Steroid Cream

Rennae and Caitlin have a solution for the Jannik Sinner steroid saga: Involve us. What could possibly go wrong? Plus: We cover all the latest from Asia, talk about our aging bodies and take reader question.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
All right, all right, we are all set to go.
Hi everybody, and welcome to the tent. I don't even
know what a spin spind a morning. Let's try that again.
Hi everybody, and welcome to the Renee Stubs Tennis Podcast.
I'm joined by once again, Caitlin Thompson. Caitlin, it's been
a week since I saw your mate took your wife
to the Liberty game. The other night we killed kick

(00:33):
to the ace's butt. We're hopefully going to do that
again tonight.

Speaker 2 (00:36):
But I'm glad one of us in the family enjoys basketball.

Speaker 1 (00:39):
I know it's a shame you don't enjoy it because
I'll tell you what, people listeners out there, if you
haven't been to a WNBA, get to one, and you
certainly haven't been to a WNBA game in New York,
get to one.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
I did go to one. I talked the whole time
and I didn't watch any of the basket But you're
an asshole. Well, I was catching up with friends. But
you know what was amazing.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
Can do that at a bar.

Speaker 2 (00:57):
The atmosphere is amazing. I liked Ellie the Elephant and
all the cool music. Now, the vibes are great in there. Yeah,
and I feel like that is for me at least half.
I'm telling you the vibes were great, even as somebody
who doesn't not I look at basketball and I just
don't understand what I'm looking at.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
I loving the fact that you've got a double denim
going on to that.

Speaker 2 (01:18):
This is I'm not in Canada anymore, but it doesn't
mean I can't dress like it.

Speaker 1 (01:23):
But it's come back, Denim on Denimus, fully fully back,
and I'm here for it. Thank you.

Speaker 2 (01:28):
I'm here for your liberty.

Speaker 1 (01:29):
Look yeah, thanks ready to This is actually Kelly O'Hara's line,
who played for the Gotham New York. Gotham team is
soccer team. So you know, I'm just spreading the love
all around the place right now.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Well clear, my wife told me that it is really
fun to go with you two games because you know,
on it for everybody and you give everyone high fives,
and the ESPN broadcasting team and you know the coach
and you.

Speaker 1 (01:46):
Know, yeah, well, my original love of this team obviously
is living here in New York. But the coach of
the team is my buddy, Sandy Broundello. We've known each
other since we're in teenage years and so to be.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
The Australian Institute of Support. You can't fit those kind
of relationships.

Speaker 1 (02:02):
You cannot. She was there on a basketball scholarship, but
I was on a tennis scholarship, and we were We
weren't roommates, but we I think we lived in the
same dorm. I can't remember that far back, but bloody hell,
we've known each other a long time. So I am
fully pulling not only for my mate to win, but
for New York to win their first ever WNBA title
because they've been an original team forever and we came
close last year, right, bloody hell, yeah do we did, sure, Dad,

(02:22):
But we're playing better this year and the team looks great.
They look great, they're all they're just you know, last
thing that they say to each other is together, and
so that's super important. I know that Sandy has really
worked on the chemistry of the team. Anyways, for oh
U WNBA fans, you're welcome, all right, So let's get
to some tennis, because I know people that tuned into
us want to hear tennis. But let's start with what

(02:45):
we saw today with Coco Goth and Naomi Osaka. Unfortunately,
look Naomi was looking real good. When's the first set
six ' three. Coco was still struggling with this second serve.
I think in total six double faults. It got to
a set ale. She fought her way back to get
it to split sets. But I just wonder how much
of a bother the back was for Naomi Osaka, because

(03:07):
that's the reason that she she pulled out and I
could see it, Caitlin, it was like a set and four,
three and a break actually for Naomi. It looked like
it was going to be Naomi's match in straight sets,
and I could tell that she wasn't comfortable, and I
wasn't sure if it was the back, yes, And I
could tell you. I'll tell you why. I saw her
start serving a lot to the forehand, not that that's

(03:28):
not where you want to serve with Cocoa, but every
now and again, Naomi likes to bop that one to
the back end because that's, you know, her favorite serve
particular in the second court, and she wasn't doing that.
And I was wondering if it was a stomach muscle strain,
because I have pulled my stomach muscle a couple of times,
and you tend to stomach. It's not somebody told me
it's not a stomach muscles an it's your abs, abdominal's whatever. Anyway,

(03:50):
so I thought she'd maybe torn something there because she
was going she was falling off of it, and then
she looked she wasn't grabbing at her back, but she
was looking very comfortable and not into the match, and
I thought, oh, there's something going on here. And then
sure enough we came back from commercial and she had
already pulled the pin after sid All. So that was
a major bummer. It's good for Coco to get through
and get more matches, but still that's a bummer.

Speaker 2 (04:12):
How did Coco look? Because now she has a new
team at her side, and obviously it's very late in
the season, too late really probably to make any mechanical changes. Yeah,
but you know, as you said, good for her to
get through, good for her to you know, hopefully end
the year on a high note. She'll qualify for the finals, yep, presumably,
and if she hasn't already, and then, you know, what
do you do with her off season? Do you start

(04:34):
making changes now? Do you wait? You know, what do
you what's your what's your approach to dealing with Coco's
sort of obvious serve and forehand under optimization.

Speaker 1 (04:43):
I think that, look, you can slowly tweak it in tournaments.
There's no question you can slowly tweak it.

Speaker 2 (04:50):
Now.

Speaker 1 (04:50):
I don't know if I'm just reading into this, and
maybe she was doing it before, but I can see
her sort of going at her grip and sort of
looking at a grip before the serf, So maybe they're
already starting to work on the grip a little bit.
This certain little things about that grip that I would
have changed immediately. And you've got to have the faith
and you know what, you've got to have the the chutzpa.
Hutzpa no I want to say, because that means balls,

(05:11):
that means men. Just I just I just mean a
coach that's willing to go in there with the with
the brava, with the bravatas. Is that right, Bra, Bravado,
brav tas, thank you. I'm making a new word, brather tas.
I made a new word, brav task. That's going to
be my word hashtag brav tas.

Speaker 2 (05:31):
T shirt.

Speaker 1 (05:33):
You know me, I think that you've got to have
the courage to go in and say if you want
to be better, you have to do this, and we
can work on it slowly, but trust in the in
the process. It is tough to do in the middle
of a tournament, but you can do it. But certainly
in the off season it's going to be massive to do.

Speaker 2 (05:52):
Sure, but also probably better now just to like start
getting it in before the end of the year. So
she got she has some you know, dynamic match play
with you know, some new changes, right. I mean, obviously
you don't want to make drastic changes immediately in the
middle of the tournament, but I do think like it's
kind of like when you're you're losing a set, You're
kind of like, Okay, well, I'm going to try to
do something else with the idea that maybe even if
I lose a set, I'll kind of have worked out

(06:12):
something so I can start a new set, you know,
with yea, with a new mentality or a new approach.
I feel like maybe it's kind of like that at
this point in.

Speaker 1 (06:18):
The season, and she's had a few weeks already prior
to going to China, so she would have already been
working on this. I'm I'm expecting that that's what happened.
If you know this new coach who's sort of known
for a sort of technique and things like that, well,
if he has any bravitas, he will if he has
any gravitas. Bravitas it's a new word. I love it.

(06:41):
I've even you are journalist. He isn't probably an English
majors like dying sign oh minor journalism major.

Speaker 2 (06:48):
Okay, keep going, all right?

Speaker 1 (06:50):
So so anyway, she's through, but also a little bit
surprising to see Bodoza just absolutely crushed Jesspa Goula.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
What do you make of that? Always been playing great?

Speaker 1 (07:00):
Yeah, but Pogola was up three to one, looking like, yeah,
I'm gonna win again. Because but Doza's never beaten her
in her career. They had to have his blank, which
I don't understand because but Dooza actually has a really good.

Speaker 2 (07:11):
Game, like to beat she has more variety than.

Speaker 1 (07:15):
Well, it's not about the pace, it's about the spin.
She can get a good spin on the ball. But
likes the Pagosa.

Speaker 2 (07:23):
I'm saying, Bodosa likes the pace.

Speaker 1 (07:24):
God, it's like we haven't It's like we're still we
went out last night, we hadn't gone home.

Speaker 2 (07:29):
We haven't had a drink in probably weeks.

Speaker 1 (07:31):
Really, Yeah, that's I'm impressed. Well, I don't if I
have one night off, I'm impressed with myself. I did,
I like tap myself on the well done, honey.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
I did a good amount of Sila sabin a few
weeks ago at a concert and I just really system
legal mushrooms.

Speaker 1 (07:46):
Well, everything's legal in New York, baby, that's why we
live here.

Speaker 2 (07:50):
It was great. Yeah, I had a very euphoric experience.

Speaker 1 (07:56):
It's laughing.

Speaker 2 (07:57):
It's such a forty four year old thing to do.

Speaker 1 (07:59):
Yeah, I'm fifty three. So what is my excuse?

Speaker 2 (08:02):
You missed? Bacila?

Speaker 1 (08:04):
No, no, you know why I played professional tennis for
twenty two years and I couldn't do shit.

Speaker 2 (08:07):
Yeah. Yeah, lead to drugs, those of us who did
not do any drugs because we were getting druses.

Speaker 1 (08:12):
Mom, I'm not doing drugs.

Speaker 2 (08:13):
I was only in college. But they tested the tennis
team just a lot, just a little bit of marijuana. Okay,
Well keep it moving, okay, all right?

Speaker 1 (08:21):
So yeah, so you make of that result, Well, I
think it's first of all, it showed me if Bodoza
actually tries and runs for balls, that she can actually win.
I mean, the match point at the US Open. To
me to this day, I am still like scratching my head.
I mean it was a drop shot air quoting right now,
a drop shot by Jess and Bodoza like didn't even

(08:42):
run for it. And literally the drop shot was like
about two feet from the service line. She just went
and just walked to the Now, I'm like, as she
started walking to the net to shake hands, she could
have still got to the ball. It was such a
bad drop shot, and I'm like, what is that. She
just mentally shut down. She was just like, yeah, good,
I'm out.

Speaker 2 (09:00):
I think she does that though, I think she checks out.

Speaker 1 (09:02):
Yeah, And she sort of just did that today. And
Jess has been known to do that from time to
time herself, like just kind of checking. She didn't meant
she didn't check out with her game. She still was trying.
But and but Dooza was just too good today hitting
the ball. She was more aggressive when she got down
three to one, she started being more aggressive, started being
you know, really pushing Jess back a little bit. And
I think she was caught off guard. Who serving was

(09:23):
really good. She has one of the biggest serves in
the game, and that was clicking today and just didn't
so great. And you know, Jess a second serve as attack, well,
and that's what happened today. So it was a smoking
that's for sure. I just want to also throw in
here because our listeners have been a little upset about
the the ads before our podcast.

Speaker 2 (09:43):
Very many ads.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
Yes, do you want to explain to people?

Speaker 2 (09:46):
Sure? First of all, thank you for listening to our podcast.

Speaker 1 (09:49):
Yes, we love you guys, seriously.

Speaker 2 (09:51):
You know, I think given the evidence that we are
now recording this in a studio and the fact that
we are not yet recording this on our podcast, Yacht
should hopefully give you some sense of the economics of
how shows like this are supported.

Speaker 1 (10:05):
Right.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
We made pretty much zero money in the first couple
of years of doing this on an occasional.

Speaker 1 (10:10):
And whatever money we made, I didn't see it.

Speaker 2 (10:12):
We put it into our snack fund. No, it would
get you know, a couple hundred bucks here or there.
And I think for us, we're grateful to be on
the iHeartRadio network, and part of what that means is
we get support from their national brands. We appreciate it.
We understand it's maybe not your favorite thing to listen to.
And we thank you for listening. The skip button is

(10:33):
extremely effective. We encourage you to use it.

Speaker 1 (10:35):
But we also really like when you do listen to
the ads, and you could just just take eight minutes
of your time, put the phone down, walk away, get
a drink, get a beer, get a wine, get a tequila,
get anything you want, okay, and then come back, because
we do appreciate when you listen to the ads because
guess what that pays. We're all our producing out anyway,
that's my point, So we're sorry, but thanks, thanks for listening. Yeah,

(10:57):
thanks for listening.

Speaker 2 (10:58):
That's a good way to I think.

Speaker 1 (11:00):
Kaitlin Water, what is going on with Janick Sinner? Okay,
what do you think about this? Because it's also a
question that was asked to me on Twitter. So we're
gonna answer this question for you, my friend. Now, what
do you what are your thoughts?

Speaker 2 (11:14):
I'm not going to give you very satisfying thoughts. I'm
gonna give you Caitlin style thoughts. Number one, I'm going
to Italy tomorrow. I'm gonna get steroids. That's one of
my thoughts. You're getting the cream, I'm going to find
the cream, the spray, the sh I'm gonna get it off.

Speaker 1 (11:28):
God, can you bring me back?

Speaker 2 (11:29):
So yeah, let's see what's you I famously have doped
before and I'll do it again.

Speaker 1 (11:33):
Yes you have.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
I took the meldonium reassure Poba drug happily and you
said it was great, and it was great. Let's see
what this cream and this spray can do. So that's
my first reaction. My second one might be hashtag free Yannik,
which is a T shirt idea that came to us
from our frequent photographer contributor, Aaron Lacerna. In the style
of many people in the rap game who are under fire,

(11:56):
you make a T shirt that says free whoever it
is YSL and in this case maybe for Yanik. I
I'm answering in a silly way because I truly have
no concept of what is happening.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
It's like once, so you get three different independent judges
now to look at it, even though three independent judges
already looked at it from the I, T, I A
or whatever.

Speaker 2 (12:17):
I think. The fact that, aside from the initial negative
response that this this process has engendered from Nikurius, from
Dennis Shapavolov this summer, some others, it is indicative that
when asked about it in the tournament, engaging Carlos Alcarez, Medvedev,
his contemporaries, which I don't think you can say Nikurius,

(12:40):
who isn't currently really playing, or Denis Shapavlov, who's not
really deep in a lot of tournaments, are contemporaries of Yanik.
The people that Yanik has to play in semifinals and finals.
Daniel Medvedev and Carlos Alcarez have not used this opportunity
to pile on him. They've used this opportunity to say
they generally support him, they feel for whatever he's going through,
and they are confused about it, as is everyone else.

(13:03):
I truly don't understand what the process here is, and
the only thing I can say is pretty much what
I said last time, which is there has got to
be a better way of handling this. And it is baffling,
but not out of character for Tennis, of course, to
have yet another to your point, conflicting shit show, independent
another independent review that's in conflict the original independent review,

(13:23):
and another governing body that has something different to say
than the original. It's like, hey, guys, can we just
make one person in charge of tennis and they decide yes,
the doping protocol, check, what's the tournament's schedule? All of
these things would be solved if tennis had leadership and
it was consolidated. Yeah, that's all I can say, because

(13:44):
I don't know what else to say. I thought Andrea's
explanation of the lawyer stuff that was on a prior
episode was incredibly thoughtful and great as to why he
was initially cleared of this because his lawyers were quick
to file a legitimate and seemingly believable defense. I thought
the Running Bodies explanation of why their process is as
it is was maybe not great, but at least linear

(14:06):
and coherent. This this is not linear. This is not coherent.
And I don't know what happens to this guy from
this point on. It doesn't seem like he's going to
get suspended, But what do I know. I don't know.
Maybe he will and will that be right? I don't know.

Speaker 1 (14:17):
But also when you think about let's say it comes
in and says, oh, yeah, same, but you know you're
responsible to you Ben, how bad does that look for
the I T A I T I A. It's a
direct shot, like what that what are we doing here?

Speaker 2 (14:30):
People copeeding governing body?

Speaker 1 (14:31):
I mean, what are we doing there?

Speaker 2 (14:33):
Are competing governing bodies in the first place? Is the
entirety of the problem. It's a circular firing squad.

Speaker 1 (14:37):
I mean, is it like, oh, we went to you know,
local court, then it got whipped up to you know,
the DC court, and then it whipped up to the
surrounding court. Is it like that?

Speaker 2 (14:46):
I have an idea. I don't think there's a hierarchy
of these courts on there, just anybody's ultimately in charge.
So I think we should volunteer to get involved. Oh really, well, yeah,
I mean they and the cream.

Speaker 1 (14:57):
Oh yeah, we can do that.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
Speak to well or not?

Speaker 1 (15:00):
It has worked.

Speaker 2 (15:01):
I think what this needs is more care.

Speaker 1 (15:02):
I need some anabolic steroids in me, and I think
I really do. I mean, I'm getting old. I fell
down the fucking stairs. We know how I feel about
this out there? You know, you know I've got on
my stairs now, I've got those little like old lady mats. No,
not the runners, but they are a little sticky underneath.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
But I've gotta tell you there's in your shower too,
in case you have a fall. Not yet, do you
have a met alert personally yet not yet.

Speaker 1 (15:23):
Although did I tell you I told you this story?
But my neighbor heard me fall down the stairs, Marty.
Marty said to her husband Jeremy, Yeah, I did you
hear that? It was like twelfth there at night. Did
I tell this story on the pot already? Because you
know mental acuity has gone to but because you know,
I'm making up brother tas words. But I come down

(15:45):
the stairs and I was like, I was on the
phone to my girlfriend and I'm on FaceTime, and I
literally normally walk down my stairs and my little pets
because when I come into my apartment, I always take
my shoes off because we live in New York and
you're taking rat poo like and dog poo and dog pees.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
I always be taking your shoes off.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
Ye, do not come into my people, do not come
into my apartment. Yeah, so I take my shoes off immediately.
But I have those little peds on, right, so they're
like fucking skates, right, So you know, my apartment, So
I got to go down Don't worry. My apartment's not big,
but I do have to go downstairs to my where
I sleep and where I shower and stuff, right, So

(16:21):
I'm got my hand in my hand on FaceTime, so
I'm looking down and normally I always put two hands
on this on the railings when I go down the stairs,
you know, and because they're steep and there would and
I got my peds on, so I wasn't concentrating. And
I've done it before. I went down there with all
of my recyclables and I fucking bit it and all

(16:42):
the recyclables went everywhere and I went boom boom boom
boom down like five stairs. And this time I didn't
have recyclables, but I had my phone on and I
was looking at it this whole thing. Oh no, And
I put my hand on the railing, one hand, and
I bit it. I mean it was like you know
those like cartoons, whereas that was me. And I went

(17:02):
up and I landed so hard on the stairs, and
I had like seteene pants, you know, like satin, sort
of like Danielle Calm. I said, it's night, it's cotton.
I go, okay whatever. Basically, when I came down on
the stairs, because of my pants, it shot me down
there so fast that I went instead of going boom

(17:22):
boom boom boom, boom like I did before I went boom,
and I bit it so hard, Caitline, I hit my back.
I ripped my shoulder out of I'm gone to physio
after this podcast. I ripped my shoulder out of the thing.
I get down to the bottom and I'm like, Eden's
on the phone. She goes, did you just fall down
your stairs? And I go, I couldn't talk. You know

(17:45):
when you get winded. That was me, but it was
from my back, and I was like, yeah, I gotta go.
And I just like go, I've caught you back. Oh
my god, I've that was some pain. And now I
am in so much pain still on the left side
of my I need the cream. I get over there
and get back.

Speaker 2 (18:03):
We're talking about Naomi suckers back. I had a sympathy
twinge because last week, just moving on the couch, like
how I have I have slipped a couple of discs
a few years ago, and I still have a week
twinge and I a twin thing happened. Yeah, I shifted
weeks on the couch and.

Speaker 1 (18:19):
I, oh, god, kidding gets suck sucks.

Speaker 2 (18:25):
And I could have used steroids because this is it's depressing.

Speaker 1 (18:29):
Okay, So here we go.

Speaker 2 (18:30):
So I think we should get in the mix.

Speaker 1 (18:31):
Okay, here's the here's the moral of that, involver the
whole story that I just told you. Caitlin and I
not only are we taking recreational drugs from time to time,
but we are definitely going to be on the steroids.
And we'll let you know how it goes and we'll report. Guys,
I'm making a comeback to get all the training and
I need.

Speaker 2 (18:50):
That's actually you should get. Hey, if you come back, Hey,
I'm using Italian. That's a spot.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
That's one six months of steroids. And then I come
back and then I go onto the water drug list
because then you've got to tell what you're doing every
single day. Well, how long it'll stay in my system? Okay,
we'll get onto that.

Speaker 2 (19:08):
This is a good investigative project.

Speaker 1 (19:10):
Yeah, okay, So back to the tennis. The other tennis.
But Meddie can I just say he played a point
the other day.

Speaker 2 (19:16):
Oh my god, the best point I've seen him play,
probably ever, was against Italian, the young kid. Yeah, Cobelly Cobelli.
Oh my god. He gets lobbed.

Speaker 1 (19:28):
And I'm watching this point, okay, because it comes on
to Twitter and it says you're never gonna believe this
point or whatever. I'm like, okay, whatever. He gets lobbed,
I'm like, Okay, that wasn't that great a point. The
motherfucker runs down this lob I don't know how he
got to this. It is one of the greatest gets
I've ever seen in my entire life as a tennis person.

(19:49):
He runs back and gets this ball back and ends
up winning the point. And I'm like, and I was
to go down love forty, serving for the match, and
he comes back, whin's the game, wins the match. I'm like,
this guy is a freak.

Speaker 2 (20:00):
Defensively, oh, mentality, oh it takes to chase that down, right,
is now intensive? It. I mean, not only have the
athleticism and how bendy and amazing his tennis is, because
it's it's indescribable. If you've never seen it does not
look athletic in the least, and yet it's unbelievable. But
the mentality to say I am going to not only

(20:21):
chase this down, but to stay in the point and contend.
That is to me sort of the story of Dniel Medvedev,
which is why he's so fun. He's so fun.

Speaker 1 (20:28):
People. If you didn't see the point and you want
to see it, I tweeted it out on x so
get yourself onto my little It's on Twitter page and
I did retweet it about probably four days ago. It's
absolutely phenomenal. It's one of the greatest points wins I've
ever seen in my life. And Daniel Medevidev has had
some great ones. Unfortunately, he ran into his biggest nemesis

(20:50):
who he hates to play against. But yet not only
does he hate to play against him, he tells him
how great he is.

Speaker 2 (20:56):
It's really funny.

Speaker 1 (20:57):
It's it's comical.

Speaker 2 (20:59):
It's so the record is six and one or is
it now seven, and I don't know whatever it is.
He's got one victory.

Speaker 1 (21:04):
It's unbelievable and I love the fact that he just
goes he's the best player I've ever played against.

Speaker 2 (21:08):
Hi.

Speaker 1 (21:08):
Yeah, it's unbelievable. And again we are going to have
a final between Yennick Cinna yeah and Carlos and I
am so here for this.

Speaker 2 (21:18):
They're making whatever arguments you have, and I know there
are plenty. The time zone is tough for people who
are listening. Oh I'm getting up, But the truth of
the matter is, they're still amazing tennis being played. And
here's case example, and then in the women's side, same.
I mean, it's it's really compelling. We have the the
finals in in Tokyo Hee. What a phenomenally fun guy

(21:41):
he is to watch play. He is for me, maybe
the French champion on the men's side that they've been
waiting for since the days of you know Songa who
came closest Gasca did not come.

Speaker 1 (21:53):
And let me tell you if Feast should never have
won that match.

Speaker 2 (21:55):
Today, Oh what an incredible did.

Speaker 1 (21:57):
You see match point? Now in the second set? No,
he has set match point. It's an amazing serve out wide,
Like you know, his left he can open and he's
standing in the far far left side, so he gets
that fully out wide right face, makes a good return
ish through the middle because you can't go anywhere else,
but really through the middle. Umber hits an amazing forehand

(22:20):
down the line and I'm like, dude, go in, go
in now. Normally I'm a you know me, I'm a
very big proponent on not going in on the forehand
because it doesn't matter. How Like, it's very hard to
hit a winner. It's very hard to win the point
when you come in on the forehand, because you can
hit the forehand down the line or cross court really
quite easily. On the run. You can hold the forehand

(22:42):
and flick it down the line, or you can whack
it cross court or guess what, you can hit a
lob off the forehand side when you're defending. It's a
lot harder to do that on the back end. First
of all, to hit a lob off the backhand on
the dead run is virtually impossible unless you're Leyton Hewett
and maybe no and maybe Culos yea. It is such

(23:03):
a hard shot to hit on the full stretch. With
an open stance, you can go down the line. And
he made the mistake not covering the line on the
back end, but he came in, so Feast runs over
there and he's on the dead run Caitlin, and you
could see that he had a sliced forehand grip because
it was such a good fourhand down line. I'm like, dude,
come into the net. You just make any kind of

(23:25):
short volley, you win the match. It's over tournament. You're
holding the trophy. Instead, he stands back and looks at
it and goes, oh, choking, I don't want to go in.
Feast runs over, hits a sliced forehand, a chop shot
like squash shot, and then it's short in the court,
and then Umberko's and hits a kind of cross court
forehand because he's lefty down the line and it was

(23:46):
a good shot. I'm not going to say it wasn't
a good shot. And he came in, which he should have,
but too late, and Feast runs over and hits a
back and down line and it was listen, it was
a great point. I think Umbert wins the point probably
six or seven times out of ten, even playing the
same point. But if he comes in on that forehand,
he wins the point nine out of ten unless he

(24:06):
completely chokes the volley. So there's a little lesson there. People,
when you see your opponent running and they go for
a sliced forehand, get into the net. The fuck are
you doing that? So you know what, as soon as
that was over that second ago, he's not losing now
because there's no way that Umbert is not thinking about
that much point. So well done to Feast, and.

Speaker 2 (24:26):
He says cocky as fun, he's so cocky he's so fun.
I love his I love his care, he's so cute,
his whole thing.

Speaker 1 (24:34):
Yeah, he's good for tennis anyway. So yeah, very excited
about all of that.

Speaker 2 (24:39):
Yeah, great tennis.

Speaker 1 (24:40):
Yeah, we lead into the season. Yeah, we've got Sabalanca.
We'll just go through the women's matches now left in China.
We've got Sablanca versus Keys. That'll be interesting because Mattie
Keys is healthy and we know that she can beat Sablenka.
She was so close to it last year at the
US Open. And we'll see where Sabolanka is because she's unquestioned.
It's no question she's the best player in the world
right now, especially on a hard court Muhova against Boksa

(25:01):
Mukhovah loving, loving or loving seeing her do well.

Speaker 2 (25:04):
Just want to shout out to her. Being off the
tour this time last year unbelievable. To being where she is,
She's unbelievable, is unreal.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
She's so Yeah, but she's so good.

Speaker 2 (25:15):
We know she's so good. We know how she has
no weakness, variety laid in her game is but still
it just deserves some praise because to do that and
to be where she is right now is just unreal.
And what I really want to call out this reason
is because Mukhova is not somebody who's been on the
tip of a lot of people's tongues through the years,
because she's been cut short by injuries. And I think
the main thing I want to get across is when

(25:36):
you see her in a final or in a semi,
I don't want to hear anybody being like, who is she? No,
It's like, no, you have no excuse not.

Speaker 1 (25:42):
To know who she is. Yeah, right now, I'll tell
you who she is. She's the best all court player
on the WTA two and has been the best all
court player for a number of years, maybe second only to,
of course, former world number one Ash Party.

Speaker 2 (25:54):
I was gonna say, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1 (25:55):
No question. She's the best player in every aspect and
by far the best player at the net. Oh god,
She's got such beautiful volleys, and trust me, guys, for
me to say that they're good, okay, because I do
not give out a lot of positives when it comes
to volley.

Speaker 2 (26:09):
Yeah, that's because people Hollywood handshaker.

Speaker 1 (26:11):
That is it is, it is, and I have no
problem saying it. Lynette against Andreva, good to see her.
She had a really good win six four and the
third against Donna Vekich. Donave Kich plays the longest matches
and looks like she's gonna die every time she plays.

(26:32):
But I give her credit because she's so awesome. Donna
get on the spray. I'm just kidding. I'm just kidding everybody. No,
I'm just saying. She always looks like she's going to
die in that too. She's so talented, so down of
course she's got a female coach.

Speaker 2 (26:49):
Also, Lynette shout out, she care of Paulini.

Speaker 1 (26:51):
Wow, Yeah, that was a very good win, six four
six love. I just wonder what Paulini was thinking to
At some point, these guys run out of emotional on.

Speaker 2 (27:00):
The natural surfaces. It's natural for her to have a
bit of a dip, especially.

Speaker 1 (27:03):
For her first year.

Speaker 2 (27:04):
I look at you when she's in.

Speaker 1 (27:05):
The top ten, I know cool, I'm you know who
else I'm loving seeing and you know, we love Daria
Casakina here, but she went down to Amanda Anissimova and
I'm loving because she talk about someone's come back from
injuries and now into injuries and you know, taking a
break mentally away from the game, and it's already back

(27:25):
inside the top forty. She's I'm such a good tennis player,
while she's also well and she's up against your buddy
q ch ch Chen Jung.

Speaker 2 (27:34):
I mean, when Chen Wein is playing at that stadium,
it looks like a oh my god, it's a rally
for the Kamala Harrison. Oh yeah, Kamala Harris. Actually I
was going to say, like the New World Order. It
is like it's all like a political rally in there.
It looks like she is running for the presidency and
maybe she will. Chinwen is the hometown hero gold medalist.

(27:55):
I mean, that stadium has got to be rocking.

Speaker 1 (27:58):
Can I tell you I played in that stadium against
a player two players from China who had were very
very very good players and they'd won Grand Slams And
I was playing with Sam and we were up nine
to three in the match tie break and we lost.
It's the biggest loss at match time break ever. And
let me tell you something, when you're playing against a
Chinese player in China, it's deafening. These crowds are they

(28:22):
allowed and they are not really that in like they
don't really know tennis all the time.

Speaker 2 (28:28):
Well, it's notable because a lot of these Chin win
matches and places where they have a sizeable Chinese population.
New York was one of them, Paris was another. The
other players started complaining because they would be like the
Chin win fans, the Chinese fans, especially from mainland China,
which is where she's from, obviously, but not like diaspora Chinese.
They would take over the cheering in such a way.

(28:49):
And they're not necessarily old school tennis fans, so they
don't know quite when to cheer. Had pro tip try
not to applaud errors. Try to only applaud good shots.

Speaker 1 (28:58):
No, that doesn't matter, but that's out the door. Trust me,
I've been there. I mean it was great when it
was quiet. That was when we were winning, and then
when we started nine three nine four, nine five, nine
six nine year seven, it was just like you know anyway,
start ups as well, another good player that's through against
khalen Skaya. Karlent Skaya is clent. Sorry, start ups beat

(29:22):
kalan Sky, who lost her friggin' mind. She broke a racket. Clearly,
you know, things aren't great in the old you know,
love life. Maybe I'm just kidding. They're doing well that
I saw her sitting watching him play the other day. Yeah, exactly,
I'm just throwing some darts out there. Shway is back.
She wins one match, and now she's in the quarterfinals.

Speaker 2 (29:42):
I have to say, did something happen?

Speaker 1 (29:44):
No, she won one match, but listen, I went six
months and I'm not comparing myself to two years of
twenty two matches or twenty three matches in a row
of losing. But Shway has all of a sudden, she
wins one match and it happened. I went six months
without winning a match, and I tell you what, when
I won my first match, had one of my best tournaments.
It happens because she's just like, thank God, Okay, let's

(30:05):
just play now.

Speaker 2 (30:06):
So I have to ask. I know part of Schuy's
issues were injury related, but also part of them were
There was some she never went home, there was some
political stuff.

Speaker 1 (30:19):
Yeah, she didn't play the Olympics a couple of years ago,
and and she was worried literally about going back to China,
which is and never going out of this country again.

Speaker 2 (30:26):
Bring it up that she is having the success in China.

Speaker 1 (30:29):
Because she's given the middle finger to them.

Speaker 2 (30:31):
I think, do you think so or do you think
she like cut a deal? No way, okay, you know
got a deal, No way. She just wants to win.
They're very patriotic. Let me tell you something, and.

Speaker 1 (30:41):
She she has pushed the envelope and I think so.

Speaker 2 (30:43):
To Naomi and credit to a lot of the other
players who know what as you were saying, it means
to go winless for a stretch, and you feel for
her and know what the relief must feel like. So yeah,
really cool to see her doing this, and sort of
ironic that it's in China.

Speaker 1 (30:59):
The point was the fact that she's having this run.
Now she plays against Bodoza, so that'll be interesting to
see what happens there. Anyway, all right, let's get to
your questions. Everybody seeks Thanks for coming, thanks for writing
and making and having the time. All right, let's start
with Karen Gainey. Would you explain the differences in types
of balls and comment on the Wada appeal? Well, we
already did that, so there you go. And what you

(31:21):
think is really Oh, I see you, Karen, I see you. Karen.
You're asking multiple questions in one tweet.

Speaker 2 (31:27):
You're not done out.

Speaker 1 (31:28):
We'll allow want for this time. Okay, the types of balls. Look,
it's regular duty is what they use at the US Open,
for example. Then there's extra duty. Then they have balls
that are like for altitude as well. But mostly regular
duty is just you know, your regular felt over the ball,
and then the extra duty is a little it's just

(31:49):
a little more felt essentially on the ball. So it's heavier,
which is why the men love it because they can
smack the shit out of it and they've all got
you know, strong arms and strong wrists and strong shoulders.
And the women prefer, well, should really play with the
lighter ball, just because it's easier on their arms and
their wrists and their shoulders. And that's why the US
Open went back to it because the WTA and a
lot of players complained at the US Open last year

(32:11):
that they were having problems. And I can tell you
I played mixed and there were years where we played
with the men's ball and I'll tell you what, the
next day, my arm was killing me. And so they
realized that, oh, this is not great for the women.
The men they're fine with it because it doesn't make
any difference to them. It doesn't hurt their arms. So
that's why we have different types of people.

Speaker 2 (32:28):
We'll say as a good blanket statement. And I believe
this with coaching on court. I believe this with the scheduling.
For me, the idea here for all of these rules
is let's do whatever it takes to make the best
tennis yeah happen, Yeah right, you want to facilitate the
best tennis. Yeah, And I think for me, the sport
always needs to be answering that question primarily is this
better for the players, It's better for the quality of

(32:48):
the product. If so, let's adjust.

Speaker 1 (32:50):
And every ball is a little bit different as well.
Penn is different to Wilson, which is different to technifiable,
which is different to babble out, which is different to
you know, Dunlamp, and.

Speaker 2 (32:59):
Then Slazenger out here with the grass court.

Speaker 1 (33:01):
Yeah, there's a lot of.

Speaker 2 (33:03):
Different Creationally, you can tell the difference profoundly. I have
friends of mine who will not play with Penn balls,
that will only play with Wilson's. I try to bring
my dun lamps. They get mad.

Speaker 1 (33:10):
Yeah, you know that's me.

Speaker 2 (33:12):
I like the dun lamps.

Speaker 1 (33:13):
That's me. I just have stolen so many cans of
balls through my career. When I was like us Open
better at criminal and I did. I know they've given
to me, I just didn't use them, and then I
brought them home with me and that's the balls that
I play with, and a lot of them are from
the US Open. Thank you, Wilson. Okay, so all right, James,
wait a second, Karen, because she's gonna and what do

(33:33):
you think is really going on Reba Kinna. We don't know.

Speaker 2 (33:36):
Well, we did speculate on the last episode, and we,
more than anything else, hope she is okay.

Speaker 1 (33:41):
Yeah, What we want everyone to know is that we
are all pulling for her because she's a great kid,
a great player, yeah, a lovely person, lovely person and.

Speaker 2 (33:48):
Agreed tennis player. You arguably the best grass court tennis player.

Speaker 1 (33:53):
She's arguably one of the best players in the world
when she's at her best. I don't think there's anyone better,
to be honest, and frankly, we need her back out
there because her rivalry with many of these players is
really important. And look, you guys know if you listen,
have listened to our podcast forever. I had my feelings
and my thoughts when it came to her coach. I
thought he was not a good h what's the word.

Speaker 2 (34:18):
Element in her?

Speaker 1 (34:19):
Yes, good word? Yeah, I thought, you know when she
listen when I'm playing a match, I don't want to
see my coach gesture in looking all pissed off up there.
And there's been some coaches of late that I'm like,
why do these players allow these coaches to look like this?
Because you need positive you need a positive influence around
you when you're looking up there now off the court
and away. He might be the greatest guy that got
well to her, I don't know, but when it comes

(34:40):
to being her coach, I saw a way too many
things of yelling at her in the gym. Other players
have said stuck to me.

Speaker 2 (34:47):
And that's just not the only person who publicly came
out and said many stuff that they had seen behind
the scenes.

Speaker 1 (34:52):
When she would win matches. He was given a shit Yeah.

Speaker 2 (34:54):
I'm like, you're kind of like you can only speculate.
But it didn't pourt to her well.

Speaker 1 (35:00):
And we took it out of our part, me being
aggressive about like what I saw about him, you know,
about the things, and we took it out and I
took it out mostly and I had you take it
out mostly because she I didn't want her to be
asked and answer, having to answer the questions about him
all the time. But you know what, it didn't have
anything to do me. This is what other people saw.
There was twenty five people that could say the same

(35:20):
thing that I was seeing.

Speaker 2 (35:21):
And hopefully that is in fact something she's moving on from.

Speaker 1 (35:24):
Well, let's hope so.

Speaker 2 (35:25):
That is in fact what's going on anyway.

Speaker 1 (35:26):
Bottom line is we're wishing her the best because, as
I said, she's great for the game and she's a
great person. All right. In your opinion from James ten,
what can could the majors learn from each other? I
know they have their own unique identities, but for example,
what does the US Open do really well that you
think the OS Open might benefit from implementing, etcetera, etcetera.
All of Oh I got in trouble for this, Caitlin,

(35:49):
because I said on ESPN, I said, yeah, well, I
think the US Open and doing a great job with
this and that and blah blah blah, and I think
they've learned a lot of things from the Australian Open.
And they did not like.

Speaker 2 (36:00):
That one you're an ass you're allowed to play.

Speaker 1 (36:02):
So I saw Eric back, who's awesome right. So the
US Open have done so many great things, particularly this year,
for the players, for the fans, all the things, and
they are they will tell you they learned a lot
of things from the Australian Open. The Australian Open is
one of these tournaments it's always pushed the envelope. We
had the roof first, we had the roof of nineteen
eighty eight people. Okay, that's a long time ago. We

(36:25):
had that, Yeah, nineteen eighty eight. That's when we moved
from Kuyong to the rod Laver Arena. Was nineteen eighty eight.
Because we also wanted to use it as a multifunction.
So when now the top recording artists go down there,
really big ones go like Taylor Swift is at the
Melbourne Cricket Ground, the MCG, whereas you know, other stars
go and play at the rod Laver Arena, like Pink

(36:45):
sold out the rod Laver Inna like seven eleven times.
So we use that all the time. It's part basketball
is played there. So I think other Grand Slams were like,
oh shit, maybe we can use it multi more of
a multi event. I mean, look, Roland Garris had the
boxing at the Olympics.

Speaker 2 (37:00):
And Garos also did played hosts for the last I
think definitely last year and maybe also this year for
Paris Fashion Week, really had the giant Lacoste fashion show
on the red clay that had been sort of remolded
in a really cool way, and it was really awesome,
as it was in the Paris Olympics context to say
it used in a different way. So certainly that the

(37:22):
one thing I will say that I like about Paris,
which is frequently derided among tennis fans. I don't know why.
I like the fact that Paris has the best merch
by a mile, it has the best sort of chic
on ground.

Speaker 1 (37:39):
It is. It's just unique and it's comparable.

Speaker 2 (37:43):
It's pretty gorgeous, whereas Wimbledon for me, always the worst.
They're there, the grounds are sort of teaming with a.

Speaker 1 (37:50):
Lot of like, oh, Wimbledon itself is the best, but.

Speaker 2 (37:53):
Wimbledon itself is the best. Like the actual grounds, in
the actual facilities, it's just so beautiful.

Speaker 1 (37:57):
They're all different.

Speaker 2 (37:58):
I need to recuse myself because I have not been
to Melbourne. I've not been to the Australian Open. But
but from Afar it is very easy. It's their approach
to making it part of Australian culture and part of
Australian urban life is something that I wish. It's too
late now because you can't relocate the other three to
moreral locations. You can go, but it's too late for me.

(38:19):
But I do think like I would have loved to
see other cities follow their lead and put their facility
closer so that you can walk to it, because then
it becomes part of the fabric of the city and
then it becomes used more to your point, like Charleston
was so cool in similarly, making a facility that gets
used as a concert venue, it's used for all other
cultural stuff. Like to me, that is a real missed

(38:39):
opportunity when you put your stadium way far out with
the idea that you're going to attract drivers. My wife
is also an urban planner, so this is something I think.

Speaker 1 (38:47):
About get her on the up.

Speaker 2 (38:49):
I have soft pitched the US open moving to Randall's Island,
and my friends to the USTA were like, well, that's
an idea we haven't heard before. So you know, I'm
realize that. You know, I'm a little bit of a
disruptive thinker, but I do think like making something feel
like it's more part of a city and not in
the middle of nowhere. Does wonders make it in central

(39:10):
Parkburg would hate that. They don't even want to bubble
over the tennis courts because it's an eyesore for the
people who bought that expensive real estate around the park.
But I do think making use of the fact that
it's more in the city and centrally located would be
very cool.

Speaker 1 (39:23):
Yeah. Listen, Australia Open is a carnival. It's just a
load of fun. And look, the Usta did learn a
lot of things. That's why they had the bands playing on.

Speaker 2 (39:33):
Yeah, you know, I thought that was cool. This year
they had much more.

Speaker 1 (39:36):
Bands, they had much more pro DJ. They had that
because the Austraine Open had it, so they learn it.

Speaker 2 (39:41):
Is definitely something that they, I think have embraced. That's cool.
So yeah, all of them are very different.

Speaker 1 (39:45):
Yeah, Wimbledon's not going to change a lot because of
the tradition is actually what makes it special. Although we
just heard that they are getting the plans for building
across the road, which is awesome. That's where they'll have
qualifying now or have more courts, more practice facilities, it'll
be a little bit e easier for all the crowd
to sort of get around, because it does get very
very claustrophobic at Wimbledon at times. But also at the

(40:07):
same time, I'm sort of sad for the Wimbledon people
that live in Wimbledon because those those parks over there
are absolutely spectacular and all the families go there. So
hopefully they work out a way to still have it
be a public facility for people, because.

Speaker 2 (40:21):
It's for Wimbledon in their solid that I would love
to see the other Slams do is the queue really
is special because it makes daily affordable tickets possible possible,
and it ensures that there's this's player of fans who
are there for the tennis and motivated not just by

(40:42):
and not just well. I don't know where they're going
to put the queue now, Caitlin, because that because the
queue was in the park. Que was in the park,
So what are they going to do?

Speaker 1 (40:49):
Oh no, they run out of space.

Speaker 2 (40:50):
The first time I went to Wimbledon and it was
so cool. We just spent hours in a park.

Speaker 1 (40:54):
Were they handing out deergorant?

Speaker 2 (40:56):
They handed out chocolate and tea?

Speaker 1 (40:57):
Oh so English? I love it. Tirana Saurus flex, who
always writes to us, what, well, so does everybody, So
you know, Tana not that special. I'm just kidding. What's
two things you'd like to see club players do more
often in their matches. Well, we talked about it, poach.
We want to see that. But I'll tell you one
thing that really helps you. If you're if you're playing

(41:18):
as someone who has average volleys, take your return at
the net person immediately. If you're playing doubles, take it
out them immediately, and then keep going back to them
and then eventually they'll be running back to the baseline.
That's a really good and tell your partner I'm going
to go at the net person so you be ready
for that.

Speaker 2 (41:35):
She want to see more aggressive club players because like Claire,
my wife, who's a three five. Wait, she runs into
the net and wins tons of free points because nobody
knows what to do at her level when she's at
the net. It's so cool. Aggression pleas are pease?

Speaker 1 (41:47):
Are wait? I forgot at the start of the pod
I was going to talk about and now we've now
we've just done such a great segue. We're going to
leave the questions for a second and talk about this
psycho lady that has gone viral for the man hitting
her quote unquote with the ball and she loses her mind.
And if you haven't seen it, I did repost that
as well, where she throws the racket. He goes into

(42:08):
the net on the first one and then she stumps
up there and she grabs a racket and she throws
it to him. I was like, what is right? And
then she goes, fuck you, fuck you, and she's like
while flipping the bird, right, flipping the bird. I mean,
this woman needs help. I don't know who she is,
and I'm sure she's so embarrassed by this going viral
because she was probably thinking I can do this and
get away with it. Wherever it was, it looked like

(42:29):
it was in San Jose.

Speaker 2 (42:30):
Maybe, yeah, it's definitely southern California. She did not know
is in northern California, filmed fan wherever it is. She
didn't know she was going to be.

Speaker 1 (42:39):
She did not know that thing was going. I looked
at how many people looked at it was like millions.
I was like, listen, lady, you.

Speaker 2 (42:46):
Hit a pretty soft ball.

Speaker 1 (42:48):
He hit the perfect shot.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
It's what you want to do in doubles, which is
go at the feet of the doubles person. If you
have a put away volley at the net, you go
at your opponent's feet.

Speaker 1 (42:57):
You go to the person that's closest to you at
the feet. If he goes back to the baseline, then
he has to start the it's restarting the point.

Speaker 2 (43:04):
The only reason I've ever seen anybody justifiably get mad
at a peg which is in college, in college tennis,
where pegging people at the net was basically it's own sport. Yeah,
And it's when you go at someone's head on purpose,
and you were not supposed to go on their head
at their head on purpose, because if you try to
hit the net person in their head and they duck,
the ball is going out. So it's nothing is intended

(43:26):
more than pain when you try to hit somebody at
the net in their head. Yeah, if you're hitting their feet,
who cares? Oh my god, this woman a ball at
your feet? What do you have the most glass feet?

Speaker 1 (43:36):
The only thing I can think of is that she'd
been hit twenty five times in that match.

Speaker 3 (43:39):
So if if yeah, maybe this was if a lady
out there who wants to get a hold of me,
and you're clearly a tennis fan and you listen to
this podcast, get a hold of me on Twitter, or
if you have a friend, get a hold of me
on Twitter and let me know, wasn't the.

Speaker 1 (43:54):
Twenty fifth time on Yes, let's get her on the
podcast and let me tell you something, honey. If it
was the twenty fifth time, okay, maybe I can understand
that you've absolutely lost your shit finally. But also at
the same time, if it's the twenty fifth time, blame
your fucking partner, okay, because he's setting you up. He's
setting you on it. And in mixed doubles, if the
man has the ball, like my old mixed doubles partner,

(44:16):
Todd would Bridge, one of the greatest doubles partners players
of all time, would say to me, as you've all
heard on this pod, hit it to the chick stubbsy.
So the goal is you go at the woman because
often the woman is a little bit, even as pros,
a little bit not as strong and not as powerful
as the man. So sorry, honey, but if it was

(44:36):
the twenty fifth time, you need to find another sport
if you're going to get upset.

Speaker 2 (44:40):
Yeah, fair. This woman would last one day in college, Senna.

Speaker 1 (44:42):
This woman would last three seconds on the court with me.
Mary Joe Fernandez said to me one time when I
was going to play her. And you know, Mary Joe
and I are friends for a long time, and Mary
Joe is one of the nicest people alive. She literally
said to me before we went on the court, stubbsy,
don't hit me today. Please, don't hit me today. And
I'm like, don't turn you back there. You'll be fine,
all right, So okay, Stephen, okay. Carolyn Proski says if

(45:09):
rules in tennis were to change, like around throwing rackets
or reducing men's Grand Slam matches to best of three
instead of five, what is actually the official process and
who would initiate the idea of a rule change and
who votes on it? Basically, the players, the players and
the tours get together. The tours then go to the
ITF and to the Grand slams and say this is

(45:30):
what we want to do, like, for example, the best
of three doubles sets now that have the third set
tiebreaks and the ten point tie break at the third set,
YadA YadA. They all have to get together. It all
has to be a bit of a consensus to make
big rule changes like that. Everybody has to be on
the same page. And you know, the Grand Slams can
do whatever they want. They can do whatever they want.

(45:51):
They don't need the consensus of anybody. You know, the
Grand Slams will all get together and say right from
now I we're going to have two sets and that's it,
and nobody has any chance. I mean, the players may bitch,
am otter, strike and not go and play, but the
Grand Slams can sort of make their own decisions. But
most of the time it's a collaborative conversation with the
w as it should be. Yeah, so that's how we

(46:11):
do those things, all right, Stephen stroke Stokes, has Garcia
made the right move by taking the rest of the
season off? Do you think her heart is still in
tennis these days? Well, Stephen, I don't know. I mean,
that's a conversation only that Caro can answer.

Speaker 2 (46:26):
And that you can listen to because she has a
very very good podcast called The Tennis Insider Club where
she talks a lot about her feelings about the sport.
I think anytime a player wants to shut their.

Speaker 1 (46:36):
Have you heard from her on this subject.

Speaker 2 (46:38):
Not on this subject in particular, but she wrote a
piece for Racket in the last issue, not the one
that's currently out, issue number twenty four, about how it
has her podcast has allowed her to enrich her relationship
with tennis, understand it more, and also be able to
process some of the highs and lows. Right, I think
anytime a player wants to take a beat, we should
support them. I think it's like Chapel run right, Like

(46:59):
a great singer who's number one on all the charts,
selling out venues across the country. She decides, Hey, this
is really overwhelming. I'm not feeling it right now. I've
got some mental health stuff going on. All right, shut
it down.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
And I want want to answer a question that you're
going to ask me.

Speaker 2 (47:10):
We want you to be happy when you play. Watching
a performer, whether they're a musician or a tennis player,
be out there and be miserable. Sucks.

Speaker 1 (47:21):
Yeah it is. I think it's fine. I would take
all of the rest of the year off after the
US Open if you can afford it, for sure. I mean,
as I said, Serena did it for the last like
felt like the last seven or eight years. Of her
career and you know, extended her career to playing at
forty years of age. So I think it's a good idea.
If you don't feel it, don't do it.

Speaker 2 (47:40):
So yeah, especially if you're not playing well, we have
probably time for one or two.

Speaker 1 (47:43):
Mong yep, Genie Renee, what do you think of bringing
back bonus points when a lower ranked player beats a
top ten player? Yes?

Speaker 2 (47:49):
Or no?

Speaker 1 (47:50):
Well, it's a bit of a tough one because, Genie,
here's the problem. The top ten player could have a
really bad day one day and you happen to get
that win, or they could have, you know, not feeling
well or whatever it is, and sort of that's a
massive amount of points by beating one player. And then
you think a player wins three matches in the same
tournament walks away with the same points. It's kind of

(48:10):
a little bit unfair. Part of me still thinks it's
a good idea because you should be rewarded for beating
somebody good, But in the end, I think it's fairer
if we just leave it the way it is. I
played for a long time with bonus points, and I
think they were good in some way, because if you're
beating the number one player in the world, for example,
and then getting the same spot as somebody who's beaten
to you know, a lucky losing a qualify, it's probably like, well, fuck,

(48:33):
you know, I should probably get more out of that.
But at the same time, I don't know. It's a
tough one. But the players are the ones that make
that decision, and they have stuck with this not having
bonus points, So there you go. It's a consensus for
the players. All right, Tieranasaurus flex again. Can you give
some tips on how to return a one handed back end? Good?

Speaker 2 (48:51):
How to hit it? Yeah?

Speaker 1 (48:52):
Good turn? Good, racketead turn, good body turn. Use your
left arm to push back or your right arm, your
non dominant arm. Really keep it back like you're sort
of it's hard for me to show you on a podcast,
but don't let that your opposite arm come through at
the same time. So really push it back and extend
and finish your backhand. Really finish it. That's important. Don't

(49:13):
look to where you're returning, just you know, let the
rackethead go as I say. Finish, finish, finish. Okay, all right,
we've got a couple left. Caitlin jpeg hit slat. We
like this jpeg. Out of these current WTA players who
haven't won a Slam yet, who are you surprised that
hasn't done it? Blah blah blah, Keys, Pagoula, Vekig, Sitelina Sakari, Sakari, Plishkova, Jibur, Mukhova, Garcia.

(49:38):
If you had to pick one of those, who's the
most surprising hasn't done it.

Speaker 2 (49:43):
I'm discounting Mukhova because she's been injured, yep. Otherwise I
think she would have yep.

Speaker 1 (49:50):
Garcia probably come on, over, come on. She hasn't even
been made a set final.

Speaker 2 (49:55):
She won the tour final.

Speaker 1 (49:56):
No mate, no okay. If that's your answer, that's your answer,
that's your answer. My answer would have to be probably
a tie between Plishkober, who's been number one in the world.

Speaker 2 (50:06):
Tie is a terrible answer.

Speaker 1 (50:08):
Number one in the world and made the finals and
was two holds of servers, one of the best servers
in the world, winning the US Open and beat Venus
and Serena back to back in that tournament. And yes,
Oons has made three grands On finals. So of all
those players onbur should have won one.

Speaker 2 (50:23):
That's correct.

Speaker 1 (50:24):
All right, monkey Bread Coco is working with Matt Day.
I've seen it written he specialized in his and technique thoughts.
We've already sort of talked about that. Last question and
last question, Julia Lenvei wider appeal. If everyone agrees that
there is no case for performance enhancing doping in Yannick's case,
why is there a case at all? Put differently, why
does anyone care about the responsibilities if there is nothing

(50:45):
to be responsible for? Well, in some respects, what they
say is if your team does something, you're responsible for
your team. And I don't think that there's anything wrong
with that. But I think the bottom line answer to
theirs is why and why. I've talked about this in
the podcast. Why do we even know about someone being
under suspicion if they don't get a suspension. Yes, we

(51:10):
should not even know Yannick Sinner was even under suspicion
if he wasn't charged with anything. I think you keep playing,
and you keep doing this until you're either seen as
guilty and that like let's say, let's say at Cincinnati
they came back and said, yep, you are responsible, you
are done. Then you take all the points, You take
all the money, and you suspend then for the two

(51:33):
years after that, or maybe you work out a system
for that because you took all these points away for
that nine months or six months that he was playing whatever.
I think there's a better system, But my big I've
been told by somebody, a lawyer, said for transparency reasons,
that's why they do it, YadA YadA. I don't feel
like that that's the right thing. You were ruining someone's

(51:54):
career by doing this.

Speaker 2 (51:56):
Yeah, and it didn't help him that they found him
innocent because everyone knew about it, and then it cast
immediate suspicion over everything. I think what should happen is
a positive test results in an automatic appeal and an investigation.
Then you go through the motions regardless of whether somebody
has high priced lawyers as he did or not, and

(52:18):
it becomes an automatically assumed period where nobody knows about
what's happening but the authorities.

Speaker 1 (52:25):
Now, there has to be a period of time, right,
So he within that twenty four hour period, he already
was like h the physio or whatever was like, we
know what it was, this is what it is, and
he made the appeal quick, which is why it didn't
happen for other players, But I'm.

Speaker 2 (52:37):
Saying it should happen automatically. I think the if we
want to believe that the notion in a judicial system
is that people are innocent until proven guilty. In the
case of doping, we should presume they are innocent and
that a test result that is positive or multiple ones
is the case. Here were false positives. Let's just assume.
Let's give everyone the better way.

Speaker 1 (52:56):
It wasn't a false positive, but there was a reason
why they u no, no, no, no.

Speaker 2 (52:59):
But I'm saying, let's assume it was a false positive. Yeah, right,
Let's go with the default that this person is not
at fault. Then the process plays out and we only
hear about it if they're found guilty. That would be
a better system. That would be fair to everyone, regardless
of their resources for lawyers, and I think it would
hold the entirety of the governing body accountable and make
everything equitable among players, which was also at play here,

(53:22):
which is why some of the players were so angry
at Yanik because he had resources that they maybe didn't,
and he was It gave the appearance of a double
standard for sure, whether it was or not, and so
for me, the appearance of corruption is often just as
bad as corruption, and so just automatically resolve the system
to be into an automatic appeal. We only hear about

(53:44):
it if they're guilty. Yeah, that would resolve almost every
part of this.

Speaker 1 (53:46):
Yeah, I agree, and look, and the bottom line is,
in the end, it's just the same as the criminal
justice system in every country. If you have the money,
it does help you get the right advice and often
you get away with stuff because you're able to have
somebody speak for you and do this. So anyway, look,
the bottom line is, we love you guys listening to us.
We've waffled on today question. Yeah, we appreciate you all

(54:09):
writing in et cetera. Tell your friends they can write us.
And if you find I won't call her Karen. But
if you can't find lady lady on the court who
lost her mind, who wants to talk to us and
give us the background, or if she wants to hide
and go away, I don't blame her. So for now,
go Liberty. They're on tonight, And yeah, that's it.

Speaker 2 (54:28):
Are we done? All right? Bye?

Speaker 1 (54:29):
We're done, Bye, guys,