Pandemic Report

00:00:00
Speaker 1: Well, why should we coordinate anything. It's a great point. It wouldn't be me or you if we did that.

00:00:06
Speaker 2: It's not in our personality. So Rene, you know, all things considered pretty good. I'm about to turn forty. I have a giant unicorn zip on my forehead, which is not great. But you know, just taking a day by day, I've seen worse.

00:00:30
Speaker 3: I'm sitting very much socially distanced from you, and I do not notice it that much.

00:00:34
Speaker 2: Oh good, Yeah, we're about eight, Peter poke, but.

00:00:36
Speaker 3: I do see that you keep poking at it. That doesn't help it, so hands away from the power.

00:00:42
Speaker 2: I didn't realize you'd spent the last six months in the pandemic becoming a dermatologist.

00:00:47
Speaker 3: There's a lot of things that I've become over the pandemic time. One of them could be alcoholic, but I think half the world is now turned into an alcoholic.

00:00:56
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:00:56
Speaker 2: That's a great point, Caitlin.

00:00:57
Speaker 3: I think I can say, when this pod goes out, you will officially be the Big four to Zho. So from me and all of our esteemed listeners of the Racking Magazine podcast, happy birthday, my friend.

00:01:12
Speaker 1: Thank you.

00:01:13
Speaker 2: It's a pleasure to join you in the forties a.

00:01:15
Speaker 1: Decade to rub it in. That's only gonna last a year. Well, it'll be nice to over that. I feel good. I'm feeling good.

00:01:20
Speaker 2: I feel you know, did a little kick in the tires exercise over the weekend. Feeling good. Bidi's not pollen part Well, you know, I feel fine.

00:01:27
Speaker 1: Feel like you're maturing now that you're turning for them.

00:01:29
Speaker 2: Never never, My secret to success is my inner child.

00:01:32
Speaker 1: Thank god.

00:01:33
Speaker 3: Well, I think I fall into that category. This is why we get along. I'm in aries in your cancer, so I feel that those are two good friendship signs in the astrological. Anyway, we're getting way too philosophical, especially at.

00:01:50
Speaker 2: This time of the morning early for me, it's very early for you, and on a Sunday, on a Sunday.

00:01:55
Speaker 1: But really, do Sunday make any more difference to Wednesday these days? No, no at all. You're absolute right.

00:02:01
Speaker 2: It's just marking time by, you know, when it's acceptable to drink alcohol and when we need to be you know, awake and functioning. So for me, it's it's kind of a blur. But let's talk some tennis, because despite the fact that we have not had a single professional tennis match, four points and rankings. In nearly six months, we have had a bevy of exhibitions which I have been watching, You've been watching. We've talked a little bit about what's been on your mind, What have you seen, what have you liked?

00:02:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, well, I've actually been at a couple of these exhibition tournaments or events. One in Charleston at the Daniel Island Facility, which is the tournament is the Volvo Car Open every single year there and it's one of the It's literally one of my favorite tournaments in the whole calendar year. And if you haven't been, to our listeners, you got to go. It's a great week. Charleston's one of my favorite cities in the whole world. And they did a fantastic job there. I mean you should have seen the sanitizing going on and you couldn't. Like literally, we had two ball kids that were a part of the tennis program at Daniel Island, so that these kids were really on it.

00:03:08
Speaker 1: They knew what they were doing.

00:03:09
Speaker 3: They weren't allowed to touch the tennis balls. They had these like modified little tubes.

00:03:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, bus with tubes. Yeah. That Bob Moran, who's.

00:03:15
Speaker 3: The tournament director of the tournament came up with that idea, and I was like, this is so brilliant. Just so you weren't touching the tennis balls with the sweat, and you know, they were literally like wiping down everything. It was amazing the job that they did. We had our temperature, temperature checked every time we.

00:03:32
Speaker 1: Walked into the tennis courts.

00:03:34
Speaker 3: We had a COVID test done the day before the tournament, and if you know, we got the results back in twelve hours. Just let everybody know that can happen if the shit is organized. And it was, and so we got our results back immediately and all the players were negative, and all the players' staff were negative. And then we just had to behave because we knew, okay, we're all negative of COVID.

00:03:55
Speaker 1: But as you know, you may not have COVID.

00:03:57
Speaker 3: One day, but you can get it the next depending on who you come in contact with. So everybody, all the players are really diligent with not going out, not going to bars, not going to nightclubs. Let's get into that in a bit. But you know, we all had to protect one another. We're all on the same floor at the same hotel. We went and played. Everybody had COVID tests literally after they left, and everybody was negative again. So that was just a great job that tournament did. And then I was with Jennie Bouchard. We drove up to Lexington, Kentucky and played in another exo, same thing. Everybody had their own water coolers, we all had to have COVID tests again prior to the event. We had our temperatures checked every day. And you know, the women were all really just very cognizant of doing the right thing for each other. If we want tennis to come back, and if we want this country to come back, that's what everybody.

00:04:50
Speaker 1: Has to do.

00:04:50
Speaker 3: They have to takes ownership of your actions. And I feel like, you know, over the last few weeks, a lot of most of the women, if not all, the women, have done a fantastic job with that. And you know, we can get into a little bit of what happened in Europe and Atlanta with the boys. But what about you, I mean, well, why you liked about what you've seen over the last couple of months.

00:05:13
Speaker 1: A couple of things.

00:05:14
Speaker 2: First of all, I really like the variety of formats, like I like the fact that there's some experimentation. You just mentioned Charleston. One of the things that was really fun to watch about Charleston is I have this image of Sloan and Genie on the same side of the same court, talking on the court, interacting with each other again in a socially distance way. But those team events really always do it for me. The late Great Hopman Cup was one of my favorite tour stops up until this past year. Obviously, a lot of people love the Labor Cup with the idea of getting to see these great players on the same side of the net. You know, I love team events. I think tennis can do tons more and I liked what I saw in terms of that. Right now, there's an exo going on in Prague and it's really cool to see, you know, Belinda Benchic coaching Barbora Streetziva against one of the playbas sisters, and just the idea that they're all kind of in it together and giving each other, you know, encouragement and some tips. I also really want.

00:06:08
Speaker 1: To shout out.

00:06:08
Speaker 2: Obviously, uts a lot of people were curious to see what Patrick Moraudeglu would do with the Ultimate tenn of showdown in Southern France at his academy. You know, he's a hype type of dude. He says a lot of stuff. His job is to sort of rabbel rouse, which I appreciate. And you know, he put in his money where his mouth is and created again a distanced temperature checked, sanitized kind of crazy event with the nicknames and the format and the you know, get at a jail free card where two points count as one or whatever it is. But the format was fun. It was fun to watch these guys have no warm up, no you know, elongated towel brakes or ball bouncing breaks because they had a shot clock and the tennis was really, really good. I want to get into a little bit of the results of some of these exos because I do think we can do a little bit of a US Open slash French Open preview to talk about what's to come. But the other thing I want to mention is playing tennis recreationally has been so personally edifying.

00:07:04
Speaker 1: It's been amazing.

00:07:05
Speaker 2: Rackets been doing these little gatherings here in New York on our public tennis court. Again distance we bring you know, some music, people come and hang out. There's such amazing opportunity for tennis at this moment to really re embrace itself as a recreational sport for people. And I see the courts here in New York are packed. They're not packed because people are close together, but they're packed because people are really rediscovering how much fun tennis is and it's safe. So I would love to see that everywhere. I hope it's happening.

00:07:29
Speaker 3: I was riding the bike back from Tompkin Square Pockets today with you and your son, and I noticed these two people walking with the tennis records too. They've all got two tennis records, which I just find so hilarious.

00:07:40
Speaker 2: They might break a string.

00:07:41
Speaker 1: They they may have hit with a thousand. I love it.

00:07:44
Speaker 3: They've got like synthetic like string. It's in there, and they think that's going to break in like one day. But you know they're after they're they're walking down and they I saw them. They walked into the high school area where they've got the wall, right, and so you got to these people out there playing basketball, and then next to that they were walking on there so they can go hit against the wall. Love it, and so yeah, I mean, and I see that all the time, Like I'm so aware of when I'm riding my bike around New.

00:08:09
Speaker 1: York, how many people have their.

00:08:12
Speaker 3: Tennis rackets in their backpacks and they're just trying to find a court. They're trying to find a wall, they've got their balls, and I just think tennis is such a universally loved sport. Yeah, we sometimes we take it for granted, but it really is. To me, It's like it's such a great equalizer and so many people of every kind play tennis, and I'm saying that so beautifully.

00:08:31
Speaker 2: It's you know, one thing that has helped me greatly get back on the court, especially before folks were sort of venturing outside their apartment is Slinger, the UK company that's sponsoring every exhibition and is all over the place. Sent me a portable ball machine with a rotation element, a ton of Wilson Colony balls, and oscillator. An oscillator. Thank you. Slinger bags they have like a little rolly like a suitcase. You bring it out there, boom, you're heading.

00:09:00
Speaker 1: It's legit awesome, dude, I know because they sent me one too.

00:09:05
Speaker 3: And with the pandemic, obviously you can't just like randomly pull some stranger or you know, even a friend, because you're not sure what they've been doing. And I went down to my buddy's place down in PA and I took it with me down there, and because he had a court that we could go to and use all the time that no one was around, and I was like, all right, I'm going to give this scene a go. Oh my god, it's the friggin' best, because everybody knows, like at your club you have a ball machine, but you've got to plug it in.

00:09:33
Speaker 1: It's cumbersome. It's like you can literally wheel it out and wheel it back and that's it. And you got to, as I said, you've got to have electricity with this slinger bag. You literally charge it overnight. It lasts for hours.

00:09:48
Speaker 3: You just roll it like you've taken a suitcase onto the plane, and you just pop it in the middle.

00:09:53
Speaker 1: Of the court.

00:09:54
Speaker 2: And it's got to remote control. So the way I've been using it is when I do my own hits, I adjust it for like decent leap paste, lots of top spent on the back court. I get ready, I hit the remote control. It shoots balls at me in like a pretty good pace way. But then I also adjust it and use it like to pop up little softballs for my kid. Yeah, because it's got all sorts of setting so the two of us can use it, and it means I don't get tired feeding him, and I actually can kind of watch what he's doing or at least pick up the ball, so the neighbors on the neighboring court don't get annoyed if my kids spran balls everywhere. This thing is like legit awesome. Yeah, and I was really jealous because you got yours about two.

00:10:25
Speaker 1: I could not tell it.

00:10:27
Speaker 3: Cannot tell you people out there, how freaking jealous and annoyed Caitlin was that I had mine.

00:10:32
Speaker 2: And I was annoying. I was annoying you left right center. I mean, I was like, hey, I want it, I want it. I was like, get your own.

00:10:39
Speaker 1: I have mine.

00:10:40
Speaker 3: And now I got another one because my friends in PA loved it so much that I left it down there, and then the amazing people that Slinga sent me one here. It's kind of should be here actually tomorrow on the next day. Honestly, I'm shocked that this.

00:10:54
Speaker 2: Is available, that our ball machine quality has been so low for so long, and these guys sort of come along and runt of like rejuvenated the entire market because I've seen videos online, so we've had access to courts. We've played with this ball machine in a court setting. There's people doing this in backyards, there's people doing this in rooftops.

00:11:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean it's awesome. People have gotten creative. Listen, everyone else also has kids as well.

00:11:17
Speaker 3: Like you said, it's awesome for them because you can be down then you can help them and you don't have to feed the ball. And a lot of times, like even with me as a coach, you know, of a world class player, I.

00:11:26
Speaker 1: Don't it's really hard for me to hit with them.

00:11:28
Speaker 3: Even though I can hit with them, still it's hard because I want to be able to see what my player is doing, and I don't. It's hard to hit because you know, I have to really focus to hit with the best players in the world.

00:11:37
Speaker 1: It's hard for me to hit and look and see what they're doing.

00:11:39
Speaker 3: So a coaching tool, it's much better almost to have a ball machine or somebody to hit with your player.

00:11:45
Speaker 1: So in this capacity it's great.

00:11:47
Speaker 3: And if you have kids, you can just be down the other end yelling at them, so much easier when the wall machine's doing all the feeding.

00:11:53
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly, it's like yelling struction. Yeah.

00:11:55
Speaker 2: Anyway, we are thank you, Singer, thank you for sending us back. Yeah, you guys go check them out dot com. It's from the UK. It's a beautiful blue bag comes to the caring case and a pickup ball tube.

00:12:04
Speaker 1: It's cool.

00:12:05
Speaker 2: It's a really cool thing and I'm delighted to have one. So thank you guys.

00:12:07
Speaker 3: Yeah, kudos to Slinger for rejuvenating the ball machine market.

00:12:12
Speaker 1: It's awesome.

00:12:13
Speaker 3: If you guys out there, I know you're all tennis fans, go get yourself a Slinger because trust me, you're gonna like it. Obviously, we're seeing some innovative things going on in Europe right now.

00:12:23
Speaker 1: With that. You know, they've got the tennis court underneath the.

00:12:27
Speaker 3: Plane that where they had the plane, the hangars in Germany Airport. Our buddy Petkevich is over there playing in it. She had a good win today against Fitzelina. So you know, all the players are getting they're trying to do their best to get ready. They're also trying to do the right thing with their social distancing and not having crowds. Look, obviously we had the disaster of the what happened with the Adria TUA with all the guys over there. I mean, look, we got into it a little bit on social media, and facts are facts, you know, and when you the problem is when that tournament started, unlike the tournaments in the Czech Republic, where all the girls are sitting around each other, they're high fiving, they're sort of not doing the socially distanced or CDC.

00:13:19
Speaker 1: Rule kind of things.

00:13:19
Speaker 3: But the Czech Republic has virtually no COVID going on there, and they weren't flying people in from other countries.

00:13:28
Speaker 2: Right, They've been essentially in a larger quant in.

00:13:31
Speaker 1: Their small little towns.

00:13:32
Speaker 3: They've all been socially distanced, they've all been quarantining and they all had They're all aware that the risk for them is very, very small, and obviously everybody's fine, nobody's tested positive, so they feel like they're all good. Whereas with the guys event, they were bringing players in from the United States.

00:13:53
Speaker 1: I mean, Gregor Dimitrov was in the US, Sasha s Vereg was in the US. They all came over.

00:13:59
Speaker 3: Now who used to say who gave it to whom? But the bottom line is when you are bringing players from all over the place to play in this event.

00:14:10
Speaker 1: The chances of someone bringing.

00:14:12
Speaker 3: It is really good, And that to me was the dumbest thing about that. And then they were playing basketball together, and I mean even us. Look, we all had negative COVID tests in Charleston. We didn't high five.

00:14:24
Speaker 1: There was no high fiving, there was no hugging.

00:14:26
Speaker 2: You guys didn't take your shirts off and play basketball together.

00:14:30
Speaker 3: We didn't go, like, you know, jump in a jacuzi with seven of us having a chat.

00:14:36
Speaker 1: Everybody was still aware.

00:14:38
Speaker 3: That, look, we may have caught it at a Let's say I went and picked up some takeout food, which I did. What if somebody on the door handle left a little coronavirus, like, the chances of me giving to someone the next day is very good, you know.

00:14:52
Speaker 1: So we were all very aware of that.

00:14:54
Speaker 3: The guys were not They were hugging at the net, they were kissing, kissing the European way and the whole thing in the basketball and the I mean, it was just they took way too many chances.

00:15:04
Speaker 2: Well, this also happened in Atlanta, which you have some inside information about. I won't let you, I won't make you divulge your sources. But you know for a good fact that guys were going out on the town, not doing as you described in Charleston or Lexington, the extra precautionary measures of just being extra safe, which is I think again, if we want tennis to function, if we want it back, we have to be responsible. So how hard is it to just not go to a club.

00:15:29
Speaker 3: Well, here's the thing with the guys. For example, look at a regular tournament. I don't think the guys will be going out right. I mean, look, we saw Sessa say after his negative COVID tests that he's going to quarantine for fourteen days.

00:15:44
Speaker 1: Dude.

00:15:44
Speaker 3: The dude was out four or five days later at a bar. Somebody put it on social media. He was surrounded by ten, fifteen, twenty forty random.

00:15:54
Speaker 1: The video is pretty damn it. He's surrounded by forty people. He doesn't know.

00:15:58
Speaker 3: You can't do that, you know, And I know for a fact that people were going to a bar in Atlanta, and you know, subsequently, guess what, you took a chance and you got coronavirus from that, and then you go and play and you wonder why.

00:16:16
Speaker 1: So it's like the girls, we weren't doing that you know what I mean.

00:16:19
Speaker 2: Like, well, I do want to bring up this idea because I think our podcast is either hated or loved.

00:16:25
Speaker 1: I mean I like to think loved, but.

00:16:26
Speaker 2: It I think we are two people and our guests feel hopefully that they are in an environment where truth and authenticity wins the day, right, Like we might not say things that you always like. We might not say things that are always you know, exactly on message or corporate sponsor approved. But I think the truth is we both love tennis with you know, the intensity of a thousand suns. We want to do the best for it, and sometimes a lot of that involves critiques. So the politics.

00:16:54
Speaker 1: Happy to take more sponsors.

00:16:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, by the way, you know my zip patch By the way, doctor, if you don't want to get involved, the best, they're the best.

00:17:03
Speaker 1: I know.

00:17:03
Speaker 2: By the way, those things are like forty dollars a pack. If we could get some free hash doctor, doctor, come on, man, yeah, exactly, get it out there so you'll be hearing from us soon, doctor Jerts. So politics and sport are linked. They always have been there, always will be. And if you don't like politics and sports, it means you are cool with the status quo, which is that the rich and powerful are usually exploiting the vulnerable and the less empowered. That's just the way it is. We see it in every single sports league. We obviously saw it most notably in the NFL. And I want to bring the politics into this because I think you got into a very vigorous, oh my god, Twitter war.

00:17:40
Speaker 1: It's definitely the biggest war I've had in a while.

00:17:42
Speaker 3: In a while, as far as the length of time I took out of my life to.

00:17:48
Speaker 1: Go back and forth with most people. I mean, I'm very lucky.

00:17:51
Speaker 3: Like, look, if I put a statement out there, often it's like nine out of ten people say something positive or supportive of me. And then I get the one Wyanka who sure like will say something wankers are going to wank one. You know, the wankers are what makes the world go around, not necessarily in the right way.

00:18:06
Speaker 1: But ah, I was just on it.

00:18:08
Speaker 3: My quote was something along the lines of the male tennis players have really been irresponsible. I mean it was a little bit more than that, and I said, if anyone wants to support them, you can stuff it kind of thing. And you know, I got a lot of people saying that's so sexist saying all male tennis players. I said, I didn't say all male tennis players. And there have been a lot of male tennis players that have done incredibly, have done the right thing, that have behaved themselves, that have taken into consideration. There are form there are other players, and there's some that didn't and they deserve it. And somebody was like, oh, if the women did that, you wouldn't say anything, which is I'm like, have you met me?

00:18:50
Speaker 1: Listen?

00:18:50
Speaker 3: If there was footage of a you know, slim Stevens at a party five days later after saying she was going to quarantine for two weeks.

00:19:01
Speaker 2: You'd be the first. You probably would have texted her directly.

00:19:04
Speaker 1: Well, I would have said, you know, but.

00:19:09
Speaker 3: And then if it's known that so and so went to a bar and then three days later I was testing positive and then putting in danger her other competitors, Yeah, oh you damn.

00:19:19
Speaker 2: Straight, I would have said, which, by the way, puts endangered my job. Jobs of thousands of people, not just players, commentators, producers, caterers, event planners, broadcasters, journalists. The entire ecosystem of tennis, like the entire ecosystem of our economy is based on seeing and unseen labor, and if you're going to endanger labor by being a total dick, and every example we saw of it was the dudes, then don't come at me with your not all men hashtag because you want't know what not all men came from. It came from the me too movement, and the Me too movement was about women who've experienced sexual harassment. You pull every woman you've ever met, they've had some kind of terrible encounter with a man. It maybe has been terribly violent, or maybe it's just been passing remarks or cat calls, but yes, every single woman has had this experience. And so if you're going to be one of these not all men guys, well I don't do that. I don't know anyone who does. Think a little bit about the systems of power you're propping up, and think about what it would take, in the generosity of spirit in your heart to say, hmm, even though I have not personally done this, and I find this important, maybe I'm going to listen to these women who said that they have experienced this, and instead of getting defensive, use my powers of empathy. We see this one with the Black Lives Matter movement and the people who respond all lives matter. Of course, human sanctity of life matters. One race has had boots on their necks for hundreds of years, and so it does it really harm you non black person to say black lives matter because they haven't mattered in the past. Right, These politics, these discussions are all linked. And if you're somebody who's gonna clown around in these Twitter streets by saying not all men or how dare you be sexist against these men, then I would point to the nearly coronavirus free nations, all of whom are led by women, and say, maybe it's time for women to be in charge of everything, and you can go eat a bag of dicks hashtag dick kicks.

00:21:12
Speaker 1: Dick kicks. Yeah, I mean that's the thing.

00:21:14
Speaker 3: It's like, I just think, you know, when going back and forth with this stuff was just like it was, you know, notoriously, always the guys going at me for like calling them mounts Like no, I would think a responsible man that does act responsibly and is aware of the fact that he is putting at risk, as you said, you know, one guy said to me essentially like you know, it's not your business, and when it you shut up kind of thing, and I was like's literally your business.

00:21:44
Speaker 1: This is literally my business.

00:21:45
Speaker 3: And if the US Open doesn't happen, that's me not commentating, that's me not coaching.

00:21:50
Speaker 2: There's millions of dollars in people's jobs getting impacted more than they already have been, which has been pretty bleak out there.

00:21:57
Speaker 1: I mean people, my paying my rent here in New York, which is not cheap, is reliant on me working, and me working is tennis being back playing. So if you're going to be irresponsible because you've got twenty million dollars in the bank.

00:22:12
Speaker 3: And you don't give a fuck about every single person that has a job that relates to tennis, So don't do it on a tennis broatge the players that are ranked ninety five in the world that rely on those first round Grand Slam money to survive, you're a dick and you're selfish, and so yeah, I'm sorry, Like I am going to call people out that do stuff like that because it is my business. And that's why I got so upset. And there was a couple of guys that actually deleted their tweets after that because I proved them so wrong.

00:22:44
Speaker 2: Well, I hope they showed their mothers, women, friends, sisters, daughters how dumb they were being, and they got to check themselves. And men, if you listen to this and you're on the side of good, great, awesome, get the other men in control.

00:22:57
Speaker 3: Just tell them to take a step back and say I didn't attack them personally. That's what is so hilarious to me, because I tell you, if there were seven women on the WTA tour that had events and they came forward and they were COVID and I knew the stuff that they did, I would be the first one to throw them under the bus as well, because they are now putting my job at risk.

00:23:17
Speaker 2: So let's talk a little bit about the tour as it sort of nominally plans to come back. We keep talking about the US Open. The US Open currently has plans to return. Obviously, we're all very excited at that prospect, and there's going to be a few tournaments leading up to that, but it's not a certainty. I mean, it sounds like there's still a little bit of like, well, if things don't go well or the coronavirus cases in the United States, I want to make sure to mention not New York, which had its shit together because we wore masks, washed our hands, socially distanced.

00:23:48
Speaker 1: And did all the right shit.

00:23:49
Speaker 3: We had to jump and we literally were like self imposed quarantining in our apartments and not leaving them, Like I literally didn't see my neighbors who are two feet from me.

00:24:00
Speaker 1: Months da ever came out.

00:24:01
Speaker 2: It was dystopian here in New York. But people know how to live near each other because we live in a megalopolis and we have some semblance of empathy and we believe in science. Setting that aside, there is some question mark about who's going to show up for these tournaments in the States, notably the US Open. What are you hearing? What are you thinking? What do you think this is going to look like?

00:24:20
Speaker 3: Well, it's a little bit of a worry when you see that that Rapha is practicing on clay, So that is not a good sign that he's coming to the US Open.

00:24:30
Speaker 1: Right.

00:24:32
Speaker 3: Word on the street is that Novak apparently has ordered some tennis balls from the.

00:24:40
Speaker 2: US Open from the USTA, indicating he'd want to get ready. I would imagine he's coming to the US Open.

00:24:46
Speaker 3: Okay, all right now, that's still not set because we'll see what happens over the next couple of weeks with the cases and the you know, obviously New York, as you said, is doing fantastically well. We were out yesterday socially distancing and everyone's still wearing last year in New York. So yeah, Serena's obviously said she's coming. All the you know, Biance and Rescue will be coming, you know, the former the defending champion, Naomi Osaka, former champion, she will be coming, and so, you know, I'm excited. I think that we're going to have as good a field as possible. Obviously Roger was never playing. I think every player that's playing right now in these exhibitions, including we're actually sitting at my apartment watching Dominic team and Bertini playing against each other on grass, those guys will definitely be coming because I just think they're trying to prepare for the US Open.

00:25:37
Speaker 2: The team's played pretty much every match humanly possible.

00:25:40
Speaker 3: Yeah, and he wow, like he looks great. He looks great, as does Bertini. But yeah, I like the fact that these guys are getting out there and they're playing as much tennis as possible. Because they need to physically be matched ready for a five setter. That's going to be not easy. But yeah, I think I think we're going to have as good a field as possible. I'm hearing that Simona Hallup is probably not going to be coming.

00:26:03
Speaker 1: She indicated that she's she's a little bit afraid.

00:26:06
Speaker 3: I think of you know, catching Corona obviously and traveling, and it's going to be a little bit of a step for the Europeans to fly over here. But I think the us TA are going to do everything possible to try and keep them as safe as possible. I know that ESPN really wants it, as does the USTA. It's a tremendous amount of money on the line. Sure, the USTA is a non for profit. They rely so heavily on this US open to fund income the entire year.

00:26:34
Speaker 1: You know, everyone that's so selfish. Okay, it's listen.

00:26:37
Speaker 3: They're trying to do the right thing by everybody here that they're going to They've been.

00:26:40
Speaker 1: Through protocol after protocol after protocol.

00:26:43
Speaker 3: My friend Kathleen Stroy is the head of the Women's WTA Health Services Staff and Division at the WTA, and she said, literally, I've written a book in the last six months about the protocols that need to happen for the US Open.

00:26:57
Speaker 2: Well, I think what we've learned from these exos is two things need to happen. Number One, the organizers the event have to have very clear, very consistent and very logical, if stringent protocols. And then the players have to respect each other and the sport and the organizers enough to follow them.

00:27:14
Speaker 3: And when that happens, if you want to go, if you want to go into New York as a player, because they're all going to put them out of the TWA at JFK.

00:27:23
Speaker 1: If you want to come into New York, do it out of the tournament. There's plenty of time to party, man, There's plenty of time to come into the city. And when you come into the city, stay in the city.

00:27:32
Speaker 2: Well you should also still wear a mask and socially distance and outside you.

00:27:36
Speaker 1: Say the TWA, come into the city and.

00:27:38
Speaker 2: Go back to the But respect the bubble. The bubble is going to work for and with everybody, so it needs both sides to function.

00:27:45
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm not just going to have four players left at the TWA hotel on the last weekend.

00:27:50
Speaker 2: Yeah, okay, and I see some other ones distance and you know, once you're.

00:27:53
Speaker 3: Out of the tournament, you can come into the city and you can put yourself up in the four seasons, like you know what I mean, Like you have time to party and have the New York experience, which I know a lot of players love about coming to New York. But you've got time for that, and you can handle two or three weeks. It was the tournament, the week before it's going to be the Cincinnati, Southern, Western and Southern Open.

00:28:14
Speaker 1: You got time to party. Man Like, Let's get back to business here and let's take care of each other.

00:28:18
Speaker 2: Let's take care of each other before we get to the clay swing. Because as of now, the French Open plans to sell tickets to attendees. I don't think it's going to be a full house, but they do plan to have spectators. Setting that aside, what out of the players and the field that you do see really working hard, what do you think you know might happen at this Grand Slam? I think Racket had a pretty compelling piece by Gary Nathan talking about Mateo Bertini, who's kind of come out of last year's US Open run the semi final run. I want to get to the fact that you called it really early about him. He wasn't on a lot of people's radar in terms of being a challenger to the Big three and making it deep into a Slam. But Geary wrote pretty compellingly, I think this week for Racket about how Bertini's really taken this Exho opportunity. We saw him playing an incredibly contested final in Berlin against Dominic Team, losing in the super thigh break. You know, I think ten eight. But he's fitter, he's moving well, obviously, his four hands enormous, his back end's gotten better. Do you think he's you know, a real contender this year?

00:29:21
Speaker 1: Yeah? Absolutely, I mean he was.

00:29:23
Speaker 3: I mean I went on in a bit of a limb and I said that I feel like he's going to be the one of the young generation outside of the top three that are going to win a Grand Slam. And I think he will be the first one. And I think that Dominic Team is knocking on the door above them all because he's been so close now with certain and finals of the US Open, where he played you know great as well or you know, and he's had huge wins at slam level, and yeah, the French he's going to be knocking on the door big time. But yeah, I think Mateya just has all the weapons and he just has to learn to believe in his ability. He's such a nice guy. I mean, he's such a nice guy. But he also spent a lot of time in Bocha, you know, in the pandemic. He was down there living with his girlfriend, Isla Tomlanovitch and her family, and so yeah, he's used to the US environment.

00:30:13
Speaker 1: He's used to the hard courts. He loves playing on them.

00:30:15
Speaker 3: So yeah, I think he's definitely a chance at that event, There's no question about it.

00:30:20
Speaker 1: I think on the men's side, team and.

00:30:24
Speaker 3: Djokovic obviously will be the favorites, and then Matteo will be knocking on the door. And I think in the women's side at the US Open, I think that you know, I've been asked, who do you think will be best without a lot of match play coming into a year ob with Serena right a Grand Slam, and I said, well, you just got to look at the top two for me are Serena and Bianc and Rescue. Yeah, I mean, if anyone can come and play a tournament about having a match for like six months.

00:30:46
Speaker 1: It's frigging those two. Yeah, I mean Biana won like three of the biggest events on the calendar last year, dropped off for months, didn't even play hardly, like literally.

00:30:57
Speaker 2: Came back in one two huge tournaments a.

00:30:59
Speaker 3: Row, like what you know, come out of came out of nowhere to win Indian Wells. Yeah, then like got injured, you know, played one match after that at Wimbledon, and.

00:31:11
Speaker 1: Then one Canada and won the US Open.

00:31:13
Speaker 3: It's like, you know, Sloan Stevens obviously did that, you know, a couple of years ago as well. I think what it does is it gives you that second wind of oh yeah, I really love doing what I do. You know, there's some people that really appreciate it. I think Serena she's obviously she's she's got a court in her backyard and she's had the US Open balls delivered to her as well. Like she's ready to go, she looks fit, she's she will definitely be there, and nobody wants to see her whin another one more than you know a lot.

00:31:43
Speaker 2: Of us, a lot of us. I actually had a dream about Margaret Court last night. It was very odd. She doesn't appear in my thoughts in any occasion very much, but I feel like maybe it was the same. I was talking about how she supported a partide as well as heating gay people, and I was like, Wow, what a great opportunity this would be her, somebody, akay Serena Williams to knock that pedestal firmly in the dustment of history where it deserves to be.

00:32:07
Speaker 1: I just don't even I don't know. It was very strange. I don't want to dwell on this. It was strange. She kind of looked like a mop. She had long hair. It was very strange. I mean, we didn't talk about her yesterday dinner or anything. No, no, no.

00:32:19
Speaker 2: They say a thing about dreams. If you're going to tell other people about your dreams, which is universally boring for anybody who's not you, what you need to do is pretend that the person you're talking to was also in your dream, but they had like a minor role, like kind of like a director would give their nephew in their phone in general, in your life. And I was like, oh, no, you were there too. You were you know, in the cafeteria liking coffee exactly. Yeah, so now you're now you're invested, right, Tell me what else happened?

00:32:47
Speaker 1: Its break down the screen? No, I didn't. I didn't even be in that dream to be interested in how that he you would have that dream? I don't know. I had a lot of tequila last night.

00:32:54
Speaker 3: I guess that's why you had like three You had two drinks.

00:33:00
Speaker 1: I didn't even have three drinks. I have two drinks.

00:33:01
Speaker 3: Oh my god, you the biggest friggin lightweight. Can we change that about you getting into your forties now?

00:33:05
Speaker 1: No?

00:33:05
Speaker 2: I think if anything, maybe I'll just go totally clean and just do a secotropic.

00:33:08
Speaker 1: I am going totally clean for a week today. Okay, everyone, let's see how to do.

00:33:12
Speaker 2: We'll check in a week on checking in twenty four hours.

00:33:15
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:33:16
Speaker 3: My neighbor doesn't help me, okay, because I'm like outside and then they're out there with a glass of wine and want I'm like, okay, all.

00:33:23
Speaker 2: Right, what can you tell us about what you'll be doing the next couple months? Obviously you're going to commentate on the US Open. What do you think is going to happen? Are you guys? Is the tennis world really going to do a clear swing. Is this really happening?

00:33:33
Speaker 1: Yeah, I believe it is.

00:33:34
Speaker 3: I'm actually going to be spending a little bit of time with Jeanie Bouchard. I've been helping her out a little bit over the last couple of weeks, and we're on the street is that we're going to go to Prague and play the event there. So this is a pre US Open Prague, pre US Open Prague on clay. Genie might be playing the US Open. Her ranking is not high enough right now, so the goal is to get her to get back inside obviously the top one hundred and then go from there.

00:34:01
Speaker 2: I mean, she can win those big matches, so it's just a matter of get her back in there.

00:34:04
Speaker 1: Right Genny.

00:34:06
Speaker 3: You know, there's not many people that return the ball as well as Genie, So just working on trying to get confidence back. I'm working on trying to change your serve a little bit, because you know, if you're winning free points on your serve or you're setting the point up with your serf, you're going to do a lot of really good things. And if you know, changing the serve and getting her to control her own service games, those are all really important with going forward with the confidence.

00:34:29
Speaker 2: I feel like that's important for literally everyone tis she returns so well that if she can, you know, really stay in control of her own service games, then do you want a free coaching tip from me? Go ahead, because I get paid by the Stars for this kind of stuff all the time.

00:34:46
Speaker 1: Serve and balley.

00:34:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think that's never going to happen, although our buddy Andrea Pekovich, you know, tweets out her video of her servant bowling and winning the point every time. So I'm gonna make Genie do it once a match.

00:35:01
Speaker 1: Do you think Petco does that because she No, she does it just so she can put it out there and show me.

00:35:06
Speaker 2: Okay, that's true. That's like a code of conversation between the two. Yeah, she does not value very often.

00:35:11
Speaker 3: No, it's but you know what, everybody out there, hit that flatty out wide and go in and I promise you you'll have a ball in the middle of the court, high fourhand volley.

00:35:21
Speaker 1: It's an easy point to win. Just throw it in there like a Martina hingis every now and again, and do it on a break point, because I promise you, everybody returns that ball through the middle of the court because they want to just make it wow. So there's my tip for you all. This is great, all right.

00:35:37
Speaker 3: I mean, who's going to take a flat serve out white and try and hit down down the sideline.

00:35:41
Speaker 1: Nobody. Everyone's going to go back across court.

00:35:45
Speaker 3: Radwanska was the queen of it as well. She throw that in there every now and again, which is why I loved her. Can I what about my I got.

00:35:52
Speaker 2: A little mention, should we do a bonus ending of the episode with your newest Twitter romance? Well, I don't know, intellectual, it's I call it a romance. Let's call it a surprise that was sent to me yesterday that apparently Mary Trump, of course, of niece of you know who, Yeah, the only good Trump as far as we can tell.

00:36:13
Speaker 1: Yeah, uh, had like.

00:36:17
Speaker 3: Liked one of my said some very complimentary things about my commentary like three years ago, and.

00:36:22
Speaker 1: I just totally missed the tweet. And then I didn't realize that she actually followed me as well. Oh yeah, And I was like, what the hell? I just totally missed this.

00:36:29
Speaker 2: So to back up, Mary Trump, the psychologist, niece of the shitsack clown who's currently sitting in the over office illegally, I would argue, is a progressive, has been cut out of the family and now has this forthcoming book where she all but diagnoses I didn't even want to use his name as having like narcissistic personality disorder and having been abused by their grandfather because he's it's the whole family's dysfunctional. So she's like the one who got away. She's like the black sheep Trump. She's a huge tennis fan. She's been adding huge tennis Rothenberg Courtney when she loves Agarridwanska. She's huge into tenna. She follows you who knew, No, I don't.

00:37:05
Speaker 1: Know, Chrissy, Chrissy, I told Christia. So she follows you to she.

00:37:08
Speaker 2: Goes, really, I mean, Mary Trump, welcome to the tennis Twitter, Mary Trump, welcome to the tennis world. Will not hold your last name against you. We will be welcoming.

00:37:16
Speaker 1: You will be known as Mary to us.

00:37:19
Speaker 3: That's it. There is the tennis Queen. I'm going to try and find her book because it's sold out everywhere.

00:37:26
Speaker 2: Wait, well, let's have her on the podcast and we'll read the book and then we can talk.

00:37:29
Speaker 1: About what else.

00:37:30
Speaker 3: So Caitlin I think one thing we do want to just also talk about in touch On is the fact that our very good, esteemed fashion correspondent Andrea Pekovich send out a tweet the other day about some absolute ask clown abusing her essentially on Twitter, about her losing her match and telling her she should retire and she.

00:37:53
Speaker 1: Sucks and YadA, YadA, YadA.

00:37:55
Speaker 3: And because he was betting on her, Now he's an idiot because he bet against you know, Petra Kaviteva on grass shitty Grass. I mean, come on, And I know that Andrea has beaten Hvid a bunch of times.

00:38:11
Speaker 2: So in slams recently, but I'm still Petra on grass Is. I mean that's a really intense combination. Yes, because one woman.

00:38:18
Speaker 3: Average grass, So getting herself back on that ship Grass is like not easy, And you know you're taking a risk by taking that bet.

00:38:26
Speaker 1: I'm sorry. Like people bet on tennis all the time, and it's.

00:38:29
Speaker 3: Like they but but yet they feel like they can then abuse the absolute living daylights out of these tennis places.

00:38:36
Speaker 2: I've seen it left right in center, all these players post screen grabs of the death threats they get. Kill yourself, walk into traffic, I mean, it's just like, what on earth would possess you to talk to a person that way? Ay, money had money on it, and b let's be honest. Is your men?

00:38:51
Speaker 3: Yeah, they're always men that are riding. I know we're going to come off like men haters, but it's the men.

00:38:57
Speaker 1: It's the men.

00:38:58
Speaker 3: I've never seen a person and a tennis player voluntarily put these abusive tweets up that aren't men, and it's like it's so egregious and so disgusting the stuff they say to them.

00:39:12
Speaker 2: Well, do you think tennis should not have betting companies as sponsors because a lot of these exhibitions have been funded by betting companies. A lot of people say that that's a conflict of interest. I don't actually particularly care why, but I can see the argum about that.

00:39:24
Speaker 1: I'm not.

00:39:25
Speaker 3: I'm totally fine with that because I had this conversation actually with Craig Tiley from Tennis Australia and one year the Astrain Open had a betting company on the back and I was like, oh, that's a little conflict of interest and that's a.

00:39:36
Speaker 1: Bit we're trying to take. You know.

00:39:38
Speaker 3: That was the year of them really clamping down on betting in tennis and people throwing matches and you know a little.

00:39:48
Speaker 1: Bit of dodgy stuff going on.

00:39:50
Speaker 3: And he's like, no, because there's betting in tennis, like there's betting in sports. Like it's we're just putting it out there like every other tournament has. But they have a lot of sponsors are in tennis, they just don't voluntarily put them on the back of the wall.

00:40:07
Speaker 1: So he's like, we just did that because why not? You know.

00:40:10
Speaker 3: So, now you're never going to take betting away from sports or tennis, and you shouldn't.

00:40:16
Speaker 1: But when you make a bet, you're taking a chance.

00:40:20
Speaker 3: There's no such thing as a given unless you have paid the player, which is why they were clamping down on it to throw a match. But if you take that bet, you're taking a risk. And if you feel like the necessity to like abuse the shit out of a player because the bet didn't come off the way you wanted it to, I just you can go, you know what, like it's so wrong.

00:40:43
Speaker 2: But to me, I think personally it has less to do with batting. Although I do think losing money obviously makes people probably do crazy things. I think it's just sort of For me, the context is keyboard warriors who would never dare or can't ever substantiate or actually you have an argument, you know, face to face, but feel free to volley garbage at other people freely on the internet because they're anonymous and because they're cowards essentially. You know, I got a lot of shit. Well it's nuts. I got a lot of shit after saying, you know, the Adria tour was a disaster, and it was funny because I got a lot of you know, Novak Djokovic super fans, you know, and every Big three player has a ton of fans. The Novak fans have a sort of Serbian nationalist bent, which makes them and they also feel very persecuted. So it makes them feel like the tennis establishment is against him as opposed to he's done some things that are justifiably critiquable, you know, And I said, oh great, well, can you point to the time code that I said something that was actually factually inaccurate. Is this different than me calling out you know, Rafa for taking too long between points and needing to get more code violations? Is this different from me calling out Roger for the verbal obscenity he used and needing to get, you know, like I don't. I don't care really about the Big Three. I don't have a particular favorite of myne them. I kind of want them to all retire because I'm ready for the new crop. But it was interesting because these keyboard warriors, they can't actually say the thing, or do the thing or point to the thing. They're very very happy anonymously sort of lobbing garbage at other human beings. And it's sort of like, you know, if you're gonna spend your time doing that, put your phone down, don't abuse players, get get, get the fuck out of here with that. You know, I've got absolutely no time for it. But if you think I'm gonna stand by it and not call you out on it, and you know, just welcome to me.

00:42:24
Speaker 3: They don't have a lot of things that excite them, and you know, getting very abusive online excite them.

00:42:33
Speaker 2: I thought Petco's clap back was very good. Feel free to you try to return petrok od serve to the ad side.

00:42:38
Speaker 1: I invite you to do that. I'd love to see it you Wenka.

00:42:42
Speaker 3: Let's also finish on a really fun note in that we've been watching World Team Tennis as well, and can we give a like triple triple triple clap to one of the greatest plays that we've ever had on the pod, one.

00:42:55
Speaker 2: Clap for each child she's had before coming back to absolutely decimate the field of young players. Are one of our fieves, Kimmy Clusters. Yeah, I mean it's been so great.

00:43:06
Speaker 3: I spoke to him the other day actually, And just so everybody's aware, the Green Brier they're playing in West Virginia, they're playing World Team Tennis. They're keeping everybody at the Greenbrier, and Kim said, you can't. I can't leave my room. You have to have every meal in the room. They literally leave the food outside and say foods here. So they're really trying to keep it all in house. And I think the US Open is going to sort of that's in a bit of an experiment for them. I think they're waiting to see how World Team Tennis pans out and if anyone gets COVID and how they can handle.

00:43:35
Speaker 1: Keeping everybody in house. I don't know that. I'm just imagining that if the U sure they're watching all of these.

00:43:41
Speaker 3: Thinking, can we because there's a lot of players at that WTT event, If we can keep them in house and keep them safe, then that's a good indicator for the US Open. Obviously there's a lot more at the US Open, but I think that's a small, small, little thing for them.

00:43:55
Speaker 1: To look at.

00:43:56
Speaker 3: But you know, yeah, let's give it up for kem Like, hasn't lost a singles match there. It's only first of five, there's no way tennis.

00:44:02
Speaker 1: Yeah, not exactly matched conditions.

00:44:04
Speaker 2: But Kennon, you know, Stevens, Yeah, she's looked good out there, looking fit, looking good. Obviously, she's always been an incredible athlete, has a laser forehand, backhand, grounding, you know what it is.

00:44:19
Speaker 1: She just looks great.

00:44:19
Speaker 3: I'm so happy, you know what it is when I see her play against all of these players, and they're all great players, and obviously Kennon and Sloan in particular because they're both Grand Slam champions. Kim, you just there's just a difference of the demeanor and the will and the the intensity and the way she can let stuff go and move on, and it's so great to see such a great champion. It's the same as when Serena plays World Team Tennis. It's like it doesn't even matter if it's just like a five game format. It's like they just have this different look about them that is such a it's just a ten percent better than everybody else when they really folk us in and look. Kim will be the first one to say that she still needs to lose a bit of weight. She still needs to get a little bit, you know, fitter, but her movement is still there. And with the little bit extra fitness and match play and a little bit losing a little bit of weight.

00:45:16
Speaker 1: Which he said has been the most difficult.

00:45:18
Speaker 3: I mean, three kids, She's not getting any younger, Like, that's hard to do. Sure, she hitting the ball so well and serving well, playing the mixed doubles.

00:45:28
Speaker 2: Like and just like smiling and fist pumping and getting into it in a way that you're so that happy intensity is always what I remember watching during those fantastic runs in the Australian and obviously the US Open, Like you know, when she's on and she's feeling it. Not only is she such a joy to watch because she's such an athlete, but also she has like such a happy intensity that it's like really really sort of joyous. I feel like watching her on any sports field would be like that, and it's nice to see.

00:45:53
Speaker 1: Oh my god.

00:45:54
Speaker 3: I just one of the reasons I want the US Open to happen so badly is because I just want to see Kim out there again, like giving it everything, and every player that plays against her is just going to be shitting themselves.

00:46:03
Speaker 1: Sure, nobody wants to play against Kim, and no one.

00:46:05
Speaker 3: Wants to get their butts kicked by Kim Places who literally hasn't played tennis for like five years probably you know, a longer, and coming back from from like three children.

00:46:15
Speaker 1: It's like, god, damn, I'm living in a totally schooled by a mom of.

00:46:18
Speaker 2: Three, living on a firem in Belgium.

00:46:20
Speaker 1: Exactly with your pigs and her bulldogs.

00:46:23
Speaker 3: So so anyway, I'm super excited about that. I can't wait to see her compete again at the US Open, and hopefully it all happens. Hopefully the US Open is on our finished crast need it on Television's true?

00:46:35
Speaker 2: All right until soon, Renee, Let's see how long you can stay dry.

00:46:40
Speaker 3: I'm giving myself like two days and if I can get through two days a week, no, but I'm saying if I get through two days, I think I can get a week.

00:46:47
Speaker 1: All right, Well, stay tuned everybody.

00:46:49
Speaker 3: Hey guys, we've we've we've missed tennis. We hope that, we hope that this kick gets back onto television. But in the meantime, thanks for supportting us in Racket.

00:46:59
Speaker 1: And we love you guys. Hang in there.

00:47:01
Speaker 4: We're almost there finally, And that's it for this episode of the Racket Magazine podcast. Thanks for listening. Our host is Renee Stoves. Our co host and producer is me Caitlin Thompson. Music by internationally renowned DJ Stretch Armstrong, thanks to Tim or Jering and the.

00:47:20
Speaker 1: Team at ACAST.

00:47:21
Speaker 4: Find us at racketmag dot com, slash podcast, and subscribe to us at any of your favorite podcasters.