Hey everybody, and welcome to the latest episode of The Ball
Boys. We are the tennis podcast that
puts the Vava voom in Vava story.
I'm your host, Paul Monkholm, bringing you the insights,
outbursts, giggles and wiggles of the ATP and WTA tours.
It's late summer, which means the movie theaters are full of
body horror, and the tours decide to follow suit.
We had a Cincinnati tournament where the players were stuck
together. Between the heat and the
humidity, it felt like they were melting into the courts.
And we had blood curdling screams, dangerous plays, fire
alarms, storms, twists and turns, and worst of all, a
crying child. We'll unpack the revamped since
he opened to see what 260 million really buys you in 2025.
And then before the since he final even finished, the players
flew up to New York like weapons under a witch's spell with loads
of top singles players ready to show off their double skills.
The problem? A lot of them forgot to bring
their double skills. I was there for day one and
while there were some positives, quite frankly this did not feel
like a slam in the slightest. But what is a slam is the main
draws kicking off on Sunday. Because yes, every day on the
tour counts. And Sunday is now the new Monday
for the US Open, which is not to be mistaken for the Cincinnati
final. Where Monday was.
The new Sunday confused us too, but we're going to be previewing
all of the action. And we also have a new Bay TP
that includes both Cincinnati and Canada results.
And you can see that over on our Instagram at TBB Tennis.
Again, that's at TBB Tennis. And breaking down all of this
with me is my favorite body horror ball boy.
He's the after to my before. He's the ball boy that always
bounces back. It's Matthew Coleman.
Hey, Matthew, how are you? What's up, Paul?
Are you saying that I'm your the substance?
You are the You are the Sioux to my whatever Demi Moore's
character's name was and. I don't.
I don't think we're that far apart in age.
But like, I'll roll with it. Why not look after a certain age
in your late to early mid 30s or 40s, aging starts to hit you
like a on the bricks. But and.
It is true we all revert to the mean eventually.
Yeah, but it's great to see you. You are debuting an entirely new
look for us, which I'm excited to show people on our reels.
You've got I, I mean, I don't want to be so base as to say a
Wolverine look going on, but I've never seen you in a beard.
And it is it is doing a lot for me.
So Congrats. I I've decided it's time to let
my aging twink look go and embrace my daddy roots.
Crap, we're going to have to find you an after now.
So I'm going to be like the before before.
OK, great. The sequel to Substance being
written right now. It's like the substance meets
the human centipede somehow. It's like there's always someone
before and always someone after. I mean this, this also sounds
very much like what's going on in WHA Tour.
Is it because it's just endless cycling through?
It's like, well, who won? We don't even have time to
celebrate because we're on to the next tournament.
We're on the next thing. We are now post Cincinnati as of
a few days ago. U.S.
Open is starting, even though we've already crowned the Grand
Slam champions for the mixed double S Winston Salem is also
happening right now. I mean, it is just, it is a
foster clock on the tours and time no longer means anything
but catch yourself. How's your summer been?
What else you've been doing besides growing this gorgeous
beard? You know, I feel like like the
state of the tour, my summer's been a little bit of a grind.
Oh no, it's been hard. But like, punctuated with some
really fun trips. So that wasn't the grind like
Eric Knees, that was the grind like late stage capitalism.
And how has tennis been for you this summer?
You know, I always am waving the flag that I just think that the
tour is too long. Like, I don't like seeing the
players having to put their bodies through this, this
gauntlet when it's already such an extremely physical sport.
And hello, climate change. It ain't getting any cooler
people. I feel like I've heard a lot of
chatter on the tour lately too, of just people banging that drum
again, saying like, guys, we got to figure out something more
sustainable. It's we're going to need a
bigger boat. I mean, this is this is out of
control. I mean, Cincinnati, which we're
going to talk about in a little bit, was literally a horror
show. There were so many perilous
horror movie tropes that came into play, and a lot of it had
to do with the weather. And I thought about going to
Cincinnati this year. I wanted to see the new stadium.
I wanted to smell what $260 million would do for for me and
some concrete. Smell that Navarro money, baby.
I know, I mean, Emma's Emma Navarro's dad is just going to
buy every tournament until she wins a Grand Slam.
I. Mean.
That's what I would do if I was a billionaire, I think.
Daddy, I won a Grand Slam. Now.
Veruca Navarro Yes, daddy. Well, I am so pumped to have you
back. We're going to jump on in.
But as a reminder, hey, listeners, there is a ball boy
in all of us. And like Terence Atmain and his
Pokemons, I want to catch them all.
So if you are a lippy homosexual, if you've got some
hot tennis takes, reach out to me over on Instagram and let me
know. We've got we've got a fresh set
of balls coming up on a show from this plea for ball boys.
So hey, if you want to be a ball boy, let's talk.
Come on the show. I want to hear your take.
So reach out to us over on Instagram.
That's at TBB tennis. Again, that's at TBB tennis.
But OK, let's jump in with both feet.
As always, we're going to start with our lobs beings.
The lobs being is the thing that just made us a little gayer for
tennis since the last show. There's there's a few lobs
beings, but they are all related and they all are under the
umbrella of qualies at the US Open.
I feel like the qualis got a lot more attention this year for a
number of reasons, but also I so when I was at the US open from
the mixed double S exhibition Grand Slam, I also had a moment
to go out and watch some qualis and it was like night N gay like
the the action over on the outside courts was really great.
I mean these players who are in the two hundreds, three
hundreds, they are smacking that ball and and so much is on the
line for even just a small paycheck.
But then in the qualis, we had Joao Lucas Reyes, Thermopolis de
Silva, who qualified for the qualis, which again is sort of a
little mental gymnastics, but he is the openly gay player who is
ranked in the top 250. He's from Brazil.
I maybe don't hype him up enough on this show, partially because
I don't want to have just a gay player.
I want to have a great gay player.
I want a gay player in the top 10.
I want a gay player vying for slams.
But you know what, maybe I need to chill out a little bit and I
I need to take what I can get. And just for visibility.
It was amazing. He did lose in the first round
of qualies, but he was there. And, you know, that's pretty
freaking awesome. Matthew Coleman, what's your
take on Joao? I love it.
I mean, it's a little bit of a reality check that you have to
go so low in the rankings. You know, not to say that 250 is
is so low, but it's like a lot of averages here.
Like you're like, there really is not a a player, you know, in
the 250 above him that feels comfortable enough with their
sexuality to come out. Because I guarantee you that
there are multiple gay players in the mix.
But that's why, yeah, I mean, the visibility is incredibly
important, especially in this moment, which is like we're in
that conservative shift to have a player who's like, Nope, I'm
fully authentically myself. I love, love to see it.
But yeah, now let's like, let's, let's train.
Let's let's make the make the main draw baby.
Come on, work on that forehand, Sir.
Yeah. Yeah, well, and you're down in
Florida where they're painting over all of the rainbow Pride
sidewalks. Not even not even just rainbow
Pride sidewalks, but the the Pulse Nightclub shooting
memorial. Sidewalk, I know.
Me I'm. Just I'm just going to jaywalk.
Anytime I go to Florida, I'm just going to look.
I don't, I don't acknowledge your sidewalks anymore.
I don't acknowledge jaywalks. Swish those hips so hard that
you that you knock over an old lady.
And I'll do it diagonally because I am not going to do
anything straight when I go down to Florida.
But yeah I love Joao but also just in terms of a Lobbs being
and something that made me gayer.
I didn't actually get to see him because on his court before him
was IO Ito. I love her.
Just makes me gayer than I've ever been in my life.
Watching her play. People are losing their shit
over her. A lot of people are seeing her
for the first time. She plays so nonchalantly and so
tricky, especially with her weird slice forehand.
Her game is wild and she was driving everyone insane.
Or her opponents. Her opponents hate.
They don't want to see her on their draw.
She did lose in the final round of qualifying though, so she's
not going to be. I know.
People say that that Ito is sort of the singles spiritual
successor to Sue Wei Shay. And like, I love me some Sue Wei
Shay. Yeah, I've I've missed her on
the singles court for the past few years whenever a player
comes up with a totally different game style.
And like, I think her game is more interesting than a than a,
you know, Tatana Maria, there's more variety to her game.
And they're and they're she kind of like very daintily, like hops
around court. It's kind of what she literally
will just walk to the ball between points.
Like she is so Zen and unbothered out there and she'll
she'll smile when she loses a point.
It's like there's just a very her her mentality is so
different than anything else you see with any of the other
players. And I love it.
I absolutely agree. She's obviously an amazing
athlete, but she does not carry herself or, like, act like an
athlete. She doesn't act like a.
She acts like she's walking to the library.
She's got this. Yeah, Zen is a great word.
Very casual. She also reminds me a little bit
of your boy, Mattia Bellucci. Just like, kind of beguiling and
like, that's a queering of the sport, which is also why it
feels like my love is being like, I am so gay for Ito's
game. Yeah, Yeah, yeah.
It's it's, it's taken a little bit of that like toxic red
bloodedness out and being like you can be, you can be a dancer
out there. You can be, you can, you can be
twirling your ribbon and have your magic wand and sprinkling
fairy dust and you know what? It works and and it wins.
Yeah, and I do love that we saw such sort of variety and
versatility in the qualies. It just sort of opened up an
entirely new world, which is why it's my lobs being it just like
it made me more excited. I think going forward I'm going
to try and go to qualies for the majors.
Coach BTV, he goes to every qualies and and now I get it.
Coach B was on to something. So yeah, amazing.
OK, well shall we get into some of the action with Twit?
Let's do it. So Twit is this week in tennis.
We're just covering the news, the dudes, the feuds of the
tour. Today we are straddling Ohio and
New York, basically taking Pennsylvania from both ends.
Just as a reminder, we can't possibly cover every match.
So if you're coming to us for the scores, you're going to be
more disappointed than the TV sponsors for the men's final of
Cincinnati, which as you probably know, ended after
Yannick Sinner retired 5 Love. But we've got a lot to get
through. And because Cincinnati is well
into the rearview mirror it it ended an an ungodly 5 days ago.
We're not going to spend too much time because we want to
look forward. We're not looking back.
We're looking forward on this show.
But we're going to have a brief review of Cincinnati.
It's known as Queen City, which I didn't know until this year.
And I felt like I should have felt more at home with
Cincinnati because of that, but I didn't because just like the
South Park movie, this year's tournament was bigger, longer,
and I'm pretty sure uncut. And in what what might be news
to some of us that there is such a thing as too big.
Everyone has talked about the scheduling woes.
We had those finals on a Monday after Canada had finals on their
Thursday. It literally is just insanity.
Sorry, I had to say insanity. I just thought of it and I just
had to, you know, thank you for that.
But also though, since the last show, there was that spate of of
kind of not random but an eclectic mix of celebrities
passed away unfortunately. And one of them is Lonnie
Anderson. For anyone who doesn't know her,
she was one of the OG blonde bombshells in the late 70s and
80s. Honestly, she walked so Pam
Anderson could vamp. She starred in a hit show called
WKRP in Cincinnati. And so I thought as an homage to
Lonnie Anderson, who is also clearly a gay icon, as a tribute
to her, and because we're already knee deep in the US
Open, we're going to do a quick recap of Cincinnati with what
we're calling WKRP we. And so we're going to do
something that starts with a WAK, an R and AP.
So W stands for where? Where does Cincinnati rank in
the other Masters? Look, as a gay man, I'm always
ranking things. And so we've been ranking all of
the Masters this year just for the ATP, and right now the
standings are Monte Carlo, Rome, Indian Wells, Canada, Madrid and
Miami. So, Matthew Coleman, where would
you place Cincinnati amongst its Masters, brethren?
God, I always struggle with these rankings so much because
there is the history and, like, the prestige that it brings in,
and then there is the experience we just had.
Right. Yeah, historically people have
said Cincinnati is actually one of the best Masters.
Like it's it's a great experience, It's relatively
affordable. The tournament organizers are
are friendly. Like there's a lot of good
vibes, but the vibes were rotten this year at the tournament
itself. I feel like so and, and when I
look at the list of the other masters, it's sort of like, OK,
well, would I rather be in like Monte Carlo or Mason?
OH, which is it puts it in a little perspective.
OK, I'm going to say, oh, this is, this is tough.
You're going to disagree with me here, but I'm going to never,
I'm going to put it smack in the middle.
I was thinking about putting it below Canada, but I think it's
got to be above Canada because Canada splits the tour into two
cities and it's like that's kind of a knock.
I want to see. I want to see my ladies and my
men. I contain multitudes, so I would
say Monte Carlo, Rome, Indian Wells, Cincinnati, Canada,
Madrid, Miami, but I wouldn't be surprised if you put it in last
place, which which is fair after the tournament we just had.
Wow, I, I, I, I don't know how to take that.
I, I guess I'll take it as a compliment because I'm
discerning and, and you, you appreciate that about me, but I
put it in the exact same place. Oh, wow.
OK, smack in the middle. First and foremost, because of
the insane schedule, it is always and forever going to be
directly tied to Canada. You have to go from one to the
next immediately if you're going to play.
So it's very much like that movie together.
Have you seen that movie yet, by the way?
No. One has seen it.
It's disgusting. I saw it.
I fucking loved it. Allison Brie, Dave Franco, who
are real life married, which is kind of like an interesting kind
of hot couple together. I mean, we've seen in the
previews, I'm not going to do any spoilers, but basically
their bodies start melding. Canada and Cincinnati have
melded. They are one sort of super
masters 24 day gauntlet. And so I feel like they always
have to be together. I wanted to actually even rank
it higher because of the renovations and some of it
looked good. But the thing I dislike the most
about this renovation was the blue on blue courts.
So it was a light blue outline with a darker blue in sort of
like main court. Just aesthetically, it felt very
Midwestern. I felt like I was at like, like
an aquarium that was built in Ohio.
It's like this feels a little odd.
Why is it ocean vibes? Like, I don't know, it just I
feel like it could have been a little more dynamically
designed. But then this year, yeah.
To your point, I mean, it is one of the most prestigious long
term. I think it's been around since
the 1800s maybe, or maybe making it up.
But it's it's been around for a long ass time before I was born
in the 1800s, but this year was a disaster.
And we're going to get to that in a second.
But now we're going to move on to K, which is kudos.
So WKRPK is kudos. And the story the the the bright
shining star that came out of this one, the guy who got the
most attention was Terence Atman at Main, the Frenchman who made
it all the way to the semis. He beat Kaboli, he beat Fonseca,
he beat Fritz Runa. I mean, I kind of love him.
Definitely some Bay TP material. He, you know, spoiler alert, he
did make the Bay TP for this round.
I don't know how long he's going to be up in the standings, but
there's something about a Frenchman with a really big IQ
that does it for me. And he was really smart with how
he wore the Cincinnati Reds T-shirt after a win one day and
and he's like, I'm excited to learn baseball.
I was like, how can you be that smart but not no baseball?
I don't know. His story was one of the few
highlights of the tournament. Yeah, I feel like he went on an
accidental charm offensive, like at the same time as when he was
just absolutely like surging through the tournament.
But it reminded me of like Ava Lease at the Australian Open.
The guy's got personality, you know he's a.
Character. He's like, so French.
Yeah. And it's he's got like a little
bit of that, of that like kind of toxic aggression that like I
like about someone like Amoute also French or like a a Benoit
pair, also French, also French, but like, but like a sweetie,
you know, he gave Sinner that Pokémon card on his birthday,
which like what a what a cute weird thing to do in the tunnel,
like right before the start of the match.
So. Yeah, he's in.
He's endearing. I think he captured a lot of
hearts and his and his tennis is fucking lights out.
It's insane. Yeah, I'm a I'm a fan.
I did see this other thing, though that kind of gave me an
ick. So he has a history of, he has a
history of violence, not violence, but he has a history
of breaking rackets. He breaks a lot of rackets on
court. He gets very mad.
He's very passionate, very French.
But he also says that he does that because he is so smart.
He has more thoughts in his head than the average person.
Which is like pretentious as fuck and also just like total,
total BS. It's like new version of the
Twinkie defense, you know, like oh sorry officers like like I
ate too many Twinkies today. It made me crazy.
I'm too smart. I can't do I, I mean, I kind of,
I mean part of me loves it. I'm like, wow.
Diva. Yes, yeah, yeah.
Diva. Yeah.
Hey, Diva. I have to go.
I'm. I'm visiting my mother up in
Massachusetts. Maybe I'll be late and be like,
sorry, I just had too many thoughts.
I'm just too smart. I mean, I don't know if anyone
would believe that from my angle, but maybe you could pull
it off, Matthew. I don't.
Think so this you're like Nah, this empty noggin like.
All vibes over there all bearded vibes you know your teeth look
great with a beard too by the way, not to go too and as you
close your. No, but I'm actually like, I
have this. I have a very yellow light from
my computer on me and I feel like it makes everything look
yellow but like that. Maybe that's the compliment I
needed to hear right now. No, fuck that.
You know, also, I'm tired of not to go on too much of A, of a
tangent, but you know, back in the day, you look at the teeth
from the 80s, you look at Melanie Griffith in the 80s, you
look at, you know, Tom Cruise, like people used to have crooked
yellow teeth. So we got a it's.
Kind of hot, honestly. Like bad teeth can be, can be
hot. Like now it it depends on the
ways in which they're bad and to to what degree they're bad.
Here's the spectrum. If I'm real like nothing,
nothing is hotter to me than just a proper Snackle tooth.
Yeah, you know, I mean like, yes, a mouthful of Chiclets.
Great. I'm not.
I'm, I love that. You know, I'm just going to say
I love all teeth. He's a teeth man.
Yeah, I'm a I'm a I'm teething over here.
OK, the next one for WKRP is the results so quickly the winners.
I mean, hey, if you saw the final for the men's,
congratulations. If you didn't, you didn't miss a
goddamn thing. We did get the final we wanted
the final. We expected we were going to get
another Sinner and Alcaraz showdown.
But then it turned out to be the final that nobody wanted to see
because Carlos wins after Jana cast to retire 5 love down in
the first set because he's sick. I heard a rumor in this minor
true, but so it was his birthday, as you mentioned.
And on air, he was given a cake like a strawberry cake.
Maybe it was an homage either to his redness or to his Wimbledon
victory. And he ate the strawberry off
the top of the cake and he made such a face because I, I, I'm
pretty sure what we do to both cakes and strawberries in this
country is not what they do in Italy or Europe or anywhere
where they don't have GM OS. It was, it did not go down well.
And then he had like a tummy ache.
Wow, you're really, you're really reading the Midwest at
this point. No, I love them.
I've been Oh. Those Mason, OH, strawberries,
oh, they're garbage. Well he made a face.
I'm just I'm trying to figure out why he was so sick that he
couldn't play and he lost 5 love.
And did you hear any rumors? Am I?
Give me a better excuse? I think I saw that he.
In the Midwest. That he got a virus, which is
like actually a little concerning because I mean, a
virus is going to take a little while to fully clear up.
What I always think about is so Carlos Alcaraz is such a
friendly guy, a nice guy. When Yannick retired, Carlos is
like hugging him, you know, maybe like touching him if he's
got a virus. I I know.
No bro, go the other way. Like like he, he has, he has no
self protection instincts. You know, he's like, he's like,
he's like colder. Retriever.
A panda at the zoo. He's just like, like, just wants
to like, go explore everything. Yeah, and then he's going to do
a somersault away. Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's very cute, but it's
like, it's like, dude, protect, protect yourself.
Like, come on, you got like a huge tournament on the line
here. Yeah.
By huge tournament you mean in the mixed double s?
Obviously, he's his day with Emma.
Yeah, I know we're going to have a second, but the real quick,
the women on the women's side, Ego won.
She won without dropping a set. She beats Jasmine Paolini in the
final. After a year of kind of not
being locked in, she's decided, oh, I'm just going to win
everything. Spoiler alert, she is my pick to
win the open. Ego.
Shvantec. I've loved seeing her kind of
lock back in. I mean, she was never that bad
in the last couple years, but just didn't always have that
consistency and didn't always make it to the finals.
And I feel like she's she's back baby and she's looking good.
And I loved seeing Jasmine go deep.
You know, it feels like she's had a little trouble maintaining
that momentum from last year and like she deserved it.
I would have loved to see Krichikova actually have a deep
run at the tournament and it would have been at Jazz you.
You want to see Krichikova win every tournament.
I know I do. I do.
Listen, you know I'm going to come on here and hype up my
faves. Yeah, every time.
Love Krichikova. And she's got a rough draw in
the open, which we. Talked about in Boko the.
First round match rough with the last letter for our tribute to
Lonnie Anderson is P. So WKRP.
The P is for Perilous because yes, the new facility was nice
and pretty over there, but the P is not for pretty.
It's for perilous because what the fuck was going on in
Cincinnati? It was literally feeling like a
horror show. We had blood curdling screams
from Danielle Collins as she's dealing with a herniated disc.
We had Holger Runa taking a ball to the face in his match.
I mean, normally I'm OK with taking a ball to the face, but
that it looked pretty rough. We had an actual death with an
intern who fell off of a motorized car and sustained a
head injury Monday night at Cincinnati.
We had Rinder Connect passing out.
We had Medvedev looking like he was on death's door.
Zverev got sick and basically had to give up.
And we also had just some real form issues, like the hottest
players on tour are no longer the hottest players on tour.
And I mean that in all the senses of hotness.
Coco and her serve. She is actively retooling that
day and night, hopefully in time for the Open, but it's a mess.
Mousetti has been on the skids. Tommy Paul, I'm not even sure
how much he plays tennis anymore.
He skipped everything until Cincinnati won a match, then
went fishing. And then worst of all, there
were things like fire alarms, crying babies.
I mean, it's just the whole thing was a horror show.
Matthew, what was the most horrifying part of Cincinnati?
Was it the crying baby? Like I like what I even start.
It's all. It's all horrible.
It's like, yeah, the, well, the Danielle Collins blood curdling
scream, I mean the scream heard round the world.
It's like, I don't how do you, how do you get worse with that?
The last thing that Queen Danielle needs is like another
injury to be dogging her and bringing her down.
Honestly I didn't know she was suffering with a hernia.
I have hernia discs up and down. Even where I don't have discs in
my body, it's hernia, and it's horrible.
I had no idea what was going on. But then the scream, the scream
immediately took me back to Monica Sela's.
When she got stabbed, I was just like, oh, my God, she's getting
attacked. If it was like Nancy Kerrigan
going, why, after getting clumped in the knee, it was just
like, what just happened and she had to leave the court.
Taylor Townsend, the sweetheart she is, took her bag for her.
That was like a really unsettling moment.
Yeah. I'm glad that she got a little
bit of a bounce back with the mixed double S semi finals at
the US Open because I mean, like you, you want to, you want to be
coming into the the tournament like on a on a high note, not
feeling like your body has just absolutely pooped the bed.
Yeah, yeah, no poop in the bed. Yeah, no, I think that that was
the roughest part. But there there wasn't a lot of
great news coming out of Mason, OH, other than Terence Ackmane
and Pokémon. So yeah, better luck next year.
Cincinnati. And also I know that we have
introduced and rolled out these new schedules, longer
tournaments, 12 days instead of a week.
Maybe like, guys, can we just kind of like reverse it?
Can we just pretend we didn't do this?
Well, did you see Djokovic's latest comments?
Well, he's just like, look, I'm I'm only going to play the Grand
Slams like, but what? Yeah.
He well, he says, he says, yeah, it sucks.
And he's like, I wasn't happy about it when they were planning
it and I'm not happy about it now.
But he's like, nobody spoke up. He said the players, the players
did not intervene and, and raise their hands and, and make a
stink when the decisions were being made.
And now they're they're upset after the fact, but there's not
much they can do about it. Now He's like, now that it's now
that there's precedent and that the organization knows that it
works and they're making money, He's like, it's really hard to
unring the bell, but he's like, if you want, if you, he's like,
people have got to pay more attention and use their voice in
the moments when it's actually going to, you know, influence
one way or the other. Maybe.
Maybe he was right. Maybe we're going to learn Novak
was right all along. I mean, you'd like, you know,
you never know, but at the same time, you never know that you
just feel like the organization should be looking out for the
best interest of the player without having to be policed to
such a large degree. And it's like, yeah, we get it
that tennis, the tennis player community is not always as
organized in the best way as they could to, like, have their
voice heard. But I think systemically, it's
not really designed for them to have much of A voice.
So it does feel a little not great to blame the players.
It's like, I'm sure if they felt like they could have more than
impact than they would blame the victim.
I don't know. Yeah.
Novak.
But it was, you know, it's interesting though, because also
even just looking at because every day counts, I was like,
well, why did Cincinnati have a Monday final when their semis
were all on Saturday? They didn't need that Sunday
off. Why did the mixed double S start
on a Tuesday instead of a Wednesday?
Like it didn't have to start on the like totally to to have a
final end. And Eaga, again, props for Eaga
'cause she played the later final in Cincinnati, gets on the
that she's got APJ with with with Carlos and gets to gets to
the US Open to play the next day midday.
Admirable. But then at the same time, sort
of what you were saying earlier to play like a couple of Fast
forward sets, like, yeah, she's an elite athlete.
I think she can handle it. Yeah, yeah, and by and let's
let's even say the word play loosely.
Let's jump into the US Open a little bit real quick.
Not only can you go to Instagram to check in about being our next
ball boy, America's next top ball, you can also see our
latest Bay TP rankings. And what does all this mean?
The action from Canada, the action from Cincinnati, the
action from mixed double S. And we can see who's rising to
the top. And I am so excited to.
I'll just let you all know that we've got Andrea Vavasori
holding it down for the double specialist in the number one
slot for the Bay TP rankings. He's been on the ranks before.
He's about to join us live from. Ladies and gentlemen, we are now
coming to live from the locker room where Vavasori is getting
rubbed down with Yonic Sinner's massage oils.
That's how we're. Going to test him danger.
No, but he like, look, we're let's just jump into the mixed
double S. You know, Andrea Vavasori, mixed
double specialist. I am so freaking happy that he
and Sarah Arani won the title. I think that, I mean, I know
that we all have Sarah Arani is a very polarizing figure.
Her 62 mile an hour first serve and and not the underhand, the
actual overhead serve that's in the low 60s is hard to watch.
But I'm glad that the double specialist won because the mixed
double S, I'm feeling mixed about it.
And I know that this is starting to feel like a mixed double S
podcast, but that's only because we've been talking about mixed
double S for the last three episodes straight.
But I promise after today that will end.
But we have the Champions, we've got Sarah Ronnie, we've got
Andrea Vavasori. Take it to the stars of the
Singles tour. And to remind, the only reason
that they were in the draw is because they won the mixed
double S of the US Open last year.
And so it was optically would have been so pernicious to not
include them that they were thrown a bone.
And you know, even though, even though I'm sure the organizers
had no confidence they were going to be a draw in and of
themselves for for fans, they, they were, they were graciously
allowed to participate. Not only that, I bet the
organizers was like we're going to show these fucking double S
losers they're going to lose in the first round.
I think you're. Right way they can possibly beat
the stars of the tour and. They burn.
Yeah, burnt. Yeah, basic.
I mean they they ran the board. They they took out Fritz and
Rabacana, which on the last show we talked about like what the
hell do Fritz and Rabacana have they ever even played together?
Or how is that they they? Actually had buzz about they're
like people were convinced they were actually going to be a good
team together and then it was kind of a blowout.
Right. Well, yeah, they were.
They were the second seeds, but yeah, they lost in straight
quote, UN quote sets. And then Vavasori and Irani took
out Mukava and Rublev and then they took out Collins and
Harrison and then Ego Shvantek and Rude.
And again, more props for Ego. I mean, maybe Ego needs to be on
the Bay TP because I'm obviously obsessed with her on this
episode. But she was one of the few
singles players that really wanted to win.
Like you could tell she was. She was not there to get a
participation trophy. She wasn't there to entertain
the crowd. She was there to fucking win.
And the way she kind of like Dom topped Casper Rude.
He was her little sub. And I like.
I like. Seeing him just slip into his
little beta mode and it's like he's like, I'm just, I'm just
here to support you guys like, like the the Phoenix on court.
Yeah, OK. So the the pluses of this new
format are obvious. The stands were packed.
So I went there on day one. We were on Ash Stadium.
Half the matches were on Armstrong.
The Armstrong Stadium was free to get into.
So I mean, in New York, any free event is overwhelmed.
But yes, there were a ton of there were a ton of people
there. I've never seen that level of
crowd for any mixed match in my life.
So that's that's. Or probably any or any any event
or Invitational or programming the week before the actual SLAM
starts either. 100%, these were the biggest names in tennis.
I saw the Carlos Alcaraz and Emma Radicano versus Jack Draper
and Jess Pagula, and it was like, OK, the spectacle of this,
it's pretty cool. And the matches were incredibly
short. We saw six matches in about 4
1/2 hours. Bing Bang Boom goes there with
Tim Chow and Fabio Salas. Hey guys, if you're listening,
super fun day. But the way we kind of described
it, by the end, it was like a charcuterie board of matches.
It was an amuse bouche or an amuse deuce, as I like to say.
It's just like it was a nibble. It was like a taste like an.
Amuse and a booze deuce is what what happens after I have too
many amuse. After after your charcuterie
because I've seen you attack a meat board.
You and some meat. Oof, honey.
Balamis, yeah. That's salami.
It runs right through you, is what they say.
But you know, it. Was it like these matches?
Like the matches didn't really feel like matches.
They didn't sink in. I mean, they didn't have time
to. There wasn't, there wasn't,
there wasn't enough. Like they literally just weren't
long enough or intense enough for there to be huge momentum
swings and like, you know, narratives to the match.
Like, they just, they came and went and they were fun like, but
they were like caught cotton candy confections.
For the most part, Yeah. The quality of the match, the
actual action, I'm just going to say it was was pretty mid.
Yes, it was cool to see these stars, but a lot of them were
not very good Double S players. There were some surprises.
Like I thought, I thought Mukava Rublev like, worked weirdly well
together. Yeah, yeah.
And Ika had more of a net game than I expected from her.
Like, that was a pleasant surprise.
And you kind of wonder then, is that actually going to factor in
a little bit in singles too, like seeing her complete her all
court game a little more. Well, and and that's one of the
questions that I want to get to in a second is just sort of who,
who did participating in this help and who did it hurt?
Because I think someone who it hurt was Naomi Osaka.
I mean, I love the resurgence of Naomi.
I love her Osaga. She is really coming back and
and her form is great. Dude, she doesn't have a net
game. But also it's it's not just can
you play at the net or not? Double S is so much more than
that. Double S is how do we as a team
cover this court? How do we strategize?
How do we create opportunities and angles?
A lot of these matches felt like 4 good singles players trying to
win a point. It was not.
There was not a lot of teamwork. There was a lot of cases where
the guys would kind of run in from the girl and hit the ball,
which was disgusting. Like Carlos Alcaraz, I think
he's trying to be chivalrous, but he kept like hogging the
ball. I was like, bro, stay on your
side. Come on man.
And The thing is, if I look at a player like Carlos or look at a
player like Fritz, I feel like what makes them good singles
players is they don't overthink. They run on pure instincts.
Like for Fritz, like I'm being a little shady.
It's like I sometimes I'm like, I don't think you have a thought
in your head and like, and I think that helps you because
you're not, you're not calculating, you're just doing.
It's like, it's like you're letting you're trusting your
body to make the shot. But that but but, but double S,
like you said, it's a totally different ball game.
Your instincts are going to betray you.
If you, if your instincts sort of play like you would play
singles, you, you're very likely not going to win the match and
you're very likely not going to be a good partner to who's on
the court with you. Well, yeah, because not only
were these not Double S players, these were also Double S teams
that I'm not sure if they'd ever played together in any type of a
match setting. Maybe they practice.
I'm sure they all had a hit together, but the experience
level as Double S players was really, really low.
So it felt, I felt like we were getting, like you said before,
it was like a cotton candy virgin virgin, a version of
these. And, and that's great.
But I also, I was like, wait, we've got this massive audience
and they are getting the wrong idea of what double S should
look and feel and taste like. It's like, no, it's so much
smarter than what we saw. Just to talk about a few other
cons real quick, Like, I also hated how the draw was changing
up to the very end. I mean, obviously Yannick
Sinner, who got sick from all that horrible food that they
produce in the Midwest. You know, he pulls out and then
for some weird reason Sinyakova had to pull out too.
I'm, well, I'm so pissed about what happened to Sinyakova
because she got majorly screwed on a number of levels.
It's like, first of all, put some respect on Katarina
Siniakova's name. One, the Olympics.
Yeah, one the Olympics. Mixed double s, Former world
number one. It's like Sinner, I was Sinner
already her second partner. I don't, I don't remember, but
it's like. She wasn't in.
She wasn't. That's right, She.
Wasn't in and people were thinking it's like, oh, it makes
sense. Put her in with with Mahash
because it's like they're they're cute.
They have a narrative. They're gonna do it, yeah.
Yeah, but then it's like, oh, OK, good.
At least she's in with Sinner and and you kind of in your
mind, you're like, damn, well that's like a powerhouse team.
And then and then when, yeah, when Sinner withdrew, you're
convinced. It's like, I mean, she has an
asset to this tournament. It's like, yeah, somebody's got
to want to pair with her. She got screwed.
And I and that again, it's like it's the lack of consideration
for the double specialist that I feel like feeds the the
narrative of of why this is kind of like bad vibes.
But again, it's sort of like to replace Sinner and Senyakova
with Collins and and Harrison It, it just felt a little odd.
I mean, honestly, I was like, there's so many partner changes.
It's like the backroom of the eagle.
Like what is going on? Then Draper ends up with Pagula.
We get Dragula, which I I dressed as Dragula for
Halloween, but I mean it's. Just like someone on Twitter
said that their their anti chemistry actually worked
surprisingly well. It's like they're such an odd
couple and yet like they kind of, they kind of clicked.
Yeah, I did love the clip of him in the interview after the first
round. Calling it an exhibition.
Exhibition she's like, we're not saying that like, you know,
sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.
I loved Sarah, Ronnie and Andrea above stories the way that they
like played rough with each other.
Like when they won a point and they were like yelling at each.
They were just like, and that's that was Sarah.
Like it was just like they were so into it.
But the other teams, they felt like it was almost like
embarrassing to care or something.
Like Medvedev was barely engaged when he played.
Well, what's new? I know fucking fucking Medvedev
bro. Where?
Where is he? Where he at?
But yeah, so, OK, so back to that question though.
So who is who's going to benefit from having participated in this
and who is not? I feel like the tournament
organizers benefit, the fans benefit, but I feel like with a
little retooling, everybody could benefit.
I'm going to maybe slightly go in a different direction than
you and say I actually thought that this was a very successful
experiment and it was almost more successful.
It was successful in spite of the fact that they had all of
this last minute chaos, but it still worked.
Everybody was talking about it. It was extremely well attended.
It was kind of fun. Do I feel like they should just
call it an Invitational? Yes.
I mean, they, they like literally after the mixed double
S, they have the Legends Invitational events.
Maybe this is like a little bit of a middle ground, but I think
that they should treat this as a way to generate a lot of revenue
for the tournament and increase the the winnings pool for the
double S players. Obviously have the big fat cash
prize for the mixed double S winners, but I think that you
can juice up the checks of the double S players that don't have
the chance to play mixed double S now.
I mean, mixed double S has always been a little bit of an
outlier. You're not getting points for
mixed double S, you know, like it's not it's not increasing
your double S ranking. So like it's I it's if there is
room to play in any of these modalities, I think it's mixed.
So I'm not fully against it in principle.
Is it taking away a little bit of the mixed double S players
like exposure to fans and like sure, but like, OK, where has
they've had they've had decades, you know, I mean, like I I I
think we like we got to be realistic.
Like it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of it was very
successful. I think they probably like like
television revenue is probably way up, you know, or like.
ESP ESPN got a lot of fun. What made it fun?
Because the matches were not the matches.
OK, well I watched. I didn't watch The Who did you?
Who did you love? What match did you love?
I watched the semi finals and I watched the final and I mean,
God, that semi final between Draper Pagula and Rude Chiantek
was amazing. Yeah, that was an that was an
awesome match. And the the the.
Collins The final was great. Yeah, and the match I watched
with Collins and Harrison was good too.
But but I think that this experiment needs, they need to
make some tweaks. I don't, I don't know about the
Fast 4. I don't know if it all needs to
be so condensed, but yeah, sorry to say I liked it OK.
No, no, that's fine. And a lot of people like it and
and and they are touting it as a massive success just by crowd
size. And I just, I wonder, is size
the only thing that matters to, well, a boy like you?
I mean, you know, size matters. Not the only thing.
It's not the only thing. And I just I, I also I, I care
about girth and depth and I just don't know if we had either of
those in this tournament. And my fear is, so here's my
prediction. If they keep it the way it is,
it's going to be just like the Laver Cup, which used to be
literally the top ten top 12 players facing off.
And now they just announced they got freaking mensick going to
San Francisco and Caboli's going and like, great.
I love them, but I think that I don't think that Carlos Alcaraz
is going to play this next year because it did feel like an
exhibition. I think we're going to end up
getting Imboko and freaking like Kachanov as a team, and it's
like, why? I think that we're not going to
have the star power at this level going forward.
I'm interested to see. I mean, you might be right, but
at the same time, it's like like a check's a check and like these
were juicy checks. I really think that that's what
drew people is that is that even even like why?
The first round was kind of like, yeah, but like, make it,
make it to the quarters and like, you're you're pocketing
some fat money. I mean, to win.
But like, I mean, Irani Vavasori won $1,000,000.
Split a million, the finalists split 400,000.
I think the finalists split 200,000 and like yes.
I was like, pretty good. I don't know.
No, no, your perspective on on economics here.
But like I'd be happy with it. Oh, I, I, I use $100,000 as
toilet paper, but no, but $100,000, that's what you get
for the first round of singles. It's not nothing, but it's not
like Daniel Collins life did not change because she got a check
for. That there's structural barriers
for why it wouldn't work nearly as well at other Slams, too.
It's like the Wimbledon organizers don't want them
tearing up the lawn with mixed double s.
Like, so like there's, there's considerations.
I don't know if it makes sense to just have one random
different mixed double s structure for a tournament
during the year, but like, it's not up to me.
So we'll see where it goes. OK, an upcoming game folks, is
going to be how are each of the grand slams going to change
mixed double S like is Australia going to have all right, this
one, it's going to be out in the in the Outback and the French 1.
You have to smoke a cigarette. I don't know, because you're
right. We now are going to have
different formats and that's that's also weird.
It's weird, it is weird, but it's but it's also it's just a
referendum on like what's the future of mixed double S?
Maybe it was. Maybe it was time to ask the
question. Yeah, no, you're right.
Because they have had a few decades to get an audience and
they haven't. And so it's like, OK, what's,
what's the daily? And just like that, the US Open
is starting. We've got everyone in New York
again with Carrie and Miranda and Charlotte, and we've got the
first round starting tomorrow. Again.
Every day counts. So now the US Open starts on a
Sunday because why the hell not? So let's talk about the previews
of what's coming up, the matches we're excited about and make
some of our always spot on predictions.
So looking at the draws, they really are giving us some
popcorn matches this first round.
I mean, on the men's side, we've got Booblick versus Chilich,
former U.S. Open champion Chilich, my player
of the year, Sasha Bublek, who has just been on a tear,
although I don't know if he's actually played on hard courts
this summer because he went off and played a bunch of clay
courts after Wimbledon. Well, neither, neither has
chillage either really. So that's true.
But I but I cannot wait to see it.
Then we've got Lorenzo Moussetti, who has really been
on the skids since basically the clay court season going up
against Mpeshi Pericard. And Peshi Pericard was just
breaking sound barriers in the Winston Salem Open, served in
one match, the five fastest serves ever served at Winston
Salem, All of them. He's got all the records and you
know, they're all well over 140 miles an hour.
So that guy, I, I don't want to face him in the in an early
round. So that's going to be a, a
tricky one for Mousetti. And also, by the way, what the
Hell's going on with Mousetti? He's growing his hair out again.
He's no longer being a fashion icon and he's playing like shit.
Well, I don't know. I don't think hardcourts have
ever really been his surface. But no, he's going through a
dip. Whenever I see a player who just
seems to lose momentum out of nowhere, I assume it's something
physical. I, I just, and I think so many
players are carrying injuries that they're being a bit quiet
about. Yeah, there's probably something
physical going on. I think he's been wearing a like
an arm sleeve for a while now. Part of me has a theory that he
exploded into the zeitgeist with that APC kit.
Everyone was just oozing and gooing and gawing over him and
he just shut it all down. He is wearing the ugliest
fucking kits. He looks like a regular
schmegular boring fucking headband.
Because I think maybe just like when everyone's looking at you,
I'm sure you like look with you in that beard.
When everyone's looking at you, like you feel, you feel all eyes
on you. And it's like so.
And I'm. Like hey, hey baby, I.
Mean like I am Wolverine. OK, then we also have Novak and
Lerner TN TN loves playing a top TN player.
He definitely doesn't shrink from the spotlight.
That's that's going to be a tough match for Novak.
He'll have this and yeah, TN will have the support of the
crowd and Novak takes it. He takes a little time lately to
work his way into tournaments, like, he's not always bringing
out his best game, you know? Who'll also say that's true of
is Carlitos, who is facing Opelka in the opening round,
which is like, talk about a player that's not going to let
you get any rhythm in your game And like, to be honest with you.
Like, I have absolutely no idea how that one's going to turn
out. Yeah, no, it's funny.
Like Opelka is kind of like the opposite of Ito.
They're like opposite ends of the same spectrum where it's
impossible to get a rhythm against either of them.
From the women's side, some other great first rounders,
we've got your girl Pavlio Chenkova against Yastramska.
It's, it's funny because Pavs has had a great, I'd say a year
and a half, but like the last couple months have not been too
hot for her. And I think Yastramska has
actually carried some injury issues too.
Like it might be a like. Who?
Which one, which one doesn't wilt first, you know, and it's a
Ukrainian versus Russian match too.
So it's just like extra, extra emotional stakes.
They, they always are. I swear to God, these
tournaments are they have a sick, sick tendency to like they
always stick those, those contrasting players in the draw
together. And it's like, it's like, are
you trying to like create some drama here?
I kind of think so. What other matches on the WTA
side are you excited about? Well, come on, Kurji.
We talked about Kurjikova and Boko.
And Boko, OK, I'm not. I don't know that's I'm scared.
But you know, it's one of those matches where I will be happy
either way because I love in Boko as a rising star.
I think she's got a big game, bright future.
She seems like a total sweetie. And I, I love Krichikova, but I
also acknowledge, like, at this point, I'm used to the fact that
it's like my girl's always fighting something.
We don't, we don't know who's going to show up, and that's OK.
I've, I've made peace. A sleeper match I'm very
interested in is Zheng Shui versus Benchich, because yeah,
my girl Auntie Auntie Zhang has been looking real good, has
clawed her way back from that, that losing streak and is like
sitting just outside that, the top 100.
And bench is like, bench technically can be so good, but
then some, sometimes she just doesn't show up, you know, and
it feels like the energy is not there, so I don't.
Know her energy levels been low the last few few times I've seen
her play like ever since it was at the semi final at Wimbledon
where I mean she lost a toenail which is just like.
Oh God, I know. I, just like you, hate.
Since then, she hasn't really done much.
We know that every Grand Slam, there's always going to be a
surprise exit early. So on the count of three, I want
us to each name the top men's player.
Let's say top 15 men's player, who's going to crap out early.
Are you ready? Top 16 top top 1516 yeah OK yeah
yeah fine. OK OK ready yeah 321 Medvedev.
Yeah, yeah. Daniel, Daniel, Daniel.
I love you. I I will always be a fan of
Daniel Medvedev. I will, I will watch him play,
but he's just, he is lost right now and I don't think he even
knows how to find his way back. Yeah.
Why? Why are you picking Daniel?
If you just look at the the numbers, his serve speeds down,
his game has collapsed a little bit in the ways that were the
difference maker for him winning a tough match.
He's a confidence player. He plays well when he has belief
and when he doesn't, he like, like some of these men's players
like they just when they don't, when they're not feeling it,
they just are checked out. They're checked out.
There's a resignation to just being like it's not going to
happen and like you don't want to, you don't want to show
yourself fighting for it and then coming up short.
And he used to have, I think that's a great point because he
used to have a fighting spirit where like he didn't care if the
entire crowd was against him. Like when he first first on, he
loved overcoming the odds. He loved being the guy who was
your foil. Isn't that fighting spirit right
now? So.
No, but I think some of it is just the context of where you're
at in your career. It's like, yeah.
You know we exist in the. Context, Yeah, exactly why is
poet philosopher once said like, you know, he's he's won a slam.
And I'm sure, I'm sure for the first couple years after that he
was like, I'm going to get another one, I'm going to get
another one. But then when, when the belief
goes, you start to say, well, if this is it, I've done more than
most, you know. I don't think he ever recovered
from losing that final in 2024 Australian Open when he was up
two sets to love over Yonic Center.
That was his to win and it was going to be a second one.
And then he kind of would have been like ready to bow out.
And but it's just sort of like he's never he's never been in
the top conversation since. OK, on the ladies side, which
top woman is going to crap out early on the count of three?
To have someone in mind, consult your crystal balls.
Ready. Yeah. 321.
Oh, OK. I mean, we we both went pretty
brave with that actually, to be honest with you.
There's there's so many names like I could have said could.
Have been Andreva. It could have been an Emma.
Navarro. Yeah.
It could have been Navarro. Exactly.
Yeah. Who else?
Who else was that? Yeah.
Andreva. Exactly.
It's like, where has she been lately?
Where she been? Yeah.
I mean even like a Maddie Keys, it's like she could either win
it all or she could go out first round.
You never know. Maddie Keys like, come on, she
is, she's killing me lately. Her losses are not good losses.
I don't know what's going on. I mean, do you remember back
when she won the slam, the energy round?
Like, oh, she got a new racket And like it's like, wow.
Like like just all it took was an equipment change and it's
like all the pieces have fallen into place.
And like, I mean, she's, it's not like she's had a bad season,
but it's just hasn't been like the season you'd want after
winning a slam probably. It's like been a lot of very mid
performances, third rounds, quarters.
I'm just looking at it like, come on, girl.
That first week is going to be really exciting.
Who can make it to round three? Who can make it to round four
out of nowhere? And I do think, I think the tour
is cooked right now. I think people are fried in a
way that they haven't been in a while.
And I I think it opens the door to players who may be a little
bit younger, fresher. Their game is rawr, but rawr
rawr. Wait, OK, so real, real quick.
Who's your dark horse to make a run?
Not necessarily to win it all, but who's going to make a run?
Who are we going to be like? Whoa.
Shelton, I think I like his draw.
I like the way he's been playing lately.
I feel like he his game is so much more complete than it was a
couple years ago. I could see La Hatch, La Hatcha
making a run. Can I make an insane prediction?
Yeah. So I believe that in the fourth
round, Davidovich Fukina takes out Alcaraz.
That's that's assuming Alcaraz makes it to the fourth round.
Well, OK, OK, well, yes, this is true.
He might lose to a Palka or I. Really think he might lose to a
Palka. It's I mean, I hope I'm wrong
and I'm not. I don't know if I'm confident
enough to say that. I'd like put money on it, but I
just think that's a tough. I think it's a little bit of
wishful thinking too, though, because like Bellucci is playing
Jerry, Jerry Shang, who I love. I love Jerry Shang, but he's
coming back from injury. So it's, I feel like Bellucci
has a shot and I, I don't know, I kind of like who who would I
want Bellucci to face? Would I want him to face a Pelka
or or Carlito's? And actually, I don't even know
the answer to that. Yeah.
I mean, Bellucci's in my
bracket. I, I learned my lesson last time
where it's like I, I was thought I was being a realist and not
including him. And then he actually did really
well at Wimbledon, so. Yeah, for anyone who doesn't
know Coleman, he runs a bracket that I'm a part of, and
basically I just get him to tell me his predictions on this show,
and then I take those predictions and put them into my
bracket. I haven't won yet, but I keep,
I'll keep trying. OK, prediction time.
Who's winning it all on the men's side?
Who's taking it? Yannick, which, yeah, I mean
Sinner, but it's but yeah, but it's tough because assuming he's
back to full health, yeah, I mean, that's it.
Even a compromised Sinner is is heads and tails ahead of the
rest of the tour. So maybe Pop maybe Poppering
could cause him some trouble, but like, I doubt it.
Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely. I have Sinner taking it over
either Fritz or Shelton. And then the women's side, I do
have Sabalenka and Sviantek in the final.
I think. I think we're actually going to
have an in form final for the top 2 and I think Sviantek takes
it. Yeah, wouldn't surprise me at
all. I mean, Sabalenka has a really
good draw. And so I like there have been
question marks about her lately. Like, matches have been pretty
close and like, lower ranked players have taken it to her in
a way that they haven't usually in the past.
But I think her, I think her draw is easy enough in the first
few rounds that she can play her way into it.
Yeah. And fiance.
Yeah, Fiance is just just red hot.
Red hot and I don't think Sablink is going to win a Grand
Slam this year, even though she's number one, I don't think
she's taking one so. So Maria Zachary versus Maria
who's who's taking that first round match?
Zachary versus Maria. Yeah.
Oh, definitely, Zachary. OK, She's gets one win and then
she's out. Yeah.
I remember when it was semi final Zachary.
They don't. They don't even say that
anymore. I know, poor thing.
I know she's she's cooked. I actually adore her though,
like I adore her personality. She's so sweet in interviews,
like I I I'm rooting for her. But we're all rooting for her.
Yeah, and you got? To make it happen.
Yeah, sorry. Real, real quick.
What time is it? 137.
No, it's it's time for cross court.
Oh shit. It's back, I've got my little
gavel and my RGB. I mean, did did RTV have the
have the deck color Taj showing quite like that?
Like tits out showing off my cleavage.
My cleavage. It's out for the court.
Yeah. And we are going to have some
order in the court because we're going to end our show with cross
court. It's our segment talking about
all the things that are pissing us off in tennis and how to fix
them. It's called cross court.
And yes, Matthew and I are the line judge and jury.
So this is the third case that we are trying in cross court.
And this is the case of double S indemnity.
So good people of the court today we have the case of double
S indemnity. For far too long, Double S has
lurked in the shadows of singles, starved for attention
like a twink at the Eagle, lacking funds like a twink at
the Eagle, and being met with both derision and pity like a
twink at the Eagle. But I ask you, wherefore, when
we've been lucky enough to watch great double s, it's some of the
greatest tennis talent around. It's rarely dominated by serve
bots, or just a passing shot, or just a one hit wonder.
It's about angles. It's about craft.
It's about exceptional teamwork. And so the case today of cross
court, the question in front of us all is who is guilty for
keeping Double S from being a singular sensation.
And so we've got a couple of potential parties to place the
blame on. So is it the tournaments for not
providing enough prize money to entice top talent to hone their
Double S pedigree? Not just to enter one time a
year to play Double S because we saw what happened there.
Yeah, maybe it'll be a decent match, but we need top talent
coming in all the time, so let's get them more money.
Or is it the tours themselves for scheduling such impossible
calendars that there's just no time for a player to play both
singles and double S? Like a lot of tops used to come
on back in the day in the 80s and the 90s, early aughts, the
number one players in the world were also playing double S.
The Christie Everts, the Martina Navratilova, the Leighton
Hewitt's, you know, Andre Agassi, they were all playing
both of them. They don't do it anymore because
the tours are too challenging. Is it the media, the evil media
for rarely showing any double S matches on TV, making it really
hard for anyone not at the tournaments to give a crap?
Is it the players themselves for choosing a more solitary life?
Have we all become too addicted to our smartphones and social
media that we don't know how to have teamwork and community
anymore? Or is it the fans, the fans
themselves, us selves? I consider us fans and media for
not having a connection to Double S team that we have to
singles players. I mean, Matthew, you and I,
we've just spent three hours talking about how much we love
Daniel Medvedev and you've been talking about how much you love
Maria Zachary. Wherefore is the love for the
double S specialist? You know, other than Sarah,
Ronnie and Andrea Vasafouri, it's hard to know which one of
the specialists out there. So between those six potential
defendants, Matthew Coleman in this cross court, who is the
most guilty? It's a hung.
Jury for me, it's a hung jury because I feel I feel two of
these are most at fault and I would say on the one hand it's
it's the tours yeah, I think that that top players don't
invest in their double S careers because they're it's out of self
protection. They're like I they're like I
don't I literally don't know if I'm going to have to play two
matches in a day in a week where I'm playing a match every single
day and then have to throw a double S on top of that.
You know, I just think they, they know that it's not
sustainable and so they don't. But you know, what I just said
is that I'm talking about top singles players investing in
their double s career. Ultimately, if we're talking
about double S specialist, which is a whole different
conversation, there really is no one to blame except for
ourselves. I mean, it is a it is, it is a
marketplace and we are not showing up with the goods.
They're selling us their product and we're not buying it.
And I think that like, you know, yeah, we I, there's so much that
I love about double all the things you said, the the court
craft, all this. And I think double S, playing
double S is good for a single player's career in terms of
getting comfortable with certain shots and strategies.
But like, kind of can't blame anyone except for the the people
who are creating the demand. And that's us.
Yeah, yeah. I fear that it is me.
Hi, I am the problem. It is me, to quote the Bard
Swift. Yes, I love Double S too, but I
just don't seek it out. I have I have TC Plus, which
shows literally every tennis match that is possibly to be
aired on a television screen and I don't pick the Double S
matches. I only have so many hours in the
day and so many eyeballs and have one eye looking that way,
one eye looking the other way, a brown one looking down below,
and I can't possibly see much more tennis than I do.
But I do think that it is on us, the fans, to start watching the
double s and appreciating it. And so my punishment, the
verdict is in the punishment is to watch more Double S matches
for every Masters and Grand Slam tournament.
I don't know if it's good for our, if for our case that we're
calling this a punishment. Well, the, the penance, the the,
the way to make it right. OK, yes, correct.
My punishment would be having to watch Daniel Medvedev and the
Andreva play Double S again. That would be punishment.
That would be pure torture, you know?
Remind us what a what a good thing that we actually have that
we're not paying nearly. Enough.
Exactly, Exactly. And so, and anyone out there who
hasn't been to a Double S match in a while, I want you to
download Sniffies right now. Just kidding.
But let's give these Double S players and these draws the love
that they deserve. Let's get out there, let's watch
it. Just give it a try.
It's sweet, you'll like it. And maybe we can actually just
have great Double S players playing in the best Double S
tournaments in the world. And we'll fucking love it.
And they'll love it. And the TV and the media will
all come on board and be like, OK, yeah, great, great tennis is
great tennis. Let's get it so.
I mean, who doesn't love a good foursome at the end of the day?
Honestly. Like we shouldn't have to sell
this like it sells itself. It's 2025 people.
I know what y'all are doing out there.
We love a group. We love a group.
OK, that's cross court. I feel better already.
I feel in some ways I just went to confession, even though I'm
not Catholic, I'm a Buddhist, but I just confessed my sins and
I am now going to do some Hail Marys on my knees as I watch
Andrea Vavasori highlights. So that is our show.
Matthew Coleman, it is so great to see you.
I love it when you get your mouth on my mic.
Did you have fun? I did.
I always love airing my grievances with you.
Love it. Air your dirty laundry, get a
thong, whatever. Stinks.
Yeah, thanks. I cannot wait to have you on
again, which is going to be in just a few weeks when we are
going to recap the open. We're going to look at all of
our predictions and see how correct we are because I am sure
we are spot on as always. Until then, this court has
adjourned. Everybody enjoy the open, watch
some double s and we'll be back with you in just a few weeks.
Thanks, everybody. Bye.