Hey everybody, and welcome to the latest episode of The Ball
Boys. We are the tennis podcast that
puts the hot and drop shot. I'm your host, Paul Monkle and
bringing you the insights, outbursts, giggles and wiggles
of the HTP and WTA tours. Happy Pride Month from the
States. Yes, it's June and despite this
year and the world and the administration and and Musk and
and the economy and the wars and the fires and the tariffs and
egg prices and that showed of a Secretary of Defense renaming
the USNS milk during Pride month and frankly A disappointing
season of White Lotus. I hope you can find some time to
celebrate being you this month. In case you missed it, the icon
Andre Agassi was on Andy Roddick's podcast last week.
Thanks for the heads up on that. Tim Chow.
And he told this really cool story about the first time he
met Rafa. They were in the locker room
together and Rafa was around the corner and having trouble just
sort of opening up his lock. He couldn't, he couldn't
remember the the combination. And when he finally did, he
gives himself a Vamos. He just says it to himself.
And then from that Andy Roddick coined the term or the phrase
saying that Rafa self vamos and and I just love that.
And that's something that I'm going to strive for this pride
month to self vamos more. And I hope everyone out there
can self vamos for pride because to paraphrase Mamaroo, if you
can't vamos yourself, how the hell are you going to vamos
somebody else? Now can I get a clay man?
And that brings us to today's show where we are focused on
Roland Garros. It just wrapped up today in
Paris, the city of love, the city of Light, the city of
Vamos. It was an emotional tournament
from the start with the tribute to Rafa and literally etching
him into the history books. It was also a display of
remarkable tennis at the very top.
In a year when things have been, frankly wide open, are we
entering a new stratosphere of tennis?
This episode is called Roland Carlos because Carlos Alcaraz
just defended his title in the most epic manner.
It also could have been Coco Vaughn, because Coco Goff
claimed her first French crown yesterday, and Vaughn is spelled
like win. It's VIN, so it's more of a
subtle pun and well, you know me and subtlety and you know me and
a homophone. Plus, I use Coco Von in a pun on
Instagram already yesterday. Hey, by the way, if you aren't
following us, head on over to our Instagram.
That's at TBB Tennis. Again, that's at TBB Tennis
where you can find all of your pun needs met, as well as things
like the latest Bay TP rankings. We're talking about all that and
more with my queer icon. He is my personal pride float.
He actually threw the first tennis ball at Stonewall.
He is the Matthew to my Simone. It's Matthew Coleman.
Hi, Matthew. How the hell are you?
What's up, Paul? Happy to be here.
Happy to have you.
Happy pride. It's always good to see you.
It's been a long two weeks since our last show when we had our
spot on predictions as always of who was going to win and make
runs at Roland Garros. And we'll be covering all of
that. And Speaking of pride, we got to
talk about our brackets real quick.
So for anyone who doesn't know, Matthew created fantasy brackets
for all the grand slams for sort of a smaller friend group of
ours. And it's super fun and somewhat
humbling at times. As much as I'd like to think
that I know what I'm talking about, sometimes I really shit
the bed. And I just got to start out
first by saying Matthew Jacques Hughes, because on the last show
you picked Jakob Mensik and Svidolina to take it all.
And so in my draft, I was like, Matthew always knows, Matthew's
always right as we established. And so I picked Mensik and
Svidolina, and they most certainly did not win.
So first question for you. Were you purposely sabotaging me
or the entire front group? Look, I just felt like it was
time for me to personally take a break from winning these
brackets because it was really just it it kind of I was my back
was hurting from carrying the load and it was a mix of that.
And then when I got this latest haircut, the what and happy
pride month, Sir. And I think also, yeah, my new
like, Theo von inspired haircut, like killed some brain cells.
And I wasn't as sharp as I usually was, but like, hello.
I mean, Spitolino went pretty damn far, can we not agree?
And Mencik, before he shut the bed, was actually doing pretty
well. Yeah, I mean, Spitolina went
exactly as far as she always goes.
She is a quarterfinalist. She is.
She wins at making the quarters every single time.
Yeah, Mencik, he was. OK, What do you go out in the
fourth? Well, I mean, OK, yeah, great.
So we got we got Alcaraz and Goff as the winners.
Oh, I'm not complaining. Pardon me for for wanting to
have kind of a, you know, a dark horse in the race.
And listen, I don't think any of the dark horses really stepped
up this year. We had we had a few absolutely
unhinged unexpected surprises and then we had the people doing
business as usual. We did not have the that kind of
mid tier bubbling up into that next echelon.
Like that was not the story of the slam.
And that's OK. That's OK.
Every slam's gonna have it's own narrative.
Oh yeah, no, I mean, like I said at the top of the show, look,
this year has been surprisingly wide open at almost every
tournament, and here we had. For the first time.
Just it's anyone can get in there for a win, I guess one
could say. But yeah, so it's it.
I I agree with you on that. I just feel like you were up to
some shenanigans with your picks.
But anyway, Congrats to Eric, our friend.
He he's a double winner. So he won both for the WTA and
ATP brackets. And thank God 'cause he was the
only one for the WTA bracket that beat ChatGPT.
So take that, robots. We are still #1 when it comes to
picking who is going to win the most points in a tennis
tournament. Yeah.
And we will, we will be updating the public on when the
singularity occurs because we will be able to pinpoint it to
the millisecond because it will be when the ChatGPT bracket
beats us, which like it it, it's never come this close before.
It's actually getting pretty concerning.
Yeah, like, how did it know? It knows more than I do about
tennis. So watch out, world.
But let's get into the action. And let's start off like we
always do with our Lobsvians. And again, for anyone out there,
that's just the thing that made us a little gayer for tennis
since the last show. And my Lobsvian, my first
Lobsvian, is an actual lesbian because Daria Kazakina got
engaged. She announced it on Saturday.
She posted that she's engaged true girlfriend Natalia
Zabayako. I don't know how to pronounce
that, but her girlfriend former I think Olympic figure skater
maybe, and cousin Kina, she's amazing.
She's a a new Australian citizen.
Her visibility is so major and hey, it's pride.
So kind of love seeing that. It's kind of diva behavior to be
like, oh, it's the women's final.
I'm going to announce my engagement today.
It's like when you go to someone's Bachelorette party and
you're like, I'm pregnant, like, you know, just I'm going to take
a little bit of that spotlight and so good for you.
I am excited to see that wedding.
It's going to be chic as hell cause Kazakina's box is one of
the chicest boxes on tour. Excuse me, excuse what about her
box? Whenever they show her box on
TV, I'm like, wow, that's stylish.
Yeah. That's that's, that's an
interesting, interesting camera angles going on there.
OK, interesting. Yeah, yeah, no, it's, it's
great. And I would love to know which
of the players are are getting invites to this wedding, who's
on the ends and who's on the outs.
I'm going to be studying all the Instagram action around this
with. We need it.
We need another bracket. We need another bracket to see
who's who's like the over under. I feel like someone like Mira
Andriva, who is like such a good friend of hers, but also like so
Russian like I don't know, like I'm I'm going to cross my
fingers. Hey, cuz at kina, if you need
anyone to come and play a game or host anything, the ball boys
are available and will fly for this more reasonable.
The other lobs being is just a one specific moment in time
during the tournament and that was when your boy Mattia
Bellucci when's the first set against Jack Draper in the first
round with his underarm serve. That is just CUNT so brat.
So like brat boy Summer just giving a little bit of flair to
winning that first set against Draper.
I mean, I love that you gave me a little hoochie coochie Mattia
Bellucci moment in this episode. He he really is.
He really is brat. Like that's exactly the right
way to put it. I mean, he's like, I feel like
in some ways he's trying to be like, you want me?
You want to see a villain? Well, here I am.
But like, he's just too darn cute for it.
You know? It's like, yeah, he's like a
cute, like, relatively small little man just scrapping out
there. So it's like, even when he tries
to be like, you know, he tries to be play the heel.
Like, it's just, it's just, it's so it's something so adorable
about it. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. And I mean, there were, there
were plenty more. I mean, this year, the French
Open, the clay seemed like dirtier than ever 'cause there
were so many hot images of people just covered in clay
after diving that I didn't see that much in Rome or or Madrid
or anywhere. Like Sabalinka's back during the
final was just it, it wasn't on her kit.
It was on her like bareback as her shoulders were out.
And it was just like really sexy.
But. Yeah, today's secret word was
bareback. So I just, I just took my first
shot. Oh, nice.
Oh yeah, bareback. Yes.
OK, well, let's move on to twit, which I think maybe for this
week. We call it Twatfa because it's
this week at the French and we're talking all things Tear
Bat 2. So as we all know, we just
wrapped up the second Grand Slam of the year, and for the first
time since 2013, we had a number one take on a #2 in both the
men's and women's finals. Just for anyone counting 2013,
that was in the US Open when Serena beat Victoria Azarenka
and Nadal took down Novak. So what a time to be alive back
then. But we've got a fierce foursome
who are one and two on both sides now.
And so let's dive into some of the recaps in action.
So got to start with the ATP. So the men's final just
concluded earlier today, an epic final, first Grand Slam final
between Carlos Alcaraz and Yannick Sinner.
I'm still processing the match. I'm still trying to find my
words for it because it was an instant classic SO5 setter for
anyone who doesn't know. 5 1/2 hours long, the second longest
Grand Slam final ever. It was so long I woke up early
because I'm on the West Coast and I was like, OK, cool, it'll
start around 6:30. It'll be done by like 930.
I had to go run errands and come back and finish it 'cause it was
so long. And it was, honestly, I'm going
to say I, I'm, I'm still not sure, but I think it might have
been the best tennis match I've ever seen in my life.
No one cracked, no one flinched. It was just amazing tennis.
Like I was audibly gasping, I was shouting, I was like, Oh my
God, just sitting alone, so very alone in my apartment.
And it was just really incredible.
And I couldn't figure out who I was rooting for.
It was like basically whoever was behind, I was rooting for
'cause I wanted to keep going. Matthew, between those two, who
are you rooting for? It's so funny you say that
because that was exactly my experience too.
Like I, I just, I, I couldn't find myself rooting against
anyone. It's like they were both
bringing it. I mean, it took Carlos a minute
to get to get activated, but but when he did, like you said, it
just felt like we were witnessing history and like,
this is a sport that's prone to hyperbole.
And so I try to resist that as much as possible.
But like I'm with you, it feels almost strange talking about
this match already because it's like this moment that hasn't
even settled in yet. Like, that was classic, probably
one of the best. Like in terms of quality, in
terms of drama, in terms of intensity, one of the best Grand
Slam tennis matches of all time. It was that.
Good. You could study a specific set
or a game or just like so many moments just for the pure
athleticism, like what these guys do.
I mean, it used to be that a ball like behind you was no
longer possible to get to. And these guys get to everything
even. I mean, Sinner, you know, you
look at him, he's kind of wiry. He's obviously very strong and
alive, but he he's got wheels. He gets around, he gets to
everything. It was power meets precision,
like I don't. And and then people were
actually starting to talk like, gosh, what would it have been
like if Nadal faced either one of these guys?
And I don't know, I mean, this is just this is a sea change for
me. Like this is like a a new era of
tennis. Yeah, I mean, there was a stat
that someone said as it pertained to Yannick that I
forget if it was finals or matches, but like it was either
finals or matches past the four hour mark.
His his record is zero and six. So there was there was a sit,
there was a sense that as the match reached this inflection
point that the odds against him were were shrinking.
But even then, I mean, it went to 1/5 set tie break.
So it was it was drama to the very end.
And did you see Andre Agassi basically in tears?
I think just like moved by the state of the sport, we were in
this place where it's like tennis is alive, the blood is
flowing through it. It is it is as glorious as any
moment when we had the big three.
I mean, it's, it's back, baby. Tennis is back.
No.
Absolutely. Yeah, I know.
It's been such a long wait since we got rid of, you know, Rafa,
Rodger and Novak. Oh, wait.
Novak's still around. Yeah, I agree totally.
I mean, it's wild. I feel I feel bad for Sinner to
a degree at least, because he had those three match points.
It was love 40 when Carlos is serving in the fourth set and
and Carlos comes back and then Yannick serves for it gets
broken and and that's when it was like, oh, wait.
I mean, the fifth set was not the fifth set.
Easily could have been 6-2. It easily could have been like,
Oh my God, I lost my chance. But they just fought and fought
and fought. I mean, the tiebreaker was, you
know, a little bit anticlimactic like which, honestly.
I don't even I don't even think it was it was and I don't think
it was Sinner fading. I think it was Carlos just just
absolutely having wind beneath his wings and he was he was
soaring. He was feeling it and it it did
start to feel. That's the moment it started to
feel inevitable was in that tiebreak.
But but that was it was the best way for it to finish, to be
honest with you, just like seeing this star ascend like it
was. It was rapturous.
It was so good. Well, and now Carlos has beaten
him five times in a row, which is kind of crazy.
He is so head and shoulders above literally everyone else.
But Carlos has him figured out to a degree.
We've got to say that at least. Like he's five times in a row.
Like something is something has clicked for Carlos.
What's your take on like? Why does Carlos seem to have
Yannick's number? I mean I.
And what is his number for our listeners?
See the answer to me, Paul, what is this number?
I don't think how do I, how do I-69 OK?
I think half of it is the length, half of it is half of it
is the length of the match, half of it is the girth of the match.
No, but I think, I think Carlos and these are two players that
are so competitive that when they're both having a good day,
the match is just going to be long and it's going to be tight.
I I I can't keep doing this. Girl.
This is painful. It's pride month.
OK. So for all the listeners out
there, we have we have a little latitude.
Yeah, exactly. If you're offended by this, then
you're no longer an ally. Exactly.
Yeah, Go give yourself 20 lashings.
Yeah. But then, you know, I mean, half
of it is, is the way that I think Carlos is able to spread
the court so much. I mean, Yannick is he's got
wingspan. But you just, the longer that
match went on, you would see him lunging for these balls.
And it's like he would literally have to like, his back would be
parallel to the ground. And I just think that that sort
of physicality, especially when you're as tall as he is, it just
wears you down like, like gravity gets the best of you.
And Carlos would just, he would just go corner to corner.
I think that's a good point. I mean, he didn't show many
signs of being tired, but he showed a few.
There were a few times where he got up a little slower.
He wasn't like limping, but he maybe looked like he was
cramping a little bit. I mean, there were moments.
Oh, you know what it is? This is the analogy for me.
It's like when you boil a lobster alive.
They don't know that they're being boiled alive, but suddenly
it's just so hot and you're so tired and you go to sleep.
Well, that's exactly right. That's well.
And honestly in in a lot of ways, that's what happened with
the whole match. But I feel like we see this a
lot, surprisingly a lot from even the big Three, like
especially Djokovic and Nadal, where it doesn't matter if
they're two sets down, it doesn't matter it it, it
honestly, it's like they still have an over 50% chance of
winning that match. And I think that that is what
separates the the, you know, Hall of Farmers record book
players from just the the truly great players.
So, yeah, I think Center has that in him, too.
But I just think, you know, the coin did not flip his way today.
Yeah. I mean, he easily could have
won. I mean, they won.
I think there was one point difference between the total
number of points and. Yeah, and Sinner one more
Sinner, Sinner one more points than Alka has in the match.
A single bias alone point to your point.
I think one last thing I would add to that is I I agree with
especially when you're talking about like being down 2 sets.
Even though he was down 2 sets, I don't think there was ever a
time that Carlos even even in his own mind thought I can't win
this. He was self vamosing like he was
like he never gave up every single point, even when he's
down love 40 triple championship point.
He was not giving up and that that mindset I think really
helped too. So and like I.
Have to say that all the all the skeptics of five set tennis are
in shambles after that match. Like it is really hard.
It is really hard to have a debate.
And, and I feel like we could spend not this episode, but
maybe sometime down the line, like we should talk about should
the women's Slam matches be 5 sets?
Because with that, with that create, create the same sort of
historic drama that it does on the ATP side.
But, but we have a lot to cover and and I, I don't think we have
time to stay with that one in. Well, no, but if that is related
to something we're going to talk about later, which is why there
were no women's matches at night, but we'll get to that in
a little bit. But just finishing up on this
this epic match and one last shout out to Andre Agassi when
he was on Andy Roddick's podcast and also Andre, Andre Agassi, if
you want to come on this show, like please, we'll, we'll we'll
talk also, But in the meantime, we'll just report what we heard
on served, which was that, you know, these number ones that
come around, the really great ones, the ones with staying
power are ones that have changed the game.
It's like Chrissy ever and Martina Serena, they all brought
something that the tennis world hadn't seen before.
Same with the big three. They all did something that no
one else was able to do. Or you know, or or Pete Sampras,
another great example like they changed the game.
These two guys are changing the game, not just by one level, but
I think that they have elevated it to something that is just
almost was thought to be impossible.
It's they, they've ripped up what's possible to do on a
tennis court. And it's like, I'm so excited to
see what's going to happen. I also feel bad that like one of
them alone would have just become the dominant alpha.
But like, they've got to, they've got to put up with each
other now for the next 10 years and we get to watch that.
So that's pretty. Fucking awesome is that is that
like they're going to push each other and it and it's and this
is I think this is a catalyst this match because, like you
said, it's it's the first slam final we've had between these
two guys and and I think that we've just witnessed something
incredible kick off. So let's see what happens in the
next few years. Yeah, and without, without
Yannick around, Carlos's form wasn't that great this spring.
So no more no more suspensions for a ridiculous charges,
please. A few other matches on the men's
side that are just kind of worth talking about briefly was the
semis. Of course, we had Carlos against
Lorenzo Mousetti, our favorite, soon to be two times daddy.
That was a pretty great battle the first two sets.
And then Musetti pulled his groin.
What a waste of a groin. Had to retire after losing 8
games in a row. He's had such a great clay
season, but it was a little bit of a bummer of a way to go out
and he kind of took over Fritz's route, which hey, look again, we
we like to make a lot of bold claims and statements on the on
the ball boys. But hey, we called it like
Fritz. Fritz is an amazing player, but
he is not the 4th best clay quarter out there.
And as everyone knows, he lost in the first round.
And so Mustadi took his place, which I think is fair.
And then the other semi final was Yannick center against Novak
Djokovic. Considering how Yannick was
tearing a new hole in everybody until that semi, it was 3 pretty
compelling sets. And Novak at a certain point he
was kind of redlining and and really going for it.
But Sinner was just Sinner was too good for a redlining Novak.
And then, OK, I, I'm almost afraid to, to admit this, but I
almost accidentally started rooting for Novak.
I don't know why. Maybe because he was finally
truly an underdog. He's never really been an
underdog in my book in any match.
He's been a playing possum. He's been a little bit of a
bitch. He's been, you know, whatever.
But like this time I was like, oh, and so I don't know, I, I, I
don't know if I was rooting for him, but I was feeling feelings
that I've never felt for Novak. And then after the match, Novak
says, well, that might have been my last time on Roland Garros,
which literally a week ago he was saying, I can't wait to play
the Los Angeles Olympics in 2028.
So I don't know what the hell is going on.
But I, I mean, Matthew, what's your take?
Is he actually going to retire or is he just?
Kind of being a bitch. I mean, Novak knows how to play
the press. Like he know, he knows he's a
stunt queen. You know, he knows he knows how
to how to get the blogosphere talking.
I, yeah, of course he is going to retire at some point.
Do I think that this is his last rolling Garros?
Like, no, no, I, I it would just be to me, that to me, that's
stupid. I just, I feel like in his own
head, he's built up this reputation and this legacy, and
he's watched his two compatriots from the big three literally go
out like play tennis until their bodies physically would not let
them do it anymore. And does he really want to be
the one of the three who just, oh, I'm not, I'm, I'm not, you
know, I'm 90% of what I used to be.
So I'm not going to play anymore.
I just don't really feel like that fits with the narrative
he's constructed for himself and that he's given the world.
So I, I would be surprised. I frankly, I bet he plays until
he's 40, which is, which is around the corner.
But like, I think it's another few years, not another one year.
Yeah, I see a world where in his mind he wants to play just like
one week longer than Rodger Federer just cuz that's like
that's sort of competitive mindset.
He's like, no, I'm I'm gonna make it last.
But the only thing that I think might have happened that might
make a legitimate statement on his part is like that Sinner
match might have been a rude awakening where he's like, wait,
wait a minute. I like does he want to spend the
next two years losing in the semi finals?
I. Don't know, he's accomplished
pretty much everything he wants to accomplish at this point.
I mean, there it's like they keep finding records for him to
break. And I always keep shocked.
There's always some new stat that like they published about
Novak. I'm like, got another one.
But I like he's got to be running out at this point.
Yeah. So maybe like, I get it.
If it were, if it were me and I were him, I'd be like, I'm, I'm
about of here, like with me and me and my millions of dollars
and all my, you know, my, my, yeah, 1,000,000 trophies.
Like I, I, I would have been out of there years ago.
But I just, I, I, we know Novak kind of has a, a God complex and
I'm not even like shading him, but I'm just, I'm, I'm saying
he's, he is the, he's the, the world's best ever at the sport.
And I just feel like he's probably going to be pretty
precious with his legacy at the end of the day, but we'll see.
Yeah, absolutely. Well, there is a point, I think
that it it you have to question the not mental like the sanity.
But there there is a obsessive mindset for some people who are
like, no, I want to be the best ever and to have that mindset
and to sacrifice everything in the name of that.
You know, it is something that that, yeah, Novak has that not
many people have. And, you know, yeah, if you had
that mindset, you, you know, you wouldn't be sitting here talking
to me. Yeah, winning.
You'd be out there winning. Matches I'd be, here I'd be I'd
be podding with you. Well, either way, we're going to
see what the hell happens with Novak.
And you know, hell, maybe I'll even root for maybe I'll maybe
I'll even make it on to the Bay TP because as we've all talked
about in the last few years, his dumper is getting real juicy.
So he's got that. So good for you, Novak.
Well, on the women's side, just as compelling, maybe even some
more compelling storylines, starting with the final, we have
Coco Goff taking on Arena Sabalinka.
I was absolutely wrong about this one.
I thought that it was going to be a bloodbath.
I was really concerned given how Coco had made the final at
Madrid in the final at Rome and really went out with a whimper,
did not put up much a fight, including losing to Sabalinka at
Madrid. She also was kind of very open
about perspective, saying hey, it's OK, Like this isn't the
biggest deal. It's not the world's ending.
If I lose, which I was saying to people like that sounds like
what someone who is about to lose says.
Like I wanted her like crying, I wanted her throwing up.
I wanted her being like, I want this so bad or I'm going to.
But hey guys, I was wrong. I was so wrong because she
starts out really slowed, goes down 1/4.
I think almost 15. Paul's are pretty even in the
first set, loses it, but then comes back and wins in three
sets over Subalanka. OK, so if the men's final was a
new stratosphere of, of tennis, I'm not sure the women's final
necessarily was that. Like, I wasn't like, obsessed
with with the play. It was a bit of a sloppy match
because the weather wasn't great.
Sabalinka had something like 70 errors.
But wow, fuck, fuck yeah. Coco wins her second Grand Slam.
I don't know. Amazing.
What do you think? I think that yes, she's finally
joined the the the pantheon of other greats like Krachikova
with with her two slams. And cuz Natova.
I'm sure, I'm, I'm sure that's all, that's literally all that
was going through her mind at that moment was.
She's the new Krachikova. I want to, I want to make, I
want to make Mama proud. Yeah, No, I I agree with
everything that you said. It was it was a very compelling
match. The drama was there 2 champions
out there totally battling kind of confirmation that Sabalenka
just is not great at playing in wind like when the conditions
aren't great. I mean, I think, you know, Eaga,
Eaga has that skill, Coco has that skill.
I just think arena doesn't. I mean, she's a very, she's a,
a, a rhythm player and she was denied any rhythm in that match
and, and it really showed. It's a little concerning to see
her have all of these close calls in slam finals lately
where it just feels like the mentality gets the better of
her. I mean, she was just playing
kind of badly at times. You know, just every, everything
was was a high risk shot. And I mean, her, her coach had
even come out and said before the match, you know, that that
when when she gets stressed, she has a she has a tendency to just
really revert into the the dumbest version of her game.
And we saw it. It's like it was a little bit of
a self destruction. But she's good enough that even
when she was and had no rhythm whatsoever, it was still an
extremely competitive match. Oh yeah, I love Coco.
You know, it feels like the tennis world, there's been a bit
of a thumbing of their nose at the thought of of Coco actually
kind of having earned this place at the very, very top of the
sport. You know, it's like we it's a
people love to rag her forehand. I mean, we've talked about her
serve, but I just think she is that good.
She just is. She's a competitor.
She can win. She can win ugly.
She can also win beautifully. Like she she has it in her and
she still has so much upside. It has been a joy watching her
prove the haters wrong. I agree, I think she is in
danger of becoming the queen of winning ugly.
Like when the conditions are bad, my money's always going to
be on Coco because she her adaptability is better than
anyone else out there and her athleticism.
Climate change. Climate change is real.
So maybe the maybe the odds are are increasingly in her favor.
It's like, yeah, new strategy when you play Sabalinka, like
bring fans, bring like wind turbines, like it's just, you
know, there's there's another factor out there to think about.
I think the most unfortunate part of this for Sabalenka has
been her post match behavior, starting with when she was at
the podium apologizing because she played so poorly, which can
sound like a little bit of like, oh, wow.
Like she's really like thoughtful and like, like almost
like a humility. But it's it, you know, in that
moment, it was taking a the shine a little bit off of Coco,
like, oh, I'm guys, I'm so sorry you came out to for this.
And I played like shit like that.
That's not very gracious. But then after in the post match
interviews in the press, she double S down on it about how
bad she played and even saying like if if ego had beaten her in
their semi final, ego would have definitely beaten Coco.
It it was a completely unnecessary sound bite to have
out there. Like I love Sabalenka's
personality until right now and I do not love this.
Like this is real ungracious and it's shitty.
It's, it's true, but it but it's, you have to sort of work
through like the mental, the logic of why?
Because it's like we talk so much about how we love her
unfiltered personality, but like at the same time, when you are a
professional at anything, you have to have enough of a filter
to be respectful of your fellow players.
Like it's OK for us, you know, number #16 Tennis podcast.
In the world. To like to like shake these
players and rag on them a little bit.
But I, I, I don't truly think that she meant disrespect, but
she gave disrespect objectively. And it's got to be a learning.
It's got to be a learning experience from her.
And I think that, you know, it's probably in a weird way like
it's just, it's always good for players to have these moments
where they can self reflect and be like, well, that was shitty
and it's something to work on and, and she needs to.
Big time. Yeah.
Because. And then Coco handled it great
when she the reporters then asked her how she felt about
that statement. And Coco was extremely gracious
and just basically saying like, hey, I don't agree with that.
Like the everything about it made me like Coco even more.
Look I when her serve and forehand suck, I hate it.
I hope it gets cleaned up. But Despite that she wins.
That's that's a pretty powerful thing going on.
That's the kind of match I want to see is I want to see someone
who is fighting their demons, you know?
Exactly. And it's, it's that is a really
compelling match narrative. But like it, it really I'm, I'm
challenged. I don't, we've spent a lot of
time on the on the Sinner versus Algras match.
So I don't want to go back there.
But I'm like, I'm challenging my own narratives of what I love
about tennis because that was just the most insanely high
level tennis match. And like, that was it was I
loved it more than I've loved a tennis match in a long time.
So it's like maybe, maybe I don't want to see like the
underdog, you know, prevail always or like, you know, it's a
player kind of over overcoming lapses and concentration.
It's like, no, maybe I just want to see like the two best people
in the world absolutely throw kind of nice the wall.
Yeah, it really it, it is. And maybe maybe there's room in
the sport for all of it. Maybe that's the Yeah Kumbaya
moment at the end of A at the end of the road.
Well, and Speaking of sort of underdogs and also people giving
it all the women's semi final had both of those things.
So we had Coco versus Lois Buson.
I don't know how exactly to say that Cinderella story by far of
clay getting a lot of great wins coming out of literally nowhere.
She's ranked somewhere in the mid three hundreds.
French girl got a lot of crowd support.
The crowd really lifted her over my pick of Mira Andreva.
I know where we we we're not going to talk about women's
bodies, but Jesus Christ, I want her fucking biceps.
Like she is jacked. She is like a solid jock and
what a forehand. And but she didn't have much
magic left against Coco went out pretty pretty quickly.
So to your point, like, yeah, the underdog is fun until it's
not. But then the other women's semi
final Sabalanka versus Ego. Those first two sets, Holy crap.
Those first two sets were the most exciting 2 sets that had
been played on the women's tour and not just this tournament all
year by far. It it made me WT gay all over
again. I was like what?
Where has this been hiding? It was in Crayabla, like holy
shit. You know, two of two of the
three top women in the sport absolutely throwing everything
at each other. And yeah, I mean, it's, you
know, it's always like I always feel bad when, when ego doesn't
go all the way at Roland Garros because it, you know, it kind of
like I even even I feel like it is, it's her slam to some
degree. But like, yeah, no, they, they,
they fucking raged. They just, they play tennis.
Like that's, that's what tennis is supposed to be.
On like the, the, the angles, the power, the finesse, every, I
mean, it really was akin to the men's final we had.
It was like, whoa. And, and, and, you know, like
the final two, it's two, it's 2 quite different game styles, but
like each extremely competitive in their own way.
And truly it was it was a match that, you know, with the
exception of of the third set, like really could have gone
either way. Yeah.
Well, yeah, then Saablenka just went balls out and well, no
balls out because she had 0 unforced errors in the last set.
So yeah, I wish she saved that for the final and maybe she
wouldn't be talking smack the way she is.
So that's sort of like the the overall takeaways of the the
winners and the losers of the French Open.
And when we come back, we are going to play French toast and
French roast to talk about everything else going on around
Roland Garros. All right, now for a segment
we're calling French toast or French roast.
So French toast means we loved it and French roast means the
opposite because there was a lot going on and some great stuff
and some not so great stuff. So where you're going to start
with a French toast, which is the Rafa tribute.
So it feels like pretty very long ago, to be honest.
It was only two weeks ago, but we had that great tribute to
Rafa. It had everything.
It had interpretive dance, it had a speech in three languages,
it had a stadium spelling out Rafa's name.
It had the BIG4 reunited on the court.
It's getting a French toast for me because the moment that broke
me was when they just took him over to the side of the court
and the guy has the broom and he just starts sweeping over that
part of Chatrier and it unveils his his footprint and it's just
like this little plaque to him. It's not this big statue.
It's not some sort of like, you know, garish thing.
It's like this beautiful, poignant thing that I'd I
started crying. It was like watching Coco for
me. I would just Coco the movie.
I cry at Coco every time I watch it.
Not Coco Goth, except for when she has her serving errors.
But it was just so beautiful. But there was also something a
little solemn about it. Not that it was, but the plaque,
It felt a little bit like a gravestone.
Like it was just like, it was like his footprint.
It made me think about more his mortality in a weird way where I
was like, yeah, like, it's, it's like the paw print of your
puppy. There's something like, like,
beautiful but almost a little sad at some point.
What's your take on on his tribute?
I think we have to remember, which we all do, just how
dominant he was at Roland Garros.
I mean, he literally, I think gave a part of his soul to that
tournament, which is probably why he looks, you know, 60 years
old, like in certain photographs at certain angles.
But but that's a that's a topic for another day.
Yeah. But no, I like you know, it it
in a weird way and like take a walk with me here, Like you
reminded me of a of that that Kamala quote.
You know, you exist in the context of of all the which you
live and they came before you because that moment to me in the
con, in the context of the tournament where with with
Alcaraz winning and, you know, getting his fifth Grand Slam
title at the like exact same age.
I think to the day that Rafa got his fifth Grand Slam, there is
a, a, a poetic symmetry to it. And and it really does feel like
the narrative of it is, is a sort of passing of the torch.
So I think that this was the right year and this was the
right tournament. Yeah, tournament narrative for
for to have that tribute. And like they you can't, you
can't predict that at the beginning.
But like, in the end, I feel like it was it was these two
really nice bookends to the whole experience.
It was beautiful. What if they did script the
whole thing? Maybe this whole thing is a
setup. I mean, it's like reality TV.
Are we going Q Anon here like what's going on?
It's more I've been falling down rabbit holes of Top Model recaps
where they're like, no, it was all staged.
They knew exactly who's going home when.
So you know, that's a we'll cover that another time.
I do love me some Top Model though.
OK, so the next, the next one, French roast or French toast.
We've got a French roast and this is the men being silent
about women playing at night. So we all know, or maybe you
don't, but if you don't know, there are night matches at
Roland Garros and this tournament featured exactly 0
night matches for the women because there's only one match
at in the night session. It starts at 8:00 PM or even
after. And the French Federation and
Amelie Marezmo say it's because they can't guarantee a minimum
amount of time on court with a a women's match because the women
are are best of three. And actually, like Matthew kind
of makes me think about what you were saying earlier in the show
about like, well, is there an argument for women to be playing
best of five sets in grand slams?
That would certainly impact the amount of time that people are
playing on court. But I found it, I found it
noteworthy that the people speaking out about, you know, it
doesn't seem fair that there's never women's match at night.
We're only women and I looked for it.
I mean, maybe there were some guys speaking out, but I
couldn't find it. I was looking for who is making
a statement about this and it just felt like they're like.
It made me miss the Andy Murray's of the tour who are
kind of like those. That's what I was, that's what I
was daunting. If Andy was still, if Andy was
still active, I'm sure that he would have weighed in on that
conversation. And he would have weighed in on
it in a really like classic Murray way.
Like snarky, but also shut you down for even being so
ridiculous to think that like women can't do XYZ.
Because here my, my take on it is like, let's see what happens.
Because there were a lot of matches, the night matches that
we're going until like 11/11/30 at night with half half full
stadiums. Like maybe a Wednesday night,
people don't want to be at a tennis match all night.
Like maybe it would have been OK to have Igash Viantek versus
Robachna and a really great match at night.
So my take is like, let's see, like let's give it a go.
Without the data, we don't know if people wouldn't show up, but
just saying now people aren't going to show up.
That argument doesn't hold water.
But I think that the men could have kind of said more to that's
so that's my French roast. Yeah, I it's complicated a bit
by the fact that I know that Ego doesn't like to play night
matches. And I feel like, yeah, she
doesn't like the conditions at night as much as she likes the
conditions in the morning. So she usually will request this
is this is what I've read. And like someone challenged me
on this, but I've read that she requests to play morning matches
when she can. Interestingly, I feel like and
that that might inform her perspective on it, which like, I
know that she got a lot of blowback, at least from the like
the tennis fan world about how she wasn't she was asked if it
bothered her that the woman don't play at night and she
basically said no. I mean, it was it was a very
like, I think her intention was like, I'm not going to I'm not
going to stir up drama. You know, I I she just kind of
like deflected the answer. But I mean her like, I think her
answer was also just true to her.
Like, no, like she'd rather play it in the day.
Yeah, but like the whole thing is APR nightmare.
It like it. It really boggles my mind that
Morezmo just didn't that that they didn't like foresee this
and kind of better. Like, really?
Their. Talking point, like some
something, it just felt sloppy. But I mean, you know, from a,
from a, purely from, from a pure scheduling perspective, it
probably does make sense to have the longer matches be played at
night because there are, it's, it's like potentially only one
match at night, right? It's only one match, Yeah.
They only have one night match. Yeah.
No, they're like, it's so it's only one after 8:00 PM, Yeah.
So like it, like from a sheer scheduling standpoint, I think
it makes sense. But like in when the narrative
of the sport increasingly needs to be equity and when the slams
have in in many ways really done a good job of of creating that
and and we have pay equity. And it's like this just feel, it
feels like a really weird outlier.
And it's like, yeah, it would just, they'd get a lot of,
they'd get a lot of easy credit for just doing the right thing
to just stick a couple, like literally mix it up every once
in a while. One or two, one or two.
Let's just see what happens if people don't.
And then if nobody shows up, if people ride on the streets and
they're like, no, the women are out after dark, then then we'll
know like, OK, the the audience is really fucked up, but also
they're not showing up. So let's figure out like, OK, we
got to adapt, but like, let's just give it a whirl.
Yeah, let those ladies out. Now we're going to go onto a
speed round. I'm just going to give you some
items, and I want you, with your genius tennis acumen, to tell me
if it's a French roast or a French toast.
So the first one is the human line judges.
So Roland Garros is the only Grand Slam and the rare
tournament overall that uses humans to call the lines.
And some say it's because on clay, Hawkeye is just slightly
less accurate than it is on other surfaces because the dust
comes up and it can be just slightly inaccurate.
And there have been there's been this trend this year of all
these people taking photos of their line that they think is in
or out or whatever. And so but we're we're
reintroducing human error because humans also make
mistakes. And they're today cost Sinner at
2-3 in the fifth, he was close to breaking and a serve that was
called in was actually out, according to Hawkeye.
And Sinner lost that point. And it would have been, you
know, who knows? Who knows?
So we're introducing human error back in Is that a French roast
or a French toast? Toast is good, roast is bad.
Oh, toast is. Cheers to you.
I thought it was like roast beef and like, I really like, I
really like beef, so I like meat.
And I think maybe I was thinking like a French dip or something,
I don't know. OK.
Let me start. I was thinking like a roast,
like a comedy roast of somebody like, oh, we're going to roast
you because that sucks. I'm going to make this one.
I'm going to make this one simple.
It is a French roast because it's going to go the way of the
dodo in like two or three years. So we are literally just, yeah,
belonging the inevitable. We're belonging the inevitable.
Like other clay court tournaments on the year are on
tour have shifted over to Hawkeye or you know, electronic
line calling it is it is even this narrative of it.
If it being less accurate on clay is is bullshit because you
know what is far less accurate than Hawkeye on clay is human
line judges so. Yeah.
So it just it just doesn't hold water.
I sure I could wax poetic about why I think that, you know,
there are, there are these kind of interesting moments of like
creating drama within a match, like when there is the human
element. But ultimately, like, that is
just not the way that the sport is going.
And like if I were a player, I would just want the call to be
right more than anything. Exactly, exactly.
And there is a world where like the the chair umpire can
overrule Hawkeye. Like if it's like clearly like
the Hawkeye fucked up, then like then the chair umpire can be
like, look, it's clearly in or clearly out.
Like we don't have to be slaves to the technology.
I think there's still some some it's.
Been there very specific rules because it's actually very,
very, very difficult for the chair umpire to to overrule
Hawkeye. Well, OK, fine, but maybe
overrule like, I don't know, Captain Marvel or some other
Avenger if not Hawkeye. One one of the good ones with
like the good pilgrims, right? Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. But that also leads me to my
next question for you. So with these lines judges, you
know, it's a more crowded on the court.
And my next French roast meaning bad or toast meaning good.
Is Lorenzo Mousetti not getting defaulted for when he kicked the
tennis ball into the lines person's tit?
So he was playing against Thiafo in the quarters.
He was he he, you know, made a mistake, kicked the ball and it
hit the lines person with the same ish velocity that that ball
hit the lines person. When Novak was defaulted from
the US Open, he received a warning and I am glad he wasn't
defaulted. But in the names of all things
being fair, I don't know, maybe he should have been defaulted.
So Lorenzo Moussati not getting defaulted?
Is that a roast or a toast for you?
That is a that is a toast for me, but the roast is the
absolute inconsistency with which this rule is applied.
I feel like the, the, the, the ITF should really take a look at
their rules on this and a really, really, really make like
when it's an obvious obvious intentional like abuse, then I
think that it should be 0 tolerance.
And when it's not, I think that there should be a lot of leeway.
But it, it is so inconsistently applied right now that it makes
the whole system look bad. But like him, he should not have
gotten defaulting for that in my opinion.
And I'm, I'm glad he didn't. And I think that like the
tournament would have suffered if it had happened.
But are you glad that Novak was defaulted in 2020 when he did
that to that lines person? Oh yeah, that's.
The problem. That's the problem.
I'm allowed to be inconsistent but like but but the but.
No one else can. Organizers of tennis are not OK.
That's my opinion and I'm sticking to it.
No, I look, I agree. I'm glad he wasn't defaulted.
But hey. And I think you're right.
It's like it all comes down to intent.
So yeah, more leeway. OK, last one.
French roast or French toast? The French crowd.
So the French crowd is pretty notorious for vociferous support
for their hometown heroes. The mensic Mueller atmosphere
was absolutely insane. I think it was Court 14.
It was one of the more intimate crowds where it was just that it
was so loud and they were chanting and it was like a it
was like a football stadium. It was like very palpable and
and and Mencic was kind of shady during the match.
He. Was studied the playbook of his
idol Novak, and was was really dipping into his his.
His reactions, which does not go well.
It does not go well to turn the crowd against you and and he did
you know, but then so I think after Jamie moon hours match
against Arthur fees, he talked about how the French crowd is
the most annoying crowd on earth.
The crowd definitely helped Boson beat Mira Andreva in the
quarters and also that God damn cheer Olay.
I don't ever need to hear it again.
It's over. Thank God the season of that is
fucking over. But Matthew Coleman French
crowd. Are they a roast or a toast?
Well, I I feel like I can see where your head lies on this
one, but honestly like it. The French crowd has a total
toast. Are you kidding?
Are you kidding me? Like too much passion from a fan
base towards the sport is not something to roast like we
should be. We should be lucky.
And you know what it's going to do?
It is going to get other passionate tennis fans from
across the world to want to show up to like represent their
player and and balance it out. It's going to make the players
like really kind of tap into their mentality and hone it and
learn how to how to overcome the crowd.
It it, it makes the sport better.
As much as tennis is a gentleman and gentle woman's sport, it's
like an excited crowd is good. We need that.
That's sad. It's not a bad thing.
I, I hear what you're saying and I think that there are moments
in a match for that level of raucousness and excitement.
But I guess I'm still just, you know what?
I'm a crotchety old man. I'm in my early to mid, late
twenties, 30s or 40s and I just, I like it.
I like a quieter match for the most part.
And then an uproarious moment for me, it's for me, it's a
roast, for you, it's a toast. And that's OK.
We don't agree on everything, but I am the scorekeeper.
And so out of those three, you got 2 correct.
So congratulations, you still win a prize, which is another
candle from Beth Body Works. So that that was French roast or
French toast, everybody. And we're going to wrap up now
with just a quick preview of the Bay Teepee.
So what does all this mean? What does all the stuff that
we've been talking about mean? Well, we look again to the Bay
Teepee where we rank the top eight men.
We're ranking the men and this is based on on court and off
court performance. You know, if you had us talking,
if you beat one of our villains that we love to see lose, if you
have a celebration that is worth celebrating, if you win the
goddamn tournament, those are all worth BTP points.
And it is cumulative. It's been going on now for a few
months. And so we've got the top eight
that you can head on over to Instagram and see the top 8.
Now one quick caveat. Someone actually asked, I don't
know if they asked, but they sort of commented, hey, Jack
Draper should be on this. And look, I'm sticking to it at
least during Pride Month that someone who goes on record
saying that they would really love to have lunch with Donald
Trump loses a lot of bait teepee points.
You know that you can gain some and you can lose some.
And when you say that, you know, like, yes, Jack Draper, arguably
not even arguably one of the hottest players in tennis abso
freaking lutely. But until there's a little more
clarity about that lunch, until I know what they're going to
order. Or if he's still, you know,
wanting to meet Donald Trump, sorry ladies, that's a deal
breaker. So just some highlights though
of our top three. Yes, Carlitos has reclaimed the
top spot in the Bay TP 'cause there is nothing sexier than
winning a Grand Slam, especially Roland Garros, except for maybe
coming back from being down 2 sets to love, which he also did.
So for those reasons and many more Carlitos, even though
you're wearing a rugby inspired kit, you are the top bait.
TP We've got Arthur Fees back in the top 8 all the way back up to
#2 Mostly because it was unhinged celebration after
beating Munar, who we just talked about, which everyone was
posting and reposting him, just stripping off that shirt and
going full, full football mode. And then we also have Tommy Paul
rounding out the top three because he reached a career high
of eight in the world after another strong showing at Roland
Garros. He kind of whimpered out with an
abdominal strain, but he certainly had a great fighting
spirit through a couple of real, real tricky matches.
So Tommy Paul, you are back in the top three.
Congratulations. And everybody, you can head on
over to our Instagram to see the full BTP and let me know do you
agree or not and who should be in it.
And you can find us again at TBB Tennis.
That's at TBB Tennis. It's like the ball boys, but TBB
tennis TENNIS. Check it out over there and let
me know what you think. And that is our show.
Matthew, as always, you've been amazing.
Thank you so much for joining me to Jeff Funn.
We we laughed, we cried, we, we insulted some people.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah, well, now I'm going to
lock you back in your cage until we are in the hard court season
and I'll let you back out for more shows coming up in the
future. But we'll be back in just a few
weeks with a special Daddy's Day episode.
And we'll also be answering the question, is the grass actually
greener? So come on back and we will see
you then. Thanks everybody.