February 13, 2025 • 52 mins
Are the new rules governing mixed doubles at the US Open akin to tiddleywinks? Did the WTA do right by all players by banning Vukov? Should the hosts of this podcast be Chancellor (and vice chancellor) of tennis? All this and more answered by your favorite duo of intrepid tennis conversationalists.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:14):
It's a recording and progress, ah, recording is in progress. Okay, well, everybody,
welcome to the renew Subcenters podcast. And I'm joined by
my usual cohort, Caitlin Thompson. Because I am still in Australia. Yes,
I know people are wondering have I moved back permanently?
And let me tell you something. With what's going on
in the United States, my passport back here is looking
(00:37):
pretty good. I'm gonna I'm not gonna lie. And it's
been good to be here throughout it all. And every
now and again something comes up on my computer, on
my phone or with the people that i'm my best
friend who I'm staying with, her husband comes up and says,
Jesus Christ, your ages. You see what happened today? Anyway,
Joined by Caitlin Thompson. Caitlin, good day, mate, gooday.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I've also been on the road a little bit and
I have managed to leave the country and I thought
should I just stay here?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
And I have to say I contemplated it for a minute.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
I'm sure I did. Anyway, It's it's scary what's happening
the fact that the president might himself the president today
of the Kennedy Center just because he can. Is hilarious
to make.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Bud is we can uh just do whatever we want now.
So you want to call it the Gulf of America,
I think we should call it the Golf of Tennis.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Mom.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Also the president of Kennedy Center, re Nice Stubs, is
now the president of Tennis.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Like we can just get it. No, we do whatever
we want now.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Great, I'm not paying a taxes and I'm going to
be the chancellor of sport.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Chancellor sports? What would I be?
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Vice Chancellor of sport?
Speaker 1 (01:47):
What the president?
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Because I thought of it. We have so much to
talk about.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Australian Open has only been done for a few days
and we've already had tournaments few weeks over the last
week or two. We had a tournament in Dallas. This
was phenomenally entertaining. We had a tournament in two in
the Middle East.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Going on, talk us through some of the stuff that
you've been seeing.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Carlitos al Karaz got his first tittle of the seasons.
Love came back, Beatsala does love Chapeau coming back?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Man, what a great comeback.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Give me your thoughts on it, because I'll be honest,
I didn't watch a lot of it, just because you know,
while I'm Australia. While I'm here in Australia, I try
and like switch off from watching a lot of tennis.
Even though I have the Renae Substams podcast. I'm more
inclined to talk about our listeners writing into us today
on the old Socials. But I want your thoughts on
(02:48):
basically what you saw from those guys, especially Carlos. I
mean to do and to win that tournament indoors. He
had a really tough tournament. He was able to do it.
That's got to even give him a ton of common EID.
It's going into these big tournaments in Indian Wells.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
And Miami totally and you know, obviously he's on hard court.
We saw him win the Surface Slams last year.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Little known fact.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
I think Carlos's first title came indoors on hardcourt, did
it not. He's actually got quite a resume on indoor
hard courts, and it's nice to kind of see him
prepping for this swing of the season that's going to
be outdoors, but yes, on hard courts. It had been
a minute since he won a sort of flashy title.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
I loved it. I have a lot of thoughts about
the nose strip.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
I love that he's wearing a nose strip. You know, listen,
we're all trying to optimize. I started wearing mouth tape
at night, and kaspar UD's wearing a no strip and
he gets to the finals of Dallas. So coincidence, I
don't know. But maybe we should be doing this podcast
with no strips.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
I mean, maybe we should. I mean that's just like
that as an indicator for all of us that we
all need to breathe a little bit better. But I mean,
he came into the tournament not feeling well. So but
he's done not a few times now. But for me,
it's good for him because it started to be a
little bit on now. He's done well on hardcot, he's
won the US Open, he's won indoor titles before, et cetera.
(04:03):
But it was starting to get to the point where,
you know, is his game going to hold up through
the next you know, ten, twelve, fifteen, hopefully twenty years
playing indoors on fast courts, and he proved to everybody
that he could do that. So I'm excited that he
was able to get that title to give himself the
confidence to know that he can go in and play
on hard court against it's just can he do it
(04:25):
against someone like a sinner, you know, with the big
weapons that he has with the serve and the forehand,
the groundies. But hey, listen, it was a good effort.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Totally a good effort and nice to see him. This
is typically part of the year that he's not usually
that healthy. You know, in years past anywhe else he's
shown up with some injuries. He I remember how to
pull out of the Rear Open. I think it was
last year, so you know, this is kind of like
middle of the of the winter, late winter time period
is I think a little tough on his party because
(04:54):
obviously he goes pretty hard ahead of Australia. So yeah,
like good signs, playing well, moving well and not on
his favorite surface.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Was great.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
The one that I was really excited about and I
watched it a lot because it's in my time zone
or close to it, was the Dallas Open, and you know,
it was great to see Riley playing well. It was
great to see Casper Rude make a final. There were
some fun upsets by Shapavallave who beat Tommy Paul and
Taylor Fritz back to back before taking out Casperud in
(05:27):
the final. And for me, Shapavala has always been one
of those exciting players. Obviously he's a shot maker. Obviously
he goes for it, obviously with a big lefty, you know,
the one handy, flashy. This is like the kind of
player that is like super cat neep for me, and
then like totally flames out because of all the reasons,
which you know, Casperude is on the other end of
the spectrum, who's like really safe, really smart, doesn't take a.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Lot of risk, doesn't need to.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
So it was like that classic matchup that I just
really love, especially when the shop Maker pulls it out
and you know, look, does this pretend anything for shoppavalive season?
Is he like a in the conversation now? I doubt it,
But nonetheless it's fun to see a player that you
haven't had a chance to talk about or really watch
go deep in a long time do just that and
(06:12):
lift a trophy over their head. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Look, he's always had the talent. We know that he's
had these ups and downs. He's has these emotional ups
and downs as well. It's been very well documented, and
he's always had that You know the talent, but as
Sam Stosa said last week, like talent is one thing, right,
you know, people can assume you're going to do well,
like a Madison Key's, like you keep talking about it,
you should win a Grand Slam. Until you do it,
(06:34):
you know, there's always going to be that speculation of, oh, oh,
but you didn't do it, you know what I mean.
So talent can only get you so far. But I
think with him, he I think he's always going to
have been better as he got older because he has
such shot making and so many choices of shot and
so flashy and so talented that it sort of takes
(06:56):
you a little bit longer to get comfortable with what
you need to do under pressure.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
And I hope, I hope that's true. I love it.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Yeah, I do believe. I think he's actually going to
have a very very good year. I would not be surprised,
you know, if there's a potential of him getting back
and you know, getting up to the top ten by
this time next year. We know that he has the
talent to do it. No, he has the weapons. It's
just a matter of him controlling his emotions. It's a
matter of him, you know, picking the right shot and
(07:25):
shot selection is massive when you're that talented, and when
you have sixteen shots that you can choose from, it's like, no, man,
this one works. Just keep doing it, you know. And
he's had sort of coaching ups and downs and hasn't
really had so I just think I think we're going
to see a lot from Dennis this year, and I
think that he's it could potentially be the best US
(07:46):
had in a long long time.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I would love that, And also if that were to
become true, I think it would portend well to this
idea that like it is worth playing the long game
in tennis and having the complete repertoire, even if it
means you take longer to develop, because when you are
on it's it's just that it's like, okay, you know,
(08:08):
good great offense does be great defense in tatas, and
I think that's I love matches that prove that thesis.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Well, especially and let's face it, especially indoors, and so
that definitely helps him. There's definitely a lot of players
that really do just respond better indoors and they play
better indoors, and I would say that would be him.
But I do believe that, you know, he is going
to only get better as he gets older, because all
the all the bullshit kind of has to be gotten
rid of at some point if you really want to
be good. And I believe that he hopefully is getting
(08:37):
more and mature and more into him being comfortable on
the court of what to do under pressure anyway. So yeah,
so very exciting. Was really happy to see him get
that that tournament win. Just recently, Saballenka got taken out
by Alexandrova. I thought that was interesting, tough, tough match.
So Sablenka's kind of had two back to back losses
and that's yeah, I been a rarity for her. But
(08:59):
I like the fact that, can I just say, I
like the fact that Mattie Keith decided, you know, like
you've got to decide on your schedules, you know, early
on in the year. And I think it's really great
that Maddie has sort of put the racket down for
a little bit and decided not to go to the
Middle East totally.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
And I think especially after the high and the emotional,
you know, culmination of not just a two week tournament,
but really like decade of close calls. Yeah, like give
yourself some breathing room. Come back to the States. Do
you know, she probably doesn't have a ton of sponsor
obligations there anyway, Come back, get your head sorted, spend
(09:42):
some time soaking it up with your family, you know,
instead of just going straight on to the other end
trying to like, you know, do you get talked about
as a favorite now?
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Honestly, it's kind of hard to imagine.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
But at the same time, like now everyone has a
lot of questions for you when you were doing so well,
just kind of flying under the radar. So yeah, I
think that's really smart schedule management on her part, and
also like she has so much of the year still
to go. Winning the first Slam and is in a
lot of ways like such a disruptive thing because you know,
as we've seen Arena Sbalaca the last couple of years
(10:15):
in Australia, like it's taken her a bit to find
her footing again after starting off the year so hot
in Australia, And so for me it feels like, Okay, actually,
that's really smart and I love doing it. I don't
know if she was at the super Bowl, but I
do know who was at the super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Oh my god, I died. I don't know. I mean,
I think every single person watching that that's a tennis
fan or tennis person.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
I was like, that's azing, Like that's the arena. I
was like, that's arena.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
And all of a sudden, I'm like, I'm loving Kendrick
like it was great. It was such a in your
face kind of like very obvious, like middle finger to
certain people in America. Let's put of and and a
someone in Canada, as we know, right, But the fact
that all of a sudden, I'm looking at it and
then it's the arena is dancing. I died. I fell
(11:01):
off the couch myself. I was like, oh my god,
there was Serena and I was like what I'm like,
and then they showed her again. I was like very
quick and then very quick and I died.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
And I knew when she was here in the Crip Park.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
I was like, there it is Center Corrida Olympics twenty twelve, shoes.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Back exactly, and she looks great.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
So I was great.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
I was like, girl, Serena.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Wins the super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Serena wins the super Bowl. It was it was frigging awesome.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Tennis is the best even when it's not our sport,
we still somehow managed.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
To win before the Super Bowl obviously was played or
during that time. We have to talk about the fact
that Belinda Benchic, she comes back after having a baby,
wins the tournament in Abbadubby like what like how awesome
is She's always played well in the Middle East, but
she played great in Australia. I think the biggest, you know,
(11:52):
issue that has always been her problem Belinda Benchitch is
that her emotional you know, ups and downs. Let's let's saying,
a little strappy on the court and a little bit
sort of drama and dramatic and blah blah blah. And
as you know, Caitlin, when you become a mom, things
change in your brain a little bit. And I think that,
you know, for her, her maturity level has gone through
(12:13):
the roof and we're seeing it on the court and
just just in the way that you know, she the
players that she beat, I mean, beating the Rebakina as
well in that tournament and then winning the tournament three
cents against Ashlyn Krueger got to give her a lot
of credit. Credit. This young American has really done well
in the last twelve months. I give some kudos to
Michael Joyce, her coach, who I know, you know, he
(12:34):
did a great job with obviously Marie Sharapovo when she
was younger, and I think he's a great coach for her.
But yeah, it was really really great to see Belinda
Benchitch win that match in three sets and have a
baby right there with her husband, Like it was just
too good.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
It does strike me that like when your focus off
the court kind of gives you a little bit of equilibrium.
And also she's so young still, so yeah, it's quite
easy for her to come back after maternity leave as
opposed to like, you know, older moms certainly, but I think, like, yeah,
(13:08):
you're right, it gave her a little bit of equanimity.
I didn't see her like, as Renee Stubbs would say,
carrying on like a pork chap, which she is capable
of doing either at this tournament nor at the Australian Open.
So yeah, it was sort of like, okay, cool mom
vibes in the best way passible.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
I mean she beat Victoria kuda Matova. Oh no, I
mean I was like what when I saw that score,
I was like what. Nice also to see Vondrosepha back
as well, because she had a really tough start to
the year. She beat Putin Saber in that tournament and
beat Emma Radakanu. We're going to get to Emma in
a second, but but nice to see if Ondressova back
(13:46):
because that was a really tough start to the year.
I was in Adelaide. She was playing really well. She
was up a set and to want to I think
against Putin Saber actually who she beaten in Abu Dhabi,
but she pulled up No, no, it was it was Schneider.
But she pulled up hurt with a hamstring sort of
something going on in a leg, and I thought, no,
(14:07):
you've got to be kidding. Her first tournament back and
she's already injured again. But it was nice to see
her back playing so quickly after, you know what what
We weren't sure what was wrong with her, and so
I'm just happy because Vondress of us just fun. She's
just a really good time and it was smiling.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
She's got a cool game. She's yeah, it's like a
really good cool she's cool, she's got cool tattoos. It's
just like there's a lot of like good vibes around her,
and I feel like she's especially for one of the
chech players who you know certainly there's a cohord of them.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
She's like kind of.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Loose in a way that's a little fun and a
little bit unexpected, in a way that I absolutely love.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
So yeah, no, dress was great.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Let's get to Ema rad Kano and then I also
want to talk about the the robots.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Let's get to Emma d Kana when we when we
do our question, so what we're going to do? I
sent out a tweet or a on the socials to
send me send us your questions, so let's get to them.
I don't know if we're going to be able to
get to them all the so many, but one of
the let's start with the Blue Sky, because we love
Blue Sky. Mister Derek Price asked Stubbsy, what can you
(15:14):
legally say about the allegations against Rebeckian his coach? His
band has been extended, so let's get into the rebuckin
his story. Caitlin, what are your.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Thoughts good for the WTA. I said it before and
I'll say it again.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
They issued this ban provisionally ahead of the Australian Open
as everyone suspected he might. He blew right through it
and showed up anyway and did all sorts of continuation
of seemingly what he was accused of doing, and he
(15:46):
kind of put you know again. Unfortunately, Elena Rebarkin in
a terrible spot. Gronie Vinisovitch leaves the camp, as we
all sort of predicted he would, with this situation to
get worse, and it did. And then the WTA, to
their great credit, said okay, well we have receipts and
we're going to release the information. So now we are
no longer sort of actually protecting you by not releasing
(16:08):
this stuff, but now sort of your you know, you're
the details are now for public consumption.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
It is sad, it is terrible.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Nobody deserves to be treated like this, certainly not by
a coach, and it is implicated in the WTA's official
findings that he is also her romantic partner. All sorts
of questions arise about coercion abuse, you know, those are
the right questions to ask. We don't know all the
answers to them. All we can say is, obviously everybody
is rooting for Elena Robacchina, who's a by all accounts
(16:38):
incredibly lovely young woman, but.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Good for them.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
This is not only creating because I have seen people
say like, oh, well, who cares, Like it's her choice,
and it's like, no, no, no. If this is your place
of work and someone else is being abusive in your
place of work, and by all accounts, this had so
many witnesses, so many receipts, so many different points of view,
even if they are not being abusive towards you at
(17:05):
this exact moment, just knowing that the tour or your
workplace is tolerating somebody behaving this way makes you the
factor less safe. It makes other people less safe. It's
just the right thing to do is to nip this
in the bud in a environment where sports governing bodies
move glacially and conservatively. The WTA seemingly did neither.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Chapeau yep, I agree so well said, I don't really
need to add anything more to that other than the
fact that, look, you know, some of us know a
lot more than others. I clearly was around this toxic
environment with him and her quite often. I've spoken about
it on the pod many times, and you know people
(17:48):
that say, well, it's her decision. Yes, it is her decision.
But you know, there's a lot of there's a lot
of coheresive control relationships that get really toxic and really bad.
And do I think that she's in, you know, an
environment that is not healthy for absolutely, there's no question
about it. You don't see, you know, her coach Goron
(18:08):
Ivanisovitch decide after this time, even though he enjoyed working
with her, say I'm out of here because he clearly
has seen stuff that he's not okay with too. But
also the fitness trainer, you know, who's been there for
a long long time, you know, and.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Clearly if any BEDDA would know, it would be this person.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Yeah, and he's gone as well. And you know, when
you have the information that they have, there's clearly people
in her camp or around her enough to say the
things that have been said about what he has said
and done to her. And so in that respect, that
is her work environment. As you said, saying sorry unacceptable.
Banned for a year, and I think it's you know,
(18:47):
quite quite honestly, he should be banned forever on the
WTA tour. He should not be allowed to be able
to come on the tour and work with any girl,
because that's his tendency, particularly when you've got someone who's
like lovely and as nice and as great players as Elina.
So I think it's been a really good move. Now
what is she going to do with the personally? Again?
(19:09):
Now that's her decision and it's not good, so we'll see.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Yeah, I mean feeling for her, but yeah, well side
steps in all right. Greek Blu questions, kiping co Ja Rube.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
I'm starting to think changes in tournaments are sort of
like corporate greed, like the date expansions in the US
Open mixed doubles event, which we'll should get to, but
it is it, but it is a business. Thoughts. What
do you think of the mixed doubles situation and the
extended tournaments, Caitlin.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
I want you to answer that question first, because I
actually think my answer may be controversial, and oh, I know.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Where you're going with this. I don't understand this move. Now.
What I know is, yes, I understand that they're trying
to make mixed doubles more attractive, They're trying to make
mixed doubles more important, but in the trying to make
it more of a showcase, I get all of that,
but to put it in the week before the tournament.
(20:06):
Do not tell me it's part of the tournament. It
is during qualifying, okay, it's not during the tournament. And
it feels like a complete side show. It now feels
like an exhibition of a mixed doubles event. That's what
it feels like, and that to me is not okay
when it comes to handing out a Grand Slam title
(20:27):
at the end of the day. And I feel like
in the second week of the US Open, you know,
you struggle to have matches on the outside court for
people that you know, want to buy a grounds pass
and come and see the tennis, and now there's going
to be a lot less matches going on out there.
They'll have juniors, which is great, and they'll have doubles,
which is great, but not to have the mixed it
(20:47):
feels just like it's an exhibition and to four games, like,
what are we doing here? It's an exhibition. It's not
a Grand Slam event anymore. That's how I feel. It's
not good.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
I yeah, I wanted you to go first, not because
I necessarily disagree with anything you said, but I think
like that bears being said and that's all true, full stop.
The four game thing feels like, what are we doing here?
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Do you want to? Should we just like do tiddleywinks?
Or you know, why don't we just.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Right?
Speaker 3 (21:19):
I kind of understand the qualities week.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
In the sense that you know, when you go to
some of these matches in the second week of a Slam,
it's the best players at this event and there's nobody
watching them, and that sucks. It sucks for the tournament,
It sucks for the players, and it sucks for the
fans who could or would be there but probably can't
(21:47):
afford the finals or don't want to, aren't fervent enough
fans to uh you know, show up for anything but
the finals of the singles, right, Because they tend to
put the singles in the doubles on the same day,
on the same ticket, right, it doesn't help with the
point that I think you also made when we were
talking about this a little earlier, which is like, the
(22:09):
one of the reasons they do this is one of
the reasons they keep doubles and mixed and all the
other events to the legends, the Whillies, the juniors to
the second week is as the tournament field and singles
gets thinned out. There's just like simply not enough matches
to justify like the grounds and the entirety of the stadium. Right,
if there's only one thing going on in the stadium,
(22:31):
then what are we doing here? You're gonna come all
the way to Queen's for one match? So yeah, this
doesn't solve that. I do sort of feel for the
tournaments who are trying very hard to make money. Obviously
the Slams need the least a person.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
I'm like, calm, the farm makes so much freakin' money.
They make more money on honeyduces than you and I
will make in our fucking lifetime.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Absolutely true.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
That said, they were trying to market the game and
make sure that it's reaching people and top of funnel fans.
I don't mind the experimentation. And here comes my controversial opinion.
I love doubles. You love doubles. I love watching doubles.
Playing doubles doubles is important. It's important to me, and
I actually go to these matches and I watched them
on TV because I care about them. I do think
(23:13):
that we it is a long time since you played
doubles with Stephan Graff and you know John Mcap.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Of course, the top players don't play doubles anymore. And yes,
I mean I was beating. So when my Grandslam titles
the likes of Kim Clyiks and Martina Hingis.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
You played the Williams sisters and.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
William Yeah, of course I played all the top.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
The single, probably most exciting match I've ever sat at
in my whole life was when center court Wimbledon, Andy
Murray and Serena Williams.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Come out to play mixed doubles. It was so cool.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
The stadium lost its mind, and I didn't really care
about anything else that was going on in the tournament,
certainly not singles, because I was watching Andy Murray and
Serena Willing played mixed doubles together. So I do think
there does need to be a little bit of a rejiggering,
you know. Riley o'poka a couple of years ago suggested
a very controversial idea that might have some.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Legs, which is like, if you are in.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
The singles field, if you qualified to be in a
singles field, do you get an automatic entry into the
doubles or should you perhaps bump double specialists. I'm not
saying I believe in that, but I think it was
an interesting idea.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
I'm not opposed to that. I this is going to
be a controversial take from me because people are going
to be like, you should be protecting the doubles players.
(25:07):
I've said for a long time, if you're not in
the top twenty or thirty at least playing doubles only,
you're not a very good tennis player, right.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
I have said that. You've said that, and.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
It's like, if you're playing doubles only, you should be
schooling people in doubles. You should be, you know, the best.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
In the world. You know.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
There wasn't a time I don't believe in like the
last fifteen years of my career, I wasn't in the
top ten and doubles. I mean, that's what you should
be if you're concentrating only, I'm playing doubles only, and
there are not enough singles players playing doubles. There's no
question about that. Doubles has become a little bit There
are some doubles only specialist players out there that I'm like, ah,
(25:46):
really like this is not a great look, you know,
and they're making and they are making so much money, right,
I mean. I was asked recently by the girl I've
been helping a little bit, Elan Perez, you know what
was the most money you ever made in a year,
And I said, ah, I think close to eight hundred thousand, which, hey,
I'm not that's a lot of money. I'm not complaining
about that. But that year I won two Grand Slam
(26:09):
doubles titles, two Grand Slam Mixed doubles titles, and the
WTA finals, along with like five other tournaments. And I
only won eight hundred thousand. If I did that now,
I'd be making two million dollars. So I'm like, don't
complain about it. Make yourself better. If you're top fifty,
it's not good enough. So I'm okay with like having
top players play in these events and making it a
little bit more, But to make it best, to make
(26:32):
it to four games, that's a joke. That's just making
fun of the event and trying to make it. It's
an exhibition. It's an exhibition. Let's just fuck it is.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
It is definitely an exhibition.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
It's a mixed doubles exhibition before the US Open, and
we're to crown and winner and we're going to put
it on slap it on the winner of the two
thousand and twenty five US Open Mixed doubles along with
all the other former champions was this team and that's it,
And so will it change? I don't know. Will we
get top players singles players playing mixed doubles maybe? I
don't know. But they're trying to do what Indian Wells did,
(27:03):
which is have that little exhibition thing before the tournament.
And I think they had something before the US Open
last year on one night. Ye make sense, Like they're
obviously trying to do something like that, but don't dumb
it down to top to best of four games like
first to four or whatever. That's that's where I draw
the line. It's a joke anyway, to be contented.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
I feel like we might have some more chew over
on this as as more details merge to be continued.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Okay, so order in the court love that name. On
any thoughts on whether Janick Sinner getting a lengthy suspension
from CASS would prompt the powers that be intended to
take a stand with wider and finally say enough is
enough with blindly applying rules just for the sake of
the rules. Now, I don't think it's casts that are
doing this, that it's wider that they're trying to give
him a extended stay at home. Let's put it that way.
(27:51):
But my thing on this is I've said it before,
so I don't want to get into it too long today.
But last year, why are you moving the goalpost? It's
just wholeseshit. If the it IA has decided that he
was not at fault and now you want to change
the rules and say, oh, we've got to make sure
the team are at fault as well, and you've got
(28:12):
to pay the price for that, and like, meanwhile, this
is like almost a year later and he's won two
Grand Slam Since are we What are we doing here?
Speaker 2 (28:23):
My thoughts can best be summed up about a lot
of this and a lot of things, and tell us
is just what are we doing here?
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Yeah? What are we doing here? That's going to be
the name answers what I know, I've already picked the
name of the pod. What are we doing here?
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Sometimes it just jumps out of here.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
It's a joke, But I think the player What I
thought you were going to say is that we need
a stronger player union to make sure that you know
that I agree that we do, all right, Caviti Cat says,
can you explain why the yon X racket suits Madison
Keys more than the Wilson she had been using? Is
it lighter, balanced differently as a pro does the racket
make that much difference? And just because her explanation was
(29:01):
the X is a unique squareish shape, does that really
make a difference? Have you tested them out? Well, I'll
take this one first, and Caitlin, I know that you
like the YONYX rackets as well. I think it was
the bottom line is this racket gave her more power? Okay,
and you're probably thinking wide in Madison Keys need more power. Well,
she doesn't feel like she's got to absolutely redline the
(29:21):
racket to get the power. And also, you know she
did change the strings about a year ago to go
to all polly, which gives her more control on the ball.
So she took out the gut, which if anyone that's
played with gut knows, which I have as well, sometimes
you lose control when you get a bit nervous, so
the ball flies on you. So it's just a little
bit lighter. It's giving her a lot more power without
(29:43):
her having to red line everything, and I think just
the combination of everything has just been so good for
her clearly.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
I don't have much to add. I actually am sort
of surprised at this move. I've played with Berth theon
X and Wilson rackets. Wilson rackets are balanced more heavily
typically in the head, which given her long swing, actually
kind of makes sense to me. But the UNIX because
it's sweet spot, is like larger because that unique head shape.
As Caviti cat noted, you know, I think we're seeing
(30:15):
her play with like more margin and more power.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
So yeah, I mean, obviously it's a great fit.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
It's not a great look to lose your like longtime
athlete to a rival and then like the first thing
they do after twenty years of playing with your rockets
is when their first Grand Slam with a competing product. So,
you know, Wilson, I don't know, maybe they're like on notice,
maybe I don't care.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
I don't know, but yeah, it's well, they should care.
They should care.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
It seems like after you know, losing Fed, losing Serena,
they don't have a ton of players on the men's side.
You were playing with their rackets and outside of Arena soublanca,
which is hard to argue with from a results standpoint,
But outside of arena, you know, the ranks are getting
pretty thin on a good old team Wilson, So I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
I remember Lisa Raimond, Myle Dobs partner. She played with
the classic Prince grap for Evan loved it, and I
remember her. I remember her telling me a couple of
years ago she started using that red YONEX. She's like,
oh my god, this is the best racket I've ever used,
and which I found really unique because of the waste
she plays. And I've hit with the X record as well,
And I think the bottom line is they just are
(31:20):
so good at getting products made so well, the Japanese,
they are just so good at it. And I think,
oh my god, they've got to be so pumped about
this conversation that is round Madison Keys and her racket change.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Yeah, when a racket is so closely associated with a
player the way that that was with with Maddie, and
then a change happens, and then a result of this,
like it's so striking and you don't even have to
be like a die heard tennis fan. I think to
notice to notice this, but yeah, it was. It is
sort of notable.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Love it, good question, Love it? Okay? Jill counts the
beck says why did the bulk of tennis media gloss
over zverevg curios? How come ESPN protects them both and
in one case pays them for commentary. Also thoughts on
Hallip's legacy. Oh we just you're getting two for one,
aren't you, Jill.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Woll Jill just ask all the hard questions.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
First of all, Jill, if you followed our podcast, you
would know exactly that this media, me and Caitlin and
everyone in between on this call has never glossed over Zverev.
We have talked about him at nauseum. Caitlin even had
a very big story in her magazine a few years
ago that was quite controversial, and she's had to deal
(32:29):
with that through the years. But we don't gloss over it.
But what do you want us to do about it?
I mean, we don't have a.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Great question aim it at the Athletic, the Tennis channel,
Sky Sports, BBC, Eurosport. Actually, Eurosport is probably the worst
defender because they employ his brother and seem to be
very very keen on glassing over any let's say, Pecadilla's
(33:01):
around the discussion. So yeah, I think it sort of
depends on where you look. As for curious. You know, again,
this podcast has been pretty clear about, uh, you know
what grit Nick is great at, which used to be tennis,
and what he is currently great at, which is playing himself.
And I think we can probably leave it at that.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Hey, I mean, it's very difficult for me to like
sit here and rip on Maks. Uh, you know, would
be really stupid for me to do. But at the
same time, and I've said this many times about Nick,
he is an amazing analyst, Like he is actually really
(33:41):
fucking good at analyzing tennis, which is a shame because
everything else he does is ridiculous. And I think, you know,
the stuff that he puts out on the social media's,
particularly this fight with about and with Thinner, is ridiculous
and it's not a good look. And I've said many
many times the Nick chuse himself in the foot and
(34:02):
it's not for me. I don't pay the checks and
I don't employ the people on television, So it's aimed
at other people, don't aim it at us. We do
not gloss over what we think of these two and
how a Lott's legacy. We talked about it last week
with Sam. Look, I think she'll go down as one
of the great fighters in tennis. She's, you know, this
(34:23):
tiny little girl from Romania became an incredible tennis player,
and her legacy is somebody that I will always respect
her as a tennis player. I will always respect her
work ethic, her fight, her emotional ups and downs and
working her way through those and finally getting a couple
of Grand Slain Belt titles under a belt. And to me,
she'll always be that person.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
To me.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
Great.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
I think she's that with a little bit of an
astress for me, and I'll kind of leave it.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Of course, of course, there'll always be the asterisk, and
that is you know, and let me tell you something.
If she was, in her eyes innocent and it was
given to her and she didn't know it and all
that sort of stuff by her team, I feel really
badly for her, because you never want to have that
asterisk next to your name. She will go into the
Hall of Fame. They've already the Hall of Fame have
already set that precedent by putting Maria Sharapo over in there,
(35:13):
so Hallott will go in and if they don't put
a halipin then you're like, well, what the fuck? So
Helup's going into the Hall of Fame. And so it's
just a shame that if she is completely innocent of
it and it was given to her by her team,
I feel really bad for her. On the other hand,
if she didn't know about it, then you know, two
thumbs down.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
But two thumbs still.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
We'll never know, all right. Buffy Burford said, what is
your thoughts about tournaments using different brand balls and complaints
that some brands are inferior and might be causing injuries
from overhitting flat balls. Well, first of all, Buffy love
the name. There's no such thing as a flat ball.
If it's flat, it gets thrown right back to the
umpire and told to change it out. But there are
(35:57):
different brands. There's Dunlop obviously that's been a little bit
of controversial side. There's Wilson, there's Pens, there's all kinds
of things. Here's the difference and here's the problem here,
and where the problem lies money money mone When the
tournament gets balls given to them for free because they
are a sponsor. They take that because the amount of
(36:17):
tennis balls that get used as a tournament are enormously
there's a lot, so you have to understand that the
tournament is taking a sponsor, and the sponsor is free
tennis balls and sometimes some money given to the tournament
to use those balls. So it's never going to change
until we have a uniformed ball in tennis, and the
(36:37):
tournaments and the Grand Slams and you know, all get
together and say this is going to be our one ball.
For example, in the NBA, it's Wilson, right, they use
a Wilson basketball. That's not going to change.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
American Chancellor of Sport is ready to rule, are really
and one ball and one ball only?
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Yeah? I think that would be great.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Caitlin for and Slazenger, that's it.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
Lazenger, are you out of your fing mind?
Speaker 2 (37:06):
I didn't add that's no questions at this time?
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Wow, Well, what are you Trump? You're just like unilaterally
just changing the shit.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
This is what we do. I'm a chancellor. I didn't
say I was the president. This isn't that a diplomacy,
This is that a democracy.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
I just like I'm the president of the Ken Kennedy
center the.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Lateral decision, making my bile pick as Chancellor Slazenger.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
Next question, all right, well here we go. All right,
Pop fails. What do you think of this proposal to
get more top players playing doubles? Double the prize money
for people who play both. If you lose first round,
you get double what you would have gotten. Still, I
can't find a flaw in it other than the cost. Well,
I will say Pop fails. We sort of touched upon
it already. We do want more top players playing. And
(37:49):
one of the reasons why I believe that top players
don't play doubles anymore like they did in the old
days is because the prize money is so enormous in
singles they don't need to play doubles. You know, when
I played back in the seventeen seventies, you know, the
prize money to win a singles event might have been
one hundred thousand dollars to win a huge event, and
you thought, Okay, that's a lot of money, and you're
(38:09):
winning doubles. I mean, I remember winning Miami and Miami
and Indian Wells, two huge tournaments that pay way over
one hundred thousand dollars to win the doubles. Now I
was winning that to win Grand Slams, and I was
winning maybe twenty five thousand to win those tournaments, which
again I'm not you know, there's a lot of people
out there going, oh, fuck are you that's a lot
of money. But now they're winning well over one hundred
(38:30):
for those tournaments. The top singles players don't need to
play doubles for money anymore because they're winning so much
money in bingles. So yes, is it an idea to
put more double money into doubles. I think there's one
thing about the US Open. They make the draw a
little bit you know less, But then again, the problem
is you won't have the top players playing, so I
(38:51):
can understand why they're trying to do this. But we'll
see if if any of the top players play in
this mixed doubles event, and that will answer our questions,
I guess, and how much well TV show it, because
the ESPN does show the week before the US Open.
We are on ESPN Plus, so I don't know. We'll see,
But I like your idea, pop Fils, It's not a
bad one. You've got nothing.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
My answer is wrapped up in a larger structural change
but you join the swams. You join the slams into
a consortium with a few masters one thousands, you probably
get rid of the tours. You have on one side
the tournaments. On the other side of the players, they
(39:36):
split the entire PI fifty to fifty. They come together
in an annual meeting. They have a union. On one side,
they have the ownership on the other. They negotiate rule changes, updates,
schedule blah blah blah. Fewer events, all mandatory, all big deals,
all in cool places. We can't agree on which places
they are, but you know we'll table that. And then
you have everybody agreeing that for these fewer amounts of tournaments,
(39:59):
they will play all the events, and they will play
all the events because that is and you know, everybody
pays into the system. You get a base salary, the
tour takes care of, you know, the bottom type the top.
You know, are subsidizing a little bit the bottom. But
also make sure that ecosyism healthy. Then you don't have
crazy ideas like it next. So turn it at the beginning,
(40:19):
because if I can't see colors Acaaz play in week
two of a Slam because he lost in the second
round I can still see him play deep because mixed
doubles and doubles doesn't start until week two, So I
wonder maybe that's it.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
I wonder if Corlins the Akaraz will play with Radakanu
in the mixed doubles.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
Let's talk about RADICANU. Please ask that question now?
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Oh well, I have to go back. Let's let's all
right fine. Someone asked me if I would consider coaching Radakanu,
what's the first thing you would do with her? I
would consider it, of course, yes, her game. I'll never
say no to an opportunity of working with the Grand
Slam champion. Oh god, there's what would I work on? Well?
(41:01):
I think the first thing I would do is sit
her down and ask what she wants. And I think
that's the key. You have to know what your player wants.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
It does seem like maybe nobody's done that.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Yes, I think they all come in thinking, oh, I'm
going to tweak this, and I'm going to tweak that.
I'm going to do this, and that's a very I
would sit her down and say, what, let's be honest here,
what do you want? How do you want to approach this?
And then I'm going to tell you exactly what I think,
and then we go from there, and it's a bit
of a sit down and come to Jesus moment and
(41:33):
be honest with her about what I feel like her
her top level is and where she can get to
and not try and be like, yeah, we can win
another Slam tomorrow, because that's just, you know, unlikely at
this point. So what is it? What are her goals realistically,
and then what can we do to work to get there?
So a lot of people think, you know, it's coming
in and tweaking, like, you know, if I were to
(41:54):
work with Coco, obviously there's things that I would work
on structurally in her, in her game as far as
her technique is concerned. There are little things that I
really believe in. But you know, because you don't need
to work on Coco, what do you want? You know
what Coco wants. She wants to win every single tournament.
She has the ability to win every tournament in every
Grand Slam, but there's a few technical things that definitely
(42:18):
need to change, and she's working on them and she's
trying to but she lost again in the first round
in Doha, so there's some question marks about how coco
is going right now, but anyway, all right, So that's
that's how I thought It's on Emma Radakanu. I mean, listen,
you've got to know how they feel before you can
change a lot of things. All right, rain or Shine
ninety nine, I have a few questions. Well, Rain or Shine,
(42:41):
we can't answer them.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
All.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
Why aren't there more women coaching women? Well, we've already
answered that question a few times. There's a few reasons. One,
a lot of the women like, let's say myself, I
can't hit the ball as well as some dude that
you know is thirty years of age and can hit
a ball better than me now, and so they use
(43:03):
these cheaper guys that can hit balls with them also
tell them a little bit what to do, and you know,
they think that that's better, and so sometimes that's part
of it. Sometimes it's women have families, don't want to
travel very much, so that's that situation. And there's also
the stigma attached to can a woman coach me, which
(43:24):
is we know, horseshit. Of course they can look at
Marta Kotchuk what she's been able to do over the
last twelve months, just beating cocoa, goff herself this week
and her coach is a female. Conchiita Martinaz has done
a great job with many players through the years. Clearly,
I feel like I've done a good job with everybody
I've worked with.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
So also, it doesn't just extended tennis. Jalen Hurts has
an all female management team.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
Come on, hell yeah, how good was that?
Speaker 3 (43:49):
Amazing?
Speaker 2 (43:49):
So not to derailium, but yes, I the reasons they're
economic and logistical, hopefully not perceptionaliz.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
Yes, and someone else as the same question, Rayna Shane,
what the best way to see archive matches besides YouTube?
I don't think there's anyway.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
No, you know, I think we should start a letter
writing campaign to HBO loose in this country because they
sit on all of the archives of Wimbledon, for example,
they own years and years and years of archives when
they used to be the broadcast partner. They're sitting on
gold mines with no real sense of how to storytell.
I'm sure ESPN has a bunch of old ones. I
(44:25):
would love, love, love for somebody in broadcast to resurrect them.
It'll turn them into stuff or steal them exactly we see.
Speaker 1 (44:35):
Well now that yeah, a good question.
Speaker 3 (44:39):
Well, that's a good ood question. Yeah, I think it's
I think the answer is YouTube.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
Caitlin would love that, all right, somebody else. Tracy also
asked about the thoughts on the US Open mixed doubles.
It really does. It's really a question that came up
quite often from people, so I think you will know
exactly how we feel about it now, el got it. No,
not good.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
Well, I was just going to read one counterpoint to
what we discussed. In the spirit of change. A friend
of mine who's a tennis coach in Brooklyn said, shout
out to the USCA, and he was open for making
moves and switching up the mix steps. I love the
changing format and I love that the change in timing.
Speaker 3 (45:18):
The ability to.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Have men and women compete together is one of the
things that makes tennis unique. It deserves participation and viewership.
Happy they're resurrecting the event. I don't know if I
would characterize it as a record's resurrection, but it I
just want to say there are some people who are
seeing this as a win because it seems like more
fans and eyeballs and maybe prominent players will participate in it.
If that's true, I don't know the players are about it.
(45:41):
Sarahani is famously not having about it, so you know again,
that's why I was sort of like, I have a
feeling will not this will not be the last time
we talked about this.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
I think my issue is, and I've stated already, is
that to play the four is a joke.
Speaker 3 (45:52):
It's an exod that is stupid, indefensible.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
Yeah, I mean, I will say I've spoke to Sam's
dooty yesterday and Sam's was like, uh, what the fuck
you have to hold serve one time? Like what are
we doing here? You know what I mean? I said,
what you're thinking about making a comeback?
Speaker 3 (46:08):
You know?
Speaker 1 (46:09):
So yeah, I think the best of you know, the
first of fourth the set being four games is just
it's a it's a it's a travesty. Just make it.
If you want to do the tournament the week before
and have it be part of fan week and you
want top singles players to play, have it been what
it is, best to two sets. You've already cut it
down to best of two sets and a match tiebreak.
Just keep it at that for fuck's sake. It's only
(46:31):
like an hour and fifteen minute match anyway, yeah, what
are we playing. We don't have ads. You don't have
ad ads, so it's like, you know, juice, next point wins,
and then you're going to make it to four.
Speaker 3 (46:42):
Like it does feel a little teddlywink.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Ish, italy winkish.
Speaker 3 (46:46):
There you go, tedderwinkish. That's feel free to use that.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
I won't use that as an episode total because we
already figured it out.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
Yes, well. K Low On the other the other unnameless
social media site, asked about sits to pass any hope
question mark, that's just a real, just straight up there question.
Speaker 3 (47:09):
I love Tessa Pats. I will go down defending this guy.
Speaker 2 (47:14):
Maybe it's past the point in a return for him,
but until he keeps swinging a racket, I will still
root for this guy and almost every kind of I
just love his game. I love his game. I love
his game. I love his weird emos soul, I love
his fake quotes on social media.
Speaker 3 (47:33):
I love the whole package.
Speaker 2 (47:34):
He's just a weirdo who I love and I will
fight to the death.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
I wish he hadn't said the things that he said
about certain things a couple of years ago, when he
was just like basically putting women as second class citizens essentially.
So I'm just like, dude, wake up. We're in the
twentieth century anyway. So another question from Ellie Welch, what
are your thoughts on this idea, Caitlin. She didn't say, Caitlin,
but I'm saying to you that has all three surfaces.
(48:01):
Higher sees get to choose the surface they play on.
Speaker 2 (48:05):
Yes, really the Pirate Slam love it the okay, well
we'll play it in international waters.
Speaker 1 (48:13):
Yeah. Well, a lot of people on X and on
Blue Sky and all that sort of stuff. One of
the major questions they kept asking is was about Vukov
We've already talked about, and of course about the mixed double.
So those are the two biggest questions. One phil Nowinn
who asked, what do you think Alex Dimanon needs to
do to beat Sinner?
Speaker 2 (48:31):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (48:32):
Pray and hope Janick Sinner gets injured because he literally
is playing himself. Who's better, who has bigger serve, bigger forehand,
bigger backhand, just as quick, not not a quick, not
a quick, but pretty quick. He basically he's playing him.
It's like he's playing himself as a junior. It's like
Inner the man is playing Yanick Sinner the junior so
(48:54):
and that is no slight against him.
Speaker 3 (48:56):
He's a gofer golfer.
Speaker 2 (49:00):
Yeah, it's got fat, he's great to watch, he's entertaining,
he's fast, He's got other shots, just not one Zegger weapon.
Speaker 1 (49:07):
Yes, Paula Castro said, what do you think of the
Seeds losing today, specifically Arena and Coco, And my answer
to that is, that's why I believe that Mattie keys
Is made a fantastic move. And I will say I
did chat to her husband Beyond after she won the
Australian Open, and I'm not taking credit for this, but
I did say one of the things that Sam Stows
(49:27):
had told me after she won the US openers, she
wished she hadn't gone and played in Asia right after that,
because you have to be ready and prepared, as Sam
said last week, to still put the work in. Just
because she won the Australian Open does not guarantee you
winning your next match, and so you have to be
prepared to put the work in, to be mentally prepared
to be out there, to be mentally prepared to be
(49:47):
at a tournament. So I think that you know Coco's
one thing. Coco probably can go there, but there's something
to be said about playing a tournament of that size
not long after flying back from Australia, flying to the
Middle Ace. It's a lot and so I think Maddy
Keys has done a really smart job with not going
to the Middle Ace and that great land. That question anyway, Kitlin,
(50:08):
is there anything more you would like to talk to
our trusty fans about.
Speaker 2 (50:11):
I just want to give it a shout out to
the Cuban national team with whom I got to train
and visit this past weekend. Truly, truly, truly one of
the highlights of my life to go to Havana, meet
a bunch of teens, all of whom are now watsapping
me and represent the most talent in the country. And
(50:32):
the legendary coach Belle Case Rodriguez, who's who's coaching them
all and who was in and o her own right,
a phenomenal international player, having made several FED Cup then
called fed Cup now called BJK Cup appearances for a
country that not very many people have their eye on.
Speaker 3 (50:47):
For tennas.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
So just like a super super super special time, I'll
be writing about it for our summer issue. And yeah,
just like any of those kids who might be paying
attention to thank thank for having me. It was a
total total posture.
Speaker 1 (51:03):
Oh look at you. That is really nice to see
and here anyway, Well, we love tennis, we love everything
about it. I am still in Australia, as I talked about,
I'm heading back to New York in a couple of days.
I'm missing. Yes, I'm heading back on Saturday, so you'll
see me Saturday. I'm coming back to the cold. It's
just been beautiful here in Australia, and I have to say,
(51:24):
having my head in the sand literally at Bondo Beach
and away from the mess and craziness of the United
States with what the f is happening back there, is
just it's been a godsend, I will say. So, I'm
about to get heads stuck right into all the bs
that I'm going to be dealing with, and I'm glad
I've got my strain passport.
Speaker 3 (51:42):
Still let me just say that smart move all right.
Speaker 1 (51:44):
On that note, we have your Canadian passport.
Speaker 3 (51:46):
Believe it. My whole family does.
Speaker 1 (51:48):
Oh look at you. So you can go up north
and I can go down south, and we can just
leave if we have to. Commonwealth forever, Commonwealth forever. Alright anyway,
all right, well Caitlin, it's good to see you again
and I'll see you back in New York.
Speaker 3 (52:01):
Yes, I'm everyone again.
Speaker 1 (52:04):
As I say all the time, Please like and subscribe,
give us a good little rating. We do love you
guys for listening to us every single week and appreciate
this one was a little bit late, but hey, we
got it done.
Speaker 2 (52:16):
Thanks for don Bye bye, Thanks mate. I gotta make dinner, okay,
but he's out.
It's a recording and progress, ah, recording is in progress. Okay, well, everybody,
welcome to the renew Subcenters podcast. And I'm joined by
my usual cohort, Caitlin Thompson. Because I am still in Australia. Yes,
I know people are wondering have I moved back permanently?
And let me tell you something. With what's going on
in the United States, my passport back here is looking
(00:37):
pretty good. I'm gonna I'm not gonna lie. And it's
been good to be here throughout it all. And every
now and again something comes up on my computer, on
my phone or with the people that i'm my best
friend who I'm staying with, her husband comes up and says,
Jesus Christ, your ages. You see what happened today? Anyway,
Joined by Caitlin Thompson. Caitlin, good day, mate, gooday.
Speaker 2 (00:57):
I've also been on the road a little bit and
I have managed to leave the country and I thought
should I just stay here?
Speaker 3 (01:03):
And I have to say I contemplated it for a minute.
Speaker 1 (01:07):
I'm sure I did. Anyway, It's it's scary what's happening
the fact that the president might himself the president today
of the Kennedy Center just because he can. Is hilarious
to make.
Speaker 2 (01:19):
Bud is we can uh just do whatever we want now.
So you want to call it the Gulf of America,
I think we should call it the Golf of Tennis.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
Mom.
Speaker 2 (01:27):
Also the president of Kennedy Center, re Nice Stubs, is
now the president of Tennis.
Speaker 3 (01:31):
Like we can just get it. No, we do whatever
we want now.
Speaker 2 (01:34):
Great, I'm not paying a taxes and I'm going to
be the chancellor of sport.
Speaker 1 (01:41):
Chancellor sports? What would I be?
Speaker 3 (01:45):
Vice Chancellor of sport?
Speaker 1 (01:47):
What the president?
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Because I thought of it. We have so much to
talk about.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
Australian Open has only been done for a few days
and we've already had tournaments few weeks over the last
week or two. We had a tournament in Dallas. This
was phenomenally entertaining. We had a tournament in two in
the Middle East.
Speaker 3 (02:14):
Going on, talk us through some of the stuff that
you've been seeing.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
Carlitos al Karaz got his first tittle of the seasons.
Love came back, Beatsala does love Chapeau coming back?
Speaker 3 (02:26):
Man, what a great comeback.
Speaker 1 (02:28):
Give me your thoughts on it, because I'll be honest,
I didn't watch a lot of it, just because you know,
while I'm Australia. While I'm here in Australia, I try
and like switch off from watching a lot of tennis.
Even though I have the Renae Substams podcast. I'm more
inclined to talk about our listeners writing into us today
on the old Socials. But I want your thoughts on
(02:48):
basically what you saw from those guys, especially Carlos. I
mean to do and to win that tournament indoors. He
had a really tough tournament. He was able to do it.
That's got to even give him a ton of common EID.
It's going into these big tournaments in Indian Wells.
Speaker 2 (03:02):
And Miami totally and you know, obviously he's on hard court.
We saw him win the Surface Slams last year.
Speaker 3 (03:09):
Little known fact.
Speaker 2 (03:10):
I think Carlos's first title came indoors on hardcourt, did
it not. He's actually got quite a resume on indoor
hard courts, and it's nice to kind of see him
prepping for this swing of the season that's going to
be outdoors, but yes, on hard courts. It had been
a minute since he won a sort of flashy title.
Speaker 3 (03:27):
I loved it. I have a lot of thoughts about
the nose strip.
Speaker 2 (03:30):
I love that he's wearing a nose strip. You know, listen,
we're all trying to optimize. I started wearing mouth tape
at night, and kaspar UD's wearing a no strip and
he gets to the finals of Dallas. So coincidence, I
don't know. But maybe we should be doing this podcast
with no strips.
Speaker 1 (03:43):
I mean, maybe we should. I mean that's just like
that as an indicator for all of us that we
all need to breathe a little bit better. But I mean,
he came into the tournament not feeling well. So but
he's done not a few times now. But for me,
it's good for him because it started to be a
little bit on now. He's done well on hardcot, he's
won the US Open, he's won indoor titles before, et cetera.
(04:03):
But it was starting to get to the point where,
you know, is his game going to hold up through
the next you know, ten, twelve, fifteen, hopefully twenty years
playing indoors on fast courts, and he proved to everybody
that he could do that. So I'm excited that he
was able to get that title to give himself the
confidence to know that he can go in and play
on hard court against it's just can he do it
(04:25):
against someone like a sinner, you know, with the big
weapons that he has with the serve and the forehand,
the groundies. But hey, listen, it was a good effort.
Speaker 2 (04:33):
Totally a good effort and nice to see him. This
is typically part of the year that he's not usually
that healthy. You know, in years past anywhe else he's
shown up with some injuries. He I remember how to
pull out of the Rear Open. I think it was
last year, so you know, this is kind of like
middle of the of the winter, late winter time period
is I think a little tough on his party because
(04:54):
obviously he goes pretty hard ahead of Australia. So yeah,
like good signs, playing well, moving well and not on
his favorite surface.
Speaker 3 (05:03):
Was great.
Speaker 2 (05:04):
The one that I was really excited about and I
watched it a lot because it's in my time zone
or close to it, was the Dallas Open, and you know,
it was great to see Riley playing well. It was
great to see Casper Rude make a final. There were
some fun upsets by Shapavallave who beat Tommy Paul and
Taylor Fritz back to back before taking out Casperud in
(05:27):
the final. And for me, Shapavala has always been one
of those exciting players. Obviously he's a shot maker. Obviously
he goes for it, obviously with a big lefty, you know,
the one handy, flashy. This is like the kind of
player that is like super cat neep for me, and
then like totally flames out because of all the reasons,
which you know, Casperude is on the other end of
the spectrum, who's like really safe, really smart, doesn't take a.
Speaker 3 (05:50):
Lot of risk, doesn't need to.
Speaker 2 (05:52):
So it was like that classic matchup that I just
really love, especially when the shop Maker pulls it out
and you know, look, does this pretend anything for shoppavalive season?
Is he like a in the conversation now? I doubt it,
But nonetheless it's fun to see a player that you
haven't had a chance to talk about or really watch
go deep in a long time do just that and
(06:12):
lift a trophy over their head. Yeah.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Look, he's always had the talent. We know that he's
had these ups and downs. He's has these emotional ups
and downs as well. It's been very well documented, and
he's always had that You know the talent, but as
Sam Stosa said last week, like talent is one thing, right,
you know, people can assume you're going to do well,
like a Madison Key's, like you keep talking about it,
you should win a Grand Slam. Until you do it,
(06:34):
you know, there's always going to be that speculation of, oh, oh,
but you didn't do it, you know what I mean.
So talent can only get you so far. But I
think with him, he I think he's always going to
have been better as he got older because he has
such shot making and so many choices of shot and
so flashy and so talented that it sort of takes
(06:56):
you a little bit longer to get comfortable with what
you need to do under pressure.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
And I hope, I hope that's true. I love it.
Speaker 1 (07:05):
Yeah, I do believe. I think he's actually going to
have a very very good year. I would not be surprised,
you know, if there's a potential of him getting back
and you know, getting up to the top ten by
this time next year. We know that he has the
talent to do it. No, he has the weapons. It's
just a matter of him controlling his emotions. It's a
matter of him, you know, picking the right shot and
(07:25):
shot selection is massive when you're that talented, and when
you have sixteen shots that you can choose from, it's like, no, man,
this one works. Just keep doing it, you know. And
he's had sort of coaching ups and downs and hasn't
really had so I just think I think we're going
to see a lot from Dennis this year, and I
think that he's it could potentially be the best US
(07:46):
had in a long long time.
Speaker 2 (07:47):
I would love that, And also if that were to
become true, I think it would portend well to this
idea that like it is worth playing the long game
in tennis and having the complete repertoire, even if it
means you take longer to develop, because when you are
on it's it's just that it's like, okay, you know,
(08:08):
good great offense does be great defense in tatas, and
I think that's I love matches that prove that thesis.
Speaker 1 (08:15):
Well, especially and let's face it, especially indoors, and so
that definitely helps him. There's definitely a lot of players
that really do just respond better indoors and they play
better indoors, and I would say that would be him.
But I do believe that, you know, he is going
to only get better as he gets older, because all
the all the bullshit kind of has to be gotten
rid of at some point if you really want to
be good. And I believe that he hopefully is getting
(08:37):
more and mature and more into him being comfortable on
the court of what to do under pressure anyway. So yeah,
so very exciting. Was really happy to see him get
that that tournament win. Just recently, Saballenka got taken out
by Alexandrova. I thought that was interesting, tough, tough match.
So Sablenka's kind of had two back to back losses
and that's yeah, I been a rarity for her. But
(08:59):
I like the fact that, can I just say, I
like the fact that Mattie Keith decided, you know, like
you've got to decide on your schedules, you know, early
on in the year. And I think it's really great
that Maddie has sort of put the racket down for
a little bit and decided not to go to the
Middle East totally.
Speaker 2 (09:20):
And I think especially after the high and the emotional,
you know, culmination of not just a two week tournament,
but really like decade of close calls. Yeah, like give
yourself some breathing room. Come back to the States. Do
you know, she probably doesn't have a ton of sponsor
obligations there anyway, Come back, get your head sorted, spend
(09:42):
some time soaking it up with your family, you know,
instead of just going straight on to the other end
trying to like, you know, do you get talked about
as a favorite now?
Speaker 3 (09:50):
Honestly, it's kind of hard to imagine.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
But at the same time, like now everyone has a
lot of questions for you when you were doing so well,
just kind of flying under the radar. So yeah, I
think that's really smart schedule management on her part, and
also like she has so much of the year still
to go. Winning the first Slam and is in a
lot of ways like such a disruptive thing because you know,
as we've seen Arena Sbalaca the last couple of years
(10:15):
in Australia, like it's taken her a bit to find
her footing again after starting off the year so hot
in Australia, And so for me it feels like, Okay, actually,
that's really smart and I love doing it. I don't
know if she was at the super Bowl, but I
do know who was at the super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (10:29):
Oh my god, I died. I don't know. I mean,
I think every single person watching that that's a tennis
fan or tennis person.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
I was like, that's azing, Like that's the arena. I
was like, that's arena.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
And all of a sudden, I'm like, I'm loving Kendrick
like it was great. It was such a in your
face kind of like very obvious, like middle finger to
certain people in America. Let's put of and and a
someone in Canada, as we know, right, But the fact
that all of a sudden, I'm looking at it and
then it's the arena is dancing. I died. I fell
(11:01):
off the couch myself. I was like, oh my god,
there was Serena and I was like what I'm like,
and then they showed her again. I was like very
quick and then very quick and I died.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
And I knew when she was here in the Crip Park.
Speaker 2 (11:11):
I was like, there it is Center Corrida Olympics twenty twelve, shoes.
Speaker 1 (11:14):
Back exactly, and she looks great.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
So I was great.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
I was like, girl, Serena.
Speaker 3 (11:22):
Wins the super Bowl.
Speaker 1 (11:24):
Serena wins the super Bowl. It was it was frigging awesome.
Speaker 2 (11:28):
Tennis is the best even when it's not our sport,
we still somehow managed.
Speaker 1 (11:32):
To win before the Super Bowl obviously was played or
during that time. We have to talk about the fact
that Belinda Benchic, she comes back after having a baby,
wins the tournament in Abbadubby like what like how awesome
is She's always played well in the Middle East, but
she played great in Australia. I think the biggest, you know,
(11:52):
issue that has always been her problem Belinda Benchitch is
that her emotional you know, ups and downs. Let's let's saying,
a little strappy on the court and a little bit
sort of drama and dramatic and blah blah blah. And
as you know, Caitlin, when you become a mom, things
change in your brain a little bit. And I think that,
you know, for her, her maturity level has gone through
(12:13):
the roof and we're seeing it on the court and
just just in the way that you know, she the
players that she beat, I mean, beating the Rebakina as
well in that tournament and then winning the tournament three
cents against Ashlyn Krueger got to give her a lot
of credit. Credit. This young American has really done well
in the last twelve months. I give some kudos to
Michael Joyce, her coach, who I know, you know, he
(12:34):
did a great job with obviously Marie Sharapovo when she
was younger, and I think he's a great coach for her.
But yeah, it was really really great to see Belinda
Benchitch win that match in three sets and have a
baby right there with her husband, Like it was just
too good.
Speaker 2 (12:48):
It does strike me that like when your focus off
the court kind of gives you a little bit of equilibrium.
And also she's so young still, so yeah, it's quite
easy for her to come back after maternity leave as
opposed to like, you know, older moms certainly, but I think, like, yeah,
(13:08):
you're right, it gave her a little bit of equanimity.
I didn't see her like, as Renee Stubbs would say,
carrying on like a pork chap, which she is capable
of doing either at this tournament nor at the Australian Open.
So yeah, it was sort of like, okay, cool mom
vibes in the best way passible.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
I mean she beat Victoria kuda Matova. Oh no, I
mean I was like what when I saw that score,
I was like what. Nice also to see Vondrosepha back
as well, because she had a really tough start to
the year. She beat Putin Saber in that tournament and
beat Emma Radakanu. We're going to get to Emma in
a second, but but nice to see if Ondressova back
(13:46):
because that was a really tough start to the year.
I was in Adelaide. She was playing really well. She
was up a set and to want to I think
against Putin Saber actually who she beaten in Abu Dhabi,
but she pulled up No, no, it was it was Schneider.
But she pulled up hurt with a hamstring sort of
something going on in a leg, and I thought, no,
(14:07):
you've got to be kidding. Her first tournament back and
she's already injured again. But it was nice to see
her back playing so quickly after, you know what what
We weren't sure what was wrong with her, and so
I'm just happy because Vondress of us just fun. She's
just a really good time and it was smiling.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
She's got a cool game. She's yeah, it's like a
really good cool she's cool, she's got cool tattoos. It's
just like there's a lot of like good vibes around her,
and I feel like she's especially for one of the
chech players who you know certainly there's a cohord of them.
Speaker 3 (14:39):
She's like kind of.
Speaker 2 (14:41):
Loose in a way that's a little fun and a
little bit unexpected, in a way that I absolutely love.
Speaker 3 (14:45):
So yeah, no, dress was great.
Speaker 2 (14:49):
Let's get to Ema rad Kano and then I also
want to talk about the the robots.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
Let's get to Emma d Kana when we when we
do our question, so what we're going to do? I
sent out a tweet or a on the socials to
send me send us your questions, so let's get to them.
I don't know if we're going to be able to
get to them all the so many, but one of
the let's start with the Blue Sky, because we love
Blue Sky. Mister Derek Price asked Stubbsy, what can you
(15:14):
legally say about the allegations against Rebeckian his coach? His
band has been extended, so let's get into the rebuckin
his story. Caitlin, what are your.
Speaker 3 (15:22):
Thoughts good for the WTA. I said it before and
I'll say it again.
Speaker 2 (15:25):
They issued this ban provisionally ahead of the Australian Open
as everyone suspected he might. He blew right through it
and showed up anyway and did all sorts of continuation
of seemingly what he was accused of doing, and he
(15:46):
kind of put you know again. Unfortunately, Elena Rebarkin in
a terrible spot. Gronie Vinisovitch leaves the camp, as we
all sort of predicted he would, with this situation to
get worse, and it did. And then the WTA, to
their great credit, said okay, well we have receipts and
we're going to release the information. So now we are
no longer sort of actually protecting you by not releasing
(16:08):
this stuff, but now sort of your you know, you're
the details are now for public consumption.
Speaker 3 (16:14):
It is sad, it is terrible.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
Nobody deserves to be treated like this, certainly not by
a coach, and it is implicated in the WTA's official
findings that he is also her romantic partner. All sorts
of questions arise about coercion abuse, you know, those are
the right questions to ask. We don't know all the
answers to them. All we can say is, obviously everybody
is rooting for Elena Robacchina, who's a by all accounts
(16:38):
incredibly lovely young woman, but.
Speaker 3 (16:42):
Good for them.
Speaker 2 (16:43):
This is not only creating because I have seen people
say like, oh, well, who cares, Like it's her choice,
and it's like, no, no, no. If this is your place
of work and someone else is being abusive in your
place of work, and by all accounts, this had so
many witnesses, so many receipts, so many different points of view,
even if they are not being abusive towards you at
(17:05):
this exact moment, just knowing that the tour or your
workplace is tolerating somebody behaving this way makes you the
factor less safe. It makes other people less safe. It's
just the right thing to do is to nip this
in the bud in a environment where sports governing bodies
move glacially and conservatively. The WTA seemingly did neither.
Speaker 1 (17:27):
Chapeau yep, I agree so well said, I don't really
need to add anything more to that other than the
fact that, look, you know, some of us know a
lot more than others. I clearly was around this toxic
environment with him and her quite often. I've spoken about
it on the pod many times, and you know people
(17:48):
that say, well, it's her decision. Yes, it is her decision.
But you know, there's a lot of there's a lot
of coheresive control relationships that get really toxic and really bad.
And do I think that she's in, you know, an
environment that is not healthy for absolutely, there's no question
about it. You don't see, you know, her coach Goron
(18:08):
Ivanisovitch decide after this time, even though he enjoyed working
with her, say I'm out of here because he clearly
has seen stuff that he's not okay with too. But
also the fitness trainer, you know, who's been there for
a long long time, you know, and.
Speaker 2 (18:21):
Clearly if any BEDDA would know, it would be this person.
Speaker 1 (18:25):
Yeah, and he's gone as well. And you know, when
you have the information that they have, there's clearly people
in her camp or around her enough to say the
things that have been said about what he has said
and done to her. And so in that respect, that
is her work environment. As you said, saying sorry unacceptable.
Banned for a year, and I think it's you know,
(18:47):
quite quite honestly, he should be banned forever on the
WTA tour. He should not be allowed to be able
to come on the tour and work with any girl,
because that's his tendency, particularly when you've got someone who's
like lovely and as nice and as great players as Elina.
So I think it's been a really good move. Now
what is she going to do with the personally? Again?
(19:09):
Now that's her decision and it's not good, so we'll see.
Speaker 2 (19:15):
Yeah, I mean feeling for her, but yeah, well side
steps in all right. Greek Blu questions, kiping co Ja Rube.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
I'm starting to think changes in tournaments are sort of
like corporate greed, like the date expansions in the US
Open mixed doubles event, which we'll should get to, but
it is it, but it is a business. Thoughts. What
do you think of the mixed doubles situation and the
extended tournaments, Caitlin.
Speaker 2 (19:38):
I want you to answer that question first, because I
actually think my answer may be controversial, and oh, I know.
Speaker 1 (19:45):
Where you're going with this. I don't understand this move. Now.
What I know is, yes, I understand that they're trying
to make mixed doubles more attractive, They're trying to make
mixed doubles more important, but in the trying to make
it more of a showcase, I get all of that,
but to put it in the week before the tournament.
(20:06):
Do not tell me it's part of the tournament. It
is during qualifying, okay, it's not during the tournament. And
it feels like a complete side show. It now feels
like an exhibition of a mixed doubles event. That's what
it feels like, and that to me is not okay
when it comes to handing out a Grand Slam title
(20:27):
at the end of the day. And I feel like
in the second week of the US Open, you know,
you struggle to have matches on the outside court for
people that you know, want to buy a grounds pass
and come and see the tennis, and now there's going
to be a lot less matches going on out there.
They'll have juniors, which is great, and they'll have doubles,
which is great, but not to have the mixed it
(20:47):
feels just like it's an exhibition and to four games, like,
what are we doing here? It's an exhibition. It's not
a Grand Slam event anymore. That's how I feel. It's
not good.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
I yeah, I wanted you to go first, not because
I necessarily disagree with anything you said, but I think
like that bears being said and that's all true, full stop.
The four game thing feels like, what are we doing here?
Speaker 3 (21:11):
Do you want to? Should we just like do tiddleywinks?
Or you know, why don't we just.
Speaker 1 (21:17):
Right?
Speaker 3 (21:19):
I kind of understand the qualities week.
Speaker 2 (21:24):
In the sense that you know, when you go to
some of these matches in the second week of a Slam,
it's the best players at this event and there's nobody
watching them, and that sucks. It sucks for the tournament,
It sucks for the players, and it sucks for the
fans who could or would be there but probably can't
(21:47):
afford the finals or don't want to, aren't fervent enough
fans to uh you know, show up for anything but
the finals of the singles, right, Because they tend to
put the singles in the doubles on the same day,
on the same ticket, right, it doesn't help with the
point that I think you also made when we were
talking about this a little earlier, which is like, the
(22:09):
one of the reasons they do this is one of
the reasons they keep doubles and mixed and all the
other events to the legends, the Whillies, the juniors to
the second week is as the tournament field and singles
gets thinned out. There's just like simply not enough matches
to justify like the grounds and the entirety of the stadium. Right,
if there's only one thing going on in the stadium,
(22:31):
then what are we doing here? You're gonna come all
the way to Queen's for one match? So yeah, this
doesn't solve that. I do sort of feel for the
tournaments who are trying very hard to make money. Obviously
the Slams need the least a person.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
I'm like, calm, the farm makes so much freakin' money.
They make more money on honeyduces than you and I
will make in our fucking lifetime.
Speaker 3 (22:51):
Absolutely true.
Speaker 2 (22:52):
That said, they were trying to market the game and
make sure that it's reaching people and top of funnel fans.
I don't mind the experimentation. And here comes my controversial opinion.
I love doubles. You love doubles. I love watching doubles.
Playing doubles doubles is important. It's important to me, and
I actually go to these matches and I watched them
on TV because I care about them. I do think
(23:13):
that we it is a long time since you played
doubles with Stephan Graff and you know John Mcap.
Speaker 1 (23:22):
Of course, the top players don't play doubles anymore. And yes,
I mean I was beating. So when my Grandslam titles
the likes of Kim Clyiks and Martina Hingis.
Speaker 3 (23:32):
You played the Williams sisters and.
Speaker 1 (23:34):
William Yeah, of course I played all the top.
Speaker 2 (23:37):
The single, probably most exciting match I've ever sat at
in my whole life was when center court Wimbledon, Andy
Murray and Serena Williams.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
Come out to play mixed doubles. It was so cool.
Speaker 2 (23:49):
The stadium lost its mind, and I didn't really care
about anything else that was going on in the tournament,
certainly not singles, because I was watching Andy Murray and
Serena Willing played mixed doubles together. So I do think
there does need to be a little bit of a rejiggering,
you know. Riley o'poka a couple of years ago suggested
a very controversial idea that might have some.
Speaker 3 (24:12):
Legs, which is like, if you are in.
Speaker 2 (24:14):
The singles field, if you qualified to be in a
singles field, do you get an automatic entry into the
doubles or should you perhaps bump double specialists. I'm not
saying I believe in that, but I think it was
an interesting idea.
Speaker 1 (24:29):
I'm not opposed to that. I this is going to
be a controversial take from me because people are going
to be like, you should be protecting the doubles players.
(25:07):
I've said for a long time, if you're not in
the top twenty or thirty at least playing doubles only,
you're not a very good tennis player, right.
Speaker 3 (25:16):
I have said that. You've said that, and.
Speaker 1 (25:18):
It's like, if you're playing doubles only, you should be
schooling people in doubles. You should be, you know, the best.
Speaker 3 (25:23):
In the world. You know.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
There wasn't a time I don't believe in like the
last fifteen years of my career, I wasn't in the
top ten and doubles. I mean, that's what you should
be if you're concentrating only, I'm playing doubles only, and
there are not enough singles players playing doubles. There's no
question about that. Doubles has become a little bit There
are some doubles only specialist players out there that I'm like, ah,
(25:46):
really like this is not a great look, you know,
and they're making and they are making so much money, right,
I mean. I was asked recently by the girl I've
been helping a little bit, Elan Perez, you know what
was the most money you ever made in a year,
And I said, ah, I think close to eight hundred thousand, which, hey,
I'm not that's a lot of money. I'm not complaining
about that. But that year I won two Grand Slam
(26:09):
doubles titles, two Grand Slam Mixed doubles titles, and the
WTA finals, along with like five other tournaments. And I
only won eight hundred thousand. If I did that now,
I'd be making two million dollars. So I'm like, don't
complain about it. Make yourself better. If you're top fifty,
it's not good enough. So I'm okay with like having
top players play in these events and making it a
little bit more, But to make it best, to make
(26:32):
it to four games, that's a joke. That's just making
fun of the event and trying to make it. It's
an exhibition. It's an exhibition. Let's just fuck it is.
Speaker 3 (26:40):
It is definitely an exhibition.
Speaker 1 (26:41):
It's a mixed doubles exhibition before the US Open, and
we're to crown and winner and we're going to put
it on slap it on the winner of the two
thousand and twenty five US Open Mixed doubles along with
all the other former champions was this team and that's it,
And so will it change? I don't know. Will we
get top players singles players playing mixed doubles maybe? I
don't know. But they're trying to do what Indian Wells did,
(27:03):
which is have that little exhibition thing before the tournament.
And I think they had something before the US Open
last year on one night. Ye make sense, Like they're
obviously trying to do something like that, but don't dumb
it down to top to best of four games like
first to four or whatever. That's that's where I draw
the line. It's a joke anyway, to be contented.
Speaker 2 (27:21):
I feel like we might have some more chew over
on this as as more details merge to be continued.
Speaker 1 (27:27):
Okay, so order in the court love that name. On
any thoughts on whether Janick Sinner getting a lengthy suspension
from CASS would prompt the powers that be intended to
take a stand with wider and finally say enough is
enough with blindly applying rules just for the sake of
the rules. Now, I don't think it's casts that are
doing this, that it's wider that they're trying to give
him a extended stay at home. Let's put it that way.
(27:51):
But my thing on this is I've said it before,
so I don't want to get into it too long today.
But last year, why are you moving the goalpost? It's
just wholeseshit. If the it IA has decided that he
was not at fault and now you want to change
the rules and say, oh, we've got to make sure
the team are at fault as well, and you've got
(28:12):
to pay the price for that, and like, meanwhile, this
is like almost a year later and he's won two
Grand Slam Since are we What are we doing here?
Speaker 2 (28:23):
My thoughts can best be summed up about a lot
of this and a lot of things, and tell us
is just what are we doing here?
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Yeah? What are we doing here? That's going to be
the name answers what I know, I've already picked the
name of the pod. What are we doing here?
Speaker 3 (28:37):
Sometimes it just jumps out of here.
Speaker 1 (28:39):
It's a joke, But I think the player What I
thought you were going to say is that we need
a stronger player union to make sure that you know
that I agree that we do, all right, Caviti Cat says,
can you explain why the yon X racket suits Madison
Keys more than the Wilson she had been using? Is
it lighter, balanced differently as a pro does the racket
make that much difference? And just because her explanation was
(29:01):
the X is a unique squareish shape, does that really
make a difference? Have you tested them out? Well, I'll
take this one first, and Caitlin, I know that you
like the YONYX rackets as well. I think it was
the bottom line is this racket gave her more power? Okay,
and you're probably thinking wide in Madison Keys need more power. Well,
she doesn't feel like she's got to absolutely redline the
(29:21):
racket to get the power. And also, you know she
did change the strings about a year ago to go
to all polly, which gives her more control on the ball.
So she took out the gut, which if anyone that's
played with gut knows, which I have as well, sometimes
you lose control when you get a bit nervous, so
the ball flies on you. So it's just a little
bit lighter. It's giving her a lot more power without
(29:43):
her having to red line everything, and I think just
the combination of everything has just been so good for
her clearly.
Speaker 3 (29:51):
Yeah, I agree.
Speaker 2 (29:52):
I don't have much to add. I actually am sort
of surprised at this move. I've played with Berth theon
X and Wilson rackets. Wilson rackets are balanced more heavily
typically in the head, which given her long swing, actually
kind of makes sense to me. But the UNIX because
it's sweet spot, is like larger because that unique head shape.
As Caviti cat noted, you know, I think we're seeing
(30:15):
her play with like more margin and more power.
Speaker 3 (30:17):
So yeah, I mean, obviously it's a great fit.
Speaker 2 (30:18):
It's not a great look to lose your like longtime
athlete to a rival and then like the first thing
they do after twenty years of playing with your rockets
is when their first Grand Slam with a competing product. So,
you know, Wilson, I don't know, maybe they're like on notice,
maybe I don't care.
Speaker 3 (30:35):
I don't know, but yeah, it's well, they should care.
They should care.
Speaker 2 (30:39):
It seems like after you know, losing Fed, losing Serena,
they don't have a ton of players on the men's side.
You were playing with their rackets and outside of Arena soublanca,
which is hard to argue with from a results standpoint,
But outside of arena, you know, the ranks are getting
pretty thin on a good old team Wilson, So I
don't know.
Speaker 1 (31:00):
I remember Lisa Raimond, Myle Dobs partner. She played with
the classic Prince grap for Evan loved it, and I
remember her. I remember her telling me a couple of
years ago she started using that red YONEX. She's like,
oh my god, this is the best racket I've ever used,
and which I found really unique because of the waste
she plays. And I've hit with the X record as well,
And I think the bottom line is they just are
(31:20):
so good at getting products made so well, the Japanese,
they are just so good at it. And I think,
oh my god, they've got to be so pumped about
this conversation that is round Madison Keys and her racket change.
Speaker 2 (31:31):
Yeah, when a racket is so closely associated with a
player the way that that was with with Maddie, and
then a change happens, and then a result of this,
like it's so striking and you don't even have to
be like a die heard tennis fan. I think to
notice to notice this, but yeah, it was. It is
sort of notable.
Speaker 1 (31:49):
Love it, good question, Love it? Okay? Jill counts the
beck says why did the bulk of tennis media gloss
over zverevg curios? How come ESPN protects them both and
in one case pays them for commentary. Also thoughts on
Hallip's legacy. Oh we just you're getting two for one,
aren't you, Jill.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
Woll Jill just ask all the hard questions.
Speaker 3 (32:08):
Huh.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
First of all, Jill, if you followed our podcast, you
would know exactly that this media, me and Caitlin and
everyone in between on this call has never glossed over Zverev.
We have talked about him at nauseum. Caitlin even had
a very big story in her magazine a few years
ago that was quite controversial, and she's had to deal
(32:29):
with that through the years. But we don't gloss over it.
But what do you want us to do about it?
I mean, we don't have a.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Great question aim it at the Athletic, the Tennis channel,
Sky Sports, BBC, Eurosport. Actually, Eurosport is probably the worst
defender because they employ his brother and seem to be
very very keen on glassing over any let's say, Pecadilla's
(33:01):
around the discussion. So yeah, I think it sort of
depends on where you look. As for curious. You know, again,
this podcast has been pretty clear about, uh, you know
what grit Nick is great at, which used to be tennis,
and what he is currently great at, which is playing himself.
And I think we can probably leave it at that.
Speaker 1 (33:21):
Hey, I mean, it's very difficult for me to like
sit here and rip on Maks. Uh, you know, would
be really stupid for me to do. But at the
same time, and I've said this many times about Nick,
he is an amazing analyst, Like he is actually really
(33:41):
fucking good at analyzing tennis, which is a shame because
everything else he does is ridiculous. And I think, you know,
the stuff that he puts out on the social media's,
particularly this fight with about and with Thinner, is ridiculous
and it's not a good look. And I've said many
many times the Nick chuse himself in the foot and
(34:02):
it's not for me. I don't pay the checks and
I don't employ the people on television, So it's aimed
at other people, don't aim it at us. We do
not gloss over what we think of these two and
how a Lott's legacy. We talked about it last week
with Sam. Look, I think she'll go down as one
of the great fighters in tennis. She's, you know, this
(34:23):
tiny little girl from Romania became an incredible tennis player,
and her legacy is somebody that I will always respect
her as a tennis player. I will always respect her
work ethic, her fight, her emotional ups and downs and
working her way through those and finally getting a couple
of Grand Slain Belt titles under a belt. And to me,
she'll always be that person.
Speaker 2 (34:45):
To me.
Speaker 3 (34:47):
Great.
Speaker 2 (34:48):
I think she's that with a little bit of an
astress for me, and I'll kind of leave it.
Speaker 1 (34:52):
Of course, of course, there'll always be the asterisk, and
that is you know, and let me tell you something.
If she was, in her eyes innocent and it was
given to her and she didn't know it and all
that sort of stuff by her team, I feel really
badly for her, because you never want to have that
asterisk next to your name. She will go into the
Hall of Fame. They've already the Hall of Fame have
already set that precedent by putting Maria Sharapo over in there,
(35:13):
so Hallott will go in and if they don't put
a halipin then you're like, well, what the fuck? So
Helup's going into the Hall of Fame. And so it's
just a shame that if she is completely innocent of
it and it was given to her by her team,
I feel really bad for her. On the other hand,
if she didn't know about it, then you know, two
thumbs down.
Speaker 3 (35:33):
But two thumbs still.
Speaker 1 (35:35):
We'll never know, all right. Buffy Burford said, what is
your thoughts about tournaments using different brand balls and complaints
that some brands are inferior and might be causing injuries
from overhitting flat balls. Well, first of all, Buffy love
the name. There's no such thing as a flat ball.
If it's flat, it gets thrown right back to the
umpire and told to change it out. But there are
(35:57):
different brands. There's Dunlop obviously that's been a little bit
of controversial side. There's Wilson, there's Pens, there's all kinds
of things. Here's the difference and here's the problem here,
and where the problem lies money money mone When the
tournament gets balls given to them for free because they
are a sponsor. They take that because the amount of
(36:17):
tennis balls that get used as a tournament are enormously
there's a lot, so you have to understand that the
tournament is taking a sponsor, and the sponsor is free
tennis balls and sometimes some money given to the tournament
to use those balls. So it's never going to change
until we have a uniformed ball in tennis, and the
(36:37):
tournaments and the Grand Slams and you know, all get
together and say this is going to be our one ball.
For example, in the NBA, it's Wilson, right, they use
a Wilson basketball. That's not going to change.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
American Chancellor of Sport is ready to rule, are really
and one ball and one ball only?
Speaker 1 (36:57):
Yeah? I think that would be great.
Speaker 3 (36:58):
Caitlin for and Slazenger, that's it.
Speaker 1 (37:04):
Lazenger, are you out of your fing mind?
Speaker 2 (37:06):
I didn't add that's no questions at this time?
Speaker 1 (37:09):
Wow, Well, what are you Trump? You're just like unilaterally
just changing the shit.
Speaker 2 (37:13):
This is what we do. I'm a chancellor. I didn't
say I was the president. This isn't that a diplomacy,
This is that a democracy.
Speaker 1 (37:19):
I just like I'm the president of the Ken Kennedy
center the.
Speaker 2 (37:23):
Lateral decision, making my bile pick as Chancellor Slazenger.
Speaker 1 (37:28):
Next question, all right, well here we go. All right,
Pop fails. What do you think of this proposal to
get more top players playing doubles? Double the prize money
for people who play both. If you lose first round,
you get double what you would have gotten. Still, I
can't find a flaw in it other than the cost. Well,
I will say Pop fails. We sort of touched upon
it already. We do want more top players playing. And
(37:49):
one of the reasons why I believe that top players
don't play doubles anymore like they did in the old
days is because the prize money is so enormous in
singles they don't need to play doubles. You know, when
I played back in the seventeen seventies, you know, the
prize money to win a singles event might have been
one hundred thousand dollars to win a huge event, and
you thought, Okay, that's a lot of money, and you're
(38:09):
winning doubles. I mean, I remember winning Miami and Miami
and Indian Wells, two huge tournaments that pay way over
one hundred thousand dollars to win the doubles. Now I
was winning that to win Grand Slams, and I was
winning maybe twenty five thousand to win those tournaments, which
again I'm not you know, there's a lot of people
out there going, oh, fuck are you that's a lot
of money. But now they're winning well over one hundred
(38:30):
for those tournaments. The top singles players don't need to
play doubles for money anymore because they're winning so much
money in bingles. So yes, is it an idea to
put more double money into doubles. I think there's one
thing about the US Open. They make the draw a
little bit you know less, But then again, the problem
is you won't have the top players playing, so I
(38:51):
can understand why they're trying to do this. But we'll
see if if any of the top players play in
this mixed doubles event, and that will answer our questions,
I guess, and how much well TV show it, because
the ESPN does show the week before the US Open.
We are on ESPN Plus, so I don't know. We'll see,
But I like your idea, pop Fils, It's not a
bad one. You've got nothing.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
My answer is wrapped up in a larger structural change
but you join the swams. You join the slams into
a consortium with a few masters one thousands, you probably
get rid of the tours. You have on one side
the tournaments. On the other side of the players, they
(39:36):
split the entire PI fifty to fifty. They come together
in an annual meeting. They have a union. On one side,
they have the ownership on the other. They negotiate rule changes, updates,
schedule blah blah blah. Fewer events, all mandatory, all big deals,
all in cool places. We can't agree on which places
they are, but you know we'll table that. And then
you have everybody agreeing that for these fewer amounts of tournaments,
(39:59):
they will play all the events, and they will play
all the events because that is and you know, everybody
pays into the system. You get a base salary, the
tour takes care of, you know, the bottom type the top.
You know, are subsidizing a little bit the bottom. But
also make sure that ecosyism healthy. Then you don't have
crazy ideas like it next. So turn it at the beginning,
(40:19):
because if I can't see colors Acaaz play in week
two of a Slam because he lost in the second
round I can still see him play deep because mixed
doubles and doubles doesn't start until week two, So I
wonder maybe that's it.
Speaker 1 (40:31):
I wonder if Corlins the Akaraz will play with Radakanu
in the mixed doubles.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
Let's talk about RADICANU. Please ask that question now?
Speaker 1 (40:39):
Oh well, I have to go back. Let's let's all
right fine. Someone asked me if I would consider coaching Radakanu,
what's the first thing you would do with her? I
would consider it, of course, yes, her game. I'll never
say no to an opportunity of working with the Grand
Slam champion. Oh god, there's what would I work on? Well?
(41:01):
I think the first thing I would do is sit
her down and ask what she wants. And I think
that's the key. You have to know what your player wants.
Speaker 2 (41:07):
It does seem like maybe nobody's done that.
Speaker 1 (41:10):
Yes, I think they all come in thinking, oh, I'm
going to tweak this, and I'm going to tweak that.
I'm going to do this, and that's a very I
would sit her down and say, what, let's be honest here,
what do you want? How do you want to approach this?
And then I'm going to tell you exactly what I think,
and then we go from there, and it's a bit
of a sit down and come to Jesus moment and
(41:33):
be honest with her about what I feel like her
her top level is and where she can get to
and not try and be like, yeah, we can win
another Slam tomorrow, because that's just, you know, unlikely at
this point. So what is it? What are her goals realistically,
and then what can we do to work to get there?
So a lot of people think, you know, it's coming
in and tweaking, like, you know, if I were to
(41:54):
work with Coco, obviously there's things that I would work
on structurally in her, in her game as far as
her technique is concerned. There are little things that I
really believe in. But you know, because you don't need
to work on Coco, what do you want? You know
what Coco wants. She wants to win every single tournament.
She has the ability to win every tournament in every
Grand Slam, but there's a few technical things that definitely
(42:18):
need to change, and she's working on them and she's
trying to but she lost again in the first round
in Doha, so there's some question marks about how coco
is going right now, but anyway, all right, So that's
that's how I thought It's on Emma Radakanu. I mean, listen,
you've got to know how they feel before you can
change a lot of things. All right, rain or Shine
ninety nine, I have a few questions. Well, Rain or Shine,
(42:41):
we can't answer them.
Speaker 3 (42:42):
All.
Speaker 1 (42:43):
Why aren't there more women coaching women? Well, we've already
answered that question a few times. There's a few reasons. One,
a lot of the women like, let's say myself, I
can't hit the ball as well as some dude that
you know is thirty years of age and can hit
a ball better than me now, and so they use
(43:03):
these cheaper guys that can hit balls with them also
tell them a little bit what to do, and you know,
they think that that's better, and so sometimes that's part
of it. Sometimes it's women have families, don't want to
travel very much, so that's that situation. And there's also
the stigma attached to can a woman coach me, which
(43:24):
is we know, horseshit. Of course they can look at
Marta Kotchuk what she's been able to do over the
last twelve months, just beating cocoa, goff herself this week
and her coach is a female. Conchiita Martinaz has done
a great job with many players through the years. Clearly,
I feel like I've done a good job with everybody
I've worked with.
Speaker 3 (43:42):
So also, it doesn't just extended tennis. Jalen Hurts has
an all female management team.
Speaker 1 (43:46):
Come on, hell yeah, how good was that?
Speaker 3 (43:49):
Amazing?
Speaker 2 (43:49):
So not to derailium, but yes, I the reasons they're
economic and logistical, hopefully not perceptionaliz.
Speaker 1 (43:57):
Yes, and someone else as the same question, Rayna Shane,
what the best way to see archive matches besides YouTube?
I don't think there's anyway.
Speaker 2 (44:04):
No, you know, I think we should start a letter
writing campaign to HBO loose in this country because they
sit on all of the archives of Wimbledon, for example,
they own years and years and years of archives when
they used to be the broadcast partner. They're sitting on
gold mines with no real sense of how to storytell.
I'm sure ESPN has a bunch of old ones. I
(44:25):
would love, love, love for somebody in broadcast to resurrect them.
It'll turn them into stuff or steal them exactly we see.
Speaker 1 (44:35):
Well now that yeah, a good question.
Speaker 3 (44:39):
Well, that's a good ood question. Yeah, I think it's
I think the answer is YouTube.
Speaker 1 (44:43):
Caitlin would love that, all right, somebody else. Tracy also
asked about the thoughts on the US Open mixed doubles.
It really does. It's really a question that came up
quite often from people, so I think you will know
exactly how we feel about it now, el got it. No,
not good.
Speaker 2 (45:02):
Well, I was just going to read one counterpoint to
what we discussed. In the spirit of change. A friend
of mine who's a tennis coach in Brooklyn said, shout
out to the USCA, and he was open for making
moves and switching up the mix steps. I love the
changing format and I love that the change in timing.
Speaker 3 (45:18):
The ability to.
Speaker 2 (45:18):
Have men and women compete together is one of the
things that makes tennis unique. It deserves participation and viewership.
Happy they're resurrecting the event. I don't know if I
would characterize it as a record's resurrection, but it I
just want to say there are some people who are
seeing this as a win because it seems like more
fans and eyeballs and maybe prominent players will participate in it.
If that's true, I don't know the players are about it.
(45:41):
Sarahani is famously not having about it, so you know again,
that's why I was sort of like, I have a
feeling will not this will not be the last time
we talked about this.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
I think my issue is, and I've stated already, is
that to play the four is a joke.
Speaker 3 (45:52):
It's an exod that is stupid, indefensible.
Speaker 1 (45:56):
Yeah, I mean, I will say I've spoke to Sam's
dooty yesterday and Sam's was like, uh, what the fuck
you have to hold serve one time? Like what are
we doing here? You know what I mean? I said,
what you're thinking about making a comeback?
Speaker 3 (46:08):
You know?
Speaker 1 (46:09):
So yeah, I think the best of you know, the
first of fourth the set being four games is just
it's a it's a it's a travesty. Just make it.
If you want to do the tournament the week before
and have it be part of fan week and you
want top singles players to play, have it been what
it is, best to two sets. You've already cut it
down to best of two sets and a match tiebreak.
Just keep it at that for fuck's sake. It's only
(46:31):
like an hour and fifteen minute match anyway, yeah, what
are we playing. We don't have ads. You don't have
ad ads, so it's like, you know, juice, next point wins,
and then you're going to make it to four.
Speaker 3 (46:42):
Like it does feel a little teddlywink.
Speaker 1 (46:44):
Ish, italy winkish.
Speaker 3 (46:46):
There you go, tedderwinkish. That's feel free to use that.
Speaker 2 (46:49):
I won't use that as an episode total because we
already figured it out.
Speaker 1 (46:53):
Yes, well. K Low On the other the other unnameless
social media site, asked about sits to pass any hope
question mark, that's just a real, just straight up there question.
Speaker 3 (47:09):
I love Tessa Pats. I will go down defending this guy.
Speaker 2 (47:14):
Maybe it's past the point in a return for him,
but until he keeps swinging a racket, I will still
root for this guy and almost every kind of I
just love his game. I love his game. I love
his game. I love his weird emos soul, I love
his fake quotes on social media.
Speaker 3 (47:33):
I love the whole package.
Speaker 2 (47:34):
He's just a weirdo who I love and I will
fight to the death.
Speaker 1 (47:39):
I wish he hadn't said the things that he said
about certain things a couple of years ago, when he
was just like basically putting women as second class citizens essentially.
So I'm just like, dude, wake up. We're in the
twentieth century anyway. So another question from Ellie Welch, what
are your thoughts on this idea, Caitlin. She didn't say, Caitlin,
but I'm saying to you that has all three surfaces.
(48:01):
Higher sees get to choose the surface they play on.
Speaker 2 (48:05):
Yes, really the Pirate Slam love it the okay, well
we'll play it in international waters.
Speaker 1 (48:13):
Yeah. Well, a lot of people on X and on
Blue Sky and all that sort of stuff. One of
the major questions they kept asking is was about Vukov
We've already talked about, and of course about the mixed double.
So those are the two biggest questions. One phil Nowinn
who asked, what do you think Alex Dimanon needs to
do to beat Sinner?
Speaker 2 (48:31):
Uh?
Speaker 1 (48:32):
Pray and hope Janick Sinner gets injured because he literally
is playing himself. Who's better, who has bigger serve, bigger forehand,
bigger backhand, just as quick, not not a quick, not
a quick, but pretty quick. He basically he's playing him.
It's like he's playing himself as a junior. It's like
Inner the man is playing Yanick Sinner the junior so
(48:54):
and that is no slight against him.
Speaker 3 (48:56):
He's a gofer golfer.
Speaker 2 (49:00):
Yeah, it's got fat, he's great to watch, he's entertaining,
he's fast, He's got other shots, just not one Zegger weapon.
Speaker 1 (49:07):
Yes, Paula Castro said, what do you think of the
Seeds losing today, specifically Arena and Coco, And my answer
to that is, that's why I believe that Mattie keys
Is made a fantastic move. And I will say I
did chat to her husband Beyond after she won the
Australian Open, and I'm not taking credit for this, but
I did say one of the things that Sam Stows
(49:27):
had told me after she won the US openers, she
wished she hadn't gone and played in Asia right after that,
because you have to be ready and prepared, as Sam
said last week, to still put the work in. Just
because she won the Australian Open does not guarantee you
winning your next match, and so you have to be
prepared to put the work in, to be mentally prepared
to be out there, to be mentally prepared to be
(49:47):
at a tournament. So I think that you know Coco's
one thing. Coco probably can go there, but there's something
to be said about playing a tournament of that size
not long after flying back from Australia, flying to the
Middle Ace. It's a lot and so I think Maddy
Keys has done a really smart job with not going
to the Middle Ace and that great land. That question anyway, Kitlin,
(50:08):
is there anything more you would like to talk to
our trusty fans about.
Speaker 2 (50:11):
I just want to give it a shout out to
the Cuban national team with whom I got to train
and visit this past weekend. Truly, truly, truly one of
the highlights of my life to go to Havana, meet
a bunch of teens, all of whom are now watsapping
me and represent the most talent in the country. And
(50:32):
the legendary coach Belle Case Rodriguez, who's who's coaching them
all and who was in and o her own right,
a phenomenal international player, having made several FED Cup then
called fed Cup now called BJK Cup appearances for a
country that not very many people have their eye on.
Speaker 3 (50:47):
For tennas.
Speaker 2 (50:48):
So just like a super super super special time, I'll
be writing about it for our summer issue. And yeah,
just like any of those kids who might be paying
attention to thank thank for having me. It was a
total total posture.
Speaker 1 (51:03):
Oh look at you. That is really nice to see
and here anyway, Well, we love tennis, we love everything
about it. I am still in Australia, as I talked about,
I'm heading back to New York in a couple of days.
I'm missing. Yes, I'm heading back on Saturday, so you'll
see me Saturday. I'm coming back to the cold. It's
just been beautiful here in Australia, and I have to say,
(51:24):
having my head in the sand literally at Bondo Beach
and away from the mess and craziness of the United
States with what the f is happening back there, is
just it's been a godsend, I will say. So, I'm
about to get heads stuck right into all the bs
that I'm going to be dealing with, and I'm glad
I've got my strain passport.
Speaker 3 (51:42):
Still let me just say that smart move all right.
Speaker 1 (51:44):
On that note, we have your Canadian passport.
Speaker 3 (51:46):
Believe it. My whole family does.
Speaker 1 (51:48):
Oh look at you. So you can go up north
and I can go down south, and we can just
leave if we have to. Commonwealth forever, Commonwealth forever. Alright anyway,
all right, well Caitlin, it's good to see you again
and I'll see you back in New York.
Speaker 3 (52:01):
Yes, I'm everyone again.
Speaker 1 (52:04):
As I say all the time, Please like and subscribe,
give us a good little rating. We do love you
guys for listening to us every single week and appreciate
this one was a little bit late, but hey, we
got it done.
Speaker 2 (52:16):
Thanks for don Bye bye, Thanks mate. I gotta make dinner, okay,
but he's out.
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