French Open Speed Round

00:00:15
Speaker 1: I'm like, Craig, I gotta go. He's like, I got to give you to this racket. I gotta give you this rack. Can you come down and meet me? On second and second I was like, are you seeing Caitlin? Just give it to Kate. I don't know if I'm going to see Kitlynd tomorrow. I was like, oh my gosh, I had to run there. I had to be in to do a hit for breaker Is. At two fifteen, I was like, I gotta do this with Caitlin. She's got to go at three. Oh my god. Anyway, carry on.

00:00:34
Speaker 2: Speed Round, French Open Speed.

00:00:36
Speaker 1: Round, French Open Speed Round. Let's do this. Hey, everybody, welcome to the show.

00:00:43
Speaker 2: Welcome to the French Open Speed Round recap episode where we have more to talk about, possibly the further backwards we scroll from the finals to other notable storylines. We should start with the finals. To me, both very foregone conclusions of matches. I know you liked the women's final a lot for me. The both sides had the air of inevitability to them that I don't I don't personally enjoy.

00:01:17
Speaker 1: Well, I don't know if you could look at eager shy on TeX's match. When she's down four to three in the third with one of the best servers in the women's game serving, and say it was a foregone conclusion. I would dare to ask her coach and her sports psychologists and her fitness and her parents and her dad up there and her you know, family, say, hey, is this a foregone conclusion? Down four three in the third and our little friend over serving. I would think not, Caitlin. Now, if it was a set and three love and you asked him that question, I would have said absolutely. But the great thing about the sport that we'd love in so much is that there is no clock. There is no last ten seconds. You got to finish the match, and we saw that on display throughout this entire event. Just go and ask a one arena Sabalenka if there was a foregone conclusion, because you had told me at five to two in the third set, down love thirty on her surf, Mukhova struggling with what looked like maybe Krantz or whatever was going on with her, if there was a chance she was going to win that match, I would have said categorically, no way. And yet here we stand with Carolina Muhover making it to her first ever Grand Slam final, And may I say, great girl has gone through so much adversity over the last few years. I mean, look at the fact that last year she was in a battle and you know, having a great friends open rolled around or left the tournament in tears, didn't even get to finish the match. So it's a testament to her, you know, her work ethic, her, you know, talent, her never give up attitude. I mean, you know, she's gone through a lot over the last couple of years. And when you think about the way she came back against Saba Lenka, you know, and this is a player Caitlin that had never lost a top three match against any player, a top three player. She was four and oh against top three players in the world, and it looked like for a second it was going to be five and oh against the top three players in the world. Because that's when I actually thought, at four to three serving, I thought, oh my god, she's going to do this again. She just really believes in herself in those moments. But in the end, to get over the finish line to win a Grand Slam takes great mental fortitude and the fact that Eager at that moment, even though she had a bit of a panic at the beginning of the third set, you could tell she was getting very, very frustrated. I thought the way Eager handled that game, particularly at four to three, was testament to her ability to be able to control her emotions in those moments, and you know, it's one of the reasons she's now won four Grand Slams. So she really she handled herself just a little bit better in the end emotionally, and Carolina kind of fell apart in the last couple of games, but it was it was a great match.

00:03:55
Speaker 2: Talk a little bit more about that, because I agree it was a better match than I was anticipating.

00:03:59
Speaker 3: And even when Mukova was up.

00:04:01
Speaker 2: Mukhova's game is so amazing, It's so good. I was so thrilled that she was back and playing her beautiful all court game. The reason I was a little frustrated that she didn't make the final is just because I thought the final would have been more compelling, because I don't know that on any day, and she gave Ego such a good run, obviously more than I thought she was going to. But I'm not sure she has enough weapons to beat Ego on any day, much less in a final Immigrants Slam where she's never been there before. What do you think made it well?

00:04:41
Speaker 1: I think there was a fourth to three game when she was serving. I just think she didn't quite get enough first serves in, and then Ega stepped up and you know, ripped a couple of returns and sort of you know, hit some incredible winners and Carolina just didn't quite get enough first surs in. So I think I disagree on the I disagree on the weapons because Mucova has incredible weapons. I mean, her back end down the line is as sweet as they come. Her forehand she can hit either way very successfully. She has a big serve and a very good second serve, better second serve on the second court to the first court, and she can come in finish points of the net that most and that no girl can that. Not many of the women on tour do that. Ash Barty could do it because she had very competent volleys, but Mukhov can finish the pointer than that, and so instead of letting the ball bounce and having to hit a clean, big groundstroke for a winner, she just finished it off with a volley, so I disagree. I think he does have the tools. I think this didn't come down to tools. This came down to a little bit of physicality as well, that she was getting a little bit tied right a little bit at the end there, which sometimes hurts you with serving. But I think what came down to it was not the tools. It was the mental side of it and knowing, holy shit, can I actually really win a slam and that's a big, big step up.

00:05:54
Speaker 3: Yeah.

00:05:55
Speaker 2: I think for me, the matchup was more compelling that I expected, and I was happy to see her playing better offense than I was expecting. But again the match I think what makes Egas so effective but also can leave me a little cold, is just she plays such good defense, and I think that's obviously an incredible testament to her mental fortitude, to her movement. It's hard to imagine a better mover, especially on this surface. But I really liked the matchup with her and Sebalanka because it's it's kind of similar to me to the Vavrinka Djokovic matchup, where Vavrinka might not have as much consistency, but he can hit through Novak, whereas if you put somebody, even if they have an all court game up against Novak, they kind of don't have the firepower. And I thought that was sort of the Mukhova, you know, Yeah, her back end of the line was a potent weapon, and had she got more for serves in but yeah, I just I don't see her being able to close points effectively over three sets with IgA, and I think that that was born out. Although don't get me wrong, I was really happy she made it into a three set match because I didn't give her much of a chance at all. And I hope she's back there, and I hope she's I mean, I would love to see her doing really well on grass. That was really the first time a lot of us got to know Mukhova's name when she beat Carolina Plishkov, or her Czech country woman, at Wimbledon a couple of years ago.

00:07:17
Speaker 3: And just the way she did.

00:07:18
Speaker 2: It, dismantling Carolina's big serve but also playing that all court game, using the dimensions of the court, having those great hands. To me, that's like such a win. So I don't want it to sell like I'm you know, damning her with faint praise, But I just don't know that she has the weapons to hit through Ega, especially on clay, such that to me, whether Ega knew it or not, she was always to me seemingly, you know, the inevitable winner. But I again, I hope that on grass we'll see a little bit more of a competitive showing. Rubekina hopefully will stay healthy, Sebolenka hopefully comes back from this. You know, I'd love to see some of our other sort of more all court faves, like Daria Kazakiina on Sjibbur. I think, you know, the matchup just wasn't as compelling as I was sort of hoping it would be, even though the match ended up being better men's final.

00:08:08
Speaker 3: Talk about a not compelling matchup.

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00:09:12
Speaker 1: Yeah, this was well, this is this is exactly what you just said about. Barberine can kind of hit through Novak on clay, but rude can't. I mean, he has a massive forehand when he's getting the opportunity to hit it, and I thought he stepped up in the first couple of you know, first three or four or five games, and he was really ripping the forehand. But then once Snovak sort of like settles down and Novak look a little bit like huffee puffy. In the first set he was like kind of struggling physically because they were having very taxing points at the beginning. But then once he sort of settles in and realizes what he needs to do, it was just inevitable. I mean that was a snooze fest. The second and third set were just like, okay, let's just shake hands, you know. So so yeah, I mean, but give credit where it's you. The dude just locks down that first set tiebreak. It's like, I don't think he made an unforced error in any tie break in the French Open, Like, are you beggin kidding me? The guy just knows when to literally put the lock and key away for his opponents, It's like, too bad, I'm not making a mistake. If you really want to beat me, you're gonna have to hit winners, and good luck doing that for three straight sets against me. So you know, the inevitability of Novak once he won that first set was just like, okay, just just close the door and throw away the key. He's just no chance he's losing that match against the guy that doesn't possess the weapons or the serve to to hurt him. And you know, we all knew that the match was going to be the semi finals, and al Karaz learned a very big lesson about when you go into these matches, you have to be able to control your nerves, your anxiety level, your stress, your fist pumping the you know, even when he won the second set and he double you know, double pumped to the crowd with his arms in the air. I was like, my first immediate thought when he did that was what are you doing? Like, yes, that's a big set, Yes it's a great achieve man, but man, you've got to win two more of those this guy. So you got to calm down, bring all the levels down, bring all the third time, like everything, you got to bring it all down. And that's what Novak does better than anybody. He's able to manage a five set match, and even when he's not playing well, he just you see him just sort of like go, Okay, I know, I know, I'm going to be fine. I'm going to be fine. And Alcarez has to learn that how to how to handle that moment.

00:11:25
Speaker 2: And it was just insane.

00:11:27
Speaker 3: I mean, it was nice to watch that match next you and I see some of those.

00:11:30
Speaker 2: Points, but it was insane to me that anybody thought that Carlos Alcaraz was the favorite. I mean we were talking about it the morning of the match. That's semi thinking, Okay, well one of these players has twenty two Grand Slams and it's not Carlos Alcaraz as exciting as he is, as fun as he is, as much of the future as he is, he's not there yet, and counting him as the you know, massive favorite, he was my favorite.

00:11:56
Speaker 1: I think going into the match, Novak was plus one seventy eight and I think carl was like one minus one thirty two or something. That is, are you fucking sorry? Are you fucking kidding me? The guy's on twenty two Grand slams. He's won the French Open twice. Okay, I know he lost alpros La last time, but that was in Madrid at altitude, with the Spanish crowd, and the fact that three best of three, and the fact that Novak probably didn't know a lot about his opponent how to like just dissect him, and over five sets he learns how to take the scalpel and just slowly cut you and cut you and cut you, like Andy Roddick says, first he takes your legs. And so you know, the bottom line is that I looked at those odds and I was like, what I mean to at least I would have at least made them worst case scenario even money both of them, Like what are you doing like I think this verav Rude was. You know, they were both minus something or other. I was like, okay, that makes sense, but like plus one seventy two against the great, arguably the greatest player of all time, and this scenario, I was like, you guys stupid.

00:12:59
Speaker 3: It was.

00:12:59
Speaker 2: It was a little bit like the hype of the tomorrow made us forget about the president of today, which is that nobody is more dangerous over the course of five sets than Novak Chokovic. It doesn't matter how he starts, although in this match he started profoundly perfectly. You got the sense he was really fired up. It doesn't matter if he's down, It doesn't matter if you think he's out. He will will himself to victory. And the only real time I've ever seen him lose is if somebody just flat out hits through him, which we talked a little bit about with like your stan Vabrincas.

00:13:35
Speaker 3: Or if or Rafa last Rafa.

00:13:39
Speaker 2: The French dismantled him, dismantled him. But there are very very few matches where Novak doesn't look like he's in it, much less in control of it. And one thing I wanted to point out because it happened in this this Casper Rude match in the first set, when things kind of leveled out and got really tense towards the end of that set. You know, this is when Novak starts chipping at the op higher.

00:14:00
Speaker 3: Sometimes there's like.

00:14:02
Speaker 2: Crowd stuff with him, and it's really interesting because maybe sometimes it's a medical time out, but like Novak creates, I think some of this adversity out of nowhere, and he does it so that he can find his extra gear. You know, like for most players, that's a distraction where you see them chipping about the line calls or getting into it with the umpire and you think, oh, they've lost it.

00:14:22
Speaker 3: Now, they've lost focus.

00:14:23
Speaker 2: And for him, like having this external factor, maybe it's the crowd cheering for his opponent, which they're doing well.

00:14:29
Speaker 1: He wants to but he likes, he wants to yell at his box, but he can't really do like just to let stuff out, not to actually yell at them and you know, embarrass them or and he just wants to let his emotions out, so he just wants something to let it out against. And that was you know, that argument with the umpire and all that sort of stuff. So yeah, there's no question about you know, he he needs to have an outlet and that's just how he gets through matches. And you know, Serena was a little bit the same sometimes letting her emotion out, like she'll break a racket and then just move on. So some players need that and some don't. Some some it really detracts from them, but for Novak it doesn't. But listen, I'll tell you one thing. I will put this on record. I think he's I think he's more a lock to win the Calendar Grand Slam this year than ever before. And I know he came one match away from doing it last time, but I thought the Olympics and all the extra you know, hulaballah with that, and you know, the vaccinate, you know, all the shit that was hitting the found I just thought it was so much emotional stuff going on around him. I think this year, I actually think him not playing a couple of tournaments actually has helped him physically. You know, you think about not playing Indian Wells in Miami and he was able to just you know, find his form at the French because he got enough matches under his belt going into the French Open and He's been very adamant saying his only desire Grand Slams. He doesn't care about the smaller tournaments, and you know, neither dicks Aerena after a certain amount of time, or Roger or Rufa, And I think he is as lock a Calendar Grand Slam as I've ever seen in a player. And if he does it, just put away the books and he will undoubtedly be the greatest player of old time.

00:16:05
Speaker 2: You know, true, the only the only person who might be able to stop him. Milos Raunich came back today on grass and I was thinking, would this be the only person, with his massive serve who can be Novak Djokovic. But it does seem inevitable that the Calendar Grand Slam will be his, barring some crazy unforeseen circumstance or maybe just like a really really you know, off day, or maybe having the crowd on his side, like what happened with Medvedev two summers ago, where you know, he just looked like he was so spent because you said the Olympics. But yeah, I think undoubtedly, like it's a massive achievement, it's just it for me, it happens to be like a little bit boring, But you know it's not boring that I want to quickly talk about before we jump, because this was is supposed to be a sort of quick recap episode to get us ready for your favorite season, The Grass. What did you make of Chased Away coming back to win after being off for quite a while, coming back to win the women's doubles beating the two lefties from North America, Taylor Townsend and Layla Fernandez in the final. What a great outcome. They had a nice three set battle that that tournament was such a that draw was such a fun one to watch because of all the sort of ups and downs, the defaults, you know, the drama, and then seeing this unusual pairing in Taylor and Layla was just sort of the fun injection, the feel good story.

00:17:28
Speaker 3: That I needed over the weekend.

00:17:30
Speaker 1: Yeah, it was great, And actually, I you know, look when you got your good and she comes back and she just knows how to play the game at doubles and you know, uses the angles, uses the speed of the ball, hits the lobs, poaches, you know, all the things at old school. Even though she plays from the back, she's always comfortable in at the net. And you've got to be in at the net to win doubles. I just really believe that, you know, you've got to have somebody who's good at the net, and you know, Sinneyakova and Kredikova have proven that with Sneyakova being a pest at the net. But my field good story was mea cut winning mixed doubles after getting deeper folded from the doubles. I thought that story we Liant was amazing and it was such calmer. I think that she ended up winning it because look, you can say what you want about the default. You know, you're gonna have people that'll say, well, you know, she did hit a kid and blah blah blah, But it was not done in anger. She did look at the ball kid before she hit it and just thinking that the kid would catch it or at least probably get out of the way. I don't know. But then there's some that say, well, look, you gotta be careful when you hit the ball. You can't be hitting the kid like So you can argue both ways, right, but I think, you know, there was a lot of respect lost in the locker room with their opponents, like pushing that, pushing that, pushing that envelope to get her defaulded. Knowing what kind of a person me have cut to is she would never do something like that on purpose. And then she goes and wins the mixed doubles grant. I just think me that was like the feel a good story. And she bought the ball kid a present and gave it to her after the tournament, and so for me, other than for me, Carolina Mumkov getting to the final was one of the best stories of the tournament. I just I'm such a fan. I told her actually at the start of this year in March, she should be top ten in the world and she could achieve that by the US Open, and she said, I'll drink to that if that happens. But she came one match, one match short of getting into the top ten already, so I expect her to be in the top ten by for sure after the US Open. I just think she's such a great player and hopefully she can stay healthy and if that's the case, that's my storyline that I'm so happy with. And I'm hugely congratulatory to eager to win with a lot of pressure on her shoulders. But it's going to be fun Wimbledon's going to be great. I think Rebarkiness the favorite there in my opinion, and Saballenka, I think they're the two probably best players on grass unless Ons finds her form, and I think Ons is. You know, look, it was a bit of a disaster the way she lost her match with the French, but I think given the fact that she's had a lot of injuries this year, I think she'll feel really good about going on the grass because she will have had enough tennis under a belt, and we all know how great she is on grass, and nobody wants to play her on the surface. So I think Eager, Sablenka, Akeina, those three the three, and I really think that Caroline moveover. If she stays healthy, I think she is a real threat at Wimbledon.

00:20:08
Speaker 2: That is what I am truly hoping for. Because as compelling and great as her all court game is to watch on clay, it seems Taylor made for off the ground.

00:20:19
Speaker 1: She said it quarts, she said it off to the French, she said it, she goes, she goes. I plays being my worst surface, So I'm really proud of myself. I said, yeah, girl, if this is your worst surface, luck, good luck everybody on hardcourt and on ungrass.

00:20:34
Speaker 3: She's going to be a real Carolyn mclover.

00:20:35
Speaker 2: We are rooting for you and watching you for the rest of the season. Renee, I gotta go pick up my kiddo. We'll get at this one real fast. We'll do a more comprehensive grass court check in in the week or two to come, because there's already started to be some incredible matches.

00:20:49
Speaker 3: I know it's your favorite time of.

00:20:50
Speaker 2: The year, and uh, thanks for listening.

00:20:53
Speaker 3: Everybody, See you next time.

00:20:55
Speaker 1: Thanks everyone, see you, saying baby