Dead Foot Edition

00:00:17
Speaker 1: Yeah, somewhere on the grounds of something.

00:00:21
Speaker 2: I mean Nottingham, Yes, Comingham, the courts of Nottingham.

00:00:25
Speaker 1: Grass Court Tournament. It's where Robin Heard is from.

00:00:29
Speaker 3: This is correct, Caitlin. They are about a three minute walk from the Robin Hood Castle.

00:00:35
Speaker 4: Oh really, have.

00:00:36
Speaker 1: You been to it perform?

00:00:38
Speaker 4: No? Not yet.

00:00:39
Speaker 1: No, it looks it looks frigid based on your output.

00:00:42
Speaker 3: It's freezing here. It's not getting above sixty eight degrees all week.

00:00:49
Speaker 1: Who's your player, Gut? Is she playing today? No?

00:00:53
Speaker 3: Sam is not playing today. She may play tomorrow, depends on the schedule. Because the rain has been it's been shitty over the last couple of days, so they've everybody's backed up.

00:01:04
Speaker 1: Not good and this is one of many grass court events ahead.

00:01:09
Speaker 3: Of Yeah, but it goes yeah, Nottingham, Birmingham, Eastbourne and then Wimbledon, so it's a good Everyone's going to get very used to the cloudy, rainy conditions of England.

00:01:26
Speaker 1: You can't really play on a grass court that has had green on it. It's one of the few surfaces that just does not absorb water.

00:01:35
Speaker 4: No, it does not.

00:01:36
Speaker 2: You have to have the bubble up and if you don't have the bubble up.

00:01:39
Speaker 3: Then you have the covers on the court, but then you have to get the water off of those, and you've got to clean that and you've got to let it dry. So it's you know, it's my favorite surface, but it is also the world's most frustrating surface to play on because you really have to have perfect conditions.

00:01:53
Speaker 4: To play in it.

00:01:54
Speaker 3: So it's been cloudy all day and we are playing. You may hear in the background of a bit of clapping from the center court.

00:01:59
Speaker 4: Here and there. It is.

00:02:01
Speaker 1: I like how the Brits have adjusted to all of the interruptions and play with just drinking.

00:02:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, yeah, there's a you know, we've got a little bit of pint action going on.

00:02:14
Speaker 2: We've got a little bit of gin action going on.

00:02:16
Speaker 3: We've got a Scampion Chips, we've got a lavaza stand. You know, they buke a little bit of a fair in England. They like to sort of make everyone feel at home.

00:02:27
Speaker 1: Well, I love that, and actually, as we are speaking today, I am still in Brooklyn, New York, where it is a beautiful seventy five degrees. It has been so bad here in New York in the last couple of weeks, but now Finally we have good weather and I just booked my tickets to wimbled In fun details for anybody listening, stay tuned and sign up to our newsletter for a sneak peek about how to attend our London Racket House, which was going to be in Wimbledon Village. We don't charge tickets to this event. It's invite only, but if you're somebody who listens to the podcast and somebody who's been such scribing to our newsletter since the jump, you will get access to be invited to this two day event in London, England. Renee. We're already off to the races, We're already recording it's our podcast. We are already on the grass courts. But we do this Monday after the French Open. Have an opportunity to look back on clay season, specifically the clay Grand Slam that just occurred Rolan Garis. Nobody should have been surprised at who was hoisting the trophies between Egash Fianceec on the women's side and RAF and Adal on the men's. But I am curious as to any sort of like takeaways or new thoughts you might have had in terms of watching not only this weekend's matches, but really watching for the past two weeks.

00:03:45
Speaker 3: So obviously we're coming off the French Open. What an incredible couple of weeks. You know, we had such a strange couple of years really at the French Open, with obviously no fans. We had the moss and who can forget the champion holding up the trophy with the mask, and you know, it was just it just felt so weird.

00:04:04
Speaker 4: And then of course we had at a random time.

00:04:07
Speaker 3: And then you know, we've had some pretty crappy weather over the last few years at the French and now all of a sudden this year it was like the heavens just the clouds.

00:04:16
Speaker 4: Went away, the sun came out.

00:04:18
Speaker 3: It was the most amazing two weeks of weather, and we had some spectacular.

00:04:23
Speaker 2: Tennis, and you know, to have great weather in Paris and all the crowds.

00:04:26
Speaker 3: Back and everybody commented on that and their speeches and how nice it is over the last few years, how difficult COVID has been for all the players and obviously for the French Federation and the fans, and they were all back, and you know, we just had some spectacular matches. Of course, probably the match of the tournament. Well, there was several I mean that were involving of Ruffil Nadalam in his match against Felix Agier Ali Jasim, you know, in five sets, and you were thinking, is this the time?

00:04:53
Speaker 4: Is it the.

00:04:53
Speaker 3: Passing of the guard a little bit, you know, is when is rough going to be done? And then the scrapes through that match, and then there's an incredible match in the quarterfinals where you know, I don't know, maybe the French Federation should have seeded Rauffa one or two.

00:05:08
Speaker 2: I mean, let's face it, why did they leave him there?

00:05:10
Speaker 3: And of course he has to play against Novak in the quarterfinals and one of the truly unbelievable, once again memorable matches between you know, two greatest players of all time, and you know, and then it's almost like it was too easy for him obviously in the final, but you know, he had that just that awful injury from Zverev where the match was just going forever three over three hours and hadn't even finished two sets, and you know, just to see Rafa again find a way with a literally a dead foot, I mean, and I knew when he said that he was bringing his doctor to the French Open.

00:05:43
Speaker 4: I knew exactly what was going to be happening.

00:05:44
Speaker 3: I knew that he would be hitting that foot up with as much painkiller anesthetic that he could to make the foot operable, you know, to be able to operate on the tennis court and run. And you know, to see what he did by when he the tournament again, is just outrighteous.

00:06:03
Speaker 1: I want to let me jump into just to add a little context, because I think a lot of people don't know that Wimbledon is the only tournament that seeds players separately from rankings. They see players based on their basically their success rate and their history on the surface. So obviously, because grass is such an outlier and it tends to favor serve and valier types and first strike types, you know, it has always made sense as to why, even as the surface has slowed down, they have a separate seeding mechanism. It does maybe make sense for Rafa at least to take into account that nobody really can beat him at the French Open. I mean, yeah, on clay they can beat him. Obviously, Madrid at altitude, He's not won every single Barcelona or Rome or Madrid or Monte Claralo tournament he's entered, but you know, the French Open he's lost three times in seventeen attempts.

00:06:53
Speaker 4: So it sort of.

00:06:54
Speaker 1: Does make you wonder why they wouldn't just adjusted so that we don't have a Novak Rafa quarter final, you know what I mean?

00:07:01
Speaker 3: Yeah, of course, I mean I think the only one. I think they could have left Sitz to pass obviously where he was, just because you know, he's he played so well that last year. I mean, he was one set away from winning the French Open last year, so clearly leave him there.

00:07:13
Speaker 4: And he had a.

00:07:13
Speaker 3: Great season on clay. But but it just to not put him in the top four. I think there was there could have been a time to put him in the top four. And you know, if someone wants to argue with me about that, then go ahead, like because I think I'm going to win that battle.

00:07:26
Speaker 2: Considering he won his fourteenth French Open, okay.

00:07:29
Speaker 1: Easily, get won easily, I mean, and it's hard to imagine he would have lost to Chilich or to Medvedev obviously two great players. Chilich has won a Grand Slam, as has Medvedev. Those were the players along with Tizzipas and the bottom half of the draft and Casparreu a great player, super happy to see him. He seems like a nice guy, he seems well liked, but he just like didn't even come close in the final. I mean, he has nothing to hurt Raffa with and it does make you wonder that why that wasn't you know, a quarterfinal match, and then we were watching Novak.

00:07:55
Speaker 4: And Ruffa at the final.

00:07:57
Speaker 3: Certainly, you know when people say, yes, you adjust on grasp course of the fact that you know, it is such a different surface to a hard court or a clay court. But I mean the same could be really said about clay you know. I mean, nobody obviously is even comes remotely close to Ruffil Nadal's you know, clay court prowess and his what he's done on that surface. So for me, I think it would have been a time for the French Federation maybe Tibuka trend a little bit and seed him in the top four. But you know, hey, listen, in the end, it was Novak really that paid the price because he had to play him in the quarter finals. So you know, I would have loved to have seen that clearly as a final. I think every single person would have loved to and preferred to see that final.

00:08:39
Speaker 4: Then what we saw.

00:08:40
Speaker 3: And as you said, Caspar Root a great player, and certainly his best surface is clay.

00:08:43
Speaker 2: But when you're talking about his best surface.

00:08:45
Speaker 3: Being clay and he lost three to three in love, okay, you go, okay, maybe they should have seated him a little bit higher. But having said all of that and complaining about something which I tend to do sometimes, I just want to sit back and I just I cannot believe that this guy has one foot. You think about the record that was held for quite a long time there for a while until Roger and Rafa and no that came along at fourteen Grand Slams was Pete Sampress.

00:09:15
Speaker 2: And he's just equaled what Pete Sampress did in one tournament.

00:09:19
Speaker 3: And it's just outrageous, and you know, to put his foot to sleep, basically, you know, to think he has an issue with the bone sort of basically depleting on him and cutting the nerves so he can actually run on a tennis court without pain. It's just outrageous, and you hear it in his voice. He knows that he cannot sustain that because when you put your foot to sleep, you don't have as much control over it. And he's probably worried about tearing you know, obviously going over in his ankle or you know, he could fracture his foot, and he has no idea because he has no pain in that because he's deadened it.

00:09:54
Speaker 4: So it's just unbelievable. He's just the class of the class of the class.

00:09:58
Speaker 1: No, I mean, it's unbelievable obviously, Like not only in terms of the accomplishment, the number, the perseverance, the humility which he talks about playing tennis with just enjoying all the moments. You know, you really do believe in anybody who's watched him play for even a moment, you've seen him tend one point the same way he contends every point, which is with every ounce of his being an effort, which is just such a it's so cool to see anybody try that heart at anything, you know, Like I like to think that I cook with that amount of effort, or I time I shoelaces with that amount of effort, or like a parent, I certainly don't parent with that amount of effort, and the fact that this guy cannot help, but both only be in that mode is honestly, like, you know, you can win without it, as many other people do, but that's the way he wins, and it's something else. But I do want to talk a little bit about this because you have had experience with, you know, chronic pain. Has every professional tell me a little bit more about what you mean when Rafa bringing his doctor and essentially treating that foot, I have to imagine day by day, maybe even hour by hour, just explain for people who don't understand and have never played sports at a pro level, what kind of mentality that takes, what kind of pain management that takes, Like, what kind of you know, understanding that a lot of these players have just you know, are not often feeling one hundred percent perfectly okay, and where the lines get drawn and how you kind of deal with that, because I don't think that's something really most people understand, as anyone who's been following along this show knows. Renee and I both went pretty hard in the paint in March, not necessarily eating our best or living our post healthy balanced lives. That's why we were so excited when Sakhar came our way offering to have us try out one of their three day meals. These are nutrient dense meals, snacks and supplements that nourish your body. Practicing some abundance mentality this year and says, Sicara joined us to sponsor the show for a couple of episodes and to help our listeners get the same experience. Skara is a wellness company anchored in food as medicine on a mission to nourish your body through.

00:12:14
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00:12:16
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00:12:46
Speaker 3: Well, I think that's a new reason why he would think about playing Wimbledon. To be quite honest, some week he missed it playing last year, I believe because of the same injury.

00:12:55
Speaker 2: So I think that now he's going to give it his best.

00:12:58
Speaker 4: I think you'll wipe a couple of weeks to, you know, settle it.

00:13:01
Speaker 3: I have to tell you I walked in behind him at transportation. I think it was like middle middle weekend time, so obviously he already played two or three matches and he was limping badly in front of me. So clearly, when he's not on the painkillers and the anesthetic in the injury, he's in a tremendous amount of pain. So I think, you know, what he said in the postmatch interview was, we'll see what we can do other than what we're doing now, which is to I guess, burn off the whatever, they do some sort of stuff to see if they can do it that way rather than just completely keep putting, you know, an anesthetic in it just to quell the pain.

00:13:40
Speaker 2: But yeah, I mean, look, it's an opportunity for him to possibly.

00:13:43
Speaker 3: Win the Calendar Grand Slam, and my god, would that solidify him as the greatest, certainly of this generation to win a Calendar Grand Slam.

00:13:50
Speaker 4: We saw how Novak came so close to it last year, and you.

00:13:53
Speaker 3: Know, he's done well in the front at the US Open in the past. He's defending champion, so you know, obviously Wimbledon's going to be a bit.

00:14:00
Speaker 4: Mountain to climb.

00:14:01
Speaker 3: We know how well Novak plays on grass, and I don't think you know that Raffle will play there unless he's able to move, And so we all wait with bret of breath like we did yesterday, Like you said when during their speech, I have to tell you had dinner with Donovekch, Maria Sakari, and Isla tom Lanovitch last night and the first thing we all said to each other was, were you guys all waiting for him to like say I'll be back next year or whatever? And Maria's like, I was just hanging on what he was saying. So he's so beloved by players, and he's so admired, and everyone was a little relieved when they didn't hear him say I'm retiring.

00:14:36
Speaker 4: So we've got a little bit of time.

00:14:37
Speaker 3: I best leave not to worry about that for the moment, but I think it's going to be a hard slog for him going forward physically, Yeah, it.

00:14:44
Speaker 4: Seems like it.

00:14:44
Speaker 1: All right, let's spend a minute talking about the women. I mean Eager. There's not really much you can say. She is head and shoulders above the rest of the field at the moment you know she was expected to win. She has now equalled Venus Williams, No, sorry, equaled Serena Williams's streak, and it has venuses in her sights if she wins one more match of thirty five. It's just crazy to think of how dominant she is at the moment. It's kind of reminding me of some of those Djokovic years where he just looked unbeatable and tactically unmatchable, because she's not only out playing people physically, she's seeming to leave opponents vexed. That's certainly what happened to Coco on Saturday. What's your takeaway from that match? I was obviously happy to see her in it. It's nice to have an American. Jess Picoula also had a great tournament. They came very close in winning the doubles together, losing in three Tokaro Garcia and Christina and Beldenovich. But I do think Coco has a little bit of game left to develop before she's able to hang in there, maybe not against an ego, but against the top thirty player, because she didn't play any heading into the heading into the championship match. So I do wonder, like, what's your take on sure Ega and how much she's you know, head and shoulders above everybody at the moment, but also so you know, if you were coaching Coco like what, you would sort of encourage her to take away from the match and maybe keep working on well.

00:16:07
Speaker 3: I mean, boy, if I was, you know, in her camp, I'd be delighted. I mean, to make a singles and doubles final, you know, her second doubles final of a Grand Slam.

00:16:16
Speaker 4: That's only going to help her going.

00:16:17
Speaker 3: Forward and dealing with the pressures of, you know, winning a Grand Slam, whether it's in doubles. And I am such an advocate of young players playing doubles. You know, we've seen some terrific players through the years when doubles Grand Slams prior to winning a singles Grand Slam.

00:16:31
Speaker 4: I mean the list is quite long.

00:16:32
Speaker 3: And you know Ash Barty for one, you know who's recent who won the US Open doubles before she won her singles Grand slams.

00:16:41
Speaker 2: I mean, we saw as a ranker win mixed doubles Grand slams.

00:16:44
Speaker 4: We saw I mean, the list is long.

00:16:45
Speaker 3: I don't need to go through them, but I think it's really really important for young players to play doubles.

00:16:49
Speaker 4: I think it helps them in big moments.

00:16:51
Speaker 3: And playing tournament matches and being on the big courts. But I think, you know, what we saw in the final is also someone, as you said, Eger, just so unbelievably a confident going in in every match. I mean, she had a bit of a struggle in one match she went three sets, didn't play her tactically best match. But I think what we saw was also just the couple of the weaknesses on you know, the forehand side of Coco, which certainly is better on clay because she gets more time, and I always said that I thought she'd be better on clay.

00:17:23
Speaker 4: Because of that.

00:17:25
Speaker 2: But you could see the tactical response from Eager.

00:17:28
Speaker 3: It was backhand, cross, caught back and cross god and as soon she could go back and down the line, because really Coco's back and is just so so good that as soon as she could get it to Coco's forehand, she was taking that backhand straight down the line and forcing Coco to have to do something really special with her forehand and either go back to Eager's backhand or really hit a good one to the forehand. And she either didn't hit it well or she missed it to the forehand. You could just tell the tactical sense that Eager had out there. She knew exactly what she needed to do. And I think because tennis is alway about matchups, and you could see that. For example, in the semi final, Trevisan is a lefty, so her balls tend to go into the backhand side of Coco, and you saw how comfortable Coco was in that matchup because of that matchup, whereas playing against Eager it's completely the opposite. So you see how comfortable she was playing Trevisan. Clearly Travisan's not the player that Eager is. But the flip side is that Eager's game is just a nightmare to play a particular unplay against four Coco because of that match that we're going into the backhand and then back to the forehand. So we saw that every single time Eager took that fourhand down the line, that the point went back into Eager's favor, and you know, we saw her really dismantle Coco. And also I would say, you're eighteen years of age, you have never been in a Grand Slam singles final. It is a very very very different situation and takes a really special play to when their first ever Grand Slam that they enter in singles, and I just think she's fantastic. I think she's going on the right track. She's, you know, working with a new coach now a little bit more as well as her dad, and you know, I just think she's doing everything the right way. And may I say, even away from the tennis and I tweeted this, two of the nicest young ladies you'll ever meet in your entire life playing against each other in that final, loving the game of tennis, and they're just they're both such nice young ladies that it's so nice to see that.

00:19:26
Speaker 4: In any way for me.

00:19:28
Speaker 1: I also think, you know, Coco, I was lucky enough to see her play Junior Girls three years ago at Roland Garas and I watched her play you know who else was in the semis at that tournament.

00:19:38
Speaker 4: She won it.

00:19:39
Speaker 1: She'd beat Katie McNally, her doubles partner in the finals, who beat Eager in one of the semis, and the other semi, Coco beat Leyla Fernandez. And so it really is funny when you get to go to these Grand Slams. One of my favorite parts is getting to see the junior players, the wheelchair players, the Legends players, and for me, tennis is not just singles, it's doubles, it's mixed all these other events, and the Slams really do offer up all of that on a platter. So that is my way of getting you to talk about Gabriella Sabatini and your own experience talking about Legends. Sure like I'm also here to hear that Sony, any thoughts or takeaways on the Legends this year.

00:20:13
Speaker 3: They have a few matches because she heard her shoulder so badly, and so it really comes down to a lot of times with these legends that we can actually get through the matches without physically dying. But it was lovely to see Gabriella and Gisella Dulco because, let me tell you, they happened to be the best looking pair of all time, and they matched.

00:20:33
Speaker 4: Perfectly and they had their la cost outfits.

00:20:37
Speaker 3: They did lose in the final to Flavia and Francesca, but it's just so nice for all of us to see each other and all of us to catch up, to be quite honest with you, So that's always really fun for all of us to get a chance to not only get back on the courts together, but actually to see each other. I haven't seen Giselle with Dulko in like, you know, eight years or something. So it's just always so fun and we love it. We love it, we love it.

00:21:01
Speaker 4: Although there's a few aches and pains out there. Yeah, I'm not going to die.

00:21:05
Speaker 1: Maybe you guys should take the rougher mentality and just be willing to sacrifice your body boats and then this wouldn't be such an issue.

00:21:11
Speaker 3: Well, the doctor did say to me when he said when do you want to get the injection in your shoulder?

00:21:15
Speaker 2: And I said, well, I think I should wait until after I'm done. He said, well, yes, because we do have to.

00:21:19
Speaker 3: Get a to you know, do we have to get a tue like you know you have to get exceptions to get certain things, you know, for the drugs and all that sort of stuff. And I said, no, no, no, don't worry about it. I'm not under that restriction. You can give me any drugs you want, mate. They all had a good laugh about that. But I did have to wait untilves out before I got my injection.

00:21:37
Speaker 4: But I'm feeling better at Caitlin.

00:21:39
Speaker 3: I think I might be back at Wimbledon serving at least one hundred miles an hour at least.

00:21:43
Speaker 1: Well, that was going to be my final question for you, which is I just booked my tickets. I will see you there in it looks like three short weeks time. Will you be playing Legends? Can you give us a preview about whether you'll be playing or not or is that still something you're going to reveal at.

00:21:57
Speaker 4: A later day. No, no, I can reveal now.

00:22:00
Speaker 3: I will be playing the mixed doubles at the Invitational with I think Thomas Enquist might be my partner, and he's quite the cutie, so I mean, you know, not super into the boys, but I do love a good looking Swede.

00:22:11
Speaker 4: So you know that's going to be my partner.

00:22:15
Speaker 3: And it's going to have just loads of fun veterans back out there on the Legends court, so that'll be a lot of fun. And clearly, look, we've got the whole situation at Wimbledon with no points, and you know, it's the whole situation there, which you know, you and I might get into prior to Wimbledon when it starts. But it's very disappointing how everything went down there with the points and with the.

00:22:38
Speaker 4: Bands, and I just think.

00:22:40
Speaker 3: That that was a cock up, as we say in every way. Now that I'm in England.

00:22:46
Speaker 2: I'm going to call it a cocker because that was a cocker.

00:22:50
Speaker 1: Well, let's we'll table that until the furst of the tournament because I know we have some strong opinions about it. But I'm happy to have closed the chapter on another incredible clickorancy in I'm very, very thrilled with how good the tournament was, as you said, Sonny, fan fans, ic capacity and two great champions coming off of the Rulin Garas titles. And now we're into the grass, which is an amazing part of the year. So I will see you next week where we will talk about all manner of grass work goings on.

00:23:18
Speaker 4: We might get more into Wimbledon.

00:23:20
Speaker 1: But thank you everybody for listening, and good luck to Sam this week.

00:23:24
Speaker 2: Thank you my friend, and enjoy everybody.

00:23:26
Speaker 3: The grass is here points a short little bit of serving, bully, little chip and charge, but overall we're just going to have a lot of long rally since everybody can play from the baseline now, so even on gross anyway.

00:23:37
Speaker 2: Caitle, it's great to talk to you.

00:23:39
Speaker 3: Thanks, thanks for everybody, thanks for listening, and we'll see you on the gross