Butts in Seats

00:00:16
Speaker 1: Hi, everybody. Welcome to the Renee Substams Podcast. I'm joined by Kaitlin. Caitlin, you're in Miami, aren't you just about to be?

00:00:22
Speaker 2: Whatever?

00:00:22
Speaker 3: Fun should have known by the cloud the window situation you have going on behind you. But having said that, it's been pretty crappy in Miami, can we just start on before we get to Miami?

00:00:38
Speaker 1: We didn't talk about any and Well's.

00:00:40
Speaker 3: I just want to rush over it real quick for our listeners, because everybody, we know that people like to hear our thoughts on what happened over there. What an amazing couple of finals. I mean, really, thank god somebody invented the tie break. That's all I'm going to say, because we had three of them in the finals, two and the men's and of course the last set for the women's was unbelievable. What are your thoughts about the back to back final there?

00:01:06
Speaker 2: I loved it. I thought it made for one viewing experience. I thought the crowd got what they wanted, which was not only two great finals, but two great matches in a row. And I think that that is kind of my big takeaway from Indian Wells, which is what do the crowds want, let's give it to them. Let's make sure tennis is played in front of people who were enthusiastically filling seats. So for me, I really loved it. I thought it was great.

00:01:38
Speaker 3: What about you, Yeah, I mean I feel badly for I feel badly for the second match in a lot of ways though, because half of the stadium was empty for a good chunk of the first set. That's the one thing that I struggle with there, you know what I mean. And I think either way, whether it was the men or the women, I think it's unfair to whoever comes second for that first bit. You know, you should be walking onto the court and with a full stadium, excited to see a final. And I don't like that half of the stadium is getting a drink and after sitting in the sun for two and a half hours, admittedly probably stay out of the sun for a little while. And I just think that's kind of really tough for the second final, which happened to be the men's in this occasion. So I felt it just doesn't look good on TV as well.

00:02:24
Speaker 2: Agreed, And I wonder if it might be time to broach a very uncomfortable subject here, which has nothing to do with the tennis playing, but has everything to do with tennis viewing, which is, do you think it's finally time for us to just let people come and go as it please?

00:02:44
Speaker 1: Are you saying into the stadium?

00:02:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, Well, I mean I thought that's what we were doing. I mean, what didn't we didn't we figure that out from the straight and open that it works. So are we not doing that? I felt we were doing that. I thought that was happening Induea.

00:03:00
Speaker 2: Certainly was not happening in Indian Wells. For the matches that I watch, I got screamed at a couple of times by the I don't want to pick on or anybody or b agist, but typically the volunteers in Indian Wells, because of the endemic population who tends to live in Indian Wells year round is the over seventy set. You know, they get a lot of volunteers who are you know, along in the tooth and they do not like it. Even if you're moving and grooving and getting to your seat quickly. They do not like it if you are anything other than still by the time they decide to close that gate. And I got in trouble a couple of times, just trying to find people, connect with people, sit next to people who are you know, in random places, and it's hard to get in and out, and you find yourself on the outside of a of a stadium waiting in line, and it can be you know, ten, fifteen, twenty minutes before the changeover happens, and even then you can't get guaranteed access to the seats. So I do think part of that is Tennis has got to get over it and just accept that people are going to be moving around. I think it's happening at the US Open, and it happens in Australia, but it's not happening at all the tournaments because it was not happening in.

00:04:04
Speaker 3: The Okay, Well, you you're telling me something I didn't know, because I did not go to the Tennis and India whiles I was watching all of mine in the comfort of my air conditioning or frankly in the.

00:04:14
Speaker 1: Cold of New York.

00:04:15
Speaker 3: But having said that, yeah, that's surprising to me because I thought we'd kind of moved on and gotten to the point where actually people were allowed to go in and out of the stadium, especially a stadium of that enormity, and so I would, as we like to do here on our podcast, we like to tell the higher ups what to do with their tournaments.

00:04:38
Speaker 1: And that is a disaster.

00:04:39
Speaker 3: And I will say, having played that tournament many, many, many times, having coached that tournament many times, having gone and just viewed matches with friends many times, the volunteers, we really appreciate you.

00:04:51
Speaker 1: But they are the toughest.

00:04:54
Speaker 3: And most stringent of volunteers. And I have on many occasions k and have gone and mentioned that a couple of times to the higher of the tournament to say, if there's an entire part of the stadium that is free and no one's at a match, and I have a player's badge on or a coach's badge on, and I would like to sit a little bit closer to the court where nobody's sitting, and you don't allow us to sit there, that's a little bit of an issue. And so I would say that It's one of the reasons why I actually loved the Olympics in Beijing, believe it or not, was that they did for the first time, they allowed athletes to go and watch any event they wanted, and there was an athlete section to go and watch every other Olympics. Pid of that you actually, even as an athlete, had to get tickets to events, which, as you can imagine, was a nightmare. And so any event, any tennis event, should allow players to go and watch a match if they want. And so if they're going out in the sun in Indian Welles and going to watch a friend play, let them sit wherever they want. Now, if someone comes along to sit in that seat that has the tickets, of course, the first thing a player is going to do is get up and allow the person that has paid a lot of money to sit in those.

00:06:07
Speaker 1: Seats to sit there.

00:06:08
Speaker 3: So we're going to throw it out to Indian Wells. Fantastic finals. Well done to Younickinner. What a I think a little bit of a momentum changer for him, because I suspect, having maybe spoken to a few people or two, that he wasn't super happy coming into the tournament, that he was struggling a little bit. He was, I mean, and he had he had, look he didn't when he's you know Australian Open that he lost to Menchikin in the Middle East. He came into Indy Wells a little bit sort of underdone for him, like a player that was so dominant going into twenty twenty six hasn't shown that same dominance. So I think for him to get through that Fontsaker match, which we talked about, was massive, and I think that he actually that really gave him the impotence to keep going in this tournament. And he was fabulous because Mehdi was playing unbelievable tennis and to get that win over alcraz and the Semis so well done to Youngicksinner.

00:07:00
Speaker 1: As we say, he's back on the horse, where he's back on the train. The train's back on the tracks.

00:07:05
Speaker 3: And Sablenka she must have been, as she said in her postmatch conversation at Tennis Channel where she said fuck when she thought she was going to lose exactly the same way she did in Australia, which was upper break in the third, loses her serve, she gets down in the tiebreak and she's just like, oh my god, I'm going to do it again, and she manages to pull out some incredible shots. I mean, Rebaikina was unbelievable as well. I mean she was hitting winners left and right. But she kind of faulted in those last three or four points, and Sablenka's on this occasion stepped up to win. So those two are definitely putting themselves as the top the top two players in the world, and clearly their ranked number one and two now and deservedly so.

00:07:44
Speaker 1: But it was a great tournament.

00:07:46
Speaker 3: Just to add, we'd like to volunteers to just calm the farm.

00:07:51
Speaker 2: I just think generally speaking, this really resonated with a lot of our audience. We had two listeners who wrote to me, specifically, a woman named and who listens regularly, and another gentleman out in California named Mark, who also listens, and they both made the point that our conversation about the night session was really well taken, which is that it kills the momentum of the day, It kills the schedule of the day. It creates a logistical nightmare, extends the matches well into the evening, which is a nightmare for broadcast. Not to mention players, volunteers, staff, coaches, people who are working in the players cafeteria, all of it just you know, the schedule gets messed up, and it's not just the players who are coming off the court at one it's the facility for people staying until three, four or five in the morning and then opening up a few hours later. We talked about this obviously if it was open, and I just want to emphasize, you know, these tournaments make so much money from sponsorships, It makes so much money from broadcast deals. Especially a tournament is optimized for this sort of thing, as Indian Wells is with all the brands doing stuff there. Lulu Liman paid a pretty penny to be on site and did a great job. Actually, the store that they put on, you know, the the main part of campus to that main gate, was bumping. It looked like it was really popular. They obviously became a new main sponsor the tournament this year. This is not a paid ad for them. I just couldn't help but notice the fact that but.

00:09:11
Speaker 1: We'll take it, I mean I'll take it.

00:09:12
Speaker 2: Yeah. Sure, it's my you know, my Canadian brethren who are responsible for the success of that company. But you know, they make a ton of money. The money they make is not actually really on tickets, not really. If anything, I think the tickets break even given how much staffing and you know, catering and all the stuff that it costs, and so for me when it comes to things like night sessions, things like ticketing Stadium two this year, which resulted in Stadium two being empty for the large part in front of you know, massive, massive matches that should have been well attended and filled with screaming fans, because you know that screaming fans who are really excited show up at places like Indian Wells and other big one thousand tournaments, and then you know this idea that like you're getting stuck outside the stadium forever and you can't watch and you can't fill seats. You know, I remember being a student athlete that the University of Missouri, and we had a free pass exactly your point about the Beijing Olympics. We had a free pass that said student athlete, and we could go and watch any game from any other athletic team. And you know a lot of times that was the only way I could see our very good basketball team and not so good football team. And you want the athletes to be invested in each other's success, and also just more than anything else, you want the environment and the atmosphere and the crowd to be excited and engaged and anything you're doing that inhibits that, like ticketing stadium number two to make more money or creating a night session that kills the day basically is running counter to that. And I think for me the tennis, it was pretty boring the first week, but yeah, and did they finish strong. And I just think anytime you see a great match, sort of to your point about the first half of the second final, you want us to be filled with fans who are pumped to be there. And you know, because the tournament doesn't necessarily make a huge margin on those tickets, they need to be doing a better job of making sure the atmosphere meets moment right. And I think we critique a lot of stretches of the calendar. Asia comes to mind in particular. The Middle East is another one where they just can't fill seats during the week except for the finals. And you know, for it to happen at a tournament that's arguably the best tournament on American soil, certainly in terms of you know, spectacle and money spent on it, it seems like kind of a missed opportunity. You know, But that's said to your point, the finals were great. I thought Rabachina was going to win that match up until pretty much the very last point that was struck, which is the kind of match I love where I don't know what's going to happen, and those two have certainly put themselves out as the strongest players in the world, which leads me to my very next question as we look to Miami, which is what's going on with IGAs Schviantek.

00:11:45
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean that's a question only she can answer.

00:11:47
Speaker 3: I mean, really, I don't know what was going on on the court in Indian Wells, but she's losing her shit left and right. Look, I mean, clearly, if she's playing good enough tennis going into the clay, she's arguably the best clay court player in the world. I would put her over you know, Rebaikina, and I would put her above Saberlenka in that category for lots of reasons. One, she's won a lot more matches on clay, and she is how many times has she won the French Open? So I think if she plays enough good tennis, she'll go into the clay feeling at least remotely okay about herself. She's never been somebody that's like needed to necessarily win everything on hard court. But yeah, I mean surprising antiques on the court, just getting very ahead of her skies. As we like to say. The thing that I don't like to see is someone so upset on the court. And it's something that you see. You saw from Cocoa Golf a couple of times as well, getting frustrated with the serve and sort of getting very on herself about it.

00:12:47
Speaker 1: But it's about what you're showing to your opponent, you know.

00:12:50
Speaker 3: And I'm a big proponent of that, even when I'm coaching, I'm like, you can't show your opponent vulnerability. You just can't, and especially when you're playing against great players that are going to take advantage of that. And so and I always talk about locker room reputation, but that's a locker room reputation. If you look down the other end you see her getting frustrated, you feel like, okay, I have a shot right, especially on a court that usually is pretty good for her. It's quite slow out in Narnia Welles and so, I don't know. I mean, listen, we spoke about it last year. I thought Wimforeset was on his last legs last year, and she wins Wimbledon and gave him basically eight more years eight more months left on his contract, you know, And so you know he's going to be under a lot he has to be under a lot of pressure going into certainly the clay court season. If she doesn't, you know, pick it up and win a couple of tournaments, but or win here looks you know, every time we counter out, like we did last year, she ends up winning Wimbledon. I mean I could have bet my house on the fact that going out of the clay court season, is she going to win? I think she can. I told her she could do well at Wimbledon. I told it to her face. But when wimble then, I don't know. I probably wouldn't have said that, or probably would have put money on other people to win Wimbledon over her a Sabalanca for example, or even Rubeikna.

00:14:08
Speaker 1: But you know, as soon as she counter out, she comes back.

00:14:11
Speaker 2: You're totally right. And we've had this conversation about her before. I do have to say most of the chatter on the internet, and I know she's your friend, and I want to be thoughtful about how I choose my words, But most of the chatter on the internet is not about wim Past. Most of the chatter on the internet is about Daria, who is in her camp, who you know, the role of.

00:14:26
Speaker 3: Well, she's going to take most of the hit because she is also also the closest person personally to her because she's been in her team forever and so and the psycho, you know, the psychologist is the one probably screaming things out to her, whether it be I don't know what she's saying. They're saying it in Polish, but I would imagine it would be like, you know, calm yourself or get it together, whatever she's saying to her, and she's not responding to it, and it is not being addressed in her team in a way that it's productive clearly for her. And I have not spoken to Daria about this, so I don't know, but yeah, I mean, certainly there there probably needs to be some come to Jesus moments for everybody in that team.

00:15:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think, Look, this is a unique situation because as far as I know, nobody else travels with a full time psychologist. Do you know of anybody who does that? Did any know when you were on the tour? I'm sure people who worked with mental coaches here and there. But this type of relationship.

00:15:24
Speaker 3: Not not not not I mean she's not there every week. She doesn't go to every single tournament. She has been absent from for not a lot, but for some tournaments in the last couple of years.

00:15:37
Speaker 2: She also coaches another athlete who is not a tennis player, So you know, obviously this is not the only person in EGA's cookery, but it does seem it seems that most of the conversation about EGA's demeanor on court has been focused less on wimpo set and tactics and match strategy and the stroke production and footwork and mechanics, the kind of thing that you would go to a coach for, and more like what's her disposition, what's her mental state, and what's her like, you know, setting aside performance and being able to perform at a high level. You just don't want to see anybody, to your point, who's not having fun out there. It's a sport, it's a game, and you know it can't be all gum drops and lollipops every day. But if you see somebody looking obviously so displeased the way that she has for months and months and months now it does feel like, oh yeah, maybe something, maybe something's not working, maybe something needs to change. And you know, the irony of having a psychologist on your staff who's supposed to be keeping you in a good mental state while you're displaying what seems to not be a great mansion state is an irony that you know is needs to be addressed, I think at this point. But as you yeah, we've kind of rap before.

00:16:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, listen, you know, looking at the draw, she's the number two seed at this time, even though she's not now the number three player in the world. But they do the seedings before the tournament in Indy u Worl's finishes, so she's not in the she's not in the half with Rabaikna, and she's not in the half with Sabalanka, So she's in the half with you know, the Anissimova's of the world, and of course down her section of the drawers Carolina Mahova if she can.

00:17:13
Speaker 1: Move through, but.

00:17:16
Speaker 3: Vicki Momboco and Andreva are down in her section of the draw in the quarterfinals, so she's going to have to answer a lot of emotional questions this week. She's been hanging out with Bonjob down there, so maybe he's been given a few tips here and there. But yeah, certainly a lot of questions to be answered. And as I said, if she can control it and get herself in a space, a headspace going into the clay, I think she'll be clearly a different player. But yeah, there's a lot of questions to be answered on from her and everyone in the team.

00:17:48
Speaker 2: One one person who's we've talked at length about over the last couple of months has been one of my perennial favorites who now seems to have answered so questions, even though he continues to have some of the worst travel luck of anybody on the pro tour is our guy Danil Medvedev, who came up short against Center who played very, very high level tennis. But Daniel Medvedev takes out Alcoriz on the way home. He barely made it there. He had to like cross you know, multiple conflict zones and crazy planes, trains and automobiles to get to Indian Wells, beats Carlos Alkoriz in the semifinals, gets to the finals, plays great inspired, weird tennis the kind we love. Gets to Miami, United loses his bag. Seems like he's got it now. Maybe he'll be in great shape now actually because of all of the obstacles he's endured. But man, is it fun to have medi back in what appears to be close to his you know, top form.

00:18:47
Speaker 1: I don't want to be.

00:18:49
Speaker 3: I mean, I don't want to be a complete like Wanka here, but like, dude, get a private plane like he can afford it. He won like a million dollars on the weekend. He's won like three million dollars in the last three months, two months, not even one month, So listen, he's definitely maybe this is a thing for him going into a tournament. He has to have absolute travel disasters. They did find his bag. His coaches I'm not sure about. But if he is to get through in his section of the drawer, he will possibly play against Ben Shelton. That'll be, I believe, a third round. So I mean, that'll be a fun match just in and of itself. He is in the semi final section with Janick Sinner, so that's a possible matchup in the semis again. But yeah, I mean, aside from the tennis, like, what's going to happen in Miami, etc. Which is very hard to do the double as not many players have been able to do the double when India was when Miami. It will be great to see him again through the semis or finals, because we love his explosiveness, we love the storytelling. He's always got something going on. You know, a lot of people disliked his attempt to try and say who was born on a point with with out mister gentleman Jack Draper, And yes, I mean I sort of might have even mentioned something along the lines of, look, you know, it wasn't his decision.

00:20:09
Speaker 1: You know, he felt like he saw something. He didn't play a great point.

00:20:12
Speaker 3: The umpire made a really poor decision because the umpire decided that it put him off.

00:20:17
Speaker 1: But frankly, he hit.

00:20:19
Speaker 3: Two shots after that. So if you were if you were put off, you should have called it. You should have said I saw him.

00:20:24
Speaker 1: You can look at the video.

00:20:26
Speaker 3: He put me off, and then there would be no question then right, and Jack would take it like a man, He would be like a gentleman. He'd be like, yep, I put my hands up by gestured. But still, you know that happened a gazillion times in people's in matches like I have thrown up my hands, people have thrown out their hands where their mindsman's there or the electronic line from and I don't think I've ever ever seen a call being given to a player because the player made a gesture that the balls out, like so that was just a it was worth asking, he asked, And the umpire is the one that should have said no, I'm not going to give you this point.

00:20:57
Speaker 1: So that's it. So don't blame many.

00:20:59
Speaker 3: But as he said, I've been screwed on many occasions as he has, and we've witnessed a few of them. And he did laugh at the press conference because he said maybe I got one on my side. So some people don't like him for it, but I'm like, give me a bright like it was the umpire that have your hate against the umpire, not against many.

00:21:15
Speaker 2: And also just like you know, for the I had a conversation with somebody last night, my friend David Gellis, who's another journalist who's like, every time I hate a tennis player, I think of you. I'm like, thank you. He was like, money, I hate that guy. I was like, you're totally misplaced. The tennis needs him he's not a villain. He's a troll. Like there's a very different thing.

00:21:36
Speaker 1: Yes, that's a good way of putting it.

00:21:38
Speaker 2: He's just not he's not malevolent, but he is an agent of chaos, and sometimes it crosses a line, like last year when we saw him start a riot on Loui Armstrong Court and nearly clawed back a match from a down match point after a photographer accidentally gave him a free pass. But like you know, you kind of put up with the good bad. Now on the men's side, I do feel like you alluded to this, but I want to dig into it now that we're transitioning from Indian Wells into Miami, which is this conversation for most of the year has been how on earth is Sinner going to right the ship and get back into the same achelon as Carlos Algraz Because, as we've discussed many times, as much fun as it is to have the Medvedevs, the bubles, my Man Stefano SUITSU passes, other than playing some pretty good mixed leubles is permanently lost to the seas you know, But really it's those two.

00:22:30
Speaker 1: So now I think we need to just stop.

00:22:33
Speaker 3: I think we just need to stop mentioning Citzapass's name. I know, just let's just like he needs to go. Let's replace him with a learner ten or you know, fucking I'm looking at the drawer like mensik or mute.

00:22:46
Speaker 1: I mean, I'd rather talk about those guys than.

00:22:50
Speaker 3: Any day, you know, Koboli, like these guys like Sita pass Is.

00:22:56
Speaker 1: It's gone. Although did you see.

00:22:58
Speaker 3: Dominic Team put out an in the gram saying he was maybe coming back, And I'm thinking, if anyone can help you hit your backhand better, it might be him.

00:23:07
Speaker 2: Just saying, actually, that's a great idea. But I don't think Dominic Team, with his quiet Austrian reservedness, will be able to overpower the main problem with Stephsenos Titupaz's life, which is his dad. Like that's clearly the problem. A coach needs to like take a crowbar and remove that dude, and then you know, I don't know what we're gonna have left, but it's gonna be better than what we have now. But getting back to Carlos and Yanik, where are we now? Having witnessed Carlos go down in the semis and Yanik, it's still no change or has this tech has the momentum shifted.

00:23:45
Speaker 1: No.

00:23:45
Speaker 3: I think that they're both about where they should be. I think that Alcarez is clearly the best player in the world on every surface. I think he lost to a better player in medi I think there were certainly moments that he might want to take back in Innure. But one thing that we'll get tested is that our friend mister Jao Fonseca, if he wins his match against Marajan, which I suspect he will, although it would be a match that Fonseka would lose, but he's going to have crazy support in Miami. I believe the match is almost about to go on. He will play Alcoraz in the second round. Now I don't know about you, Caitlin, but I'm thinking that that might be one of the most entertaining, loudest matches in I was going to say South America feels like South America in Miami that I've ever heard. I mean, it was just like listening to the World Baseball Championships with Venezuela and the US. I felt like there was more Venezuelans in the in the stands in Miami, So that to me I'm just praying no offense, Majan, but I'm praying that Fonseca wins because I really do believe after the match, we saw that he's starting to believe that he needs to be more professional, more involved. Every point in Fonseca I'm talking about, and so that will be a litmus test to see how Alcarez handles him a little bit right in South, in South Florida, I keep saying South America.

00:25:07
Speaker 2: In Miami, I feel like South America, South America.

00:25:11
Speaker 3: So yeah, I think Alcarez is the favorite to win this tournament because of his support and the fact that he played so well in Miami. It was one of the big tournaments that he won early in his career. But yes, I mean there's no doubt that Yannick looked happier, he looked more relaxed.

00:25:29
Speaker 1: I think he did come into Indian.

00:25:30
Speaker 3: Wells with a little bit of a sort of a bit of uncertainty and lack of confidence, if you can believe that from you know, a guy that had such a phenomenal year last year. But yeah, I think he's back, and I think Alcarez didn't lose anything losing to medi I think he would accept that move on. He played golf probably for three days after that, had a good time, and moved on. He got his kangaroo tattoo, as we've all seen, and I will suspect that we will probably see Yanick and our friend Carlos in the final again. But as I said, you know, there's a lot of storylines still still to be told. But it's so nice to see Medvedev get a win over Alkirez or if it would have been seen, because it would have said, oh, don't forget about me. So yeah, I'm excited about the prospect of, you know, the second round obviously with Acras and Fonseca, before we even get to further in the tournament.

00:26:17
Speaker 2: I hope that I will be there because I would like to experience I have never been to one of those famous Miami night matches with the South American fan.

00:26:28
Speaker 1: Oh wait, so you want night matches or you just don't want.

00:26:30
Speaker 2: The No, I don't double ticket. I don't want them to I don't want them to clear the stadium.

00:26:35
Speaker 1: Yes, I don't wanted to talk.

00:26:37
Speaker 2: I think if you're there, you're there, you get, you get a day of tennis, and you get well until you.

00:26:43
Speaker 3: Die well, speaking of getting there without the rain, the situation that happened with the rain and the lines and the cancelation of stadium courts and they didn't allow people onto the facility. What are you thoughts on that, Caitlin.

00:27:01
Speaker 2: I mean, I'm actually kind of gonna side with the tournament here. I think it's really tough, Like you know that the matches are going to be very, very dicey. They did, in fact end up being canceled almost entirely, so like getting a whole bunch of people in and out of a situation like that. Also, and I know we usually shit on how temporary and gross the Miami facility is. I've been there in a few years. I'm excited to see if it's better. I've heard the first sort of ring around the stadium Florida has gotten nicer. But more than anything else, it's just a lot of it is bleachers and so that is slippery. It is tough to ask, So I'm actually kind of a little It was funny I was talking to one of our photographers who's down there, who's shooting sort of daily tournament coverage but also some stuff for the next print issue of the magazine, and he was saying that, you know, actually a lot of the players, even though the courts were soaking wet and there were no fans, they wanted to get out on the practice court. And he was resting dismay because not only are the courts a little slippery, but also when the balls get wet, anybody who knows anything about tennis knows those balls are going to become ten pounds each and so you're hitting with a ten pound water logged tennis ball on a slippery surface. And I just couldn't believe that anybody would want to practice. Surely it's better to go. I mean, there are famously no indoor tennis courts in Miami, which is hilarious, but like, wouldn't you just rather have your player on a treadmill for an hour to get some sweat than like go hurd.

00:28:31
Speaker 1: It's a slippery slope.

00:28:32
Speaker 3: Of course, have been into that in that situation as a player many many times, as a coach many many times, and it's this weird thing that you think you're going to forget how to play tennis and what you have to recognize as a player or as a coach to say everyone is dealing with the same thing.

00:28:46
Speaker 1: We're all going to be in the same boat. Don't freak out about it.

00:28:49
Speaker 3: But it is very hard because we are very used to practicing for hours in a day to feel good about our tennis. So it's a tough situation. It was a tough situation with the tournament, you know. Obviously, I think that more along the lines of just expressing to the people why. Everyone wants to know the why, okay, And I think that that's one lesson that the tournament probably can learn, is how to get the why out to the spectators. And your description of it is, you know, was really good. We had a really great story. This young kid, Kawami, seventeen years of age, French, a man one his first round. He's the youngest player to win a match at A one thousand since Rafael Nadal did it in two thousand and three. So it's been twenty two years since a guy that young as one a Master's one thousand match, So we're going to be keeping our eye on him. He has spoken very openly about he wants to be number one in the world. I'm like, okay, you're putting it out there.

00:29:43
Speaker 1: I don't mind it. I don't mind it. I don't mind it at all.

00:29:47
Speaker 3: But still that's some big shoes to fill. And you've got a lot of people in front of you that are not that much older than you, my friend, that are doing really good things. But nice to see a when he's it was really sweet, walked down the other end, gave him a hug, like, realize how important it was for him to do that. On the other spectrum, we just saw Venus Williams lose in a really tough two set match against Franji and seven five seventy five. You know, Venus is hitting the ball well, she just made just a few too many unforced eras in the big moments.

00:30:19
Speaker 1: Just couldn't get the job done.

00:30:21
Speaker 3: I know how much it would have meant to her to win a match in basically her hometown in Miami, and so a bummer she's pushing them. She just can't get that win, that elusive win that she got in Washington, DC last year. But you know, it's great to see her out there. It was a pretty decent crowd watching her. I say, give her wild cards until she doesn't want to play anymore, and it's up to her if she doesn't win a match.

00:30:44
Speaker 2: It's fine.

00:30:44
Speaker 3: She sells more tickets than you know, no offense to opponent. But the people are going to watch her, not not Fran Jones, and I love Fran And she's an incredible story. If you don't know anything about Franny Jones, look it up because what she does on the tennis court is unfathomable to be honest, us with her, you know, with her with her hands and the you know, the essentially a little bit of a disability that she has in her hands, and the way she plays tennis, it's just unbelievable. So it's a great story. But you know, nice to Cev out there, and she looked great, Like she looked so healthy. That's why she wants to play.

00:31:17
Speaker 2: She's got the best outfit, she's got a look, she's got the crowd engagement. So like, you know, for me, it's just like as long as she wants to play, you right, she'll If it could becomes so bad and so unwatchable that people don't show up, somebody tells me she'll know, and we'll certainly know. But until it happens, like what are we doing, like let her play, let her cook, let her go.

00:31:38
Speaker 1: Yeah, letter letter Cook.

00:31:41
Speaker 2: Yeah.

00:31:41
Speaker 3: So anyway, obviously a little bit of an hospicious start from Miami with the dealing with the weather, which you often get down in Miami. They get the rain, Indian Wells gets wind and all kinds of crazy stuff, bees and other than that, looks like they're.

00:31:57
Speaker 1: Underway and they're doing great. They've got a few matches to catch up on. But I don't know.

00:32:02
Speaker 3: I don't know this back to back Indian Wells, Miami, back to back one thousands like Cincinnati and Canada.

00:32:08
Speaker 1: I just, I just I don't know.

00:32:10
Speaker 3: I just feel like they should be a priority onto themselves and they shouldn't have to back up against two really important tournaments. I'll say it till I'm blue in the face. I don't know why we keep doing this to players. I don't know why we keep doing it to the fans. Spread it out more, have Miami at different times, or have it some I don't know. We've been talking about this for so long I can't even talk about it anymore, to be honest. But we'll see who wins these tournaments. I was down in Miami last year, Caitlin, I can tell you this. Facilities are much better and the players actually really quite enjoy some of them. The restaurant's great, everything's really good, and they've tried really hard to make it better for the players, and I know that the players appreciate it.

00:32:50
Speaker 1: It's very different to Indian Wells, but there are positives and negatives to both. But anyway, we're looking.

00:32:56
Speaker 2: Forward to spend a lot of time talking about the schedule, as we always do. But I think for me, the main thing is I'm just trying to enjoy the fact that there's so much tennis in our time zone, with players playing really well, with a lot of great stories, and so, you know, again, feel free to listen to our back catalog if you want a lot of suggestions about schedule changes. I'm sure it's not gonna be the last time we talked about it, but yeah, I'm just really like engaged in how fun the early rounds are, especially now that it's madness, because they have, you know, basically three days of tennis to catch up on in like the next few days.

00:33:32
Speaker 1: So yeah, well they'll figure it out. They always do.

00:33:35
Speaker 3: Hotly there's normal rain on normal misdays or complete days at least, but we'll see.

00:33:39
Speaker 1: But we're here for it. We're going to bring it all to you and Caitlin, thanks for joining me. Have fun down there. You have an event down there right with Racket.

00:33:47
Speaker 2: We're going to do a couple of events. We're doing a big thing with Wilson, and then we are going to have an issue launch party at the new Proper hotel called the Shelburn. We'll have some Latin house music and let's.

00:34:01
Speaker 3: Give a shout out to Let's give a shout out to our old friend Kelly Wortzler, because that is her, that's her property, the new Michelle Bourne, the new Proper down there in Miami.

00:34:11
Speaker 1: And if you have never been to a.

00:34:12
Speaker 3: Kelly Wurtzler hotel or had the pleasure of staying one, you're missing out because nobody does a hotel better in interior better than Kelly Wurtzler. So that's a shout out to our friend. And we're not getting paid for that, and we're not making any money from the Proper, but we'll take it.

00:34:28
Speaker 1: We'll take it.

00:34:28
Speaker 2: We'll take some free room, exactly.

00:34:30
Speaker 3: We'll take some free rooms Kelly. Okay, guys, thanks for joining us to day and we'll see you with a wrap up next week.

00:34:36
Speaker 1: Of even more tennis from Miami. See Caitlin have a good trip.

00:35:00
Speaker 2: Back to back to back back