Turin: Since U Sin Gone

The boys are finally back. After a prolonged hiatus, Simon and Devang return to unpack a whole lot of stuff that’s happened since they’ve been gone. ATP Finals, WTA Finals, BJK Cup, Paris Bercy, Basel, drama, intrigue..we can keep going. So join us for a mega episode to celebrate the almost end of the 2023 tennis season.

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Episode Transcript

(00:02):
Previously on Open Era Ze, ourheroes travel to the far flung reaches of
the galaxy, but it was anold friend who remained on top. The
Queen of the Bagels was far toogood for the field, and all fell
before her. And while this year'sjourney may be over, we will all

(00:27):
remember the battles fought along the way. On the other side, the greatest
test in all of the galaxy waswon by a wily old veteran, but
there were sparks of hope as abushy haired young champion emerged in the far
East. As the Battanka cludes onthe other side, who will come out

(00:50):
victorious the sin or the Sinner findout on the next episode of Open Arazine.

(01:17):
Hello and welcome to the Open AirPodcast. My name is Vegas Sign
I'm joined as always by mister SimonBush or Bush Holy Cow. It's been
a while. Incredible intro only aDragon Ball Z prologue could do justice to
what we have missed, But it'sgreat to be back, friend, It's
great to be back. I thinkthe DBC homage was me being in Japan

(01:37):
for seeing large amounts of anime everywhere, so feeling like I had to fit
it into the podcast somehow. Yes, it's been a while there, but
I'm glad to be back talking toyou about the final act of the tennis
calendar. Had to double check amillion times, but there is similar tennis
after after this atp Finals in Italythat we just witnessed Bush. There is

(01:59):
some Davis up and there is thenext Gen Finals. But this is kind
of the cap episode, so it'sfitting. I feel like to use it
as a place to go back abit and talk about all the things,
all the things that have happened reallysince we've last spoken to you. But
Samon, I gotta ask you aboutJapan. I'm assuming it's going to be

(02:20):
in your two challeentards remaining as well. But how was that trip? It
was great. Yeah, I'd neverbeen doing Asia before, so it was
nice to go and visit Japan andsee different parts of it. Started in
Tokyo and then took the bullet traindown the south coast to Hiroshima and saw
some other cities along the way,Osaka, Kyoto, Nagano. Just a
really cool country, lots of amazingthings to see, great history of course,

(02:45):
and then just lovely to be ina place with working infrastructure with good
public infrastructure and hands it, youkind of forget what it looks like.
Man, Yeah, I feel likethat it's a sign of aging as well,
but it is maybe the thing Inoticed first when I'm visiting places is
transit infrastructure and things working better thanwhere I'm coming from. And yeah,

(03:08):
I can only imagine. I've beento Japan, but very briefly, and
I've seen a few of my friendsmake the trip very recently, including yourself,
and I'm extremely jealous. But thattrip sounds amazing, sir. So
yeah, where do we start here? There is a lot we missed,
but in favor of recency bias,let's talk about the ATP finals that just

(03:30):
concluded inter in Italy as we talkto each other today and record this episode.
Simon Yanick Sinner trying to take downNovak Djokovic twice in one week,
which surely would have been this scriptwriter'spreference, I wonder, but it wasn't
meant to be because Novak Djokovic wastoo good on Sunday. I think it

(03:53):
was more case of Yannick Centner's levelnot being anywhere close to where it needed
to be. Simon, after whatwe saw on Tuesday and he beat Novak.
But it is another example I thinkof Novak bringing a player down just
with the way he can play againstyou and bring the moment to a realization
where this guy really big for you, Anik in the crowd willing him on

(04:15):
wasn't enough. I think there's somethingentertaining about I sent you a message yesterday
saying that I think Sinner is completelyshagged emotionally and physically going into this final
and its testament. I think TovakDjokovic is overall conditioning. That the dude
who was not shagged was the guywho's nearly thirty seven right going into his
how many years is this twenty fiveor something he's been on the tour for

(04:39):
against the young up and coming twentytwo year old who's really struggling with his
conditioning. I mean, what morecan you say? Like it's seven titles
here in the World top finals panNovak Djokovic. He didn't put a foot
wrong in the semifinal or in thefinal. He played to a level which
I mean it wasn't his best,but his his normal rally game where he's

(05:01):
able to just find consistency and putplayers in positions of whether really struggling.
I think it really upset the rhythmfor Sinner, and I think he made
some adjustments as well from that roundrobin victory as well. And I think
that's how good of a player heis. He's just in the space of
four days or whatever else, he'sable to make those small adjustments in tactics
and he's conditioned well enough to beable to do that. I mean,

(05:24):
amazing credit to Janick Sinner. Wasa fantastic tournament for him. But let's
let's give give the flowers once againto the world number one the twenty billion
time Grand Slam Championship as Friends ofthe Show with Vec Jacob posting. Since
Novec lost that Wibbledon final to CarlosSoccer Assignment twenty two to one, one

(05:47):
since won the US Open, onebeer Sea won the ATV Finals year end
number one for the record of timefour hundred total weeks in number one,
record extending forty masters twenty four majors. Yeah, I mean, it's it's
pretty ridiculous, and I obviously thismatters to him, and I do find

(06:10):
that the I thought, generally theway this tournament was promoted this week was
good, and it also may bekind of mad just remembering how badly the
WTA Finals was run, and wecan talk about that in a bit,
but I think overall, like theway this tournament is presented. It reminded
me a bit more of how itused to feel in that O Too Arida
generation, Simon. I think thecrowd also being super into it because of

(06:31):
the adding center, was so welcomeand it felt like it was a slow
burn and then a huge open armhug free adic from this crowd. I
didn't know. It didn't seem likehe was their chosen son when this started,
but it definitely felt that way atthe end. But I feel like
Novak love situations like this because hewas up for it. You never have

(06:53):
to worry about him not being readyto meet the occasion emotionally, Simon,
And I think that's also something ofhis that is so impossible to teach,
like you just have it, andhe so clearly does. Yeah, I
think the real question is how muchis he going to want to be motivated
going into the twenty and twenty fourcalendar, because I think I still think
he's probably the best player in theworld, or I mean within the top

(07:15):
two or three. Clearly, there'sno doubt that he's been the best player
on tour since the US Open,like the back end of the season.
Even before then, you could youcould certainly make the case. But I
think I think one of those thingsis is interesting to sort of identify,
is that you on Xenner the secondbest player on tour in the back half
since the US Open, one inChina, one in Vienna, looked really
really good on both occasions on ahard core really finding his game. So

(07:41):
I guess that's probably the biggest thingthat I'll take away from this from this
Tour finals is whether or not isthis a mirage? Is this an illusion
of a level that Cinner has gothimself to, or is this the real
deal going into twenty twenty four,Because, by god, if you listened
to Carlos Agaaz talk about, yeah, Excentner is going to be world number
one for the next twenty five years. Well, I don't think this is

(08:01):
like a Felix to twenty twenty twotype run where I think they Annick Centner's
bona fides are already They've already goodclips felixes, right, And I think
so we can measure this a bitdifferently, and obviously he's played in matches
with higher stakes than Felix did thisyear, so I don't think we can

(08:22):
compare it to that, but Iam slightly apprehensive to to crown him as
much as as Charlie was. Ithought it was interesting just regarding alkaaz Bush,
like the semifinal against Djokovic wasn't abad match for a straight set's one
at all. The second set hadan obscene level during many points, but

(08:45):
he was complaining you at the courtspeed, saying it was faster than anything
they had played basically all year,and what is the point of that?
And it did feel like his levelor the baseline level he was bringing to
the table in some of these matcheswasn't good enough, whereas maybe it had
been before. And I thought itwas interesting maybe him meeting sort of a

(09:07):
fork in the road in terms ofI'm so gased, I've got nothing really
left, this is the end ofmy season kind of thing, whereas the
Annix seem to not enjoy but likekind of recover from not being as much
as the conversation during big portions ofthe season. I think it's fascinating as
well about how a player and thecamp sets up for the run during the

(09:30):
course of the whole season, bothatp and WTA, because obviously you're peaking
it, you're wanting to peak atdifferent times. If you're setting Grand Slams
as your target, you want tobe in peak physical condition and you want
to make sure that you have enoughenergy to go for those stages. Like
how much does this finals really meanto a lot of people? How much
does it really mean to the fieldin general? Post US Open? Certainly

(09:50):
the top end, like in thetop twenty, and you do get some
strange winners. You do certainly getsome strange champions as we can come on
to and parting shots. But Ithink that's kind of one of the fascinating
parts of this one, which isthat how much energy do these players have
left? It clearly didn't look likeCarlos Argo has particularly invested in this tournament,
just from the way that he It'snot like you went away in that

(10:13):
semi, but I think that's Ithink that would be very harsh to say.
But you didn't have the same bounce, you didn't have the same fire
that you saw at Wimwooden, andpotentially that's down to just overall merit placed
on this tournament, about how muchprestige there isn't it, and how much
he wants to win it. CarlosArgon is going to win this finals many
times to come in the future.I have no doubt at all about it.

(10:35):
But it seems like this year wasnot the year that he wanted to
put all of his stock to doing. So. Yeah, I think that's
fair. Yeah, amongst that finalfour, like, I think if you're
going into next season, it's prettyit's pretty damn formidable in terms of like,
is that not the final four inMelbourne? Yeah, just probably of

(10:58):
course be perspective. Well, likeit seems like it's we just got a
precursor of what the of what thesemi finals and finals of the Australian Open
might look like. Not at leastbecause of the fact that it's in like
fucking forty days. It's in liketwo weeks. Yeah, well, I
I mean I wanted to kind ofreference this because I think a lot of
the conversation during the week was aboutYannick beating Novac and how the match quality

(11:24):
that we were seeing being produced froma certain section of the tour AKA the
younger players aka the players are goingto have to pick up the scraps post
Big three and oh god, whatare we gonna do? What a we're
gonna do? I think there wassome positive signs in that regard, not
just from aanic but your Hole Runeesand and your Carlo zacraz Is obviously,

(11:45):
but how much how much more comfortableare you bush with the state of the
game as we wind down the ATPside of the season, Like is it
is it in a good is itin a good place or is it a
place that you feel good about?It actually is, And I think this
tournament solidifies how good those three youngkids are, like in the sense of

(12:07):
if you're looking for the next sortof iteration of what the ATP looks like,
it is Holgaroun, it is JanickSinner, and it is Carlos al
Karaz, like their head and shouldersabove their contemporaries and the field. I
think even when you're asking a question, I mean, Ben Shelton is in
that within that age range, butwould anyone rank that dude higher than those
three? No, not at all, Like that's that's absurd in terms of

(12:31):
and that's no disrespect to Ben Shulks. I think he's a very very good
player, and like he's he's goingto be a good player in top twenty
for a long time. But like, those three dudes are really at a
very very high level already, andI'd be stoked I twenty twenty four as
an evaluation of how really good thosethree kids are, of how much they
are able to build on their twentytwenty three success and how deep they're able

(12:54):
to run in a lot of Grandslams. I think that would be a
really fascinating story, So I'm hopefulthat we see it. I was looking
at who qualified for the next Genfinals, and it's a testament to how
good these guys are that so manyof the people that were supposed to go
to Saudi abr because they were inthe ATV finals or they were taken a
break because they'd played so much dantennis and had a really great year,

(13:16):
Like you're Ben Shelton's rebr your LorenzoMassetti's, but your acaaz or olgar Rune
is they've they've Yeah, the leaphas been made. And I do think
that that sentiment was welcome and theidea that we are blessed quote unquote to
have this in the sense that they'renot the same player either, right,
Simon. I think they all bringa level of variety to the game that's

(13:39):
fun to watch. I think Istill have a lot of fun watching Danil
Medvedev on a hard court, alot of fun. I think it's interesting
that Annick Center is kind of seemingto get his number bush, which I
think is a sign of development forhim. The coaching aspect for Annick,
Darren k Hill being a prominent voicefor him this last month as well,
Simon, it seems like it's abit, it's a bit of rocket fuel

(14:01):
for him heading into next year.But he ran into Novak once again,
And yeah, it was a reallyweird season in the sense of like we
had Wimbledon happened. And perhaps Idon't think anyone insane was writing off Novak
Djokovic, but I think I wasa bit surprised to see him come back

(14:22):
as forcefully as he did, withthe way he did, and it was
just yet another example of how freakinggreat the sky is. But man like,
I was a bit surprised, andmaybe I shouldn't have been. Maybe
the shame on me for underestimating thisguy again, I mean potentially, I
mean at some point he's going tohave to fall off a cliff and it's
not happened yet. So how manymore superlatives can we add to the fact
that someone's continuing to do this atthe age he is. The and the

(14:45):
twenty two thing I think is reallyreally fascinating because you look at that Next
Gen Tour finals and then you lookat the contemporaries of the three dudes that
I just spoke about, and youcan throw in Jack Draper, you can
throw in Lorenzum Masset, you canthrow in Arthur feast Uh, you can
throw in Luca van Ash. Letme throw five year on Alex Nicholson as

(15:07):
well. This American kid, Ithink he's pretty good. Yeah, I
think he's pretty solid as well.And men SI's really good as well,
like that that Check kid as well. He's really really young. I think
he's even eighteen. He might bestill seventeen, and he's inside of the
world's top one fifty. So likethe if we if we are keeping an
eye on on on those kids todo amazing things in twenty twenty four,

(15:30):
I think you're you're in really goodshape, because there's some fun personalities in
there, and there's actually some somedecent flare as well. They're not all
just you know, boring bassliners.There's some some good, good variety there.
The other guys quickly Bush Stefanos ishe pass left with an injury.
The fact that he got into thistrade em miss at all. Just good

(15:52):
enough but not overall a great yearfor him. Simon, I would say,
like, I don't think we havemany deep thoughts on Stephano's, but
I was serious what you thought aboutAlexander Zverev and the promotion, Like I
think I don't even know if it'slike tone deaf anymore, because they clearly
indicated it's not their problem gaytps.But as we've got news regarding this settlement

(16:14):
he has to pay in Germany regardingthe incident with his ex partner. I
found the level of promotion for hima bit tone deaf as usual, I
mean, not particularly surprising from thistour really. Yeah. Also, like,
just given the conversation that we justhad about how many young cool players
there are coming up, like stopfucking focusing on Alexanders Verov anyway? Did

(16:34):
you take in donation gate by theway the city past story of him wanting
to do a donation for charity.I did not, But what happened.
He wanted to do it for everyset that he won. He was going
to donate an amount of money andthen he Wow, donated zero doll That's
incredible. I mean, that's isthat a skit? Did he do this

(16:57):
for? That's incredible? Wow?Peak Stephanos amazing, so so good.
Okay, any other thoughts on theATP Finals Bush as a whole. The
one thing that I would say onthis one is that legitimately I forgot where
this was. Yeah, big time. I honestly, if you didn't,
I would have thought this was backin the two just from an an aesthetics

(17:18):
point and I think in that senseit was a good memory of that it
was. Yeah, I think froman aesthetics perspective, it got nowhere near
Cancun. I loved that court forthe WTA Finals and the setting. I
thought it was so like intimate andinteresting. This felt a little boring,
but at the same time, atleast they made some noise for our boy,

(17:40):
Yannick. I love. The crowdwas excellent and as for us,
that makes a difference like goh.I saw Nick Curios do a commentary during
the ATP finals, which thankfully Idid not get that broadcast. I don't
know if you did, Simon,I did not. I also love the
way that you were wrapping this uplike you were doing a fucking movie.

(18:03):
I think it's a three stars.Well I didn't hear. I didn't hear
Nick on my broadcast either, thankgod, but I did through our wonderful
discord. I believe josh Ason.He was just doing like the generic like
we need loud crowds and matches likethis, and like, yeah, no
kidding, thanks Nick, thanks tothe inside. But I will say fantastic.

(18:27):
I love the crowd, loved howYahik embraced it. Didn't really I
don't really see that much from him. Even watching him in person this year
in Toronto, it's it's interesting watchinghim as a human being, Like it
feels like it's not natural for himto be extremely hard in the sleeve in
front of a lot of people.I guess I think that's just not his

(18:47):
style. But I felt like thisweek was really cool for him, and
he still got that moment, Iguess, even to lose, so that
was cool for me. But yeah, overall, I don't know. There's
something about the way this season wasfor me that it felt slightly ungod in
some ways. But I do likethe idea of having some use, inject
some competitiveness that we need in thesebig finals. I don't give a shit

(19:14):
about the World till finals. Neverhave no will. You used to here's
the lie that you did. Youused to care. I think that's the
thing. You think it's the UKcentric. Once they moved it out of
your podent country, they suddenly doesn'tmatter. It doesn't matter at all.
I would say, no, backwith the longevity thing is insane. Two
thousand and eight, right, hewon the first one to now that is

(19:38):
that is upsetting. We're all gettingold. Yeah, that is the ATP
Tour Finals. When we come backthe w t A Tour Finals. And
while Silomon had some good things tosay about the Vibes and Kancun, some
others did not. We're going totalk about that and talk about Ega and
her demolition job after the breakup.Welcome back to the Open Air podcast.

(20:10):
We've talked about the ATP finals.Among the things we missed during our prolonged
hiatus. Simon the WTA Tour Finalsin Cancun, Mexico, IGIs Friantek destroying
Jess Peguila in the final. Simonthis tournament maybe had a fan in you,

(20:32):
but overall not a great showing forthe WTA after they kind of picked
this venue last minute, and itkind of speaks to where the WTA is
at right now as an organization,not the players. The players are great.
We'll talk about EGA in a sec. But it all seems to me
and from my reading into this,they chose kang Kun because they were worried

(20:53):
about the pushback from how it wouldlook if they went to Saudi Arabia.
This year, they're going to goto Saudi Arabia, but they didn't choose
that check deal because they locked themin for too many years. They don't
want to go to Czechia for fouryears in a row. They want to
go to Saudi Arabia for a biggerpayday because they're in a terrible financial situation,
so they're waiting it out, andthey had this event in Kancun that

(21:15):
looked like a part time fiasco,which it seemed to be. Ugh God,
damn it dev such a downer.I know, I know am the
season, Am I wrong? Though? I love the fact that there's within
here there's a line about like,oh we had this, we had this
person off from the from the CzechYa tournament, but we think it's gonna

(21:38):
look bad if we take it forso long and don't get miss out on
the Saudi Arabia money. So Iguess we're just not going to do that
anyway. The hilarity of that asides. You know, one player who did
not like this at all was OnyaSaballite Scorched Earth dev I was not a
fan of this tournament at all,called it amateurish at some point as well.

(21:59):
I saw. I don't know,dev I loved it as a fan.
I love the court color. Ilove the rinky dink nature of it.
That kind of looked like a bunchof the world's best players were playing
in Rockapol, middle of New YorkCity. And if we want variety in
the tour, I'm all for that. You should have been hired for the
PR spin on this, because that'sexcellent. You almost convinced me, as

(22:23):
I recall, and I looked likethey were playing in a closet on a
court. Care's how much space therewas the Yeah, yeah, I don't
want to be a downer in regardsto the players, but I think the
players being mad about this is whyI wanted to start here. I think
Ashiboro was mad about it or notpleased with the fact that it was a
temporary structure and the players didn't geta chance to actually hit on the court

(22:45):
until very very late in their preparations. That's not what's supposed to happen at
the WTA Finals. It was neversupposed to be there. Obviously, it
was supposed to be in China whenthey signed that one billion dollar deal.
But obviously a lot of things havehappened since they signed that deal, and
in between with stops in Dallas,with George W. Bush in the house

(23:10):
and twenty other people in Guadalajara,the crowds have been bad and it has
not been a good display for thebest players on tour, who have provided
hours and hours and hours of crediblematches this season. Bush. I think
it's a it's an embarrassment for themto have to go through this, So
I think it's more for the playersto not have this happen again. But

(23:30):
yeah, I mean, I'm readingI was reading this article from too Many
carril and in The Guardian regarding wherethe WTA is at and some of the
losses they've disclosed, and we're talkingsixteen point five million, fifteen point one
million they haven't posted on certain socialmedia and in several years, including TikTok.

(23:51):
If you look at how much saturationthere is from the ATP side and
then you compare it to the WTA, it's shocking the disparity. So this
prize when he app is one thingwhich has continued to widen. And I
know we've heard some some some declarationsto combat that, but just everything else
around around this outside of the side, it's it's a bleak picture for the

(24:12):
most talented players arguably we have inthe sport. It kind of looks like
the whole running of the sport onthe WTA side is completely fast, does
it not? Yet? It lookslike running around the offices. Where's the
WTA in Charleston or something like that. It's in North Carolina some thing,
I don't know, whatever it is. Either way, wherever that building is,
it kind of looks like there's sixdudes, six dudes in their sixties

(24:37):
who have all played at a countryclub once or twice who are running this
sport as opposed to anyone who've actuallyprofessionalsn't want to be involved in it as
much as I, as much asI enjoyed the aesthetics, So the to
all fine, I was like,I do want to outline that I was
joking about it. It wasn't completeo. People slipping on the court as
well. Like the fact you don'tplay on it or didn't get the chance

(24:57):
to train on it means that thefirst time you actually hitting on it is
during live match play. And itis not just the fact that it's it's
problematic from from a match perspective,from being able to produce high quality matches.
It's also dangerous if you never hiton the fucking surface before, you
might struggle to keep your footing,which is what happened during the course.
It's more lucky to know got injuredthere as well. They've got a lot

(25:17):
of work to do, have theynot a ton of work in twenty twenty
four and moving forward to actually makethis a there's a tour that is worthy
of the talent that they have.The headquarters in Saint Petersburg, Florida just
to confirm seven. So you're vaguelyyeah, vaguely close the same same time
zone, the actual tennis, theactual tennis. This season, Simon,

(25:40):
I think it was about Eager,like basically, how do you respond to
a generational twenty twenty two. We'vetalked about her at length on this show,
and I mean she deserves it.There's a few people who have been
the vanguards of the sport the lastfew years, and she's definitely one of
them. How do you follow upwinning two slams and getting to a semi

(26:02):
final, but another you win anotherslam, go through some periods I think
of a quote unquote rockiness. ButI think overall this was a predominantly successful
season for Ego and it was defined, maybe your exclamation marked by a really
impressive run in Kan Kun. Shelooked head and shoulders above the field in

(26:26):
the last two months of the season, and I think illustrated by the fact
that her one loss against Kodamatova,she righted the ship very well in China
and then in can Kun she wasso dominant, like, honest to god
death, she was so dominant insome of these victories that she had against
players that she struggled with during thecourse of the season that it made me

(26:47):
wonder whether or not this is formthat she's going to carry through the early
part of the of the twenty twentyfour season. We have waxed lyrical about
her as a player and as atorch bearer for the tour on the WTA
side, but she's still so damngood and hits the ball so cleanly that

(27:08):
I'm really excited to see. Ithink we've only just started to scratch the
service of what she's capable of,and that's kind of astonishing considering she's a
multiple time Grand Slam champion, She'sonly twenty two and that point on her
Like following up the historic twenty twentytwo campaign, she made eight finals this
year I believe, four titles,another three semi finals during that course,
won a Grand Slam, finished theyear ward number one. Fully did the

(27:33):
what's that meme of the the Supermanguy sneaking up? Oh no, it's
not Superman guy, it's Memoura rightsneaking up behind of Ayasavallenga. Last week,
the final week of the campaign,she snuck up and got that world
number one ranking. So yeah,I think it's quite the season, even
though it's not quite the same asa twenty twenty two campaign. Agreed three
bagels at the WTA finals, includingin that final against jesspe Yula, lose

(28:00):
a set at all did even lookclose to no, it was. It
was a demolition. And yeah,I mean, the conditions are one thing,
and I'm I'm super glad the playersspoke out, but I'm also glad
that we had a champion at theend of the day. That, Yeah,
I think overall could talk about alot of players having excellent seasons this

(28:21):
year's Simon. We can talk aboutMarquetevandrasova shocking everyone at Wimbledon. We can
talk about Coco Goff coming of ageat the US Open and winning her first
Grand Slam title. We could talkabout azi Board once again getting just devastatingly
close but still offering a level ofvariety that we haven't seen in a long
time. We can talk about ElenaRebakana also following up on a really strong

(28:45):
twenty twenty two and excellent twenty twentytwo with a great twenty twenty three as
well. And I didn't even mentionSabalnka yet, who won the Australian Open
and who has provided is proved tobe sorry an excellent foil to the igo
push at the top of the game. Like there's a lot of great stuff
happening here at the very top ofwomen's tennis. Absolutely, And I would

(29:06):
throw in the sort of comeback storyof Madison Keys as well, who had
a fantastic twenty twenty three season,finishing almost inside of the world's top ten.
And another name that I think willcircle on the card is Quanjeng as
well, who obviously won a titleat the back end of the season as
well in our hometown, and Ithink she finished the was top fifteen as

(29:29):
well, got a new career high. I think she's going to have a
very big and exciting twenty twenty fourcampaign as well. So like there's there's
talent, and there's depth all overthe place. I think it's going to
be really exciting to see what alot of these players do. And the
funny thing is like we kind ofstart twenty twenty four in the same place
that we started twenty twenty three,which was still playing catch up to Egosh
Fianceek, even though they kind ofdid catch up and surpass her for a

(29:53):
little bit. She ends the seasonmoving away from the field again, which
is kind of funny. It's abit tight. I think it's she's She's
got like a two hundred and twentyfive point lead on Savlenka for number one.
But yeah, there's a bit ofa gap between them and Cocoa goth
and third and then Rebakna. Butit sets up excellently for next year.

(30:15):
Simon, You're right. I wantedthe it's going to hold on Careta Billy
Jinkin Cup, but I might getto that. Now, do you have
anything else I went on the lastfew weeks. I think you mentioned Ego
winning in Asia, really dominating inChina, Jessica, you also had a
really strong Asian swing. What doyou make of that final? Just overall

(30:37):
to see Pagola lose the way thatshe did, Like, this is a
World Tour five, this is supposedto be the pinnacle of the eight best
players in the world. How manypoints did she win in this final?
It's like less than thirty, right, it was some ridiculous number of I
was trying to see how long theyou two recap was. It was five
minutes. Yeah, so I thinkthat's uh it's a gauge of like how

(31:03):
how many points they had to show. So the fact that we're even asking
the question of how the world numberfive in the World Tour finals how many
points? Yeah, not games,not sets. Number of points that she
woned the whole match would give youan indication of how one sided this was.
Is a final many I mean manythings. I don't want to,
like, I don't want to shittalk this final too much because you know,

(31:26):
of all the things, the court, the conditioning, the how much
people cared about it, the fatiguelevel of playing in November or sorry,
October at the time when they're literallyplaying in the first week of January.
Already, it's a long season.But this was kind of a chambolik final,
was it? Not? Just froman overall performance level. I think

(31:48):
you go played fine, but Idon't think JP, like I think twenty
three years for JP. She hadone break point, but like it was
one of those where it just nothingwas nothing was happening that day and it
was a bit painful. I mean, yet it's I mean this this whole
week. I have a feeling that, like to even make the final might

(32:12):
have been a winning moment, justmentally for a lot of these players,
like they had what happened. Thesingles and doubles titles matches were originally scheduled
to be contested on Sunday, butthey had to be moved up because of
the weather. Like a lot ofthings happened that were an ideal, So
I don't blame her too much forwhat's been a hectic end of the season.
Fair enough, let's talk about thebjk Ceah. God, what a

(32:37):
tough academ what a really tough I'vebeen trying to figure out how to best
do it short form so I don'tstumble on it. And as you can
tell from this episode, folks,I'm not having a good time. But
can we just call it the Billythe Billy? Call it the Billy.
The Billy was settled in Seville,Spain and Canada champions of the Davis Cup,

(32:57):
Champions at the Billy Gene King Cup. Incredible scenes led by one are
the cooler teams Simon, that Ithink you could put together. If you're
a Canadian die hard, if you'resomeone who's loved Canadian tennis, of course
you've got Leila Fernandez, the leaderof this team. US Open finalists.
Had a tough, tough season,Simon, but this was awesome to see

(33:19):
her win and win against some excellentopponents, players that she will likely no
likely, no doubt see sorry inthe early rounds of many tournaments next year.
But she was excellent for the restof the team, Simon, Rebecca
Marino, the teenager, Marina Saucic, Genie Bouchard playing a role in this
as well. And then double saysGaby Debrowski, amazing scenes to take down

(33:42):
Chechia, to take down a teamthat boasted Vontrasova, Kriichi Kova and the
lights out doubles team, Simon,very very impressive stuff. This happened whilst
I was in the backstages of myJapan trip. Yeah, could you explain
to me how the hell this happened? Yeah? How did they win?
You could say the w today puttingthat the finals in Kenkun slightly played a

(34:07):
role. I would say, becauseI wonder if Ego plays in this.
If if this event was held inEurope, in check yea, because Poland
was in Canada's group, she wasn'tthere, which is a big deal.
So I think mac delanette was theirtheir top ranked player, so Canada got
through that and then from there,Man, I think it's just generally Lala

(34:28):
Fernandez is a beast when she playsfor her country, That's simply it.
She is absolutely electric and stelkic.Like I think she had won a couple
of challenger events in a row headinginto this tournament, but so she was
the hot hand, but I don'tthink anyone expected that output from her,
like she was excellent, But Laylais fascinating man by time about resilience and

(34:51):
grinding and not having a great timeof it and really struggling this year at
certain points to really find a wayto salvage something from the season, and
reminded me a bit of Felix aswell. Like I think they both would
be the first to admit this hasn'tbeen a great year overall. Maybe or
then there have been some really difficultmoments, but both of them have been

(35:13):
excellent towards the end of the seasonand Lalo is amazing. Well kind of
world champions, aren't they? There'sno there's no take that and cod Woodrift
or whatever goon Australian was mad aboutthe Davis Cup. Are they still talking?
Huh? I can you tell I'mmad about the crooked World Cup Finals
signment that happened. Can you tellI'm pissed off. At least can go

(35:34):
into the night now, can enjoyhis retirement seenor Andre Moody having to hand
over the trophy to Pat Cummings witha scowl on his face made it all
worth it though, So that wasgreat. I'll talk more about that in
parting shots. But anyways, it'sso it's a bit weird time, like
this tournament, the way, theway, the way it's situated in the

(35:55):
calendar not ideal. You didn't haveall of the top top women's players at
this event, so we have to, I guess say that, But I
don't think that takes anything away fromwhat Canada was able to do at this
tournament. Like I said, theybeat check. Yeah, they beat one
of the best tennis countries in theworld. They beat one of the best
tennis countries full stop in the lastfive years. I think that was massive

(36:19):
Simon, So, I don't know. I think we've talked about the recent
generation of Canadians. I think wehad a replay episode talking about Dennis Felix
and Biance especially. We've seen varyinglevels of success for all of them,
and they've all carved out exceptional careers. I mean, by any standard,
what do you talk about reaching therankings that they've reached, in the titles

(36:42):
they won, they've been phenomenal.But the pipeline, I've been curious about
it. And to see guys likeGabriel Diallo succeed on the men's side and
help kind of fill that gap,and now to see someone like Brina Stelkicic,
it's pretty cool because I think there'sa few Canadians that are coming up
now in that like seventeen to eighteenrange who have this ability as well.

(37:04):
Yeah, world champions, people getit into your brain. You know when
Germany won the NBA World Cup,Yes, the NBA, she has won
the Basketball World Cup EBA, Yeah, and then everyone in the NBA like
lost theirh that's Germany calling themselves worldchampion. Before we mention any Canadian player

(37:25):
in the twenty twenty four season,we can call them world champions now,
just to fully annoy the rest ofthe tennis world. It's incredible. Did
you enjoy any of the shout outsthey got from random celebrities. I find
it interesting when tennis breaks into themainstream in Canada for events like this,
because I feel like it's right inthat sweet spot if you really got a

(37:46):
kind of care about the steaks andwhy it matters and find it in the
middle of an NFL Sunday. WasI think Premier League was on all the
sports available. I still think ithad an imprint on the Canadian sporting landscape,
which was tough to do at thistime of year. So I think
that was us. Yeah. Imean, it's just a shame that Justin
Trudeau had to comment not now,bro, Now, we don't need to

(38:12):
suck it. Okay, come on, dude, you're down by forty points.
It loose to this millhouse clown Jesus. Okay, all right? Uh
when we come back, Simon alreadyshots on this episode of Open Era.

(38:36):
Welcome back to the Openerror podcast.It's time for putting shots dvang. Let's
have a quick lightning round update fromsome of the tournaments that got played as
well. We mentioned it off thetop, but Leila Fernanders did win in
Hong Kong, bitting katharineas Yakova inthe final. A cool, cool win
for a cool person. Fantastic backinto the season for her right wins with

(38:59):
Canada at the BJKAC in the Billysorrys in Hong Kong as well sets her
up in good shape going into twentytwenty four. It's not gonna work if
you don't stick with the name.Seconds after we agree on what it should
be called, Simon, I justwant to I don't want to have another
side personal players only meeting about this, but get your head together. No,

(39:21):
like I said, excellent thirty fifth. Now the ranking ranking is massive
for many reasons obviously, but gettingthat automatic entry into tournaments, not having
this logthrough qualifiers, not having toplay the big guns right away, it'll
all be helpful. She's around somefascinating names there as well, Simon Sophia
Kennon two spots above and thirty three. Awesome ending hit the season for Leila

(39:45):
and never doubt the heart of achampion, that's what we say. And
she's got it. She's fully gotit, There's no doubt about it.
That's right. Keep an eye onworld champion. Yeah, the isn't okay.
Let's talk about Felix Ogia elism.He won in Basil, loves bas

(40:07):
and loves that place. Does lovesit. Interesting to note about this one
since he lost how many are youlose in a row? Eighty? I
don't know. It felt like eightyis the eleven that you lost? No,
I wasn't eleven, surely maybe itwas eleven. Anyway, He's now
a five time Tour champion, whichis kind of cool to see. Obviously

(40:30):
a bit of a struggle of atwenty twenty three season in general, but
for him to secure a title,even one where he knows very well in
the rapeat champion here cool to seeand we'll give him some confidence going in
the twenty twenty four season. Ithink it was eight in a row,
eight losses in finals, Sion,so you're almost close. Yeah. I

(40:50):
mean this was his first title sincelast last year at the same place,
and I think that's it's an interestingbook in and I would I would say
Felix's year has been defined by injuryas well, and it seemed like he
was finding a way to move pastthat towards the end. I was a
bit disappointed to see the performance againstthe Seabas in Paris, but I think,

(41:15):
like Laila, he has a chanceto go into this Davis Cup finals
with Canada as an important piece.He's back with the team in the final
eight, He's going to have towin some big matches against some big players,
probably plays Rus of Warre, maybeof Finland in the first tie.
It's gonna be big for him.And let's say he wins, or let's

(41:36):
say he aids Canada and making ahuge run here. Lord knows, that'll
help his confidence and maybe we cansee something similar to Laila. So I
think this is a big end ofthe season for someone who's had a really
tough go of it. Did Isee that he finished the year at twenty
nine in the world rankings? Good? Lord, is that right? I
honestly out of a season, youknow though, But like I thought,

(41:57):
it could have been worse. That'snot that Dad for the free fall.
Yeah, that's right in sandwich betweenbayers and let's move on. Quenjang I
mentioned in the previous segment one injiang Zhu, it's I thought, this
is just an interesting stat in general. It's our first title, of course,
but this was the first time inhistory that the WTA has seen three

(42:19):
Chinese women win singles titles. There'sno way that you can guess the other
two but I thought it was acool stat and shows how much Chinese centus
has grown. Obviously since Lina Isgood times are good in that in that
side of the world, because you'vegot some really good, young, up
and coming Chinese players on the women'sside, and chief among them Quenjang,

(42:39):
who I think is going to havea fantastic twenty twenty four campaign. I
believe Wang one in Guangxhu And whois the other? How dare you say
there is no way I would getthat. I I have shocked that you
would. God, who is theother? You? Maybe Jew in Thailand?

(43:02):
I think I might be great jobman, Okay, you did it,
Thank you, Thank you. Bench. I'll take it all back.
No, I think the Asians wing. Oh, it's cool to have this
back, and in the sense thatwe're not worried about a virus taking over
everywhere and people can travel relatively welland safely. But there's some cool wins

(43:23):
that happened since we last box.I mean I thought that Ben Shelton went
in Japan was one of them?Bench On one in Japan in a venue
that I have now been to.I have been there. A diver,
a diver in Tokyo. And youknow what else is in a Diver The
fucking Gundam people, the life sizeGundam. It's down there. Why was
there no shot of him holding thetrophy next to the Gundam? Come on,

(43:45):
missed out on an opportunity here,God, that would have been great.
It's a cool venue. A Diveris a bit weird, actually it's
a so A Diver was an islandthat the Japanese made, and like,
I don't know how long ago itwas, but they basically made it out
of trash and then it got reinventedin the nineties where it's skort of neoliberal
hellhole where it's just full of shoppingmalls, had highways. But it's kind

(44:08):
of fascinating to visit. It's kindof it kind of looks like all of
North America, just in Japan.Come on, I love that European snobbery
coming out. So it's a finalfor the purists with Aslan in there as
well. But you got you gotbutchered a bit in the second set,
but she has to Ben Shelton Simonshows to gel mot Fie Wow doing the

(44:29):
damn thing. When's the title Atthe age of thirty seven one for the
oldies, wasn't it? Back toback girl Montfie and Adrian Manreno and Sophia
Adrian Manria. We were tracking that, right, We were tracking that story
at the back end of the seasonto see whether or not he was going
to get to a career high ranking. He did it at the age of
thirty five. It's never too late, dev I will let you know.
I am the age of thirty four. Yeah, if you can do it,

(44:52):
then I can right need to shavemy head as a thirty five year
old. It's too late for you. I can confider it's not gonna happen.
No, it's great. I let'sget that sport. Did he get
it sponsored yet? Does Manerino actuallyhave a a deal? He was one
of the hydrogen guys for a bit. The skull crew as we used to
call them. One for the ballers, you know, one for the junk

(45:12):
ballers out there, one for thetrue players, the grinders, the shot
callers. Mannarino after our hearts andminds as a tennis player. Can we
get him tennis zi zu? Yeah? Can we get him in outfit suits
Asian man Arena Brooks? You knowthis warning brand Brooks, which I don't

(45:34):
know still exists. I wonder ifthey'd be interested in taking a flyer here
la gear, perhaps the light upshoes. Given the quantity of old people
that you see and on running,is he not the perfect perfect target to
go after. He looks like akind of player that would be at a
country club. I saw a pairof on running hiking shoes at a value
village and I nearly bought them Simon, but I had a life flashing before

(45:55):
my eyes moment where I stopped.But man, yeah, no, I
think On is too bougie for him. He's gonna go with something something pure.
I feel like we need to comeup with a fan fiction about Adrian,
about him knowing this sickos who likedthis sport. That is definitely in
the works. It's probably gone toprint already. The goat Adrian Gotino at

(46:19):
the age of thirty five up toa career high twenty two. Amazing achievement
for him, Like all ship postingaside, there's an amazing achievement. It's
fantastic to see in the sport.So I'm pretty excited. Gail's thirty seven
too. That's for the old headsout, They're awesome, no back,
of course, yep. How isGael montis thirty seven? I know,
I mean real talk. Have youheard of the person you've eaten that final?

(46:42):
Pavel quots off? Did you knowwho that was? I'm curious,
of course, I host a tennispodcast. I know every player inside at
the top two. Moving on,Moving on, Paris Brucy. I love
how I had in the notes tournamentlightning round up and then just the parting
shots. Other events have happened duringthe course of the time that we've been

(47:04):
away. Let's start a without ParisBercy. Afore mentioned at the start of
this podcast. Johnick Centner pull outof this event because of something that we've
seen many many times in the sporttennis, complete scheduling garbage. It was
atrocious. This is one of theworst I've ever seen de Bang in terms
of matches that were being asked toplay super late. Rube levon Court had

(47:28):
some really funny lines about him beingable to get to sleep at five in
the morning and thanking the tournament organizersdreadful bollocks, as they say in Britain.
Running theme and I mean we sawthis on the WTA side. Obviously
this year's well, I saw sometournament directors I can't remember if this was
Stacy Alister talking to leads the USOpen, but the gate revenue is one

(47:51):
thing, but I think it's alsothat they haven't figured out like six other
things involving this. And I don'tknow how much for a Priori reader is
across the board for these tournaments.But you think with the level of anger
that was displayed this year at varioustournaments that something would be done. But
I guess not. You know howin like crisis PR, they like,

(48:14):
something happens, right, something figuresout that I don't know, some multinational
is drinking blood from children, andthey're like, we'll just ride it out.
It'll be fine. You just doyou just get over the wave,
you know, you put out somePR statement and you say you're you're changing,
like we're switching from child blood todolphin blood. That's our that's our
change. And everyone's like, okay, we'll just move on to the you

(48:35):
know the next thing. This isnever going away in tennis, right,
like in the sense that no everysingle tournament this happens. Maybe they're just
so used to the fact that it'shappening that it's kind of moved into the
background at this point. It leadsme to think about, like where we
talk you about how tennis needs tochange and how we need to make it
a feature not a bug, thatlike the highlight of the sport that it's

(48:57):
on all the time and you canfind a match to watch it any time,
and we're not really capitalizing on that. And then in that same vein,
we're pissing off all the players becausethey're making them play at weird times
across different countries. Like we're notonly not executing well in the sense of
getting this product out to a wideraudience, but we're also angering that people

(49:19):
who are actually doing the whole playin the sports thing and making us fall
in love with it. So it's, yeah, it's kind of bleak.
Let's switch gears to a story thathas come up multiple times, and I
feel like we always apologize going intothis at the state of this fucking sport.
Alexander's say, I was issued apenalty order for bodily harm against his

(49:44):
ex girlfriend. I think it wasfour hundred and fifty thousand euros by a
court in Germany, but even Berlin. He will appeal this. What's more
to say about this other than like, I feel tremendously bad for the for
the poor young women involved here,and obviously support goes out to her and

(50:06):
her family and everything involved in it. But this is fucking terrible. Dev
How does this keep happening to thisguy? There's very little defense that we
can make of him at this pointbecause it's not on isolated one incident,
is it. This is multiple occasionsthat this is happening, and his behavior
on court is erratic, it's angry, it's dangerous to see. It's just

(50:27):
terrible. Yeah, and the ATPexplanation for why they're not looking into this
to me is just in the athleticpiece. We haven't the notes here for
Matthew Futterman. It says the ATPhas not followed a similar track with Patea
because she has pursued charges through Germany'slegal system. The ATP is opted not
to take any action or make anycomments on the case while proceeds, calling

(50:47):
such a move inappropriate, so they'rebasically washing their hands. It's another jurisdiction
handles this, right, I guessthat's their their move here, But in
times in the past. Like Iguess the first allegation, the only reason
they really did anything is because peoplelike Anymore were like, you should do
something about this, and then theyhired a third party consultant to go in
and conduct this investigation, which tookfifteen months for the Shapov allegations. So

(51:12):
it's like they need to be toldor exposed or condemned publicly to act,
it seems, and it wasn't asmuch of an outcries I thought there would
be as he played in Turin,so perhaps they won't act then. I'd
be shocked if they do. I'dbe absolutely shocked if they actually made some
or gave him some final penalty oranything, or suspension. It seems very

(51:34):
very unlikely at this point. Iguess the closing point on this, just
for the season for us to sayis like, fuck that dude, Fuck
domestic violence in general, and asa sport, we need to do significantly
better, not just in twenty twentyfour but forever. That's the only thing
that's really worth saying. Heh Well, sir sir, I think Canadian champs

(51:58):
might have broken the best team ofall time. It's over. People don't
cry because its enders cry because ithappened. Katarina Snyakiva and Barbia Crachekov are
breaking up. The split has happened. They will not play doubles in twenty
twenty four. When you have woneverything, literally everything, it's got to

(52:20):
be hard to find the motivation tocontinue to do so. Other than the
financials, of course, I'm sureit's very nice to win these tournaments and
earn the paychecks that they do.It's not particularly surprising, I suspect,
given that all of the success thatthey've had. But at the same time,
they could just keep winning everything ifthey wanted to. Shortly this year,
they both injuries really kind of messedthem up this year, and they

(52:40):
didn't look like that the same olddoubles superstar pairing that they were at those
these the Billies sorry at that eventagainst the US and then against gel as
well. But yeah, I meanthey I think they won goal at Tokyo,
correct Simons. So I wouldn't besurprised if they they rejoin in Paris

(53:01):
for a one time only type deal. What's a bit to that site as
well? There on it went tothe Olympic siteliction derelict did not It's not
enough to upkeep. It's not quitelike real. Every other Olympic thnucking like
it happens been taken over by natureat this point, this is now a

(53:23):
place where lions live. It's stillquite nice. Moving on. Belinda Benchic
is announced at pregnancy and will misstime obviously in twenty twenty four. Dev
I havn't the notes so that you'restill picking her to win a slam in
the twenty twenty fourth Is that accurate? Listen? You never know, you
never know. Really these days formedical science is at its peak right now

(53:46):
with the level of technology. Wehave no big congrats to b B.
We move, I mean this Swissconnection. We find new stars as we
do design industries. But yeah,that congrastible. Let's close punning shots this
round of it just to say AnnetteConteve is done. She wrapped up two

(54:07):
weekends ago, I believe in aexhibition against Anshabur and talent. Fantastic career.
Was sad to see her go formerworld number two, of course,
still seems bizarre that she's retiring.That she's done, sucks that the way
that her body didn't hold up onher. But in general, someone that
we enjoyed watching and enjoyed seeing playing, and it's sad to see her go.

(54:28):
We wish her all the best inretirement. Agreed Austin that Ans was
there as well. Obviously, tworeally great friends and people who've had some
awesome moments together on the tour.Who was cool for Arns to head out
to Estonia to celebrate Annette and hercareer. Wonderful to see her around the
game in other ways as well,considering her age and considering she seems like

(54:50):
a really smart person who's really wellliked by a lot of her peers.
So maybe she's got a role inthe Hollewship Tour going forward because they need
some help. We've outlined several theycertainly do. She could also find a
career in audiobook reading just given hera fantastic accent. We'll podcasting get her
involved. She'll be on this podcastbefore too long. Let's close, really

(55:14):
close, parting shots with just onefinal thought. Yeah, there's still tournaments
going on? What is going on? So it's just David's Cup, right,
that's it. No, This WTAtournament's big where there's three tournaments in
December? Oh my god? No? Okay, Well, I'll choose to
I'll choose to tackle that when itcomes because that's upsetting. And we have

(55:35):
almost done it fucking next week.Dev we have done the whole year.
Yeah, true, we got weget into our year end content, the
fireside chat you know in NBA orNFL even Premier League circles, how people
can play, you know, seasonstoo long, this kind of stuff.
How about that the United literally startedin December the twenty ninth last year.

(55:59):
We're still about the same season.It's nuts, It's nuts. It's obscene
actually, And that note two challengesremaining, Simon, what do you got?
I mean, I already mentioned allthe topic. So I obviously spent
a month in Japan and visited modalsites, and it would be fantastic to
do a round up on a podcastat some points that I saw, but
we should do that. The onepoint that I would make about this,

(56:21):
so I mentioned being in a placewith fantastic, reliable public transit and infrastructure,
and so we had the JR Passand JR is Japan Rail for those
wondering, which is basically one ofthe private companies that run some parts of
the rail network in Japan, andthat allows you to get on any JR
train just about within reasons. Sometrains that you can't get on, but

(56:43):
they're very like exclusive expensive trains.But I would say ninety ninety five percent
of the network is open to youfor three weeks, so you pay your
six hundred dollars for it. AndI've never felt more free in my adult
life. It's one of those thingsthat you just you when you were outside
of that and you're sort of stuckin the way that North America operates.
Just being able to go to anystation and get to anywhere in the country

(57:07):
so quickly, so reliably, andjust so you know, cleanly with all
that comes with it. It's absolutelyremarkable and I forgot how much I missed
it. So in short, supportpublic transit because when you do, you
feel fantastic. Wow. Incredible advertfor public transit and Tokyorail Japan reil no

(57:29):
I, like I said, Isaw a million Instagram stories the last few
weeks of some friends of mine whoare in Japan and just marveling at the
infrastructure and the transportation system, andyeah, that's on my list to get
their asap. Awesome bush to hearyou guys had a great time my parting
shot. I think I mentioned mydad before on the show a few times

(57:49):
actually, and a few weeks agoI mentioned we got a chance to play
at a court near my parents' housewith my sister and the reason why we've
been on a kind of a breakand Simon was in Japan, but also
my dad has been on a well. He had another stroke, unfortunately,
and he's recovering right now at ahospital in Toronto. But I know I've
talked to a few friends and folkswho listen to this pot about it.

(58:13):
But thanks for all the well wishesfrom yourself as well, Bush and me
a lot, so thanks to everyone. And he's still fighting and on the
road to recovery hopefully, so justplaying it one day at a time and
thankful for the time that we haveleft. I think about him a lot
when I watched tennis Simon. It'sjust that kind of relationship we have and
part of the reason why I lovethis sport. But it's hard not to

(58:37):
think about him when I was watchingfinal today, at any of the tennis
the last few weeks. But it'sa good feeling and I hope that he
can make his way back. Imean, we love and support you,
Deev. Take as much time asyou need. Best wishes to your dad
as well, Like it's one ofthose that's realized the fragility of life and
everything, and also like just areally interesting time for your relationship with Tennis

(59:00):
at Yeah, who eventually got youinto it? Like it's Yeah, I
was thinking about the how he wouldhave found the cricket final today and I
think I think not being able towatch that live would have been great.
I think you would not have hada good time watching that. So yeah,
I hope he gets better, Andyeah, we love him a lot.

(59:20):
And Tennis Man binds a lot ofus and the relationships we form over
it, they meet a lot.So we love this game and this season
somewhat kind of even though it waskind of weird, and it's still going.
But we'll talk about all that,I'm sure as we wrap up twenty
twenty three. This is our onehundred and ninety ninth episode. Simon,

(59:43):
that's pretty nuts, good lord,how Well's okay? Let's leave it there.
A reminder we are on Patreon dotcom, forward slash open era,
join us there get the show atfree Get it early on Sundays plus join
the best dang Discord in the land. Love of our Discord community immensely the

(01:00:04):
people on there have I mean,they're great. And also, over the
past few weeks, as I've beenin and out watching tennis, been able
to keep up with what's going onthanks to those folks over there. So
join them. Patreon dot com Forwardslash open Era. We're also on x
dot com for a slash opener apot. I can't believe I called it
X. Why would you do that? I'm sorry. I wanted to see

(01:00:27):
how it sounds. I wanted tosee how it sounded. It felt awful,
so I just confirmed it. Butyeah, we're on there too,
I guess for now. But that'sit for our producer, Dylan on the
Ones and Tuesday, and for Simon, thank you so much for listening to
open Era. We'll talk to younext week. Crushed it, killed it?

(01:01:17):
Wow, well done. Okay weshould just leave this and this is
so good. You killed it man, all right,