Hunger Games

00:00:17
Speaker 1: Okay, well, good morning everybody.

00:00:19
Speaker 2: Welcome to the Renee Substance Podcast, joined by Kaitlyn Thompson Again, Caitlin, We've got a lot to talk about, my friend a lot, so let's get into it, Madrid.

00:00:27
Speaker 3: We got to get right into it.

00:00:28
Speaker 1: What a great week or what do we call it? Ten days? Two weeks?

00:00:32
Speaker 4: Yeah?

00:00:32
Speaker 5: Do you like these two weeks?

00:00:34
Speaker 3: Masters? You don't?

00:00:34
Speaker 2: Do you?

00:00:35
Speaker 1: No? No, no, I think we can get this done in a week.

00:00:39
Speaker 2: I understand that they need and want these ten days because they have obviously a lot of matches to play, But I feel like in some regards they might have to cut the draw down.

00:00:49
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know how to fix it.

00:00:52
Speaker 2: The back to backs are what are really tough for players, and then if a player loses in the first round, they have to wait like forever in a day just to play another match.

00:01:00
Speaker 1: It is. It is difficult.

00:01:01
Speaker 2: Those that win it love it because they get a little bit more, you know, rest in days in between. You know that it's better for their bodies in some regard. But yeah, I don't know.

00:01:12
Speaker 4: Yeah, I find that even though we have lots of amazing results to discuss, and we will get right into it.

00:01:17
Speaker 3: The tournaments tend to drag the end of the second week.

00:01:20
Speaker 4: It doesn't feel like there's enough matches on you have for your waiting around for you know, the matches to start. I watched, obviously, three of the four finals this weekend, women's doubles, women's singles, and men's singles. I'm excited to talk about them all with you. I have no idea who won in the men's doubles, and I'm happy to learn. But then I ended up watching a lot of Challengers matches because I was waiting for matches to start. So I watched you Sue Bergs, Tabe Low play in I SA on Provence. I watched a couple of random, you know, tidbits from the Challenge of Tour. I just think we need more tennis on TV, especially when it's the massive tennis season again.

00:01:56
Speaker 3: Another thing for the scheduling gods to figure out.

00:01:58
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean.

00:01:59
Speaker 2: And one of the things that one of my friends and our friends, Betty Morgan said to me yesterday, she said, I watched the women's doubles final and there was nobody in the crowd. And I said, well, I hate to tell you this, but no one in Madrid is going to watch tennis at noon.

00:02:12
Speaker 1: It's just not happening.

00:02:13
Speaker 2: I saw some of the best players in the world playing their first matches on the stadium court at the first match and there's no one there.

00:02:21
Speaker 1: It's just it's just the way it is. So it's another.

00:02:24
Speaker 2: Reason to figure out the scheduling, because we shouldn't have the best players in the world, whether it be singles or doubles, playing in front of two people. And you know, I saw Janick Sinner a player match. He might have been first on one day and there wasn't barely anyone in.

00:02:37
Speaker 1: The crowd as well.

00:02:38
Speaker 2: So it's just and you can't say that it's because of him. It's Madrid. You've been to Madrid. You know what Spanish people are like that I get out of bed until eleven o'clock.

00:02:47
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's frustrating to have incredible product and not very many people watching it, which you know, is again a persistent problem for the tours to figure out, which I feel like they can. There's lots of more people who are on these boards, who were working for these organizations and for whatever reason, getting great broadcast peer product and getting great in person product doesn't feel like.

00:03:09
Speaker 3: It should be that hard.

00:03:10
Speaker 4: I also think the Madrid organization from what I've heard. I haven't been to the Madrid Tournament, although obviously I've spent a lot of time in Spain. There leaves a lot to be desired, is what I would say. And the fact that it's owned and run by Endeavor, the same as the Miami Tournament, it raises some questions about who they have buying these things and what their plan to market, make sure there's butts and seats and the match play works really well. You know, it's not necessarily the tournament organizers who are in charge of this. It's a lot of times to meet. That's the ownership.

00:03:46
Speaker 2: Yeah, well I know that they make a lot of money on that event, to believe me, and they make a lot of money on Miami as well. So put your money where your mouth is and just you know, make sure that scheduling's done right. That's why they want the ten day so they make money. They make more money over those ten days. So you know, there's been a gripe over the last few years about players not getting the money that they feel like they deserve, and you know, they're still making a lot of money. There's over a million dollars for the winner of this tournament. But still, you know, ten days of work for a tennis player, especially a top tennis player, when they can make a million dollars in a you know, a Yonick Sinner and a Carlis ou Choris for example, can make a million dollars a night in an exhibition. So I just need people to understands that's also part of the equation. When the top players in the world are playing seven matches or six matches to win a tournament like this, they're very deservative.

00:04:36
Speaker 1: At least at least a million dollars. Okay.

00:04:39
Speaker 2: So so anyway, let's get into We want to talk about the women first because there's so much to talk about. Oh my god, I said to you yesterday, Let's call this episode the Hunger Games because they feel like the women's tournament or any tournament these days, is like the Hunger Games. We had so many upsets in this tournament, I mean, new faces, new.

00:05:00
Speaker 1: Women coming through Madrid.

00:05:02
Speaker 2: Is a little bit interesting because it's slightly at altitude, so it does bring in some interesting sort of possibilities of people that hit the ball big on clay, winning matches, not just grinders like your typical gre you know clay court sort of grinders. It does lend itself to big serving, big hitting, although the two people.

00:05:20
Speaker 1: That won didn't don't have huge serves.

00:05:22
Speaker 2: But I go back to when Petro Kvitevo won the Madrid title, like what like Petrick Kaviteva won a title a tier one on clay. Yeah, because it does lend itself to big service, big hitterers. But some really great storylines from Carolina Plishkova almost getting through to a semi final of a Master of atp WTA one thousand, and Noskova, you know, knocking off Coco in just a dramatic three set match, Sabaalanca going down to Hailey Baptiste, like it was just it was a hungry games all.

00:05:55
Speaker 1: Over for women.

00:05:56
Speaker 3: I loved it.

00:05:56
Speaker 4: I think obviously we got to talk about Haley Baptiste, whose takeout of Rina Sabalanka was for me, the probably the match of the tournament. And what's going on with Coco, which you know, this is a tournament, as you said at elevation, so it's maybe not necessarily the one that she should that she should do the best in this play swing, but it is time for her to start turning up the you know, the dial. And as we head into Rome this week, you know, this is where she's got to be really, really looking good and doing well. Which I don't know that that's the case. We can do a check in on Ega, but yeah, I feel like the women's tournament just offered so much drama, so much electrifying tennis. Carolina Pluschco is great to see back at the top, you know, the end and stages of a tournament. Yeah, I am kind of left a little bit of goog at how underwhelming the men's side was. Obviously we'll talk about that a little bit, but first maybe starting with that sabal Anka Hailey Baptiste match that I think had everybody sort of either becoming a Haley Baptiste fan or asking themselves where she's you know, where she's been on their lives or this version of her has been all their lives.

00:07:11
Speaker 2: Well, for me, you know, we saw this emergence of Haley, right we saw it in Miami. We've seen it over the last few months or you know, almost twelve months, where she's really really come into her own.

00:07:22
Speaker 1: I think she's a.

00:07:23
Speaker 2: Player that I've always truly thought was should be so much better than she is. She has every shot in the book. We saw the talent come to, you know, to the forefront. The slice, the forehand is big, the serve, the volley's, the want to serve in vali and the thing that I love and I've said this forever and for all you amateurs out there that are pretty good players, the best time to serve and volley, if you're not serving and volling all the time, is a surprise tactic on a really big point, like when you're down set point or break point and you trust your volley's and you're a good volley are like Haley Is, that's a good time to serve and volley. And the greatest to ever do that under circumstances that were like literally breakpoint, set point, on match point was the one and only Martina Hingis, who was not known for a big serve or a serve and volleyer, but she had great volleys. She didn't have a lot of power, but she used to hit this flat wide pancake serve out wide and come in and hit this volley into the open court. Because every single returner of serve on a big point, most will hit the return through the middle of the court. Why it's the biggest part of the court. It's the safest place to hit it. And it's also a smart return on a big point. You don't want to go for some stupid like China, go down the line. And if you recall, on match point, she served and volleyed on a second serve to Sabolenka, and Sablenka did the right thing. She went through the middle of the court and guess what, Hailey served and volleyed and bomb hit a volley into the open court and won the point. Then the next time, I believe, on match point again she served and volleyed again. And what did Sablenka try and do. She tried to go down the line on the return because she had a feeling maybe that Hailey would do it again. So rather than hit the safe return, which I would argue was the right return and make Hailey come up with a great volley and maybe get it to her feet, she tried to go down the line and she.

00:09:16
Speaker 1: Missed it wide.

00:09:17
Speaker 2: And so for me, for the kids at home that wanted if they're going to serve in valley, it's a great time to do it on a big point because most returners will go through the middle of the court. Now, if they hit a great return through the middle of the court at your feet and you have to come up with a spectacular volley to win the point, then then okay. But most of the time that's a great time to serve and volley, and that's when Hailey does it, and she did it against Aberlenka, and then she came up with the goods even on match point, hitting that forehand into the open court after a great serve.

00:09:42
Speaker 1: I'm just so excited. She can play on every single surface.

00:09:45
Speaker 2: I'd love to see your play on grass with the servant vali and the coming into the net.

00:09:50
Speaker 1: She just has to learn to play the right shots at the right time.

00:09:53
Speaker 2: And you know, our buddy Andrea Petkovich on her substack wrote about she was as impressed with Haley's second match after beating Sablanca against Andreeva because she didn't really drop off.

00:10:06
Speaker 1: She still stayed in it. She didn't go away.

00:10:08
Speaker 2: She didn't like let the win against Sablanca affect her to play poorly in the next match, which a lot of.

00:10:13
Speaker 1: Us probably would have understood.

00:10:14
Speaker 2: But she almost won that second set, and she probably should have won it in the end, even though Andreeva should have won the match earlier in the tiebreak up for love, and then she started playing the wrong choices, and that's.

00:10:25
Speaker 1: I give her. I have to fold her coaches.

00:10:27
Speaker 2: A little bit because I would have been yelling out, get it to her forehand on every big point, and she didn't do that on some big points in the tiebreak, and then I'm costing of the match. So there's little things that she can still get a little bit smarter with on the court, with where to hit the shots on big points. But my god, I am super pumped to see Hailey Baptiste having the results she is.

00:10:46
Speaker 4: Yeah, And I think this is to me why natural surface season on the tennis circuit is the most exciting, because you see somebody with her tools and her skills be able to really use the entirety of the court. You know, obviously somebody like Sabalankas and they like Rebakyina, they're going to be strong on all surfaces. As we watched them play, and we actually have some questions when we do reader questions about about that and how we think they're going to end up at the end of this year. But I think for me, the variety, the exciting change of pace, the tactical, you know, innovations that you don't always see are our things that you know, somebody like Hayley Baptiste can lean into. And yeah, I was really excited to see that. She also had a very good match against mir Andreva, who I was rooting for in the final only because I like her tennis so much. But going ahead to the final matchup between Andreva and Martakostiak, hard not to be excited for Martakostik, who has put in her time in the on the tour, you know, week in week out. She had a really great result earlier this year in Brisbane where she actually also beat me or Andreva. I had Andreva as a little bit of the favorite, just because when she locks in she does have more tools I think than mart acoustic. But I certainly wasn't sad to see her to win and do a acceiting backflip on core after she did get it done.

00:12:03
Speaker 2: So I mean, yeah, I mean, for me, I think the difference in the final was that cost Juk had more power. She just had more power, She had a little bit more on the ball. She's an incredible mover. Another thing that Andy Petkevich noted in her substack about Mira has great speed as well, but mir anticipates really well and that is true, and cost Juk is just power, She's just speed. I mean the backflip after winning the tournament shows you what kind of athlete she is and how quick she is around the court. And I think she frustrated with I think she frustrated Mirror a lot in the final because she was getting a lot of her balls back. And the one thing Mira doesn't have is a big forehand. She still doesn't quite have the same ability to hit the winners with the forehand. And I think that whereas Marta can hit a foehand winner or a backhand winner at any time, and she served well under pressure, I just I think that the one thing that I want to say about Mirror is that I find that she fights her emotions so much on the tennis court that it's almost like she gets to a point where she's so she doesn't show any emotion. If you notice that, she just like no emotion, no emotion, no emotion, no emotion, and then boom, it's all this emotion after the match or what it's one come on, I would.

00:13:17
Speaker 1: Like and she's learning.

00:13:18
Speaker 2: She's still so young, she's what nineteen years of age, eighteen nineteen years of age. I would like to see her find a little bit more of a balance at not be negative as we've seen she gets real, I mean yelling at Kencheedah and her box saying I'm not a champion. I'm not a champion, you know, in her in her previous matches. So she's kind of like still a little very petulant on the court with certain things that immaturity the way she acts. But I feel like then she goes to like this crisvet mode of like not showing any emotion and no emotion, no emotion, no emotion. So I kind of want to find the balance because I think she still has to show a little bit of emotion like happiness, not get too high and not get too low. She has to find that perfect middle ground. I think once she does that, I think it'll help her because sometimes you need to show your opponent that you're like, yeah, I'm coming here, I'm coming to fight, rather than be so janick sinner because you don't have the power of Joni Sinna just Yanick needs to stay calm to play well.

00:14:12
Speaker 1: Whereas Mira, I'd like to see.

00:14:13
Speaker 2: Her find that perfect balance of positive and negative, like just find that perfect middle ground, and she's she'll get there.

00:14:20
Speaker 1: She'll get there.

00:14:21
Speaker 2: She's still young, but I think overall it's just Marta was just hitting the ball bigger.

00:14:25
Speaker 4: I do have one question about the emotion stuff, because on one hand, it does remind you about how young Mira Andreva is when she crumples into a ball and gets really really you know, devastated after a match. Obviously it means a lot to her. She hasn't kind of acquired the jaded you know, sort of more. I don't want to call it professional, which implies that the way she's behaving is unprofessional. She has been unprofessional on the court, but not in this way. But it does sort of make me wonder. You know, real champions, true champions, never like the taste of losing. Ever, they're never you know, when we talk about the men's final, we can talk about how Zverev looked, you know, just happy to be there and knew he was walking into a buzz stop. Before he even got out there. He probably had his runners up speech started in his head, Maria and Drevi is not the that's not the case. How much do you want to see a player learn to lose versus a player get okay with losing but still you know, retain their competitive fire, Like how do you coach her to be kind of grappling with those emotions better?

00:15:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's good. It's a good way of thinking about it. I think that it'll come with time. I think it really well. I think it'll come with time. I think it'll come with time of losing more winning, more how to handle it all better. She's an incredibly emotional young woman. She's super happy off the court. She's super bubbly and very jovial, and so that's just who she is. She's just super emotional. And then you've got Rebarkin on the other hand, who's just like a robot all the time, Like even when you know off the court she's a lot more sort of relaxed, but like boof the way, she just like wins and loses. Like well, talk about the Kipling saying going on to Wimbledon, like handles your and your losses the same.

00:16:02
Speaker 1: That is rebarking it. Where where's mirror. I don't know. I think it's a good question.

00:16:09
Speaker 2: I think as a coach you probably prefer a player bit a little less up and down. But at the same time, she's human and that's it. And I do want to touch upon that, Caitlin, because the WTA mad at me shock her. So I made a comment on I was watching the match and then within I'm within one minute when she sits down and she puts a towel and she starts boiling her eyes out on the court. You also know that camera is going to be on her, and you have to know that as a communications person. You see the communications people come onto the court and what they're coming on the court to do is to tell you, Okay, this is the sponsor you have to thank, this is the way this presentation is going to go, blah blah blah, and they just kind of get refreshed at all with you, and this is it's going to be a twenty minute set up or whatever it is. So I was very perturbed at watching this match and watching the comm's communications person go up to Mira Andreva within a minute of losing that match and start talking to her. Now, my first reaction was WTF, what are you doing? Get away from her, like, at least give her the space to mourn this loss, get herself together, and then tell her what is going to take place in this presentation. So I wrote on the socials something along those lines of like give the please, give the girl a minute. Then I got a couple of messages and emails from WTA communications people stating to me that they were a little upset at me for making this comment, and that the reason why the communications person went up to Mirror after the match was to tell her that basically, if she wanted to go off the court and compose herself, she could because the speech was going to be so long. The setup of this particular trophy presentation takes forever, and we all know that it's just the way they do it in Spain and the way they do it in Madrid.

00:18:00
Speaker 5: Okay, well that's pretty reasonable.

00:18:01
Speaker 3: What's your response to that?

00:18:03
Speaker 1: Very reasonable?

00:18:04
Speaker 2: But my thing to this is and I will be ten toes down on this and will you will not even convince me otherwise you can still give the girl three minutes?

00:18:15
Speaker 4: I guess my only response to that is does this happen all the time?

00:18:21
Speaker 1: As in what.

00:18:25
Speaker 4: Being ten toes down on something and making a big stink about it and getting a bunch of email traffic, to me, is worth it if it feels like it happens all the time and it's something that people systematically do. If it's like just the case of one person saying like, oh, yeah, they were attempting to be comforting, but actually maybe they exacerbated it. Maybe that's not the best solution. Do you know what I mean?

00:18:45
Speaker 1: Like, yeah, good question. I don't know.

00:18:48
Speaker 2: I don't always stay for the trophy presentation on television. I just also you have to understand from a television's perspective, the producers and the people doing TV fucking when people get into a camera shot okay for a while as well, so then get out of the shot.

00:19:05
Speaker 1: I've heard it. I've been in a production truck when the producer.

00:19:08
Speaker 2: Is yelling get out of the fucking shot, get out of the shot. They hate when other people get into the shot on the play. So you have to also understand that. So there's TV, there's what it looks like to people at home. And I got a couple of text messages saying to me, I can't stand the way they do that because it just looks like you're also sort of babying them a little bit. Anyway, I just you know, I want to get across because I did tell them. A couple of people wrote me on Twitter and you know, got emails and I said, I will discuss this on my podcast because I didn't want to do it on socials because I didn't want this back and forth in public. This is my statement, This is how I feel. I understand they probably felt like I was attacking them. It was I could have maybe done it internally that I will agree on, But I still will say, give these players, no matter how good your intentions are, give them a few minutes to have their moment before you talk to them.

00:20:04
Speaker 1: That's it.

00:20:05
Speaker 4: Let's brat women by talking about a couple of things very quickly, because we've got to keep it moving here. Number one, let's just give kudos to Potapova, who is now in Austrian Yes, playing qualities today in Rome, as it were, on a great semi run that was incredibly impressive. Any anything we want to say about.

00:20:23
Speaker 2: Her, Yeah, I mean, this is a player that's sort of like just coming into her own this year.

00:20:28
Speaker 1: Hitting.

00:20:29
Speaker 2: She hits the ball really well, she has a little bit of an emotional up and down, and we saw that in the match against Bliskova, for example, she looked like she was going to tank in the third set.

00:20:37
Speaker 1: She was ready to go home.

00:20:39
Speaker 2: And then she sort of like won one particular point. I think Carolina will rue that service game that she lost in the third set when she was up a break, because she was up forty fifteen in that game. But pot to Pova, or as the WTA announcer was calling her, Potapova, I was driving me crazy. I was like, the umpire is literally saying Potapova, and it's on the wtair website Potapova, and.

00:21:02
Speaker 1: She was calling a Patapova.

00:21:04
Speaker 2: Anyway, that's a whole different argument of mine, and I don't have time to get into. But I just think she's really feisty, and so the good and the bad can happen on the court with her, and the good came out in the end because she was fired up to win that match, and that was very impressive. And she played a lot of tennis, as did Caroline Plushko over that week, and somebody else who you know, came to the four a little bit was also Nuskova beating Coco was impressive because Coco should have won that match. She was up four to one in the third and may I just say on a roll. She won the second set six to one, was up for one, I believe, so basically was winning every.

00:21:41
Speaker 1: Game, it felt like for a while there.

00:21:44
Speaker 2: And then at four to one on her serve, Caitlin like kind of dropped the ball a little bit, like just making really not great decisions on her shot selection, getting upset with herself. Unlike, this was what we talked about last week. She's showing her opponents this negativity on the court which comes out and you can't do that against the os Kova because Nskova is going to hit the ball through you. And that's the biggest worst opponent for Coco, and that's what happened. And even in the third set tiebreak, Coco was up in that tie break and should have put the match away, and just some poor decision making from her. And I do again, I feel like the coaches have the opportunity to tell their player something, whether it's just tactical to get them away from the emotional side of it, and I just felt like there was a lot of come on you've got this come on, you know, even Haley Baptiste was told, you've got this big heart, you know, all this sort of stuff.

00:22:36
Speaker 1: No, just tell her to play the forehand.

00:22:37
Speaker 2: Like in certain circumsances, you've got to give the player, you know, a tactic in those moments, Yes, tell them to stay calm, but you've got to have a tactic. And I think the Coco got a little bit lost. The forehand wasn't firing well, the serve was just sitting there for Moskova to go after. So there's a lot of question marks of Coco going into clearly into Rome and to veendo title in France because the confidence is definitely not there. But Naskova another great young player Hunger Games Madrid, I'm telling.

00:23:07
Speaker 3: You, yeah.

00:23:07
Speaker 4: I mean, the women, as they always do, are really bringing it. I think probably for me, the less set about the men the better.

00:23:14
Speaker 5: Honestly, I don't.

00:23:16
Speaker 2: Need to really talk about them, because what was interesting about the tournament was pretty much nothing except that Janick Sinner has won every Master's one thousand is uyear.

00:23:25
Speaker 5: Yeah.

00:23:26
Speaker 4: My only note of sadness was that my guy Arthur Fist, who went from being you know, France's next hope and somebody who we all were sort of hoping would be in the challenger to the hegemony of Sinner and Alcaraz sort of fell with a whimper there in the semifinals, but I remain hopeful nothing. It's not me for rooting for French parties, even their own, you know.

00:23:51
Speaker 5: Tumultuous emotions.

00:23:53
Speaker 4: One thing that I did think was really funny that I touched on earlier is you know, Zverev's insistence that he is part of this like elite group and when asked about it, he would be like, well, I think Sinner's ahead of everybody else, and you're like, bye, mile yeah, uh huh, and then he'll be like and then me and Carlos were hanging in there with Djokovic in that second team, and it's like, wait, sorry, what.

00:24:22
Speaker 1: This is his quote?

00:24:24
Speaker 2: I think there's a big gap between Cinner and everyone else, and I think there's a big gap between Alcaraz, myself, maybe Novak, and everyone else.

00:24:32
Speaker 5: Which of one of things is not like the other.

00:24:34
Speaker 2: One person has zero gap between Center and Alcaraz and the rest of the ranking. Well, zvere well, I think there's a big gap between Center and everyone else. Right now, it's quite simple. I think there's a big gap between center and everyone else. I mean, he just kept saying that, but he lumps himself in there with Alcoraz bro.

00:24:50
Speaker 4: And what Also, as Andy Roddick's podcast Served pointed out last week, Zverev is closer to Bill Ackman in the ATP rankings than he.

00:25:03
Speaker 5: Is to act to Alcarez like.

00:25:06
Speaker 4: Zverev is closer to zero than he is Carlo's Alcaraz like. That's what Also, like, hey, if you want to include Novak, who, like everyone would agree, is not in his like best form because he's a billion years old and still.

00:25:20
Speaker 1: But he's not.

00:25:22
Speaker 5: And he's not playing very much. They still have all the slams. Where's yours?

00:25:28
Speaker 4: Bro, Like the Master's one thousands and everyone giving him this credit like he's the best player to never want a slam. Yeah, and he's going to be a player who never wins a slams. Best is subjective and seems like but nobody else is.

00:25:43
Speaker 2: It's like, it's like, and he's the thing. If he didn't say any of you said look, I have. If he had said this, my respect level for him would go up. If he said look, bottom line is I'm a really good player. I get to a lot of finals, I get to a lot of semis. I usually be every play, which is not the case because who did he lose to.

00:26:02
Speaker 1: The week before.

00:26:02
Speaker 2: It's like I usually win X and Y matches, but i've you know, the standard between Yannick and Carlos is clearly as you can see by the points category, heads and shoulders above me. I need to improve and figure out a way to even remotely push these two guys that I would be like, respect right, but to lump himself in with Carlos al Karez, who's literally won every major title all of them, or four by the age of like twenty one, is insanity, okay, And yet this guy who's not even won a Grand Slam is saying that he's in that same category. Dude, what weed are you smoking? Because I need some of it to make me this like cocking and delusional. And on top of it, Caitlin, can I add the final was so bad and not he looked like a petulant child. And I know apparently from what Jim Courier said, he didn't think he was one hundred percent whether he was injured or what was going on, But he looked like a petulant child who was in the sandbox and had thrown all these toys out and did not even think to dig his way out of anything. He tanked the last few.

00:27:11
Speaker 4: Games, and maybe he was injured, maybe he wasn't. But the point is, this guy is courageous enough to lump himself into this category of player that is baffling, but he's not courageous enough to go out and try his hardest in these matches that he already feels defeated in. It's like, you know, he's it's just like.

00:27:31
Speaker 5: Can we get this guy? Like moving on?

00:27:33
Speaker 3: Like enough with this guy.

00:27:34
Speaker 4: If he wasn't in finals, then we would have absolutely no reason to talk about him instead of making fun of him, which he also obviously deserves.

00:27:41
Speaker 5: I want to take a quick break.

00:27:43
Speaker 4: We need to hear from our many many sponsors, and then I want to come back because we only have about fifteen minutes left and we got to get to some really burning reader questions, So coming right back to you, and then Renee, I want to come back to you with some questions. All right, reader questions, let's get into it. This to me was such a one sided affair. On the men's side, We're gonna start with Dale's question, who has what has to be one of the easiest yes, is that I suspect you're ever gonna say, Dale Kerr brit In from Australia.

00:28:19
Speaker 5: Will Yanick win Room, will he win Llaneros? Will he lose again this year?

00:28:26
Speaker 1: I mean it's really possible he might not lose.

00:28:28
Speaker 2: I mean, if Yanick, if Carlos Alchariz is not playing, chances are Yannick might not lose a match this year.

00:28:35
Speaker 1: And and and.

00:28:36
Speaker 2: Looking at that final, he looked like he was playing you know when you when you're a really great player and you're going and play juniors and you know, no matter what, you know, you're gonna not gonna lose.

00:28:46
Speaker 1: That's what he looks like.

00:28:47
Speaker 2: And he is every shot in the book now Serve volley's are great. His touch around the net, his forehand, his back, he moves, his mentality. The guy is unbelievable. Person that's going to beat him this year for the rest of the year is a guy that's not playing right now, and that's Kallis auk Rez unbelievable.

00:29:07
Speaker 4: I'm sort of hoping against hope that we get like a Jack Draper back in the mix, although he's going to be out for the next couple of weeks. Still, I'm sort of hoping against hope. Like I referred to earlier that my current Frenchman of du jour is, you know, going to be able to get to the next level.

00:29:24
Speaker 5: There's always Medvedev who's kind of lurking. But this feels like a.

00:29:27
Speaker 4: Little bit like throwing spaghetti at the wall. To be honest, I mean, it's feels like it's the Onyx Center's game to lose as opposed to you know.

00:29:36
Speaker 2: I mean, how how pissed is Yonick that he didn't when these stry an open because this could have been the year that he could win all four in one year. But but I digress doesn't matter because.

00:29:45
Speaker 4: I have a question for you.

00:29:47
Speaker 3: You.

00:29:47
Speaker 5: I have a question for you.

00:29:48
Speaker 4: Uh you refer to how much coaching, especially with regards to Haley Baptiste, especially with regards to Coco. It was really great to see and I know you share this viewpoint that two female coaches were present for the women's final.

00:30:08
Speaker 3: Men, get on it.

00:30:09
Speaker 4: You know, if you want to compete with the ANC Center, maybe the trick is getting a woman coach. There's a little bit of a coaching change for Emma Rada Kanu. As you know, I'm a big Rata Khanu fan stan. I liked her form last year. This year she's obviously struggle a little bit with injuries. She is back with her US Open winning coach. What do you make of that?

00:30:30
Speaker 2: Well, we'll see, as I think the most difficult job in the world is coaching Emma Radikanu because she has a very short rope, So we'll see. I clearly think it's a good idea. He did wonders for her to win the US Open. He seems like a very chill guy. Maybe he gets her better than most because he's known her so long, known since a young age. And listen, I know Emma personally. She's a great young woman, like she's fantastically educated, great to talk to, very smart. I think that's sometimes half the problem is that she's so smart. She realizes half these coaches that are telling her stuff are so stupid, and she just goes, well, that doesn't make sense. But at the same time she has to give someone time. But I think she knows this guy so well from such a young age that I think it might work for her because she'll settle into it a little bit more and stop trying to pretend to be a player that she's not. But Mark Petchi didn't last long so but Mark is so busy with his TV so I just think that was untenable in a lot of ways. And maybe he's still sort of helping from the side.

00:31:30
Speaker 1: I don't know.

00:31:30
Speaker 2: I haven't spoken to Patch about it, but I think this is a good move from Emma, and we'll see. But yes, may I just add the two women in the final had two female coaches, and both of those players are very dramatic, very We've seen it, We've seen Costuk, we've seen Mirror. They're both very drama filled. You know, they're not Rebarkina. And they have female coaches, and I think it's because they understand how to talk to them better. And you know, I think that more women should. I wrote about it, I put it out on Twitter. I was like, please, like, consider female coaches a little bit more and give them a chance, give them a chance to do it. I mean, as I've told you, Caitlin, you know how many calls I've had since working with Serena at the US Open.

00:32:11
Speaker 1: One from one player.

00:32:13
Speaker 2: I mean, I don't mind that my last coach it was not whole Garuna, but I would definitely take that up. But you know, when you think about it, I mean, I've coached some really good players, and I feel like I've done a pretty good job with all of them. But it's like I've had one call from an agent for one other player, and that player decided to go with a man who had been fired by somebody else, and then two months later they fired her.

00:32:33
Speaker 1: It fired him. So it's like, you know, it's interesting.

00:32:36
Speaker 2: That when you've done well as a coach and then you don't get other opportunities, whereas men get opportunity after opportunity opportunity. I mean, look at whim for said, I mean, the dudes had like five different opportunities.

00:32:47
Speaker 1: So you know, I just.

00:32:49
Speaker 2: Think, you know, girls out there, women out there that are playing on the tour, maybe consider a female coach sometimes because they definitely understand you a lot better than a man.

00:32:56
Speaker 4: Okay, next question, this is from Jet Struven Stabba, Thank you, oh God, Lena Rebaccna end her year's number one.

00:33:06
Speaker 3: That's part one, and then I.

00:33:08
Speaker 5: Have a follow up.

00:33:09
Speaker 3: So come back to this.

00:33:12
Speaker 2: I certainly think that Wimbledon will be the tell. I think if she wins Wimbledon, which is my favorite to win Wimbledon, I think she can end the year number one. And a lot of times it's because she didn't quite have the same points to defend as Sabolenka does throughout the rest of the year. Right Sabolanka won the US Open, so that's a big thing. That's two thousand points right there. If Sabolenka doesn't win the US Open again, Sabolenka can make up the points at Wimbledon, but so can Rebeccna. So do I think she can end number year number one? Absolutely, no doubt about it.

00:33:42
Speaker 4: And what your fame seems likely, especially as we get into the part of the year that she feels much more comfortable with your views on rising stars. Zenepisomez, the young player from Turkey, which is very fun to talk about, Everalys from Germany, and alex Yala from the Philippines.

00:34:01
Speaker 5: These are three of the.

00:34:04
Speaker 4: Players that Abu jadd has identified as rising stars.

00:34:07
Speaker 3: He'd like you discuss.

00:34:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, look, Yalla has a little bit of limitations. I think all these players, the ones that you just mentioned, have a little bit of limitations.

00:34:16
Speaker 1: They don't.

00:34:16
Speaker 5: They're all kind of wei.

00:34:18
Speaker 3: They're not the biggest, they're teeny tiny.

00:34:20
Speaker 1: They're teeny tiny.

00:34:21
Speaker 2: They just I mean, and look, you know, Jasmine Paullini made two Grand Slam finals and she's teeny tiny as well. I don't know what's going on with her right now, but she certainly has lost her way as well, Jasmine. But I think they just have some limitations. They don't have huge serves, they don't have big games. They look the way that players play now, you have to have weapons. So if they can produce winners against players that move really well and then turn defense into offense a little bit easier, that's where it gets a little bit harder. You look at someone like Victoria Emboco. Now that's a different story. She has huge weapons and she moves great. So I would side on someone like Emboco to win a Grand over those three that we just talked about.

00:35:03
Speaker 4: I want to sort of speak to the idea that the thing that I like about all three of those rising stars is that they are engaging. They are great at communicating what is fun about tennis. They are fun to watch, and they are all bringing along markets. You know, maybe less so in the case of Aelis, who's already speaking to a German market that's fairly sophisticated about tennis having had so many amazing players the Philippines and Turkey. Not so much in the case of Xenopsomes and Alex Yala, but they're all really great ambassadors for the game. And just thinking as you were talking about answering Dale's question about Janick Sinner winning the rest of the matches, if that's true, good for him, but terrible for tennis, actually absolutely horrific for the game that is supposed to be about delivering a product to an audience who wants to walk into a match knowing the outcome. Not me, not anybody who watches tennis, And so what you're going to get is a real dearth of interesting stories unless you get people engaged in the many things about tennis that are not outcome driven. I have said forever and why I started racket ten years ago is nobody cares about the discussion, or actually too many people care about the discussion of how many trophies you win, how many how many masters one thousands, what your ranking is, what your Wikipedia stats show. I mean, I think that's a very well saturated conversation. You know what else is interesting? Everything else, the style, the flair, the grinders going at it on court seventeen, the perspective and the viewpoint that recreational players bring to the game. All this stuff is wide open, and there's so much opportunity to talk about it, especially when we're not talking only about outcomes. And so to me, what I want to say about those rising stars is will we see that holding a Grand Slam trophy? Maybe not, But they are all, in their own ways, very excellent about communicating what's fun and exciting about the tour, about tennis life, and I think, frankly, the men could use a whole lot more of them.

00:37:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, you know me, men aren't really that interested in that sort of stuff, are they. I mean, it's just a fact.

00:37:17
Speaker 2: I mean, I you know, they just they just I don't know, it's just it's different, different courses for horses. I guess women are sort of more interested in and they feel like they have to promote themselves a little bit more than the guys.

00:37:28
Speaker 1: The guys just go, I don't care about that sort of stuff.

00:37:30
Speaker 2: So I don't know, but yes, I agree, I mean, that's why Hunger Games is way more interesting than you know, knowing that the lion is going in to the arena against a kitten, and that's what it feels like with Sinner, with all these other players, it's just like, well, I wonder who's going to win this battle?

00:37:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, Well, I just.

00:37:48
Speaker 4: Want to again sort of say, like the kinds of things we do at Racket are telling stories like these, so tours, you guys need to get very very very good, much better than you are about the style, the culture, the experience, all of the stuff that's around the game, and not necessarily about who's at the end of the two week long journament holding the trophy, because that is really truly what the product is.

00:38:12
Speaker 3: It's all of the above. It's not just the end game.

00:38:16
Speaker 2: Because yes, did you see this atp Palms tap into Tennis cultural Crossover.

00:38:22
Speaker 1: Did you see this recently? Yeah?

00:38:23
Speaker 4: And Nico from Palms is a good friend of mine. He's from Copenhagen. We've played a number of times. I'm not sure that's enough. And you know, releasing some ringer tees on the tour stop is cute, but like, is that meaningful? Does that address like some of the larger things like not really so for me, it's it's more of a holistic kind of thing rather than doing like a collab here or there. But you know that's that's not a bad thing. We like to see it.

00:38:47
Speaker 5: But you need much much, much much more of it, you know, which.

00:38:51
Speaker 3: Is obviously what we're we're in the market to do.

00:38:54
Speaker 1: Yes, any other questions from our loyal listeners.

00:38:59
Speaker 4: I my question for you to end is the one player that we are usually talking a lot about right now and we haven't talked about, but she's at the drast ceremony today in Rome.

00:39:11
Speaker 5: Let's end on an Eager What is the update? What can you say?

00:39:16
Speaker 3: What do you think is going to happen?

00:39:17
Speaker 4: And obviously if the French Open is not hers to win, which who doves to say it isn't, then who's who's looking good ahead of ahead of those very very important kind of weeks that are ahead of us right.

00:39:29
Speaker 1: Now on what tours.

00:39:36
Speaker 4: I want to talk about Eager Shipiantek and the women because I think we know what's going to happen on the men's side.

00:39:42
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, listen, Eager has got some questions to answer, that's for sure.

00:39:46
Speaker 1: She loves Rome.

00:39:47
Speaker 2: She has won a final there against a very good player by the name of Carolina Plishkova six love, six love, once upon a Time. And I think this is going to be a massive emotional test for her because if she she does not do well at this tournament, you start to think how much can she handle this disappointment of not winning and doing well on her best surface, and you know, the coaching changes and the mentality and the you know, people Daria wasn't in Madrid, how she going to react if Daria's in Rome, and then people are going to wonder about this and about that, and how the new coaching is working out. And maybe it's not the coach, maybe it's maybe it's eager, Maybe she's just lost her There's so many that I feel in some ways this week is going to be incredibly tough for her because if she does not win the tournament or at least make the finals and play well, I think she's going to really be really stressed going into the French Open. And look, we know what she did at Wimbledon. She knows she's capable of doing that now. But this is only going to get harder because she's not sort of the player that goes ah. It's not like a Rebukener who can have like two or three bad weeks and just come back and just bomb, just blow.

00:40:57
Speaker 1: Everybody out of the court.

00:40:59
Speaker 2: So I think there's a lot of question marks when it comes to Eager, certainly with Coco Saba Lenka hasn't proven herself on the clay yet. So there's a lot of questions to be answered going into the French Open, the second Slam of the year, And I think the biggest question is how, as you said, how is Eager going to do going into the French Open. There's it's a big it's a big ask. This is very different surface than in Madrid. Madrid is a bit of altitude. It does support big hitters like a Maskova, like a plishkov in though Pilshkov made the finals of Rome, but like big hitters, although sabal Anka really should have maybe done better as well, but came into the buzz or of Hailey Baptiste.

00:41:36
Speaker 1: But I don't know.

00:41:36
Speaker 2: I'm again, Hunger Games in Rome, is it going to be the same? I'm I'm if they're a better place to have the Hunger Games than Rome.

00:41:43
Speaker 4: No, it's good it's gonna have it's going to be very uh you know, bread and bread and wine for the masses kind of thing. And I'm headed there this afternoon. All right, Renee, we're.

00:41:52
Speaker 5: Wrapping it up. Thank you. Well, look at you, look at me.

00:41:55
Speaker 2: I'll have questions that I didn't answer, But just so you know, all the questions that I didn't get to answer, will answer them on the socials.

00:42:01
Speaker 1: I will write you all back. But I do appreciate it.

00:42:03
Speaker 2: I just want to give a quick shout out Kaitlyn because I know you've got to go to Sherry Devot, the first female trainer to win the Kentucky Derby.

00:42:10
Speaker 1: I was so excited.

00:42:11
Speaker 2: I'm a big horse fan and horse racing fan, and I know you hate when I do this and add stuff like this to the pod. But way to go, Sherry, Way to go, Shari Devot, Way to go. All right, everyone, thanks for joining this week. We've got so much more clay court, tennis. Caitlin will be over in Rome. Do I get to talk to you over there?

00:42:30
Speaker 1: Is that the plant? Yeah?

00:42:31
Speaker 3: Sure?

00:42:31
Speaker 5: All right?

00:42:31
Speaker 1: Cool?

00:42:32
Speaker 5: All right, you know how to reach we.

00:42:34
Speaker 2: Well listen, mate, have a great a bunch of gelados. Have a, have a pizza, have the best part Star.

00:42:40
Speaker 1: It's the greatest place. I love giving you so much, so enjoy it for me. Okay, jaol everybody by