July 24, 2023 • 35 mins
Open Era is back for a special ‘post-slam’ version of the show as Simon and Devang deliver their remaining thoughts and opinions on what we saw at the 2023 edition of Wimbledon. How good will Carlos Alcaraz be, is Novak Djokiovc more likable as a loser and did we really sing enough praise for Markéta Vondroušová? Then it’s onto parting shots, including news on Alexander Zverev, Zhang Shuai, and Leo Borg.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:13):
Hello, and welcome to the OpenAir Podcast. My name is Deby to
Sign. I'm joined as always bymister Simon Bushel Bush. How is the
post Wimbledon hangover going for you?It's been weird, hasn't it to not
have tennis on every waking hour ofthe day. How it works in the
West Coast as I wake up arounda steady seven fifteen in the morning,
(00:34):
immediately turn the television on and haveyou know, six straight hours of tennis.
So weird to not have that.And I suspect that my partner is
happy about that, probably right.And also you could have a lot of
tennis on if you wanted to,if you're a true sicko. I wanted
to watch clay court tennis again forsome reason after Wimbledon just ended. Boy,
do I have some tennis to u? Sir? Remember that segment on
(00:56):
potting shots a few weeks ago.Whereas like there is three different and surfaces
being played within the month, it'salready happened. It's upsetting. New court
might be the most offensive because wehave a grass tournament after Wimbledon. I
get why. I get why thisis happening at the Tennis Hall of fame,
but also guys relax. I sawJohn Isner playing this week. I
had to shut it off. Itwas too much. Is there something that
(01:19):
we can do here where after aGrand Slam has played, you can't play
on that surface again, so wekind of like block it into a single
season. I kind of think thatwould be quite fun to try and do.
I wonder how it would work.What is the grass courts situation in
Vancouver public wise? Is there anythingpublicly available? Nothing? Public? No,
there's a private club where I thinkthere's two grass courts. So imagine
(01:42):
if you're like an upcoming player,well, nobody is packed. Yeah,
it's really weird. It's really Imean, it doesn't feel like it's great
to upkeep either, right, It'slike I kind of get why it doesn't
exist to the level it should.So it's really all about Wimbledon just being
the most lad is placed possible inthe history of mankind. I think I
came away from Winwooden with a senseof just like, no, I think
(02:04):
this might be the first time I'veactually had this thought in my adult life
of just being like, I mean, fuck that. I mean, I
like, I like grassco at tennis. I just I'm not a huge,
huge Winwood and fan. I've gotto say, well, that's a good
segue into how we're going to treatthis this kind of special Open era post
Win Wolden addition version of the show, and it's it's to look back at
(02:27):
Winwaleden and kind of unpack our finalthoughts of what we saw, because I
will admit Bush that that alca Azjoking which final kind of brought me back
to a place where because it endedthe way it did, I had rosy
feelings about this tournament, and itkind of masked how I probably would have
truly felt if Novac had won,and it led me down a spiral of
my fandom and what it really means. But the Alcarez win, the way
(02:50):
it went down, the stakes,the fact that this win was desperately needed,
I think for some people. Ithink the fact that the wind broke
through the tennis mainstream and you hadpeople who were at tennis fans talking about
it, it checked all those boxesfor me that on the Monday afterwards,
I was like, yeah, youknow what, that that was great.
It's still astonishing, is it not. I think this is kind of the
(03:13):
way that I felt following the USOpen win, which rocketed the Spaniard up
to world number one. Is thatI was left a few days later just
feeling like, wait, that actuallyhappened. That's the thing that we talked
about, that we're prognosticated about,an all thought and dreamt might happen,
actually just happened. I think thesame is true here as well, which
is that even in our prediction show, I don't think any of us thought
(03:36):
really that this was like a highlylikely outcome, and then to be a
few days removed from it, itdoesn't seem any less remarkable, honestly,
because it firmly affixed himself at thetop of the world rankings and saw off,
you know, potentially the greatest allcaught tennis player of all time in
the process. And I think alsojust to touch on as well, is
(04:00):
that we've got so used to playerscoming up and falling to Novak Djokovic,
and it's just not happened here.And I think that's something that's really worth
celebrating and reveling in, at leastfor a few more days. Yeah,
the Djokovic stats that were rightfully praisedand honored before this match, I think
are even more astonishing now after watchingthat match and the fact that he had
(04:25):
gone on beaten for so long,the fact that it really did feel like
he was somewhat invincible on that court. For Alkaaz to break through still required
a pinchbew moment on that Monday.Speaking of pinchbew moments, I don't know
if you saw it this Bush,but Alkaaz quoted as saying that his dream
is to play doubles with Rafa atthe Paris Olympics. How great would that
(04:48):
because could you see that happening,That'd be absolutely wild. I'd love it
so much. They're not favorites,surely no. And I also feel like
they should they should fix that tournament. To be honest. Here, it's
tennis, it's the Olympics. Let'slet's get let's get a good old fix
going on for the most drama.Oh, you mean like an an actual
fix, right, So in thesense of the fixes in levels of just
(05:11):
rig it straight up. I meanit's coming into the IOC everyone, it's
all rigged allegedly. So I'm justputting it out there. Yeah, I'm
just putting it out there reportedly,but I know that would be absolutely amazing
and Alqaraz in the conversation. Iknow this this I saw a lot of
a lot of the post final conversationabout like how many titles will he win?
Or like is he an out liar? Is there anyone amongst his group
(05:33):
of peers that's going to join himin terms of winning these big titles.
But it feels kind of stupid toprognosticate how many Grand Slams Carlos Alcaraz is
gonna win because he's twenty years oldand he's twenty twenty three. But stupid
is the asides side when I askhow many is he gonna win? He
could get twenty, right, hecould get twenty. Are we literally one
(05:56):
week removed from me saying we havesomeone win one? First, let's get
of the hump. I guess technicallyhe's a multi time champion now. I
think it's it is hard to imaginea situation where he doesn't win at least
another Grand Slam. He's just justgiven everything that you know, number one,
huge, one more he'll win onewith slams. I don't know.
(06:18):
Yeah, like it's ridiculous, Butat the same time, this is also
the same thing that we were sayingabout Naomi Osaka. Remember, like,
in terms of where her career arcwas at and the expectation of she was
easily the best hard core player inthe world. And you couldn't have seen
a situation you would have been laughedat. You would have been called a
fool, right, the idea thatshe wouldn't win multiple times more on a
(06:40):
hard core Um, I mean shegot to four, so it's not like
she had a bad career at all, and we haven't yet seen the second
half of what she's going to comeback. Yeah, exactly. I mean,
who knows, but I think Ithink he'd be very naive. You
didn't believe that Carlos Acress is atleast at least a couple more in him.
That has to be the case shortly, Yeah, And I think you
brought you back down to earth veryquickly and rightfully. So I thank you
(07:02):
for that, because who the hellknows what's going to happen in the future,
and this sport and sport in general, is very cruel, injuries happening
out of nowhere. Two is nicethough, two is great, and I
did like the fact that it's settledNumber one in the most true ways because
the best player on the tour isCarlos Alcaraz though through three slams so far,
(07:25):
Novak Djokovic still has two. Thecalendar Slam is dead. But I
am finding the discourse around Novac fascinatingas always, And I'm not talking about
the racket Slam. But I thinkLuke mentioned this on the discord about Nova
maybe the loser being somehow more intriguingor maybe more captivating in different ways.
(07:46):
I'm back, I'm kind of buyingwhat he's selling here. Bush and I
maybe it is seeing Djokovic find,like for once in recent memory, having
to put on the loser's speech andbeing so humble and gracious about it.
You're reminded, I guess maybe thatside of him. But am I being
Joco pilled? Am I? AmI letting him off the hook now by
saying he's a lovable loser. Itdepends whether or not you fully go tenfold
(08:11):
hat And in his loser speech children, his upspeech, he had to get
the Roger dig in there, didn'the He really did, didn't he?
I love that though? That wasperfect. He could have picked anyone any
moment. But he's right here.We were all thinking it. You know
what, that's what That's what he'lljoker does though he just says what everyone's
thinking. We're all thinking. Inthe moment, Clay Tennis absolutely stated reference
(08:37):
possible. I don't quite buy theHunter. It's it's a bit like um
all of the Lebron James like washedKing mentality of dude, you're still the
best player in the like shut up, like no one saying that. Look
as long as we don't get thisridiculous narrative, or like, as long
(08:58):
as I don't get Novak Djokovic onInstagram being like no one. Everyone was
saying that I couldn't do it,and I came back and I conquered.
Like literally, no one is sayingthat you are the overwhelming favorite at the
Australian Open to win again, andyou're in the top three favorites to win
at the US Open. No one'sremotely saying that you are not going to
be contending for major titles for thenext few years. Still, I will
(09:20):
say the hater and we enjoyed howquickly that let's eat narrative died? Remember,
how are you talking about how they'reall hungry? And then he's like
I'm hungry too, and let's havea feast. I'm glad we never have
to speak of that quote again.So yeah, the some PR company's gonna
need to roll that one back,aren't they. I think that was a
big thrill, right, that wasa big They're like, all right,
(09:41):
guys, the decks have been made. Team is signed off. We're going
with the feast line at the Expressconference ninety pages long in Google slides,
speaking notes at the bottom. Ido love the hyperbole as well in these
speeches. So like Novak's like,oh, Alcaz is great, blah blah
blah. But he's like, yeah, he's got the best of myself.
(10:01):
Rafa and Roger, I'm like,okay, well is that true? Are
you willing to say that? Bush? Because I know you have been on
the ground floor of this. Youwere watching him as a wee I don't
know, fourteen year old. Idon't know how when you first spotted him
in the junior ranks. Yeah.I think, um, the idea that
he is like we in a doll, which I think for a while,
(10:22):
was the thing that was being circledaround him, right, like he's he's
Rappa two point zero. I meanhe just isn't. That's that's objectively not
true at all. Like the ideaof saying that he's he's an amalgamation of
all three, right, I thinkit makes sense. I mean it makes
sense. I don't think it's abit of a little bit of a stretch
because I think he's he's such aIf that was the case, then why
(10:43):
would someone like hold it in alook exactly the same as him on a
tennis court? Right? Like?Right? And then maybe maybe it's a
it's more a product of he justwatched these guys all the time. These
are who these guys watched that that'sit that they watched hours and hours and
hours. If these guys playing theabsorbed parts of their game, I think
that a lot of sense. Really, So it is. I guess when
you hear someone, when it comesfrom someone like Novak, maybe it sounds
(11:07):
like it's a bold statement. Butthen when you sit back lately, you're
like, oh, wait a minute. These people like to play tennis.
They also like to consume tennis,so it checks out. Also, there's
a lot to be said about theidea of what a modern day tennis player
looks like in terms of analytics,and in terms of how to win points
and how kids are being trained.And I think this is one of the
(11:31):
things that I've I've appreciated more inmy thirties and started to analyze sport from,
which is through the lens of whatare you training, like when you're
away from the views of the spectatorsand away from the gaze of everyone,
what are you doing off of thecourt, Because what you're doing there and
what you're training automatically will translate towhat's happening on the court and how do
you improve your weaknesses? And Ithink that's kind of really an interesting evaluation
(11:56):
of Carla Sakaraz is that he's basicallytrained the things that have been in vogue
for the last like five years.So it's not really a surprise that he
looks the way that he does isbecause he's basically try to eliminate or flatten
all of the weaknesses that players havetried to pick on, and he doesn't
really have any how many weaknesses canyou say that he does? I think
(12:16):
he has nothing. He's not fromthat a YouTube generation in the sense that
like he learned to watch YouTube though, because I think we need that in
tennis to truly get to the DanEvans world of equality, right, yeah,
I think so. I think there'salso a level of I don't want
to call it blandness because I thinkthat's really unfair. I don't think anyone
(12:37):
could say that Karlo Takaras is boringor good is boring to watch. But
I think there is a level ofsameness, which, yeah, assembly factory
esque almost, which does sound unkindand also not fair really, but I
understand what you're saying, because thesame thing is true in football, right,
Like everyone plays kind of the samewith position or play. Everyone plays
(12:58):
kind of the same in the NBAin terms of spacing and three pointers.
Like when you sort of do startflattening out the edges and getting rid of
all of those different elements, itcan get a little stale, and I
think those are the we haven't quitegot there yet. In tennis, I
think there's too much variety and it'sjust too global as a sport. But
I think if if you look atit, Colorsaaras is the first example of
(13:20):
really growing up in an analytics ledera, where like this kid is not
allowed to have any weaknesses at all, Like you play this way, you
make sure he's all court play onevery single facet of it, and yeah,
you just don't get worn out.The other winner at Wimbledon, Marquette
Vonnitorsova got a strawberry tattoo. Bushor she's getting a strawberry tattoo to commemorate
(13:45):
her shocking win to twenty four yearold rising thirty two places to tenth in
the new rankings that came out lastMonday, the first unseated player to win
the women's singles tail and someone thatI think we talked about enough Simon.
We got some praise in fact fromour wonderful listeners because we did mention how
(14:05):
she was able to take that thatfinal rather than odds losing it. But
for the most part, the discoursesurrounding that final was about odds losing.
And it's because as Japur is quitea wonderful figure into sport, one of
the best we have, one ofthe few people I think Breakpoint was able
to bring to a wider audience ofsports fans for the better. So I
(14:28):
understand why people were a bit devastated, But do you agree that in the
aftermath it's a bit of a downplayedwin. Again for the second year of
the row. Yeah, I thinkso. I think that's very true given
the lack of found fare around robakana. And there's multiple factors and multiple reasons.
I think for that, the casebeing last year, not just you
(14:52):
know, first time champion, thewhole band, we're gonna band those people,
it being an exhibition, you know, all this stuff. And I
think also her from her personality standpointof not exactly being the most well known
player, or being the most outspoken, or like her personality not given a
chance to shine. I think there'salso potentially the case with marquetav Andre Server
(15:13):
as well. And you know,Jiburi is a big personality. A big
personality is an adjective as opposed tolike, you know, her being outspoken
and boisterous and all that sort ofstuff. She's she's just well known and
I think she's well supported, andI think there's a reason that people gravitate
towards that narrative of her losing ratherthan countrys for winning. I think it's
(15:35):
actually if you look in hindsight andtake a step back from everything, it's
actually a much closer matchup. Andif this was played in the semi finals
and Doha. You could almost saythat it's, you know, much more
of a sixty forty matchup in Jibbur'sfavor as opposed to well, I think
most people are thinking, which wasthis was going to be a demolition job
and it clearly didn't turn out tobe the case. Yeah, and I
(15:56):
guess, I mean Josh said itin the discord, like Vontosova is a
good record against Sons and it's abit of a toss up. A couple
of days before the final, itfelt like a bad matchup. It felt
like also after the semifinal it wasalmost meant to be in a way that
it always isn't when it comes tosports, because I know we love to
get punked when it comes to stufflike that, and being like, well
(16:18):
this time it'll be different, thistime everything is going to work out.
It is nice to see, though, I mean, there's a truly wonderful
story on the other side of this, someone who has battled injuries, someone
who has battled being on the outskirtsof the game through no wanting of their
own just because their body wasn't ableto hold up, and now being in
a position now where you are,you are back on the on the biggest
(16:42):
stage and now with a ranking thatgets you guaranteed access into the biggest tournaments.
I think that's that's a hell ofa cool story as well. Absolutely
dev absolutely not gonna hear any anythingdifferent from me. Okay, Well,
we'll leave the win wiledon reacts there, and when we come back after the
(17:03):
break, we'll get to parting shots, some news and notes, including the
exploits of one Leo Borg born Borg'sson Naked Waves. Wow, we're old
as hell, all right, Moreopen air coming up after the break.
(17:26):
Hello, and welcome back to theOpen Air Podcast. It's time for parting
shots. Bush. Alexander Zvera backin the news this Wednesday. He's facing
a second allegation of assault by anotherformer partner, at this time, Brenda
Peta, who is also the motherof their daughter. I'm not going to
pretend I know German law super well, Bush, I will, though,
(17:48):
kind of relay what I've been readingand what I've been seeing on various tennis
message boards, including our discord.But basically, Zverev has the opportunity now
to either pay a fine or takethis case to court. But the fact
that it's got to this case orthis level, sorry, in the case
(18:11):
that the public prosecutor indicates there isa sufficient evidence of bodily harm in this
matter, Simon. So it's likea five hundred thousand euro fine, it
seems, but I think there's alot left to play out here in any
case. This was confirmed by BrentaPete's people and representation Simon. So obviously
(18:33):
extremely troubling news. On January thirtyfirst this year, remember, Zverev declared
that quote, justice has prevailed whenthe ATP closed their investigation into domestic abuse
claims by his ex girlfriend Oilia Charapova. So there's that. I think it
is worth pointing out just at thetop of this segment, the he wasn't
(18:56):
really cleared, was he? Thatwas just insufficient evidence, right, which
is not the same thing at all. Yeah, this is just a very
upsetting story, is it not that, regardless of everything around the separate story
with Olga Sharapova, is that thesethings continue to follow Alexander's very around.
(19:18):
It's just I wish I wish werethere were better men inside of the top
one hundred and I think in generaldeath because it's kind of sad and as
shitty, just to sit here andhave to talk about another one of these
stories in the sport that we cover. Um, I don't think I have
anything older than to add other thanjust like I hope that this young lady
(19:41):
is okay and is that this processgoes along and she is not not put
through the ring in the way thatso many other young women are, right,
and I think her team I wantedto make it clear that this was
only about the financial aspect, whichI think is distressing. It's I mean,
I ended up. I never understandwhy, right, no, and
(20:03):
we understand why they're saying that,because that's the first retort from the dipshits
out there, the zero stance.If there's still people like that out there,
which I think there are, andit's extremely upsetting that there is an
actual Zvera hive still remaining. Butyeah, I mean, I'm sure there's
plenty more to play out. ButI'd be fascinated to hear from perhaps some
other people involved in Tennis about this, including the people who love an investigation
(20:27):
in January see what happens now,because like I said, I am not
a German law expert, but fromthe sounds of it, it's it makes
it clear that it seems that theBerlin prosecutors are seeking this penalty order for
a reason. So there we are. I mean these things about Noah do
(20:48):
they de Yeah, yeah, AndI mean there's this is on the same
week as as Benjamin Mendy signing inFrance to continue his career and a bunch
of footballers voicing their support for himwell, and voicing their support from Mason
Greenwood. But I would be fascinatedto hear from some of his peers because
I think we know how I knowthe likes of Daniel Medvedev and his partner
(21:11):
feel. But a lot of peoplehave sided on teams very up, so
to speak. So let's see whathappens next. All right, So I've
been moving on. I don't knowif you saw this chang Shui yea incident
in Budapest, please inform me,divine, I did not say this.
So in a in a match witham Marisa Toth, who is Hungarian so
(21:34):
her home tournament at the Hungarian GrandPrix clash, a massive argument with umpire
Morgain Lara developed after a line callof they're on clay once again. I'm
telling you for some reason, they'reon clay, so there was a call,
there was a ball mark in dispute. It was quite clear that the
(21:57):
call was in Jen's favor, butthe chair umpire basically didn't want to get
up and help her at all,and basically the supervisors like, well,
it's the umpire's job, so like, I can't do anything. But Jang,
who had been opened about some ofher mental health struggles recently, I
think she lost her grandparents. Thatshe was remarking about how long she's played
(22:19):
tennis for and I think it's liketwenty nine of her thirty four years on
this earth. She's gotten tired.I just want to go home to China.
So it wasn't surprising to see thiskind of get to her in the
way it did, because she retiredfrom the match. She did think there's
the second seed in this whole tournament. But the reaction from a Marisa Toth
(22:40):
is one of celebrations. She raisesher hands in the air and the crowd
is cheering, and it's easily oneof the shittiest things I've seen on a
tennis court. This is one ofthose instances, though, where as it's
been widely remarked Jang shwise widely belovedon the tour, so the entire tennis
posse circle together to voice support forher, including your Azarenkas's, you Boris,
(23:03):
your Sacharis. I saw Dannis Chapavalovealso commenting on this on how outrageous
it was. But yeah, firstof all, we shouldn't be on clay
anymore. But also what a horrendouslook for this tournament as well, because
this players from Hungary and it directlyled to her when I did Victor orbon
order this down special what happened toknown as the Alban Special. As you
(23:29):
I'm part of, part of theplaybook. Apparently it's fixing fixing first round
matches at your Grand Prix. Tellyou what, Like I've said this on
on record previously and I'll say itagain. I'm just I'm just so thankful
when hulkeye and automatic line calling isnot at these events, you know,
I just I love it so much? Can we just twist? What a
(23:51):
twist? I believe? I couldn'tswear. I've been on this podcast being
like, isn't it nice we havereal people making real calls? Like isn't
that the way we always wanted towatch the game. What an idiot,
I was, sir, Well,yeah, I feel like it's one of
those things that as soon as youactually see it take place and you realize
that watching a bunch of man babiesand spoil nepo babies on both the men's
(24:15):
and the women's side, b ratea line judge or a bull kid over
the most. You know, uttershit, it's all bad. Yeah.
Do you think do you think acyborg will put up with that? By
the way, do you think acyborg will put up with it? At
nineteen year old freckled based kid givinghim guff for a footfall? What I
want to what I want to seeis the next evolution of Hawkeye and the
(24:37):
automatic line judges. The moment thata player starts complaining about a line call
is this they get a spray bottlein the same way that you would give
a cat or a dog when theydid something. Yes, yes, so
they get sprayed with water immediately.This this incident was terrible. He It
did remind me though, of likethe I don't know if this is the
(24:57):
correct way to describe, this's whatit just feel like voyeurism Sometimes for these
smaller tournaments were like when you're watchingit on the stream, it feels like
the cameras poking into like the sideof the cage in the corner, and
like someone is just filming on aon a sony handheld. That's how it
fells watching the highlights of this.But there's something that's nice about that.
To go along with mine, thereshould be human umpires. Give me the
(25:18):
shittiest camera angles you can possibly find. It's the moment that you have like
a slightly different camera angle than theone that you you're like, what is
going on? Where is this comingfrom? Oh, you already get like
the one camera view, so youdon't get a change of camera shot.
It's just like the one permanent,fixed shot. The good stuff not the
(25:40):
nicest, all right, Moving on, I mentioned there was eighty tournaments happening
this week. One of them includedLeo Borg first to win I believe for
the twenty year old son of BeyondBok film world number one eleven times Slam
champion, went up beyond Bok greatestplayer of all time. So move quickly
(26:00):
over that. Wow, wow,I nearly forgot about that. Nuclear take
continues, So a couple of thingsto say about this. It's just kind
of. I mean, it's notreally a story, right, it's a
it's just a twenty year old juniorplayer. If it was somewhat of any
other name than it would not matter, just given the first round of a
tournament and bushtad. But that beingsaid, great outfit from Leo Borg wearing
(26:25):
all feeler. I love the colorof these shorts, and he has a
very good looking serve. He reallydoes. It looks very esthetically pleasing.
I don't think this kid is goingto be a very good player, like
I don't think a top fifty player. But at the same time, it
was a cool story. Nonetheless,definitely, and I will say it's cool
that it's had a Swedish Open andhe was a wild card and you didn't
(26:47):
squander his wild kind of opportunity.I think he lost to Korea in the
next round, but to get thatmatch when I can only imagine when it's
like the son of a legend likeJorin Borg. And also it does feel
like join Borg's son should be older. I don't know why I'm saying that
he's sixty seven. I'm just like, wow, his son's that young like
you and more cool. But Drewme off a bit to realize that he's
(27:07):
just twenty years old and kind ofgetting going with his career. But yeah,
I mean in some ways, likeyou kind of like Michael Jordan's kid,
like they're almost nothing expected of youbecause it's like, well, or
are you like Lebron James's kid,where it's like, well, you've showed
some ability. So Brauny, we'regoing to turn the hype machine up to
a million. I think he's onmore of the Michael Jordan's side, but
(27:30):
there's not really huge expectations for LeoBorg to like win stuff. But I
mean that's not always the goal.Forty seven is the new thirtyfou having children?
Yeah, I know, I don'tspeaking of the last Yemaire his brother
has been banned for eighteen months.I wanted to bring this up Bush because
(27:52):
I was listening to Daniel Mevedev talkabout missing drug tests and like how this
works for tennis players. So MichaelYuhmert says that he the I have charged
me with a potential anti doping ruleviolation for having three missed out of competition
tests attempts in a twelve month period. I fought that charge. Eddie hearing
(28:15):
and was cleared by an independent tribunalof three arbitrators in June of twenty twenty
two. The IF wasn't happy withthat and basically went back at him on
this. The post goes on theCourt of Arbitration for Sports got involved,
which is never a good thing.The big thing to take away here is
(28:37):
that he never tested positive for usinganything. It's the idea that he's missed
these tests, and Mevedev was talkingabout how it's it's not it's not an
impossible thing to miss these tests.It's not always malicious, you know,
because you've got a lot going onyour schedules. Insane feels innocuous enough.
But first thing I also remembered wasSimona Hallip. But Simon, is this
(29:00):
different? This feels different? Right, this isn't the same or now are
we getting to tow in the weeds. I think this is different. There's
no positive test for starting points.Very strong pushback from them as well,
right, and I know we gotthat from from hal Up as well,
but it seemed furious. I thinkit's the way that I would describe the
(29:22):
way that Mica Yama was defending them, and rightfully so as well. Right,
Like, I feel like if youwere in that position and you really
were innocent then or do you feellike you had good reasoning to to miss
these tests. I think this isgoing to be an interesting one to follow,
just to see how this one sortof plays out, mostly because we
have said or I have said,I guess I should I shouldn't implicate you
(29:45):
in this one as well, whichplease open Era has said the podcast.
No, I think I have saidpreviously that I think people will be naive
to believe that there is not drugtaking and performance and harshing drugs taking within
the sport of tennis. I thinkthat's still accurate, and I think there's
(30:07):
just easy ways to try and getaround those situations. So I find these
ones very very difficult to know whereto stand on it, simply because,
like I personally believe that there isa ton of this stuff happening, and
it would not surprise me if MichaelYamma was either doping or taking in enhancing
substances. But at the same time, given how sort of shitty some of
(30:32):
these rules are and the way thatit's it's sort of blocked out, and
the way that sort of Danny Moottawas talking about it, it wouldn't shock
me as well as if that hewas completely innocent into terms of the way
that the structures bullshit as well.So I think that's the part that I
will be curious to see how thisone plays out. Yeah, I agree,
and Jensen's Brooksby of course is inthe same boat as Humor, And
I think it's interesting Brookly accepted hisband, but basically it was like,
(30:56):
this is the best thing we cando right now, even though he didn't
technically test positive. And his lawyeris the same lawyer that's representing Simona Hallet,
So I think it's very interesting tosee what Howard Jacobs will use as
a defense. I think for Brooksby, he was saying, the idea of
asking these people to provide their whereaboutsso far in advance it is a pretty
(31:18):
ridiculous considering their schedule and what isrequired of them for their profession, which
is a pretty fair argument and kindof backs up what Medvedev was saying.
But yeah, Brooksby on the shelfwere on the shelf for now, not
the end of the story by anystretch of the imagination. Bush, Do
you got anything else before we wrapup? Not really, I don't think
(31:40):
so. I think I'm still baskingand the light of Collins Ockers winning his
second ground Slam, so it'd benice to Yeah, we'll see. We'll
see how the Hardcore season goes incomingDanny Mevedev winning every hard title and then
losing round one at the USO.Yeah, how about two challenges remaining?
(32:02):
Got anything for us there? Okay? My two challenges remaining are two challenged?
Challenge remaining? How you want tochallenge singular? Singular? Please?
Just a single challenge? Yeah,so a single challenge, but a double
bill of whether I'm going to doopen him back to back for it?
Probably both very good. That beingsaid, I've got to say Tenant was
(32:25):
shit and Chris Nolan's on thin iceat the moment because I've not really enjoyed
Noticed, didn't really like Dunkirk,and didn't really like Tenant. So I'm
like, I'm into this a littleapprehensive. I've got to say that's fair.
I mean, there are parts ofTenant that I liked. I really
I am not vibing with John DavidWashington as an actor. I feel like
(32:50):
that was a major problem with thatthe movie as well. That's took issue
just in general, just in general, I'm not in. I think it's
just I'm just not I'm not in. I'm not in at all. And
I've heard from others that Nolan ison the nights. But I'm also going
to see Barbie that was probably goingto be mine mine when General was going
(33:10):
to be the movie going experience.And I know there's a whole big strike
going on. And this is notequivalent to crossing picket lines, but it's
also a reminder to appreciate and enjoythe work that goes into creating these massive
works of art and how many peopleare involved and how and how things really
(33:30):
get made. So should we begoing to these films? I'm not sure.
I was thinking about that as Iwas saying that, I'm like,
wait a minute, is this isthis crossing the picket mind? I don't
know, I don't know what happens. I'm confused. Let's leave it there,
all right. Reminder, we areon Patreon dot com, Forward Slash
Open Air joint us to direk getthe show at free plus get it early
(33:51):
on Sundays. You also get accessto our discord or rich Out in Tennis
all the time with our wonderful friendsin there, it's a great time plenty
to talk about as we get intothe North American swing. We're also on
Twitter forever long that medium last atopen Era Pod and if you want to
be so kind give us a ratingand a review. That would be great.
(34:14):
We love reading them well read onthe show too. Give me a
shout out, so please do that. And I think that's it for producer
Dylan on the ones and twos,and for Simon, thank you so much
for listening to open Era. We'lltalk to you next week.
Hello, and welcome to the OpenAir Podcast. My name is Deby to
Sign. I'm joined as always bymister Simon Bushel Bush. How is the
post Wimbledon hangover going for you?It's been weird, hasn't it to not
have tennis on every waking hour ofthe day. How it works in the
West Coast as I wake up arounda steady seven fifteen in the morning,
(00:34):
immediately turn the television on and haveyou know, six straight hours of tennis.
So weird to not have that.And I suspect that my partner is
happy about that, probably right.And also you could have a lot of
tennis on if you wanted to,if you're a true sicko. I wanted
to watch clay court tennis again forsome reason after Wimbledon just ended. Boy,
do I have some tennis to u? Sir? Remember that segment on
(00:56):
potting shots a few weeks ago.Whereas like there is three different and surfaces
being played within the month, it'salready happened. It's upsetting. New court
might be the most offensive because wehave a grass tournament after Wimbledon. I
get why. I get why thisis happening at the Tennis Hall of fame,
but also guys relax. I sawJohn Isner playing this week. I
had to shut it off. Itwas too much. Is there something that
(01:19):
we can do here where after aGrand Slam has played, you can't play
on that surface again, so wekind of like block it into a single
season. I kind of think thatwould be quite fun to try and do.
I wonder how it would work.What is the grass courts situation in
Vancouver public wise? Is there anythingpublicly available? Nothing? Public? No,
there's a private club where I thinkthere's two grass courts. So imagine
(01:42):
if you're like an upcoming player,well, nobody is packed. Yeah,
it's really weird. It's really Imean, it doesn't feel like it's great
to upkeep either, right, It'slike I kind of get why it doesn't
exist to the level it should.So it's really all about Wimbledon just being
the most lad is placed possible inthe history of mankind. I think I
came away from Winwooden with a senseof just like, no, I think
(02:04):
this might be the first time I'veactually had this thought in my adult life
of just being like, I mean, fuck that. I mean, I
like, I like grassco at tennis. I just I'm not a huge,
huge Winwood and fan. I've gotto say, well, that's a good
segue into how we're going to treatthis this kind of special Open era post
Win Wolden addition version of the show, and it's it's to look back at
(02:27):
Winwaleden and kind of unpack our finalthoughts of what we saw, because I
will admit Bush that that alca Azjoking which final kind of brought me back
to a place where because it endedthe way it did, I had rosy
feelings about this tournament, and itkind of masked how I probably would have
truly felt if Novac had won,and it led me down a spiral of
my fandom and what it really means. But the Alcarez win, the way
(02:50):
it went down, the stakes,the fact that this win was desperately needed,
I think for some people. Ithink the fact that the wind broke
through the tennis mainstream and you hadpeople who were at tennis fans talking about
it, it checked all those boxesfor me that on the Monday afterwards,
I was like, yeah, youknow what, that that was great.
It's still astonishing, is it not. I think this is kind of the
(03:13):
way that I felt following the USOpen win, which rocketed the Spaniard up
to world number one. Is thatI was left a few days later just
feeling like, wait, that actuallyhappened. That's the thing that we talked
about, that we're prognosticated about,an all thought and dreamt might happen,
actually just happened. I think thesame is true here as well, which
is that even in our prediction show, I don't think any of us thought
(03:36):
really that this was like a highlylikely outcome, and then to be a
few days removed from it, itdoesn't seem any less remarkable, honestly,
because it firmly affixed himself at thetop of the world rankings and saw off,
you know, potentially the greatest allcaught tennis player of all time in
the process. And I think alsojust to touch on as well, is
(04:00):
that we've got so used to playerscoming up and falling to Novak Djokovic,
and it's just not happened here.And I think that's something that's really worth
celebrating and reveling in, at leastfor a few more days. Yeah,
the Djokovic stats that were rightfully praisedand honored before this match, I think
are even more astonishing now after watchingthat match and the fact that he had
(04:25):
gone on beaten for so long,the fact that it really did feel like
he was somewhat invincible on that court. For Alkaaz to break through still required
a pinchbew moment on that Monday.Speaking of pinchbew moments, I don't know
if you saw it this Bush,but Alkaaz quoted as saying that his dream
is to play doubles with Rafa atthe Paris Olympics. How great would that
(04:48):
because could you see that happening,That'd be absolutely wild. I'd love it
so much. They're not favorites,surely no. And I also feel like
they should they should fix that tournament. To be honest. Here, it's
tennis, it's the Olympics. Let'slet's get let's get a good old fix
going on for the most drama.Oh, you mean like an an actual
fix, right, So in thesense of the fixes in levels of just
(05:11):
rig it straight up. I meanit's coming into the IOC everyone, it's
all rigged allegedly. So I'm justputting it out there. Yeah, I'm
just putting it out there reportedly,but I know that would be absolutely amazing
and Alqaraz in the conversation. Iknow this this I saw a lot of
a lot of the post final conversationabout like how many titles will he win?
Or like is he an out liar? Is there anyone amongst his group
(05:33):
of peers that's going to join himin terms of winning these big titles.
But it feels kind of stupid toprognosticate how many Grand Slams Carlos Alcaraz is
gonna win because he's twenty years oldand he's twenty twenty three. But stupid
is the asides side when I askhow many is he gonna win? He
could get twenty, right, hecould get twenty. Are we literally one
(05:56):
week removed from me saying we havesomeone win one? First, let's get
of the hump. I guess technicallyhe's a multi time champion now. I
think it's it is hard to imaginea situation where he doesn't win at least
another Grand Slam. He's just justgiven everything that you know, number one,
huge, one more he'll win onewith slams. I don't know.
(06:18):
Yeah, like it's ridiculous, Butat the same time, this is also
the same thing that we were sayingabout Naomi Osaka. Remember, like,
in terms of where her career arcwas at and the expectation of she was
easily the best hard core player inthe world. And you couldn't have seen
a situation you would have been laughedat. You would have been called a
fool, right, the idea thatshe wouldn't win multiple times more on a
(06:40):
hard core Um, I mean shegot to four, so it's not like
she had a bad career at all, and we haven't yet seen the second
half of what she's going to comeback. Yeah, exactly. I mean,
who knows, but I think Ithink he'd be very naive. You
didn't believe that Carlos Acress is atleast at least a couple more in him.
That has to be the case shortly, Yeah, And I think you
brought you back down to earth veryquickly and rightfully. So I thank you
(07:02):
for that, because who the hellknows what's going to happen in the future,
and this sport and sport in general, is very cruel, injuries happening
out of nowhere. Two is nicethough, two is great, and I
did like the fact that it's settledNumber one in the most true ways because
the best player on the tour isCarlos Alcaraz though through three slams so far,
(07:25):
Novak Djokovic still has two. Thecalendar Slam is dead. But I
am finding the discourse around Novac fascinatingas always, And I'm not talking about
the racket Slam. But I thinkLuke mentioned this on the discord about Nova
maybe the loser being somehow more intriguingor maybe more captivating in different ways.
(07:46):
I'm back, I'm kind of buyingwhat he's selling here. Bush and I
maybe it is seeing Djokovic find,like for once in recent memory, having
to put on the loser's speech andbeing so humble and gracious about it.
You're reminded, I guess maybe thatside of him. But am I being
Joco pilled? Am I? AmI letting him off the hook now by
saying he's a lovable loser. Itdepends whether or not you fully go tenfold
(08:11):
hat And in his loser speech children, his upspeech, he had to get
the Roger dig in there, didn'the He really did, didn't he?
I love that though? That wasperfect. He could have picked anyone any
moment. But he's right here.We were all thinking it. You know
what, that's what That's what he'lljoker does though he just says what everyone's
thinking. We're all thinking. Inthe moment, Clay Tennis absolutely stated reference
(08:37):
possible. I don't quite buy theHunter. It's it's a bit like um
all of the Lebron James like washedKing mentality of dude, you're still the
best player in the like shut up, like no one saying that. Look
as long as we don't get thisridiculous narrative, or like, as long
(08:58):
as I don't get Novak Djokovic onInstagram being like no one. Everyone was
saying that I couldn't do it,and I came back and I conquered.
Like literally, no one is sayingthat you are the overwhelming favorite at the
Australian Open to win again, andyou're in the top three favorites to win
at the US Open. No one'sremotely saying that you are not going to
be contending for major titles for thenext few years. Still, I will
(09:20):
say the hater and we enjoyed howquickly that let's eat narrative died? Remember,
how are you talking about how they'reall hungry? And then he's like
I'm hungry too, and let's havea feast. I'm glad we never have
to speak of that quote again.So yeah, the some PR company's gonna
need to roll that one back,aren't they. I think that was a
big thrill, right, that wasa big They're like, all right,
(09:41):
guys, the decks have been made. Team is signed off. We're going
with the feast line at the Expressconference ninety pages long in Google slides,
speaking notes at the bottom. Ido love the hyperbole as well in these
speeches. So like Novak's like,oh, Alcaz is great, blah blah
blah. But he's like, yeah, he's got the best of myself.
(10:01):
Rafa and Roger, I'm like,okay, well is that true? Are
you willing to say that? Bush? Because I know you have been on
the ground floor of this. Youwere watching him as a wee I don't
know, fourteen year old. Idon't know how when you first spotted him
in the junior ranks. Yeah.I think, um, the idea that
he is like we in a doll, which I think for a while,
(10:22):
was the thing that was being circledaround him, right, like he's he's
Rappa two point zero. I meanhe just isn't. That's that's objectively not
true at all. Like the ideaof saying that he's he's an amalgamation of
all three, right, I thinkit makes sense. I mean it makes
sense. I don't think it's abit of a little bit of a stretch
because I think he's he's such aIf that was the case, then why
(10:43):
would someone like hold it in alook exactly the same as him on a
tennis court? Right? Like?Right? And then maybe maybe it's a
it's more a product of he justwatched these guys all the time. These
are who these guys watched that that'sit that they watched hours and hours and
hours. If these guys playing theabsorbed parts of their game, I think
that a lot of sense. Really, So it is. I guess when
you hear someone, when it comesfrom someone like Novak, maybe it sounds
(11:07):
like it's a bold statement. Butthen when you sit back lately, you're
like, oh, wait a minute. These people like to play tennis.
They also like to consume tennis,so it checks out. Also, there's
a lot to be said about theidea of what a modern day tennis player
looks like in terms of analytics,and in terms of how to win points
and how kids are being trained.And I think this is one of the
(11:31):
things that I've I've appreciated more inmy thirties and started to analyze sport from,
which is through the lens of whatare you training, like when you're
away from the views of the spectatorsand away from the gaze of everyone,
what are you doing off of thecourt, Because what you're doing there and
what you're training automatically will translate towhat's happening on the court and how do
you improve your weaknesses? And Ithink that's kind of really an interesting evaluation
(11:56):
of Carla Sakaraz is that he's basicallytrained the things that have been in vogue
for the last like five years.So it's not really a surprise that he
looks the way that he does isbecause he's basically try to eliminate or flatten
all of the weaknesses that players havetried to pick on, and he doesn't
really have any how many weaknesses canyou say that he does? I think
(12:16):
he has nothing. He's not fromthat a YouTube generation in the sense that
like he learned to watch YouTube though, because I think we need that in
tennis to truly get to the DanEvans world of equality, right, yeah,
I think so. I think there'salso a level of I don't want
to call it blandness because I thinkthat's really unfair. I don't think anyone
(12:37):
could say that Karlo Takaras is boringor good is boring to watch. But
I think there is a level ofsameness, which, yeah, assembly factory
esque almost, which does sound unkindand also not fair really, but I
understand what you're saying, because thesame thing is true in football, right,
Like everyone plays kind of the samewith position or play. Everyone plays
(12:58):
kind of the same in the NBAin terms of spacing and three pointers.
Like when you sort of do startflattening out the edges and getting rid of
all of those different elements, itcan get a little stale, and I
think those are the we haven't quitegot there yet. In tennis, I
think there's too much variety and it'sjust too global as a sport. But
I think if if you look atit, Colorsaaras is the first example of
(13:20):
really growing up in an analytics ledera, where like this kid is not
allowed to have any weaknesses at all, Like you play this way, you
make sure he's all court play onevery single facet of it, and yeah,
you just don't get worn out.The other winner at Wimbledon, Marquette
Vonnitorsova got a strawberry tattoo. Bushor she's getting a strawberry tattoo to commemorate
(13:45):
her shocking win to twenty four yearold rising thirty two places to tenth in
the new rankings that came out lastMonday, the first unseated player to win
the women's singles tail and someone thatI think we talked about enough Simon.
We got some praise in fact fromour wonderful listeners because we did mention how
(14:05):
she was able to take that thatfinal rather than odds losing it. But
for the most part, the discoursesurrounding that final was about odds losing.
And it's because as Japur is quitea wonderful figure into sport, one of
the best we have, one ofthe few people I think Breakpoint was able
to bring to a wider audience ofsports fans for the better. So I
(14:28):
understand why people were a bit devastated, But do you agree that in the
aftermath it's a bit of a downplayedwin. Again for the second year of
the row. Yeah, I thinkso. I think that's very true given
the lack of found fare around robakana. And there's multiple factors and multiple reasons.
I think for that, the casebeing last year, not just you
(14:52):
know, first time champion, thewhole band, we're gonna band those people,
it being an exhibition, you know, all this stuff. And I
think also her from her personality standpointof not exactly being the most well known
player, or being the most outspoken, or like her personality not given a
chance to shine. I think there'salso potentially the case with marquetav Andre Server
(15:13):
as well. And you know,Jiburi is a big personality. A big
personality is an adjective as opposed tolike, you know, her being outspoken
and boisterous and all that sort ofstuff. She's she's just well known and
I think she's well supported, andI think there's a reason that people gravitate
towards that narrative of her losing ratherthan countrys for winning. I think it's
(15:35):
actually if you look in hindsight andtake a step back from everything, it's
actually a much closer matchup. Andif this was played in the semi finals
and Doha. You could almost saythat it's, you know, much more
of a sixty forty matchup in Jibbur'sfavor as opposed to well, I think
most people are thinking, which wasthis was going to be a demolition job
and it clearly didn't turn out tobe the case. Yeah, and I
(15:56):
guess, I mean Josh said itin the discord, like Vontosova is a
good record against Sons and it's abit of a toss up. A couple
of days before the final, itfelt like a bad matchup. It felt
like also after the semifinal it wasalmost meant to be in a way that
it always isn't when it comes tosports, because I know we love to
get punked when it comes to stufflike that, and being like, well
(16:18):
this time it'll be different, thistime everything is going to work out.
It is nice to see, though, I mean, there's a truly wonderful
story on the other side of this, someone who has battled injuries, someone
who has battled being on the outskirtsof the game through no wanting of their
own just because their body wasn't ableto hold up, and now being in
a position now where you are,you are back on the on the biggest
(16:42):
stage and now with a ranking thatgets you guaranteed access into the biggest tournaments.
I think that's that's a hell ofa cool story as well. Absolutely
dev absolutely not gonna hear any anythingdifferent from me. Okay, Well,
we'll leave the win wiledon reacts there, and when we come back after the
(17:03):
break, we'll get to parting shots, some news and notes, including the
exploits of one Leo Borg born Borg'sson Naked Waves. Wow, we're old
as hell, all right, Moreopen air coming up after the break.
(17:26):
Hello, and welcome back to theOpen Air Podcast. It's time for parting
shots. Bush. Alexander Zvera backin the news this Wednesday. He's facing
a second allegation of assault by anotherformer partner, at this time, Brenda
Peta, who is also the motherof their daughter. I'm not going to
pretend I know German law super well, Bush, I will, though,
(17:48):
kind of relay what I've been readingand what I've been seeing on various tennis
message boards, including our discord.But basically, Zverev has the opportunity now
to either pay a fine or takethis case to court. But the fact
that it's got to this case orthis level, sorry, in the case
(18:11):
that the public prosecutor indicates there isa sufficient evidence of bodily harm in this
matter, Simon. So it's likea five hundred thousand euro fine, it
seems, but I think there's alot left to play out here in any
case. This was confirmed by BrentaPete's people and representation Simon. So obviously
(18:33):
extremely troubling news. On January thirtyfirst this year, remember, Zverev declared
that quote, justice has prevailed whenthe ATP closed their investigation into domestic abuse
claims by his ex girlfriend Oilia Charapova. So there's that. I think it
is worth pointing out just at thetop of this segment, the he wasn't
(18:56):
really cleared, was he? Thatwas just insufficient evidence, right, which
is not the same thing at all. Yeah, this is just a very
upsetting story, is it not that, regardless of everything around the separate story
with Olga Sharapova, is that thesethings continue to follow Alexander's very around.
(19:18):
It's just I wish I wish werethere were better men inside of the top
one hundred and I think in generaldeath because it's kind of sad and as
shitty, just to sit here andhave to talk about another one of these
stories in the sport that we cover. Um, I don't think I have
anything older than to add other thanjust like I hope that this young lady
(19:41):
is okay and is that this processgoes along and she is not not put
through the ring in the way thatso many other young women are, right,
and I think her team I wantedto make it clear that this was
only about the financial aspect, whichI think is distressing. It's I mean,
I ended up. I never understandwhy, right, no, and
(20:03):
we understand why they're saying that,because that's the first retort from the dipshits
out there, the zero stance.If there's still people like that out there,
which I think there are, andit's extremely upsetting that there is an
actual Zvera hive still remaining. Butyeah, I mean, I'm sure there's
plenty more to play out. ButI'd be fascinated to hear from perhaps some
other people involved in Tennis about this, including the people who love an investigation
(20:27):
in January see what happens now,because like I said, I am not
a German law expert, but fromthe sounds of it, it's it makes
it clear that it seems that theBerlin prosecutors are seeking this penalty order for
a reason. So there we are. I mean these things about Noah do
(20:48):
they de Yeah, yeah, AndI mean there's this is on the same
week as as Benjamin Mendy signing inFrance to continue his career and a bunch
of footballers voicing their support for himwell, and voicing their support from Mason
Greenwood. But I would be fascinatedto hear from some of his peers because
I think we know how I knowthe likes of Daniel Medvedev and his partner
(21:11):
feel. But a lot of peoplehave sided on teams very up, so
to speak. So let's see whathappens next. All right, So I've
been moving on. I don't knowif you saw this chang Shui yea incident
in Budapest, please inform me,divine, I did not say this.
So in a in a match witham Marisa Toth, who is Hungarian so
(21:34):
her home tournament at the Hungarian GrandPrix clash, a massive argument with umpire
Morgain Lara developed after a line callof they're on clay once again. I'm
telling you for some reason, they'reon clay, so there was a call,
there was a ball mark in dispute. It was quite clear that the
(21:57):
call was in Jen's favor, butthe chair umpire basically didn't want to get
up and help her at all,and basically the supervisors like, well,
it's the umpire's job, so like, I can't do anything. But Jang,
who had been opened about some ofher mental health struggles recently, I
think she lost her grandparents. Thatshe was remarking about how long she's played
(22:19):
tennis for and I think it's liketwenty nine of her thirty four years on
this earth. She's gotten tired.I just want to go home to China.
So it wasn't surprising to see thiskind of get to her in the
way it did, because she retiredfrom the match. She did think there's
the second seed in this whole tournament. But the reaction from a Marisa Toth
(22:40):
is one of celebrations. She raisesher hands in the air and the crowd
is cheering, and it's easily oneof the shittiest things I've seen on a
tennis court. This is one ofthose instances, though, where as it's
been widely remarked Jang shwise widely belovedon the tour, so the entire tennis
posse circle together to voice support forher, including your Azarenkas's, you Boris,
(23:03):
your Sacharis. I saw Dannis Chapavalovealso commenting on this on how outrageous
it was. But yeah, firstof all, we shouldn't be on clay
anymore. But also what a horrendouslook for this tournament as well, because
this players from Hungary and it directlyled to her when I did Victor orbon
order this down special what happened toknown as the Alban Special. As you
(23:29):
I'm part of, part of theplaybook. Apparently it's fixing fixing first round
matches at your Grand Prix. Tellyou what, Like I've said this on
on record previously and I'll say itagain. I'm just I'm just so thankful
when hulkeye and automatic line calling isnot at these events, you know,
I just I love it so much? Can we just twist? What a
(23:51):
twist? I believe? I couldn'tswear. I've been on this podcast being
like, isn't it nice we havereal people making real calls? Like isn't
that the way we always wanted towatch the game. What an idiot,
I was, sir, Well,yeah, I feel like it's one of
those things that as soon as youactually see it take place and you realize
that watching a bunch of man babiesand spoil nepo babies on both the men's
(24:15):
and the women's side, b ratea line judge or a bull kid over
the most. You know, uttershit, it's all bad. Yeah.
Do you think do you think acyborg will put up with that? By
the way, do you think acyborg will put up with it? At
nineteen year old freckled based kid givinghim guff for a footfall? What I
want to what I want to seeis the next evolution of Hawkeye and the
(24:37):
automatic line judges. The moment thata player starts complaining about a line call
is this they get a spray bottlein the same way that you would give
a cat or a dog when theydid something. Yes, yes, so
they get sprayed with water immediately.This this incident was terrible. He It
did remind me though, of likethe I don't know if this is the
(24:57):
correct way to describe, this's whatit just feel like voyeurism Sometimes for these
smaller tournaments were like when you're watchingit on the stream, it feels like
the cameras poking into like the sideof the cage in the corner, and
like someone is just filming on aon a sony handheld. That's how it
fells watching the highlights of this.But there's something that's nice about that.
To go along with mine, thereshould be human umpires. Give me the
(25:18):
shittiest camera angles you can possibly find. It's the moment that you have like
a slightly different camera angle than theone that you you're like, what is
going on? Where is this comingfrom? Oh, you already get like
the one camera view, so youdon't get a change of camera shot.
It's just like the one permanent,fixed shot. The good stuff not the
(25:40):
nicest, all right, Moving on, I mentioned there was eighty tournaments happening
this week. One of them includedLeo Borg first to win I believe for
the twenty year old son of BeyondBok film world number one eleven times Slam
champion, went up beyond Bok greatestplayer of all time. So move quickly
(26:00):
over that. Wow, wow,I nearly forgot about that. Nuclear take
continues, So a couple of thingsto say about this. It's just kind
of. I mean, it's notreally a story, right, it's a
it's just a twenty year old juniorplayer. If it was somewhat of any
other name than it would not matter, just given the first round of a
tournament and bushtad. But that beingsaid, great outfit from Leo Borg wearing
(26:25):
all feeler. I love the colorof these shorts, and he has a
very good looking serve. He reallydoes. It looks very esthetically pleasing.
I don't think this kid is goingto be a very good player, like
I don't think a top fifty player. But at the same time, it
was a cool story. Nonetheless,definitely, and I will say it's cool
that it's had a Swedish Open andhe was a wild card and you didn't
(26:47):
squander his wild kind of opportunity.I think he lost to Korea in the
next round, but to get thatmatch when I can only imagine when it's
like the son of a legend likeJorin Borg. And also it does feel
like join Borg's son should be older. I don't know why I'm saying that
he's sixty seven. I'm just like, wow, his son's that young like
you and more cool. But Drewme off a bit to realize that he's
(27:07):
just twenty years old and kind ofgetting going with his career. But yeah,
I mean in some ways, likeyou kind of like Michael Jordan's kid,
like they're almost nothing expected of youbecause it's like, well, or
are you like Lebron James's kid,where it's like, well, you've showed
some ability. So Brauny, we'regoing to turn the hype machine up to
a million. I think he's onmore of the Michael Jordan's side, but
(27:30):
there's not really huge expectations for LeoBorg to like win stuff. But I
mean that's not always the goal.Forty seven is the new thirtyfou having children?
Yeah, I know, I don'tspeaking of the last Yemaire his brother
has been banned for eighteen months.I wanted to bring this up Bush because
(27:52):
I was listening to Daniel Mevedev talkabout missing drug tests and like how this
works for tennis players. So MichaelYuhmert says that he the I have charged
me with a potential anti doping ruleviolation for having three missed out of competition
tests attempts in a twelve month period. I fought that charge. Eddie hearing
(28:15):
and was cleared by an independent tribunalof three arbitrators in June of twenty twenty
two. The IF wasn't happy withthat and basically went back at him on
this. The post goes on theCourt of Arbitration for Sports got involved,
which is never a good thing.The big thing to take away here is
(28:37):
that he never tested positive for usinganything. It's the idea that he's missed
these tests, and Mevedev was talkingabout how it's it's not it's not an
impossible thing to miss these tests.It's not always malicious, you know,
because you've got a lot going onyour schedules. Insane feels innocuous enough.
But first thing I also remembered wasSimona Hallip. But Simon, is this
(29:00):
different? This feels different? Right, this isn't the same or now are
we getting to tow in the weeds. I think this is different. There's
no positive test for starting points.Very strong pushback from them as well,
right, and I know we gotthat from from hal Up as well,
but it seemed furious. I thinkit's the way that I would describe the
(29:22):
way that Mica Yama was defending them, and rightfully so as well. Right,
Like, I feel like if youwere in that position and you really
were innocent then or do you feellike you had good reasoning to to miss
these tests. I think this isgoing to be an interesting one to follow,
just to see how this one sortof plays out, mostly because we
have said or I have said,I guess I should I shouldn't implicate you
(29:45):
in this one as well, whichplease open Era has said the podcast.
No, I think I have saidpreviously that I think people will be naive
to believe that there is not drugtaking and performance and harshing drugs taking within
the sport of tennis. I thinkthat's still accurate, and I think there's
(30:07):
just easy ways to try and getaround those situations. So I find these
ones very very difficult to know whereto stand on it, simply because,
like I personally believe that there isa ton of this stuff happening, and
it would not surprise me if MichaelYamma was either doping or taking in enhancing
substances. But at the same time, given how sort of shitty some of
(30:32):
these rules are and the way thatit's it's sort of blocked out, and
the way that sort of Danny Moottawas talking about it, it wouldn't shock
me as well as if that hewas completely innocent into terms of the way
that the structures bullshit as well.So I think that's the part that I
will be curious to see how thisone plays out. Yeah, I agree,
and Jensen's Brooksby of course is inthe same boat as Humor, And
I think it's interesting Brookly accepted hisband, but basically it was like,
(30:56):
this is the best thing we cando right now, even though he didn't
technically test positive. And his lawyeris the same lawyer that's representing Simona Hallet,
So I think it's very interesting tosee what Howard Jacobs will use as
a defense. I think for Brooksby, he was saying, the idea of
asking these people to provide their whereaboutsso far in advance it is a pretty
(31:18):
ridiculous considering their schedule and what isrequired of them for their profession, which
is a pretty fair argument and kindof backs up what Medvedev was saying.
But yeah, Brooksby on the shelfwere on the shelf for now, not
the end of the story by anystretch of the imagination. Bush, Do
you got anything else before we wrapup? Not really, I don't think
(31:40):
so. I think I'm still baskingand the light of Collins Ockers winning his
second ground Slam, so it'd benice to Yeah, we'll see. We'll
see how the Hardcore season goes incomingDanny Mevedev winning every hard title and then
losing round one at the USO.Yeah, how about two challenges remaining?
(32:02):
Got anything for us there? Okay? My two challenges remaining are two challenged?
Challenge remaining? How you want tochallenge singular? Singular? Please?
Just a single challenge? Yeah,so a single challenge, but a double
bill of whether I'm going to doopen him back to back for it?
Probably both very good. That beingsaid, I've got to say Tenant was
(32:25):
shit and Chris Nolan's on thin iceat the moment because I've not really enjoyed
Noticed, didn't really like Dunkirk,and didn't really like Tenant. So I'm
like, I'm into this a littleapprehensive. I've got to say that's fair.
I mean, there are parts ofTenant that I liked. I really
I am not vibing with John DavidWashington as an actor. I feel like
(32:50):
that was a major problem with thatthe movie as well. That's took issue
just in general, just in general, I'm not in. I think it's
just I'm just not I'm not in. I'm not in at all. And
I've heard from others that Nolan ison the nights. But I'm also going
to see Barbie that was probably goingto be mine mine when General was going
(33:10):
to be the movie going experience.And I know there's a whole big strike
going on. And this is notequivalent to crossing picket lines, but it's
also a reminder to appreciate and enjoythe work that goes into creating these massive
works of art and how many peopleare involved and how and how things really
(33:30):
get made. So should we begoing to these films? I'm not sure.
I was thinking about that as Iwas saying that, I'm like,
wait a minute, is this isthis crossing the picket mind? I don't
know, I don't know what happens. I'm confused. Let's leave it there,
all right. Reminder, we areon Patreon dot com, Forward Slash
Open Air joint us to direk getthe show at free plus get it early
(33:51):
on Sundays. You also get accessto our discord or rich Out in Tennis
all the time with our wonderful friendsin there, it's a great time plenty
to talk about as we get intothe North American swing. We're also on
Twitter forever long that medium last atopen Era Pod and if you want to
be so kind give us a ratingand a review. That would be great.
(34:14):
We love reading them well read onthe show too. Give me a
shout out, so please do that. And I think that's it for producer
Dylan on the ones and twos,and for Simon, thank you so much
for listening to open Era. We'lltalk to you next week.
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