Hey guys, welcome to What's the Call the podcast where sports
meets side eye. We're here to break down the
matches, the meltdowns and the moments that make us pause and
say, what was that call? I'm Theo.
I'm Andrea. And we're glad you're here.
Whether you're sports obsessed or just here for the drama,
there's a seat for you courtside, so let's dive in.
Hi, everyone. Welcome back to another episode
of What's the Call? Andrea, How's it going?
I feel like we we were worried that we weren't going to have
that much to talk about, but a lot has happened in the last
couple of days so. A lot has happened.
Miami doesn't disappoint. I feel like this tournament is
less about form, more about vibes.
True. I agree.
I also promised myself I'd use the word vibes less in this
episode because I can't stand it.
When I was listening back to the last one I was like wow.
I said like too much, which is a case every week vibes too much
and obviously too much. So keep me honest and make sure
I don't say it again. OK so last week our final call
was who's going to be at the club?
And the answer is. Everyone.
Everyone's at the club. Like the entire tour, both ATP
and WTA is at the club. Yeah, it seems there were a
bunch of parties happening last week.
I feel like across those parties, most people showed up.
Yeah, crazy. Even right back in a went to a
party, which is surprising, yeah.
She is an introvert, to say the least.
But yeah, I mean, seeing her up here at clubs quite funny.
Or party. Let's say Dave Gutmann also
threw a party. He's sort of what the king of
nightlife in Miami, would you say?
That party looked so fun. Yeah, he owns like every
restaurant in town. Yeah, almost.
And he loves tennis. And he loves tennis.
And he hosted, like, the unofficial player party.
Does that make sense? Yeah, yeah, the unofficial
players party and loads of people showed up.
And Sabalenka I feel like was the star of the show.
I mean, at least her outfit of the installer show.
That was kind of crazy. Her outfit was, yeah, crazy.
Do you want to describe it for those listening who haven't seen
it? She was wearing a tiger print
fur jacket. Is it tiger?
Yeah, she's. Tiger, because that's her
animal. She she has the big tiger tattoo
on her forearm. OK, I mean the jacket is insane
in Miami. I could, yeah.
Like you're at the beach. Yeah.
Like what is happening? It's like a massive it was like
not even a jacket was a coat. Oh, sorry, Coat.
I mean, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
It's even warmer to wear a coat. It's huge.
Jacket huge. In Miami in March.
At the beach, Yeah. I mean, leave it to her.
She basically, I, I saw an interview with her yesterday
where, I don't know, I think Tennis Channel was asking her
like what the deal was with the jacket.
And she was like, I've been wanting this jacket for so long.
And like, then obviously now she's sponsored by Gucci.
It's a Gucci coat slash jacket. And they weren't able to get it
for her. But then her stylist she works
with, Carla Welch, managed to source this coat for her, and
she just felt she should wear it in Miami at the beach.
I don't know. She just, I feel like she just
gives no fucks. She just.
Does what she. Wants to do and.
None of that. Her TikTok this week has also
been on fire. So funny.
Yeah. So she went with her, I guess,
fiance, who also was sort of like, decked out to the twin
lines. Like, their outfits were quite
aggressive, I feel like. Yeah.
He was wearing a Bottega. Leather jacket.
I mean, listen, they match, right?
Like I feel like they go well together clearly.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean to be fair, they both
make enough money to like those. Things so true.
True. Fine.
Well, going back to Evacana, you're going to describe her
outfit. This is different party, but
still. Evacana is just so funny.
The contrast between her and Sabalenka.
She was wearing a pantsuit. It looked like she was going to
work. Conference like they both looked
a good, but yeah. It takes all sorts of people to
make this world. Yeah, you've got really like 2
ends of the spectrum. That's really, it was really
quite funny. But I will say that party at
Gecko looked really fun. All our faves showed up.
So yeah, we had a bit of FOMO. Definitely next year.
And then what else have people been up to?
Carlos went to the Heat game. Zverev went to the Heat game.
I think a bunch of others were at the game.
But yeah, what was Carlos doing at the Heat game?
There's this picture of him or a video of him just surrounded by
women. Like a.
Bevy of women. Good looking.
Women, yes. Turns out I didn't realize it
was Wozniacki Caroline Wozniacki at first.
No, no one did. So she came out and was like
that's me and all my married friends, OK.
And so she like, quote, tweeted it or something, and everyone
then was like, why are you saying that they're married,
blah, blah, blah. Like, is that relevant?
And it's like, well, I think she was just trying to say like,
everyone calm down. Yeah, it's not like.
Because everyone was like, oh, look at Carlos with all these
women, Like beautiful women, blah, OK.
Exactly. And then she posted a picture of
like, the group as well, so you could see that it was her.
But yeah, I I don't know, I feel like Miami's one of the only
tournaments where players feel like celebrities first, athletes
second. Would you agree?
Yeah, it's like these lead up events that aren't even part of
the open, but exactly they're all participating.
It's fun and I like to see it because it look it feels like
the whole city is really involved and all the events in
the city revolve around the tennis, which I like to see.
That means that what is spreading?
Yeah. I guess the question is, does
this kind of environment loosen players up or distract them?
What would you say? I think it depends on the
player. You know, yeah.
Like someone. Like, Sabalenka spreads her on
and she's like thrives in that energy.
And yeah, I feel like the whole the whole vibe at the tournament
seems fun. I feel like we should try and go
next year. Oh.
Absolutely, we have to go. Sometime soon hopefully.
It looks really fun. I saw some like influencer
videos about the food on site. They have like ridiculous food.
They have this hot dog called the Glizzy which is like a
Wagyu. Sausage.
It's so, it's so absurd. So absurd.
Yeah. I mean, I don't know how to
think of the name, but it's called the Glizzy.
It is a Wagyu sausage in a croissant bun topped with like a
tin of caviar, Like proper caviar, but you know, small tin
but still some sort of very fancy cheese and then gold leaf.
And it costs like 100 bucks and it's like 2 bites.
Yes, the people in Miami buy it. I don't.
Know that doesn't sound particularly good to me, but you
know. Me neither, not my vibe at all.
No. At all No, I think then they
have like some famous like Miami like slice shop there as well
for pizza and. The pizza looked amazing.
I will say the pizza looked really good.
They have an ace Margarita, which is like the signature
drink, and then they also have a froze I I absolutely cannot
stand that word. Froze frozen rose in a tennis
ball shaped glass. All that to say we need to go
see for ourselves and like make the call ourselves.
Yeah, yes or no? Agree.
Yeah. So I don't know, I feel like
let's should we do like a rating OK, on a few different factors.
K1 vibes, even though we we, we didn't want to use that word,
but vibes. Vibes 4.5.
OK, I'll give it 5 I feel. Like the five surrounding the
tournament are cool, but the. Yes, the tournament itself, the.
Tournament is not that great, no.
So maybe a four, yeah. Yeah, OK, aesthetics.
I give it a 2 so. Yeah, same.
Yeah, yeah. Chaos Factor.
However, I give it a 10 out of five.
Agreed. A 110%.
I feel like everyone's just running around doing crazy
things. And then, yeah, you have Yakov
Menzig, the defending champion, posing by a cop car with a tank
top that says I'm in Miami, bitch.
Oh my God, I yeah. I mean, I guess Miami brings out
the crazy. I thought it was an AI image.
Let's be sure it's real before we throw them under the bar.
No, it's real, but it's real. Yeah, well, it seems like Miami
really is. Sort of his house because he's
still in the tournament, playing Big Foe later.
So let's see if he can take it to him.
I feel like Big Foe always sort of like loves the big stage in
the USI. Would pick him to win that
match. On top of all the chaos on the
player side and the hilarious sort of footage that's come out
of the tournament, Miami might also have the most unserious
crowd on tour. The crowd is unhinged at Miami.
What's happened with the crowd? There's just been so many funny
moments with the crowd. I love the Kuroda girls so.
I think the Kuroda girls is sort of a spin off of the Kuroda
boys, who, for those who don't know, are like Yannick Sinners
biggest sort of fans. And they travel to multiple
tournaments a year to support him.
And they sit in the crowd in carrot costumes because, you
know, Yannick's a redhead. I don't think he loves that.
And he's still trying to make his symbol be the fox, but the
carrot just always overshadows what he wants.
I don't think he's ever getting rid of the carrot.
Yeah, he's he's he can try to make Fox happen as much as he
likes. It's not going to happen.
It's always going to be the carrots.
But anyway, in Miami, the Kuroda girl seems to have serviced.
And I feel like for Yannick, who never breaks character, you
know, he's like very sort of steely faced on the court.
They came up on, like, the Jumbotron in the stadium while
he was on a changeover, like sitting down, and they flashed
up the Corona girls. He couldn't help himself start
laughing. I was like, oh, yeah, they made
you. They made you crack.
Yeah, But they were just there and, like, waving signs.
It's just pretty funny. With their little like.
Carrot and carrot like carrot headbands.
Funny. And then we also had Carlos.
Carlos also, I mean, Carlos, it's not breaking character for
Carlos because Carlos laughs at everything, even at his own
mistakes on court. But yeah, he was also caught
laughing at this girl. This girl had like a sign and
she made with like a photoshopped image of him and
her on their wedding day. People are just absolutely
insane. I mean it sort of makes me
cringe but. I think it's funny.
It's funny, I guess it's just for me to see this kind of thing
go down in the crowd having, you know, been born and raised in
England and grown up around Wimbledon where you cannot even
like there's no science allowed. It's pretty funny always to see.
But I, I mean, I don't know. Do you think it's good for
tennis or does it cross the line?
What would you say? I think it's funny, like I don't
see it happening again. Maybe at Wimbledon wouldn't it
would kind of, it wouldn't work just because that's not the vibe
there. But I feel like it's fun to see
those things on the Jumbotron. It's very American.
I think it's funny too, and I
think that it's good for the sport again because it like sort
of moves it further away from that sort of like strict and
like image that it might have. Do you know what I mean?
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, totally.
Anyway, good for her trying to pitch herself that way.
She got the camera's attention. She got his attention.
So exactly, exactly it was a good move.
OK, Well, we did speak about this last week, the rain delays
wrecking the schedules. I feel like it frustrated
certain players a little bit and to be fair, like it was really
intense. I think on Friday that was like
a crazy number of matches that they had to squeeze into one day
because it had just been rained out before that.
Yeah, I wonder if they can never put like cover over.
I think probably not unlikely, probably not, no.
Well. Sabalenko was not happy because
there was a rumor that her match was going to be cancelled or
moved to a smaller court. Yeah, it was.
Oh, it was. She wanted her match to be
cancelled. I think that's what it was.
And instead of like cancelling it and rescheduling.
So the following day she was obviously meant to play on
stadium, which is the Centre Court in Miami.
They decided to put her on Butch Buckle.
So I think it's called court. I think it's that's the second
court and bring Alcaraz Fonseca forward and obviously they're
both world number ones. And she was like, well, why did
I get booted to the 2nd court or the smaller court, let's say?
And she was just like, her point was more like, well, we're both
number ones. Why did they get to stay on
stadium and. I'm not with her on this one,
honestly. Then they were never going to
move that much to a smaller court.
No, of course not. Like it's not just #1 Carlos
Alcaraz playing, it's him playing Fonseca who's has for
like a huge fan base Brazilian and has a huge fan base in
Miami. Like it's a, you know, it's a
much bigger. Ticket last year there was that
whole issue with like people couldn't get in for his match
and it was like overcrowding and it was almost like a hazard.
Yeah, put him on a smaller court and you know, it's definitely a
bigger ticket match. Like at the end of the day, I do
feel for the tournament, tournament director, like he has
to make these calls. Like they have a bottom line
they need to cater to or cater for rather.
And obviously it made more sense to keep that match there.
But I think her point was more like why can't they just start
later? Yeah, OK.
Yeah. But in the I also don't think
it's a bad shout to have bigger names on the side courts because
it gives people the opportunity to see the big players who don't
otherwise. Yeah, especially early rounds.
Exactly, most seeds on both sides are left in like top
seeds. There have been two major upsets
so far and we're recording on Monday.
So this is up till now. Before people say that we're
lagging behind the first, should we talk about ego?
She on tech she lost in the first round and I believe or the
second round because she had a buy in the first round, but it's
the first time in several years that she has lost in the second
round of consecutive masses 1000 believe that's that.
Well, yeah, she's just not in a great place.
No, she's not a good, great place.
She went to press after the match and said that tennis feels
complicated in her head and then she's having the worst nightmare
a tennis player can have. But obviously I don't.
She didn't go into details about what that nightmare is, but I
can only imagine. I think sometimes as a player
you can get into like a flow state and everything just goes,
whereas other times like you overthink.
I mean, I would love to get your take on this because it's sort
of that psych angle that maybe you can speak to.
She also said that she's always been an overthinker, but that
it's even more intense now than. I wonder what triggers that do
you have? Like theory.
I mean, I guess we've always said this like tennis is, is
such a mental sport. So if something isn't going
right and you get stuck in this very negative headspace, it's,
you know, it's, it's really hard to get out of.
And you guys always famously worked with a sports
psychologist and, you know, it was working really well because
that crazy run a few years ago. But now I think, you know, it
probably doesn't help. But, and this is what we said
time and time, time and time again, like, the tour is so
intense. The schedule is so intense.
These players rarely get a break.
And I think it can be really hard to get out of that kind of
headspace when you don't really get a break from it.
And, you know, it's so, like, all consuming.
I hope that she's able to take some time off now and reset
before Clay and and she can get some better results.
But we have something, something has to has to give as well.
Yeah. Yeah, I think she was one of the
first to sort of like, openly say she's working with a sports
psychologist back when she started.
The name of the psychologist is Daria Brahmowich, I think a
Brahmowitz. But she seemed to have a really
positive impact on her. And she's like a very steady and
constant figure in her box, which not many people have.
But just a few hours ago, Iga Shiontik said she announced that
she's parting ways with her coach, Winferset, who she's been
working with now for just over a year and who helped her claim
her first Wimbledon title last year.
So, yeah, I'm guessing that it must have been on the rocks.
I mean, you never know. Was it was firing him a
consequence of the loss she had a few days ago?
Or was there already something going on that maybe contributed
to her loss? Yeah, I think the vibes in her
box were not good, so my guess is they were probably already on
the rocks and this was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Yeah, I mean, I feel badly for her because I think she puts a
lot of pressure on herself. So hopefully she can now reset,
find new coach. Curious to see who it's going to
be. Spoiler alert, it's not going to
be dummy team. Stay tuned to end of episode
more on that. So yeah, best of luck to her, I
guess. Yeah.
Yeah.
Another major loss in Miami last night was Carlos.
Yeah, what the hell? Carlos pissed.
I am I'm pissed too, but I'm I this is another also not that
shocked. You're not quiet.
No, no. I feel like again, it goes back
to him maybe just needing a break.
He kept saying. So he lost in in three sets to
Sebastian Korda and throughout the match he was saying to his
box, I just want to go home. And I think he probably also
just needs a bit of a break now. I think he needs a break too.
And also I just, I think to myself, he's achieved so much.
Like he needs to get in the mindset of like every tournament
still counts. Do you know what I mean?
Does that make sense? It does.
Of course it does. And you know, and his win streak
was really impressive, but you know, he's still a long way off
from someone like Novak Djokovic, I think, and that
should motivate him. But at the same time, I don't
know if this is a super consequential loss.
I don't think so. I just, yeah, I think maybe he
may have been a bit. Well, he may have been
distracted by the Miami vibes, too busy attending the Heat
game. Yeah, they did ask him if he's
going to stay for like the next Heat game, which I believe is
like tonight or tomorrow night. And he was like, no, I'm going
home. Yeah.
He loves Murcia. He's like getting me back home.
He's. Getting getting back to his
parents house. Yeah.
Grace still lives. Yeah, yeah.
OK, well hopefully he can reset honesty.
Like can I just say credit to Corda?
I really like him for coming back after choking.
Basically what happened was Corda won the first set, he was
serving for it in the second. Some of the match Carlos in true
Carlos style, like escaped from Alcaraz or Alcatraz somehow,
like pulled these crazy shots out the bag and took the second
and then in the end quarter one in the in the third.
But like good for him for sort of sticking in it, you know, and
taking it. Can I also just say like we were
both watching this together. We need to talk about the mascot
walk on situation because it was it might be really niche to us,
but we just like the contrast in the mascots.
I feel like already set up who was going to win that match
because Andrea had to run, had to run out of the room because
she couldn't watch. It just it was like hard to
watch. It was so cringe like I was I
was physically cringing while watching it.
At certain tournaments, the tournaments like gather kids to
walk on to court with the players.
And usually they're like little kids with whatever their story
is. They love tennis or whatever
they or they're affiliated with some charity and they say like
certain tournaments do it. Miami's one of them.
And Corda's mascot just so cute, like a little boy, you know, he
walks on holding his hand, like they always hold their hand
because the kids are like what, four or five?
And even though Corda almost knocked him out with his tennis
bag, which I was just like, Oh my God, Carlos's mascot was like
a sort of early. Teens.
Yeah, like middle. Schooler middle school slash but
it could have been also. Like a freshman in high school.
Yeah. Like, literally calling him.
Yeah. Thinking he was like, the shit,
you know, with his like, sort of TikTok hair and, like, holding
his phone. And I'm like, does Carlos meant
to hold this boy's hand? He's so confused.
Carlos kept trying to talk to him, and the guy was just like,
on his phone. I'm like, are you even grateful
to be here? Like, do you realize what you
you've been given the opportunity to do or participate
in? Anyway?
Eventually what Carlos has to say, like before they're waiting
to go on the court, he's like, do you want to take a selfie?
Because he's like on his phone and so the guy is like first he
like checks himself out in the selfie Cam and like make sure
his hair looks good or whatever. And then they take the selfie
and Carl is just like really nice.
And I'm just like honestly, this must have been so off putting it
put him off 100%. But I.
Had that thought as it was happening because I was like
recoiling while watching it. Like it's like Oh my God this is
so uncomfortable. Just like first of all the fact
that the kid was just Carlos is so friendly and nice and easy to
talk to. The kid was just not interested
in talking to him. Not interested.
I'm like, like, who gave you this opportunity?
He's so ungrateful. Yeah, anyway.
I think that's the reason he lost.
That's the reason he lost. It threw him off, it totally
threw him off. So yeah, anyway, can't wait to
see Carlos come back on the clay and see what the clay has in
store for him. No more dodgy mascots.
Hopefully no, please no, please no.
Or at least like keep it consistent.
Yeah, 6 and under. Six another no deal?
No. So the Tennis Channel now has a
segment which is called Story Time with Danielle and all of
her story times are just insane. They are honestly like they're
getting them traction. I will say, like her stories,
they're getting them traction. Yeah, but they're also just
unhinged. And one of her stories was she,
she spoke about bringing her little dog into the locker room
where dogs are not allowed. And then the dog pooped in front
of a player's locker, Clearly a player who she does not like.
But she didn't want to say I, I'm guessing it's Eaga for sure.
Danielle told the story of an interaction she had with Mute at
a practice court. And apparently Mute was cat
calling her. And Danielle's response was, if
you're going to flirt with me like that, you're going to have
to get a bigger serve. I'm dead.
Just like some people think it comes down to height, some
people think it comes down to personality, but really what it
comes down to is big forehands and big serves.
Crazy. She then called him a short king
and said that she has nothing against short kings, but she's
at 5-10. She needs someone a bit taller
anyway. Quarantine mute then wrote a
furious denial on Twitter. His response was how can I
unfollow you when I never followed you?
Tennis Channel? How can you let someone say BS
like this on TV? You followed me.
You asked me for mixed dubs and I've never even followed you.
You ready to say anything so people talks about you?
You should learn how to love yourself so you won't do stupid
things for people. Loves Tennis Channel.
Good sport journalist. I'm sorry, I actually cannot.
It's too funny. Like I mean, yeah, Twitter is
going insane over it, obviously. Yeah, it's definitely made it to
the mainstream media as well. I mean I don't know when I saw
it like she is just next level I feel like.
It's too funny. People are really hating on it.
It's so dumb. I mean, I think she's funny, but
and she's clearly trying to be funny.
I feel like she's also obviously saying this in just and people
are taking her very seriously, right?
But she's also just kind of mean.
She's mean because also like the Tennis Channel is not like a
small little channel like a lot of people watch it, right?
So she knew that this was going to get coverage.
Let's just say, and I don't know I with her, I find it very hard
to tell from her tone of voice. Is she being serious or is she
joking? She's.
Really kind of joking, you know, like she's just trying to be
funny and like that's her personality is to just be.
I do find her so unhinged, like her videos are quite unhinged.
I'm kind of here for it because it, you know, gives us some
hilarious content to talk about. I think ultimately don't get on
Danielle Collins bad side because she will out you to the
entire world clearly so. And don't get on Mute's bad
side. Either honestly, he got 2 pretty
like aggressive characters going at each other there.
So I'm curious to see if if anything else happens in a
similar vein because Beef in Miami feels very on brand.
So it's all coming together. So last week we spoke about
Dominic team potentially coming back to the tour in some sort of
a you know, non player capacity maybe coaching everyone.
He had everyone guessing when he posted on his story that he was
making a return to tennis. You know, everyone sort of
placing their bets or wagers online.
Turns out he is in fact not coaching anyone in real life,
but he is going to be coaching his own fantasy team.
And turns out he has collaborated with the ATP to
promote their new tennis fantasy game, which I think is great for
the sport to have put a fantasy game out there.
Every other sport I feel like has one.
And now everyone can essentially play along with the chaos.
So I'm super excited. I know I'll be downloading it,
creating my team. Who do you think you would put
on your team? I think I would definitely put
someone like Arthur Fees. Who I.
Feel like has exceeded a lot of people's expectations.
I feel like he'd be a really good asset to have.
And maybe someone like Taylor, Fred's, who's pretty good across
all surfaces, someone who's consistent.
And then, I don't know, someone who I always root for anyway,
like Daniel, you know, it's just, like, fun.
And also I'm even more invested in him doing well if it's on my
fantasy team. Yeah.
What about you? That's well, I like, I like
those picks. Who would I put?
I think I'd go like, you know, go really hard with one, take
Ciner or Alcoraz and then, I don't know, maybe like add a
Baratini in there. If he gave, he'd get me no
points, but I like him. He's probably he's.
Probably kind of low value these days.
So it'll work well if I have like one really high value in
there. And then other than that, maybe
like a bit of a wild card, unknown quantity, Alexander
Bublik, someone like that. I'm not sure if that would add
up, but who cares? That's who I'm thinking.
So yeah, be sure to check it out on the AT PS Instagram page.
See you on the court, Andrea. Yep, can't wait to battle you
team to team. OK, so wrapping up this episode,
let's make our final call. Should we put the question to
you? Yeah.
OK. So question is, who is actually
locked in this week and flying under the radar in Miami amidst
all the distractions? I'm going to go with Taylor
Fritz. I feel like he didn't do super
well in Indian Wells, but it seems like he just beat O Pelka
and he played, he played a great match.
So yeah, I'm hoping that we have an American go far in Miami.
Who do you think? My first thought was Tommy Paul,
so also an American, but now I'm thinking about it and I kind of
want to go with Sebby Quarter, also an American.
But to be honest, I'd be happy with either of those 3 going
deep in the tournament, potentially taking it.
No, yeah, totally nice. Nice to see an American win on
home, home turf. So yeah, that is that for this
week, guys. Thanks for joining us.
As always, please subscribe to the podcast, leave us a review,
give us five stars, all that good stuff.
And we will be back next week to see how the rest of the Miami
chaos unfolded and who's leaving the three O 5 with the title, or
titles rather. See.
You next week. Bye.
Thanks for listening.
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