February 25, 2025 • 48 mins
We give deserved standing ovations to the players who've gotten their inner games of tennis together—looking at you Mirra Andreeva, Andrey Rublev and of course, Madison Keys! Also a slightly inappropriate discussion of the hottest tennis match ever, a brief detour through South America and we'll see you in Indian Wells!
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Episode Transcript
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Rennae Stubbs (00:14):
One, two, one two, Hi everybody, Welcome to the Rennae
Stubbs Tennis podcast. I am, of course Rennae Stubbs with the
Australian accent, and I am joined today by Caitlin Thompson.
We are in my apartment here in New York. We've
got a couple of weeks of great tennis, and we've
also got some amazing tennis to preview and to come
(00:35):
in the next few weeks with Indian Wells and Miami.
But of course everyone's in Mexicor right now or in
just finished in South America, your favorite stop, Caitlin. So
let's get to it. Let's get to what happened last week.
Mira Andreva. Do we want to start with the youngest
ever winner of a WTA one thousand. First of all,
when they said that, I was like what, I had.
Caitlin Thompson (00:56):
To see the stats? She beat Maria Sharipova by like
three weeks.
Rennae Stubbs (01:00):
Yeah, well it still wins. She still wins.
Caitlin Thompson (01:03):
Totally, which is great. I hope she goes on to
have the career Maria Sharipova dead. She I suspect she
might have even a higher ceiling. Mirra Andreeva has all
the tools, the scary good and when she puts it
all together, which we hadn't seen her do for the
consecutive amount of matches that she.
Rennae Stubbs (01:22):
Did just now and do.
Caitlin Thompson (01:23):
I'm thrilled for her, not only because we like her game.
Rennae Stubbs (01:27):
She's a good kid.
Caitlin Thompson (01:28):
It's awesome to see her coach to success by Conchita Martinez, which.
Rennae Stubbs (01:33):
Is gonna be like that fan favorite.
Caitlin Thompson (01:34):
We can keep unpacking it, but I think headline for
me is when a player's tools come together so cohesively
like they have done, which specifically I mean her all
court play, her hands, her sense of point construction. You know,
anybody can go out there and look good hitting random balls.
(01:55):
When you see somebody composed and being able to match
after match beat the kind of players she beat on
the read of this title, that's an indication that, oh
she's she's doing a lot more than hitting balls. She's
composed and putting really, really impressive performances together. And that part,
I think for me is the most exciting.
Rennae Stubbs (02:12):
Yeah, exactly. I think the thing that I wanted to
talk about overall for her results, I mean those results
last week be is Look, she's been sort of knocking
on the door over the last couple of months. It's
been taken out by Sabalenka a couple of times in Australia.
Caitlin Thompson (02:28):
Who hasn't?
Rennae Stubbs (02:29):
Who hasn't, And you could sort of see that she
it was kind of like a heavyweight playing against a
middleweight in the boxing ring. It just knew that like
didn't quite have the power, didn't quite have the strength
to hit through someone like a Sabalenka. But I also
think that, and you hear this a lot from coaches
or from experts to say, look, you've got to have
(02:51):
those matches to know also where you're at and what
you're lacking, right, And it's pretty obvious that at her
age the physicality part will come. There's no doubt about that.
She has decent high She's going to get stronger. I
don't know how much bigger and stronger she'll get, but
there's no doubt. You know that her weight of shot
(03:13):
is going to get better, and her depth of shot
is really good. That's what impresses me about her as well.
Her ball gets deep, you know, into the court, it
gets close to the baseline. Her balls that she hits
down the line are unreal like her back end down
the line is so good. But her as She already
talks about her ability to be able to hit certain shots,
(03:34):
hit the drop shots. Her speed around the court is
only going to get faster, She's only going to get
stronger in that department. But her anticipation skills through the roof.
And one thing, I want to go back to the
Iga Swiatek match for example, that's kind of like, okay, here
we go a manner, a manner kind of thing, like,
how are you going to push back Iga Swiatek's game. Well,
(03:55):
it was pretty obvious what she did. I mean, she
sustained the heavy shots eager, but she also eager. The
one thing about Eager when she gets onto those faster courts,
she panics again. She goes back to sort of panicking,
not hitting the high balls, not hitting some change of pace,
and she's coming. And there was a couple of shots
for example, that she came into the net on and
(04:16):
everybody knows that. Listens to me commentate, you don't go
in on a cross court forehand, right, So when you
hit your forehand cross court and run to the net,
you're a dead duck. I don't care how bad a
player's forehand is, Like my backhand was better than my forehand.
But if you if I'm running to my forehand to
hit a passing shot, I'm going to pass you. I'm
going to hit an angle short, which she did on
(04:37):
one really big point. Or you can hit it. You
can hold the ball a little longer and hit that
curler down the line.
Caitlin Thompson (04:43):
I was taught never to approach on a cross court
shot period because of the angle and the extra time
your opponent has, but especially not on a forehand.
Rennae Stubbs (04:50):
Especially not on a forehand. On a backhand, you can
do it a little bit more because it's a little
bit harder to hit the hard angle off of the backhand.
Most players will hit the running back end down the line.
Having said that, a lot of girls, especially well and guys,
can use that left hand to hit a cross court,
but the bottom line is coming in on the forehand
as a disaster. The reason why Eager does it a
(05:11):
lot is because her grip is so extreme that if
she has a low ball that's short in the court,
it is hard for her to go on the line.
She thinks I can hit it harder hitting across court right,
So she thinks if I hit it hard cross court,
I'm in a better shape, but in actual fact, you're
better off hitting it high with a little bit of
loop down the line, because the ability for an opponent
(05:35):
to hit a winner off that shot is so much
less than the forehand. So there were tactical errors that
Eager also made on really big points by coming in
on the forehand. She got past cross court one time,
and she got passed down the line, and both of
those shots I can't remember the exact points, but they
were quite important, whether they were break points or game points.
And those are the little things that you know, if
(05:56):
I were to coach somebody like an Iga Swiatek, You've got
all of this, but you're you haven't used all the
tools in the toolbox, and well that's going to be
I struggled with that shot. I want to go just
quickly on Sam Stosur that Sam had a very extreme
forehand grip as well. And Sam used to do the
same thing, and we worked on that shot over and over,
and I must have fed her a thousand little shitty
(06:18):
low balls to the forehand and made her hit every
single one of them down the line. And she struggled
with that shot in her career. And then after working
on it a lot. It was a shot that she
never missed. She never missed it because she knew the
reward was there if she went down the line on
that shot. And so I think there's little things like
that that Eager needs to improve on it if she
wants to win on a hard court against the player, Like.
Caitlin Thompson (06:39):
Is that a Wim Fissette shortcoming?
Rennae Stubbs (06:42):
Well, I mean it's a bit of a shortcoming unless
he's not saying I mean, listen, if he's telling her
to come in on the forehand down the line, then
that's on Eager, right, So I don't know. I mean
I will say when I coached Karolina Pliskova, for example,
I said, if you come in cross court and you
get beaten, you owe me one hundred dollars. You know,
I would. I was very adamant with there's certain shots
(07:04):
and listen, the one thing I can teach is how
to come into the net and how to play at
the net. That's what I did for a living. So
it's like, if you want to trust me on this one,
trust me on this one, you know. And so watching
matches with Carolina, for example, we would watch matches and
players would come in on the forehand cross court and
get beaten, and I would just peer at her like
with the one eye, and I know I see it,
(07:25):
you know. So those are sort of little tactical errors
that I think Iga makes, whereas someone like Mirra Andreeva,
on the other hand, is so smart with her shot
selection and her ability to get through that match her
ability to get through against Rybakina as well, and then
of course Towson who's playing really well this year. Those
are three three quality quality.
Caitlin Thompson (07:45):
Wins, agree, and what I liked about them. A couple
of things that I wanted to sort of thirty thousand
foot view about Mirra Andreeva is I think her tennis
intelligence and you basically made the case for it just now,
which is the ability to play the right shot at
the right time. Her tactical sort of approach is really
(08:08):
varied and also super super smart, and I think it's
evident when you hear her speak. And I would love
for you. To get her on the podcast because I
want you to ask her about some of these things
that she's sort of spoken a little bit about, which
you know the difference between playing a Sabalenka who, as
you noted, dismantled her at the Australian open, but in
a way that felt a little bit more competitive than
(08:29):
the past couple of matches. So you can see her
kind of like climbing the She's learning and beating Iga
in this tournament. You know, granted, it's a fast, hard
hardcore and this is not you know, typically like time
to shine in the calendar.
Rennae Stubbs (08:43):
But it was comfortable. It was comfortable.
Caitlin Thompson (08:46):
It didn't feel like a super competitive match. And I
think hearing Mirra Andreeva talk about how different those players
are to play and how therefore she needs to approach
playing them. So Aryna of course can hit her off
the court, because Aryna can hit anybody off the court,
and so playing with more margin, not giving her angles,
creating a little bit more opportunity for herself. Whereas Iga's
(09:06):
ball with more sheep is kind of more similar to
Andreeva's ball, so therefore tactically she needs to force the
issue a little bit, come in, mix it up. I
love the fact that she was so thinky about it.
Maybe it's just because I like nerds she's always been,
but it was really impressive.
Rennae Stubbs (09:21):
She's always been a very headsy player, even for someone
so young. Her biggest issue back in the day was
just losing her mind. I mean, she was so young,
and I never forget and we may have talked about
it on the pod, but I remember when she played
Coco Golf years ago at the French Open and won
the first set, and literally in the second game is
yelling and screaming, like the first or second game of
(09:42):
the second set is like yelling and screaming at her box,
and I'm like, what is going on? You've just won
the first set, Like why what throwing a racket, carrying on?
And you know, of course one person you don't want
to do that against is like someone like Coco Gauff
is like, oh, oh, I got you're younger than me. Yeah,
that's You're not as experience as me. Okay, I'm gonna
win that. That's right. And that's exactly what happened, and
(10:03):
she completely the wheels literally fell off. Whereas now her attitude,
I mean nothing bothers her on the court anymore. She
just like literally walks from one side to the other,
never displays any pissed offness at all. Like it's it's
a remarkable change in the last two to three years,
and I give so much credit to my friend Concita
(10:24):
Martinez one hundred percent.
Caitlin Thompson (10:25):
We talked about her a little bit in the Daria
Kasatkina match in the fall where she lost in the finals.
It was a well contested final, it was high quality tennis,
and Mirra Andreeva was kind of like inconsolable, but not
in a way that read a little bit petulant or
kind of like losing her mind. It was more just
like she cared. She'd been putting the work in, she
was getting close, and she wasn't quite there. And I thought,
(10:47):
and we discussed it at the time as being like, oh,
this is like a symbol of growing maturity, and also
this means a lot to her because she's obviously making
big strides. And I thought we both saw it as
a good sign that she cared and was you know,
gracious into but also like really upset in a way
that was sort of indicative I think of how much
she was going to bring to this season, and so
you know, it's been nice to see her knocking in
(11:08):
the door, as you said, and then kind of punched
through in a really really exciting way. I have to
think that maybe it's just my green tinted glasses here.
But I have to think she's going to be tremendous
on grass.
Rennae Stubbs (11:19):
Yeah, I think she's going to be very good on grass.
Caitlin Thompson (11:23):
That feels like her.
Rennae Stubbs (11:24):
I think her serve, her serve could be a bit bigger,
that's the but you know, she is still young. I
think her serf's very good. It's not a bad surf,
and technically it's a very it's a good serf, and
that you know me, I'm always about the technique because
I know, once the strength comes, once the you know,
winds come, once the experience comes, once all of that
sort of stuff comes, which is it's now has come.
(11:46):
By winning a WTA one thousand and beating the players
that she did, she now has the experience to be
able to tap into that mentally in a Grand Slam,
you know, in a quarter final maybe now and stepping
up in the biggest of stages. She knows it takes.
Now to win a really big match, and to lose
the second set against Rybakina and then come back and
ended up winning in three sets, that to me was
(12:07):
a huge, huge maturity move for her there, and that's
where I think she gained a ton of confidence to
like lose the second set and still come back and
win that match was for me, super impressive. I think
Tauson ran out a little bit of gas. The second
set was pretty clear that she was like okay, kind
of almost throwing in the towel because Andreeva just doesn't
miss either. She's smart and she you know she's out
(12:29):
of position, She'll throw in the sliced forehand. She'll run
out there and hit like that squash forehand. She'll slice
her back in in the court. She knows that she
has the ability to turn offense defense into offense really well.
But I just think, you know, the hard work because
I know how hard Conchita works for players. I know
for a fact because I was one of those players
back in the day, and she You know, if you're
(12:50):
hitting for an hour and fifteen minutes in practice or
an hour and a half on the practice court, you
were hitting for an hour and thirty minutes, you're not
sitting down. You're not sitting there and yacketing on the
side of the court. She is pushing you, can't she
and so I know the work has been put in,
and that's why you know when she plays these long points,
she's not even breathing. She's seventeen years of age, youngest
(13:12):
player since two thousand, the third youngest player since the
year two thousand to be inside of the top ten.
Course Sharapova and Nicole Vaidisova just ahead of her slightly.
But this is a we've been talking about Mira Andreeva
a few years.
Caitlin Thompson (13:26):
Yes, it's exciting, and.
Rennae Stubbs (13:27):
I think the best thing she did was hire Conchita,
and I think that that's only her game is only
going to get better. She's only going to get better,
and I think she's a perennial top ten player for
the rest of her career.
Caitlin Thompson (13:39):
I want to very quickly just end on this note
with Mira Andreeva, which one of the running jokes on
the internet is she's been like seventeen for five years.
Rennae Stubbs (13:49):
She came on to the tour when she was like
fourteen has she's been around for a minute.
Caitlin Thompson (13:53):
But I feel like not to bring this out to
a pop culture lens, but I was sort of it
was refreshing to see like Timothée Chalamet when he one is
and sort of instead of the usual thing like oh
this is you know, so grateful, I'm so grateful. He
was like, yeah, this means a lot to me because
I've been working hard. I want to be one of
the greats. This means something because I want to be
(14:14):
as good as I possibly can be. And it sort
of reminded me of Andreeva a little bit in her
post match conferences where she was like, I want to
thank me, which you're like, yeah, okay.
Rennae Stubbs (14:24):
I thought it was cute.
Caitlin Thompson (14:25):
I thought it was not only cute, but I thought
it was indicative of like a mindset that's like, yeah,
to your point, I've been working my ass off, I've
been knocking on the door. I've been here for a minute.
I've been really, really tactical, and I just got through
two incredibly different players setting aside toss them, but incredibly
different and equally challenging players in Rybakina and Iga Swiatek and
I observe deserve my place in the top ten.
Rennae Stubbs (14:46):
Yeah, here I am. It's an interesting mindset and I
like it because you know, I will say, the one
person that you have that has to believe in you
more than anyone on tour and when you walk on
the tennis court is yourself.
Caitlin Thompson (14:58):
And by the way, that's true in life.
Rennae Stubbs (15:00):
Life, like, for sure have to and you have to.
It's really easy. It's real easy to throw the towel
mentally because you don't think you're good enough or maybe
you're not cut out for this or whatever. It is
clearly that we knew she was going to be good,
but for her to sit up there and stand up
there and say, I want to thank myself for not,
(15:21):
you know, giving in. And there's so many times in
a match during a tournament where you could throw the talent.
Caitlin Thompson (15:27):
And you see it, and you see players do it.
You see the time the door appears for them to
take this sort of easy way out like, oh, I'm
not feeling one hundred percent. There's someone in the audience—look
at Nick Kyrgios I mean, that guy's never played a
match where he didn't have an opportunity to throw in
the towel and almost always took it. Like there's so
many ways to fail to meet the moment with courage
(15:48):
to push through your fear. And this again is true
in life. And I just really love and I really
want to embrace. It's why I got so emotional watching
Sabalenka work through her yips on her serve. It's when
you get so tied up and watching Coke come back
and believe and then take a stride against somebody like
Ego who had kind of had her number for a time.
You know, it's it's really encouraging to me. It's really
(16:08):
encouraging and really impressive to see people bet on themselves
and push through stuff that's hard, because that's the part
that's so relatable. I can't relate to playing as well
as any of these players ever will, but I can
relate to the idea of pushing through something when you
when you face adversity and thinking yourself is really a
cool move.
Rennae Stubbs (16:23):
You can you can relate? Would you say?
Caitlin Thompson (16:29):
And in life again, Like to me, there's so many
translatable moments. So I just I'm really excited about Mirra Andreeva.
And I think anybody who listened to the press conference
could think of it as like cheeky or maybe arrogant.
But if I'm one of her opponents, I'm thinking, oh, she's. Here, yeah,
like Timothee
Rennae Stubbs (16:46):
It's interesting because I think one of the things that
most people would be afraid of with Madison Keys for example,
off of these string open was that you know we
were all talking about, Yes, she's changed the racket, the
strings are changed, well, she changed the strings like months
nine months prior, but those string patterns inside a new
racket for example, and with this new step up service
(17:07):
motion for example. Like we're all talking about those things
and how much they've helped her, but then her talking
about after the tournament how she went to therapy, not
sports therapy. A lot of tennis players do have a
sports psychologist or whatever, but she said, no, no, I
went to a therapist, like I needed to know why
I was getting anxious on the court. I needed to
know why I needed it so badly. I need to
(17:28):
know all of that. And you've got to tap into
your past to know that. I mean sure you and
I both know this. We both meant the therapy. It's like,
you've got to understand where is it coming from? Right?
Why are some players able to meet a moment and
look at it and not be freaking out or panicking
and some are just like they look like robots. Well,
(17:49):
everybody's feeling the same thing. It's what you tell yourself
in those moments, and you know looking back. And I
have the pleasure of talking to Madison in a couple
of days and we're going to get it out. Sorry,
we're going to get it out in next week before
Indian Wells an interview. But it'll be interesting to talk
to her about how much that influenced her. And there's
(18:10):
no doubt after watching her for years and years and
years hyperventilate on the court, panic on the court, her
the difference in her demeanor. Even if you I've rewatched
the Austrain Open three times, really yeah, because I just
loved it so much. And you know, when you're working it, Caitlin,
it's like you're loving it so much, but you're you're
also tactically looking at things to be able to put
(18:32):
out to the audience and tell people you're not just
sitting back and going holy shit. I mean I was
going holy shit the whole time, but but you know,
it was nice to sit back and actually watch it again.
And so I think I think these players that say,
like Mia saying I want to thank myself, it's the
same with Madison, she should say. And I might bring
it up to her about Mirra's comment about that, because
(18:54):
it was also something that Petko said in the podcast
after the Australin Open when I said, you know all
these things and she said yeah, But Rennea, she's the
one that had to do everything. She's the one that
had to decide to change the racket. She's the one
that had to decide to go to therapy. Like everyone can,
you can take a horse to water, but Madison's the
one that made those choices. And Mirra Andreeva to me,
is similar in a lot of ways because she was
(19:16):
such a mental case on the court at times and
I was like, is this kid ever going to reel
this in? And now she looks like a completely different player.
I mean, it's the same as Roger Fereer when he
was a junior, he was a psycho and then he
gets to play pro and he's like realized really quickly,
Oh that doesn't work. Yes works. And so that's why
(19:37):
everyone should be afraid of Mirror, and that's why everyone
should be afraid of Madison because mentally, yes, mentally, mentally
they are both switched on to what works now and
what is successful.
Caitlin Thompson (19:47):
I want to transition a little bit to somebody who
I hope we can include in this conversation.
Rennae Stubbs (19:52):
That's why I was going there too, because.
Caitlin Thompson (19:54):
I think you and I have been watching this player.
I am speaking for both of us when I say
we love him. We love I love his game. I'm
sure you too.
Rennae Stubbs (20:02):
I love him.
Caitlin Thompson (20:03):
He hits such a clean ball, he moves really well.
He's a human being, he's complex, and he's interesting, and
he's he's a little Dostoevskian.
Rennae Stubbs (20:12):
And he's got his great hair. He's got great hair.
Caitlin Thompson (20:14):
He sort of looks like a cat on the internet.
But Andrey Rublev, yeah, God bless him.
Rennae Stubbs (20:20):
God bless him.
Caitlin Thompson (20:21):
He's been through it.
Rennae Stubbs (20:22):
God bless him, you know. And I hope someone like
Medvedev is looking at it as well, because you know
he's going through it right now. But Andre Rublev was
like combustible the last couple of months is the right word,
you know. I mean last year he was playing really
good tennis. He was pushing a lot of great players,
he was winning tournaments, and then all of a sudden,
(20:43):
he just had this period of the last few months
where he's just like completely lost. Now I will say
he lost to Fonseca at the Australian Open, which we'll
come back to because we know that Caitlin wants to talk
about her South American swing. But it was so nice
to see Rublev that time, because and he knows exactly
(21:05):
what his weakness is, but it's getting through those moments,
and to win at another tournament beating someone like Jack
Draper in the final was phenomenal. I'm so happy for him.
Caitlin Thompson (21:19):
Phenomenal for me. The experience of watching Andrey Rublev honestly
throughout his career is you're like, man, this guy plays
so incredibly well, how could he ever lose?
Rennae Stubbs (21:30):
And then all of a sudden, little bit too one dimensional.
Caitlin Thompson (21:32):
It's a tiebreak and he loses his mind. Like not
just something goes a little bit off. It's like you're
watching somebody in total command of their body and strokes,
and then they just like everything starts appearing in a
different language. It's like it's really upsetting to watch.
Rennae Stubbs (21:52):
Combustible.
Caitlin Thompson (21:53):
Combustible.
Rennae Stubbs (21:54):
It's like he's like got a gas leak at all times.
Caitlin Thompson (21:57):
It's true, you see the gas leak.
Rennae Stubbs (22:00):
It's seeping through the vents. Everybody, anyone who's watched Clue
knows exactly what I'm talking about. Okay, and if you
don't go watch it, okay, it's a great movie. It's
seeping through He literally is the epitome. Oh my god,
it's seeping through the vents. It's seeping through the vents.
Do not light a match?
Caitlin Thompson (22:15):
Right?
Rennae Stubbs (22:16):
And then all of a sudden nobody likes the match
except him. He literally takes the match out and he goes,
where's the leak coming from? I'm just gonna light it.
Caitlin Thompson (22:24):
Yep, it's it's a it's some kind of self destructive
compulsion that I was thrilled to see him not give into.
And there's a very funny and very widely circulated clip
on the internet right now of him putting a point
away drapers off the court, and he somehow manages to
(22:46):
get a tiny blooper overhead in front of Rubylev, who
can put it away to the open court, and ruby
lev misses the ball entirely, which is Rublevian.
Rennae Stubbs (22:57):
We've seen this before.
And instead of allowing it to completely dismantle him and
get his match book out, he like recomposes himself and
manages to win the match. I feel like that, Yes,
you can make a lot out of one tiny viral
internet clip, but at the same time that far less
has been responsible for a combustion event. Yeah, and the
(23:19):
fact that he didn't have a combustion event in a
tournament against somebody super talented and very, very charismatic and
kind of probably the audience favorite in Jack Draper to me,
was really fantastic. He's a lot of straight women's favorites
and probably does love a little Jack Draper.
Caitlin Thompson (23:39):
He's cute, I get it. Yeah, he wears his clothes
really swagging.
Rennae Stubbs (23:42):
He had the cutest, possibly the cutest match of all
time last week between Matteo Berettini, who had quite a
tournament taking out Djokovic. That's right, and uh and Jack Draper.
I mean, that's pretty. That's a Hugo Boss.
Caitlin Thompson (23:57):
It is very runway, it's very magazine cover.
Rennae Stubbs (24:00):
It's that was that was a good looking even for us, Caitlin,
even for us, even for us. Yeah, yeah, I thought,
this is a match that every woman that listens to
this podcast that is straight thought, this is the hottest
match I've ever seen.
Caitlin Thompson (24:25):
H I encourage them to pick up a copy of
(24:45):
the issue of Racquet magazine that's about to come out
because Taylor Fritz looks great on it in his Hugo
Boss suits.
Rennae Stubbs (24:52):
Yeah, well, Taylor's a good looking guy kid as well,
so if you do it, it's really Metteo I think
number one. I think a lot of the like he's
like Matteo number one, Jack number two, Taylor. I don't
know if the women find him as like sexy for
some reason.
Caitlin Thompson (25:07):
We're gonna get so much shit for this Rennae.
Rennae Stubbs (25:10):
Oh, I love it. Come after the lesbians, come after us.
Caitlin Thompson (25:14):
It's true, we couldn't have less of a dog in
this race. But I think objectively, Ah, Jack Draper might
be a cuter to me. Oh I see, I really
think ZZ Zhang is extremely cute.
Rennae Stubbs (25:25):
Oh yeah, he is cute. He's a little crazy as well. Yeah, listen,
we want to give props to our guy because Andrey
is one of my favorite people onto us, I remember,
I remember. I don't know it would be a good question.
Maybe I'll get him on the pod and ask him.
But I did see him in the hole in the
lobby of the Hyatt I think I said this on
the pod and I just said, man, yesterday when he
(25:48):
lost a fun sake and he just looked at me,
and he's just like, oh my god, the guy's so good.
He played so good. He played unbelievable. And I was like, yeah,
crap draw and he's like, yeah, so you're going home?
He goes yeah. I mean he's just he was walking
around like in his pajamas basically in the lobby.
Caitlin Thompson (26:03):
Was just like whatever we learned when we interviewed Andre
at the tour finals that he is a big astrology guy.
Oh interesting, he wears his astrology saying around his neck
like maybe you just could get a reading together.
Rennae Stubbs (26:15):
Yeah, I would love that.
Caitlin Thompson (26:16):
Actually, that would be Oh that's good. We'll make sure
we set that up. You should do that regularly. On
the pad, should we talk about Joao Fonseca.
Rennae Stubbs (26:23):
Yes, I want to just touch upon before because I
know you didn't talk about this with me and Petko
last week. But it was good to see Rybakina least
a half decent week last week. But just I mean,
give me your overall thoughts on that situation with the
WTA and what they've done, and just I mean, I
like your you have different thoughts sometimes to Petko and
(26:46):
I on that situation.
Caitlin Thompson (26:47):
I mean, I don't know how much more I want
to add only because I feel like we sort of
thoroughly talked about it. I think for me, it's. You
can't force somebody who is not in a position, for
whatever we know, to confront something that's going on in
(27:07):
their lives if they're not wanting to or willing.
Rennae Stubbs (27:10):
You saw that her fitness trying to announced two days ago.
Caitlin Thompson (27:14):
It seems pretty clear that the consensus around her given
the fitness trainer. But like I said, the I think
there are some really cut and dried parts of this,
which is, if your workplace is being threatened, then that's
(27:34):
enough of a reason. I would argue that anybody who's
been captured on court abusing anybody else, maybe that's a
chair umpire, maybe that's other people, the same rules should apply,
like if you don't feel I remember we were having
an event and a sponsor was sort of saying we
needed to have somebody at our event, and I said,
I'm not sure that everyone's going to feel safe at
(27:56):
that event. And I'm not trying to be a snowflake,
but I do also think like. I think character traits
that would make people feel uneasy.
Rennae Stubbs (28:10):
Yeah, if there's a pretty too many players on tour
right now, if he was walking around the courts, it
would feel real happy about for sure.
Caitlin Thompson (28:17):
And I think that has to be taken into account.
And I don't think that that's subjective. That feels quite
objective in a situation that is otherwise quite subjective. So yeah,
I I I again, I applaud the WTA for being
proactive as much as they probably could be, and they
have in past not been super I think willing to
intervene in this kind of thing.
Rennae Stubbs (28:37):
And I you know, I think Portia, the CEO of
the WTA, has done a great job.
Caitlin Thompson (28:41):
Yeah, shout out to Portia.
Rennae Stubbs (28:42):
For sure, She's done a lot of I've liked her writing,
so I've liked the things that she said, and she's
been pretty forceful on and. Yeah, I have to say,
I have to say I think the WTA because we
rip the wt yeah for sure, and so we should
be the first ones to say, and I think we
did and I will continue to do so.
Caitlin Thompson (28:58):
I think that they have everything that they can, not only.
On this situation, but I think the entirety of the
organization is looking up.
Rennae Stubbs (29:05):
So yeah, shout out to that. Petra Kvitova is coming back this week.
Nice to see her back playing in Austin, so we'll
see how she does there.
Caitlin Thompson (29:14):
What do you make of her return.
Rennae Stubbs (29:16):
I think it's good. I think that, you know, as
long as physically she can do it is not easy
to come back when you get a little bit older
after having a baby. But I also think that her
game lends itself to still hitting the ball well, still
hitting the big serves, and I think it's going to
help her. I don't think she's going to do great
over the next couple of weeks, and if she does,
more power to her, because I don't think the surfaces
(29:36):
Miami is a little bit quicker might suit her. But
I think she's just trying to get as many mattresses
as she can in before the grass, and I think
she probably feels like that's where she's going to have
her best. Yeah, obvious, which is fair.
Caitlin Thompson (29:48):
Yeah, I think a two time champion, big hitter, somebody
who's got massive power off the groundies that feels like
if she was like a small mover, I would be
a little bit more concerned about her ability to come back,
just because I think that probably some of the sidelined.
Certainly as you age and also as you become a mother.
Rennae Stubbs (30:04):
It'll be interesting to see where she ends up and
how she ends up doing. But the thing for me
Caitlin is the last couple of years of her career,
I just felt like she just had nothing in the tank.
I felt like she had no fire in the belly.
She was a little bit like just going through the motions,
not really looking happy on the court. Yeah, And I
think that's because she really really just wanted to literally
(30:25):
get married and have a kid and was over it.
She'd been playing on tour since she was like probably sixteen,
I believe.
Caitlin Thompson (30:31):
Yeah. Do you think these like extended mental health breaks
are really useful, especially if they come with some major
life events that are by all accounts very happy and positive,
which is, you know, the addition of a family for
Patrick a bit about so Yeah, for me, the more
compelling personalities and game styles on the tour, the better.
That's kind of like my default answer. So I'm like,
(30:53):
you know, very happy to have her.
Rennae Stubbs (30:57):
I am really excited. I don't know about you, but this,
you know a couple of young players like Mickelson and
Learner Tien. Yeah, in Australia had such a great run,
and you know, we saw a lot of them, obviously
to ESPN, we showed them quite a bit. And nice
to see Learner Tien had a good win over Cam
Norrie in Acapulco. Cam Norrie's been struggling over the last
twelve months, but but it's nice to see. To me,
it's gonna be great if Learner Tien can get a
(31:19):
lot of matches under his belt before he comes into
the American tournaments, because I think he's going to have
a huge following because he is a lot of fun,
and he is young, and he is good.
Caitlin Thompson (31:28):
His game is a little unorthodox. Everyone loves it. Lefty. Yeah,
like I am super here for Learner.
Rennae Stubbs (31:34):
Talent out the wazoo, as we say, like crazy.
Caitlin Thompson (31:37):
Yeah, Learner Tien is to me somebody fun to watch.
Rennae Stubbs (31:39):
I agree. Yeah.
Caitlin Thompson (31:40):
Can we talk a little bit about Joao Fonseca. Yes,
we sent a team to Rio, Brazilian journalists cataloging it.
This has long been one of my would like to
go tournaments.
Rennae Stubbs (31:54):
I don't have never we know that you wanted Grand
Slam down there. Yes, I went to the Rio, didn't
go to the Rio Olympics.
Caitlin Thompson (31:59):
You didn't.
Rennae Stubbs (32:00):
I've not been to Brazil.
Caitlin Thompson (32:01):
You're right, I've not been. I think maybe we should
make a point to go.
I've been hearing for years that it's a real good
time and everyone has a ball, and it's obviously a
fun time of year because it's pre Carnival. But honestly,
despite my professor love of South America, it's been a
little bit more focused on the Spanish speaking countries, mainly
because that's where I've traveled, and you know, I love
(32:24):
Argentina for historical reasons. Now Brazil has entered the chat
because now with Joao Fonseca winning the title in Buenos Aires
and entering I think what is now certainly top one hundred.
I think he's ranked sixty something. He is the best
(32:47):
man certainly to play for Brazil since Gustavo Kuerten.
Rennae Stubbs (32:52):
I loved Guga so much, and any beautiful one handed backhand.
If you could watch a Gustavo Kuerten match on clay in
the nineties without falling completely in love with him. I
don't know what your problem is. Get your eyes checked.
Caitlin Thompson (33:05):
That guy was pure heart. His game was beautiful.
Rennae Stubbs (33:08):
I love that you say, pure heart. Considering put a
hot on the French and. Famously on the court every
time he won.
Caitlin Thompson (33:15):
Fun fact, I once shared a cigarette with him outside
of the white Horse Tavern. He bummed a cigarette.
Rennae Stubbs (33:19):
Wow.
Caitlin Thompson (33:20):
I know, he was so nice and I was like, uh.
Rennae Stubbs (33:22):
Are you sure that when he was still playing.
Caitlin Thompson (33:24):
Honestly, maybe it was like early two thousands. That's a long time ago.
But I, as along with everybody else, loved this guy.
And so when we were in talks with some Brazilian
journalists who are like, look, we got to go this year.
Not only is it absolute scene every year and it's
beautiful and it set him into the mountains and there's
water and blah blah blah, but also this year. Obviously
(33:45):
we have a guy. SG he made his debut. He
lost in the first round. It was not super impressive
as a showing.
Rennae Stubbs (33:53):
It was not a surprise that he lost, but also
not a super surprise.
Caitlin Thompson (33:57):
Guy just wins his first tour title, comes home to
crowds that were scalping tickets for fifteen times their value.
You know, a five hundred dollars ticket in Rio I
gather is not insignificant as a sum of money, and
we have all these pictures that these photographers, so go
check it out at top and rackaback dot com. Like
just crowds, kids on his parents' shoulders, people climbing the fences,
(34:19):
like just absolute scenes and you know, yeah, we can
talk about as a result. But to me more excitingly
is his tennis yep. And the fact that Brazil has
entered the chat.
Rennae Stubbs (34:29):
I believe it or not, I believe that it was
a good thing that he lost early.
Caitlin Thompson (34:33):
Keep expectations low.
Rennae Stubbs (34:35):
He can he's said home, yea, he can go home.
He can relax a little bit. He stayed on. He
watched the doubles, He watched the doubles. He was there
when the doubles. Guys won the doubles. Play my old
mixed doubles partner, Marcello Mellow. Mellow won the doubles there seven.
I mean he's like seven feet tall and like forty
eight years of age. I mean the guy every time
I see him, when we walk by each other, hey, partner,
(34:58):
Hey partner, we call each other partner.
Caitlin Thompson (35:00):
How you guys ever lost a match between the two.
Rennae Stubbs (35:02):
Yeah, we did, Okay, we made the semis of Wimbledon.
That was his first ever Grand Slam semi final. Actually
it was the semi finals of Wimbledon with me. But
we had a lot of fun together. And the joke
of our team was that the two words that have
never been said together are Melo Stubbs, so it would
be game Melo Stubbs. And I would always say to Marcello,
(35:23):
you know that's never been said to me
on the tennis court anyway, I can be off the
tennis court. But but we loved playing together because we
were so polar opposites. I was so you know, fired
up on the court, and he was literally the epitome
of his name. But I loved playing with him, and
he's the nicest guy. And to see that victory and
(35:43):
how emotional he got, and fon Seca is there watching
front row getting photos taken by every girl that could
possibly take a photo with him, and to see his
elation when he won that match, I was like, this
is a guy who's won Grand Slam doubles, so he was.
I think it might be the happiest I've ever seen him.
Caitlin Thompson (36:00):
Seen him winning at home in front of a sold
out crowd, with especially the way he won it with
like a cross court poach angle backahnd volley.
Rennae Stubbs (36:09):
Go and watch that point on find it on YouTube.
That is the epitome of the rope and dope in on
a doubles court and letting them see whole court and
then taking off that was so perfectly.
Caitlin Thompson (36:21):
That was a great doubles point. Yeah, it's a great
way to win it. And you know they're they're at home.
Rennae Stubbs (36:25):
Anythig for those of us who uh don't necessarily have
the experience traveling to a place that you know hasn't
enjoyed one hundred years of tennis tradition. Although maybe that's
wrong because there have probably been courts and tournaments there,
but sure, Maria Bueno.
Caitlin Thompson (36:45):
Ct hasn't necessarily been in the spotlight of the tennis tour.
And I think just this idea that maybe Joao Fonseco can
kind of revitalize I mean, no, no discredit whatsoever to
Bea Haddad Maia, who won the Elite last year. Yeah,
you know, she's obviously a star war in the top twenty.
But I think just this idea that there's a young
(37:07):
dude who's got all the shots, who's beating the big
players already, Like there's just there's a palpablic statement, and
I think the photos that we took really captured that.
And I would love to go there because I kind
of want to. You know, what's more fun than being
at a place that feels like the center of the universe,
whether it's Center Court to Wimbledon or a smaller court.
Rennae Stubbs (37:25):
Yeah, you're taking a group to Brazil next year. People:
2026 with Caitlin on the old sSocials. He by the way,
he's gone to seventy eight in the world now, so
let me tell you, people will be real happy when
he's inside the top fifteen in the world for sure,
or top twenty twenty, so they don't have to play
(37:45):
him in the second or first round of the Grand Slam.
I mean, he could play any of the top guys
in the first round of the French Open. Who wants
to play that freaking guy on clay not andlev hell no.
But anyway, it was great to see him have this
success she had. You know, we talked about it with Petco.
I talked about it with Petco, But I think it
was a good thing that he lost because now he
(38:07):
can he understands now what it takes to back it
up as well, and it's not easy. And it's like
what we've been talking about over the last couple of
weeks of what Sam Stosur said when she won her
first Grand Slams, She's like, I wish I'd taken some
time off, which Mattie Keys did, which I thought was
such a smart thing for her to do, take some
time off and get herself prepared to win Indian Wells.
And like Sam said, enjoy that just because she wins
(38:28):
something doesn't mean you're guaranteed of winning the next.
Caitlin Thompson (38:32):
Also like for Maddie Keys, and I hope you guys
talk about this a little bit. If anybody deserves a
little bit of moment to relish, it's certainly her. And
coming back now that she has a framework that's like,
oh this she's always had the tennis and now mentally
I know what it takes, but also I know what
headspace I need to be in to be able to
(38:53):
perform really well.
Rennae Stubbs (38:55):
She knows how to win matches as well, and I
just think having you know, be on there. Just giving
her a few just little tidbits here and there just
made such a difference. So yeah, I can't wait to
talk to her about it all. And I hope everyone
enjoys it once it comes out, but I'm sure you will.
Just a little thing. Novak Djokovic did lose to Berrettini.
(39:15):
Bertini did play the match of his life. I mean,
he was hitting four hands all over the place for winners.
But still you gotta start asking the question, what what
Novak like physically. I know he's you know, had his
issues at this start of the this year with in
Australia with the leg. He didn't look great leaving the
(39:37):
Middle East. You know, he's struggling with injuries over the
last couple of years now, with the knee, with the leg.
And I'm telling you, and it's what pet Goo said
a while ago. She's like, I don't care who you are.
And she said, also, yeah, but we're not Novak Djokovic,
you know, because a couple of weeks later he was
playing and doing well and she's like, yeah, but we're
not Novak Djokovic. But in actual factor, I think she's
more right than she realizes that. And I know this,
(39:59):
and we all know this. There's only once you get
to a certain age, you don't bounce back. And yes,
Novak has bounced back better than most, better than probably anyone. Yeah,
but this is starting to be a little bit of
an issue now in not winning matches, and then when
you haven't played for a while and then you come
back and you're older, I don't care how much you
train and how good you look on the practice court,
(40:21):
when you go and play a match, you're pushing yourself more.
You're doing a little more, You're more nervous, your body's
more uptight, and he has just he's struggling more and
more and more.
Caitlin Thompson (40:33):
For sure. I also think the and this I think
really ended up kind of hurting Serena at the very
very end of her career as well, which is not
only do you slow down and the bounce back is less,
Although truly I cannot think of a person who's bounced
back better than Novak Djokovic historically, as you said, but
I also think part of what I think one Serena
(40:55):
and Novak a lot of matches was their ability to
inspire or rather not inspire belief in their opponents. Where
now it's different.
You lose at least a few games before you get
on the court with Novak and Serena because you know,
whatever you throw at them, you have to have the
day of your life to win. You feel like you
(41:16):
do on top of it, and you feel it and
and you you know, we've seen players who like maybe
realize that they're in a match, but way too late,
because Novak is already up, or Serena is already up
a set in a break, and so, you know, I
think when you lose that air of invulnerability, which now
Novak has certainly lost because between this year and last year,
(41:39):
you know, we saw him. I think he didn't win
a match in the spring of last year pretty much.
Rennae Stubbs (41:44):
Yeah, and he won one tournament last year and in
one tournament it was the it was the only tournament
he really wanted, which was so great, right, but he
did not win a tournament outside of that, for somebody
who is I think benefits from his air of invincibility,
it'll be really interesting to see how other players. And
(42:05):
we saw it in Bertini, who I would classify as
in the top three of QT for sure and has
one of the best forehands, but not necessarily like somebody
who I would sort of put my life on the
line to be like this guy has to win a
match or I'm dead. It wouldn't be Matteo Berrettini. But
the fact that Berrettini kind of took the fate to
him and believed, I think for me, that's a big
(42:26):
problem for me. I think Matteo is going to do
really well in India. Whiles I think it's a pretty
decent court for him. It's a bit slower. He can
get around his back end. He can hit the big
four hands through any speed. His server is huge on
any court. I think he's getting himself mentally back to
playing better. You know, it was a great match against Draper.
He played one just bad point, just one bad point.
(42:47):
He missed one terrible volley that he should not have
missed to lose the second set, Like it was a
volley that he should never miss and he lost that
point and then Jack took the third set. It was
like crazy, But to me, that was a volley that
he should not have missed. It was a very simple
forehand volley into the net. I mean, but if there's
a volley that we all missed. It was the forehand.
Caitlin Thompson (43:10):
It's always a little bit harder.
Rennae Stubbs (43:12):
People will go why why is that? But yeah, anyway,
but other than that, Caitlin, I'm excited Indian Wills is
coming up.
Caitlin Thompson (43:19):
We're gonna have a great time. Should we talk a
little bit about some of the stuff we're going to
be doing. Sure, you're going to be their coaching.
Rennae Stubbs (43:25):
I will be there with Ellen Perez doing a little coaching,
you know, trying to help Ellen just get better on
a daily basis. I love want a tournament at Abu
Dhabi already, so that was good. Yeah, I was not there,
which was probably great but and maybe the reason but
hopefully she took a lot of the things that you know,
we worked on in Australia to the Middle East and
(43:47):
so yeah, so I'm looking forward to getting back out there.
It's tennis paradise. We love it. I am pumped to
be out there again.
Caitlin Thompson (43:54):
I have to say, you know, people ask me which
tourtnaments are you gonna be out, which tournaments is Racquet
going to go to? And are you gonna be in Miami?
What's happening?
Rennae Stubbs (44:04):
I'll be in Miami and everybody seems to want to
go to Indian Wells. Yeah, it's it's Indian Wells. I
think has it's Indian Wales or bust.
Caitlin Thompson (44:13):
It's kind of Indian Wells er bust. So we'll be
doing a few things. We have a new issue to launch.
We're gonna throw a big party this weekend in Los Angeles,
which will be really fun. We are having a charitable
component where all of the proceeds to a incredibly cool
auction go to La wildfire relief. That's great, which is
awesome and great and actually just truly thanks to like
(44:35):
some of our partners, like the Four Seasons and other folks.
Rennae Stubbs (44:40):
I should have found this out before we did the pod,
But how many do we lose? Any tennis facilities in
those areas? Do you know?
Caitlin Thompson (44:47):
Palisades Tennis Center went completely up in flames.
Rennae Stubbs (44:52):
I've played there before.
It's a really nice, beautiful public facility, which is great.
Caitlin Thompson (44:57):
You always want to support public courts in LA has
a ton of them, and obviously a lot of the
private homes with courts were sort of decimated. Some of
them made it out.
Rennae Stubbs (45:06):
But yeah, our thoughts, I mean, we we're talking about it,
but our thoughts really go out to everybody out there
because we know that we probably have some listeners that
live in those areas that love tennis. California is such
a tennis heaven. It has been always through the years.
Obviously a lot of la people go out to the
Indian Wells or San Diego go out to Indian Wells tournament.
(45:26):
But yeah, so that's great that you're doing that.
Caitlin Thompson (45:29):
Well. Yeah, I mean, the main goal for us is
as sad as it is that tennis courts get ruined.
It's really sad when people lose their homes. So one
of the things that we're raising money for is to
help that. And then we'll be out doing a the
VIP event that I cannot discuss, a free to the public,
cool happy hour at the Drift Hotel a week from Thursday.
And then we are culminating it and you're hearing it
(45:50):
here first with a incredibly cool music, viewing surfing and
watching tennis in a lazy river party at The Palm
Spring Surf Club that will be on Saturday, March eighth.
Rennae Stubbs (46:03):
I will bring my surf board.
Caitlin Thompson (46:05):
I would love to see you hang ten.
Rennae Stubbs (46:07):
I haven't surfed in a long time. I will do it.
I will try it.
Caitlin Thompson (46:12):
I will be in the Lazy River.
Rennae Stubbs (46:13):
You'll be in the Lazy River anyway, I'll be in California.
Caitlin Thompson (46:17):
I think all of these players enjoy playing a variety
of these tournaments. It's nice for them to go home,
especially in this sort of stretch where the tournaments are
a little bit of everywhere. There's a little bit in
the Middle East, there's one or two in Europe, there's
a ton in South America. You know, everybody's kind of
scattered all over the place. And then we'll see them
all certain next week.
Rennae Stubbs (46:37):
You will see me in southern California. Guys, if you
see us in southern California, come say hi.
Caitlin Thompson (46:41):
I think we will be doing a live podcast on Saturday,
March eighth.
Rennae Stubbs (46:44):
Oh and we will be doing a live podcast on
Saturday March eighth, Saturday March eighth. So if you're on
the ground grounds, coming find us, Come find us. We'll
set up a tent. And also, as I said, look
forward to a great interview with the now Grand Slam
Top ten Americans. The first time that they've had three
I think it's four, five, and six in the top
(47:06):
ten of the WTA since back in the day, since
Lindsey Serena and Jenny Capriati. Can you believe that like
that for American tennis, I love it. Yeah, and all
led by of course Cocoa goth at three, Jess at four,
and Madison Keys at five.
Caitlin Thompson (47:24):
Wow, boom boom boom.
Rennae Stubbs (47:26):
Yeah. And Emma Navarro is in the top ten still
at ten, So there's four Americans inside the top ten
and just incredible. Really, Emma's been struggling over the last
couple of weeks, so hopefully she can sort of learn
to win in two sets that would help. And I
think she'll play okay in Indian Wells. It's a good
court for her, so we'll see how it goes. All right, guys,
(47:46):
thank you so much, Thank you for listening. Great thing
about tennis is you go to show up every single
week and these players learn that real quick when they've
had a great year of the year before Jasmine Paulini
another one has been struggling a little bit, so we'll see.
Caitlin Thompson (47:57):
There's always time for redemption.
Rennae Stubbs (47:58):
There is. But that's why you're that's why we're here
to bring them all back down to earth, all right, guys,
thanks for listening this week, and we'll see you next week.
By bye.
One, two, one two, Hi everybody, Welcome to the Rennae
Stubbs Tennis podcast. I am, of course Rennae Stubbs with the
Australian accent, and I am joined today by Caitlin Thompson.
We are in my apartment here in New York. We've
got a couple of weeks of great tennis, and we've
also got some amazing tennis to preview and to come
(00:35):
in the next few weeks with Indian Wells and Miami.
But of course everyone's in Mexicor right now or in
just finished in South America, your favorite stop, Caitlin. So
let's get to it. Let's get to what happened last week.
Mira Andreva. Do we want to start with the youngest
ever winner of a WTA one thousand. First of all,
when they said that, I was like what, I had.
Caitlin Thompson (00:56):
To see the stats? She beat Maria Sharipova by like
three weeks.
Rennae Stubbs (01:00):
Yeah, well it still wins. She still wins.
Caitlin Thompson (01:03):
Totally, which is great. I hope she goes on to
have the career Maria Sharipova dead. She I suspect she
might have even a higher ceiling. Mirra Andreeva has all
the tools, the scary good and when she puts it
all together, which we hadn't seen her do for the
consecutive amount of matches that she.
Rennae Stubbs (01:22):
Did just now and do.
Caitlin Thompson (01:23):
I'm thrilled for her, not only because we like her game.
Rennae Stubbs (01:27):
She's a good kid.
Caitlin Thompson (01:28):
It's awesome to see her coach to success by Conchita Martinez, which.
Rennae Stubbs (01:33):
Is gonna be like that fan favorite.
Caitlin Thompson (01:34):
We can keep unpacking it, but I think headline for
me is when a player's tools come together so cohesively
like they have done, which specifically I mean her all
court play, her hands, her sense of point construction. You know,
anybody can go out there and look good hitting random balls.
(01:55):
When you see somebody composed and being able to match
after match beat the kind of players she beat on
the read of this title, that's an indication that, oh
she's she's doing a lot more than hitting balls. She's
composed and putting really, really impressive performances together. And that part,
I think for me is the most exciting.
Rennae Stubbs (02:12):
Yeah, exactly. I think the thing that I wanted to
talk about overall for her results, I mean those results
last week be is Look, she's been sort of knocking
on the door over the last couple of months. It's
been taken out by Sabalenka a couple of times in Australia.
Caitlin Thompson (02:28):
Who hasn't?
Rennae Stubbs (02:29):
Who hasn't, And you could sort of see that she
it was kind of like a heavyweight playing against a
middleweight in the boxing ring. It just knew that like
didn't quite have the power, didn't quite have the strength
to hit through someone like a Sabalenka. But I also
think that, and you hear this a lot from coaches
or from experts to say, look, you've got to have
(02:51):
those matches to know also where you're at and what
you're lacking, right, And it's pretty obvious that at her
age the physicality part will come. There's no doubt about that.
She has decent high She's going to get stronger. I
don't know how much bigger and stronger she'll get, but
there's no doubt. You know that her weight of shot
(03:13):
is going to get better, and her depth of shot
is really good. That's what impresses me about her as well.
Her ball gets deep, you know, into the court, it
gets close to the baseline. Her balls that she hits
down the line are unreal like her back end down
the line is so good. But her as She already
talks about her ability to be able to hit certain shots,
(03:34):
hit the drop shots. Her speed around the court is
only going to get faster, She's only going to get
stronger in that department. But her anticipation skills through the roof.
And one thing, I want to go back to the
Iga Swiatek match for example, that's kind of like, okay, here
we go a manner, a manner kind of thing, like,
how are you going to push back Iga Swiatek's game. Well,
(03:55):
it was pretty obvious what she did. I mean, she
sustained the heavy shots eager, but she also eager. The
one thing about Eager when she gets onto those faster courts,
she panics again. She goes back to sort of panicking,
not hitting the high balls, not hitting some change of pace,
and she's coming. And there was a couple of shots
for example, that she came into the net on and
(04:16):
everybody knows that. Listens to me commentate, you don't go
in on a cross court forehand, right, So when you
hit your forehand cross court and run to the net,
you're a dead duck. I don't care how bad a
player's forehand is, Like my backhand was better than my forehand.
But if you if I'm running to my forehand to
hit a passing shot, I'm going to pass you. I'm
going to hit an angle short, which she did on
(04:37):
one really big point. Or you can hit it. You
can hold the ball a little longer and hit that
curler down the line.
Caitlin Thompson (04:43):
I was taught never to approach on a cross court
shot period because of the angle and the extra time
your opponent has, but especially not on a forehand.
Rennae Stubbs (04:50):
Especially not on a forehand. On a backhand, you can
do it a little bit more because it's a little
bit harder to hit the hard angle off of the backhand.
Most players will hit the running back end down the line.
Having said that, a lot of girls, especially well and guys,
can use that left hand to hit a cross court,
but the bottom line is coming in on the forehand
as a disaster. The reason why Eager does it a
(05:11):
lot is because her grip is so extreme that if
she has a low ball that's short in the court,
it is hard for her to go on the line.
She thinks I can hit it harder hitting across court right,
So she thinks if I hit it hard cross court,
I'm in a better shape, but in actual fact, you're
better off hitting it high with a little bit of
loop down the line, because the ability for an opponent
(05:35):
to hit a winner off that shot is so much
less than the forehand. So there were tactical errors that
Eager also made on really big points by coming in
on the forehand. She got past cross court one time,
and she got passed down the line, and both of
those shots I can't remember the exact points, but they
were quite important, whether they were break points or game points.
And those are the little things that you know, if
(05:56):
I were to coach somebody like an Iga Swiatek, You've got
all of this, but you're you haven't used all the
tools in the toolbox, and well that's going to be
I struggled with that shot. I want to go just
quickly on Sam Stosur that Sam had a very extreme
forehand grip as well. And Sam used to do the
same thing, and we worked on that shot over and over,
and I must have fed her a thousand little shitty
(06:18):
low balls to the forehand and made her hit every
single one of them down the line. And she struggled
with that shot in her career. And then after working
on it a lot. It was a shot that she
never missed. She never missed it because she knew the
reward was there if she went down the line on
that shot. And so I think there's little things like
that that Eager needs to improve on it if she
wants to win on a hard court against the player, Like.
Caitlin Thompson (06:39):
Is that a Wim Fissette shortcoming?
Rennae Stubbs (06:42):
Well, I mean it's a bit of a shortcoming unless
he's not saying I mean, listen, if he's telling her
to come in on the forehand down the line, then
that's on Eager, right, So I don't know. I mean
I will say when I coached Karolina Pliskova, for example,
I said, if you come in cross court and you
get beaten, you owe me one hundred dollars. You know,
I would. I was very adamant with there's certain shots
(07:04):
and listen, the one thing I can teach is how
to come into the net and how to play at
the net. That's what I did for a living. So
it's like, if you want to trust me on this one,
trust me on this one, you know. And so watching
matches with Carolina, for example, we would watch matches and
players would come in on the forehand cross court and
get beaten, and I would just peer at her like
with the one eye, and I know I see it,
(07:25):
you know. So those are sort of little tactical errors
that I think Iga makes, whereas someone like Mirra Andreeva,
on the other hand, is so smart with her shot
selection and her ability to get through that match her
ability to get through against Rybakina as well, and then
of course Towson who's playing really well this year. Those
are three three quality quality.
Caitlin Thompson (07:45):
Wins, agree, and what I liked about them. A couple
of things that I wanted to sort of thirty thousand
foot view about Mirra Andreeva is I think her tennis
intelligence and you basically made the case for it just now,
which is the ability to play the right shot at
the right time. Her tactical sort of approach is really
(08:08):
varied and also super super smart, and I think it's
evident when you hear her speak. And I would love
for you. To get her on the podcast because I
want you to ask her about some of these things
that she's sort of spoken a little bit about, which
you know the difference between playing a Sabalenka who, as
you noted, dismantled her at the Australian open, but in
a way that felt a little bit more competitive than
(08:29):
the past couple of matches. So you can see her
kind of like climbing the She's learning and beating Iga
in this tournament. You know, granted, it's a fast, hard
hardcore and this is not you know, typically like time
to shine in the calendar.
Rennae Stubbs (08:43):
But it was comfortable. It was comfortable.
Caitlin Thompson (08:46):
It didn't feel like a super competitive match. And I
think hearing Mirra Andreeva talk about how different those players
are to play and how therefore she needs to approach
playing them. So Aryna of course can hit her off
the court, because Aryna can hit anybody off the court,
and so playing with more margin, not giving her angles,
creating a little bit more opportunity for herself. Whereas Iga's
(09:06):
ball with more sheep is kind of more similar to
Andreeva's ball, so therefore tactically she needs to force the
issue a little bit, come in, mix it up. I
love the fact that she was so thinky about it.
Maybe it's just because I like nerds she's always been,
but it was really impressive.
Rennae Stubbs (09:21):
She's always been a very headsy player, even for someone
so young. Her biggest issue back in the day was
just losing her mind. I mean, she was so young,
and I never forget and we may have talked about
it on the pod, but I remember when she played
Coco Golf years ago at the French Open and won
the first set, and literally in the second game is
yelling and screaming, like the first or second game of
(09:42):
the second set is like yelling and screaming at her box,
and I'm like, what is going on? You've just won
the first set, Like why what throwing a racket, carrying on?
And you know, of course one person you don't want
to do that against is like someone like Coco Gauff
is like, oh, oh, I got you're younger than me. Yeah,
that's You're not as experience as me. Okay, I'm gonna
win that. That's right. And that's exactly what happened, and
(10:03):
she completely the wheels literally fell off. Whereas now her attitude,
I mean nothing bothers her on the court anymore. She
just like literally walks from one side to the other,
never displays any pissed offness at all. Like it's it's
a remarkable change in the last two to three years,
and I give so much credit to my friend Concita
(10:24):
Martinez one hundred percent.
Caitlin Thompson (10:25):
We talked about her a little bit in the Daria
Kasatkina match in the fall where she lost in the finals.
It was a well contested final, it was high quality tennis,
and Mirra Andreeva was kind of like inconsolable, but not
in a way that read a little bit petulant or
kind of like losing her mind. It was more just
like she cared. She'd been putting the work in, she
was getting close, and she wasn't quite there. And I thought,
(10:47):
and we discussed it at the time as being like, oh,
this is like a symbol of growing maturity, and also
this means a lot to her because she's obviously making
big strides. And I thought we both saw it as
a good sign that she cared and was you know,
gracious into but also like really upset in a way
that was sort of indicative I think of how much
she was going to bring to this season, and so
you know, it's been nice to see her knocking in
(11:08):
the door, as you said, and then kind of punched
through in a really really exciting way. I have to
think that maybe it's just my green tinted glasses here.
But I have to think she's going to be tremendous
on grass.
Rennae Stubbs (11:19):
Yeah, I think she's going to be very good on grass.
Caitlin Thompson (11:23):
That feels like her.
Rennae Stubbs (11:24):
I think her serve, her serve could be a bit bigger,
that's the but you know, she is still young. I
think her serf's very good. It's not a bad surf,
and technically it's a very it's a good serf, and
that you know me, I'm always about the technique because
I know, once the strength comes, once the you know,
winds come, once the experience comes, once all of that
sort of stuff comes, which is it's now has come.
(11:46):
By winning a WTA one thousand and beating the players
that she did, she now has the experience to be
able to tap into that mentally in a Grand Slam,
you know, in a quarter final maybe now and stepping
up in the biggest of stages. She knows it takes.
Now to win a really big match, and to lose
the second set against Rybakina and then come back and
ended up winning in three sets, that to me was
(12:07):
a huge, huge maturity move for her there, and that's
where I think she gained a ton of confidence to
like lose the second set and still come back and
win that match was for me, super impressive. I think
Tauson ran out a little bit of gas. The second
set was pretty clear that she was like okay, kind
of almost throwing in the towel because Andreeva just doesn't
miss either. She's smart and she you know she's out
(12:29):
of position, She'll throw in the sliced forehand. She'll run
out there and hit like that squash forehand. She'll slice
her back in in the court. She knows that she
has the ability to turn offense defense into offense really well.
But I just think, you know, the hard work because
I know how hard Conchita works for players. I know
for a fact because I was one of those players
back in the day, and she You know, if you're
(12:50):
hitting for an hour and fifteen minutes in practice or
an hour and a half on the practice court, you
were hitting for an hour and thirty minutes, you're not
sitting down. You're not sitting there and yacketing on the
side of the court. She is pushing you, can't she
and so I know the work has been put in,
and that's why you know when she plays these long points,
she's not even breathing. She's seventeen years of age, youngest
(13:12):
player since two thousand, the third youngest player since the
year two thousand to be inside of the top ten.
Course Sharapova and Nicole Vaidisova just ahead of her slightly.
But this is a we've been talking about Mira Andreeva
a few years.
Caitlin Thompson (13:26):
Yes, it's exciting, and.
Rennae Stubbs (13:27):
I think the best thing she did was hire Conchita,
and I think that that's only her game is only
going to get better. She's only going to get better,
and I think she's a perennial top ten player for
the rest of her career.
Caitlin Thompson (13:39):
I want to very quickly just end on this note
with Mira Andreeva, which one of the running jokes on
the internet is she's been like seventeen for five years.
Rennae Stubbs (13:49):
She came on to the tour when she was like
fourteen has she's been around for a minute.
Caitlin Thompson (13:53):
But I feel like not to bring this out to
a pop culture lens, but I was sort of it
was refreshing to see like Timothée Chalamet when he one is
and sort of instead of the usual thing like oh
this is you know, so grateful, I'm so grateful. He
was like, yeah, this means a lot to me because
I've been working hard. I want to be one of
the greats. This means something because I want to be
(14:14):
as good as I possibly can be. And it sort
of reminded me of Andreeva a little bit in her
post match conferences where she was like, I want to
thank me, which you're like, yeah, okay.
Rennae Stubbs (14:24):
I thought it was cute.
Caitlin Thompson (14:25):
I thought it was not only cute, but I thought
it was indicative of like a mindset that's like, yeah,
to your point, I've been working my ass off, I've
been knocking on the door. I've been here for a minute.
I've been really, really tactical, and I just got through
two incredibly different players setting aside toss them, but incredibly
different and equally challenging players in Rybakina and Iga Swiatek and
I observe deserve my place in the top ten.
Rennae Stubbs (14:46):
Yeah, here I am. It's an interesting mindset and I
like it because you know, I will say, the one
person that you have that has to believe in you
more than anyone on tour and when you walk on
the tennis court is yourself.
Caitlin Thompson (14:58):
And by the way, that's true in life.
Rennae Stubbs (15:00):
Life, like, for sure have to and you have to.
It's really easy. It's real easy to throw the towel
mentally because you don't think you're good enough or maybe
you're not cut out for this or whatever. It is
clearly that we knew she was going to be good,
but for her to sit up there and stand up
there and say, I want to thank myself for not,
(15:21):
you know, giving in. And there's so many times in
a match during a tournament where you could throw the talent.
Caitlin Thompson (15:27):
And you see it, and you see players do it.
You see the time the door appears for them to
take this sort of easy way out like, oh, I'm
not feeling one hundred percent. There's someone in the audience—look
at Nick Kyrgios I mean, that guy's never played a
match where he didn't have an opportunity to throw in
the towel and almost always took it. Like there's so
many ways to fail to meet the moment with courage
(15:48):
to push through your fear. And this again is true
in life. And I just really love and I really
want to embrace. It's why I got so emotional watching
Sabalenka work through her yips on her serve. It's when
you get so tied up and watching Coke come back
and believe and then take a stride against somebody like
Ego who had kind of had her number for a time.
You know, it's it's really encouraging to me. It's really
(16:08):
encouraging and really impressive to see people bet on themselves
and push through stuff that's hard, because that's the part
that's so relatable. I can't relate to playing as well
as any of these players ever will, but I can
relate to the idea of pushing through something when you
when you face adversity and thinking yourself is really a
cool move.
Rennae Stubbs (16:23):
You can you can relate? Would you say?
Caitlin Thompson (16:29):
And in life again, Like to me, there's so many
translatable moments. So I just I'm really excited about Mirra Andreeva.
And I think anybody who listened to the press conference
could think of it as like cheeky or maybe arrogant.
But if I'm one of her opponents, I'm thinking, oh, she's. Here, yeah,
like Timothee
Rennae Stubbs (16:46):
It's interesting because I think one of the things that
most people would be afraid of with Madison Keys for example,
off of these string open was that you know we
were all talking about, Yes, she's changed the racket, the
strings are changed, well, she changed the strings like months
nine months prior, but those string patterns inside a new
racket for example, and with this new step up service
(17:07):
motion for example. Like we're all talking about those things
and how much they've helped her, but then her talking
about after the tournament how she went to therapy, not
sports therapy. A lot of tennis players do have a
sports psychologist or whatever, but she said, no, no, I
went to a therapist, like I needed to know why
I was getting anxious on the court. I needed to
know why I needed it so badly. I need to
(17:28):
know all of that. And you've got to tap into
your past to know that. I mean sure you and
I both know this. We both meant the therapy. It's like,
you've got to understand where is it coming from? Right?
Why are some players able to meet a moment and
look at it and not be freaking out or panicking
and some are just like they look like robots. Well,
(17:49):
everybody's feeling the same thing. It's what you tell yourself
in those moments, and you know looking back. And I
have the pleasure of talking to Madison in a couple
of days and we're going to get it out. Sorry,
we're going to get it out in next week before
Indian Wells an interview. But it'll be interesting to talk
to her about how much that influenced her. And there's
(18:10):
no doubt after watching her for years and years and
years hyperventilate on the court, panic on the court, her
the difference in her demeanor. Even if you I've rewatched
the Austrain Open three times, really yeah, because I just
loved it so much. And you know, when you're working it, Caitlin,
it's like you're loving it so much, but you're you're
also tactically looking at things to be able to put
(18:32):
out to the audience and tell people you're not just
sitting back and going holy shit. I mean I was
going holy shit the whole time, but but you know,
it was nice to sit back and actually watch it again.
And so I think I think these players that say,
like Mia saying I want to thank myself, it's the
same with Madison, she should say. And I might bring
it up to her about Mirra's comment about that, because
(18:54):
it was also something that Petko said in the podcast
after the Australin Open when I said, you know all
these things and she said yeah, But Rennea, she's the
one that had to do everything. She's the one that
had to decide to change the racket. She's the one
that had to decide to go to therapy. Like everyone can,
you can take a horse to water, but Madison's the
one that made those choices. And Mirra Andreeva to me,
is similar in a lot of ways because she was
(19:16):
such a mental case on the court at times and
I was like, is this kid ever going to reel
this in? And now she looks like a completely different player.
I mean, it's the same as Roger Fereer when he
was a junior, he was a psycho and then he
gets to play pro and he's like realized really quickly,
Oh that doesn't work. Yes works. And so that's why
(19:37):
everyone should be afraid of Mirror, and that's why everyone
should be afraid of Madison because mentally, yes, mentally, mentally
they are both switched on to what works now and
what is successful.
Caitlin Thompson (19:47):
I want to transition a little bit to somebody who
I hope we can include in this conversation.
Rennae Stubbs (19:52):
That's why I was going there too, because.
Caitlin Thompson (19:54):
I think you and I have been watching this player.
I am speaking for both of us when I say
we love him. We love I love his game. I'm
sure you too.
Rennae Stubbs (20:02):
I love him.
Caitlin Thompson (20:03):
He hits such a clean ball, he moves really well.
He's a human being, he's complex, and he's interesting, and
he's he's a little Dostoevskian.
Rennae Stubbs (20:12):
And he's got his great hair. He's got great hair.
Caitlin Thompson (20:14):
He sort of looks like a cat on the internet.
But Andrey Rublev, yeah, God bless him.
Rennae Stubbs (20:20):
God bless him.
Caitlin Thompson (20:21):
He's been through it.
Rennae Stubbs (20:22):
God bless him, you know. And I hope someone like
Medvedev is looking at it as well, because you know
he's going through it right now. But Andre Rublev was
like combustible the last couple of months is the right word,
you know. I mean last year he was playing really
good tennis. He was pushing a lot of great players,
he was winning tournaments, and then all of a sudden,
(20:43):
he just had this period of the last few months
where he's just like completely lost. Now I will say
he lost to Fonseca at the Australian Open, which we'll
come back to because we know that Caitlin wants to talk
about her South American swing. But it was so nice
to see Rublev that time, because and he knows exactly
(21:05):
what his weakness is, but it's getting through those moments,
and to win at another tournament beating someone like Jack
Draper in the final was phenomenal. I'm so happy for him.
Caitlin Thompson (21:19):
Phenomenal for me. The experience of watching Andrey Rublev honestly
throughout his career is you're like, man, this guy plays
so incredibly well, how could he ever lose?
Rennae Stubbs (21:30):
And then all of a sudden, little bit too one dimensional.
Caitlin Thompson (21:32):
It's a tiebreak and he loses his mind. Like not
just something goes a little bit off. It's like you're
watching somebody in total command of their body and strokes,
and then they just like everything starts appearing in a
different language. It's like it's really upsetting to watch.
Rennae Stubbs (21:52):
Combustible.
Caitlin Thompson (21:53):
Combustible.
Rennae Stubbs (21:54):
It's like he's like got a gas leak at all times.
Caitlin Thompson (21:57):
It's true, you see the gas leak.
Rennae Stubbs (22:00):
It's seeping through the vents. Everybody, anyone who's watched Clue
knows exactly what I'm talking about. Okay, and if you
don't go watch it, okay, it's a great movie. It's
seeping through He literally is the epitome. Oh my god,
it's seeping through the vents. It's seeping through the vents.
Do not light a match?
Caitlin Thompson (22:15):
Right?
Rennae Stubbs (22:16):
And then all of a sudden nobody likes the match
except him. He literally takes the match out and he goes,
where's the leak coming from? I'm just gonna light it.
Caitlin Thompson (22:24):
Yep, it's it's a it's some kind of self destructive
compulsion that I was thrilled to see him not give into.
And there's a very funny and very widely circulated clip
on the internet right now of him putting a point
away drapers off the court, and he somehow manages to
(22:46):
get a tiny blooper overhead in front of Rubylev, who
can put it away to the open court, and ruby
lev misses the ball entirely, which is Rublevian.
Rennae Stubbs (22:57):
We've seen this before.
And instead of allowing it to completely dismantle him and
get his match book out, he like recomposes himself and
manages to win the match. I feel like that, Yes,
you can make a lot out of one tiny viral
internet clip, but at the same time that far less
has been responsible for a combustion event. Yeah, and the
(23:19):
fact that he didn't have a combustion event in a
tournament against somebody super talented and very, very charismatic and
kind of probably the audience favorite in Jack Draper to me,
was really fantastic. He's a lot of straight women's favorites
and probably does love a little Jack Draper.
Caitlin Thompson (23:39):
He's cute, I get it. Yeah, he wears his clothes
really swagging.
Rennae Stubbs (23:42):
He had the cutest, possibly the cutest match of all
time last week between Matteo Berettini, who had quite a
tournament taking out Djokovic. That's right, and uh and Jack Draper.
I mean, that's pretty. That's a Hugo Boss.
Caitlin Thompson (23:57):
It is very runway, it's very magazine cover.
Rennae Stubbs (24:00):
It's that was that was a good looking even for us, Caitlin,
even for us, even for us. Yeah, yeah, I thought,
this is a match that every woman that listens to
this podcast that is straight thought, this is the hottest
match I've ever seen.
Caitlin Thompson (24:25):
H I encourage them to pick up a copy of
(24:45):
the issue of Racquet magazine that's about to come out
because Taylor Fritz looks great on it in his Hugo
Boss suits.
Rennae Stubbs (24:52):
Yeah, well, Taylor's a good looking guy kid as well,
so if you do it, it's really Metteo I think
number one. I think a lot of the like he's
like Matteo number one, Jack number two, Taylor. I don't
know if the women find him as like sexy for
some reason.
Caitlin Thompson (25:07):
We're gonna get so much shit for this Rennae.
Rennae Stubbs (25:10):
Oh, I love it. Come after the lesbians, come after us.
Caitlin Thompson (25:14):
It's true, we couldn't have less of a dog in
this race. But I think objectively, Ah, Jack Draper might
be a cuter to me. Oh I see, I really
think ZZ Zhang is extremely cute.
Rennae Stubbs (25:25):
Oh yeah, he is cute. He's a little crazy as well. Yeah, listen,
we want to give props to our guy because Andrey
is one of my favorite people onto us, I remember,
I remember. I don't know it would be a good question.
Maybe I'll get him on the pod and ask him.
But I did see him in the hole in the
lobby of the Hyatt I think I said this on
the pod and I just said, man, yesterday when he
(25:48):
lost a fun sake and he just looked at me,
and he's just like, oh my god, the guy's so good.
He played so good. He played unbelievable. And I was like, yeah,
crap draw and he's like, yeah, so you're going home?
He goes yeah. I mean he's just he was walking
around like in his pajamas basically in the lobby.
Caitlin Thompson (26:03):
Was just like whatever we learned when we interviewed Andre
at the tour finals that he is a big astrology guy.
Oh interesting, he wears his astrology saying around his neck
like maybe you just could get a reading together.
Rennae Stubbs (26:15):
Yeah, I would love that.
Caitlin Thompson (26:16):
Actually, that would be Oh that's good. We'll make sure
we set that up. You should do that regularly. On
the pad, should we talk about Joao Fonseca.
Rennae Stubbs (26:23):
Yes, I want to just touch upon before because I
know you didn't talk about this with me and Petko
last week. But it was good to see Rybakina least
a half decent week last week. But just I mean,
give me your overall thoughts on that situation with the
WTA and what they've done, and just I mean, I
like your you have different thoughts sometimes to Petko and
(26:46):
I on that situation.
Caitlin Thompson (26:47):
I mean, I don't know how much more I want
to add only because I feel like we sort of
thoroughly talked about it. I think for me, it's. You
can't force somebody who is not in a position, for
whatever we know, to confront something that's going on in
(27:07):
their lives if they're not wanting to or willing.
Rennae Stubbs (27:10):
You saw that her fitness trying to announced two days ago.
Caitlin Thompson (27:14):
It seems pretty clear that the consensus around her given
the fitness trainer. But like I said, the I think
there are some really cut and dried parts of this,
which is, if your workplace is being threatened, then that's
(27:34):
enough of a reason. I would argue that anybody who's
been captured on court abusing anybody else, maybe that's a
chair umpire, maybe that's other people, the same rules should apply,
like if you don't feel I remember we were having
an event and a sponsor was sort of saying we
needed to have somebody at our event, and I said,
I'm not sure that everyone's going to feel safe at
(27:56):
that event. And I'm not trying to be a snowflake,
but I do also think like. I think character traits
that would make people feel uneasy.
Rennae Stubbs (28:10):
Yeah, if there's a pretty too many players on tour
right now, if he was walking around the courts, it
would feel real happy about for sure.
Caitlin Thompson (28:17):
And I think that has to be taken into account.
And I don't think that that's subjective. That feels quite
objective in a situation that is otherwise quite subjective. So yeah,
I I I again, I applaud the WTA for being
proactive as much as they probably could be, and they
have in past not been super I think willing to
intervene in this kind of thing.
Rennae Stubbs (28:37):
And I you know, I think Portia, the CEO of
the WTA, has done a great job.
Caitlin Thompson (28:41):
Yeah, shout out to Portia.
Rennae Stubbs (28:42):
For sure, She's done a lot of I've liked her writing,
so I've liked the things that she said, and she's
been pretty forceful on and. Yeah, I have to say,
I have to say I think the WTA because we
rip the wt yeah for sure, and so we should
be the first ones to say, and I think we
did and I will continue to do so.
Caitlin Thompson (28:58):
I think that they have everything that they can, not only.
On this situation, but I think the entirety of the
organization is looking up.
Rennae Stubbs (29:05):
So yeah, shout out to that. Petra Kvitova is coming back this week.
Nice to see her back playing in Austin, so we'll
see how she does there.
Caitlin Thompson (29:14):
What do you make of her return.
Rennae Stubbs (29:16):
I think it's good. I think that, you know, as
long as physically she can do it is not easy
to come back when you get a little bit older
after having a baby. But I also think that her
game lends itself to still hitting the ball well, still
hitting the big serves, and I think it's going to
help her. I don't think she's going to do great
over the next couple of weeks, and if she does,
more power to her, because I don't think the surfaces
(29:36):
Miami is a little bit quicker might suit her. But
I think she's just trying to get as many mattresses
as she can in before the grass, and I think
she probably feels like that's where she's going to have
her best. Yeah, obvious, which is fair.
Caitlin Thompson (29:48):
Yeah, I think a two time champion, big hitter, somebody
who's got massive power off the groundies that feels like
if she was like a small mover, I would be
a little bit more concerned about her ability to come back,
just because I think that probably some of the sidelined.
Certainly as you age and also as you become a mother.
Rennae Stubbs (30:04):
It'll be interesting to see where she ends up and
how she ends up doing. But the thing for me
Caitlin is the last couple of years of her career,
I just felt like she just had nothing in the tank.
I felt like she had no fire in the belly.
She was a little bit like just going through the motions,
not really looking happy on the court. Yeah, And I
think that's because she really really just wanted to literally
(30:25):
get married and have a kid and was over it.
She'd been playing on tour since she was like probably sixteen,
I believe.
Caitlin Thompson (30:31):
Yeah. Do you think these like extended mental health breaks
are really useful, especially if they come with some major
life events that are by all accounts very happy and positive,
which is, you know, the addition of a family for
Patrick a bit about so Yeah, for me, the more
compelling personalities and game styles on the tour, the better.
That's kind of like my default answer. So I'm like,
(30:53):
you know, very happy to have her.
Rennae Stubbs (30:57):
I am really excited. I don't know about you, but this,
you know a couple of young players like Mickelson and
Learner Tien. Yeah, in Australia had such a great run,
and you know, we saw a lot of them, obviously
to ESPN, we showed them quite a bit. And nice
to see Learner Tien had a good win over Cam
Norrie in Acapulco. Cam Norrie's been struggling over the last
twelve months, but but it's nice to see. To me,
it's gonna be great if Learner Tien can get a
(31:19):
lot of matches under his belt before he comes into
the American tournaments, because I think he's going to have
a huge following because he is a lot of fun,
and he is young, and he is good.
Caitlin Thompson (31:28):
His game is a little unorthodox. Everyone loves it. Lefty. Yeah,
like I am super here for Learner.
Rennae Stubbs (31:34):
Talent out the wazoo, as we say, like crazy.
Caitlin Thompson (31:37):
Yeah, Learner Tien is to me somebody fun to watch.
Rennae Stubbs (31:39):
I agree. Yeah.
Caitlin Thompson (31:40):
Can we talk a little bit about Joao Fonseca. Yes,
we sent a team to Rio, Brazilian journalists cataloging it.
This has long been one of my would like to
go tournaments.
Rennae Stubbs (31:54):
I don't have never we know that you wanted Grand
Slam down there. Yes, I went to the Rio, didn't
go to the Rio Olympics.
Caitlin Thompson (31:59):
You didn't.
Rennae Stubbs (32:00):
I've not been to Brazil.
Caitlin Thompson (32:01):
You're right, I've not been. I think maybe we should
make a point to go.
I've been hearing for years that it's a real good
time and everyone has a ball, and it's obviously a
fun time of year because it's pre Carnival. But honestly,
despite my professor love of South America, it's been a
little bit more focused on the Spanish speaking countries, mainly
because that's where I've traveled, and you know, I love
(32:24):
Argentina for historical reasons. Now Brazil has entered the chat
because now with Joao Fonseca winning the title in Buenos Aires
and entering I think what is now certainly top one hundred.
I think he's ranked sixty something. He is the best
(32:47):
man certainly to play for Brazil since Gustavo Kuerten.
Rennae Stubbs (32:52):
I loved Guga so much, and any beautiful one handed backhand.
If you could watch a Gustavo Kuerten match on clay in
the nineties without falling completely in love with him. I
don't know what your problem is. Get your eyes checked.
Caitlin Thompson (33:05):
That guy was pure heart. His game was beautiful.
Rennae Stubbs (33:08):
I love that you say, pure heart. Considering put a
hot on the French and. Famously on the court every
time he won.
Caitlin Thompson (33:15):
Fun fact, I once shared a cigarette with him outside
of the white Horse Tavern. He bummed a cigarette.
Rennae Stubbs (33:19):
Wow.
Caitlin Thompson (33:20):
I know, he was so nice and I was like, uh.
Rennae Stubbs (33:22):
Are you sure that when he was still playing.
Caitlin Thompson (33:24):
Honestly, maybe it was like early two thousands. That's a long time ago.
But I, as along with everybody else, loved this guy.
And so when we were in talks with some Brazilian
journalists who are like, look, we got to go this year.
Not only is it absolute scene every year and it's
beautiful and it set him into the mountains and there's
water and blah blah blah, but also this year. Obviously
(33:45):
we have a guy. SG he made his debut. He
lost in the first round. It was not super impressive
as a showing.
Rennae Stubbs (33:53):
It was not a surprise that he lost, but also
not a super surprise.
Caitlin Thompson (33:57):
Guy just wins his first tour title, comes home to
crowds that were scalping tickets for fifteen times their value.
You know, a five hundred dollars ticket in Rio I
gather is not insignificant as a sum of money, and
we have all these pictures that these photographers, so go
check it out at top and rackaback dot com. Like
just crowds, kids on his parents' shoulders, people climbing the fences,
(34:19):
like just absolute scenes and you know, yeah, we can
talk about as a result. But to me more excitingly
is his tennis yep. And the fact that Brazil has
entered the chat.
Rennae Stubbs (34:29):
I believe it or not, I believe that it was
a good thing that he lost early.
Caitlin Thompson (34:33):
Keep expectations low.
Rennae Stubbs (34:35):
He can he's said home, yea, he can go home.
He can relax a little bit. He stayed on. He
watched the doubles, He watched the doubles. He was there
when the doubles. Guys won the doubles. Play my old
mixed doubles partner, Marcello Mellow. Mellow won the doubles there seven.
I mean he's like seven feet tall and like forty
eight years of age. I mean the guy every time
I see him, when we walk by each other, hey, partner,
(34:58):
Hey partner, we call each other partner.
Caitlin Thompson (35:00):
How you guys ever lost a match between the two.
Rennae Stubbs (35:02):
Yeah, we did, Okay, we made the semis of Wimbledon.
That was his first ever Grand Slam semi final. Actually
it was the semi finals of Wimbledon with me. But
we had a lot of fun together. And the joke
of our team was that the two words that have
never been said together are Melo Stubbs, so it would
be game Melo Stubbs. And I would always say to Marcello,
(35:23):
you know that's never been said to me
on the tennis court anyway, I can be off the
tennis court. But but we loved playing together because we
were so polar opposites. I was so you know, fired
up on the court, and he was literally the epitome
of his name. But I loved playing with him, and
he's the nicest guy. And to see that victory and
(35:43):
how emotional he got, and fon Seca is there watching
front row getting photos taken by every girl that could
possibly take a photo with him, and to see his
elation when he won that match, I was like, this
is a guy who's won Grand Slam doubles, so he was.
I think it might be the happiest I've ever seen him.
Caitlin Thompson (36:00):
Seen him winning at home in front of a sold
out crowd, with especially the way he won it with
like a cross court poach angle backahnd volley.
Rennae Stubbs (36:09):
Go and watch that point on find it on YouTube.
That is the epitome of the rope and dope in on
a doubles court and letting them see whole court and
then taking off that was so perfectly.
Caitlin Thompson (36:21):
That was a great doubles point. Yeah, it's a great
way to win it. And you know they're they're at home.
Rennae Stubbs (36:25):
Anythig for those of us who uh don't necessarily have
the experience traveling to a place that you know hasn't
enjoyed one hundred years of tennis tradition. Although maybe that's
wrong because there have probably been courts and tournaments there,
but sure, Maria Bueno.
Caitlin Thompson (36:45):
Ct hasn't necessarily been in the spotlight of the tennis tour.
And I think just this idea that maybe Joao Fonseco can
kind of revitalize I mean, no, no discredit whatsoever to
Bea Haddad Maia, who won the Elite last year. Yeah,
you know, she's obviously a star war in the top twenty.
But I think just this idea that there's a young
(37:07):
dude who's got all the shots, who's beating the big
players already, Like there's just there's a palpablic statement, and
I think the photos that we took really captured that.
And I would love to go there because I kind
of want to. You know, what's more fun than being
at a place that feels like the center of the universe,
whether it's Center Court to Wimbledon or a smaller court.
Rennae Stubbs (37:25):
Yeah, you're taking a group to Brazil next year. People:
2026 with Caitlin on the old sSocials. He by the way,
he's gone to seventy eight in the world now, so
let me tell you, people will be real happy when
he's inside the top fifteen in the world for sure,
or top twenty twenty, so they don't have to play
(37:45):
him in the second or first round of the Grand Slam.
I mean, he could play any of the top guys
in the first round of the French Open. Who wants
to play that freaking guy on clay not andlev hell no.
But anyway, it was great to see him have this
success she had. You know, we talked about it with Petco.
I talked about it with Petco, But I think it
was a good thing that he lost because now he
(38:07):
can he understands now what it takes to back it
up as well, and it's not easy. And it's like
what we've been talking about over the last couple of
weeks of what Sam Stosur said when she won her
first Grand Slams, She's like, I wish I'd taken some
time off, which Mattie Keys did, which I thought was
such a smart thing for her to do, take some
time off and get herself prepared to win Indian Wells.
And like Sam said, enjoy that just because she wins
(38:28):
something doesn't mean you're guaranteed of winning the next.
Caitlin Thompson (38:32):
Also like for Maddie Keys, and I hope you guys
talk about this a little bit. If anybody deserves a
little bit of moment to relish, it's certainly her. And
coming back now that she has a framework that's like,
oh this she's always had the tennis and now mentally
I know what it takes, but also I know what
headspace I need to be in to be able to
(38:53):
perform really well.
Rennae Stubbs (38:55):
She knows how to win matches as well, and I
just think having you know, be on there. Just giving
her a few just little tidbits here and there just
made such a difference. So yeah, I can't wait to
talk to her about it all. And I hope everyone
enjoys it once it comes out, but I'm sure you will.
Just a little thing. Novak Djokovic did lose to Berrettini.
(39:15):
Bertini did play the match of his life. I mean,
he was hitting four hands all over the place for winners.
But still you gotta start asking the question, what what
Novak like physically. I know he's you know, had his
issues at this start of the this year with in
Australia with the leg. He didn't look great leaving the
(39:37):
Middle East. You know, he's struggling with injuries over the
last couple of years now, with the knee, with the leg.
And I'm telling you, and it's what pet Goo said
a while ago. She's like, I don't care who you are.
And she said, also, yeah, but we're not Novak Djokovic,
you know, because a couple of weeks later he was
playing and doing well and she's like, yeah, but we're
not Novak Djokovic. But in actual factor, I think she's
more right than she realizes that. And I know this,
(39:59):
and we all know this. There's only once you get
to a certain age, you don't bounce back. And yes,
Novak has bounced back better than most, better than probably anyone. Yeah,
but this is starting to be a little bit of
an issue now in not winning matches, and then when
you haven't played for a while and then you come
back and you're older, I don't care how much you
train and how good you look on the practice court,
(40:21):
when you go and play a match, you're pushing yourself more.
You're doing a little more, You're more nervous, your body's
more uptight, and he has just he's struggling more and
more and more.
Caitlin Thompson (40:33):
For sure. I also think the and this I think
really ended up kind of hurting Serena at the very
very end of her career as well, which is not
only do you slow down and the bounce back is less,
Although truly I cannot think of a person who's bounced
back better than Novak Djokovic historically, as you said, but
I also think part of what I think one Serena
(40:55):
and Novak a lot of matches was their ability to
inspire or rather not inspire belief in their opponents. Where
now it's different.
You lose at least a few games before you get
on the court with Novak and Serena because you know,
whatever you throw at them, you have to have the
day of your life to win. You feel like you
(41:16):
do on top of it, and you feel it and
and you you know, we've seen players who like maybe
realize that they're in a match, but way too late,
because Novak is already up, or Serena is already up
a set in a break, and so, you know, I
think when you lose that air of invulnerability, which now
Novak has certainly lost because between this year and last year,
(41:39):
you know, we saw him. I think he didn't win
a match in the spring of last year pretty much.
Rennae Stubbs (41:44):
Yeah, and he won one tournament last year and in
one tournament it was the it was the only tournament
he really wanted, which was so great, right, but he
did not win a tournament outside of that, for somebody
who is I think benefits from his air of invincibility,
it'll be really interesting to see how other players. And
(42:05):
we saw it in Bertini, who I would classify as
in the top three of QT for sure and has
one of the best forehands, but not necessarily like somebody
who I would sort of put my life on the
line to be like this guy has to win a
match or I'm dead. It wouldn't be Matteo Berrettini. But
the fact that Berrettini kind of took the fate to
him and believed, I think for me, that's a big
(42:26):
problem for me. I think Matteo is going to do
really well in India. Whiles I think it's a pretty
decent court for him. It's a bit slower. He can
get around his back end. He can hit the big
four hands through any speed. His server is huge on
any court. I think he's getting himself mentally back to
playing better. You know, it was a great match against Draper.
He played one just bad point, just one bad point.
(42:47):
He missed one terrible volley that he should not have
missed to lose the second set, Like it was a
volley that he should never miss and he lost that
point and then Jack took the third set. It was
like crazy, But to me, that was a volley that
he should not have missed. It was a very simple
forehand volley into the net. I mean, but if there's
a volley that we all missed. It was the forehand.
Caitlin Thompson (43:10):
It's always a little bit harder.
Rennae Stubbs (43:12):
People will go why why is that? But yeah, anyway,
but other than that, Caitlin, I'm excited Indian Wills is
coming up.
Caitlin Thompson (43:19):
We're gonna have a great time. Should we talk a
little bit about some of the stuff we're going to
be doing. Sure, you're going to be their coaching.
Rennae Stubbs (43:25):
I will be there with Ellen Perez doing a little coaching,
you know, trying to help Ellen just get better on
a daily basis. I love want a tournament at Abu
Dhabi already, so that was good. Yeah, I was not there,
which was probably great but and maybe the reason but
hopefully she took a lot of the things that you know,
we worked on in Australia to the Middle East and
(43:47):
so yeah, so I'm looking forward to getting back out there.
It's tennis paradise. We love it. I am pumped to
be out there again.
Caitlin Thompson (43:54):
I have to say, you know, people ask me which
tourtnaments are you gonna be out, which tournaments is Racquet
going to go to? And are you gonna be in Miami?
What's happening?
Rennae Stubbs (44:04):
I'll be in Miami and everybody seems to want to
go to Indian Wells. Yeah, it's it's Indian Wells. I
think has it's Indian Wales or bust.
Caitlin Thompson (44:13):
It's kind of Indian Wells er bust. So we'll be
doing a few things. We have a new issue to launch.
We're gonna throw a big party this weekend in Los Angeles,
which will be really fun. We are having a charitable
component where all of the proceeds to a incredibly cool
auction go to La wildfire relief. That's great, which is
awesome and great and actually just truly thanks to like
(44:35):
some of our partners, like the Four Seasons and other folks.
Rennae Stubbs (44:40):
I should have found this out before we did the pod,
But how many do we lose? Any tennis facilities in
those areas? Do you know?
Caitlin Thompson (44:47):
Palisades Tennis Center went completely up in flames.
Rennae Stubbs (44:52):
I've played there before.
It's a really nice, beautiful public facility, which is great.
Caitlin Thompson (44:57):
You always want to support public courts in LA has
a ton of them, and obviously a lot of the
private homes with courts were sort of decimated. Some of
them made it out.
Rennae Stubbs (45:06):
But yeah, our thoughts, I mean, we we're talking about it,
but our thoughts really go out to everybody out there
because we know that we probably have some listeners that
live in those areas that love tennis. California is such
a tennis heaven. It has been always through the years.
Obviously a lot of la people go out to the
Indian Wells or San Diego go out to Indian Wells tournament.
(45:26):
But yeah, so that's great that you're doing that.
Caitlin Thompson (45:29):
Well. Yeah, I mean, the main goal for us is
as sad as it is that tennis courts get ruined.
It's really sad when people lose their homes. So one
of the things that we're raising money for is to
help that. And then we'll be out doing a the
VIP event that I cannot discuss, a free to the public,
cool happy hour at the Drift Hotel a week from Thursday.
And then we are culminating it and you're hearing it
(45:50):
here first with a incredibly cool music, viewing surfing and
watching tennis in a lazy river party at The Palm
Spring Surf Club that will be on Saturday, March eighth.
Rennae Stubbs (46:03):
I will bring my surf board.
Caitlin Thompson (46:05):
I would love to see you hang ten.
Rennae Stubbs (46:07):
I haven't surfed in a long time. I will do it.
I will try it.
Caitlin Thompson (46:12):
I will be in the Lazy River.
Rennae Stubbs (46:13):
You'll be in the Lazy River anyway, I'll be in California.
Caitlin Thompson (46:17):
I think all of these players enjoy playing a variety
of these tournaments. It's nice for them to go home,
especially in this sort of stretch where the tournaments are
a little bit of everywhere. There's a little bit in
the Middle East, there's one or two in Europe, there's
a ton in South America. You know, everybody's kind of
scattered all over the place. And then we'll see them
all certain next week.
Rennae Stubbs (46:37):
You will see me in southern California. Guys, if you
see us in southern California, come say hi.
Caitlin Thompson (46:41):
I think we will be doing a live podcast on Saturday,
March eighth.
Rennae Stubbs (46:44):
Oh and we will be doing a live podcast on
Saturday March eighth, Saturday March eighth. So if you're on
the ground grounds, coming find us, Come find us. We'll
set up a tent. And also, as I said, look
forward to a great interview with the now Grand Slam
Top ten Americans. The first time that they've had three
I think it's four, five, and six in the top
(47:06):
ten of the WTA since back in the day, since
Lindsey Serena and Jenny Capriati. Can you believe that like
that for American tennis, I love it. Yeah, and all
led by of course Cocoa goth at three, Jess at four,
and Madison Keys at five.
Caitlin Thompson (47:24):
Wow, boom boom boom.
Rennae Stubbs (47:26):
Yeah. And Emma Navarro is in the top ten still
at ten, So there's four Americans inside the top ten
and just incredible. Really, Emma's been struggling over the last
couple of weeks, so hopefully she can sort of learn
to win in two sets that would help. And I
think she'll play okay in Indian Wells. It's a good
court for her, so we'll see how it goes. All right, guys,
(47:46):
thank you so much, Thank you for listening. Great thing
about tennis is you go to show up every single
week and these players learn that real quick when they've
had a great year of the year before Jasmine Paulini
another one has been struggling a little bit, so we'll see.
Caitlin Thompson (47:57):
There's always time for redemption.
Rennae Stubbs (47:58):
There is. But that's why you're that's why we're here
to bring them all back down to earth, all right, guys,
thanks for listening this week, and we'll see you next week.
By bye.
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