Hey everybody, and welcome to the latest episode of The Ball
Boys. We are the tennis podcast that
puts the tourney in maternity. I'm your host, Paul Monk home
and today we're bringing you a special episode just in time for
Mother's Day. These days, the WTA is inundated
with moms on tour. Honestly, you can't enter a
tournament on the WTA without tripping over a stroller.
And no, I'm not talking about the latest Walker from Mateo
Barotini. It's like everyone and their
mother is having a kid. Maybe they should flip the W and
the WTA to be an M. And so today we are talking all
things Milfs. We have every type of mom on the
show. We've got moms I'd like to fact,
moms I'd like to fun, moms I'd like to face, and more.
We're talking our favorite moms on tour.
We're talking about players moms.
We've got some mom trivia and we're going to find out who the
next mom will be on tour with our always 100% accurate
predictions. Now, listeners, did you remember
to get mom something? If not, send her this episode or
better yet, listen to it together on the way to brunch
that you're going to take her to.
Look, she gave up her dreams of winning a Grand Slam for you.
The least you can do is take her for a Grand Slam breakfast.
And the only ball boy I could possibly do this with is my
favorite ball mom. You know her from previous
episodes. She's always serving mother.
It's Ivy Pakoda. Hey Ivy, how's it going?
Good, Paul, thanks for having me on this extra special Mother's
Day episode. Of course, of course, I
literally there's no one else I'd rather do it with.
And I'm so happy that you could join us.
Catch us up a little bit though. So it's been a minute since
you've been on the show. How's life?
You know, it's a weird week for me.
My own mother passed away this week, and people might think
it's weird that I'm recording this podcast so close to her
death, but I wanted to do something lighthearted and she
was always in my corner for my own sporting career.
And I know that she would really appreciate some levity too in
our lives. I miss her like hell.
She was irreverent and humorous, and I feel like this is an odd
but fitting tribute. So yeah, it's been a, it's been
a weird couple of months for me, but actually being on the
podcast has been one of the highlights of it.
It's like a total departure from all the other things I was
dealing with. Oh, that's great.
Well, and and we love you and I know everyone out there sending
you some love. It was from ALS, right?
Yeah, she died of ALS. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, from someone who was incredibly athletic, you know,
serious cyclist, very fit, you know, it's the worst disease you
could possibly imagine. And now she's in the light of
it, and I'm grateful. Yeah, well, thank you again.
We're going to have a great show and keep it light.
So I'm going to start with a 5 minute set of jokes about ALS.
Just kidding, that'd be so terrible.
Could you imagine? Here's a bunch of puns around
ALS and you are a mother. Of course.
You've got a gorgeous daughter, Loretta.
Is she old enough to spoil you on Mother's Day and give you a
proper Mother's Day yet? She's sort of at that, like, I
want to start buying stuff age but doesn't quite know how to do
it. So, you know, she asked me for
the money to buy me a gift. And then, you know, I'm
divorced. So, you know, it's always a
little tricky. Like, I buy her gifts to give
her dad and he does the same. But yeah, soon she'll spoil me.
Then I'll probably have to clean up the mess.
Yeah, exactly. Well, let's jump into the show
and we're going to start. We normally start off with our
Lobsbians, but of course for Mother's Day we have to have a
Moms VN. So it is just something about
moms on tour that has excited us, entertained us recently that
has made us just kind of feel a little bit gagged.
And there are a few things that I wanted to bring up.
I'm just so happy that Naomi Osaka has won her first
tournament back as a mother. She just won last week in
France. I don't know how to say Saint
Malo, however you say that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So Congrats to the mother. The mother has returned.
And I always find that for returning mother players, it's
that first tournament final win that can be a big hill to get
over. Sometimes it happens quickly,
sometimes slowly. I think it's big for.
Her sometimes you win lose 6 Grand Slam finals when you were
returning mother. We're going to get to that one
real quick. Another moms be in that I had
this week. This is not a humble brag or
brag at all because our social media following is not gigantic.
That's fine because we're more of a podcast.
But hey, please, if you're out there, feel free to follow us
over at TBB Tennis. That's at TBB Tennis on
Instagram, where we have things like our BTP and other roundups
and clips from the shows. But last week on our Bay TP we
had Hulgaruna featured and I tagged him in it and I tagged
all the players in it and his mom liked the post.
Amazing. He followed you.
Oh. No she didn't follow me.
She liked the post where I said her her boy is hot.
Which is. Like that?
She's like, Oh yeah, he's, he's
the 6th hottest player this week, according to this small
niche gay podcast. I like that.
I like that she's like looking for mentions of Hulgaruna on
Instagram. Yeah, she's like, how many times
has he mentioned? Oh, this one.
Oh, this one, Yeah. Oh yeah, yeah.
That's a great that's good momming.
I'm 100% that that's the good moms band you mentioned
thousands of times a day on Instagram.
Oh I know, and some of them probably aren't that nice so.
Well, I mean, so that's why she liked this one.
Yeah, it's actually exactly it's cover.
I am really happy for Naomi. She's a mom, but I don't feel
like she's a tour mom. But she doesn't bring the kid
with her a lot of the time. I've thoughts about that.
It's weird to me, you know? I mean I can't travel with her
now but I find it odd. I didn't know that the kid
didn't travel with her, that is. Not initially.
She might travel with her now, but her first tour back, Naomi
talked about how much she missed her.
I think she went to Australia first or something.
She talked about how much she missed her kid back home.
I said that kid is 8 months old. It's really weird to me.
Yeah, yeah, it's I mean, being a mom on tour has got to be real
freaking tough. So so that's our moms being
before we get into all the moms and fawning all over the moms of
the game, I want to play a quick game with you Ivy called Moms
I'd like to fact. So look, I know look, I know the
names are rough. There's not a lot of great F
words out there. I really tried to do this.
There's one great F word, but we're obviously not going to use
that on the show today for MILF. But we're doing moms I'd like to
fact. So in this game, I'm going to
try and get you to guess the mom within 5 clues.
And the clues are going to start off pretty vague and then get
increasingly helpful. So let's fact that Mom, I've
never seen it, but I think it's kind of like Blue's Clues.
It's kind of like Paul's balls. OK, Ivy, Are you ready for the
first one? Yes, I am.
OK, the first mom, she's an active player.
Oh, by the way, you get one guest per round.
Oh, she's an active player, OK. Oh, I was gonna say Belinda
Bench. Nope.
OK, she peaked. She has peaked at world #3.
We'll see. Azarenko was one.
Wozniacki was one. Snit, Alina.
You got it. Yeah.
Boom. Nailed it.
The next three clues are going to be no Grand Slams, Strasbourg
title and thigh tattoo. It's Strasbourg title, you
should have started with that. Doesn't everybody wait?
What? How would I?
Know that? Oh, she just won it.
That's right. Well, she she, that was her
first win back as a mom. For some reason I was like,
everyone knows that. But OK, this is also through the
filter of my my brain so. Rosberg.
It's Michael. Strasburg OK, OK, Next one
active player. Victoria Azarenka.
Nope. OK, former #1.
Carolyn Woziacki Yep, see this is.
Too OK this is way too easy. The next ones were going to be
U.S. Open blue spandex kit that year
that she wore like it was after her her she came back from oh.
Yeah, Oh. Yeah, it was the I.
Think the ranking is giving it away?
OK. Yeah, Yeah, yeah, that's too
easy. OK, Good, good, good.
Good to know. OK.
Was that blue? This is real time feedback.
You could have sent marathon runner.
For her, well, I had married a golfer.
Yeah, yeah. One Grand Slam OK, the next one
retired player. Serena Williams.
No. OK, married a basketball player.
Oh shit, who is that? I'll keep going.
Just launched a podcast the competition.
How dare she? She's.
Not the podcast. I don't know.
Four time Grand Slam champ listeners at home?
If you're guessing it, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I thought I forgot it was basketball.
I thought it was baseball. That's why I got confused.
She's one of my favorite. She for me is the OG tennis mom.
I fucking love her and her mom journey and I'm like one of the
worst parts of COVID and there were many bad parts was that it
derailed her third comeback. I mean, I feel like she's the
person who proved to people that they could be great after being
giving birth, and she was much better.
And she got out of that big shadow of that annoying Justin
Pennon, like that sour girl. That weird rivalry and she was
always kind of linked to her and.
And like, she was better, but then Pennon always outperformed
her. But yeah, then Kim Kleiser came
storming back. Yeah, she won three of her grand
slams after her first kid. She'd always been that.
That player who was so freaking athletic and talented, but she
kind of lost her nerve towards the end of tournaments and
finals, especially against Serena or Justine.
Motherhood changes you for many things.
As I know, as I've been through. And, you know, it's like some of
these moms, they come back and they I think they have like a
different perspective where they're like, no, I'm not going
to freak out over a break point because I got a freaking kid.
Like, you know what I mean? It's not like the pressure is
different. It's no longer the one thing in
your life. And so I think it can kind of be
like a really interesting thing for someone's game.
So I agree. Yeah.
You know, as an expert in momology.
All right, so that's game. That's that's mom's.
I'd like to fact you went three for three.
Congratulations, IV. What do?
I win a Bed, Bath and Beyond gift certificate for Mother's
Day. Oh, OK.
I think next Mother's Day we're going to have prizes.
Yeah, it's. Going to be a Father's Day.
Well, Father's Day is coming up. Exactly.
Father's Day is coming up. You're getting a gift
certificate till like you know what's the sock?
Factory. Yeah, to the sock factory or
like one of those like online sports betting things.
Oh yeah, FanDuel or something, Yeah.
Yeah, yeah. Which by the way, I don't want
to sidebar us too much, but all of the advertisements for
betting on tennis matches while these players are facing these
trolls online who are yelling at them for tanking matches.
Like it's just, there's the dissonance there.
It's too much. But we'll, we'll talk about that
for daddies. And I, by the way, I'm wearing
my father figure shirt for daddy's day.
I'll probably wearing some sort of mother shirt, you know?
Just, well, I got to get a shirt for Father's Day.
It's a big picture of Juan Martin del Potro.
I'm going to put that on my face.
OK, so now we're just going to have a little bit of a
discussion calling moms I'd like to fan.
We're just going to talk about moms on tour.
You know, it used to be pretty rare for moms to be playing
professional tennis. Players would just retire much
earlier sometimes to have a kid. But in the last 20 years, we've
just seen more and more moms come back on the tour after
having a baby. So I just wanted to highlight
some of our favorite moms from the last 20 years.
I've got some. I want to hear yours.
I'm starting out with the mother of mothers, Serena Williams.
She won her final Grand Slam in Australia 2017 while about 8
weeks pregnant. Now I couldn't help but wonder,
like, should she have? Technically shouldn't?
Isn't that a double S team? I don't know, like that just
feels like, I guess that's OK. She made several more finals
after giving birth, which was yeah, yeah, 6, which was
incredible. And like, wow.
Like I think many players, if they ever made one grandson
final, that'd be amazing. But I think our expectations
were different. And it just, it was so painful
to watch. I think it is odd like you know
your body changes what after you have a kid and no way you mean
to fat shame Serena but she didn't get back in shape after
having that kid after having Olympia and in a meaningful way
she was not in fighting for him for those 6 finals.
I'm like #1 Serena fan of all time.
I love her so much like but the post the motherhood comeback was
not my favorite motherhood comeback of women on tour.
It was hard to watch. I mean, I'm and then people just
say she wasn't good anymore. It's just not the truth.
She she was amazing, but she wasn't herself and that was hard
to see. Yeah, yeah.
And and you just know that the world collectively wanted her to
win one more because she finished with 23, one short of
Margaret Court, who is another mother who is not a a beloved
figure on this show just because of her really right wing
political and religious stances against homosexuality and you.
Know yeah, we'll put her on the Pride Week show.
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Good day. This is my impersonation of Mark
Hort. Good day.
Yeah. So I think there was this extra
global pressure because we all wanted to see one more win.
We just wanted it. We didn't get it, but by the
way, she looks freaking amazing these days.
I know. Where was that?
No, I mean, I know what it is. We all we you know, she looks
amazing. She looks incredible.
You know, I think, I think the recovery from her pregnancies
was really hard compared to other people.
And I think which is really hard for her to get back in shape and
that that happened and that's not her bulk at all.
Well, and it, yeah, I mean, it wasn't an easy birth.
She had like the the blood clot issue and she needed like the
the sort of skin tight suits and all like there's a lot going on.
You know who's back? Osaka looks fit as hell
suddenly. Yeah, she put in the water.
Has Yeah, she looks clean and, you know, she's lost sort of a
baby. She always had a baby face to
me. And now even after she had a
baby like, and now she looks like, like she looks ready to
go. Another mother and we, we, we
talked about her briefly. It was just Victoria Azarenka.
She wins the award for longevity of mothers on tour.
I mean, she had that kid. That kid is so old.
I think they're going to be like our first like mother, son mixed
double S team, like like literally like so he's almost 9
and she has, she has not talked about retirement.
She is just like, Nah, I just, I play tennis.
There's no quitting her. I've seen them together.
I was at a tennis charity tournament in Palm Springs
during the Indian Wells and she was playing it and she brought
him and it was really small event.
So I saw her hanging out with them.
Like she's, she's like a great mom and a tennis mom.
Like she's just all about him. She had him courtside.
They're chatting. I mean, she had no one helping
her. She was just brought him, you
know, just like I might take my daughter to the squash club.
She was just like really hands on, super relaxed, you know, not
no handlers. No, 'cause he's an adult.
Yeah, well, this is 2 years ago. He was seven.
Yeah, he's an. Adult but still like.
Now he's an adult. Yeah, he he, he drives around.
He's 0 ball boy. She got a built in helper but we
have to admit it killed her career.
Yeah, I mean it. Was world #1.
Yeah, no, it's true. And well, 'cause there were a
few years, though, where it was a kind of a contentious split
with the father and there was like, talk about like the kid
had to go back to Belarus or. Whatever other way around, he
wasn't take him out of the country and what happened, but
her husband was this like like golf caddy from some Country
Club where she was training and her his family sued her and
that's how it killed her career was she wasn't allowed to leave
the country. Right.
During this custody battle. So she like, just couldn't play
it for two years. Yeah, yeah, exactly.
Since then, it's just she's had some runs, she's made some
finals. She might have won a Masters a
couple years ago, but but yeah, she's she's kind of just
perennially in the top 30, top 20.
I don't really see her making it back to top 10 even.
And I don't, I don't know if she's going to win a Grand Slam.
I don't think that's Yeah, yeah. Sometimes I look at her career
earnings to see what she was walking away from.
And like, as of when she got pregnant, she was like, we're
like 19 to $20 million. So I see it both ways.
I'm like, you could have kept going here.
Or maybe that's just enough. She still is taking home
paychecks and and she Leo is going to be able to afford
college like it's going to be OK I.
Think so. Yeah, yeah.
So the last mom I just kind of wanted to highlight for this
moms that I like to fan, to fan out on is just the bench,
Belinda bench. Now this is someone who maybe
could be our next Grand Slam mom winner because she has come
back. She gave birth just over a year
ago. Her kid just turned 1.
She stormed back earlier this year by winning in Abu Dhabi in
February in Indian Wells. She had a great ranch, took out
three seeds including Coco, which you know, on any given day
is maybe. Actually, on any given day, you
can take out Sweet Altac. I think Sweet Altac's the new
Coco Oh. Oh well, she is #4 in the world
now, does up today. But the thing I love about Bench
itches, Bench itches, Bench itches.
That's fun to say. Bench's come back after
maternity is that she came back really smartly.
Matthew Coleman, another ball boy, pointed this out in a show
earlier. Her first 3 tournaments were
challengers. She got match fit, match ready,
match smart. And then she stormed back in
like the bench, like I fucking love the bench.
She's stalling out her come back a little bit right now, but
she's. I mean, you couldn't be more
correct. There's just match fitness and
match toughness is the thing that you lose.
You can be as fit as you fucking want, but like match readiness
is the what you get from playing matches back-to-back.
Like when I wouldn't play squash for a while, I can be in great
shape and I'm like, wait, I haven't played a match.
Like I haven't been in this position.
And like you fly to the French Open or Roland Garris or Roland
Garris or Wimbledon or Abu Dhabi, whatever you lose, it's a
huge trip. You lose in the first round.
It's usually burning energy and fuel like, you know, emotional
cool. You're right.
You play the local tournaments, you play, you play these
challengers, you play 10 matches and then you remember how to do
it. You also see if you still like
it is the other thing, you know, like I feel like it's a good
testing on see whether I like this, you know.
Yeah, like, yeah. Do you have the drive?
Yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, Like is this, is
this still it? And and also, I think just
getting used to playing in front of people, like the nerve, like
your practice session is one thing when it's just you and
your coach or you and your hitting partner.
But if you've taken the year off and your first match back is in
front of 10,000 people, bro, I don't, I don't.
And. Also and also you're figuring
out how to do it. Like, I don't know what their
situation is with their kid. My kid sure as hell wasn't
sleeping at 8 months. So like, you know, I just like a
smaller tournament. You're like, how do I play a
bathroom? Two hours of sleep, you know,
like I, I think that I, I think these women probably have a
little more support in financial help that I did, you know, like
from like people, but you know, but they night nurses.
I don't know. You know what that's really what
I want to know is like no one will ever talk about like how
how hands on are they? Yeah, yeah, no, I love it.
It's like the baby has their own physio.
The baby has like a mental, a stretching coach, you know, it's
got like a whole team. Yeah.
But I do want to save a little time for us, though, because
we've got to talk about some players, moms, so dad's on tour
and we're going to get to that in the daddy show.
Problematic as hell, but there are some moms they're they're
either just incredible coaches or just completely destroying
the style game in the box. I just wanted to talk through a
few of them with you. So Bebe Bianca Andrescu's mom.
Mama Andrescu. Mama Andre Momdrescu like she
is. Oh my God, Momdrescu.
There we go. There's this.
That's the name of the show. Momdrescu.
Mom Dressku is just like Bianca stormed onto the scene.
So did Maria because suddenly we've got this box and this this
lady is just in head to toe something something couture like
it's it's like AB fab where like she's got every label on yeah.
Did she have a dog in the box like a?
Little dog. That's Coco.
OK, Coco. BB and Coco.
Mom Drescue Mom Drescue looks like every Bravo reality star
take it and put into one human being.
Yes, yes, like every single person.
And I would like I I'm not a huge Bravo watcher, but I would
watch that show. Oh my God, like the real house,
The Real Housewives of Mom Drescue and it's just her.
Yeah, and it's not even like about the tennis.
It's about I want to watch her, like go and eat something.
I want to watch her pick out an outfit I like.
She is just, she is just fun. Like have you seen her talk and
do you know what she's like? Yeah, she's really smart.
Like she's like a financial advisor or something.
I think Bebe's their only child and they love each other.
Like, like they're super close. They're so extra.
By the way, Bebe's looking so fit these days.
She's super fit looking. Look what I love about Bebe, and
I'm just going to say is she's not extra on the court.
She's super pared out on the court, just like very kind of
jockey and like bike shorts and a bra top, like camisole top,
cami bra. And but off court she's like a
junior mom dress coup, yo-yo. And I've seen on Instagram, I
watched a video of them doing their makeup together in the
morning. That's cute.
That is cute, Andres, who? She is looking great.
And yeah, another friend of the pod, David Kane.
Hey, David. He works in tennis journalism at
the Tennis Channel. He did an article about her.
It just came out today or yesterday.
About how. Yeah.
About Bebe, about how she's like.
I think she finally realized, like, she had a huge opportunity
and she's kind of lost a few years.
The clock is ticking. And I think she's I think she's
back, but I think she's like 2425.
Like, it's 23. Oh, she's only 23.
Yeah. Oh, she got tons of time.
Never mind. She's unless she had a birthday,
I'm fairly sure she's 23. OK, well, either way, it's kind
of like Tommy Paul had a realization like that a few
years ago. Like, hey, yeah, talent.
She just turned 24. OK, yeah.
It's like, hey, I'm talented, but like if I want to get to
that next level or get back to winning slams, like I got to
like stepping up a little bit. And so she's committed BD.
She's really injured though, like those weren't, she wasn't
like fucking off to like go like party.
She she like worked her body and she seems to look physically.
I, I feel like I'm always commenting on women's bodies,
but I feel like I get to do this because like, you know, not
because. I sure can't.
Well, she was like not overweight in the slaves, but
she was meteor. She was chunkier.
She was stronger. Now she's deep down.
Yeah, she's she was beefy in like a really good way.
Like I feel like I look to like I was like what?
That's like my kind of body type, you know, like basically
not that I'm attracted to that. I look like.
But now she's way slimmer way. So I think she's like sort of
and I think maybe that's gonna have like whatever she's done.
It's not like she's skinny or lost muscle, but she's leaner.
It maybe this is going to help with the injuries.
Whatever she's rebuilt. She's been at the Morota Glue
Academy. She looks amazing.
She should do top five players. She's a top five player.
I I hope so, I love her game. And then more mom dress goo.
More mom dress goo. And I like I so AB fab, you are
so right, like sitting there in the bottle and Bebe won the US
opening at Serena. They kept cutting to this
person. I was like, who is that?
Iconic. Yeah, Yeah.
It's just sunglasses a lot of like a like that hair and like
it was like some like swap meet Gucci like or Poochie or swap
meet Versace like print blouse with like chains of like.
Did you go to a mall in Dubai and buy that at the like the
nail rack? Duty free.
It was like duty free at the airport.
Yeah, it's fucking amazing. And then on the other end of the
sort of like mom box spectrum, we've got Candy Goth, who I also
love. She is a coach of Coco's.
I mean, Coco Goff has had several coaches, but Mom Goff
has always been part of the team, travels with her, is such
an emotional support, such a rock that she's a former
athlete. She was a college athlete, I
think in track. And there's a lot of problematic
dads on tour. But like these moms who go on
tour, who are strategic coaches, emotional support, know the
game. Candy Goff, that is like a great
tennis mom to have in your box. Like that's going to help you
win. Like Mom Drezcu might not help
you win. She's just fucking fierce.
Candy Goff going to help you win and.
Like Mom Drezcu was in my box. I'd fucking win.
She's like, we need more. We need more money to buy more
like alcohol for mez scarves. She's got her Birkin.
She's just like putting money into the Birkin.
Yeah, 100%. OK, fair.
I want to see light beer with candy golf.
Why a lot? What do you mean?
You know, she looks like a lady who drinks a lot of light beer.
I, I remember reading a Coco Brooke on to the scene that her
parents owned a sports bar in Delray Beach.
And I'm like, I just want to go there and drink beer with her
parents and watch tennis. Oh my God, that would be so
freaking fun and then Coco comes in and we're just like all hang
out yes, that that would be great.
I like candy. She's.
Serious. Yeah.
You know, it's a, it's a different type of thing.
Like not every athletes gonna have an athletic mother.
But if you do, it should be someone you can look up to and
emulate and like, you know, take a page out of their book.
And I think, you know, I hope to do that for my daughter.
I think she's becoming a better version of me on court.
Like, I was kind of a neurotic mess.
I think it's kind of cool for Coco to be able to look over
there and see these pretty, you know, low key people.
Dad gets nervous he has to leave.
But Mom. Is yeah, that's it exactly.
I love that when it whenever the camera goes on to to candy, she
doesn't look nervous. She's just like calm.
She's like a really like positive influence in force and
energy like 100% yeah. And I think that she got that in
the the last mom box that I want to last mom's box that I want to
call out. I don't know, you know, I don't
know the language moms, I don't know.
But like the blueprint of that or maybe maybe a slight
inspiration for that was Oracine Price Serena the.
Godmother of all tennis moms. Unbothered, sitting in the box
no matter what's going on on the court.
Nothing stoic, just watching, you know she would enjoy.
Like she would clap and cheer when it was going well.
Watching. Sometimes I thought she might
not be watching. She was just there.
Oh, there were times behind those sunglasses, I was sure her
eyes were closed. She was taking a nap.
Like, she was just like, perched up, just showing up on the tour.
And then for a while, though, I mean, after the divorce with her
and Richard, you know, she was the coach of Serena for a while.
So she was actively involved and.
Also an athlete. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And I think that she was just, again, like this calm.
Like, I'm not a parent. I'm definitely not a mom, but I
could imagine, like, watching your kid play, you get like,
really into it and like, oh, my God.
Like it's like, oh, oh, oh, you care so much.
And that's probably not helpful versus, like, these parents who
are steady. Also, Orsin had some nice drips.
She, like, was wearing, like, the looks and like, really kind
of like, yeah, the hair, everything just gorgeous.
Yeah. And we already talked a little
bit about Holger's mom, Annika. I think we got a shout out Judy
Murray here. Oh my God, yes.
Yeah, we cannot overlook Judy Murray.
Tell me, tell me more about your Yeah, tell me more about her.
He'd break. I love her too.
Like, I don't know whether Andy Murray had a dad or anything.
I never even heard of him. Who?
Knows. And who knows?
Judy Murray was just like throughout his career in his
box, she was a staunch supporter.
Like tough as shit. Like I wouldn't want to see Judy
Murray to barf, but like. No, no.
But I think I, I can't remember any of her jokes now, but I
think that because Andy Murray has a great sense of humor and I
think he got it from her. Like she was like always kind of
taking a piss. And she raised him right, like,
you know, he is AI say, Andy Murray, tennis feminist, and you
get that from your mother. And so whatever he taught, she
taught him. And he really respects her and
she respects him and like she did something amazing for that
kid. And I, I think, you know, even
as a much older player, if he wanted his mother in his box for
a reason that she's like strong and forceful and you know, she
didn't attracted from the she's like shut down the haters, but
in a calm way. She's not hysterical.
That woman's cool. Yeah, she is so cool.
That's a good call out. Judy Murray, fucking love you.
Now, just a real quick segue into moms.
I'd like to Futog. So Futog, that sounds way dirty
than it is. Futog is just a town in Serbia.
Look, there's not a lot of great F words except for the 1 great F
word. So hey Ivy, you want to hear a
joke? Yes.
So Novak has recovered from his stye, but I sure haven't.
So I have prepared yet more jokes and this time it's about
how he celebrates his wife on Mother's Day.
His wife, Yelena, I almost said Yelena Yankovic.
Yelena Djokovic. They've been together forever.
They've got like 4 kids now, three kids, I don't know, but
very happy family. He loves her.
So what flowers does Novak buy his wife for Mother's Day?
I don't know tulips. No styruses.
Oh, OK. I'm not over the sty.
Yeah, sorry. What cuisine does Novak take
Yelena out to for Mother's Day? Italian.
Sty Italian. Yes, yes, yes.
OK, you got it. You're getting it, you're
getting it. And what does Novak Djokovic
make? Sure?
He says to Yelena on Mother's Day.
Sty, love you. Boom, got it.
Sty love you. So there's three more sty jokes.
I know every. So we're up to 16 sty jokes and
I will not end. I'm going to keep up with the
sty jokes until I can't possibly think of anything else that
rhymes with stye. And there's a lot that rhymes
with stye. So OK, that was mom's I'd like
to futog and now we're going to play another game.
You ready for another game? We're going to play mom's I'd
like to face. And so look, we've talked about
this already. Motherhood changes you.
I speak from experience and that's definitely true when it
comes to tennis. Some of these moms come back and
they are boss ass bitches with real top energy.
And so I want to I want to play a game where we get to who is
the top mom. And so Ivy, what I'm going to do
is I'm just going to give you 2 names at a time and you have to
pick one and then. I've seen this on the Internet.
Yeah, exactly. The kids are all doing it.
We're going to make a TikTok out of it, so we're going to dance.
And so these are all players who have played tennis after giving
birth. So it's not just like any mom.
So it's like, OK, they they came back as moms.
And so we're just going to go until we end up with the
ultimate tennis mom. It's the mom I'd like to face.
I guess maybe the mom I wouldn't like to face.
But again, it's an F word. So Are you ready, Ivy?
I can't wait. OK.
Patrick Kavidova or Angelique Kerber Kevidova, Patrick
Kavidova or Victoria Azarenka. Azarenka.
Victoria Azarenka or Taylor Townsend.
Azarenka. Victoria Azarenka or Belinda
Bench. Azarenka.
Victoria Azarenka or Sloan Stephens, who's a step mom?
Azarenka. Victoria Azarenka or Caroline
Wozniacki. Azarenka.
Wow, you are riding hard for Azarenka.
OK, Victoria Azarenka or Naomi Osaka.
Azarenka. Victoria Azarenka or Serena
Williams, Serena Williams, Serena Williams or Kim Closters.
Tricky one. Yeah, you got to pick Kim
Closters. Kim Closters or Elena Svidelina.
Oh, that's a tough one, Kim Kleisers.
All right, that's it. So the top mom that and I
completely agree with almost everything you said.
I think you wrote for Victoria maybe a little too hard, but I I
get it. I get it.
But yeah, Kim Kleisers. You can't compare Azureka and
benches. His bench is only in bad for
like 3 months you know, So we don't know, you might just like
lose everything from now on. And like then we put her
forward. We wouldn't put her forward in
this really important game and we what would we do?
I know, I know people would come back.
We. We.
Need to rerecord this episode. I know because people are going
to be pissed, but OK, I agree. We've got the yeah, so we've got
the ultimate tennis Mom is Kim Kleisters, and I am.
I am fully agree with that. I fuck God, if I could, if I
could somehow find a way to get Kim Kleisters to come back one
more time. It's definitely not going to
happen. But she I think she invented the
like, she was like the first one, not the first, but her
splits on the court. She was just a jock.
It was amazing. OK, well, so we are about to
kind of wrap up the show. It's just a short little mom
show because hey, mom's got a lot of things to do today, but
the last thing that we're going to do is moms.
I'd like to fruit. It's just, I don't know, you
know, whatever. I have two questions.
Who is the next player who's somewhere in like the top 100 or
top 80? Who's going to become a mom?
It's prediction time. Oh boy, it can't be top 100
because no one cares. We have to be top 30, right?
Well, yeah, but you know, I mean, look like Naomi or some
people are not, some people have not made it back to the top 30
who are names. Danielle Collins.
Even though she just crushed Fiantech, she's going to.
Yeah, because she has that endometriosis and she's talked a
lot about how she wants to the kids sooner rather than later.
Yeah. I would not be surprised if not
immediately, but Sabalenka has a kid in the next couple of years.
Oh, interesting. Oh, that's not on my radar.
But yeah, I mean, she because yeah, she's like 2728.
In a few years, she'll want to have a kid.
Yeah, is she that old? Yeah, she was born in 98 so.
How do you know that? The must have said it on TV
recently. I have a tennis podcast.
This is what I do. I read Wikipedia at night when I
can't sleep of like tennis players.
She has this boyfriend that she's obsessed with and she
loves. Yeah, very cute relationship and
she's talking about it. She is my dark horse and
Danielle Collins is mine, though I don't know if Danielle Collins
has a partner. Danielle Collins and the other
Madison Keys. Oh, another I love.
Yeah, I'm. Going with keys over Collins and
then Sabalinka as the dark horse, Who are you picking?
OK, so my picks are are different.
My first one is and this one is maybe like a little bit of a
trick question or trick answer. What?
Because of the man. Yeah, exactly.
You're we can have babies too. No Pala bodosa because I think
she's honestly about to retire. Like her back is fucked.
She pulled out again, She's she's ranked #10 right now, but
she can barely play and she's in so much pain.
I feel bad for her. And I think that she and Sissy
Pass just got engaged. I think that I think they're
going to have a kid. That's an absolutely good call,
but I think Madison Keys, who just got married, is a better
call. I think, I think, I think that's
close. I, I, I agree.
No, Maddie. Maddie is a really good call.
But then I think she's going to retire.
I don't think she's going to come back.
No, Maddie ain't coming back. No, no, no, no.
I also, I think that like unplanned pregnancies are much
rarer obviously than, you know, 100 years ago, but like.
Don't. Don't just Naomi Osaka.
Well, exactly. You know what, It does happen.
I get a weird vibe and maybe this is just because of like the
whole like ickiness around it, but like Robakana and her coach,
like that coach crazy guy. I could see her getting knocked
up. I don't know, and like and and
and just being so like gaslit into hit by the coach that she's
just like going to take off time and have a baby.
I don't know. I could see it as part of his
Machiavellian way of controlling her.
You know, these are not love stories.
I'm not like like a. A beautiful A beautiful Mother's
Day tale of later Robacana being knocked up by her abusive coach
and being forced to keep the baby for his Machiavellian
fascination. A heart warming Hallmark card.
I love you as much as Robacana's husband loves her and Coach
loves her. Yeah.
Wow.
And I'm not leaving you folks. Yeah, Good night.
Yeah. So those.
Well, so. OK, so those were the 2 that I
had on my radar. I'm trying to think about if I
have 1/3. No, I think.
I think it's a good thing. You've got a pretty standard
pick, a good pick, but Doe says logical and then I have A and
then you've got a dark horse. Weird one.
I have a lot very logical one. Yours a dark.
Mine is dark, yeah. But honestly I think that all
all of them are viable. All of the pregnancies are
viable. So folks, tune back in in like
12 months when we update yeah, predictions.
Yeah, we'll, we'll just, we'll be in the 4th trimester by then
and we'll see what, what, what has happened.
And last question, who is going to be the next mom to win a
Grand Slam? So we had Cloisters win 3 who
like is and and she might not be a mom yet.
I mean, the people, the person is going to come the closest
right now is Fidelina, you know, but I don't think she'll win 1.
I don't think, I don't think Benchester is going to win a
Grand Slam. If you want to know the truth,
yeah, Fidelina's got a better shot.
I would say I fuck it, Osaka. I completely agree.
I think it's going to be Naomi. I think that she is, she is back
in in form and hopefully getting there mentally and hopefully,
you know, keeps that fire building.
It's just tough though because Sabalinka is so dominant on hard
courts now, but. When she gets pregnant, it's
not. When she's out, exactly when
tiger, when the tiger becomes Tiger mom, then we will have
yeah, Osaka can have a window and yeah, take the Australian,
maybe next year. You know who might have a kid?
Pagula. She got married.
Oh, right. Yeah.
She got, like, secret, not secret married, but like, it
wasn't like, as big of a story. Yeah, No, that's a good one.
That's Pagula. Could definitely have a kid.
OK, Well, hey, that's our show, our celebration of moms.
Ivy, you are the mother of all ball boys.
Thank you so much so much. Fun.
Always love having you on here. Are you gonna come back real
soon? I'm coming back for the Dads and
Daddies episode. It's gonna be real dirty and
real paternal. Oh my God, all the dad jokes.
So folks, get ready for that. And also get ready.
We're going to be back in a few weeks to preview Roland Garros,
unpack all the rest of the action on the tour.
Sinner's going to be back. Is he going to be on a tear?
I don't. Know if he.
Wins today. He literally it's on the
background right now. He just started his match, so
I'm going to tune into that now and everyone else should as
well. I'm sure you're all going to be
watching and all I can say is Mamma Mia to that.
So thanks everybody and we'll see you real soon.
Happy Mother's Day, mom Sty. Love you.