1 00:00:00,720 --> 00:00:05,120 It's time for let's get some ground strokes baseline. 2 00:00:05,640 --> 00:00:09,240 It's top spin. That's LGBT. 3 00:00:09,920 --> 00:00:14,720 Have a listen. Make some noise with the ball 4 00:00:14,840 --> 00:00:23,200 boys. Hey everybody, and welcome to 5 00:00:23,200 --> 00:00:24,800 the latest episode of The Ball Boys. 6 00:00:25,240 --> 00:00:28,240 We are the tennis podcast that puts the hoe in Hobart. 7 00:00:28,800 --> 00:00:30,920 I'm your host, Paul Monkle. I'm bringing you the insights, 8 00:00:30,920 --> 00:00:34,760 outbursts, giggles and wiggles of the ATP and WTA tours. 9 00:00:36,280 --> 00:00:41,520 So how's 2026 going? I said on the last show that I 10 00:00:41,520 --> 00:00:45,240 was pretty optimistic, but I'm worried that the heated rivalry 11 00:00:45,240 --> 00:00:48,640 effect is starting to cool off. Did the fever break for anybody 12 00:00:48,640 --> 00:00:51,120 else? Look, I'm trying to stay out of 13 00:00:51,120 --> 00:00:53,400 the cottage, but Shane keeps changing the locks. 14 00:00:54,400 --> 00:00:57,240 Now I'm not ready to say this year is going to suck, but can 15 00:00:57,240 --> 00:00:59,760 we get a break? Honestly, the world feels 16 00:00:59,760 --> 00:01:03,720 crazier and crazier every day and somehow we just keep topping 17 00:01:03,720 --> 00:01:06,760 ourselves. And look, there's no great joke 18 00:01:06,760 --> 00:01:08,160 to cover. The great joke that is the 19 00:01:08,160 --> 00:01:11,000 current administration, the state of politics, the 20 00:01:11,000 --> 00:01:15,320 intimidation, the fear tactics. And I also acknowledge this is 21 00:01:15,320 --> 00:01:17,960 not the first time I'm saying this on the show, and I do hope 22 00:01:17,960 --> 00:01:21,400 for a time when I won't have to. But in the meantime, all I can 23 00:01:21,400 --> 00:01:24,320 say is the ball boys are here for you, and hopefully we can be 24 00:01:24,320 --> 00:01:28,320 a small distraction and a moment of levity for you through all of 25 00:01:28,320 --> 00:01:32,360 this garbage. And in other tragic news, it was 26 00:01:32,360 --> 00:01:35,280 the Golden Globes, where this year they honored podcasts for 27 00:01:35,280 --> 00:01:37,880 the first time. And no, that's not the tragedy. 28 00:01:38,280 --> 00:01:41,000 No, the tragedy is the ball boys weren't even nominated. 29 00:01:41,720 --> 00:01:44,560 And we end up losing to Amy Poehler of all people. 30 00:01:45,280 --> 00:01:47,720 How anyone can stand her is beyond me. 31 00:01:48,120 --> 00:01:51,280 Do people even like her? Oh, my God, I'm just kidding. 32 00:01:51,280 --> 00:01:53,000 Amy, I love you. I'm obsessed. 33 00:01:53,040 --> 00:01:56,680 Please come on the pod. But also in terms of the tour, 34 00:01:56,680 --> 00:02:00,400 we are off to a Kraken start. We had a Brisbane final ripped 35 00:02:00,400 --> 00:02:03,320 from the headlines, we had top players continuing their 36 00:02:03,320 --> 00:02:07,400 exhibitionism, we had Novak pulling out of everything and a 37 00:02:07,400 --> 00:02:09,360 United Cup. That was the most fun and 38 00:02:09,360 --> 00:02:11,520 exciting group watch I've had in years. 39 00:02:12,400 --> 00:02:15,520 We'll be covering all of that and we just released a new Bay 40 00:02:15,520 --> 00:02:18,840 TP rankings, our first of the year, and you can head on over 41 00:02:18,840 --> 00:02:22,680 to our Instagram to see that. And again, our Instagram is at 42 00:02:22,680 --> 00:02:26,160 TBB Tennis. That's at TBB Tennis. 43 00:02:27,120 --> 00:02:30,320 Now to do all this, I've got one of my favorite ball boys with 44 00:02:30,320 --> 00:02:33,280 me. He's the didgery do to my you 45 00:02:33,280 --> 00:02:37,120 beta didgery don't. He's got the high koala tea 46 00:02:37,120 --> 00:02:42,000 tennis takes matched only by his Tasmanianly devilish good looks. 47 00:02:42,720 --> 00:02:44,560 It's Matthew Coleman. Hi, Matthew. 48 00:02:44,560 --> 00:02:47,480 Welcome back to the POD. What's up Paul? 49 00:02:47,640 --> 00:02:50,600 Am I the Am I the dingo? The HO baby? 50 00:02:50,600 --> 00:02:55,280 Oh yeah, the dingo, The dingus. Yeah, that's more like it. 51 00:02:55,600 --> 00:02:59,040 The dangus. Did you make a resolution? 52 00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:05,240 You know, I think this year I want to be the reason that a pro 53 00:03:05,240 --> 00:03:07,640 tennis player comes out of the closet because they fell so 54 00:03:07,640 --> 00:03:11,000 deeply in love with me that they cannot hide that love from the 55 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:13,280 world for even a second longer. Wow. 56 00:03:14,560 --> 00:03:16,800 Wow, that's I think a beautiful resolution. 57 00:03:18,000 --> 00:03:21,000 So first you got to make me famous through the pod and then 58 00:03:21,000 --> 00:03:22,840 you got to like you got to, you got to get me in the inner 59 00:03:22,840 --> 00:03:25,040 circle. Then it's a whole 12 step plan 60 00:03:25,040 --> 00:03:26,560 here, OK? Like we got to get moving. 61 00:03:26,920 --> 00:03:28,880 You mean more famous? Because I mean our the family 62 00:03:28,880 --> 00:03:31,720 level is pretty damn high. We we lost to Amy Poehler. 63 00:03:31,840 --> 00:03:34,080 How many podcasts can say that? Well, every podcast. 64 00:03:34,240 --> 00:03:38,320 But Hollywood? Was was scared to nominate us. 65 00:03:38,760 --> 00:03:40,160 They were scared to nominate us, yeah. 66 00:03:41,280 --> 00:03:44,720 Exactly, that's what it was. No, I, I, I love that. 67 00:03:44,720 --> 00:03:48,000 I love that your resolution is not at all about self 68 00:03:48,000 --> 00:03:49,440 improvement. It's just about. 69 00:03:50,040 --> 00:03:52,960 I'm perfect, yeah. What do I need to improve? 70 00:03:53,200 --> 00:03:55,800 Honey, honey, I we all see it. We all. 71 00:03:55,800 --> 00:03:58,000 Can hear it. I'm perfectly imperfect. 72 00:03:58,080 --> 00:03:59,640 How's that? That's beautiful. 73 00:04:00,760 --> 00:04:02,800 Well, look, I don't know if I actually said it on the last 74 00:04:02,800 --> 00:04:05,800 pod, but I was thinking it just based on the heated rivalry 75 00:04:05,800 --> 00:04:07,640 effect. There's already been a pro 76 00:04:07,640 --> 00:04:10,160 hockey player who's come out. I don't know what league. 77 00:04:10,160 --> 00:04:12,600 I don't think it was the NHLI think it was some other league. 78 00:04:13,480 --> 00:04:16,959 I do believe that there is going to be a tennis player in the top 79 00:04:16,959 --> 00:04:21,440 150 who comes out, maybe not this year, but sometime in the 80 00:04:21,440 --> 00:04:24,480 next. I'm going to say 18 months to 24 81 00:04:24,480 --> 00:04:26,160 months. So we've got to get you in front 82 00:04:26,160 --> 00:04:28,120 of these, in front of these players. 83 00:04:28,360 --> 00:04:32,760 I think that's what's going. To happen in a trench coat, 84 00:04:32,760 --> 00:04:34,360 nothing else. And then I just open the trench 85 00:04:34,360 --> 00:04:36,920 coat and then they're like, how can I resist that? 86 00:04:37,760 --> 00:04:39,040 I don't think it works like that. 87 00:04:39,240 --> 00:04:43,240 I I wish in my dream. Well, you know, well, I'll take 88 00:04:43,240 --> 00:04:45,680 you coat shopping sometime soon. OK, great. 89 00:04:46,800 --> 00:04:48,600 Did you watch Heater Rivalry and if so? 90 00:04:48,600 --> 00:04:53,440 Of course, listen, I like I'm I'm ASAP for a happily happily 91 00:04:53,440 --> 00:04:56,240 ever after. So like heater rivalry was was 92 00:04:56,440 --> 00:05:00,640 totally my jam. I will say in recent weeks, 93 00:05:00,800 --> 00:05:04,960 people's parasocial relationships with these actors 94 00:05:04,960 --> 00:05:08,280 is really disturbing me. I'm like scared for them. 95 00:05:08,320 --> 00:05:09,880 I'm like. Leave these. 96 00:05:10,400 --> 00:05:13,840 Actors alone, like let them let them breathe. 97 00:05:14,800 --> 00:05:17,120 And it's like I I, you know, you're falling in love with 98 00:05:17,120 --> 00:05:19,560 someone and like becoming obsessed with someone because of 99 00:05:20,400 --> 00:05:22,680 the fictional character that they portray. 100 00:05:23,000 --> 00:05:26,080 And I'm like, can we just go back to old fashioned like like 101 00:05:26,080 --> 00:05:29,240 let's let's be para socially obsessed with with tennis 102 00:05:29,240 --> 00:05:31,240 players. It's like they're real, you 103 00:05:31,240 --> 00:05:33,800 know, exactly. They're real people. 104 00:05:33,800 --> 00:05:37,040 They're not characters like that are scripted on ATV show. 105 00:05:37,720 --> 00:05:40,120 Right. How are you feeling about the 106 00:05:40,120 --> 00:05:42,120 season so far? I mean, we're two weeks in, but 107 00:05:42,640 --> 00:05:45,200 tons is going on. What's your hot take over all? 108 00:05:45,880 --> 00:05:47,920 I mean, generally, I think it's been really fun. 109 00:05:47,920 --> 00:05:49,280 I feel like we already have narratives. 110 00:05:49,720 --> 00:05:54,400 We have some nice resurgences from some of my favorite players 111 00:05:54,400 --> 00:05:56,360 from years past. It feels like people are 112 00:05:56,360 --> 00:05:58,480 stepping back up to the plate and they're being like, no, no, 113 00:05:58,480 --> 00:06:00,960 no, no. Like like Mr. Hubert, her catch 114 00:06:01,960 --> 00:06:03,600 is 11. Classic example. 115 00:06:03,760 --> 00:06:05,160 We'll get into that later. We'll get into but. 116 00:06:05,160 --> 00:06:07,200 We will. We had a way into Hubie later. 117 00:06:07,880 --> 00:06:11,800 But I mean, it's the problem is it's literally the first couple 118 00:06:11,800 --> 00:06:14,000 weeks of the season and we already have players that 119 00:06:14,000 --> 00:06:15,840 injured. We're barely out of the gate. 120 00:06:16,120 --> 00:06:19,240 So that's like really upsetting and disturbing to me. 121 00:06:19,240 --> 00:06:23,000 And I'm like, I just, I don't like seeing people's careers 122 00:06:23,000 --> 00:06:27,240 seemingly implode in real time. It's a really depressing, I 123 00:06:27,240 --> 00:06:31,120 mean, luckily there's enough depth for now where it's like, 124 00:06:31,120 --> 00:06:33,800 OK, we still have a lot of really intriguing storylines 125 00:06:33,800 --> 00:06:34,840 coming up for the Australian Open. 126 00:06:34,840 --> 00:06:37,920 But you're right, there are. So I mean, for this early in the 127 00:06:37,920 --> 00:06:42,160 season, for so many people who have been pulling out of things 128 00:06:42,160 --> 00:06:43,760 left and right, I'm concerned too. 129 00:06:44,080 --> 00:06:46,720 Yeah, yeah. But I, I will say it might maybe 130 00:06:46,720 --> 00:06:50,600 my last kind of hot take about the season just very, it's 131 00:06:50,600 --> 00:06:54,760 officially is I'm like really excited about this kind of 132 00:06:54,760 --> 00:06:59,240 rising crop of, of youngsters on both the men's and the women's 133 00:06:59,240 --> 00:07:01,640 side. Like I'm, I'm, I'm invested. 134 00:07:01,720 --> 00:07:06,080 There's a few kind of people kind of hovering around their 135 00:07:06,080 --> 00:07:08,080 breakout. That's what I'm most excited 136 00:07:08,080 --> 00:07:12,080 about for slams is to see what what new names become part of 137 00:07:12,080 --> 00:07:16,400 the conversation, because I don't want to see the sport just 138 00:07:16,400 --> 00:07:20,160 become the Yannick and Carlos in arena show. 139 00:07:20,160 --> 00:07:22,120 It's like I want, I want fresh blood. 140 00:07:22,640 --> 00:07:25,240 No, I'm done with arena. Arena done with that. 141 00:07:26,320 --> 00:07:28,280 Well, we'll get to all of that and you know I want to hear 142 00:07:28,280 --> 00:07:29,920 about some of your breakout stars when we get into the 143 00:07:29,920 --> 00:07:33,800 Australian Open, which we'll be spending a lot of time doing a 144 00:07:33,800 --> 00:07:37,760 preview of later on in the show because the draws have come out. 145 00:07:38,080 --> 00:07:42,640 There's a lot of bangers for first round matches, but first 146 00:07:42,960 --> 00:07:47,520 we're going to start with our lobs bins, which again, it's 147 00:07:47,520 --> 00:07:49,720 just a thing that's made us a little gayer for tennis since 148 00:07:49,720 --> 00:07:53,280 the last show. Somehow the tours just keep 149 00:07:53,280 --> 00:07:56,240 delivering Lobsbian after Lobsbian. 150 00:07:57,080 --> 00:08:00,280 And so the one that came screaming out of the United Cup 151 00:08:00,880 --> 00:08:05,720 was Zizu Bergs. So Zizu, what a revelation. 152 00:08:05,720 --> 00:08:10,960 And I appreciate you out there, listeners who also follow us on 153 00:08:10,960 --> 00:08:15,120 Instagram, because you would send me reel after reel of this 154 00:08:15,120 --> 00:08:19,760 guy basically just twerking, basically, you know, for team 155 00:08:19,760 --> 00:08:22,440 interviews. There was one where he was 156 00:08:22,440 --> 00:08:24,720 talking about, Oh, we'll just do it like a horse does. 157 00:08:24,720 --> 00:08:27,360 And he turns around and just sticks his ass out and looks 158 00:08:27,360 --> 00:08:29,680 back at it. And then another one, he's on 159 00:08:29,680 --> 00:08:31,440 the floor just humping the floor. 160 00:08:32,159 --> 00:08:34,320 I don't know if he's been watching heated rivalry. 161 00:08:34,320 --> 00:08:37,600 Maybe he got the memo. But the amount of attention that 162 00:08:37,600 --> 00:08:41,280 he got, it was, it was quite a a moment. 163 00:08:41,280 --> 00:08:44,920 And that was just like, wow, I've, I've, I've known who he is 164 00:08:44,920 --> 00:08:47,000 for a couple years, but now I know who he is. 165 00:08:47,320 --> 00:08:50,040 I saw a few of the memes, but I also just was watching him 166 00:08:50,040 --> 00:08:52,280 during the United Cup. He's such a ham. 167 00:08:52,760 --> 00:08:54,840 He's also an incredibly good looking guy. 168 00:08:54,840 --> 00:08:56,440 Let's give him credit where credit's due. 169 00:08:56,840 --> 00:09:03,760 What I like is that I feel like his personality in media and his 170 00:09:03,760 --> 00:09:08,000 personality in press is very consistent with his style of 171 00:09:08,000 --> 00:09:11,000 play too. Like he's a very extroverted 172 00:09:11,000 --> 00:09:13,320 player. He loves shot making. 173 00:09:13,320 --> 00:09:17,720 He loves hitting people off the court and he loves a big stage. 174 00:09:18,080 --> 00:09:20,440 There's something so authentic about him, you know? 175 00:09:20,440 --> 00:09:23,800 There's something so unfiltered and it makes him very lovable. 176 00:09:24,280 --> 00:09:27,240 And he he had some great wins at the United Cup. 177 00:09:27,240 --> 00:09:29,920 So we're going to talk about him again later on in the Bay TP. 178 00:09:29,920 --> 00:09:32,840 Just spoiler everybody, because again, the Bay TP is not just 179 00:09:32,840 --> 00:09:34,400 for hotness. It's not just for cultural 180 00:09:34,400 --> 00:09:36,840 relevance. It's also for winning. 181 00:09:37,240 --> 00:09:41,120 He beats Felix, Oje, Eliasim, he beats men sick. 182 00:09:41,120 --> 00:09:45,000 I mean, he beats top top players and really kind of carry Belgium 183 00:09:45,240 --> 00:09:49,200 part of the way. So yeah, big, big fan of Zizu. 184 00:09:49,760 --> 00:09:54,080 He's got a horrible draw. He is going up against Herkash 185 00:09:54,080 --> 00:09:55,960 in the first round of the Australian Open. 186 00:09:56,240 --> 00:10:00,400 That's a Bay TP clash right there 'cause Herkash. 187 00:10:00,440 --> 00:10:04,320 He's up there too, I'm sure. He's literally one of the most 188 00:10:04,440 --> 00:10:07,440 dangerous, unseeded players on the men's side. 189 00:10:08,160 --> 00:10:10,720 Hubie or Zizu? Wait, neither of them are 190 00:10:10,720 --> 00:10:13,800 seated, I guess, right? No, Yeah, I mean, well, it's 191 00:10:13,800 --> 00:10:15,960 like they have a nightmare draw, but whoever draws them in round 192 00:10:15,960 --> 00:10:17,440 two also has a nightmare draw, so. 193 00:10:17,640 --> 00:10:19,920 Exactly. The nightmare never ends on the. 194 00:10:19,920 --> 00:10:25,040 Tour and then that can be the the theme of of 2026. 195 00:10:25,840 --> 00:10:28,880 Another lobster V in is just men's accessories, so. 196 00:10:28,880 --> 00:10:31,840 Men's accessories. Men's accessories. 197 00:10:31,840 --> 00:10:35,440 Menzies. Sorry, men's accessories. 198 00:10:35,640 --> 00:10:40,960 So we had for Tommy Paul, he's just sporting an entire purple 199 00:10:41,120 --> 00:10:42,960 kit. Purple is the new black. 200 00:10:42,960 --> 00:10:46,480 It is in, it is hot, but he was wearing these bright purple 201 00:10:46,480 --> 00:10:49,960 socks that I just couldn't not look at when he was playing. 202 00:10:49,960 --> 00:10:54,720 It was just delightful. Then we had Francis Tiafo's 203 00:10:54,720 --> 00:10:58,360 gigantic water bottle. This thing, it was like one of 204 00:10:58,360 --> 00:11:03,040 those 32 ounce giant steel. It was like, you know, that girl 205 00:11:03,040 --> 00:11:04,760 who makes a New Year's resolution of like, I'm going to 206 00:11:04,760 --> 00:11:07,360 drink water every day. I was literally just going to 207 00:11:07,360 --> 00:11:11,480 say it's like office girly who like walks in with her like with 208 00:11:11,480 --> 00:11:15,480 her like Bangli key chain and her her giant water bottle that 209 00:11:15,480 --> 00:11:18,840 has all the little lines on it. Yeah, he just needed a little a 210 00:11:18,840 --> 00:11:21,280 little Boo Boo attached to it and it would have been like full 211 00:11:21,280 --> 00:11:23,440 on. And then we also just had some 212 00:11:23,440 --> 00:11:27,040 other statements like Stefano Szipasa's Airport Couture that 213 00:11:27,080 --> 00:11:29,880 was. I loved his his his airport look 214 00:11:29,880 --> 00:11:32,800 with like it's it was like was it leopard or cheetah or 215 00:11:32,800 --> 00:11:33,800 something? You're right. 216 00:11:34,240 --> 00:11:37,280 I it was giving Lisa rent a QV C Yeah. 217 00:11:37,480 --> 00:11:39,600 Well I I don't know enough about fashion, but it was like, is 218 00:11:39,600 --> 00:11:43,160 that a coulot that is like the wide brimmed pant that would 219 00:11:43,160 --> 00:11:46,280 like shake when he would walk? It is it's giving very South 220 00:11:46,280 --> 00:11:49,320 Florida mall Walker energy, which. 221 00:11:49,480 --> 00:11:52,720 You must see it all the time. Yeah, I mean 100%. 222 00:11:52,960 --> 00:11:55,960 And even like, if you kind of like squint, even his haircut 223 00:11:55,960 --> 00:12:00,000 could kind of be like like elder stateswoman, matriarch of the 224 00:12:00,000 --> 00:12:02,480 family. But now I'm curious, now that 225 00:12:02,480 --> 00:12:04,520 we're talking about it, 'cause you live in South Florida, what 226 00:12:04,520 --> 00:12:07,840 pants are you wearing right now? Are they culottes? 227 00:12:08,480 --> 00:12:10,640 I'm not wearing any pants. I'm porky pigging it. 228 00:12:10,680 --> 00:12:13,920 Porky pigging. OK, I'm a little porky piggy. 229 00:12:13,920 --> 00:12:16,200 Business on the top and I'm just hanging loose on the bottom. 230 00:12:16,200 --> 00:12:19,320 No, I'm wearing, I'm wearing Lululemon shorts. 231 00:12:19,720 --> 00:12:22,800 My Miami fashion is very uninteresting. 232 00:12:22,840 --> 00:12:25,160 That's what I miss about New York is like in New York, you 233 00:12:25,160 --> 00:12:28,280 dress it up. It's like I put my coat on. 234 00:12:28,280 --> 00:12:32,360 I put my cute jeans and like coordinated like sweater. 235 00:12:32,360 --> 00:12:35,200 It's it's a whole thing. You're Laura Ashley, sweater 236 00:12:35,200 --> 00:12:35,960 Sass. Yeah, they were. 237 00:12:36,200 --> 00:12:37,680 They were huge in New York. Yeah. 238 00:12:38,760 --> 00:12:42,880 The last one that I have 'cause it just goes on and on is Holger 239 00:12:42,880 --> 00:12:46,360 Rune, who is out for the season, although he's teasing a late 240 00:12:46,360 --> 00:12:49,200 2026 return, which I think would be amazing. 241 00:12:49,560 --> 00:12:53,480 But he has opened the Holger Rune shop, which I think is the 242 00:12:53,480 --> 00:12:56,200 Ostapenko effect. So Elaine Ostapenko was selling 243 00:12:56,200 --> 00:12:59,960 everything from her used vacuum cleaner to whatever junk she 244 00:12:59,960 --> 00:13:01,720 found between the couch cushions. 245 00:13:02,160 --> 00:13:07,400 He's selling items that he's worn and somebody on this 246 00:13:07,400 --> 00:13:11,000 podcast right now may have purchased 2 pairs of those 247 00:13:11,000 --> 00:13:16,400 shorts. And I am going to delusionally 248 00:13:16,400 --> 00:13:17,720 say that he and I are the same size. 249 00:13:17,960 --> 00:13:20,600 I might wear it as a as a wristband, but I just, I was 250 00:13:20,600 --> 00:13:22,840 like, look signed shorts from Hogaroon. 251 00:13:23,360 --> 00:13:25,360 It's a tax write off. Where are they? 252 00:13:25,360 --> 00:13:28,880 Are they used? It said worn by. 253 00:13:30,120 --> 00:13:34,280 Like did did he wash them before 'cause like that would? 254 00:13:34,320 --> 00:13:36,480 Honestly, if he didn't, I think that would increase the value 255 00:13:36,880 --> 00:13:39,960 from the same. And Hogaroon, who is famous for 256 00:13:39,960 --> 00:13:43,240 wearing shorts, got to wear them, got to got to own them. 257 00:13:43,560 --> 00:13:46,480 Matthew, I might have to bequeath them to you if I can't 258 00:13:46,480 --> 00:13:49,160 fit my giant bubble butt in them. 259 00:13:49,160 --> 00:13:53,040 But we'll talk about that later. Off camera or on camera? 260 00:13:55,560 --> 00:13:58,200 I'll take, I'll take him, I'll take him and and you'll never 261 00:13:58,200 --> 00:14:00,280 see him again. Oh, I'll see you strutting 262 00:14:00,280 --> 00:14:02,320 around Miami. In that fact, it's like, oh, he 263 00:14:02,320 --> 00:14:11,360 got a makeover. It's time for twit now, which is 264 00:14:11,360 --> 00:14:14,400 this week in tennis, and since the Australian Open is so 265 00:14:14,400 --> 00:14:18,720 freaking early this year, they had to jam as many shrimp onto 266 00:14:18,720 --> 00:14:21,760 the Barbie Kajikova as possible. In just two weeks. 267 00:14:22,240 --> 00:14:25,440 We've had tournaments all over, from Brisbane to Adelaide to 268 00:14:25,440 --> 00:14:29,200 Hobart, New Zealand. And look, we can't cover 269 00:14:29,200 --> 00:14:30,800 everything. Like always, this is not the 270 00:14:30,800 --> 00:14:34,160 place to go for scores and also some of these tournaments 271 00:14:34,160 --> 00:14:36,680 haven't ended, even though there's been so much coverage 272 00:14:36,680 --> 00:14:40,200 out of Melbourne and the opening week as they're calling it. 273 00:14:40,680 --> 00:14:43,440 There's a lot of tournaments that have not been decided yet. 274 00:14:43,720 --> 00:14:46,280 You know, we know Marcus Guerrone has given us yet 275 00:14:46,280 --> 00:14:49,400 another semi, but is he going to take it all the way? 276 00:14:50,000 --> 00:14:51,320 I don't know. We're going to have to stay 277 00:14:51,320 --> 00:14:52,600 tuned. We'll find out together. 278 00:14:53,320 --> 00:14:57,280 But in the meantime, we do have some tops and bottoms to cover 279 00:14:57,280 --> 00:15:00,640 from the last few weeks. So we'll start off with the 280 00:15:00,640 --> 00:15:02,840 tops, which is very rude of those tops. 281 00:15:02,840 --> 00:15:04,960 But we're going to start with Marta Kostyuk. 282 00:15:05,680 --> 00:15:09,840 She looks amazing. Unfortunately her kit in 283 00:15:09,840 --> 00:15:12,560 Brisbane did not look amazing. I think she's saving her 284 00:15:12,720 --> 00:15:15,880 official kit for Australian Open, which is smart, but they 285 00:15:15,880 --> 00:15:18,680 had her out just in sort of like practice leotard. 286 00:15:18,960 --> 00:15:24,000 But she took out a crazy packed field in Brisbane, which is a 287 00:15:24,000 --> 00:15:27,640 500 level tournament for the girls, winning over three top 288 00:15:27,640 --> 00:15:31,800 ten players in a row, Anna Simova, Andreva Pagula to get 289 00:15:31,800 --> 00:15:34,200 into the final and these were not close. 290 00:15:34,800 --> 00:15:39,320 She took these girls out straight sets, straightforward 291 00:15:39,640 --> 00:15:43,720 straight to the final. Did not really get it going in 292 00:15:43,720 --> 00:15:48,080 the final. But Marta, I, I'm, I'm like a, 293 00:15:48,240 --> 00:15:50,840 I'm a fan. Did you see her speech in the 294 00:15:50,840 --> 00:15:52,280 Brisbane final? Yes, yes. 295 00:15:52,800 --> 00:15:56,320 Wow, what a moment. I appreciate her, you know, 296 00:15:56,360 --> 00:16:01,680 reminding the world of the the extremity of the situation in 297 00:16:01,680 --> 00:16:03,960 Ukraine when she when she has the stage 2. 298 00:16:05,080 --> 00:16:10,240 The The other interesting context about this is that, you 299 00:16:10,240 --> 00:16:15,360 know, caustic last year had made some somewhat controversial, 300 00:16:15,360 --> 00:16:19,040 potentially misinterpreted comments about about like the 301 00:16:19,120 --> 00:16:22,520 testosterone levels and women in the tour and how kind of like, 302 00:16:22,960 --> 00:16:25,480 you know, well, I, well, I'm not, I'm not like naturally 303 00:16:25,480 --> 00:16:27,720 flooded with testosterone like some of these women. 304 00:16:27,720 --> 00:16:29,520 So it's like, of course, I can't hit as hard. 305 00:16:29,520 --> 00:16:35,960 It kind of the implication that like some of the other women on 306 00:16:35,960 --> 00:16:39,000 tour were like Manish or so I mean, I, I think people are 307 00:16:39,000 --> 00:16:40,520 taking a very uncharitable read of it. 308 00:16:40,800 --> 00:16:44,880 I think Sabalenka was either directly mentioned or implied in 309 00:16:44,880 --> 00:16:48,440 in the cost of court, I forget. But like she sort of kissed her 310 00:16:48,440 --> 00:16:51,720 biceps when she won that match. I thought there might have been 311 00:16:51,720 --> 00:16:54,480 a little bit of a statement in there, which is just adds a 312 00:16:54,480 --> 00:16:56,320 little bit of spice to the whole situation. 313 00:16:56,320 --> 00:17:01,320 But I I mean, it's that that is spicy enough, you know, like I 314 00:17:01,320 --> 00:17:03,920 don't think they would they need any more fuel on that fire. 315 00:17:03,920 --> 00:17:06,680 I can tell you that much. Honey, this gumbo is over 316 00:17:06,680 --> 00:17:08,160 spiced. It's like too much. 317 00:17:08,240 --> 00:17:12,160 I mean, I will say that, you know, I like am IA big Marta 318 00:17:12,160 --> 00:17:15,240 fan, I'm not not a fan, but I mean she's not one of my 319 00:17:15,240 --> 00:17:18,079 favourites. And some of it is just like, 320 00:17:18,119 --> 00:17:22,560 yes, skill and and game style definitely influences like who 321 00:17:22,720 --> 00:17:26,560 who I love, but a lot of it's personality too, and I need to 322 00:17:26,560 --> 00:17:30,920 see something beyond intensity. You know, it's like, it's like, 323 00:17:31,160 --> 00:17:36,520 whether whether it's goofiness or, or awkwardness or something, 324 00:17:36,800 --> 00:17:39,520 I just feel like I need a little something else and I, I don't 325 00:17:39,520 --> 00:17:43,280 feel like I've gotten the dimension of her personality 326 00:17:43,560 --> 00:17:46,480 yet. Another top I've just got to 327 00:17:46,480 --> 00:17:51,200 give a big shout out overall to the United Cup this year. 328 00:17:51,200 --> 00:17:55,440 I don't know what changed, but it was freaking awesome. 329 00:17:56,000 --> 00:18:00,360 The the action was great. It didn't have a an exhibition 330 00:18:00,360 --> 00:18:02,040 feeling at all. People were locked in. 331 00:18:02,040 --> 00:18:07,200 They wanted to win. I love that so many of the 332 00:18:07,200 --> 00:18:11,160 matchups were settled with mixed double SI mean. 333 00:18:11,160 --> 00:18:15,360 That's putting respect on mixed double S name versus, you know, 334 00:18:15,520 --> 00:18:18,720 we all know how I feel about mixed double S at the US Open. 335 00:18:19,040 --> 00:18:23,560 But the tournament came down to mixed and the ladies were really 336 00:18:23,560 --> 00:18:25,960 carrying a lot of their teams at the United Cup. 337 00:18:26,560 --> 00:18:28,760 Belinda carried Switzerland to the final. 338 00:18:29,280 --> 00:18:32,320 They did not win. They lost to Poland, which was 339 00:18:32,320 --> 00:18:36,280 carried by Hubie more than EGA. Coco had a great United Cup. 340 00:18:36,280 --> 00:18:38,400 She looked amazing. She had her fourth straight win 341 00:18:38,400 --> 00:18:41,600 over EGA. She's doing it right right now. 342 00:18:41,600 --> 00:18:43,320 I mean, she's been posting about how much she loves heated 343 00:18:43,320 --> 00:18:48,040 rivalry, which again, it's just important for people to be 344 00:18:48,040 --> 00:18:50,680 saying because it's just it's creating a space. 345 00:18:50,760 --> 00:18:53,440 You know, Morgan Riddle did that when she was posting about 346 00:18:53,440 --> 00:18:55,760 crying over heated rivalry on Episode 5. 347 00:18:56,440 --> 00:18:59,880 But she did get some backlash. And I think we need to have a a 348 00:18:59,880 --> 00:19:02,520 little bit of a leave Coco alone moment. 349 00:19:03,320 --> 00:19:06,160 She was saying how she wishes that the US fans were more 350 00:19:06,160 --> 00:19:09,960 vocal, especially in national cups like the United Cup. 351 00:19:10,520 --> 00:19:16,000 And it's true in international spaces, US fans are quieter. 352 00:19:16,720 --> 00:19:21,240 And she got 8UP in the comments. It was like, well, not everybody 353 00:19:21,240 --> 00:19:23,320 can travel for this. It's a that's a privileged 354 00:19:23,320 --> 00:19:25,080 thing. They weren't getting it. 355 00:19:25,080 --> 00:19:27,800 They was not clocking what she was saying. 356 00:19:28,840 --> 00:19:33,240 And I don't know, I think that she got a lot of unnecessary 357 00:19:33,280 --> 00:19:35,400 blowback from that. What's your take? 358 00:19:35,960 --> 00:19:37,520 I thought it was totally fair of her to say. 359 00:19:37,560 --> 00:19:40,200 And like Taylor Fritz came to her defense on on social media 360 00:19:40,200 --> 00:19:42,120 and was like, I know exactly what she was saying. 361 00:19:42,120 --> 00:19:44,840 And she's right. And I think it's it's true. 362 00:19:44,880 --> 00:19:48,000 I don't think tennis has the National Heart in America as 363 00:19:48,000 --> 00:19:50,600 much as it does other places. And I think that that doesn't 364 00:19:50,600 --> 00:19:52,560 mean there aren't passionate tennis fans, but I just feel 365 00:19:52,560 --> 00:19:55,600 like it doesn't feel like the whole country is showing up for 366 00:19:55,600 --> 00:19:59,120 you as much as it does around the world in other countries. 367 00:19:59,920 --> 00:20:03,480 That being said, like I do think it's funny to be making the 368 00:20:03,480 --> 00:20:08,200 point of like, let's have Americans go be louder and more 369 00:20:08,200 --> 00:20:11,200 like almost jingoistic like around the world. 370 00:20:11,200 --> 00:20:14,040 I'm like, maybe, maybe we can let American. 371 00:20:14,560 --> 00:20:17,280 Be a little quieter, you know, But I get it. 372 00:20:17,280 --> 00:20:19,960 I mean, you're playing on a big stage. 373 00:20:20,240 --> 00:20:23,320 You are fueled by the crowd and you want to be when it's a 374 00:20:23,680 --> 00:20:26,080 competition between countries like you want your country to be 375 00:20:26,920 --> 00:20:29,040 building you up. And I think it's also, I mean, 376 00:20:29,040 --> 00:20:33,120 she hears the other countries fans cheering so loudly for them 377 00:20:33,720 --> 00:20:36,720 that it's not like she wants us to be louder than everyone else. 378 00:20:36,760 --> 00:20:39,360 It's just kind of like, well, where's our support? 379 00:20:40,480 --> 00:20:43,160 But yeah, I hear you. I hear you, Americans. 380 00:20:43,600 --> 00:20:46,200 Keep it down. So what was your take on the 381 00:20:46,200 --> 00:20:47,880 action? I was obsessed this year. 382 00:20:47,880 --> 00:20:50,200 I loved the entire tournament. Me, it's me too. 383 00:20:50,200 --> 00:20:52,760 And I feel like it's a good omen for the rest of the tennis 384 00:20:52,760 --> 00:20:54,800 season. Vibes were just so good at the 385 00:20:54,800 --> 00:20:58,880 United Cup. I loved that so many of the 386 00:20:58,880 --> 00:21:02,520 teams instead of just putting their best singles players in 387 00:21:02,520 --> 00:21:06,480 mixed double S, you know who don't have a rapport, who aren't 388 00:21:06,480 --> 00:21:07,880 really like great double S players. 389 00:21:07,880 --> 00:21:09,440 They let their double S players shine. 390 00:21:09,440 --> 00:21:13,760 They trusted them and and they let them have a bit of a moment 391 00:21:13,760 --> 00:21:16,960 and a bit of a narrative and they crushed it like the the 392 00:21:16,960 --> 00:21:20,000 Polish mixed double S team were so clutched. 393 00:21:20,360 --> 00:21:24,160 I think it's like Zelensky and not, not, not the Ukrainian 394 00:21:24,160 --> 00:21:28,800 presidents, but the Polish tennis player Zelensky and and 395 00:21:28,800 --> 00:21:31,560 is it Cava? They they, they nailed it. 396 00:21:31,680 --> 00:21:35,760 And it's like they got to feel like heroes for their country. 397 00:21:36,120 --> 00:21:41,720 One person we haven't mentioned is Vavrinka, who might not have 398 00:21:41,720 --> 00:21:46,280 won every match but got damn close to winning every match. 399 00:21:46,800 --> 00:21:52,640 See, to see Stanamol take like Kaboli and like these other top 400 00:21:52,640 --> 00:21:56,800 players to three sets consistently and you know, with 401 00:21:56,800 --> 00:21:59,640 so little turnover between matches, it's like he looked 402 00:21:59,640 --> 00:22:01,880 good. He is bringing it in his final 403 00:22:01,880 --> 00:22:05,360 season and it makes me really excited to see how he does in 404 00:22:05,360 --> 00:22:07,160 slams. You know he's going to and he's 405 00:22:07,160 --> 00:22:09,360 going to get wild card. It's like I want this to be his 406 00:22:09,360 --> 00:22:12,880 victory lap. And he has said that he doesn't 407 00:22:12,880 --> 00:22:14,920 want this to be his farewell tour. 408 00:22:15,280 --> 00:22:18,240 He is there to compete. He says he wants to get back 409 00:22:18,520 --> 00:22:20,920 into the top 100 as a 40 year old. 410 00:22:22,240 --> 00:22:24,880 I think he should aim to get back in the Top 40 as a 100 year 411 00:22:24,880 --> 00:22:26,760 old. But that's because I love him. 412 00:22:27,120 --> 00:22:28,880 But yeah, no, he is. He's not messing around. 413 00:22:28,880 --> 00:22:31,440 And yeah, he had great matches. He beat Rinder Connect. 414 00:22:31,840 --> 00:22:34,120 So I mean, hey, like he, he's there. 415 00:22:34,200 --> 00:22:37,160 And. I mean, but hey, he's a top 25 416 00:22:37,160 --> 00:22:39,480 player right now for right now, so. 417 00:22:39,480 --> 00:22:44,120 Well Zachary was top two or something so wow, just saying. 418 00:22:45,120 --> 00:22:48,920 Maria Zachary gets so much hate on this show, and that's going 419 00:22:48,920 --> 00:22:51,360 to it's going to stay that way. I think she is one of the 420 00:22:51,360 --> 00:22:53,720 sweetest, most likable tennis players. 421 00:22:53,720 --> 00:22:57,040 Like, like I find her personality delightful, but 422 00:22:57,040 --> 00:23:00,840 whenever I'm looking back at old lists of top ten and and I'm 423 00:23:00,840 --> 00:23:04,040 like, oh, it's like, look at these, look at these incredible 424 00:23:04,040 --> 00:23:09,600 tennis players and Maria sacker it, it's it's always a little 425 00:23:09,600 --> 00:23:11,320 bit I I just have to Chuck a little bit. 426 00:23:11,320 --> 00:23:13,600 But anyway, too much on on Maria. 427 00:23:13,720 --> 00:23:14,960 Not too much. Not too much. 428 00:23:15,120 --> 00:23:17,280 It's like that meme where it's like, Ariana, what are you doing 429 00:23:17,280 --> 00:23:18,880 here? It's like, Maria, what are you 430 00:23:18,880 --> 00:23:21,800 doing here? Yeah, it's very, very that. 431 00:23:22,360 --> 00:23:25,000 And you mentioned the deep bench on some of these these teams, 432 00:23:25,000 --> 00:23:26,280 but also we got to talk about the bench. 433 00:23:26,280 --> 00:23:30,600 Belinda Benchich is MVP of the tournament and she. 434 00:23:30,760 --> 00:23:33,400 Looks so good. I mean, she was like ethereal, 435 00:23:33,720 --> 00:23:35,960 like she better take everything this year. 436 00:23:36,800 --> 00:23:41,720 I'm excited and scared and titillated and I've got hopes 437 00:23:41,720 --> 00:23:44,400 for her. But I got to say the women's 438 00:23:44,400 --> 00:23:50,640 tour right now is re entered a golden era where there are there 439 00:23:50,640 --> 00:23:54,160 are 20 solid play. It used to be like any one of 440 00:23:54,160 --> 00:23:56,160 these 20 could win it 'cause it was so chaotic. 441 00:23:56,440 --> 00:24:00,200 Now there's 20 badasses who could kind of win any 442 00:24:00,200 --> 00:24:02,240 tournament. But yeah, Belinda's back in the 443 00:24:02,240 --> 00:24:04,600 top 10. She's the third mother ever to 444 00:24:04,600 --> 00:24:07,880 make it back in the top ten. And then the other person, Yeah, 445 00:24:07,880 --> 00:24:09,440 we talked about a little bit about Hubie. 446 00:24:09,720 --> 00:24:13,240 Hubie Herkash comes back from a pretty rough knee injury that 447 00:24:13,240 --> 00:24:14,760 took him out for most of last year. 448 00:24:15,160 --> 00:24:18,400 He gets 2 top ten wins over Fritz and Zverev. 449 00:24:18,720 --> 00:24:24,720 Lost a tight 1 to Dimanauer. His biceps are are bigger than 450 00:24:24,720 --> 00:24:26,360 my neck. Talk about a Rinder connect. 451 00:24:26,760 --> 00:24:28,280 Did you see those photos of his biceps? 452 00:24:28,560 --> 00:24:31,000 Yeah, no, I know He looked, he looked like sick. 453 00:24:31,120 --> 00:24:33,960 He looked incredible. He did, cuz let's not forget. 454 00:24:33,960 --> 00:24:37,440 I mean, yeah, he was off. You mentioned he was off a long 455 00:24:37,440 --> 00:24:40,160 time, for longer than I'm sure he would have liked. 456 00:24:40,160 --> 00:24:45,760 But he did what Chorich did a few years ago when he was off 457 00:24:45,760 --> 00:24:48,720 tour with an injury and he came back jacked. 458 00:24:48,720 --> 00:24:51,600 It's like, it's like, OK, he wasn't on the court, but he was 459 00:24:51,600 --> 00:24:54,880 hitting the gym everyday. And it's interesting because, 460 00:24:55,880 --> 00:24:58,160 you know, yeah, you come back on Twitter, you got to shake the 461 00:24:58,160 --> 00:25:00,640 rest off and you got to work on your footwork, you got to do all 462 00:25:00,640 --> 00:25:02,440 that. But it's like to actually be 463 00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:05,400 carrying 5 or 10 more pounds of just raw strength. 464 00:25:06,080 --> 00:25:09,840 It's like that can actually like elevate your game in some ways, 465 00:25:09,840 --> 00:25:13,360 maybe picking up an injury that doesn't end up being persistent 466 00:25:13,360 --> 00:25:15,320 and can be like the best thing ever because it gives you time 467 00:25:15,320 --> 00:25:17,200 to tweak other aspects of your game you wouldn't. 468 00:25:17,960 --> 00:25:19,760 Yeah. And, and, and as long as you 469 00:25:19,760 --> 00:25:22,320 take the time to recover from the injury, because I think, I 470 00:25:22,320 --> 00:25:25,000 think what's happened to a lot of these players is that they 471 00:25:25,000 --> 00:25:27,920 try to come back a little too early and they end up not 472 00:25:28,000 --> 00:25:30,760 healing fully. They heal 90% and they're like, 473 00:25:30,760 --> 00:25:32,400 I can do it. And then they don't. 474 00:25:32,760 --> 00:25:35,960 Well I mean it's like look at Krichikova keeps getting re 475 00:25:35,960 --> 00:25:39,800 injured and then it's but it and and you know how I feel about 476 00:25:39,800 --> 00:25:44,400 her Like my my Barbarella. Or give a mug with her face on 477 00:25:44,400 --> 00:25:44,800 it. Yeah. 478 00:25:46,040 --> 00:25:49,480 Someone might have given me a very charming Christmas present, 479 00:25:49,920 --> 00:25:52,480 my favorite, my favorite podcastista. 480 00:25:53,920 --> 00:25:55,720 But look at, I mean, look at Runa. 481 00:25:55,920 --> 00:25:57,880 He's making me nervous out there. 482 00:25:58,600 --> 00:26:02,720 Like, like I'm sure that he has people who are, you know, 483 00:26:02,800 --> 00:26:05,640 keeping him kind of on the right side of the line that he needs 484 00:26:05,640 --> 00:26:08,280 to be on. But it's like I just should he 485 00:26:08,280 --> 00:26:10,680 really be out there like hitting balls already? 486 00:26:10,880 --> 00:26:14,080 I mean, don't people say that this is like a six month like, 487 00:26:14,200 --> 00:26:17,360 yeah, recovery before you even start moving like that again? 488 00:26:17,920 --> 00:26:21,720 My take on his really fast return to hitting is that 489 00:26:21,720 --> 00:26:25,520 especially when he was hitting with one leg elevated on a 490 00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:28,880 crutch, that changes your center of gravity, that changes the way 491 00:26:28,880 --> 00:26:31,200 you balance things. You actually shouldn't be 492 00:26:31,200 --> 00:26:34,040 practicing hitting with your balance off to the side like 493 00:26:34,040 --> 00:26:36,520 that, because when you have two legs again, you're going to be 494 00:26:36,520 --> 00:26:38,320 more upright. Like it's like there's no 495 00:26:38,320 --> 00:26:40,840 benefit to practicing your forehand right now. 496 00:26:41,040 --> 00:26:44,320 You're right and I just feel like you're less stable in 497 00:26:44,320 --> 00:26:46,400 general and if you're going to pick up an ankle injury or 498 00:26:46,400 --> 00:26:48,320 something. But like I again, I'm I'm not a 499 00:26:48,320 --> 00:26:52,040 fitness coach like I there are. There are wiser minds than me. 500 00:26:52,080 --> 00:26:53,280 But yeah, but we have microphones. 501 00:26:53,320 --> 00:26:55,240 Yeah, I know. That's that's right. 502 00:26:55,880 --> 00:26:58,400 We are wielding the power of our microphone to let our make our 503 00:26:58,400 --> 00:26:59,520 opinions know. Yeah. 504 00:26:59,880 --> 00:27:02,600 Suck it. One last thing about Hubie. 505 00:27:02,800 --> 00:27:05,360 I think something like the United Cup is another great 506 00:27:05,360 --> 00:27:08,320 thing to come back into because you're guaranteed a certain 507 00:27:08,320 --> 00:27:11,440 number of matches because there's round Robin play versus 508 00:27:11,440 --> 00:27:14,160 going in and just entering a even a 250. 509 00:27:14,320 --> 00:27:16,080 It's like you'll probably lose your first match and then it's 510 00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:19,080 two more weeks to the next. Like he had many, many matches 511 00:27:19,080 --> 00:27:21,640 including mixed double S and I think that was really good for 512 00:27:21,640 --> 00:27:23,880 him. So I mean, he picked up a bunch 513 00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:25,960 of ranking points which which he needed. 514 00:27:26,840 --> 00:27:28,520 The last top we don't spend too much time on. 515 00:27:28,520 --> 00:27:30,920 This was just a really high quality match up in terms of 516 00:27:30,920 --> 00:27:34,920 rankings between Moussetti and Sasha Bublick at the Hong Kong 517 00:27:34,920 --> 00:27:38,200 final. And Sasha took him out pretty 518 00:27:38,200 --> 00:27:42,080 handily in straight sets. Moussetti has not won a final 519 00:27:42,360 --> 00:27:44,880 since 2022. Not great. 520 00:27:45,640 --> 00:27:48,800 So this is this is about the top and the bottom at the top is 521 00:27:48,800 --> 00:27:51,960 that Bublik is now back in the top 10, which hey, he was about 522 00:27:51,960 --> 00:27:56,640 to retire this time last year. And Moussetti is up to #5 in the 523 00:27:56,640 --> 00:28:00,000 rankings. I got to ask you, Mr. Matthew 524 00:28:00,000 --> 00:28:04,000 Coleman, is Lorenzo Moussetti the 5th best player on this 525 00:28:04,000 --> 00:28:11,600 planet Earth that we have. I've never been the biggest fan 526 00:28:11,600 --> 00:28:15,080 of Mercedes game. It's not like he's not good, but 527 00:28:15,080 --> 00:28:17,800 I I look for the thing that I'm supposed to be in love with. 528 00:28:17,800 --> 00:28:19,680 It's like yes, he's got the one handed backhand. 529 00:28:20,120 --> 00:28:23,040 That's like is it the best one handed backhand on tour? 530 00:28:23,040 --> 00:28:24,720 I don't know. Maybe I don't know, but it's 531 00:28:24,720 --> 00:28:26,120 like. It's not I'll. 532 00:28:26,480 --> 00:28:27,360 I'll help him. It's not. 533 00:28:27,720 --> 00:28:30,000 OK. But I, I just, I feel like he's, 534 00:28:30,000 --> 00:28:35,520 he's fairly, fairly consistent until he's not like I it's I 535 00:28:35,520 --> 00:28:38,360 just like he's he's, he's great. He's beautiful. 536 00:28:38,480 --> 00:28:39,720 He's he's. Good. 537 00:28:40,400 --> 00:28:42,200 But like, I'm not, I'm not obsessed with him. 538 00:28:42,680 --> 00:28:44,400 So is he the 5th best player in the world? 539 00:28:44,720 --> 00:28:47,800 I don't. I mean after Sinner and and 540 00:28:48,120 --> 00:28:54,200 Carlos, like how you fill in three through 14 is like you 541 00:28:54,200 --> 00:28:56,080 could move them all around and it wouldn't matter. 542 00:28:56,480 --> 00:28:58,200 There's a lot of people who are really close. 543 00:28:58,280 --> 00:29:03,320 It's like Demon or Fritz. All the Fritz's like hasn't 544 00:29:03,320 --> 00:29:05,120 looked great. You know the last. 545 00:29:05,120 --> 00:29:07,920 Couple weeks, he's injured. That's like, I think, I think 546 00:29:07,920 --> 00:29:10,840 Medvedev is an amazing player, but it's like he's had a rough 547 00:29:11,240 --> 00:29:13,480 couple years. Like Rube Lev's great. 548 00:29:13,480 --> 00:29:14,960 He's also had a rough, rough couple years. 549 00:29:14,960 --> 00:29:18,880 It's like FAA is great two months out of the year. 550 00:29:18,880 --> 00:29:22,240 It's like I just, they're all, they're all really good in their 551 00:29:22,240 --> 00:29:24,440 own way. And I can't I I just from a 552 00:29:24,440 --> 00:29:27,720 numbers standpoint, a ranking standpoint, I can't put them in 553 00:29:27,720 --> 00:29:29,160 order. Totally. 554 00:29:29,160 --> 00:29:32,280 I'm just sort of reacting because I think you and I did 555 00:29:32,280 --> 00:29:35,240 the show last year for the French Open where Fritz was 556 00:29:35,360 --> 00:29:39,280 ranked 4th and Fritz is not the 4th best clay player in the 557 00:29:39,280 --> 00:29:40,880 world. And I just, I'm like, you know 558 00:29:40,880 --> 00:29:43,720 what, like like you're right because there's only 1000 points 559 00:29:43,720 --> 00:29:47,240 that separate 5 and like 11 in the standings. 560 00:29:47,520 --> 00:29:50,000 It's super tight and bunched up between those. 561 00:29:50,280 --> 00:29:53,200 But I just find it funny because like I agree, I like Lorenzo a 562 00:29:53,200 --> 00:29:55,880 lot. He the only title he's won in 563 00:29:55,880 --> 00:30:00,320 the last two years, three years is bait TP of the year for last 564 00:30:00,320 --> 00:30:02,520 year. So I mean, he took home that at 565 00:30:02,520 --> 00:30:05,480 the Bali Awards, which again, there's a lot of controversy 566 00:30:05,480 --> 00:30:08,880 around, but I stand by it. The voting was monitored by 567 00:30:08,880 --> 00:30:13,280 Ernst and Hung corroborated these standings. 568 00:30:20,200 --> 00:30:21,400 I got to touch some bottoms real quick. 569 00:30:21,400 --> 00:30:22,720 But then we'll get in the Australian Open. 570 00:30:23,360 --> 00:30:25,680 We mentioned this earlier. I'm calling this injurious 571 00:30:25,680 --> 00:30:28,200 bastards. So many people are already 572 00:30:28,200 --> 00:30:32,600 pulling out, having issues. Moussetti was having a practice 573 00:30:32,600 --> 00:30:34,760 match against Verav a couple nights ago. 574 00:30:34,840 --> 00:30:37,000 At yesterday open, he had to pull out. 575 00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:38,640 We were just talking about Fritz. 576 00:30:38,640 --> 00:30:40,960 He's been talking about his knee tendonitis. 577 00:30:41,400 --> 00:30:44,640 He's not playing. Great tendonitis is like, I 578 00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:47,960 mean, it doesn't sound bad, but as like someone who has like 579 00:30:47,960 --> 00:30:50,200 really dealt with a lot of tendonitis this last year, it's 580 00:30:50,200 --> 00:30:54,000 like once you get it, it's really hard to make it go away 581 00:30:54,000 --> 00:30:56,400 forever. It has a tendency of coming back 582 00:30:56,400 --> 00:30:58,720 and like you just do not want to see that be a chronic issue for 583 00:30:58,720 --> 00:31:00,160 him. Yeah, yeah. 584 00:31:00,440 --> 00:31:05,840 And, and I worry, 'cause we all watched and I, I marveled at his 585 00:31:06,600 --> 00:31:11,360 staying power last year between Wimbledon and the Asian swing. 586 00:31:11,640 --> 00:31:13,840 I think he played nearly every tournament. 587 00:31:14,040 --> 00:31:15,800 No one played nearly as much as him. 588 00:31:15,800 --> 00:31:17,440 And I was like, what is he doing? 589 00:31:17,640 --> 00:31:21,360 Wow, what a what a Yeoman, what a worker, what an amazing guy. 590 00:31:21,640 --> 00:31:24,440 And I think maybe that aggravated like that's not so 591 00:31:24,480 --> 00:31:26,960 sustainable. So hopefully, I mean, at least 592 00:31:26,960 --> 00:31:28,360 he pulled out of the one point slam. 593 00:31:28,480 --> 00:31:33,280 So he didn't, you know, at least he got that rest in. 594 00:31:34,080 --> 00:31:36,800 I mean, do you see his tweet? He's like, he's like, he wanted 595 00:31:36,800 --> 00:31:37,520 this. I pulled out. 596 00:31:37,520 --> 00:31:39,000 He's like, he's like, that looked really fun. 597 00:31:39,360 --> 00:31:42,560 Yeah, yeah, 100% yeah. We're going to get to that in a 598 00:31:42,560 --> 00:31:44,840 minute. One more quick thing, just 599 00:31:44,840 --> 00:31:47,320 another bottom. It's just some of these players 600 00:31:47,320 --> 00:31:51,080 have gone Mia in the lead up to Australia and I'm specifically 601 00:31:51,080 --> 00:31:56,000 talking about Sinner and Alcaraz skipping any and all warm up 602 00:31:56,000 --> 00:31:58,920 tournaments and just playing an exhibition. 603 00:31:59,160 --> 00:32:02,480 Couple of exhibitionists over there in South Korea where they 604 00:32:02,480 --> 00:32:05,120 each took home 2.3 million doll hairs. 605 00:32:05,120 --> 00:32:07,000 But first of all, can I have some? 606 00:32:07,400 --> 00:32:12,040 But also like, OK, do you guys really need another vulgar 607 00:32:12,040 --> 00:32:14,760 amount of cash to play a match that doesn't mean anything? 608 00:32:15,560 --> 00:32:17,000 I don't know. I don't love it. 609 00:32:17,000 --> 00:32:20,320 I I'm like, why aren't you each picking up one tournament 610 00:32:20,320 --> 00:32:22,200 beforehand or just doing something? 611 00:32:22,200 --> 00:32:26,480 It because it also it takes the excitement and the air out of 612 00:32:26,480 --> 00:32:29,200 the arena a little bit when, Oh, you guys just played in Carlos 613 00:32:29,200 --> 00:32:31,600 Juan. Shouldn't it feel more special? 614 00:32:32,680 --> 00:32:35,360 Can I give you a a contrasting take? 615 00:32:36,360 --> 00:32:39,360 No. Yes, please. 616 00:32:39,360 --> 00:32:40,960 You're like. You're like, this is not a. 617 00:32:40,960 --> 00:32:43,920 Cheerocracy, I'm going to mute you right now. 618 00:32:44,640 --> 00:32:46,640 I don't give a shit that they are not in the lead up 619 00:32:46,640 --> 00:32:48,840 tournaments. In fact, I am glad that they're 620 00:32:48,840 --> 00:32:50,240 not. I'm glad that they're not. 621 00:32:50,240 --> 00:32:53,920 I don't want every tournament to be the Carlos Signonic show. 622 00:32:54,400 --> 00:32:56,640 I I don't want it. I want I want different 623 00:32:56,640 --> 00:32:59,840 champions in every tournament. Med bit of style. 624 00:32:59,840 --> 00:33:03,040 It's like he like he's he's literally a different champion 625 00:33:03,040 --> 00:33:04,480 at every tournament. He's never won the same 626 00:33:04,480 --> 00:33:07,840 tournament twice. Never. 2121 titles, 22 Yeah. 627 00:33:08,200 --> 00:33:11,040 This is my snobbishness coming through, but I feel like as a 628 00:33:11,040 --> 00:33:17,840 true tennis fan, like you got to appreciate a tournament because 629 00:33:17,840 --> 00:33:21,440 of the deep bench of talent and not because of who's at the top 630 00:33:21,440 --> 00:33:23,600 of the roster. And honestly, if you look back 631 00:33:23,600 --> 00:33:26,440 at, you know, what Serena has done and what other top players 632 00:33:26,440 --> 00:33:29,120 have done throughout history, it's like a lot of times, like 633 00:33:29,120 --> 00:33:32,320 they just, they don't play the same warm up tournaments that 634 00:33:32,320 --> 00:33:33,920 other players do. It's like they show up for the 635 00:33:33,920 --> 00:33:35,400 Slams. They like the big stage. 636 00:33:35,800 --> 00:33:39,240 If we didn't have two such incredibly dominant players at 637 00:33:39,240 --> 00:33:41,480 the top, then yeah, I would want to see them tussling with 638 00:33:41,480 --> 00:33:45,480 everybody. But it's like I want finals with 639 00:33:45,480 --> 00:33:46,720 players that I've never heard of. 640 00:33:46,720 --> 00:33:49,120 Sometimes, you know, I want, I want a lucky loser to be in a 641 00:33:49,120 --> 00:33:51,200 final. I agree with everything you 642 00:33:51,200 --> 00:33:52,800 said. I just wish they didn't play the 643 00:33:52,800 --> 00:33:55,280 exhibition because a the money is vulgar. 644 00:33:55,560 --> 00:33:58,200 It gives me another ick where it's like all these players who 645 00:33:58,200 --> 00:34:00,240 are ranked outside the top 100 are struggling and it's like 646 00:34:00,520 --> 00:34:03,480 here's $2.3 million for showing up to Korea. 647 00:34:03,960 --> 00:34:07,480 There's too much of AA have and have nots in tennis that is 648 00:34:07,480 --> 00:34:09,239 emerging and I just I don't love that. 649 00:34:09,520 --> 00:34:12,960 But also I think that they just they should save playing each 650 00:34:12,960 --> 00:34:17,320 other for when it matters more. But let me put it, let me put it 651 00:34:17,320 --> 00:34:20,080 to you this way. If they, if Yannick and Carlos 652 00:34:20,080 --> 00:34:24,440 were in these, you know, two 50s and five hundreds, would they be 653 00:34:24,440 --> 00:34:27,880 taking away opportunities for prize money from lower ranked 654 00:34:27,880 --> 00:34:30,199 players? Oh yeah, no, you've sold me on 655 00:34:30,199 --> 00:34:32,320 them not doing two 50s or even 5 hundreds. 656 00:34:32,320 --> 00:34:34,000 That's fine. I just wish they didn't play the 657 00:34:34,000 --> 00:34:35,440 exhibition. I wish they were each just 658 00:34:35,440 --> 00:34:38,880 locked in ready to kill each other in the final of Australia 659 00:34:39,199 --> 00:34:41,760 versus playing a match and knowing each other and then like 660 00:34:41,760 --> 00:34:44,520 hugging on the plane right back. I got, I don't know, I just, I 661 00:34:44,520 --> 00:34:45,440 don't like it. I want. 662 00:34:45,440 --> 00:34:47,480 Them to no, I I hear it. It is it is a tale of two 663 00:34:47,480 --> 00:34:49,360 cities. Like like I I hear you. 664 00:34:49,360 --> 00:34:50,639 I don't disagree with you on that. 665 00:34:51,040 --> 00:34:56,480 Finally, Jesus Christ, when one goddamn argument the other 666 00:34:56,480 --> 00:34:57,920 bottom. It's a discussion. 667 00:34:58,160 --> 00:35:02,040 I know, argument, I know. I just hate when you're right 668 00:35:02,040 --> 00:35:03,400 sometimes, which is all the time. 669 00:35:03,400 --> 00:35:06,800 It's so annoying. OK, the the last thing I just 670 00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:09,640 want to do 1 quick shout out. I'm still sad about it. 671 00:35:09,880 --> 00:35:12,720 Some more break UPS. You know, last show we talked 672 00:35:12,720 --> 00:35:16,480 about Juan Carlos and Carlos still not over that, but some 673 00:35:16,480 --> 00:35:22,800 big break UPS over at ESPN with Pammy out of the commentator box 674 00:35:23,200 --> 00:35:27,120 as well as Brad Gilbert. And I'm just, I love them. 675 00:35:27,120 --> 00:35:29,520 I grew up with them. I love Pam Shriver as a 676 00:35:29,520 --> 00:35:31,520 commentator. I think she's amazing. 677 00:35:31,520 --> 00:35:34,040 She's just a personality and a light. 678 00:35:35,120 --> 00:35:37,240 I'm sad. Who are you going to miss more, 679 00:35:37,400 --> 00:35:40,240 Pam or Brad? I think Pammy, she's an 680 00:35:40,240 --> 00:35:43,000 institution. Do we know was that by their 681 00:35:43,000 --> 00:35:47,120 choice or was it was it like eliminating the position? 682 00:35:47,280 --> 00:35:50,840 Do we know the T? They posted comments and just 683 00:35:50,840 --> 00:35:54,080 sort of original posts on social media that definitely implied 684 00:35:54,080 --> 00:35:57,920 otherwise, where it was like, thanks, I would have loved to 685 00:35:57,920 --> 00:36:01,040 stay, but thanks for the time and kind of that type of thing. 686 00:36:01,400 --> 00:36:04,080 I think they're just being replaced with younger people. 687 00:36:05,160 --> 00:36:10,680 I think it's it's sadly the way of media of, you know, younger, 688 00:36:10,680 --> 00:36:13,840 more like influencer types and it's going to be kind of 689 00:36:14,320 --> 00:36:16,920 annoying as fuck, to be perfectly frank going. 690 00:36:16,920 --> 00:36:18,800 To say that's, that's some bullshit. 691 00:36:19,120 --> 00:36:22,960 Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I as a as a, as a 692 00:36:22,960 --> 00:36:27,360 podcaster, yeah, exactly. Like I feel like I'm I'm turning 693 00:36:27,360 --> 00:36:29,840 on my own tribe here A. Little bit like, OK, imagine 694 00:36:29,840 --> 00:36:32,240 they replaced Pam Shriver and Brad Gilbert with me and you 695 00:36:33,960 --> 00:36:37,440 actually that'd. Be amazing, it would be amazing. 696 00:36:37,440 --> 00:36:41,680 But like how, how tragic for the the wider world, you know, so. 697 00:36:41,680 --> 00:36:43,360 Would you be Pam or would I be Pam? 698 00:36:43,360 --> 00:36:45,960 Which one of us is Pam? We're fighting over Pam. 699 00:36:46,680 --> 00:36:48,400 I feel like Brad Gilbert's more of a Mensch. 700 00:36:48,400 --> 00:36:50,040 So I feel like, I feel like you'd be Brad. 701 00:36:50,560 --> 00:36:52,360 I'd be. You're right, but I hate you 702 00:36:52,360 --> 00:36:53,160 again. You're right. 703 00:36:53,160 --> 00:36:55,320 It's so annoying. I want to be Pam Shriver just 704 00:36:55,320 --> 00:36:57,040 once in my life. You can be Pam. 705 00:36:57,040 --> 00:36:59,040 You can be Pam. I'm the Mary. 706 00:36:59,040 --> 00:37:00,160 You're the roto. This is the new. 707 00:37:00,160 --> 00:37:01,840 Exactly. We'll get you a We'll get you a 708 00:37:01,840 --> 00:37:05,840 good Pam Shriver wig. You'll pick up the wig, I'll 709 00:37:05,840 --> 00:37:08,960 pick up the weights. Wiggin weights. 710 00:37:09,000 --> 00:37:10,120 Oh, that sounds like a fun party. 711 00:37:11,120 --> 00:37:13,680 Just real quick, we also have a new Bay Teepee. 712 00:37:14,040 --> 00:37:16,720 It's the first Bay Teepee rankings of the year, and there 713 00:37:16,720 --> 00:37:19,440 are some surprises. Just as a reminder, everybody, 714 00:37:19,720 --> 00:37:23,280 we reward not just hotness. We care about hotness on and off 715 00:37:23,280 --> 00:37:25,320 the court. You've got to be winning. 716 00:37:25,320 --> 00:37:27,160 You've got to be doing something cool. 717 00:37:27,160 --> 00:37:30,240 You got to be kind of sexy. You got to have personality and 718 00:37:30,560 --> 00:37:33,520 I got to say the results from this first one are pretty 719 00:37:33,520 --> 00:37:35,040 surprising. It's just like the race to 720 00:37:35,040 --> 00:37:37,560 Turin. Those rankings right now have 721 00:37:37,560 --> 00:37:42,880 Hubie Herkoch as the top seed. And so this first Bay TP ranking 722 00:37:42,880 --> 00:37:44,520 of the year may not be what you expected. 723 00:37:45,000 --> 00:37:47,440 Zizu Berg has made his first appearance. 724 00:37:47,640 --> 00:37:50,200 Hubie has made his first appearance. 725 00:37:50,640 --> 00:37:53,960 Some people have fallen way down, like Carlos, who's just 726 00:37:53,960 --> 00:37:57,200 out there picking up extra cash at an exhibition, which I'm 727 00:37:57,200 --> 00:38:00,160 going to stand by, is not hot. That's not sexy to go get 728 00:38:00,160 --> 00:38:02,760 $2,000,000 just to play a match, at least for me. 729 00:38:03,440 --> 00:38:05,640 But also, again, Carlos, can I have some money? 730 00:38:05,640 --> 00:38:08,280 Thanks. So head on over to our 731 00:38:08,280 --> 00:38:10,480 Instagram. That's at TBB Tennis. 732 00:38:10,760 --> 00:38:14,200 Again, that's at TBB Tennis. See the whole draw. 733 00:38:14,440 --> 00:38:16,600 Tell us what we got wrong. Tell us what we got right. 734 00:38:23,480 --> 00:38:25,040 With all that said, it's time to talk. 735 00:38:25,040 --> 00:38:30,080 AOAO, let's go. They are doing so much at the 736 00:38:30,080 --> 00:38:32,400 Australian Open. The tournament has not started 737 00:38:32,400 --> 00:38:37,600 yet and they've already had over 100,000 fans into the tournament 738 00:38:37,960 --> 00:38:41,280 because they've branded this week, which is the qualities and 739 00:38:41,280 --> 00:38:44,080 all of these special events as opening week. 740 00:38:44,840 --> 00:38:47,360 My first, I was like, oh, a week opening sounds like the last 741 00:38:47,360 --> 00:38:51,160 time I was at the Eagle. But they are really doing a lot 742 00:38:51,160 --> 00:38:53,760 of things to get people in. So they've got the quali. 743 00:38:53,760 --> 00:38:59,640 So let's talk about the koala ease, if you will, and gay 744 00:38:59,640 --> 00:39:02,520 watch, which is our man Joel Reyes. 745 00:39:02,520 --> 00:39:07,120 Thermopolis da Silva lost in the first round, but we support our 746 00:39:07,120 --> 00:39:09,680 king again. He makes history. 747 00:39:10,280 --> 00:39:13,840 First openly gay man to play in the qualis at the Australian 748 00:39:13,840 --> 00:39:18,080 Open. He lost to a stone called Babe 749 00:39:19,040 --> 00:39:21,920 Rosha. I forget where he's from now. 750 00:39:22,120 --> 00:39:26,000 He's Portuguese I think. Portuguese, honestly, I mean, I 751 00:39:26,000 --> 00:39:28,480 would have trouble focusing against him too because that is 752 00:39:28,600 --> 00:39:31,600 a regulation hottie, as they say, and Mean Girls. 753 00:39:32,320 --> 00:39:34,760 But it was amazing that Joelle was there. 754 00:39:35,480 --> 00:39:38,160 We also got Sloane Stevens through in the qualities. 755 00:39:38,160 --> 00:39:39,920 I mean, that girl is, she's still around. 756 00:39:40,720 --> 00:39:42,480 She qualified for the Australian Open. 757 00:39:42,480 --> 00:39:46,160 And then your girl Sasnovich. I know you love that Sassy 758 00:39:46,320 --> 00:39:49,440 Sasnovich. Sasnovich in that in that sassy 759 00:39:49,440 --> 00:39:52,800 surf motion of hers, like she she is, she's kind of my 760 00:39:52,800 --> 00:39:54,840 underdog queen. I always root for her to to go 761 00:39:54,840 --> 00:39:57,320 deep and stuff. She she has a brutal draw, 762 00:39:57,320 --> 00:40:00,080 though, with Pellini. Yeah, I don't. 763 00:40:00,360 --> 00:40:02,280 You. You never know. 764 00:40:02,680 --> 00:40:08,600 Yeah, we also had the one point slam, which I still don't 765 00:40:08,600 --> 00:40:11,360 exactly know how it works. You know, Sinner's coach 766 00:40:11,360 --> 00:40:15,680 entered, Marat Saffin was there. I was like, are these considered 767 00:40:15,680 --> 00:40:19,280 the amateurs? Like the Khrjikova Gay played 768 00:40:19,440 --> 00:40:23,240 the the guy who got rid of all the bees at Indian Wells. 769 00:40:23,240 --> 00:40:25,920 Like I think he he was in the. Carrata boy was in. 770 00:40:25,920 --> 00:40:30,440 Yeah, yeah, it was, it's, you know, so it's it. 771 00:40:30,440 --> 00:40:33,360 It was quite the spectacle. A packed Rod Laver Arena. 772 00:40:33,640 --> 00:40:37,560 The winner gets 1,000,000 Australian dollars, which I 773 00:40:37,560 --> 00:40:41,040 think is around $600,000. And taxed by the way, I I heard 774 00:40:41,040 --> 00:40:45,680 that that they don't tax windfalls or prize money in in 775 00:40:45,680 --> 00:40:50,000 Australia. So that that that is maybe I'm 776 00:40:50,000 --> 00:40:52,400 going off the Twitter verse, but apparently. 777 00:40:52,680 --> 00:40:54,040 So I trust everything on Twitter. 778 00:40:56,160 --> 00:40:57,360 No. Well, that's that's good. 779 00:40:57,360 --> 00:40:59,640 It was won by amateur Jordan Smith. 780 00:41:00,280 --> 00:41:02,720 I got to ask you, though, what do you think? 781 00:41:02,720 --> 00:41:04,600 That it was real or was it rigged? 782 00:41:05,640 --> 00:41:09,040 No, I think it was real. And like, yes, Jordan Smith is 783 00:41:09,440 --> 00:41:12,600 technically an amateur, but he has had ranking points on the 784 00:41:12,600 --> 00:41:14,720 ATB Tour before, so like, he's not a nobody. 785 00:41:15,160 --> 00:41:17,080 Yeah, yeah. He, I mean, yeah, everyone who 786 00:41:17,080 --> 00:41:18,680 entered could play. It wasn't like that. 787 00:41:18,720 --> 00:41:23,200 A challenger where that girl had never served a ball in her life. 788 00:41:23,520 --> 00:41:26,760 Can we can we talk about that at some point this episode? 789 00:41:26,760 --> 00:41:29,520 Because like that is actually, I think the the most fascinating 790 00:41:29,520 --> 00:41:31,920 tennis story of the year so far. But anyways, I digress. 791 00:41:31,920 --> 00:41:35,400 To get back to to the one point, Sam, I don't think it was 792 00:41:35,400 --> 00:41:39,320 scripted, but I think what they built into the format, which 793 00:41:39,320 --> 00:41:44,840 ended up like working really well in terms of being a spoiler 794 00:41:45,240 --> 00:41:48,880 is only allowing the pros to have one serve. 795 00:41:49,280 --> 00:41:53,200 Because those men and those women too, frankly, some of the 796 00:41:53,200 --> 00:41:55,400 time, they did not trust their serve. 797 00:41:55,640 --> 00:41:58,600 And like I mean for good reason, I think Center went out on a 798 00:41:58,600 --> 00:41:59,480 fault. Right. 799 00:41:59,680 --> 00:42:02,160 A single fault. Yeah, as soon as I heard that 800 00:42:02,160 --> 00:42:06,200 that was the format, I was like, Coco's out and she, she went out 801 00:42:06,200 --> 00:42:07,200 on her serve. I was like. 802 00:42:08,040 --> 00:42:10,680 She did it like I'm glad she had this is a humor about it, but it 803 00:42:10,680 --> 00:42:12,960 was like a bad that was a bad miss too. 804 00:42:12,960 --> 00:42:14,840 It was a little on the nose. It went into the bottom of the 805 00:42:14,840 --> 00:42:19,280 net, but you know it just I always I love thought 806 00:42:19,280 --> 00:42:22,360 experiments about, you know about. 807 00:42:22,360 --> 00:42:24,920 THOT. Yeah, exactly that. 808 00:42:25,000 --> 00:42:27,520 That's our next segment. I love that. 809 00:42:27,560 --> 00:42:30,760 I love thought experiments about just the format of the of the 810 00:42:30,760 --> 00:42:33,320 matches. It's fun to see kind of how that 811 00:42:33,320 --> 00:42:35,920 changes the dynamic. Like God, if they got rid of the 812 00:42:35,920 --> 00:42:40,160 second serve in the men's game, that would change everything. 813 00:42:40,680 --> 00:42:44,520 That would change everything. Take out the serve bodiness, you 814 00:42:44,520 --> 00:42:46,880 know, and make these guys actually play their ground game. 815 00:42:47,360 --> 00:42:49,520 It's kind of interesting. I don't know, food for thought. 816 00:42:49,520 --> 00:42:52,920 But anyways, like people, I'm always the one who's like, I'm 817 00:42:52,920 --> 00:42:56,240 like the 5% and when they take take the pole and it's like 95 818 00:42:56,240 --> 00:42:58,880 to 5, it's like 95. We're like keep it the same. 819 00:42:58,880 --> 00:43:02,440 And I'm like no, like mix it up. You know me, I'm like a 820 00:43:02,440 --> 00:43:04,680 curmudgeon. I'm the other 5% where I'm like, 821 00:43:06,200 --> 00:43:08,400 I'm out there yelling at clouds like the old man. 822 00:43:08,720 --> 00:43:12,600 But you're you're selling on it. Because I do love the idea as a 823 00:43:12,600 --> 00:43:14,800 broader thing for the men's game. 824 00:43:14,960 --> 00:43:17,880 That's a really interesting concept because it would change 825 00:43:17,880 --> 00:43:20,160 everything because then it would get rid of a lot of the serve 826 00:43:20,160 --> 00:43:22,560 bots. It's like every single point is 827 00:43:22,560 --> 00:43:24,360 over within the first three hits. 828 00:43:24,760 --> 00:43:27,360 But it's sometimes it does feel like it's moving that way. 829 00:43:27,880 --> 00:43:29,480 But but I don't, I don't want to discriminate. 830 00:43:29,560 --> 00:43:34,480 I I love my my Opelkas, you know, like as long as they're a 831 00:43:34,480 --> 00:43:37,440 protected minority on tour, I'm good with it. 832 00:43:37,640 --> 00:43:40,320 But I'm interested to see the way the game evolves. 833 00:43:40,480 --> 00:43:43,720 I'm wondering like it is opening my my mind a little bit, which 834 00:43:43,720 --> 00:43:46,840 is it's like, maybe it's not every point, maybe it's not 835 00:43:46,840 --> 00:43:49,560 every tournament, but like, what if tiebreakers only had one 836 00:43:49,560 --> 00:43:51,040 serve? Yeah. 837 00:43:51,360 --> 00:43:53,640 You know, something where it's like, oh, like the stakes 838 00:43:53,640 --> 00:43:55,960 change. It's a little scarier. 839 00:43:55,960 --> 00:43:58,200 It's a little more like, you know, so it's not just serve 840 00:43:58,200 --> 00:43:59,640 body and it's. I think that's interesting. 841 00:43:59,640 --> 00:44:00,560 Yeah. Yeah. 842 00:44:00,680 --> 00:44:04,120 OK. We also have some wild cards and 843 00:44:04,120 --> 00:44:06,120 we're having some senior moments with our wild cards. 844 00:44:06,120 --> 00:44:08,200 We've got Venus there. We've got Stan there. 845 00:44:08,760 --> 00:44:15,240 I'm so happy about it. Look, Venus does not look great. 846 00:44:15,400 --> 00:44:17,840 Her match in Hobart was not good. 847 00:44:18,120 --> 00:44:20,800 She lost to Tatiana Maria pretty handily. 848 00:44:21,520 --> 00:44:24,680 She wasn't sharp. I don't. 849 00:44:24,680 --> 00:44:27,080 I don't expect much, but I'm happy they're there. 850 00:44:27,520 --> 00:44:31,360 I think Stan's super competitive and, and like, I love seeing him 851 00:44:31,360 --> 00:44:32,240 there. But the thing, yeah, I love 852 00:44:32,240 --> 00:44:36,960 seeing Venus too. It's just, I don't know, I saw 853 00:44:36,960 --> 00:44:43,320 her match a few years ago at the US Open against Greek Menon, and 854 00:44:43,720 --> 00:44:46,320 it was another one where you knew she wasn't going to win it. 855 00:44:46,360 --> 00:44:48,160 You know, it just kind of became clear. 856 00:44:48,560 --> 00:44:54,360 And it's still great to see her, but it's like it's not as fun 857 00:44:54,640 --> 00:44:58,160 when you don't feel like she's like, truly competitive. 858 00:44:58,680 --> 00:45:03,320 It was fun last year that she did have that win over Stearns 859 00:45:03,320 --> 00:45:06,840 in Washington, I think, and I think she took a set off Mukova. 860 00:45:06,920 --> 00:45:07,800 She did. She did. 861 00:45:08,160 --> 00:45:09,640 And like, it's like, oh, you know. 862 00:45:10,440 --> 00:45:13,880 And so like that's like if we get that amazing and even if we 863 00:45:13,880 --> 00:45:18,240 don't like this tour is damn lucky to have to have her in the 864 00:45:18,240 --> 00:45:20,160 mix. And it's like people are going 865 00:45:20,160 --> 00:45:23,960 to take what they get and and she's a joy and she's a legend. 866 00:45:24,000 --> 00:45:27,040 So I, I'm, I'm always going to be happy to see her in the in a 867 00:45:27,040 --> 00:45:29,440 draw anywhere and maybe. She'll catch fire, you know, 868 00:45:29,440 --> 00:45:32,240 Maybe, maybe she'll. She's. 869 00:45:32,320 --> 00:45:33,440 Like a witch. Or something. 870 00:45:34,560 --> 00:45:35,840 Yeah, maybe she'll be burned at the stake. 871 00:45:37,000 --> 00:45:38,680 She, I mean, her draw's not great. 872 00:45:38,680 --> 00:45:40,640 People are like worried that she's going to face Coco in the 873 00:45:40,640 --> 00:45:42,400 second round. I'm not super worried about that 874 00:45:42,400 --> 00:45:44,680 because I don't, I'm not really confident she'll make the second 875 00:45:44,680 --> 00:45:47,440 round. But hey, let's talk a little bit 876 00:45:47,560 --> 00:45:52,240 about some of the draws. So like we talked about earlier, 877 00:45:52,240 --> 00:45:54,760 there's a lot of floaters out there, which it's just a term I 878 00:45:54,760 --> 00:45:59,680 can't say with a straight face, but we've got some really crazy 879 00:45:59,680 --> 00:46:01,760 first round matchups. We've got Baratini versus 880 00:46:01,760 --> 00:46:05,280 Diminauer, we've got Dimitrov versus Mahach, both of them 881 00:46:05,280 --> 00:46:09,080 unseated, I mean. We've got my my glass body 882 00:46:09,080 --> 00:46:11,640 Divas. I know, yeah, exactly who's 883 00:46:11,640 --> 00:46:14,680 going to make it out alive. It's a cage match we've got. 884 00:46:14,680 --> 00:46:16,400 Like what they when they say like, well, they can't both 885 00:46:16,400 --> 00:46:17,680 retire from the match. So yeah, exactly. 886 00:46:18,800 --> 00:46:20,840 Well, I did wonder what that like some of these, some of 887 00:46:20,840 --> 00:46:23,160 these, I'm like, God, are they both going to be like, please, 888 00:46:23,160 --> 00:46:25,800 you go ahead. Well, and then we've got Herkash 889 00:46:25,800 --> 00:46:29,000 versus Bergs again. The the top 2 seeds in the bait 890 00:46:29,000 --> 00:46:31,760 TP rankings are facing off in the first round. 891 00:46:32,000 --> 00:46:34,960 Yeah, Major. And both both unseeded, you 892 00:46:34,960 --> 00:46:37,760 know, and both huge threats for any of the seeds in the draw. 893 00:46:38,200 --> 00:46:40,520 Huge. Yeah, we've got Vekic versus 894 00:46:40,520 --> 00:46:46,640 Andreva, which I think Mira, she's not the mirror that we had 895 00:46:46,640 --> 00:46:50,280 last year. So I think Vekic could take 896 00:46:50,280 --> 00:46:53,200 that. Is Beck, Is Bekich the bekich we 897 00:46:53,200 --> 00:46:55,200 had last year? Well, Bekich hasn't been Bekich 898 00:46:55,200 --> 00:46:58,720 for a minute, but she's she's, she's got something. 899 00:46:59,160 --> 00:47:01,200 Then we've got Krichikova and Schneider. 900 00:47:01,320 --> 00:47:03,200 I don't know, there's a lot of or Schneider. 901 00:47:04,200 --> 00:47:09,800 Anyway, which of those matches are you most excited about, if 902 00:47:09,840 --> 00:47:12,600 any? Honestly, like those, they're 903 00:47:12,600 --> 00:47:16,080 all those are all fine. None of those are lighting my 904 00:47:16,080 --> 00:47:18,720 fire uncontrollably. Bekich. 905 00:47:18,720 --> 00:47:21,040 Person Bergs. Oh, come on. 906 00:47:21,400 --> 00:47:23,360 OK, you know what? But let me tell you because I 907 00:47:23,360 --> 00:47:26,120 just feel like we got a lot of them in the United Cup. 908 00:47:26,120 --> 00:47:29,000 Oh, you're bored? Well, no, I'm not bored, but 909 00:47:29,000 --> 00:47:31,720 it's like but like. On to the next, OK. 910 00:47:32,240 --> 00:47:35,080 Like there's other people in the draw, you know, like, like who 911 00:47:35,160 --> 00:47:36,760 who? I'm really curious to see how 912 00:47:36,760 --> 00:47:41,240 they perform this year. Like who are? 913 00:47:41,280 --> 00:47:44,760 You, I don't know, curious. About. 914 00:47:45,240 --> 00:47:49,040 OK, well, I've never seen Michael Jiang play, but I've 915 00:47:49,040 --> 00:47:52,000 been hearing a lot of amazing buzz about him and he plays 916 00:47:52,000 --> 00:47:54,400 Korda. And like, the thing about Korda 917 00:47:54,400 --> 00:47:57,240 is that I just never quite, you never quite know how he's going 918 00:47:57,240 --> 00:48:00,120 to show up on a day because I don't think, I don't think he's 919 00:48:00,400 --> 00:48:04,080 able to get a lot of rhythm on tour because he's just out for, 920 00:48:04,080 --> 00:48:05,680 like, long stretches. Yeah. 921 00:48:06,200 --> 00:48:09,440 I think Hugo Carbelli and Fukovich is interesting. 922 00:48:09,720 --> 00:48:11,560 I mean a good look. I think there's a lot of 923 00:48:11,560 --> 00:48:13,920 interesting first round matchups for sure. 924 00:48:14,160 --> 00:48:16,600 I pulled the ones I thought were interesting, but I mean shoot me 925 00:48:16,600 --> 00:48:17,400 down. That's fine. 926 00:48:17,400 --> 00:48:18,960 I get it. No, we're. 927 00:48:19,240 --> 00:48:22,200 Just that's not what I, that's not what I'm doing, Paul. 928 00:48:22,760 --> 00:48:25,000 I'm trying to go through. I'm trying to go through and 929 00:48:25,000 --> 00:48:26,880 find mine. You asked me which matches am I 930 00:48:26,880 --> 00:48:31,360 interested in TN versus Garone? Love that one. 931 00:48:32,320 --> 00:48:37,760 And Garone is killing it. He is like he's gotten a fiery 932 00:48:37,760 --> 00:48:40,200 start to this season. Tien's start to the year hasn't 933 00:48:40,200 --> 00:48:44,000 been as as unbelievable as it could have been. 934 00:48:44,440 --> 00:48:46,760 Yeah. And he, I think he has real 935 00:48:46,760 --> 00:48:49,280 points to defend at the AO, doesn't he? 936 00:48:49,280 --> 00:48:50,440 Was this a breakout? Turn. 937 00:48:50,440 --> 00:48:52,560 This was the breakout, I think. I think he made the fourth round 938 00:48:52,560 --> 00:48:53,960 last year. Yeah, yeah. 939 00:48:53,960 --> 00:48:55,680 So like, the stakes are high there. 940 00:48:55,680 --> 00:49:00,640 Like, that's interesting. And on the women's side, I wish 941 00:49:00,640 --> 00:49:03,840 I could say Krichikova Snyder, I just, I'm not convinced even 942 00:49:03,840 --> 00:49:06,880 that she's not going to withdraw before the tournament. 943 00:49:07,880 --> 00:49:11,200 Fernandez Tien. That could be interesting. 944 00:49:11,920 --> 00:49:14,120 Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of great. 945 00:49:14,680 --> 00:49:18,160 I mean, the action is going to be hitting us right away. 946 00:49:18,160 --> 00:49:20,440 It's not going to be one of those boring tournaments where 947 00:49:20,440 --> 00:49:22,840 it's like, oh, we'll only get good stuff towards the end. 948 00:49:22,840 --> 00:49:23,880 So yeah, for. Sure. 949 00:49:23,880 --> 00:49:28,280 Did you see that Sloane Stephens is playing Pushkova? 950 00:49:29,000 --> 00:49:32,040 That's that's such a like delightful blast from the past 951 00:49:32,320 --> 00:49:34,440 match. Like, like something like that 952 00:49:34,560 --> 00:49:38,400 gets me going because like, that is literally who knows? 953 00:49:38,680 --> 00:49:39,880 Who knows how that's going to go. 954 00:49:40,560 --> 00:49:45,200 And then, you know, so Sigman Simpsonova, I would not be 955 00:49:45,200 --> 00:49:48,360 surprised if Laura Sigman wins that. 956 00:49:48,600 --> 00:49:51,760 She's always a threat. She's a big tournament player. 957 00:49:52,320 --> 00:49:54,400 And if you have any mental weakness, I feel like so 958 00:49:54,400 --> 00:49:56,800 capitalized on it and I love me some. 959 00:49:57,280 --> 00:50:00,360 Some mental weakness. More than more than most, 960 00:50:00,360 --> 00:50:02,920 probably. But like, I think she gets in 961 00:50:02,920 --> 00:50:04,520 her own head. Like I just feel like Sigmund's 962 00:50:04,520 --> 00:50:06,240 going to capitalize on that anyways. 963 00:50:06,240 --> 00:50:08,600 OK, that's my little. That's my little like deep cut 964 00:50:08,600 --> 00:50:10,280 toward the draw. Yeah. 965 00:50:10,880 --> 00:50:13,320 But well, thank you for taking us on that journey. 966 00:50:14,560 --> 00:50:18,240 It's an embarrassment of riches. I think this is going to be a 967 00:50:18,240 --> 00:50:20,960 good tournament. Like my crystals are telling me 968 00:50:20,960 --> 00:50:24,040 that the vibes are going to be peak so I'm ready for it. 969 00:50:24,840 --> 00:50:29,640 OK, well, Speaking of crystals, it is time to pull out our 970 00:50:30,480 --> 00:50:35,120 crystal balls for predictions. So first I'm going to do some 971 00:50:35,120 --> 00:50:38,960 speed rounds with you, some speed balls which check Gurley 972 00:50:38,960 --> 00:50:42,800 is going to go the furthest. Kurjikova, Vondrusova. 973 00:50:43,160 --> 00:50:47,280 Mukova maybe. Nuskova maybe? 974 00:50:48,480 --> 00:50:50,920 Yeah. I don't care about Linda as much 975 00:50:50,920 --> 00:50:51,640 though. I just don't. 976 00:50:52,040 --> 00:50:52,920 That's the thing. I don't really. 977 00:50:52,960 --> 00:50:54,520 I don't really. She doesn't excite me either. 978 00:50:54,520 --> 00:50:55,400 She doesn't. Do it for me? 979 00:50:55,400 --> 00:50:56,920 No, not yet. Not yet, but. 980 00:50:58,360 --> 00:51:04,240 I don't trust the other ones tonight, like to not get 981 00:51:04,240 --> 00:51:06,000 injured. I I hate to see it. 982 00:51:06,480 --> 00:51:07,960 But you got to pick one. Pick one. 983 00:51:09,120 --> 00:51:11,920 OK, Bartun Kava. Bartukova. 984 00:51:12,160 --> 00:51:14,720 Bartukova. I'm going to say Nikola 985 00:51:14,720 --> 00:51:17,160 Bartukova. Oh, I thought you made that name 986 00:51:17,160 --> 00:51:20,000 up. Oh, she's a real, She's a 987 00:51:20,000 --> 00:51:22,120 youngster in the draw. She's really talented. 988 00:51:22,120 --> 00:51:24,000 I actually I I really like her game. 989 00:51:24,360 --> 00:51:25,600 OK. But between those three, I'm 990 00:51:27,120 --> 00:51:31,280 going to tell you it's Mukova. Yeah, didn't, didn't von Druseva 991 00:51:31,280 --> 00:51:34,200 just withdraw from one of the tournaments? 992 00:51:34,400 --> 00:51:37,000 I think she gave. Oh, she. 993 00:51:37,320 --> 00:51:40,040 Had a walk over in Adelaide. Yeah great. 994 00:51:40,040 --> 00:51:44,280 After beating Sam Sonova. Yeah, he has. 995 00:51:44,280 --> 00:51:45,400 Really. It's like it's coming full 996 00:51:45,400 --> 00:51:46,240 circle. Yeah. 997 00:51:46,320 --> 00:51:48,160 So you know what process of lamination? 998 00:51:48,160 --> 00:51:49,440 I think you're right. I think it's Mukava. 999 00:51:49,440 --> 00:51:52,400 It's Mooks and I think Mooks has a has a chance. 1000 00:51:52,400 --> 00:51:56,520 She looked really good in Brisbane before looking not so 1001 00:51:56,520 --> 00:51:59,400 great. Who on the men's side? 1002 00:51:59,760 --> 00:52:02,720 So here's my prediction. My prediction is someone who's 1003 00:52:02,720 --> 00:52:07,080 floating between 15 and 25 is going to do a run. 1004 00:52:07,400 --> 00:52:10,200 And I think that we should put our money where our mouths are 1005 00:52:10,640 --> 00:52:14,120 and decide who it's going to be. And I'm I think it's going to be 1006 00:52:14,120 --> 00:52:18,400 one of these three guys. Is it Kachanov, is it divided 1007 00:52:18,400 --> 00:52:20,080 Spakina? Or is it Kaboli? 1008 00:52:20,520 --> 00:52:22,680 It's got to be folky. It's got to be folky. 1009 00:52:22,880 --> 00:52:25,680 Not only do I think it's one of the most like unrealized 1010 00:52:25,680 --> 00:52:29,400 narratives of like Alexander Davidovich Fukina actually 1011 00:52:29,440 --> 00:52:34,880 winning a match that he deserves to win when it's close, but I 1012 00:52:34,880 --> 00:52:37,760 think he's actually been playing really well the start of the 1013 00:52:37,760 --> 00:52:42,160 season. And I I don't even like I, I 1014 00:52:42,160 --> 00:52:44,200 don't, I have no idea what catching off is doing right now. 1015 00:52:44,200 --> 00:52:46,600 And Caboli, Caboli is another one. 1016 00:52:46,600 --> 00:52:48,760 He's kind of like, I don't know if I have a thing against the 1017 00:52:48,760 --> 00:52:51,560 Italian players, but sort of like Muzetti. 1018 00:52:51,560 --> 00:52:54,920 I just, I'm not convinced. I'm not convinced that he's 1019 00:52:54,920 --> 00:52:57,160 like, he's great. Like the numbers are there, the 1020 00:52:57,160 --> 00:53:00,240 ranking is there, but I just haven't seen it with my own 1021 00:53:00,240 --> 00:53:01,880 eyes. So I'm going to say ADF. 1022 00:53:02,520 --> 00:53:05,960 OK great. I completely agree. 1023 00:53:06,240 --> 00:53:07,800 For once on this show I agree with you. 1024 00:53:07,800 --> 00:53:13,560 I think you are Catina and and he is in a section of the draw 1025 00:53:13,560 --> 00:53:15,320 that I think some people would say is very dangerous. 1026 00:53:15,320 --> 00:53:18,000 But I actually think it's not dangerous because that leads us 1027 00:53:18,000 --> 00:53:23,360 to our next prediction, which is who is bottoming out early this 1028 00:53:23,640 --> 00:53:26,840 tournament. There's always a surprise top 1029 00:53:26,840 --> 00:53:31,040 seed and we're going to say anyone in the top 16 who is 1030 00:53:31,040 --> 00:53:32,960 bottoming out early doesn't necessarily have to be a first 1031 00:53:32,960 --> 00:53:36,960 round shocker, but who's not making it past the third round. 1032 00:53:37,400 --> 00:53:40,280 And I've got a few predictions on my side. 1033 00:53:40,280 --> 00:53:42,440 Do you want me to throw some out at you? 1034 00:53:43,360 --> 00:53:46,480 Yeah, correct. On the women's side, I hate to 1035 00:53:46,480 --> 00:53:48,880 say it, she gave us so much last year. 1036 00:53:49,120 --> 00:53:51,640 Madison Keys is not making it past the second round. 1037 00:53:52,400 --> 00:53:57,000 She had such an amazing run. I'm so happy for her. 1038 00:53:57,200 --> 00:54:01,080 I don't think winning was the greatest for her mentally. 1039 00:54:01,080 --> 00:54:02,880 I think it put a lot of pressure on her. 1040 00:54:03,040 --> 00:54:05,440 I think she's going to feel extra pressure now. 1041 00:54:05,720 --> 00:54:09,640 She just lost a kind of tight but sloppy match against Imboko 1042 00:54:10,360 --> 00:54:12,480 in Adelaide, which she won last year. 1043 00:54:12,640 --> 00:54:15,720 I just, I think that it's not going to happen and I think that 1044 00:54:15,720 --> 00:54:18,040 will actually be good for her because it will relieve the 1045 00:54:18,040 --> 00:54:20,960 pressure and I think she's going to have a pretty good rest of 1046 00:54:20,960 --> 00:54:24,200 the year after that. So that's my big this is who is 1047 00:54:24,200 --> 00:54:26,520 losing my other one though, if I'm going to go for a real 1048 00:54:26,520 --> 00:54:31,200 reach, Eaga. Eaga had a lot of losses at the 1049 00:54:31,200 --> 00:54:33,400 United Cup. She lost to Coco, she lost to 1050 00:54:33,400 --> 00:54:36,200 Belinda. She might be pissed and ready to 1051 00:54:36,200 --> 00:54:39,160 really do it, but she's never done great in Australia and she 1052 00:54:39,160 --> 00:54:42,240 might just be off to a bit of a rusty start in the new year. 1053 00:54:42,240 --> 00:54:46,040 So those are my 2 top players on the women's side who might not 1054 00:54:46,040 --> 00:54:50,720 be making it. I mean, I'm I fully cosign. 1055 00:54:50,960 --> 00:54:53,280 I fully cosign. I mean, you could, you could 1056 00:54:53,280 --> 00:54:55,640 throw in an an Andreva or something. 1057 00:54:55,640 --> 00:54:59,840 But like, I actually, I think it's more fun to think that 1058 00:54:59,840 --> 00:55:02,400 ego's not going to go deep than it is Andreva, you know? 1059 00:55:02,400 --> 00:55:04,600 So like, I'm, I'm on board. I'm on board. 1060 00:55:04,600 --> 00:55:06,760 Like I was going to say Paolini, but like, I don't and. 1061 00:55:07,120 --> 00:55:09,080 I also, I don't know, that's it feels unoriginal. 1062 00:55:09,080 --> 00:55:12,200 Everybody's always like doubting that Mira and Jasmine are going 1063 00:55:12,200 --> 00:55:14,560 to, like, back it up because because they've had some rough, 1064 00:55:14,760 --> 00:55:17,400 rough patches lately. But like, yeah, I think you're 1065 00:55:17,400 --> 00:55:19,960 right. I think Ego and and Madison, 1066 00:55:20,440 --> 00:55:22,480 yeah. Yeah. 1067 00:55:22,960 --> 00:55:25,120 And then on the men's side, do you want, do you want me to go 1068 00:55:25,120 --> 00:55:26,520 first actually on the? Men's. 1069 00:55:26,520 --> 00:55:30,040 Sure. OK, I think my first prediction 1070 00:55:30,040 --> 00:55:34,800 is good old Taylor Fritz for reasons that that we've been 1071 00:55:34,800 --> 00:55:37,720 saying. I just, I don't think his 1072 00:55:38,040 --> 00:55:40,240 fitness is quite there. And that's not a knock on him. 1073 00:55:40,240 --> 00:55:44,120 I think he's dealing with some some really inconvenient 1074 00:55:44,320 --> 00:55:48,680 inflammation issues and he's a player like a lot of these 1075 00:55:48,680 --> 00:55:50,120 players. So I think when he doesn't quite 1076 00:55:50,120 --> 00:55:53,400 have the faith, he's not going to play his best, you know, I 1077 00:55:53,400 --> 00:55:54,720 think he can get a little listless. 1078 00:55:54,720 --> 00:55:58,320 And so I wouldn't be surprised to see him. 1079 00:55:59,120 --> 00:56:04,440 Out. I could say, OK, I'm going to 1080 00:56:04,440 --> 00:56:07,840 I'm going to kind of mirror what you did with the women's side. 1081 00:56:08,360 --> 00:56:13,600 I think Novak, I think Novak, because did you just see here 1082 00:56:13,600 --> 00:56:18,320 that he had to cut a practice short because he had some injury 1083 00:56:18,320 --> 00:56:23,000 issue bothering him? It's like like no one is no one 1084 00:56:23,000 --> 00:56:26,320 is a cat with 9 lives. Like like Djokovic like he 1085 00:56:26,320 --> 00:56:29,120 always seems to have some sort of issue and then always makes 1086 00:56:29,120 --> 00:56:30,920 the semi finals and finals and things anyways. 1087 00:56:30,920 --> 00:56:32,920 But he's got to pay the piper at some point. 1088 00:56:32,960 --> 00:56:36,560 I'm just wondering if this is the year that that it's over 1089 00:56:36,560 --> 00:56:38,040 early for him. Yeah. 1090 00:56:38,520 --> 00:56:41,520 I mean, he has a, he has a very tortured history with the 1091 00:56:41,520 --> 00:56:44,280 Australian Open with like what happened during COVID. 1092 00:56:44,960 --> 00:56:47,920 Yeah, but also, you know, the site of his greatest victories 1093 00:56:47,920 --> 00:56:51,440 and it's his slam that he owns. I think that's interesting. 1094 00:56:51,480 --> 00:56:55,560 He was not on my radar for that. But so I was going to say Fritz, 1095 00:56:55,560 --> 00:56:57,320 but then do you want to know my stretch? 1096 00:56:58,520 --> 00:57:02,760 So I'm I'm, I'm leaning into my whole theory about how bad the 1097 00:57:02,760 --> 00:57:04,680 breakup is actually going to be for his performance. 1098 00:57:05,400 --> 00:57:09,720 Carlos Alcaraz is losing in round 3 to Moute. 1099 00:57:11,040 --> 00:57:15,400 Moute is going to frustrate him. Carlos is not focused. 1100 00:57:15,840 --> 00:57:17,920 He is. He's obviously generational 1101 00:57:17,920 --> 00:57:20,400 talent. He's obviously got the skills, 1102 00:57:20,640 --> 00:57:22,600 but I don't think mentally he is locked in. 1103 00:57:22,600 --> 00:57:25,400 He's out there doing weird promos where he's dressed up 1104 00:57:25,400 --> 00:57:28,400 like a bellhop. He is just hanging out. 1105 00:57:28,680 --> 00:57:33,040 He had a a weak exhibition as his warm up, his only 1106 00:57:33,040 --> 00:57:36,520 competitive thing. And I don't know who in his 1107 00:57:36,520 --> 00:57:41,920 player box is going to get him to lock the F in and really 1108 00:57:41,920 --> 00:57:44,040 focus. His family's just going to be 1109 00:57:44,040 --> 00:57:46,560 sitting there. They're like, hey, Manja or 1110 00:57:46,560 --> 00:57:48,840 whatever, you know, not Manja, that's Italian, but they're 1111 00:57:48,840 --> 00:57:50,520 going to be like whatever paella. 1112 00:57:50,880 --> 00:57:54,800 And it's just going to be not I, I, I, I think that I think he's 1113 00:57:54,800 --> 00:57:56,320 going to have an early exit. It's. 1114 00:57:57,080 --> 00:57:58,320 Interesting. I mean, it's interesting. 1115 00:57:58,320 --> 00:58:00,600 My friend Richard, who I was talking to right before this 1116 00:58:00,600 --> 00:58:04,440 podcast was like making the exact same prediction about 1117 00:58:04,760 --> 00:58:08,400 Carlito's having an early exit. I could, I could believe it. 1118 00:58:08,400 --> 00:58:13,240 But I will say that I've seen some footage recently of some 1119 00:58:13,240 --> 00:58:16,920 improvements he's made to his serve to be more Djokovic like 1120 00:58:16,920 --> 00:58:20,960 and have more like whip with his wrist when he's serving, which 1121 00:58:20,960 --> 00:58:23,640 I'm like. Like I've seen documented 1122 00:58:23,640 --> 00:58:26,800 evidence of improvements to his game, which like doesn't always 1123 00:58:26,800 --> 00:58:30,920 translate into results. But I to me it kind of undercuts 1124 00:58:30,920 --> 00:58:34,080 the narrative of him not being focused in the offseason. 1125 00:58:34,480 --> 00:58:39,160 So I'm curious to see what Carlos shows up on. 1126 00:58:39,560 --> 00:58:43,200 Yeah, yeah. Who is your dark horse on the 1127 00:58:43,200 --> 00:58:45,920 men's side who's going to make a run? 1128 00:58:46,640 --> 00:58:48,200 I'm just going to shoot mine out there. 1129 00:58:49,040 --> 00:58:52,920 I might eat crow just like he was eating the fashion looks in 1130 00:58:52,920 --> 00:58:56,360 the airport. But I'm going with Sitzepas is 1131 00:58:56,360 --> 00:58:59,760 going to win his section, which has Musetti and Fritz in it, 1132 00:59:01,040 --> 00:59:04,920 both kind of who knows. And you know, it's got Leshka, 1133 00:59:04,920 --> 00:59:07,200 who might be injured. It's got Dimitrov, who will 1134 00:59:07,200 --> 00:59:10,520 probably be injured. It's got Vavrinka, who's, you 1135 00:59:10,520 --> 00:59:14,240 know, doing his thing. I think sits a pass makes it to 1136 00:59:14,240 --> 00:59:19,040 the quarterfinals I mean. I would love to see it to like, 1137 00:59:19,080 --> 00:59:22,320 and that would fit with the momentum that this season has, 1138 00:59:22,320 --> 00:59:27,760 you know, of like, of of raging against the dying of the light 1139 00:59:27,760 --> 00:59:29,440 like some of these players in their careers. 1140 00:59:30,760 --> 00:59:35,200 It kind of complements my prediction pretty well, which I 1141 00:59:35,200 --> 00:59:37,960 think Medvedev is actually going to make a run. 1142 00:59:38,720 --> 00:59:41,800 He has felt more like the Medvedev of old. 1143 00:59:42,040 --> 00:59:46,520 He's got like mojo on court. You know, he's a very vibey 1144 00:59:46,520 --> 00:59:48,480 player. It's like, it's like he's got to 1145 00:59:48,480 --> 00:59:51,240 be feeling it. And he's like, I mean, he just 1146 00:59:51,240 --> 00:59:54,280 won a tournament. He just won Brisbane, yeah. 1147 00:59:54,320 --> 00:59:57,280 Yeah, yeah. And he looked, he looked great. 1148 00:59:57,520 --> 00:59:59,640 He just, he mentally was dialed in. 1149 00:59:59,640 --> 01:00:03,800 He was moving great. Like can you Can you imagine if 1150 01:00:03,800 --> 01:00:08,520 both of them actually make a run and we get like a late Slam 1151 01:00:08,800 --> 01:00:14,680 Medvedev Sisipas duel? The aging Next Gen. rematch from 1152 01:00:14,680 --> 01:00:16,720 that we were expecting in 2018? Absolutely. 1153 01:00:16,720 --> 01:00:20,360 No, I love that. I mean, look, Medvedev, he is in 1154 01:00:20,360 --> 01:00:22,960 a decent part of the draw. Yeah, his draw's actually great 1155 01:00:22,960 --> 01:00:24,600 at first. I mean, he plays Dijon and then 1156 01:00:24,600 --> 01:00:28,280 he and then like the winner of Halle Stabilo and then like, and 1157 01:00:28,280 --> 01:00:31,680 then his seed is Rinder Nash. So like I, I kind of like those 1158 01:00:31,680 --> 01:00:32,960 odds. Well, and you know the 1159 01:00:32,960 --> 01:00:35,320 interesting thing about Medvedev also in the Australian Open, 1160 01:00:35,760 --> 01:00:40,880 given his track record, he has never won there, which means? 1161 01:00:40,880 --> 01:00:43,840 Right, right. To win there, to pick up another 1162 01:00:43,840 --> 01:00:45,440 place that he's never won before. 1163 01:00:45,440 --> 01:00:48,120 So I think that I, oh, I love these. 1164 01:00:48,120 --> 01:00:50,280 I love both these calls. Yeah, me too, me too. 1165 01:00:50,280 --> 01:00:52,640 This is giving me goosebumps. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. 1166 01:00:53,440 --> 01:00:56,480 OK, girlies. Who's making a run that we're 1167 01:00:56,480 --> 01:01:00,600 not expecting? It's tough because I want to say 1168 01:01:00,600 --> 01:01:04,200 in Boco, but I feel like there's always this recency bias of 1169 01:01:04,200 --> 01:01:06,840 like, you all like players who like have just done really well 1170 01:01:06,840 --> 01:01:08,480 right before a slam. You're like, oh, they're going 1171 01:01:08,480 --> 01:01:11,160 to carry that momentum forward, and they rarely do because 1172 01:01:11,160 --> 01:01:13,920 they're tired. You know, yeah. 1173 01:01:14,200 --> 01:01:17,440 Like they like they just have, they've had no time to recover 1174 01:01:17,440 --> 01:01:18,760 from the last tournament they just played. 1175 01:01:18,760 --> 01:01:22,440 So but like, she'll be, she'll be one. 1176 01:01:22,960 --> 01:01:25,520 I'll say in Boko that that she seems hot. 1177 01:01:28,520 --> 01:01:31,440 I think that's fair. Maybe I'm Kostiuk. 1178 01:01:32,040 --> 01:01:33,680 I was just going to say I'm going to go with Kostiuk. 1179 01:01:33,680 --> 01:01:36,960 I think Marta, I think Marta wins her section. 1180 01:01:36,960 --> 01:01:40,840 She's going to beat Alexandrova I think pretty easily and then 1181 01:01:40,840 --> 01:01:43,920 she'll take out maybe Paulini, if Paulini even makes it the 1182 01:01:43,920 --> 01:01:46,320 fourth round. I think if that's going to be a 1183 01:01:46,320 --> 01:01:49,960 Kostiuk Evajovic 4th round match, which will be great. 1184 01:01:50,640 --> 01:01:56,200 But I think Kostiuk, she's just, she plays with the the the pain 1185 01:01:56,200 --> 01:01:59,400 in her heart that somehow fuels her game. 1186 01:01:59,400 --> 01:02:03,800 That is just, she looked really solid in those three top ten 1187 01:02:03,800 --> 01:02:06,920 wins in Brisbane. So I'm I'm excited for her. 1188 01:02:06,920 --> 01:02:11,200 Yeah, yeah. And you know who I would love to 1189 01:02:11,200 --> 01:02:14,160 see, like, get some traction in this tournament? 1190 01:02:15,120 --> 01:02:18,560 My girl Ostapenko. Where has she been she? 1191 01:02:18,760 --> 01:02:21,880 I mean, she's been killing it on the Double S tour, but it's like 1192 01:02:21,880 --> 01:02:25,280 we we need her to not forget she has won a slam in singles. 1193 01:02:25,280 --> 01:02:29,200 So you got Sloane Stevens out here, you know, grinding and and 1194 01:02:29,200 --> 01:02:31,760 working hard. Like let's we need to see some 1195 01:02:32,080 --> 01:02:35,480 hustle from Ostapenko. Yeah, yeah. 1196 01:02:35,480 --> 01:02:38,440 I mean, she's got a decent draw. I mean, she'll end up, if she 1197 01:02:38,440 --> 01:02:40,600 places faces a seat, it's Noskava. 1198 01:02:40,600 --> 01:02:42,160 She could win that. Yeah. 1199 01:02:42,440 --> 01:02:45,920 I mean, she could beat anybody. I mean, her versus Enna Simova 1200 01:02:45,920 --> 01:02:49,400 in the fourth round, pretty sexy. 1201 01:02:49,400 --> 01:02:50,800 I'm. I'm definitely here for that. 1202 01:02:51,480 --> 01:02:53,840 That. That's some big Babe tennis, big 1203 01:02:53,880 --> 01:02:55,680 Point O. We got to say Big Babe tennis at 1204 01:02:55,680 --> 01:02:59,000 least once a show. Yeah, we we've hit. 1205 01:02:59,000 --> 01:03:02,040 Our. That's we're sponsored by Big 1206 01:03:02,040 --> 01:03:05,480 Babe Tennis. OK, last question then. 1207 01:03:06,280 --> 01:03:08,920 Who's winning it all? Put put your money where your 1208 01:03:08,920 --> 01:03:10,160 mouth is. Who's taking the men's? 1209 01:03:10,160 --> 01:03:14,240 Who's taking the women's? Who won? 1210 01:03:14,240 --> 01:03:16,080 Who won AO last year? Was it Yannick? 1211 01:03:16,800 --> 01:03:19,440 Yeah. So this would be a repeat. 1212 01:03:20,000 --> 01:03:21,680 Then I think Carlitos takes it this year. 1213 01:03:24,040 --> 01:03:25,960 Just saying. Ish posh. 1214 01:03:25,960 --> 01:03:29,000 As long as they do that, I am going. 1215 01:03:29,960 --> 01:03:33,400 I'm 90, I know. I'm 86% sure. 1216 01:03:33,400 --> 01:03:38,000 Yannick Sinner is winning the tournament women's side. 1217 01:03:41,200 --> 01:03:47,240 You know, if I'm going to be going on form, I hate to say 1218 01:03:47,240 --> 01:03:49,280 this because I'm not even like that big of a fan of her, but 1219 01:03:49,280 --> 01:03:55,160 like maybe Rebokina. I mean who? 1220 01:03:55,160 --> 01:03:56,880 Like whose name we haven't uttered this entire. 1221 01:03:56,880 --> 01:04:01,720 Episode nary a word, yeah. I mean, unless she suffers the 1222 01:04:01,800 --> 01:04:08,160 the curse of Mugarusa after winning the the year finals, 1223 01:04:08,920 --> 01:04:11,280 it's like then she didn't win another match for for an entire 1224 01:04:11,280 --> 01:04:13,320 year. But I, I don't really, I, I feel 1225 01:04:13,320 --> 01:04:18,520 like Bakina has dialed the F in. Like I feel like she's on, she's 1226 01:04:18,520 --> 01:04:23,160 on lock right now. If they go to form, she plays 1227 01:04:23,200 --> 01:04:28,520 Benchich in the fourth round, so this on the women's side, once 1228 01:04:28,520 --> 01:04:32,800 we get to the third round, it is barn Burners I'm fucking excited 1229 01:04:32,800 --> 01:04:34,280 for. The women's tour. 1230 01:04:34,640 --> 01:04:37,160 Like it's gonna be great. I think Rebecca has a good 1231 01:04:37,160 --> 01:04:41,160 choice. I'm going with Madame Coco Goff. 1232 01:04:42,800 --> 01:04:47,040 I think that she, as long as she gets 2 serves and not one, I 1233 01:04:47,200 --> 01:04:49,280 think that she's got a good shot. 1234 01:04:49,280 --> 01:04:51,200 She looked really good in the United Cup. 1235 01:04:52,160 --> 01:04:54,520 I think that. She's her forehand was holding 1236 01:04:54,520 --> 01:04:55,920 up. Yeah, yeah. 1237 01:04:56,360 --> 01:04:58,800 So I'm not going to pick Sabalenka. 1238 01:04:58,800 --> 01:05:01,840 I'm just not going to. I don't give a crap and ego I'm 1239 01:05:01,840 --> 01:05:04,280 just worried about. So I think the next logical pick 1240 01:05:04,280 --> 01:05:07,480 is is Miss Gough. She's going to go from. 1241 01:05:07,720 --> 01:05:11,320 Belinder but but I feel like you're, I mean, goth, Goth 1242 01:05:11,320 --> 01:05:13,440 definitely is the is the safer choice there. 1243 01:05:13,560 --> 01:05:17,080 It's like based on results. OK, you know what, I don't want 1244 01:05:17,080 --> 01:05:18,720 to be safe and I don't. I'm going to like, grab my 1245 01:05:18,720 --> 01:05:19,880 nipples. I'm going to go. 1246 01:05:19,880 --> 01:05:21,640 I'm changing. I'm going with the bench. 1247 01:05:21,960 --> 01:05:24,440 Yeah. Belinda Benchich is taking the 1248 01:05:24,440 --> 01:05:30,080 Australian Open because she is in Eaga's part of the draw, so 1249 01:05:30,120 --> 01:05:32,080 she's going to take out Eaga yet again. 1250 01:05:32,640 --> 01:05:35,560 She is informed she's not at all injured. 1251 01:05:35,560 --> 01:05:36,880 She has all of her toenails back. 1252 01:05:36,880 --> 01:05:39,320 That's why she lost so bad at Wimbledon semies last year. 1253 01:05:40,320 --> 01:05:43,280 The bench AO. Champion 2026. 1254 01:05:43,280 --> 01:05:45,120 She's a single mom who works 2 jobs. 1255 01:05:45,120 --> 01:05:46,720 She loves her kids and never stops. 1256 01:05:48,560 --> 01:05:52,800 I I love to see mothers winning. On the WTA. 1257 01:05:52,800 --> 01:05:56,520 Tour, let me tell you. And since Victoria Azarenka has 1258 01:05:56,600 --> 01:05:59,320 disappeared off the face of the earth, I'm going to need pull 1259 01:05:59,320 --> 01:06:03,000 into vintage to kind of step into that mother energy and take 1260 01:06:03,000 --> 01:06:06,160 the whole damn thing. And Naomi is not taking it so. 1261 01:06:06,480 --> 01:06:10,600 Although did you see that? You know that ex user Venus 1262 01:06:10,600 --> 01:06:13,960 Gough who who makes these like, sometimes shockingly accurate 1263 01:06:13,960 --> 01:06:17,600 predictions of like, whoever draws Paulina Kudurmatova in the 1264 01:06:17,600 --> 01:06:19,880 slam is going to win the whole thing and like, it's come true 1265 01:06:19,880 --> 01:06:21,920 twice, I think Who? Who drew Pearl? 1266 01:06:22,080 --> 01:06:25,560 She said, well, for her prediction this time was whoever 1267 01:06:25,560 --> 01:06:29,480 draws Antonio Ruzich, guess who drew is? 1268 01:06:29,480 --> 01:06:31,920 Naomi. Yeah. 1269 01:06:32,080 --> 01:06:33,600 OK. And that. 1270 01:06:33,600 --> 01:06:35,360 Twitter which has any power left? 1271 01:06:35,360 --> 01:06:41,160 Then Naomi Osaka is winning. Amazing OK well that's our show 1272 01:06:41,200 --> 01:06:44,760 and we are going to find out in just a little over 2 weeks just 1273 01:06:44,760 --> 01:06:48,680 how correct Matthew and I are and who was more right. 1274 01:06:49,080 --> 01:06:51,120 Matthew, it is so great to have you back. 1275 01:06:51,200 --> 01:06:57,480 As always everybody enjoy the Australian Open and until then 1276 01:06:57,520 --> 01:06:59,520 our balls are going back in the can. 1277 01:07:00,240 --> 01:07:04,240 Thanks y'all, it's. Time for Let's get some ground 1278 01:07:04,240 --> 01:07:07,440 strokes. Baseline get some top spin.