September 9, 2025 • 33 mins
Aces all around.
ICYMI: Carlos Alcaraz defeated Jannik Sinner in Sunday’s US Open men’s single final, clinching his sixth career Grand Slam and snatching the world No. 1 ranking from his respected rival in the process. So on today’s episode of The GIST of It, co-hosts Ellen Hyslop and Steph Rotz dig into the Big Two era of men’s tennis, a stark contrast to the parity in the women’s game. Game, set, slay.
Thanks to Fan Duel for their support of this podcast. We partnered with FanDuel to bring back our free-to-play Women's Pro Basketball Bracket Challenge. Visit thegistsports.com to register and make your picks.
A special thank you to Upper Deck for sponsoring this episode of The GIST of It. Upper Deck is the place to find authentic, autographed sports collectibles. Even better, now you can collect exclusive memorabilia celebrating new Upper Deck spokesperson and women’s soccer legend Alex Morgan, with trading cards in the near future. LFG.
Show notes:
More on The GIST:
☎️ Leave us a voicemail! Call us at 1-437-564-5579 or hold down on this link🎧 Subscribe: thegistsports.com/subscribepod
✉️ Email: pod@thegistsports.com
📷 Instagram: @thegistca @thegistusa
🐦 X: @thegistpod
ICYMI: Carlos Alcaraz defeated Jannik Sinner in Sunday’s US Open men’s single final, clinching his sixth career Grand Slam and snatching the world No. 1 ranking from his respected rival in the process. So on today’s episode of The GIST of It, co-hosts Ellen Hyslop and Steph Rotz dig into the Big Two era of men’s tennis, a stark contrast to the parity in the women’s game. Game, set, slay.
Thanks to Fan Duel for their support of this podcast. We partnered with FanDuel to bring back our free-to-play Women's Pro Basketball Bracket Challenge. Visit thegistsports.com to register and make your picks.
A special thank you to Upper Deck for sponsoring this episode of The GIST of It. Upper Deck is the place to find authentic, autographed sports collectibles. Even better, now you can collect exclusive memorabilia celebrating new Upper Deck spokesperson and women’s soccer legend Alex Morgan, with trading cards in the near future. LFG.
Show notes:
More on The GIST:
☎️ Leave us a voicemail! Call us at 1-437-564-5579 or hold down on this link🎧 Subscribe: thegistsports.com/subscribepod
✉️ Email: pod@thegistsports.com
📷 Instagram: @thegistca @thegistusa
🐦 X: @thegistpod
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Before we get into today's podcast, we want to give
a big thank you to our pals at FanDuel for
partnering with us for today's pod. Steph. We are in
the thick of it right now with summer sports, but
if I'm being honest, all I can think about right
now is the thrill of the postseason, and of course
I'm talking about the upcoming women's basketball playoffs. The feeling
(00:20):
of riding the playoff hoops roller coaster is truly unmatched,
and that's why we partnered with FanDuel to bring back
our free to play Women's Pro Basketball Bracket Challenge. The
eighteen field isn't finalized just yet. We'll get to that
in a minute, but I am so ready to make
my picks in this bracket, and we hope that you
are too. You'll have a chance to fill out your
(00:40):
very own bracket alamarch Madness, picking winners for each round
until you crown your women's hoops champ. The bracket will
be released at the end of the regular season, which
is this Thursday, September eleventh, and I would love to
see your name on the leaderboard next to mine. You
can head to the Just sports dot Com this Thursday,
and we'll remind you that as well. To make your
(01:01):
picks one more time, go to the Just sports dot com.
You can register right now and we'll make sure to
email you on Thursday to make your picks. Hi, what's up?
Hello everyone? Welcome or welcome back to another episode of
(01:21):
the Gist of It. Today's Tuesday, September ninth. We're your
co hosts. I'm Ellen Hyslop.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
And I'm Seph Rot.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
So we're coming off a tremendous sports weekend from the
NFL Week one to the US Open, which wrapped up
in epic fashion as it always does, and queens on
Saturday and on Sunday. So what a's time to be alive?
Speaker 1 (01:41):
What a great time to be alive. I also have
to say, Steph, I went out for a little evening
stroll channeling my inner eighty year old self on Sunday
after I finished dinner. You know, your girl had to
digest and I am one of those people who is
exceptionally nosy. I love you. Yessey, I'm always looking at windows.
(02:02):
Sorry that sounds so bad, but I just say am
looking at windows. If you are open, I'm looking in.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Is it okay?
Speaker 3 (02:08):
When it's from tortured poets. Everyone who's listening, you know
what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
No, you're talking about Okay. Anyway, So I'm looking in
the windows and the other day, wouldn't you know, I'm
walking by a house. They had the Phoenix Mercury game
on sleigh. I was so happy. I saw those jerseys
and I said, that's not men's basketball. I can't be
men's basketball right now. It's the WNBA that they're playing.
(02:34):
It made me so happy.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Wait did I tell my Phoenix Mercury story on the
podcast or did I tell it to you personally?
Speaker 1 (02:42):
I don't remember.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
So I was wearing my DT my Diana tossery.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Sorry, words are really hard for me today, guys, So
heads up Diana Tarassi jersey. And I was just like
mentally prepared for someone to think I was in a
Phoenix Suns jersey.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
And there was this teenage boy on my street.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Pulling in the garbage bins and he goes, sick Mercury jersey.
And I literally opened my mouth to say, oh, it's
a Mercury jersey. And then it was like, wait, that's
what he said, and I got I was said. And
then I, so, I paused, you must have thought I
was slow in my brain, which I currently am currently,
and then I went.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yeah, I was just so shocked.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Nature is so healing, and I feel like you're probably
so shocked stuff too, because no, when we were teenagers,
we didn't have access to the W NBA in the
same way, and so there wasn't young fans of the W,
especially young male fans of the W. But now that's
so cool. I'm so happy that you experienced that. I
don't think you've ever told me that story.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
I was I I just ran inside and screamed it
to my partner after, and it was really exciting.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
How to scream you scrumped? I can only imagine. Also,
do you want to tell people about your noggin from
over the weekend? Because it was a really fun sports
weekend for those of us who are sitting on the
couch watching sports and for those of us who don't
play quick twitch sports for the moment, but it wasn't
the most fun weekend for you actually playing sports.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Ellen was right, everybody, I am officially quitting soccer. It's over,
it's happening, it's done. I for some reason went pretty
much my whole life without getting a soccer ball to
the face or to the head, and then this particular summer,
I have now had a ball kick directly to my
head twice. And the second time was this past Sunday evening,
(04:34):
and it happened, and it was I was so incredibly
traumatic in hindsight.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
I put my hand up, said nope.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
I'm done, started crying and walked off the field.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Oh suppy.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
And there was one of the moms there because we
have a seventeen year old on our team and so
her mom always comes. It's an adult league, so it
was an exception has been made, and she comes over
to me, and I think she instantly knows she needs
to leave me alone and just let me cry it out.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
That is so sweet and for context for anyone who's
a new listener. Seph and I, but you in your
adult ears and me and my teenage years have both
really had a hard time with concussions, and you, in particular,
I've had a hard time of late with concussions, getting
one most recently while you're playing hockey. And so you
decide to play soccer, which I'm still so glad that
(05:26):
you did. But I think if you're going to focus
on being healthy and getting to play a sport, we're
going to focus on hockey.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
So I've made the decision that the risk is not
worth it. And because immediately, the first thing that popped
into my head when the ball hit my face is
I better be.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Able to still play hockey.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
And so if that's the thing that's popping into my head,
I think it's time to just pick one dangerous sport
for now and stick with that one.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Your brain is the sexiest part of you, seph. We
got to make sure that that thing stays right and
stays tight. So I think that that's a really great decision.
I'm so sorry that you had to go through that
over the weekend. And for anyone who's listening, if you're
playing sports, just please wear your mouthguarts or your head
gear or do what you need to do to ensure
that you're feeling safe to protect your noggin.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Yeah, there's a lot be careful out there, folks, be
careful out there sometimes.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Right, No, No, I hate and that instance. I don't
like being I don't like being right. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
She did warn me that she has had all of
her concussions from soccer so it doesn't just happen in hockey.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
That's what she said to me.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
No, I just said be careful. So while I was
sitting on the couch doing Jackson, I was watching I
was watching a lot of tennis, So you might have
been playing soccer stuff. But over the weekend, Number one
Arena Sabalanka defended her title on the women's side in
the US Open, while Carlos Alcaraz took down Yonick Center
and the men's singles final, a win that launched him
(06:49):
into the men's world number one ranking. He was number two,
so when we say launched, he took a step into
number one. Him and Center. I've been kind of playing
it back and forth. So in today's episode, we kind
of want to do a year in review or season
and review for both men's and women's tennis. And I'm
really excited to get into it because I feel like
we're in this really interesting phase of tennis. There's so
(07:12):
much parity in the women's game right now, which is
sometimes good sometimes bad for the women's game. And then
we want to shift and talk about the idea of
a Big three or now a Big two era on
the men's side of tennis. And what we can expect
from them. So I want to get into all of that.
But from what we talked about at the top of
(07:32):
the podcast stuff, I know that you want to call
an audible today and just kind of get into some
high level stuff that's happening in the WNBA.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yes, of course.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
So just because the sports world is ever turning and
I never really know what's going to be in store
for us in the next couple of days, I wanted
to give everybody a heads up in case we don't
have time to talk about it in our Thursday podcast.
The regular season for the WNBA ends on September eleventh,
and the playoffs are set to begin on September fourteenth.
According to the WNBA's website, it does say dates posterisk
(08:02):
set to change right now. Seven at the time of recording,
seven of eight playoff spots have been clinched. So that's
the Minnesota Lynx, the Atlanta Dream, Las Vegas Aces, Phoenix, Mercury,
New York Liberty, Golden State Valkyries, and Indiana Fever. So
that is the playoff field at this moment in time.
(08:24):
But there is an eighth person or an eighth seed
that needs to firm up this upcoming week.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
And I think that I'm sure we'll get into it
at some point. I really hope that we hold space
for the WNBA playoffs. But I cannot believe that the
Valkyries made it in their first expansion year entering the league.
I think that there were the first only to do it.
What an incredible story. And I'd say too without a
consummate star, and I think that that's really cool and
(08:51):
speaks to how this team was made, how the draft went,
all that sort of stuff. And I also have to
say the Indiana Fever making the post this year is
also quite impressive considering how down bad their roster is.
I think everyone kind of knows that Caitlin Clark has
been out for a significant period of time, but they
have had some major, major injuries to some other major
(09:14):
key players on their team. That the fact that the
rest of the team aka are Girlia Boston has stepped
up in such a major way to make them enter
or help them enter the playoffs is truly outstanding. So
that was a big surprise to me. I'm so curious
to see who could take this eight seed. There are
games Tuesday night that could make or break it and
(09:36):
so I will be watching with baited breath at the edge.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Of my seat.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
So, at this current time, number eight seed is Seattle
Storm in the number nine seed is LA Sparks and
they are both playing this week.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
So let's see what happens. Who knows? Boom boom.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Another shout out to FanDuel for sponsoring today's pod our
partner on our upcoming Women's Pro Basketball Bracket challenge. When
the eighteen bracket is released on Thursday, September eleventh, run
don't walk to the Just sports dot com to make
your picks. In the meantime, you can bet on women's
tubes all postseason long, and that includes futures picks.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
You can place a bet today on who will hoist
the trophy at the end of the WNBA postseason. If
I was a betting woman and I do double, i am.
I'm feeling good about the league leading Minnesota links Agree, disagree?
Check out the fans Will App and throw some green
on that gut feeling again. Download the Fans App today
to get it on the fun.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Okay, as mentioned, today's one big story is looking back
on a fantastic year for tennis and also what's coming up.
We want to talk about it on the women's side
as well as the men's side, because here at the
Gist we cover men's and women's sports equally. We talk
about the biggest thing in sports, whether it's the men's
side or the women's side. So let's talk about the
women first. Stuff. Let's talk about the parody that we
(11:03):
are seeing in the WTA and on the women's side.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Right now, are you doing that little clap?
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Okay? But are you seeing the difference between so right now,
stepf is asking if I'm doing a little clap with
the pointer finger and the thumb finger clapping.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Am I doing it wrong?
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Is? So there's there's two different ways. We learned this.
Once from our gen Z social media coordinator, and then
I also learned it from TikTok. So when you're clapping
with your middle finger and your thumb, so almost like snapping,
but you're clapping like that, that is that's like applause, like wow,
that was so good. Applause da da da. When you're
(11:40):
clapping with your pointer finger and your thumb, that's kind
of you clapping at shade. So if someone says something
that kind of clocks someone or is tea or throw shade.
That's when you go oh, and you go pointer finger
and thumb. But then when it's actually, wow, that was
such a great.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Shot, but you just don't feel like thing you go
because hearing them parody and women's game, I wanted to
do it and then I immediately realized I think I
was doing it wrong, and I was I was doing okay.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
So the middle finger, it would be.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
A perfect middle finger situation. And if I said something shady,
then you would do pointer finger.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Yeah, it's really podcast.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Friendly because I can emote without ruining the audio.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Yeah, exactly, Thank you every lesson. That's her lesson from
a millennial who identifies as gen Z.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Thank you, miss Ellen for that lesson. So let's get
back to my fun clap, not my shady clap, because
we're talking about the parody in the women's game. For tennis,
four different women won tennis's four Grand Slams aka Majors
this past year. The Australian Open went to Madison Keys,
who's American, the French Open Cocoa Goff, also American, and
(12:53):
then Egas Fiantech won Wimbledon, she's Polish, and then the
US open, as Ellen mentioned beginning of the podcast, went
to Arena Sabolanka, who's Belarushian or Belerussian?
Speaker 1 (13:04):
I should say, yeah, So I would say, Sef, those
are four different winners, which is really cool with Coco Golf,
Siantech and Sablanca. I would say that those three continue
to be in the hunt at every single Grand Slam.
It is a surprise if they do not make it
to the quarterfinals. And so while there's parody, when we're
(13:25):
looking at who is actually winning, I would say the
surprise winner here was Madison Keys, right, and when she
won that Australian Open, I think that was correct me
if I'm wrong, but I think I'm right. It was
her first major or her first major since twenty fourteen
or something or twenty seventeen. It was something like that.
If you want to live fac treck stuff, that'd actually
(13:46):
be fantastic. This is when we need a producer. But
there is as much as we say that there's parody
in the mate on the women's side, I would say
that those are kind of the key players who are
consistently in that quarter final conversation.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Okay, according to the AOI over you, which you know,
I have feelings about it. Said that she has one
major and that's the twenty twenty five Australian Open.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
But she did.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
She was a US Open finalist in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Yes, okay, thank you so much. I knew how did
we know?
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Got that? You got that right in here?
Speaker 1 (14:22):
It was locked in there. This useless sports fact trivia
that I think that was genetically passed down for my dad.
He has it bad. He has that useless knowledge bad.
He has it outside of sports, which is horrible. I
feel like I only have it inside of sports.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
He should play trip. Does he do trivia?
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Oh? He? I think he needs to play it more.
But he could clean up playing trivia as kids. Now.
He loves to play trivia with us, his kids. When
we don't want to play trivia with him, you know
what I mean, he'll know I'm talking.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Get this man a trivia team, put him out into
the world and let him compete.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
I think he'd crush.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Yeah, crush.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
I think he'd absolutely crush. So the thing is about
parody on the women's side, Seph. It's there, but it's
not fully there, and I feel like there's not fully
the stars in the same way that when it was
a Serena Williams or Venus Williams or Maria Charapova where
they kind of took over. But I and we've talked
about this on the podcast before, so sorry if I'm
(15:19):
sounding like a broken record. I don't necessarily think that
parody is a good thing for the game of tennis
or for the game of golf. I think that people
love to have someone who they can root for, as
well as love to have someone who they can kind
of love to hate because they're up in the mix
all the time. And so when you can actually feel
(15:42):
like you're getting to know someone and you could cheer
for them because they truly are the goat, I think
that's when more people tune in. And so I am
really excited to see what twenty twenty six brings because
we'd almost need. What I would love to see is
a true, true, true breakout year for Sabelanka and Golf,
and I think that we were inches away from seeing
(16:04):
that this year and seeing a true rivalry come up
between the two of them. But I feel like we
are so close to seeing the two of them really
just say this is our sport, We're running with it.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Let's go I like a familiar top five, top ten, Okay.
I like not knowing who's gonna win, like a couple naimasaka. Yeah,
a couple names you know where you're familiar with them,
you like them, you're familiar with their vibe.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
But it's not a lock that it's going to be
one of two people.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Yeah, okay, so that's where we're different. I love a lock.
I love to lock it down. I love to know
who exactly is going to win where I love. I
love to see a semi finals where I'm going everybody's
wicked good and I feel like I know all of
them and that is guaranteed to be this incredible rivalry,
(16:55):
and I think maybe that's part of the reason why
men's sennis is doing so well right now. If we
may transition over there, Steph.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
I tried to tea that up for you.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Oh what do you call it?
Speaker 2 (17:05):
What would be a tennis m serve serve it. We'll
just serve it up for you.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Yeah. He tried to do a seft serve toward me,
Queen Dary Queen where sef worked. Oh no, so I
would say. So we're arguably in the Big two of
tennis we're moving away from the Big three that was
Rafa Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic and moving into
(17:32):
this Big two era where it's Carlos Alkraz, Yanick Sinner
and you know what, Novak Djokovic is still there, but
I think he's kind of like a peripheral third or
a veteran third. I think that you could say. But
to me, sef, how dominating Yanick center and Carlos Alkraz
has been has allowed this men's game to grow because
(17:54):
so many people are plugged in and tuned into these two.
And I would say, especially Alkarazk, he's fun.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
The Big three era lasted from two thousand and three
to twenty twenty three, just twenty years. That's a big
chunk of time. And the reason why the twenty twenty
three is the year that it says that we're saying
it ended is because that was when Djokovic last won
a Grand Slam. So that marks the end of the
Big Three before we go into the Big two. So,
(18:22):
just to give some historical context, year one.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Not historical being twenty twenty three, and then Federer retired
in twenty twenty two and Dal retired in twenty twenty four. Right,
and when we say Djokovic is that peripheral three, he's
played so well. He has made the semis in all
four of the Grand Slams this year, So he is
in the mix. He's still that guy.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
He's still getting that bag. But he's not going to win.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
No, he's not gonna win. And so when we look though,
Steph and the reason why we're in the Big two
era in comparison to the women's side that saw four
different women win one of the majors in twenty twenty four,
I don't know why I said it like that, as
well as twenty twenty five, every single major was either
one by Carlos Alkraz or Yonick Center.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Oh my god, and they're baby Cinner is twenty four
years old and al kraz is twenty two.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Which makes me so excited.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Right, it's so exciting.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
It's so exciting because I feel like, so I feel
like we had Andre Legacy and Pete sam Press. Do
you remember them? Sure? Yeah, sure, okay, so you would
love Andre Agacy? Have you read his autobiography?
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Of an autobiography?
Speaker 1 (19:36):
So normally sports autobiographies are trash.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Andrea, I see his life Megan, Oh you don't like that.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
I did.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Sorry, I think that I liked it, but then some
people on our team read it and they didn't like it,
and then.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
I was influenced. Okay, well, I said, oh.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Yeah, well offline however, I think it's called The Open.
I really can't remember what it was. But Andre Aggacy's
autobiography is fantastic. I think that it's the best sport
autobiography I've ever read, and I feel like I've read
a lot of sports autobiographies. Okay, yes, I would highly
recommend it to anyone who is listening. But anyway, it
was kind of like this the Pete Sampras Andre Agacy era,
which then funneled into this new guy on the block
(20:14):
called Roger Federer, who then brought into Dal and then Djokovic.
And so now I kind of feel like Djokovic is
this last piece of this big three who's passing it
on to this little someone named Carlos al Karaz And
so I'm excited, right, Steph, Like you said, we had
twenty years of those big three continuing with Djokovic. What
can we get from these big two and maybe plus
(20:36):
plus where we have potentially this Andre Eggacy, Pete Sampras
kind of vibe.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
And many thought that there would be a gap in
the men's game for players who would would step into
those big roles, and that thought that there might be,
you know, no stars really to take be a given
to win and open. So it is it is interesting
how it's played out.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Yeah, and then I think that third after Djokovic, that's
where things get a little bit loosey goosey, And I think, Steph,
maybe these are the types of players who you like
to keep your eye on. Right there's the Taylor Fritz
of the world. He's American, his girlfriend is quite the
influencer on TikTok. You can kind of follow everything behind
the scenes there, Francis Tfo, Felix oj Ali, seem ccpass,
(21:21):
Daniel Menvedev, you know what I mean. There's there's so
many kind of other players that had been up there.
But Janick Sinner and Carlos Alcraz have said, okay, we
are taking fifty yards ahead of the rest.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Center won the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year, while
al Kraz won the French Open and US Open, so
they did quite literally like split those in two. But
I don't know if that's necessarily representative of how things
might play out next year.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Would you agree or disagree?
Speaker 1 (21:50):
I'm not sure. I have no sure, and I think
that I think that Alcraz, being Spanish and having trained
underneath Rafa Nadal at his academy, is always going to
be set up super well on the clay court. He's
not going to be as good as Rafa and I
don't think we'll ever put up those numbers in the
French Open, but I think that it's going to be
hard for there's a there's a couple of other people
(22:12):
like in Norwegian I'm forgetting his name right now, who's
very good on clay Maybe o j Alias seem but
like uh Outkraz is very good. Who knows what's going
to actually happen. I think tournament to tournament stuff. But
the more that we could see these two play each
other the better. And the more that a definitive again
this is me speaking, the more that a definitive number
(22:34):
three comes in, and maybe that's Djokovic, I think we
have one more season of Djokovic. But we have Djokovic
or someone else like properly comes up, that's when things
are going to get really exciting.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
So do you want to talk about what's next?
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Then?
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Is that where we're at?
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Yeah, so that's that's for next year. What's what's next?
The tennis season is actually over ten months long. I
don't know how they do it. It's it's one of
the longest seasons. And so now we get into kind
of the team tournament as well as the WTA and
ATP finals, where the best players from both the WTA
and ATP play against one another and almost like a
(23:15):
playoff format. I guess that you could say. But there's
also those team tournaments.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Yeah, so while the majors are done, tennis season isn't over.
We do need to make that distinct clause. Golf okay, golf.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Like on the p Cup, the Ryder Cups still on.
Roy McElroy won a tournament over the weekend in Europe
in a playoff, because that's what he does in a playoff.
It's always so nerve wracking. So there's still and the
ATP and the WA The WTA finals are a big deal,
like the ATP and WTA finals. They make a lot
of money playing in those tournaments.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Yeah, so money is still to be made. But the
Grand Slams are over.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Yeah boom yeah, and then the Team Tournament's Laverer Cup
on the men's side and then the Billy g Cup
on the women's side, and it's basically Team Europe versus
Team World's type of situation, which is pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
I'm obsessed with Diaomi Osaka's Billy Jing was a Billy
Jing Blank.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
I think that she got a deal with Lebuboos after
all of that too, as she should. As she should anyway,
tennis is I think tennis last year didn't do it
for me. The last two years for tennis I enjoyed,
but I wasn't obsessed with this season. This past year,
I said, oh, I'm back to being a tennis girly.
So I'm really excited to see where the future goes.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
No Netflix documentary did that to you.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Breakpoint, Breakpoint, A very big.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Thank you to our friends at the sports collectibles company
upper Deck for supporting this podcast. Our collaboration with upper
Deck goes way back, which is no surprise giving their
commitment to both women's and men's sports. Yesterday, upper Deck
announced women's soccer legend Alex Morgan as their newest spokesperson,
making Upper Deck the place to find authentic, exclusive Morgan
memorabilia and trading cards. I cannot wait to get my
(25:07):
hands on some. You can check out their new collection
at upperdeck dot com. One more time, check out their
new collection at upperdeck dot com.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
It's time for our personal training Sash. This is the
last segment of the podcast, and it's where we would
love to answer your hard hitting questions and or comments concerns,
respond to anything you want to throw your way to
us about anything in the sports world.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Anything.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Yes, and if you'd like to be featured on a
future episode, please call and leave us a voicemail at
one four three seven five six four five five seven nine,
email us at pod of justsports dot com, or leave
us a message on Instagram at Stephanie Rots at ellen Ethangist.
All this information is in the show notes, which is
why I'm chatting so fast.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
And before we get to today's personal training Sash, we
do want to issue a correction. Last week's personal training
session on women's baseball was thanks to a voicemail from
our new friend Tolly, who we misnamed as Holly, and
we are so sorry about that. Thank you for writing
it and correcting us.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yes, and for messaging us on Instagram. Thank you so much.
That was so nice. In today's personal training session, It's
really great timing. As we're talking about tennis, we are
taking a question from Sammy who reached out to me
on Instagram yesterday shout out Sammy when she saw President
Trump at the men's final of the US Open. Sammy said, Hi, Ellen,
(26:34):
watching the US Open, and I'm sure you and Steph
will cover it on the next podcast, but I cannot
wait to hear your thoughts on a certain precedent who
just had to attend today's final and cause a delay,
and how that delay could have affected Sinner and Carlos's
prep for the match. So Sammy, thank you so much
for reaching out for dming us again. We love that question.
(26:57):
Let's start with a little bit of context for.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Those that missed it.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Trump was at the men's final, attending as a guest
in the Rolllex box, and his visit required extra enhance
security for all patrons, which then led to extremely long
lines for the rest of the attending fans to enter
the stadium, and the match itself was actually pushed back
a half hour to give more time for people to
actually get into the stadium, but still thousands of fans
(27:21):
who spent thousands of dollars, we're still outside the stadium
waiting to be let in when the match actually began.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
And if you were watching from home, which Sammy was,
which I was with Steph was, you didn't actually see
too much of Trump, and that is because he was
purposely left off of the broadcast, I think for several
kind of reasons that we don't know all of the
rash atal alleged speculative, we don't want to get into it,
but we couldn't actually tell what happened, and it was
(27:53):
TikTok and other social media that actually showed us what
went down while Trump was there. And the biggest thing
was that he was booed when he arrived, but he
was also bowed by such a small amount of people
because nobody could actually get into the US Open because
of all the security that he had to bring or
had to put into force. And then when he was
(28:15):
showing on the screen during the national anthem, and I
think after the first set, there was also a lot
of boos. And so I think it's very interesting, slash
not surprising that that's also happening in his hometown.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
In New York. This was in New York. This is
in New York.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
This is New York. This is apparently Trump's HOTEWN.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
So you know, so yeah, yeah, And we discussed this
on the podcast previously because Trump has made other appearances.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
At sporting events in the second term.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
The Super Bowl, Daytona, five hundred UFC fights, blah blah blah.
He is going to continue to show up, it looks like.
And then to get to your question that you asked
asked for the athletes, Center and Alcaraz were instructed to
arrive even earlier than usual to avoid any sort of
warm up disruptions. And of course any athlete has a
(29:10):
warm up routine. It's important for any sport. But both
Center and Alcraz did say that the delay did not
impact their pregame routine, and of course both athletes were
given the same instructions and had the same set of
time and everything to get ready for the game. So
they were both, I guess you could say, on equal
playing field for that reason.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
They're consummate for professionals too, them both saying that you
know what I mean, it's really too bad that that happened,
but they're going to shift and make it work. I
feel really bad for all the patrons who were there
and who had to wait in longer lines because the
US Open is such a well run tournament. I've had
the privilege of being able to go and watch a
women's final and attend a couple of matches before, and
(29:55):
it is fantastic. It is such an amazing experience that
I would recommen to anyone. It's unlike a sporting event
that I've ever been to, and they make it so smooth,
and that's I think part of the appeal and allure
as well, because it's such a fun and easy event
to get to consume. But I think unfortunately with the
President arriving, it didn't help any of that experience for
(30:19):
any of the guests of the US Open.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
And there's so many things that you could go to
in the future. There's the World Cup, there's the Olympics.
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Stay home.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Another shout out to upper Deck for sponsoring this podcast.
As Elle mentioned earlier, upper Deck is all in on
women's sports as the exclusive trading card licensee for my
favorite sports.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
League, the PWHL.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Upper Deck spotlighting on women's sports in the trading card
and memorabilia space is completely unmattch go grab a piece
of history by checking out their collections at upperdeck dot com.
That's upperdeck dot com.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
And that marks the end of today's episode. Thank y'all
so much for tuning in. We really hope that you
enjoyed it. I had a lot of fun today me too.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Thank you so much Ellen for helping me along today.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Yeah. No, oh my god, Steph, you were so great.
It's so impressive that you have a head injury and
you're still working through the podcast.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
I really appreciate you. I'm manifesting, I'm fine.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
I think you're okay. I've unfortunately seen you.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
In worse states. Yeah, exactly, and so I think.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
You know, I think you're in a your you've made
your decision and we're good.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
And we're good, and you know what, we'll also be
back in your feed with a new podcast on Thursday, so.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
I'm going to be back.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Don't worryin if.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
You're doing today's episode, would absolutely love if you could rate, review, subscribe,
and send us in a personal training sash, whether that's
voicemail or DM or email.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
This episode was edited vice Savannah Howld and produced by
Alexander Puccio and Lauren Tescala. I'm Ellen his Lap and.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
I'm Steph Rots And let's see how the wn A
playoffs play out. So keep locked and loaded to see
who clinches that final eight spot.
Before we get into today's podcast, we want to give
a big thank you to our pals at FanDuel for
partnering with us for today's pod. Steph. We are in
the thick of it right now with summer sports, but
if I'm being honest, all I can think about right
now is the thrill of the postseason, and of course
I'm talking about the upcoming women's basketball playoffs. The feeling
(00:20):
of riding the playoff hoops roller coaster is truly unmatched,
and that's why we partnered with FanDuel to bring back
our free to play Women's Pro Basketball Bracket Challenge. The
eighteen field isn't finalized just yet. We'll get to that
in a minute, but I am so ready to make
my picks in this bracket, and we hope that you
are too. You'll have a chance to fill out your
(00:40):
very own bracket alamarch Madness, picking winners for each round
until you crown your women's hoops champ. The bracket will
be released at the end of the regular season, which
is this Thursday, September eleventh, and I would love to
see your name on the leaderboard next to mine. You
can head to the Just sports dot Com this Thursday,
and we'll remind you that as well. To make your
(01:01):
picks one more time, go to the Just sports dot com.
You can register right now and we'll make sure to
email you on Thursday to make your picks. Hi, what's up?
Hello everyone? Welcome or welcome back to another episode of
(01:21):
the Gist of It. Today's Tuesday, September ninth. We're your
co hosts. I'm Ellen Hyslop.
Speaker 2 (01:26):
And I'm Seph Rot.
Speaker 3 (01:28):
So we're coming off a tremendous sports weekend from the
NFL Week one to the US Open, which wrapped up
in epic fashion as it always does, and queens on
Saturday and on Sunday. So what a's time to be alive?
Speaker 1 (01:41):
What a great time to be alive. I also have
to say, Steph, I went out for a little evening
stroll channeling my inner eighty year old self on Sunday
after I finished dinner. You know, your girl had to
digest and I am one of those people who is
exceptionally nosy. I love you. Yessey, I'm always looking at windows.
(02:02):
Sorry that sounds so bad, but I just say am
looking at windows. If you are open, I'm looking in.
Speaker 2 (02:07):
Is it okay?
Speaker 3 (02:08):
When it's from tortured poets. Everyone who's listening, you know
what I'm talking about.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
No, you're talking about Okay. Anyway, So I'm looking in
the windows and the other day, wouldn't you know, I'm
walking by a house. They had the Phoenix Mercury game
on sleigh. I was so happy. I saw those jerseys
and I said, that's not men's basketball. I can't be
men's basketball right now. It's the WNBA that they're playing.
(02:34):
It made me so happy.
Speaker 3 (02:36):
Wait did I tell my Phoenix Mercury story on the
podcast or did I tell it to you personally?
Speaker 1 (02:42):
I don't remember.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
So I was wearing my DT my Diana tossery.
Speaker 2 (02:48):
Oh my god.
Speaker 3 (02:48):
Sorry, words are really hard for me today, guys, So
heads up Diana Tarassi jersey. And I was just like
mentally prepared for someone to think I was in a
Phoenix Suns jersey.
Speaker 2 (03:00):
And there was this teenage boy on my street.
Speaker 3 (03:02):
Pulling in the garbage bins and he goes, sick Mercury jersey.
And I literally opened my mouth to say, oh, it's
a Mercury jersey. And then it was like, wait, that's
what he said, and I got I was said. And
then I, so, I paused, you must have thought I
was slow in my brain, which I currently am currently,
and then I went.
Speaker 1 (03:22):
Thank you.
Speaker 2 (03:23):
Yeah, I was just so shocked.
Speaker 1 (03:26):
Nature is so healing, and I feel like you're probably
so shocked stuff too, because no, when we were teenagers,
we didn't have access to the W NBA in the
same way, and so there wasn't young fans of the W,
especially young male fans of the W. But now that's
so cool. I'm so happy that you experienced that. I
don't think you've ever told me that story.
Speaker 3 (03:46):
I was I I just ran inside and screamed it
to my partner after, and it was really exciting.
Speaker 1 (03:51):
How to scream you scrumped? I can only imagine. Also,
do you want to tell people about your noggin from
over the weekend? Because it was a really fun sports
weekend for those of us who are sitting on the
couch watching sports and for those of us who don't
play quick twitch sports for the moment, but it wasn't
the most fun weekend for you actually playing sports.
Speaker 3 (04:10):
Ellen was right, everybody, I am officially quitting soccer. It's over,
it's happening, it's done. I for some reason went pretty
much my whole life without getting a soccer ball to
the face or to the head, and then this particular summer,
I have now had a ball kick directly to my
head twice. And the second time was this past Sunday evening,
(04:34):
and it happened, and it was I was so incredibly
traumatic in hindsight.
Speaker 2 (04:39):
I put my hand up, said nope.
Speaker 3 (04:42):
I'm done, started crying and walked off the field.
Speaker 1 (04:46):
Oh suppy.
Speaker 3 (04:48):
And there was one of the moms there because we
have a seventeen year old on our team and so
her mom always comes. It's an adult league, so it
was an exception has been made, and she comes over
to me, and I think she instantly knows she needs
to leave me alone and just let me cry it out.
Speaker 1 (05:04):
That is so sweet and for context for anyone who's
a new listener. Seph and I, but you in your
adult ears and me and my teenage years have both
really had a hard time with concussions, and you, in particular,
I've had a hard time of late with concussions, getting
one most recently while you're playing hockey. And so you
decide to play soccer, which I'm still so glad that
(05:26):
you did. But I think if you're going to focus
on being healthy and getting to play a sport, we're
going to focus on hockey.
Speaker 3 (05:32):
So I've made the decision that the risk is not
worth it. And because immediately, the first thing that popped
into my head when the ball hit my face is
I better be.
Speaker 2 (05:39):
Able to still play hockey.
Speaker 3 (05:41):
And so if that's the thing that's popping into my head,
I think it's time to just pick one dangerous sport
for now and stick with that one.
Speaker 1 (05:48):
Your brain is the sexiest part of you, seph. We
got to make sure that that thing stays right and
stays tight. So I think that that's a really great decision.
I'm so sorry that you had to go through that
over the weekend. And for anyone who's listening, if you're
playing sports, just please wear your mouthguarts or your head
gear or do what you need to do to ensure
that you're feeling safe to protect your noggin.
Speaker 3 (06:09):
Yeah, there's a lot be careful out there, folks, be
careful out there sometimes.
Speaker 1 (06:14):
Right, No, No, I hate and that instance. I don't
like being I don't like being right. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (06:20):
She did warn me that she has had all of
her concussions from soccer so it doesn't just happen in hockey.
Speaker 2 (06:26):
That's what she said to me.
Speaker 1 (06:28):
No, I just said be careful. So while I was
sitting on the couch doing Jackson, I was watching I
was watching a lot of tennis, So you might have
been playing soccer stuff. But over the weekend, Number one
Arena Sabalanka defended her title on the women's side in
the US Open, while Carlos Alcaraz took down Yonick Center
and the men's singles final, a win that launched him
(06:49):
into the men's world number one ranking. He was number two,
so when we say launched, he took a step into
number one. Him and Center. I've been kind of playing
it back and forth. So in today's episode, we kind
of want to do a year in review or season
and review for both men's and women's tennis. And I'm
really excited to get into it because I feel like
we're in this really interesting phase of tennis. There's so
(07:12):
much parity in the women's game right now, which is
sometimes good sometimes bad for the women's game. And then
we want to shift and talk about the idea of
a Big three or now a Big two era on
the men's side of tennis. And what we can expect
from them. So I want to get into all of that.
But from what we talked about at the top of
(07:32):
the podcast stuff, I know that you want to call
an audible today and just kind of get into some
high level stuff that's happening in the WNBA.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yes, of course.
Speaker 3 (07:39):
So just because the sports world is ever turning and
I never really know what's going to be in store
for us in the next couple of days, I wanted
to give everybody a heads up in case we don't
have time to talk about it in our Thursday podcast.
The regular season for the WNBA ends on September eleventh,
and the playoffs are set to begin on September fourteenth.
According to the WNBA's website, it does say dates posterisk
(08:02):
set to change right now. Seven at the time of recording,
seven of eight playoff spots have been clinched. So that's
the Minnesota Lynx, the Atlanta Dream, Las Vegas Aces, Phoenix, Mercury,
New York Liberty, Golden State Valkyries, and Indiana Fever. So
that is the playoff field at this moment in time.
(08:24):
But there is an eighth person or an eighth seed
that needs to firm up this upcoming week.
Speaker 1 (08:30):
And I think that I'm sure we'll get into it
at some point. I really hope that we hold space
for the WNBA playoffs. But I cannot believe that the
Valkyries made it in their first expansion year entering the league.
I think that there were the first only to do it.
What an incredible story. And I'd say too without a
consummate star, and I think that that's really cool and
(08:51):
speaks to how this team was made, how the draft went,
all that sort of stuff. And I also have to
say the Indiana Fever making the post this year is
also quite impressive considering how down bad their roster is.
I think everyone kind of knows that Caitlin Clark has
been out for a significant period of time, but they
have had some major, major injuries to some other major
(09:14):
key players on their team. That the fact that the
rest of the team aka are Girlia Boston has stepped
up in such a major way to make them enter
or help them enter the playoffs is truly outstanding. So
that was a big surprise to me. I'm so curious
to see who could take this eight seed. There are
games Tuesday night that could make or break it and
(09:36):
so I will be watching with baited breath at the edge.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Of my seat.
Speaker 3 (09:41):
So, at this current time, number eight seed is Seattle
Storm in the number nine seed is LA Sparks and
they are both playing this week.
Speaker 2 (09:47):
So let's see what happens. Who knows? Boom boom.
Speaker 3 (09:51):
Another shout out to FanDuel for sponsoring today's pod our
partner on our upcoming Women's Pro Basketball Bracket challenge. When
the eighteen bracket is released on Thursday, September eleventh, run
don't walk to the Just sports dot com to make
your picks. In the meantime, you can bet on women's
tubes all postseason long, and that includes futures picks.
Speaker 2 (10:10):
That's right.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
You can place a bet today on who will hoist
the trophy at the end of the WNBA postseason. If
I was a betting woman and I do double, i am.
I'm feeling good about the league leading Minnesota links Agree, disagree?
Check out the fans Will App and throw some green
on that gut feeling again. Download the Fans App today
to get it on the fun.
Speaker 1 (10:41):
Okay, as mentioned, today's one big story is looking back
on a fantastic year for tennis and also what's coming up.
We want to talk about it on the women's side
as well as the men's side, because here at the
Gist we cover men's and women's sports equally. We talk
about the biggest thing in sports, whether it's the men's
side or the women's side. So let's talk about the
women first. Stuff. Let's talk about the parody that we
(11:03):
are seeing in the WTA and on the women's side.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Right now, are you doing that little clap?
Speaker 1 (11:09):
Okay? But are you seeing the difference between so right now,
stepf is asking if I'm doing a little clap with
the pointer finger and the thumb finger clapping.
Speaker 2 (11:18):
Am I doing it wrong?
Speaker 1 (11:19):
Is? So there's there's two different ways. We learned this.
Once from our gen Z social media coordinator, and then
I also learned it from TikTok. So when you're clapping
with your middle finger and your thumb, so almost like snapping,
but you're clapping like that, that is that's like applause, like wow,
that was so good. Applause da da da. When you're
(11:40):
clapping with your pointer finger and your thumb, that's kind
of you clapping at shade. So if someone says something
that kind of clocks someone or is tea or throw shade.
That's when you go oh, and you go pointer finger
and thumb. But then when it's actually, wow, that was
such a great.
Speaker 4 (11:58):
Shot, but you just don't feel like thing you go
because hearing them parody and women's game, I wanted to
do it and then I immediately realized I think I
was doing it wrong, and I was I was doing okay.
Speaker 2 (12:11):
So the middle finger, it would be.
Speaker 1 (12:12):
A perfect middle finger situation. And if I said something shady,
then you would do pointer finger.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
Yeah, it's really podcast.
Speaker 3 (12:20):
Friendly because I can emote without ruining the audio.
Speaker 1 (12:23):
Yeah, exactly, Thank you every lesson. That's her lesson from
a millennial who identifies as gen Z.
Speaker 3 (12:30):
Thank you, miss Ellen for that lesson. So let's get
back to my fun clap, not my shady clap, because
we're talking about the parody in the women's game. For tennis,
four different women won tennis's four Grand Slams aka Majors
this past year. The Australian Open went to Madison Keys,
who's American, the French Open Cocoa Goff, also American, and
(12:53):
then Egas Fiantech won Wimbledon, she's Polish, and then the
US open, as Ellen mentioned beginning of the podcast, went
to Arena Sabolanka, who's Belarushian or Belerussian?
Speaker 1 (13:04):
I should say, yeah, So I would say, Sef, those
are four different winners, which is really cool with Coco Golf,
Siantech and Sablanca. I would say that those three continue
to be in the hunt at every single Grand Slam.
It is a surprise if they do not make it
to the quarterfinals. And so while there's parody, when we're
(13:25):
looking at who is actually winning, I would say the
surprise winner here was Madison Keys, right, and when she
won that Australian Open, I think that was correct me
if I'm wrong, but I think I'm right. It was
her first major or her first major since twenty fourteen
or something or twenty seventeen. It was something like that.
If you want to live fac treck stuff, that'd actually
(13:46):
be fantastic. This is when we need a producer. But
there is as much as we say that there's parody
in the mate on the women's side, I would say
that those are kind of the key players who are
consistently in that quarter final conversation.
Speaker 3 (14:03):
Okay, according to the AOI over you, which you know,
I have feelings about it. Said that she has one
major and that's the twenty twenty five Australian Open.
Speaker 1 (14:12):
But she did.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
She was a US Open finalist in twenty seventeen.
Speaker 1 (14:16):
Yes, okay, thank you so much. I knew how did
we know?
Speaker 2 (14:20):
Got that? You got that right in here?
Speaker 1 (14:22):
It was locked in there. This useless sports fact trivia
that I think that was genetically passed down for my dad.
He has it bad. He has that useless knowledge bad.
He has it outside of sports, which is horrible. I
feel like I only have it inside of sports.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
He should play trip. Does he do trivia?
Speaker 1 (14:38):
Oh? He? I think he needs to play it more.
But he could clean up playing trivia as kids. Now.
He loves to play trivia with us, his kids. When
we don't want to play trivia with him, you know
what I mean, he'll know I'm talking.
Speaker 3 (14:51):
Get this man a trivia team, put him out into
the world and let him compete.
Speaker 1 (14:55):
I think he'd crush.
Speaker 2 (14:56):
Yeah, crush.
Speaker 1 (14:57):
I think he'd absolutely crush. So the thing is about
parody on the women's side, Seph. It's there, but it's
not fully there, and I feel like there's not fully
the stars in the same way that when it was
a Serena Williams or Venus Williams or Maria Charapova where
they kind of took over. But I and we've talked
about this on the podcast before, so sorry if I'm
(15:19):
sounding like a broken record. I don't necessarily think that
parody is a good thing for the game of tennis
or for the game of golf. I think that people
love to have someone who they can root for, as
well as love to have someone who they can kind
of love to hate because they're up in the mix
all the time. And so when you can actually feel
(15:42):
like you're getting to know someone and you could cheer
for them because they truly are the goat, I think
that's when more people tune in. And so I am
really excited to see what twenty twenty six brings because
we'd almost need. What I would love to see is
a true, true, true breakout year for Sabelanka and Golf,
and I think that we were inches away from seeing
(16:04):
that this year and seeing a true rivalry come up
between the two of them. But I feel like we
are so close to seeing the two of them really
just say this is our sport, We're running with it.
Speaker 3 (16:16):
Let's go I like a familiar top five, top ten, Okay.
I like not knowing who's gonna win, like a couple naimasaka. Yeah,
a couple names you know where you're familiar with them,
you like them, you're familiar with their vibe.
Speaker 2 (16:30):
But it's not a lock that it's going to be
one of two people.
Speaker 1 (16:34):
Yeah, okay, so that's where we're different. I love a lock.
I love to lock it down. I love to know
who exactly is going to win where I love. I
love to see a semi finals where I'm going everybody's
wicked good and I feel like I know all of
them and that is guaranteed to be this incredible rivalry,
(16:55):
and I think maybe that's part of the reason why
men's sennis is doing so well right now. If we
may transition over there, Steph.
Speaker 2 (17:02):
I tried to tea that up for you.
Speaker 1 (17:04):
Oh what do you call it?
Speaker 2 (17:05):
What would be a tennis m serve serve it. We'll
just serve it up for you.
Speaker 1 (17:11):
Yeah. He tried to do a seft serve toward me,
Queen Dary Queen where sef worked. Oh no, so I
would say. So we're arguably in the Big two of
tennis we're moving away from the Big three that was
Rafa Nadal, Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic and moving into
(17:32):
this Big two era where it's Carlos Alkraz, Yanick Sinner
and you know what, Novak Djokovic is still there, but
I think he's kind of like a peripheral third or
a veteran third. I think that you could say. But
to me, sef, how dominating Yanick center and Carlos Alkraz
has been has allowed this men's game to grow because
(17:54):
so many people are plugged in and tuned into these two.
And I would say, especially Alkarazk, he's fun.
Speaker 3 (18:02):
The Big three era lasted from two thousand and three
to twenty twenty three, just twenty years. That's a big
chunk of time. And the reason why the twenty twenty
three is the year that it says that we're saying
it ended is because that was when Djokovic last won
a Grand Slam. So that marks the end of the
Big Three before we go into the Big two. So,
(18:22):
just to give some historical context, year one.
Speaker 1 (18:26):
Not historical being twenty twenty three, and then Federer retired
in twenty twenty two and Dal retired in twenty twenty four. Right,
and when we say Djokovic is that peripheral three, he's
played so well. He has made the semis in all
four of the Grand Slams this year, So he is
in the mix. He's still that guy.
Speaker 2 (18:45):
He's still getting that bag. But he's not going to win.
Speaker 1 (18:48):
No, he's not gonna win. And so when we look though,
Steph and the reason why we're in the Big two
era in comparison to the women's side that saw four
different women win one of the majors in twenty twenty four,
I don't know why I said it like that, as
well as twenty twenty five, every single major was either
one by Carlos Alkraz or Yonick Center.
Speaker 3 (19:11):
Oh my god, and they're baby Cinner is twenty four
years old and al kraz is twenty two.
Speaker 1 (19:17):
Which makes me so excited.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
Right, it's so exciting.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
It's so exciting because I feel like, so I feel
like we had Andre Legacy and Pete sam Press. Do
you remember them? Sure? Yeah, sure, okay, so you would
love Andre Agacy? Have you read his autobiography?
Speaker 2 (19:35):
Of an autobiography?
Speaker 1 (19:36):
So normally sports autobiographies are trash.
Speaker 2 (19:40):
Andrea, I see his life Megan, Oh you don't like that.
Speaker 3 (19:44):
I did.
Speaker 1 (19:44):
Sorry, I think that I liked it, but then some
people on our team read it and they didn't like it,
and then.
Speaker 2 (19:49):
I was influenced. Okay, well, I said, oh.
Speaker 1 (19:51):
Yeah, well offline however, I think it's called The Open.
I really can't remember what it was. But Andre Aggacy's
autobiography is fantastic. I think that it's the best sport
autobiography I've ever read, and I feel like I've read
a lot of sports autobiographies. Okay, yes, I would highly
recommend it to anyone who is listening. But anyway, it
was kind of like this the Pete Sampras Andre Agacy era,
which then funneled into this new guy on the block
(20:14):
called Roger Federer, who then brought into Dal and then Djokovic.
And so now I kind of feel like Djokovic is
this last piece of this big three who's passing it
on to this little someone named Carlos al Karaz And
so I'm excited, right, Steph, Like you said, we had
twenty years of those big three continuing with Djokovic. What
can we get from these big two and maybe plus
(20:36):
plus where we have potentially this Andre Eggacy, Pete Sampras
kind of vibe.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
And many thought that there would be a gap in
the men's game for players who would would step into
those big roles, and that thought that there might be,
you know, no stars really to take be a given
to win and open. So it is it is interesting
how it's played out.
Speaker 1 (20:56):
Yeah, and then I think that third after Djokovic, that's
where things get a little bit loosey goosey, And I think, Steph,
maybe these are the types of players who you like
to keep your eye on. Right there's the Taylor Fritz
of the world. He's American, his girlfriend is quite the
influencer on TikTok. You can kind of follow everything behind
the scenes there, Francis Tfo, Felix oj Ali, seem ccpass,
(21:21):
Daniel Menvedev, you know what I mean. There's there's so
many kind of other players that had been up there.
But Janick Sinner and Carlos Alcraz have said, okay, we
are taking fifty yards ahead of the rest.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
Center won the Australian Open and Wimbledon this year, while
al Kraz won the French Open and US Open, so
they did quite literally like split those in two. But
I don't know if that's necessarily representative of how things
might play out next year.
Speaker 2 (21:47):
Would you agree or disagree?
Speaker 1 (21:50):
I'm not sure. I have no sure, and I think
that I think that Alcraz, being Spanish and having trained
underneath Rafa Nadal at his academy, is always going to
be set up super well on the clay court. He's
not going to be as good as Rafa and I
don't think we'll ever put up those numbers in the
French Open, but I think that it's going to be
hard for there's a there's a couple of other people
(22:12):
like in Norwegian I'm forgetting his name right now, who's
very good on clay Maybe o j Alias seem but
like uh Outkraz is very good. Who knows what's going
to actually happen. I think tournament to tournament stuff. But
the more that we could see these two play each
other the better. And the more that a definitive again
this is me speaking, the more that a definitive number
(22:34):
three comes in, and maybe that's Djokovic, I think we
have one more season of Djokovic. But we have Djokovic
or someone else like properly comes up, that's when things
are going to get really exciting.
Speaker 2 (22:47):
So do you want to talk about what's next?
Speaker 1 (22:48):
Then?
Speaker 2 (22:49):
Is that where we're at?
Speaker 1 (22:50):
Yeah, so that's that's for next year. What's what's next?
The tennis season is actually over ten months long. I
don't know how they do it. It's it's one of
the longest seasons. And so now we get into kind
of the team tournament as well as the WTA and
ATP finals, where the best players from both the WTA
and ATP play against one another and almost like a
(23:15):
playoff format. I guess that you could say. But there's
also those team tournaments.
Speaker 3 (23:20):
Yeah, so while the majors are done, tennis season isn't over.
We do need to make that distinct clause. Golf okay, golf.
Speaker 1 (23:28):
Like on the p Cup, the Ryder Cups still on.
Roy McElroy won a tournament over the weekend in Europe
in a playoff, because that's what he does in a playoff.
It's always so nerve wracking. So there's still and the
ATP and the WA The WTA finals are a big deal,
like the ATP and WTA finals. They make a lot
of money playing in those tournaments.
Speaker 3 (23:50):
Yeah, so money is still to be made. But the
Grand Slams are over.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
Yeah boom yeah, and then the Team Tournament's Laverer Cup
on the men's side and then the Billy g Cup
on the women's side, and it's basically Team Europe versus
Team World's type of situation, which is pretty cool.
Speaker 3 (24:09):
I'm obsessed with Diaomi Osaka's Billy Jing was a Billy
Jing Blank.
Speaker 1 (24:15):
I think that she got a deal with Lebuboos after
all of that too, as she should. As she should anyway,
tennis is I think tennis last year didn't do it
for me. The last two years for tennis I enjoyed,
but I wasn't obsessed with this season. This past year,
I said, oh, I'm back to being a tennis girly.
So I'm really excited to see where the future goes.
Speaker 3 (24:36):
No Netflix documentary did that to you.
Speaker 2 (24:39):
Breakpoint, Breakpoint, A very big.
Speaker 1 (24:43):
Thank you to our friends at the sports collectibles company
upper Deck for supporting this podcast. Our collaboration with upper
Deck goes way back, which is no surprise giving their
commitment to both women's and men's sports. Yesterday, upper Deck
announced women's soccer legend Alex Morgan as their newest spokesperson,
making Upper Deck the place to find authentic, exclusive Morgan
memorabilia and trading cards. I cannot wait to get my
(25:07):
hands on some. You can check out their new collection
at upperdeck dot com. One more time, check out their
new collection at upperdeck dot com.
Speaker 3 (25:24):
It's time for our personal training Sash. This is the
last segment of the podcast, and it's where we would
love to answer your hard hitting questions and or comments concerns,
respond to anything you want to throw your way to
us about anything in the sports world.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Anything.
Speaker 1 (25:39):
Yes, and if you'd like to be featured on a
future episode, please call and leave us a voicemail at
one four three seven five six four five five seven nine,
email us at pod of justsports dot com, or leave
us a message on Instagram at Stephanie Rots at ellen Ethangist.
All this information is in the show notes, which is
why I'm chatting so fast.
Speaker 3 (25:57):
And before we get to today's personal training Sash, we
do want to issue a correction. Last week's personal training
session on women's baseball was thanks to a voicemail from
our new friend Tolly, who we misnamed as Holly, and
we are so sorry about that. Thank you for writing
it and correcting us.
Speaker 1 (26:13):
Yes, and for messaging us on Instagram. Thank you so much.
That was so nice. In today's personal training session, It's
really great timing. As we're talking about tennis, we are
taking a question from Sammy who reached out to me
on Instagram yesterday shout out Sammy when she saw President
Trump at the men's final of the US Open. Sammy said, Hi, Ellen,
(26:34):
watching the US Open, and I'm sure you and Steph
will cover it on the next podcast, but I cannot
wait to hear your thoughts on a certain precedent who
just had to attend today's final and cause a delay,
and how that delay could have affected Sinner and Carlos's
prep for the match. So Sammy, thank you so much
for reaching out for dming us again. We love that question.
(26:57):
Let's start with a little bit of context for.
Speaker 2 (26:59):
Those that missed it.
Speaker 3 (27:00):
Trump was at the men's final, attending as a guest
in the Rolllex box, and his visit required extra enhance
security for all patrons, which then led to extremely long
lines for the rest of the attending fans to enter
the stadium, and the match itself was actually pushed back
a half hour to give more time for people to
actually get into the stadium, but still thousands of fans
(27:21):
who spent thousands of dollars, we're still outside the stadium
waiting to be let in when the match actually began.
Speaker 1 (27:29):
And if you were watching from home, which Sammy was,
which I was with Steph was, you didn't actually see
too much of Trump, and that is because he was
purposely left off of the broadcast, I think for several
kind of reasons that we don't know all of the
rash atal alleged speculative, we don't want to get into it,
but we couldn't actually tell what happened, and it was
(27:53):
TikTok and other social media that actually showed us what
went down while Trump was there. And the biggest thing
was that he was booed when he arrived, but he
was also bowed by such a small amount of people
because nobody could actually get into the US Open because
of all the security that he had to bring or
had to put into force. And then when he was
(28:15):
showing on the screen during the national anthem, and I
think after the first set, there was also a lot
of boos. And so I think it's very interesting, slash
not surprising that that's also happening in his hometown.
Speaker 2 (28:29):
In New York. This was in New York. This is
in New York.
Speaker 1 (28:32):
This is New York. This is apparently Trump's HOTEWN.
Speaker 3 (28:35):
So you know, so yeah, yeah, And we discussed this
on the podcast previously because Trump has made other appearances.
Speaker 2 (28:45):
At sporting events in the second term.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
The Super Bowl, Daytona, five hundred UFC fights, blah blah blah.
He is going to continue to show up, it looks like.
And then to get to your question that you asked
asked for the athletes, Center and Alcaraz were instructed to
arrive even earlier than usual to avoid any sort of
warm up disruptions. And of course any athlete has a
(29:10):
warm up routine. It's important for any sport. But both
Center and Alcraz did say that the delay did not
impact their pregame routine, and of course both athletes were
given the same instructions and had the same set of
time and everything to get ready for the game. So
they were both, I guess you could say, on equal
playing field for that reason.
Speaker 1 (29:32):
They're consummate for professionals too, them both saying that you
know what I mean, it's really too bad that that happened,
but they're going to shift and make it work. I
feel really bad for all the patrons who were there
and who had to wait in longer lines because the
US Open is such a well run tournament. I've had
the privilege of being able to go and watch a
women's final and attend a couple of matches before, and
(29:55):
it is fantastic. It is such an amazing experience that
I would recommen to anyone. It's unlike a sporting event
that I've ever been to, and they make it so smooth,
and that's I think part of the appeal and allure
as well, because it's such a fun and easy event
to get to consume. But I think unfortunately with the
President arriving, it didn't help any of that experience for
(30:19):
any of the guests of the US Open.
Speaker 3 (30:21):
And there's so many things that you could go to
in the future. There's the World Cup, there's the Olympics.
Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2 (30:29):
Stay home.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Another shout out to upper Deck for sponsoring this podcast.
As Elle mentioned earlier, upper Deck is all in on
women's sports as the exclusive trading card licensee for my
favorite sports.
Speaker 2 (30:51):
League, the PWHL.
Speaker 3 (30:53):
Upper Deck spotlighting on women's sports in the trading card
and memorabilia space is completely unmattch go grab a piece
of history by checking out their collections at upperdeck dot com.
That's upperdeck dot com.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
And that marks the end of today's episode. Thank y'all
so much for tuning in. We really hope that you
enjoyed it. I had a lot of fun today me too.
Speaker 2 (31:14):
Thank you so much Ellen for helping me along today.
Speaker 1 (31:17):
Yeah. No, oh my god, Steph, you were so great.
It's so impressive that you have a head injury and
you're still working through the podcast.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
I really appreciate you. I'm manifesting, I'm fine.
Speaker 1 (31:28):
I think you're okay. I've unfortunately seen you.
Speaker 2 (31:30):
In worse states. Yeah, exactly, and so I think.
Speaker 1 (31:33):
You know, I think you're in a your you've made
your decision and we're good.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
And we're good, and you know what, we'll also be
back in your feed with a new podcast on Thursday, so.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
I'm going to be back.
Speaker 2 (31:44):
Don't worryin if.
Speaker 3 (31:47):
You're doing today's episode, would absolutely love if you could rate, review, subscribe,
and send us in a personal training sash, whether that's
voicemail or DM or email.
Speaker 1 (31:55):
This episode was edited vice Savannah Howld and produced by
Alexander Puccio and Lauren Tescala. I'm Ellen his Lap and.
Speaker 3 (32:01):
I'm Steph Rots And let's see how the wn A
playoffs play out. So keep locked and loaded to see
who clinches that final eight spot.
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