December 16, 2024 • 43 mins
It’s awards time! Put on your best dinner jacket and pick up a Golden Racket…Or something like that. Dev and Simon pick their award winners for 2024 in what is Open Era’s penultimate show. Just one more fireside chat and that’s all she wrote.
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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
is de Venga Sign. I'm joined as always by mister
Simon Bushell in his fanciest dress. Because it's that time
again for the final time, the Golden Rackets, Simon, welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Stop playing the music. We're gonna get played off stage
very shortly.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
It's that time. For some reason, I want invite him
and see his graduation to play on this on this intro,
but Dylan scratched that we don't need that at all,
and we probably don't have the rights. But it is
a wards time, Bush. It is at timed to reflect.
We're reflecting a whole lot these days as Open Arrow
wraps up. But with each passing news story, I feel
(00:56):
more uncomfortable with this decision we've made, Simon, because going
through my picks for our awards, I found myself filled
with not anger maybe, but resentment. I don't know. It
was a strange year.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
That's a hell of a thing to bring to the
penultimate episode of the show. Anger and resentment.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Anger and resentment, I think that was my name for
the title, but I guess we'll go with Golden Rackets.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Still time. We can always change it.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
So we'll go through our picks. I told bush Uh
before we started, we have a lot of similar ones,
but there's obviously commentary to offer here, but I think
there's some quick fire ones off the hop though. Atp
Player of the Year, Bush, you Picknick Centner, not a
hugely controversial pick. But I guess my question is has
(01:49):
any of the off the court stuff fackored into your
pick or is this purely a tennis pick.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
It is purely a tennis pick. I think I would
have picked Acaras if I was doing this in a
more Well, I guess technically it's our show, right, we
could do whatever I think. I mean, obviously he will
and has won the ACV Player of the Year. Yeah,
I just out of spite, I'm giving it to Carlos Akeras.
(02:15):
Then that's what I did.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
That's my pick is Carlos Akaraz for that reason, literally
because that didn't happen to him, and because of that,
he is golden. He is the Golden Boy. But he
also won two slams. Like, it's not like we're picking
someone who woned Marty Carlo and matured and that's it, right,
Like this is a spike pick, but it's got some
justification to it.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
It feels reasonable, right, we said the what was the
title of the show? Anger, and we're leading it off
in the right way possible.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
And I'll try and shelve that for maybe part two
when we get into biggest Beef, et cetera. But listen,
the reason I had to pick cal Kraz is because
of Spie. I mean that's a perfect it's a perfect
metaphor for tennis today WTJA Player of the Year, doping
(03:08):
or no doping. It was going to be arguing at
Sabolenka Bush. I think her her rise towards the end
of the season, eventually culminating in her taking the number
one ranking. I mean it was also due to you
get missing some tournaments, which we later learned we're not
due to the reason she had indicated at the time.
But on merit alone, I think Sabolenka is a good
(03:31):
pick here. And also I think the way the season
ended some good matches. I think the Jiang match in
particular was one that I was like, huh okay, like
we're going to get something good, hopefully in twenty twenty five.
When it comes to various rivals and not just IgA
for Sabolenka, but I think she is a good pick
for Player of the Year on the.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
WTA same with me, I picked her as well. I
don't think it's particularly close this season. If we said
anger in spite for Ciner, we can't pick Spa Tech
for similar reasons. Also, I don't think she deserves it either.
I think Sabalanca's bard number one on merit. I think
she deserves that title, let's put it that way. Deserves
that status, and I think she also deserves the title
(04:13):
of WTA Player the Year as well. So she's my
pick as well.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Some quick ones, I think these are easy ones. WTA
New Cover of the Year LULUs sun Bush was your pick,
but I want to say default because I think the
rise is incredible. I believe she went from two fourteen
into the top forty by September. So to start the
season at two fourteen and to end the top forty
is what I thought Gabriel Diallo was going to do
(04:39):
last year, but this actually happened. She had an incredible
run to the Wibbling quarterfinals, she made the Fiole in Monterey,
she beat Jiang at Wimbledon, don't forget. So that's a
good pick. But I mean, overall, not a huge glut
of players to pick from, and I think that was
kind of similar with Mensick as well. I don't know
if you if you there are some more other other
(05:02):
deserving candidates, but I think Mensik and lu Lusun make
a lot of sense for new covers.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Yeah, maybe you could lean in the Peshi Pericard direction
as well on the AHTP side, if you're a curious
around that. Yaka Mensic I think is the right pick here.
He's I think he's still youngest player inside of the
top fifty in the world, so he's going to have
a long and storied career. It's been quite the rise
this season. He looks like a really good player. Dev
So you remember the time that I was saying that
(05:29):
I didn't think that Alex Demono was a top ten player,
and he went and proved me wrong. I think Menze
is equally a top ten player. Like in the me
betting against Demono, I'm betting the house on Jak of
Mensic being a top ten player. That's how high I
am on him. So happy to give the award here
to him.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
And you'll be at the twenty twenty four Next Gen
finals that for some reason haven't happened yet. I did
not realize that the ATP next Gen Finals are going
down from Decever eighteenth to the twenty second in Jedda, Sadiari.
Why is my main question here? But also could you
guess more than Mensik as one of the eight participants?
(06:10):
You can? I think you can, But I'll be honest
here for myself. As we got towards the bottom, I
was surprised and confused by some of the names. But
I think this this tournament itself just to channel back
to anger and resentment. Why is this happening now?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Well, you're we recording on December the sixth here and
the seasons, all of the guys wrap it up, come on,
what's happening here?
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Arthur of course, Arthur Fiz is the show's soffer. You
got Alex Nicholson and then Mensik and the Shang Chung
Cheng who's also nominated for Newcomer of the Year lerner t.
I think Vasas Vaready had some nice challenger wins, but yeah,
a lot of names I don't recognize this tournament whatever,
(06:54):
man like, why is it happening here?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Let's move on to those are some implies by the way,
like I know, for all of the clowning the you
can give to the next Gen finals, I think Alex
Michel's gonna be a good fixture in the top fifty
for a long time. Top thirty. Van ash That's is
a good player, Like he's a really really talented kid.
Learn A Ten's had a really good end of the season.
A lot of the US tier really high on him.
(07:17):
Shang's had a great end of the season as well,
So there's like there's a ton of talent in here
and obviously feasts being the crown jewel of this god.
I stop using that relative to Saudi Arabia, But more broadly,
I think this is actually a surprisingly good field the
bottom end of it. I know nothing about jo and Fonseca.
I have absolutely no idea who he is. If I
(07:38):
was going to watch this tournament, i'd be excited to
watch him. I'll just I will make do and it
will have to suffice and be watching YouTube higlots of
him instead.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
An interesting aspect I guess you can't say is that
they changed the age from twenty one to twenty, so
that that's kind of noteworthy, I think, But moving on,
Simon most improved. This one I think is maybe the
most subjective. Really, you can go anywhere with these picks,
(08:09):
but I liked yours, so I'll let you go first. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
So ATP I picked Taylor Fritz WT, I picked Jasmine Paulini.
There's a couple of ones here actually that I was
really on the fence around. Honestly, I almost picked Saberlenka,
but I thought, you know, was a stinky pick and
I didn't do it. And you could make the case
with Jack Draper as well. On the ATP, I think
(08:32):
I picked Fritz a few weeks ago for this award
to go from where he was. I think this is
the hardest jump in all of maybe all of sport, honestly,
certainly in tennis. To be able to go from a
top fifteen, you know that kind of range to a
top five player is the hardest thing you can do.
He made it look really simple. I think he made
falls out of many people. I'm covering my own ass.
He made a fall out of me, justin part of
(08:54):
these rise is different, right. I think one of those
ones where just a really insistent, incredible season, and with
both of these players, I think they they they're they're
on merrit. I think legitimately they think they have a
good chance of repeating what they did in twenty twenty
four in twenty twenty five. So those would be my
(09:14):
two picks.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
That's a good one. And I think Fritz as well
as one of the last last few players of his
generation that had to come up in this era that
made that was so difficult for that final breakthrough, I
think that that does make his or this jump, I
think extra special. But I think I was gonna lean
Draper actually myself Bush. On the ATP side, there's a
(09:37):
few good options in PESHI, Perry Kard as well had
a huge rise in the rankings. I think like Lulusun
he went from two hundreds to to thirty right, which
is frankly nuts. So I like those too. And then
I think on the women's side, it's really hard to
pick against Paulini, but I think Diana Schneider had a
(09:58):
really good year. She obviously had a insanely good week
in Toronto, which I saw up close, which I think
was well.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
I wanted to pick her.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
I think Danielle Collins improved, Like Danielle Collins improved enough
Simon that she's not going to retire anymore. So I
feel like that's a good sign that she had a
good year. I mean, we've hated on her, but you've
been as Stan for a while. The pseudos Stan, I
don't know if you are actually but Emma Navarro has
gotten better. Like I don't think we have to like
any anything about the story necessarily, but the player herself,
(10:29):
she's gotten better.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Absolutely, Yeah, no doubt about that from where she started
the season too, being a player that the tour is
afraid of, and rightfully so, she's a contender. I think
at every Grand Slam She's going to be very much
a fixture in the twenty twenty five calendar season. I'd
be curious to see it, especially when players come up
(10:51):
like that through the college ranks and they I mean,
she's been grinding out for a while, but like to
have the assent that she died. I think it's going
to be harder for her to stay at the top
of the game than it is for Jasmin Paulini. It
wouldn't shock me to see a little drop off in form,
but you know who knows. That is for another podcast
to dissect, not for this one.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
True, Yeah, there was an ATV's tough like. I think
Thomas Mahak as well had a really good year. I
mean he was known as a doubles guy who won
doubles with Barb in Paris, but he also went from
I think seventy eight at the end of twenty twenty
three to twenty five and singles, which is pretty nuts, right,
So I think that's a phenomenal year for him. Let's
(11:34):
go to match of the year on both sides, Simon.
The WT match of the year really to me, Mitrid
Sablenca srion Tech was exceptional and have a hard time
beating that. But I will say Rebaka, Shriantek and Stuttgart
excellent match this year. And I think Sabelenka, Jang and
(11:56):
Wuhan were also really good. So I agree with shantechs
Abalenka in Madrid, but until Elina Rebaccna was filled by
every oldest known to men, and I hope she gets better.
I think that that match with Shantek and Shutgar was
was special and unfortunately, as we documented on the part
(12:20):
of this year, Rebakkna wasn't able to be fit for
a large swaths of this year. But when she is
or when she was there was the reason why she
was part of this big three quote unquote.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
I'm so cynical at this point. Is there any absence
from the tour now, I'm just expecting a press release
to come out a couple of weeks later. Yeah, no,
I'm kidding. That's clearly not the case. Not going to
get done for liable. We wish the Rebecca a camp
and the Rebakka herself a speed of recovery. Back to
the tour, tech Satelencas might pick in Madrid, I think
(12:51):
probably the best match of the year men or women.
I might say just for the storyline, the quality of
tennis for what was at stake, it was high qualit,
it was excellent. Yeah, no real arguments on that one.
Mine's so like my two matches of the year are
so boring. Alcaras Sinner and Beijing Sechs Sable Anchor and Madrid.
I picked the world number one and two for both.
(13:14):
I'm aware that Corlas Acras is not the world number two,
but if you, if anyone's going to try and tell
me the Alexander's barbs the real world number two, then
come on at this point. So those are my two picks.
I feel very basic about it, but I think it
is the I think, honestly, I think the best matches
of the year.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
All right, those were our first few picks for our
Golden Rackets of twenty twenty four, Match of the Year,
most Improved Newcomers, Player of the Year. But when we
come back after the break, it's the good stuff, Services
to Tennis, the biggest story, biggest b fuck you Tennis Award,
all of that. Come it up next on Open Era.
(13:59):
Welcome back to the Open Air podcast. It's the Golden Rackets,
our year end award show, gone through the real awards,
quote unquote. Now for the good ones, the Open Air
Special for the proper Simon, the proper ones, the good ones.
The first one is an important one, the Open Era
Award for Services to Tennis. As I mentioned off the
(14:20):
hop in an era of presentment, in anger, we needed
these people to provide some light, some good moments, to
feel good stories. But the common theme that is emerging
for me or Simon is that the people that helped
us in our spike missions are the ones who are
rewarding the most.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Yeah, and a repeat winner here not the player themselves,
but who they have taken out of The Open Hour
Award for Services to Tennis goes to anyone who consistently
makes Alexander Zarab's life a misery on a tennis court.
This year, I have given it to Taylor Fritz. You
could also hand it to any player that beat Alexanders
through the twenty twenty four calendar season. So once again
(15:03):
our best goes out to that long and noble list.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Phenomenal and I mean, yeah, there was the Morgan stuff
with the shade that wasn't shade, but and then there
was also I think us grappling with the idea of
like what does it mean to cheer against is Vera's opponents,
and like how much stock should we put into this?
But just from the sporting experience in watching this Vera
(15:28):
of camp flounders as Taylor Fritz hits bombs by them,
that was especially good. I'm going to go a bit
off the wall here, Simon and say I mentioned one
Martin del Potro and the tough stories that have been
coming out regarding him in retirement and how many just
struggles and the injury and the pain, and it sounds
like some maybe some misdiagnosis that went into stuff. But
(15:50):
I watched the highlights of the Buenos Aires final match
Bush with him and Novak there, which is extremely emotional,
and damn that was tough. But I've gone to complete
other way on Novak, maybe you'll say, but I think
it's nice that he went to Buenos Aires in December
to do this, and I think it is Novak kind
(16:12):
of clutching into oh my god, the era is over
and all my friends are gone. But I had that
feeling as well, So I think overall that that kind
of vibe, that feeling might maybe it falls into the
biggest story of the year for me as well. But
I think in this year that overall had so many
bad stories, I think the camaraderie, in some respects was
(16:35):
nice to see because in my formative years a lot
of my time has spent watching these guys compete against
each other. So I don't know, I found that somewhat comforting.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
So you're what goes to Delpo or to Djokovic. I'm
trying to work it out here.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
It goes to both of them, and it goes to Novak.
I think understanding that it's all over, so maybe it's
some sort of Award for Novak kind of recognizing the moment.
All right, it's a reach you can't I just can't take.
I can't take Fritz, you know. So I can't also
(17:10):
because I doubled up on a bunch of your picks.
But listen, man, it was a bad year.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
It was. Yeah, And also it's the golden rackets. Who cares?
Speaker 1 (17:21):
It's true? So let's let's do biggest story then, And
I mean, how could it not be the two number
ones or the one number number one and one former
number one testing positive? Right? I think that nadal retirement
is probably the one we all want to think about,
and it probably will be in the grand scheme of thing.
But I don't know, man, it's hard to bypass the
(17:41):
elephant in the room.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Well, biggest story is an interesting one to sort of examine,
isn't it. So objectively taking a step back from it,
Raffia Nadal retiring from the sport of tennis probably got
more headlines, probably made bigger waves around the world. So
I think objectively it's the biggest story of the season.
Is the retirement of you know, the greatest clay court
(18:04):
player ever, greatest, you know, whatever you want to call
it category, whatever category you want to throw it in.
Not getting into that conversation now, but how could the
how could the Open era biggest story the seeds to
not be the world number ones testing positive for band
(18:25):
ilicit whatever substance, whatever word you want to describe it as.
It's a it's it's is a absolutely staggeringly huge story
that has massive, far reaching ramifications in the sport of
tennis for years to come. And I think, outside of
some of the other stuff that will come on to
(18:45):
in a second, it probably will be my lasting memory
at the back end of this twenty twenty four campaign
that there's massive asterisks over to the best players in
the world on the tour and and you know the
worst part about that is it has the sport more broadly,
is that I'm sitting watching I will be watching the
Australian Open thinking, hmm, how many of these other plaza
(19:10):
going through the same thing as well? And that's not
a good thing.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
No, I agree, And I think that's why I came
into this so hot, so heated bush is because I
think you're totally right. And anytime there's an absence taken
or an unexplained absence, people won't be given the benefits
of the doubt, and I know they weren't before. Realistically,
I think we were a long past that as a society.
(19:35):
But yeah, I mean it'll be hard to really trust anyone,
even if I think the authority say they're clean or
say that they've they've ramped up these measures. I think
it's it's just a perfect it's a perfect allegory for
society or how everything else works, in that if you
have enough resources, if you have enough power or fame,
(19:59):
you can glide by these kind of things, Whereas if
you don't, if you're an e Isasium or or somewhere
else or somewhat a different player who does not have
this stature, you're kind of screwed, right, unless you have
the backing of a legal team or people in high
places to support you. It's not the same. And I
think it's just like the real world as well. So
in a way, I applaud Tennis are being so revealing
(20:22):
about all of this because it's it's kind of how
the world works, and Tennis is a really good job
of spicing it down to the nitty gritty, and in general,
that's kind of the vibe tennis gives off these days
to me bush from the country clubs set on down.
So I don't know if for a sport to have
(20:43):
this kind of scandal, like it's so on the nose,
and I'm like, man, like it's it's frustrating, saddening, but
also like, I mean, I'm not surprised this happened to
these bodies.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Again, I think tennis has done a remarkably good job
of presenting itself as clean to the world. I think
because of the high profile incidents of athletes at the
top of the sport. I'm looking at Maria Sharapova largely
came on the downswing of her career and also was
(21:18):
in a period of time where you know, I'm not
sure the eyes of the tennis ward and the broader
sporting world was still on her in the same way
since that point. You know, you could make the case
Halla was probably the most high profile person since then.
But it's done a remarkably good job, is it not
to kind of remain out of the spotlight. From this perspective, Man,
(21:46):
it feels like it really does have a problem. It's
just no one's really willing to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
I've seen a few articles recently. Actually, you know, let's say,
I'm surprised, like my former employer, the Score, so I
thought it was well done on like the future of tennis,
and it was a kind of a zoomed out kind
of perspective. And they're acknowledging their departure to Big three
and Novak leaving soon and Andy retiring and Serena leaving
(22:14):
on the WTA, and like, how do they feel that vacuum?
How do they get people to care? And the idea
that this didn't make bigger news is a very big
sign or a worrying sign. I think for Tennis Bush
that Egert having this happen was a blip, if anything.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
So I am curious to know as well whether tennis
itself is the Canarian the coal mine for this amongst
the wider sporting world. When you are in a situation
where largely it's an arms race between those who are
doping and water or the test is involved to see
who can stay furthest ahead, because like in a competitive world,
(22:52):
you're always trying to gain an advantage, you're always trying
to you know, obfuscape the truth, all those kind of things,
And is the situation where the testers and the legal
bodies have caught up to the point where now they're
catching things that previously wouldn't have been been caught, and
that's going to spill into the different areas of different sports.
(23:12):
Or is this just like a freak event of two
people and two camps that were just lazy, incompetent, naive
like any of these things. Who knows. I think that's
one of the more fascinating things to watch in twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Five Best Beef this season? Simon, what do you got?
Speaker 2 (23:30):
I chose the Francis Tfo umpired Jimmy pinogat one. We
didn't cover this. I think this is during a period
of time at the back end of the season when
we were on a break. This was awful. This is
a terrible look, Francis Tfo. You know all the things
that we've said about people brating umpires and you know,
(23:55):
being childish, being passive, aggressive, never outright telling umpires to
fuck off, like never like outright in their face. Level
of bad, really quite hostile, quite aggressive, quite angry, really dreadful,
dreadful look for TFO, and uh seems like a good
one to pick for best Beef, doesn't color him in
(24:17):
a particularly good light. I thought anyway, coming away from that,
it was I know we all lose our temper to
a certain degree, and I think he's tremendously liked off
the court. You don't act that way unless, like you know,
if something is unless there is some something behind it, right,
I don't think we all losing I guess the point
(24:38):
I'm making is we all lose our temper, but to
what extent do we lose our temper? And this was
pretty bad.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
It was bad, and yeah, like it makes you think, like, oh,
I wonder what happens when where you don't see what's
happening in general. But I want to believe it's a
one off. That was bad, very very cringey and.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Awful to observe.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Just didn't I don't go some of the umpire player
interactions this year. We're off putting and like some of
the umpires seemingly not paying attention and like that being
a running gag. I'm going to nominate though, Vekic Sheng Beef.
That's my pick that had Olympic final was extremely dicey
and testy. I think obviously the stakes are very high,
(25:20):
but I think Jeng doing the EGA stuff with the
time wasting or pausing, whatever you want to call it.
It's going to be a bigger story next year because
I don't think a lot of players like those two
at all. So I felt like that was the best
beef because it had the highest stakes.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Is what happens when two ice queens meet each.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Other and don't give give the marketing geniuses involved any ideas,
but yeah, can you have two ice queens at the
same time?
Speaker 2 (25:50):
It doesn't. That's not how royalty and nobility works.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Onto the big award of this year, the fucking Tennis Award.
Don't you like about the sport? There's two many things
to listen here right now? I think you've repeated someone
but Bart Simpson writing.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
On the chopboard style.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Format. It's all bad though. I don't know what you want.
You want to pick? Here?
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Shall I read it? In order just to I'm a
home on the gag? Okay, here we go. Failed to
drug tests. Saudi Arabia Long Seasons, Saudi Arabia, Late Night Finishes,
Saudi Arabia. Elon Musk in attendance at the US Open,
Saudi Arabia, The Davis Cup, Saudi Arabia tough them in tennis,
(26:38):
Saudi Arabia, Which one of those do you pick?
Speaker 1 (26:42):
I mean, I'm steady left off Nick Curios tennis commentators. Yeah,
Stundy left that one off. Nick Kurrio's tenniszar, like, you'll
be commentating any freaking tournament that's on. Holy cow, what
a list, What a list. I want to add stupid Exos,
(27:05):
which is kind of covered by Saudi Arabia. They're so
tough Bush, I think for just the general sanctity of
the game, or maybe not sanctity, but like the future
of sport, the sport and it's viability, blah blah blah,
all that stuff. All of these things are related, so
(27:26):
I have a hard time picking one of them out.
If that makes that simon whether it be Saudi Arabia,
Davis cup elon Musk at the US Open late night finishes.
I think capitalism can be blamed for most of these things,
but maybe failed drug tests could be too, And they
have the pursuit of more gains, you know, unlimited gains,
constant gains, and that's what the doping leads to. But
(27:48):
I still think it's the drug test for me is
the worst thing about this year because and already a sport,
already on the cusp of your relevancy, has now decided
to put its foot fully in the pool of it.
Now we're going to about what happens when we come
out of it, or what other steps they take to
make it worse, you know. So I'm going to go
(28:11):
back to that one.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
So the thing that I am fascinated to watch post
when Jokovic is gone, trying to think of there's anyone
else on the women's side. Nara, Serena's gone. I mean Venus, Yes,
Venus is gone for all in tents and purposes. So
let's say the two thousands crowd is gone at this point.
So all of the biggest quote unquote stars and I
(28:35):
mean like mega megastar sharpob is obviously gone as well.
Do people like tennis for tennis? Do the people that
go to Wimbledon? Do the people that go like I
don't mean more broadly, maybe not the hardcore fans, I
mean more broadly as people that are attracted to tennis,
the product, the brand of tennis. Is it tennis or
(28:58):
is it Serena Williams, is it Marisha? Is it Roger
Veeder or rafaian Adal. That's the question that I have
and all the stars that follow it big enough to
continue to attract your not even influence a brand of people,
but like more I guess, I guess the capitalist lens
on this is like, do Rolex care about tennis if
(29:22):
those names are not there? Is Heonic center and Colis
soccer is big enough? It is he isunte big enough?
Or is tennis like just kind of a bit irrelevant
without big names in it.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Luxury brands will care. They'll always care because they've got
some stuff to sell and they have people to sell
it to. But that pool of people, I don't know
how big that is. I've seen people commenting on like
watch people finding it hard to like watch men's tennis
because of length, and like these are sports fans, and
these are people who I think are turning up their
nose at tennis necessarily. But I don't know. I I'm
(30:00):
quite worried. Let's just say that about where it all
nets out. But I'll be with you watching tennis in
the middle of the night during the Australian Open. How
many people will be when it's like, hell, I don't
know to BeO Draper in one semi final and Zere
(30:20):
have Fritz in the other I don't know.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
They're not global brands, right, They're not global icons and figures.
They just aren't. They're all it means is not a
good player. But the other ones all are right, but
they're just they're not a draw in the same way.
And I know the stars take time and it takes
marketing dollars, but it also takes success. It takes people
who have extraordinary abilities and other like transcendent or generational
(30:49):
in terms of how good they are, that have largely
attracted eyeballs in the last two three decades. And we
can all raise our eyebrows out that and all be
upset about it. But unfortunately that's just the reality. See
how this stuff has gone for the last you know,
since neoliberalism has taken a foothold in the world.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
So let's go into predictions then for next year, because
this one of yours here, Bush is baby. The only
way this is all saved is an Alcrass winds all
four slams and get us to like twenty within three years.
I think we need some comical winning streaks, we need
some invincibility, We need foils, which I think we have
that a bit developing saple Ion techs in oer ock
(31:29):
grass shirt. But what do you got prediction wise for
next year? Man?
Speaker 2 (31:33):
I love this section because they can just say anything
and then just run away whatever you'll want. I need
to go back and sack last year. See how wrong
I was about it. Okay, I'm going to give you four,
so you mentioned one of them, Charlie wins all four.
Remember this is outlandish predictions. I'm not saying this is
going to happen, but these are outlandish predictions. Number two,
we are going to see an incredibly high number of
(31:55):
positive tests of doping tests or drug test, including someone
that's a high profile on the men's side who may
be retiring next year.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
This is the thing though, I don't know, Man, I yes, yes,
but it would destroy the sport, so they can't. They
cannot have that would destroy the sport.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
I agree with this.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
It's too big to fail. Yeah, this is too this
is Obama financial crisis, being like, we gotta we gotta
fail out the banks. We can't do anything about this.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
That's Craig Tyler immediately, we gotta let this ride. We've
He's driving around Dallas asking for people to number whatever
that I don't know what it is, something like the other thing.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
I thought it was like retroactive testing that they do
when they found out that everyone was doping if they
want to, or if someone does some investigative reporting. But anyways,
that's not a bashout either. I do feel like the
level of carefulness has to increase, right, or like detection
and money spent avoiding detection all that jazz dead has
(33:04):
to be increased as well.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
But we'll see. You hit on something that I have
only just thought about when you said it out loud,
which is where is there more money that goes into
avoiding testing or is there more money that goes into testing.
I think we all know the answer to that question,
which is probably why people aren't being caught. Anyway, that's
a I don't even know if that's cineg I think
that's probably just reality, to be honest, I think that
(33:26):
might just be the unfortunate state of everything.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Well, it goes back to the resources thing, right, So,
I like Mira Andreva number one, that's a bullshit, slightly insane.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
But I was trying to come up with some WTA
ones which wouldn't just be like two players win everything
for the next twelve months.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Jess Pegula attends the Super Bowl, it sees good things
happen because I'm not going to jinx anything. I heard that.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
That's a prediction, maybe a Bowl prediction, I could say,
is that she's never gonna win the ground slam. Deezus. Wow.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Okay, And on that note, you've got Sony Arabia pulling
funds from the WTA.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Yeah, that one's all right. That you can you know,
you start reading, you can see.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
You can see how that goes down potentially. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Again, like, is the WTA a big enough sports washing
brand for a state which is trying to sports wash
or do they get bored by it and move their
attention to something else. I'm making the case in an
outliner's prediction they might do that.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Related. I've seen the some reports of that p the
PIF scaling back their investment number by a pretty big number.
And I've seen some Newcastle fans a learned by that
as well. So not maybe not as outlandish as we think.
As you prepare for the next Gen finals that are
happening again once again, why but they're happening this month? Okay,
(34:51):
these are all good I was gonna say my Ash
Party one, It's just it's just a final. A final.
Outlandis that Ash Party will win Wimbledon this year, and
we've changed the major ash probably doing Wimbledon.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
I have with this.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
I think Coco Goff is the world number one.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
At the end of the year.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
I think that's bolder, that's pretty bold, considering that I
don't think she's in the sphere of Siontek and Sabrillanca
at this moment. But I've got GoF going to number one,
and I've got I've got Novak not winning a Slam,
which I don't think is that outlandish. But I think
we do get some very random Slam results, so I
(35:31):
don't think. I don't think we have the same winner
at any Slam. And I think this signals the new
the new ice age for the ATV. Not to be
dramatic about it, but god, I hope Carlos is clean
because man, man, man.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Look, dude, we've podcasted for seven years together. I'm never
going to tell you how to podcast. I chose Mirror
Andreva getting to year end number one as an outliner's prediction.
You picked Coco Golf the world number three.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Look at the points for now, he's behind my three thousand.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
It's true.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
No, I saw Andrea there and I shuddered at the
unlandishness of that, and I couldn't upgrade it with Magdalenet.
You know how much I wanted to say Magdalenette would
be number one in the year twenty twenty five as
some sort of splinter project with the Heritage Fund or
whatever the hell they're doing in the US.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Oh God, that Andreva pick. So just do I need
to justify this? I feel like I don't need to
justify this. Seventeen No, she's seventeen in the world as well,
I think, well, sixteen in the world, like she's yeah,
she's sixteen.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
In the sixteen Yeah she's sixteen, but she's seventeen and
a half, yes, age exactly.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Go figure. She's already been to a ground Slam semi final.
She's good on all s says, I could see it.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Oh, it's very good. It's a very good pick. But
next year Ashbarty's gonna win two slams.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Then he isn't. Ashbot literally pregnant at the moment. Listen, listen,
you you just yelled at me.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
We're not going bold enough, and I gave you just
what you wanted. I fed you just what you wanted,
and it wasn't good enough.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
It wasn't good I mean the outlandish, this ridiculous. Wow,
actually it seems plausible, and you know, I can I
can see it. I can definitely say.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
How about this? How about this cerl Landish a Canadian
men's player as the year at the top ten. Take
your coffee, Christmin, choke on that?
Speaker 2 (37:31):
How about that?
Speaker 1 (37:33):
I chose a Canadian chocolate bar there for our internationalist?
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Is it it probably is?
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Of course it's d'allo. What do you think, man, what
do you think?
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Of course it's yellow?
Speaker 1 (37:45):
Okay, Yeah, that was fun. Okay, this is a nice
way I lived though bush a personal positive tennis moment.
Is it from this year you're saying?
Speaker 2 (37:56):
I think I mean it is from this year? Yeah,
so my I was gonna so I went to the
Paris Master's Final. Obviously, could have picked any of the slams,
could have picked the Olympics. I think we did. How
many episodes on the Olympics, which is yeah, there's many
many moments in that which maybe not tennis moments. I
don't think it was largely I'm not a big Jocovic fan,
(38:18):
as regular listeners will know, so that that did not
strike me as a pitticular emotional moment. So I sort
of came back to this. For all of the stuff
that we talk about, we queen tweet, for all the
things that we talk about, let's go with that about
the season being too long and it being difficult to follow,
(38:39):
there is also a strength in that, and for me,
like clockwork, tennis is always there for you, whether you
want an event, whether you want something to watch, whether
it's minus five degrees outside and covered in snow and
you're watching the Australian Open, whether it's forty degrees and
massive humidity and you're watching Winwooden, or whether it's the
(39:01):
end of the season watching just complete and utter random
nonsense from around the world. In both directions, like positive
and negative, there'll always be some tennis available to you,
and the same can't be said for any other sport.
I thinks its length is a massive problem and needs
to be cut out and needs to be addressed, but
(39:22):
it is also kind of nice to have it there
when you need it.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
That's really well said Bush. I mean hell, for the
reason we did this podcast, our love for it, the
comfort that you find when you know there's always tennis on.
I know that was a big one for me, especially
during some trying moments this year. On the personal side,
looking back at at tennis's meaning for me and my
(39:47):
dad was extremely emotional this year, and I think the Olympics,
like you mentioned, served as like I really ran through
the gamut of emotions. And I think gra lighting the
torch and then Ralpha losing early and that traumatic twist,
and even Novak, Like I wouldn't count myself a Novak
(40:07):
fan either, Bush, but I even that match, I found
myself moved in ways that surprised me a bit. And
I think it's just because about all that's happened and
all the memories I'm looking back on regarding the sport
and the relationships I've made and the memories I have
and looking back, and like I was looking back through
some old photos I had on my phone, and I
(40:28):
had Federer celebrating from that twenty seven Aussie Open wind Bush,
and I think I was in Vancouver at the time,
but I just remember feeling kind of alone and I
just moved to a new city and feeling quite far
away and having the idea of tennis being a companion
and having something to watch, and those voices be with me,
(40:51):
the sounds be with me, the people to talk to
who also love the sport be with me as well.
You really couldn't pass that up for the world.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
So I came.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
In to start to start the show with hatred and animosity, Bush,
but I end with gratefulness and thankfulness because even through
the muck, we do love this game. Right, So what
a year it's been.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
I think it is a mark and a testament to
how much we have covered the sport in four years.
Is a mark of how much we love the sport.
We just want you to be better. Please, for the
love of God, make better choices, make better decisions, and
please listen to your athletes.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
A good place to leave it. That is our penultimate
episode of Open Era. We've got one left. It's our
annual fireside chat, which we may include some tennis discussion, Bush.
We probably won't. I think it'll be our final sign off,
but we have one more left for you, so stay
tuned for that. But once again, thank you for everyone.
Thank you to everyone sorry who sent us messages about
(41:59):
the Shoh since we notified everyone that we're gonna be
closing up shop. It's meant a lot, really meant it
means a lot, So thank you for that. Thank you
to Dylan as always on the once and two years
for putting the show together. And we will talk to
you one last time soon for our finals fireside chat
for Simon and myself. Thank you for listening to open Era.
(42:23):
Take care,
Hello, and welcome to the Open Air Podcast. My name
is de Venga Sign. I'm joined as always by mister
Simon Bushell in his fanciest dress. Because it's that time
again for the final time, the Golden Rackets, Simon, welcome.
Speaker 2 (00:28):
Stop playing the music. We're gonna get played off stage
very shortly.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
It's that time. For some reason, I want invite him
and see his graduation to play on this on this intro,
but Dylan scratched that we don't need that at all,
and we probably don't have the rights. But it is
a wards time, Bush. It is at timed to reflect.
We're reflecting a whole lot these days as Open Arrow
wraps up. But with each passing news story, I feel
(00:56):
more uncomfortable with this decision we've made, Simon, because going
through my picks for our awards, I found myself filled
with not anger maybe, but resentment. I don't know. It
was a strange year.
Speaker 2 (01:11):
That's a hell of a thing to bring to the
penultimate episode of the show. Anger and resentment.
Speaker 1 (01:16):
Anger and resentment, I think that was my name for
the title, but I guess we'll go with Golden Rackets.
Speaker 2 (01:23):
Still time. We can always change it.
Speaker 1 (01:26):
So we'll go through our picks. I told bush Uh
before we started, we have a lot of similar ones,
but there's obviously commentary to offer here, but I think
there's some quick fire ones off the hop though. Atp
Player of the Year, Bush, you Picknick Centner, not a
hugely controversial pick. But I guess my question is has
(01:49):
any of the off the court stuff fackored into your
pick or is this purely a tennis pick.
Speaker 2 (01:54):
It is purely a tennis pick. I think I would
have picked Acaras if I was doing this in a
more Well, I guess technically it's our show, right, we
could do whatever I think. I mean, obviously he will
and has won the ACV Player of the Year. Yeah,
I just out of spite, I'm giving it to Carlos Akeras.
(02:15):
Then that's what I did.
Speaker 1 (02:18):
That's my pick is Carlos Akaraz for that reason, literally
because that didn't happen to him, and because of that,
he is golden. He is the Golden Boy. But he
also won two slams. Like, it's not like we're picking
someone who woned Marty Carlo and matured and that's it, right,
Like this is a spike pick, but it's got some
justification to it.
Speaker 2 (02:38):
It feels reasonable, right, we said the what was the
title of the show? Anger, and we're leading it off
in the right way possible.
Speaker 1 (02:48):
And I'll try and shelve that for maybe part two
when we get into biggest Beef, et cetera. But listen,
the reason I had to pick cal Kraz is because
of Spie. I mean that's a perfect it's a perfect
metaphor for tennis today WTJA Player of the Year, doping
(03:08):
or no doping. It was going to be arguing at
Sabolenka Bush. I think her her rise towards the end
of the season, eventually culminating in her taking the number
one ranking. I mean it was also due to you
get missing some tournaments, which we later learned we're not
due to the reason she had indicated at the time.
But on merit alone, I think Sabolenka is a good
(03:31):
pick here. And also I think the way the season
ended some good matches. I think the Jiang match in
particular was one that I was like, huh okay, like
we're going to get something good, hopefully in twenty twenty five.
When it comes to various rivals and not just IgA
for Sabolenka, but I think she is a good pick
for Player of the Year on the.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
WTA same with me, I picked her as well. I
don't think it's particularly close this season. If we said
anger in spite for Ciner, we can't pick Spa Tech
for similar reasons. Also, I don't think she deserves it either.
I think Sabalanca's bard number one on merit. I think
she deserves that title, let's put it that way. Deserves
that status, and I think she also deserves the title
(04:13):
of WTA Player the Year as well. So she's my
pick as well.
Speaker 1 (04:17):
Some quick ones, I think these are easy ones. WTA
New Cover of the Year LULUs sun Bush was your pick,
but I want to say default because I think the
rise is incredible. I believe she went from two fourteen
into the top forty by September. So to start the
season at two fourteen and to end the top forty
is what I thought Gabriel Diallo was going to do
(04:39):
last year, but this actually happened. She had an incredible
run to the Wibbling quarterfinals, she made the Fiole in Monterey,
she beat Jiang at Wimbledon, don't forget. So that's a
good pick. But I mean, overall, not a huge glut
of players to pick from, and I think that was
kind of similar with Mensick as well. I don't know
if you if you there are some more other other
(05:02):
deserving candidates, but I think Mensik and lu Lusun make
a lot of sense for new covers.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
Yeah, maybe you could lean in the Peshi Pericard direction
as well on the AHTP side, if you're a curious
around that. Yaka Mensic I think is the right pick here.
He's I think he's still youngest player inside of the
top fifty in the world, so he's going to have
a long and storied career. It's been quite the rise
this season. He looks like a really good player. Dev
So you remember the time that I was saying that
(05:29):
I didn't think that Alex Demono was a top ten player,
and he went and proved me wrong. I think Menze
is equally a top ten player. Like in the me
betting against Demono, I'm betting the house on Jak of
Mensic being a top ten player. That's how high I
am on him. So happy to give the award here
to him.
Speaker 1 (05:45):
And you'll be at the twenty twenty four Next Gen
finals that for some reason haven't happened yet. I did
not realize that the ATP next Gen Finals are going
down from Decever eighteenth to the twenty second in Jedda, Sadiari.
Why is my main question here? But also could you
guess more than Mensik as one of the eight participants?
(06:10):
You can? I think you can, But I'll be honest
here for myself. As we got towards the bottom, I
was surprised and confused by some of the names. But
I think this this tournament itself just to channel back
to anger and resentment. Why is this happening now?
Speaker 2 (06:24):
Well, you're we recording on December the sixth here and
the seasons, all of the guys wrap it up, come on,
what's happening here?
Speaker 1 (06:33):
Arthur of course, Arthur Fiz is the show's soffer. You
got Alex Nicholson and then Mensik and the Shang Chung
Cheng who's also nominated for Newcomer of the Year lerner t.
I think Vasas Vaready had some nice challenger wins, but yeah,
a lot of names I don't recognize this tournament whatever,
(06:54):
man like, why is it happening here?
Speaker 2 (06:56):
Let's move on to those are some implies by the way,
like I know, for all of the clowning the you
can give to the next Gen finals, I think Alex
Michel's gonna be a good fixture in the top fifty
for a long time. Top thirty. Van ash That's is
a good player, Like he's a really really talented kid.
Learn A Ten's had a really good end of the season.
A lot of the US tier really high on him.
(07:17):
Shang's had a great end of the season as well,
So there's like there's a ton of talent in here
and obviously feasts being the crown jewel of this god.
I stop using that relative to Saudi Arabia, But more broadly,
I think this is actually a surprisingly good field the
bottom end of it. I know nothing about jo and Fonseca.
I have absolutely no idea who he is. If I
(07:38):
was going to watch this tournament, i'd be excited to
watch him. I'll just I will make do and it
will have to suffice and be watching YouTube higlots of
him instead.
Speaker 1 (07:46):
An interesting aspect I guess you can't say is that
they changed the age from twenty one to twenty, so
that that's kind of noteworthy, I think, But moving on,
Simon most improved. This one I think is maybe the
most subjective. Really, you can go anywhere with these picks,
(08:09):
but I liked yours, so I'll let you go first. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:11):
So ATP I picked Taylor Fritz WT, I picked Jasmine Paulini.
There's a couple of ones here actually that I was
really on the fence around. Honestly, I almost picked Saberlenka,
but I thought, you know, was a stinky pick and
I didn't do it. And you could make the case
with Jack Draper as well. On the ATP, I think
(08:32):
I picked Fritz a few weeks ago for this award
to go from where he was. I think this is
the hardest jump in all of maybe all of sport, honestly,
certainly in tennis. To be able to go from a
top fifteen, you know that kind of range to a
top five player is the hardest thing you can do.
He made it look really simple. I think he made
falls out of many people. I'm covering my own ass.
He made a fall out of me, justin part of
(08:54):
these rise is different, right. I think one of those
ones where just a really insistent, incredible season, and with
both of these players, I think they they they're they're
on merrit. I think legitimately they think they have a
good chance of repeating what they did in twenty twenty
four in twenty twenty five. So those would be my
(09:14):
two picks.
Speaker 1 (09:15):
That's a good one. And I think Fritz as well
as one of the last last few players of his
generation that had to come up in this era that
made that was so difficult for that final breakthrough, I
think that that does make his or this jump, I
think extra special. But I think I was gonna lean
Draper actually myself Bush. On the ATP side, there's a
(09:37):
few good options in PESHI, Perry Kard as well had
a huge rise in the rankings. I think like Lulusun
he went from two hundreds to to thirty right, which
is frankly nuts. So I like those too. And then
I think on the women's side, it's really hard to
pick against Paulini, but I think Diana Schneider had a
(09:58):
really good year. She obviously had a insanely good week
in Toronto, which I saw up close, which I think
was well.
Speaker 2 (10:05):
I wanted to pick her.
Speaker 1 (10:06):
I think Danielle Collins improved, Like Danielle Collins improved enough
Simon that she's not going to retire anymore. So I
feel like that's a good sign that she had a
good year. I mean, we've hated on her, but you've
been as Stan for a while. The pseudos Stan, I
don't know if you are actually but Emma Navarro has
gotten better. Like I don't think we have to like
any anything about the story necessarily, but the player herself,
(10:29):
she's gotten better.
Speaker 2 (10:30):
Absolutely, Yeah, no doubt about that from where she started
the season too, being a player that the tour is
afraid of, and rightfully so, she's a contender. I think
at every Grand Slam She's going to be very much
a fixture in the twenty twenty five calendar season. I'd
be curious to see it, especially when players come up
(10:51):
like that through the college ranks and they I mean,
she's been grinding out for a while, but like to
have the assent that she died. I think it's going
to be harder for her to stay at the top
of the game than it is for Jasmin Paulini. It
wouldn't shock me to see a little drop off in form,
but you know who knows. That is for another podcast
to dissect, not for this one.
Speaker 1 (11:12):
True, Yeah, there was an ATV's tough like. I think
Thomas Mahak as well had a really good year. I
mean he was known as a doubles guy who won
doubles with Barb in Paris, but he also went from
I think seventy eight at the end of twenty twenty
three to twenty five and singles, which is pretty nuts, right,
So I think that's a phenomenal year for him. Let's
(11:34):
go to match of the year on both sides, Simon.
The WT match of the year really to me, Mitrid
Sablenca srion Tech was exceptional and have a hard time
beating that. But I will say Rebaka, Shriantek and Stuttgart
excellent match this year. And I think Sabelenka, Jang and
(11:56):
Wuhan were also really good. So I agree with shantechs
Abalenka in Madrid, but until Elina Rebaccna was filled by
every oldest known to men, and I hope she gets better.
I think that that match with Shantek and Shutgar was
was special and unfortunately, as we documented on the part
(12:20):
of this year, Rebakkna wasn't able to be fit for
a large swaths of this year. But when she is
or when she was there was the reason why she
was part of this big three quote unquote.
Speaker 2 (12:30):
I'm so cynical at this point. Is there any absence
from the tour now, I'm just expecting a press release
to come out a couple of weeks later. Yeah, no,
I'm kidding. That's clearly not the case. Not going to
get done for liable. We wish the Rebecca a camp
and the Rebakka herself a speed of recovery. Back to
the tour, tech Satelencas might pick in Madrid, I think
(12:51):
probably the best match of the year men or women.
I might say just for the storyline, the quality of
tennis for what was at stake, it was high qualit,
it was excellent. Yeah, no real arguments on that one.
Mine's so like my two matches of the year are
so boring. Alcaras Sinner and Beijing Sechs Sable Anchor and Madrid.
I picked the world number one and two for both.
(13:14):
I'm aware that Corlas Acras is not the world number two,
but if you, if anyone's going to try and tell
me the Alexander's barbs the real world number two, then
come on at this point. So those are my two picks.
I feel very basic about it, but I think it
is the I think, honestly, I think the best matches
of the year.
Speaker 1 (13:30):
All right, those were our first few picks for our
Golden Rackets of twenty twenty four, Match of the Year,
most Improved Newcomers, Player of the Year. But when we
come back after the break, it's the good stuff, Services
to Tennis, the biggest story, biggest b fuck you Tennis Award,
all of that. Come it up next on Open Era.
(13:59):
Welcome back to the Open Air podcast. It's the Golden Rackets,
our year end award show, gone through the real awards,
quote unquote. Now for the good ones, the Open Air
Special for the proper Simon, the proper ones, the good ones.
The first one is an important one, the Open Era
Award for Services to Tennis. As I mentioned off the
(14:20):
hop in an era of presentment, in anger, we needed
these people to provide some light, some good moments, to
feel good stories. But the common theme that is emerging
for me or Simon is that the people that helped
us in our spike missions are the ones who are
rewarding the most.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
Yeah, and a repeat winner here not the player themselves,
but who they have taken out of The Open Hour
Award for Services to Tennis goes to anyone who consistently
makes Alexander Zarab's life a misery on a tennis court.
This year, I have given it to Taylor Fritz. You
could also hand it to any player that beat Alexanders
through the twenty twenty four calendar season. So once again
(15:03):
our best goes out to that long and noble list.
Speaker 1 (15:08):
Phenomenal and I mean, yeah, there was the Morgan stuff
with the shade that wasn't shade, but and then there
was also I think us grappling with the idea of
like what does it mean to cheer against is Vera's opponents,
and like how much stock should we put into this?
But just from the sporting experience in watching this Vera
(15:28):
of camp flounders as Taylor Fritz hits bombs by them,
that was especially good. I'm going to go a bit
off the wall here, Simon and say I mentioned one
Martin del Potro and the tough stories that have been
coming out regarding him in retirement and how many just
struggles and the injury and the pain, and it sounds
like some maybe some misdiagnosis that went into stuff. But
(15:50):
I watched the highlights of the Buenos Aires final match
Bush with him and Novak there, which is extremely emotional,
and damn that was tough. But I've gone to complete
other way on Novak, maybe you'll say, but I think
it's nice that he went to Buenos Aires in December
to do this, and I think it is Novak kind
(16:12):
of clutching into oh my god, the era is over
and all my friends are gone. But I had that
feeling as well, So I think overall that that kind
of vibe, that feeling might maybe it falls into the
biggest story of the year for me as well. But
I think in this year that overall had so many
bad stories, I think the camaraderie, in some respects was
(16:35):
nice to see because in my formative years a lot
of my time has spent watching these guys compete against
each other. So I don't know, I found that somewhat comforting.
Speaker 2 (16:45):
So you're what goes to Delpo or to Djokovic. I'm
trying to work it out here.
Speaker 1 (16:50):
It goes to both of them, and it goes to Novak.
I think understanding that it's all over, so maybe it's
some sort of Award for Novak kind of recognizing the moment.
All right, it's a reach you can't I just can't take.
I can't take Fritz, you know. So I can't also
(17:10):
because I doubled up on a bunch of your picks.
But listen, man, it was a bad year.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
It was. Yeah, And also it's the golden rackets. Who cares?
Speaker 1 (17:21):
It's true? So let's let's do biggest story then, And
I mean, how could it not be the two number
ones or the one number number one and one former
number one testing positive? Right? I think that nadal retirement
is probably the one we all want to think about,
and it probably will be in the grand scheme of thing.
But I don't know, man, it's hard to bypass the
(17:41):
elephant in the room.
Speaker 2 (17:42):
Well, biggest story is an interesting one to sort of examine,
isn't it. So objectively taking a step back from it,
Raffia Nadal retiring from the sport of tennis probably got
more headlines, probably made bigger waves around the world. So
I think objectively it's the biggest story of the season.
Is the retirement of you know, the greatest clay court
(18:04):
player ever, greatest, you know, whatever you want to call
it category, whatever category you want to throw it in.
Not getting into that conversation now, but how could the
how could the Open era biggest story the seeds to
not be the world number ones testing positive for band
(18:25):
ilicit whatever substance, whatever word you want to describe it as.
It's a it's it's is a absolutely staggeringly huge story
that has massive, far reaching ramifications in the sport of
tennis for years to come. And I think, outside of
some of the other stuff that will come on to
(18:45):
in a second, it probably will be my lasting memory
at the back end of this twenty twenty four campaign
that there's massive asterisks over to the best players in
the world on the tour and and you know the
worst part about that is it has the sport more broadly,
is that I'm sitting watching I will be watching the
Australian Open thinking, hmm, how many of these other plaza
(19:10):
going through the same thing as well? And that's not
a good thing.
Speaker 1 (19:14):
No, I agree, And I think that's why I came
into this so hot, so heated bush is because I
think you're totally right. And anytime there's an absence taken
or an unexplained absence, people won't be given the benefits
of the doubt, and I know they weren't before. Realistically,
I think we were a long past that as a society.
(19:35):
But yeah, I mean it'll be hard to really trust anyone,
even if I think the authority say they're clean or
say that they've they've ramped up these measures. I think
it's it's just a perfect it's a perfect allegory for
society or how everything else works, in that if you
have enough resources, if you have enough power or fame,
(19:59):
you can glide by these kind of things, Whereas if
you don't, if you're an e Isasium or or somewhere
else or somewhat a different player who does not have
this stature, you're kind of screwed, right, unless you have
the backing of a legal team or people in high
places to support you. It's not the same. And I
think it's just like the real world as well. So
in a way, I applaud Tennis are being so revealing
(20:22):
about all of this because it's it's kind of how
the world works, and Tennis is a really good job
of spicing it down to the nitty gritty, and in general,
that's kind of the vibe tennis gives off these days
to me bush from the country clubs set on down.
So I don't know if for a sport to have
(20:43):
this kind of scandal, like it's so on the nose,
and I'm like, man, like it's it's frustrating, saddening, but
also like, I mean, I'm not surprised this happened to
these bodies.
Speaker 2 (20:57):
Again, I think tennis has done a remarkably good job
of presenting itself as clean to the world. I think
because of the high profile incidents of athletes at the
top of the sport. I'm looking at Maria Sharapova largely
came on the downswing of her career and also was
(21:18):
in a period of time where you know, I'm not
sure the eyes of the tennis ward and the broader
sporting world was still on her in the same way
since that point. You know, you could make the case
Halla was probably the most high profile person since then.
But it's done a remarkably good job, is it not
to kind of remain out of the spotlight. From this perspective, Man,
(21:46):
it feels like it really does have a problem. It's
just no one's really willing to talk about it.
Speaker 1 (21:52):
I've seen a few articles recently. Actually, you know, let's say,
I'm surprised, like my former employer, the Score, so I
thought it was well done on like the future of tennis,
and it was a kind of a zoomed out kind
of perspective. And they're acknowledging their departure to Big three
and Novak leaving soon and Andy retiring and Serena leaving
(22:14):
on the WTA, and like, how do they feel that vacuum?
How do they get people to care? And the idea
that this didn't make bigger news is a very big
sign or a worrying sign. I think for Tennis Bush
that Egert having this happen was a blip, if anything.
Speaker 2 (22:31):
So I am curious to know as well whether tennis
itself is the Canarian the coal mine for this amongst
the wider sporting world. When you are in a situation
where largely it's an arms race between those who are
doping and water or the test is involved to see
who can stay furthest ahead, because like in a competitive world,
(22:52):
you're always trying to gain an advantage, you're always trying
to you know, obfuscape the truth, all those kind of things,
And is the situation where the testers and the legal
bodies have caught up to the point where now they're
catching things that previously wouldn't have been been caught, and
that's going to spill into the different areas of different sports.
(23:12):
Or is this just like a freak event of two
people and two camps that were just lazy, incompetent, naive
like any of these things. Who knows. I think that's
one of the more fascinating things to watch in twenty twenty.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Five Best Beef this season? Simon, what do you got?
Speaker 2 (23:30):
I chose the Francis Tfo umpired Jimmy pinogat one. We
didn't cover this. I think this is during a period
of time at the back end of the season when
we were on a break. This was awful. This is
a terrible look, Francis Tfo. You know all the things
that we've said about people brating umpires and you know,
(23:55):
being childish, being passive, aggressive, never outright telling umpires to
fuck off, like never like outright in their face. Level
of bad, really quite hostile, quite aggressive, quite angry, really dreadful,
dreadful look for TFO, and uh seems like a good
one to pick for best Beef, doesn't color him in
(24:17):
a particularly good light. I thought anyway, coming away from that,
it was I know we all lose our temper to
a certain degree, and I think he's tremendously liked off
the court. You don't act that way unless, like you know,
if something is unless there is some something behind it, right,
I don't think we all losing I guess the point
(24:38):
I'm making is we all lose our temper, but to
what extent do we lose our temper? And this was
pretty bad.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
It was bad, and yeah, like it makes you think, like, oh,
I wonder what happens when where you don't see what's
happening in general. But I want to believe it's a
one off. That was bad, very very cringey and.
Speaker 2 (24:56):
Awful to observe.
Speaker 1 (24:59):
Just didn't I don't go some of the umpire player
interactions this year. We're off putting and like some of
the umpires seemingly not paying attention and like that being
a running gag. I'm going to nominate though, Vekic Sheng Beef.
That's my pick that had Olympic final was extremely dicey
and testy. I think obviously the stakes are very high,
(25:20):
but I think Jeng doing the EGA stuff with the
time wasting or pausing, whatever you want to call it.
It's going to be a bigger story next year because
I don't think a lot of players like those two
at all. So I felt like that was the best
beef because it had the highest stakes.
Speaker 2 (25:38):
Is what happens when two ice queens meet each.
Speaker 1 (25:41):
Other and don't give give the marketing geniuses involved any ideas,
but yeah, can you have two ice queens at the
same time?
Speaker 2 (25:50):
It doesn't. That's not how royalty and nobility works.
Speaker 1 (25:53):
Onto the big award of this year, the fucking Tennis Award.
Don't you like about the sport? There's two many things
to listen here right now? I think you've repeated someone
but Bart Simpson writing.
Speaker 2 (26:08):
On the chopboard style.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Format. It's all bad though. I don't know what you want.
You want to pick? Here?
Speaker 2 (26:17):
Shall I read it? In order just to I'm a
home on the gag? Okay, here we go. Failed to
drug tests. Saudi Arabia Long Seasons, Saudi Arabia, Late Night Finishes,
Saudi Arabia. Elon Musk in attendance at the US Open,
Saudi Arabia, The Davis Cup, Saudi Arabia tough them in tennis,
(26:38):
Saudi Arabia, Which one of those do you pick?
Speaker 1 (26:42):
I mean, I'm steady left off Nick Curios tennis commentators. Yeah,
Stundy left that one off. Nick Kurrio's tenniszar, like, you'll
be commentating any freaking tournament that's on. Holy cow, what
a list, What a list. I want to add stupid Exos,
(27:05):
which is kind of covered by Saudi Arabia. They're so
tough Bush, I think for just the general sanctity of
the game, or maybe not sanctity, but like the future
of sport, the sport and it's viability, blah blah blah,
all that stuff. All of these things are related, so
(27:26):
I have a hard time picking one of them out.
If that makes that simon whether it be Saudi Arabia,
Davis cup elon Musk at the US Open late night finishes.
I think capitalism can be blamed for most of these things,
but maybe failed drug tests could be too, And they
have the pursuit of more gains, you know, unlimited gains,
constant gains, and that's what the doping leads to. But
(27:48):
I still think it's the drug test for me is
the worst thing about this year because and already a sport,
already on the cusp of your relevancy, has now decided
to put its foot fully in the pool of it.
Now we're going to about what happens when we come
out of it, or what other steps they take to
make it worse, you know. So I'm going to go
(28:11):
back to that one.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
So the thing that I am fascinated to watch post
when Jokovic is gone, trying to think of there's anyone
else on the women's side. Nara, Serena's gone. I mean Venus, Yes,
Venus is gone for all in tents and purposes. So
let's say the two thousands crowd is gone at this point.
So all of the biggest quote unquote stars and I
(28:35):
mean like mega megastar sharpob is obviously gone as well.
Do people like tennis for tennis? Do the people that
go to Wimbledon? Do the people that go like I
don't mean more broadly, maybe not the hardcore fans, I
mean more broadly as people that are attracted to tennis,
the product, the brand of tennis. Is it tennis or
(28:58):
is it Serena Williams, is it Marisha? Is it Roger
Veeder or rafaian Adal. That's the question that I have
and all the stars that follow it big enough to
continue to attract your not even influence a brand of people,
but like more I guess, I guess the capitalist lens
on this is like, do Rolex care about tennis if
(29:22):
those names are not there? Is Heonic center and Colis
soccer is big enough? It is he isunte big enough?
Or is tennis like just kind of a bit irrelevant
without big names in it.
Speaker 1 (29:33):
Luxury brands will care. They'll always care because they've got
some stuff to sell and they have people to sell
it to. But that pool of people, I don't know
how big that is. I've seen people commenting on like
watch people finding it hard to like watch men's tennis
because of length, and like these are sports fans, and
these are people who I think are turning up their
nose at tennis necessarily. But I don't know. I I'm
(30:00):
quite worried. Let's just say that about where it all
nets out. But I'll be with you watching tennis in
the middle of the night during the Australian Open. How
many people will be when it's like, hell, I don't
know to BeO Draper in one semi final and Zere
(30:20):
have Fritz in the other I don't know.
Speaker 2 (30:24):
They're not global brands, right, They're not global icons and figures.
They just aren't. They're all it means is not a
good player. But the other ones all are right, but
they're just they're not a draw in the same way.
And I know the stars take time and it takes
marketing dollars, but it also takes success. It takes people
who have extraordinary abilities and other like transcendent or generational
(30:49):
in terms of how good they are, that have largely
attracted eyeballs in the last two three decades. And we
can all raise our eyebrows out that and all be
upset about it. But unfortunately that's just the reality. See
how this stuff has gone for the last you know,
since neoliberalism has taken a foothold in the world.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
So let's go into predictions then for next year, because
this one of yours here, Bush is baby. The only
way this is all saved is an Alcrass winds all
four slams and get us to like twenty within three years.
I think we need some comical winning streaks, we need
some invincibility, We need foils, which I think we have
that a bit developing saple Ion techs in oer ock
(31:29):
grass shirt. But what do you got prediction wise for
next year? Man?
Speaker 2 (31:33):
I love this section because they can just say anything
and then just run away whatever you'll want. I need
to go back and sack last year. See how wrong
I was about it. Okay, I'm going to give you four,
so you mentioned one of them, Charlie wins all four.
Remember this is outlandish predictions. I'm not saying this is
going to happen, but these are outlandish predictions. Number two,
we are going to see an incredibly high number of
(31:55):
positive tests of doping tests or drug test, including someone
that's a high profile on the men's side who may
be retiring next year.
Speaker 1 (32:09):
This is the thing though, I don't know, Man, I yes, yes,
but it would destroy the sport, so they can't. They
cannot have that would destroy the sport.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
I agree with this.
Speaker 1 (32:19):
It's too big to fail. Yeah, this is too this
is Obama financial crisis, being like, we gotta we gotta
fail out the banks. We can't do anything about this.
Speaker 2 (32:28):
That's Craig Tyler immediately, we gotta let this ride. We've
He's driving around Dallas asking for people to number whatever
that I don't know what it is, something like the other thing.
Speaker 1 (32:42):
I thought it was like retroactive testing that they do
when they found out that everyone was doping if they
want to, or if someone does some investigative reporting. But anyways,
that's not a bashout either. I do feel like the
level of carefulness has to increase, right, or like detection
and money spent avoiding detection all that jazz dead has
(33:04):
to be increased as well.
Speaker 2 (33:05):
But we'll see. You hit on something that I have
only just thought about when you said it out loud,
which is where is there more money that goes into
avoiding testing or is there more money that goes into testing.
I think we all know the answer to that question,
which is probably why people aren't being caught. Anyway, that's
a I don't even know if that's cineg I think
that's probably just reality, to be honest, I think that
(33:26):
might just be the unfortunate state of everything.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
Well, it goes back to the resources thing, right, So,
I like Mira Andreva number one, that's a bullshit, slightly insane.
Speaker 2 (33:37):
But I was trying to come up with some WTA
ones which wouldn't just be like two players win everything
for the next twelve months.
Speaker 1 (33:45):
Jess Pegula attends the Super Bowl, it sees good things
happen because I'm not going to jinx anything. I heard that.
Speaker 2 (33:53):
That's a prediction, maybe a Bowl prediction, I could say,
is that she's never gonna win the ground slam. Deezus. Wow.
Speaker 1 (34:01):
Okay, And on that note, you've got Sony Arabia pulling
funds from the WTA.
Speaker 2 (34:06):
Yeah, that one's all right. That you can you know,
you start reading, you can see.
Speaker 1 (34:12):
You can see how that goes down potentially. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (34:15):
Again, like, is the WTA a big enough sports washing
brand for a state which is trying to sports wash
or do they get bored by it and move their
attention to something else. I'm making the case in an
outliner's prediction they might do that.
Speaker 1 (34:30):
Related. I've seen the some reports of that p the
PIF scaling back their investment number by a pretty big number.
And I've seen some Newcastle fans a learned by that
as well. So not maybe not as outlandish as we think.
As you prepare for the next Gen finals that are
happening again once again, why but they're happening this month? Okay,
(34:51):
these are all good I was gonna say my Ash
Party one, It's just it's just a final. A final.
Outlandis that Ash Party will win Wimbledon this year, and
we've changed the major ash probably doing Wimbledon.
Speaker 2 (35:05):
I have with this.
Speaker 1 (35:05):
I think Coco Goff is the world number one.
Speaker 2 (35:09):
At the end of the year.
Speaker 1 (35:10):
I think that's bolder, that's pretty bold, considering that I
don't think she's in the sphere of Siontek and Sabrillanca
at this moment. But I've got GoF going to number one,
and I've got I've got Novak not winning a Slam,
which I don't think is that outlandish. But I think
we do get some very random Slam results, so I
(35:31):
don't think. I don't think we have the same winner
at any Slam. And I think this signals the new
the new ice age for the ATV. Not to be
dramatic about it, but god, I hope Carlos is clean
because man, man, man.
Speaker 2 (35:46):
Look, dude, we've podcasted for seven years together. I'm never
going to tell you how to podcast. I chose Mirror
Andreva getting to year end number one as an outliner's prediction.
You picked Coco Golf the world number three.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Look at the points for now, he's behind my three thousand.
Speaker 2 (36:03):
It's true.
Speaker 1 (36:04):
No, I saw Andrea there and I shuddered at the
unlandishness of that, and I couldn't upgrade it with Magdalenet.
You know how much I wanted to say Magdalenette would
be number one in the year twenty twenty five as
some sort of splinter project with the Heritage Fund or
whatever the hell they're doing in the US.
Speaker 2 (36:20):
Oh God, that Andreva pick. So just do I need
to justify this? I feel like I don't need to
justify this. Seventeen No, she's seventeen in the world as well,
I think, well, sixteen in the world, like she's yeah,
she's sixteen.
Speaker 1 (36:33):
In the sixteen Yeah she's sixteen, but she's seventeen and
a half, yes, age exactly.
Speaker 2 (36:40):
Go figure. She's already been to a ground Slam semi final.
She's good on all s says, I could see it.
Speaker 1 (36:49):
Oh, it's very good. It's a very good pick. But
next year Ashbarty's gonna win two slams.
Speaker 2 (36:55):
Then he isn't. Ashbot literally pregnant at the moment. Listen, listen,
you you just yelled at me.
Speaker 1 (37:02):
We're not going bold enough, and I gave you just
what you wanted. I fed you just what you wanted,
and it wasn't good enough.
Speaker 2 (37:10):
It wasn't good I mean the outlandish, this ridiculous. Wow,
actually it seems plausible, and you know, I can I
can see it. I can definitely say.
Speaker 1 (37:20):
How about this? How about this cerl Landish a Canadian
men's player as the year at the top ten. Take
your coffee, Christmin, choke on that?
Speaker 2 (37:31):
How about that?
Speaker 1 (37:33):
I chose a Canadian chocolate bar there for our internationalist?
Speaker 2 (37:36):
Is it it probably is?
Speaker 1 (37:38):
Of course it's d'allo. What do you think, man, what
do you think?
Speaker 2 (37:42):
Of course it's yellow?
Speaker 1 (37:45):
Okay, Yeah, that was fun. Okay, this is a nice
way I lived though bush a personal positive tennis moment.
Is it from this year you're saying?
Speaker 2 (37:56):
I think I mean it is from this year? Yeah,
so my I was gonna so I went to the
Paris Master's Final. Obviously, could have picked any of the slams,
could have picked the Olympics. I think we did. How
many episodes on the Olympics, which is yeah, there's many
many moments in that which maybe not tennis moments. I
don't think it was largely I'm not a big Jocovic fan,
(38:18):
as regular listeners will know, so that that did not
strike me as a pitticular emotional moment. So I sort
of came back to this. For all of the stuff
that we talk about, we queen tweet, for all the
things that we talk about, let's go with that about
the season being too long and it being difficult to follow,
(38:39):
there is also a strength in that, and for me,
like clockwork, tennis is always there for you, whether you
want an event, whether you want something to watch, whether
it's minus five degrees outside and covered in snow and
you're watching the Australian Open, whether it's forty degrees and
massive humidity and you're watching Winwooden, or whether it's the
(39:01):
end of the season watching just complete and utter random
nonsense from around the world. In both directions, like positive
and negative, there'll always be some tennis available to you,
and the same can't be said for any other sport.
I thinks its length is a massive problem and needs
to be cut out and needs to be addressed, but
(39:22):
it is also kind of nice to have it there
when you need it.
Speaker 1 (39:25):
That's really well said Bush. I mean hell, for the
reason we did this podcast, our love for it, the
comfort that you find when you know there's always tennis on.
I know that was a big one for me, especially
during some trying moments this year. On the personal side,
looking back at at tennis's meaning for me and my
(39:47):
dad was extremely emotional this year, and I think the Olympics,
like you mentioned, served as like I really ran through
the gamut of emotions. And I think gra lighting the
torch and then Ralpha losing early and that traumatic twist,
and even Novak, Like I wouldn't count myself a Novak
(40:07):
fan either, Bush, but I even that match, I found
myself moved in ways that surprised me a bit. And
I think it's just because about all that's happened and
all the memories I'm looking back on regarding the sport
and the relationships I've made and the memories I have
and looking back, and like I was looking back through
some old photos I had on my phone, and I
(40:28):
had Federer celebrating from that twenty seven Aussie Open wind Bush,
and I think I was in Vancouver at the time,
but I just remember feeling kind of alone and I
just moved to a new city and feeling quite far
away and having the idea of tennis being a companion
and having something to watch, and those voices be with me,
(40:51):
the sounds be with me, the people to talk to
who also love the sport be with me as well.
You really couldn't pass that up for the world.
Speaker 2 (40:58):
So I came.
Speaker 1 (41:00):
In to start to start the show with hatred and animosity, Bush,
but I end with gratefulness and thankfulness because even through
the muck, we do love this game. Right, So what
a year it's been.
Speaker 2 (41:15):
I think it is a mark and a testament to
how much we have covered the sport in four years.
Is a mark of how much we love the sport.
We just want you to be better. Please, for the
love of God, make better choices, make better decisions, and
please listen to your athletes.
Speaker 1 (41:37):
A good place to leave it. That is our penultimate
episode of Open Era. We've got one left. It's our
annual fireside chat, which we may include some tennis discussion, Bush.
We probably won't. I think it'll be our final sign off,
but we have one more left for you, so stay
tuned for that. But once again, thank you for everyone.
Thank you to everyone sorry who sent us messages about
(41:59):
the Shoh since we notified everyone that we're gonna be
closing up shop. It's meant a lot, really meant it
means a lot, So thank you for that. Thank you
to Dylan as always on the once and two years
for putting the show together. And we will talk to
you one last time soon for our finals fireside chat
for Simon and myself. Thank you for listening to open Era.
(42:23):
Take care,
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