August 26, 2024 • 43 mins
Ouch, I’ve cut my finger in typing up this episode description. Luckily enough nothing could possibly go wrong from this incredibly normal situation. In other news, World number one Jannik Sinner has been cleared of any wrongdoing after twice testing positive for a banned substance in March. Devang and Simon unpack a wild week in the sport before turning our attention to a live US Open draw preview.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
Hello, and welcome to the Open Air Podcast. My name
mister Begue Sign. I'm joined as always by mister Simon
Bushell Bush. We're back in the tennis driver's seat. The
Olympics are finally in the rear view year. But isn't
it fitting that the biggest story in tennis is doping related?
Isn't this just the callback material of session with the Olympics.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
No, I didn't expect this is an intro, but it
does make sense, doesn't it. For Olympic Games that was
so free of big doping scandalsh, we have to come
full circle and have the world number one for goodness sake,
dev This is a terrible story all around. Everyone comes
(00:58):
out of it looking awful. And if you were to
circle the one situation I think the ATP did not
want to see it would be this. And yet it's
still they still managed to mess this up in some ways.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Seismic seismic news the US Open obviously beginning probably the
news that tennis as a whole collectively did not want
to have as the lead story heading into this was
that the world number one one of the new phases
of tennis, one of the faces that's going to bring
tennis out of the Big Three three era into New Heights,
(01:32):
New Territory. Annick Center was found to have failed two
doping tests within eight days. Those doping tests occurred on
weeks that a tournament did not fall. Otherwise we probably
would have heard about these if they occurred ahead of
let's say Madrid or something else like that. Bush. But
the big seismic news is that Yannick Center has been
(01:55):
cleared for these violations. I don't know if you want
to start there and go into maybe the TikTok of
how how we started and where we are now.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Well, I copied in the BBC article because I think
just to give groundwork or to set the scene behalf
for everyone. So maybe I'll read this out and then
we can circle back to it in a second. It
also gives me my long favored opportunity to become a
BBC news caster. So stay with me for a second.
(02:23):
Will you allow me? I will thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
I know this is a dream, a.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Dream for me.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
World number one Yanick Sinner, has been cleared of any
wrongdoing after twice testing positive for a banned substance. In March,
the Italian tested positive for low levels of metabolite of
colouster bell coluster bel See. This is why I'll never
be in BBC news reader because I can't read this stuff,
a steroid that can be used to build muscle mass.
During Indian Wales, a further sample taken eight days later
(02:52):
also tested positive for low levels of the same metabolite.
A provisional suspension was applied automatically, but at Sinner challenged
it successfully he was able to keep playing. The International
Tennis Integrity Agency found Sinner was inavertently contaminated with this
substance by Giacomo Naldi. His physiotherapist. Nalady has been applying
(03:14):
and over the counter spray available in Italy to cut
to a cut on his own hand after he'd carried
out treatment on Sinner. The itia, except to the explanation,
and the violation was not intentional. Sinner was cleared of
fault or negligence by the Independent tribuneal last week, but
he will lose all the ranking points and prize money
from the semi final run at Indian Worlds. So that's
(03:38):
the sort of nature of the story. There is a
billion different ways I think to tackle this one. What
sticks out to you as the top line perhaps, or
what is what is the thing that caught your eye?
Because this is this is a story that has been
covered in numerous different ways and I'm still will be
covered by numerous different outlets over the next week or so,
(03:59):
especially heading into the US Open As you mentioned, but
just from you, from a person or as a fan perspective,
what is the one thing that you saw during the
course of the week of this story that made you
raise your eyebrows?
Speaker 1 (04:10):
I'd say the reaction from players probably is the biggest
takeaway for me. You have like your Nick Kurrios and
your chapos coming out pretty Forcilly talking about this, but
also just in general, like the rank and file posting, subtweeting,
doing what they're doing kind of like reflects how maybe
(04:33):
how Yanni Sinner's perceived, which we didn't really know until now,
which is interesting, like maybe he's not the super beloved
guy that we assumed he was on tour. The other
thing is like, so like the different rules for different people.
This is clearly a case where this looks bad right
and like the timing looks awful, but you also get
(04:55):
like the TikTok of like how they managed to get
this delayed and not put out it to the press,
and like how Yannick Sinner's team was so like on
it and like literally they did everything right to a
t to get this to the point where this was
the least bad outcome, I guess if you could say
it in their camp, in their camp being like the
first time anybody heard about this was when he was cleared,
(05:19):
which is not normally how this works. It's usually the opposite, right, So,
like the fact that it didn't work that way, the
fact that we didn't hear about the positive tests and
then everything else after is like ninety nine percent of
how things do not happen in this case, Like, it's
never like this, So I think that's interesting to me
full stop. Those first two things, the reaction from the
(05:39):
players and how this is backwards to like every other
doping scandal that we usually see.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Do you think Janick Sinner, do you think it is
aimed at Sinner himself the personality, or do you think
it's what he is symbolic of perhaps an elitism within
this sport and that disparity that exists between higher ranking
and lower ranking players. Because by the very whatever you
think about the system and whatever you think about how
this has gone down, I think it has largely worked
(06:10):
exactly as it was intended to. Now you can you know,
I can find fault with many things about the system
here of how it worked, but him and his legal
team and his counsel basically played a blinder here other
than being care all the other things that come with it.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Is that legal team, man, they that's where well in
two thousand and eight, for that legal team, they put
out a hell of a performance. My god, Well, it's
just saying the things we always knew about to support
out loud, right, Like, there are different rules for different people.
There always have been. It comes down to scheduling when
they play. It comes down to the assignments they get
(06:48):
for practice scorts. It comes down to the I mean
the lodgings. They get what they can afford. How many
people come with them to things because they can afford
to travel with a posse of ten to twenty people Like,
there is a different class of people on the tours.
And I think the reaction to this is is a
bit of yeah, exactly what you're saying, Bush, Like, people like, yeah,
(07:10):
you see, you get this, Like Michael and the other
people who have missed drug tests and like that that's
been another talking point, like your Jensen Brooksby or your
Michael Emer's, like the people who have lost a lot
of time because they weren't afforded these same proceedings. They
didn't I guess you could also say, like they didn't
do these same things that Sinners Camp did correct, Like
(07:33):
there are different things that are in place here, but like, optically,
it looks so terrible that I would have loved to
have known what the what the plan was when this
was happening in real time, because if you recall, like
the Full Court Press during this time was about y
becoming number one, and like the Andrea Agassy putting out
(07:55):
a video and like all these stars and people commenting
on like the new kid on the scene and here's
the other guy with Carlos that's gonna save the day,
Like that was all we were talking about. And it's
because of what they were saying, and that baying the
tennis tour in the Major. So what I calculated risks
slash gamble slash Like, okay, we're completely cool with the explanation.
(08:19):
It does seem to check out. This physio guy has
been implicated with this sort of exact scenario several times.
The steroid itself comes with like a huge like do
not buy kind of symbol on the cover of it.
Don't buy the steroid cream is an option as well.
I think Luke mentioned that on the discorder, like, there's
so many things here that I want to give him
(08:42):
the benefit of the doubt. I like Yannick Cinner. I
like watching him play. There's also part of me that's like, hmm,
you seem to figure out all the things that you
kind of need to figure out to win the big
titles aka lasting physically, because I've noticed he can't do
that all the time. So I hate that it's now
brought up all these questions for me because I won't
(09:04):
be able to get them out of my head watching
them play probably ever, right, and that's where we are,
I know, once this happened, what do you think the
first thing they thought? Bush like the atp good Denzi
and Crew.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
That is a legitimately good question, because there is a
there's a there is a a school of thought here,
and there is a there's an approach to this that
says that given the situation of him having the provisional
mandatory suspension that he was entitled to do what he
(09:39):
In a sense, it works as a gagging order for
all intensive purposes. You can take issue with my phrasing
on that, but the fact that the way that his
legal team and that was structured is that it enabled
this period of silence to occur while he went through
the appeals process. With all that being said, everyone in
the ATP probably knew about this as well. Like I
(10:00):
don't think you get into a situation while the top
echelons of your game are not familiar with these situations
and how they chose to react to it and continue
to push that guy.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
We never know.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
We will never know the insights of how much of
that organization is connected together and whether or not they
are kept entirely separate from each other. But I think
you have to be fairly naive if you don't believe
that the top members of the sport knew about this
and were continuing to push it in a certain way.
That doesn't sit too well with me.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
I mean the explanation itself, but part of me feels
like a rube, like a moron for believing it. Fully
like fully, he was applying the cream to the trader's
hand himself because he had a cut, and then he
used it to apply different cream. Probably Tenni, right.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
I think there's a saying, isn't there and figured me,
I don't know the exact phraseology of it, and it
has many different versions of it, but it's the don't
chalk up malice to what is usually incompetence or worse
to that effect, and I think think that you've seen
a lot of people reaching for that argument with this story,
which is that we're all humans, we all make mistakes,
all this kind of stuff to sort of put it
(11:09):
in that camp, but that sort of has an element
of parasocial giving the benefit of the doubt here.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
And I think there's a.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Difference to the way that phrase is applied because sometimes
it gets applied to your workplace or like that kind
of situation. This is professional sport. These people know what
they're doing. They are trying to get edges constantly. So
it doesn't quite I don't think it quite aligns to
me the idea that this was someone who was just
doing it for who was someone who was, you know,
(11:36):
just a bit dim and it sort of ended up
this way. It looks far more deliberate to that. To
me anyway, there was so much chat during the course
in our discord during the course of the week that
I think we tended to forget or didn't circle around
at the fact that this dude looks pretty damn guilty.
It really does look that way to me, you know,
(11:58):
personal opinion, but at the same time dev pretty awful.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
For some shades of helop. Yeah, there's some shades of
hell up here, right, which everyone seemed or felt pretty
confident about in terms of guilt or not, which I mean,
she's playing yeah, so yeah. I hate being like so
cynical all the time, but I really am like trying
to strain like like oh okay, like maybe this happened, maybe
(12:21):
that happened, or maybe Like the other part of me
is like is considering past cases of this happening. It's
thinking about like how the PTPA will handle this. Also
this the Jack Draper Felix aug Allia seem drama that
happened a few days before this, and like the rallying
(12:45):
cry that was mainly like a why don't we have
replaying tennis? That should be fixed and like no back
talking about everyone talking about it. Everyone agreeing everyone also
agreeing Felix is a great dude. But like, going from
that immediately, which is like mass consent, is we got
to get this involved that Umpire doesn't know what he's
doing to this where now it's like, oh god, like
(13:07):
that the very intell what do you think about it?
Like the actual integrity of the whole dang sport is
sort of on the line when you when you were here,
because a lot of the other talk I've heard is like,
well the Australian Open, or like how was he clean then,
or like we do know that he was tested a lot.
I saw Andy Roley talking about this on his podcast
(13:29):
in terms of like Grand Slam testing, so we know
that he was probably tested around there and then then
passed the check. So like, it doesn't have to feel
like the world the sky is falling when it's like
is everyone crooked? But also it would be naive af
not to assume that this is happening, So I guess
it depends how far you want to dig into it,
(13:50):
because like the fact that this didn't make bigger news
beyond Tennis was very surprising to be especially considering when
this happened, like this was the perfect dead period. I
thought for this to really bust out. So maybe in
the end this was a fantastic pr job slash. Yeah,
like this is when we should put this out for
(14:11):
Cinner and co. Yeah, because I truly think about this.
This is the world of biss that the top player
in the world at the sport. And it was like, okay, cool,
he's he's playing in New York, so like well, we'll
talk to him about it, but like, yeah, he's He's
good to go.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
So there's there's that side of it, Like clearly from
a perspective of looking from a perspective of looking at
it and as a whole, and the timing of this
and how Sinner was able to control the narrative and
all that kind of stuff. There is a counter argument
to this that this was all done you know, in
in by the book in due course right like he
(14:47):
this uh he was he was under.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Innocent until proven guilty. They couldn't prove he was guilty
even though it was a looney tunes ass explanation as
to how this happened.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
So h and the way the system where the points
system and structure works is that it came out deliberately
on this day due to count back and them having
to be on that four month schedule like that is all.
That is not conspiracy theory. I think that is how
the system is set up.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Now.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
If you want to ask the question about whether the
system is fucked, I think that is a very reasonable
question to ask. And whether or not you believe you
have legitimacy in that system, and whether or not a
player or a group or the people around the player
are so well versed at being able to get around
this system and not gaming it. I think that is
also a legitimate question as well. And as it says
(15:37):
in Nicarus, like to go back to that great documentary
about it, players and athletes don't do during competitions, they
don't before it. That's the whole point is you're supposed
to take advantage of it so you don't get caught
during the time that you're actually doing it. So I
think from that perspective, it seems it's not surprising to
me that someone doesn't get caught in competition. It's just
(15:57):
you know, the situation where if you're doing something outside
of it and you get caught, then then it seems
a bit more likely to me.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Honestly, it's up to you what you want to believe here.
I can't. I can't me personally though, and I think
I'm with you Bush, so I can't. I can't exit
this saga.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
With a real bad taste in my mouth like this
is there is a wonderful and charming and very funny
phrase from Blackadder, and stay with me here for my
British listeners, it's he looks as guilty as a puppy
sitting next to a pile of pooh. And I think
(16:37):
that's how I feel about this. It looks so bad. Yes,
he is, as I said, his team played a blinded
to get this kick down the road and everything, but
all the things you expect me to believe all this?
Come on, dude, like, come on, we're not We're not
twelve here.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
You missed the Olympics because it tuns the lightest to you?
Oh my god, this is a pretty strange of doping
checks there all right?
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Think dog?
Speaker 1 (17:04):
This does? Oh man? What it is that? Like? Again? Though?
I wonder, I really well this Maybe we're in a
silo or bubbled off. But are you not surprised this
wasn't bigger news elsewhere?
Speaker 2 (17:20):
I think it made pretty decent, pretty big news, though
I don't think it quite had the impact that that
you would expect. And I think that's what you're kind
of alluding to it.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
If you yeah, if you were suspended, sure, like yeah,
And I think.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
That's that's the pr play here, isn't it. It's to
create doubt. It's this is why you go through this,
and this is why you do it as a legal team,
and why you do it as a as a camp
around you.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
And and to me, there's like this this idea of
slow playing it or not doing anything is sort of
how they've approached vere F and like sort of been like,
well we'll see. You're like yeah, like let's let's see
what happens and then to see if they get kind
of lucky or or see if the public opinion it's.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Like, well, like I don't know.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
So I think a lot of people will point the
finger and say, like independent panel cleared him all this
kind of stuff. He went through the process, he gave
he had evidence, And I would point and push back
of that and say, most of the time, these athletes
and the people around them are a lot smarter than
the people that are testing them, and they know how
to do this, and they're very, very skillful of being
(18:25):
able to navigate these situations, and we know people don't.
In our sport. It happens. It's happened throughout history, It
will happen through every competitive situation. It happens all the time.
It just so happens that sometimes the world number one
gets caught, and it sucks when that happens. In my opinion,
what do you make of.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Coaching, coaching staffs, the teams. Darren k Hill was quoted
after this. He is, of course the coach of Vienny Sinner.
He was the coach of smRNA Hallap. He was not
her coach when she was punished. Patrick Wartaglu was but
quote from Darren k Hill, he would never do anything intentionally.
(19:07):
He was in an unfortunate situation. The truth is out,
no fault or negligence and hopefully he can put this
behind him. And then he cites the reason why the
overturning work, the reason why it was possible for him
to continue playing after the short provisional suspension, is that
they were able to locate precisely where the incident occurred
and they were able to explain what happened with the
spray where to like buy the hour. So yeah, this
(19:32):
is massive for Darren k Hill as well, like the
guilt by association stuff and the sort of links. I'm
fascinated to see how this has talked about during the
US Open, because holy hell, like it'll be a it'll
either not be talked about by most or B it'll
be talked about in the most cringey ham fisted way possible,
(19:55):
which would be good, good viewing. But how much do
you think it will be covered?
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Considering Dan Darren Kale's on the payroll of ESPN as well,
I think it's going to be fascinating to watch that.
I would be surprised if they actually touched this one
a whole lot. It seems like this is not something
they really want to get involved with any major incidents
that have been occurred in our sport over the last
few years. I think ESPN don't want to touch this
at all. So I'd be shocked and surprised that they
actually did find a way to cover this on the
(20:23):
on the Khill thing. Just to sort of circle back
on it for a second.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
He actually.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
I think everyone is going to be quick to flog
him over this, just given a hallip, sorry given a
Vodasco B hallop and C sinner. Yeah, the timelines don't
quite line up for those things. I think it's more,
you know, shitty timing and each individual case to be
(20:51):
looked at individually of why these players have been caught
for various different reasons. Having said all that, people seem
pretty fucking dumb. Why does this continue to happen around you?
Like it seems that something is very unprofessional, at least
in this scenario.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Those edges, man, you said it very well. The edges
are so small and so fine, the real story behind
them probably makes a lot of sense, you guts, like
the actual explanations, like what the hell? How could you
let this happen? How could you let this guy who's
been implicated several times in other sports for the exact
same thing make a dumb ass mistake like this that
(21:29):
would implicate the golden boy, one of the golden men.
This is your athlete, Like for Fox, it's like crazy negligence,
it's one of the crazy Oh my god, like like
this is not the timing is so bad, the time
is so.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Put it into context.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
This is not a whoopsie, oh dick, You know, I
actually bought some some contaminated beef from the supermarket, and
my athletes happened.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
It'd be like if it'd be like if Lance was
found out after the first tour and they're like no, no, no,
it's gonna everyone. They let him kept going and he's like, okay,
so he's really clean, and then it.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Does have to be said.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
I guess in closing this segment, he is going to
be watched like a hawk at this point now, so
his results I think will be indicative of what the
reaction will be.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Fascinating. Yeah, I who know, maybe he becut goes heel
and people love it. Where's a backwards hat? I I
think there's a play here where he takes on the
bad boy Moniker or like the I honestly think it's
the only play.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
There was a conversation to be had anytime an athlete
gets caught of who is responsible for it? Is the
camp pushing it onto the individual? Is it the individual
who's pushing for this? Is the individual sort of making
a claim of like, oh, you know, I'm struggling to
keep up in this situation, I keep falling down in
this particular area. You know, I'm struggling over three sets.
I'm struggling. You know, my forehand's not good enough or
(22:59):
pick anything right, like any of the sport. I'm really
struggling in that final ten meters of one hundred meters?
You know, just can we find another way to train
on this area? That maybe is what the athlete is saying.
We will never know what that conversation has happened, and
anyone who is trying to claim the opposite is living
in pure fantasy. That is pure parasocial relationship of saying
that that's something that Yanick would never do.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
You have no idea.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
You don't know what the inside of that camp looks like.
You don't know how that conversation has gone, what has
been suggested.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
And anything about it. But the idea.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
I think that everyone involved in it is not aware
of what would be happening. I think if an athlete
wants to dope, everyone in the camp is aware of it,
and I think the athlete themselves is aware of it.
I just don't think you can keep it hidden from
people when it's when you live that close to each
other and that's the way that your sort of professional
life runs.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
I think that's a good place to leave. Segment one
when we come back farting shots, including some actual tennis talk,
some more Center stuff, plus we actually look at the
jaws for the US Open and make some foolish picks.
Coming up next on Open Era Welcome back to the
(24:11):
Open Era podcast. Of course, they Annix Centner innocent, Innocent, Innocent, Innocent,
his amazing legal team if you're listening to this, totally innocent,
and he's playing a New York baby. But he was
also in Cincinnati where boy or Boy were some social
media posts having to be deleted after this capet because
(24:35):
thanks to the Olympics, the final happened on Monday. We
had Arina Sablenka doing the damn thing in Cincy, which
we'll talk about, but we also had Yanick Center beating
Francis Tafo in the final. Do you want to do
Ciner fir us just to clap this out.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Yeah, I think so, And also just to give a
huge shout out to Francis Tfo dressed as a tennis
ball in this final.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Or as Josh said, dresses as if a child drew
a tennis ball.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
It's actually I think this was a really fun final
and I don't think Francis TFO wants to be known
as a player who makes things entertaining but ultimately loses.
But if ever there was a definition of that sort
of monica that gets used on him, it was this final.
It was really fun, but ultimately he wasn't really close
across the two sets. It was one of those things
(25:29):
that there was a vastly superior player who had ice
in his veins through the entirety of this match, and
it was a demolition job.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
It was like I said that ice in the veins
tweet deleted. But Sitter champion in Cincinnati Sablenka though Bush
she wins the title, dominated the final, but the win
over Schiantek Simon in the semifinals mark slash sign of
things to come question mark potentially.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Yeah, she was really full value for it as well. Right,
it's not one of those that you had an off
day or anything. Sabalanka is blow her off the court.
It was about to about a match that wasn't close.
That is another example of it. She's unstoppable on her day,
like when everything's working and she's hitting with the level
of depth and power that she possesses, that's going to
(26:24):
feel really really good because it's been a long time
since she's won a title. I think the last title
she won was in Australia with the first Grand Slam
of the year, so it's been a long time coming.
Obviously some truly howering things have happened since that point,
and continues to sort of deal with the fallout of
it all, but at the same time, so much confidence
and I think this might be one of the most
(26:45):
fun matchups on tour, regardless men or women. I love
watching Sablenka and Trio Tech play and hopefully we get
more of it.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
I really hope we get that. In New York, really
good article in The Guardian from Ben Bloom, a long
interview with Sabolenka which she goes through the tumultuous, difficult
the year she's gone gone through and speaking about multiple things,
including her friendship with Paula Podosa. Really good read. I
(27:13):
recommend it to get more insight into the world number two,
who is one of the favorites at this tournament, but
Simon quickly on ega a mark for her longevity at
number one. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
I wanted to just highlight this because it was something
that sort of slipped I don't know. It's one of
those things that rains as number one or length of weeks,
tends to not get spoken about until you reach stratospheric
heights when you're talking like the no vaciography to passing
Rafa and Nadal and the potential of passing stephie Graff
and all this kind of stuff. But one thing that
(27:48):
came out during this course of this week is Igoshiontek
overtook Justina a Nan in terms of how long the
Belgium was at well number one, So one hundred and
seventeen weeks, tying it's not overtaken, will have overtaken it
by next week, assuming that nothing insane happens and there's
no testing that comes out, et cetera, et cetera. I
(28:09):
shouldn't say that there no implication at all here. Okay,
let's move on quickly. But the other side of this
is the players that are ranked above Sharia Tech who
have been world number one, that being ash Barty, Monica Seleez,
Martina Hingis, Chrissy Everett, Serena Williams, Martina Navrettelova, and stephie Graff.
It's quite a short list, isn't it of players that
(28:31):
you would have expected to have held that number one
ranking for extended periods of time. She's in some pretty
decent company already and she's only going to continue to
go higher on that list, But you would have thought
that more players had been above one hundred and seventeen
week mark.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Yeah, I mean there is there's some goats in there,
and there is kind of goes to show you like
to select crew, but it's quite a small list and
once you make it there, it's quite something really excited
for women's draw, and that leads us into our blind
US Open draw previews. Simon hasn't seen the draw until
(29:07):
right now. I've seen a few match shops, but I
haven't seen anything really extensively. So we're going to go
into it. Simon, let's look at the women's side. What
do you think in in terms of I was about
to say like sleepers, but to me, there is a
full like class of clear favorites in which there are
(29:30):
two maybe three, but then afterwards it's pretty open. Do
you consider Cocoa Goff one of the favorites. She is
a defending champion, but has not been a great year
for her so far, especially recently.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Well I'm literally digesting this live.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
We forgured it would be an interesting feature to do
on the podcast, So let's look at this Before I
answer your question. Let's ask another question just while I'm
looking through this. When you first get a draw, how
do you break it down? Like what are you looking at?
Speaker 1 (29:58):
First of all, love to look at the lucky losers first,
if there are any, because that's that's always wonderful, get
that cash, get that check feeling. But look for Canadian flags.
That's usually what I used to do in the past, honestly,
because there was always so few, and then I was
like whoa, and then you would sue and see what
was happening. Nowadays, I look for her I don't know, clusters.
(30:25):
I look for clusters of flags. Nothing really, there's no
method to the madness.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Yeah, I tend to be.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
I'm obviously like who's winning a section of a draw.
That's one thing that I always look at. What's going
to be the fourth round matchup? Usually like what is
the sort of gateway to the second week. That's one
that I always look at to see. And then it's
who's on either side of the draw, so potentially one
of the latter stages that could what matchups could potentially
happen there, and then after that I sort of circle
(30:53):
back and look at first round matchups, so just like
sort of looking at and examining this for the first time,
I think looking at things here, and that first round
matchup of Radecani versus Kennon looks really really tasty. Two
former champions to former Grand Slam champions meeting in round one.
That's really interesting, really really tough section for both of
(31:13):
those players to come out of though, just given how
well people in that section are playing, both Danielle and
Jessica Goula, and it's going to be daniel Collins's last
US Open as well, so looks pretty okay for her
on that side of the draw. Yeah, what are the
first round matchups? Stick out to you?
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Penco Soccer Okay.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Yeah, yeah, that one, it's an interesting one.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
The Jescue Palini looks very good part up over Fernandez.
That's all in the same section section four, So holy goal,
that's going to be something I looking ahead a bit.
Potentially Egish Fiantek versus Mira Andreva in the fourth round
could be spicy, and Greva has been very good the
(31:57):
last few weeks.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
This is a good job, Sablanca. This is from the
looks all.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Of it it is. Yeah, I think I mean madison
Keyes health is in question. Otherwise I think she could
be dangerous for sure. But other than that, you've got
Jen maybe in the quarterfinals. But yeah, I like Sablenca's
draw a lot. I like sablinc in this turna bush.
I think it lines up well. Didn't do the Olympics,
came back in Washington, has kind of like slow played
(32:23):
her return obviously. I think she's found a way to
get manage with the all of the shit that's happened
in a positive way, or as much as she can.
So I'm I'm gonna take her on the women's side.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
I think that's a good pick. I ast think that's
where I might lean as well. It's tough draw for
Cocoa Golf in that section. Some good players in there,
full round. Yeah, second up as a really tough She's
a goallet to get through players there. Starts relatively okay
and then gets pretty pretty horrible pretty quickly after that.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Let's turn our attention to the men's side. I laughed
a bit Simon the Annick Sinner is the number one seed.
All of this stuff I read was that Sinner, sorry, Alcaraz,
and novakro on opposite size of the draw. Obviously, the
Olympics slum large in people's minds, But do you think
that the opening stuff played into how the results of
(33:15):
the jaw are presented? It all?
Speaker 2 (33:18):
I was gonna say that the factor into the drawer itself.
Are we getting a U way for hot balls situation
as they're drawing them out of the ball machine?
Speaker 3 (33:27):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Probably, undoubtedly it has to have played somewhat of a
factor in terms of how who.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Is because because I say this, I say this, Sinner's
the favorite. He should be the favorite here. I especially
think Alcaraz is not going to have enough juice after
thinking that you'd be cool after the Olympics, the meltdown
in Cincinnati shook me. So maybe I'm reading too much
(33:53):
into it, but I feel like he's gonna need a
bit more of the tank mentally to come to your
over too in a tournament like this, So I would
back Cinner over him, and Novak is always Novak, but
I mean over five sets, let's see. But how consider
not be one of the favorites if not the favorite,
especially after Cincinnati, unless you think the crowd going for
(34:17):
blood or cheering him at every second might face him well.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
I think the answer to the question of who is
the favorite for the US Open largely depends on your
read of how far and how good Danny Mepidev is
an moment because he is lurking in that section of
the draw. Is a tough road for the un extended
to get through to the final. It's not an easy one.
(34:45):
I think it gets it ramps up in difficulty quite
quickly early rounds, doesn't look too terrible. I don't know,
man Medvedev is extremely good at this tournament. I think
people tend to forget when it comes to this time
of year.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
This is his moment. He's he's so good here.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
But yeah, that that half of the draw is not
not very nice when it comes to players that he's
going to have to be. Poor Chappo as well, looking
at the section of the draw, gets botage on a
protective ranking and then gets al Choraz potentially next.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Poor dude.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Oh god, yeah, that's not going to be fun. I
for god, Bevedev's a great shout in terms of the
bottom half. I actually do like go back a lot.
I think he'll be fine. There's no one here that
really who I mean. There could be a fun match
against Tiao maybe in the fourth round, but like overall,
I think he'll be okay till the final.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Yeah, potential quarter against Verev, semi quarter, no semi final.
This draw looks fine, truly, if I have to, if
I had to pick that side of the draw, I
think and still favor him coming out of it. There's
no one there that really terrifies me. Has not had
a good season. He would always stuck up.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Well.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
I'm certainly not picking Casper Rude to come out of
that bottom section. Yeah, I would pick Ndala come Jesus Christ,
like Jock Bush to come out of the second half.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
I do want to shout out Lorenzo Masetti, who would
be It would be fun as well Bush if he
had a nice run here. But the qualifiers familiar names.
Gabriel Diallo Canadian making it through Kentucky product. That was
really exciting that run through qualifying, which is a gallet here,
(36:32):
just to make it through those three matches, so that's
huge for the Canadian. Also, Diego Schwartzman, Bush came through qualifying,
which is cool to see. Love of the game is real.
The shortsman showed it, so that'll be cool. I'm also
just generally looking at some of these first rounders, Bush
Jang and Jack Draper. I don't think Jack Draper should
(36:55):
get off scot free from ballgate. Whatever the hell happened
in a Cincinnati. How is he not getting worse stick
for like not admitting what happened. Everyone knows. Everyone knows,
and you feel that that unnatural feeling.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Maybe they do know it and it's just being kept
inside of the hallowed grounds of the locker room. That
people are giving him the side eye.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Much like the shade being thrown sinners way, maybe not directly.
And everyone's like Felix is the greatest, No one's like No,
one's like Jack Draper good guy? After that?
Speaker 2 (37:26):
Right, So definitely not Who is your winner? Devang Fudge?
Speaker 1 (37:33):
I I want to pick center. I think it'd be
really funny, So I think I'm going to pick center
for banter reasons. This to me is like a huge,
huge brutal incident that oh I don't understand why it's
not a bigger deal. So I feel like sinner winning
will will really open our eyes to how farcicle this
(37:55):
might be.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
I don't want it. Yeah, I think Novak Djokovic is
gonna win this tournament.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
And maybe it is perfect. People will be openly cheering
for Novak in a final to win in New York finally,
and it's gonna happen twenty five.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
The only reason I say that is just like I
don't see anyone in the bottom half of the drawer
that I would picking a matchup against him, and then
it's just a straight like do I fancy it's I who?
Do I pick Djokovic against Senna, Djokovic against Medvedev, Djokovic
against Akaraz. I think you can lose all of those matchups,
but I also think he's gonna be fresher going into
(38:33):
those and the other guys will.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
Be exactly exactly. Yeah, that's it, And I think, like
over five sets, param Shriver said the best these guys
can manage their workload, like I think Novak is the
best at it by a mile. Obviously, if you this
man knows what he's doing in terms of conserving. So yeah, no, actually,
great pick, I'm picking center for Banter. What a hell, man?
(38:57):
If I told you at the beginning of the year. Wait,
I gotta listen back to the Australian Open episode we
did Twins Sinner one and be like, this is the
greatest day in the history of the world.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Someone please clip together from our episodes. Every time we've
mentioned he's looking a bit bigger at the moment, isn't he.
It's like how much he's grown in stature.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
Crazy, someone's eating their parents.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
The Caraboys should be arrested. To you right now, I'm joking.
I'm joking. Figure out a voice. I'm joking. Innocent, He's innocent,
clear to play.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
Good stuff.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Anything else you've got timon anything else?
Speaker 3 (39:37):
I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
I think this has been a dreadfall week for tennis,
really really awful.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
It's fat, it's fad. Let's go to two challenges remaining.
I feel like yours might be soccer related. I'm curious,
so what is it?
Speaker 3 (39:57):
It's not.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
No, it's actually still sports related. And I think it's
actually a previous challenge that you've put in here. And
I finally sat down and watched Sprint at your Recognize
and I really really enjoyed it.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
I really liked it.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
I think you've mentioned to me coming out of it.
I think you mentioned the Noah Lyles comes across really
well in it. I think he does as well. I
think he's a very sympathetic and empathetic character. I think
his backstory, his mother, like his whole family, he seems
like a depending on how you viewed some of these athletes,
he seems he seems relatively okayd At me. It seems
like I found a level of kinship with him that
(40:33):
I didn't think I was going to find.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
It's really good.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
It's a nice behind the scenes look at a discipline
which is so revered but oftentimes undercovered throughout the history
of sprinting. People tend to look at it as like
these gladiatorial situations where it's almost mythical of how these
people train, and then you see it and you're just like, oh,
(40:56):
like they just they get up and do the same things,
fairly unsurprising. It's fairly normal to me. But I think
it's a great documentary series. I'm really ready to encourage
people to watch it.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
I definitely agree. Man, I'm missing random Olympic events. Is
can I just stream fencing randomly on a Wednesday morning?
Is that is that illegal against the rules? Man? It's fine,
great step, I'm going to go. I'm blanking. I had
(41:30):
something else, but I cannot remember it for the life
of me. But I install the basket on my bike
the other day with the help of my partner, and
I gotta say, the back pain I'm avoiding now has
been huge. I wish I had been doing this the
whole time. Wait, basket so great?
Speaker 2 (41:49):
What's the implication that you so you put a basket
and then put your bag into the basket.
Speaker 3 (41:53):
Is that what you're saying? Exactly right?
Speaker 1 (41:54):
Okay, as opposed to wearing the bag and then of
course the bag creating a layer of backsweat That is
just now something that you have to be with at work.
It's not good.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Have you ridden an e bike yet? Are you still
on the I have acoustic one?
Speaker 1 (42:10):
I have, Yeah, They're great. Do you like it? I do? Yeah?
And my my partner has one as well, and it's awesome.
I would yeah. If the next bike I get, I
guess knock one wood. My current bike I got a
couple of summers ago and it's still going good. But
the e bikes are good. I do. I do miss
like like I do like the idea of pedaling on
(42:31):
my own all the time, but I get like commuting wise.
E bikes are great.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
I think that's fantastic. Really are the future, and I
think we should be leaning into them more because that's
so cheap comparatively for what you get out of them
long term. Yeah, yeah, I think they're great. Basket's also
great to have, good pick.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Thank you. All right, we'll leave it there. A reminder,
we are on Patreon dot com Forward Slash Open Era
Joints there get the pod ad free, get it early
on Sundays or whenever we record, which is now week plus,
join the discord, ver chatt and Tennis and Center conspiracy
theories all the time. It's in extra extra spicy in there.
(43:11):
So join us Patreon dot com Forward Slash Open Air Pod.
And that's it for producer Dylan on the once en
to you sand for Simon. Thank you so much for
listening to open EA. We'll talk to you next week.
Hello, and welcome to the Open Air Podcast. My name
mister Begue Sign. I'm joined as always by mister Simon
Bushell Bush. We're back in the tennis driver's seat. The
Olympics are finally in the rear view year. But isn't
it fitting that the biggest story in tennis is doping related?
Isn't this just the callback material of session with the Olympics.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
No, I didn't expect this is an intro, but it
does make sense, doesn't it. For Olympic Games that was
so free of big doping scandalsh, we have to come
full circle and have the world number one for goodness sake,
dev This is a terrible story all around. Everyone comes
(00:58):
out of it looking awful. And if you were to
circle the one situation I think the ATP did not
want to see it would be this. And yet it's
still they still managed to mess this up in some ways.
Speaker 1 (01:10):
Seismic seismic news the US Open obviously beginning probably the
news that tennis as a whole collectively did not want
to have as the lead story heading into this was
that the world number one one of the new phases
of tennis, one of the faces that's going to bring
tennis out of the Big Three three era into New Heights,
(01:32):
New Territory. Annick Center was found to have failed two
doping tests within eight days. Those doping tests occurred on
weeks that a tournament did not fall. Otherwise we probably
would have heard about these if they occurred ahead of
let's say Madrid or something else like that. Bush. But
the big seismic news is that Yannick Center has been
(01:55):
cleared for these violations. I don't know if you want
to start there and go into maybe the TikTok of
how how we started and where we are now.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Well, I copied in the BBC article because I think
just to give groundwork or to set the scene behalf
for everyone. So maybe I'll read this out and then
we can circle back to it in a second. It
also gives me my long favored opportunity to become a
BBC news caster. So stay with me for a second.
(02:23):
Will you allow me? I will thank you.
Speaker 1 (02:27):
I know this is a dream, a.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
Dream for me.
Speaker 2 (02:29):
World number one Yanick Sinner, has been cleared of any
wrongdoing after twice testing positive for a banned substance. In March,
the Italian tested positive for low levels of metabolite of
colouster bell coluster bel See. This is why I'll never
be in BBC news reader because I can't read this stuff,
a steroid that can be used to build muscle mass.
During Indian Wales, a further sample taken eight days later
(02:52):
also tested positive for low levels of the same metabolite.
A provisional suspension was applied automatically, but at Sinner challenged
it successfully he was able to keep playing. The International
Tennis Integrity Agency found Sinner was inavertently contaminated with this
substance by Giacomo Naldi. His physiotherapist. Nalady has been applying
(03:14):
and over the counter spray available in Italy to cut
to a cut on his own hand after he'd carried
out treatment on Sinner. The itia, except to the explanation,
and the violation was not intentional. Sinner was cleared of
fault or negligence by the Independent tribuneal last week, but
he will lose all the ranking points and prize money
from the semi final run at Indian Worlds. So that's
(03:38):
the sort of nature of the story. There is a
billion different ways I think to tackle this one. What
sticks out to you as the top line perhaps, or
what is what is the thing that caught your eye?
Because this is this is a story that has been
covered in numerous different ways and I'm still will be
covered by numerous different outlets over the next week or so,
(03:59):
especially heading into the US Open As you mentioned, but
just from you, from a person or as a fan perspective,
what is the one thing that you saw during the
course of the week of this story that made you
raise your eyebrows?
Speaker 1 (04:10):
I'd say the reaction from players probably is the biggest
takeaway for me. You have like your Nick Kurrios and
your chapos coming out pretty Forcilly talking about this, but
also just in general, like the rank and file posting, subtweeting,
doing what they're doing kind of like reflects how maybe
(04:33):
how Yanni Sinner's perceived, which we didn't really know until now,
which is interesting, like maybe he's not the super beloved
guy that we assumed he was on tour. The other
thing is like, so like the different rules for different people.
This is clearly a case where this looks bad right
and like the timing looks awful, but you also get
(04:55):
like the TikTok of like how they managed to get
this delayed and not put out it to the press,
and like how Yannick Sinner's team was so like on
it and like literally they did everything right to a
t to get this to the point where this was
the least bad outcome, I guess if you could say
it in their camp, in their camp being like the
first time anybody heard about this was when he was cleared,
(05:19):
which is not normally how this works. It's usually the opposite, right, So,
like the fact that it didn't work that way, the
fact that we didn't hear about the positive tests and
then everything else after is like ninety nine percent of
how things do not happen in this case, Like, it's
never like this, So I think that's interesting to me
full stop. Those first two things, the reaction from the
(05:39):
players and how this is backwards to like every other
doping scandal that we usually see.
Speaker 2 (05:46):
Do you think Janick Sinner, do you think it is
aimed at Sinner himself the personality, or do you think
it's what he is symbolic of perhaps an elitism within
this sport and that disparity that exists between higher ranking
and lower ranking players. Because by the very whatever you
think about the system and whatever you think about how
this has gone down, I think it has largely worked
(06:10):
exactly as it was intended to. Now you can you know,
I can find fault with many things about the system
here of how it worked, but him and his legal
team and his counsel basically played a blinder here other
than being care all the other things that come with it.
Speaker 1 (06:27):
Is that legal team, man, they that's where well in
two thousand and eight, for that legal team, they put
out a hell of a performance. My god, Well, it's
just saying the things we always knew about to support
out loud, right, Like, there are different rules for different people.
There always have been. It comes down to scheduling when
they play. It comes down to the assignments they get
(06:48):
for practice scorts. It comes down to the I mean
the lodgings. They get what they can afford. How many
people come with them to things because they can afford
to travel with a posse of ten to twenty people Like,
there is a different class of people on the tours.
And I think the reaction to this is is a
bit of yeah, exactly what you're saying, Bush, Like, people like, yeah,
(07:10):
you see, you get this, Like Michael and the other
people who have missed drug tests and like that that's
been another talking point, like your Jensen Brooksby or your
Michael Emer's, like the people who have lost a lot
of time because they weren't afforded these same proceedings. They
didn't I guess you could also say, like they didn't
do these same things that Sinners Camp did correct, Like
(07:33):
there are different things that are in place here, but like, optically,
it looks so terrible that I would have loved to
have known what the what the plan was when this
was happening in real time, because if you recall, like
the Full Court Press during this time was about y
becoming number one, and like the Andrea Agassy putting out
(07:55):
a video and like all these stars and people commenting
on like the new kid on the scene and here's
the other guy with Carlos that's gonna save the day,
Like that was all we were talking about. And it's
because of what they were saying, and that baying the
tennis tour in the Major. So what I calculated risks
slash gamble slash Like, okay, we're completely cool with the explanation.
(08:19):
It does seem to check out. This physio guy has
been implicated with this sort of exact scenario several times.
The steroid itself comes with like a huge like do
not buy kind of symbol on the cover of it.
Don't buy the steroid cream is an option as well.
I think Luke mentioned that on the discorder, like, there's
so many things here that I want to give him
(08:42):
the benefit of the doubt. I like Yannick Cinner. I
like watching him play. There's also part of me that's like, hmm,
you seem to figure out all the things that you
kind of need to figure out to win the big
titles aka lasting physically, because I've noticed he can't do
that all the time. So I hate that it's now
brought up all these questions for me because I won't
(09:04):
be able to get them out of my head watching
them play probably ever, right, and that's where we are,
I know, once this happened, what do you think the
first thing they thought? Bush like the atp good Denzi
and Crew.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
That is a legitimately good question, because there is a
there's a there is a a school of thought here,
and there is a there's an approach to this that
says that given the situation of him having the provisional
mandatory suspension that he was entitled to do what he
(09:39):
In a sense, it works as a gagging order for
all intensive purposes. You can take issue with my phrasing
on that, but the fact that the way that his
legal team and that was structured is that it enabled
this period of silence to occur while he went through
the appeals process. With all that being said, everyone in
the ATP probably knew about this as well. Like I
(10:00):
don't think you get into a situation while the top
echelons of your game are not familiar with these situations
and how they chose to react to it and continue
to push that guy.
Speaker 3 (10:10):
We never know.
Speaker 2 (10:11):
We will never know the insights of how much of
that organization is connected together and whether or not they
are kept entirely separate from each other. But I think
you have to be fairly naive if you don't believe
that the top members of the sport knew about this
and were continuing to push it in a certain way.
That doesn't sit too well with me.
Speaker 1 (10:27):
I mean the explanation itself, but part of me feels
like a rube, like a moron for believing it. Fully
like fully, he was applying the cream to the trader's
hand himself because he had a cut, and then he
used it to apply different cream. Probably Tenni, right.
Speaker 2 (10:47):
I think there's a saying, isn't there and figured me,
I don't know the exact phraseology of it, and it
has many different versions of it, but it's the don't
chalk up malice to what is usually incompetence or worse
to that effect, and I think think that you've seen
a lot of people reaching for that argument with this story,
which is that we're all humans, we all make mistakes,
all this kind of stuff to sort of put it
(11:09):
in that camp, but that sort of has an element
of parasocial giving the benefit of the doubt here.
Speaker 3 (11:15):
And I think there's a.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
Difference to the way that phrase is applied because sometimes
it gets applied to your workplace or like that kind
of situation. This is professional sport. These people know what
they're doing. They are trying to get edges constantly. So
it doesn't quite I don't think it quite aligns to
me the idea that this was someone who was just
doing it for who was someone who was, you know,
(11:36):
just a bit dim and it sort of ended up
this way. It looks far more deliberate to that. To
me anyway, there was so much chat during the course
in our discord during the course of the week that
I think we tended to forget or didn't circle around
at the fact that this dude looks pretty damn guilty.
It really does look that way to me, you know,
(11:58):
personal opinion, but at the same time dev pretty awful.
Speaker 1 (12:01):
For some shades of helop. Yeah, there's some shades of
hell up here, right, which everyone seemed or felt pretty
confident about in terms of guilt or not, which I mean,
she's playing yeah, so yeah. I hate being like so
cynical all the time, but I really am like trying
to strain like like oh okay, like maybe this happened, maybe
(12:21):
that happened, or maybe Like the other part of me
is like is considering past cases of this happening. It's
thinking about like how the PTPA will handle this. Also
this the Jack Draper Felix aug Allia seem drama that
happened a few days before this, and like the rallying
(12:45):
cry that was mainly like a why don't we have
replaying tennis? That should be fixed and like no back
talking about everyone talking about it. Everyone agreeing everyone also
agreeing Felix is a great dude. But like, going from
that immediately, which is like mass consent, is we got
to get this involved that Umpire doesn't know what he's
doing to this where now it's like, oh god, like
(13:07):
that the very intell what do you think about it?
Like the actual integrity of the whole dang sport is
sort of on the line when you when you were here,
because a lot of the other talk I've heard is like,
well the Australian Open, or like how was he clean then,
or like we do know that he was tested a lot.
I saw Andy Roley talking about this on his podcast
(13:29):
in terms of like Grand Slam testing, so we know
that he was probably tested around there and then then
passed the check. So like, it doesn't have to feel
like the world the sky is falling when it's like
is everyone crooked? But also it would be naive af
not to assume that this is happening, So I guess
it depends how far you want to dig into it,
(13:50):
because like the fact that this didn't make bigger news
beyond Tennis was very surprising to be especially considering when
this happened, like this was the perfect dead period. I
thought for this to really bust out. So maybe in
the end this was a fantastic pr job slash. Yeah,
like this is when we should put this out for
(14:11):
Cinner and co. Yeah, because I truly think about this.
This is the world of biss that the top player
in the world at the sport. And it was like, okay, cool,
he's he's playing in New York, so like well, we'll
talk to him about it, but like, yeah, he's He's
good to go.
Speaker 2 (14:26):
So there's there's that side of it, Like clearly from
a perspective of looking from a perspective of looking at
it and as a whole, and the timing of this
and how Sinner was able to control the narrative and
all that kind of stuff. There is a counter argument
to this that this was all done you know, in
in by the book in due course right like he
(14:47):
this uh he was he was under.
Speaker 1 (14:51):
Innocent until proven guilty. They couldn't prove he was guilty
even though it was a looney tunes ass explanation as
to how this happened.
Speaker 2 (14:59):
So h and the way the system where the points
system and structure works is that it came out deliberately
on this day due to count back and them having
to be on that four month schedule like that is all.
That is not conspiracy theory. I think that is how
the system is set up.
Speaker 3 (15:15):
Now.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
If you want to ask the question about whether the
system is fucked, I think that is a very reasonable
question to ask. And whether or not you believe you
have legitimacy in that system, and whether or not a
player or a group or the people around the player
are so well versed at being able to get around
this system and not gaming it. I think that is
also a legitimate question as well. And as it says
(15:37):
in Nicarus, like to go back to that great documentary
about it, players and athletes don't do during competitions, they
don't before it. That's the whole point is you're supposed
to take advantage of it so you don't get caught
during the time that you're actually doing it. So I
think from that perspective, it seems it's not surprising to
me that someone doesn't get caught in competition. It's just
(15:57):
you know, the situation where if you're doing something outside
of it and you get caught, then then it seems
a bit more likely to me.
Speaker 1 (16:03):
Honestly, it's up to you what you want to believe here.
I can't. I can't me personally though, and I think
I'm with you Bush, so I can't. I can't exit
this saga.
Speaker 2 (16:16):
With a real bad taste in my mouth like this
is there is a wonderful and charming and very funny
phrase from Blackadder, and stay with me here for my
British listeners, it's he looks as guilty as a puppy
sitting next to a pile of pooh. And I think
(16:37):
that's how I feel about this. It looks so bad. Yes,
he is, as I said, his team played a blinded
to get this kick down the road and everything, but
all the things you expect me to believe all this?
Come on, dude, like, come on, we're not We're not
twelve here.
Speaker 1 (16:54):
You missed the Olympics because it tuns the lightest to you?
Oh my god, this is a pretty strange of doping
checks there all right?
Speaker 3 (17:03):
Think dog?
Speaker 1 (17:04):
This does? Oh man? What it is that? Like? Again? Though?
I wonder, I really well this Maybe we're in a
silo or bubbled off. But are you not surprised this
wasn't bigger news elsewhere?
Speaker 2 (17:20):
I think it made pretty decent, pretty big news, though
I don't think it quite had the impact that that
you would expect. And I think that's what you're kind
of alluding to it.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
If you yeah, if you were suspended, sure, like yeah,
And I think.
Speaker 2 (17:32):
That's that's the pr play here, isn't it. It's to
create doubt. It's this is why you go through this,
and this is why you do it as a legal team,
and why you do it as a as a camp
around you.
Speaker 1 (17:42):
And and to me, there's like this this idea of
slow playing it or not doing anything is sort of
how they've approached vere F and like sort of been like,
well we'll see. You're like yeah, like let's let's see
what happens and then to see if they get kind
of lucky or or see if the public opinion it's.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Like, well, like I don't know.
Speaker 2 (18:03):
So I think a lot of people will point the
finger and say, like independent panel cleared him all this
kind of stuff. He went through the process, he gave
he had evidence, And I would point and push back
of that and say, most of the time, these athletes
and the people around them are a lot smarter than
the people that are testing them, and they know how
to do this, and they're very, very skillful of being
(18:25):
able to navigate these situations, and we know people don't.
In our sport. It happens. It's happened throughout history, It
will happen through every competitive situation. It happens all the time.
It just so happens that sometimes the world number one
gets caught, and it sucks when that happens. In my opinion,
what do you make of.
Speaker 1 (18:46):
Coaching, coaching staffs, the teams. Darren k Hill was quoted
after this. He is, of course the coach of Vienny Sinner.
He was the coach of smRNA Hallap. He was not
her coach when she was punished. Patrick Wartaglu was but
quote from Darren k Hill, he would never do anything intentionally.
(19:07):
He was in an unfortunate situation. The truth is out,
no fault or negligence and hopefully he can put this
behind him. And then he cites the reason why the
overturning work, the reason why it was possible for him
to continue playing after the short provisional suspension, is that
they were able to locate precisely where the incident occurred
and they were able to explain what happened with the
spray where to like buy the hour. So yeah, this
(19:32):
is massive for Darren k Hill as well, like the
guilt by association stuff and the sort of links. I'm
fascinated to see how this has talked about during the
US Open, because holy hell, like it'll be a it'll
either not be talked about by most or B it'll
be talked about in the most cringey ham fisted way possible,
(19:55):
which would be good, good viewing. But how much do
you think it will be covered?
Speaker 2 (19:59):
Considering Dan Darren Kale's on the payroll of ESPN as well,
I think it's going to be fascinating to watch that.
I would be surprised if they actually touched this one
a whole lot. It seems like this is not something
they really want to get involved with any major incidents
that have been occurred in our sport over the last
few years. I think ESPN don't want to touch this
at all. So I'd be shocked and surprised that they
actually did find a way to cover this on the
(20:23):
on the Khill thing. Just to sort of circle back
on it for a second.
Speaker 3 (20:27):
He actually.
Speaker 2 (20:30):
I think everyone is going to be quick to flog
him over this, just given a hallip, sorry given a
Vodasco B hallop and C sinner. Yeah, the timelines don't
quite line up for those things. I think it's more,
you know, shitty timing and each individual case to be
(20:51):
looked at individually of why these players have been caught
for various different reasons. Having said all that, people seem
pretty fucking dumb. Why does this continue to happen around you?
Like it seems that something is very unprofessional, at least
in this scenario.
Speaker 1 (21:08):
Those edges, man, you said it very well. The edges
are so small and so fine, the real story behind
them probably makes a lot of sense, you guts, like
the actual explanations, like what the hell? How could you
let this happen? How could you let this guy who's
been implicated several times in other sports for the exact
same thing make a dumb ass mistake like this that
(21:29):
would implicate the golden boy, one of the golden men.
This is your athlete, Like for Fox, it's like crazy negligence,
it's one of the crazy Oh my god, like like
this is not the timing is so bad, the time
is so.
Speaker 3 (21:43):
Put it into context.
Speaker 2 (21:44):
This is not a whoopsie, oh dick, You know, I
actually bought some some contaminated beef from the supermarket, and
my athletes happened.
Speaker 1 (21:54):
It'd be like if it'd be like if Lance was
found out after the first tour and they're like no, no, no,
it's gonna everyone. They let him kept going and he's like, okay,
so he's really clean, and then it.
Speaker 3 (22:06):
Does have to be said.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
I guess in closing this segment, he is going to
be watched like a hawk at this point now, so
his results I think will be indicative of what the
reaction will be.
Speaker 1 (22:17):
Fascinating. Yeah, I who know, maybe he becut goes heel
and people love it. Where's a backwards hat? I I
think there's a play here where he takes on the
bad boy Moniker or like the I honestly think it's
the only play.
Speaker 2 (22:38):
There was a conversation to be had anytime an athlete
gets caught of who is responsible for it? Is the
camp pushing it onto the individual? Is it the individual
who's pushing for this? Is the individual sort of making
a claim of like, oh, you know, I'm struggling to
keep up in this situation, I keep falling down in
this particular area. You know, I'm struggling over three sets.
I'm struggling. You know, my forehand's not good enough or
(22:59):
pick anything right, like any of the sport. I'm really
struggling in that final ten meters of one hundred meters?
You know, just can we find another way to train
on this area? That maybe is what the athlete is saying.
We will never know what that conversation has happened, and
anyone who is trying to claim the opposite is living
in pure fantasy. That is pure parasocial relationship of saying
that that's something that Yanick would never do.
Speaker 3 (23:21):
You have no idea.
Speaker 2 (23:22):
You don't know what the inside of that camp looks like.
You don't know how that conversation has gone, what has
been suggested.
Speaker 3 (23:28):
And anything about it. But the idea.
Speaker 2 (23:29):
I think that everyone involved in it is not aware
of what would be happening. I think if an athlete
wants to dope, everyone in the camp is aware of it,
and I think the athlete themselves is aware of it.
I just don't think you can keep it hidden from
people when it's when you live that close to each
other and that's the way that your sort of professional
life runs.
Speaker 1 (23:46):
I think that's a good place to leave. Segment one
when we come back farting shots, including some actual tennis talk,
some more Center stuff, plus we actually look at the
jaws for the US Open and make some foolish picks.
Coming up next on Open Era Welcome back to the
(24:11):
Open Era podcast. Of course, they Annix Centner innocent, Innocent, Innocent, Innocent,
his amazing legal team if you're listening to this, totally innocent,
and he's playing a New York baby. But he was
also in Cincinnati where boy or Boy were some social
media posts having to be deleted after this capet because
(24:35):
thanks to the Olympics, the final happened on Monday. We
had Arina Sablenka doing the damn thing in Cincy, which
we'll talk about, but we also had Yanick Center beating
Francis Tafo in the final. Do you want to do
Ciner fir us just to clap this out.
Speaker 2 (24:52):
Yeah, I think so, And also just to give a
huge shout out to Francis Tfo dressed as a tennis
ball in this final.
Speaker 1 (25:01):
Or as Josh said, dresses as if a child drew
a tennis ball.
Speaker 2 (25:08):
It's actually I think this was a really fun final
and I don't think Francis TFO wants to be known
as a player who makes things entertaining but ultimately loses.
But if ever there was a definition of that sort
of monica that gets used on him, it was this final.
It was really fun, but ultimately he wasn't really close
across the two sets. It was one of those things
(25:29):
that there was a vastly superior player who had ice
in his veins through the entirety of this match, and
it was a demolition job.
Speaker 1 (25:42):
It was like I said that ice in the veins
tweet deleted. But Sitter champion in Cincinnati Sablenka though Bush
she wins the title, dominated the final, but the win
over Schiantek Simon in the semifinals mark slash sign of
things to come question mark potentially.
Speaker 2 (26:03):
Yeah, she was really full value for it as well. Right,
it's not one of those that you had an off
day or anything. Sabalanka is blow her off the court.
It was about to about a match that wasn't close.
That is another example of it. She's unstoppable on her day,
like when everything's working and she's hitting with the level
of depth and power that she possesses, that's going to
(26:24):
feel really really good because it's been a long time
since she's won a title. I think the last title
she won was in Australia with the first Grand Slam
of the year, so it's been a long time coming.
Obviously some truly howering things have happened since that point,
and continues to sort of deal with the fallout of
it all, but at the same time, so much confidence
and I think this might be one of the most
(26:45):
fun matchups on tour, regardless men or women. I love
watching Sablenka and Trio Tech play and hopefully we get
more of it.
Speaker 1 (26:52):
I really hope we get that. In New York, really
good article in The Guardian from Ben Bloom, a long
interview with Sabolenka which she goes through the tumultuous, difficult
the year she's gone gone through and speaking about multiple things,
including her friendship with Paula Podosa. Really good read. I
(27:13):
recommend it to get more insight into the world number two,
who is one of the favorites at this tournament, but
Simon quickly on ega a mark for her longevity at
number one. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (27:28):
I wanted to just highlight this because it was something
that sort of slipped I don't know. It's one of
those things that rains as number one or length of weeks,
tends to not get spoken about until you reach stratospheric
heights when you're talking like the no vaciography to passing
Rafa and Nadal and the potential of passing stephie Graff
and all this kind of stuff. But one thing that
(27:48):
came out during this course of this week is Igoshiontek
overtook Justina a Nan in terms of how long the
Belgium was at well number one, So one hundred and
seventeen weeks, tying it's not overtaken, will have overtaken it
by next week, assuming that nothing insane happens and there's
no testing that comes out, et cetera, et cetera. I
(28:09):
shouldn't say that there no implication at all here. Okay,
let's move on quickly. But the other side of this
is the players that are ranked above Sharia Tech who
have been world number one, that being ash Barty, Monica Seleez,
Martina Hingis, Chrissy Everett, Serena Williams, Martina Navrettelova, and stephie Graff.
It's quite a short list, isn't it of players that
(28:31):
you would have expected to have held that number one
ranking for extended periods of time. She's in some pretty
decent company already and she's only going to continue to
go higher on that list, But you would have thought
that more players had been above one hundred and seventeen
week mark.
Speaker 1 (28:46):
Yeah, I mean there is there's some goats in there,
and there is kind of goes to show you like
to select crew, but it's quite a small list and
once you make it there, it's quite something really excited
for women's draw, and that leads us into our blind
US Open draw previews. Simon hasn't seen the draw until
(29:07):
right now. I've seen a few match shops, but I
haven't seen anything really extensively. So we're going to go
into it. Simon, let's look at the women's side. What
do you think in in terms of I was about
to say like sleepers, but to me, there is a
full like class of clear favorites in which there are
(29:30):
two maybe three, but then afterwards it's pretty open. Do
you consider Cocoa Goff one of the favorites. She is
a defending champion, but has not been a great year
for her so far, especially recently.
Speaker 3 (29:45):
Well I'm literally digesting this live.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
We forgured it would be an interesting feature to do
on the podcast, So let's look at this Before I
answer your question. Let's ask another question just while I'm
looking through this. When you first get a draw, how
do you break it down? Like what are you looking at?
Speaker 1 (29:58):
First of all, love to look at the lucky losers first,
if there are any, because that's that's always wonderful, get
that cash, get that check feeling. But look for Canadian flags.
That's usually what I used to do in the past, honestly,
because there was always so few, and then I was
like whoa, and then you would sue and see what
was happening. Nowadays, I look for her I don't know, clusters.
(30:25):
I look for clusters of flags. Nothing really, there's no
method to the madness.
Speaker 3 (30:30):
Yeah, I tend to be.
Speaker 2 (30:32):
I'm obviously like who's winning a section of a draw.
That's one thing that I always look at. What's going
to be the fourth round matchup? Usually like what is
the sort of gateway to the second week. That's one
that I always look at to see. And then it's
who's on either side of the draw, so potentially one
of the latter stages that could what matchups could potentially
happen there, and then after that I sort of circle
(30:53):
back and look at first round matchups, so just like
sort of looking at and examining this for the first time,
I think looking at things here, and that first round
matchup of Radecani versus Kennon looks really really tasty. Two
former champions to former Grand Slam champions meeting in round one.
That's really interesting, really really tough section for both of
(31:13):
those players to come out of though, just given how
well people in that section are playing, both Danielle and
Jessica Goula, and it's going to be daniel Collins's last
US Open as well, so looks pretty okay for her
on that side of the draw. Yeah, what are the
first round matchups? Stick out to you?
Speaker 1 (31:30):
Penco Soccer Okay.
Speaker 3 (31:33):
Yeah, yeah, that one, it's an interesting one.
Speaker 1 (31:35):
The Jescue Palini looks very good part up over Fernandez.
That's all in the same section section four, So holy goal,
that's going to be something I looking ahead a bit.
Potentially Egish Fiantek versus Mira Andreva in the fourth round
could be spicy, and Greva has been very good the
(31:57):
last few weeks.
Speaker 2 (31:59):
This is a good job, Sablanca. This is from the
looks all.
Speaker 1 (32:01):
Of it it is. Yeah, I think I mean madison
Keyes health is in question. Otherwise I think she could
be dangerous for sure. But other than that, you've got
Jen maybe in the quarterfinals. But yeah, I like Sablenca's
draw a lot. I like sablinc in this turna bush.
I think it lines up well. Didn't do the Olympics,
came back in Washington, has kind of like slow played
(32:23):
her return obviously. I think she's found a way to
get manage with the all of the shit that's happened
in a positive way, or as much as she can.
So I'm I'm gonna take her on the women's side.
Speaker 2 (32:35):
I think that's a good pick. I ast think that's
where I might lean as well. It's tough draw for
Cocoa Golf in that section. Some good players in there,
full round. Yeah, second up as a really tough She's
a goallet to get through players there. Starts relatively okay
and then gets pretty pretty horrible pretty quickly after that.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
Let's turn our attention to the men's side. I laughed
a bit Simon the Annick Sinner is the number one seed.
All of this stuff I read was that Sinner, sorry, Alcaraz,
and novakro on opposite size of the draw. Obviously, the
Olympics slum large in people's minds, But do you think
that the opening stuff played into how the results of
(33:15):
the jaw are presented? It all?
Speaker 2 (33:18):
I was gonna say that the factor into the drawer itself.
Are we getting a U way for hot balls situation
as they're drawing them out of the ball machine?
Speaker 3 (33:27):
I don't know.
Speaker 2 (33:28):
Probably, undoubtedly it has to have played somewhat of a
factor in terms of how who.
Speaker 1 (33:33):
Is because because I say this, I say this, Sinner's
the favorite. He should be the favorite here. I especially
think Alcaraz is not going to have enough juice after
thinking that you'd be cool after the Olympics, the meltdown
in Cincinnati shook me. So maybe I'm reading too much
(33:53):
into it, but I feel like he's gonna need a
bit more of the tank mentally to come to your
over too in a tournament like this, So I would
back Cinner over him, and Novak is always Novak, but
I mean over five sets, let's see. But how consider
not be one of the favorites if not the favorite,
especially after Cincinnati, unless you think the crowd going for
(34:17):
blood or cheering him at every second might face him well.
Speaker 2 (34:22):
I think the answer to the question of who is
the favorite for the US Open largely depends on your
read of how far and how good Danny Mepidev is
an moment because he is lurking in that section of
the draw. Is a tough road for the un extended
to get through to the final. It's not an easy one.
(34:45):
I think it gets it ramps up in difficulty quite
quickly early rounds, doesn't look too terrible. I don't know,
man Medvedev is extremely good at this tournament. I think
people tend to forget when it comes to this time
of year.
Speaker 3 (34:58):
This is his moment. He's he's so good here.
Speaker 2 (35:04):
But yeah, that that half of the draw is not
not very nice when it comes to players that he's
going to have to be. Poor Chappo as well, looking
at the section of the draw, gets botage on a
protective ranking and then gets al Choraz potentially next.
Speaker 3 (35:16):
Poor dude.
Speaker 1 (35:17):
Oh god, yeah, that's not going to be fun. I
for god, Bevedev's a great shout in terms of the
bottom half. I actually do like go back a lot.
I think he'll be fine. There's no one here that
really who I mean. There could be a fun match
against Tiao maybe in the fourth round, but like overall,
I think he'll be okay till the final.
Speaker 2 (35:39):
Yeah, potential quarter against Verev, semi quarter, no semi final.
This draw looks fine, truly, if I have to, if
I had to pick that side of the draw, I
think and still favor him coming out of it. There's
no one there that really terrifies me. Has not had
a good season. He would always stuck up.
Speaker 1 (36:02):
Well.
Speaker 2 (36:02):
I'm certainly not picking Casper Rude to come out of
that bottom section. Yeah, I would pick Ndala come Jesus Christ,
like Jock Bush to come out of the second half.
Speaker 1 (36:12):
I do want to shout out Lorenzo Masetti, who would
be It would be fun as well Bush if he
had a nice run here. But the qualifiers familiar names.
Gabriel Diallo Canadian making it through Kentucky product. That was
really exciting that run through qualifying, which is a gallet here,
(36:32):
just to make it through those three matches, so that's
huge for the Canadian. Also, Diego Schwartzman, Bush came through qualifying,
which is cool to see. Love of the game is real.
The shortsman showed it, so that'll be cool. I'm also
just generally looking at some of these first rounders, Bush
Jang and Jack Draper. I don't think Jack Draper should
(36:55):
get off scot free from ballgate. Whatever the hell happened
in a Cincinnati. How is he not getting worse stick
for like not admitting what happened. Everyone knows. Everyone knows,
and you feel that that unnatural feeling.
Speaker 2 (37:11):
Maybe they do know it and it's just being kept
inside of the hallowed grounds of the locker room. That
people are giving him the side eye.
Speaker 1 (37:17):
Much like the shade being thrown sinners way, maybe not directly.
And everyone's like Felix is the greatest, No one's like No,
one's like Jack Draper good guy? After that?
Speaker 2 (37:26):
Right, So definitely not Who is your winner? Devang Fudge?
Speaker 1 (37:33):
I I want to pick center. I think it'd be
really funny, So I think I'm going to pick center
for banter reasons. This to me is like a huge,
huge brutal incident that oh I don't understand why it's
not a bigger deal. So I feel like sinner winning
will will really open our eyes to how farcicle this
(37:55):
might be.
Speaker 3 (37:57):
I don't want it. Yeah, I think Novak Djokovic is
gonna win this tournament.
Speaker 1 (38:02):
And maybe it is perfect. People will be openly cheering
for Novak in a final to win in New York finally,
and it's gonna happen twenty five.
Speaker 2 (38:13):
The only reason I say that is just like I
don't see anyone in the bottom half of the drawer
that I would picking a matchup against him, and then
it's just a straight like do I fancy it's I who?
Do I pick Djokovic against Senna, Djokovic against Medvedev, Djokovic
against Akaraz. I think you can lose all of those matchups,
but I also think he's gonna be fresher going into
(38:33):
those and the other guys will.
Speaker 1 (38:34):
Be exactly exactly. Yeah, that's it, And I think, like
over five sets, param Shriver said the best these guys
can manage their workload, like I think Novak is the
best at it by a mile. Obviously, if you this
man knows what he's doing in terms of conserving. So yeah, no, actually,
great pick, I'm picking center for Banter. What a hell, man?
(38:57):
If I told you at the beginning of the year. Wait,
I gotta listen back to the Australian Open episode we
did Twins Sinner one and be like, this is the
greatest day in the history of the world.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Someone please clip together from our episodes. Every time we've
mentioned he's looking a bit bigger at the moment, isn't he.
It's like how much he's grown in stature.
Speaker 1 (39:18):
Crazy, someone's eating their parents.
Speaker 3 (39:23):
Exactly.
Speaker 1 (39:23):
The Caraboys should be arrested. To you right now, I'm joking.
I'm joking. Figure out a voice. I'm joking. Innocent, He's innocent,
clear to play.
Speaker 3 (39:34):
Good stuff.
Speaker 1 (39:35):
Anything else you've got timon anything else?
Speaker 3 (39:37):
I don't think so.
Speaker 2 (39:38):
I think this has been a dreadfall week for tennis,
really really awful.
Speaker 1 (39:44):
It's fat, it's fad. Let's go to two challenges remaining.
I feel like yours might be soccer related. I'm curious,
so what is it?
Speaker 3 (39:57):
It's not.
Speaker 2 (39:57):
No, it's actually still sports related. And I think it's
actually a previous challenge that you've put in here. And
I finally sat down and watched Sprint at your Recognize
and I really really enjoyed it.
Speaker 3 (40:11):
I really liked it.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
I think you've mentioned to me coming out of it.
I think you mentioned the Noah Lyles comes across really
well in it. I think he does as well. I
think he's a very sympathetic and empathetic character. I think
his backstory, his mother, like his whole family, he seems
like a depending on how you viewed some of these athletes,
he seems he seems relatively okayd At me. It seems
like I found a level of kinship with him that
(40:33):
I didn't think I was going to find.
Speaker 3 (40:36):
It's really good.
Speaker 2 (40:36):
It's a nice behind the scenes look at a discipline
which is so revered but oftentimes undercovered throughout the history
of sprinting. People tend to look at it as like
these gladiatorial situations where it's almost mythical of how these
people train, and then you see it and you're just like, oh,
(40:56):
like they just they get up and do the same things,
fairly unsurprising. It's fairly normal to me. But I think
it's a great documentary series. I'm really ready to encourage
people to watch it.
Speaker 1 (41:07):
I definitely agree. Man, I'm missing random Olympic events. Is
can I just stream fencing randomly on a Wednesday morning?
Is that is that illegal against the rules? Man? It's fine,
great step, I'm going to go. I'm blanking. I had
(41:30):
something else, but I cannot remember it for the life
of me. But I install the basket on my bike
the other day with the help of my partner, and
I gotta say, the back pain I'm avoiding now has
been huge. I wish I had been doing this the
whole time. Wait, basket so great?
Speaker 2 (41:49):
What's the implication that you so you put a basket
and then put your bag into the basket.
Speaker 3 (41:53):
Is that what you're saying? Exactly right?
Speaker 1 (41:54):
Okay, as opposed to wearing the bag and then of
course the bag creating a layer of backsweat That is
just now something that you have to be with at work.
It's not good.
Speaker 2 (42:06):
Have you ridden an e bike yet? Are you still
on the I have acoustic one?
Speaker 1 (42:10):
I have, Yeah, They're great. Do you like it? I do? Yeah?
And my my partner has one as well, and it's awesome.
I would yeah. If the next bike I get, I
guess knock one wood. My current bike I got a
couple of summers ago and it's still going good. But
the e bikes are good. I do. I do miss
like like I do like the idea of pedaling on
(42:31):
my own all the time, but I get like commuting wise.
E bikes are great.
Speaker 2 (42:36):
I think that's fantastic. Really are the future, and I
think we should be leaning into them more because that's
so cheap comparatively for what you get out of them
long term. Yeah, yeah, I think they're great. Basket's also
great to have, good pick.
Speaker 1 (42:48):
Thank you. All right, we'll leave it there. A reminder,
we are on Patreon dot com Forward Slash Open Era
Joints there get the pod ad free, get it early
on Sundays or whenever we record, which is now week plus,
join the discord, ver chatt and Tennis and Center conspiracy
theories all the time. It's in extra extra spicy in there.
(43:11):
So join us Patreon dot com Forward Slash Open Air Pod.
And that's it for producer Dylan on the once en
to you sand for Simon. Thank you so much for
listening to open EA. We'll talk to you next week.
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