Chaos is a Ladder

00:00:17
Speaker 1: Hello, my name.

00:00:18
Speaker 2: How are you, Hey, Caitlin, how are you?

00:00:20
Speaker 1: I'm not as good as you are because I'm not in London, England about to watch, comment, take partake in, and generally immerse myself in the Wimbledon Championships for the next two weeks. And you are.

00:00:33
Speaker 2: I am fully immersed. I am so immersed that there are bubbles around me everywhere. Yeah, I am really literally in the bubble, which is kind of a crazy thing. I've obviously been in some bubbles, but the Wimbledon bubble really takes the cake. You will get into it a little bit as the pod goes on, just explaining how it works and what's going on and who's in it, and it's quite the experience, especially for somebody like me who's been here for g I played in like twenty plus Wimbledon Championships and always stayed in the village, and now with this, it's a new experience for everybody.

00:01:07
Speaker 1: So you're saying, even if I were there, I could not have a double gin at the Fox and Hound with you and stagger home and want to throw myself off the first floor window like I did two years ago, because we would have to be in the bubble, which is where you are.

00:01:22
Speaker 2: Yeah, there's no getting around this. There's no dog and foxes, there's no you know, pub visits or you know, Bailey and Sage visits to get our lovely yogurts and meats and cheeses and bread rolls. And this is to the courts, back from the courts, back into the hotel. And I mean literally everyone's like, what do you mean? Everyone like Roger, Roger, Serena Novak, everybody is in this hotel. So you know, the feeling is I Andy Murray. And for someone like Andy Murray, for example, he literally lives like a five minute walk from the Wimbledon court and he is staying in this bubble. I bumped into him in the bottom of the stairways and it's like, mate, it must be so hard for you knowing that you live five minutes from Wimbledon and you're staying here and it's at a minimum thirty five minute bus ride or car ride into wimbled and and on most days it's forty five minutes to sometimes an hour. So it's a bit of a bear getting in and out of Wimbledon this year.

00:02:25
Speaker 1: Well as brutal as that is, especially for people who live in the village. There's a lot of former tennis players who live in the village. Boris Becker lives in Wimbledon Village. You're saying, Andy Murray, you know, I get why if you are a tennis champion living not only in London, but that's Pacific part of London, probably makes a lot of sense. Except for this year. But I will say, the excitement, at least from what I've been able to gauge, not only my own, but everybody is for this year's Wimbledon is reaching a fever pitch, partly because they didn't play one last year. They had every other Grand Slam, but Wimbledon in some way, shape or form bubbled or not bubbled or delayed or whatever. And you know, there really isn't anything as iconic. I'm in my all whites right now. I just happened to be. This is just what I dress in most days. I had a little hit with my son this morning, took our little slinger bag out to the courts, had a little practice session. But for me, the Wimbledon visuals, of the optics, some of the news we're getting, it couldn't be more exciting. I've said before that rolling Garis is my Christmas, but I fully acknowledged that for almost everyone else, Wimbledon is their Christmas, and you can't help but get excited, even if it's not your most favorite tournament. So let's get into it. Shall we talk about what's to be expected, because I have some headlines that are dominating my mind in my social circle, but I'm curious to see what it's like on the ground in terms of the buzz, what people are talking about.

00:03:47
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, for me, I mean, to be quite honest with you, this is going to be such a unique experience for anybody, and almost like a US Open, where you know, the travel is long, tatting to and from the courts. You know, people that like to hit early in the morning, like someone like Venus and Serena who usually hit all the time at ten am no matter what, they're usually first on the court. You know, it's going to have to be a little bit different because it does. They're gonna have to get on the bus, They're going to have to or in a car, and the travel time is a lot more so, you know, in the fact that everybody is in this hotel. I mean, Roger was sitting downstairs in the mess hall. It feels like an Olympics. Really, That's how it feels like. And when I bumped into Andy Murray, that's what he said. It feels like an Olympics. You know everyone's there. You're literally going downstairs getting your food with everybody else. It's like a massive, big buffet. I've never been on a cruise, but I can imagine it feels like a bloody cruise. So so for the players that they're all having to go outside of their comfort zone. You know, someone like a Roger or Serena or Andy or any of these great top players Novak, they have their team, they have their house, they have a share for they have you know, their own food that they like to eat. This is you have no choice here. You can order Uber in you know uber eats into the hotel, but you know everyone's going down you can imagine everyone's standing in a line, their food going, sitting at a random table. And we have the YU to twenty twenty on. So a lot of the Europeans are watching the football on the big screen and you know Italy played last night and you hear this screaming from the Italians over in the corner. So it's kind of like it's like a junior tournament, you know, when you're a kid, So it's such a different feel. You see Serena sitting at a table with her husband, and of course Olympia her daughter, and they're on one table over there with her mom, and then you've got sort of like these little groups of people, so it's kind of like high school reunion for everyone.

00:05:32
Speaker 1: Sounds pretty cool.

00:05:34
Speaker 2: It is kind of cool for everyone in some respects, but also it's a different energy that you're expending, right, So if you're a type of player like Roger, you know, surprisingly I think will handle this pretty well, even though he has these routines. Roger's a pretty social guy. Like, you know, he was down in the in the you know, eating area last night pretty late, like probably around quarter to ten ten o'clock, came upstairs. He was sort of in the back of the bar area sort of talking to other players and friends, and you know, he's not a super solitary person. So I think for someone like him, he'll actually manage it. Okay. I think Novak's pretty recently social as well. It's just people that are used to sort of being alone and being by themselves and with their team. How much energy is it going to take out of them that they're not used to expending, right, And so I think it'll be interesting to see who comes out on the other side of that and who can adjust to that kind of a life.

00:06:31
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, I think one thing that bears mentioning is unlike the other Grand Slams, where yeah, the top players usually get a house. Anyway, at Wimbledon, almost everyone gets a house because there's very few hotels right in that part of southwest nineteen that part of sort of suburban London, So if you're in a hotel, you're thirty minutes away kind of no matter which direction you had, whereas being in a house feels very luxurious. But at the same time it's also sort of like, you know, ESPN has a few houses, you guys get flat just because you know, again, there's not like a hotel. So the idea that you know, the norm isn't a hotel under any circumstances, whether you're at the top of the game or the bottom. In the Wimbledon contact really really is interesting because players really can sort of keep to themselves under normal circumstances.

00:07:17
Speaker 2: You know, and for example, I can't work for ESPN and while Sam's in the tournament and in the bubble, because I can't be in close contact with ESPN crew because they're getting tested as well, but they're staying in the village, so they're staying in the house, so they may come across, you know, the public, or they're sort of in a non bubbled area, so I can't be in any contact with them or the crew from ESPN. So until Sam's out of the tournament, I am in the bubble, and therefore I'm sort of like wrapped in bubble literally and not allowed to see or touch or be around anybody else.

00:07:50
Speaker 1: That's so interesting because usually you do double duty at these tournaments where ESPN has the rates. You'll be running from a practice court onto air and then out to a match and back and forth. And I mean, knowing you very well, it seems like that kind of frenetic pace is really fun for you. But I will say, the chance that you get to, you know, have a singular experience one and then the other is going to sort of be new for you.

00:08:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a little new for me, but look, I'll do what I can do and obviously, I want my play to do as well as possible, so we'll see what happens. Anyway, let's get into the Let's get into the draw a little bit.

00:08:25
Speaker 1: The one draw that everybody I know who is a medium sized, small sized tennis fan. They are all texting me, dming me, sending me screen grabs of Nick Curious and Venus Williams creating a Vultron superpowered mixed doubles team. Everyone's losing their mind about this. I'm so excited I can hardly breathe.

00:08:49
Speaker 2: Well, Nick did put out on Twitter that he was looking for a mixed doubles partner, so this is clearly the millennial way of asking someone to date on a tennis court is by tweeting, And of course Venus was like, let's do it. And I have to say, what a team that's going to be, because well, you won't be breaking their serve very much if they're getting their first serves in. Venus is obviously a multiple double Slam champion and a multiple mixed doubles champion, so Nick's clearly putting his hand up to trying to win a Grand Slam in some way. And I love it, you know, I just think it's so fun and we've had some great fun. It's probably the most talked about mixed doubles partnership since clearly Serena and Andy a couple of years ago, and then prior to that, probably McEnroe and stephie Graff. So those those are sort of the more memorable mixed doubles matchups. So it's going to be a blast. I can't wait to see them play together. And Venus is into it.

00:09:44
Speaker 1: Venus is super into I mean, let's yeah, to your point, Venus has won one, two, three, four, five, six Wimbledon doubles titles, and one of them with you and you know, against me, I wish it was with Yeah. Well, she's also never won a Grand Slam mixed title at Wimbledon. She's wanted at the Australian, at the French, she's missing a Wimbledon for her title trophy case and the US Open. So maybe we will get Nick and Venus at multiple times. I mean, people have talked about how Nick Curios, who is basically is not played on the tour for close to eighteen months. I mean the guy played at thet he played. Thus you don't open any loss in five sets to Dominic team in one of the greatest matches of the year. And other than that, you know tournament. Did he play any warm ups in Australia? Did he play in the Sydney or Brisbane or Auckland or any of those. I don't think he did, but you could tell me.

00:10:40
Speaker 2: No, I don't think he did not.

00:10:42
Speaker 1: So he's kind of just dive bombing in here. But the thing is about Ni curios and this is why he's such an amazingly fun player. He is capable of beating anybody on any day. He's never dropped a set against Novak Djokovic as a floater in the draw on grass with the kind of talent and serve, speed and variety that he has, would not want to be in his part of the job, would you.

00:11:03
Speaker 2: No. I don't think any player would want to ever play Nick in any form of fashion, especially on grass, because, as you said, the talent, but the serve is just so hard to break and all that sort of stuff. So I don't think Novak's going to be worrying about him too much. Though I mean, Novak to me is the favorite at the tournament. I think he's actually going to win the Grand Slam this year. I think he's going to win Wimbledon, and I think he's going to win the US Open. I think he's going to have all four Grand Slam titles. Don't know if he's going to play the Olympics. That would make him the first since Steppie to do the Golden Grand Slam if he were to win the gold medal at the Olympics. But you know, he looks fantastic. I've seen him the last couple of days. He looks fit, he looks healthy, looks happy, relaxed. He doesn't look stressed out at all coming in here. So look, he's going to be a huge, huge favorite to win the men's And you know he's in sort of a section with the maybe a Barretini up that's sorry, Barrettini's down the bottom half of the drawer with someone like a John I Isner. You know, big servers on this court. The court is playing really soft and so the ball's bouncing quite low. It's going to it's going to help the big servers, but it's also playing recently slow. It's hard to describe it, but the ball is bouncing low. So anybody with a really good slice is going to do really well as time, especially early in the tournament. I think as the tournament goes on, it gets hotter, it'll get harder, and it'll help guys from the back of the court a little bit more. But for me, it's an overwhelming Novak's overwhelming favorite.

00:12:28
Speaker 1: Tim. Yeah, just looking at who's in his part of the dra it's Digo Schwartzman. You've got Sitzi Pass in there, which is always exciting because he's fun to watch. Although he's got an interesting match against Francis Tiafa, who's had a pretty good grass season. Actually Lopez, the grass specialist. He's always fun to watch. I don't know how far he'll go. And then Andy Murray is in his half of the draw, which is so so, so so fun and would be fun to watch Andy Murray make a deep run. Obviously, you know, he too has not had too many matches, you know, the last year, just you know, coming back from those, most of them the multiple hipsters, So Andy Murray would be so so fun. But yeah, it's hard to imagine anybody really stops no BacT Jokovic.

00:13:09
Speaker 2: No, certainly in his half of the draw. I feel like he's overwhelming favorite, someone who might sneak through is on an American standpoint as someone like sab Quarter, though he had his knee tape the other day which always worries me. He has against Alex di Minor, who won the lead up tournament in Eastbourne yesterday, and Alex can be really dangerous on grass, so we'll see. Won't be one of those guys whoever wins that match. I feel like mate moved through the tournament. So but Barattini won the lead up tournament in Queens and looks great. I mean, just a monster monster serve and forehand and those types of games will do really well. And he has a beautiful slice back end as well, so his game is not going to be easy to beat on this grass. And I think he's a player that will get through to the semi finals. And we'll see what happens in the bottom section of that particular part of the draw. Of course, Roger is in the bottom half of the bottom half of the draw. Luk hasn't had a great lead in played pretty well in Paris and then pulled out saving his body, and I think that, you know, we'll see how Roger does. He plays Manerino, who actually I believe gave him a really tough match a bunch of years ago. So we'll see how he does with Manarino in the first round. And there's Cameron Norri who made the finals of Eastbourne. He's in his section of the draw as well, so there are some maybe dangerous spots for him, but.

00:14:24
Speaker 1: I don't know killaches in that part of the draw, as is Medvedev, who you never know where you're going to get with Medvedev, which is why I like him. He to me is an honorary WTA player, as is Ben wit Pere because he just kind of like, never know what's going to happen, and you know how much I love chaos. Chaos is a ladder renee. I'm not here.

00:14:41
Speaker 2: Although he comes he comes in also winning a tournament, so I mean, you know, he clearly happy to be off the clay, let's put it that way.

00:14:48
Speaker 1: Did pretty well considering he hates clay on clay. However, ready I'm ready for the Medi Slam, so let's let's see if he can bring it.

00:14:56
Speaker 2: I'll keep an eye out on who's in the bar the most between all of those guys for the next few days. That might be an indication of who's going to be at the end of the tournament.

00:15:06
Speaker 1: Insider tips, who's gonna make it? All? Right? Should we talk about the women?

00:15:11
Speaker 2: How I feel about talking about the ladies.

00:15:13
Speaker 1: I love talking about the ladies. Simota Hallup is not playing, so which is a little bit of a bummer because one of the most fun traditions at Wimbledon is that the woman who won it the year before leads off on center Court as the first match of the tournament. Simota Hallup, because she won it in twenty nineteen and they didn't have it last year, will miss the honor by not being able to play. So I wonder who they will put out on the first match of the court.

00:15:39
Speaker 2: Well, what I'm hearing is that it's going to be Ashbardi, the number one seed, which is a little bit of a surprise to me because you know, in the year's previous when the winner of the tournament, and the latest one that I can remember is mari An Bartoli, who retired not long after winning Wimbledon that then went to the runner up, which was so being Lusiki the following year. So I'm a little surprised that they don't have Arena going out there opening the courts the days play for the women on center court. I'm not quite sure why schedule hasn't come out for that day, but what I'm hearing is that Ash might be the one opening the court up. If not, we'll see. But Ash Buddy was pulled out midway through the tournament in the French after just having phenomenal lead up to the French Open. My player Sam STOs actually hit with Ash the other day and she's moving around the court really well, hitting the ball great. Seems like the hip injury is under control. Fingers crossed it nothing crazy happens, but she looks really fit and healthy again. So for me, she's the favorite of the tournament.

00:16:40
Speaker 1: Ashbuddy Da does have a really tough part of the dra right, Like you know who else is in there who I think actually has like legit chances. Joe Kant, who won a grass court tournament a couple of weeks ago, her first I think in a long time. And then Cocoa Vandawah who's never not been a real threat and the last years because she's had injury after injury, but she can go far on grass and that beautiful, beautiful servant volley game like can actually I think make some you know, make you know, make some trouble for a lot of people.

00:17:12
Speaker 2: Well, actually, Coco and Ash, of course one of the US Open doubles a number of years ago together and they were practicing today together. But you know, Conta will have to play Coco possibly in the second round. So Conta or Coco will be the ones that will get through that section and we'll have to play Ash. Now, let's just have a beautiful moment here and talk about the Ash's first round draw, which is unluckily for Carla Suarezari of course, w who has gone through cancer and come back and had a tough draw in the first round the French and lost that tough match against Stevens. She has to go out and play. But kind of fitting that she's going to actually play on senate court in front of people. As far as to what happened at the French, I for.

00:17:52
Speaker 1: One hope she wins.

00:17:55
Speaker 2: Well, listen, it wouldn't surprise me. She is a great player and she plays very well on grass. Will be a tough one against Ash, but it'll be a feel good story. She doesn't, it'll be a huge upset if she does it. But yeah, that's the draw is super super super strong.

00:18:09
Speaker 1: I didn't even mention as a rankers in that part of the draw. And Serena Williams is in that part of the draw, and there's you know, a bevy of others like Paula Bodozo who's had a good spring. Like it's there, it's lousy with good players.

00:18:19
Speaker 2: It's uh, that's you forget. You forget to even talk about Kristi Kova who won the French Open. That is Ash Buddy's fourth round opponent if they make it there. So I mean that section of the draw is just stacked.

00:18:31
Speaker 1: And Kerber who just won her first title in a couple of years, what was that two days ago in Bad Homburg. So yeah, there's it's not easy work the top half of the draw. But yeah, Joe Contact, I would love to see come through Kerber loads to come see come through. I'm not I'm not totally ready to relinquish the youth the youth yet. On the women's side, I'd like to see some of like mid generation talents kind of reclaiming.

00:18:54
Speaker 2: So the top half of the draw is friggin loaded, like beyond loaded, because you know, you talked about all the people that we've just talked about. Serena's in the top half of the draw. She's in the very bottom of the top half of the draw. And as you said, she has in her third round the champion who she lost to four years ago, whatever it was, Angie Kerber. So imagine if they got through to the third round, the two of them playing against each other. Oh my god. Because obviously Angie is playing great again on grass. She loves the grass court. The court the way it's set up will really suit her as well, because that low bouncing really helps her kind of flat ball striking. And obviously the lefty serve will just stay low and go away from her opponents. So Angie's going to be real if she's feeling confident. Again, this is a three time this is a three time Grand Slam champion. She's not afraid to go deep in a tournament. So Serena's not got an easy draw. And of course we're not even talking about up that little section of the drawer. If she were to get through the third round. In the fourth round, you could play Coca GoF who's been playing great tennis as well. I mean, the women's draw is so freaking stacked, and I mean, I'm just I can't wait. I can't wait. That top half of the drawer will of course play on Tuesday, and then they start playing from their Tuesday Thursday Saturday, so mid tournament. Of course, we don't have the Sunday off this year at Wimbledon because I don't know why they decided to change that rule. But they're not expecting great weather on Monday. But you know, we'll see how it goes. I mean, I'm super psyched in general for the tournament to begin.

00:20:34
Speaker 1: I could of be more excited. I mean, I think for me, it's just all about matchups. There's so many, so many, so many good matchups in the first, you know, a couple My first couple of days of a tournament is always my favorite part because you can kind of bounce around. I mean, ideally you're there so you can kind of go from court to court. But on my on my ESPN Plus, I will have about ten screens open at every given time, just kind of checking on different matches because the matchups are always so like sort of delicious and contrasts and styles and contrasts and you know, strategy and body size. You know, it's really fun to watch somebody like Barty or sable Anka, who had a couple of match ups on clay this year, you know, and it's just like, oh, one's you know, eighteen feet tall and the other one's average height. But they're slicing and dcing and power and finance and it's great. So I'm super super prompt. Hard to predict a winner on the women's side. Obviously, would be great to see Serena get twenty four. Anybody who you feel confident even saying you expect to see in the final. You've already mentioned Andie Kerber as somebody who's tough to get through. But I don't want to put you on the spot. But you know, making a prediction on the women's side is so tough, which I mean, I like the women's game better because we're not already minting a champion, you know.

00:21:37
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, as I said, the women's top half of the drawers just friggin got so many players in there that you could say if they got to the final, you wouldn't be surprised. Serena Kerber, you know, ash Barty Konta, who made the Semisia a number of years ago, and of course is playing great. And when Joe Konta, I mean she's going to have the support obviously of the English crowd and all the Brits will be behind her and in a big way. And you know when she's seen them, when she's serving big and she's playing well. We were actually practicing next to her today. She just got that super confidence about her. So she's a confidence player. Obviously coming in here winning a tournament means she's confident and she can play well with the crowd behind her. She really enjoys that, which is saying something. But so for the British that definitely is somebody that they'll be behind. The other half of the drawer we haven't even really touched upon, but you know, you think about Murga Rutha, who's of course one Wimbledon before, a bit of an unknown. She has the possibility of playing on gibur who won a lead up tournament. I mean, it's just like so many right you talk about Saberlenka, who hasn't had a great never really played well at the Slams, You know, what can she do? Stakari is in that section of the draw.

00:22:48
Speaker 1: Ali risk the grass court specialist, which is very rare to say for both a woman and an American, but Ali risk tends to have good results. Kaya can that be who's always sort of dangerous? Petro Knveteva, who loves grass and you know, played a not too bad couple of warm up tournaments coming into this either you know, you just kind of look left or right and somebody's like you. You know, you said it. You wouldn't be surprised to see them being able to make it to the finals. But the there's a lot of dangerous lurkers in here, right, Like Sloan Stevens. Is she going to play great tennis or not? She plays Petrick Kviteva in the first round, so she's got she's got to come out firing. And you know with Sloan she chances are she can like Madison Keys, same thing on grass. She should be a no brainer. She plays a brit qualifier. Katie's one in the first round. You know, you wouldn't be shocked if if he's made it, at least a couple of rounds were lost in the first round. You know, Daniel Collins saty So you know, Kennon, we haven't talked about Kennon or Egish Fiantec, Like, there's just so many players who've won Slams who could make it happen. And then you're kind of like, ah, you know, who's it going to be, who's going to step up?

00:23:49
Speaker 2: And one player we haven't even mentioned who I think will have the toughest match if police sorry, if keys get sorry on it's so many plays. Covitova gets through to play jess Guler, and Jessica Gooler is my outsider to do really well here because she's going to love the courts here. She's like five and zero against Plis Kober, who's up that section of the drawer. If Flishkober can even get through a couple of matches, hasn't had a great lead up, and Ali Risk is in her section and she hates playing Ali Risk. So you know, Jesspa Gooler has a tough one against Caroline Garcia, former top ten player. So as we said, look, you could sort of throw you know, all the names of women in a bag, pull out five of them, be like, yeah, could one of them win the Wimbledon title, and be like yeah, they could actually. So I'm just so looking forward to who's going to manage these conditions, as I said, of long days getting in the bus, dealing with the bubble, the stresses of you know, being around tennis players all day, who's hiding in their rooms, who's out socializing, who's sort of taking advantage of this moment? And then obviously the injuries are going to you know, we'll see help everyone reacts on body.

00:24:58
Speaker 1: Especially ungrass. Everybody's you know, slipping inside and left and right, you know, as we saw in a lot of these you know, in Halla and MAJORCA. You know, everybody takes tumbles on grass. It's not out of the ordinary, so you know, yeah, you can always have some freak injuries. One person I want to hear hourly, if not by hourly updates about and you've already fulfilled my wishes for today anyway, is Ben wi Pere. What's he going to be up to? Is he going to be hitting tweeners? Is he at the bar? Is he you know, smoking hookah? Who knows what he's doing? But I want to know whatever that is, and I want and expect you to tell me.

00:25:35
Speaker 2: Well, Ben Wit, I can assure you we'll be doing a couple of things that you mentioned he will be hitting twenas, he will be diving, He will be he might be as annoyed at the umpire because I believe them. But he's line electronic line poling at Wimbledon and it's so weird to see the cameras will set up the way they are here and we will probably see him at the bar.

00:25:57
Speaker 1: Caitlin to be there with you.

00:26:01
Speaker 2: So you know, seeing Roger in the back of the bar last night sort of hanging out with everybody was really unique and awesome to see. And you know, this bubble life is pretty interesting in itself. As I said, it feels like an Olympics. I feel like we're in our own little mini Olympic Games here at Wimbledon this year. But kudos to Wimbledon. They've tried so hard to get this right, and you know, the government here in England has been really tough on them, probably the most other than the Australian Open, so they're trying to do their best. They've done a great job. The hotel's fantastic and I have to say kudos to the Park Plaza in London because that's where the tournament, that's where the players are. I'm not giving away any secrets. Everybody already knows that there's press outside the hotel trying to take photos, but that the staff here has been absolutely amazing, and the most popular thing at the hotel is the what we call in Australia and what we call here in England the lolli jar area or the candy bar area. So very much enjoying that as a snack, and and there's a there's gelato for the players. There's a golf simulator, which is also the funnest thing here, and every player is on that. Hopefully we won't have any injuries because of the golf simulator, but other than that it's great.

00:27:19
Speaker 1: Well that's I mean, that's how you didn't mention Kentish strawberries are there Kentish to be had.

00:27:25
Speaker 2: I haven't seen any strawberries at the hotel, but there are many at the courts. I did see Sabalanca walking away with six punnets of strawberries, and I've decided it. I'm going to call her berry all week long. So that's her name, and if she makes the second week, I'm going to call I'm going to call her Strawbs. And that's the that's the deal because she looked like she was literally taking them to go and sell them on the street.

00:27:49
Speaker 1: So I want to push you to do better with those nicknames. So the next time we check in, why don't you give it a think and just come up with something that I feel befits your your amazing brand, because I think those are only C minus as if we're honest with each other, I think the nickname game could improve, And as an Australian, I think you owe to yourself to to aim higher. I mean, Darren k Hill would come up with better nicknames than that.

00:28:11
Speaker 2: Barry Bebey Vibe Bay.

00:28:15
Speaker 1: Keep work shopping it, Okay, jobs a Rianca jobs are Ranka has actually has some getting there. That's a bee, that's a strong bee.

00:28:25
Speaker 2: You just have to give me a second mind, all right, man, Well.

00:28:27
Speaker 1: Listen, I appreciate that you're going there. Uh you know, they're they're already better than Brad Gilbert's. But I feel like you could just keep work shopping them while we're doing some very light in this case, Dick kicks, I do think it bears mentioning just two other smaller things because this really is our wind win. In preview episode, it's not exhausted, but obviously it's a check in and it's really nice hearing behind the scenes. Our Frank Craig Shapiro give you a lot of love the other day for doing such a wonderful Instagram behind the scenes tour, because you know this place like the back of your hand, both from playing, commentating, coaching, all the things, and it really is the cathedral of tennis. It's really a special place. So the more we can sort of illuminate people on what it's like to be there and play there and be behind the scenes there because it's so unique, is just such a service. Light dick kicks are in order, I think for my very very favorite German Man, Boris Becker, who, in addition to having a great head of hair and a very fun sense of humor, was really tone deaf in his Naomi Osaka criticism he's going to be taking the BBC booth for the nineteenth year in a row. I felt like he was a little bit off, especially because he did not have any sort of critique for Roger Fetter. When Roger Feederer pulled out of the tournament to preserve his body last time around with Roland Garis, he was quoted among many, many, many news outlets New York Times, BBC, ESPN, etc. Sort of saying like Namiosaka can handle the pressure of a racial protest, which he gave her credit for, but then she can't handle the press. And it's sort of like, I don't want to we re sort of interrogate that, but I feel like bros Becker could have done better. And then interesting news out of this whole PTPA Novak, Djokovic and Vashek prosposal led not union, union of the men and the ATP trading essentially in a pissing match. Not clear exactly what they're arguing about, because the PTPA still hasn't really come out with any specifics, although they did come out with a very interesting video, and the news has been revealed that they have a number of very interesting folks backing them, including the billionaire New York City hedge fund guy Bill Ackman, who's very familiar to those of us who live in New York City, and one of his Internet Twitter trolls he put on the advisory board. So it's sort of like the board that comes out about the PTAPA, you want to kind of be like, well, this could be a good union. The players certainly need it. Love to see them hooking up with the women. Maybe that's what they're doing. But every time they come out with something new, you're kind of like, but what you know what I mean, I don't know if it's being chattered about over there at all, but it's just always so baffling where you're like, you have, you have all this time and ability to get your ducks in a row, So why isn't why you're coming out with more impressive than this? You know, it doesn't seem like it's happening, but I wonder if it's the chatter is made its way to your side of the pond.

00:31:14
Speaker 2: Not overtly. I mean, I'll be really honest with you, I think most of the players are so And this is the problem with you know, doing something like this. You have your little you have your little groups and your little cliques that are sort of trying to do something. But you know, eighty percent of everybody else is doing their own thing and they don't really I don't want to say they don't care. They do care, but at this point at a Grand Slam, they don't care. They're trying to win a Grand Slam. They're trying to do everything they can to get their bodies in order to get their practice hours in, to get their food content, to like get their sleep, to get on a bus. I mean, you know, that's why you know, there needs to be better representation as far as trying to get them together, obviously the women and the men, but I mean as far as I'm concerned, I mean, going back to Boris, I mean, you know, some people all sort of you know, I don't think sometimes I think sometimes before you speak, you need to sit back and say, you know, how is this going to look? And do I know everything? Do I know every part of this story with Naomi, So yeah, I think you'll probably you know, obviously getting a lot of flak for it. But but I think with the PTPA, yeah, there's there was an opportunity to go an opportunity through the last six months to really work together, particularly with the with the way that the tournaments have gone with you know, the bubble and everyone's around, and I just think they went so one way at the start of the year that they've just got so much opposition in some regard regards from the ATP and not giving them any time whatsoever. I mean it, it's like a pissing content. It's a pissing contest in the ATP. Forget about the WTA trying to even get equality with this players association. They're having problems with their own ATP. They're having problems with their own association. So I think until they can get that all under to order, and quite frankly, I don't know if this is the time to do it or not. With COVID, that's you know, that's smarter people than me to try and figure out. Caitlin.

00:33:08
Speaker 1: I mean, your comments sound pretty smart to me, and they don't sound wrong. They sound like, yeah, this on paper is a really great idea. And obviously having a really strong, you know, ability to advocate and make sure the players are being treated well and there's some parody is great, but it's just sort of like, oh man, every time this comes out there, it's sort of like clown town again, and you just want to be like, hey, guys, you know, you don't a have to do this now because everyone else is trying to figure out, you know, how to get themselves in the best mental state about preparing. But also there's all sorts of interesting seismic things that are happening at the top of the sport with people, smart people trying to figure out how to make sure that tennis isn't blowing any opportunities, and the fact that it's fractured and the fact that you know, it's a bunch of little fiefdoms that it can beete with each other is already part of the problem. So making a new one, if you're going to do that, make sure it kind of scoops up a lot of people along with you. And they really haven't done that. So anyway, I just had a bore mentioning because now from now on we're going to be checking in. Like I said, I want updates about curios and venus, I want updates about my boyfriend benoil Pere. I really would like to see him using that beard oil again. I feel like the beard has gotten a little unruly. So if you can pass out along, please let me know. You know, does he have a clothing sponsor? Does he want a clothing sponsor. I've got some people on the hook who want to give one to him, so you know, I have his email, but I'm just saying, if you know, run into him at the bar, pass that along you're going to be coaching Sam. She's got a winnable first round, but an interesting first round against two is at Shelby Rogers. You know, there's going to be so much talk about about the tournament, so I just wanted to get in a few other things before we got started. But now that it's happening, you know it's going to be exciting days.

00:34:42
Speaker 2: Listen. I think the most important thing in this whole discussion is that we will be hitting tennis balls here at Wimbledon for the first time in a long time, and the Wimbledon courts look absolutely amazing. They're the best I've seen them in a long time. I don't know what it is. I don't know what they did to the grass, the lust.

00:35:00
Speaker 1: I mean, maybe having a tournament there last year made them have two years a growth.

00:35:05
Speaker 2: Maybe I don't know. I just feel like the grass this year is even better than I think it's as good as it was twenty years ago. I have not loved the grass over the last like ten fifteen years. I mean, even though it's the best grass court in the world, there's something about it this year that just feels even better. And so I expect players that are coming into the net and being aggressive will do really well at this tournament. That does certainly suit someone like Roger. It just can he get through, you know, best of five Physically, he's not getting any younger, but you know, just to see him and Serena just kind of watson around the hotel, you know, hanging out with the with the with the kids. It's just it's a unique experience in itself. So Caitlin, I'm just excited obviously to be here. If anyone follows me on Instagram, they know my love for this place is like endless. There's nothing I don't love about it, from the flowers that line the courts, to the wooden benches, to the smell of the grass, even the rain from time to time. It's just there's no tournament like it in the world. And you know, it's like picking a favorite child, which is your favorite, But for me, it will always be Wimbledon. So let's hope it's a great couple of weeks and we get some amazing stories out of it, and I'm sure we will, including Nick Curios and Venus Williams.

00:36:23
Speaker 1: Plain me, I can't I have nothing to add other than I'll see you soon.

00:36:28
Speaker 2: I'll see you soon, my friend.

00:36:32
Speaker 1: And that's it for this episode of the Racket Magazine podcast. Thanks for listening. Our host is Renee Stubbs. Our co host and producer is me Keitln Thompson. Music by internationally renowned DJ Stretch Armstrong, thanks to tim Or Jerry and then the team at Aircast. Find us at racketmag dot com, slash podcast, and subscribe to us at any of your favorite part catchers