August 14, 2025 • 38 mins
Australian Open tournament director Craig Tiley and Jaimee Fourlis join Brie and Xave to talk all things tennis and some of the big plans in place for AO 2026. With Cincinnati underway, the panel is joined by Aussie star Ellen Perez who discusses all the happenings at the 1000 event. Craig shares his thoughts on one of the biggest topics facing tennis: the scheduling for the players. The panel also reacts to Victoria Mboko's historic triumph in Montreal, Venus Williams getting her own Barbie doll, and the latest addition to the Nadal family, baby Miquel.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Hello, and welcome to the Tennis New Year, New Cincy.
Allen Perez joins us from the revamped Cincinnati Open, Vicky
Victorious and Boco announces herself with a huge maiden title
on home soil and Commissioner Craig we throw tennis trickiest
problems at the AO tournament director.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
That's all ahead with me. Brice Stewart alongside is my
co host.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
I'm here, Xavier Mullabark, thanks for holding down the fort
while I was very sick.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Holding week holding thought this is my fault.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
No, we share the foot, it's our fort.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
We which see chair, it's a whole thing.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Anyway, onto the most important people across the desk from us.
We have Jamie Fawller's with us again. Very excited to
have some astrange.
Speaker 5 (00:51):
Genuinely was a fort holder last year. It was in
your chair the week before week before then.
Speaker 6 (00:56):
I tried my best, but I feel like this chair
is probably my chair.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Angla.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Who else we got?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
We've got Craig Tyli, a illustrious leader.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Not illustrious but good to be here leader and there
to see that you're in charge for Craig.
Speaker 5 (01:16):
Okay, I respect your position of authority.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Anyway, let's get straight into everything tennis save why don't
you kick us off with what caught your eye?
Speaker 5 (01:28):
What caught my eye? They are splashing the cash in Cincinnati,
a two hundred and sixty million dollar revamped reno revolution
of their amazing facilities. But I've got to say, was
looking at some aerial photos, bitch stole our Look it's
looking a little AOI it does very a Craig any Opinions,
tournament director of the Australian.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I think it's cool. I think I think it looks good.
I think it's great, great, And hey, you know if
we can have AO in America and AO in Europe,
and I think you can franchise it's like KFC but
AO because it's just every every one of those events.
Jamie can let you know that every one of those
events have their own identity, and Cincinnati a different city
and the court looks the same, which is great. And
(02:11):
I think that all the money that's been on the
redevelopment is great for the game.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
Yeah, and I did it pretty quickly, less than a year.
Ye hit that big go but yeah, there.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Which is amazing. It pretty quickly. Maybe we should send
up people over there to have. Look how quickly you
can go and go and learn. I don't'sposed to say that,
but I just did.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
And how many new courts do they have now? They've
got like fourteen. Yeah, so they've got Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
I mean, I know if Jamie went there, and if
I went there, I wouldn't reckon. It's been a while
since I've been to Cincinnati, but I wouldn't be able
to I'm sure I wouldn't be able to recognize. It's
changed so much, which.
Speaker 5 (02:43):
We hear at the AO, like where kind of boxed in.
But we've got a river, we've got.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
A big road.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Yeah, we're a little more Yeah we can a little
more restricted. We can go up. But there's also things
air rights, which I only found out reasons.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Yes, someone who bought air rights once is a millionaire,
because if you want to build up, you have to
pay him to.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Go through around this area. There's air rights. There's certain
things we can't go up, like just across the bridge,
because those air rights are protected and owned by someone.
So how you find out, You you build up as
hard as you go, and then you get a bill
and roach and someone I didn't know that I don't
know for the recent So I say that it's a
motivation for us to try and figure to go up build.
(03:23):
Are we going to go up and find out who's
got them?
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Breaking news?
Speaker 5 (03:28):
Well, have you spoken to the since the tournament director
recently or all the tournament?
Speaker 4 (03:31):
No, I see what's that group?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
No, No, we don't have what we do have a
we have as Yeah, I should think about it. No,
there's Ghostbusters is one of them. But the we're what'sapp
group with the Grand Slams And but we do talk,
I mean everyone shares information and and and does have conversations.
(03:53):
And the new Benavarro who is the new owners Sorry,
yeahs dad, And and she always has a good she
plays the best here. She always a good run with
this round open and uh Ben's family have invested in
the event, bought the event. And I've been off the
U S t A and invested in the event. And
at one point I thought it was gonna move to
(04:14):
North Carolina where Ben's from.
Speaker 6 (04:16):
Say that's not her home, No, no home.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
North Carolina and so but but they've kept it since
he and since he's a good western town, good values,
good part of the world, and and you know, The
number one thing they've got in the town now is.
Speaker 5 (04:28):
The massive tennis center tennis event tennis is really that's great,
that's brill.
Speaker 6 (04:33):
They've been getting some good crowd numbers as well.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Sports town they have, you know, they have the Cincinnati Bengals,
Cincinnati Reds, they have good baseball and a good NFL team.
So yeah, so it's a good sports town. It's very
similar to some of those sports towns in the US.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
Could there ever be a Fifth Slam, of true fifth Slam?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
No, I don't. I mean, you hear that the whole time.
I like that people aspire to being like a Fifth Slam.
But there's a few things you can't replace. You can't
replace the history, you can't replace the tours themselves put
a restriction on the number of players that play. If
you think the Australian Opener, we cater for eight hundred players,
and that's your wheelchair athletes have a wheelchair competition, a
junior competition, and then it's just in the ethos of
(05:15):
the young kids. Their aspiration is to win the Australia Opener,
win Wimbledon, or win You're Sopen, win Roland Garrison, So
that becomes you know when you've done that as a player,
because it's very few that do it, then you've truly
arrived as a player.
Speaker 5 (05:27):
Right, Well, hang on, I'm getting a signal. The batphone
is ringing. I think we've got a special guest on
the line.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 7 (05:36):
Wellen, Hey guys, thanks for having me.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
Always a pleasure.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
Now, Craig, you've obviously had a few run ins with
the Perez good or bad?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Tell me always good, always good.
Speaker 7 (05:45):
Then he's not had enough run ins with me.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
I did have a bit of science at the end
waiting for our dance, because he's Allen's.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Great sag was just talking about the new Cincinnati site.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
What's it like over there?
Speaker 7 (05:58):
Ellen?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Is it good?
Speaker 7 (05:59):
It's very nice?
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (06:01):
I actually I spoke to Ben and I told him
this is like the fifth Grand Slam, and he loved that.
Speaker 7 (06:06):
He was chuffed with that idea.
Speaker 8 (06:09):
And you know, they've put a lot of big improvements,
a lot of money into the event, and the players
are really seeing it and reaping the benefits.
Speaker 7 (06:15):
So it's an amazing site.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
They certainly seem to have taken.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
As I was saying before, a bit of inspo from
our little Australian Open.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
It's fine, it's good.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
What's the saying flattery highest form of flattery?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Yeah, yeah, copy Yeah, but I mean, like you know,
the definition of copy is still baby steel. I mean,
so all the Master's events of have really improved. I
would like to see every Master's event being a combined
event and men, the men and women playing on the
same platform.
Speaker 5 (06:42):
That that game, that would be crucial. Yeah, that'll help
a lot of things too. But let's go back to
our person on the ground. The quarterfinals are coming up,
and you found yourself in there up against Samsonova and Martinez.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
How the nerves feel?
Speaker 7 (06:56):
Yeah, no, feeling good. I've always loved Cincinnati.
Speaker 8 (06:59):
I've always had good results here, so it's just a
little bit of added pressure. I've made back to back
finals and semis the year before, so I feel like
I like the conditions here. And obviously playing a very
familiar pair. I've played Nicky and lude Miller three times
this year, maybe, so hopefully trying to keep the good
record going and keep the run here going.
Speaker 6 (07:20):
And in terms of just the conditions, l we've seen,
like a lot of players, it's been quite hot there.
How are the courts playing with the balls.
Speaker 7 (07:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (07:28):
Actually I've been one to complain a bit this year
about the balls.
Speaker 7 (07:31):
They're feeling very different.
Speaker 6 (07:34):
Yeah, God Ellen, but they complain.
Speaker 7 (07:37):
The thing is, I'm not the only one.
Speaker 8 (07:39):
Me and Jessic Willer, we're talking about this, and we've
consulted a lot of the players, and we honestly thought
these were a bad batch of balls for the hard
court swing.
Speaker 7 (07:46):
We've not liked the feeling.
Speaker 8 (07:48):
I would say here in Cincinnati, they're feeling a little
more like the ball we were used to playing with
it US Open in the past years.
Speaker 7 (07:54):
But yeah, the conditions here are tough.
Speaker 8 (07:56):
The ball flies a lot, the courts are one of
the faster courts on two and with the hot, humid conditions, yeah,
it's not easy to control it at times. And I mean,
all I can say is thank god I'm playing doubles
and not singles, because the conditions are tough. You know,
I wouldn't want to be out there playing three hours
in here in this conditions. But for doubles, I love it.
I thrive in hot conditions.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
And yeah, so that's human as well.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Is it still humid?
Speaker 7 (08:22):
Still humid?
Speaker 8 (08:23):
Yeah, I definitely want the dry conditions, but humidity is
not too bad, especially when I feel like most of
the Europeans really struggle with it.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
Well, you're in an interesting position in your doubles pairing
because you're kind of you could potentially be a triples
Do you ever get the feeling to swap out your
partner for her twin sister.
Speaker 8 (08:41):
Natist That's actually not a bad idea depending on the
team we play.
Speaker 7 (08:47):
Just bring in the different kitchen ok.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
For the match, get some fresh legs.
Speaker 7 (08:52):
Yeah, yeah, I'll mention that.
Speaker 8 (08:56):
Unfortunately Nati is not here this week, so I don't
know we could get away with that, but we'll keep
it in mind the future.
Speaker 6 (09:00):
Do you get them confused?
Speaker 7 (09:02):
You know?
Speaker 8 (09:03):
The funny part is the most worried I was with
his partnership was not knowing who was who.
Speaker 7 (09:09):
But I find when you're actually on the.
Speaker 8 (09:11):
Same schedule, you kind of assume and know who's who,
and there is differences, and it's easier when they're in
front of you, both of them. If you kind of
walk past one at a different time, it can be
hard to tell.
Speaker 7 (09:22):
But I feel like I'm starting.
Speaker 8 (09:23):
To learn a little bit their personalities and a.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
Few little features be much easier at a at a
big event where everyone's got a credit around the neck,
the sneaky kind of look down but.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Put them on their back. That's really hard. They don't
have it around their necks.
Speaker 8 (09:38):
Oh I don't do that, but I feel like a
loser staring at someone's a cred.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
Yeah, yeah, fair enough. Where was I just embrace it?
Speaker 5 (09:47):
I go, Craig Tilly, you do look so you look.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Like you carry on this partnership into the US Open, Ellen,
do you think that will be?
Speaker 7 (09:57):
Yeah? Yep, So we will go and play Monterey next week.
I mean that's the plan.
Speaker 8 (10:02):
I don't know if anything changes based on this week,
but we'll yeah do that and then US Open and yeah,
likely to then continue on into the Asia Swing. I
think it's one of those things where we've been playing
well together, we enjoy playing together, and there's been so
many changes this year it's hard to keep up, and
it's nice to just have a set partner that you
can just commit to working with and practicing with. And Yeah,
(10:25):
loudas super chill and easy, and we enjoy each other's company,
so kind of just makes sense to keep going.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah, awesome.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
It's a been a bit of a crazy week, though,
fire alarms, power outages. What else are you gonna do?
You're gonna flood the place?
Speaker 7 (10:39):
You never know?
Speaker 8 (10:40):
With me, I know there's been here a lot of lightning. Yeah,
we've had all the elements here. I've actually managed to
avoid it all. I've been in the hotel. I've had
a great schedule, but I know there has been a
lot going on.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Well, we might wrap it up for you.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
You probably want to go to sleep.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Yeah, thank you so much for dialing in and giving
us a bit of insight into all the acts and
at Cincinnati and good luck.
Speaker 7 (11:02):
Thank you. I appreciate it. Good luck bye, guys.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Well, that was exciting to hear from Ellen. She's a
good friend of yours. I'm guessing she is. Thank you
for hooking us up with her.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
But we're going to get into what caught your eye.
Speaker 6 (11:19):
Yeah, So Victoria Embroco has definitely caught my eye and
definitely caught the eye of many to the world pretty much,
the world winning her so much. Yeah, I think we'll
get into that a little bit later. Definitely has caught
the eye of the tennis world and the tennis public.
She won her first WTA title thousand in Montreal last
(11:41):
week country, which was so good, which was really cool,
defeating four Grand Slam champions along the way, had an
incredible run, doing it in front of friends and family. Yeah,
has definitely shot up the rankings really quickly. Started the
year at three point fifty and is now twenty four
in the world world. Yeah, and going to be seated
(12:01):
for this year's You were so open, So I think
that's incredible. Pressure's definitely on and I think part of
the cool thing about this is I actually played her
this time last year, so I've kind of seen her
transition throughout the ranks and like kind of watched her progress.
And yeah, the hard work that she puts out on
the court, especially with her coach. She had a French
(12:23):
coach at the time this time last year. I'm not
sure who she's working with at the moment. I'm not
sure if it's part of the Federation, But yeah, anytime
she stepped out the court, she worked hard. She has
a lot of skills, can play the slice, very big
serve and when I played her, one of the toughest
things was I couldn't read her serve and usually I'm
quite good at that, and I enjoyed trying to find
(12:45):
the cues, but you could not read anything about her SERF.
So yeah, she's shut up the rankings incredibly quick. And yeah,
it's been really good to see.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
So exciting.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
And I've got a Canadian friend who is obsessed with tennis,
lives here in Australia now, but he was like tech
me being.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Like this is madness.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
This is so exciting for Canadians to have someone good.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yeah, well exciting.
Speaker 6 (13:07):
Yeah, Jeanie's retired now, so it's the next generation Andrescu's
still playing, climbing up the rankings. Yeah, to have Victoria
there and she's actually a really nice girl as well.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
She's really nice.
Speaker 6 (13:20):
Yeah, she's really nice.
Speaker 5 (13:21):
Yeah, when you were facing her last year, could you
kind of see right, she's going to be huge in
twelve months time.
Speaker 6 (13:28):
To an extent, Yes, I think when you step up
that level, she just has that level like there was
in a way yes or no. Yeah, she kind of
I think turned it on and then once you kind
of find that rhythm and you find that role of
playing against the higher players, you just get used to it.
And I think that's what she's done really well. She's
feared no one. She's gone out there, played aggressive tennis,
(13:50):
and that's been nice to see. And yeah, it's great
to see a new generation of like the young girls
now coming up to be in the spotlight.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Amazing.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Yeah, and did you see the post match ceremony. What
were your thoughts? Did you was there any observations you
had from that very quiet the witness?
Speaker 6 (14:10):
Do you want to start with? Okay, I'll go just
from like a player's perspective, Probably a little bit disappointed
in terms of Osaka's reaction. I know it's hard after
you've just lost a final, but everyone's been through, everyone
goes thraight. Osaka's played in multiple Slams, multiple big tournaments,
(14:31):
She's won them, she's lost them. So I would have
thought it maybe would have been a little bit better
to come up with, yeah, be a better person. But
to Victoria's credit, the way she handled that occasion and
then when she came out and said after in her
press conference like she still looks up to Naomi, she's
someone she.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
That's great, has since apologized explained it.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
Correct me if I'm wrong saying last time I was
up there, I spoke for too long. I just wanted
to get up there say ye, it could.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Be an outcome of her being anxious.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Right when you're anxious, you've already been criticized for this,
and you're criticized for that, and you just kind of phreeze.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Maybe. I mean, I think in players to fancy, you know,
there's a tremendous amount of pressure and you respond in
those moments, and I think there has to be sometimes
a little bit of appreciation for what players are going
through in the wins and the losses. And yeah, obviously
they've got to play their part as best they possibly can,
but sometimes it doesn't happen. So I've always looked at
that is that I mean, we've had moments here where
(15:29):
someone's hasn't wanted to speak and they've got to get
up and say a few words, and it's just hard.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
It would be hard.
Speaker 6 (15:35):
But I would love to see like even when that happens,
you know, while they're setting up the stage, where that
player goes, give me two minutes. I'm going to go
to the bathroom, go have a cry. Like I've had
that where I'm like I just need two minutes, go run,
go have a cry, and then come back and then.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Let me go smash my racket in my own.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
One thing that there's so much set up getting ready
for the next stage on TV, so you always get
that to five minutes, often get which gives you an
opportunity to players have left the court to go and
regroup and then come back out.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
I think that's fair.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Are they allowed to go off and have a quick
shower or do they have to all?
Speaker 3 (16:05):
It depends. I mean you normally under the pump because
what everyone rushes because they don't want the crowd to
leave and they want to get it on TV and
we go straight into a couple of ads globally around
the world and then and then get get the stage
set up and plays generally at five to seven minutes.
So sometimes they run off and change. You gotta remind
them put their sponsored.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Watches on.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
That whole thing.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
All right, well break what caught your eye?
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Well I'm going to keep it really high brows per usual.
Speaker 9 (16:34):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
From the literature.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
From the literature, I want to talk about that Venus
has been what do you call it, immortalized and honored
by becoming a bar a barbecue, a barbie. Have turned
her into a barbie. She looks pretty cool, to be honest,
I did see it.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
I see it, and it's.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Too honor the fact that she's done so much with
when it comes to equality and equity in sports, which
is amazing. We all know that Barbie is like all
about you can't be, we can't see.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
So there's astronaut Barbie.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Yes, or little girls to know that they can really
be anything. So I thought that was really cool, and
as Craig reminded us, it has come.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
Out perfect timing.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Yeah, because she just got a doubles.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Wide at forty four forty four.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
I really think she is very aspirational.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
She's awesome.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Yeah, definitely, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
And I know people like Dash I love her and
I just as a player, a woman's player. How do
you feel about seeing someone like Venus and how she's
been playing so well at the moment.
Speaker 6 (17:43):
Yeah, I think it's pretty cool. It's someone you can
look up to, not just in the tennis world, but
what she does off the court, which she does outside
and honoring her. I know it might not sound big,
but honoring her with a Barbie like that's.
Speaker 5 (17:53):
Pretty cool or cheap, it means a lot to I mean,
I assume not just young girls but women, because Barbie's
been around.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
I love sixty years Barbie was a big pillar of
my and.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Then and you know Xavier has been honored with ken.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yeah just a flower board.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
This is explicit. That is very cool.
Speaker 6 (18:21):
Sorry, I just want to add on that. I think
it's pretty cool also to have like a sports barbie
and someone in tennis. I think sometimes tennis can get
forgotten quite a bit when it's not during the Grand Nations.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Yeah, sometimes from an American angle too, like it's all
the basketball and the NFL.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
And yeah, because she's older, like normally back in the
day to be like, oh yeah, the Sharapova is in
her prime and like the young cool stars and a
corner Kova. Yeah, perfect example. And now you've got Venus
forty four a Barbie.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
Yea, so good? Okay, Craig, what caught You're right?
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Lots of things. Ben Shelton winning Victoria, winning the Canada
of the last week, and you know being would be
Taylor Fritz in the Semis, which is a pretty big
win for him. And then and then of course going
to this week seeing all the pictures from Cincinnati, kept
in cashmuks and watching with a keen eye and what's
going on. It was fun to hear what Ellen said
about it, you know, the Venus announcement this morning, getting
(19:15):
a wild comment because we had after her wildcard this
year and of course she wasn't able to play at
this rail and opens. Yeah, no, no, no, A long
long way off. I told, I told you, I said
to Jamie when she can put her fist up and
whake me on the face or something like that. With
(19:36):
that with the shoulder, and we're in good shape. But
the no, So it's always the tennis things that cash mind.
And then walking in here today and finding out that
Breason in charge called my alt today, so that.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
Was it's a co hosting.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
I'm not getting into the co host Okay, move.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
On, Look, it's just a quiet hierarchy.
Speaker 5 (19:53):
Yeah, now put your commissioner's hat on for a minute.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Yes to know if you have one, but let's make
you one.
Speaker 5 (19:59):
The scheduling debate, the questions from players, the thoughts everywhere.
These Masters events are getting longer, the schedule is getting tighter.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
So what's going on?
Speaker 3 (20:10):
I will say what I've said from day one, years
and years ago that hasn't changed is the player voice
is the most critical to how we deliver these events.
And what gets forgotten in the player voice is play welfare.
What gets forgotten in the play of voice is time
to regroup, which relate to play welfare. There's not a
proper off season. The element of play welfare is too
(20:32):
low down on the proade list when we make decisions,
when decisions are made about what the schedule is, and
yes there's commercial reasons for doing these, and this is
where this is just indicative of the poor organization of
our sport. We have seven governing bodies, each fighting for
their own territory and their own position in the calendar,
and the coordination amongst those governing bodies is not at
(20:54):
the level that it needs to be to be successful
from a players perspective. So when a play goes then
to a longer master's events, and now you're adding twenty
one days basically to the calendar and I'm sulready bolding
which is already bulging, and then you know, we we
struggle players. Players they want to play a few exhibitions
or something, they do that out in the middle of December,
late in December, then they turn around a week late
(21:14):
and then start the year again. It's just it's not
it's not right, so so so we so we have
been working in the grandstands particularly, have been working on
an opportunity to have a content at the top end
of the of you know, the top hundred players, the
top end of the tree, where there's very specific about
the length and time of the events where you play,
(21:35):
the cities you play eight to nine week proper off season,
a strong narrative for the fans. You know, governedor is won.
You have the four Slams in there, you have another
eleven eleven twelve events, one team event, so maybe paying
sixteen seven events, and then having a feeding system where
there's several times during the year where you can liken golf,
you like the weekends of golf where you compete to
(21:56):
get your cardiness is not really a card but where
you where you get yourself the top thirty two, top sixteen,
thirty two, fifty six, whatever that number is going to be.
And and then and then the fan kind of understands
where you're going and what it means to where you are.
And then you know, as a player, I've got that
shortened period I'm playing. I've got a mid season rest period.
You know, I've got the end of the season. Because
(22:16):
if you injure yourself like Jamie's the rehab time is
you Actually you've got to be out for a long time,
and it's tough. Even though you've protected ranking, it's tough
to get back and even defend that protected ranking.
Speaker 6 (22:26):
Because the ranking continues to.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Drop because and then and then and then now you
rushed on time, you know, and so it's just it's so,
I mean, I could go on and on, but there
but there's too much side show stuff going on right now,
and we're going to deal with the core. And the
core is is get the get the get the narrative right,
get the get the tour right, particularly on the on
the top end, get the feeder system right. Everyone has
(22:49):
a role to play, you know, when the slams it's
some first design, there was competition. It's the end of
the two fifties and the five hundred that was not true.
But that's all the side show stuff that that happens
in tennis. So probably too many people involved than making
too many decisions. At the end of the day, you've
got your four Pallas in the sport like you have
in golf, and those the four Masters. Every golfer. It's
just absolute history and tradition that they compete in a
(23:11):
four masters. Similar in tennis you have the four majors,
but the difference in golf is those four masters don't
drive the economic powerhouse of the sport. They're only about
ten percent of the economic value. The other ninety percent
is the PGA is the tour. In tennis, it's about
fifty five. Sixty percent is driven by the form majors,
and so it's imbalanced. So the tour, the commercials of
(23:33):
the tours need to pick up. But how that gets
done by creating an aggregate by all coming together. So
it's hard to do it by yourself. And there's a
lot of good work that's been done by the tours
over and more recently over the years and also over
the years, but probably not enough. And so yeah, so look,
I mean I'm not saying anything different. I mean saying
day one.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
But well, let's get something different.
Speaker 5 (23:54):
Let's pretend you are the commissioner of tennis, you are
King Kong of the game. Yeah, what's the golden what
is the thing that goes Oh, well that's cool, we'll
just do that.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Yeah. Well, I mean the first thing you would do
is you would make sure that the players are in
the conversation about the future.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
I'll just repeat what you just say. No, but tell
me what event we're cancered.
Speaker 6 (24:13):
No, But I think that's really important because I feel
like maybe in the past, no one's spoken up, whereas
like now players are actually finding up, finding their voice,
to be able to think and.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
Knowing there's an ear willing to listen, not just yourself,
but in.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
The I mean, we we only we only are you know,
one part, a very small part, one twelfth of the calendar.
We only in. But we can influence it by by
lending and putting in our assets into the conversation. And
actually as an organization, we've always put players at the
front end. We've always you know, committed to what the
compensation plan would be in and we talk publicly about
(24:51):
the fact that you know, if you if you encounter
our summer of Tennis, the investment of the summer of Tennis,
which no organization makes, is bigger investment we make. So
hob On International, Adelaine International, Brisbane International, United Cup. When
are we leaving our camera? International? Those are the long invitation,
that's that's your event. These these are funded all by
Tennis Australia and it's a multi multi million dollar investment.
(25:13):
But if you count that investment all the player benefits
that we that we invest in player ground to that
our revenue thirty one percent of our revenue is spent
on directly on the players. And then of course the
rest is it will cost based on putting these events.
And we don't own this venue. We've got to lease
the venue so like unlike in this country, and rentals
are high sour. But our focus has always been to
(25:38):
invest in the player experience, invest in the players, put
them at the front, have always at the first point
of all the decisions that we make, and the proof's
been in the pudding. But again we only represent one
more part of it. But I think what's been happening
now with the player voice and and the and the
different empties getting together more importantly, it's not fixing a problem,
but it's also creating an opportunity. And the opportunity is
(25:59):
that you you know, the water table rises for everyone.
Speaker 5 (26:02):
Well, Craig, you obviously have got a lot of great
things in mind for the players. The global calendar of tennis,
let's talk about that little bit. In January, the Australian Open,
anything you can tease well.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
First of us say, the year round stuff is a
team effort. It's not one one personal because you're not
the commissioner, I'm not clearly and there's no role for
anyone in that other than just working together as a
team with everyone. With the tours and the politicians, yeah
I would need them, will be yes.
Speaker 10 (26:31):
You.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
But for the really exciting twenty twenty six, I mean,
we're still working on some some of the decisions we're
going to make about the experience, but without going through
the specifics because remember in October we unveil and launch
all the great initiatives. But I can there's four things
we always talk about. We talk about more space, more seats,
(26:56):
more shade, and more screens. So obviously you're going to
get all of those, a lot of essays, a lot
of the four s's, the four s's, you're going to
get a lot this year. You're going to a lot of it.
But you're going to see you'll see some things this
year that are going to give you a bit of
a look into the future of what this precinct is
going to be in the next.
Speaker 6 (27:11):
Are we getting a skyscraper?
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Were going up all these things are just possible. I'd
like you to keep guessing. But we talked about air rids,
you said skyscraper, so there could be something looking you
can be onto something. But we are going again more
than fifty percent of the site. It's going to look
completely different to what it looked like in twenty twenty.
Speaker 5 (27:30):
That's what people love about coming back, like it's not
like I've already been that ticket off the list, done it.
Speaker 10 (27:37):
It's not like just to see the grounds change, and
the grounds will change significantly gain and the partners will
have the activations that they're going to have, the amount
of music and the special guests we're going to have,
and then then we've got some big time announcements coming
up about what's going to happen in the week before
the Australian Open, which is the opening week, and how
that continues to grow.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
That that's one event that's that's one week that's picked
up a lot of interest because you can be close
to a play. You can so someone that's is keen
on watching Jamie can go right up and can easily
get the autographed and watch your practice and so so
there's going to be a lot to the opening week,
which we're going to ramp up. But we've got some
exciting announcements coming up. The AO is going to twenty
six and be very different. It's going to be pretty
(28:18):
special for a lot of different reasons of what we're
going to celebrate and the things that we're going to do, uh,
and the stars we're going to have here, and the
music stars we're going to have here and everything else.
So so we're really excited. When we announced it in October,
we'll make sure that you at least the second to
hear about it.
Speaker 4 (28:32):
That's fine, So just you your voices in your head
than us.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 6 (28:36):
Great, Yeah, breaking news on the podcasts.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
I know what the promo is going to be.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
What's that you saying all that stuff? No, No, there
will be other much better people than me saying this
for sure.
Speaker 7 (28:49):
Not very well.
Speaker 5 (28:50):
Great, Thank you so much for coming in. I'm getting
the signal from over there. You've got a meeting with
the landlords. Is it a house, No, No.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
We actually have a meeting talking about going out to
the work environment, going up. We are up already. It's yeah,
there's really.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
About me going down, isn't it? Now? In the door
with my box.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
And that's a very quick conversation. Very much for popping
into the poll studio. Good luck with your rehab, and
great to see that you're back.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Break's left us, but we still have quite a bit
to kind of get through and we're going for long.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
We're going along all right.
Speaker 5 (29:28):
All right, all right, quick decision, let's do a quick
hit lightning round.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
What do you got got?
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Oh god, you've put me on the spot. I'm more
anxious now.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
First one I wanted to talk about was Emma Atakanu
asking for the baby to be removed from the stadium.
Lots of different perspectives on it out there, but when
the umpire said you really expect me to remove a baby.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
The whole crowd actually say. And I've got to say
I'm with her.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
If I was a professional, I was trying to concentrate
and there was a screaming baby, I wouldn't appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (30:04):
Yeah, And I've got two little kids, and I would
absolutely say probably wouldn't take them to begin with, But.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
That's just my I also don't like them on planes.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
Yeah, but you just don't know children playing children just.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Like a solid to be over twelve. In my world,
in my Dream World children. No, No, ten's too small.
They can yell eighteen twelve, I think yeah.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
Yeah, those famously calm and quite twelve year old.
Speaker 7 (30:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Anyway, lightning round, so we'll move on. Sorry, who my
other one was just you know, maybe hours ago.
Speaker 5 (30:33):
Now.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
Fritz was beaten by a qualifier.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
He's French. He's currently ranked one hundred and thirty six.
His name is Terence Atman.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
Oh I remember him, didn't he hit accidentally accidentally hit
the French yes, right in the head.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Yeah, and didn't get disqualified, which was a bit of
a storyline at that back then too. But yeah, he
knocked out Fritz in where are they at the moment?
Cincinnati six three five seven three six. Yeah, pretty big news,
especially given he was a qualifier. Fritz didn't look happy, understandably,
(31:10):
So he's now three to round four.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
Okay, what was it?
Speaker 5 (31:14):
Yeah, Albert beannie new baby in the tennis World Rafa
welcomes number two. He and his partner Mary have a
new baby and his name is mcquill.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
That's right, with a que.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Yeah, how do you say mcquell?
Speaker 4 (31:28):
I think it's Miguel with sound Michel, Michel, Michael.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
We've got our speaker producer.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
Yeah, so, Raffa, what's your kid's name? This is Mickey
mcquell by world at he's doing.
Speaker 5 (31:40):
That that key rut at the moment where he goes,
is it a cashy? That's such a good so he knows.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
Kea absolutely resolute you KEA.
Speaker 5 (31:49):
What else have we got abroad?
Speaker 6 (31:53):
So we've got some ossies that have played incredibly well
the last fortnite and I'm going to go Adam Walton
defeating Danielle Medvedev six seven six four six one and
it's his first time defeating a top fifty player, so
that's a huge win. And also a quick shout out
(32:13):
to my joint who has made it into the third
round for the first time in one thousands Masters. That's amazing,
credible And unfortunately Alex lost over the weekend, but he
still was two weeks to prime for US Open, so.
Speaker 5 (32:25):
To still be going into the US Open as a
top ten seeds, so yeah, yeah, our thoughts are with you, Alex.
Speaker 4 (32:31):
And it's troubling and try times tough times. That's pretty great.
Aussi's on the road.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
I know it's good. I don't think we have anything else.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
Okay, Sunday class.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Yeah, well we have had quite a jam packed show today.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
We are going to skip my top five.
Speaker 5 (32:48):
Oh no, angels crying, So we are going to go
straight into Ace of the Week.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Why don't you kick us off, James, because I know
you just said you were still thinking about it, So
let's put you on the spots.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
Like a little MIDI lightning round.
Speaker 6 (33:04):
So I've started my party's course.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Instructor, that's amazing to teach it.
Speaker 4 (33:10):
Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Will you teach use?
Speaker 6 (33:12):
Yeah, of course I needed to the pod. Yeah, give
me a couple of months and we'll set up the
plarty studio.
Speaker 5 (33:19):
Get one of those one of those things called the
refractor reformer. Yeah that's true, but it looks like a
torture device or something.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
It is torture at times extent.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
I just didn't have a good instructor.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
I could be a girl.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
I went to a party's class once and hadn't realized
that it was like the you know how beginner.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
I didn't do advance.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
I just did the medium, And as I was leaving,
the person was like, you really need to be in
the beginner.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Don't come to this one again. And I never went
back again to be.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Honest joined clumsy, So put me on one of those.
Speaker 5 (33:56):
It's actually upstairs this morning after a meeting. They were
they were just large steps and breeze. Hang on, I
need to concentrate.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
I can't talk.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
I need constrains.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
I'm that clumsy. I've just got to be careful because
I'm going to die one day and it'll be really sad.
You can't die from falling over. That's not how many,
especially not.
Speaker 5 (34:13):
Even fifty. I was better, say not even forty, but
you are.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
I am forty.
Speaker 6 (34:18):
I'm going to give you a couple of weeks and
I can't teach you.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
I'm ready to do.
Speaker 6 (34:22):
I need to do my hours to need.
Speaker 5 (34:24):
A successful lesson. You taught me the word reformer performer.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Oh fraction.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
You're thinking you're fracking.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
I am thinking of cracking.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
Slightly different, okay, what's my what is it? The week? Look?
Just to be real different. I'm going to talk about
my kids again. Tomorrow is my little boy, Darcy's sixth birthday.
Speaker 5 (34:43):
So I've made him a cake and he's got some
lego and then yeah, of course, oh.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
He's a very good baker.
Speaker 4 (34:48):
I do you like to back?
Speaker 1 (34:49):
He used to make muffins, every sycake, sorrycakes and different
frostings and topics.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
He doesn't do it anymore.
Speaker 5 (34:56):
No, wedn have the time. Well I used to anyway,
long stories we won't talk about that. Had to start
doing work while I was working from home, damn it.
But so tomorrow's birthday and then we've got his party
coming up. So all these little buddies from school we've
hired out. There's like a pub near us that also
has We're going to the pub.
Speaker 4 (35:17):
Is that not the legal drinking age in Australia, my mistake.
But this pub.
Speaker 5 (35:23):
Slash restaurant also has like a little private cinema where
they do movie here, so it's like old timey sort
of cinema. So we've hired that out. All of your
school buddy's going to come. We're going to watch the
new Lelo and Stitch movie live action thing. And then
there's a table in the pub for all the parents.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
That's actually quite genius because they just sit there and watch.
They don't even make noise, and.
Speaker 5 (35:43):
Even if they do, you're not in a normal cinema,
so Radakani doesn't have to bust in the door and
say get those kids out, who cares what they do.
Speaker 4 (35:49):
Just shut the door, give them the popcorn, come back.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
And guys go the pub. That's actually great.
Speaker 5 (35:53):
It's really hard for winter babies to find a good
birth yea, I reckon there's.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Started actually had that issue.
Speaker 5 (36:00):
Yeah, no one planning a birthday for you.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
No my birthdays in summers Nomber twenty nine. Mm hm,
listener's out there, send me presents.
Speaker 4 (36:11):
She looks like she's never even had a birthday. You
look positively.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Do you need to get my botox?
Speaker 4 (36:16):
Fism? What don't you break?
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Oh god, I don't really know, do you know? I
really don't know.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
It's got a bit of a rough week, but I
am going for dinner with my two girlfriends on Saturday night.
We decided we wanted to do something kind of classy
because I don't know, as you get older, Jamie, you
don't go out as much.
Speaker 6 (36:37):
And if you do it now, I don't really go
out there.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Yeah, you can't sit at home.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
We all sit at home without dogs or cats or
both in my case. And we thought, you know what,
we need to put a nice outfit on. We're gonna
wear a heel. Like a heel isn't even like these
days no, but that's just the same. Put a little
heel on.
Speaker 6 (36:57):
That's when you know it's a special.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
Yeah, we're gonna wear a heel.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
I'm gonna go somewhere nice, have a really nice dinner,
the three of us, and then I would like to
be home before ten.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
Okay, we've not even reserved. Are okay?
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Definitely and getting into somewhere anyway, that's my good news
of the week.
Speaker 4 (37:16):
Oh that's good. No, it's nice to have some fun plans.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
I don't think there is anything else, but we will
end the show there.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
Next week is going to be extra exciting because we
are in US Open territory.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Two of my team are heading over there.
Speaker 4 (37:32):
So we'll have some next week on the ground.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Some people on the ground will be getting first hand
information insight into the US Open. So qualifying starts next
week and we absolutely can't wait.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
So join us. Then, Thank you everyone, Thank you, Lenny.
Speaker 5 (37:50):
Hey everyone, Harps and Andy here just want to remind
you that you can watch every episode of the Tennis
on our YouTube channel austral and Open tv.
Speaker 9 (37:56):
And we have an email as well podcast at ten
dot com dot au. If you thought the show was
amazing or you thought it was terrible. We are keen
to hear from you. We'll read it, so feedback comments,
whatever it is, Get in touch with us at our
email and we'll catch you on the next one.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
Catch you later.
Hello, and welcome to the Tennis New Year, New Cincy.
Allen Perez joins us from the revamped Cincinnati Open, Vicky
Victorious and Boco announces herself with a huge maiden title
on home soil and Commissioner Craig we throw tennis trickiest
problems at the AO tournament director.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
That's all ahead with me. Brice Stewart alongside is my
co host.
Speaker 1 (00:29):
I'm here, Xavier Mullabark, thanks for holding down the fort
while I was very sick.
Speaker 3 (00:33):
Holding week holding thought this is my fault.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
No, we share the foot, it's our fort.
Speaker 4 (00:39):
We which see chair, it's a whole thing.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
Anyway, onto the most important people across the desk from us.
We have Jamie Fawller's with us again. Very excited to
have some astrange.
Speaker 5 (00:51):
Genuinely was a fort holder last year. It was in
your chair the week before week before then.
Speaker 6 (00:56):
I tried my best, but I feel like this chair
is probably my chair.
Speaker 2 (01:01):
Angla.
Speaker 4 (01:04):
Who else we got?
Speaker 2 (01:05):
We've got Craig Tyli, a illustrious leader.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
Not illustrious but good to be here leader and there
to see that you're in charge for Craig.
Speaker 5 (01:16):
Okay, I respect your position of authority.
Speaker 1 (01:21):
Anyway, let's get straight into everything tennis save why don't
you kick us off with what caught your eye?
Speaker 5 (01:28):
What caught my eye? They are splashing the cash in Cincinnati,
a two hundred and sixty million dollar revamped reno revolution
of their amazing facilities. But I've got to say, was
looking at some aerial photos, bitch stole our Look it's
looking a little AOI it does very a Craig any Opinions,
tournament director of the Australian.
Speaker 3 (01:48):
I think it's cool. I think I think it looks good.
I think it's great, great, And hey, you know if
we can have AO in America and AO in Europe,
and I think you can franchise it's like KFC but
AO because it's just every every one of those events.
Jamie can let you know that every one of those
events have their own identity, and Cincinnati a different city
and the court looks the same, which is great. And
(02:11):
I think that all the money that's been on the
redevelopment is great for the game.
Speaker 5 (02:15):
Yeah, and I did it pretty quickly, less than a year.
Ye hit that big go but yeah, there.
Speaker 3 (02:19):
Which is amazing. It pretty quickly. Maybe we should send
up people over there to have. Look how quickly you
can go and go and learn. I don't'sposed to say that,
but I just did.
Speaker 4 (02:28):
And how many new courts do they have now? They've
got like fourteen. Yeah, so they've got Yeah.
Speaker 3 (02:34):
I mean, I know if Jamie went there, and if
I went there, I wouldn't reckon. It's been a while
since I've been to Cincinnati, but I wouldn't be able
to I'm sure I wouldn't be able to recognize. It's
changed so much, which.
Speaker 5 (02:43):
We hear at the AO, like where kind of boxed in.
But we've got a river, we've got.
Speaker 4 (02:47):
A big road.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Yeah, we're a little more Yeah we can a little
more restricted. We can go up. But there's also things
air rights, which I only found out reasons.
Speaker 1 (02:56):
Yes, someone who bought air rights once is a millionaire,
because if you want to build up, you have to
pay him to.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Go through around this area. There's air rights. There's certain
things we can't go up, like just across the bridge,
because those air rights are protected and owned by someone.
So how you find out, You you build up as
hard as you go, and then you get a bill
and roach and someone I didn't know that I don't
know for the recent So I say that it's a
motivation for us to try and figure to go up build.
(03:23):
Are we going to go up and find out who's
got them?
Speaker 4 (03:25):
Breaking news?
Speaker 5 (03:28):
Well, have you spoken to the since the tournament director
recently or all the tournament?
Speaker 4 (03:31):
No, I see what's that group?
Speaker 3 (03:33):
No, No, we don't have what we do have a
we have as Yeah, I should think about it. No,
there's Ghostbusters is one of them. But the we're what'sapp
group with the Grand Slams And but we do talk,
I mean everyone shares information and and and does have conversations.
(03:53):
And the new Benavarro who is the new owners Sorry,
yeahs dad, And and she always has a good she
plays the best here. She always a good run with
this round open and uh Ben's family have invested in
the event, bought the event. And I've been off the
U S t A and invested in the event. And
at one point I thought it was gonna move to
(04:14):
North Carolina where Ben's from.
Speaker 6 (04:16):
Say that's not her home, No, no home.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
North Carolina and so but but they've kept it since
he and since he's a good western town, good values,
good part of the world, and and you know, The
number one thing they've got in the town now is.
Speaker 5 (04:28):
The massive tennis center tennis event tennis is really that's great,
that's brill.
Speaker 6 (04:33):
They've been getting some good crowd numbers as well.
Speaker 3 (04:37):
Sports town they have, you know, they have the Cincinnati Bengals,
Cincinnati Reds, they have good baseball and a good NFL team.
So yeah, so it's a good sports town. It's very
similar to some of those sports towns in the US.
Speaker 5 (04:50):
Could there ever be a Fifth Slam, of true fifth Slam?
Speaker 3 (04:54):
No, I don't. I mean, you hear that the whole time.
I like that people aspire to being like a Fifth Slam.
But there's a few things you can't replace. You can't
replace the history, you can't replace the tours themselves put
a restriction on the number of players that play. If
you think the Australian Opener, we cater for eight hundred players,
and that's your wheelchair athletes have a wheelchair competition, a
junior competition, and then it's just in the ethos of
(05:15):
the young kids. Their aspiration is to win the Australia Opener,
win Wimbledon, or win You're Sopen, win Roland Garrison, So
that becomes you know when you've done that as a player,
because it's very few that do it, then you've truly
arrived as a player.
Speaker 5 (05:27):
Right, Well, hang on, I'm getting a signal. The batphone
is ringing. I think we've got a special guest on
the line.
Speaker 4 (05:35):
Welcome to the show.
Speaker 7 (05:36):
Wellen, Hey guys, thanks for having me.
Speaker 4 (05:38):
Always a pleasure.
Speaker 5 (05:39):
Now, Craig, you've obviously had a few run ins with
the Perez good or bad?
Speaker 3 (05:42):
Tell me always good, always good.
Speaker 7 (05:45):
Then he's not had enough run ins with me.
Speaker 3 (05:49):
I did have a bit of science at the end
waiting for our dance, because he's Allen's.
Speaker 1 (05:53):
Great sag was just talking about the new Cincinnati site.
Speaker 2 (05:57):
What's it like over there?
Speaker 7 (05:58):
Ellen?
Speaker 2 (05:58):
Is it good?
Speaker 7 (05:59):
It's very nice?
Speaker 4 (06:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (06:01):
I actually I spoke to Ben and I told him
this is like the fifth Grand Slam, and he loved that.
Speaker 7 (06:06):
He was chuffed with that idea.
Speaker 8 (06:09):
And you know, they've put a lot of big improvements,
a lot of money into the event, and the players
are really seeing it and reaping the benefits.
Speaker 7 (06:15):
So it's an amazing site.
Speaker 4 (06:17):
They certainly seem to have taken.
Speaker 5 (06:18):
As I was saying before, a bit of inspo from
our little Australian Open.
Speaker 3 (06:22):
It's fine, it's good.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
What's the saying flattery highest form of flattery?
Speaker 3 (06:27):
Yeah, yeah, copy Yeah, but I mean, like you know,
the definition of copy is still baby steel. I mean,
so all the Master's events of have really improved. I
would like to see every Master's event being a combined
event and men, the men and women playing on the
same platform.
Speaker 5 (06:42):
That that game, that would be crucial. Yeah, that'll help
a lot of things too. But let's go back to
our person on the ground. The quarterfinals are coming up,
and you found yourself in there up against Samsonova and Martinez.
Speaker 4 (06:55):
How the nerves feel?
Speaker 7 (06:56):
Yeah, no, feeling good. I've always loved Cincinnati.
Speaker 8 (06:59):
I've always had good results here, so it's just a
little bit of added pressure. I've made back to back
finals and semis the year before, so I feel like
I like the conditions here. And obviously playing a very
familiar pair. I've played Nicky and lude Miller three times
this year, maybe, so hopefully trying to keep the good
record going and keep the run here going.
Speaker 6 (07:20):
And in terms of just the conditions, l we've seen,
like a lot of players, it's been quite hot there.
How are the courts playing with the balls.
Speaker 7 (07:28):
Yeah.
Speaker 8 (07:28):
Actually I've been one to complain a bit this year
about the balls.
Speaker 7 (07:31):
They're feeling very different.
Speaker 6 (07:34):
Yeah, God Ellen, but they complain.
Speaker 7 (07:37):
The thing is, I'm not the only one.
Speaker 8 (07:39):
Me and Jessic Willer, we're talking about this, and we've
consulted a lot of the players, and we honestly thought
these were a bad batch of balls for the hard
court swing.
Speaker 7 (07:46):
We've not liked the feeling.
Speaker 8 (07:48):
I would say here in Cincinnati, they're feeling a little
more like the ball we were used to playing with
it US Open in the past years.
Speaker 7 (07:54):
But yeah, the conditions here are tough.
Speaker 8 (07:56):
The ball flies a lot, the courts are one of
the faster courts on two and with the hot, humid conditions, yeah,
it's not easy to control it at times. And I mean,
all I can say is thank god I'm playing doubles
and not singles, because the conditions are tough. You know,
I wouldn't want to be out there playing three hours
in here in this conditions. But for doubles, I love it.
I thrive in hot conditions.
Speaker 4 (08:17):
And yeah, so that's human as well.
Speaker 3 (08:20):
Is it still humid?
Speaker 7 (08:22):
Still humid?
Speaker 8 (08:23):
Yeah, I definitely want the dry conditions, but humidity is
not too bad, especially when I feel like most of
the Europeans really struggle with it.
Speaker 5 (08:30):
Well, you're in an interesting position in your doubles pairing
because you're kind of you could potentially be a triples
Do you ever get the feeling to swap out your
partner for her twin sister.
Speaker 8 (08:41):
Natist That's actually not a bad idea depending on the
team we play.
Speaker 7 (08:47):
Just bring in the different kitchen ok.
Speaker 4 (08:49):
For the match, get some fresh legs.
Speaker 7 (08:52):
Yeah, yeah, I'll mention that.
Speaker 8 (08:56):
Unfortunately Nati is not here this week, so I don't
know we could get away with that, but we'll keep
it in mind the future.
Speaker 6 (09:00):
Do you get them confused?
Speaker 7 (09:02):
You know?
Speaker 8 (09:03):
The funny part is the most worried I was with
his partnership was not knowing who was who.
Speaker 7 (09:09):
But I find when you're actually on the.
Speaker 8 (09:11):
Same schedule, you kind of assume and know who's who,
and there is differences, and it's easier when they're in
front of you, both of them. If you kind of
walk past one at a different time, it can be
hard to tell.
Speaker 7 (09:22):
But I feel like I'm starting.
Speaker 8 (09:23):
To learn a little bit their personalities and a.
Speaker 5 (09:25):
Few little features be much easier at a at a
big event where everyone's got a credit around the neck,
the sneaky kind of look down but.
Speaker 2 (09:34):
Put them on their back. That's really hard. They don't
have it around their necks.
Speaker 8 (09:38):
Oh I don't do that, but I feel like a
loser staring at someone's a cred.
Speaker 4 (09:44):
Yeah, yeah, fair enough. Where was I just embrace it?
Speaker 5 (09:47):
I go, Craig Tilly, you do look so you look.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
Like you carry on this partnership into the US Open, Ellen,
do you think that will be?
Speaker 7 (09:57):
Yeah? Yep, So we will go and play Monterey next week.
I mean that's the plan.
Speaker 8 (10:02):
I don't know if anything changes based on this week,
but we'll yeah do that and then US Open and yeah,
likely to then continue on into the Asia Swing. I
think it's one of those things where we've been playing
well together, we enjoy playing together, and there's been so
many changes this year it's hard to keep up, and
it's nice to just have a set partner that you
can just commit to working with and practicing with. And Yeah,
(10:25):
loudas super chill and easy, and we enjoy each other's company,
so kind of just makes sense to keep going.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Yeah, awesome.
Speaker 5 (10:31):
It's a been a bit of a crazy week, though,
fire alarms, power outages. What else are you gonna do?
You're gonna flood the place?
Speaker 7 (10:39):
You never know?
Speaker 8 (10:40):
With me, I know there's been here a lot of lightning. Yeah,
we've had all the elements here. I've actually managed to
avoid it all. I've been in the hotel. I've had
a great schedule, but I know there has been a
lot going on.
Speaker 2 (10:52):
Well, we might wrap it up for you.
Speaker 4 (10:53):
You probably want to go to sleep.
Speaker 1 (10:55):
Yeah, thank you so much for dialing in and giving
us a bit of insight into all the acts and
at Cincinnati and good luck.
Speaker 7 (11:02):
Thank you. I appreciate it. Good luck bye, guys.
Speaker 1 (11:08):
Well, that was exciting to hear from Ellen. She's a
good friend of yours. I'm guessing she is. Thank you
for hooking us up with her.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
But we're going to get into what caught your eye.
Speaker 6 (11:19):
Yeah, So Victoria Embroco has definitely caught my eye and
definitely caught the eye of many to the world pretty much,
the world winning her so much. Yeah, I think we'll
get into that a little bit later. Definitely has caught
the eye of the tennis world and the tennis public.
She won her first WTA title thousand in Montreal last
(11:41):
week country, which was so good, which was really cool,
defeating four Grand Slam champions along the way, had an
incredible run, doing it in front of friends and family. Yeah,
has definitely shot up the rankings really quickly. Started the
year at three point fifty and is now twenty four
in the world world. Yeah, and going to be seated
(12:01):
for this year's You were so open, So I think
that's incredible. Pressure's definitely on and I think part of
the cool thing about this is I actually played her
this time last year, so I've kind of seen her
transition throughout the ranks and like kind of watched her progress.
And yeah, the hard work that she puts out on
the court, especially with her coach. She had a French
(12:23):
coach at the time this time last year. I'm not
sure who she's working with at the moment. I'm not
sure if it's part of the Federation, But yeah, anytime
she stepped out the court, she worked hard. She has
a lot of skills, can play the slice, very big
serve and when I played her, one of the toughest
things was I couldn't read her serve and usually I'm
quite good at that, and I enjoyed trying to find
(12:45):
the cues, but you could not read anything about her SERF.
So yeah, she's shut up the rankings incredibly quick. And yeah,
it's been really good to see.
Speaker 2 (12:52):
So exciting.
Speaker 1 (12:53):
And I've got a Canadian friend who is obsessed with tennis,
lives here in Australia now, but he was like tech
me being.
Speaker 2 (13:00):
Like this is madness.
Speaker 1 (13:01):
This is so exciting for Canadians to have someone good.
Speaker 2 (13:06):
Yeah, well exciting.
Speaker 6 (13:07):
Yeah, Jeanie's retired now, so it's the next generation Andrescu's
still playing, climbing up the rankings. Yeah, to have Victoria
there and she's actually a really nice girl as well.
Speaker 2 (13:18):
She's really nice.
Speaker 6 (13:20):
Yeah, she's really nice.
Speaker 5 (13:21):
Yeah, when you were facing her last year, could you
kind of see right, she's going to be huge in
twelve months time.
Speaker 6 (13:28):
To an extent, Yes, I think when you step up
that level, she just has that level like there was
in a way yes or no. Yeah, she kind of
I think turned it on and then once you kind
of find that rhythm and you find that role of
playing against the higher players, you just get used to it.
And I think that's what she's done really well. She's
feared no one. She's gone out there, played aggressive tennis,
(13:50):
and that's been nice to see. And yeah, it's great
to see a new generation of like the young girls
now coming up to be in the spotlight.
Speaker 2 (13:58):
Amazing.
Speaker 1 (13:59):
Yeah, and did you see the post match ceremony. What
were your thoughts? Did you was there any observations you
had from that very quiet the witness?
Speaker 6 (14:10):
Do you want to start with? Okay, I'll go just
from like a player's perspective, Probably a little bit disappointed
in terms of Osaka's reaction. I know it's hard after
you've just lost a final, but everyone's been through, everyone
goes thraight. Osaka's played in multiple Slams, multiple big tournaments,
(14:31):
She's won them, she's lost them. So I would have
thought it maybe would have been a little bit better
to come up with, yeah, be a better person. But
to Victoria's credit, the way she handled that occasion and
then when she came out and said after in her
press conference like she still looks up to Naomi, she's
someone she.
Speaker 4 (14:50):
That's great, has since apologized explained it.
Speaker 5 (14:53):
Correct me if I'm wrong saying last time I was
up there, I spoke for too long. I just wanted
to get up there say ye, it could.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
Be an outcome of her being anxious.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Right when you're anxious, you've already been criticized for this,
and you're criticized for that, and you just kind of phreeze.
Speaker 3 (15:09):
Maybe. I mean, I think in players to fancy, you know,
there's a tremendous amount of pressure and you respond in
those moments, and I think there has to be sometimes
a little bit of appreciation for what players are going
through in the wins and the losses. And yeah, obviously
they've got to play their part as best they possibly can,
but sometimes it doesn't happen. So I've always looked at
that is that I mean, we've had moments here where
(15:29):
someone's hasn't wanted to speak and they've got to get
up and say a few words, and it's just hard.
Speaker 2 (15:34):
It would be hard.
Speaker 6 (15:35):
But I would love to see like even when that happens,
you know, while they're setting up the stage, where that
player goes, give me two minutes. I'm going to go
to the bathroom, go have a cry. Like I've had
that where I'm like I just need two minutes, go run,
go have a cry, and then come back and then.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Let me go smash my racket in my own.
Speaker 3 (15:50):
One thing that there's so much set up getting ready
for the next stage on TV, so you always get
that to five minutes, often get which gives you an
opportunity to players have left the court to go and
regroup and then come back out.
Speaker 2 (16:01):
I think that's fair.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 4 (16:02):
Are they allowed to go off and have a quick
shower or do they have to all?
Speaker 3 (16:05):
It depends. I mean you normally under the pump because
what everyone rushes because they don't want the crowd to
leave and they want to get it on TV and
we go straight into a couple of ads globally around
the world and then and then get get the stage
set up and plays generally at five to seven minutes.
So sometimes they run off and change. You gotta remind
them put their sponsored.
Speaker 4 (16:24):
Watches on.
Speaker 3 (16:28):
That whole thing.
Speaker 4 (16:29):
All right, well break what caught your eye?
Speaker 2 (16:32):
Well I'm going to keep it really high brows per usual.
Speaker 9 (16:34):
Yes.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
From the literature.
Speaker 1 (16:35):
From the literature, I want to talk about that Venus
has been what do you call it, immortalized and honored
by becoming a bar a barbecue, a barbie. Have turned
her into a barbie. She looks pretty cool, to be honest,
I did see it.
Speaker 2 (16:52):
I see it, and it's.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
Too honor the fact that she's done so much with
when it comes to equality and equity in sports, which
is amazing. We all know that Barbie is like all
about you can't be, we can't see.
Speaker 4 (17:06):
So there's astronaut Barbie.
Speaker 1 (17:09):
Yes, or little girls to know that they can really
be anything. So I thought that was really cool, and
as Craig reminded us, it has come.
Speaker 4 (17:17):
Out perfect timing.
Speaker 2 (17:18):
Yeah, because she just got a doubles.
Speaker 3 (17:20):
Wide at forty four forty four.
Speaker 2 (17:27):
I really think she is very aspirational.
Speaker 4 (17:29):
She's awesome.
Speaker 2 (17:30):
Yeah, definitely, Yeah.
Speaker 1 (17:32):
And I know people like Dash I love her and
I just as a player, a woman's player. How do
you feel about seeing someone like Venus and how she's
been playing so well at the moment.
Speaker 6 (17:43):
Yeah, I think it's pretty cool. It's someone you can
look up to, not just in the tennis world, but
what she does off the court, which she does outside
and honoring her. I know it might not sound big,
but honoring her with a Barbie like that's.
Speaker 5 (17:53):
Pretty cool or cheap, it means a lot to I mean,
I assume not just young girls but women, because Barbie's
been around.
Speaker 2 (18:01):
I love sixty years Barbie was a big pillar of
my and.
Speaker 3 (18:05):
Then and you know Xavier has been honored with ken.
Speaker 1 (18:08):
Yeah just a flower board.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
This is explicit. That is very cool.
Speaker 6 (18:21):
Sorry, I just want to add on that. I think
it's pretty cool also to have like a sports barbie
and someone in tennis. I think sometimes tennis can get
forgotten quite a bit when it's not during the Grand Nations.
Speaker 1 (18:31):
Yeah, sometimes from an American angle too, like it's all
the basketball and the NFL.
Speaker 5 (18:35):
And yeah, because she's older, like normally back in the
day to be like, oh yeah, the Sharapova is in
her prime and like the young cool stars and a
corner Kova. Yeah, perfect example. And now you've got Venus
forty four a Barbie.
Speaker 4 (18:49):
Yea, so good? Okay, Craig, what caught You're right?
Speaker 3 (18:54):
Lots of things. Ben Shelton winning Victoria, winning the Canada
of the last week, and you know being would be
Taylor Fritz in the Semis, which is a pretty big
win for him. And then and then of course going
to this week seeing all the pictures from Cincinnati, kept
in cashmuks and watching with a keen eye and what's
going on. It was fun to hear what Ellen said
about it, you know, the Venus announcement this morning, getting
(19:15):
a wild comment because we had after her wildcard this
year and of course she wasn't able to play at
this rail and opens. Yeah, no, no, no, A long
long way off. I told, I told you, I said
to Jamie when she can put her fist up and
whake me on the face or something like that. With
(19:36):
that with the shoulder, and we're in good shape. But
the no, So it's always the tennis things that cash mind.
And then walking in here today and finding out that
Breason in charge called my alt today, so that.
Speaker 4 (19:46):
Was it's a co hosting.
Speaker 3 (19:48):
I'm not getting into the co host Okay, move.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
On, Look, it's just a quiet hierarchy.
Speaker 5 (19:53):
Yeah, now put your commissioner's hat on for a minute.
Speaker 4 (19:56):
Yes to know if you have one, but let's make
you one.
Speaker 5 (19:59):
The scheduling debate, the questions from players, the thoughts everywhere.
These Masters events are getting longer, the schedule is getting tighter.
Speaker 4 (20:09):
So what's going on?
Speaker 3 (20:10):
I will say what I've said from day one, years
and years ago that hasn't changed is the player voice
is the most critical to how we deliver these events.
And what gets forgotten in the player voice is play welfare.
What gets forgotten in the play of voice is time
to regroup, which relate to play welfare. There's not a
proper off season. The element of play welfare is too
(20:32):
low down on the proade list when we make decisions,
when decisions are made about what the schedule is, and
yes there's commercial reasons for doing these, and this is
where this is just indicative of the poor organization of
our sport. We have seven governing bodies, each fighting for
their own territory and their own position in the calendar,
and the coordination amongst those governing bodies is not at
(20:54):
the level that it needs to be to be successful
from a players perspective. So when a play goes then
to a longer master's events, and now you're adding twenty
one days basically to the calendar and I'm sulready bolding
which is already bulging, and then you know, we we
struggle players. Players they want to play a few exhibitions
or something, they do that out in the middle of December,
late in December, then they turn around a week late
(21:14):
and then start the year again. It's just it's not
it's not right, so so so we so we have
been working in the grandstands particularly, have been working on
an opportunity to have a content at the top end
of the of you know, the top hundred players, the
top end of the tree, where there's very specific about
the length and time of the events where you play,
(21:35):
the cities you play eight to nine week proper off season,
a strong narrative for the fans. You know, governedor is won.
You have the four Slams in there, you have another
eleven eleven twelve events, one team event, so maybe paying
sixteen seven events, and then having a feeding system where
there's several times during the year where you can liken golf,
you like the weekends of golf where you compete to
(21:56):
get your cardiness is not really a card but where
you where you get yourself the top thirty two, top sixteen,
thirty two, fifty six, whatever that number is going to be.
And and then and then the fan kind of understands
where you're going and what it means to where you are.
And then you know, as a player, I've got that
shortened period I'm playing. I've got a mid season rest period.
You know, I've got the end of the season. Because
(22:16):
if you injure yourself like Jamie's the rehab time is
you Actually you've got to be out for a long time,
and it's tough. Even though you've protected ranking, it's tough
to get back and even defend that protected ranking.
Speaker 6 (22:26):
Because the ranking continues to.
Speaker 3 (22:28):
Drop because and then and then and then now you
rushed on time, you know, and so it's just it's so,
I mean, I could go on and on, but there
but there's too much side show stuff going on right now,
and we're going to deal with the core. And the
core is is get the get the get the narrative right,
get the get the tour right, particularly on the on
the top end, get the feeder system right. Everyone has
(22:49):
a role to play, you know, when the slams it's
some first design, there was competition. It's the end of
the two fifties and the five hundred that was not true.
But that's all the side show stuff that that happens
in tennis. So probably too many people involved than making
too many decisions. At the end of the day, you've
got your four Pallas in the sport like you have
in golf, and those the four Masters. Every golfer. It's
just absolute history and tradition that they compete in a
(23:11):
four masters. Similar in tennis you have the four majors,
but the difference in golf is those four masters don't
drive the economic powerhouse of the sport. They're only about
ten percent of the economic value. The other ninety percent
is the PGA is the tour. In tennis, it's about
fifty five. Sixty percent is driven by the form majors,
and so it's imbalanced. So the tour, the commercials of
(23:33):
the tours need to pick up. But how that gets
done by creating an aggregate by all coming together. So
it's hard to do it by yourself. And there's a
lot of good work that's been done by the tours
over and more recently over the years and also over
the years, but probably not enough. And so yeah, so look,
I mean I'm not saying anything different. I mean saying
day one.
Speaker 4 (23:53):
But well, let's get something different.
Speaker 5 (23:54):
Let's pretend you are the commissioner of tennis, you are
King Kong of the game. Yeah, what's the golden what
is the thing that goes Oh, well that's cool, we'll
just do that.
Speaker 3 (24:03):
Yeah. Well, I mean the first thing you would do
is you would make sure that the players are in
the conversation about the future.
Speaker 4 (24:10):
I'll just repeat what you just say. No, but tell
me what event we're cancered.
Speaker 6 (24:13):
No, But I think that's really important because I feel
like maybe in the past, no one's spoken up, whereas
like now players are actually finding up, finding their voice,
to be able to think and.
Speaker 5 (24:25):
Knowing there's an ear willing to listen, not just yourself,
but in.
Speaker 3 (24:29):
The I mean, we we only we only are you know,
one part, a very small part, one twelfth of the calendar.
We only in. But we can influence it by by
lending and putting in our assets into the conversation. And
actually as an organization, we've always put players at the
front end. We've always you know, committed to what the
compensation plan would be in and we talk publicly about
(24:51):
the fact that you know, if you if you encounter
our summer of Tennis, the investment of the summer of Tennis,
which no organization makes, is bigger investment we make. So
hob On International, Adelaine International, Brisbane International, United Cup. When
are we leaving our camera? International? Those are the long invitation,
that's that's your event. These these are funded all by
Tennis Australia and it's a multi multi million dollar investment.
(25:13):
But if you count that investment all the player benefits
that we that we invest in player ground to that
our revenue thirty one percent of our revenue is spent
on directly on the players. And then of course the
rest is it will cost based on putting these events.
And we don't own this venue. We've got to lease
the venue so like unlike in this country, and rentals
are high sour. But our focus has always been to
(25:38):
invest in the player experience, invest in the players, put
them at the front, have always at the first point
of all the decisions that we make, and the proof's
been in the pudding. But again we only represent one
more part of it. But I think what's been happening
now with the player voice and and the and the
different empties getting together more importantly, it's not fixing a problem,
but it's also creating an opportunity. And the opportunity is
(25:59):
that you you know, the water table rises for everyone.
Speaker 5 (26:02):
Well, Craig, you obviously have got a lot of great
things in mind for the players. The global calendar of tennis,
let's talk about that little bit. In January, the Australian Open,
anything you can tease well.
Speaker 3 (26:12):
First of us say, the year round stuff is a
team effort. It's not one one personal because you're not
the commissioner, I'm not clearly and there's no role for
anyone in that other than just working together as a
team with everyone. With the tours and the politicians, yeah
I would need them, will be yes.
Speaker 10 (26:31):
You.
Speaker 3 (26:34):
But for the really exciting twenty twenty six, I mean,
we're still working on some some of the decisions we're
going to make about the experience, but without going through
the specifics because remember in October we unveil and launch
all the great initiatives. But I can there's four things
we always talk about. We talk about more space, more seats,
(26:56):
more shade, and more screens. So obviously you're going to
get all of those, a lot of essays, a lot
of the four s's, the four s's, you're going to
get a lot this year. You're going to a lot of it.
But you're going to see you'll see some things this
year that are going to give you a bit of
a look into the future of what this precinct is
going to be in the next.
Speaker 6 (27:11):
Are we getting a skyscraper?
Speaker 3 (27:12):
Were going up all these things are just possible. I'd
like you to keep guessing. But we talked about air rids,
you said skyscraper, so there could be something looking you
can be onto something. But we are going again more
than fifty percent of the site. It's going to look
completely different to what it looked like in twenty twenty.
Speaker 5 (27:30):
That's what people love about coming back, like it's not
like I've already been that ticket off the list, done it.
Speaker 10 (27:37):
It's not like just to see the grounds change, and
the grounds will change significantly gain and the partners will
have the activations that they're going to have, the amount
of music and the special guests we're going to have,
and then then we've got some big time announcements coming
up about what's going to happen in the week before
the Australian Open, which is the opening week, and how
that continues to grow.
Speaker 3 (27:56):
That that's one event that's that's one week that's picked
up a lot of interest because you can be close
to a play. You can so someone that's is keen
on watching Jamie can go right up and can easily
get the autographed and watch your practice and so so
there's going to be a lot to the opening week,
which we're going to ramp up. But we've got some
exciting announcements coming up. The AO is going to twenty
six and be very different. It's going to be pretty
(28:18):
special for a lot of different reasons of what we're
going to celebrate and the things that we're going to do, uh,
and the stars we're going to have here, and the
music stars we're going to have here and everything else.
So so we're really excited. When we announced it in October,
we'll make sure that you at least the second to
hear about it.
Speaker 4 (28:32):
That's fine, So just you your voices in your head
than us.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
Yeah, that's good.
Speaker 6 (28:36):
Great, Yeah, breaking news on the podcasts.
Speaker 4 (28:39):
I know what the promo is going to be.
Speaker 3 (28:42):
What's that you saying all that stuff? No, No, there
will be other much better people than me saying this
for sure.
Speaker 7 (28:49):
Not very well.
Speaker 5 (28:50):
Great, Thank you so much for coming in. I'm getting
the signal from over there. You've got a meeting with
the landlords. Is it a house, No, No.
Speaker 3 (28:58):
We actually have a meeting talking about going out to
the work environment, going up. We are up already. It's yeah,
there's really.
Speaker 4 (29:07):
About me going down, isn't it? Now? In the door
with my box.
Speaker 3 (29:09):
And that's a very quick conversation. Very much for popping
into the poll studio. Good luck with your rehab, and
great to see that you're back.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Break's left us, but we still have quite a bit
to kind of get through and we're going for long.
Speaker 2 (29:27):
We're going along all right.
Speaker 5 (29:28):
All right, all right, quick decision, let's do a quick
hit lightning round.
Speaker 4 (29:33):
What do you got got?
Speaker 2 (29:34):
Oh god, you've put me on the spot. I'm more
anxious now.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
First one I wanted to talk about was Emma Atakanu
asking for the baby to be removed from the stadium.
Lots of different perspectives on it out there, but when
the umpire said you really expect me to remove a baby.
Speaker 2 (29:54):
The whole crowd actually say. And I've got to say
I'm with her.
Speaker 1 (29:58):
If I was a professional, I was trying to concentrate
and there was a screaming baby, I wouldn't appreciate it.
Speaker 5 (30:04):
Yeah, And I've got two little kids, and I would
absolutely say probably wouldn't take them to begin with, But.
Speaker 2 (30:07):
That's just my I also don't like them on planes.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
Yeah, but you just don't know children playing children just.
Speaker 1 (30:12):
Like a solid to be over twelve. In my world,
in my Dream World children. No, No, ten's too small.
They can yell eighteen twelve, I think yeah.
Speaker 4 (30:22):
Yeah, those famously calm and quite twelve year old.
Speaker 7 (30:25):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (30:25):
Anyway, lightning round, so we'll move on. Sorry, who my
other one was just you know, maybe hours ago.
Speaker 5 (30:33):
Now.
Speaker 2 (30:33):
Fritz was beaten by a qualifier.
Speaker 1 (30:36):
He's French. He's currently ranked one hundred and thirty six.
His name is Terence Atman.
Speaker 5 (30:41):
Oh I remember him, didn't he hit accidentally accidentally hit
the French yes, right in the head.
Speaker 1 (30:49):
Yeah, and didn't get disqualified, which was a bit of
a storyline at that back then too. But yeah, he
knocked out Fritz in where are they at the moment?
Cincinnati six three five seven three six. Yeah, pretty big news,
especially given he was a qualifier. Fritz didn't look happy, understandably,
(31:10):
So he's now three to round four.
Speaker 4 (31:12):
Okay, what was it?
Speaker 5 (31:14):
Yeah, Albert beannie new baby in the tennis World Rafa
welcomes number two. He and his partner Mary have a
new baby and his name is mcquill.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
That's right, with a que.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Yeah, how do you say mcquell?
Speaker 4 (31:28):
I think it's Miguel with sound Michel, Michel, Michael.
Speaker 2 (31:32):
We've got our speaker producer.
Speaker 4 (31:35):
Yeah, so, Raffa, what's your kid's name? This is Mickey
mcquell by world at he's doing.
Speaker 5 (31:40):
That that key rut at the moment where he goes,
is it a cashy? That's such a good so he knows.
Speaker 4 (31:46):
Kea absolutely resolute you KEA.
Speaker 5 (31:49):
What else have we got abroad?
Speaker 6 (31:53):
So we've got some ossies that have played incredibly well
the last fortnite and I'm going to go Adam Walton
defeating Danielle Medvedev six seven six four six one and
it's his first time defeating a top fifty player, so
that's a huge win. And also a quick shout out
(32:13):
to my joint who has made it into the third
round for the first time in one thousands Masters. That's amazing,
credible And unfortunately Alex lost over the weekend, but he
still was two weeks to prime for US Open, so.
Speaker 5 (32:25):
To still be going into the US Open as a
top ten seeds, so yeah, yeah, our thoughts are with you, Alex.
Speaker 4 (32:31):
And it's troubling and try times tough times. That's pretty great.
Aussi's on the road.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
I know it's good. I don't think we have anything else.
Speaker 4 (32:39):
Okay, Sunday class.
Speaker 1 (32:41):
Yeah, well we have had quite a jam packed show today.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
We are going to skip my top five.
Speaker 5 (32:48):
Oh no, angels crying, So we are going to go
straight into Ace of the Week.
Speaker 1 (32:57):
Why don't you kick us off, James, because I know
you just said you were still thinking about it, So
let's put you on the spots.
Speaker 4 (33:02):
Like a little MIDI lightning round.
Speaker 6 (33:04):
So I've started my party's course.
Speaker 2 (33:07):
Instructor, that's amazing to teach it.
Speaker 4 (33:10):
Yeah, that's amazing.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Will you teach use?
Speaker 6 (33:12):
Yeah, of course I needed to the pod. Yeah, give
me a couple of months and we'll set up the
plarty studio.
Speaker 5 (33:19):
Get one of those one of those things called the
refractor reformer. Yeah that's true, but it looks like a
torture device or something.
Speaker 2 (33:29):
It is torture at times extent.
Speaker 4 (33:31):
I just didn't have a good instructor.
Speaker 2 (33:33):
I could be a girl.
Speaker 1 (33:34):
I went to a party's class once and hadn't realized
that it was like the you know how beginner.
Speaker 2 (33:41):
I didn't do advance.
Speaker 1 (33:42):
I just did the medium, And as I was leaving,
the person was like, you really need to be in
the beginner.
Speaker 2 (33:47):
Don't come to this one again. And I never went
back again to be.
Speaker 1 (33:50):
Honest joined clumsy, So put me on one of those.
Speaker 5 (33:56):
It's actually upstairs this morning after a meeting. They were
they were just large steps and breeze. Hang on, I
need to concentrate.
Speaker 2 (34:03):
I can't talk.
Speaker 4 (34:04):
I need constrains.
Speaker 2 (34:04):
I'm that clumsy. I've just got to be careful because
I'm going to die one day and it'll be really sad.
You can't die from falling over. That's not how many,
especially not.
Speaker 5 (34:13):
Even fifty. I was better, say not even forty, but
you are.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
I am forty.
Speaker 6 (34:18):
I'm going to give you a couple of weeks and
I can't teach you.
Speaker 2 (34:21):
I'm ready to do.
Speaker 6 (34:22):
I need to do my hours to need.
Speaker 5 (34:24):
A successful lesson. You taught me the word reformer performer.
Speaker 2 (34:28):
Oh fraction.
Speaker 3 (34:30):
You're thinking you're fracking.
Speaker 2 (34:31):
I am thinking of cracking.
Speaker 4 (34:33):
Slightly different, okay, what's my what is it? The week? Look?
Just to be real different. I'm going to talk about
my kids again. Tomorrow is my little boy, Darcy's sixth birthday.
Speaker 5 (34:43):
So I've made him a cake and he's got some
lego and then yeah, of course, oh.
Speaker 2 (34:47):
He's a very good baker.
Speaker 4 (34:48):
I do you like to back?
Speaker 1 (34:49):
He used to make muffins, every sycake, sorrycakes and different
frostings and topics.
Speaker 2 (34:55):
He doesn't do it anymore.
Speaker 5 (34:56):
No, wedn have the time. Well I used to anyway,
long stories we won't talk about that. Had to start
doing work while I was working from home, damn it.
But so tomorrow's birthday and then we've got his party
coming up. So all these little buddies from school we've
hired out. There's like a pub near us that also
has We're going to the pub.
Speaker 4 (35:17):
Is that not the legal drinking age in Australia, my mistake.
But this pub.
Speaker 5 (35:23):
Slash restaurant also has like a little private cinema where
they do movie here, so it's like old timey sort
of cinema. So we've hired that out. All of your
school buddy's going to come. We're going to watch the
new Lelo and Stitch movie live action thing. And then
there's a table in the pub for all the parents.
Speaker 2 (35:40):
That's actually quite genius because they just sit there and watch.
They don't even make noise, and.
Speaker 5 (35:43):
Even if they do, you're not in a normal cinema,
so Radakani doesn't have to bust in the door and
say get those kids out, who cares what they do.
Speaker 4 (35:49):
Just shut the door, give them the popcorn, come back.
Speaker 2 (35:51):
And guys go the pub. That's actually great.
Speaker 5 (35:53):
It's really hard for winter babies to find a good
birth yea, I reckon there's.
Speaker 2 (35:58):
Started actually had that issue.
Speaker 5 (36:00):
Yeah, no one planning a birthday for you.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
No my birthdays in summers Nomber twenty nine. Mm hm,
listener's out there, send me presents.
Speaker 4 (36:11):
She looks like she's never even had a birthday. You
look positively.
Speaker 2 (36:15):
Do you need to get my botox?
Speaker 4 (36:16):
Fism? What don't you break?
Speaker 2 (36:18):
Oh god, I don't really know, do you know? I
really don't know.
Speaker 1 (36:22):
It's got a bit of a rough week, but I
am going for dinner with my two girlfriends on Saturday night.
We decided we wanted to do something kind of classy
because I don't know, as you get older, Jamie, you
don't go out as much.
Speaker 6 (36:37):
And if you do it now, I don't really go
out there.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Yeah, you can't sit at home.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
We all sit at home without dogs or cats or
both in my case. And we thought, you know what,
we need to put a nice outfit on. We're gonna
wear a heel. Like a heel isn't even like these
days no, but that's just the same. Put a little
heel on.
Speaker 6 (36:57):
That's when you know it's a special.
Speaker 2 (36:58):
Yeah, we're gonna wear a heel.
Speaker 1 (36:59):
I'm gonna go somewhere nice, have a really nice dinner,
the three of us, and then I would like to
be home before ten.
Speaker 2 (37:05):
Okay, we've not even reserved. Are okay?
Speaker 1 (37:12):
Definitely and getting into somewhere anyway, that's my good news
of the week.
Speaker 4 (37:16):
Oh that's good. No, it's nice to have some fun plans.
Speaker 2 (37:20):
I don't think there is anything else, but we will
end the show there.
Speaker 1 (37:25):
Next week is going to be extra exciting because we
are in US Open territory.
Speaker 2 (37:30):
Two of my team are heading over there.
Speaker 4 (37:32):
So we'll have some next week on the ground.
Speaker 1 (37:34):
Some people on the ground will be getting first hand
information insight into the US Open. So qualifying starts next
week and we absolutely can't wait.
Speaker 2 (37:43):
So join us. Then, Thank you everyone, Thank you, Lenny.
Speaker 5 (37:50):
Hey everyone, Harps and Andy here just want to remind
you that you can watch every episode of the Tennis
on our YouTube channel austral and Open tv.
Speaker 9 (37:56):
And we have an email as well podcast at ten
dot com dot au. If you thought the show was
amazing or you thought it was terrible. We are keen
to hear from you. We'll read it, so feedback comments,
whatever it is, Get in touch with us at our
email and we'll catch you on the next one.
Speaker 3 (38:12):
Catch you later.
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