July 2, 2025 • 31 mins
Rennae and Andrea snag a few moments between hits to discuss some of the shocking (and not-so-shocking) first round exits, including Coco Gauff's loss to Yastremska, Zverev's five-setter (and mentality issues) as well as Fabio Fognini Fabio Fognining everywhere, like Lord of the Rings. Are Jannik Sinner and Carlos Alcaraz the Tik Tok versions of Federer & Nadal? Plus, we dedicate this episode to Rennae's mum, whose favorite tournament was Wimbledon.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:14):
Exaccurate, right and stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hi everybody, welcome to the Renine Stubs Tennis Podcast. Do
you want to use your mic THEFDG?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Yes? I thought you would just put it there for me,
so I have.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
To roll down here. We are here, we are everybody.
We are on site. Literally, we are in the players
lounge and we are looking at the beautiful grounds of
the Old England Club. If you haven't been here, please
make it up on your Bucke list.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I have to say not, although it still looks beautiful.
But the combination of no advertising and no lines people now.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Is weird, so weird to me.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Really, in the beginning, I didn't understand why it looks
so weird to me, and then I realized it. I
think no advertising and no lines people look strange. Well,
you do realize that there's always been no advertising, right,
No this on you. But I think the combination, well without.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
The Ralph Lauren on the in the back, with all
the yeah yeah yeah. But the funny thing is, when
you think about it, the courts here are not very big,
which is kind of like I think they did it
in a lot of ways now that we're thinking about it.
Because everyone served in volley on grass back in the day,
so you didn't need a lot of backstop. So and really,
if you're back that far, you shouldn't be playing on
(01:21):
grass because either way you're in trouble. Clearly, Caught one,
Center Court, Caught two, Caught three have bigger courts, but
all the outside courts, so the linesmen often would get
in the way and you're like, you would be like
looking at them, like move, I'm running there, and you'd
like run into the back fence. So in actual fact,
(01:42):
it makes the court slightly bigger, which is helpful in
some ways.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
And what about so qurt one you mentioned a qurd
one center cards? What have you heard? How do the
courts play? Because it used to be Court one players
would say plays slower than center cards.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
What have you heard?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Some have said it's been really slow, But then I
didn't really know because grass is such an organic surface
that the crazy heat of the first two, yeah, maybe
that had something to do with it, and not really
the surface. Because England goes into a shock state when
there's it's above eighty or above thirty depending on where
(02:19):
you live, exactly above thirty and.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
You're ninety, they definitely lose their mind.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Yeah, I was like, when it snows, I will see
you one snows.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
I mean, we're talking about Wimbledon.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
It's not gonna snow, I know, but I will see
a one time playing a challenge in like November, and
literally three snowflakes fell down. They shut the airport down
for eight days.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
You used to like crappy weather here, especially snow.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
But I thought, no, I don't. I don't think they
get so much snow.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Okay, anyway, well, now that we've talked about all this
stuff that we did, nobody care the top. But that's
typical of you and me. And read Petgo's substack, by
the way, that she just wrote, because it's kind of
awesome and funny. But let's get into it.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Let's talk about so much.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Let's talk about the women to start and the upsets
we've already had. In particular jess Pagoula yesterday was that
that was a shocker, although Cocchiaretto played awesome.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Yeah, and she's I don't know.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Who I spoke to, but I spoke to somebody for
I don't know if it was directly from Jessic's camp
or somebody around here, but somebody told me yesterday that
Cocearetto played the match of her.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Like no, no, she didn't miss. And they play very
very similarly. They hug the bass line. They don't want
to give the base line up, which is very important
on grass. And every time Jesse had a good ball
that was sort of deep and strong, which would push
a lot of players, particularly taller players back off the baseline,
Cochiarettos like getting her knees down and sort of like
almost using almost half following it back into the open court.
(03:48):
And Jess was like Jesus, like she wasn't used to
think about it. She just played eagishan Tak in the final.
It was a good match. She was pushing eager back
a little bit more than Conciaretta. I think Cociretto's balance
and like her knee bend and all the little things
like that really helped her. And she served well, I
mean just had you know, attitude wasn't great and sometimes
(04:08):
you have to adjust. I think she tried to in
some regards, but gotcha, Retto was the better player in
the end, and I don't know did it catch up
with her, Jess winning so quickly and then coming here
Maybe I don't know, how do you feel about it?
Speaker 1 (04:21):
I think I don't think physically. I think she's such
a fit player and most of them. I don't think
it's physically, but I do think you get this kind
of emotional tiredness. And granted they are used to these
tennis players. I used to it, but I think we've
seen it here a lot. There are a lot of
players that have been burned out, that look burned out
that I've talked about being burned out. There are so
many tournaments on the schedule. We've talked about it plenty
(04:43):
of times. And I did think that emotionally because when
you get because Jess is usually calm, Yes, she's sometimes
gestures and you see it on her face if you
know her well that she's not happy, but she rarely
ever shows outward emotion. You could see a lot in
her yesterday, particularly after being a set.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Thing about the her rackets, her strings.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
It was like, you know, I usually don't see that
from her, and I think that those are typically signs
for being emotionally and mentally tired. Yes, yeah, I mean listen,
I don't think it was physically.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
No, No, she said her knee was fine, she had it
taped up, but it wasn't taped. It was kinesiology tape,
which is a little bit different, right, It's not quite
as that's not aggressive. That's kind of almost like trying
to just help the muscles relax or fire or trigger.
So yeah, I mean that was the surprise, and then.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
I mean the biggest surprise on the on the women's term.
I'm sorry because if you look at it.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Was so wide open for Paola, Oh my god, yes, yes, so.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
But if you look on the women's side on the upset,
on the upsets that we've had most of them, you
could kind of predict. I predicted but Doosa would go
out against Balter? She did. I kind of expected GoF
to struggle early. I didn't know if it was already
in the first round or in the third against Cannon,
but I thought that this was going to be hard
for her, just because she didn't have so much time
(05:58):
to prep and I was in the Berlins Open organizing team.
I know that she had arrived on Tuesday, playing on Thursday,
when you know these things, yeah, or Monday, let's say
Monday night. You know that she had so many obligations
after the French Open, I don't know how much time
she had to practice to get ready mentally ready into
the next day and into the next such a big
(06:19):
event on the calendar, and it's just hard to do.
It's so packed the calendar. I really don't know how
these consistent guys do it, like Saballenka, like singer, like Alcara,
and even al Choras almost stumbled.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, well, I mean listen, Alcaraz is winning and going
to Abitha for a few days. It's a little close
to the London. Yeah, I mean, you know, goes back in,
going back to New York and then coming back again.
And look, do I think she lost because of that?
And she sort of said and pressed that she would
probably approach things differently. I don't think that was the issue.
(06:54):
Like I think you could look at it. I think
that certainly didn't contribute, maybe because she didn't have the
prep that she needed on grass. And I think that's
definitely possible that she didn't quite have the prep she
wanted and have the you know, the enough practice or
matches practice matches on grass and all this. But I
think this just came down to match up Pepco. I
think if she I think if she plays a Cochiuretta
(07:16):
as well as Cochiuretto played. I don't think she would
have liked Coco's game like she liked Jess's game. Jess
hits the ball really flat and hard, right into her
hands right, because she's smaller at in stature, ball comes
into a hitting zone. You have to always think about matchups.
If Coco plays Petrick Avitova right, who's maybe noted at
(07:36):
her best, and she's serving the ball to Coco's back end,
Coco's getting removing, Coco probably wins that match, right when
you think about Yestremska, this is the biggest worst matchup
for Coco in the first round. Now, if Coco was
confident coming in on Grass, I still think that's a
(07:57):
really hard matchup. What does your Stemsku do? She's the
one two three maximum punch player, Bang with the return, bang
with the second shot, serve plus one. She's not going
to a type of person that's going to rally for
six or seven like Pagola. Probably has a better chance
against a Eustropskun right because she's going to get that
(08:17):
one ball with heaviness, back, harder and Ytromsk's ability to
maybe hit five great shots, very rare, two or three
very good. Right, so you've got two problems. Coco's fourhand
on clay, it gets up high, it gets out of
people's hitting zones. It's difficult, right, She has time to
run balls down on clay, she has time to frustrate.
(08:39):
Like she wouldn't lose to Yes Stromskir on clay she
was three and oh and I had and lost a
set six love against her.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Yeah, okay, but recently, and that was very similar because
I called both matches. I called the match yesterday and
the one in Madrid, and it was very similar where
and I honestly thought Coco was going to turn it around.
And at first set there was this moment, Yes Stromskar
was up five to two. Yeah, but in Madrid was
very similar. Y Stremscar came out one, two, three punches
so flat, so powerful, and it helps in Madrid because
(09:07):
it's a little altitude, so it's faster exactly. And Coco
was just overwhelmed by the piece there was coming at her.
And then you could see you while the match progressed,
she got more and more comfortable, made one extra shot,
extended the rallies. That's what it's now in the end
it was just yes Stramscar missing and the important.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Which guess what happened at the final of the French Open,
same thing, right, Sabalanca comes out on fire up for one.
Then Coco gets back to four all, and then you
start to see the anxiety changes with Sabalanka. Sabalanka starts realizing, oh,
I got to hit it one inch from the sideline,
not two or three feet from the sideline. Yestremscar on
grass and on clay was probably thinking the same thing.
(09:44):
Oh my god, she's getting it back. Now I have
to get close to the line. I have to take
more risks. But on grass you don't have to take
as much risk because if you hit the ball on
your forehand at ninety miles an hour on grass and
it's into the open court, I don't care how fast
you are. So hard to get Coco is the fastest
plan onto it. You're not getting to that ball now.
On clay, you're getting to that ball and it's going
(10:05):
to come back, and then you're going to take more
risk and you're going to miss, which is why Coco
beats people on clay. On grass, her forehand is short,
they can go one to point as over and there's
nothing Coco can do. Now Is she going to start
striking the forehand bigger? Okay, maybe, but that's not her game.
So my thinking is she should have been chipping. She
(10:26):
should have been playing ugly when Yoshianska hits the serve
to her forehand, rather than try and crush the forehand.
Because by the way, now you're out of court and
she's going to go bang into the open court and
you're not going to be able to run it down.
Chip it back, make it ugly, quite ugly, chip it
below the net. You know your streams is not quite
comfortable coming in, like you have to have game plan B.
And that wasn't the case. And her first serve percentage
(10:48):
was what fifty three percent?
Speaker 1 (10:50):
It wasn't great. She had a lot of double You
could tell that her was off on the surf, but
why is the rhythm off? Yeah it was. Yeah, she
was just getting stressed that she was just being taking
time away from I think with Coco, I agree with
you to a certain extent. I said it from the
get go. I think she should chip the return at
because Estramska kept serving the same serve over and over again.
(11:11):
The wide slice low one and Coco kept missing fourhands
into the net. I think she should have chipped that.
But to be fair, when she was down five to two,
she started hitting. We I called the match. We had
the hawk eye statistics. She started hitting the ball bigger.
She went up by six miles an hour and taking
more on average, taking more risks, and the whole match changed.
(11:31):
And she should have probably won that first set because Yes,
streamscal was overwhelmed. She didn't. Yes, streams Cup played an
incredible tie break. It reminded me of the I don't
know if you saw the no well dead, but I
don't know if you saw the first set Rinda Knesh
against her fibreak. Rinda Knesh was like to get just
out of his ass, and it reminded me of that.
(11:52):
That was just too good. And I thought, now, but
Cocoa now has the she got the hang of it.
You know, she got the hang. She has to put
a bit on it. But it wasn't like out of swords.
And so I do think that that messed her up
in a way because she never got the idea to
starting to play ugly because it worked from that stretch
of being down five two to getting back to five.
(12:13):
Oh yeah, but I think there was a problem.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
You also have to be you also have to recognize
when your opponent gets a bit tight as well. Okay,
so five two up, now all of a sudden, it's like, oh,
I'm going to win the set, So you get a
little bit tight as well. If you're strength scut, maybe
you stop going for it and taking the risk because
you're like, oh, I'm winning, just you know, make them play.
I don't know what was going through her head as well.
But also when it got to, you know, the tie
(12:37):
break in those situations, that's where I think Coco may
have double folded the first point on her serf. Like,
the reason she's double folding is because she's clearly not
getting the first serve and she's lost a rhythm. But
also the second serve was always going to be a problem.
I was going to do this lead up for the
match for ESPN. The two things that are concerning for
Coco on grass are the shortness of her forehand and
(12:57):
the height of her forehand, which is great on clay,
but grass it's just sitting there in the hitting zone.
And her second serve it's very predictable and EU Strengthska
has a huge forehand, and I thought, if you're not
hitting on a huge return, she leaves massive and so
immediately off of the serve, Coco is stressed. So your
strengthsker served. Well, it's one thing that goes off on
(13:18):
her sometimes it's the second serve.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
And she did serve the three double files when she
was serving for the first set exactly, so sort of
reeled it back in exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Actually, I give her a lot of credit the first set,
so I thought she was going to lose it when
it came back to five and a really good game there.
But it's more along the lines of Coco has to
recognize also, ge like this girl's strength is going for
the return. I've got to get at least get a
first serve in here before and not put myself under pressure.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yeah, I think that I think she knew that because
all of her double files usually her double files are
kind of everywhere, every single one, And I do think
that she The reason for that was that she tried
to keep it low because Esska likes it a little
bit high. That's why she likes playing Coco's.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Forehand on grass.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Yeah, and so I did think there was a tactical
understanding in it. Unfortunately it went badly for her because
they landed mostly on the net. But I did think
that that's what she was trying to do. And just
as an added as an added perspective, I looked up
the winning quota for Yes Gemsky and she's a lot
higher on grass than on any other surfaces. Yes, which
(14:23):
under underline what you just said. Yeah, because she is
a one three one two three punch player and on
the other surfaces, the longer the rarely goes, the more
erratic she becomes.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Yeah. And her game is very similar to to a
not a sabl Anka Sablinka will chip and throw in
some spin and all that. So it's kind of like
an Amanda Anissa Mova or on a Vickage type who's
just really hitting the ball hard and flat all the time,
and they don't have a lot of margin. And that's
why when I saw the draw, I went, oh shit,
that is a terrible draw, Coco, because she, let's face it,
(14:55):
she beating someone six love in a set. You know
that they're coming after you. Yeah, And you know, one
grass when it's your worst surface and your forehand, which
is your worst shot, is going to be so much
more difficult to play on grass against a ball that
is coming at you at ninety miles an hour. It
was just so I talk about, Yeah, could she have
had more time prepar preparing, Could she had more matches
(15:15):
in Berlin? Sure, But I think this comes down to
straight up a bad matchup.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Bad matchup. I think in the end it's always a combination.
Maybe if she had had a bit more time on grass,
maybe she would have felt more comfortable to take the
first set, and maybe she would have had the clarity
to play ugly when it to manage most. But the
combination of I haven't maybe played as much as I
wanted on grass, the other one is not giving me
any time to think clearly, and she's playing clearly well.
(15:43):
She's played the final in Nottingham and I think the
Semis and Esbourne, so she came in winning a lot
of conscios. So it's not only it's not the yestremscut
that can go off and lose five first rounds, which
we know, I mean, terrible combination.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
For two years you she qualified the coach's bags. This
my new guy, That's right, he's back and he's giving her.
So you talked about you touched on it briefly. Yes,
Stremska is mentally not mentally I want to say, emotionally
not quite stable off. Yeah, she's absolutely and he gives
her that emotional stability. He's there, he keeps yelling at her,
he instills that intensity and he clearly helps her. It
(16:20):
was with him that she made the Australian Open semifinals.
He's back and she had a huge upset.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yes, Cocoa wasn't at her best, but yes s Trem's
Cup played an almost perfect match except from that five
to two to five all stretch.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Yeah, I agree, And you know, I do think that Coco.
You know, she looked up at her box in the
second set and was like what do I do? What
do I do? You've got to be able to have
a game plan B and c.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
That was That's the only thing. Now the German I've
been commentating in Germany. It's really hard in English.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
The good thing is I know what that.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
Means, you know, goodhine.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
I do think that the only thing she could have
done is maybe make things so ugly and see what happens. Yeah,
other than that, I do think that it was on yes,
Jam's class record, and I'll credit to her she took it.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yeah, I agree to her. You know, even the last
couple of game. I think the one game the match
point either. But what I have to say the four one, okay,
it was the second four one. I was in the stadium.
I actually went and watched the match live. I wanted
to see it live because I wasn't working last night.
I'd finished on ESPN and the four one game in
the second set, I said to everyone, this is not
(17:54):
over your Strengthsier was serving and I said, if she
can break here and then hold it four three, the
pressure and we know one of the issues with your
stremscut is the serf. It can go off because her
technique is not great and it's very discombobulated, and if
you get nervous, it's not good. Her good thing is
for her when she gets tired, it goes to the forehand,
which is to Coco's weakness. But the first point at
(18:16):
four one, she hits such a slow first serve to
Cocos foehand, and Coco won the point and played a
really good point, super aggressive, and I was like, oh shit,
I said, if you're Coco, you have to see that.
You have to see that your opponent's just rolled the
first serve in right, and Coco won the point. Next point,
average serve, Coco misses the return and I'm like, I
(18:37):
think on a backhand and I'm like, oh my god, no,
like you have to make her play now, make her
beat you now. Right next point, I think a missed return.
It was the forehand return and I'm like, and it
wasn't even good, serf. And I was like, oh no,
Like that's where you have to maybe go ugly.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
I know, but this will now come from somebody that
can identify with Coco a lot more than you, because
because I fucking hated grass. I hated playing on grass,
and it's so interesting. The one thing that I could do,
no matter when you wake me up, was return. I
could make returns. I would like, if I got my
record on it, I would make on grass.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Fucking not.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
I would always miss them into the net. It was
so difficult, and your grip was not extreme, but it was.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
It was semi western.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yeah, but not as Loco at all. But for some
reason it was so and that's why I didn't play
well on grass because technically, once I get in the rally,
I can't play on grass, you know, But I just
was My surf was not a huge bomb, so I
had to play more rallies than others, and my big
strength to return what I made up for for my
not great serf was gone on grass because I made
(19:43):
so many return mistakes that I never would make. And
I think Coco feels similar. I don't know what it
is for her, obviously, because I'm not in her body,
but I can identify with it because Cocoa usually makes
every return she gets.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
A record on.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Even on the shore, yes she can miss on the forehand,
but usually on the slower surfaces she gets she gets
many many returns. Yeah, true, true, And for some reason,
on grass it's so horrible.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Well, and also she knew I can't just kind of
averagely because she is literally going to take the next
ball and just jam it into the opening and crush it.
So I think it's a combination of just everything, all right.
So I mean, other than those two kind of everything's
moving on Coupit of her has now retired. It was
a good win for Navarro just because it was never
(20:25):
going to be in an easy sort of matchup knowing
you're playing Petra, but h and everyonething else is kind
of smoothly going along with Jico. I was nice to
see her get through that first round. Look, she's had
a lot of injury. She's there was it was, you know,
come off of finals in Eastbourne. So so good to
see that everything, everything else is kind of moving right along.
(20:48):
The men's Wow, it's very about again.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Did you see his press conference? No, oh, you didn't,
breaking the news.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Break the news to me.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Well, it was really interesting. So there were two press conferences, obviously,
one in English, one in German, and.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
He said, is he more honest in German?
Speaker 1 (21:06):
It was similar. It was really interesting because and it's
funny because I just see two German journalists who were
conducting the German press conference. They are just in front
of us. So he said that he feels very alone
right now, and that's interesting. Yeah, that he doesn't really
have anything that makes him happy. Winning doesn't make him
(21:26):
as happy as it used to be. The only thing
that makes him happy, that's a party set in German
is his daughter, his four year old, but he doesn't
see her, He can't see her that much, and so
it's been very difficult for him to find happiness outside
of the court. And there was one occasion in the
fourth set where it was so he was down two
(21:47):
sets to one, four set tiebreak, it's five all, so
he has a second serve, and I said, already, you
saw that, and he had already served a few double
faults and important moments. Vere F, I'm talking about zaf
He has a second serf, So this point we'll decide
whether it's set point for Zverev or match point. And
Zverev serves one hundred and thirty seven mile per hour
(22:08):
second serve and HiT's peltically, yeah, down the tee and
hits an ace and later not an ace but a serviceman,
and later he said, you know when I hit that surf, yeah,
that looks great. But I just didn't care. If I
had hit a double fault, I wouldn't have cared that
I would have been match point down. So basically, in conclusion,
it was along the lines of being burned out. What
(22:29):
we just talked about. What we saw with a lot
of being burned out, lacking motivation, not really finding the
joy in the game, and we've seen that with a
lot of players and I really think the organizations will
have to change something around the schedule. And we see
that more and more frequently. And I know you don't
like CERF, that's like, that's okay, but I think that
I think that's.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
I don't like the former or the stuff that's been reported,
but you know.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
But I think it's a it's a common theme.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Now.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
We heard were sorry about it in Madrid, we heard
Carlos talk about it after the Miami and also.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Not only Carlos talk about it. I don't know if
you've watched his Netflix special, but he talks about it
quite openly, like a couple of years ago, when all
the expectation and the pressures and finding the joy and
he has to play with joy and all that sort
of stuff. And you know, I don't think people realize
that this is a really, really tough life. You know,
you're on the road all the time, you don't see
anyone's and it's stress and it's pressure all the time.
(23:23):
Every time you walk on the tennis court or go
on to the practice cord or all this sort of stuff,
all you're thinking about is tennis and matches and winning
and losing. And it's very, very mentally taxing, and listen,
I'm going to compare it to somebody who goes to
work every day and it is like trying to just
put food on the table, because it's very different to that.
But I just it's it's a lot of pressure and
it's a lot of stress consistently, especially for the top
people that are expected to to do well all the time.
(23:46):
But anyway, Alcarez's first round was unbelievable against von Nini.
It was great to see Fabio get that moment you
just knew that Fabio was going to play well.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Yeah, I was freaking dying. That was the most Fabia
for Uni can do.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Do you feel like it's because Alcaraz looked really sort
of he looked Alchariz looked a little flat, and I
was like, yeah, because he's playing a guy that has
more jett Aviv than he does on the court, right,
you know the swagger and you know the shots he hit.
He hit some unbelievable shots in that match, and it
was almost like he you know, you saw the original Alcoraz. Yeah,
(24:20):
and then Alchoriz is like, wait, I'm not I'm not
the funny like charismatic dude out here. Yeah, I think
it sort of took away from him a little bit.
He wasn't like feeling the joy that he feels because
he wasn't the show. Yeah, Babio was, you know. But
in the end it clearly being thirty seven years of
age caught up with him in the fifth set. But
it was fun to see, but also a real wake
up call for Carlos to get his matches over a
(24:43):
little bit quicker. Although Fabio can play, huh, I mean
he can play. It was so fun.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
No, I was laughing because I was in Rome in
the stadium when he got the farewell from the Italian ground,
and it was like the end of the Lord of
Rings movie where they have seven endings and kept going
like they showed one video, people were crying, and then
they showed another video. You know. This was like, soice
matches on and Grand Slam stage is the best matches
(25:09):
on mas Thursday. The one time he won Monte Carlo,
the other time he'd beat Draffer. So it's like, I
think in the end they showed like fifteen videos and
after a while, after an hour, people were like, Okay,
are we still supposed to be crying because this is
a little much, so I was like, this guy's done
for good. And then three weeks later it is at
the French Open, playing his first round there in classic.
(25:30):
So it was so fab year for Uni, so Italian, and.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
That one of the moments that I'll remember forever is
when they had that medical time out in the fifth
set for a spectator, when he went back to talk
to Flavia Panetta, his wife, and they were just having
this full on chat and I could hear a couple
of things in Italian like ah see, and she was
just like, I can't remember the words now, it's just
skipping my mind. But it was so funny that there
were just like, literally these two champion tennis players who
(25:58):
are married and they've got their three kids up there
and just having a conversation on Senacor while he's waiting
to go back and play. And I thought, this is
just the best, one of the best moments I've seen
in a long time. I was so adorat and they
were laughing, and I was like, oh, that that is
a joy that ill remember.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
And the two of them. If if Fabiau manages to
really make it end here and not pull a Lord
of the Rings with seven more endings. This will be
the most incredible wirewash for the married couple of Lavia Panetta,
who finished her career with the US Open title, and
then him with this five setter against one of the
(26:36):
best players not in the world but me might be
one of the best players in fives I know. And
to end like this, it's perfect.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Okay, So janick'sinner when when he went wins comfortably.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Yes, oh my god, I have to tell so.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
My so.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
I always say about Yanick. He has this business like
facade that he has charm and with behind the cy right,
and especially when you speak in German with him, you
can tell that he's like witty. He just doesn't show
it so much.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
I had a funny situation happened yesterday it which entailed
some stuff I can't say because it was it's so
not for the public. But he was so funny to
me and so freaking adorable, And I'm like, you're literally
one of my favorite people because he is a little
silent assassin with suff good That's a very good description.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
But I always want to tell people this, and then
sometimes if people just see him on TV, they don't
believe me that here's this charm to him and yesterday
and he posted it today on Instagram. So that cracks
me up. Is yesterday he hit one ball through his
legs like running back. Did you see? I saw that?
So he was so happy, Like I honestly think he
(27:45):
was happy, but he looked happier to play this shot
that nobody expects of him.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Then Women's like, yeah, I can do a little Carlos too, Okay,
so you know, like me just as much. Right, I'm
not his fancy all the time, but I can do it.
I just don't because I'm from northern Italy, a little
bit more German than Italian.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
And then he and today on Instagram. I opened up
my Instagram thing and the first thing I see is
that shot him playing it through around. I'm like, the
guy loves himself being a little joker, just doesn't want
to show. And I was like, oh my god, he's
he wants to show that he's a joker as well,
but he can't quite get.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
There because it's just not his personality. This is why
we love him so much and why I still feel
horrific for him that he didn't win that match. And
as much as and everybody knows how much I love Galitos.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
They're just the best.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
They're just the best, guys. I'm so I mean literally,
we got so lucky. It was like like ra Friend
and Roger got reincarnated.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Yeah right, I mean it's just in the TikTok version,
TikTok version exactly.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Anyway, all right, so you have to run, Let's yeah,
maybe let's do it, Aaron, Let's walk and talk while
see you later. While okay, guys. So I just wanted
to add a little something because Petco had to run
do some TV and you know, we're running around like,
as I say, chicks with our heads cut off over
these two weeks of a Grand Slam, and so she
(29:14):
had to run. But what I wanted to say at
the end, because you know, it was nice to sit
down with pet Goo and talk about Wimbledon and what's
happened here over the last few days. And it's always
such a joy to be here at Wimbledon and always
such a joy to talk to Petco out tennis. We
could sit there and talk for hours. But and we
and I and Caitlin and everyone, we really appreciate you
(29:36):
always sitting down and listening to the podcast. And you know,
I had somebody walk by me in the village the
other day and he said, love the podcast. You know,
thanks for that. So everybody that ever comes up to
me and does thank me and also tells me that
they love it, it really means a lot to us. And
we appreciate your support through not only you know, the
last little bit, but through the years of being podcast
(29:58):
listeners of our podcasts, and Caitlin and myself and pet
Go we really we do enjoy when you come up
to us in shops and on the street and tell
us that you enjoy it. So I just want to
throw that in there and thank you very much for that.
It's been a it's been a it's been a tough
couple of days for me. My mum actually passed away
on Saturday before the tournament. So I'm heading back to
(30:20):
Australia next week. So have some patience with me getting
you know, all the stuff about Wimbledon t you once
the tournament is done and settled. And my mom was
my most My most earliest memory of Wimbledon is my
mom sneaking into my bedroom as a kid and tapping
me on the shoulder and waking me up and whispering
(30:42):
in my ear, Wimbledon's on, do you want to come
and watch? And we'd sit out there in you know,
the cold of Sydney in winter and watch Wimbledon and
watch all my favorite players like Borg and Mace and
Roe and Chrissy and Martina. And that was the era
that I grew up with. An Evon Goolagong Callie, and
that was the ear that I grew up with as
a young child. And it just made me love this
(31:03):
place so much. It's one of the reasons why I
stayed to work the first week with ESPN, because it's
what my mum would have wanted. And I know this
is a bit of a downer, but I just wanted
to really dedicate this particular pod and my joy of
Wimbledon and everything to my mom, Margaret
Exaccurate, right and stuff.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Hi everybody, welcome to the Renine Stubs Tennis Podcast. Do
you want to use your mic THEFDG?
Speaker 1 (00:20):
Yes? I thought you would just put it there for me,
so I have.
Speaker 2 (00:22):
To roll down here. We are here, we are everybody.
We are on site. Literally, we are in the players
lounge and we are looking at the beautiful grounds of
the Old England Club. If you haven't been here, please
make it up on your Bucke list.
Speaker 1 (00:36):
I have to say not, although it still looks beautiful.
But the combination of no advertising and no lines people now.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Is weird, so weird to me.
Speaker 1 (00:46):
Really, in the beginning, I didn't understand why it looks
so weird to me, and then I realized it. I
think no advertising and no lines people look strange. Well,
you do realize that there's always been no advertising, right,
No this on you. But I think the combination, well without.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
The Ralph Lauren on the in the back, with all
the yeah yeah yeah. But the funny thing is, when
you think about it, the courts here are not very big,
which is kind of like I think they did it
in a lot of ways now that we're thinking about it.
Because everyone served in volley on grass back in the day,
so you didn't need a lot of backstop. So and really,
if you're back that far, you shouldn't be playing on
(01:21):
grass because either way you're in trouble. Clearly, Caught one,
Center Court, Caught two, Caught three have bigger courts, but
all the outside courts, so the linesmen often would get
in the way and you're like, you would be like
looking at them, like move, I'm running there, and you'd
like run into the back fence. So in actual fact,
(01:42):
it makes the court slightly bigger, which is helpful in
some ways.
Speaker 1 (01:46):
And what about so qurt one you mentioned a qurd
one center cards? What have you heard? How do the
courts play? Because it used to be Court one players
would say plays slower than center cards.
Speaker 2 (01:57):
What have you heard?
Speaker 1 (01:59):
Some have said it's been really slow, But then I
didn't really know because grass is such an organic surface
that the crazy heat of the first two, yeah, maybe
that had something to do with it, and not really
the surface. Because England goes into a shock state when
there's it's above eighty or above thirty depending on where
(02:19):
you live, exactly above thirty and.
Speaker 2 (02:21):
You're ninety, they definitely lose their mind.
Speaker 1 (02:23):
Yeah, I was like, when it snows, I will see
you one snows.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
I mean, we're talking about Wimbledon.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
It's not gonna snow, I know, but I will see
a one time playing a challenge in like November, and
literally three snowflakes fell down. They shut the airport down
for eight days.
Speaker 2 (02:37):
You used to like crappy weather here, especially snow.
Speaker 1 (02:40):
But I thought, no, I don't. I don't think they
get so much snow.
Speaker 2 (02:42):
Okay, anyway, well, now that we've talked about all this
stuff that we did, nobody care the top. But that's
typical of you and me. And read Petgo's substack, by
the way, that she just wrote, because it's kind of
awesome and funny. But let's get into it.
Speaker 1 (02:57):
Let's talk about so much.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
Let's talk about the women to start and the upsets
we've already had. In particular jess Pagoula yesterday was that
that was a shocker, although Cocchiaretto played awesome.
Speaker 3 (03:12):
Yeah, and she's I don't know.
Speaker 1 (03:15):
Who I spoke to, but I spoke to somebody for
I don't know if it was directly from Jessic's camp
or somebody around here, but somebody told me yesterday that
Cocearetto played the match of her.
Speaker 2 (03:24):
Like no, no, she didn't miss. And they play very
very similarly. They hug the bass line. They don't want
to give the base line up, which is very important
on grass. And every time Jesse had a good ball
that was sort of deep and strong, which would push
a lot of players, particularly taller players back off the baseline,
Cochiarettos like getting her knees down and sort of like
almost using almost half following it back into the open court.
(03:48):
And Jess was like Jesus, like she wasn't used to
think about it. She just played eagishan Tak in the final.
It was a good match. She was pushing eager back
a little bit more than Conciaretta. I think Cociretto's balance
and like her knee bend and all the little things
like that really helped her. And she served well, I
mean just had you know, attitude wasn't great and sometimes
(04:08):
you have to adjust. I think she tried to in
some regards, but gotcha, Retto was the better player in
the end, and I don't know did it catch up
with her, Jess winning so quickly and then coming here
Maybe I don't know, how do you feel about it?
Speaker 1 (04:21):
I think I don't think physically. I think she's such
a fit player and most of them. I don't think
it's physically, but I do think you get this kind
of emotional tiredness. And granted they are used to these
tennis players. I used to it, but I think we've
seen it here a lot. There are a lot of
players that have been burned out, that look burned out
that I've talked about being burned out. There are so
many tournaments on the schedule. We've talked about it plenty
(04:43):
of times. And I did think that emotionally because when
you get because Jess is usually calm, Yes, she's sometimes
gestures and you see it on her face if you
know her well that she's not happy, but she rarely
ever shows outward emotion. You could see a lot in
her yesterday, particularly after being a set.
Speaker 2 (04:58):
Thing about the her rackets, her strings.
Speaker 1 (05:01):
It was like, you know, I usually don't see that
from her, and I think that those are typically signs
for being emotionally and mentally tired. Yes, yeah, I mean listen,
I don't think it was physically.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
No, No, she said her knee was fine, she had it
taped up, but it wasn't taped. It was kinesiology tape,
which is a little bit different, right, It's not quite
as that's not aggressive. That's kind of almost like trying
to just help the muscles relax or fire or trigger.
So yeah, I mean that was the surprise, and then.
Speaker 1 (05:27):
I mean the biggest surprise on the on the women's term.
I'm sorry because if you look at it.
Speaker 2 (05:33):
Was so wide open for Paola, Oh my god, yes, yes, so.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
But if you look on the women's side on the upset,
on the upsets that we've had most of them, you
could kind of predict. I predicted but Doosa would go
out against Balter? She did. I kind of expected GoF
to struggle early. I didn't know if it was already
in the first round or in the third against Cannon,
but I thought that this was going to be hard
for her, just because she didn't have so much time
(05:58):
to prep and I was in the Berlins Open organizing team.
I know that she had arrived on Tuesday, playing on Thursday,
when you know these things, yeah, or Monday, let's say
Monday night. You know that she had so many obligations
after the French Open, I don't know how much time
she had to practice to get ready mentally ready into
the next day and into the next such a big
(06:19):
event on the calendar, and it's just hard to do.
It's so packed the calendar. I really don't know how
these consistent guys do it, like Saballenka, like singer, like Alcara,
and even al Choras almost stumbled.
Speaker 2 (06:33):
Yeah, well, I mean listen, Alcaraz is winning and going
to Abitha for a few days. It's a little close
to the London. Yeah, I mean, you know, goes back in,
going back to New York and then coming back again.
And look, do I think she lost because of that?
And she sort of said and pressed that she would
probably approach things differently. I don't think that was the issue.
(06:54):
Like I think you could look at it. I think
that certainly didn't contribute, maybe because she didn't have the
prep that she needed on grass. And I think that's
definitely possible that she didn't quite have the prep she
wanted and have the you know, the enough practice or
matches practice matches on grass and all this. But I
think this just came down to match up Pepco. I
think if she I think if she plays a Cochiuretta
(07:16):
as well as Cochiuretto played. I don't think she would
have liked Coco's game like she liked Jess's game. Jess
hits the ball really flat and hard, right into her
hands right, because she's smaller at in stature, ball comes
into a hitting zone. You have to always think about matchups.
If Coco plays Petrick Avitova right, who's maybe noted at
(07:36):
her best, and she's serving the ball to Coco's back end,
Coco's getting removing, Coco probably wins that match, right when
you think about Yestremska, this is the biggest worst matchup
for Coco in the first round. Now, if Coco was
confident coming in on Grass, I still think that's a
(07:57):
really hard matchup. What does your Stemsku do? She's the
one two three maximum punch player, Bang with the return, bang
with the second shot, serve plus one. She's not going
to a type of person that's going to rally for
six or seven like Pagola. Probably has a better chance
against a Eustropskun right because she's going to get that
(08:17):
one ball with heaviness, back, harder and Ytromsk's ability to
maybe hit five great shots, very rare, two or three
very good. Right, so you've got two problems. Coco's fourhand
on clay, it gets up high, it gets out of
people's hitting zones. It's difficult, right, She has time to
run balls down on clay, she has time to frustrate.
(08:39):
Like she wouldn't lose to Yes Stromskir on clay she
was three and oh and I had and lost a
set six love against her.
Speaker 1 (08:45):
Yeah, okay, but recently, and that was very similar because
I called both matches. I called the match yesterday and
the one in Madrid, and it was very similar where
and I honestly thought Coco was going to turn it around.
And at first set there was this moment, Yes Stromskar
was up five to two. Yeah, but in Madrid was
very similar. Y Stremscar came out one, two, three punches
so flat, so powerful, and it helps in Madrid because
(09:07):
it's a little altitude, so it's faster exactly. And Coco
was just overwhelmed by the piece there was coming at her.
And then you could see you while the match progressed,
she got more and more comfortable, made one extra shot,
extended the rallies. That's what it's now in the end
it was just yes Stramscar missing and the important.
Speaker 2 (09:23):
Which guess what happened at the final of the French Open,
same thing, right, Sabalanca comes out on fire up for one.
Then Coco gets back to four all, and then you
start to see the anxiety changes with Sabalanka. Sabalanka starts realizing, oh,
I got to hit it one inch from the sideline,
not two or three feet from the sideline. Yestremscar on
grass and on clay was probably thinking the same thing.
(09:44):
Oh my god, she's getting it back. Now I have
to get close to the line. I have to take
more risks. But on grass you don't have to take
as much risk because if you hit the ball on
your forehand at ninety miles an hour on grass and
it's into the open court, I don't care how fast
you are. So hard to get Coco is the fastest
plan onto it. You're not getting to that ball now.
On clay, you're getting to that ball and it's going
(10:05):
to come back, and then you're going to take more
risk and you're going to miss, which is why Coco
beats people on clay. On grass, her forehand is short,
they can go one to point as over and there's
nothing Coco can do. Now Is she going to start
striking the forehand bigger? Okay, maybe, but that's not her game.
So my thinking is she should have been chipping. She
(10:26):
should have been playing ugly when Yoshianska hits the serve
to her forehand, rather than try and crush the forehand.
Because by the way, now you're out of court and
she's going to go bang into the open court and
you're not going to be able to run it down.
Chip it back, make it ugly, quite ugly, chip it
below the net. You know your streams is not quite
comfortable coming in, like you have to have game plan B.
And that wasn't the case. And her first serve percentage
(10:48):
was what fifty three percent?
Speaker 1 (10:50):
It wasn't great. She had a lot of double You
could tell that her was off on the surf, but
why is the rhythm off? Yeah it was. Yeah, she
was just getting stressed that she was just being taking
time away from I think with Coco, I agree with
you to a certain extent. I said it from the
get go. I think she should chip the return at
because Estramska kept serving the same serve over and over again.
(11:11):
The wide slice low one and Coco kept missing fourhands
into the net. I think she should have chipped that.
But to be fair, when she was down five to two,
she started hitting. We I called the match. We had
the hawk eye statistics. She started hitting the ball bigger.
She went up by six miles an hour and taking
more on average, taking more risks, and the whole match changed.
(11:31):
And she should have probably won that first set because Yes,
streamscal was overwhelmed. She didn't. Yes, streams Cup played an
incredible tie break. It reminded me of the I don't
know if you saw the no well dead, but I
don't know if you saw the first set Rinda Knesh
against her fibreak. Rinda Knesh was like to get just
out of his ass, and it reminded me of that.
(11:52):
That was just too good. And I thought, now, but
Cocoa now has the she got the hang of it.
You know, she got the hang. She has to put
a bit on it. But it wasn't like out of swords.
And so I do think that that messed her up
in a way because she never got the idea to
starting to play ugly because it worked from that stretch
of being down five two to getting back to five.
(12:13):
Oh yeah, but I think there was a problem.
Speaker 2 (12:15):
You also have to be you also have to recognize
when your opponent gets a bit tight as well. Okay,
so five two up, now all of a sudden, it's like, oh,
I'm going to win the set, So you get a
little bit tight as well. If you're strength scut, maybe
you stop going for it and taking the risk because
you're like, oh, I'm winning, just you know, make them play.
I don't know what was going through her head as well.
But also when it got to, you know, the tie
(12:37):
break in those situations, that's where I think Coco may
have double folded the first point on her serf. Like,
the reason she's double folding is because she's clearly not
getting the first serve and she's lost a rhythm. But
also the second serve was always going to be a problem.
I was going to do this lead up for the
match for ESPN. The two things that are concerning for
Coco on grass are the shortness of her forehand and
(12:57):
the height of her forehand, which is great on clay,
but grass it's just sitting there in the hitting zone.
And her second serve it's very predictable and EU Strengthska
has a huge forehand, and I thought, if you're not
hitting on a huge return, she leaves massive and so
immediately off of the serve, Coco is stressed. So your
strengthsker served. Well, it's one thing that goes off on
(13:18):
her sometimes it's the second serve.
Speaker 1 (13:19):
And she did serve the three double files when she
was serving for the first set exactly, so sort of
reeled it back in exactly.
Speaker 2 (13:27):
Actually, I give her a lot of credit the first set,
so I thought she was going to lose it when
it came back to five and a really good game there.
But it's more along the lines of Coco has to
recognize also, ge like this girl's strength is going for
the return. I've got to get at least get a
first serve in here before and not put myself under pressure.
Speaker 1 (13:45):
Yeah, I think that I think she knew that because
all of her double files usually her double files are
kind of everywhere, every single one, And I do think
that she The reason for that was that she tried
to keep it low because Esska likes it a little
bit high. That's why she likes playing Coco's.
Speaker 2 (14:01):
Forehand on grass.
Speaker 1 (14:02):
Yeah, and so I did think there was a tactical
understanding in it. Unfortunately it went badly for her because
they landed mostly on the net. But I did think
that that's what she was trying to do. And just
as an added as an added perspective, I looked up
the winning quota for Yes Gemsky and she's a lot
higher on grass than on any other surfaces. Yes, which
(14:23):
under underline what you just said. Yeah, because she is
a one three one two three punch player and on
the other surfaces, the longer the rarely goes, the more
erratic she becomes.
Speaker 2 (14:32):
Yeah. And her game is very similar to to a
not a sabl Anka Sablinka will chip and throw in
some spin and all that. So it's kind of like
an Amanda Anissa Mova or on a Vickage type who's
just really hitting the ball hard and flat all the time,
and they don't have a lot of margin. And that's
why when I saw the draw, I went, oh shit,
that is a terrible draw, Coco, because she, let's face it,
(14:55):
she beating someone six love in a set. You know
that they're coming after you. Yeah, And you know, one
grass when it's your worst surface and your forehand, which
is your worst shot, is going to be so much
more difficult to play on grass against a ball that
is coming at you at ninety miles an hour. It
was just so I talk about, Yeah, could she have
had more time prepar preparing, Could she had more matches
(15:15):
in Berlin? Sure, But I think this comes down to
straight up a bad matchup.
Speaker 1 (15:21):
Bad matchup. I think in the end it's always a combination.
Maybe if she had had a bit more time on grass,
maybe she would have felt more comfortable to take the
first set, and maybe she would have had the clarity
to play ugly when it to manage most. But the
combination of I haven't maybe played as much as I
wanted on grass, the other one is not giving me
any time to think clearly, and she's playing clearly well.
(15:43):
She's played the final in Nottingham and I think the
Semis and Esbourne, so she came in winning a lot
of conscios. So it's not only it's not the yestremscut
that can go off and lose five first rounds, which
we know, I mean, terrible combination.
Speaker 3 (15:57):
For two years you she qualified the coach's bags. This
my new guy, That's right, he's back and he's giving her.
So you talked about you touched on it briefly. Yes,
Stremska is mentally not mentally I want to say, emotionally
not quite stable off. Yeah, she's absolutely and he gives
her that emotional stability. He's there, he keeps yelling at her,
he instills that intensity and he clearly helps her. It
(16:20):
was with him that she made the Australian Open semifinals.
He's back and she had a huge upset.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
Yes, Cocoa wasn't at her best, but yes s Trem's
Cup played an almost perfect match except from that five
to two to five all stretch.
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Yeah, I agree, And you know, I do think that Coco.
You know, she looked up at her box in the
second set and was like what do I do? What
do I do? You've got to be able to have
a game plan B and c.
Speaker 1 (16:42):
That was That's the only thing. Now the German I've
been commentating in Germany. It's really hard in English.
Speaker 2 (16:49):
The good thing is I know what that.
Speaker 4 (16:50):
Means, you know, goodhine.
Speaker 1 (17:21):
I do think that the only thing she could have
done is maybe make things so ugly and see what happens. Yeah,
other than that, I do think that it was on yes,
Jam's class record, and I'll credit to her she took it.
Speaker 2 (17:34):
Yeah, I agree to her. You know, even the last
couple of game. I think the one game the match
point either. But what I have to say the four one, okay,
it was the second four one. I was in the stadium.
I actually went and watched the match live. I wanted
to see it live because I wasn't working last night.
I'd finished on ESPN and the four one game in
the second set, I said to everyone, this is not
(17:54):
over your Strengthsier was serving and I said, if she
can break here and then hold it four three, the
pressure and we know one of the issues with your
stremscut is the serf. It can go off because her
technique is not great and it's very discombobulated, and if
you get nervous, it's not good. Her good thing is
for her when she gets tired, it goes to the forehand,
which is to Coco's weakness. But the first point at
(18:16):
four one, she hits such a slow first serve to
Cocos foehand, and Coco won the point and played a
really good point, super aggressive, and I was like, oh shit,
I said, if you're Coco, you have to see that.
You have to see that your opponent's just rolled the
first serve in right, and Coco won the point. Next point,
average serve, Coco misses the return and I'm like, I
(18:37):
think on a backhand and I'm like, oh my god, no,
like you have to make her play now, make her
beat you now. Right next point, I think a missed return.
It was the forehand return and I'm like, and it
wasn't even good, serf. And I was like, oh no,
Like that's where you have to maybe go ugly.
Speaker 1 (18:55):
I know, but this will now come from somebody that
can identify with Coco a lot more than you, because
because I fucking hated grass. I hated playing on grass,
and it's so interesting. The one thing that I could do,
no matter when you wake me up, was return. I
could make returns. I would like, if I got my
record on it, I would make on grass.
Speaker 2 (19:13):
Fucking not.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
I would always miss them into the net. It was
so difficult, and your grip was not extreme, but it was.
Speaker 2 (19:20):
It was semi western.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Yeah, but not as Loco at all. But for some
reason it was so and that's why I didn't play
well on grass because technically, once I get in the rally,
I can't play on grass, you know, But I just
was My surf was not a huge bomb, so I
had to play more rallies than others, and my big
strength to return what I made up for for my
not great serf was gone on grass because I made
(19:43):
so many return mistakes that I never would make. And
I think Coco feels similar. I don't know what it
is for her, obviously, because I'm not in her body,
but I can identify with it because Cocoa usually makes
every return she gets.
Speaker 2 (19:54):
A record on.
Speaker 1 (19:55):
Even on the shore, yes she can miss on the forehand,
but usually on the slower surfaces she gets she gets
many many returns. Yeah, true, true, And for some reason,
on grass it's so horrible.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Well, and also she knew I can't just kind of
averagely because she is literally going to take the next
ball and just jam it into the opening and crush it.
So I think it's a combination of just everything, all right.
So I mean, other than those two kind of everything's
moving on Coupit of her has now retired. It was
a good win for Navarro just because it was never
(20:25):
going to be in an easy sort of matchup knowing
you're playing Petra, but h and everyonething else is kind
of smoothly going along with Jico. I was nice to
see her get through that first round. Look, she's had
a lot of injury. She's there was it was, you know,
come off of finals in Eastbourne. So so good to
see that everything, everything else is kind of moving right along.
(20:48):
The men's Wow, it's very about again.
Speaker 1 (20:52):
Did you see his press conference? No, oh, you didn't,
breaking the news.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
Break the news to me.
Speaker 1 (20:57):
Well, it was really interesting. So there were two press conferences, obviously,
one in English, one in German, and.
Speaker 2 (21:03):
He said, is he more honest in German?
Speaker 1 (21:06):
It was similar. It was really interesting because and it's
funny because I just see two German journalists who were
conducting the German press conference. They are just in front
of us. So he said that he feels very alone
right now, and that's interesting. Yeah, that he doesn't really
have anything that makes him happy. Winning doesn't make him
(21:26):
as happy as it used to be. The only thing
that makes him happy, that's a party set in German
is his daughter, his four year old, but he doesn't
see her, He can't see her that much, and so
it's been very difficult for him to find happiness outside
of the court. And there was one occasion in the
fourth set where it was so he was down two
(21:47):
sets to one, four set tiebreak, it's five all, so
he has a second serve, and I said, already, you
saw that, and he had already served a few double
faults and important moments. Vere F, I'm talking about zaf
He has a second serf, So this point we'll decide
whether it's set point for Zverev or match point. And
Zverev serves one hundred and thirty seven mile per hour
(22:08):
second serve and HiT's peltically, yeah, down the tee and
hits an ace and later not an ace but a serviceman,
and later he said, you know when I hit that surf, yeah,
that looks great. But I just didn't care. If I
had hit a double fault, I wouldn't have cared that
I would have been match point down. So basically, in conclusion,
it was along the lines of being burned out. What
(22:29):
we just talked about. What we saw with a lot
of being burned out, lacking motivation, not really finding the
joy in the game, and we've seen that with a
lot of players and I really think the organizations will
have to change something around the schedule. And we see
that more and more frequently. And I know you don't
like CERF, that's like, that's okay, but I think that
I think that's.
Speaker 2 (22:49):
I don't like the former or the stuff that's been reported,
but you know.
Speaker 1 (22:54):
But I think it's a it's a common theme.
Speaker 2 (22:55):
Now.
Speaker 1 (22:55):
We heard were sorry about it in Madrid, we heard
Carlos talk about it after the Miami and also.
Speaker 2 (23:01):
Not only Carlos talk about it. I don't know if
you've watched his Netflix special, but he talks about it
quite openly, like a couple of years ago, when all
the expectation and the pressures and finding the joy and
he has to play with joy and all that sort
of stuff. And you know, I don't think people realize
that this is a really, really tough life. You know,
you're on the road all the time, you don't see
anyone's and it's stress and it's pressure all the time.
(23:23):
Every time you walk on the tennis court or go
on to the practice cord or all this sort of stuff,
all you're thinking about is tennis and matches and winning
and losing. And it's very, very mentally taxing, and listen,
I'm going to compare it to somebody who goes to
work every day and it is like trying to just
put food on the table, because it's very different to that.
But I just it's it's a lot of pressure and
it's a lot of stress consistently, especially for the top
people that are expected to to do well all the time.
(23:46):
But anyway, Alcarez's first round was unbelievable against von Nini.
It was great to see Fabio get that moment you
just knew that Fabio was going to play well.
Speaker 1 (23:55):
Yeah, I was freaking dying. That was the most Fabia
for Uni can do.
Speaker 2 (24:00):
Do you feel like it's because Alcaraz looked really sort
of he looked Alchariz looked a little flat, and I
was like, yeah, because he's playing a guy that has
more jett Aviv than he does on the court, right,
you know the swagger and you know the shots he hit.
He hit some unbelievable shots in that match, and it
was almost like he you know, you saw the original Alcoraz. Yeah,
(24:20):
and then Alchoriz is like, wait, I'm not I'm not
the funny like charismatic dude out here. Yeah, I think
it sort of took away from him a little bit.
He wasn't like feeling the joy that he feels because
he wasn't the show. Yeah, Babio was, you know. But
in the end it clearly being thirty seven years of
age caught up with him in the fifth set. But
it was fun to see, but also a real wake
up call for Carlos to get his matches over a
(24:43):
little bit quicker. Although Fabio can play, huh, I mean
he can play. It was so fun.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
No, I was laughing because I was in Rome in
the stadium when he got the farewell from the Italian ground,
and it was like the end of the Lord of
Rings movie where they have seven endings and kept going
like they showed one video, people were crying, and then
they showed another video. You know. This was like, soice
matches on and Grand Slam stage is the best matches
(25:09):
on mas Thursday. The one time he won Monte Carlo,
the other time he'd beat Draffer. So it's like, I
think in the end they showed like fifteen videos and
after a while, after an hour, people were like, Okay,
are we still supposed to be crying because this is
a little much, so I was like, this guy's done
for good. And then three weeks later it is at
the French Open, playing his first round there in classic.
(25:30):
So it was so fab year for Uni, so Italian, and.
Speaker 2 (25:34):
That one of the moments that I'll remember forever is
when they had that medical time out in the fifth
set for a spectator, when he went back to talk
to Flavia Panetta, his wife, and they were just having
this full on chat and I could hear a couple
of things in Italian like ah see, and she was
just like, I can't remember the words now, it's just
skipping my mind. But it was so funny that there
were just like, literally these two champion tennis players who
(25:58):
are married and they've got their three kids up there
and just having a conversation on Senacor while he's waiting
to go back and play. And I thought, this is
just the best, one of the best moments I've seen
in a long time. I was so adorat and they
were laughing, and I was like, oh, that that is
a joy that ill remember.
Speaker 1 (26:14):
And the two of them. If if Fabiau manages to
really make it end here and not pull a Lord
of the Rings with seven more endings. This will be
the most incredible wirewash for the married couple of Lavia Panetta,
who finished her career with the US Open title, and
then him with this five setter against one of the
(26:36):
best players not in the world but me might be
one of the best players in fives I know. And
to end like this, it's perfect.
Speaker 2 (26:44):
Okay, So janick'sinner when when he went wins comfortably.
Speaker 1 (26:48):
Yes, oh my god, I have to tell so.
Speaker 2 (26:51):
My so.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
I always say about Yanick. He has this business like
facade that he has charm and with behind the cy right,
and especially when you speak in German with him, you
can tell that he's like witty. He just doesn't show
it so much.
Speaker 2 (27:04):
I had a funny situation happened yesterday it which entailed
some stuff I can't say because it was it's so
not for the public. But he was so funny to
me and so freaking adorable, And I'm like, you're literally
one of my favorite people because he is a little
silent assassin with suff good That's a very good description.
Speaker 1 (27:22):
But I always want to tell people this, and then
sometimes if people just see him on TV, they don't
believe me that here's this charm to him and yesterday
and he posted it today on Instagram. So that cracks
me up. Is yesterday he hit one ball through his
legs like running back. Did you see? I saw that?
So he was so happy, Like I honestly think he
(27:45):
was happy, but he looked happier to play this shot
that nobody expects of him.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
Then Women's like, yeah, I can do a little Carlos too, Okay,
so you know, like me just as much. Right, I'm
not his fancy all the time, but I can do it.
I just don't because I'm from northern Italy, a little
bit more German than Italian.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
And then he and today on Instagram. I opened up
my Instagram thing and the first thing I see is
that shot him playing it through around. I'm like, the
guy loves himself being a little joker, just doesn't want
to show. And I was like, oh my god, he's
he wants to show that he's a joker as well,
but he can't quite get.
Speaker 2 (28:26):
There because it's just not his personality. This is why
we love him so much and why I still feel
horrific for him that he didn't win that match. And
as much as and everybody knows how much I love Galitos.
Speaker 1 (28:37):
They're just the best.
Speaker 2 (28:39):
They're just the best, guys. I'm so I mean literally,
we got so lucky. It was like like ra Friend
and Roger got reincarnated.
Speaker 1 (28:45):
Yeah right, I mean it's just in the TikTok version,
TikTok version exactly.
Speaker 2 (28:51):
Anyway, all right, so you have to run, Let's yeah,
maybe let's do it, Aaron, Let's walk and talk while
see you later. While okay, guys. So I just wanted
to add a little something because Petco had to run
do some TV and you know, we're running around like,
as I say, chicks with our heads cut off over
these two weeks of a Grand Slam, and so she
(29:14):
had to run. But what I wanted to say at
the end, because you know, it was nice to sit
down with pet Goo and talk about Wimbledon and what's
happened here over the last few days. And it's always
such a joy to be here at Wimbledon and always
such a joy to talk to Petco out tennis. We
could sit there and talk for hours. But and we
and I and Caitlin and everyone, we really appreciate you
(29:36):
always sitting down and listening to the podcast. And you know,
I had somebody walk by me in the village the
other day and he said, love the podcast. You know,
thanks for that. So everybody that ever comes up to
me and does thank me and also tells me that
they love it, it really means a lot to us. And
we appreciate your support through not only you know, the
last little bit, but through the years of being podcast
(29:58):
listeners of our podcasts, and Caitlin and myself and pet
Go we really we do enjoy when you come up
to us in shops and on the street and tell
us that you enjoy it. So I just want to
throw that in there and thank you very much for that.
It's been a it's been a it's been a tough
couple of days for me. My mum actually passed away
on Saturday before the tournament. So I'm heading back to
(30:20):
Australia next week. So have some patience with me getting
you know, all the stuff about Wimbledon t you once
the tournament is done and settled. And my mom was
my most My most earliest memory of Wimbledon is my
mom sneaking into my bedroom as a kid and tapping
me on the shoulder and waking me up and whispering
(30:42):
in my ear, Wimbledon's on, do you want to come
and watch? And we'd sit out there in you know,
the cold of Sydney in winter and watch Wimbledon and
watch all my favorite players like Borg and Mace and
Roe and Chrissy and Martina. And that was the era
that I grew up with. An Evon Goolagong Callie, and
that was the ear that I grew up with as
a young child. And it just made me love this
(31:03):
place so much. It's one of the reasons why I
stayed to work the first week with ESPN, because it's
what my mum would have wanted. And I know this
is a bit of a downer, but I just wanted
to really dedicate this particular pod and my joy of
Wimbledon and everything to my mom, Margaret
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