of games. That was the worst display of tennis
sportsmanship slash. I was so shocked, and she didn't even
run for the ball on match point, and I was
sitting in the stands, fairly certain I could have got
over the stands, got on the court and still got
to that drop.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
It was not a good rupture.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
It was terrible. She just started walking in an Emma.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
This is her biggest strength, Emma. She reads energies of
matches like nobody else.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
I actually called that when it was I think it
was five to one in the second sec. I was like, ah,
this is an ova. It was weird. It was like
she just because she's polo. Badosa is a type of
player that's very easy to read emotionally. You know, where's
Emma's not.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Yeah, she has the stress in her face right away.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
The eyes bobbed, and also she's like looking at her
you know, up at her box the whole time when
she wasn't doing well, like going five one, five two,
five three, and then I got to six five down,
she comes off the chair, walks to serve to go
into a tie break. I mean she can still win
to stay. Yeah, she didn't even look at her people.
I'm like, you haven't been looking at them NonStop for
five games, and then now when you're really in trouble,
(14:24):
like going to serve for the say, in the match,
you're not even looking at them. I was like, I'm
so confused by you.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Yeah, I mean, you know, I think I told you
many times that Paula Badosa is my favorite player under
w Tator. I think she's incredibly charismatic with arena. I
think the friendship friendship makes total sense. And I played her.
I had the questionable privilege to play her twice and
matches before I retired, and she was playing well at
(14:50):
that time, she was coming at she won her first
title when she beat me in the first round of Belgrade.
And I was like, and because I was always a
very tennis IQ player, you know I didn't I had
limitations and talents.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
So I had to wake up for you and your
negative Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
But you know I always was like looking for weaknesses,
how can I exploit them? Pala Barosa doesn't have a
weakness when she's playing well. The only weakness she has
is her emotions. But tennis wise, she has a good forehand,
she has a great backhand, She's moving fantastic, she's a
great athlete, she has a fantastic serf. There is when
she's in a good emotional space, she's a pretty competitor
(15:26):
since she's been before. Yeah, okay, but for like, generally
from the baseline where she plays normally, she doesn't have
a weakness, and then she what she also has is
a natural change of rhythm in her ground strokes. Because
the forehand is very heavy, the black backhand is quite flat,
so she doesn't even have to do any change of
rhythm because she has that in her game. But I
(15:48):
have to say from favorite player in the w t Ato,
when I saw that match, not so much anymore. I
was really ticked off by that.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
I was, and I still can't believe she didn't run
for that ball on match point. It's still to me
to this day.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
It's just what I feel bad because I know it's
like this emotional self destruction. No, I don't thought that
she's like tanking throwing the match, but the looks.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
I know she tanked that match. Like sorry, I mean,
I know, we always try and be positive, we always
try and err on the side of like we get
it where I was a mental midget half the time,
but that was unacceptable. If I was her coach, I'd
be like, excuse me, you didn't run for the ball
on match point to go to juice to get to
a tiebreak to possibly get to the semi finals of
(16:34):
the US Open. Sorry, unacceptable. And I don't care if
you're like feel bad about yourself. I mean, we all
know what it feels like to be out there and
getting killed, but you're not getting killed. You just played
five bad games, but you're still six or five in
the second set of a quarterfinal, like unacceptable anyway, speaking
of the person she beat lost to, Sorry, Emmaavarro, what
do we think her chances are next year? Because I'll
(16:55):
tell you what. I just watched her play here at
Madison Square Garden and Jess Pagola, who look at hadn't
been playing a lot and was coming back with the
knee injury, and she's all good now. But boy, boy,
oh boy, she's just got everything.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
She can do everything.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
She's sort of like Jasmine Paulini. She's not tall, she's
got a beautiful service motion, unbelievable forehand, her fourhand now
down the line has improved so much because she used
to only really do that buggy with forehand cross care.
Now she can go line, she can go across. Her
back end's great, she can slice, she can volley, she
moves unbelievable, she's incredible shape, like she's like Jasmine Pauline.
(17:32):
So you can't tell me she can't make finals.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
What is her ranking now?
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Her ranking is she is number eight in the world. Yeah,
you got Jess Pagola at seven in the world. Emminavara
at eight, and you've got Cocoa Gough at three. You've
got three Americans inside the top ten. Unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
I think that she's just a bit behind the best
five players in the world right now. But I definitely
see her making the quarters and with a good jar,
one of the favorites losers early years.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
She can do well in Australia.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
I think so too. I think the thing with her,
what her biggest strength is, by far, in my opinion,
is what I just said. She reads energies of a game.
That's why she keeps beating Cocoa Goth because she it's
like a predator in the woods. She smells the nervousness.
Well yeah, she smells the nervousness on the other side,
and then she just it was the same against Paula
five to one. Paula started getting nervous and Emma Navarro
(18:24):
just didn't miss a single bond. She went for good.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Yeah, I see you, yeah, I see.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
She went through the middle of the court, okay, depth,
not too fast, not too slow, made a lot of
first serves and whoops back to five.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
On whoopsie Daisy, All right, I think you know, I mean.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
That casts for me. Miro Andreva just want to see
how she does, just because she beat on Chabel last
year and really likes Austra and Open but has to
defend some points. So we'll see that she.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Is sixteen in the world currently and that's pretty incredible
her year old. She's sixteen, isn't she.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
I mean she's sixteen twelve?
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Yeah, pretty much. If she's sixteen, she's sixteen. She's seventeen
right now, she'll be eighteen in April, so hell pretty
good when you're seventeen in your rank sixteen.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
I'm gonna throw two more words at you.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Okay Wordskova. Carolina Mukova, Oh yeah, can she have one?
Okay tennis God's tennis Gods, if you're listening to our podcast,
do me a favor. Give Carolina Mukhova twelve fucking months
without an injury, please, dear God, tennis god's one year,
(19:31):
just one year. I want to see how well she
can do. Yeah, because that girl can win a Grand Slam.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Yeah, of course you can. But on the other hand,
she hasn't won a title.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Not one.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
I think she has no nine. Really, maybe she has won,
but I'm gonna look it up in the meantime.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
I love that we do that mid mid podcast, like
god forbid.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
We yeah, because you always come up with all these names.
I'm going to throw two crazy curveballs at you than
male Collins. What she has done this year plus Diana
or Diana said, I.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Think's a top twenty player possibility. I don't think that.
I don't think she can be top ten. I think
there's too many players that are week in and week
out better than her week in and week out. Could
she get there?
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Maybe she has won Sorry just about Mukhova. She has
won one WT. It was in Europe in South Korea
twenty ninety. I wasn't even fifty, so.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
I wasn't even close to fifty. Yeah, Look, she has
to get over the hurdle of winning a title. You
are that, You were absolutely right. She's been to a
final of a Grand Slam at the French Open, where
she played one of the best matches we've seen in
a long time against Eager, So I do think that's
possible for her to win a Grand Slam. But winning tournaments,
but Petco, she has to be fucking injury less.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
It's the worst to be able.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
To get you know that that confidence like in her
body to be able to push herself, to be able
to get through. I mean, dear, just tennis God's one favor.
If there's going to be one thing you do next year,
let her have a twelve months without injury.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
God gave peanuts to people with our teeth. He gave
Carolina Muhoa all this talent and potential and just forgot
to give her also a body that holds up in
the crazy world of changing surfaces and tennis balls. Why God,
why why do bad things always happen?
Speaker 4 (21:27):
Anyway?
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Listen? Okay, So that's it. I mean, we could talk
about twenty more other players, because God knows when it
comes to the women's to it, it can happen. Let's
quickly get to the guys, the fellas, the blokes, the mates,
the lads, the kiddos. Yannick Sinner overwhelming favorite for me too,
at least Raina.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
I think the Australian Open is made for him in
terms of surface, in terms of ball, in terms of
I think he used to struggle there before he got
incredibly physically fit and in shape, but now even the
temperature doesn't seem to affect him. The only thing I
see if we have a forty two degree type of
day in Melbourne with the dry heat, he can turn
(22:37):
a little ginger in the face as well as his hair.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Yeah, but guess what, like if it's that hot, they
just close the roof.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Mate, all right, it's all different, yeah, deliver.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
These guys are pussies, let's face it. These a week.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Well, So I went, I played.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
When I and we saw it was going to be
forty two degrees, we were like and for Americans, that's
like one hundred and ten degrees. We were like, oh
my god, I'll never forget playing one match there. Sorry
to interrupt you, no, but there was one match there
that I played. And I remember walking out of the
locker room outside because we've coursed downstairs in the air conditioning,
and then you go out to play the match, and
(23:14):
I remember saying to myself, sitting down, taking my racket
out of my bag, and I literally said, dear God,
please help me today. It was so hot. And you know,
there's no oh, you know we're gonna stop after the
second set, or you know, we're not going to play
tennis today because it's too hot. We're like, too bad, deal,
with it. Thank God. I won that match in straight sets,
but I'll never forget that. I sat down and goes, please,
(23:36):
please God, Please God, it was so hot.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Well. I had also wanted to tell a similar anecdote.
I played one time against Magdalena Ribarikova in such a
heat that when I touched my bobby pins, my skin
got stuck to the bobby pin of the That's how
hot it was. So my bobby pin was melting and
when I act sent touched it, my skin got attached
(24:02):
to the bobby pinuins like, that's how hard it was.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
And I always, I swear to God, I always say,
when it's really hard in Australia, we're two degrees away
from somebody frying a fucking egg.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
They've done it, They've done it.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Oh, they always do it.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Every single Australian broadcast channel fries and egg on the
center God to show how hot it is. And it's like,
haven't we done that, literally sixteen years in a row.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Just letting people know how bloody hot it is now Australia.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
I can't wait to be back.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
I am looking forward to actually seeing to how this
Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Little situation. Yeah, it is also
going to pan out now when you think about the
fact that Novak Djokovic, the greatest player of all time,
the amount of Grand Slamsy's one tournaments is one all
the things, has did not win one tournament last year
(25:01):
but the Olympics.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Yeah crazy, And to be fair, you also played like
three tournaments.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Well, and I want to actually publicly say you were right.
He'd only played like twelve or ten tournaments. Yeah, because
but the ATP side had him at eighteen. So ATP
site and WTA sites, you guys both suck. Okayoo the
worst you guys suck. You need new social media people
(25:28):
because your websites are horrendous because I looked it up.
It's at eighteen, but he only played I think ten
or twelve. Yeah, because you know, somebody wrote to me,
Bunch wrote to me. It was like, oh, Petko was right,
and I was like, she was and I need to
publicly say you were correct. You and the fact that
he made the ATV finals only played ten tournaments isn't embarrassing.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
That was my entire point.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
I know, I'm so sorry you anyways, I totally screwed
you over there.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Yeah, but this is it's not your fault, it's the
ATP exactly well, both ATP and so back.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
To him winning this Strain and Open. Obviously we know
that it's the tournament that he plays his best tennis
out he plays great everywhere, but he's won that ten times,
which is outrageous. I mean, the only person that you
can even talk about in the same category is of
course Ruffil winning fourteen French Opens. But the fact that
he's won ten Australian Opens, which I would argue and
(26:18):
say it might even be as impressive, if not more impressive.
I probably can't say more impressive because fourteen French Opens
is outrageous. But everybody plays pretty.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Well on hardcore, Yeah that's true, you know, whereas when
you roll up freshest from the off season.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
I mean, now American can play in clay. They kin't
even slide, So you're ruling out like thirty percent of
people you know, or even Australians or people that grow
up playing on hard court barely don't even know what
the fuck they're doing on clay, whereas everyone really can
play on hard court. You know, even the Europeans have
to go indoors. They play indoors on hardcore. So the
fact that he's won ten austrain Opens is just mind boggling.
(26:55):
Kenny win eleven.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
So my prediction for Novak next year, I don't know
why I'm on these predictions. I normally always like and
wish you wash you about.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Everything for someone you're becoming very German.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
I am very German. That's terrible. Well anyways, so my
prediction for Novak is that he will not give a
flying f about any of the tournaments except for the
Australian Open and Wimble Wimbledon, and he will make a
huge push with everything he's still got left in that
cute forty year old body of his. We'll put everything
(27:28):
into winning one of these, try and get to twenty five.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
And then drop the mic out.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
I hope to god he does that. Like I'm not
kidding you. If you want see Strain Open, I would
like him to drop the mic and then just go.
You know what, I've been to Australia for twenty years now,
I'm going to go and see the country and I'm
going to take my whole family on a holiday.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Yeah fucking Then he goes on Aya's Rock. Is that
things as rockyh.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Yeah, uhlaru they call it now, but yeah, I would.
I would really love to see Novak win one more
because God knows, I want that Margaret Court record to
be never talked about ever again. Because they changed the goalpost.
It was always Stephanie Graff. Steffie Graff. Yeah, twenty two
Grand slams. Who's going to do that? I mean, who's
going to do that at twenty She did that at
twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
I just have to tell you one of your I
know Stephie, isn't that We never talk about her because
she won the Golden Slam. Yeah, nobody has achieved that.
No one will ever do that.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
No, I mean Novak tried bloody close, but he didn't
want a gold that year. He lost his mind And.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Actually he didn't want a Grand Slam either.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
No, he ended up losing in the finals of the
US Open, but he came very close to winning a Calendar.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Slam, right, but that year, yes, true?
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Right?
Speaker 2 (28:35):
And I think actually done.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Yeah, I actually think him playing the Olympics heard him there,
ah right, Yeah, because he wanted it so badly. If
he'd only known he was going to do it three
years later. Yeah, but listen, I think that Novak, it's
going to be really interesting because let's face it, and
you and I've always talked about you in particular, at
a certain age, your body just doesn't allow you to
play best of five. That's why him having the luxury,
(29:01):
well not the luxury, but the fact that it was
best of three sets at the Olympics in Paris, I
think really helped him.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
So I think for him to achieve that extra title,
which I think he can definitely, he needs to be
a bit lucky. And that sounds no, no, he needs
to be lucky in the first week to contain energy.
You need, you know, he needs to have a jaw
where he cruised because if he has tough right, but
(29:30):
even but he had terrible people. He didn't play a
guy in the top two hundred in the first but
that's what. But he didn't He lost a set in
the second round against a guy, an Irish guy I
ranked three hundred in the world. I call that much.
That was weird. But I mean he was injured, he
was on one leg. But now he will be fit,
he will be at one hundred percent. He will come
from off season, he will have trained amazingly. He will
(29:52):
have any Murray in his box, and so all the
negative energy will be trapped in the playoffs box, not
on the court and the persona of any Murray. And
and I think he just needs to get a little
lucky in the first week. So he contains energy in
a sense that he cruises through the first four rounds,
let's say, and then can focus on because he might
(30:14):
play on Alcaraz, might play a Center or whoever, and
then is like at his full powers there, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Because I'm looking at the siege. You've got Center, You've
got Zverev at number two in the world. Now, I
mean we know that he's capable of obviously making the
Semis and finals. Look at his best, he is really good.
But he has a problem with playing Taylor Fritz. He
has a problem playing with you know, against Alcorazes and
the Cinners. Now, I don't know if he can win
(30:41):
the Australian Open. But you know, then you've got Alcaraz
at three. We'll see how physically he is. And you know,
I don't know if you heard this, but he said
the Charlotte Exhibition he just did a couple of days ago.
He said, well, you know, this year was tough and
Stevens looked at him as like, boy, what she's like,
She's a friend, what are you talking about? And of
(31:01):
course Francis Taufo is like, god, I hope I have
a hope terrible year like that, But he was more
talking about his injuries and there's the ups and downs
that he had. So it'll be interesting to see how
Carlos responds to that next year, because obviously winning the
French Open and wimbleder is just unheard of. It's such
a hard thing to do. But he has some question
marks about playing on the hard courts against sinners, against Zverevs,
(31:24):
against these guys that have really big power, and that's
the one knock on there's a couple of knocks that
I have on Carlos, and this is you know again,
we're talking about at the highest of level.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Yeah, we're talking about the best players in the world.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
I think he he's not a big guy, right, He's
only like my high He's like five ten, five eleven.
He needs to develop a little bit of a flatter
serve and I think he needs to develop his serf
better and he needs to hit his spots better, right,
I mean, Roger's not it wasn't a big guy.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Six foot Roger, but he has such an accurate but.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
He could hit the corners like nobody else. And I
think Carlos needs to get his accuracy with his serving better.
And if he doesn't hit the corners better, he's not
getting free points. Yannick Sinner gets free point after free point.
It's very free point after free point with these big,
massive serves. So I think Alcarez on a fast court,
like a hard court like this Train Open and like
the US Open, he needs to get more accurate with
(32:20):
the first serve and he needs to develop a flatter,
harder serve. I also think he needs to really get
just a little bit better at his shot selection, just
on the biggest of moments.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Remember when I said he's a play child and you
yelled at me, you said he want more slams than
Roger at this time, and now you're kind of ross me.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Well, no, because I bet you Roger probably was a
little bit like that as.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Well, like a little flashy, a little bit over.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
The top, you know. And then he's like, ah, I
want to win these matches, so I probably should just
hit that fourhand in and cross court.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Well, that forehand also would create so much power to
almost completely straight arm is what sometimes hurts him on
these flat, quick surfaces. And he the guy he lost
to in Paris was you go in bed, and he
said afterwards in the press, corms man. This guy plays
the flattest of all and on this quick surface, it's
just too quick and flat to me. Basically for me
(33:09):
and Austrian openplays similar. The one quibble I have with
Carlos is what the others don't have. Zverev doesn't have
even a tailor doesn't have. Janick definitely doesn't have a
Novak definitely doesn't have. When Carlos is bad, he's fucking horrendous.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Yeah, he misses, he is horrendous.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
He can't he doesn't have a plan B where he like,
you know, like Rafa, just put the ball in on
the service line, run it down and wait until the
other guy self destructs, because you are still Carlos Alcaraz
who's won four slams, but he then can't make a
ball anymore. He's double faulting, he's missing, he doesn't even
get into a rally. And so when Carlos is bad,
he's so bad and this low level he's off.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
That's what a lot of matches to people he should
not have.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Yeah, and in my opinion, at the highest level he's
probably the best player. He has a three and zero
against Janick Senna, who was by far the best player
this season at his best. But the problem is at
his low level, he can still lose to Jakob Menzig. Yeah,
and to you know, to like not random guys. Those
are great players. But a Yanick Sinner would not lose
to a Yako Manzig probably. No.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
I mean, you saw Yanix record the last how many
matches he hasn't lost a set?
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Yeah, he lost six matches and three of those were
too Carlos, And one of those was against Stephanos Titipas
where he actually got cheated on a double fauld of
Titsipass and would have been a double break up for one.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
And I know that was such a joke. That was
the worst in Monte Carlo. Look, I think the bottom
line is I think with Carlos, he's so fun and
exuberant and joyous on the court that he gets a
little bit too exuberant and joyous and a little bit
too showy. He's a play child, and that in and
of itself is why we love him. But it is
(34:48):
the one area that if is really going to lock
in and win a lot more. And we are we
are again, we are we are so like pulling at
little strings here because if but he's young, that part
of his game that you're talking about, the play child stuff.
I hope he never loses the joy, but that's where
he just needs to be a little bit disciplined, because
(35:09):
Yannick is so disciplined, which is why he doesn't lose matches.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
And actually it's a really it's going to be an
interesting but I think very accurate analogy. You mentioned something
about just me and Paulini why she's so good now
at twenty eight because she had all the shots at
her disposal and she needed a bit of time to
put them into perspective. And Carlos, who's obviously maybe the
most talented guy I've ever seen play in real life.
(35:33):
He will probably play his best tennis in three years,
which is shocking because he's already won fource. I know,
it's crazy as the number one Norse, so he's going
to be the best his kick can be in four years.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
It's crazy. I mean, we are definitely like grasp on
it strokes. I know we are, but anyway, so yeah,
so that's what we're here for.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
We' Yanick is.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Definitely the favorite. I think that nobody.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Do you think about Danie Omeda that if he didn't
win a single tournament in this year.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
To be worrying about him? Actually, yeah, me too, and
I love him so much. But we'll see. Look, he
lost at the Strain Open in the final last year.
If he plays anything like he did last year, he'll
certainly be knocking on the door of the semison finals again.
He's such a great hardcourt player. The court will suit
him again, the thing and he lost because he ran
out of legs last year. The guy was up two
sets of love in the final.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
I think with him, I think with Daniel the problem
is that he used to so his tennis is so
demanding physically, and he used to get a lot of
three points on a surf and he doesn't any longer.
And the reason for that is I think he doesn't
want to say, but I think he's struggling with his
back or shoulder. And the reason I say that is
at the French Open, I was sitting on on a
(36:40):
press conference and he said something. He's so secretive in this,
which I honestly appreciate because so many are like just
to have an excuse, and he didn't. He just said,
you know, I wasn't able because somebody hit him with
the stat I don't remember who he was. So he's like, well,
you used to win this amount of three points on
your first serf and it's dropped to this amount, and
he said, yeah, I know that. I'm very aware of
(37:02):
this number. I'm trying to work on it. Unfortunately, something
kept me from training from practicing the surf as much
as I used to. You know, he said that at
the French Open, and I think he's ever said anything
about it ever again after that, I haven't heard it,
and I like to listen or look up press conferences.
So that was like almost a slip that he didn't
(37:23):
want to say, but he did say it, which makes
me think maybe has some physical issue that he doesn't
want to talk about that he's preventing him from serving
his best. And I think when you play such a
physically demanding game, you are just in need, desperate, need
a few free points, yes, sir, for.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Sure, especially the way he plays. Oh my god, all right, well,
Taylor Fritz. I really do think that he's going to
be a threat at the Strain and Open. It's a
good court for him. He likes the heat. He grew
up you know, in California. It's you know, Melbourne's pretty similar.
I think he's going to be a real threat, And
I think he really learned a lot about himself and
what he's capable of at the US Open. And I
don't know, I just I feel, like, you know how,
(38:03):
I feel he's got to come into the net a
little bit more. He's got to finish off those points.
He's got to improve his volleys, just the finishing shots.
But I do think that he is capable of winning
a Slam next year. But I think it has everything.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
Has to kind of be right, has to come together.
You know.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
That's not the case for Yanick. I think Yanick is
able to like fight through those things a particular in hardcourt. Look,
you know, Caspar Rude, whatever, Rube Lev, you know, Alex Demonor.
He'll certainly be, you know, playing great in Australia. He
loves playing down there, he loves the support. Grigor Dimitrov
is in the top ten again, which is an amazing
effort after you know, the last few years. I'm really
(38:40):
proud of it.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
See if things go right, I see a little semi
final for him at this year.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
It's certainly possible. He's played great down there through the years.
But anyway, we will wrap it up. Who's your dark horse?
I know who you're going to say.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
My my dark horse as Ben Shelton. A fashionable dark
horse is Jack Jack Draper. I knew it.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
I know it. You like the big serving lefties, don't you.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
I do. So I just hope and I pray that
Ben Shelton will come together because what we've had in
the double not so much any longer, but we thought
the most longest time had on the WTA, we always
had one person that hits so big that when a
top three player got them in the second round, everyone
kind of held their breath. Yea like a Camilla Georgie,
(39:25):
you know, or a career.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Well, Ben's going to be twenty one is the twenty.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
First yes, And I think that's it's always good to
have one chaotic player in the draw so that everyone
has a second day in the Grand Slam tournament where
they go like, oh, oh my god, the Bok is
playing Ben Shelton or you know what I mean. This
is not going to happen, obviously because he is a
seated player, but still.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
He said it. But you're going to get him in
the third.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Round exactly, third or fourth round. And that's why I
think he's so important. I think with Jack, I honestly
I just like him as a player and as a personality.
I don't think he will do so well at the
Austria and Open in a sense of I think he
will do fourth round, but not better, because man, this
guy cramps every single time. How is he going to
do that? Of Melbourne last year? It was really cool?
(40:10):
Remember that. Yes, if I ran out of things to
wear in day two, which was greatly planned by me,
I had planned for summer. If it's the same thing
that it just so happens that summer hits later because
of climate change. I do think he will get to
the second round week. But if it's not and he
plays somebody who makes the rallies long, I think he
will struggle in the heat of the Australian.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
I agree why I agree on those two duck horses,
my big duck hoss, and we'll finish after this is
Alex Popprun. I think he's going to have a really
good Australian Open. I think he's really starting to mature.
He's really starting to become a player that a lot
of people don't want to play, huge surf, huge fourhand
is going to have the support of the Australian crowd.
So I think of all the Aussies other than Alex Demono,
I think that look out for Alex. I think he
(40:54):
could do some damage. And he's had shitty draws there.
You know what Novak Drakovic like second round, you know,
so he's going to be seeded twenty four, so he
won't he won't get a seat until like the third round.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
So what about another.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
That's right, he's coming back.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
First, will he actually come back? Will he be able
to play? And second, how will he do?
Speaker 1 (41:16):
Listen, if he's fit and he's hitting the ball well
and he can move, you can beat anybody. But best
of five.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Will still nowadays, now he's not twenty four anymore.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
If he's not training, as they say, time will tell,
my friend, time will tell. We'll see.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
Well that ends, well, we'll see.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
And you've got to as I said at the start,
you've got to hate to lose, and so he has
to hate to lose more than he likes the flashiness
of winning. So we will see does he lose you thing? No,
I think he loves winning. Nobody likes losing. Okay, there's
not one player that goes, oh yeah, I love losing.
But you've got to hate losing, like hate it, And
I'm not sure he hates it as much as he
(41:57):
loves well.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
Does he hate it? Sitting through three days in your
hotel room with curtain strawn, eating pizza from three days ago,
watching French movies, crying yourself to sleep.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
Wow, so you just outed yourself. Thanks for that anyway.
All right, well, well listen, we are really pumped. We cannot
wait to get down to Australia.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
We will be there for you and we will be
together again.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
And we will be together again. We will be bringing
you daily hits. We hope it will be as interesting
hopefully as it can be at eleven pm sometimes one
am in the morning, but get up with us early.
All those people you're gonna be working for Eurosports World
Feed or you'll be the World Feed, so you'll get
(42:41):
her all over the world that speaks English and of
course in America, you'll get me on ESPN, so we
really appreciate you. We're going to bring all the coverage
to you at Melbourne at the Australian Open in Melbourne.
Sorry for everybody who's going to be suffering away in
the cold of Europe and in the United States, but hey,
you can always get on a plane and join us
down in Australia. Let's trust me, it's worth it. Good
(43:02):
day made, good day mate, I'll see you. Say good bye.
Anyway, we're back, so let's talk about some other cheeky
babes Igsciontek. Yes, how is she going to handle all
of this newfound fame that she doesn't want?
Speaker 2 (00:25):
So my prediction is that she will struggle in the
first month of the season. I think that we talked
about it. She's such a nervous, anxious person. I think
there will be some residue of all of this in
the first month of the year. And I think she
will struggle at Australia, which is generally and traditionally hasn't
(00:48):
really been the best surface for her because it's quite
quick and flat. And I think she will let everything
behind her latest by February and we'll start playing really
well in the Middle East and win Anian wells again.
Speaker 1 (01:02):
Oh look at you. You're just like just letting everyone know.
There's the future bets for you everyone out there.
Speaker 2 (01:07):
Yeah, well that's what I think, because I think I
thought differently. Put I thought, although she has a new coach,
maybe that will give her a new impetus. But I
thought that this was going to be the year twenty
twenty five where EGA will do really well at the
Australian Open, because I know how her brain functions, and
I know that she wants to get better at the
things that she's not as good yet as she is
(01:29):
and others like on Clay, and I know that she
has worked specifically in the off season on that. I
just think, with her personality, her anxiousness, that there might
still be some residue for her in the first month,
and that she will shake it off. I hope it's not.
I really hope it's not, because there shouldn't be, but
I but once she shakes it off, I think she
(01:49):
will stop playing really well again. I think that this
was also like sometimes when these things happen, I always
explain it this way. So the best tournament I've played
in my comeback was I won Charleston and then I
went on a winning spree. I made the semi finals
of French Open in Miami. I had this terrible stomach
virus and I was puking for three I'm so sorry,
(02:13):
but I was puking for three days and it felt
almost like a purging, like a cleansing of the system.
And I feel like maybe this whole thing for Ega,
the nervousness, the doping, the having to hide it and
coming forward with it now, leaving it behind can be something,
and to be honest, even before that it was a
difficult season for Ega. She's so good that she still
(02:36):
did incredible results despite her nervousness and anxiousness. But to
be fair, all this anxiousness was there before and everyone's like,
is she doing okay? She looks a lot more stressed
than she usually does, and I think this season was
her purging and cleansing, and she will be great in
twenty twenty five, even better than she was this year.
(02:56):
I just don't know whether she can already bring it
in the first month on a surface that traditionally doesn't
suit her well, with all the residue of what happened
in the end of the season.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Yeah, I think it's a little bit of the I
think it's more of the court in Australia doesn't really
suit her until I really slow it down, which I
am hearing that they're not this year. I think it's
still going to be quite fast. I think that's going to.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
Be difficult to correct.
Speaker 1 (03:19):
Yeah, I said house to Court, and I think I
think he said it was going to be pretty fast,
so which is fine with me. I don't mind that
we've had that conversation. You know, it lends itself to
people being more aggressive coming into the net, hitting big serves.
Speaker 2 (03:32):
I think we talked about it. I think it's great
that they have different surfaces. That's what separates tennis from
all the other pussy sports because you have to adjust
every single week to other.
Speaker 1 (03:44):
Yeah, those pussy ice hockey players, you know, they play
on the same ice.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Every way for rugby players.
Speaker 1 (03:49):
Yeah, I'm just joking, but hey, take it up with Andrea,
not me.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
I just have a problem. We talked about it. When
it's like in the middle of the US hardcourt season,
Cincinnati is bloody fast and then they go back to something.
Speaker 1 (04:00):
Let's hope that listen. We're putting it out and right now,
USTA make sure the court surfaces are the same speed
over the summer, please. Now, as far as the Australian Open,
do I think that Eger can win it? Sure, I'm
never going to say that she can't win it. I
do think it's interesting, you know, with her, with everything
that she's you know, gone through. I like that she
(04:21):
put out a couple of statements recently too, and a
lot of it was about the fact that, look, she
could afford it, right, She could afford to pay for
the the investigation.
Speaker 2 (04:29):
She could afford to she gave for example.
Speaker 1 (04:31):
Yeah, and she said, you know, I could afford to
pay the lawyers. I could afford to, you know, have
the have the best lawyer, have the best this, have
the best at And she said, you know, I think
she's the type of person that will fight for that.
She will continue to talk about it and be like, look,
it's not right, it's not right that I could get away,
not get away with it. I could get the help
I needed, Yeah, to be able to quickly move this
(04:52):
along and.
Speaker 2 (04:53):
Have the lowest impact possible on the on her career, right, Yeah,
that's all what these players hope for. It's the lowest
possible impact on their career when something like this happens. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
And I just feel like with Eager, you know, she's
the type of person I think will sort of pick
up the you know, pick up the bat in a
little bit for other players to say, like, it probably
isn't fair because if this happens to somebody else, like
a Tara More that couldn't afford to pay for lawyers
right away, and you know her at the extent of
her suspension was long, you know. I think that's what
(05:27):
we need to differentiate though, and we've talked about it
already in the pot, but everyone was a little bit different,
you know, Hallup, it took a long time for her
to find it. I'm a bit surprised with Hallop going
hard though publicly. I don't think that's a good look
for her. I think she's just she's angry, obviously, yes,
but don't be angry at eager, be angry at the
system like she's. You know, there's a lot of players
(05:48):
have been angry at the player. Be angry at the system.
It's not it wasn't their fault. They played within the rules.
If they didn't, they wouldn't be playing right now. I mean, so,
I just that's for me, that's I think.
Speaker 2 (05:58):
No, I think you mentioned it exactly or you said
it exactly right. She's angry, she's acting from emotions. She's
not making rational decisions, and you can feel the tie
turning on her a little bit. I think the one
thing that Simona had through all of this was sympathy.
People really were on her side, and it's turning this
year just because she hasn't let go and Honestly, I
(06:18):
don't know if I could let go, Like, I don't
know if I could if I had been in her situation,
I don't know that I could have let go. And
either I have to say because it's.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
I wouldn't have been able to do as well, like
if I felt like so emotionally like, I would not.
But I wouldn't be throwing it on the player, right,
I would throw it on the system. I would be
throwing it on the I A TA, I'd be throwing
on what I'd be. I'd be throwing it on everyone
else but the player.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
And I think it's because she should.
Speaker 1 (06:44):
Understand if if the tables are turned.
Speaker 2 (06:47):
She would have done the same, like.
Speaker 1 (06:48):
She wouldn't want if if Ego had gone through what
she went through, she wouldn't want Ego throwing darts at her.
That's what I'd understand.
Speaker 2 (06:55):
That's what you mean. Well, I I thought like if
Simona had known what if Simona had known right away
where the was, she would have done exactly the same
thing that Eiga has or Yannick has, and she would
have tried to get away with the least impact possible
on her career. And I think that's where she's losing
(07:18):
people slightly. Is because until now it was against the system.
It was why am I not being heard? Why is
cast taking eight months to get back to me?
Speaker 1 (07:27):
Why?
Speaker 3 (07:27):
You know?
Speaker 2 (07:28):
Yeah, that's the system and that's exactly, and that's and
that she's right to talk about this because why isn't
she being hurt when her career is on the line.
She's not twenty anymore, she doesn't have fifteen years.
Speaker 1 (07:40):
I mean, that's where I think, you know, if anything,
really her and Eager could get together and discuss this
and actually make a difference because they both can afford
to help.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
Maybe you should get them on the podcast and talk
to them about it together. That would be amazing, not
even on a podcast, I think on a TV thing
like sit down with you moderating the whole thing and
then just rationally as rationally as possible, trying to talk
things through. How was it for you? How was it
for you? Why does just make you angry? You know?
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Hadj Maas come out recently too and talked about it
because she felt like she got hard done by as well,
and so, you know, I think the system is what
we need to change. But anyway, let's not talk about
that anymore, because it's beating a dead horse at this point.
Speaker 2 (08:23):
So you think that it will be the surface that
will refuse Ego the title if it does not the
residue of what has happened in the last two months.
Speaker 1 (08:33):
I don't think so. I think that she's able to
hopefully move on Australia be inviting and welcoming, welcoming for her,
There's no doubt about it. The people in Australian part
of them probably don't even know what the hell happened,
so they were just like, what, no, don't worry about it, mate,
ye ja yeah yea. But so yeah, So I think
it's going to be it's more about but again, new coach,
(08:56):
new perspective. Definitely a lot different personnel to Thomas Swikiowski,
who's a little demure and a little dour on his
good days.
Speaker 2 (09:06):
The man who never smiles, the man who never smiles.
Speaker 1 (09:09):
And I think that, you know, Eger doesn't. I think
Egan needs to be far from that personality because she's
already pretty uptight and you know, a pretty quiet person
in and of itself, and I think you need somebody
around there. It's going to make this sport.
Speaker 2 (09:22):
Fun Rebeccaa does. She obviously came out firing in the
beginning of this year twenty twenty four. She dominated Brisbane,
destroyed Arena who was going to win? They just a
week later, two weeks later in the Brisbane Final. How
do you see her her Australian Open playing out.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
I still there's still some unknowns about her physicality, her mentality,
her emotional you know, state state where she's at with
all of that. If all of those things are aligned
and you can tell fairly quickly with her, I think
because a late like three four months of the year,
she did not look good like, she looked thin, she
(10:04):
looked her skin was all messed up, like she was
just she was not looking like herself. If I if
she turns up in Australia and looks healthy, look out
because I think she's going to be the player to
watch next year, there is no doubt about it. If
she can emotionally get through things, if she can physically
handle herself. New coach as well, with Goran Ivanissovitch, and
Goron's such a light guy, and he's such a nice guy,
(10:27):
and he's so you know, I think he's going to
be great for her. Because he's going to simplify everything.
He's not going to be talking to her twenty four
to seven like the old coach used to do, and
let her play like of all the players that you
don't need to tell what to do half the time,
it's her. So I think that's going to be a
good coaching situation for her, and I think she will
(10:48):
be the player to watch if she's healthy and if
she's ready and mentally ready to go, and if she
is look out, she might be the player to be
to this train open if she's healthy.
Speaker 2 (10:57):
So my prediction for her is also that she will
play one of her best seasons ever, but starting from
March on. I do think just because not because of
her tennis. I think, as you say, when she's on,
she's right away one of.
Speaker 1 (11:10):
The under her belt.
Speaker 2 (11:12):
No, I think that she needs a bit of security
because she's been together with the old coach for so
long and she's gotten used to the pattern of constant
talking so much that she will just need a month
or two to shake it off and trust herself, trust
her instincts again, which which Goran is just said, almost
Novak imagine Novak Djokovic coaching Rebaccina. That would be amazing.
(11:36):
That would be amazing, which Goran was also. He was
also an instinctual play and I think that's what he
supported also in Novak, and that's what he will supporting Rebecca.
And I just think that type of work needs a
little bit of time in getting used to it and
finding the trust in Goran and in herself, and then
she will be.
Speaker 1 (11:52):
Whoa look out where Yeah, beware, beware, listen. And I
think she's gonna be sneaky.
Speaker 2 (11:59):
Okay, I think going to be. And she traditionally feels
incredibly well at the Australia I mean final between her
and Rebecca, between Rebecca and it's one of the best
I've ever seen, one of the best women's matches.
Speaker 1 (12:11):
So sabal Anca favorite going in. Loves Australia, loves the
court there, loves the atmosphere, loves the people.
Speaker 2 (12:19):
So particular about her off seasons and that's what I
love about her. There is a reason why she always
she there's a reason she always plays her best in Australia.
She really is accurate and precise about her off season.
She works on weaknesses, she improves her game, she develops
her game and that's why she plays so well.
Speaker 1 (12:40):
So we're both in agreement that she's the favorite.
Speaker 2 (12:42):
Is there a player dark horse?
Speaker 1 (12:45):
Is there a dark horse in the tournament that you
feel like we're not talking about at all?
Speaker 2 (12:52):
What is with she plays? Yeah?
Speaker 1 (12:55):
I don't know what's not with. I think Maria Sakari
and we were talking like players that were ranked two
and three in the world essentially like two years ago.
You know, Bodosa is coming back from injury. She certainly
played a great last six months of the year.
Speaker 2 (13:08):
I see her doing making a quarter final. I was
just really weirded out, to be honest, with how she
played the quarterfinal against Emma na Vara at the US Open.
Did you see that?
Speaker 1 (13:20):
Yeah, I commentated the match. She tanked to the last
couple of games. That was the worst display of tennis
sportsmanship slash. I was so shocked, and she didn't even
run for the ball on match point, and I was
sitting in the stands, fairly certain I could have got
over the stands, got on the court and still got
to that drop.
Speaker 2 (13:37):
It was not a good rupture.
Speaker 1 (13:38):
It was terrible. She just started walking in an Emma.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
This is her biggest strength, Emma. She reads energies of
matches like nobody else.
Speaker 1 (13:46):
I actually called that when it was I think it
was five to one in the second sec. I was like, ah,
this is an ova. It was weird. It was like
she just because she's polo. Badosa is a type of
player that's very easy to read emotionally. You know, where's
Emma's not.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Yeah, she has the stress in her face right away.
Speaker 1 (14:04):
The eyes bobbed, and also she's like looking at her
you know, up at her box the whole time when
she wasn't doing well, like going five one, five two,
five three, and then I got to six five down,
she comes off the chair, walks to serve to go
into a tie break. I mean she can still win
to stay. Yeah, she didn't even look at her people.
I'm like, you haven't been looking at them NonStop for
five games, and then now when you're really in trouble,
(14:24):
like going to serve for the say, in the match,
you're not even looking at them. I was like, I'm
so confused by you.
Speaker 2 (14:29):
Yeah, I mean, you know, I think I told you
many times that Paula Badosa is my favorite player under
w Tator. I think she's incredibly charismatic with arena. I
think the friendship friendship makes total sense. And I played her.
I had the questionable privilege to play her twice and
matches before I retired, and she was playing well at
(14:50):
that time, she was coming at she won her first
title when she beat me in the first round of Belgrade.
And I was like, and because I was always a
very tennis IQ player, you know I didn't I had
limitations and talents.
Speaker 1 (15:02):
So I had to wake up for you and your
negative Yeah.
Speaker 2 (15:05):
But you know I always was like looking for weaknesses,
how can I exploit them? Pala Barosa doesn't have a
weakness when she's playing well. The only weakness she has
is her emotions. But tennis wise, she has a good forehand,
she has a great backhand, She's moving fantastic, she's a
great athlete, she has a fantastic serf. There is when
she's in a good emotional space, she's a pretty competitor
(15:26):
since she's been before. Yeah, okay, but for like, generally
from the baseline where she plays normally, she doesn't have
a weakness, and then she what she also has is
a natural change of rhythm in her ground strokes. Because
the forehand is very heavy, the black backhand is quite flat,
so she doesn't even have to do any change of
rhythm because she has that in her game. But I
(15:48):
have to say from favorite player in the w t Ato,
when I saw that match, not so much anymore. I
was really ticked off by that.
Speaker 1 (15:59):
I was, and I still can't believe she didn't run
for that ball on match point. It's still to me
to this day.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
It's just what I feel bad because I know it's
like this emotional self destruction. No, I don't thought that
she's like tanking throwing the match, but the looks.
Speaker 1 (16:13):
I know she tanked that match. Like sorry, I mean,
I know, we always try and be positive, we always
try and err on the side of like we get
it where I was a mental midget half the time,
but that was unacceptable. If I was her coach, I'd
be like, excuse me, you didn't run for the ball
on match point to go to juice to get to
a tiebreak to possibly get to the semi finals of
(16:34):
the US Open. Sorry, unacceptable. And I don't care if
you're like feel bad about yourself. I mean, we all
know what it feels like to be out there and
getting killed, but you're not getting killed. You just played
five bad games, but you're still six or five in
the second set of a quarterfinal, like unacceptable anyway, speaking
of the person she beat lost to, Sorry, Emmaavarro, what
do we think her chances are next year? Because I'll
(16:55):
tell you what. I just watched her play here at
Madison Square Garden and Jess Pagola, who look at hadn't
been playing a lot and was coming back with the
knee injury, and she's all good now. But boy, boy,
oh boy, she's just got everything.
Speaker 2 (17:10):
She can do everything.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
She's sort of like Jasmine Paulini. She's not tall, she's
got a beautiful service motion, unbelievable forehand, her fourhand now
down the line has improved so much because she used
to only really do that buggy with forehand cross care.
Now she can go line, she can go across. Her
back end's great, she can slice, she can volley, she
moves unbelievable, she's incredible shape, like she's like Jasmine Pauline.
(17:32):
So you can't tell me she can't make finals.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
What is her ranking now?
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Her ranking is she is number eight in the world. Yeah,
you got Jess Pagola at seven in the world. Emminavara
at eight, and you've got Cocoa Gough at three. You've
got three Americans inside the top ten. Unbelievable.
Speaker 2 (17:48):
I think that she's just a bit behind the best
five players in the world right now. But I definitely
see her making the quarters and with a good jar,
one of the favorites losers early years.
Speaker 1 (17:59):
She can do well in Australia.
Speaker 2 (18:00):
I think so too. I think the thing with her,
what her biggest strength is, by far, in my opinion,
is what I just said. She reads energies of a game.
That's why she keeps beating Cocoa Goth because she it's
like a predator in the woods. She smells the nervousness.
Well yeah, she smells the nervousness on the other side,
and then she just it was the same against Paula
five to one. Paula started getting nervous and Emma Navarro
(18:24):
just didn't miss a single bond. She went for good.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Yeah, I see you, yeah, I see.
Speaker 2 (18:29):
She went through the middle of the court, okay, depth,
not too fast, not too slow, made a lot of
first serves and whoops back to five.
Speaker 1 (18:36):
On whoopsie Daisy, All right, I think you know, I mean.
Speaker 2 (18:40):
That casts for me. Miro Andreva just want to see
how she does, just because she beat on Chabel last
year and really likes Austra and Open but has to
defend some points. So we'll see that she.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Is sixteen in the world currently and that's pretty incredible
her year old. She's sixteen, isn't she.
Speaker 2 (18:54):
I mean she's sixteen twelve?
Speaker 1 (18:57):
Yeah, pretty much. If she's sixteen, she's sixteen. She's seventeen
right now, she'll be eighteen in April, so hell pretty
good when you're seventeen in your rank sixteen.
Speaker 2 (19:07):
I'm gonna throw two more words at you.
Speaker 1 (19:10):
Okay Wordskova. Carolina Mukova, Oh yeah, can she have one?
Okay tennis God's tennis Gods, if you're listening to our podcast,
do me a favor. Give Carolina Mukhova twelve fucking months
without an injury, please, dear God, tennis god's one year,
(19:31):
just one year. I want to see how well she
can do. Yeah, because that girl can win a Grand Slam.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
Yeah, of course you can. But on the other hand,
she hasn't won a title.
Speaker 1 (19:42):
Not one.
Speaker 2 (19:42):
I think she has no nine. Really, maybe she has won,
but I'm gonna look it up in the meantime.
Speaker 1 (19:48):
I love that we do that mid mid podcast, like
god forbid.
Speaker 2 (19:51):
We yeah, because you always come up with all these names.
I'm going to throw two crazy curveballs at you than
male Collins. What she has done this year plus Diana
or Diana said, I.
Speaker 1 (20:06):
Think's a top twenty player possibility. I don't think that.
I don't think she can be top ten. I think
there's too many players that are week in and week
out better than her week in and week out. Could
she get there?
Speaker 2 (20:17):
Maybe she has won Sorry just about Mukhova. She has
won one WT. It was in Europe in South Korea
twenty ninety. I wasn't even fifty, so.
Speaker 1 (20:28):
I wasn't even close to fifty. Yeah, Look, she has
to get over the hurdle of winning a title. You
are that, You were absolutely right. She's been to a
final of a Grand Slam at the French Open, where
she played one of the best matches we've seen in
a long time against Eager, So I do think that's
possible for her to win a Grand Slam. But winning tournaments,
but Petco, she has to be fucking injury less.
Speaker 2 (20:52):
It's the worst to be able.
Speaker 1 (20:54):
To get you know that that confidence like in her
body to be able to push herself, to be able
to get through. I mean, dear, just tennis God's one favor.
If there's going to be one thing you do next year,
let her have a twelve months without injury.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
God gave peanuts to people with our teeth. He gave
Carolina Muhoa all this talent and potential and just forgot
to give her also a body that holds up in
the crazy world of changing surfaces and tennis balls. Why God,
why why do bad things always happen?
Speaker 4 (21:27):
Anyway?
Speaker 1 (21:56):
Listen? Okay, So that's it. I mean, we could talk
about twenty more other players, because God knows when it
comes to the women's to it, it can happen. Let's
quickly get to the guys, the fellas, the blokes, the mates,
the lads, the kiddos. Yannick Sinner overwhelming favorite for me too,
at least Raina.
Speaker 2 (22:15):
I think the Australian Open is made for him in
terms of surface, in terms of ball, in terms of
I think he used to struggle there before he got
incredibly physically fit and in shape, but now even the
temperature doesn't seem to affect him. The only thing I
see if we have a forty two degree type of
day in Melbourne with the dry heat, he can turn
(22:37):
a little ginger in the face as well as his hair.
Speaker 1 (22:40):
Yeah, but guess what, like if it's that hot, they
just close the roof.
Speaker 2 (22:43):
Mate, all right, it's all different, yeah, deliver.
Speaker 1 (22:46):
These guys are pussies, let's face it. These a week.
Speaker 2 (22:51):
Well, So I went, I played.
Speaker 1 (22:52):
When I and we saw it was going to be
forty two degrees, we were like and for Americans, that's
like one hundred and ten degrees. We were like, oh
my god, I'll never forget playing one match there. Sorry
to interrupt you, no, but there was one match there
that I played. And I remember walking out of the
locker room outside because we've coursed downstairs in the air conditioning,
and then you go out to play the match, and
(23:14):
I remember saying to myself, sitting down, taking my racket
out of my bag, and I literally said, dear God,
please help me today. It was so hot. And you know,
there's no oh, you know we're gonna stop after the
second set, or you know, we're not going to play
tennis today because it's too hot. We're like, too bad, deal,
with it. Thank God. I won that match in straight sets,
but I'll never forget that. I sat down and goes, please,
(23:36):
please God, Please God, it was so hot.
Speaker 2 (23:39):
Well. I had also wanted to tell a similar anecdote.
I played one time against Magdalena Ribarikova in such a
heat that when I touched my bobby pins, my skin
got stuck to the bobby pin of the That's how
hot it was. So my bobby pin was melting and
when I act sent touched it, my skin got attached
(24:02):
to the bobby pinuins like, that's how hard it was.
Speaker 3 (24:07):
And I always, I swear to God, I always say,
when it's really hard in Australia, we're two degrees away
from somebody frying a fucking egg.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
They've done it, They've done it.
Speaker 2 (24:19):
Oh, they always do it.
Speaker 3 (24:21):
Every single Australian broadcast channel fries and egg on the
center God to show how hot it is. And it's like,
haven't we done that, literally sixteen years in a row.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Just letting people know how bloody hot it is now Australia.
Speaker 2 (24:36):
I can't wait to be back.
Speaker 1 (24:37):
I am looking forward to actually seeing to how this
Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Little situation. Yeah, it is also
going to pan out now when you think about the
fact that Novak Djokovic, the greatest player of all time,
the amount of Grand Slamsy's one tournaments is one all
the things, has did not win one tournament last year
(25:01):
but the Olympics.
Speaker 2 (25:02):
Yeah crazy, And to be fair, you also played like
three tournaments.
Speaker 3 (25:06):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
Well, and I want to actually publicly say you were right.
He'd only played like twelve or ten tournaments. Yeah, because
but the ATP side had him at eighteen. So ATP
site and WTA sites, you guys both suck. Okayoo the
worst you guys suck. You need new social media people
(25:28):
because your websites are horrendous because I looked it up.
It's at eighteen, but he only played I think ten
or twelve. Yeah, because you know, somebody wrote to me,
Bunch wrote to me. It was like, oh, Petko was right,
and I was like, she was and I need to
publicly say you were correct. You and the fact that
he made the ATV finals only played ten tournaments isn't embarrassing.
Speaker 2 (25:46):
That was my entire point.
Speaker 1 (25:47):
I know, I'm so sorry you anyways, I totally screwed
you over there.
Speaker 2 (25:51):
Yeah, but this is it's not your fault, it's the
ATP exactly well, both ATP and so back.
Speaker 1 (25:57):
To him winning this Strain and Open. Obviously we know
that it's the tournament that he plays his best tennis
out he plays great everywhere, but he's won that ten times,
which is outrageous. I mean, the only person that you
can even talk about in the same category is of
course Ruffil winning fourteen French Opens. But the fact that
he's won ten Australian Opens, which I would argue and
(26:18):
say it might even be as impressive, if not more impressive.
I probably can't say more impressive because fourteen French Opens
is outrageous. But everybody plays pretty.
Speaker 2 (26:29):
Well on hardcore, Yeah that's true, you know, whereas when
you roll up freshest from the off season.
Speaker 1 (26:34):
I mean, now American can play in clay. They kin't
even slide, So you're ruling out like thirty percent of
people you know, or even Australians or people that grow
up playing on hard court barely don't even know what
the fuck they're doing on clay, whereas everyone really can
play on hard court. You know, even the Europeans have
to go indoors. They play indoors on hardcore. So the
fact that he's won ten austrain Opens is just mind boggling.
(26:55):
Kenny win eleven.
Speaker 2 (26:57):
So my prediction for Novak next year, I don't know
why I'm on these predictions. I normally always like and
wish you wash you about.
Speaker 1 (27:03):
Everything for someone you're becoming very German.
Speaker 2 (27:06):
I am very German. That's terrible. Well anyways, so my
prediction for Novak is that he will not give a
flying f about any of the tournaments except for the
Australian Open and Wimble Wimbledon, and he will make a
huge push with everything he's still got left in that
cute forty year old body of his. We'll put everything
(27:28):
into winning one of these, try and get to twenty five.
Speaker 1 (27:31):
And then drop the mic out.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (27:33):
I hope to god he does that. Like I'm not
kidding you. If you want see Strain Open, I would
like him to drop the mic and then just go.
You know what, I've been to Australia for twenty years now,
I'm going to go and see the country and I'm
going to take my whole family on a holiday.
Speaker 2 (27:45):
Yeah fucking Then he goes on Aya's Rock. Is that
things as rockyh.
Speaker 1 (27:50):
Yeah, uhlaru they call it now, but yeah, I would.
I would really love to see Novak win one more
because God knows, I want that Margaret Court record to
be never talked about ever again. Because they changed the goalpost.
It was always Stephanie Graff. Steffie Graff. Yeah, twenty two
Grand slams. Who's going to do that? I mean, who's
going to do that at twenty She did that at
twenty nine.
Speaker 2 (28:09):
I just have to tell you one of your I
know Stephie, isn't that We never talk about her because
she won the Golden Slam. Yeah, nobody has achieved that.
No one will ever do that.
Speaker 1 (28:19):
No, I mean Novak tried bloody close, but he didn't
want a gold that year. He lost his mind And.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
Actually he didn't want a Grand Slam either.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
No, he ended up losing in the finals of the
US Open, but he came very close to winning a Calendar.
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Slam, right, but that year, yes, true?
Speaker 1 (28:35):
Right?
Speaker 2 (28:35):
And I think actually done.
Speaker 1 (28:36):
Yeah, I actually think him playing the Olympics heard him there,
ah right, Yeah, because he wanted it so badly. If
he'd only known he was going to do it three
years later. Yeah, but listen, I think that Novak, it's
going to be really interesting because let's face it, and
you and I've always talked about you in particular, at
a certain age, your body just doesn't allow you to
play best of five. That's why him having the luxury,
(29:01):
well not the luxury, but the fact that it was
best of three sets at the Olympics in Paris, I
think really helped him.
Speaker 2 (29:07):
So I think for him to achieve that extra title,
which I think he can definitely, he needs to be
a bit lucky. And that sounds no, no, he needs
to be lucky in the first week to contain energy.
You need, you know, he needs to have a jaw
where he cruised because if he has tough right, but
(29:30):
even but he had terrible people. He didn't play a
guy in the top two hundred in the first but
that's what. But he didn't He lost a set in
the second round against a guy, an Irish guy I
ranked three hundred in the world. I call that much.
That was weird. But I mean he was injured, he
was on one leg. But now he will be fit,
he will be at one hundred percent. He will come
from off season, he will have trained amazingly. He will
(29:52):
have any Murray in his box, and so all the
negative energy will be trapped in the playoffs box, not
on the court and the persona of any Murray. And
and I think he just needs to get a little
lucky in the first week. So he contains energy in
a sense that he cruises through the first four rounds,
let's say, and then can focus on because he might
(30:14):
play on Alcaraz, might play a Center or whoever, and
then is like at his full powers there, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:19):
Because I'm looking at the siege. You've got Center, You've
got Zverev at number two in the world. Now, I
mean we know that he's capable of obviously making the
Semis and finals. Look at his best, he is really good.
But he has a problem with playing Taylor Fritz. He
has a problem playing with you know, against Alcorazes and
the Cinners. Now, I don't know if he can win
(30:41):
the Australian Open. But you know, then you've got Alcaraz
at three. We'll see how physically he is. And you know,
I don't know if you heard this, but he said
the Charlotte Exhibition he just did a couple of days ago.
He said, well, you know, this year was tough and
Stevens looked at him as like, boy, what she's like,
She's a friend, what are you talking about? And of
(31:01):
course Francis Taufo is like, god, I hope I have
a hope terrible year like that, But he was more
talking about his injuries and there's the ups and downs
that he had. So it'll be interesting to see how
Carlos responds to that next year, because obviously winning the
French Open and wimbleder is just unheard of. It's such
a hard thing to do. But he has some question
marks about playing on the hard courts against sinners, against Zverevs,
(31:24):
against these guys that have really big power, and that's
the one knock on there's a couple of knocks that
I have on Carlos, and this is you know again,
we're talking about at the highest of level.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Yeah, we're talking about the best players in the world.
Speaker 1 (31:39):
I think he he's not a big guy, right, He's
only like my high He's like five ten, five eleven.
He needs to develop a little bit of a flatter
serve and I think he needs to develop his serf
better and he needs to hit his spots better, right,
I mean, Roger's not it wasn't a big guy.
Speaker 2 (31:56):
Six foot Roger, but he has such an accurate but.
Speaker 1 (31:59):
He could hit the corners like nobody else. And I
think Carlos needs to get his accuracy with his serving better.
And if he doesn't hit the corners better, he's not
getting free points. Yannick Sinner gets free point after free point.
It's very free point after free point with these big,
massive serves. So I think Alcarez on a fast court,
like a hard court like this Train Open and like
the US Open, he needs to get more accurate with
(32:20):
the first serve and he needs to develop a flatter,
harder serve. I also think he needs to really get
just a little bit better at his shot selection, just
on the biggest of moments.
Speaker 2 (32:29):
Remember when I said he's a play child and you
yelled at me, you said he want more slams than
Roger at this time, and now you're kind of ross me.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
Well, no, because I bet you Roger probably was a
little bit like that as.
Speaker 2 (32:41):
Well, like a little flashy, a little bit over.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
The top, you know. And then he's like, ah, I
want to win these matches, so I probably should just
hit that fourhand in and cross court.
Speaker 2 (32:48):
Well, that forehand also would create so much power to
almost completely straight arm is what sometimes hurts him on
these flat, quick surfaces. And he the guy he lost
to in Paris was you go in bed, and he
said afterwards in the press, corms man. This guy plays
the flattest of all and on this quick surface, it's
just too quick and flat to me. Basically for me
(33:09):
and Austrian openplays similar. The one quibble I have with
Carlos is what the others don't have. Zverev doesn't have
even a tailor doesn't have. Janick definitely doesn't have a
Novak definitely doesn't have. When Carlos is bad, he's fucking horrendous.
Speaker 1 (33:24):
Yeah, he misses, he is horrendous.
Speaker 2 (33:27):
He can't he doesn't have a plan B where he like,
you know, like Rafa, just put the ball in on
the service line, run it down and wait until the
other guy self destructs, because you are still Carlos Alcaraz
who's won four slams, but he then can't make a
ball anymore. He's double faulting, he's missing, he doesn't even
get into a rally. And so when Carlos is bad,
he's so bad and this low level he's off.
Speaker 1 (33:49):
That's what a lot of matches to people he should
not have.
Speaker 2 (33:52):
Yeah, and in my opinion, at the highest level he's
probably the best player. He has a three and zero
against Janick Senna, who was by far the best player
this season at his best. But the problem is at
his low level, he can still lose to Jakob Menzig. Yeah,
and to you know, to like not random guys. Those
are great players. But a Yanick Sinner would not lose
to a Yako Manzig probably. No.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
I mean, you saw Yanix record the last how many
matches he hasn't lost a set?
Speaker 2 (34:16):
Yeah, he lost six matches and three of those were
too Carlos, And one of those was against Stephanos Titipas
where he actually got cheated on a double fauld of
Titsipass and would have been a double break up for one.
Speaker 1 (34:27):
And I know that was such a joke. That was
the worst in Monte Carlo. Look, I think the bottom
line is I think with Carlos, he's so fun and
exuberant and joyous on the court that he gets a
little bit too exuberant and joyous and a little bit
too showy. He's a play child, and that in and
of itself is why we love him. But it is
(34:48):
the one area that if is really going to lock
in and win a lot more. And we are we
are again, we are we are so like pulling at
little strings here because if but he's young, that part
of his game that you're talking about, the play child stuff.
I hope he never loses the joy, but that's where
he just needs to be a little bit disciplined, because
(35:09):
Yannick is so disciplined, which is why he doesn't lose matches.
Speaker 2 (35:12):
And actually it's a really it's going to be an
interesting but I think very accurate analogy. You mentioned something
about just me and Paulini why she's so good now
at twenty eight because she had all the shots at
her disposal and she needed a bit of time to
put them into perspective. And Carlos, who's obviously maybe the
most talented guy I've ever seen play in real life.
(35:33):
He will probably play his best tennis in three years,
which is shocking because he's already won fource. I know,
it's crazy as the number one Norse, so he's going
to be the best his kick can be in four years.
Speaker 1 (35:43):
It's crazy. I mean, we are definitely like grasp on
it strokes. I know we are, but anyway, so yeah,
so that's what we're here for.
Speaker 2 (35:50):
We' Yanick is.
Speaker 1 (35:51):
Definitely the favorite. I think that nobody.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
Do you think about Danie Omeda that if he didn't
win a single tournament in this year.
Speaker 1 (35:58):
To be worrying about him? Actually, yeah, me too, and
I love him so much. But we'll see. Look, he
lost at the Strain Open in the final last year.
If he plays anything like he did last year, he'll
certainly be knocking on the door of the semison finals again.
He's such a great hardcourt player. The court will suit
him again, the thing and he lost because he ran
out of legs last year. The guy was up two
sets of love in the final.
Speaker 2 (36:19):
I think with him, I think with Daniel the problem
is that he used to so his tennis is so
demanding physically, and he used to get a lot of
three points on a surf and he doesn't any longer.
And the reason for that is I think he doesn't
want to say, but I think he's struggling with his
back or shoulder. And the reason I say that is
at the French Open, I was sitting on on a
(36:40):
press conference and he said something. He's so secretive in this,
which I honestly appreciate because so many are like just
to have an excuse, and he didn't. He just said,
you know, I wasn't able because somebody hit him with
the stat I don't remember who he was. So he's like, well,
you used to win this amount of three points on
your first serf and it's dropped to this amount, and
he said, yeah, I know that. I'm very aware of
(37:02):
this number. I'm trying to work on it. Unfortunately, something
kept me from training from practicing the surf as much
as I used to. You know, he said that at
the French Open, and I think he's ever said anything
about it ever again after that, I haven't heard it,
and I like to listen or look up press conferences.
So that was like almost a slip that he didn't
(37:23):
want to say, but he did say it, which makes
me think maybe has some physical issue that he doesn't
want to talk about that he's preventing him from serving
his best. And I think when you play such a
physically demanding game, you are just in need, desperate, need
a few free points, yes, sir, for.
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Sure, especially the way he plays. Oh my god, all right, well,
Taylor Fritz. I really do think that he's going to
be a threat at the Strain and Open. It's a
good court for him. He likes the heat. He grew
up you know, in California. It's you know, Melbourne's pretty similar.
I think he's going to be a real threat, And
I think he really learned a lot about himself and
what he's capable of at the US Open. And I
don't know, I just I feel, like, you know how,
(38:03):
I feel he's got to come into the net a
little bit more. He's got to finish off those points.
He's got to improve his volleys, just the finishing shots.
But I do think that he is capable of winning
a Slam next year. But I think it has everything.
Speaker 2 (38:16):
Has to kind of be right, has to come together.
You know.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
That's not the case for Yanick. I think Yanick is
able to like fight through those things a particular in hardcourt. Look,
you know, Caspar Rude, whatever, Rube Lev, you know, Alex Demonor.
He'll certainly be, you know, playing great in Australia. He
loves playing down there, he loves the support. Grigor Dimitrov
is in the top ten again, which is an amazing
effort after you know, the last few years. I'm really
(38:40):
proud of it.
Speaker 2 (38:41):
See if things go right, I see a little semi
final for him at this year.
Speaker 1 (38:45):
It's certainly possible. He's played great down there through the years.
But anyway, we will wrap it up. Who's your dark horse?
I know who you're going to say.
Speaker 2 (38:54):
My my dark horse as Ben Shelton. A fashionable dark
horse is Jack Jack Draper. I knew it.
Speaker 1 (39:00):
I know it. You like the big serving lefties, don't you.
Speaker 2 (39:03):
I do. So I just hope and I pray that
Ben Shelton will come together because what we've had in
the double not so much any longer, but we thought
the most longest time had on the WTA, we always
had one person that hits so big that when a
top three player got them in the second round, everyone
kind of held their breath. Yea like a Camilla Georgie,
(39:25):
you know, or a career.
Speaker 1 (39:26):
Well, Ben's going to be twenty one is the twenty.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
First yes, And I think that's it's always good to
have one chaotic player in the draw so that everyone
has a second day in the Grand Slam tournament where
they go like, oh, oh my god, the Bok is
playing Ben Shelton or you know what I mean. This
is not going to happen, obviously because he is a
seated player, but still.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
He said it. But you're going to get him in
the third.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
Round exactly, third or fourth round. And that's why I
think he's so important. I think with Jack, I honestly
I just like him as a player and as a personality.
I don't think he will do so well at the
Austria and Open in a sense of I think he
will do fourth round, but not better, because man, this
guy cramps every single time. How is he going to
do that? Of Melbourne last year? It was really cool?
(40:10):
Remember that. Yes, if I ran out of things to
wear in day two, which was greatly planned by me,
I had planned for summer. If it's the same thing
that it just so happens that summer hits later because
of climate change. I do think he will get to
the second round week. But if it's not and he
plays somebody who makes the rallies long, I think he
will struggle in the heat of the Australian.
Speaker 1 (40:32):
I agree why I agree on those two duck horses,
my big duck hoss, and we'll finish after this is
Alex Popprun. I think he's going to have a really
good Australian Open. I think he's really starting to mature.
He's really starting to become a player that a lot
of people don't want to play, huge surf, huge fourhand
is going to have the support of the Australian crowd.
So I think of all the Aussies other than Alex Demono,
I think that look out for Alex. I think he
(40:54):
could do some damage. And he's had shitty draws there.
You know what Novak Drakovic like second round, you know,
so he's going to be seeded twenty four, so he
won't he won't get a seat until like the third round.
Speaker 2 (41:06):
So what about another.
Speaker 1 (41:09):
That's right, he's coming back.
Speaker 2 (41:11):
First, will he actually come back? Will he be able
to play? And second, how will he do?
Speaker 1 (41:16):
Listen, if he's fit and he's hitting the ball well
and he can move, you can beat anybody. But best
of five.
Speaker 2 (41:25):
Will still nowadays, now he's not twenty four anymore.
Speaker 1 (41:28):
If he's not training, as they say, time will tell,
my friend, time will tell. We'll see.
Speaker 2 (41:35):
Well that ends, well, we'll see.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
And you've got to as I said at the start,
you've got to hate to lose, and so he has
to hate to lose more than he likes the flashiness
of winning. So we will see does he lose you thing? No,
I think he loves winning. Nobody likes losing. Okay, there's
not one player that goes, oh yeah, I love losing.
But you've got to hate losing, like hate it, And
I'm not sure he hates it as much as he
(41:57):
loves well.
Speaker 2 (41:58):
Does he hate it? Sitting through three days in your
hotel room with curtain strawn, eating pizza from three days ago,
watching French movies, crying yourself to sleep.
Speaker 1 (42:08):
Wow, so you just outed yourself. Thanks for that anyway.
All right, well, well listen, we are really pumped. We cannot
wait to get down to Australia.
Speaker 2 (42:18):
We will be there for you and we will be
together again.
Speaker 1 (42:20):
And we will be together again. We will be bringing
you daily hits. We hope it will be as interesting
hopefully as it can be at eleven pm sometimes one
am in the morning, but get up with us early.
All those people you're gonna be working for Eurosports World
Feed or you'll be the World Feed, so you'll get
(42:41):
her all over the world that speaks English and of
course in America, you'll get me on ESPN, so we
really appreciate you. We're going to bring all the coverage
to you at Melbourne at the Australian Open in Melbourne.
Sorry for everybody who's going to be suffering away in
the cold of Europe and in the United States, but hey,
you can always get on a plane and join us
down in Australia. Let's trust me, it's worth it. Good
(43:02):
day made, good day mate, I'll see you. Say good bye.
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