It's time for let's get some ground strokes baseline.
It's top spin. That's LGBT.
Have a listen. Make some noise with the ball
boys. Hey everybody, and welcome to
the latest episode of The Ball Boys.
We are the tennis podcast that puts the hoe in Hobart.
I'm your host, Paul Monkle. I'm bringing you the insights,
outbursts, giggles and wiggles of the ATP and WTA tours.
So how's 2026 going? I said on the last show that I
was pretty optimistic, but I'm worried that the heated rivalry
effect is starting to cool off. Did the fever break for anybody
else? Look, I'm trying to stay out of
the cottage, but Shane keeps changing the locks.
Now I'm not ready to say this year is going to suck, but can
we get a break? Honestly, the world feels
crazier and crazier every day and somehow we just keep topping
ourselves. And look, there's no great joke
to cover. The great joke that is the
current administration, the state of politics, the
intimidation, the fear tactics. And I also acknowledge this is
not the first time I'm saying this on the show, and I do hope
for a time when I won't have to. But in the meantime, all I can
say is the ball boys are here for you, and hopefully we can be
a small distraction and a moment of levity for you through all of
this garbage. And in other tragic news, it was
the Golden Globes, where this year they honored podcasts for
the first time. And no, that's not the tragedy.
No, the tragedy is the ball boys weren't even nominated.
And we end up losing to Amy Poehler of all people.
How anyone can stand her is beyond me.
Do people even like her? Oh, my God, I'm just kidding.
Amy, I love you. I'm obsessed.
Please come on the pod. But also in terms of the tour,
we are off to a Kraken start. We had a Brisbane final ripped
from the headlines, we had top players continuing their
exhibitionism, we had Novak pulling out of everything and a
United Cup. That was the most fun and
exciting group watch I've had in years.
We'll be covering all of that and we just released a new Bay
TP rankings, our first of the year, and you can head on over
to our Instagram to see that. And again, our Instagram is at
TBB Tennis. That's at TBB Tennis.
Now to do all this, I've got one of my favorite ball boys with
me. He's the didgery do to my you
beta didgery don't. He's got the high koala tea
tennis takes matched only by his Tasmanianly devilish good looks.
It's Matthew Coleman. Hi, Matthew.
Welcome back to the POD. What's up Paul?
Am I the Am I the dingo? The HO baby?
Oh yeah, the dingo, The dingus. Yeah, that's more like it.
The dangus. Did you make a resolution?
You know, I think this year I want to be the reason that a pro
tennis player comes out of the closet because they fell so
deeply in love with me that they cannot hide that love from the
world for even a second longer. Wow.
Wow, that's I think a beautiful resolution.
So first you got to make me famous through the pod and then
you got to like you got to, you got to get me in the inner
circle. Then it's a whole 12 step plan
here, OK? Like we got to get moving.
You mean more famous? Because I mean our the family
level is pretty damn high. We we lost to Amy Poehler.
How many podcasts can say that? Well, every podcast.
But Hollywood? Was was scared to nominate us.
They were scared to nominate us, yeah.
Exactly, that's what it was. No, I, I, I love that.
I love that your resolution is not at all about self
improvement. It's just about.
I'm perfect, yeah. What do I need to improve?
Honey, honey, I we all see it. We all.
Can hear it. I'm perfectly imperfect.
How's that? That's beautiful.
Well, look, I don't know if I actually said it on the last
pod, but I was thinking it just based on the heated rivalry
effect. There's already been a pro
hockey player who's come out. I don't know what league.
I don't think it was the NHLI think it was some other league.
I do believe that there is going to be a tennis player in the top
150 who comes out, maybe not this year, but sometime in the
next. I'm going to say 18 months to 24
months. So we've got to get you in front
of these, in front of these players.
I think that's what's going. To happen in a trench coat,
nothing else. And then I just open the trench
coat and then they're like, how can I resist that?
I don't think it works like that.
I I wish in my dream. Well, you know, well, I'll take
you coat shopping sometime soon. OK, great.
Did you watch Heater Rivalry and if so?
Of course, listen, I like I'm I'm ASAP for a happily happily
ever after. So like heater rivalry was was
totally my jam. I will say in recent weeks,
people's parasocial relationships with these actors
is really disturbing me. I'm like scared for them.
I'm like. Leave these.
Actors alone, like let them let them breathe.
And it's like I I, you know, you're falling in love with
someone and like becoming obsessed with someone because of
the fictional character that they portray.
And I'm like, can we just go back to old fashioned like like
let's let's be para socially obsessed with with tennis
players. It's like they're real, you
know, exactly. They're real people.
They're not characters like that are scripted on ATV show.
Right. How are you feeling about the
season so far? I mean, we're two weeks in, but
tons is going on. What's your hot take over all?
I mean, generally, I think it's been really fun.
I feel like we already have narratives.
We have some nice resurgences from some of my favorite players
from years past. It feels like people are
stepping back up to the plate and they're being like, no, no,
no, no. Like like Mr. Hubert, her catch
is 11. Classic example.
We'll get into that later. We'll get into but.
We will. We had a way into Hubie later.
But I mean, it's the problem is it's literally the first couple
weeks of the season and we already have players that
injured. We're barely out of the gate.
So that's like really upsetting and disturbing to me.
And I'm like, I just, I don't like seeing people's careers
seemingly implode in real time. It's a really depressing, I
mean, luckily there's enough depth for now where it's like,
OK, we still have a lot of really intriguing storylines
coming up for the Australian Open.
But you're right, there are. So I mean, for this early in the
season, for so many people who have been pulling out of things
left and right, I'm concerned too.
Yeah, yeah. But I, I will say it might maybe
my last kind of hot take about the season just very, it's
officially is I'm like really excited about this kind of
rising crop of, of youngsters on both the men's and the women's
side. Like I'm, I'm, I'm invested.
There's a few kind of people kind of hovering around their
breakout. That's what I'm most excited
about for slams is to see what what new names become part of
the conversation, because I don't want to see the sport just
become the Yannick and Carlos in arena show.
It's like I want, I want fresh blood.
No, I'm done with arena. Arena done with that.
Well, we'll get to all of that and you know I want to hear
about some of your breakout stars when we get into the
Australian Open, which we'll be spending a lot of time doing a
preview of later on in the show because the draws have come out.
There's a lot of bangers for first round matches, but first
we're going to start with our lobs bins, which again, it's
just a thing that's made us a little gayer for tennis since
the last show. Somehow the tours just keep
delivering Lobsbian after Lobsbian.
And so the one that came screaming out of the United Cup
was Zizu Bergs. So Zizu, what a revelation.
And I appreciate you out there, listeners who also follow us on
Instagram, because you would send me reel after reel of this
guy basically just twerking, basically, you know, for team
interviews. There was one where he was
talking about, Oh, we'll just do it like a horse does.
And he turns around and just sticks his ass out and looks
back at it. And then another one, he's on
the floor just humping the floor.
I don't know if he's been watching heated rivalry.
Maybe he got the memo. But the amount of attention that
he got, it was, it was quite a a moment.
And that was just like, wow, I've, I've, I've known who he is
for a couple years, but now I know who he is.
I saw a few of the memes, but I also just was watching him
during the United Cup. He's such a ham.
He's also an incredibly good looking guy.
Let's give him credit where credit's due.
What I like is that I feel like his personality in media and his
personality in press is very consistent with his style of
play too. Like he's a very extroverted
player. He loves shot making.
He loves hitting people off the court and he loves a big stage.
There's something so authentic about him, you know?
There's something so unfiltered and it makes him very lovable.
And he he had some great wins at the United Cup.
So we're going to talk about him again later on in the Bay TP.
Just spoiler everybody, because again, the Bay TP is not just
for hotness. It's not just for cultural
relevance. It's also for winning.
He beats Felix, Oje, Eliasim, he beats men sick.
I mean, he beats top top players and really kind of carry Belgium
part of the way. So yeah, big, big fan of Zizu.
He's got a horrible draw. He is going up against Herkash
in the first round of the Australian Open.
That's a Bay TP clash right there 'cause Herkash.
He's up there too, I'm sure. He's literally one of the most
dangerous, unseeded players on the men's side.
Hubie or Zizu? Wait, neither of them are
seated, I guess, right? No, Yeah, I mean, well, it's
like they have a nightmare draw, but whoever draws them in round
two also has a nightmare draw, so.
Exactly. The nightmare never ends on the.
Tour and then that can be the the theme of of 2026.
Another lobster V in is just men's accessories, so.
Men's accessories. Men's accessories.
Menzies. Sorry, men's accessories.
So we had for Tommy Paul, he's just sporting an entire purple
kit. Purple is the new black.
It is in, it is hot, but he was wearing these bright purple
socks that I just couldn't not look at when he was playing.
It was just delightful. Then we had Francis Tiafo's
gigantic water bottle. This thing, it was like one of
those 32 ounce giant steel. It was like, you know, that girl
who makes a New Year's resolution of like, I'm going to
drink water every day. I was literally just going to
say it's like office girly who like walks in with her like with
her like Bangli key chain and her her giant water bottle that
has all the little lines on it. Yeah, he just needed a little a
little Boo Boo attached to it and it would have been like full
on. And then we also just had some
other statements like Stefano Szipasa's Airport Couture that
was. I loved his his his airport look
with like it's it was like was it leopard or cheetah or
something? You're right.
I it was giving Lisa rent a QV C Yeah.
Well I I don't know enough about fashion, but it was like, is
that a coulot that is like the wide brimmed pant that would
like shake when he would walk? It is it's giving very South
Florida mall Walker energy, which.
You must see it all the time. Yeah, I mean 100%.
And even like, if you kind of like squint, even his haircut
could kind of be like like elder stateswoman, matriarch of the
family. But now I'm curious, now that
we're talking about it, 'cause you live in South Florida, what
pants are you wearing right now? Are they culottes?
I'm not wearing any pants. I'm porky pigging it.
Porky pigging. OK, I'm a little porky piggy.
Business on the top and I'm just hanging loose on the bottom.
No, I'm wearing, I'm wearing Lululemon shorts.
My Miami fashion is very uninteresting.
That's what I miss about New York is like in New York, you
dress it up. It's like I put my coat on.
I put my cute jeans and like coordinated like sweater.
It's it's a whole thing. You're Laura Ashley, sweater
Sass. Yeah, they were.
They were huge in New York. Yeah.
The last one that I have 'cause it just goes on and on is Holger
Rune, who is out for the season, although he's teasing a late
2026 return, which I think would be amazing.
But he has opened the Holger Rune shop, which I think is the
Ostapenko effect. So Elaine Ostapenko was selling
everything from her used vacuum cleaner to whatever junk she
found between the couch cushions.
He's selling items that he's worn and somebody on this
podcast right now may have purchased 2 pairs of those
shorts. And I am going to delusionally
say that he and I are the same size.
I might wear it as a as a wristband, but I just, I was
like, look signed shorts from Hogaroon.
It's a tax write off. Where are they?
Are they used? It said worn by.
Like did did he wash them before 'cause like that would?
Honestly, if he didn't, I think that would increase the value
from the same. And Hogaroon, who is famous for
wearing shorts, got to wear them, got to got to own them.
Matthew, I might have to bequeath them to you if I can't
fit my giant bubble butt in them.
But we'll talk about that later. Off camera or on camera?
I'll take, I'll take him, I'll take him and and you'll never
see him again. Oh, I'll see you strutting
around Miami. In that fact, it's like, oh, he
got a makeover. It's time for twit now, which is
this week in tennis, and since the Australian Open is so
freaking early this year, they had to jam as many shrimp onto
the Barbie Kajikova as possible. In just two weeks.
We've had tournaments all over, from Brisbane to Adelaide to
Hobart, New Zealand. And look, we can't cover
everything. Like always, this is not the
place to go for scores and also some of these tournaments
haven't ended, even though there's been so much coverage
out of Melbourne and the opening week as they're calling it.
There's a lot of tournaments that have not been decided yet.
You know, we know Marcus Guerrone has given us yet
another semi, but is he going to take it all the way?
I don't know. We're going to have to stay
tuned. We'll find out together.
But in the meantime, we do have some tops and bottoms to cover
from the last few weeks. So we'll start off with the
tops, which is very rude of those tops.
But we're going to start with Marta Kostyuk.
She looks amazing. Unfortunately her kit in
Brisbane did not look amazing. I think she's saving her
official kit for Australian Open, which is smart, but they
had her out just in sort of like practice leotard.
But she took out a crazy packed field in Brisbane, which is a
500 level tournament for the girls, winning over three top
ten players in a row, Anna Simova, Andreva Pagula to get
into the final and these were not close.
She took these girls out straight sets, straightforward
straight to the final. Did not really get it going in
the final. But Marta, I, I'm, I'm like a,
I'm a fan. Did you see her speech in the
Brisbane final? Yes, yes.
Wow, what a moment. I appreciate her, you know,
reminding the world of the the extremity of the situation in
Ukraine when she when she has the stage 2.
The The other interesting context about this is that, you
know, caustic last year had made some somewhat controversial,
potentially misinterpreted comments about about like the
testosterone levels and women in the tour and how kind of like,
you know, well, I, well, I'm not, I'm not like naturally
flooded with testosterone like some of these women.
So it's like, of course, I can't hit as hard.
It kind of the implication that like some of the other women on
tour were like Manish or so I mean, I, I think people are
taking a very uncharitable read of it.
I think Sabalenka was either directly mentioned or implied in
in the cost of court, I forget. But like she sort of kissed her
biceps when she won that match. I thought there might have been
a little bit of a statement in there, which is just adds a
little bit of spice to the whole situation.
But I I mean, it's that that is spicy enough, you know, like I
don't think they would they need any more fuel on that fire.
I can tell you that much. Honey, this gumbo is over
spiced. It's like too much.
I mean, I will say that, you know, I like am IA big Marta
fan, I'm not not a fan, but I mean she's not one of my
favourites. And some of it is just like,
yes, skill and and game style definitely influences like who
who I love, but a lot of it's personality too, and I need to
see something beyond intensity. You know, it's like, it's like,
whether whether it's goofiness or, or awkwardness or something,
I just feel like I need a little something else and I, I don't
feel like I've gotten the dimension of her personality
yet. Another top I've just got to
give a big shout out overall to the United Cup this year.
I don't know what changed, but it was freaking awesome.
The the action was great. It didn't have a an exhibition
feeling at all. People were locked in.
They wanted to win. I love that so many of the
matchups were settled with mixed double SI mean.
That's putting respect on mixed double S name versus, you know,
we all know how I feel about mixed double S at the US Open.
But the tournament came down to mixed and the ladies were really
carrying a lot of their teams at the United Cup.
Belinda carried Switzerland to the final.
They did not win. They lost to Poland, which was
carried by Hubie more than EGA. Coco had a great United Cup.
She looked amazing. She had her fourth straight win
over EGA. She's doing it right right now.
I mean, she's been posting about how much she loves heated
rivalry, which again, it's just important for people to be
saying because it's just it's creating a space.
You know, Morgan Riddle did that when she was posting about
crying over heated rivalry on Episode 5.
But she did get some backlash. And I think we need to have a a
little bit of a leave Coco alone moment.
She was saying how she wishes that the US fans were more
vocal, especially in national cups like the United Cup.
And it's true in international spaces, US fans are quieter.
And she got 8UP in the comments. It was like, well, not everybody
can travel for this. It's a that's a privileged
thing. They weren't getting it.
They was not clocking what she was saying.
And I don't know, I think that she got a lot of unnecessary
blowback from that. What's your take?
I thought it was totally fair of her to say.
And like Taylor Fritz came to her defense on on social media
and was like, I know exactly what she was saying.
And she's right. And I think it's it's true.
I don't think tennis has the National Heart in America as
much as it does other places. And I think that that doesn't
mean there aren't passionate tennis fans, but I just feel
like it doesn't feel like the whole country is showing up for
you as much as it does around the world in other countries.
That being said, like I do think it's funny to be making the
point of like, let's have Americans go be louder and more
like almost jingoistic like around the world.
I'm like, maybe, maybe we can let American.
Be a little quieter, you know, But I get it.
I mean, you're playing on a big stage.
You are fueled by the crowd and you want to be when it's a
competition between countries like you want your country to be
building you up. And I think it's also, I mean,
she hears the other countries fans cheering so loudly for them
that it's not like she wants us to be louder than everyone else.
It's just kind of like, well, where's our support?
But yeah, I hear you. I hear you, Americans.
Keep it down. So what was your take on the
action? I was obsessed this year.
I loved the entire tournament. Me, it's me too.
And I feel like it's a good omen for the rest of the tennis
season. Vibes were just so good at the
United Cup. I loved that so many of the
teams instead of just putting their best singles players in
mixed double S, you know who don't have a rapport, who aren't
really like great double S players.
They let their double S players shine.
They trusted them and and they let them have a bit of a moment
and a bit of a narrative and they crushed it like the the
Polish mixed double S team were so clutched.
I think it's like Zelensky and not, not, not the Ukrainian
presidents, but the Polish tennis player Zelensky and and
is it Cava? They they, they nailed it.
And it's like they got to feel like heroes for their country.
One person we haven't mentioned is Vavrinka, who might not have
won every match but got damn close to winning every match.
See, to see Stanamol take like Kaboli and like these other top
players to three sets consistently and you know, with
so little turnover between matches, it's like he looked
good. He is bringing it in his final
season and it makes me really excited to see how he does in
slams. You know he's going to and he's
going to get wild card. It's like I want this to be his
victory lap. And he has said that he doesn't
want this to be his farewell tour.
He is there to compete. He says he wants to get back
into the top 100 as a 40 year old.
I think he should aim to get back in the Top 40 as a 100 year
old. But that's because I love him.
But yeah, no, he is. He's not messing around.
And yeah, he had great matches. He beat Rinder Connect.
So I mean, hey, like he, he's there.
And. I mean, but hey, he's a top 25
player right now for right now, so.
Well Zachary was top two or something so wow, just saying.
Maria Zachary gets so much hate on this show, and that's going
to it's going to stay that way. I think she is one of the
sweetest, most likable tennis players.
Like, like I find her personality delightful, but
whenever I'm looking back at old lists of top ten and and I'm
like, oh, it's like, look at these, look at these incredible
tennis players and Maria sacker it, it's it's always a little
bit I I just have to Chuck a little bit.
But anyway, too much on on Maria.
Not too much. Not too much.
It's like that meme where it's like, Ariana, what are you doing
here? It's like, Maria, what are you
doing here? Yeah, it's very, very that.
And you mentioned the deep bench on some of these these teams,
but also we got to talk about the bench.
Belinda Benchich is MVP of the tournament and she.
Looks so good. I mean, she was like ethereal,
like she better take everything this year.
I'm excited and scared and titillated and I've got hopes
for her. But I got to say the women's
tour right now is re entered a golden era where there are there
are 20 solid play. It used to be like any one of
these 20 could win it 'cause it was so chaotic.
Now there's 20 badasses who could kind of win any
tournament. But yeah, Belinda's back in the
top 10. She's the third mother ever to
make it back in the top ten. And then the other person, Yeah,
we talked about a little bit about Hubie.
Hubie Herkash comes back from a pretty rough knee injury that
took him out for most of last year.
He gets 2 top ten wins over Fritz and Zverev.
Lost a tight 1 to Dimanauer. His biceps are are bigger than
my neck. Talk about a Rinder connect.
Did you see those photos of his biceps?
Yeah, no, I know He looked, he looked like sick.
He looked incredible. He did, cuz let's not forget.
I mean, yeah, he was off. You mentioned he was off a long
time, for longer than I'm sure he would have liked.
But he did what Chorich did a few years ago when he was off
tour with an injury and he came back jacked.
It's like, it's like, OK, he wasn't on the court, but he was
hitting the gym everyday. And it's interesting because,
you know, yeah, you come back on Twitter, you got to shake the
rest off and you got to work on your footwork, you got to do all
that. But it's like to actually be
carrying 5 or 10 more pounds of just raw strength.
It's like that can actually like elevate your game in some ways,
maybe picking up an injury that doesn't end up being persistent
and can be like the best thing ever because it gives you time
to tweak other aspects of your game you wouldn't.
Yeah. And, and, and as long as you
take the time to recover from the injury, because I think, I
think what's happened to a lot of these players is that they
try to come back a little too early and they end up not
healing fully. They heal 90% and they're like,
I can do it. And then they don't.
Well I mean it's like look at Krichikova keeps getting re
injured and then it's but it and and you know how I feel about
her Like my my Barbarella. Or give a mug with her face on
it. Yeah.
Someone might have given me a very charming Christmas present,
my favorite, my favorite podcastista.
But look at, I mean, look at Runa.
He's making me nervous out there.
Like, like I'm sure that he has people who are, you know,
keeping him kind of on the right side of the line that he needs
to be on. But it's like I just should he
really be out there like hitting balls already?
I mean, don't people say that this is like a six month like,
yeah, recovery before you even start moving like that again?
My take on his really fast return to hitting is that
especially when he was hitting with one leg elevated on a
crutch, that changes your center of gravity, that changes the way
you balance things. You actually shouldn't be
practicing hitting with your balance off to the side like
that, because when you have two legs again, you're going to be
more upright. Like it's like there's no
benefit to practicing your forehand right now.
You're right and I just feel like you're less stable in
general and if you're going to pick up an ankle injury or
something. But like I again, I'm I'm not a
fitness coach like I there are. There are wiser minds than me.
But yeah, but we have microphones.
Yeah, I know. That's that's right.
We are wielding the power of our microphone to let our make our
opinions know. Yeah.
Suck it. One last thing about Hubie.
I think something like the United Cup is another great
thing to come back into because you're guaranteed a certain
number of matches because there's round Robin play versus
going in and just entering a even a 250.
It's like you'll probably lose your first match and then it's
two more weeks to the next. Like he had many, many matches
including mixed double S and I think that was really good for
him. So I mean, he picked up a bunch
of ranking points which which he needed.
The last top we don't spend too much time on.
This was just a really high quality match up in terms of
rankings between Moussetti and Sasha Bublick at the Hong Kong
final. And Sasha took him out pretty
handily in straight sets. Moussetti has not won a final
since 2022. Not great.
So this is this is about the top and the bottom at the top is
that Bublik is now back in the top 10, which hey, he was about
to retire this time last year. And Moussetti is up to #5 in the
rankings. I got to ask you, Mr. Matthew
Coleman, is Lorenzo Moussetti the 5th best player on this
planet Earth that we have. I've never been the biggest fan
of Mercedes game. It's not like he's not good, but
I I look for the thing that I'm supposed to be in love with.
It's like yes, he's got the one handed backhand.
That's like is it the best one handed backhand on tour?
I don't know. Maybe I don't know, but it's
like. It's not I'll.
I'll help him. It's not.
OK. But I, I just, I feel like he's,
he's fairly, fairly consistent until he's not like I it's I
just like he's he's, he's great. He's beautiful.
He's he's. Good.
But like, I'm not, I'm not obsessed with him.
So is he the 5th best player in the world?
I don't. I mean after Sinner and and
Carlos, like how you fill in three through 14 is like you
could move them all around and it wouldn't matter.
There's a lot of people who are really close.
It's like Demon or Fritz. All the Fritz's like hasn't
looked great. You know the last.
Couple weeks, he's injured. That's like, I think, I think
Medvedev is an amazing player, but it's like he's had a rough
couple years. Like Rube Lev's great.
He's also had a rough, rough couple years.
It's like FAA is great two months out of the year.
It's like I just, they're all, they're all really good in their
own way. And I can't I I just from a
numbers standpoint, a ranking standpoint, I can't put them in
order. Totally.
I'm just sort of reacting because I think you and I did
the show last year for the French Open where Fritz was
ranked 4th and Fritz is not the 4th best clay player in the
world. And I just, I'm like, you know
what, like like you're right because there's only 1000 points
that separate 5 and like 11 in the standings.
It's super tight and bunched up between those.
But I just find it funny because like I agree, I like Lorenzo a
lot. He the only title he's won in
the last two years, three years is bait TP of the year for last
year. So I mean, he took home that at
the Bali Awards, which again, there's a lot of controversy
around, but I stand by it. The voting was monitored by
Ernst and Hung corroborated these standings.
I got to touch some bottoms real quick.
But then we'll get in the Australian Open.
We mentioned this earlier. I'm calling this injurious
bastards. So many people are already
pulling out, having issues. Moussetti was having a practice
match against Verav a couple nights ago.
At yesterday open, he had to pull out.
We were just talking about Fritz.
He's been talking about his knee tendonitis.
He's not playing. Great tendonitis is like, I
mean, it doesn't sound bad, but as like someone who has like
really dealt with a lot of tendonitis this last year, it's
like once you get it, it's really hard to make it go away
forever. It has a tendency of coming back
and like you just do not want to see that be a chronic issue for
him. Yeah, yeah.
And, and I worry, 'cause we all watched and I, I marveled at his
staying power last year between Wimbledon and the Asian swing.
I think he played nearly every tournament.
No one played nearly as much as him.
And I was like, what is he doing?
Wow, what a what a Yeoman, what a worker, what an amazing guy.
And I think maybe that aggravated like that's not so
sustainable. So hopefully, I mean, at least
he pulled out of the one point slam.
So he didn't, you know, at least he got that rest in.
I mean, do you see his tweet? He's like, he's like, he wanted
this. I pulled out.
He's like, he's like, that looked really fun.
Yeah, yeah, 100% yeah. We're going to get to that in a
minute. One more quick thing, just
another bottom. It's just some of these players
have gone Mia in the lead up to Australia and I'm specifically
talking about Sinner and Alcaraz skipping any and all warm up
tournaments and just playing an exhibition.
Couple of exhibitionists over there in South Korea where they
each took home 2.3 million doll hairs.
But first of all, can I have some?
But also like, OK, do you guys really need another vulgar
amount of cash to play a match that doesn't mean anything?
I don't know. I don't love it.
I I'm like, why aren't you each picking up one tournament
beforehand or just doing something?
It because it also it takes the excitement and the air out of
the arena a little bit when, Oh, you guys just played in Carlos
Juan. Shouldn't it feel more special?
Can I give you a a contrasting take?
No. Yes, please.
You're like. You're like, this is not a.
Cheerocracy, I'm going to mute you right now.
I don't give a shit that they are not in the lead up
tournaments. In fact, I am glad that they're
not. I'm glad that they're not.
I don't want every tournament to be the Carlos Signonic show.
I I don't want it. I want I want different
champions in every tournament. Med bit of style.
It's like he like he's he's literally a different champion
at every tournament. He's never won the same
tournament twice. Never. 2121 titles, 22 Yeah.
This is my snobbishness coming through, but I feel like as a
true tennis fan, like you got to appreciate a tournament because
of the deep bench of talent and not because of who's at the top
of the roster. And honestly, if you look back
at, you know, what Serena has done and what other top players
have done throughout history, it's like a lot of times, like
they just, they don't play the same warm up tournaments that
other players do. It's like they show up for the
Slams. They like the big stage.
If we didn't have two such incredibly dominant players at
the top, then yeah, I would want to see them tussling with
everybody. But it's like I want finals with
players that I've never heard of.
Sometimes, you know, I want, I want a lucky loser to be in a
final. I agree with everything you
said. I just wish they didn't play the
exhibition because a the money is vulgar.
It gives me another ick where it's like all these players who
are ranked outside the top 100 are struggling and it's like
here's $2.3 million for showing up to Korea.
There's too much of AA have and have nots in tennis that is
emerging and I just I don't love that.
But also I think that they just they should save playing each
other for when it matters more. But let me put it, let me put it
to you this way. If they, if Yannick and Carlos
were in these, you know, two 50s and five hundreds, would they be
taking away opportunities for prize money from lower ranked
players? Oh yeah, no, you've sold me on
them not doing two 50s or even 5 hundreds.
That's fine. I just wish they didn't play the
exhibition. I wish they were each just
locked in ready to kill each other in the final of Australia
versus playing a match and knowing each other and then like
hugging on the plane right back. I got, I don't know, I just, I
don't like it. I want.
Them to no, I I hear it. It is it is a tale of two
cities. Like like I I hear you.
I don't disagree with you on that.
Finally, Jesus Christ, when one goddamn argument the other
bottom. It's a discussion.
I know, argument, I know. I just hate when you're right
sometimes, which is all the time.
It's so annoying. OK, the the last thing I just
want to do 1 quick shout out. I'm still sad about it.
Some more break UPS. You know, last show we talked
about Juan Carlos and Carlos still not over that, but some
big break UPS over at ESPN with Pammy out of the commentator box
as well as Brad Gilbert. And I'm just, I love them.
I grew up with them. I love Pam Shriver as a
commentator. I think she's amazing.
She's just a personality and a light.
I'm sad. Who are you going to miss more,
Pam or Brad? I think Pammy, she's an
institution. Do we know was that by their
choice or was it was it like eliminating the position?
Do we know the T? They posted comments and just
sort of original posts on social media that definitely implied
otherwise, where it was like, thanks, I would have loved to
stay, but thanks for the time and kind of that type of thing.
I think they're just being replaced with younger people.
I think it's it's sadly the way of media of, you know, younger,
more like influencer types and it's going to be kind of
annoying as fuck, to be perfectly frank going.
To say that's, that's some bullshit.
Yeah. Yeah, I mean, I as a as a, as a
podcaster, yeah, exactly. Like I feel like I'm I'm turning
on my own tribe here A. Little bit like, OK, imagine
they replaced Pam Shriver and Brad Gilbert with me and you
actually that'd. Be amazing, it would be amazing.
But like how, how tragic for the the wider world, you know, so.
Would you be Pam or would I be Pam?
Which one of us is Pam? We're fighting over Pam.
I feel like Brad Gilbert's more of a Mensch.
So I feel like, I feel like you'd be Brad.
I'd be. You're right, but I hate you
again. You're right.
It's so annoying. I want to be Pam Shriver just
once in my life. You can be Pam.
I'm the Mary.
You're the roto. This is the new.
Exactly. We'll get you a We'll get you a
good Pam Shriver wig. You'll pick up the wig, I'll
pick up the weights. Wiggin weights.
Oh, that sounds like a fun party.
Just real quick, we also have a new Bay Teepee.
It's the first Bay Teepee rankings of the year, and there
are some surprises. Just as a reminder, everybody,
we reward not just hotness. We care about hotness on and off
the court. You've got to be winning.
You've got to be doing something cool.
You got to be kind of sexy. You got to have personality and
I got to say the results from this first one are pretty
surprising. It's just like the race to
Turin. Those rankings right now have
Hubie Herkoch as the top seed. And so this first Bay TP ranking
of the year may not be what you expected.
Zizu Berg has made his first appearance.
Hubie has made his first appearance.
Some people have fallen way down, like Carlos, who's just
out there picking up extra cash at an exhibition, which I'm
going to stand by, is not hot. That's not sexy to go get
$2,000,000 just to play a match, at least for me.
But also, again, Carlos, can I have some money?
Thanks. So head on over to our
Instagram. That's at TBB Tennis.
Again, that's at TBB Tennis. See the whole draw.
Tell us what we got wrong. Tell us what we got right.
With all that said, it's time to talk.
AOAO, let's go. They are doing so much at the
Australian Open. The tournament has not started
yet and they've already had over 100,000 fans into the tournament
because they've branded this week, which is the qualities and
all of these special events as opening week.
My first, I was like, oh, a week opening sounds like the last
time I was at the Eagle. But they are really doing a lot
of things to get people in. So they've got the quali.
So let's talk about the koala ease, if you will, and gay
watch, which is our man Joel Reyes.
Thermopolis da Silva lost in the first round, but we support our
king again. He makes history.
First openly gay man to play in the qualis at the Australian
Open. He lost to a stone called Babe
Rosha. I forget where he's from now.
He's Portuguese I think. Portuguese, honestly, I mean, I
would have trouble focusing against him too because that is
a regulation hottie, as they say, and Mean Girls.
But it was amazing that Joelle was there.
We also got Sloane Stevens through in the qualities.
I mean, that girl is, she's still around.
She qualified for the Australian Open.
And then your girl Sasnovich. I know you love that Sassy
Sasnovich. Sasnovich in that in that sassy
surf motion of hers, like she she is, she's kind of my
underdog queen. I always root for her to to go
deep and stuff. She she has a brutal draw,
though, with Pellini. Yeah, I don't.
You. You never know.
Yeah, we also had the one point slam, which I still don't
exactly know how it works. You know, Sinner's coach
entered, Marat Saffin was there. I was like, are these considered
the amateurs? Like the Khrjikova Gay played
the the guy who got rid of all the bees at Indian Wells.
Like I think he he was in the. Carrata boy was in.
Yeah, yeah, it was, it's, you know, so it's it.
It was quite the spectacle. A packed Rod Laver Arena.
The winner gets 1,000,000 Australian dollars, which I
think is around $600,000. And taxed by the way, I I heard
that that they don't tax windfalls or prize money in in
Australia. So that that that is maybe I'm
going off the Twitter verse, but apparently.
So I trust everything on Twitter.
No. Well, that's that's good.
It was won by amateur Jordan Smith.
I got to ask you, though, what do you think?
That it was real or was it rigged?
No, I think it was real. And like, yes, Jordan Smith is
technically an amateur, but he has had ranking points on the
ATB Tour before, so like, he's not a nobody.
Yeah, yeah. He, I mean, yeah, everyone who
entered could play. It wasn't like that.
A challenger where that girl had never served a ball in her life.
Can we can we talk about that at some point this episode?
Because like that is actually, I think the the most fascinating
tennis story of the year so far. But anyways, I digress.
To get back to to the one point, Sam, I don't think it was
scripted, but I think what they built into the format, which
ended up like working really well in terms of being a spoiler
is only allowing the pros to have one serve.
Because those men and those women too, frankly, some of the
time, they did not trust their serve.
And like I mean for good reason, I think Center went out on a
fault. Right.
A single fault. Yeah, as soon as I heard that
that was the format, I was like, Coco's out and she, she went out
on her serve. I was like.
She did it like I'm glad she had this is a humor about it, but it
was like a bad that was a bad miss too.
It was a little on the nose. It went into the bottom of the
net, but you know it just I always I love thought
experiments about, you know about.
THOT. Yeah, exactly that.
That's our next segment. I love that.
I love thought experiments about just the format of the of the
matches. It's fun to see kind of how that
changes the dynamic. Like God, if they got rid of the
second serve in the men's game, that would change everything.
That would change everything. Take out the serve bodiness, you
know, and make these guys actually play their ground game.
It's kind of interesting. I don't know, food for thought.
But anyways, like people, I'm always the one who's like, I'm
like the 5% and when they take take the pole and it's like 95
to 5, it's like 95. We're like keep it the same.
And I'm like no, like mix it up. You know me, I'm like a
curmudgeon. I'm the other 5% where I'm like,
I'm out there yelling at clouds like the old man.
But you're you're selling on it. Because I do love the idea as a
broader thing for the men's game.
That's a really interesting concept because it would change
everything because then it would get rid of a lot of the serve
bots. It's like every single point is
over within the first three hits.
But it's sometimes it does feel like it's moving that way.
But but I don't, I don't want to discriminate.
I I love my my Opelkas, you know, like as long as they're a
protected minority on tour, I'm good with it.
But I'm interested to see the way the game evolves.
I'm wondering like it is opening my my mind a little bit, which
is it's like, maybe it's not every point, maybe it's not
every tournament, but like, what if tiebreakers only had one
serve? Yeah.
You know, something where it's like, oh, like the stakes
change. It's a little scarier.
It's a little more like, you know, so it's not just serve
body and it's. I think that's interesting.
Yeah. Yeah.
OK. We also have some wild cards and
we're having some senior moments with our wild cards.
We've got Venus there. We've got Stan there.
I'm so happy about it. Look, Venus does not look great.
Her match in Hobart was not good.
She lost to Tatiana Maria pretty handily.
She wasn't sharp. I don't.
I don't expect much, but I'm happy they're there.
I think Stan's super competitive and, and like, I love seeing him
there. But the thing, yeah, I love
seeing Venus too. It's just, I don't know, I saw
her match a few years ago at the US Open against Greek Menon, and
it was another one where you knew she wasn't going to win it.
You know, it just kind of became clear.
And it's still great to see her, but it's like it's not as fun
when you don't feel like she's like, truly competitive.
It was fun last year that she did have that win over Stearns
in Washington, I think, and I think she took a set off Mukova.
She did. She did.
And like, it's like, oh, you know.
And so like that's like if we get that amazing and even if we
don't like this tour is damn lucky to have to have her in the
mix. And it's like people are going
to take what they get and and she's a joy and she's a legend.
So I, I'm, I'm always going to be happy to see her in the in a
draw anywhere and maybe. She'll catch fire, you know,
Maybe, maybe she'll. She's.
Like a witch. Or something.
Yeah, maybe she'll be burned at the stake.
She, I mean, her draw's not great.
People are like worried that she's going to face Coco in the
second round. I'm not super worried about that
because I don't, I'm not really confident she'll make the second
round. But hey, let's talk a little bit
about some of the draws. So like we talked about earlier,
there's a lot of floaters out there, which it's just a term I
can't say with a straight face, but we've got some really crazy
first round matchups. We've got Baratini versus
Diminauer, we've got Dimitrov versus Mahach, both of them
unseated, I mean. We've got my my glass body
Divas. I know, yeah, exactly who's
going to make it out alive. It's a cage match we've got.
Like what they when they say like, well, they can't both
retire from the match. So yeah, exactly.
Well, I did wonder what that like some of these, some of
these, I'm like, God, are they both going to be like, please,
you go ahead. Well, and then we've got Herkash
versus Bergs again. The the top 2 seeds in the bait
TP rankings are facing off in the first round.
Yeah, Major. And both both unseeded, you
know, and both huge threats for any of the seeds in the draw.
Huge. Yeah, we've got Vekic versus
Andreva, which I think Mira, she's not the mirror that we had
last year. So I think Vekic could take
that. Is Beck, Is Bekich the bekich we
had last year? Well, Bekich hasn't been Bekich
for a minute, but she's she's, she's got something.
Then we've got Krichikova and Schneider.
I don't know, there's a lot of or Schneider.
Anyway, which of those matches are you most excited about, if
any? Honestly, like those, they're
all those are all fine. None of those are lighting my
fire uncontrollably. Bekich.
Person Bergs. Oh, come on.
OK, you know what? But let me tell you because I
just feel like we got a lot of them in the United Cup.
Oh, you're bored? Well, no, I'm not bored, but
it's like but like. On to the next, OK.
Like there's other people in the draw, you know, like, like who
who? I'm really curious to see how
they perform this year. Like who are?
You, I don't know, curious. About.
OK, well, I've never seen Michael Jiang play, but I've
been hearing a lot of amazing buzz about him and he plays
Korda. And like, the thing about Korda
is that I just never quite, you never quite know how he's going
to show up on a day because I don't think, I don't think he's
able to get a lot of rhythm on tour because he's just out for,
like, long stretches. Yeah.
I think Hugo Carbelli and Fukovich is interesting.
I mean a good look. I think there's a lot of
interesting first round matchups for sure.
I pulled the ones I thought were interesting, but I mean shoot me
down. That's fine.
I get it. No, we're.
Just that's not what I, that's not what I'm doing, Paul.
I'm trying to go through. I'm trying to go through and
find mine. You asked me which matches am I
interested in TN versus Garone? Love that one.
And Garone is killing it. He is like he's gotten a fiery
start to this season. Tien's start to the year hasn't
been as as unbelievable as it could have been.
Yeah. And he, I think he has real
points to defend at the AO, doesn't he?
Was this a breakout? Turn.
This was the breakout, I think. I think he made the fourth round
last year. Yeah, yeah.
So like, the stakes are high there.
Like, that's interesting. And on the women's side, I wish
I could say Krichikova Snyder, I just, I'm not convinced even
that she's not going to withdraw before the tournament.
Fernandez Tien. That could be interesting.
Yeah, I mean, I think there's a lot of great.
I mean, the action is going to be hitting us right away.
It's not going to be one of those boring tournaments where
it's like, oh, we'll only get good stuff towards the end.
So yeah, for. Sure.
Did you see that Sloane Stephens is playing Pushkova?
That's that's such a like delightful blast from the past
match. Like, like something like that
gets me going because like, that is literally who knows?
Who knows how that's going to go.
And then, you know, so Sigman Simpsonova, I would not be
surprised if Laura Sigman wins that.
She's always a threat. She's a big tournament player.
And if you have any mental weakness, I feel like so
capitalized on it and I love me some.
Some mental weakness. More than more than most,
probably. But like, I think she gets in
her own head. Like I just feel like Sigmund's
going to capitalize on that anyways.
OK, that's my little. That's my little like deep cut
toward the draw. Yeah.
But well, thank you for taking us on that journey.
It's an embarrassment of riches. I think this is going to be a
good tournament. Like my crystals are telling me
that the vibes are going to be peak so I'm ready for it.
OK, well, Speaking of crystals, it is time to pull out our
crystal balls for predictions. So first I'm going to do some
speed rounds with you, some speed balls which check Gurley
is going to go the furthest. Kurjikova, Vondrusova.
Mukova maybe. Nuskova maybe?
Yeah. I don't care about Linda as much
though. I just don't.
That's the thing. I don't really.
She doesn't excite me either.
She doesn't. Do it for me?
No, not yet. Not yet, but.
I don't trust the other ones tonight, like to not get
injured. I I hate to see it.
But you got to pick one. Pick one.
OK, Bartun Kava. Bartukova.
I'm going to say Nikola
Bartukova. Oh, I thought you made that name
up. Oh, she's a real, She's a
youngster in the draw. She's really talented.
I actually I I really like her game.
OK. But between those three, I'm
going to tell you it's Mukova. Yeah, didn't, didn't von Druseva
just withdraw from one of the tournaments?
I think she gave. Oh, she.
Had a walk over in Adelaide. Yeah great.
After beating Sam Sonova. Yeah, he has.
Really. It's like it's coming full
circle. Yeah.
So you know what process of lamination?
I think you're right. I think it's Mukava.
It's Mooks and I think Mooks has a has a chance.
She looked really good in Brisbane before looking not so
great. Who on the men's side?
So here's my prediction. My prediction is someone who's
floating between 15 and 25 is going to do a run.
And I think that we should put our money where our mouths are
and decide who it's going to be. And I'm I think it's going to be
one of these three guys. Is it Kachanov, is it divided
Spakina? Or is it Kaboli?
It's got to be folky. It's got to be folky.
Not only do I think it's one of the most like unrealized
narratives of like Alexander Davidovich Fukina actually
winning a match that he deserves to win when it's close, but I
think he's actually been playing really well the start of the
season. And I I don't even like I, I
don't, I have no idea what catching off is doing right now.
And Caboli, Caboli is another one.
He's kind of like, I don't know if I have a thing against the
Italian players, but sort of like Muzetti.
I just, I'm not convinced. I'm not convinced that he's
like, he's great. Like the numbers are there, the
ranking is there, but I just haven't seen it with my own
eyes. So I'm going to say ADF.
OK great. I completely agree.
For once on this show I agree with you.
I think you are Catina and and he is in a section of the draw
that I think some people would say is very dangerous.
But I actually think it's not dangerous because that leads us
to our next prediction, which is who is bottoming out early this
tournament. There's always a surprise top
seed and we're going to say anyone in the top 16 who is
bottoming out early doesn't necessarily have to be a first
round shocker, but who's not making it past the third round.
And I've got a few predictions on my side.
Do you want me to throw some out at you?
Yeah, correct. On the women's side, I hate to
say it, she gave us so much last year.
Madison Keys is not making it past the second round.
She had such an amazing run. I'm so happy for her.
I don't think winning was the greatest for her mentally.
I think it put a lot of pressure on her.
I think she's going to feel extra pressure now.
She just lost a kind of tight but sloppy match against Imboko
in Adelaide, which she won last year.
I just, I think that it's not going to happen and I think that
will actually be good for her because it will relieve the
pressure and I think she's going to have a pretty good rest of
the year after that. So that's my big this is who is
losing my other one though, if I'm going to go for a real
reach, Eaga. Eaga had a lot of losses at the
United Cup. She lost to Coco, she lost to
Belinda. She might be pissed and ready to
really do it, but she's never done great in Australia and she
might just be off to a bit of a rusty start in the new year.
So those are my 2 top players on the women's side who might not
be making it. I mean, I'm I fully cosign.
I fully cosign. I mean, you could, you could
throw in an an Andreva or something.
But like, I actually, I think it's more fun to think that
ego's not going to go deep than it is Andreva, you know?
So like, I'm, I'm on board. I'm on board.
Like I was going to say Paolini, but like, I don't and.
I also, I don't know, that's it feels unoriginal.
Everybody's always like doubting that Mira and Jasmine are going
to, like, back it up because because they've had some rough,
rough patches lately. But like, yeah, I think you're
right. I think Ego and and Madison,
yeah. Yeah.
And then on the men's side, do you want, do you want me to go
first actually on the? Men's.
Sure. OK, I think my first prediction
is good old Taylor Fritz for reasons that that we've been
saying. I just, I don't think his
fitness is quite there. And that's not a knock on him.
I think he's dealing with some some really inconvenient
inflammation issues and he's a player like a lot of these
players. So I think when he doesn't quite
have the faith, he's not going to play his best, you know, I
think he can get a little listless.
And so I wouldn't be surprised to see him.
Out. I could say, OK, I'm going to
I'm going to kind of mirror what you did with the women's side.
I think Novak, I think Novak, because did you just see here
that he had to cut a practice short because he had some injury
issue bothering him? It's like like no one is no one
is a cat with 9 lives. Like like Djokovic like he
always seems to have some sort of issue and then always makes
the semi finals and finals and things anyways.
But he's got to pay the piper at some point.
I'm just wondering if this is the year that that it's over
early for him. Yeah.
I mean, he has a, he has a very tortured history with the
Australian Open with like what happened during COVID.
Yeah, but also, you know, the site of his greatest victories
and it's his slam that he owns. I think that's interesting.
He was not on my radar for that. But so I was going to say Fritz,
but then do you want to know my stretch?
So I'm I'm, I'm leaning into my whole theory about how bad the
breakup is actually going to be for his performance.
Carlos Alcaraz is losing in round 3 to Moute.
Moute is going to frustrate him. Carlos is not focused.
He is. He's obviously generational
talent. He's obviously got the skills,
but I don't think mentally he is locked in.
He's out there doing weird promos where he's dressed up
like a bellhop. He is just hanging out.
He had a a weak exhibition as his warm up, his only
competitive thing. And I don't know who in his
player box is going to get him to lock the F in and really
focus. His family's just going to be
sitting there. They're like, hey, Manja or
whatever, you know, not Manja, that's Italian, but they're
going to be like whatever paella.
And it's just going to be not I, I, I, I think that I think he's
going to have an early exit. It's.
Interesting. I mean, it's interesting.
My friend Richard, who I was talking to right before this
podcast was like making the exact same prediction about
Carlito's having an early exit. I could, I could believe it.
But I will say that I've seen some footage recently of some
improvements he's made to his serve to be more Djokovic like
and have more like whip with his wrist when he's serving, which
I'm like. Like I've seen documented
evidence of improvements to his game, which like doesn't always
translate into results. But I to me it kind of undercuts
the narrative of him not being focused in the offseason.
So I'm curious to see what Carlos shows up on.
Yeah, yeah. Who is your dark horse on the
men's side who's going to make a run?
I'm just going to shoot mine out there.
I might eat crow just like he was eating the fashion looks in
the airport. But I'm going with Sitzepas is
going to win his section, which has Musetti and Fritz in it,
both kind of who knows. And you know, it's got Leshka,
who might be injured. It's got Dimitrov, who will
probably be injured. It's got Vavrinka, who's, you
know, doing his thing. I think sits a pass makes it to
the quarterfinals I mean. I would love to see it to like,
and that would fit with the momentum that this season has,
you know, of like, of of raging against the dying of the light
like some of these players in their careers.
It kind of complements my prediction pretty well, which I
think Medvedev is actually going to make a run.
He has felt more like the Medvedev of old.
He's got like mojo on court. You know, he's a very vibey
player. It's like, it's like he's got to
be feeling it. And he's like, I mean, he just
won a tournament. He just won Brisbane, yeah.
Yeah, yeah. And he looked, he looked great.
He just, he mentally was dialed in.
He was moving great. Like can you Can you imagine if
both of them actually make a run and we get like a late Slam
Medvedev Sisipas duel? The aging Next Gen. rematch from
that we were expecting in 2018? Absolutely.
No, I love that. I mean, look, Medvedev, he is in
a decent part of the draw. Yeah, his draw's actually great
at first. I mean, he plays Dijon and then
he and then like the winner of Halle Stabilo and then like, and
then his seed is Rinder Nash. So like I, I kind of like those
odds. Well, and you know the
interesting thing about Medvedev also in the Australian Open,
given his track record, he has never won there, which means?
Right, right. To win there, to pick up another
place that he's never won before.
So I think that I, oh, I love these.
I love both these calls. Yeah, me too, me too.
This is giving me goosebumps. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
OK, girlies. Who's making a run that we're
not expecting? It's tough because I want to say
in Boco, but I feel like there's always this recency bias of
like, you all like players who like have just done really well
right before a slam. You're like, oh, they're going
to carry that momentum forward, and they rarely do because
they're tired. You know, yeah.
Like they like they just have, they've had no time to recover
from the last tournament they just played.
So but like, she'll be, she'll be one.
I'll say in Boko that that she seems hot.
I think that's fair. Maybe I'm Kostiuk.
I was just going to say I'm going to go with Kostiuk.
I think Marta, I think Marta wins her section.
She's going to beat Alexandrova I think pretty easily and then
she'll take out maybe Paulini, if Paulini even makes it the
fourth round. I think if that's going to be a
Kostiuk Evajovic 4th round match, which will be great.
But I think Kostiuk, she's just, she plays with the the the pain
in her heart that somehow fuels her game.
That is just, she looked really solid in those three top ten
wins in Brisbane. So I'm I'm excited for her.
Yeah, yeah. And you know who I would love to
see, like, get some traction in this tournament?
My girl Ostapenko. Where has she been she?
I mean, she's been killing it on the Double S tour, but it's like
we we need her to not forget she has won a slam in singles.
So you got Sloane Stevens out here, you know, grinding and and
working hard. Like let's we need to see some
hustle from Ostapenko. Yeah, yeah.
I mean, she's got a decent draw. I mean, she'll end up, if she
places faces a seat, it's Noskava.
She could win that. Yeah.
I mean, she could beat anybody. I mean, her versus Enna Simova
in the fourth round, pretty sexy.
I'm. I'm definitely here for that.
That. That's some big Babe tennis, big
Point O. We got to say Big Babe tennis at
least once a show. Yeah, we we've hit.
Our. That's we're sponsored by Big
Babe Tennis. OK, last question then.
Who's winning it all? Put put your money where your
mouth is. Who's taking the men's?
Who's taking the women's? Who won?
Who won AO last year? Was it Yannick?
Yeah. So this would be a repeat.
Then I think Carlitos takes it this year.
Just saying. Ish posh.
As long as they do that, I am going.
I'm 90, I know. I'm 86% sure.
Yannick Sinner is winning the tournament women's side.
You know, if I'm going to be going on form, I hate to say
this because I'm not even like that big of a fan of her, but
like maybe Rebokina. I mean who?
Like whose name we haven't uttered this entire.
Episode nary a word, yeah. I mean, unless she suffers the
the curse of Mugarusa after winning the the year finals,
it's like then she didn't win another match for for an entire
year. But I, I don't really, I, I feel
like Bakina has dialed the F in. Like I feel like she's on, she's
on lock right now. If they go to form, she plays
Benchich in the fourth round, so this on the women's side, once
we get to the third round, it is barn Burners I'm fucking excited
for. The women's tour.
Like it's gonna be great. I think Rebecca has a good
choice. I'm going with Madame Coco Goff.
I think that she, as long as she gets 2 serves and not one, I
think that she's got a good shot.
She looked really good in the United Cup.
I think that. She's her forehand was holding
up. Yeah, yeah.
So I'm not going to pick Sabalenka.
I'm just not going to. I don't give a crap and ego I'm
just worried about. So I think the next logical pick
is is Miss Gough. She's going to go from.
Belinder but but I feel like you're, I mean, goth, Goth
definitely is the is the safer choice there.
It's like based on results. OK, you know what, I don't want
to be safe and I don't. I'm going to like, grab my
nipples. I'm going to go.
I'm changing. I'm going with the bench.
Yeah. Belinda Benchich is taking the
Australian Open because she is in Eaga's part of the draw, so
she's going to take out Eaga yet again.
She is informed she's not at all injured.
She has all of her toenails back.
That's why she lost so bad at Wimbledon semies last year.
The bench AO. Champion 2026.
She's a single mom who works 2 jobs.
She loves her kids and never stops.
I I love to see mothers winning. On the WTA.
Tour, let me tell you. And since Victoria Azarenka has
disappeared off the face of the earth, I'm going to need pull
into vintage to kind of step into that mother energy and take
the whole damn thing. And Naomi is not taking it so.
Although did you see that? You know that ex user Venus
Gough who who makes these like, sometimes shockingly accurate
predictions of like, whoever draws Paulina Kudurmatova in the
slam is going to win the whole thing and like, it's come true
twice, I think Who? Who drew Pearl?
She said, well, for her prediction this time was whoever
draws Antonio Ruzich, guess who drew is?
Naomi. Yeah.
OK. And that.
Twitter which has any power left?
Then Naomi Osaka is winning. Amazing OK well that's our show
and we are going to find out in just a little over 2 weeks just
how correct Matthew and I are and who was more right.
Matthew, it is so great to have you back.
As always everybody enjoy the Australian Open and until then
our balls are going back in the can.
Thanks y'all, it's. Time for Let's get some ground
strokes. Baseline get some top spin.