The French Connection: Lindsey Vonn

00:00:00
Speaker 1: My doctor didn't really approve it. So let's just let's no one tell them.

00:00:04
Speaker 2: Okay, let's have a look at this. This is good, this is good form with an above knee.

00:00:12
Speaker 3: As we say, good, a couple more years of practice, you might make the Olympic team in LA twenty twenty eight.

00:00:18
Speaker 4: Well, you know, Renee gave me like a like some tips, but I don't know, Renee, you promised me you're gonna be a lesson.

00:00:24
Speaker 1: I'm still waiting on that.

00:00:25
Speaker 2: Hey, I'll come down to Miami anytime, my friend. All right, everyone, welcome to the French Connection, once again, brought to you by NBC Sports and Racket. We are here to cover the tennis, not only from the French Open right through of course back to Paris for the Olympic Games at Roland Garros. We are so excited to bring it to you and all the tennis in between. But before we get to that, of course, it is me, Renee Stubbs, alongside that guy where is he? That side Sam Query, and we have the one and only one of the greatest skiers that has ever skied down a hill, and of course I'm going to say it the greatest downhill of all time, Lindsay Vaughn, thanks for Johnny us today, Linz.

00:01:03
Speaker 1: Thanks today, Thanks for having me. Hey Sam, how they're.

00:01:06
Speaker 3: Going all right?

00:01:09
Speaker 2: Lind's We're going to get into this because we know that you love tennis as much as anybody that I've ever met. You play tennis way more than I do, and certainly more than pickleball. Sam play. So that in and of itself is pretty amazing. But why tennis? What do you love about the sport of tennis?

00:01:26
Speaker 4: I always grew up watching it, you know, my dad always had an agacy on on the weekends.

00:01:31
Speaker 1: Pete Samprass. I was always drawn to the sport.

00:01:35
Speaker 4: I think my dad really wanted me to be a tennis player, but he claims that I was horrible. But granted he did make me try at like two years old, so you know, I think he should have given me a couple more chances.

00:01:48
Speaker 1: But I just love the mental strength it takes to be a tennis player.

00:01:53
Speaker 4: You know, obviously you need to be incredibly talented and you need to have all the skills. But I love being able to see the athletes motion. It's not it's unlike any other sport, you know, it's not like football, you really can't see anyone's face, and tennis you see everything the athlete is going through.

00:02:09
Speaker 2: And I just I love it all. Right, So, who's your favorite player? I mean I kind of have an idea about this, But who's your favorite player?

00:02:15
Speaker 4: I mean, I don't think it's a secret. I mean, minus like Sam, obviously it would be Roger.

00:02:21
Speaker 3: I think Roger is everyone's favorite player. Who's your sick who's your second favorite player?

00:02:25
Speaker 1: Okay, that's a really good question. It would be Onick. Uh Yanick and I have become pretty good.

00:02:32
Speaker 4: Friends, and we went skiing together last year, which is shocking because normally active athletes don't ski.

00:02:41
Speaker 1: I actually was pretty nervous. I don't want to be responsible for.

00:02:45
Speaker 4: Anything that happens. But uh yeah, he's a He's a great guy, and I'm really excited for him to be number one.

00:02:51
Speaker 2: Now.

00:02:52
Speaker 4: Disappointed that Novac had to retire from his match, but still, you know, Yon being number one is pretty exciting.

00:02:59
Speaker 2: Yeah, very much. Listen, I confess I skied through my whole tennis career. I always thought this is really not the smartest although you'll be proud of me, Lens, I just stayed to the groom run. So I ski fast, terrible on bumps, and I do not go in the trees unless someone forces me so because I didn't want to hurt myself. But and again, but Yanik is an incredible ski He's five billion times better than me, So I'll let him go under the slopes. But what about skiing and tennis. I mean, you sort of touched upon the fact that the emotional side of tennis, and we talked about this last year at Wimbledon. Tell me some of the things about tennis that you were actually that are easier or harder when it comes to tennis and skiing, and what you like about them both individually. Well, I mean, I.

00:03:44
Speaker 4: Think you know tennis when you're when you're talking about the risk of you know, being down at that point or you know, you have all of these you know, high pressure situations, the ramifications of of not doing it well or you just lose the point, you lose the match, you know, and Johann Aga and I have talked about that.

00:04:02
Speaker 2: You know, there's it's not like if.

00:04:04
Speaker 1: You make a mistake, you're gonna hurt yourself.

00:04:06
Speaker 4: You know, you're not going to be in the fences, You're you know, there's no physical harm that will come to you, So I think that's the biggest difference.

00:04:14
Speaker 1: But I love that. You know, tennis is a is a very fast chess game, and it's very similar in skiing. You know, you have to make have to have a plan, but also be able to make the second decisions.

00:04:27
Speaker 4: I don't know, there's just there's so many things that are similar that I love about it. But yeah, the stakes are a little bit higher physically on the skiing side.

00:04:35
Speaker 3: Here's the question. Now we're talking about the similarities. A match point in tennis. You've been at a ton of tennis matches. You know how quiet is and it is in the stadium when you're at the starting gate for a final run for an Olympic gold what's a quieter moment that or the match point of a tennis match.

00:04:53
Speaker 1: Definitely tennis match.

00:04:54
Speaker 4: It's it's really weird in skiing because there's a lot of people actually yelling.

00:04:59
Speaker 1: At you and cheering you on, but sometimes yeeling at you in the starting gate.

00:05:05
Speaker 4: You know, especially at the Olympics or World Championships, people are standing right next to you. It's not like you know, in a tennis stadium, you have quite a big distance between you and the fans and ski racing, someone could actually be standing five feet away from you, and it can be a little bit distracting. I love the energy of fans of people. I would love to be competing in a stadium. I love that kind of energy. It really motivates me. But I think the silence it's really interesting, you know, on those on those really high pressure moments, and again that's why I love it.

00:05:44
Speaker 1: You know, there's so much intense focus on this one moment.

00:05:48
Speaker 4: And I always love Roger because no matter you know, if he had a match point or not, he would come up with an ace or you know, I never counted him out, no matter how hard the odds were to act against him, which is you know, just mete him so exciting to watch, among other things.

00:06:05
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's a lot. It's a lot different in skiing, and also there's just not as many people watching.

00:06:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's interesting. You hear the hop hoop hop, you know when you're skiing and people are like yelling and screaming at you. But it's interesting that you talk about being in the gate, how it can be distracting and do you feel like something you don't have time to be like, hey, Broke, can you just keep it down for a second. I'm trying to concentrate here, but I want to know you ski with Roger just pretty recently during the winter. Give me your thoughts on his downhill skis, skiing ability and tips he gave him and etcetera. I mean, he did post something today about taking up golf, so you know, now he's really getting into the casual sports.

00:06:45
Speaker 1: He is really crushing life right now. Let's be honest.

00:06:48
Speaker 4: I think we would all love to have Rider's life. He's clearly greeted. Everything he does as a golf game looks impeccable. But his scheme was really good. I mean, I think we need a little bit more time on the slopes together to sort out some technical kinks.

00:07:04
Speaker 1: I need to change his equipment for one. But but he was just he was so loose. He was out there having fun.

00:07:12
Speaker 4: He you know, was getting in his tuck. He really enjoyed himself. And I was really impressed with his kids skiing. You know, they all all four of them were just ripping around and Mierka too, you know, they were just they were really good. And I think ski racing and skiing in general is just a fun family sport, and the fact that I was able to join the whole family and do it together with.

00:07:33
Speaker 2: Them was was really special.

00:07:35
Speaker 3: Where is that foot what mountain ranges that? Are you in Europe there?

00:07:38
Speaker 1: Or is that yeah, we're in Switzerland.

00:07:41
Speaker 3: Of course.

00:07:42
Speaker 2: Of course, you guys didn't have a gold star like, you know, ride up the chairlift like a you know, security all around you and all that kind of stuff.

00:07:49
Speaker 4: And I was actually really surprised by that, you know, I thought that people would recognize him and you know, bother him or or maybe me, but everyone was really respectful. He was waiting in line with his family, no one bothered him. I mean the lines were really long, there was a lot of people. I was also worried that he was someone was going to hit him, you know, so I was just I felt like I was playing, you know, keep.

00:08:16
Speaker 1: Away and trying to make sure and no one, no one touched Roger exactly.

00:08:21
Speaker 3: Do you have a favorite casual mountain somewhere around the world that you like to ski?

00:08:27
Speaker 4: You know, I've I've been around the world racing, but I haven't really casually.

00:08:32
Speaker 1: Skied very many places. I would have to say Valdez Air in France is amazing. Or Saint Maritz. I love Saint Maritz. There's a lot of places that are I really enjoy skiing, but I I have to actually go casually.

00:08:48
Speaker 2: Skiing in more places Before I could give you a better a better answer, lindsay, you can stay away from Australia. Those mountains are not I've been there. They've not long enough for you. You'd be down that mountain in like three seconds. I was, Yes, I was sixteen and I never went back for good reasons. But we've got great beaches. But interestingly, today we saw Sabalanca. I know that you've been watching the tennis. I know that you get up early, like you're into it as much as anyone else. But just take me through what she was going through today. Clearly we could see that she was struggling, struggling physically. There's something you know, either nauseous or whatever was going on with her. I want to know a story from you. We kind of touched upon it already today, But tell me a story where you had to actually go into a start gate or a day where you did not feel good and how you dealt with that.

00:09:36
Speaker 4: Well, yeah, I was disappointed that she last. I mean, I always want to see a fair match. You know, both opponents are you know, healthy. Obviously there's not always a case, and that was hard to see today. I don't know what she was going through, Like you said, maybe it was Naja. It seemed like she was out of breath and just low on energy. But I definitely have had many situations where I've been sick. There is one really bad time I had food poisoning. I was in Croatia. I hugging the toilet rim just letting it all out, and I missed the caravan to the mountain, so I had to scramble to find a ride.

00:10:11
Speaker 1: I finally made it up there. I had missed inspection, so we everyone gets one chance to look at the course.

00:10:17
Speaker 2: I missed it.

00:10:17
Speaker 4: I literally rolled straight in, puked right before I started, and then and then it went. I don't remember how I did, which means it probably wasn't very good. But uh, but I tried. You know, I hate missing races, you know, I think every athlete wants to always put their best foot forward, and even if you know you're not feeling well, you want to get out.

00:10:40
Speaker 2: There and try.

00:10:40
Speaker 4: And I give some of like a lot for just going out there and giving it her best shot. And it was definitely her mental strength shown showed through today.

00:10:51
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't physically let her.

00:10:52
Speaker 4: Down, but mentally she was very tough and again disappointed to see her lose. But it was a really fun match and it's going to be the next round's.

00:11:00
Speaker 2: Gonna be great, sure, going to be interesting to see Paulini. It's not a semi final that Sam and I would have guessed seeing Pauelini, who, by the way, I can say this out loud because I've said it on my podcast, is my favorite tennis player to watch. She is silly, She's literally this big and she plays like she's seven feet tall. She smiles all the time. She's the happiest person to be around on the court, and I'm so delighted to see her actually be doing as well. And she's had the same coach and Sam and lindsay, you can both appreciate this forever, and so they've gone through the ups and down, so I'm actually excited to sort of see this semi It's not one we expected. But Sam, real quick, before we get to the next question, have you ever puked on a tennis court or before a match.

00:11:40
Speaker 3: No, well, I mean I guess maybe hours before or days before. But I was gonna say sometimes as an athlete, if you get sick or you have an injury, sometimes it helps you on the court. It's like it's all you're focused on. You're not focused on, like you know, external things. And I've played great tennis matches. I don't know about Urina or you, Lindsey, like Skime, I've played great as matches before when I've been like partially sick or injured, because like I'm just like all right, play this point and focus on nothing else. Sometimes it can be can be beneficial.

00:12:09
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, anyway, So what's the best match Lens that you've seen so far at the French I know you can't watch every match unless you're up at four in the morning because you're in Miami. But but any of the any matches that you've just absolutely loved to watch.

00:12:23
Speaker 4: So if I love the Ego O SOCCA match, that was definitely my favorite so far. I just I thought the level of play was amazing and.

00:12:33
Speaker 2: Look at that look at that tweet for me, Yeah, I mean I think.

00:12:38
Speaker 4: I think it would have been an amazing final or semi Finally, know Asaka, I haven't seen her play like that in a long time, and she was just she was really swinging for the fences. She obviously made a couple of more errors than Ega, but but it was really fun to watch.

00:12:53
Speaker 1: Her, you know, play at that level.

00:12:55
Speaker 3: Again.

00:12:55
Speaker 4: I mean, I know she's she's had a baby, and I just think that in and of itself is so impressive.

00:13:00
Speaker 2: Of so I love that match.

00:13:01
Speaker 1: I thought it was amazing.

00:13:02
Speaker 3: Who are you picking men's women, women's sorry, men's women, men's champion of each.

00:13:11
Speaker 4: I mean, I really you know, I really wish that the Carlos Janick match was a final.

00:13:17
Speaker 1: I really hate that it's always a semi final or a quarter final. I always want to see them.

00:13:22
Speaker 2: In a final. I'm going to go with Yan.

00:13:26
Speaker 4: I hope that he he can kind of win this and you know, be number one, and I think that would be a great ending to the last couple of weeks.

00:13:33
Speaker 1: But on the women's side, I'm a big fan of Ego. We're good friends, so I'm I'm going to go Ego the way.

00:13:42
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think I think you might be right, although I don't know. Kasper Rude might have something to say. He's made the finals a couple of times, he's had that guy called Ratha stop him a few times, and Novak, but it's going to be interesting. Vera of course coming in playing very very well as too. But yeah, you're right, it would kind of be nice as see those guys playing a final for once instead of a semi. We all want, yeah, it's all we all want.

00:14:05
Speaker 3: We need the ATP guards to kind of just we just realized.

00:14:10
Speaker 2: And it was interesting. Somebody tweeted at me the other day, why is Eager playing the number three player and not the number four player? And you could say the same thing with this situation in tennis. The one is at the top, two is down the bottom, and three and four get pulled out of a hat depending on what side they go up or down. So for people at home that don't know that rule.

00:14:27
Speaker 1: That's how we're just pulling the names out of the hat.

00:14:30
Speaker 2: You need to do listen, Sam, and I know I don't know Sam did it, but putting your hand in there and actually doing a draw is stressful because you're like, huh, you know.

00:14:39
Speaker 3: It's like to be pulled out.

00:14:43
Speaker 2: Yeah, you never wanted to do it. You're always asked to do it, and you're like, I don't want to do the draw. All right, Lens, let's take you inside the Olympic village. We know that the Olympics in Paris. First of all, are you going to go to Paris? I? Absolutely good.

00:14:55
Speaker 3: I love this.

00:14:56
Speaker 1: Yeah.

00:14:57
Speaker 2: Okay. So is there a moment, Lens in your time at the Olympics where you have been starstruck at the Olympic Games.

00:15:05
Speaker 4: I mean pretty much every moment of every Olympics is amazing, and I've always meet someone that I wouldn't expect.

00:15:13
Speaker 1: I think, you know, for me as a.

00:15:15
Speaker 4: Winter Olympian, going to the Summer Olympics is always really special because I meet people that I that I normally wouldn't meet or you know, maybe haven't met yet. The London Olympics, I met Kobe Bryant for the first time and that was really special. So I think that was probably my my coolest moment at any Olympics, I'd say.

00:15:37
Speaker 1: Was meeting him and spending time with him.

00:15:39
Speaker 3: Do you have a favorite Summer Olympics sport to watch?

00:15:42
Speaker 1: Gymnastics? Obviously?

00:15:44
Speaker 2: Wow, look at that.

00:15:45
Speaker 4: I mean, you listen, let's be really I love tennis, and I will always loved tennis, but no one really watches gymnastics outside of the Olympics, so.

00:15:55
Speaker 3: You get plenty of tennis. The three and a half give full.

00:15:59
Speaker 4: Of tennis, every Grand Slam or every ATV one thousand. So you know, I'm gonna go for gymnastics, and I'm so excited to watch someone. I think she's gonna be just absolutely crush everyone.

00:16:09
Speaker 1: Which is gonna be really fun to watch.

00:16:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, what a story is to have her back, just you know, with the potential of what we saw in the last Olympics, for her to come back is pretty amazing. As you, as a great athlete would know, it's not that easy just to put you know, the skis back on and do what she's doing and on a beam this big all right, So where are your Olympic medals, my friend?

00:16:28
Speaker 1: Oh? Well, two of them are in my sock drawer and one of them is hanging up next to my Backstreet Boys poster.

00:16:40
Speaker 3: We were hoping you were just going to have like a desk in your drawer, right we're at right now, you're gonna hold a couple of.

00:16:47
Speaker 2: No.

00:16:47
Speaker 4: I and the only reason I have the one hung up is because my friend surprised me with that. Otherwise it'd probably still be in my sock drawer.

00:16:56
Speaker 2: Oh that's cute. I have a funny story about Sue Bird at her house in Seattle. Not to name drop, but I was at her apartment and we played a drinking game. This is a true story, and you know the flip cup game. So we're playing the flip cup and she was on my team and we won. There was like five of us on one side, five of us on the other, and we won. And she was so funny. She turned around and grabbed all of her five gold medals and started putting on all her teammates. And I thought, who has their gold medals just hanging in the kitchen. So there you go. That's a lot.

00:17:32
Speaker 3: Some people have their medals like out and proud. Some people kind of have them tucked away, like Lindsay saying, it's just like everyone's got a different kind of mentality as far as like where do you display your Olympic medals?

00:17:43
Speaker 4: Here?

00:17:43
Speaker 3: Trophies now they go.

00:17:46
Speaker 2: I mean, I have my.

00:17:47
Speaker 1: Trophies lined up. They look really nice. But the Olympic medals, I don't know, they're just they're kind of.

00:17:53
Speaker 2: My special thing. Where are yours? Sam? Where are your trophies?

00:17:57
Speaker 3: I was gonna say, I I have no Olympic medals, but the trophies that I've got some kind of like in the family room. There's a couple like upstairs. But I kind of just spread out everywhere. I don't I don't have that many. I don't have as many as you guys.

00:18:11
Speaker 2: Yeah, well mine, I sort of tucked around all over the place, but not out and about. It's really interesting. What's that is?

00:18:17
Speaker 4: That is?

00:18:17
Speaker 2: That's that's a that's a joke. That's my French. What's not a joke. That's terrible. I shouldn't have said that. That is my runner up trophy. I have two runner up loser trophies from the French. So I displayed my loser trophies because one of our first guests, Mary Carillo, was the winner of the mixed doubles, and I told her she has that over me because I was just a loser there.

00:18:39
Speaker 1: There it is, Well, Mary is great, so it's okay a first loser to her.

00:18:43
Speaker 2: She is all right. Lind's we so appreciate you being on the show today. Just real quick. You are going to Paris the Olympics. Where are you going to be seeing the most?

00:18:53
Speaker 4: Oh, I mean again, gymnastics. I really want to do the beach volleyball. I think that's underneath the Evil Tower. I want to kind of do all of the all of the really scenic events. I have to see the lay out of where everything is. But definitely gymnastics. And I'm really excited about the opening ceremonies.

00:19:14
Speaker 2: Yes, along the canal.

00:19:15
Speaker 1: Apparently want to be amazing.

00:19:18
Speaker 2: All right, well, Lind's we really appreciate you not only joining us today talking about tennis. We know I can attest you are huge tennis. Wait a second, quickly show me your video of you playing tennis today or yesterday or whatever it was before your knee surgery, because you've had reconstructed knee surgery. Show us, give me, give it to us.

00:19:35
Speaker 1: Well, my doctor didn't really approve it, so let's just let's no one tell them.

00:19:39
Speaker 2: Okay, okay, look at it. Let's have a look at this. This is good. This is good form with abong knee. As we say, a.

00:19:48
Speaker 3: Good couple more years of practice, you might make the Olympic team in LA twenty twenty eight. Yeah, look at this yeah, twenty twenty six in La twenty thirty.

00:19:58
Speaker 4: Well, you know, Renee gave me like go like some tips, but I don't know when you promise me you're gonna get me a lesson.

00:20:04
Speaker 1: I'm still waiting on that.

00:20:05
Speaker 2: So hey, I'll come down to Miami anytime. My friends. All right, well, skiing, les tennis lesson.

00:20:11
Speaker 4: Yeah.

00:20:12
Speaker 2: We actually we do send each other videos of our different sports and we do critique, which he did off my scheme, which I appreciate anyway. All right, Lens, we love you, thanks so much for joining us. We can't wait to see you in Paris. And a reminder that the US Olympic and Paralympic team trials kick off June fifteenth. I cannot wait to see them get into action, all of them trying to make the Olympic team, the best athletes in the country seek as I said, to join and make the toughest team in the world. Ahead of the Paris Games. We cannot wait and catch the action on NBC Peacock. Then the Paris Olympics, of course, begins July twenty sixth. Just give me your thoughts on Novak having to pull out as just detrimental not only to the tournament, but of course for his I mean going forward. This is not a great injury to have at this time of the year.

00:21:04
Speaker 3: No, it's a brutal injury for Novak and a brutal injury for the tennis community. No one wants to see him pull out of the French Open, especially at a quarterfinal stage like this. He's battled the two previous matches in five sets, which has been an incredible effort from him. But you know, a meniscus tear like this, I think that's what it is. It's a minor injury. It's gonna put him out four to six weeks, maybe eight weeks. I'd be shocked to see him at Wimbledon. Hopefully we get him back in time for the Olympics in Paris.

00:21:32
Speaker 2: Yeah. I have to say. I've had my two of my knees surgic surgically repaired by a miniscus and one I came back six weeks later, but I was only just playing doubles and I felt like six weeks was probably a week or two too soon. So I imagine if he is going to have if he's gone into immediate surgery to have a meniscus. You can play with a meniscus tear. It's just said how bad is it? Because I saw him point to hit in the back of his knee when he was having issues with it and had the trainer come out, and I actually said to a friend of mine, I was like, that kind of looks like meniscus. I mean, I was totally guessing, but when they said meniscus. So there's no question he won't be able to play Wimbolan unless he decides not to have the surgery, because you can't. I played for about two three months with a miniscus tair. It just depends on how bad it is. But if he wants to win a Grand Slam, there's no way that he can do that with a slight miniscus tair. So if that's the case, six weeks, my guess minimally, although he is into the ru WU, he does all the stuff, maybe he can recover a little bit quicker like what was that quarterback's name that came back from the Achilles quickly? Anyway, Aaron Rodgers, I'm kidding, but anyway, so I think you know, Novak certainly has the capability of maybe coming back a bit earlier than most. But that is a rough injury to have for him, all right, So let me.

00:22:49
Speaker 3: See physical too. A big part of his DA is the movement, and so to have it, you know, I think he's a guy that's only going to go out there, you know, when his knee is one hundred percent and healed, and hopefully that's sooner rather than later.

00:23:00
Speaker 2: I know one thing that your little your little crutch behind you. He's going to be needing that for a day or two after that surgery, so you could probably lend it to him, although you're a little bit taller, all right. So let's get to know. One of the great stories though, is Janick Sinner has been the best player this year without question. He has won the Australian Open, He's won multiple tournaments coming into this event in the next the second Grand Slam of the year, arguably the best player this year deservedly gets the number one ranking. Sadly Novak didn't wasn't able to at least get to the final or keep that number one ranking with all the points that he has coming off from now until the end of the year. But Janik's been fantastic, but also has Carlos Alcaraz. Just give me your thoughts on who you think is going to win this match.

00:23:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean Center, even going back to last year, you know, winn winning Vienna and then winning the Divers Cup finals of the year in winning Australia, winning Miami, He's been on an incredible run. Now. It's well deserved this number one ranking. Even if Novak didn't pull out here, I think Center was going to hit that number one rankings by at some point this year. And Alcaraz is right on his heels and they're kind of the right. They're the feder Nadal of ten years ago, and so it's a shame they have to play each other. They're on the same side of the draw. As we had talked about earlier. I think everyone would everyone kind of wants that as a fun finals matchup at every tournament. But it's it's gonna be a fun match, It's it's going to be something that everyone's excited to want, you know. I think sinner, knowing he's number one in the world, it kind of gives him a little extra confidence on the back end of this French Open, and I'm I'm picking him to win it at this point.

00:24:36
Speaker 1: Wow.

00:24:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I don't know who's going to win between the two of them. They both play so well against one another. It is arguably the best matchup. It is, without question the big These two are the big two now they've taken over from the Big three. Obviously Novak is still there, but this is the next generation of Roger Rafa and Novak. I don't know. I would say that Carlos is slightly more comfortable on clay then Yanick. Yannick likes it fast, so I think it's dependent also on the on the on the temperature. Andy Roddick said it last week that the French Open is probably the one tournament that is really subject to the weather. If it's hot and bouncy, that will help Yanick a little bit make the court quicker. But also the spin on the ball and the velocity of the spin of Alcaraze's shots will also be helped with the hot weather. So it's kind of like a pick them. Look look at their look at their matchups against one another, four and four. Who's going to be the one that breaks the drought and maybe takes over and gets the final and wins the French Open. So much on the line between these two guys, and as you said, Sam, they're two great guys. These two they're just so great for the game of tennis. I'm so excited for the next ten years of men's.

00:25:46
Speaker 3: As much watch TV when these two are matched up. Wherever I am in the world, I look at what time are they play, and I set the alarm to watch it, because it's just it's it's like I said, it's better than it all from ten years ago. So it's a it's going to be. Hopefully they have a great match and to kind of entertain the crowd and everyone watching.

00:26:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, well, I'm hoping they both get through injury free and they, as you said, have a great match, and I suspect if they're injury free they will all right, Sam. So, of course, the other semifinals certainly not being talked about as much as Alkora Sinna, which is understandable in a lot of ways. Is of course now Kaspar Rude, who got the default over Novak Djokovic, going up against Alexander Zverev, who just also had a great win over alex Demonor in straight sets. But boy or boy, it was pretty complicated, even though it was straight sets for Zverev. It was very complicated that match. It could have been a lot more difficult if poor old Alex Diemono had won that second set. But just give me your whole thoughts on that semi on that quarter final.

00:26:46
Speaker 3: Yeah, like you said, it was three difficult sets. As well as demon Are played, you never really felt like he was going to win the match. You felt like he was doing everything he could to like get really close. You know, like you said he needed that second and said he was in that set point. I think he got a little tentative there. I definitely needed that, and then in the end did a good job of breaking Vera when Zvera was serving for it. Vera, as tough as he's playing in, as great as he's plane right now, broke right back. But now we've got Zvera against Casper route and that's going to be another great semi final along with Alcarez Center and you know, the ruths Vera is a little bit of a toss up to me. I think I'm going Casper just because he's going to have a you know, four days off now, and Vera's played a lot of match, He's had a lot of time on court, so I'm gonna I'm gonna go a rude kind of sixty five thirty five there for percentage one.

00:27:37
Speaker 2: Yeah, So I have a question on that. I mean, I don't know if you've had a situation where you've been at a Grand Slam, you've got best of five, you know it's a brutal struggle. You know that Rude's going to come out banging four hands, you know, looking for the forehand, all all of the things. But tell me from your perspective, as like a best of five situation, Casper hasn't played in like four days essentially for him to go up now and play guy that's gotten through a lot of tough matches, and I don't know what it is as very he plays unbelievably long matches. Look at these stray and open. He got through some really long matches there, but not does it help? But does it hurt in some respects as well? That rud hasn't played a match in four days? So do you lose your like your match, prep your match, Like, tell me, give me a little bit of what you think about that, right, you know, I.

00:28:24
Speaker 3: Think it's a little bit of like, you know, sorry, it's okay, Ruby, I.

00:28:29
Speaker 2: Like this, your dog.

00:28:31
Speaker 3: You got a dog in here. You leave that on?

00:28:34
Speaker 2: Please?

00:28:35
Speaker 3: Yeah, leave that on. You know it's gonna be four days off. I don't think that's enough time for him to get rusty. I think I think he would have signed up for that before the tournament started. I think the four days is a short enough time where he's still gonna be confident coming off three prior matches. He's he's been to the finals here twice before, so it's nothing new. So I think for Casper, he's gonna go into this match literally feeling one hundred percent. And I expect them to have I expect him to have zero Russ expect them to come out firing from the first shot. And and Zverev, like you said, he's played a lot of long matches in his career. He's extremely fit. I don't think the fact that he's gone five cent or five setter is going to make that much of a difference, unless they do go five sets themselves. But I expect Vereb to come out and be ready to go as well in two days time.

00:29:21
Speaker 2: Well, I picked Zvereb. I didn't know what was going to happen to Novak. Clearly none of us knew that he would pull out in the quarter finals. That's just unheard off for him. So he's obviously very injured. But I did pick Zverev to make the finals. I don't think he's going to win the tournament. I think he gets too tight. We saw it even when he served for the match against Alex Demonor. He didn't close out the game, and those are sort of the games you expect someone who wants to win the tournament close those games out, even though he broke. But you have to think the casker with the days off, with having thrashed Zverev last year, I think Zvera is a better player this year. He comes in with tons of confidence after winning in Rome, and the matchup is it'll be interesting. I think Zverev serves really well. He has a chance, but you have have to think with the rest with Casper's also, let's not forget about Casper Rude. I mean, this guy's been the perennial runner up, really, I mean Novak Rafa without them, he wins a French Open. He probably thinks this is his best chance to do it. You know, this year, having had the opportunity to have the rest day against Novak and going up against Verev, who he has a great record against, clearly on clay. So look, the bottom line is, you don't know, we throw the balls in the airt we let them play and that's the best thing about the French Open this year. It's been very unexpected. Look at the women's some of the surprises there, but certainly with the men's probably what we expected in some ways other than Novak, but rude being there is no surprise because he's been so good in rolling ger So give me. You gave me your prediction, but give me a prediction for the final on what you think we're going to see in the men's.

00:30:48
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I'm going to take I'm going to take Casper over Zverev. I think to Casper is a clay quarter like he's made two finals before, he's loving this. On the other side, I'm going to go with Cinner over al Karez and then the more than I think about it here, I'm gonna go with Casper Rudd in the for the for the title. You know what he's like, you said, I think he looks at this draw and kind of says like, Okay, maybe this is the time when I can win it. I've made two finals, I've lost the Novak, I've lost to Rafa. Those guys aren't here. This is my time. He's kind of quietly going through the draw. I guess you would say, you know, a lot a lot of people are talking about him. They're talking about Center and al KaAZ and Zara, So I think he's just going to kind of go into the radar. He's winning matches relatively easily, and this is his tournament to win.

00:31:34
Speaker 2: I like it. Sam. You always go for the you know, the random stuff and you throw it out there, and I appreciate it. Listen, you're not wrong. But the bottom line is if he does win against vera hottest player coming into the tournament, he has to play against the two hottest players over the last you know, year and a half, let's say, other than Novak. So if he's gonna win it, he's going to have to do it the hard way. That's there's no doubt about that, and he certainly will earn his French Open title. We can't we count wait for it. It's going to be great semifinals. All right, let's get to the lad is. It's time to talk about them. What we saw today was pretty extraordinary. From the upset cut, this is not what we thought. But before we get to that, let's preview the number one player in the world, the most dominant player at this tournament over the last several years, Eageron Tech going up against Toco a golf. They've played each other a couple of times here at the French but and the head to heads certainly are very favorable for eager Tech. But Coco having won a Grand Slam, now she knows what it takes. Just uh, who wins here, Sammy.

00:32:34
Speaker 3: It's Eager I mean you, I hope, I hope you can pull the upset. It's so hard to get go against eager right now. She's so dominant, not only on clay, but against Coco as well. We see there she's ten and one overall, four and oh on clay, And you know, as in the top half, it's kind of work. We've got two heavy hitters on the top half of the woman's draw and two somewhat unknown girls on the on the bottom half. So I think a lot of people are almost looking at this matchup as the final. Whoever wins this will be a pretty heavy fever in the final. But I got to go with Eager here. She's just too dominant in my opinion.

00:33:09
Speaker 2: What about you, Yeah, look, I think that as it was against Osaka, Osaka's ability to really hit anyone off the court, Coco doesn't quite have that ability on the forehand. Certainly on the back end, she has arguably the best back end in women's tennis. But I think the matchup is the issue here. Ega loves to hit the forehand cross court and heavy and deep, and that goes into the weaker side of Coco. Eventually gets one a bit short and then Eager takes control of the point again. So this is a little bit more about you know, Coco's going to have to serve at her best, She's going to have to have a high percentage of first serves. In her second serve will get punished big time by Eager, and that's part of the issue as well. On the clay, it sits up for Eager to do a little bit more with it. Where's a post. On hard court, her ball stays a bit lower, gives Eager a few more issues on the forehand, But overall on the clay, I just thinking Eager shontek is by far the favorite. Having said that there's no one greater at trying to match no matter what is happening in front of her than Cocoa Gough. It was not pretty in her match in the quarterfinals. She lost the first set, she bounced back. She just hangs in there. There's no one that has a better fighting spirit than her, although you'd have to say Sabalanca today had some fighting spirits. Just your thoughts on also what we saw Mirah Andreva. I mean, this teenager. We've been talking about her on the Whimen's tour now for a couple of years. I remember her playing Cocoa Gough, might have been last year. She won the first set and she lost her flipping mind in the first game of the second set, and I was like, what are you doing? You were in control of the match, and that was just her youth. Have been sixteen years of age. She lost one point, she threw a racket on the ground. I was like, oh my god. As a coach, you'd be like, pick your rack itt up, pick your rack it up. You're up a set, what are you doing? And I think she won one game after that against Cocoke. But to see her maturity of handling this moment today against Sablenka and getting through a couple of tough matches of late. This kid is going to be, without question, punch finals of Grand Slams for a long time to come. And we saw her get through a really tough match today against Sabolanka, who was clearly feeling not well.

00:35:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, and that mets here. I think we're just waiting for Andreva to make a run, and here it is. And I was actually a rehab for my knee, so I missed the first set, missed part of the second set. By the time I came back and turned it on, saw that Sabalanka was kind of injured and sometimes it's tough to play against an opponent like that. So Andreva the match there. When I turned it on in the third set, it was a back and forth. You'd see Andreva getting frustrated, then it would go to Sabalanca getting frustrated, then back to Andreva getting frustrated. But in the end Andreda Andreva did a great job of staying focus, kind of getting through the mental battle of playing someone who's partially injured, and that last game at four or five, she did a great job of kind of hanging in there, forcing some airs from Sabolanca and then on match point guessing right and just feeling a perfect backhand lob over Sabolenka's backhand side. And so it was an exciting day for her, an exciting match of great fight from Sablenca. We know she was injured a little bit, but all in all, it was just that was great drama.

00:36:07
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I think you put it beautifully in the last game when you were getting so close to beating someone. It's the biggest win of her career, to make the semi finals of her first Grand Slam. I think it helps to have someone like Conchita Martinez, who's been there herself many times, who's now coaching her, has been coaching her for the last couple of months. We don't give enough credit to you know what Knchita's been able to do with her, to calm her down, to teach her the ropes a little bit. The mum left, you know, at the end of the second set. You know, so there was a lot going on, but the fact that she was able to calm herself and not get overawed by this situation, knowing that Sabalannka was certainly struggling. You can see that. But as an opponent, you know you're seeing down the other You're like, oh my god, she's sick. Is she going to pull out? There's all these things going through your head. So for someone so young to be able to not let that affect her and actually get the job done was so impressive. Flip it two. Paolini, who is my favorite player? I love her so much. Every time I see her on the to her, I'm like, Jasmine, I love you, You're my favorite player, and she always laughs at me and I go, I'm serious. I've watched her for years, Sam. I watched her in small tournaments in Europe, you know, playing on the clay, and I'm like, who is this kid? She's so good, but she's like this big so I'm like for her to match up against someone like Ribarkina in that moment and hit with her aggressively on the baseline, and also to be able to handle the prosure where she was up a set and a break twice in the second set four three forty fifteen on serve lost the game, lost the set, to be able to come back and bounce back and not give anything free away in the third set against someone like Ribarkina, who in the end made her own errors to lose that match. So I'm so bloody and pressed by this young Italian at twenty I think she's twenty eight years of age. She's been around a while. To get through that match was awesome. I mean, it's going to be so interesting to see two players that probably never expected to be there. I think Andreva, we all expect to be there eventually, but to get there now to play against Poelini, it's going to be in interesting to see how they handle it because they would not have expected to play each other in the Semis to make their first final.

00:38:05
Speaker 3: I haven't watched a ton of her matches, but watching it today, she's so fun to watch. She's like a little ball of bubbly energy. She's kind of built like Sakari, but just with a bigger smile almost. So I think if you would, if you have not watched tennis, and you turn that match on today and watch Jasmine play, you're gonna be like, oh my gosh, this girl is so fun to watch. She's got such great energy, and like you said, to lose that second set and then come back against herbakana and win the third was really impressive for a girl that hasn't been in this position before. I was really impressed with kind of her mental fortitude coming back in that third set and getting the win.

00:38:39
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I just love her. So I was so excited. Even when she was choking, she was looking up literally all the time and just laughing at her crew. And I want to give a shout out to her coach who has been with her for it feels like forever. And as you and I know, when players aren't having success, they certainly get rid of their coaches too quickly sometimes, and these two have developed such a great relationship that she's able to look up at him and smile and he's not like concentrate. He knows her. And so for me, that's a beautiful story as well of two people that have stuck in there with each other and they've achieved what they've achieved today. Sam, what do you think about Amsburg calling out the rolling garrel scheduling a little bit? What are your thoughts on that? I know I have mine certainly if you follow me on Twitter, you know.

00:39:22
Speaker 3: Yeah, you know the scheduling is tough and I'm not going to kind of single out the French Open. I can't stand it when tennis matches go to twelve, one am, two am, we're seeing him going to three am. I don't exactly know what the solution is. I know they're going to go late at times, but I just feel like people don't want to be out and about at two am on a Tuesday night watching tennis. So I wish they would start these matches a little earlier or come up with a solution to kind of I don't know, maybe play half the match that we had a hard cutoff time at midnight. But they do need to figure out something because I'm not a fan of these matches going so late to the nave. It's just bad for the players, bad for the fans, and you know, they need to do something about it. And like I said, not just the French Open, all these tournaments.

00:40:08
Speaker 2: I agree, and having two matches starting at seven o'clock with the men's and the women's. Who ever place that second match is getting absolutely screwed every single time, and people are like, why do you let it? Why do they let it happen? I'm like, well, you don't and you cannot predict the amount of time someone takes to win a match, right, So a match could be an hour, or it could be three and a half hours if it's a women's match, and then the guys are going on at eleven o'clock at night playing best of five. The men could go best to five, the women are getting on at midnight. It's just ridiculous. So we have to figure out a way to make it quicker. I don't know. I've always been an opponent also to maybe make the men's best of three, but that's a whole nother story.

00:40:44
Speaker 3: I don't even play anymore, but i've when I was playing, I would have loved flams to be best of three.

00:40:49
Speaker 2: Hey, that's what the Olympics do. And we see the drama there. We see nineteen fifth, you know, nineteen seventeen or seventeen fifty Dean in the third. I'm all for of playing out the third set, no problem. So I think there's a ways we can get around it. But starting a men's match at eight point thirty on clay best of five is really a dumb idea, That's what I'm gonna say. So if you're gonna.

00:41:10
Speaker 3: Totally in the grands and I think I think we're with the majority here. I don't think anyone wants this, so it it'd be great. Look, they're not going to make a change this year, But the next Grand Slam, Wimbledon, doesn't have night matches. I hope the US Open. Maybe they'll be the first one to say, hey, we're going to start our night session at six pm, or we're going to have a hard cutoff at midnight. Or I'd be up for a tournament or a Slam, trying something and if it doesn't work, go back. But these lead matches are ridiculous.

00:41:36
Speaker 2: I'm with you, And you know what if someone who covers these matches often court side, and I'm sitting there at one thirty, two thirty in the morning, I'm like, really, do we really have people watching? So that's another thing.

00:41:47
Speaker 3: We don't feel bad for you, Courtsie. We're feeling bad for the players and the fans.

00:41:51
Speaker 2: Yeah. Thanks, I appreciate you, Sam, thanks for that. Thanks for dropping the on me. All right, So the bottom line is I'm going to ask you real quick, with what you've seen so far at the French who's winning Wimbledon.

00:42:03
Speaker 3: Oh, who's winning Wimbledon?

00:42:07
Speaker 2: You know?

00:42:08
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go with kind of like man out. I'm not going to give you one guest, but I'm gonna say it's gonna be someone like a like a tailor Fritz or Demono or you know, one of these guys that's like ranked between like eight and fifteen on the men's side and on the and on the on the women's side. I'm going to go with sabal Anca. I think just how hard she hits the ball, it's just going to just fly through the grass. And so I'm going to take her on the grass. But the men, I think we're going to see kind of someone that wor that's unassuming when their first Grand Slam.

00:42:38
Speaker 2: Okay, our producer just texted on our chat that you're drunk picking one of those guys. But it's okay because if you're right, we get to give it to her, and like I said, it's going to be like I'm sorry, Sam, you were right. My prediction is Sinner. I think he wins Wimbledon, and if he does and wins the French we'll look out because he's my favorite to win the US Open because I think he's so good on that surface. And I think Rebarkina is going to win Wimbledon again, but we don't know, because Sabolanca could come good, we don't. Eager's not super comfortable in grass on je Bersman in the final a couple of times, so we don't know. So my two picks are Rebarkina and Yanick Sinner. But well we'll see, all right, guys, Well we did a question for you in the last show with the one and only Andy Roddick, Chris Evertt, Steffie Graff, Justine Enna, Monica sell Us or Egis Fiantec. Which one of these women has to win a match for you to save your life on clay? Who are you picking? We've got a lot of great responses and a lot of people really loved Steffie fraeulein fourhand Steffie Graff, Steffie anywhere against any woman that has ever played the game, Stephie, Steffie, Steffie. There was also I don't know, you take some here, Sammy.

00:43:51
Speaker 3: Good because I also wanted Steffie. I mean I would have taken them all, but like Steffie was my pick too, but you know, and like we said here with that when we got kids to you to remember Christy ever On clay, and that was like me, Chrissy was so dominant on clay and kind of the current generation doesn't know that she, you know, maybe didn't have as many French Opens as the adult, but her record on clay, especially at the French Open was one that will could never be broken on the women's side of the game.

00:44:19
Speaker 2: One hundred and twenty five consecutive matches on clay, are you kidding?

00:44:24
Speaker 3: Will never be broken? It's just say it will never be broken.

00:44:26
Speaker 2: That's insane. Oh god, so yes, a lot of Stepfie, a lot of Chris Ever, there was a lot of Monica sell Us as well before you know, sadly what happened to her in Hamburg, Germany. But Monica was to me probably the toughest player I ever saw play at the French Open, and the nineteen ninety two final with stephie Graff was unbelievable, which Monica won. So listen, bottom line is, I don't even go wrong with picking any of those people, right exactly. I'll take Braffa and the men's and any of those ladies on the clay in Paris. All right, So the next segment, okay for next week's question is We're going to do it right now, Which tennis content are you most excited about? Roger Federer's docu series, Andre Agassi and Stephie Gruff's movie, or Serena Williams doc you series. Tweet your answer to us, of course always at NBC Sports. Tag me and Sam in there as well. Well, Sam, you're not on Twitter, so don't worry about you, but I am so oh well, I'll retweet it. But bottom line is which tennis content are you most excited about? With Roger, Andre, Stephie and of course Serena's docuseries coming out, we can't wait to hear your answers. Thanks to joining us once again today. Thank you again course to the one and only great Lindsay Vaughn and everyone for joining us on the French Connection, brought to you by NBC Sports and Racket. The next episode is out Friday, June seventh. We look ahead to the finals of course at Roland Garris see then Sam. Thanks for joining me. The end today, and take it easy on the old crutch there.

00:45:58
Speaker 3: Well, don you've had two crutches and under one crutch.

00:46:00
Speaker 2: Next week will be no crush, all right, We're gonna see Sam with no crutches by the end of this French connection. All right, guys, thanks for joining us today. We'll see you next time.

00:46:09
Speaker 1: Sam, good luck with your Achilles.

00:46:11
Speaker 3: Thank you.

00:46:11
Speaker 2: Only six more months before he's back to pickleballing.