Carrying on Like Porkchops

00:00:15
Speaker 1: They tell you what I'm doing for Valentin, say tomorrow. It's really cute, assuming I get it. Let out of the whoscal At metrograph. They're showing a couple of romantic films. The first one is Baz Luhrman, you're fellow Australian Baz Luhrman's Romeo and Juliet, which was like our era, you know film. And then I'm taking her to dinner at the Commisary. But it's a surprise, so I'm gonna have her meet me there.

00:00:36
Speaker 2: Nice.

00:00:37
Speaker 1: She shows me she loves me by calling it a paxslivid prescription. The second I show signs of having COVID. It gets me medicine delivered. You know, her love language is competence.

00:00:46
Speaker 2: All right, let's get going.

00:00:48
Speaker 1: Let's get going, Renee. It's the day after the super Bowl. It's collective America's hangover. I know, we have so much tennis to talk about. I'm particularly excited about talking e bing Wu, China's first ATP champion ever, which is cool. I'm excited about talking European, Indoors, Middle Eastern. We have a lot of tennis is here. It's everywhere, and there's lots of stuff. But first, do you want to just briefly touch on the Super Bowl?

00:01:18
Speaker 2: Oh? Sure? Did you watch it from start to finish, Caitlin.

00:01:21
Speaker 1: I'll be honest about a couple of minutes after Rihanna. I was so hype about Rihanna and not hope about the football that for the third quarter I watched an episode of Physical one hundred, the Korean show where everyone does feats of strength, and then I came back and watched the very end of the football game.

00:01:37
Speaker 3: Wow, you are an interesting human being. It's the only thing that I can say. Let me start by saying that it was a fantastic game. The first time there was a couple of first first time we've ever had two black quarterbacks in the Super Bowl facing each other, which was a monumental moment and an amazing moment because they both played so well too, which was just an amazing moment to witness. And an all female flyover on the on the national anthem, and that Chris Stableton national anthem.

00:02:11
Speaker 2: Was ah Chef's kiss. It was really good.

00:02:14
Speaker 1: I'm not like a huge country fan, but he crushed it. He really crushed it.

00:02:18
Speaker 2: Well.

00:02:18
Speaker 3: I love Chris Stapleton anyway, And I love the fact that he didn't do it with his hat on, which was really interesting to me because the guy never gets seen without his hat when he's performing. So that was a really nice moment for me. And I just thought it was beautiful. I mean, it's got to be. That's got to be. I think just behind Whitney Houston. No all will ever surpass Whitney Houston, but that Chris Stapleton was just masterfully done with the guitar and his incredible voice and the illicit like you saw the Philadelphia coach Sirianni Like crying on the side.

00:02:50
Speaker 2: It was an amazing moment.

00:02:52
Speaker 1: My favorite tweet was posting pictures of that guy crying and somebody was like, this is me making onion dip for the Rihanna ball, which I think sort of summed up what a lot of my friend group was watching it for, which was Rihanna.

00:03:05
Speaker 3: There's no question I was watching for Rihanna as well. I do like football, so I do it. I did enjoy the game a lot. I thought the Philadelphia team came out playing unbelievable and spare a thought for Jalen Hurts, who had literally a career night, absolutely incredible.

00:03:20
Speaker 2: A moment for him. He ran in a couple you know, I think three touchdowns himself. I was just he.

00:03:26
Speaker 1: Played rushing record for quarterbacks of often.

00:03:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, it was like it was overwhelmingly a positive night for him. Sadly for him, one one screw up when he lost the ball in his own twenty and they got the ball back Kansas City and ran it in and that was when Philadelphia had full control.

00:03:45
Speaker 2: They were up by a touchdown. They were they had the ball back again.

00:03:48
Speaker 3: They made a great defensive stop and they looked like maybe they go down and go up by fourteen.

00:03:52
Speaker 2: You know, who knows what happens.

00:03:53
Speaker 3: But turn that ball over was so monumentally tough for him, but God loving, he went over and said to his whole offensive line, like, let's go, guys.

00:04:02
Speaker 2: That was on me.

00:04:03
Speaker 3: And he goes and plays an incredible couple of downs, you know, in the next series and scores again. They go up to touch you know, get back up a touchdown, they get to ten points up and then Mahomes comes out in the second half and just played incredibly well. And you know, the defense from Philly was a bit suspect in a couple of plays which they are known for their incredible defense all year, So I don't know what happened there. That was a breakdown on their communication. And let me just say at the end, yes, I didn't have a dog in this fight.

00:04:32
Speaker 2: I didn't care who wins, who won the game.

00:04:35
Speaker 3: But what the f with that bullshit call with like a minute and a half to go. They had not called a holding call, I believe all night long, and then you decide to throw the flag on such an innocuous hole.

00:04:49
Speaker 2: I mean it was a hole. Everybody said it was a hole, but there was like one.

00:04:52
Speaker 3: Hundred and fifty holds in the second half alone that no one pulls up because the game play.

00:04:59
Speaker 1: Two minutes and a massive, massive It reminds me of what you said about the Serena and Naomi Osaka match about yes, everyone was coaching, Yes, Patrick Moradigli was coaching. Yes, Serena doesn't even really get coached. But to make that call at that time in that situation, bullshit.

00:05:18
Speaker 3: It's like, come on, let them play. They stopped them, they kick a field gold, they'll go up by three. You got a minute and a half to go.

00:05:25
Speaker 2: Let's go. Let's see if they can do it.

00:05:27
Speaker 3: Let's see if they can score a touchdown to win or kick a field gold to make it. You know, even maybe we go into overtime, even more grate football to play and you call that bullshit call and that ended the game. That ended the game. Then they got the ball back and they just ran the clock down. And what a shitty ending to a great game. And I don't call Anyone.

00:05:44
Speaker 2: Says, ooh, it's a rule. He was hold. Give me a break.

00:05:47
Speaker 3: Go through the whole game and see how many times people were held and they didn't call it. So you can't call it then when you hadn't called it the whole match. Long game, long anyway, But kudos to Kansas City. They're an incredible fan base. I know of friends that are Kansas City fans and people from Kansas City. I also know a lot of people from Philadelphia, namely Chris McKendree, my captain, Chris ESPN and Lisa Raymond, my old Doubts partner.

00:06:11
Speaker 2: They were all very sad, but what a great game and.

00:06:15
Speaker 3: A really well played game, and in good spirit from everyone, and that is led by the coaching. They're both such nice guys, those coaches, and that you can tell. It just bleeds down through the whole team and the Kelsey brothers. What a great story crying at the end, like the mom is like, honey, well done.

00:06:31
Speaker 1: And then I love sports so much. Sports are so great, and you're right, both of those teams were really I didn't really have a dog in the fight either, although sometimes I pick which team I like based on mascot, which would have to be the Eagles because Kansas City you have to change your name a and that chant is awful or has place has better food, and I'm here to report Kansas City has really, really really good food, better food than Philadelphia. H Okay, all right, well I think it's.

00:06:57
Speaker 3: I actually, when you speak about the mascot, it was a masterful catch by the Philadelphia Eagles on the sideline the Eagle, it was like the one of the funniest parts of the game. And he was like, yes, And I want to give props to T Mobile. I thought their commercial was the best with Bradley Cooper. Oh it was Bradley Cooper's mom just basically giving him shit. I thought that was brilliant.

00:07:17
Speaker 1: I mean, so my takeaway was more moms, just more moms. Serena was in two commercials. Oh my gosh, we should talk about Serena. I think this is a theory. I think Serena saw Nameosaka's name at the top of the highest paid female endorsement list the last couple of years and said, uh uh, she gets coming for the bag. She got paid. Michaelo paid her, Hennessy paid her, like she got her money's worth out of Super Bowl. God bless her because get your back.

00:07:44
Speaker 2: God bless her. And I said, wouldn't it wasn't it?

00:07:46
Speaker 3: Isn't it nice that she's fully embracing retirement by just pumping the alcohol totally golf. I did will I will tell you that a little insider. I did text her and I said, I said, you can.

00:07:59
Speaker 2: Coach me after that. That was so well done.

00:08:01
Speaker 3: Like she was like, tell, I didn't understand the commercial was a bit weird because she's like coaching and then and then it just goes have a Remy Martin Like I was like, what.

00:08:09
Speaker 1: Didn't seem if it's a product at all? And the field was on fire at some point. Peter was like, Hey, is that Serena Williams And I was like, yes, it is good job. I mean I always get excited when my son recognizes the tennis players, I mean all those Serena is like a pretty a gimmy because I've been in a sushi is And then he was like, what was that a commercial for?

00:08:25
Speaker 2: And you're like, coaching.

00:08:26
Speaker 3: Yeah, she should have done she should have done what all coaches do, which is give the speech, you know, and they all go out and they go into the field, and then she goes back in the office and grabs a Remy Martin. It just goes, Yes, that's what would have been appropriate in that situation.

00:08:40
Speaker 1: But well, attention to Remy Martin. You have a new creative consultant by the way of Renee Stubbs. You're gonna make a commercial about coaching. Who better to ask than America's coach who bet.

00:08:49
Speaker 2: And Billy Jane.

00:08:50
Speaker 3: She got a little show off in the in the in the the women's touch football thing, you know, was trying to grab the flags and she was like in the car, in the car.

00:08:59
Speaker 1: With the Mexican superstoff who was running away from everybody. Yeah, the commercials are really good. I mean it was the Rehanna ball for me. I like that. She just like casually did some choreographer, but was like, listen, I have too many good songs. You guys can deal with the amount of emotion that I'm investing in this and it's enough but maybe not too much.

00:09:18
Speaker 3: And I don't know about you, Caitlin, but if you check my Twitter feed, you will note that I did say that I hope she starts with you, bitchberg bring my money.

00:09:29
Speaker 1: A great, great opener. I was extremely pleased. So the Rihanna ball did not disappoint and she was doing it for pregnant women everywhere. What's not the like? Okay, so tennis, you watched a lot of it. We were just watching some this morning when we talked earlier. For those of you curious, yes, Renee and I do check in via phone and FaceTime almost on a daily basis.

00:09:49
Speaker 2: Therapy. We just have therapy every day.

00:09:51
Speaker 3: By the way, before you say anything further, everybody out there, poor old Caitlin after three years of like being an asshole about never getting and it's finally gotten COVID. Okay, so she's at home, she's sitting in her quarantine. She finally got COVID. And you sound good, You sound fine. She's got a mask not over her face now because she's doing this podcast, but she's had to live with her family having to wear a mask.

00:10:15
Speaker 2: So Caitlin, I hope you're feeling better.

00:10:16
Speaker 1: Thank you, I got some delivery. I'm fine. I'm totally fine. It's very mild. But I my pride is wounded, which is that I can't feel surprised. You thought I was like, ohts totally. A guy came to drop off some Vietnamese fuh, which is my Vietnamese penicilin whenever I feel sick. Where that The first night I had a little bit of a sore throat and he got to the door and dropped off the bag and I was wearing a mask, and he looked at me like, oh this loser, Like who is still wearing a mask by themselves indoors? And I was like, no, it's for you.

00:10:49
Speaker 3: You should have said to him, come back and give me that face and I'll coffin your face.

00:10:53
Speaker 1: So I did watch a lot of tennis this weekend, as in you, I have to say for me, the biggest fun story was Ebing Wu Wui bing Chinese guy. I first saw him play at the US Open. I think it was not last summer, but two summers ago, he handled the field in Dallas at the Dallas Open, which looked to be a very fun tournament. I have not been to that tournament, but it looked like it was rollicking, and I liked how Blair was giving everyone giant cowboy hats when they won their matches, which is a nice touch. Did you see this guy play at all? Geary Nathan wrote a really great piece for us in the newsletter around on the site over the weekend. No Chinese player has ever won an ATP title, and now that is no longer true. No Chinese player before ebing Wu had ever won an ATP title. He looked ferocious, he was moving well, he had all the answers for a big serving John Isner. But also he beat Taylor Fritz. What a great title run.

00:11:49
Speaker 3: Yeah, what an amazing story. I mean to be the first Chinese player male player to ever win a tournament on the ATP, especially after the success of all the you know, Chinese women tennis players over the years with doubles, Grand Slams and singles of course with li Na and the amount of you know, just just incredible results over the last ten to fifteen years of all the women so to finally have a male breakthrough this is like huge for China. I mean huge for Chinese tennis. Sadly for them, they don't have any ornaments there anymore because of COVID and you know the Punng Chai situation. But and incredibly, he hasn't been home for over a year because of all the restrictions with COVID. You know, these players from China have done it really really hard during the pandemic because they haven't a lot of them don't go home because they have to do the two week quarantine. They're worried about not being allowed to get back out of the country so much that they have to deal with. So the fact that he is able to do this after all the trials and tribulations that he's had over the last few years, it's just it was great. And to be down that many break match points against John Isner, who missed that really easy volley on match point on his own match point, and then just to keep fighting. So to beat John Is not in a final with a tie break, two tiebreaks, mind you, was quite incredible because you know, we saw JJ Wolf go down in the third set tiebreak in the semi finals because he just didn't play. He didn't play great tiebreaks whereas Wu did and that's why he was the winner. So it's a huge moment for the ATP and huge moment for men's tennis in China.

00:13:26
Speaker 1: Do you think, especially if you're playing John, isn'ter on a hardcourt indoors? I mean that's served the way he took away isn't her serve and those key moments was the differentiator. I love playing tybreaks. I think that they're my favorite format of tennis because they're so immediate and every point counts. Do you have a specific like coaching philosophy if you have a player who's going into a tiebreak, like what are you telling that player like get the first point momentum? Like how do you tell about.

00:13:55
Speaker 3: Honestly, you've got to have such a short memory in tiebreaks, like you know you could, particularly against a big server, if you get down an early break, you cannot let it bother you. You cannot be like that's it, I'm gonna lose. Now you're gonna because everybody gets nervous. I mean, look at John's volley on match point, Like everybody gets nervous. It's not easy to win a match. It's not certainly not easy to win a tournament. Everybody gets nervous. It doesn't matter how many tournaments you won, or you know what you've been through in the past, or how good you are in tiebreaks. John isn't, it still gets nervous. And so I think the critical thing for anyone in tiebreaks is literally it's the most basic of basic comments. Every point. Just concentrate on every point and let the last one go because you cannot. I mean, you can't afford to lose think about the past when you're playing a game, but you can sort of get away with it if you have a brain fit for two points, but you cannot in a tiebreak, and you certainly can't do that against someone as great a server as John is nto if you have any kind of mental laps for one or two points, and that's what happened to JJ Wolf. He had one or two points that he didn't quite take advantage of, and then bang, the match was over. So I think the most important thing for anyone out there is to be you know, you didn't take the route of a Novak Djokovic who just literally locks down. He doesn't make an error in time breaks and he makes you beat him or you take you know, the opposite, which is be super aggressive and like really put your opponent under like that, under the pump immediately and have that. It's very important in time breaks have good energy and to have positive energy. And so I think that that was, you know, the the difference maker in this match.

00:15:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, for sure. And I think for me, the reason I like taybreak so much is because you can't waste a point. The many momentum shifts. Going from having a sitter volley on match point and then being down a match point is a two point swing, Like that's crazy to me. I love that so much. I like the immediacy of it. Let's go over to the women a little bit, because we had two amazing results over the weekend. We were in Linz and Abu Dhabi. My girl chen Win had a baller tournament, took out Aspenko, who still has those dreads. Can we just can we not talk about it? Okay? Yes, I just want to say maybe the Hague should get involved for war crimes. She took out Asapenco, and she took out Kazakina, went down to Lyudmila Samsonova in three in the semis. This this was a big, big result for Samanova to you know, like what a good field. Yeah.

00:16:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, she struggled a bit this year. She's been a bit off, you know, on on and off, particularly off the way she played last year, particularly from you know, midway through the season. She was just incredible, very very one of the best players last year at the end of last year. But she played such a good match, and you know, she's such a nice girl. Like the way she lost, she should have won that match. She had I believe three or four match points, yeah, in the second set, wasn't in the final. Yeah against Benchic in the final, you know, comes out looking dominant, fights back in the second set, was down at early break, ben Chic was you know, fought really hard and had I believe four match points and just didn't quite get it done. But you know, even the way she handled her loss, she walked to the net and she was just like congretts, like well done. Like she's just a really, really, really nice girl, and so I give her a lot of credit for the way she handled that loss. And ben Chic, to me, you can see the influence that that the coach is having on her. You know, I'm blanking on his name, Dmitri, Dmitri off. Thank you so much, Gitlin, thank god you're.

00:17:44
Speaker 1: Here because my memory shock Dmitri is.

00:17:47
Speaker 3: You know, you can tell he's very very like, kind of demire guy, very quiet, very much, you know, zen like, and you can tell that he's having that influence over her. And and honestly, it's if I could pick a couple of play is that just need that influence of calm the fomb, shut the fuck up, play tennis. Literally take the mindset of every point metas, stop getting demonstrative. And by the way, I can say this because that's how I was okay.

00:18:17
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00:19:42
Speaker 3: And she's that type of person, you know, because her boyfriend's a fitness China and she would often have her dad there. She would feel like she could just say and do whatever she wanted to them and that would still be there.

00:19:52
Speaker 2: Right.

00:19:53
Speaker 1: Yeah. But when you're married or dating or blood relatives of your team, you get a lot away with a lot, but.

00:20:01
Speaker 3: Get away with a lot and with Dimitri, you're not going to get away with I mean person, I was going to be like, by no way, I'm not putting up with this shit. So I think it's been a really good influence on her, and you can tell. I mean, you know, that was one of the things. And I'm not trying to bring myself into this, but like you know, Serena, like I was like, I just need you to not show any negative body language, you know, and which was really hard for her when things aren't going so well, because she is a very emotional person, you know, and it's amazing. It's so hard to do when you are not a naturally very quiet, serene person and you like to get demonstrative and you like to be a little bit animated and drama like, it's really hard to not be that way under pressure. And I don't I'm not thrying the first stone here. I just think that that difference of her keeping her calm and her shit together in the final was so clear that that's what won her the match. And I can tell you that match will change her career, because I really believe she she finally realizes even though she won the Olympics, well, I think she finally realized.

00:21:04
Speaker 1: Matched the final in Abu Dhabi against Lydmlisimsomeneva more than the gold medal or more than another one of these great results.

00:21:11
Speaker 3: Well, because I think she I think she learned a lot from the Olympics, but I think her attitude in this final was actually better because she should have lost. And I think she would say the reason she didn't lose is because she did keep her shit together when it looked like she should never have won, and whereas I think at the Olympics she probably felt like she should win. So so I don't know. I think this could be a career of defining moment. We'll certainly see over the next few months. But she's definitely a chance to win, let's say the US Open. I think that's her best chance to win the Grand Slam.

00:21:43
Speaker 1: I mean, I think a lot of us who've watched Belinda benchc especially given how complete her game is and how she can really go from like a Hingis esque Tools of the Trade type style to really be able to hang in and bang big with some of the heavier hitters like bunch of chairs of the tools. And I think, if anything, granted she's quite young. The question that has been around her, especially pre gold medal, but certainly still today is like, what's it going to take for her to get to like the lead stages of a Slam, Like she's not made a final and she doesn't have any wins. She tends to kind of flame out in like the quarterfinals. And maybe that's exactly what you're talking about, which is just this like sense of calm and ability to move forward and not carry on like a pork chop.

00:22:28
Speaker 3: Yeah, you will very rarely see someone who carries on like a pork chop win a Grand Slam. It's just not possible. It's not possible when you get to the end of a tournament and you're playing the best players in the world that you can get away with it, because they will take advantage of it. And I mean, I think a really good example of that through the years has been Samona Hallett, you know, I mean her loss, for example at the French Open to Ostapenko when she was up a set and to love No. Thirty fifteen of fifteen all or whatever it was and throws her racket, Like what are you doing. You're giving your opponent small window to say, hey, she's still nervous. Yeah, you know, and there's there's been plenty that we could we could we could dissect about their attitudes and how it's cost them matches, including my own. And so it's a really hard thing to do, is go against your natural instinct to not be dramatic and demonstrative. And I think that for her to get go forward, that's the area that she needs to improve on, and she does. She has all the tools, so conserve gets a bit dodgy and it's not really a big weapon, so that can still also hurt her. And there are certain matchups that she doesn't like. But I'll give it credit because she had I don't think she'd ever beaten sam Sonova, so that that was a terrific effort. So look out for benchit through the year.

00:23:43
Speaker 1: Yeah, I thought sam Sanova was the best player of the tournament just in terms of results and play, Like what else her matches she look like. So yeah, I think that's a really interesting point about like matches you should lose but don't because you've found a way Like that is I think, really, I don't know, that's really While we're on the women, the other tournament final was Lince. We had Petro Martich against Potpova. What do you make of this. I love watching Petro Martich play. I think she's just got such a like natural policism. She's loopy, she's got those big strokes. I'm sort of shocked to see her at late stage and finals because the kind of tennis that I tend to like doesn't tend to win that much. But I didn't give her much of a chance in the final, and in fact, she didn't do much against me.

00:24:33
Speaker 3: I think Potapova just like you know, just hit her off the court really, and I think that you know her win over Sakari. I mean, Sakary is a perfect example of someone who I think, you know at times carries on like a pop chop. And I love Maria. She's such a nice she is such a nice girl, and she's such a great player. But there are things about Maria Sakari's game that I would just take a part, including her slice backhand. The way she hits her slice back her footwork is absolutely terrible. She does not hit her slice back end with the right technique.

00:25:07
Speaker 1: And which is actually good news because that means it's fixable. You know it's fixable. But yes, do you think she has good coaching?

00:25:16
Speaker 2: Well?

00:25:16
Speaker 3: I don't want to. I would never like poop on another coach, but that is an area that I mean some I would, but but not you know, Tom, and I think Michael Tilstrom was there with her, but or I'm not sure who was that, one of the Swedish guys from good to great. But it's like, you got it if the footwork is wrong to the slices back end and it actually really hurts her because it's a shot that I think it would really make her a better player because she would get out of a few problems her backhand. As you know, she hits a really good two hander, very flat, so she has a ton of spin on the forehand flat backhand, and she would have if she have a beautiful slie, she would have three variations of ball spin, which I know you guys are like, I don't really understand that, but think about ash Barty. It was the same type of tennis. And her serve is unbelievable. So I think she let an opportunity go to win that tournament. And I think that there are times where her attitude and her anxiety is so obvious to the opponent that you're just like, oh, I'm still in this, and that was the case against Martch. I mean, Martich lost the first set, shouldn't ever gotten into the match, and she was allowed into the match ended up winning it. But yeah, I like Petra's game four hands a bit funky, but so was mine, so hey hated the funky four hands, And yeah, I mean, listen, I think that it's nice we've got a young up and coming like pot upover that steps up in finals, and I love plays that step up in finals and.

00:26:37
Speaker 2: Just bang it out of the park like that, take it.

00:26:40
Speaker 1: Yeah. Yeah, well it's interesting because I for me, I'm glad you brought up soccer because that, to me was her a tournament to win, like and Ibaddi, which is a big tournament that should be like where she eats you know, breakfast, lunch and dinner, where it's like the field is good, but she's a level above, at least in terms of the way she you know, competes in her athleticism. So yeah, she should be like kind of feasting on a draw like that and then kind of finds a way to lose, which is sort of becoming a little bit the Maria Soockery story, which is such a bummer because she is so nice and she does have such a fun sort of style of athletic game that you kind of, I don't know, it can be hard to watch her sometimes because when she does get into that stressful place, like I feel stressed watching her just knowing what even when she's winning and she'll go to the box and kind of like wring her hands and you know, pork chop time, and so you're kind of like, oh man, you're demonstrating to your opponent that you are nervous and they have a shot still, which is such a I don't know, it feels like an easy an easy.

00:27:37
Speaker 2: Pan tell you.

00:27:39
Speaker 3: I want to say, one of the best behaves she's been in a long time. And but behaved, I mean just staying very calm and not looking too anxious when she played Donna Vicich, who's one of her best friends, So she didn't show all the emotion that she would normally show because she didn't want to be disrespectful to her opponent, I think in some ways, but in a lot of ways, and she should have lost the second set. Really, Donna had three set points in that second set, but because Maria was calm and sort of just was playing she ended up coming out of that second set and winning the second set and winning the.

00:28:10
Speaker 1: Match in straight set.

00:28:11
Speaker 3: So and she Maria served for the match and didn't let it bother her that much, you know what I mean. So that's a little thing for me as a coach. I'll be like, let's look at this and then let's look at this and let's see where the difference is. And you won this match because you didn't carry on like a pork chop.

00:28:29
Speaker 1: Like a pork chop. I want to ask you very quickly, going back to the men, did you have a chance to watch this young French guy, Arthur Fields. He's eighteen. He beat Gasca, he beat Bautista a goot, lost Sinner but kind of gave.

00:28:43
Speaker 2: Him a match.

00:28:44
Speaker 3: I watched him.

00:28:45
Speaker 1: I was excited about him, actually, yeah.

00:28:47
Speaker 3: Very excited, very young, very talented. He's only going to get better and better. He had an opportunity in the first set to beat Sinner. Yeah, and French men's tennis needs a bit of a kick up the bunt, right how do you say up the dairy air, of course. So, so it's nice to see him. He hopefully will bring more along with him, but super talent unbelievably quick around the court, really nice game. Yeah, it's certainly a future star. I can't wait to see him play the French because the crowd is just going to be like bonkers for this guy. It's just a terrific, terrific story for young French male male tennis players anyway. But sinner, let's get to Yannick. My guy didn't lose a I love him. How much do we love maxim Gressi, who's actually French even though he's American.

00:29:37
Speaker 1: You know, this guy servant long. I love it. It's so fun and people freak out about it. They really aren't used to seeing it. He wins so many free points because they panic they see him. How tall is he? He's going to be six x right, he's Thomas.

00:29:51
Speaker 3: No, no, no, he's not the Yeah, maybe like six' four maybe, I don't know.

00:29:57
Speaker 1: I just he gets up there and you're like, oh, I have nowhere to go. And I've seen people panic. I was watching him play rub Leve at DC this summer and he's just at the net inn a flash. I just watch Rubelev, who's got arguably like the sweetest groundstrokes, just not know where to go, which is amazing to see them panic.

00:30:13
Speaker 3: I love it because you know, people like you can't play certain volley tennis anymore. I'm I guess you can. If you have a great serve and you have great volleys, you can absolutely play certain volley tennis. And the thing about Chressy is that he's improved his groundstrokes a lot. Like his backhand. Sometimes he can pomp the shit out of that thing, and his forehand has improved. He was in rallies, even in the rallies on the baseline. He was in rallies with Yannick Sinner, and I was impressed with the way he was hitting the ball from the back.

00:30:40
Speaker 2: Of the court.

00:30:41
Speaker 3: And he's just going to get more and more confident through the years of how to strategically play people with the servant volley, when to come in, when to stay back. So for me, it's really really nice to see this and listen, indoors, servant volley it's still going to work.

00:30:57
Speaker 1: I would love to see them speed up the wimbled grass courts again to be as fast as the other grass court. I would love for there to be carpet events like there used to be when Steppigraph would just take everyone to the abatoire. No I miss it. I mean it like I like tennis when it was variable, when Thomas Muster could not win a match on grass, and you know your Pete Sampras couldn't win very many matches on clay. Like, to me, that's cool. I like when there's variation and you get all these different styles.

00:31:24
Speaker 3: You know, I have said it four years, Caitlin, I go, I don't understand why the tennis establishments want to make slower and slower courts. All you're doing is taking the variety of way players play away, and you also take away the volley game because of the fact that the court's too slow. Well, then don't have always slow courts. Then quicken them up and then you have quicker matches. Instead of playing five friggin hours out there, you're actually playing a five set match under three hours or three and a half hours maximum, and you're getting different varieties. And there's nothing better than watching a guy or a girl trying to figure out where to stand on the return when someone's serving involving. Do I dip the ball low? Do I go for the return winner? Do I throw up a lob to? You have to have creativity when you are playing people with different ways of playing tennis. So for me, if I was and I had this conversation with Philip Brook a number of years ago, who was the All England chairman at the time, I go, why are Wimbledon slowing it down?

00:32:23
Speaker 1: Like?

00:32:23
Speaker 3: Make it quicker and make the points faster. And that's what grass court tennis is. It's not twenty five ball rally sorry, and as interesting as they are from time to time, that's not what grasscourt tennis is. And it takes away someone improving their forward movement on the court. And so for me, if I were to change something with tennis, I would absolutely make the courts faster at certain events completely right.

00:32:49
Speaker 1: One of the things that's so amazing and interesting about the grass court season because it's not very long. It's the shortest of our seasons. Despoke the fact that at one time two out of the three Slams and I'm saying two other three because this was before Australian Open was promoted to being a Slam, there were uh grass was super super prevalent. They played US Open grass. The first Australian Open at Kuyong was grass and Wimbledon was Grass, so really Clay was the only differentiator. And to me, I like hardcore tennis the least because it tends to be the most monotonous, and I like the fact that there's I don't I only minded it if it's the only way, If it's the variety that we're talking about, then it's great, and then it becomes a different way to solve problems. Like the two players we've talked about that I've been the most excited watching this season, probably ebing Wu, who solved for a fast, hardcourt indoors returning a serve of John Isner, and you could see him in those three tie breaks, especially the last one, kind of put the pieces together to your point, about where to stand to go for, when to go for the winner, when to hit a rallyball back, like how to manage the risk basically. And Victoria Azarika, who has been this season thinking her way through matches as opposed to just being a great player and sort of helping the Brakes go their way, but no being tactical. Like, to me, that's the cool thing when you can see players figuring it out. And I like so much the idea that there's this variety that makes them figure it out. It's also like when the rest of the grass court season, because it's so small, is faster than Wimbledon, there's a problem. Like all those other tournaments are faster than Wimbledon, right, like Eastbourne, holla, all of those pree Wimbledon tournaments, that grass is not slowed down. So what kind of warm up tournament is it?

00:34:32
Speaker 3: Yeah, no, no, no, for sure, I mean really obviously for that and it's even maybe a little less now because they've slowed down east On slightly. Is that I used to hit only like slider body second serves because it was just dumb to hit a kicksurf on grass because it didn't jump, and it was just mostly to Most of the women anyway have way better back endo fourhands, so you're like, well, that's the dumbest so you can hit on grass because it's not going to help me at all. Which that is why Sam Stosa for example, struggled on grass, you know, because she was she couldn't really hit her kicker. And then I would play that serve at Eastbourne and then at Wimbledon. In my latter years of my career, I was like I'd go to the wood kick ass a second serve at Wimbledon because I'm like, it's a totally different grass court. So that's a perfect example of how Wimbledon is a little bit different and a little bit slower than all the other events. Anyway, is not a debate that I would like to see happen more and more with the precis and it would make for better tennis.

00:35:29
Speaker 1: That's the thing. It would make for better tennis. And also I think a lot about the kind of tennis that recreational people play. Recreational people are playing doubles a ton, which means they're volleying a ton, and the fact that we don't show by a virtue of popularity doubles very much, and the fact that singles players don't often volley right now, Like I played this member guest at the Longwood Cricket Club with our friend Tory last summer. She was a member at that Boston club. The main reason I did it was because I wanted to play on grass at a private club. We played against a bunch of collegiate players, and I was like, oh God, my bad is not up for this, Like I'm not twenty anymore. None of them could Valley's fascinating.

00:36:02
Speaker 3: None of them could Volli, So I was like most of the two account Volly either Kate.

00:36:06
Speaker 1: It was crazy. I was like, Oh, I'm winning these matches just by virtual of the fact that I'm standing in the right place, Like I don't even know how to stand correctly. It was crazy. I miss it so much. I missed that tea shaped worn down patch on those grass courts when you used to look at the end of wimbled and to be Boris Becker and Edinburgh and all the court that's been trodden upon is the tea up the middle and the two bars across the service boxes. Like I missed that a lot. I'm sure you anyway, that was your specialty.

00:36:33
Speaker 3: Yes, that was my specially. Anyway, we don't have to worry about that because the clay court seas it's about to come up. But anyway, it was a great weekend.

00:36:39
Speaker 1: It was a great NFL.

00:36:41
Speaker 3: I want to also give a quick shout out, and I will talk about this on my show today. I love Dawn Saley, who coaches the women's South Carolina Gangcocks, and she was wearing a Randall Cunningham jersey coaching her own team. So I thought that was freaking cool, because that is not South Carolina, that is Philadelphia. Yeah, so I love when I when I when I when a coach like that who's so dominant and they have not lost a game all year, can just step out there and be like, you know what, school, I'm still gonna wear my Randall Cunningham Jersey. So shout out to Dawn Staley, who's the boss lady. Anyway, it's been a great little weekend COVID. Sorry positive Caitlin Thomson still in.

00:37:21
Speaker 1: Her house for the next day and a half. But you know what, I got to make time to record a podcast with you, Renee, So we'll have to check back in next week when I am fully ambulatory and in Florida getting some very very overdo sunshine in my face.

00:37:37
Speaker 3: Guys, thanks for joining us this week and stay tuned for more Shenanigans next week. But