October 7, 2024 • 37 mins
After shunning September, Simon and Devang are back for October! On today’s podcast, the guys discuss Sincaraz in Beijing, WADA’s big case and Carlos post-US Open. Staying in Beijing, Gauff vs. Osaka and a loaded Women’s field is also covered. In Parting Shots, we tackle recent schedule complaints, Caroline Garcia, Zhang Shuai, Marin Cilic and plenty more!
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Hello, and welcome to the Open Air Podcast. My name
is de Veang Deside. I'm joined as always by mister
Simon Bush or Bush. It's been a few weeks, sir,
How are you doing well.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I'm I'm quite sick, but I've been all right the
last three weeks, but the last two days it has
been a bit of a under the weather, as they
say in.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Britain, seems to be going around change with the seasons, etcetera, etcetera.
I'm getting seasonal nosebleeds, which is definitely TMI for our
dear listener.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
But how does that work?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I'm sure I should probably get this looked into more,
but humidity, et cetera, et cetera. If any doctors are listening,
please hit me up on Microsoft Heaves no emails, probably could.
Tennis wise, Bush, how much have you consumed post US
Open enough?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
I would say it's definitely been out of the whole
calendar year, the least tennis that I've watched post US Open.
I think you definitely hit this point in the season
where you start to fill a little bit of burnout
from the tour. And I think that's ironic given some
of the stories that we're going to cover this week,
but definitely as a viewer, I've definitely felt it a bit.
(01:24):
September was a light month for me.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yeah, I shut off pretty much as well. I caught
some Davis Cup of course, because who doesn't love that
jacked up tournament that is not the same but still
kind of intriguing and also intriguing to see some of
the big gun show up, so I followed that. And
also I have been locked in a bit in the
Asian Swing, just because I feel like it is still
(01:49):
a bit of a novelty to have it back after
of course a few difficult, difficult years with that whole
pandemic and stuff. But we're back in Asia trying to
catch some of these matches but also subject to some
horrendous time chine scenarios, including for Sinner in Alcarez in China.
(02:11):
Exactly what the ATP was looking for Bush in terms
of growing the game and having the biggest stars in
big markets. They got what they were looking for. They
also got a pretty damn good match. I didn't catch
just live myself as hard as I tried, but from
what I did watch afterwards, I was impressed. How about yourself.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
I thought it was one of the best matches of
the season, truth be told. I thought these two full
value for the final, full value to be the number
one and two ranked players in the world, the top
two seeds at this tournament. It was a very special final.
And it's been quite a month for Carlos al KaAZ
since going down to aman Botic. He's gone on a tear.
(02:58):
He's not lost. I think he's eleven and oh through September,
so he's put to bed any concerns at the back
end of the year. It definitely just looked like to
me that he played part too much tennis and the
Olympics had kind of compressed his schedule. And then it's
a reminder, Oh yeah, this Spanish Wonderkinnes is pretty special.
He's really damn good.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
I enjoyed the picks of him and Sinner Team Sinner
taking the private jet over the Shanghai pro athletes. They're
just like us, Simon right, Yes, absolutely, But I do
think an interesting subtext about all this, and I think
we're going to talk about Wada coming after Sinboy a
(03:40):
bit more, is the fact that Sinner has been able
to I think cut out the noise and somehow maintain
a level that I am frankly a bit surprised by
considering all everything that's going on, because I thought it
would be a bit more of a problem for him.
Are you surprised he's been able to just play this well?
(04:00):
Because it is something I think that we're maybe not
giving enough credit to in terms of how rare that
is potentially.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
But you do hear about this, don't you? From his
camp that the majority of people that talk about him,
who have either coached him or have been around him,
talk about his ability to block out everything, to stay focused,
to compartmentalize all the things that are going on around him.
And I think that, combined with just a game which
(04:28):
has such a high floor, means that he's going to
be in a lot of matches. Even when he's playing
not particularly well, he still wins matches just because he's
he's so good. Like his his average rallyball, his bull striking,
he's one of the best bull strikers to ever ever.
Lace up a pair of tennis boots tenns boots mixing
metaphors here tennis shoes. I mean, let's go with it.
(04:51):
Run with it. Everyone. We missed all of September, my
verbiage is gone. I know words, what are what are words?
I'm not actually that surprised. I actually do think the
thing that would be interesting to know now is how
is this going to affect him with all the water
(05:11):
stuff that we can come onto in a minute, because
I think that's far more damning. I think that's far
more that has the potential for far more seriousness than
the legal ramifications of the first or that both of
the drugs tests, which has previously happened. So I think
if you're going to see a blip in that at all,
you might start seeing it now.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Regarding alcahaz Bush you mentioned responding to that weird loss
to Boatage, there was a hilarious clip of Daniel Medvedev
post match after losing to Carlos saying that he needed
to change his first name to Boltage to have a chance.
But I do I did find a random I think
it was on our tennis bashit of sanity that it is.
(05:55):
I found a comments indicating that it was like during
the same you can say that Carlos Alcarez is unplayable
and at his peak no one else can touch him,
and then a few minutes later be like, how is
this guy ever going to win again? At the same
time because there's just such extremes, but he did show
(06:18):
us again how high that ceiling can go, and it
is very freaking high. I think that's really really interesting
to me, is the response to maybe Cinner also taking
over on and off the court storylines, being basically the
face of tennis in the United States winning the tournament there.
(06:39):
He took them into at bit and I think as
much as we like this idea of a big two,
I did find it interesting that they're they're asking Carlos
a lot more now than like they're a one on
one relationship, and Carlos, I think impressed, was like, we're
not like friends friends, but we get on and obviously
them taking the jet together to Shanghai indicates they do.
But I did kind of pin my ears back when
(07:04):
I heard him talk about the Sinner Watta stuff and
how he said and so did Novak say, that wasn't great,
that this is kind of surrounding the game and it's
not right. Let's be serious, It's really not like this
is how a lot of casual sports fans are hearing
about tennis in the mainstream. So I'm just now I'm
listening a little closer to Carlos Soaker as Bush because
(07:27):
he's in an interesting spot where he's still clearly the guy,
but his main rival has got like these weird, dubious
charges and he's also like contesting amazing matches against him.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah. Absolutely, I wonder, just given where we are in
this rivalry, whether or not people are starting to try
and find narratives, like they're starting to try and figure
out what is the nature of this rivalry, both from
a personal and from a tennis perspective. Obviously, like the
doping charges I think throw a wrinkle into this, and
(08:01):
I think what you're alluding to in terms of how
a Karaz has talked about it is certainly one part
of this. I think they get on really well, you can.
It's very evident that there's a level of warmth warmness
between the two of them, and also like a level
of sheer respect as well, Like they seem like two
very you know, nice young men who like actually have
(08:24):
been have been taught, I think, to have respect for
the game and for their opponents, whether or not that
extends to whether or not you'd want to dope or
not I don't know, or allegedly dope, I should say,
that's an entirely separate story. But I think on the
tennis side of it, it's it's far more interesting than
I think the personal side of it, because they were
(08:47):
level going into twenty twenty four in terms of match
wins and losses, like they were even, and everyone thought
that rivalry was only heading in a certain direction, not
any more, right. I think you can say for certain,
despite the closeness of some of these matches, is that
Carlos Algoraz is sort of his owning this rivalry on
the on the court, like he plays the bigger moments
(09:08):
more strongly, and I think he's blown Center off the
court in ways that we haven't really seen in the
in the the opposite direction. So I think that's where
I'd look at, really, is that how is how is
the Onick Center going to solve Carlos Algaraz on a
tennis court, because that's the so evenly matched and when
you can start and when you can have just a
(09:29):
slight mental edge on your opponent, it really counts for
a lot. So that's what I'm looking forward to going
for the rest of the season. Into twenty twenty five.
Is the tennis wise does CINNA have a response here?
Hopefully because it's it would make for a very very
good rivalry for the rest of their careers.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Yeah, it's very well put. And if you remember last
year at in Beijing Center on that semi final, pretty
handling in the second set, and and perhaps that kind
of set up what was to come in January at
the Australian Open, which is it major title. It's been
the year for Alcaaz twenty twenty four against Inner you
said it Bush at Indian Wells, at Roland Garros and
(10:09):
now at Beijing. Very very fascinating to see where this
rivalry kicks on too. I did also enjoy all the
people meeting up in Shanghai. This should be good in
terms of the quality of tennis. Bush. But I want
to touch on something quickly before we get to the WTA.
But did you watch any of the Labor Cup? Did
(10:29):
you carry it all with the Labor Cup?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
I'm the wrong person to ask on the Labor Cup.
De you know must know this at this point. I
don't really care for it a whole lot I watched
I think I watched content around it more than the
actual matches. I think the actual personal interactions. Obviously Federer
being there made a lot of the headlines. The relationship
between some of the players. Ben Shelton's and ticks of
(10:53):
falling over the barricade caught the eye, as did Grigor
Dimitrov and Carlos Akarez. But yeah, my interaction with this
tournament has definitely gone to like viewing it through Instagram
as opposed to actually sitting down and watching the matches.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Love Joran love, Johnny Mack, I mean love, maybe not,
but they've been part of our lives for so long.
But to get this thing going again, they got to
get fed to captain with someone else and whenever Nadal
hangs it up, that'll be obvious. But yeah, they need
to infuse this with some new juice, some new blood,
(11:33):
and also start taking it back to places that don't
get tennis all the time, because I think I think
Luke might have mentioned this in the discord, but I
think it's one thing if you're going to unique locales
that don't get slam tennis all the time, if you're
going to take it out of London, but maybe some
non traditional markets next would be the next call because
and I don't mean Saudi Arabia. I think I've been
(11:53):
talking about some other places, other cultures that love tennis
and that produce as players, but maybe don't get the
biggest tournaments. So I would like to see that as well,
and obviously a joint event, because yeah, I'm with you.
I did not watch much at all. I know some
tennis fans in my life did and did like the
comfort of having an ability to tune in and see
(12:16):
fed in the crowd because they need that warm blanket.
I guess because we're so fractured as a society, I'm
done with it for now as well, until we see
some changes. Okay, WTA Simon. A lot of events, perhaps
headlined by PHM Beatrizadad Maya winning in Korea, winning and
(12:38):
soul beating Daria Kasatkina in the final, an event into
which Emma Radjakanu made a run. Simon, She's in the
news a lot, but I also want to shout out
Tonight Cartal for winning in Tunisia. That's a huge one
for her. I know how it works in the tennis
industrial complex, especially from a tennis nation. You get the
(13:01):
Golden child, and then you get the also rants, and
there's a lot of also rants in the UK tennis scenes,
so awesome to see Cartel get the limelight.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Absolutely really interesting point in the tennis calendar. We seem
to say this every year, don't we know what the
post US Open landscape looks like? The WTA is fascinating,
we had I think we've had ten tournaments, ten tournaments
since the US Open, and before you get into the
obviously into the one thousand levels over the next few weeks,
(13:32):
and obviously like currently going on in the moment. So
you can make the argument that October is a huge
month of WTA in terms of points, in terms of
prize money, in terms of prestige, or some of these
tournaments coming up in the fields that are going to
be there. September not so much in some ways. September
is a strange one of being all over the world,
on multiple different surfaces, on multiple different court speeds, different altitudes.
(13:55):
There's lots of things going on. So I think the
ones that you circle were the ones that I would
look to as well. The Rada Kanye story is interesting
as well, like just played well, injured and then done.
I think from the sounds of things, doesn't sound like
she's coming back this season, a really sad story because
it looked like we were starting to see some green
(14:15):
shoots of recovery again. So I think my summary of
the WTA for September is just a bit weird. It's
just a bit of a strange time.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Thanks to the beauty of time zones, I did get
to stumble into Cocoa Goth Naimi Osaka Bush live in Beijing.
Unfortunately that was cut short as well Naomi having to retire.
I saw she took to the Graham to clap back
at some haters and extremely well. I thought she did
(14:46):
nail them, but I also know that that's never a
great sign because we all know social media is poison.
That being said, that was a pointment viewing thought that
was excellent to see as much as we could of it.
I mean, it is what it is regarding injuries in Naomi,
and I think like the comeback is going well. Like
I know people are obsessed with maybe incidant results or big,
(15:10):
big wins early on, but I think winning three matches
at this tournament's pretty damn good. So I wanted to
maybe look at Coco a bit more in the sense
that she wasn't able to defend in New York Bush
and I think the idea that she is part of
the top crew is not fully believable, and in the
sense that she's not on Chiantek Sablenca level. But I
(15:34):
think there's some ability to build that back up here
in this final few months of the year.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
I would agree with you, Yes, I think, but the
people that are going to have doubts. This is going
to sound incredibly harsh, but let's go with it anyway,
and we can always backtrack from it. The people that
I think had had doubts of the quote unquote validity
of that US Open title last year, just based upon
the people that she played against, who she had to
beat going through it, just the nature of who has
(16:03):
dominated on the WTA and who's been like head and
shoulders above the field on the in the WTA side
this season, i e. Sabal Anka and Chia Tech. There's
always going to be doubt. On the flip side of that,
it is okay for her just to be a really
good top five player in the world and not be
the world number one. That is also completely fine. That
(16:26):
is something that we can be very very happy with
in terms of a player to support and root for.
I just kind of feel like she's she's she's not
better than those two Without being too reductive about it.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
No, yeah, I don't think she does anything better than
those two at the moment, right And I know in
tennis the beauty is you don't have to play them
every time when you get to these tournaments, and that's
how it works. But the likelihood is that she is
going to run into at least one of them on
the bigger stages. So can she get better than them
at some things? I think there's an nobility, but I
(17:02):
also am not super confident.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah, lest we forget as well that she's still incredibly young, Yeah, yeah.
We always look at this in the context of she's
been on tours so long, since she's fifteen. He's been
on tour for five years now, he's only twenty's. It's
crazy to believe. Is there still another step that she has?
Very possibly, It's very possible that she does.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
We could look very dumb in a few days for
recording this a few days before the a big big
semi final between Goff and Medosa Pala Medosa. Bush has
been playing amazingly well post since he passed. What a
what a tale of two different players? My god, Bados pass.
(17:46):
Paula is skyrocketing, playing extremely well. That'll be a tough test.
But maybe sabalank in the final, which would be awesome
to see. You got Jang still involved as well. Rearly
loaded field.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Yeah, this Beijian tournament's been fantastic watching at it from
a from a loaded field perspective? Is is Bodosa City
pass over that though?
Speaker 1 (18:07):
So? I mean, the less I see from Steph these days,
the better I'm seeing a lot of AI chat, GPT
cross posting, uh, the stepping away from the game stuff
and confounding himself. I'm down with it, but also please
stop posting or go to substack, get a medium dot
com account, even anything else.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
I'm curious on this without wanting to get into the
inner workings in the life of this relationship, it's been
so on off.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
I'm it's fully ross racial territory now and I honestly I.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
I can't be asked to keep up.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
What's the w w E equivalent of a tennis wedding?
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Like Howard Howard Test and Steph mcman.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Test and Stephanie Man. Yeah, so married on court middle
Sunday or final.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Something did wasn't there like a horrific attack or obviously
stage during it. But the fact I knew that so
quickly is really upseting. But yeah, that's the that's the reference. Okay,
anything else WTA before we get the parting shots, Sir.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
I already thought you were going with anything else? W
W Well, how you say it. It's been an interesting month.
I did watch the Mister big Mann documentary. No nothing
else WTA side.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Okay, when we come back, we'll hit parting shots. We're
gonna talk Wada, Yannick, scheduling complaints, Caroline Garcia, Shang Shwai Chili,
all that coming up next. Welcome back to the Open
(19:44):
Air podcast Bush. It's time for parting shots. We've alluded
to it several times. The acronym in the room, Wada
is coming for our holy sports sigmon. Wada will not
let us rest. Even after golden boy Yant was given
the US Open title, they're pushing forward with their appeal,
(20:06):
an appeal that, if successful, could bar Annick Sinner from
tennis for two years. I mentioned that they were asked
about this in Beijing. Obviously, Anick's been asked about this.
A bunch of people around and have been asked about this.
It's a distraction, obviously.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
But.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Let's like a simon, do you think it's actually possible
that WATA wins this appeal?
Speaker 3 (20:29):
And b.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Do you think everyone is, Like, is the reason maybe
why everyone is being relatively calm about this is because
they know that it's not going to be successful? Like
how one of the chances this goes through?
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Is what basically I'm asking.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
That is a really good question, because I was I
was thinking the other way, right, I thought this has
I think he's got more of a more chance to
be pinned on this than he had in the other case,
like because they are effectively arguing that he they're not
denying his sort of statement to it, but there's sort
(21:06):
of suggesting at the same time, like, no, we get it,
but you're still guilty, like in the sense that you're
there's still negligence here and you should be punished for that,
which I kind of think has some ground here. Personally,
it seems like it has some substance to it. That
being said, like the ins and outs of the legal
ramifications of this of whether or not he's going to
(21:29):
be found guilty on this, I can't say, but just
from a from a distance, it seems like there's some
merit here.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Yeah, I don't know. Perhaps it's the cynic in me.
I can't imagine they'll let this happen. And by they,
I mean whoever is making these decisions at the Pinnacle Sport.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
It's one of my favorite things. I'm not talking about
they the pronoun. I'm talking about the they more broadly.
It's just so funny if you if you listen to
it in the English language of how much that gets
used on a day to day basis any workplace you
go into, Oh, they don't want us to do it?
Who the fuck is they?
Speaker 1 (22:07):
It could be literally a man, you know what I mean?
Though it really cannot happen. The whole future of the
sport is depending on him be around. Is that too
bold to say? Probably? But as the marketing schmuck I am,
I kind of believe it can I can.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
I read you the top part of Russell Fuller's BBC
article about it, just just to revisit this, because I
think it's very funny. So bear with me a second
while a statement suggested is not questioning Sin his explanation,
but does believe he shares some of the blame. The
Court of Arbitration of Sport will now decide whether the
world number one should be held in any way responsible
for a sequence of events which began with his physio
(22:49):
using spray to cut it to treat a cut on
his finger. The spray, which contained closter ball, had been
passed on by Sinner's fitness coach, who had been brought
into the team part because of his antidoping expertise. Golda's
messages with hands which may or may not have been
washed and legions on cinner skin resulted in two positive tests.
The tribunal determined, while Sinner is free to play on
(23:12):
the case could take many months to resolve. Yeah. No, shit. Also,
just it's so funny all this, like the idea that
I know we've covered this many times, but the whole
thing is just so ridiculous that it feels like it
was made up in the back of a cab between
two tournaments in like fifteen minutes.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Yeah, it's so stupid that it's believable it was unintentional,
you know, like it's one of those things where perhaps
this stupidity defense might actually work. Yeah. I maintain this though,
and I could be wrong if I'm wrong, though, Wow,
Like what like Dick Pound shows to water? Anytime water
(23:54):
was mentioned when I was growing up, I would always
be like, yeah, Dick Pound Canadian, he needs that. And
I was like, are weird clinging to fame? Because I
felt like as Canadians who were desperate to cling on
to some sort of relevancy on the international stage. And
if it wasn't through athletics themselves, it was through the
doping regulator, which was Dick Pound. So showeds to water.
(24:16):
If this does actually happen to I'll be stunned. So
I'm and you are a little more hedgy.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
I don't know that I'm hedgy on this, wouldn't I.
I think we came off fairly strongly the parabus or
this podcast did in terms of how we thought this
one went. And yeah, more more broadly saying like, don't
treat us like we're five year olds. I still stand
by that statement. I'm not going to rope you into this.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
I should it say as if, but now it's as
if a five year old did this, And I'm like, Okay, well,
I guess I guess all right, Well, a five year
old with the best damn lawyers in town. That's probably
more accurate.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Yeah, which way to read this? Is this someone trying
to pull over the wall out of our eyes and
thinking we're five year olds? Or is it actually a
bunch of five year olds who are this stupid? Either way,
it doesn't look good.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Okay, So a few more serious things and then we'll
get to a feel good story before we end the
bush players and the schedule.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
So this one came up a couple of times. Actually,
this came up with Carlos Akiraz speaking, I want to
say last week. Yeah, this is so, I think it
was last week. And obviously you mentioned earlier the Stephan
and Cissypass may or may not have been chat gbt'd
on his own opinions about the the state of the
(25:28):
tour in terms of schedule and everything. Carlos Acara has
made some comments as well. Jack Draper also weighed on this.
I think he has some very very strong comments about
this and words akin to the tour is trying to
kill us, which you know, it's a good way to
grab headlines. It's also not entirely inaccurate. I would say
(25:49):
just given the quantity of tennis. I think it's an
interesting point in time on sport more broadly, and the
intersection of this story plus the one in football as well.
I think if you have been following the world of
sport more broadly, it's been inescapable the rise in the
number of games, and the Spanish midfield or Rodery very
(26:10):
outspoken on this as well, Champions League expansion, the number
of games that are being played in the season. It's
not just tennis which is feeling the effects of this.
You see in the NFL of course as well, like
with the expansion, continuing talk to go to eighteen games,
We've already gone to seventeen. So this infinite growth mindset,
which I think is infected just about sort of parasitic
(26:34):
idea that's infected just about every level of society and business,
is very deeply seated withinside of sport. This doesn't end
and I feel actually pretty good about this. One of
the positions that I think we both came out fairly
strongly on of saying that this doesn't change unless the
players change it. I think the players are going to
change this. I think this feels very strongly to me
(26:57):
like it's more a labor issue than it is from
a moral perspective. I think the players are fucking fed
up with this and at some point this is going
to get really nasty.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
No, I'm with you, and hell it's it's horrible. But
I mean roder tores acl like what a week after
making those comments about the Club World Cup and the
incoming glut of fixtures that they're going to pile on
in the summer, a free summer that they saw as
as an open ticket to add on more games.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
No, totally.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
It doesn't matter who you support it either. It could
be your for aades, could be your enemies.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
I think I think we're in agreement.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Supporting the players will stop the product suffers as well
as you've been seeing, I think regarding this kind of
over overplaying, and it trickles down as well to the
youth ranks and seeing what maybe it is expected of
people at the AAU level in like basketball or at
(27:51):
the competitive level in soccer. Bush so fully on board. Okay,
Caroline Garcia sad story here.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Yeah, And I think this is actually attached to the
kind of previous idea around the schedule and how hectic
it's been which Gussie was citing both anxiety and panic
attacks for ending her season last week like very understandable.
(28:22):
She was quoted as saying that she basically needs a
reset and a step away from the grind of tennis.
It goes hand in hand with the previous story, like
there's too much tennis, there's too much travel, there's way
too much stuff expected of these athletes, the grind of
going from one event to the other. I see. I
think this might have been where the Acharat story came from,
where she effectively had to go directly from the airport
to play a game immediately to play a match in Shanghai.
(28:44):
So it's going to become more of a sharp focus.
I think there is a world here where there is
enough overlap between the higher ranking and lower ranking players,
and between the two tours or every to or that
we're going to start the season movement. I really do
believe that that you haven't seen these levels of vitriol
(29:09):
coming I think, or like even words of the harshness
of someone like Jack Draper. I think historically, I think
this is the first real time that we're starting to
see the knives come out for this and I think
at that point powers that Bee might want to start
having a look at this.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
All right, simon two happy good stories in tennis question mark.
It's true.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
So Jiangsui was riding a losing streak of.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Down bad, down bad, as we.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Say, down very very bad, twenty four successive defeats. She
hadn't won in over two years, six hundred days. I
believe she won in the first round at the China Open.
She beat McCartney Cassler. Everyone was pulling for her. There's
some really good stories. I saw some tiktoks around this
as well. Just I think I can't order a cake
(30:02):
as well, which I thought was really funny. It might
have been a different story, but either way, it was
funny regardless to see celebration like that. It's a long
time and I think, perhaps not to connect everything back
to the idea of schedule and the overlap here, but
how much must it suck to go to twenty different
(30:22):
tournaments directly, spend one day there or two days there,
lose and have to fly somewhere else or take a
bus or whatever. It is? Tennis is nuts in terms
of a sport. When it comes to this side.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Of things, it's I just and it's a complete like
chark your system. If what you imagine traveling is like,
oh god, I'm getting to the airport and ask some
drinks and chill by the pool, It's like, no, you're
into some some aliday and shuttle to a match on
the outer court. It's getting puzzled by the one hundred
(30:55):
and twentieth ranked player from South Africa who's been waiting
there for two days back to the airport for a
seven hour red eye in between two people close to
the bathroom. It's like, all right, this is pro tennis man.
So yeah, I mean it's it's such a grind, and
I think it's like, it's why I kind of I mean,
it's not all glorious and roses and like. As much
(31:17):
I love the movie Challengers for several reasons, but I
do think it paints like this kind of grind in
a in a realistic light about what it means. So
shouts to persevere and then shouts to Marin Chilish too,
Bush Barren Chilich Grand Slam champion, still fighting and winning.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Yeah. One in Hangzhou is became the lowest ranked player
in history to when n Atipto titled currently was ranked
seven hundred and seventy seventh in the world. An amazing story,
thirty six years of age. We always forget, I think
the broad broad tennis World Grand Slam champion. Yes, did
(31:54):
win a Grand Slam in that very very strange US Opened.
The way that it unfolded.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Still realer than the twenty twenty US Open though, don't
get it twisted.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Absolutely, Yeah, everyone involved in that had to beat legitimate people.
It was completely fine, despite the wind playing complete havoc
with that Tory. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
That was weird.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
It was legit.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
The jet streams man.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
The get streams. Indeed, I have one other non tennis
related thing before parting shots? Could I can I briefly
touch on it here? Yes, I was watching Bill Belichick.
Oh god, oh my god. What this is a broad,
broad question that I think I wanted to ask our
(32:39):
audience and to potentially think about it because I thought
it was really insightful. Which is that or maybe I
just never thought about it in this way. So he
was basically making the argument that in his in his view,
like the idea that you make adjustments at halftime or
any of this sort of thing is kind of nonsense
and really the game of football is around seeing what
(33:03):
your opponent has done and then making adjustments to it.
And the fourth quarter basically is everyone already knows what
each other is doing, so it's about kind of like
staying in games trying to like obviously get an advantage,
but by the end, everyone kind of knows what each
other is doing. There's not a whole lot of secrecy left,
which to me is like I've never actually considered that way.
(33:25):
And really, from that perspective, tennis is very similar to that,
which is that if you can just hang around in
a match, you can learn the patterns of your opponents
so simply by just being there and just watching what
they do how they like to win points. And I
think perhaps that combined with the greatest player like in
the history of our sport to be able to do
(33:47):
that in some of like Novak Djokovic's just all right,
I've seen what you can do. I will take away
that one thing that you can do, and now you
can't win. I thought it was just a really insightful comment,
and it's one of those things you don't really think
about normally.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
He's good, I hate to say it, but he's good
at this whole talking about sports stuff clearly. So no,
it's super interesting and yeah, I mean it checks out
and it kind of fits or works for multiple sports
when you think about it. Okay, two challenges remaining. Bush.
I'll go first. In all my years, I had not
(34:21):
watched the original Point Break, but thanks to Canopy, I
did watch it with my partner. I was devastated. Spoilers
are head, sorry so you can shut this off, but
I was devastated by Bodie's betrayal. Top Notch movie have
some qualms with the ending in Australia, but overall, top
notch movie would recommend.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
What a recommendation. I've done two festivals since the last
time we spoke. I was at the bank of a
fringe festival which ran in early September. I watched twenty
live plays during that period of time, which was very cool.
Vancouver International Film Festivals currently ongoing here and I think
about ten films and with the half a week left
(35:06):
to go on that, and I think the one film
that I wanted to shout out was a documentary called
Grand Theft Hamlet, which is a British documentary about making Hamlet,
the play inside of GTA online. It is as it's
kind of done in that machinemer style if you're familiar
with it, like the concept of taking the in game
(35:28):
characters and dubbing them and voicing them. It's wonderful. It's
much more emotional than I think you would expect it
to be. Everyone was bailing their eyes out at the
end of it, the people sitting around me, which I
was shocked at and I never thought I'd be in
a situation like that. I thought it was I thought
it was very touching and it's well worth the time
if you can get to see it at some point.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Wonderful. Those are Cisco and eber Numbers, sir, A lot
of plays, a lot of movies love It.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Might explain why I currently may or may not have COVID,
but that's another story.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Okay, all right, we'll leave it there a reminder we
are on patreon dot com Forward slash open Era. Join
us there, cut the show at free get it early
on Sundays. Plus join the discord, where my tennis knowledge
has been kept up to speed by our lovely friends there.
So join us at Patreon. And that is it for
producer Dylan on the Ones and Twes Thank you for
(36:23):
listening for Simon and I.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
We'll talk to you next week.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
E
Hello, and welcome to the Open Air Podcast. My name
is de Veang Deside. I'm joined as always by mister
Simon Bush or Bush. It's been a few weeks, sir,
How are you doing well.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
I'm I'm quite sick, but I've been all right the
last three weeks, but the last two days it has
been a bit of a under the weather, as they
say in.
Speaker 1 (00:32):
Britain, seems to be going around change with the seasons, etcetera, etcetera.
I'm getting seasonal nosebleeds, which is definitely TMI for our
dear listener.
Speaker 2 (00:42):
But how does that work?
Speaker 3 (00:44):
I don't know.
Speaker 1 (00:44):
I'm sure I should probably get this looked into more,
but humidity, et cetera, et cetera. If any doctors are listening,
please hit me up on Microsoft Heaves no emails, probably could.
Tennis wise, Bush, how much have you consumed post US
Open enough?
Speaker 2 (01:04):
I would say it's definitely been out of the whole
calendar year, the least tennis that I've watched post US Open.
I think you definitely hit this point in the season
where you start to fill a little bit of burnout
from the tour. And I think that's ironic given some
of the stories that we're going to cover this week,
but definitely as a viewer, I've definitely felt it a bit.
(01:24):
September was a light month for me.
Speaker 1 (01:27):
Yeah, I shut off pretty much as well. I caught
some Davis Cup of course, because who doesn't love that
jacked up tournament that is not the same but still
kind of intriguing and also intriguing to see some of
the big gun show up, so I followed that. And
also I have been locked in a bit in the
Asian Swing, just because I feel like it is still
(01:49):
a bit of a novelty to have it back after
of course a few difficult, difficult years with that whole
pandemic and stuff. But we're back in Asia trying to
catch some of these matches but also subject to some
horrendous time chine scenarios, including for Sinner in Alcarez in China.
(02:11):
Exactly what the ATP was looking for Bush in terms
of growing the game and having the biggest stars in
big markets. They got what they were looking for. They
also got a pretty damn good match. I didn't catch
just live myself as hard as I tried, but from
what I did watch afterwards, I was impressed. How about yourself.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
I thought it was one of the best matches of
the season, truth be told. I thought these two full
value for the final, full value to be the number
one and two ranked players in the world, the top
two seeds at this tournament. It was a very special final.
And it's been quite a month for Carlos al KaAZ
since going down to aman Botic. He's gone on a tear.
(02:58):
He's not lost. I think he's eleven and oh through September,
so he's put to bed any concerns at the back
end of the year. It definitely just looked like to
me that he played part too much tennis and the
Olympics had kind of compressed his schedule. And then it's
a reminder, Oh yeah, this Spanish Wonderkinnes is pretty special.
He's really damn good.
Speaker 1 (03:18):
I enjoyed the picks of him and Sinner Team Sinner
taking the private jet over the Shanghai pro athletes. They're
just like us, Simon right, Yes, absolutely, But I do
think an interesting subtext about all this, and I think
we're going to talk about Wada coming after Sinboy a
(03:40):
bit more, is the fact that Sinner has been able
to I think cut out the noise and somehow maintain
a level that I am frankly a bit surprised by
considering all everything that's going on, because I thought it
would be a bit more of a problem for him.
Are you surprised he's been able to just play this well?
(04:00):
Because it is something I think that we're maybe not
giving enough credit to in terms of how rare that
is potentially.
Speaker 2 (04:07):
But you do hear about this, don't you? From his
camp that the majority of people that talk about him,
who have either coached him or have been around him,
talk about his ability to block out everything, to stay focused,
to compartmentalize all the things that are going on around him.
And I think that, combined with just a game which
(04:28):
has such a high floor, means that he's going to
be in a lot of matches. Even when he's playing
not particularly well, he still wins matches just because he's
he's so good. Like his his average rallyball, his bull striking,
he's one of the best bull strikers to ever ever.
Lace up a pair of tennis boots tenns boots mixing
metaphors here tennis shoes. I mean, let's go with it.
(04:51):
Run with it. Everyone. We missed all of September, my
verbiage is gone. I know words, what are what are words?
I'm not actually that surprised. I actually do think the
thing that would be interesting to know now is how
is this going to affect him with all the water
(05:11):
stuff that we can come onto in a minute, because
I think that's far more damning. I think that's far
more that has the potential for far more seriousness than
the legal ramifications of the first or that both of
the drugs tests, which has previously happened. So I think
if you're going to see a blip in that at all,
you might start seeing it now.
Speaker 1 (05:32):
Regarding alcahaz Bush you mentioned responding to that weird loss
to Boatage, there was a hilarious clip of Daniel Medvedev
post match after losing to Carlos saying that he needed
to change his first name to Boltage to have a chance.
But I do I did find a random I think
it was on our tennis bashit of sanity that it is.
(05:55):
I found a comments indicating that it was like during
the same you can say that Carlos Alcarez is unplayable
and at his peak no one else can touch him,
and then a few minutes later be like, how is
this guy ever going to win again? At the same
time because there's just such extremes, but he did show
(06:18):
us again how high that ceiling can go, and it
is very freaking high. I think that's really really interesting
to me, is the response to maybe Cinner also taking
over on and off the court storylines, being basically the
face of tennis in the United States winning the tournament there.
(06:39):
He took them into at bit and I think as
much as we like this idea of a big two,
I did find it interesting that they're they're asking Carlos
a lot more now than like they're a one on
one relationship, and Carlos, I think impressed, was like, we're
not like friends friends, but we get on and obviously
them taking the jet together to Shanghai indicates they do.
But I did kind of pin my ears back when
(07:04):
I heard him talk about the Sinner Watta stuff and
how he said and so did Novak say, that wasn't great,
that this is kind of surrounding the game and it's
not right. Let's be serious, It's really not like this
is how a lot of casual sports fans are hearing
about tennis in the mainstream. So I'm just now I'm
listening a little closer to Carlos Soaker as Bush because
(07:27):
he's in an interesting spot where he's still clearly the guy,
but his main rival has got like these weird, dubious
charges and he's also like contesting amazing matches against him.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah. Absolutely, I wonder, just given where we are in
this rivalry, whether or not people are starting to try
and find narratives, like they're starting to try and figure
out what is the nature of this rivalry, both from
a personal and from a tennis perspective. Obviously, like the
doping charges I think throw a wrinkle into this, and
(08:01):
I think what you're alluding to in terms of how
a Karaz has talked about it is certainly one part
of this. I think they get on really well, you can.
It's very evident that there's a level of warmth warmness
between the two of them, and also like a level
of sheer respect as well, Like they seem like two
very you know, nice young men who like actually have
(08:24):
been have been taught, I think, to have respect for
the game and for their opponents, whether or not that
extends to whether or not you'd want to dope or
not I don't know, or allegedly dope, I should say,
that's an entirely separate story. But I think on the
tennis side of it, it's it's far more interesting than
I think the personal side of it, because they were
(08:47):
level going into twenty twenty four in terms of match
wins and losses, like they were even, and everyone thought
that rivalry was only heading in a certain direction, not
any more, right. I think you can say for certain,
despite the closeness of some of these matches, is that
Carlos Algoraz is sort of his owning this rivalry on
the on the court, like he plays the bigger moments
(09:08):
more strongly, and I think he's blown Center off the
court in ways that we haven't really seen in the
in the the opposite direction. So I think that's where
I'd look at, really, is that how is how is
the Onick Center going to solve Carlos Algaraz on a
tennis court, because that's the so evenly matched and when
you can start and when you can have just a
(09:29):
slight mental edge on your opponent, it really counts for
a lot. So that's what I'm looking forward to going
for the rest of the season. Into twenty twenty five.
Is the tennis wise does CINNA have a response here?
Hopefully because it's it would make for a very very
good rivalry for the rest of their careers.
Speaker 1 (09:45):
Yeah, it's very well put. And if you remember last
year at in Beijing Center on that semi final, pretty
handling in the second set, and and perhaps that kind
of set up what was to come in January at
the Australian Open, which is it major title. It's been
the year for Alcaaz twenty twenty four against Inner you
said it Bush at Indian Wells, at Roland Garros and
(10:09):
now at Beijing. Very very fascinating to see where this
rivalry kicks on too. I did also enjoy all the
people meeting up in Shanghai. This should be good in
terms of the quality of tennis. Bush. But I want
to touch on something quickly before we get to the WTA.
But did you watch any of the Labor Cup? Did
(10:29):
you carry it all with the Labor Cup?
Speaker 2 (10:32):
I'm the wrong person to ask on the Labor Cup.
De you know must know this at this point. I
don't really care for it a whole lot I watched
I think I watched content around it more than the
actual matches. I think the actual personal interactions. Obviously Federer
being there made a lot of the headlines. The relationship
between some of the players. Ben Shelton's and ticks of
(10:53):
falling over the barricade caught the eye, as did Grigor
Dimitrov and Carlos Akarez. But yeah, my interaction with this
tournament has definitely gone to like viewing it through Instagram
as opposed to actually sitting down and watching the matches.
Speaker 1 (11:11):
Love Joran love, Johnny Mack, I mean love, maybe not,
but they've been part of our lives for so long.
But to get this thing going again, they got to
get fed to captain with someone else and whenever Nadal
hangs it up, that'll be obvious. But yeah, they need
to infuse this with some new juice, some new blood,
(11:33):
and also start taking it back to places that don't
get tennis all the time, because I think I think
Luke might have mentioned this in the discord, but I
think it's one thing if you're going to unique locales
that don't get slam tennis all the time, if you're
going to take it out of London, but maybe some
non traditional markets next would be the next call because
and I don't mean Saudi Arabia. I think I've been
(11:53):
talking about some other places, other cultures that love tennis
and that produce as players, but maybe don't get the
biggest tournaments. So I would like to see that as well,
and obviously a joint event, because yeah, I'm with you.
I did not watch much at all. I know some
tennis fans in my life did and did like the
comfort of having an ability to tune in and see
(12:16):
fed in the crowd because they need that warm blanket.
I guess because we're so fractured as a society, I'm
done with it for now as well, until we see
some changes. Okay, WTA Simon. A lot of events, perhaps
headlined by PHM Beatrizadad Maya winning in Korea, winning and
(12:38):
soul beating Daria Kasatkina in the final, an event into
which Emma Radjakanu made a run. Simon, She's in the
news a lot, but I also want to shout out
Tonight Cartal for winning in Tunisia. That's a huge one
for her. I know how it works in the tennis
industrial complex, especially from a tennis nation. You get the
(13:01):
Golden child, and then you get the also rants, and
there's a lot of also rants in the UK tennis scenes,
so awesome to see Cartel get the limelight.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
Absolutely really interesting point in the tennis calendar. We seem
to say this every year, don't we know what the
post US Open landscape looks like? The WTA is fascinating,
we had I think we've had ten tournaments, ten tournaments
since the US Open, and before you get into the
obviously into the one thousand levels over the next few weeks,
(13:32):
and obviously like currently going on in the moment. So
you can make the argument that October is a huge
month of WTA in terms of points, in terms of
prize money, in terms of prestige, or some of these
tournaments coming up in the fields that are going to
be there. September not so much in some ways. September
is a strange one of being all over the world,
on multiple different surfaces, on multiple different court speeds, different altitudes.
(13:55):
There's lots of things going on. So I think the
ones that you circle were the ones that I would
look to as well. The Rada Kanye story is interesting
as well, like just played well, injured and then done.
I think from the sounds of things, doesn't sound like
she's coming back this season, a really sad story because
it looked like we were starting to see some green
(14:15):
shoots of recovery again. So I think my summary of
the WTA for September is just a bit weird. It's
just a bit of a strange time.
Speaker 1 (14:25):
Thanks to the beauty of time zones, I did get
to stumble into Cocoa Goth Naimi Osaka Bush live in Beijing.
Unfortunately that was cut short as well Naomi having to retire.
I saw she took to the Graham to clap back
at some haters and extremely well. I thought she did
(14:46):
nail them, but I also know that that's never a
great sign because we all know social media is poison.
That being said, that was a pointment viewing thought that
was excellent to see as much as we could of it.
I mean, it is what it is regarding injuries in Naomi,
and I think like the comeback is going well. Like
I know people are obsessed with maybe incidant results or big,
(15:10):
big wins early on, but I think winning three matches
at this tournament's pretty damn good. So I wanted to
maybe look at Coco a bit more in the sense
that she wasn't able to defend in New York Bush
and I think the idea that she is part of
the top crew is not fully believable, and in the
sense that she's not on Chiantek Sablenca level. But I
(15:34):
think there's some ability to build that back up here
in this final few months of the year.
Speaker 2 (15:39):
I would agree with you, Yes, I think, but the
people that are going to have doubts. This is going
to sound incredibly harsh, but let's go with it anyway,
and we can always backtrack from it. The people that
I think had had doubts of the quote unquote validity
of that US Open title last year, just based upon
the people that she played against, who she had to
beat going through it, just the nature of who has
(16:03):
dominated on the WTA and who's been like head and
shoulders above the field on the in the WTA side
this season, i e. Sabal Anka and Chia Tech. There's
always going to be doubt. On the flip side of that,
it is okay for her just to be a really
good top five player in the world and not be
the world number one. That is also completely fine. That
(16:26):
is something that we can be very very happy with
in terms of a player to support and root for.
I just kind of feel like she's she's she's not
better than those two Without being too reductive about it.
Speaker 1 (16:39):
No, yeah, I don't think she does anything better than
those two at the moment, right And I know in
tennis the beauty is you don't have to play them
every time when you get to these tournaments, and that's
how it works. But the likelihood is that she is
going to run into at least one of them on
the bigger stages. So can she get better than them
at some things? I think there's an nobility, but I
(17:02):
also am not super confident.
Speaker 2 (17:04):
Yeah, lest we forget as well that she's still incredibly young, Yeah, yeah.
We always look at this in the context of she's
been on tours so long, since she's fifteen. He's been
on tour for five years now, he's only twenty's. It's
crazy to believe. Is there still another step that she has?
Very possibly, It's very possible that she does.
Speaker 1 (17:25):
We could look very dumb in a few days for
recording this a few days before the a big big
semi final between Goff and Medosa Pala Medosa. Bush has
been playing amazingly well post since he passed. What a
what a tale of two different players? My god, Bados pass.
(17:46):
Paula is skyrocketing, playing extremely well. That'll be a tough test.
But maybe sabalank in the final, which would be awesome
to see. You got Jang still involved as well. Rearly
loaded field.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Yeah, this Beijian tournament's been fantastic watching at it from
a from a loaded field perspective? Is is Bodosa City
pass over that though?
Speaker 1 (18:07):
So? I mean, the less I see from Steph these days,
the better I'm seeing a lot of AI chat, GPT
cross posting, uh, the stepping away from the game stuff
and confounding himself. I'm down with it, but also please
stop posting or go to substack, get a medium dot
com account, even anything else.
Speaker 2 (18:28):
I'm curious on this without wanting to get into the
inner workings in the life of this relationship, it's been
so on off.
Speaker 1 (18:34):
I'm it's fully ross racial territory now and I honestly I.
Speaker 3 (18:41):
I can't be asked to keep up.
Speaker 2 (18:43):
What's the w w E equivalent of a tennis wedding?
Speaker 1 (18:48):
Like Howard Howard Test and Steph mcman.
Speaker 2 (18:51):
Test and Stephanie Man. Yeah, so married on court middle
Sunday or final.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
Something did wasn't there like a horrific attack or obviously
stage during it. But the fact I knew that so
quickly is really upseting. But yeah, that's the that's the reference. Okay,
anything else WTA before we get the parting shots, Sir.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
I already thought you were going with anything else? W
W Well, how you say it. It's been an interesting month.
I did watch the Mister big Mann documentary. No nothing
else WTA side.
Speaker 1 (19:22):
Okay, when we come back, we'll hit parting shots. We're
gonna talk Wada, Yannick, scheduling complaints, Caroline Garcia, Shang Shwai Chili,
all that coming up next. Welcome back to the Open
(19:44):
Air podcast Bush. It's time for parting shots. We've alluded
to it several times. The acronym in the room, Wada
is coming for our holy sports sigmon. Wada will not
let us rest. Even after golden boy Yant was given
the US Open title, they're pushing forward with their appeal,
(20:06):
an appeal that, if successful, could bar Annick Sinner from
tennis for two years. I mentioned that they were asked
about this in Beijing. Obviously, Anick's been asked about this.
A bunch of people around and have been asked about this.
It's a distraction, obviously.
Speaker 3 (20:23):
But.
Speaker 1 (20:24):
Let's like a simon, do you think it's actually possible
that WATA wins this appeal?
Speaker 3 (20:29):
And b.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
Do you think everyone is, Like, is the reason maybe
why everyone is being relatively calm about this is because
they know that it's not going to be successful? Like
how one of the chances this goes through?
Speaker 3 (20:42):
Is what basically I'm asking.
Speaker 2 (20:44):
That is a really good question, because I was I
was thinking the other way, right, I thought this has
I think he's got more of a more chance to
be pinned on this than he had in the other case,
like because they are effectively arguing that he they're not
denying his sort of statement to it, but there's sort
(21:06):
of suggesting at the same time, like, no, we get it,
but you're still guilty, like in the sense that you're
there's still negligence here and you should be punished for that,
which I kind of think has some ground here. Personally,
it seems like it has some substance to it. That
being said, like the ins and outs of the legal
ramifications of this of whether or not he's going to
(21:29):
be found guilty on this, I can't say, but just
from a from a distance, it seems like there's some
merit here.
Speaker 1 (21:37):
Yeah, I don't know. Perhaps it's the cynic in me.
I can't imagine they'll let this happen. And by they,
I mean whoever is making these decisions at the Pinnacle Sport.
Speaker 2 (21:51):
It's one of my favorite things. I'm not talking about
they the pronoun. I'm talking about the they more broadly.
It's just so funny if you if you listen to
it in the English language of how much that gets
used on a day to day basis any workplace you
go into, Oh, they don't want us to do it?
Who the fuck is they?
Speaker 1 (22:07):
It could be literally a man, you know what I mean?
Though it really cannot happen. The whole future of the
sport is depending on him be around. Is that too
bold to say? Probably? But as the marketing schmuck I am,
I kind of believe it can I can.
Speaker 2 (22:28):
I read you the top part of Russell Fuller's BBC
article about it, just just to revisit this, because I
think it's very funny. So bear with me a second
while a statement suggested is not questioning Sin his explanation,
but does believe he shares some of the blame. The
Court of Arbitration of Sport will now decide whether the
world number one should be held in any way responsible
for a sequence of events which began with his physio
(22:49):
using spray to cut it to treat a cut on
his finger. The spray, which contained closter ball, had been
passed on by Sinner's fitness coach, who had been brought
into the team part because of his antidoping expertise. Golda's
messages with hands which may or may not have been
washed and legions on cinner skin resulted in two positive tests.
The tribunal determined, while Sinner is free to play on
(23:12):
the case could take many months to resolve. Yeah. No, shit. Also,
just it's so funny all this, like the idea that
I know we've covered this many times, but the whole
thing is just so ridiculous that it feels like it
was made up in the back of a cab between
two tournaments in like fifteen minutes.
Speaker 1 (23:33):
Yeah, it's so stupid that it's believable it was unintentional,
you know, like it's one of those things where perhaps
this stupidity defense might actually work. Yeah. I maintain this though,
and I could be wrong if I'm wrong, though, Wow,
Like what like Dick Pound shows to water? Anytime water
(23:54):
was mentioned when I was growing up, I would always
be like, yeah, Dick Pound Canadian, he needs that. And
I was like, are weird clinging to fame? Because I
felt like as Canadians who were desperate to cling on
to some sort of relevancy on the international stage. And
if it wasn't through athletics themselves, it was through the
doping regulator, which was Dick Pound. So showeds to water.
(24:16):
If this does actually happen to I'll be stunned. So
I'm and you are a little more hedgy.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
I don't know that I'm hedgy on this, wouldn't I.
I think we came off fairly strongly the parabus or
this podcast did in terms of how we thought this
one went. And yeah, more more broadly saying like, don't
treat us like we're five year olds. I still stand
by that statement. I'm not going to rope you into this.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
I should it say as if, but now it's as
if a five year old did this, And I'm like, Okay, well,
I guess I guess all right, Well, a five year
old with the best damn lawyers in town. That's probably
more accurate.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
Yeah, which way to read this? Is this someone trying
to pull over the wall out of our eyes and
thinking we're five year olds? Or is it actually a
bunch of five year olds who are this stupid? Either way,
it doesn't look good.
Speaker 1 (24:58):
Okay, So a few more serious things and then we'll
get to a feel good story before we end the
bush players and the schedule.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
So this one came up a couple of times. Actually,
this came up with Carlos Akiraz speaking, I want to
say last week. Yeah, this is so, I think it
was last week. And obviously you mentioned earlier the Stephan
and Cissypass may or may not have been chat gbt'd
on his own opinions about the the state of the
(25:28):
tour in terms of schedule and everything. Carlos Acara has
made some comments as well. Jack Draper also weighed on this.
I think he has some very very strong comments about
this and words akin to the tour is trying to
kill us, which you know, it's a good way to
grab headlines. It's also not entirely inaccurate. I would say
(25:49):
just given the quantity of tennis. I think it's an
interesting point in time on sport more broadly, and the
intersection of this story plus the one in football as well.
I think if you have been following the world of
sport more broadly, it's been inescapable the rise in the
number of games, and the Spanish midfield or Rodery very
(26:10):
outspoken on this as well, Champions League expansion, the number
of games that are being played in the season. It's
not just tennis which is feeling the effects of this.
You see in the NFL of course as well, like
with the expansion, continuing talk to go to eighteen games,
We've already gone to seventeen. So this infinite growth mindset,
which I think is infected just about sort of parasitic
(26:34):
idea that's infected just about every level of society and business,
is very deeply seated withinside of sport. This doesn't end
and I feel actually pretty good about this. One of
the positions that I think we both came out fairly
strongly on of saying that this doesn't change unless the
players change it. I think the players are going to
change this. I think this feels very strongly to me
(26:57):
like it's more a labor issue than it is from
a moral perspective. I think the players are fucking fed
up with this and at some point this is going
to get really nasty.
Speaker 1 (27:05):
No, I'm with you, and hell it's it's horrible. But
I mean roder tores acl like what a week after
making those comments about the Club World Cup and the
incoming glut of fixtures that they're going to pile on
in the summer, a free summer that they saw as
as an open ticket to add on more games.
Speaker 3 (27:24):
No, totally.
Speaker 1 (27:25):
It doesn't matter who you support it either. It could
be your for aades, could be your enemies.
Speaker 3 (27:29):
I think I think we're in agreement.
Speaker 1 (27:30):
Supporting the players will stop the product suffers as well
as you've been seeing, I think regarding this kind of
over overplaying, and it trickles down as well to the
youth ranks and seeing what maybe it is expected of
people at the AAU level in like basketball or at
(27:51):
the competitive level in soccer. Bush so fully on board. Okay,
Caroline Garcia sad story here.
Speaker 2 (28:00):
Yeah, And I think this is actually attached to the
kind of previous idea around the schedule and how hectic
it's been which Gussie was citing both anxiety and panic
attacks for ending her season last week like very understandable.
(28:22):
She was quoted as saying that she basically needs a
reset and a step away from the grind of tennis.
It goes hand in hand with the previous story, like
there's too much tennis, there's too much travel, there's way
too much stuff expected of these athletes, the grind of
going from one event to the other. I see. I
think this might have been where the Acharat story came from,
where she effectively had to go directly from the airport
to play a game immediately to play a match in Shanghai.
(28:44):
So it's going to become more of a sharp focus.
I think there is a world here where there is
enough overlap between the higher ranking and lower ranking players,
and between the two tours or every to or that
we're going to start the season movement. I really do
believe that that you haven't seen these levels of vitriol
(29:09):
coming I think, or like even words of the harshness
of someone like Jack Draper. I think historically, I think
this is the first real time that we're starting to
see the knives come out for this and I think
at that point powers that Bee might want to start
having a look at this.
Speaker 1 (29:24):
All right, simon two happy good stories in tennis question mark.
It's true.
Speaker 2 (29:31):
So Jiangsui was riding a losing streak of.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
Down bad, down bad, as we.
Speaker 2 (29:39):
Say, down very very bad, twenty four successive defeats. She
hadn't won in over two years, six hundred days. I
believe she won in the first round at the China Open.
She beat McCartney Cassler. Everyone was pulling for her. There's
some really good stories. I saw some tiktoks around this
as well. Just I think I can't order a cake
(30:02):
as well, which I thought was really funny. It might
have been a different story, but either way, it was
funny regardless to see celebration like that. It's a long
time and I think, perhaps not to connect everything back
to the idea of schedule and the overlap here, but
how much must it suck to go to twenty different
(30:22):
tournaments directly, spend one day there or two days there,
lose and have to fly somewhere else or take a
bus or whatever. It is? Tennis is nuts in terms
of a sport. When it comes to this side.
Speaker 1 (30:33):
Of things, it's I just and it's a complete like
chark your system. If what you imagine traveling is like,
oh god, I'm getting to the airport and ask some
drinks and chill by the pool, It's like, no, you're
into some some aliday and shuttle to a match on
the outer court. It's getting puzzled by the one hundred
(30:55):
and twentieth ranked player from South Africa who's been waiting
there for two days back to the airport for a
seven hour red eye in between two people close to
the bathroom. It's like, all right, this is pro tennis man.
So yeah, I mean it's it's such a grind, and
I think it's like, it's why I kind of I mean,
it's not all glorious and roses and like. As much
(31:17):
I love the movie Challengers for several reasons, but I
do think it paints like this kind of grind in
a in a realistic light about what it means. So
shouts to persevere and then shouts to Marin Chilish too,
Bush Barren Chilich Grand Slam champion, still fighting and winning.
Speaker 2 (31:34):
Yeah. One in Hangzhou is became the lowest ranked player
in history to when n Atipto titled currently was ranked
seven hundred and seventy seventh in the world. An amazing story,
thirty six years of age. We always forget, I think
the broad broad tennis World Grand Slam champion. Yes, did
(31:54):
win a Grand Slam in that very very strange US Opened.
The way that it unfolded.
Speaker 1 (32:00):
Still realer than the twenty twenty US Open though, don't
get it twisted.
Speaker 2 (32:03):
Absolutely, Yeah, everyone involved in that had to beat legitimate people.
It was completely fine, despite the wind playing complete havoc
with that Tory. Yeah, it was.
Speaker 3 (32:13):
That was weird.
Speaker 2 (32:14):
It was legit.
Speaker 1 (32:15):
The jet streams man.
Speaker 2 (32:17):
The get streams. Indeed, I have one other non tennis
related thing before parting shots? Could I can I briefly
touch on it here? Yes, I was watching Bill Belichick.
Oh god, oh my god. What this is a broad,
broad question that I think I wanted to ask our
(32:39):
audience and to potentially think about it because I thought
it was really insightful. Which is that or maybe I
just never thought about it in this way. So he
was basically making the argument that in his in his view,
like the idea that you make adjustments at halftime or
any of this sort of thing is kind of nonsense
and really the game of football is around seeing what
(33:03):
your opponent has done and then making adjustments to it.
And the fourth quarter basically is everyone already knows what
each other is doing, so it's about kind of like
staying in games trying to like obviously get an advantage,
but by the end, everyone kind of knows what each
other is doing. There's not a whole lot of secrecy left,
which to me is like I've never actually considered that way.
(33:25):
And really, from that perspective, tennis is very similar to that,
which is that if you can just hang around in
a match, you can learn the patterns of your opponents
so simply by just being there and just watching what
they do how they like to win points. And I
think perhaps that combined with the greatest player like in
the history of our sport to be able to do
(33:47):
that in some of like Novak Djokovic's just all right,
I've seen what you can do. I will take away
that one thing that you can do, and now you
can't win. I thought it was just a really insightful comment,
and it's one of those things you don't really think
about normally.
Speaker 1 (34:00):
He's good, I hate to say it, but he's good
at this whole talking about sports stuff clearly. So no,
it's super interesting and yeah, I mean it checks out
and it kind of fits or works for multiple sports
when you think about it. Okay, two challenges remaining. Bush.
I'll go first. In all my years, I had not
(34:21):
watched the original Point Break, but thanks to Canopy, I
did watch it with my partner. I was devastated. Spoilers
are head, sorry so you can shut this off, but
I was devastated by Bodie's betrayal. Top Notch movie have
some qualms with the ending in Australia, but overall, top
notch movie would recommend.
Speaker 2 (34:43):
What a recommendation. I've done two festivals since the last
time we spoke. I was at the bank of a
fringe festival which ran in early September. I watched twenty
live plays during that period of time, which was very cool.
Vancouver International Film Festivals currently ongoing here and I think
about ten films and with the half a week left
(35:06):
to go on that, and I think the one film
that I wanted to shout out was a documentary called
Grand Theft Hamlet, which is a British documentary about making Hamlet,
the play inside of GTA online. It is as it's
kind of done in that machinemer style if you're familiar
with it, like the concept of taking the in game
(35:28):
characters and dubbing them and voicing them. It's wonderful. It's
much more emotional than I think you would expect it
to be. Everyone was bailing their eyes out at the
end of it, the people sitting around me, which I
was shocked at and I never thought I'd be in
a situation like that. I thought it was I thought
it was very touching and it's well worth the time
if you can get to see it at some point.
Speaker 1 (35:50):
Wonderful. Those are Cisco and eber Numbers, sir, A lot
of plays, a lot of movies love It.
Speaker 2 (35:55):
Might explain why I currently may or may not have COVID,
but that's another story.
Speaker 1 (36:00):
Okay, all right, we'll leave it there a reminder we
are on patreon dot com Forward slash open Era. Join
us there, cut the show at free get it early
on Sundays. Plus join the discord, where my tennis knowledge
has been kept up to speed by our lovely friends there.
So join us at Patreon. And that is it for
producer Dylan on the Ones and Twes Thank you for
(36:23):
listening for Simon and I.
Speaker 3 (36:24):
We'll talk to you next week.
Speaker 1 (37:00):
E
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