AO Recap Day 14: Chopped Like a Linden Tree

00:00:09
Speaker 1: Okay, okay, well it's bad time. It's bad time, it's bed time. Hold on, it's beer time.

00:00:18
Speaker 2: Kids.

00:00:19
Speaker 1: Actually I'm going to go get a shot at tequila too.

00:00:21
Speaker 2: Now, if we were the.

00:00:24
Speaker 1: Welcome everybody, Welcome everybody, if.

00:00:26
Speaker 2: We were the best podcast in the world, now would be the time to be like Renee, do you like a cold Heineken from the fridge when you come home from work?

00:00:34
Speaker 1: Yes?

00:00:34
Speaker 2: Andrea, in fact, I do love a cold Heineken when I come back.

00:00:37
Speaker 1: But we won't do it. No, no, we don't do advertising for free. And frankly, I think I'll be searching more for a tequila brand like Casas or anyway. Guys, welcome to the second to last day of our podcast, our daily podcasts here from the Austra and Open.

00:00:55
Speaker 2: It's been a joy bringing it to you, and we forget.

00:00:57
Speaker 1: We bring it to you at night because well we finished at a quite an early time tonight because well, sadly this match was a bit of a pooper scripper. But let's get into it a little bit. Andrea Pekovic, of course, is joining me once again on the podcast Petco. We both called the match you for World, feed Me for ESPN, and unfortunately it went the way we thought it was going to go. We hope, you always hope that you know, Chinwin was going to turn up and play her best match, that maybe Arena would get a little bit nervous and we'd have a little bit of parody early on in the match, and then bang, she just comes out firing away. Chinwen was clearly nervous. It was a little bit overwhelming for her. Overwhelming, But let's what's your perception of this.

00:01:44
Speaker 2: I think the overwhelming that the word you used, overwhelming is exactly the right word. I think she really looked overwhelmed by the peace more than actually by her emotions as in the previous matches. She actually looked very posed. She looked host on the inside, I'm sure it looked very differently, but on the outside she looked like she had everything under control. But I think she was just overwhelmed by the pace that Arena brought from the get go. She hadn't faced any top fifty players, and I think that caught up with her.

00:02:16
Speaker 1: That was my patron bony.

00:02:19
Speaker 2: Even though she she did well in putting them away, and she did well in you know, winning those matches that she was supposed to win. That's a different type of pressure. But she looked overwhelmed by the solidity, consistency, heaviness, and pace that Arena Sabalenka was putting on from the get go. And in my opinion, and I'm so interested because we didn't talk. We normally always talk about the match and then we sit down to record the podcast, and that's why I'm actually so excited to hear your thoughts on it. In my opinion, the biggest difference was the first shot of the game, which is serve and return. I thought Arena was serving as she had all tournament long, serving very well. Chin Win was serving as she was doing all tournament long, well in moments, terrible in others, and specifically returning absolutely terribly. And what I mean by that she didn't make returns. She either went for too much or she missed them. She missed so many returns, and especially that white surf that Arena played over and over and over again. And I had called Chin Went's third round match against one Yafan, who was a very tough opponent. She barely got through that ten to eight in the third set tiebreak. In the tie break exactly and Yafan was consistently serving that white serf and chin Wen went for down the lines. Missed five, made one, missed six, made one. She made a very important one at seven to all in the tie break, so everyone was like, oh, this was the right n grape shot exactly, but eventually it kind of lost her the match today. Not that it was closed and that could have changed it, but at least make Arena play, at least get into the rally, at least give yourself the chance. And she kept going for down the line. That was the one shot that I didn't understand.

00:04:09
Speaker 1: And the funny thing was in the very last game of the match, clearly when Arena was starting to shit herself, okay, because you're like, oh my god, I'm a set in five to two breaks, like there's no chance I can lose this, right, and sometimes believe it or not, you get more nervous in those moments, and you do it if it was five four in the third, because you're so locked in. At five four in the third, you're like, cannot have a late letdown, cannot think about the final, cannot think about the last point, cannot think about the match being over. You're like, stay focused, Whereas when you're a set in five too, you.

00:04:37
Speaker 2: Like the trophy.

00:04:40
Speaker 1: There's the trophy president over there, they're coming on the court. I'm like, oh, focus, Oh but I'm five two up. Wait, I can't lose, can I'm not five to two? I mean, all that shit does go through your head, and if anyone says it doesn't, they're lying. Okay, it's just how long does it stay in your head? Not long you're like, okay, fack, focus, But you do have those moments of thinking, whereas it's if it's five four and the third when you think about how she played that match last year, there was no let up allowed last year. Yes, you had to stay so focused, and she had to stay so focused, and she managed to do that last year against Rebakina. And in this one she gets a forty loves. So she's of course like, match is omer right, and then she starts getting a little tight. But guess what Chinwin made returns? She might reply, and then all of a sudden it's like, oh I got a bit of a mistake here, mistake there.

00:05:27
Speaker 2: For and the returns were not great. No, she just made them, she just put them in. And that's what I mean, sometimes you just have to let the opponent play and see what happens. And if Arena is too good, which she was today, I think she would have won even if chin Wen had made more returns. But at least you give them the chance to fail. At least you give them the chance to miss, and she didn't do that enough on a consistent basis.

00:05:51
Speaker 1: And listen her fourhand extremity grip, just like Coco, just like Iger shon Tech. I think about Sam Stowe like I think about the people that had really really and a lot of players do have the extreme grip now, but when you serve them really well out wide, you can get them a lot because they, you know, by the they don't have the you know, sort of semi eastern, semi western or eastern grip where they can sort of get under the ball on end range. Right when your end range on a forehand and you don't have an extreme grip, you're actually still hitting the ball with the flat part of the racket, whereas if you're end range with a very extreme grip, your racket face is facing the ground right. So it's a very different feeling for someone like her. So she needs to figure out a way to cut that angle off a little bit and get it back cross court. Like you have to think we said in the in the commentary, chip one back, just chip it back deep. Makers have to hit her forehand down the line to win the point because we know that Sabalanca's best foehand is cross court. So for sir, if she wants to here a forehand for a winner to go down the line, so you have to when you're out there. Look, it's very obvious too that her mind was probably going a million miles an hour, like I'm getting killed in this final. People paid a lot of money for these tickets. Oh my god, I'm playing China as well. In China. I mean, she had such unbelievable support there tonight. It was crazy.

00:07:16
Speaker 2: It was great to see and I'm sure so many Chinese people were watching back home and the TV. That's a lot of pressure also, there was also a lot of pressure.

00:07:24
Speaker 1: So yeah, absolutely, so that Look, we're being hard because this is what we do. We do expect certain things from certain people, and if you're in a Grandson final, we expect you to play up to that. But at the same time, we're very aware that it's her first Grandson Final, and she will be so much better. She'll be so much better. And I saw Peaiba her coach after the match, and he knows that there's so many parts of her game that can improve. There's no question about that. I think her end rain shots, meaning the balls that she's on running to the absolute ends of the court, the side of the court, they need to improve. And I think one area that she could get better at also when she playing a power player like that is you have to be able to change the pace sometimes right and so end range on her backhand, for example, her back end's very good. She actually handled the ball to her back end power much better right because she's got the left hand she can use and she stayed down on the back end was the forehand she was coming up because the extremity on her grip. She feels like when your racket faces down and the balls on you really fast, you have to feel like you have to lift it and an actual fact, you have to stay down and you have to accelerate. But I think that when she's on en range with the back end, she needs to learn how to hit a slice. And Pea Riva said that she can actually hit a slice, but it's doing it under pressure. And the reason why hitting a slice is a good thing is that actually you can slow the whole point down. Ash Barty was the greatest of that, clearly, And I would say to Sam Stoza and players that I work with a slice is like you have the ball on your strings as a slice back, and now you can pop it back really fast, or you can float it back, you can go short. There's little things that she could do like that that I think will help her stay in the point. Because when she had time in the point tonight she actually played very well, Yes, but she needs to figure out how to.

00:09:10
Speaker 2: Get She didn't have time and this is also part but to get to home.

00:09:14
Speaker 1: Sometimes you can hit the slice, yes, and it slows the point up immediately right, and you can put your opponent in a difficult situation and then you can get back in the point. Tonight, she was trying to slap back hands from like terrible positions and she was missing. And listen, we're giving her hard time.

00:09:28
Speaker 2: We're giving her hat time. But I will back to one other thing. But we're giving her a hard time, all the while knowing that Arena Saballeenka continued, where she had Knights offt she was the player of the tournament men and women. In my opinion, I think the story on the women's side is how well Arena Sabalenka played, how much ahead she was of the rest of the pack, how much she had improved in the off season. That is one of the players that I've seen in the last ten years, maybe Anick Sinner two, that has improved the most over the course of two months. It feels like whereas at the US Open, I still saw her trying that one dimensional game against Coco Goth and not getting through, and she said to me. I interviewed her after the match and I asked her, you looked like much more of an all court player he had. The Australian opened, what did you change in the off season, and she said, actually, that match against Coco really made me think I knew im. Everyone caused me a ball basher, but I don't care about this. But when I played Coco, I knew and I felt that I can't get through with how well she moved. So I told my team and we decided together that we need to work on approach shots. We need to work on the on the what molleys and we need to work on slices, So I have other things in my repertoire, basically, and that is.

00:10:44
Speaker 1: A sign of a great player, a great play every great player, Novak, Rafa, Roger. You think about all the things Serena, all the things that they improved on Tridia. Serena improved her ability to change the pace on her serve, the ability to roll some balls into the corners, you know, and not into angles and not hit everything one hundred miles an hour, and I'll never forget. Justin en and after she won like a Grand Slam, and like a month later, she was I saw her practicing serving and bowling for an hour. I'm like, what is going on over there? Because she knew, Okay, I'm here at this level and everyone's going to try and beat me at that what I'm doing right now, So how am I going to go an extra level? And she was like getting into the net, playing better at the net. Alcaraz has changed that by moving forward hitting a drop shot. Now everyone is implementing a drop shot in the men's game. People are starting to come into the net now against these guys and they know it and so there's elements of every tennis player when you're great, that they consistently get greater and stay great because they're constantly working on the next level of shot making. And we saw that beautifully displayed and spoken to you with Sabolenka after she lost that match because she knew and she was coming into that really really well in this tournament.

00:11:59
Speaker 2: And she misses some ballies, yes, and she will get even better. I mean she just started three months ago coming to the net. But she said it basically and she won.

00:12:09
Speaker 1: She listened. She won a couple of Grand Slams in doubles, so she knows how to play it the net. Another player the one Grand Slam doubles title before she played in one singles titles. And I do adamantly believe that players should play doubles. I think gin Wynn can play some doubles and it would help her.

00:12:23
Speaker 2: A lot, would help her return game a lot, absolutely. And I wanted to ask you one thing that stuck or jumped out at me during the return game and because of the return game, because I was like to.

00:12:34
Speaker 1: Be so frustrating video because she was such a solid returner exactly.

00:12:38
Speaker 2: I was like the one thing I could do because I didn't have a great surf. I couldn't have you know, I didn't have three points on my surf. I had to play every rally. So the one thing I had to do is make the fucking return. And when I had my record on the ball, I would put it in, and even if it's the shittiest ball in the world, I would put it in.

00:12:55
Speaker 1: And the other one.

00:12:56
Speaker 2: And how many matches did I win where they just choked and just the easiest sitters just put them away because they.

00:13:03
Speaker 1: Chose last night, he missed some cities exactly. This dude's not going to make a mistake.

00:13:09
Speaker 2: So that was very frustrating to me. But apart from.

00:13:12
Speaker 1: That, you know how I feel when people come into the net, I'm like, I do how can you not make it folly? And You're like, how can you not make their return?

00:13:19
Speaker 2: Yes, I understand now, I understand. Now I finally am on your left.

00:13:23
Speaker 1: Finally understand me. I finally it took only three hundred just said it. We had to compare what we were good at each other, and we go.

00:13:30
Speaker 2: Oh, I get it, maybe yes, maybe yes. But another thing that stood out to me was she returns, and she plays very far behind the baseline. She's actually one of the players on the w t A Tour in the lowest range of taking balls on the rise. She only takes thirty five percent of the balls she hits on the rise, and the average of the wt A player is at forty eight percent. Wow. Yes, so it's much higher.

00:13:55
Speaker 1: Okay.

00:13:55
Speaker 2: A lot of wt A players play different Chinn plays a lot of sets spin. It's different, so you can't really compare it. But just to give you a little bit of sense, Arena Sabalenka takes fifty four percent of balls on the rise. And sometimes on the rise doesn't mean you're on the line and taking everything half volley. Sometimes it just means when you see the short ball, you recognize it and you get up to it quickly, and those are the ones you take on the rise. And Arena does it better than anybody else in the world. Right now. She doesn't always stand on the line, but when she has the shot one, she's up to it quickly. And I wondered, and this now circling back to Chinwen, who returns so far behind the line, who stands so far behind the line? Compare paired with Arena, who takes balls early and recognize the short balls. Did chin Wen maybe stand too far behind the line and give Arena too much time to step in and take those balls on the rise and be dominant in almost every single rally unless Chinwn hit a really good first serve and then she was the one to be able to do a little bit more.

00:14:57
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's all high of learning how to beat somebody, right, And we've seen that beautifully displayed over the last couple of months with Janick Sinner, for example, who could not beat Daniel Medvedet and has beaten him the last three times that they've played, which is a tremendous difference when you basically can't beat somebody. So I think that we'll see. I think that the way that Sabelinka plays is going to be a problem for genuine forever until she gets a little bit more aggressive with the forehand, changes the stance maybe and makes the return. But you know, the grip is one thing on the forehand. She was really struggling with that tonight. The back end was fine, The back end was back and back in the back end was she was actually hanging with her, which I was surprised at But for me, it's the end rain shots that she struggles with, Whereas Arena when she gets on the run and range, you're like, look out because this is going to be big, whereas with Chin went on the full range, like end range, you're like, ah, she going to slice the forehand? Is she going to slice the back end? So I think she needs to get a bit stronger, which she will movement wise. I think she will get stronger and faster because she's not as fast as Cocoa, and Coco is so fast she can get those balls back in and frustrate someone like Arena. But it's gonna be really interesting. I think Arena's gonna be very very very very very very very confident going into Indian wells, Doha, Dubai, and Miami.

00:16:18
Speaker 2: And you know what, we talked about it briefly in the car. You asked me like, how was she? And I said, yeah, she was super happy. And then I passed and I was like, she was the right amount of happy. She was not euphoric. She was not like this is the pinnacle of my life. I'm the best. It was like, Okay, I wont this. This was great, but I'm ready for more. Yes, that's how it fell to me, and I asked her and what I also like? I asked her, like, I feel like defending a title is harder than anything in the world, especially at a Grand Slam, and you did it. Nobody has done it in ten years since Ayuka Azarenka. Does it give you a different kind of confidence for the rest of the season. And I loved her answer because she said, I don't want to think about what other people will say now. I don't want to think about those expectations. I just want to work hard. I just want to fight for every single ball. And I felt like she had unlocked staying in the presence for her because if you saw her in earlier times, you could see her thinking what you said earlier about the trophy presentation, what am I going to say in the speech, and what does Anton think my coach about me? And it just felt like she had figured out for herself over this fortnight, staying in the present is the way to go. And I have to say one thing. Rarely ever do you see it that a player plays a Grand Slam in almost a perfect manner. You always almost always have one match where you can see, oh, this was anenough day and they somehow found the way through. With Novak when he at the US Open when he was down two sets to laugh against Jeddah. So many players every time Anji the Kava when she won here was down a match Pine in the second round against Mizaki Dyke.

00:18:11
Speaker 1: It happens.

00:18:11
Speaker 2: You see it so many times, Caroline was Niyaki was won.

00:18:16
Speaker 1: There's only a few players that have won this tournament since I don't know, two thousand or something, that have won it without losing a set. She was like Lindsay Davenport, did it. Vika when she won it that second year. I think she was so dominant. So she's joined some very elite company. And how she won this tournament and how she looks when she's on and I tell you what, she can win any Grand Slam. I think the French will be a little bit more difficult for her, yes, but and I think ig Is you know, going to have her hands on that trophy many many more times. I think chin Went will be much better on clay, and so I think there's a lot of positivity for Arena coming out. She's absolutely player to beat on on hardcourt, and I think she's going to be tough debit on grass.

00:19:04
Speaker 2: Me too, I also think that, And Laura Robson said the same thing as she said, like, if she has this mentality, I don't really.

00:19:12
Speaker 1: See how many matches did she lose last year where she should not have lost. Yeah, we talked about it.

00:19:17
Speaker 2: We talked about it a million times. But yeah, I mean I can. I can talk about this because I repeated it so many times. She wins Ash and Open semi finals French Open up five too, with a match point against Muhova in the semifinals to play eager Hiantek, who she has beaten in the Madrid final. Granted much better conditions for Ega, but it is a chance semifinal of Wimbledon, up a set and a break on to pave on the Shova in the final. She wins big chance to win final of the US Open. She's up a set and a break on Coco Goth and then kind of faltered under Cocoa making something. We saw it, We talked about it, and I really think that this defending her title could have unlocked something, a new level of confidence in her that we won't see these type of losses that much anymore. On the Grand slams, at least not when she has matters in her own hand, as you like to say, absolutely absolutely except for and I do think and you know what else is great? This is not only great for a Rena Sabalenka. This title run is fucking fantastic news for IgA shion Tech back home, and for Elena Rebakina, who will be fucking annoyed right now, who'll be sitting at home eating themselves up for not having given themselves the chance to be in the final. And you know how Ega is tomorrow in the morning, how she will wake up to go to practice. She will be burning out there. She will have one hundred five percent intensity, which only means when we come the next next tournaments around and do Bay do how wherever they are, IgA will be burning, burning with passion to close the gap again that Arena has created here. And that's great news for the tour because we will see amazing matches and amazing rivalries.

00:21:01
Speaker 1: All I could think about was more so, even more so than IgA was, was Rebekina. I mean, for me, she absolutely smoked smoked Arena Satellaca in the finals of Brisbane. I mean it was six love three love. She led six love three love against now the two time defending Australian up and champion. So you don't think that Rena, that Rebeckin is not at time going fucking hell like close that match out against Blinkover. And I'm in the final again and I'm playing a girl that I just smoked in Brisbane.

00:21:40
Speaker 2: And here we have to talk about one thing that we didn't because we just started it during the Australian Open scheduling on part of Rebeccna's team. Why in the world did she go to Adelaide? She's she wins exactly, She wins Brisbane in the most dominant manner and goes to smoke chops Arena Sabalenka, who has been unmatched at the Australian Open. Chops are like a Linten Try. Lindenry chops are like a Linten try. And then goes to play in Adelaide to like half tank in the quarter so she doesn't get tired.

00:22:17
Speaker 1: Why the fuck?

00:22:19
Speaker 2: Why?

00:22:19
Speaker 1: Why? Why?

00:22:22
Speaker 2: This is really a question I don't have an answer.

00:22:24
Speaker 1: You are so and also you heard also appearance fee Jesus, You've got enough money. The objective is win the Australian Open, Like, honestly, what is your A little bit controversial? But you know I feel about her coach sometimes, But what is he thinking? Because any coach would be like, no, we don't need to go to Adelaide. I don't care about your What is it twenty thousand dollars so she can have played play Adelaide? Maybe take a guess, don't know, let's just say it's twenty thousand and fifty thousand. You are giving up two and a half million dollars PS and by the way, all your sponsorship money that you're going to make five million dollars winning these Strain Open. You just smoked the arguably the favorite to win these Strain Open again, and you go and play Adelaide and you know that she was a little bit injured in that match with her achilles. So why are you playing extra tennis when you don't need to when you've just started the year playing great? I mean what you were so right?

00:23:21
Speaker 2: Petko? I was. I thought about it too, because I was thinking about we had a lot of time to feel until Arena came in the studio, so we were just talking and jabbering and jabbering, and I was thinking about how great, this is for the rivalry. And I was thinking of Igasciontek, of Elena Rebakina and Cocoa Goth exactly, and Abe, she needs to get healthy, she needs to find her joy again. But just all of all of the women in the top ten who were so close to her in Sabalanka and now seemed kind of far away. That if that doesn't give you motivation, When Angie Kerber, who is my very close friend, did well, nothing in the world gave me more motivate on the training court, on the practice court than Angie Koba doing well, because I was like, oh my god, this is so fun. Look how happy she is winning. Look how how confident it makes her. I want the same, I want the same. And it made me work harder. And there is a thing of a healthy competition, and it made me think of why the hell did Rebeccina go to Adelaide to lose to Alexandrova, who's a good player, who's a very good player.

00:24:27
Speaker 1: But what the fuck?

00:24:29
Speaker 2: But that's like, you know, the thing is, it's not about losing to Alexandrova. You can lose to Alexandrava, but going with a loss to Australian Open. Most of the players do. But you had the chance to go without a loss to the Australian Open, and you didn't do it because you decided to go to Adelaide to exhaust yourself more.

00:24:46
Speaker 1: I don't understand. And if she had that little niggle of a Nichill's problem or a foot problem or whatever it was, that you ever heard the coulture, the fitness trainer or whoever the fuck is talking say you fucked yourself there? Why would did you ever in a million years know that you've just like like Caroline and Pliskova, for example, when I was coaching her and she won she won Brisbane, there is no way in God's green Earth I would be like, oh, you know what, let's play another couple of one to go play somewhere else. No, the whole point was win Brisbane, go to Melbourne. And that was the year she lost to Naomi and an incredible throw, said barn Burner of a.

00:25:26
Speaker 2: Three SI Naomi one.

00:25:27
Speaker 1: The year Naomi one won the austrain Open against Coviddava in the final, And for me, I thought Kaya had the opportunity to win this train Open that year because she won Brisbane, she came into this Train Open playing great tennis. She lost an incredibly post match to Naomi, and Naomi beat Covidaba and Kaya had just been Covittava in the WTA finals for the first time, so I felt like that was her best chance. But she went in with a hut all the confidence and rebarkin. It should have come, have a couple of days off after Brisbane, get training on a few things, maybe take care of her body going into the Train Open, and instead she kind of limped in to the Train Open and then lost to somebody like blink Over, who is a very look the tennis was good at times, but some matches she should never lose, and then blink Over lost the next match and that that fucked Herrovero. So listen, you make a great point. The whole point is scheduling is very important.

00:26:25
Speaker 2: Scheduling is part of playing tennis.

00:26:27
Speaker 1: It's like you with Taylor Fritz last year going into the US Open. I said the same thing.

00:26:31
Speaker 2: You said the same and it's like, I understand that players want to have a lot of matches to feel like you know.

00:26:38
Speaker 1: Understand barking. It doesn't need a lot of matches, she doesn't.

00:26:42
Speaker 2: Need it, But I understand the feeling of wanting to have so many matches that when you go into a Grand Slam tournament that is very stressful. That you have had so many matches that all.

00:26:51
Speaker 1: Your routines are so set into place that.

00:26:54
Speaker 2: You don't feel that you're nervous. That's what players want, That's why they play so much. But the same with Taylor Fritz's started in Atlanta, plate Washington, play Toronto, played Cincinnati, played god knows you Winston Salem.

00:27:07
Speaker 3: Probably he didn't, but you know, I think it was on the on the list, and then pulled out, thank god, to then play at the US Open and run out of steam against Novak Djokovic in the in the quarters or Semis in the quarters, I think, And he played right there.

00:27:21
Speaker 1: I have to say, he did play.

00:27:22
Speaker 2: What my my my argument here is if you want to win Grand slams, you schedule your whole your whole year around winning Grand Slam tournaments. That's basically the thing. That's that's what it should be and what it always is. And Rebecca, now, with her scale set and her talent and her mind, because she has a strong mind, you've.

00:27:45
Speaker 1: Actually annoyed me thinking about that schedule for her.

00:27:48
Speaker 2: She should have she should what she should plan every single maybe French, let's think about that, but she should plan every Grand Slam tournament in a way that she can win it.

00:28:00
Speaker 1: Can I just say, when you think about that schedule. Saberlenka lost in the finals of Brisbane, but she played fantastic to get to the finals. She was so good and then she got smoked in the final and she laughed it off. She was like, well, thanks next day, Hey, Arena too good today, and glad you gave me a couple of games. And she laughed about her and she said team you're all fired as a joke. But you know, I think she came into the Strain Open with, look, I'm playing good. I played one bad match. Yes, I got beaten by a better player on the day because Arena was actually spectacular in that final. I lost to a better player on the day. I know I can do better. It wasn't my best tennis, but I'm going into the Strain Open feeling good about my tennis. I'm healthy ps and by the way, the most important thing at that point, I'm healthy and I know I can win this tournament. And that's what she did and said Rebakna. When's Brisbane goes and plays Adelaide gets a little bit more injured and then comes in the strain open loses a match that she probably shouldn't well not probably absolutely should never have lost. And there you go, and the history has been made. So anyway, we're going to finish this podcast being upset for rebecking his schedule.

00:29:05
Speaker 2: Let's talk. Let's end it on a positive note, just like one more time. I think I said it before, and I want to repeat it again because this is really important to me. I think this was a great final in terms of who ended up in the final. Yes, we could have had a better It was a terrible match. We could have had a better match, but I think the final was great. If we had if somebody had given anybody in the tennis world a piece of paper saying chin Win and Arena in the final, I.

00:29:30
Speaker 1: Just want to say, Chinwin was my player outside of the top ten, right.

00:29:34
Speaker 2: But you would have signed it because it's the defending champion, who's playing great, who's the number two player in the world, ends a future, a young talent who everyone expects to win major tournaments in the future, who is at the moment in Australia close to China. So many Chinese fans will watch that match. So many Chinese people came to the stadium and watched and watched Chinwen. It was the atmosphere was fantastic and this final I think everyone in the tennis world who supports women's tennis would have signed right away because there were so many talks about the top half of the women falling apart, blah blah blah. And I think in the end we got a really, really nice final and when we look back on it five years from now, we will be like when Chine will win a Grand Slam.

00:30:18
Speaker 1: Yes, it will be a moment.

00:30:19
Speaker 2: That was a good Australian Open for the women's Well.

00:30:23
Speaker 1: I mean, I look, I'm going to disagree with you in one point because this is what we like to do. I am sad that we didn't get a better final because we've had amazing finals over the last few years and we haven't had a bad one for a while here at this straight Open. We've had some incredible tennis overall. I mean that tiebreak. Still, speaking of Rebeking, it will go down as one of the most honestly, one of the most memorable moments that I've ever experienced as a former player, as a commentator. I'm so lucky and blessed that I got to call that match. Yes, and as did you.

00:30:53
Speaker 2: Yes, it was crazy.

00:30:54
Speaker 1: It will honestly, it will go down as one of the most memorable, like half an hours of my life watching that.

00:31:01
Speaker 2: And so that was worth it. In general, the Coco goth Arena Sabalanka match was great.

00:31:07
Speaker 1: Very very good quality. And you know, unfortunately we didn't have a great final. But Chin win will win a Grand Slam, There's no doubt in my mind. I think she has the ability to do it. But overall women's centers, it's got some rivalries. Now, as you said IgA for Barkina Coco, they're going to be burning inside to make sure that And that's great, that's pretty good.

00:31:28
Speaker 2: What why is Arena Sabalanka today the champion of the Austria and opened in one of because she was pissed off that she lost hundred percent. We saw this, That's why we saw this type of performance of the course of a fortnight, over the course of seven matches, because she was sitting in her hotel room for three days eating pizza and being pissed at herself, and the same thing is happening right now to those who will win the Grand Slam tournaments in the future.

00:32:00
Speaker 1: Yeah, so women sent us, don't worry. Everyone's going to be back for the French Open. It's going to be very different, but we've got a lot of tenants to go before before that happens, and I can't wait for it. And of course tomorrow is Sinner and of course mister Medvedev. How is he going to react? I saw him today, I said, how are you feeling? He goes actually not bad, and I was like, how's that possible? But anyway, the dude is going to be ready to go. Janick Sinner has his opportunity when his first Grand Slam, and I.

00:32:31
Speaker 2: Went to watch his practice. He looked very cute, but that's not part of the Did.

00:32:38
Speaker 1: You tell him that you've named your internet Janick's Internet?

00:32:40
Speaker 2: I haven't told him. Yea, I'll tell him, but I.

00:32:45
Speaker 1: Give me your pick. So I didn't see.

00:32:47
Speaker 2: I wanted to see Daniel as well, but he was practicing at another time and I was working, so I couldn't. But I saw Yanick was practicing on Margaret Court arena with the junior, a Swedish junior who had lost in the semi fives yesterday of the Australian Open Junior competition.

00:33:03
Speaker 1: And and that was and I wasn't great that these guys play with these juniors. Yes, there's this amazing video obviously Roger Federer hitting with Alcaraz at Wimbledon, warming him up for his final, because al Charez was playing the final or in the juniors, and one Carlos Ferro said, oh, hit with my kid. He's good. Roger's good, and he's like, okay, you know, hit with him. And then of course cut to like what four or five years later, he wins Wimble then, so it's so nice to me. People are like, well, who's going to hit with the best players in the world, Well, the best juniors in the world, because they're all pretty good, they're just not quite as good.

00:33:40
Speaker 2: Yes, it was the Swedish guy. He was very good and he was so trying so hard, but it was me.

00:33:47
Speaker 1: So it's so cute.

00:33:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, but it was at times it was a bit fast for him because Yannick was hitting the shit out of the ball. But what I wanted to say, I was a little bit annoyed with Janick Sinner and the reason why I was annoyed, You know me, I was not a very relaxed person when I was playing, and he was relaxing. And if I had played a final of a Grand Slam tournament, when I played finals of other tournaments, they were not Grand slams. I was not relaxed in my last He was so relaxed. They were sitting on the bench, they were laughing, the team was joking. Darren was giving him some tips, Simon gave him some tips. But there was great atmosphere. He was so chilled, and I was like, you know what, Yannick's inner fuck you.

00:34:30
Speaker 1: You're like, how dare you?

00:34:31
Speaker 2: How dare you enjoy tennis?

00:34:33
Speaker 1: You should be miserable like I was. But it's also a really great thing that you learn that sometimes there's no point in expending unnecessary energy the day before us and clearly he's been playing great. He doesn't need to overthink it. Medvedev would have just tried to get his body moving today. So I'm really looking forward to the final. I have to say, as much as I want Yanick with Yanick to win because I love him so much, and Darren is one of my very good friends. I love Danil so much and I think he's fuck. He's played like forty eight hours of tennis in this tournament and the fact that he's in the final is incredible. So I just I just want to see a great match and we'll see what happens tomorrow.

00:35:18
Speaker 2: Tomorrow, see what happens tomorrow, your next Internet against Daniel Midiv.

00:35:24
Speaker 1: Anyway, all right, guys, well thanks for listening. Is today and tonight. We are finishing this tonight after the women's final. Congratulations to Arena Sabalanka her second win at a Grand Slam, and absolutely look out smoking fashion. Look out women, because Arena is back and she is hitting the serve in the court, so you've got some problems. Anyway, For now, we're gonna say good Nut and jeers.