AO Recap Day 13: Henry the Fifth

00:00:08
Speaker 1: Ah, that's just the only way I know how to start this podcast today. Ah, what a freaking match last night. To finish the day, can we get into the two men's matches from yesterday? Hi, everyone, Welcome to the Renee Doubs Tennis Podcast. What a freaking joke. I cannot even believe that what I saw yesterday. But I did blink it the other day because I saw Jille and I saw Darren Cahill the day before. They walked into each other. They gave each other high five and a hug, and I said, I'm blink. I just blinked the final. Are you guys are going to be in the final? And They're like, let's bloody hope. So anyway, what a freaking day. Can we start with the first match of the day with of course I'm joined by Andrei Pekevich, but you already know that because we are roomies. Petco far out Yannick Sinner. Yesterday was just fantastic and Novak was not fantastic.

00:01:02
Speaker 2: No, he was bad. I mean you are not saying it, but I'll say it. He was bad. He was really bad for two sets. I mean he said it himself in the press conference. He said this was the worst match he's ever played at a Grand Slam, and he was fighting, he was trying to find into it. But let's talk about Sina Sina Chicken Dinner.

00:01:23
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Janick Internet, Janick Cinternet.

00:01:25
Speaker 2: I have so many nicknames, Sina Sina, Chicken Dinner, Yanick Sinternet, ginger head, because he was really, really good and I was thinking at one point, man, they play really similar and it had never occurred to me in that way. Yes, And then Yannick said it in his interview with Jim Courier afterwards, when Jim asked him, like, what do you think your strengths are? And he was like, you know, I actually think that me and Novak play really similar. And I did a hit on in a TV studio with Nick Kirgios, and I asked him that on air because he had played both obviously, and I wanted to know, it's easy to observe, but does it feel the same on the court. There's a different, different story, And I asked him He's like, and he had to halt for a moment because I think he wouldn't halt.

00:02:08
Speaker 1: He had to pause for just turned British and German so weird.

00:02:15
Speaker 2: Oh dear, oh lord, oh, darling, darling, And yeah, he had to pause for a second, and I think it had never occurred to him either, And then he looked at me and he was like, I think you're right. I think they do play kind of Celia. You know, they don't have great volleys, but they can put it away. They didn't have a great serf when they came on tour, but now they served really well and you can't get past them on the baseline. And now that Yannick has improved his footwork and his speed so much, he was always speedy, but now you can't get a batmore. He's so fast it's unbelievable.

00:02:48
Speaker 1: He's like a prigmantis, you know, like he's a horse with his long legs and he's like, but now he's starting to control them like a thoroughbread Yes, exactly. And what I love about his full like stature is that his giants peak out just like a false It's really you know. My favorite thing is when he goes when he does the fist pump to his player box and it's a side angle and he has zero and I mean ze bicep muscle. It's like it cracks me up. I'm like, I mean, I still have a bigger bicep than he does, and I am like tiny, I.

00:03:33
Speaker 2: Would probably bench press more than.

00:03:37
Speaker 1: He's actually quite strong, but he doesn't have like it kills me.

00:03:40
Speaker 2: It doesn't look like when you.

00:03:42
Speaker 1: Think about Alcoraz Nadal like with those biceps that they have, even though has bulked up.

00:03:48
Speaker 2: And this is what I love about him. We'll talk about why he made, the reasons for why he maybe played bad, but this is what I love about him. He really he studies not only the game, but obviously the body. And he knows that the one thing that goes away when you turn thirty two, thirty three, thirty four is the explosiveness of the muscles, right, you lose that quick twitch and the muscle that's the first thing that goes away. And there was actually a study in baseball players with that because they need, you know, when they hit the ball. You can measure that really well. In tennis it's harder to measure because there goes so much complexity into the game. But they had a study and the fast twitching of the muscle goes away first, and so he bumped up a little bit he was much Skinnia a year two years ago, because you know, I have to make up for it. I have to, I have to balance it out. And now my question comes to you, do we finally see the first signs of age, because what it was with me and I think you can attest to that with Serena. With age, you all of a sudden have bad matches that you can't explain because it's so much harder to get out of an off day. You would have off days, but they would last twenty to thirty minutes, still find your way back in, and all of a sudden you have more and more off days.

00:05:03
Speaker 1: I'm just putting it out there. I don't want to what do you.

00:05:06
Speaker 2: Think It's very possible.

00:05:08
Speaker 1: That's a theory I'm not going to fight against because you know it very well could be true. I think a lot of that yesterday was well, there's a couple of things. I think that he knew he was playing against the guy that had beaten him twice in the last what four months? Yeah, two months ago he beat him twice. Now I know it's best to three, but still when you know you're playing against the guy, particularly that Davis Cup match where Novak should have won that match, and there's a little scar tissue there from having a match point and match points yeah, three match points forty Like, there's still a scar tissue there. And Novak was very very open about the fact that he wanted to win Davis Cup. So you know anyone out there like, well, I didn't really care. Bullshit. There's no way you go and win the ATP Finals and then go and play Davis Cup and not want to win it when you're the best player of all time. So I think that there was a little bit of scar tissue knowing that he could actually lose to this guy, that the guy was ready to step up to the plate. It was about could Yannik manage the best of five set mentality of being able to mentally stay in it, And we know how mentally strong he has been over the last few months with his winning and also playing in the day. Novak has not played hardly at all in the daytime here in Australia for so long that the conditions are so different. At night, it's dark, it's very much no wind at night, very very rarely do you get wind here at night, So it's that a little bit heavier conditions difficult to get the ball past Novak. He sort of like gets into that rhythm of not missing, not missing, not missing. And in the daytime yesterday it was quite cool, so it was really fresh conditions, kind of similar to like an Indian Wells day where it's not that hot, but it's a little bit chilly, bit of wind yesterday, so there's a lot of sort of little and Noova keats with and he hates the wind right And so I think just the feeling of throwing the ball toss up and serving with the blue sky instead of the dark sky, like there's all little things that I think I think contributed. It might I might be completely wrong, but I just had to feel like Novak didn't feel the ball like he normally does and everyone's he played a match against Taylor Fritz. It was so stifling hot that day. It was different and it was like four o'clock in.

00:07:22
Speaker 2: The afternoon when they went on the court and the shade yes was completely in shade.

00:07:27
Speaker 1: After one set, it was already shade on that court, So that would have felt like to Novak it was sort of going into the evening session because I made a joke about it on air because the match before was so long that I said, oh my god, Novak's almost going to be playing at night anyway today. And so I think, and I think that Taylor ran out of gas, There's no question about it. And he sort of stipulated that almost to me that he needs to get back into doing a bit of training because he felt like he died. So I think it was very different that day. And then I just think the conditions were really uncomfortable for Novak. And the reason I say that is because how many fucking unforced errors did he make in the firstcand that he never misses stare far so the first to be I think that to me, and he hasn't, you know, he's not been one hundred percent with this.

00:08:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, he and he yesterday I watched his press conference. He still sounds really bad, like not. He didn't look sick. He looked good. I thought. You know, sometimes when Novak is in the second in the latter stages of slams, you see his face so haggard because he puts so much into it and so much and a major tournament takes so much substance from you, and he looks like haggard. And his eyes as one eyes drooping as this like one lazy eye. He looked really good, like I thought he was looking good, but his voice sounded still very very sick, very sick. So he did have this cold that he was juggling with and it and you can see Novak sometimes when he struggles with a thing, he like somehow mends it over the course of a of a Grand Slam tournament or over the course of a week or ten days. He didn't manage to do that. He sounded just as sick as he did in the beginning of the Grand Slam.

00:09:06
Speaker 1: And honestly, I know what that feels like, because that's kind of what I've been battling over the last month or two. You know, where I got sick and then I lost my book, like laryngitis, and then my voice got funny, and it's still a little bit funny, and I'm still like, you know, there's this cough that you know everyone is getting. So there's no question that physically, you know, health wise, he wasn't one hundred percent in this tournament, but also we've seen him win many many times when he hasn't been one hundred percent. I think the difference was the daytime conditions didn't suit him a little bit of breeze, and he played against the guy that I think is his biggest rival right now. Yeah, there's no question. And yes, Carlos for sure, you know, has beaten him at Wimbledon and all that sort of stuff. But there's no doubt that Carlos and are his two biggest rivals now because they don't back down. Now, they really do believe that they can beat him, and I.

00:09:54
Speaker 2: Think down He said that right afterwards in the press conference, y Nick said that he thinks the difference between Una, between Carlos and him are that these three they believe they can beat no because they have and one goes into the other. You won't beat him unless you believe you can. And when you see others, don't you And exactly, and now I will use this one thing that one actor said to me. He's a theater actor, and it reminded me of Novak so much. He said to me. I asked him about, you know, his method, how he got into it, and he's like, well, every role is different. For example, if you play a king, the cast plays the king. That's what he said to me. The cast plays the king. It really has nothing to do with you. And I was like, I don't get it. What do you mean. He's like, well, Marlon Brando himself could come from the grave, stand on stage and pretend he's King Henry the Eighth or King Henry the Fifth by Shakespeare or whatever. But if the cast doesn't play him like the king with reverence in respect it can be the best actor in the world, he won't be King Henry the Fifth, right, it just doesn't work like this. And I was like, and made me think of Novak because I was like, man.

00:11:02
Speaker 1: Because they him as the king.

00:11:05
Speaker 2: The point the ones who don't, those are the only ones who can beat him. Now, this is an analogy talking about someone who's still a lot better than most of these guys out there. But still you can see that at least one said Novak wins in the locker room because the cast plays them as the king, and then because he's much better, he wins the next two as well. But Jaik, Carlos and Holger.

00:11:25
Speaker 1: They're starting to see him as a king that needs to be dethroned and shouldn't shouldn't be there anymore, you know, in some respects they respect him like crazy, but I think that they start to see that there's some vulnerabilities there and also they realize, hey, I'm actually really fucking good tennis Flan. I mean, Yannik does not have a weakness. I mean even yesterday his volleys came through under some big pressure in an amazing backend bolly on a big point. But I think the thing that for me where it changed, and I said it I was watching it in the green room was when Yannick was one all. I think it was two to one in the fourth set, after losing a really tough third set with the tie break and having a match point which he admittedly choked the forehand. It was so bad he ran for a ball at love when Novak was serving. I believe it was two to one when Novak was serving to go to all, you know, and off we go into this set of like maybe going to another tie break or whatever. It was forty love to Novak and he hit a great drop shot. Yannick ran for it and he ran it down, And I'm thinking in my head, who runs for that at forty love? You know what I mean? Right, he runs it down and he's starting to get you have to think physically. It started probably getting to him like, oh shit, and should I conserve energy here? Like this is a big pivotal moment. He ran it down and hit the most amazing crosscourt fourhand dig and I looked around and I went and I said to people in the green, I'll go, first of all, who does that? Who expends energy on a game that they're probably not going to win? And then he wins the point? And I said, if he went this, that could be the turning point in this match, because if he comes back and wins this game, that point right there is indicative of who Yannick Senner is. And my god, guess what happened. He broke that game. I don't think he lost the point after that, Novak, And to me, Novak was probably like, holy shit, this dude, Like really you're going to run for that? And then he played a horrible point the next point. Yeah, no, Novak. I think he made a really bad error. And then all of a sudden, it's forty thirty and everything changes. Then it's pressure and now it's pressure, and all of a sudden, bang he wins. The game breaks and that was the break that won in the match.

00:13:41
Speaker 2: I did have the feeling and the first n Now, granted Novak wasn't deat his best, but I did have the feeling in the first two sets that I had seeing Novak play Medvedev once in Dubai. I think it was when he lost in straight sets quite easily quote unquote for his standards, it was maybe four and four or four and three. It felt like, whether that was physically or mentally, it felt like he saw that the rallies are going to be really hard, they are going to be very long, and the other guy hits just as hard as he does, and he's you can't get through, and he was going for too much. And I had that one time when and that was the period of time when Daniel won like five tournaments in a row. He was not missing anything, he was serving incredible, and it just felt like Noak was like, motherfucker, I don't want to play every rally.

00:14:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, because points that he actually bailed out and tried to exactly yeah and tried to go down.

00:14:37
Speaker 2: I think the reason because everyone's like, oh, Novak's for backhand is so bad, do they know the reason for that is he was trying to go down the line on shots hit with so much pace and so much depth that not even Novak Djokovic can pull off down the line. And he was trying to go for that down the line. And when you see somebody going down the line on shots you shouldn't.

00:14:55
Speaker 1: Take, that's when you know you don't.

00:14:57
Speaker 2: He doesn't want to play another ten crosscurds with you because he's overpowering him in that moment.

00:15:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, it was phenomenal. And the fact that I interviewed Danik after the match and I said to him, would you ever, even your wildest dreams, thought you'd play Novak Djokovic on center cord here at rod Laver Arena and not face one break point? Can you even fathom playing Novak Djokovic and saying he didn't have one match at one point pointment? And he said, yeah, he said, until I got down fifteenth I knew, I knew, But then I got down fifteen thirty in the last game and I went, no, not now, don't do it now, don't remember. And then he came up with some incredible serving at fifteen thirty. But to think that the Novak didn't have one break point, not one, that's unheard of. It had only happened, I believe twice in the history of his career. One was against Nick Kurios because Nick brought it up in the coverage on Eurosport, and he lost his match to Alex Dimono. And we can't stress enough about the losses he had coming in here. He lost to Alex Demo, Everyone's like, oh's the United No one cares, no, no, trust me. When you're the greatest player of all time, you never want to lose, particularly against an Aussie in Australia. He didn't have one breakpoint against Alex demon Or either, and Alex beat him. I think it was like four and four. So it's happened a couple of times now, which is very very rare for him. So I think coming into the Aussie Open he wasn't at his best. We thought he would turn it on here, not physically at his best, and he played against the guy that arguably is the best player.

00:16:28
Speaker 2: In the world right now, definitely the last couple of months. Without doubt, he's the best playoff the last couple of months, and I think he showed it over and over again. And I have to say, I don't know if you remember this, but Janik used the kind of choke, not.

00:16:41
Speaker 1: Choke, this is the wrong word. No, but he would just take it tight matches, but he would.

00:16:46
Speaker 2: And the thing is with him, it's not choking in a sense where you can see he's so nervous. He can play, but he would just take a bit off or the page.

00:16:53
Speaker 1: He would either take a bit off or he would go for a dumb shot.

00:16:56
Speaker 2: Yes exactly. But when he took that bit off because he played plays such an nice ball, like he hit so hard, but it's such a nice ball. It's so clean the way he hits the ball. You can really the sound that it makes when he connects with the ball. It's so beautiful. But when you take a bit of that nice ball is a beautiful ball for a professional tennis player to hit, right, then all of a sudden, the other guy can't miss anymore because it's landing every time in your sweet spot and you feel like, oh my god, this is amazing. I feel amazing. And now he didn't do that. He really won that game. He really won that game where and he was nervous, but he won that because he kept doing what he was doing all.

00:17:32
Speaker 1: Match long, and was what was interesting to me just backing it up to the first match point that he missed. He had kind of an easy fourhand for him. It wasn't easy. It wasn't like he was going to hit a winner on it, but he certainly should not have missed it. It was like a mid court he was standing there, the shot was sort of deep, but he just bumped it into the net. The match point fourhand it was not similar because it was a little bit easier down the line, like he went for it down the line. He didn't try and go back cross court, which we all know is the bailout fourhand, because it's like, I know I can make this one. I'm not sure about the line a high part of the net. If I don't need a winner, I'm gonna have to eat a volley. You know, all that shit goes through your mind when you've got that shot. He just went back and he just crushed it, and I thought, Okay, that is a guy ready to step up to win a Grand Slam, and to do it against Novak in. I mean, what he did yesterday was arguably as hard as what it has been to do beat Raffia on Nadal at the French Open, and it also shows you how unbelievable ruff As record is at the French Open, and he's done it fourteen times.

00:18:32
Speaker 2: Well, and didn't you think that the way he took it down the line almost stunned himself. And Novak, yeah, he was Nova always runs for everything.

00:18:41
Speaker 1: And I think he was covering slightly the forehand cross court.

00:18:44
Speaker 2: Because he had it in his mind too that Yannik had missed the one on match point before and it was like every in the stadium, there was like a slight moment of like, was that a winner isn't over? Because nobody could believe he just went for it, you know it on stunding moment.

00:19:01
Speaker 1: Janni was a little bit like that too, didn't know whether to laugh or or like. But I loved his reaction because I know he said in the press Converslaated that he realized it was a great moment, but his goal is to win the tournament and that he didn't want to get like, you know, because we've seen a lot of players that win semi finals and go absolutely bonkers, and I in my own brain, I go, that's it for them, there's their they won their tournament already. They're not even going to be focused on the final. So anyway, absolutely incredible upset yesterday.

00:19:30
Speaker 2: Absolutely, And then I saw it was really funny that you say that, because I agree with you one hundred percent. I saw Yanick and team so, Darren and what's the Italian Vignazzi what's his first name? Forget so mister they I saw them afterwards, and Yanick was like the most contained of all of them, like he was working front of them. I was like, hey, Congress, and he was laughing. You could see you were so happy, but he was okay. And then I saw Darren and his face was like so overwhelmed by happy. He so proud and it's so cute. And I said to him, stop being happy. Stop being happy.

00:20:11
Speaker 1: It's not over.

00:20:11
Speaker 2: He said, said he was laughing at me because I was like, amazing. He's like, yeah, you played so well. I was like, yeah he did, but stop being happy. Stop it right now.

00:20:21
Speaker 1: To be the title of the podcast, stop being happy, stuppy. That's great. Obviously, Darren knows how to handle these moments. He's been there with so many great players, and he knows how to manage this next twenty four hours, which is very, very important for someone like that, which is the most understated thing about coaches, and in my opinion, if you have there's so many players out there that will remain nameless that I feel like the situation overwhelms him because their coach also has no idea how to handle those moments. And I think that that's what you know, are players out there that want to win Grand Slams. If you don't have a p if you don't have people around you that know how to handle those moments or handle you, that's what you have to look for in a coach, or for the first time, at least for the first time, because now Darren can walk him through this is.

00:21:04
Speaker 2: What you will go through. This, this is what will hit you. These are the emotions that might come, might not, but might come, and this is how you can handle them. So when you see them, you're like, ah, I knew this was coming, and I'll accept it and move forward.

00:21:19
Speaker 1: And one of the things is stop being so happy.

00:21:22
Speaker 2: I guess that stop being happy.

00:21:24
Speaker 1: No, I mean it's true. I mean I mean, just throw a little conversation with Sam Stozer and many many many years ago when she made the semi finals of the French Open and wanted to. She was so excited about wanting to go and thank her friends that had come to watch her at the French Open. And I said no, I said, I think you just need to get on the bike and like cool down like you've done every single match, like stick to the routine. And it's very Routines are very important for players because it does keep you in the mindset of wanting to win the next match and not being overawed by Oh, this is awesome. I've made the semis yay. I mean, you know what it feels like. So anyway, I was a phenomenal effort yesterday from Yannick and I said last year he was ready to step up the win a Grand Slam, and I felt like Strain Open was a good one for him to win. So it's looking pretty good.

00:22:08
Speaker 2: So he will have a tired opponent.

00:22:10
Speaker 1: Oh my god, danil Mevedev, that motherfucker he is. He's got he's I said, this one, he's got an ex He's either got a chip missing or an extra chip. I think it actually might be an extra chip. I think he's so smart and he's so thoughtful in his brain. You see his postmatch interviews. I can tell you that I interviewed him after this match, the ship that goes through his mind and how he weaves it all and puts it all together, and he remembers every point. And he told me after the match about even at four all in the fourth set tiebreak, when the double fault, hit the double fault, He's like, it was such a bad ball task. Why did I hit it? I'm such an idiot, Like that's how I'm going to lose the match on a double fault, you know. And I was sitting next to Tommy Hass and Tommy has said to me, this is just going to come down to one bad unforced era literally at four all, he said, and then he hit the double and he goes like that, oh my god. And then he locked down. He locked down and didn't make an error, and Vera sort of shot himself in the foot with that.

00:23:16
Speaker 2: But well, to match, let's start with the first two sets.

00:23:20
Speaker 1: Medvedev played so shit in the first two sets. Yeah, and no back played shit the.

00:23:24
Speaker 2: First two said interesting, right, yeah, it is so interesting. Well, the first two sets, it has to be said, Vera played fucking fantastic, fucking fantastic. He continued his crazy ass serving at eighty percent with accuracy and over two hundred k's and now that's like one hundred and thirty miles per hour. And he's serving his spots and he's he's making eighty percent of those. That's absolutely incredible.

00:23:49
Speaker 1: And I'm considering the dude was like a double fault king a couple of years ago. I mean, he's like Sa Blenca all of a sudden, like, oh, they remembered how to hit a serve.

00:23:57
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, and Jim Courier said something on the broadcast really interesting. He said, for those of you who don't maybe play tennis on a regular basis but play golf, this is what it's comparable to. Somebody who has a great drive and hits the shite out of the ball. They rarely ever make the free, the green, the fairway. I don't play golf, as you can I can help you can tell they rarely ever make the fair because you lose on accuracy when you hit the ball. So he was saying that Zverev is basically one of these big drivers. Yes, but he also making the fairway every single time, like or eighty percent of the time. This is incredible. So he was playing well, he just continued his great quality of play from the Alcoraz match. He was not missing his forehead, he was coming to the net. He played tactically smart. He kept coming to the net on his serves. He played servant valet. He made some incredible volleys because a terrible vollet. He also hit some hollacious volleys. Yes, there was no in between. Yes, like you hit a couple of It was either at Bagh or Andrea Petkovich.

00:25:06
Speaker 1: You're going to say me, but it's okay, I'm just kidding. It's either me or you. But it went better and then all of a sudden he decided to be you at the net and then have my forehand at times where it was just ugly. Honestly, there were a couple of volleys that he messed last night. I was like, the first thing out of my mouth was, how do you miss that volley? The high forehand volley. It's like he it's like you can have the whole court, and you're like, if I'm up there in his coaching box, my sphinx is tight every time he goes in the four and volley, because you're like, what's going to happen here? He made the hard volleys. He didn't make the easy. He seems to have his swings too much on it exactly.

00:25:41
Speaker 2: He doesn't use his body. Actually, I mean, I've never had great vollice, but I learned volas in the end of my career, and so that's why I know how you can actually learn Voalain. I used to own your body, yes, because you know that I in the end, I was bollying actually fine, And what I did a lot is valet volley the first ten to fifteen minutes before every practice to improve them. And I quickly realize when you're tired and without intensity and you just use your arm, you get so tired in your arm, and of course that translates to a five set match. If you get tired and you just play with your arm, your arm is tired. But when you use a little bit of your glue, it's not your arm and your body.

00:26:18
Speaker 1: Your rest the most important thing. Because trust me, now that I'm old, you know, when I go to hit my volleys, I'm like, oh my god, I'll miss them because not because my hands. My hands can still hit the volley as well as any time in my career. It's the legs, my legs aren't there. Leg you have to get low with your legs and you have to use your legs and use your body to hit volleys really well. And that's why Stefan Eirberg, Patrick Rafter, all these guys that were amazing at the net, they would get downloaded the volley and then they would just literally use the pace of the ball coming at them just to hit it into the open core. That's a classic volley. So all of a sudden, if the legs aren't there, you're snatching a little bit at it and using your hands way too much. And that's what happened to him yesterday on some big occasions.

00:27:00
Speaker 2: And it just shows you that it's not quite in his nature yet, Like, yes, he did it great, and he knew the game plan is against somebody who stands a billion miles behind the baseline and you have to come into the net and try and play some drop shots. And I like that he went for it. And then he was like this the game plan I'm pulling through. But in those moments where he missed, especially the high forehand volleys, I'm not sure what's up with that. Just swing it. But then he did that one time and he almost killed somebody in the audience when he's not.

00:27:29
Speaker 1: He no, he will get better. And look, his brother Mish was an incredible servant volleyer and come into the net. So here's somebody I maybe like me kep coaching someone to come in. You know, that's all we did. You know, that was our game. You you learn through just keep doing it, doing it, doing it, and then the technique will get better. So I think that will improve now that his brother is with him all the time.

00:27:51
Speaker 2: And he played two fantastic sets. Daniel couldn't make a surf to save his life, especially in the first set. Got a bit better in the second, but still was kind of a and then Renee stubs the What happened he turned it around and for it.

00:28:07
Speaker 1: I'll tell you. What happened is that he said this after in my interview with him as well, is that he decided he didn't have his legs. He's played like a thousand hours in this tournament, and he said, look, my legs weren't there, and I knew they weren't there, so there's no way that I could play a really long point over and over and over again. So I had to be a lot more aggressive than I wanted to be. And if you watch him play, he's so funny because I've watched a couple of matches now really caught side, so I see the pace of the ball a lot better than you do on television. There are times where he literally deliberately hits the ball slow. Yes, he literally has a whole court and he just rolls it up really slow because he knows that that takes effort from his opponent to then create his own pace. And to create your own pace, you have to actually be quite physical with your own legs. Where if the ball's coming at you kind of fast, you can just swing your arm, yeah, because the ball comes onto you and then you just swing, Whereas if it's slow, you got to get your legs up to it and then you have to swing. And then you're inside the court. Do you go forward? Do you have to then come back because now you're playing against the guy that you know is going to push you back. So there's this like quite amazing great passer. Also a great passer, ridiculous passer at the net. Unless you hit an incredible approach ot you're getting passed. This guy can create an angle off his forehand and off his backhand, and you know how I feel about coming in on the backhand. It's very hard to go cross court with the top spin backhand with a really hard angle. There's only a few players that can do it, and he is one of them, actually, Sasha as well Angie Kerba, Like I think about Angie's ability at that angle, but there's only a few players that have a really strong left wrist that actually where they can create an an almost like a left handed forehand angle, and he's one of those. So it's such this mind fuck for you as a player, like do I come in on that when it's floating or do I stay back? And particularly so zerif he struggles when there's no pace to his forehand. And there was one particular shot in the tie break I think it was or it was a huge point, and Medvedev hit this like just really slowish ball to his forehand and he dumped it in the net. I think it might have been the fifth And I looked at John Fitzgerald, who was caught sided as well with me, and I love, I said, he did you see that? I said, he deliberately hit that ball slow. He had the whole court. He could have done anything he want and he just rolled it and literally swear I've hit it in the bottom of the net. Well, and this he's so smart.

00:30:26
Speaker 2: But this destroys you mentally because if somebody hits a winner, you're like, two good, Maybe I need more depth on my next shot. That's the one thought, the one thought process when somebody hits a winner is either two, oh my god. When you know, when somebody hits like full run down the line, you're like, okay, whatever.

00:30:44
Speaker 1: When he hits a good winner, you're like two good or I need more depth.

00:30:47
Speaker 2: Those are the two thoughts in your head. When you roll a forehand into the bottom of your shoe, your thought process is, oh my god, I don't hear my forehead, at my choking, at my nervous What do I do? I have to hit higher? Maybe I should run round and play beckons. That looks ridiculous. Oh I can't be hitting beckhends from the center of the cords. But maybe what have you gone through your mind?

00:31:08
Speaker 1: Well, and then you are a very similar player like that because your fourhand was the one that went off a little bit, and you're like, should I run around my forehand in the middle of the court. That looks so stupid, but it is true. And I just think he tacked. He is such a smart tennis player attactively and he reminds me a little bit. Novack is similar. Noback will play a slow one. He will kind of like tempt you. Andre Agassi was a little bit like that where he tortured you from side to side and he didn't finish points off when he knew he could because he wanted to torture you physically. And Daniel also said to me after that he saw that that Sasha was struggling physically and he saw as well. And I promise you when I tell you this. In the fifth set, because I was right there twenty feet from him, Medvedev looked fresher in the fifth than it did in the first.

00:31:54
Speaker 2: Yes, that's true, and I don't know why it, Like he.

00:31:56
Speaker 1: Went and had a shower combed his hair. I was like, this is.

00:31:59
Speaker 2: A different two degree burns.

00:32:03
Speaker 1: He did tell me that it was because of the tawl. It wasn't the sun. I was like, okay, bro, but his I think the bottom line is, and we're going to give you a revelation. Hit people, you know when he comes back and wins this match. We all know that Shody hit at five all in the tiebreak was so lucky, but also lucky favors the Brave. Maybe there's some karma in that that shank just putting it out there, But physically Zverev was done in the fifth. You could tell by the way he looked at his player box. It was like, fuck, I'm going to do this again. I'm going to lose this huge match having, you know, an opportunity to win it, blah blah blah. And you can just tell when you're looking up at your brother and your dad, your face is different than it is when you look at your coach. It's kind of like, help me, I can't believe you know, as opposed to fuck you and you know, all the shit. But to me, the fact that Medvedev wins and turns around and he looks at his coach and says, kalma, kalma. Not karma, because that would have been funny too, but it was kalma because he said to me in the postmatch interview that he's working so hard on keeping himself calm on the court and being not being a psycho, not looking at somebody in the crowd and getting annoyed at them, or somebody says something in the crowd and he loses his mind. Novak uses that as fuel. Daniel gets crazy because he starts losing his mind, and plus he doesn't like the crowd against him. Novak I think thrives on it. Daniel doesn't really. Everyone says, yes he does. He plays the villain really well, but he doesn't. He's a nice guy. He likes people liking him. And I think that he had decided prior to coming into the new year that he was going to try and work on being calm on the karma on the court and not losing his shit. And I asked him about being a dad now and how he and he talked about his daughter, and then he said he had a brain fart before the tournament started where he lost his mind practicing a practice set against Raunich and he threw his racket over the fence and and Jill's were like, what happened to the car man? Like you know, He's like, ah, fuck, I lost his But he said the most important thing is if I lose it, it's once a week, and I'm going to stop it to try and get to a point where I'm not losing it. And if you watch that match yesterday, he was so kind.

00:34:16
Speaker 2: He really was.

00:34:16
Speaker 1: He was surprised he's playing the tie breaks. It was like it was like a practice set.

00:34:22
Speaker 2: Unbelievable, it was. It was really amazing. And the one time when he did yell a little bit was in the first in the first set, when he just couldn't hit make a serf, he had three double faults in a row to give Sasha a double break. That's like whenever you have seen that from from him. That was the one time when he and also much less than he usually does. That's right, But he kind of looked at was like, what is going on with my surf? And can we one have take five seconds to talk about Jail's fashion? Oh my god, I love the guy from the choker with the like weird pendance of wolves on it to the Chicago Red Bulls cap, like the Chicago Bulls.

00:34:58
Speaker 1: You can't call them the Red Bulls because this proves how much you don't watch basketball.

00:35:03
Speaker 2: I really don't. I really don't, But it.

00:35:06
Speaker 1: Was your boyfriend Jesse just had a heart attack. Balls.

00:35:10
Speaker 2: What was his favorite team? I think the Red Bulls.

00:35:12
Speaker 1: It's a soccer team that's a.

00:35:14
Speaker 2: New York just like from the Chicago Balls, with the joker up the wolf, like what is gone somewhere stuck between the nineties and the two thousands. I absolutely love it with the with like the and my absolute favorite shot of him ever was during the pandemic when Medvedev sent him away and there was no just the biggest stadium and you just see him walking up the stairs slowly and there's nobody so you just see him walking up the stairs alone and.

00:35:49
Speaker 1: It felt like twenty five minutes while he was leaving. Yeah, during the pandemic, of course, Medvedev was like, yo, just leave, get out of here. And he's like, just goes okay, and he just turns around and starts walking as slow as a wet week going up those stets. You can just hear person in the stadium.

00:36:09
Speaker 2: You can just hear the steps echoing from the like metal of the stairs is like blowing, blowing, clwing and sea jail.

00:36:17
Speaker 1: Absolutely same with this Chicago Red Bulls chef. They just I tell you, they have such a great relationship. And also the funny thing about sending him out is that there's always no one else in this in the box, although there's a few more people in the box this time, so he's he's realized that maybe he needs a physio, maybe he needs an agent there, like you know, all the things. So I look, I'm going to say it out loud, I'm so happy to see Danielle Mabber they get through that match and make the finals. I think everyone knows probably why, but I just think that he is an incredible fighter. I think that he's I think he's a great guy, and he handled that moment better. And is he physically going to be able to come back in a day? I want to because he was dying, his legs were dying. I've never seen him like kind of run to a ball and not hit a proper foehand. He'd like slap a couple four hands back, and I was like, ah, And this will.

00:37:12
Speaker 2: Be a great challenge for Yann because he will have to play those volleys that they practiced so much. But now he really will have to because we saw it all the players who have beaten Medvedev in the past. Let's say a few months we're coming to the net Novak at the US Open final, he was playing serve and valley at least twice the service.

00:37:28
Speaker 1: I think he will. I think that Darren will recognize that, and his coaching crew will recognize and he and he there's no question his volleys.

00:37:34
Speaker 2: Perhaps absolutely, and they will put like with Zverev, it will put them to the test. And Zverev did so well for two sets.

00:37:40
Speaker 1: And frankly, if Zverev had made the volleys all of them, yeah, or at least the easy ones, not the tough ones. He hit some incredible half volleys, some incredible lunging volleys, but it was the easy ones that cost him, like put him down fifteen forty instead of being thirty, or for example, or in the tie breaking five two instead of four to three. So little things like that. So I think Yannick, we'll see, they will be tested. And of course the final is very different to a semi final. This is the biggest match of Yannick's life, you know. Of course, Daniel has been there many times now, particularly here in Melbourne where he has had that match on his own racket against Nadal a couple of years ago. So I'm sure there's a lot of people pulling for him to get that title. I For one, I love Janick Sinner. He is just the greatest guy. But I really like Daniel memberdev and when you I actually hugged both of them because I got to I'm so blessed to be able to like interview these guys.

00:38:36
Speaker 2: For one second, this was going into cringe cringe but creepy territory because I thought your sentence would I'm so lucky to be in the position to hug these.

00:38:45
Speaker 1: What I'm in, what I got on pride, not what I'm saying is they're both so skinny and tall. It's like I'm hugging them around their stomach, you know, And they have zero fat on them and they have zero muscle. They're both the two skinniest dudes of all the time. Like I think my wrapped around myself because they're so skinny. But they are just the great competitors. I think it's an amazing moment. I don't really care who wins.

00:39:10
Speaker 2: I just want to see And I really think we talked about it briefly and one of the other podcasts. I really think Novak because some you know how some people argue, well, Rogia Federer, he puts such a stamp on the game and of course he did. It's Rogia Federer talking about the silhouette theory. You know, when you see a silhouette of Rogia Federer or Rafael Nadal, you know exactly who that is, which is like, it's this theory that if you can recognize somebody by the silhouette there, that's an instant icon, right. And but I do think that Novak has influenced the game in a different way. One body types. We have a completely different body type. Now. All four guys in the semi finals were tall guys, skinny guys who move incredibly well, who are not so bulked up. And if you think about ten years ago when Novak started his dominance the tongas, it was the birdage, it was the all these guys that are really rafa even who are really muscular, who are top heavy, who are you know, get injured quicker because you have to carry a lot of weight, especially on the hard courts, and how long these matches last. So he has changed the game and we will see more of these type of bodies on the men's tour, and you will get more really skinny, muscless body type body guys to hug and in a not creepy way.

00:40:28
Speaker 1: In a non creepy way around their waist, because they'll be a little bit shorter. But you know, when you think about Carlos al Karas, he's kind of in that rafa exactly, and he's getting injured, and both of them get injured, and.

00:40:40
Speaker 2: I think this is really one of Novak has many legacies, but this is one of his that he's starting to change the body type of the best men's players that we see out there. I have two questions for you before we go. One question is where do you think Novak goes from here? And what do you see in the future for zvere if Willy have another opportunity at a Slam, Because I do think his gaze improved tremendously over the course of the last year. You played the best he's ever played here.

00:41:10
Speaker 1: As as much as it pains me to say, I think that's very will be around for a long time, unless you know, something else happens in his life. But I think he's going to be at the latter parts of a Grand Slam. I think you probably will break through at some point. I think the French Open is actually probably his best, and I think the US Open.

00:41:26
Speaker 2: So I don't know.

00:41:27
Speaker 1: We'll see. There's no question he's good enough to win a Grand Slam, but mentally that's going to be the hurdle because now he has some serious scar tissues. He only lost two five setters, being two sets to Love US Open final semifinals of austraight up, and I'm sorry. That's scar tissue and it's hard to chip that away from the brain when it's happened to you many times. And you're only going to run into great plays in the semison finals who know they can win. So we'll see what I think that Novak goes back to work, gets himself prepared to win the French Open. You know, he said that he wants to win all four Grand Slams this year. That's never not going to happen, but he'd probably like to try and sweep the rest and win a gold medal at in Paris. Novak's going to go back to work. He knows that he played a terrible match, he knows that he probably didn't prepare the way he wanted to leading in here. He knows he was a little bit sick. So he'll be back, there's no question about it. We'll see but it gets harder. He does get harder, get harder.

00:42:21
Speaker 2: And I think this because he knows.

00:42:22
Speaker 1: He's only got a couple of years left.

00:42:24
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, and I think and I think there's bad news for his fans. I think he will play even less after this. I think he will play even less. I think we will see him even less on the tour. I think the two most important things for him this year will be Wimbledon. He wants that crown back and he wants to you know, Avenge, yes, just because he was so close to getting that Grand Slam last year. I think Wimbledon and then the Olympic Games will be his main, main, main goal this year. And I believe that he will be the strongest contender to this because we know when Novak sets his mind to something and he puts everything else aside, it's very very hard to beat him. But it's best you're getting closer, and it's best of three.

00:43:08
Speaker 1: That's the difference with the Olympics. It's best of three sets. And these guys, all all of them, all of them know that they can beat him over best of three, and it's that's the difference maker at the Grand Slams, which is why it was what Yanick did yesterday were so impressive. Is that sure he played like shit for two sets, but you still go to win three. Yeah, you got to win the thirty. Yes, And you know you could tell that. Yannick said, if this is like a whole different story. You know when I lost at third set, he was like, but the way he bounced back after losing that first set was incredible. And I'm telling you, running for that drop shot. Every kid out there run for every frickin' ball. You know why, because when you run for every ball like that, even if you're losing, I mean, it's one thing if you're like, I wouldn't see Medvedev maybe running for that ball at forty love against Verev last night, because you do have to conserve energy at some point. But he didn't need to conserve energy. He was two sets easy, lost a first set, but this guy could play five says easily, and he's physically very, very fit. But it was more about setting the tone of I am going to run for every ball against you, and so if you're going to hit the shot, you better hit it perfect because I'm going to run for it. And that sends a sense of anxiety to your opponent. And I felt like, no, that got really anxious after that point because he's like, shit, this guy doesn't got anything, very similar to how alcohorized was when he won. He ran for every ball and that just makes you.

00:44:28
Speaker 2: And what's the thing that is the DNA of Novakdjokovic is run for everyone, which is like, fuck, this guy doesn't go away, and.

00:44:35
Speaker 1: He's not going to go away anyway, all right, So just one more thing.

00:44:37
Speaker 2: Sorry, I know I'm always make the song, but I always get wait for practice and I'm sorry, but you say something that inspires me for something else. And this is the last I swear there was an because we always talk about how important tactics and game plan is and another just another proof how really important they I especially on these stages where they were so little separates. These guys med the day the first two and a half sets, sixty percent of a zverevs.

00:45:03
Speaker 1: Backhand what the fuck again?

00:45:06
Speaker 2: Like Carlos al Karaz sixty percent, and then the number shifted slightly over the course of the third and fourth set, and eventually in the fifth set it was all into the not all into the forehum, but the most majority into the forehand, and yes, Veref was tired and so on and so forth.

00:45:21
Speaker 1: But tactics on these stages matter so so much, especially when some sars getting tired, because the bad technique will will fail. And we saw that with the and also has very hit the double fault for the first time at a really crucial moment as well, and that tells you as an opponent, Oh okay, the fallacies or the weaknesses are going to come back under pressure, so stay in there. But I also think Medvedev did that because Medvedev feels like no one beats him in the back end. It's not why, and he doesn't miss his backcand cross court. It's like what are you doing hitting it? That kind of thing. So it'd be interesting to see Yanixina handles that. But it's almost like, ah, good luck betting me, and then of a sudden he's like he is betting me there, So I bet it.

00:46:00
Speaker 2: Think he can't play these like sitters slow shots that he does with other players, because Yank when he has a sitter and he goes around and sets up for his forehead, young fall does not miss, Young.

00:46:12
Speaker 1: Fol does not miss. We will see all right, So today, of course, Tonight is the women's final with chin Win and Arena, and we can't wait to see that one. Arena Arena on Rod labor Arenas puns for days great one. But anyway, looking forward to that, I hope chin Win turns up and plays her best, that she gets a little bit more first serves in the court, because that's been the biggest down for her. She said, the most double faults of anyone in the tour tournament and the most ass by a long way. And then you've got Arena who's serving well, hitting reasonable amount of aces and barely any double faults. What the hell happened in two years?

00:46:55
Speaker 2: We will talk about it all tomorrow.

00:46:56
Speaker 1: We can't wait. So it's gonna be a great final and we'll let you know how it goes. And looking forward, I'm really looking forward to the men's final as well. It's going to be fantastic. All right, guys, thanks for joining us again today. We'll see you tomorrow and.

00:47:09
Speaker 2: I can subscribe like and subscribe, like and subscribe.

00:47:13
Speaker 1: That's what you say on podcast, Yeah, like and subscribe. We really appreciate it. For now, thanks for joining us today and it's time for us to go and have breakfast so Jeers