AO Recap Day 11: Do Ana Ivanovic! Do Ana Ivanovic!

00:00:10
Speaker 1: Everybody, and good morning for us. We decided to do this in the morning today because we were all living to tad last night. But we are here to give you a wrap up of Day eleven of the Australian Open. Wow oh wow, oh wow. What a couple of matches we had yesterday. Certainly there was one or two that were really great and ones that were a little bit shocking.

00:00:34
Speaker 2: So I want to kind of start with the shocking one first.

00:00:37
Speaker 1: Peto, I know we start with one of the first one of the day, but I have to talk about last night's match with Alcaraz and Zverev. What the fricking hell was Alcaraz's game plan last night?

00:00:51
Speaker 2: It was just so bad.

00:00:54
Speaker 3: Well yes, I mean, I don't know what else to say, but yes, we watched it together and we were yelling at the TV a lot, and not necessarily because Zverev was playing a great match and al Karas was not playing well. It was the game plan, right, because you sometimes as a tennis player, you can't quite control how well you are going to play.

00:01:15
Speaker 2: You just have off days.

00:01:16
Speaker 3: You have days where your feet are not working, where you don't see the ball as clearly, and these are all things that you can somewhat control, and that's what we do in training and preparation and how we eat and when we sleep and all these things. But there are just days that are a little bit off, but that doesn't matter because the game plan you can always somewhat control.

00:01:37
Speaker 2: And he was going with.

00:01:38
Speaker 3: Every serf, with every backhand, with every sitter into Zasha's backhand, who we all know, and I think even people who don't play tennis and follow tennis now that Verev has a way better back end and a much worse forehand, and so just game plan wise, it was mesmerizing Jim Corea, who was calling the match a great analysis, like always he's so good, but he kept saying he just seems flustered mentally, he can seem to think clearly, and despite him turning the third set around, I said, I don't think he's going to win today. He just looks completely up and very well. You know, Sasha, he choked, Yes he choked, he got tight, but he won't do it again. You know, if you give him the opportunity to come back, he won't do it twice. He won't do it three times.

00:02:27
Speaker 2: And he didn't. He served it out and he played well well.

00:02:31
Speaker 1: He didn't get the chance to choke it and do what he did in the third set because he didn't have to hit fourhands under pressure, and so that's the thing that just was just we were so bemused watching it. I'm like, does this guy know that Sasha's back end is literally one of the best ever. Yeah, Like, he doesn't miss his back end. He can hit it anyway, can go lying, no cross court.

00:02:53
Speaker 2: He can put.

00:02:54
Speaker 1: Power through it, which is sometimes what gives Carlos some problems. Is the ball coming right hard through the court, but with the forehand was very It's always going to be with top spin.

00:03:04
Speaker 2: It may he can't. I'm not saying that he.

00:03:05
Speaker 1: Can't hit a good forehand, but the likelihood have been messing backhands and not being as aggressive with the back end is not going to happen. He's going to continue to hit his backhand where his forehand. You can see his mind is like ticking over. Oh my god, do I go cross? Do I play safe? He was shanking and when he lost the game, serving for it, he didn't serve a great game, but he also was missing forehands. So I don't understand why Alcaraz, who there's no question, was flustered and was like complaining in the first couple of sets, which he never does. Why he didn't see, Oh, I got back into the set because I played the guy's forehand and came into the net a little bit, and all of a sudden, I'm into the four set. I don't understand what he didn't stick with that game plan.

00:03:47
Speaker 3: That was the most shocking probably of the whole thing, because as I said, Sasha was playing a great match, and I have to say one thing that jumped at me yesterday. I do think Tallos has still one thing that he needs to improve, because we see these players like Zverev who bother him, Novak who bother him. He doesn't really have a flat inside in forehand. He can flatten it out inside out, but he doesn't really. He always plays it with a bit of loop and spin. The ball that like jumps and moves out the court, which is great against most of the guys out there, but against Veref and Novak who moves so well and who have the type of forehand who need a little time to get under it.

00:04:28
Speaker 1: That like that moving ball into especially forehand, because and he can still somehow put it back and get back into the point.

00:04:37
Speaker 3: And that's one thing he needs to work on, I think, is to learn how to flatten it. And that's why he was playing all these terrible job shots because he could feel that he can the inside out. The flat one is not working because Verev has the best backhand that ever cross this earth maybe and the forehand inside in he's not making winners because Veref gets underneath it and he's really really fast for such a tall guys, is an incredible mover, and he gets underneath it and he.

00:05:03
Speaker 2: Doesn't have the flat inside in.

00:05:04
Speaker 3: And I kept yelling at him, do Ana Ivanovitch, Do Anna Ivanovitch because she had the best inside in flat forehand and I'm not expecting him to hit the ball as flat as Ana Ivanovitch did, but Anna had this inside in fourhand that could put anybody on the back foot, and it was so hard to control. And he just needs something in between Carlos al Karaz and if he wants to beat the Novaks and Verev's on a regular basis, he can beat them, but he needs to play really well.

00:05:32
Speaker 2: We saw it with Zev a few times.

00:05:34
Speaker 3: Now. He's three five now, in the head to hat and when he has beaten Zev, either Zverev had a really tough five setter, like at the US Open when he played five sets against Janick Sinna, or he had a schedule issue in Madrid when he played until three am, so he was always like kind of tired, and Carlos had to play really well. So clearly the matchup is not working for him and he needs to figure something out if he wants to beat him on a regular basis in the future.

00:06:00
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's it was just crazy.

00:06:02
Speaker 1: I honestly, I thought when he won the third set, he was going to win, and Sasha was struggling with it looked like blisters on his right foot because.

00:06:10
Speaker 2: He was you know, he ran up for one drop shot.

00:06:12
Speaker 1: In the middle part of the fourth set and he grimaced like and he wasn't sliding.

00:06:18
Speaker 2: He ran through the ball.

00:06:20
Speaker 1: And when you run through the ball, it's either because you you don't you don't want to put pressure on your you know, whatever problem you have, whether it be at your ankle or your you know, toes or your knees or whatever it is, you just sort of like keep running. And he was doing that, So I'm like dude, like your your dude down the other end is like starting to physically struggle a little bit, and here you are playing his best shot. Like I was just blown away how frankly dumb Carlos was last night, you know. And I don't know, I still put a little bit down his youth where he's sort of like.

00:06:55
Speaker 2: Not really thinking clearly.

00:06:56
Speaker 1: I don't know if Carlos, if one Carlos Ferrera would have been there just screaming shit at him, because one Carlos is so like vocal with him.

00:07:05
Speaker 2: I just wonder if he needed, like literally someone to be.

00:07:07
Speaker 1: Like, dude, remember what side's really good on his and not play it. It was the same as like a couple of matches over the last few days that we've watched, whether it be Marto Costure playing it to you know, Coco's back end under pressure, whether it be various different players, and you're just like, why can you not understand stick with the weaker shot until they stop beating.

00:07:28
Speaker 2: You with it?

00:07:29
Speaker 3: Like that's exactly what Jim said yesterday, and he said it about the surf, but I think it's a it's appliable to or applicable to anything. He said, So Zveref on the outside loves the down the teams, and everyone knows it.

00:07:43
Speaker 2: And there are stats about it, and I think.

00:07:47
Speaker 3: Literally everybody knows that if you play Sashazrev that he likes the on the outside, the tea surf with a little bit of slice. And so when Carlos had a breakpoint, and he had a breakpoint early on the second set, it happened a couple of times. Knows how the match goes if he wins the second set, because he was down one, six, three six. They had only played an hour. And that's when you panic, right when you are down two sets and you've only played an hour. You haven't found your rhythm, you haven't found your footwork, and all of a sudden you're already down two sets. And he had an early breakpoint, and Jim said, before the serve was hit, you have to close down the tee, have him beat you with his weaker side, and Carlos didn't. Zvere faced him down the tee and then he won the set six to three. And it just shows you the loss of clarity he had yesterday, just not seeing clearly. And I think Jim said it, this is the first time we see some kind of junior Carlos al Karaz. We think of him as so maturely because he's so talented and so good.

00:08:45
Speaker 1: I mean, guys won two Grand Slams already at his age.

00:08:48
Speaker 2: It's pretty spectacular.

00:08:50
Speaker 1: But yeah, yesterday was a confusion.

00:08:55
Speaker 3: Yesterday was a good tactical not a good tactical approach.

00:09:00
Speaker 2: This guy Zverev, What the fuck? I mean?

00:09:03
Speaker 1: He's got all this shit going on in his life. You know, in May he's supposed to be in court, he's like, you know, contesting this fine, this fee that he has to pay. I mean, there's a lot going on in his in his after off the court life, and he just keeps winning and tournaments keep promoting him, and it's just.

00:09:22
Speaker 2: Like, what the hell I mean? Wow.

00:09:24
Speaker 3: Well, one sports psychologist said something really interesting to a new one time. I was struggling with something private too, and I couldn't win any matches and I was just under so much the ress and pressure and just couldn't separate it, basically, And he said to me, there are two types of people, especially athletes. There are some who bring their private problems with them on court and they just can't find the clarity and focus to perform their best. You me, for example, and there are other athletes who feel the safest on the tennis court, or on the football pitch, or on the soccer pitch, whatever you may call it, where they this is the one place they can escape their private problems, right, and that's why they performed the best. And when the first allegations came up against Asha Zverev, he won two tournaments and now he's playing incredible again. He played really well at United Cup and maybe this is what it feels like to him, like a safe space, and that's why. And he played a great match. And I have to say one thing about him. That guy is really pain resilient.

00:10:30
Speaker 2: He is a tough motherfucker, really, like you can say a lot.

00:10:35
Speaker 1: I think that's the Russian in him.

00:10:37
Speaker 2: Probably it's certainly not the Germans. That's my point. I didn't want to say that in front of you.

00:10:42
Speaker 1: But you're also got you know, Serbian parents, so you have a little tough motherfucker in you as well, because I think that's also part of your DNA.

00:10:50
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean we saw it with Seblenka's Belar Russian obviously, but we saw it with Saballenka in a different manner, and Zef had the yips too, and he just went about his business, just continued and everyone was making fun of him.

00:11:02
Speaker 2: And laughing at him.

00:11:03
Speaker 1: Some people would have broken down, like santril Anka and z but you just think that's that dogged like determination and just his upbringing and whatever. But anyway, so anyway, that was a huge upset in some respects, but in some respects it wasn't because of the head to head and yeah, just.

00:11:19
Speaker 3: The way that such and we both are a strong believer and had to head. So we keep bringing up there is a reason players put you. When you see a head to head like that, you can tell that this particular player puts Carlos in uncomfortable positions. And then it's our job as an analyst to look at the match and see why. And yesterday I saw a thing with this forehand inside out that I thought was one reason inside in.

00:11:43
Speaker 2: Sorry, there was one of the reasons.

00:11:45
Speaker 3: There are many other reasons because of the backhand flat, the flat shot from Zasha and many other reasons.

00:11:52
Speaker 2: Great surf. He keeps him.

00:11:53
Speaker 1: You know, he's in control of the service points from the beginning. He serves a lot, you know, to the forehand, which normally you know, you get in trouble with Carlos because he has such a great fuehand, but his serf goes away from his forehand. It really slides away, and so with his grip, and and he's not the tallest Carlos and so it's like moving away from him. On the other hand, he's going to have to serve really well in the next match, because Daniel Medvedev, what a freaking match that was. Oh my god, has Hubei her couch played more matches to go the distance, whether it be three sets or five sets.

00:12:28
Speaker 2: I was just surprised they didn't play more taybreaks. It was just one time break. I feel like nominal. It was hot at least seven I.

00:12:35
Speaker 1: Think it was so hot yesterday that they were getting a bit flustered, and particularly Daniel Medvedev said that after the second set he was dead died, and it was it was quite hot when they were playing, so I think it was just a matter of our shit, like how much do I want to fight to get back.

00:12:50
Speaker 2: Into this set.

00:12:51
Speaker 1: So when I went to the fifth it was and it was really incredible tennis and Daniel Medvedev pulled out some just crazy shit at the end to win that match, and I loved this. What the hell was that? A drop shot on match point? It was like, we're all in the green room, like go to the net, Like, go to the net. He's like no, He's like runs into there and he decides to hit a drop shot off beforehand. And he even said it in the postmatch interview to Jim. He's like, hey, you like my drop shot on match point?

00:13:16
Speaker 2: I mean, the guys.

00:13:17
Speaker 1: Guy is such a character, it's unbelievable.

00:13:19
Speaker 2: But what do you think?

00:13:22
Speaker 1: I want to talk about the matchup a little bit with Medvedev and like, what are your thoughts on that one?

00:13:27
Speaker 2: Well, it's really interesting.

00:13:28
Speaker 3: They seem to be running into each other every single tournament. It feels like every single tournament they are playing each other, and so far in Medvedev is winning those matches, but they are always really close. They are six four in the third, seven five and the third, and they are ugly at times, not all of them, but the Indian World's match was ugly, the Monte Carlo match was ugly. The Cincinnati match was terrible, absolutely atrocious. So it's going to be interesting to see. I think they both don't like playing each other, you know, And it will be really interesting to see whether Medvedev will be affected by the Netflix portrayal of him, where Netflix kind of portrayed him as the villain and who had to overcome to get this to his comeback or something.

00:14:17
Speaker 2: I haven't seen it. It's just why I've paid as well. I haven't seen it either.

00:14:20
Speaker 1: But how can you make anyone out to be the villain other than Sveref?

00:14:25
Speaker 2: Like? What is your problem? Netflix?

00:14:27
Speaker 1: Are you getting me the guys up for? Like, oh my god, anyway, we won't get into that. I know you probably want us all to get into that, give us the juice, But I think the fact that they made Medvedev out to be the villain in that situation is just hilarious.

00:14:41
Speaker 2: Well, and that we will see.

00:14:42
Speaker 3: I don't think he thinks about these things that much, but still he might. He might have an extra motivation to try and win this. I think Medvedev looked brilliant at times. I do think he looked a little bit patchy. And what I mean by that that well, yeah, he had always had sets where he played really bad or patches of play where he played really, really bad, and I think Sasha is playing very solid and I'm not sure he can afford that against Usha at this tournament.

00:15:08
Speaker 2: But don't you think that he won't do that.

00:15:10
Speaker 1: I think he knows that he could be a little bit patch against Ruby, just because Hub's a great player, don't get me wrong, but he knows that Hubi also gets.

00:15:16
Speaker 2: A little tight.

00:15:18
Speaker 1: He's not, you know, not quite as solid from the back of the court all the things.

00:15:21
Speaker 2: Right now.

00:15:21
Speaker 1: Hub also has an amazing serve. But I think that he'll be switched on for this match because he knows exactly what he's going to get to me. It was hilarious yesterday. It looked like Zverev when he was playing the match towards the end, it looked like he was the guy that like they forgot to when you went out to the desert for a walk, or you went up like Medvedev when you went out for a walk up the mountains, you went for a hike, you know, and you're like, hey, man.

00:15:46
Speaker 2: Where hey, where did Zverev go? I mean, where did Medvedev go?

00:15:50
Speaker 1: I don't know what you're supposed to bring him with? Wait, Oh my god, we've lost him. And then five days later he comes walking out of the desert like he's like sunburn and his face is like got third degree burns on and these hair is all over the place. He's like, guys, you left me out there, I swear.

00:16:07
Speaker 2: And the fifth set, that's what he looked like.

00:16:08
Speaker 1: It was no hat, clearly no sunscreen. He's gonna have like third degree burns on his nose, on the side of his face. He just cracks me up, cracks me up.

00:16:27
Speaker 2: So I don't know. I mean, I'm obviously.

00:16:29
Speaker 1: Calling for him to win that semi final.

00:16:31
Speaker 2: Well, and he did.

00:16:33
Speaker 3: I thought that the US Open he did a similar thing. We don't know yet, but at the US Open he looked really patchy, and all his matches always had stretches of matches always had stretches of play where he looked really really bad. And when media dev looks bad, he looks terrible. I'm sorry. And then he played the match of the tournament in my opinion, against Carlos Alchoraz, because Carlos was playing well, yeah, and media def really went out of his comfort zone, came to the net, played the aggressive and deserve to win. That match was so so good in that semi final, and maybe he will do the same against Sasha.

00:17:06
Speaker 2: Sasha in two days, yes, and two days.

00:17:09
Speaker 3: So tomorrow we have recording a day later, so tomorrow they will play. But again, Zverev looking more solid than ever, and he's he's doing well.

00:17:19
Speaker 2: He plays well in Australia.

00:17:20
Speaker 1: Yeah, and you know he's he's under investigation still, so he's gonna keep playing well. He's got to pay those bills. Anyway, Let's get to the Chiky babies. Yestremska look great yesterday against Nskova. I mean, Nskova was definitely a little bit ob viously it certainly didn't play as you know well, But also you have to think that poor old Maskova, you know, she gets that great win over Eger, goes out against uh could keep on playing Switzerlana, thank you God, goes out against Switzerlana and gets the default essentially at three love. You know, a lot of us would be like, oh great, you know, you don't have to play a long taxing match.

00:17:59
Speaker 2: But I think that hurt her.

00:18:01
Speaker 3: I said the same thing, and so interesting that you say that because she was in the first Well, I said the same thing, and I was sitting with Radek Stepanek, I had lunch with him, was playing the doubles legends and his dad discovered Noskova.

00:18:14
Speaker 2: I didn't know, but he.

00:18:16
Speaker 3: There from the same town in Czech Republic, and his dad discovered her basically and was her coach. And Radek told me, no, it's the best thing that happened to her, because I said exactly the same thing.

00:18:30
Speaker 2: He said.

00:18:30
Speaker 3: She had a billion phone calls, a billion messages, she didn't sleep one minute after that win against IGASCIONTEG, and she was just like a bird on electricity, basically, And he thought that it would have been really, really a big challenge for her to beat Suitolina that day unless Suitelina had somehow either self distructed or gotten injured. But he said that the day and a half after she beat Ega were really rough in a great way, but so much energy.

00:18:59
Speaker 2: Wasted on just being excited and answering.

00:19:01
Speaker 3: And she's nineteen, and she's so nice and she's nineteen, And I have to say, in terms of matchup, the big hitters hate to play big hitters.

00:19:10
Speaker 2: Ye.

00:19:10
Speaker 3: That's like, for example, Camilla Georgie, the player she loses to are you would think are somebody who plays, you know, the Vincies of the world, Paulinis. But actually she loses to the Pliskovas, she loses to the Rebeccinas, she loses to the Saballeenkas. Now she's not at her top form, Georgie is, but when she was playing her really great matches, she would have always lose to Carolina. She would always lose to the big hitters. And big hitters. The reason they hit big is they don't want to be running around and they don't want to be dictated that they want to dictate. And you could see a Stremska hits the ball almost bigger than.

00:19:44
Speaker 1: Oh my god, not almost one hundred percent more. It was like she was like seven miles an hour harder at least with her ground stroke speed, and Oscar hits the all big and Extremska is just hummeling the ship out of the ball.

00:19:58
Speaker 2: I mean that's food qualifying and.

00:20:01
Speaker 1: Battled in collies like one every match in qualifying in three sets. She also was ninety three in the world, so she technically in the main drawer, but because of all the special rankings like Angie Kerber no Amosaka, well, Naomi got a wild card didn't she I don't know, but there were definitely some people in the draw with special rankings, so it would have been interesting to see without those special rankings people getting in. Would she have got in into the main draw on her own? And where would she be if she hadn't played colleagues in some respects, because she's the type of player that if she plays a lot of matches now she's seen the ball really well and she's not overplaying and not overhitting, and I mean she's still overhits sometimes, but you know, she's that's her little structure, a little more structure and also being tired. I think helps players like that because they don't want to run around. Yeah, they go for it and they're seeing the ball, so be it's she's going to be. I'm telling you she's not going to be a rollover.

00:21:00
Speaker 2: I mean, she's two wins away from pulling a ratal Carnu.

00:21:03
Speaker 1: And I said nat will never ever ever happen again. And I cannot believe that I could be completely and utterly wrong. She's got to win two matches and she can do it.

00:21:13
Speaker 2: She can do it because she has the game. She can hit anybody.

00:21:17
Speaker 1: Stuff her serve is a little bit the only thing with her service.

00:21:22
Speaker 2: She can hit it really well, but.

00:21:23
Speaker 1: There are patches where she because her technique is not great.

00:21:27
Speaker 2: And I just want to say something on this Kova.

00:21:29
Speaker 1: We know that she was a part of the Melanie Malleto little group, so maybe when she met left Stephan Stepanek's dad, she went to Melanie Molodor who completely fucked her game up because her serve is woeful.

00:21:43
Speaker 2: Because Melanie Molitor does not.

00:21:46
Speaker 1: Teach good technique on the serf in particular, the ground is are one thing, but on the serf she believes that you know, girls can't hit kick serves and all this sort of stuff. I mean, I've spoken to a couple of Czech coaches and she is.

00:21:59
Speaker 2: First of all, she's rudle on these plays.

00:22:00
Speaker 1: And apparently Noscova like bailed out of that training camp because she was just like it was too much. But also the technique that she has now you know, implemented into Naskova's game is what hurts her because her elbow could not be any lower on her serf. So I know that's a work in progress for her current coaches.

00:22:18
Speaker 2: But geez, I'll.

00:22:19
Speaker 1: Tell you what That's the one thing about Melanie Molodol. She's got to just realize that the worst part of her daughter's game, So don't teach a surf. And she teases the same serve to everybody like ben chic Noskova.

00:22:31
Speaker 2: It's I think she improved it quite well.

00:22:35
Speaker 3: But the the thing with Moscow is that in the when she played Ego, she played at night. I think the roof was closed. It's definitely easier to serve at night than rot labor arena. The breeze settles down.

00:22:47
Speaker 2: She's checked.

00:22:47
Speaker 3: They love indoors, yes, exactly, it feels a bit more indoors. And then even if your surf has maybe a little bit of a glitch and the technique, even.

00:22:55
Speaker 2: I could serve indoors, you know, and I had a terrible serf.

00:22:59
Speaker 3: But then with my son, with the wind, with the heat, that's when when things can go off. And yes, Jamska was the better player yesterday, absolutely, and the way she served it out was really impressive.

00:23:10
Speaker 1: And a little good thing that she did before the serving out of the game, she took out a note. You know, obviously all players we write down, like you know, all the things that we want to remember under stress, whether it be you know, take your time before the serve, make sure you go for your inside out fourhand, whatever it is, it's all written there, or maybe there's a game plan specifically in there for the person you're playing. So I thought it was great that she sat down and didn't rely on looking at her coach and her mom and like thinking about everything. She got the piece of paper out, read the piece of paper, walked down that end, and served a brilliant game and executed really well.

00:23:46
Speaker 2: And so I think it's because she had that.

00:23:48
Speaker 1: Very clear, clear game plan she read her like somebody else. Unlike Alcaraz, he should have had a bloody piece of paper in front of him last night saying just hit it to the forehand.

00:23:58
Speaker 2: No, no, he should have had a book that just repeated.

00:24:01
Speaker 1: Over and over again, what you do when you used to get in trouble at school. I will not talk me.

00:24:06
Speaker 2: I will not by Simpsons.

00:24:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, it should have just mean you have to play to his forehand. You have to play to his forehand.

00:24:12
Speaker 2: Oh my god. Anyway, let's not get into that again.

00:24:14
Speaker 1: So Strenskat is through and the evening match was Kalinskaya against Chinwin Jung and what a what an interesting match that was. I think the thing that we loved about that much more than anything was how well behaved they both were both unbelievable.

00:24:31
Speaker 3: We were talking about it in the books, so I called it for Worldfield, you call it for ESPN, And we kept talking about when chin Win lost the first set, how calm she looked on the on the bend.

00:24:44
Speaker 2: She didn't panically look up at her coach.

00:24:47
Speaker 3: She just closed her eyes tried to find the way to win this match, and the same on the other side. In the end, Anna got, I think, very tired. She had played a lot of tennis, and you could see she had her hip, hip or thigh was bothering her a little bit. That's when she started to get a bit flustered about the birds and the seagulls and girlfriend, yeah.

00:25:09
Speaker 2: They ain't going away.

00:25:10
Speaker 3: Yes, there was like at the very end when she was down one four and Chinwin was playing so well that it felt like because they were really close and level, and all of a sudden, the paths just divided and Anna got slightly worse, slightly dropped her level, and Chin Wen just raised on a completely different standard. And it was really mesmerizing to see how she came back from And honestly, the most pressure in that top half is on Chinwn and she's only twenty one years old.

00:25:37
Speaker 2: And I said it in the booths too.

00:25:39
Speaker 3: We think of her as this experienced player who was going to make the final. Of course, why wouldn't she She's so talented. Last year at the US Open was her first quarterfinal. This is three months ago. Girlfriend has not played that many quarterfinals and second weeks of Grand Slam tournament, so she needs to find experience too, and she handled it brilliantly. Were not her game, how much damage it can do, but how she handled the situation of being the highest seed left in the top half with only her second Grand Slam quite a final.

00:26:11
Speaker 2: Chapaul Man, I was so impressed.

00:26:13
Speaker 1: I thought she served really well in the end, you know, and everyone could sort of critiques this funky service motion, but I was saying last night, and I'm the first to critique a service motion if I think it's shit. But you know, the ball toss is a little funky. She has the hitch on that and then the arm gets a little bit weird. But when it gets into the like sort of midway through the serve. It's a really really good serve like trophy position with the elbows high. Guys and all know how I feel about the elbow Noscoba, but I think she gets the elbow pie which allows her to go to pronate, to go to the back end, or to slide it big down the tee, and she hit some big serves in the end in.

00:26:49
Speaker 2: The third set.

00:26:50
Speaker 1: And also for those at home, the reason why she hit like four or five incredibly difficult bounce smashes or smashes out of the air overhead is fantastic because she doesn't have to worry about the ball toss and her technique is very good. The elbow is high. She could and she didn't hesitate for one miller second in hitting an overhead. And we know pet Go, a lot of chicks don't necessarily under pressure like to hit it overhead. They'd rather hit a drive volley and not this one. She just puts that racket up there and just smashes it just like Serena, like give it to me, and I'm going to hit it, and I'm going to make it ninety nine percent of the time. And she did that beautifully last night. But her composure, her ability to not overplay. I think that's the one thing. Because she's still young, she has so much power that sometimes she pulls the trigger a little bit early. And I said it in the coverage yesterday.

00:27:40
Speaker 2: She has to.

00:27:41
Speaker 1: Learn yellow light like, she has green light, red light like, and she has to find the middle ground, which so does Yustremska and you, Scrimpster, did that really well yesterday too.

00:27:51
Speaker 2: Under pressure.

00:27:52
Speaker 1: You don't always have to redline every single shot. You know, in tennis, there is there is the orange light, stay with the point, green light, go right, and she has when she she started to do that really well in the third set and the end of the in the tie break in the second set. Oh sorry, in the second set, towards the end, she was really controlled with when to go for it and then callan Sky on the other hand, got a little bit frustrated because she wasn't getting the errors and she wasn't getting those short balls, and I just thought Chin went. The way she closed that out yesterday was absolutely brilliant.

00:28:24
Speaker 3: Yeah it was.

00:28:25
Speaker 2: And just one thing.

00:28:26
Speaker 3: On the second serve, she does tend to serve always the slice that goes either into the body or into the forehand.

00:28:32
Speaker 2: I think that's why she says a lot of double files.

00:28:34
Speaker 3: She's the woman remaining in the field that has served the most double faults also the most aces so and I think that's the reason she's struggling against Sablenka and these big forehand players because if she they know it's coming. Sablenka is waiting there already with the full swing to take a to take a full head at it. And I think if she can incorporate a kick, especially on clay Man, she will be very, very hard to beat.

00:29:01
Speaker 1: She just got to get the ball toss back a little bit on the second serve. It's really far ahead of her on the first serve and then still far ahead of her on the second serve. If she gets the ball toss back just ever so slightly and then gets that pronation and that kick, then she'll be fine because she has the motion which is really important to be able to hit the kickserf She's just got to get her toss back, which I know her coach, Pera Riba is going to probably work on.

00:29:25
Speaker 2: I mean, the dude he grew.

00:29:27
Speaker 1: Up on clay so he knows exactly how to hit a kick serf, So I'm sure he's going to implement that into a game and I'm excited for him me too.

00:29:33
Speaker 3: And he son a week interviewed him just before the match when he was in the box and he I asked him, what did you work Is there something specific that you work on in the off season and he was like, oh, actually the forehand at the back end. And I was like, oh, he still sees so much upside to her game. There are still so many things he's working on and there is and rightfully so. And there wasn't like one thing that is still missing in the reports, while he was like basically everything, and he said, she's still so young. There's still so much I don't even know where to begin. So look at her. She's in the semifinals, she's the highest seat left in the top half. She has a very good chance to get into the final. And there are still so many things that her coach wants to improve and is.

00:30:16
Speaker 2: Excited about, and we're excited.

00:30:18
Speaker 3: I just wanted to say one or a couple of sentences about Anna Kalinskaya. She played all tournament long and all Australian trip long, because she played in Adelaide. She played in Brisbane and won couple of matches.

00:30:29
Speaker 2: Everywhere. She played much better than her ranking. She's ranked seventy five.

00:30:33
Speaker 3: Right now she will be ranked in the top fifty, close to a seated position thirty eight, I think, and I think that's much more her ranking. We saw it yesterday. The first set and a half was.

00:30:44
Speaker 2: Really really high quality good. She's so good.

00:30:47
Speaker 1: The boss shiking the serve is good. I took to Patricia Tarabini, her coach. You know, one thing they wanted to work on the serve in particular was just I was like, well, what are you working on this? So she is taking her time, that's it nothing to technicol just take her time. And she does tend to get a little bit pissy pants, not pizsy pants, but when things go wrong she starts rushing. So take the time on the surf. If she's looking for the forehand, she said, she's really confident, and she was. She was fantastic last night. She just ran out of gas. I think in the third and just Kinwin Chinwin started to get a little bit more shape on the forehand, which pushes her opponents back and then she can attack on both the four.

00:31:23
Speaker 3: Yeah, and we had we had a really interesting stet in the throughout the tournament when has hit sixty four percent of the rally shots with the forehand, and yesterday in the first set she under she was forty six percent, and which also speaks to the game plan of Anna kalinz Kaya. She somehow managed to have Chin Wen just hit backhands and her backhand is great, but you just don't get that same angle, and especially her back end is flat, and Ana kalin Kaya she likes that flat shot. And then in the second set she managed to go around a bit more, take more forehands from the center of the court, and it really turned the whole match around. And especially what you just mentioned with the shape, that's the ball that Anna Koonska doesn't like as much, and she missed a.

00:32:06
Speaker 2: Few more shots and all of a suddenly win the third set.

00:32:08
Speaker 1: It was the one thing that Mary Joe said as well, she just got to start looking Mary Joe, who was doing the match with a EA spencer, She's got to start looking for the forehand.

00:32:15
Speaker 2: I don't know why she's not, because also the shape of.

00:32:17
Speaker 1: Her forehand is what gives so many women on the WTA so many problems because there's only a few players that play with that shape and that spin, and they all love the flat ball, but the toppy ball is a little bit more. It's a little bit more difficult to control, especially when you get a bit nervous. So overall, Chinwen now against Jastremska, I don't think this is any given that Chinwen is going to win this match because just Stremska had.

00:32:44
Speaker 2: Her very best I agree with you.

00:32:46
Speaker 1: Who was once twenty one in the world and just a little thing on killin Skaya. She was also going up in the rankings last year and then had that awful period of time where she had an hamstring injury.

00:32:56
Speaker 2: She missed I believe the French Open and Wimbledon.

00:32:59
Speaker 1: So she's going to make up shitloads of points at those tournaments.

00:33:02
Speaker 2: So I suspect that she can be in the top thirty on the end of you.

00:33:05
Speaker 1: And I want to give a little shout out to her coach, Patricia Tarabini, who's been with her for over four years now. They have gone through the ups, the downs, the can.

00:33:14
Speaker 3: I do this?

00:33:14
Speaker 2: Can I not?

00:33:15
Speaker 1: And Patricia's just supported her. She's like her daughter to her. They trained together in Miami. It's a great relationship coach player relationship. Super happy for Patricia that she's put in all this time and effort with Anna and they both are now reaping some benefits of it. And Anna's a really lovely girl.

00:33:33
Speaker 3: You know.

00:33:33
Speaker 1: It would have been interesting for her though, because her you know, the flag has gone from her because she's under the Russian flag, but her mom is Ukrainian. So I bet you that's a very strange dynamic for her to deal with at home and certainly on the tour with the Ukrainian players. And I was almost like interested to see her play against your stream's going to see how she'd handled that anyway.

00:33:53
Speaker 3: Wells just maybe one word on the Yes dram Skirchen when I'm interested to see how Diana will react to that loop beforehand of Chinwan. I almost think that it will be okay for her because she's set up, yes, and she has so much power and if she has the time to set up and.

00:34:13
Speaker 2: Swing through it, that might be.

00:34:15
Speaker 3: And then she has the flat ball into chin Wan's forehand where she can be sometimes a little late.

00:34:19
Speaker 2: It's going to be a really interesting matchup.

00:34:21
Speaker 1: It's one of them is going to be well, they're both into their first semi final of a Grand slang, which is already in and of itself. As you know, Petko adaunting feeling when you walk on the court, as you did at the French Open, where you're like, oh my god, I'm in a semi final.

00:34:33
Speaker 2: Holy shit. So they're both going to feel a little weird.

00:34:37
Speaker 1: But it's good that one is going through it, as is the other, so it'll be interesting to see how who handles that situation better. Of course, Coco and Sabolenka are also today. I think that Sablenka wins this match comfortably, comfortably if she plays like she's been playing this tournament and Coco's been playing this tournament because Coco has not been her best.

00:35:00
Speaker 2: Will she bring her best today?

00:35:01
Speaker 1: I'm sure she will, knowing that she has to and she is not the favorite in this match, and it's the first time she hasn't been the favorite playing a match, and I think she's going to feel less stress Coco, and I think Saberlenka is clearly going to feel some pressure because she knows she is oh my god, this draw is so open for someone like her, and she tends to get a little bit crazy when that happens. It happened at the US Open a couple of years ago, it happened last year. Like she can get a little bit nuts. So when she's like, oh my god, I'm supposed to win this now, and if she doesn't and comes out in place like she has this whole tournament, I'm just going to tip my hat and go, girlfriend, you know how to dominate matches.

00:35:39
Speaker 2: And I really really think exactly.

00:35:42
Speaker 3: I really think if she manages to defend this title with the job being open, after everything that has happened last year, where she was up a set and a break in almost every single Grand Slam tournament, I think she will unlock another level.

00:35:54
Speaker 2: In her head.

00:35:55
Speaker 3: And I think we can see somebody very very dominant. Yeah, on all surfaces, in all Grand Slam tournaments, with Ega being her biggest rival, especially on the clay court and Rebucca on the grass courts.

00:36:08
Speaker 2: It's going to be great. We look forward to it.

00:36:10
Speaker 1: Of course, the two women's semifinals are tonight, so we'll give you the wrap up I have tomorrow. She's also late podcasts got to play another match today because her match got suspended yesterday because the court was shit, it was bubbles.

00:36:25
Speaker 2: There was bubbles on the court.

00:36:26
Speaker 1: But anyway, all right, guys, we appreciate you hanging with us. We appreciate you all around the world. I know there's a lot of you everywhere, and we really appreciate you taking the time to listen to us. All Right, kids, we're going to say not again, good night. Of course it's the Morgan.

00:36:39
Speaker 3: We're going to say

00:36:41
Speaker 2: Babe,