Hey everybody, and welcome to the latest episode of The Ball
Boys. We are the tennis podcast that
puts the dad in Marcos Baghdadis.
I'm your host, Paul Moncolm, and today I am your sugar daddy
because I'm going to spoil you rotten with another show in less
than a week. Yes, just in time for Father's
Day. This is a special episode of The
Ball Boys where we are paying tribute to all the dads of
tennis. Because who doesn't love a good
daddy? And it's only fair because last
month we paid homage to all the baby Mamas on tour with the real
mother of a show. And we just can't overlook the
men. Moms get all this credit for
coming back after maternity leave and getting back into
winning form, but what about the dads?
Being a dad and a tennis player takes a lot of balance and
skill. I mean, some of these guys are
off the tour for upwards of two weeks when they have a kid and
they still managed to come back into fighting shape and come
back stronger than ever. So today we are celebrating
dads, daddies and everything in between.
We've got some games like Who's your daddy?
We're going to dissect who has the best dad jeans out there.
And we're going to finish with Father Figures where we're going
to rank the top daddies with a special edition of the Bay
Teepee. Now listeners, did you forget to
buy your father something for Father's Day?
Or maybe you haven't come out to them yet, or maybe you're not
speaking to him at all. In any case, this episode is the
perfect gift for dad. Hey, three birds, one show
right? Also PS we are rushing the show
out tonight on a Friday night so that we can all go out and
protest tomorrow. The no kings protest cause the
only king I recognize is the King of Clay.
So I'll see you on the streets everybody.
Now to dish on the dads and dismantle the patriarchy.
I'm bringing back the mother of all ball boys.
You know her, you love her. I call her daddy.
It's Ivy Pakoda. Hey Ivy, How the hell are you?
I'm good, Paul, I'm coming to you from Indian Wells where it's
180° and I'm glad there's no time to sign here right now.
I wanna give a special shout out to my dad who just subscribed to
the podcast, Phil Pakoda. Oh, nice.
Hey, Phil, what is going on? I was just going to ask, how's
your dad? He's.
Great. He he's a has my daddy.
I know my dad's. Just the dad.
Dad, not dad. And guys, this is a very
important distinction. Dad, not daddy.
We'll be talking about that today.
Yeah, Yeah. He's great.
He's an avid listener, listens every time.
Amazing, amazing. And do you have any special
Father's Day traditions? Not, I mean, not anymore.
I call my dad sometimes. I said, like a gold belly gift
box. Get some, you know, food up to
New Hampshire that you can't get up there.
Yeah, wasn't quite sure Father's Day was this weekend until we
decided to record the podcast. I came out of nowhere.
I thought we had another week, which, you know, it's it's very
sort of indicative of, of, you know, Father's Day.
I feel like it's an afterthought compared to Mother's Day.
You know, it's like, oh, Mom, get.
All the grail or whatever, yeah. Yeah, yeah.
It's like, you know, here's some socks.
But Speaking of being a parent, you have a book coming out,
right? So there's this book party
coming up on Tuesday at Skylight Books over here in Los Feliz.
I'm staying in Los Feliz while my roof is being repaired from
prolapsing. I can't freaking wait.
I am such a fan of your writing. Tell us real quick about this
book. It's called.
What's it called? Called Ecstasy and Justin's on
for Father's Day. It is a book about a woman who's
an asshole husband has just died and now she's going to contend
with her not so great son. They are in Greece where he is
opening a hotel that his father had started building before his
death. And his mom starts partying with
some women down on the beach and her son does not say kindly to
it because women, especially women of a certain age are not
allowed to enjoy themselves and things get really ugly.
So it's sort of a dismantle the patriarchy, but.
Nice. Perfect.
Here you go, Dad. Read that.
I love that. It's a cool, cool title.
Ecstasy. I'm glad that you changed it
from, I think the original title was Molly.
So this is a, you know, a nice change.
And yeah. So anyone who's out there, feel
free to come on by Tuesday night at Skylight Books.
And those feelers love that bookstore.
It's going to be a fun old time. And then there's like, drinks
and dancing afterwards. So yeah, that's right.
A good old time that's we bust out the lolly.
Yeah, exactly. All right, well, let's dive into
the dads, shall we? So before we start dissecting
the dads and talking about our favorites, we're going to start
with a game called Who's Your Daddy?
And basically Ivy, I've got 3 dads just waiting for you to
name them and I've got 5 clues to get you to that name.
The, the goal is to figure out who the dad is and as few clues
as possible. We played this with the moms.
The, the, the clues were way too easy.
I was, I was wrong. I underestimated you.
So I think these are a little a little more challenging so.
I'm better on moms than dads, so I'm better at the moms and the
dads. So this would be.
Hard dads get the shaft if if you know what I mean.
OK. And everyone feel free to play
along with us at home. So we're going to go one by one
through the clues. So Are you ready to play?
Who's your daddy? I am.
First one. OK, this first dad at 32 was the
oldest player to break into the top 10 for the first time.
And you name that, Dad. I should know that I don't know.
Nothing. OK, Yeah.
Look, I'm not. I'm no hurry to be like she's
Danish and she won a Grand Slam. These are going to be harder.
Come on. Girl want 23 grand slams and has
a dad. Yeah, exactly.
Sister of Venus. So this same dad has a large
hamsa tattoo on his back which is like a giant hand.
So if you've ever seen him shirtless between changeovers,
he's got a large hamsa. That I that I don't know.
No, I don't. Know All right, all right, good.
I'm glad. I'm glad that we're getting at
least to a few of the clues the he's also the first Italian to
win a Masters tournament. Bonini.
Yes. Ding, Ding, Ding, Ding.
OK, Bobby, OPS Bonini. He was 32 when he broke into the
top 10. I didn't know that.
I thought he, oh, I thought he had fallen out and then come
out. I guess you're I, I'm obsessed
with his marriage. They just seem so normal.
I know you would think this is. Crazy Playboy.
I completely agree. It's wild.
So so for anyone who doesn't know, he married Flavia Panetta,
who won the US Open I think in 2017.
Retired right afterwards. 'Cause he's like we, we know.
Yeah, exactly. We know what happened in that
U.S. Open.
Thanks Roberta Vinci. We don't talk about it.
Yeah, we don't talk about it. No, Roberta's in this house, but
yeah, they, they've they've been together.
They have three kids and what a family.
And he's about to retire, so God bless Fabio and.
I loved him. Yeah, love, Love.
OK, we got one. We got one.
OK, next, who is your daddy? This charmer is a reserve member
of a professional chess league. Daniel Levito.
No, but you're you're. That has to be.
That has to be right. You're in the, you're you're.
You're definitely in the. I just know he is, yeah.
He might be, he may be. This is true.
He may be. There might be a lot of them.
Yeah, he's also. Dead.
Yeah, hell, he is. He sure is.
The next one is he reached a career high of #17 that's his
career high. That's not a good clue.
OK, so it's a Russian who hit #17 and he has a kid.
No. Well, so the Russian clue,
what's coming up next? He used to play for Russia, but
not anymore. That's the fourth clue.
Oh God, I don't know. He had a really emotional, fun
run at the French Open just two weeks ago, made it to the
quarters. Oh my God, my brain isn't
working. I haven't stopped it for names.
Let's see. Makes the queer.
Who is it? Just tell me.
It is Sasha Bublik. I should have said that.
Oh my God I love Bublik. Love, love him.
I didn't know that he switched. I thought he always started I.
Didn't either. Yeah, yeah, no saying yeah, he's
exact same as Rebecca. He didn't get the support that
he wanted from Russia, so he went to Kazakhstan.
And yeah, he's like a chess player.
And he's just like, I, I know that there are potentially
problematic politics with him, but honestly, with everyone in
the ATP, there's problematic politics.
But he's got so many. Like he's such a charmer.
He's such a quirky dude. And I loved him at the French.
Open. He's so weird.
Yeah, I fucking love a weirdo. OK, last dad of Who's your
daddy? We're we're one for 2, so we got
to get this one. OK?
This one has got a tattoo of a quote from Samuel Beckett on his
forearm. Well, let's see.
Curious as Oscar Wilde on his leg.
Does he really? What quote?
Like some bitchy quote. No, it's like something about
identity. OK, I don't know.
Who's his tattoo? Samuel by Who knows?
OK, next one. Can I guess the quote is it fail
better? Yes.
OK, lots of people have that tattoo, so yeah.
I got it. That's a that.
Yeah. Ever tried?
Ever failed? No matter.
Fail again. Fail again.
Try again, Fail again. Yes, yes, failed better.
God, I failed at reading that. I'm living that tattoo.
So he's had public feuds with both Nick Kurios and Hulgaruna.
Let's see, Djokovic is still computed with curios.
The guy who did curios to say that he slept with his
girlfriends. Is it him?
Oh shit, don't worryka. Is it Warika?
Is that? Your best.
It's Stan Vavrinka. Yes, yes.
I got the PO2 I'm so happy. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
I know he when when he played Curious and they had a really
contentious handshake. And Curious is like talking
about cockonakis. He's like, yeah, the cock fucked
your girl, which is just so charming.
Yeah, by the way, bookmarking It's Tennis Feuds episode coming
up. Oh, OK, call Ryan Murphy.
We've got feud. We've got the next season of
feud. Yes, totally amazing.
So you. Win what, 2 out of 3/2?
Out of three the next clue, which I love Pervo Vrinko, was
that he wore the ugliest shorts ever on the way to winning the
French Open. Please.
There's checkered shorts. Yeah, yeah, I got.
Checkered shorts. What a.
What an that. Was Yannick Shorts?
Yeah, yeah. OK.
So that was who's your daddy? Congratulations to Ivy.
Well played. You win for Father's Day.
You're you're going to win a pair of socks.
So. Great, I can grill.
My prize will be a tie. Yeah, exactly.
OK, so now that we've warmed up a little bit, we're going to
move on to a just a quick discussion.
We're calling founding fathers, and this is about the big four.
So the big four, they dominated tennis for so long, for decades,
that of course they had some kids along the way.
And if we look at the rankings in terms of number of kids, it's
kind of neck and neck. Two of the big four have 4 kids.
That's Murray and Federer. I had no idea that Murray had
that many kids until you read the run of the show.
I just didn't know that. Yeah, yeah.
And he's got three daughters and a son.
I he's such a good girl dad. Like I, I think it's great
because he's such a feminist. Oh, but I told you though, I
want to make T-shirts that say Andy Murray, tennis feminist on
them. Oh, that's good.
The The second choice is Andy Murray tennis lesbian because.
A little bad energy too. Oh, that is, see, I, I always
want to go a little further and I that that is tennis lesbian
'cause he is such a tennis lesbian.
That might have to be like a new seven lesbian.
Yeah, that's like, just like. A bride isn't a bride last week.
Yeah, the whole goddamn month is pride.
So you know, Andy Murray, we celebrate you and your tennis
lesbianism and and also it's cool.
I think Queens is going on right now and they just renamed the
court after Andy Murray, which is awesome.
We're not going to talk about any actual tennis today, but.
No, but that's the Queen's Cup tennis lesbian.
I feel it's all coming together. Girl.
Yeah, exactly which tournament does he get 100 at Queens?
OK, Queen news. Yeah, we love that.
It's a ladies event this week too, so like, she's such a
tennis lesbian. He is in heaven.
He's in heaven. And it's like, I love that for
him and for us and for the WTA, for the other BIG4, we've got
Federer, who's got somehow he has two sets of twins.
He had girls in 2009 and boys in 2014.
Then we got Novak, who's got a son and a daughter.
The son is already 10. So in basketball we've got
LeBron James and his son playing for the Lakers together.
I just wonder, I mean, maybe this kid is not old enough yet
or Novak is too old. But like some they're we're
going to have like a double S team sometime in the next 10 to
15 years. That's going to be a dad and a
son. I just know it's coming, like,
you know, maybe it's going to be.
It's clearly going to be hailed with Fritz and his son.
It seems like 5 with that symptom score.
Exactly. Yeah.
Or well, Mousetti is just pumping him out.
So, you know, we've got we've got a couple of youngsters who
are who are big baby daddies. And then we've got Rafa, who's
got one son, such a cutie during that final ceremony when we all
wept and we were all just like watching that and like the the
son was like, I'm going to just be two years old and like give
high fives to the big four. Like that was so cool.
Interestingly, though, he's the only one of the big four who
named his son after him. So it's Rafa Junior.
I was surprised by that. I'm still surprised Novak didn't
call his son Novak, but that's just.
Oh, I'm just surprised he gave him a what is it something?
Stefan. Yeah, that's pretty normal for
Novak. Yeah.
Who knows what he's gonna name it like after.
Like a planet no one's ever heard of.
Yeah, yeah. Or like some like like that Musk
name that was like a equation. Yeah, yeah.
After like a creatine powder. Yeah, exactly.
Or like whatever that orb was that he had attached to his
chest for whatever. Yeah.
I mean, he's got, he's got a lot of things that could inspire her
name. The daughter's name is Tara,
which is kind of an interesting name for like a Serbian.
I don't know if that's common. Tara.
It's. Kind of.
I don't think so. Tara Djokovic.
It's a good tennis name. Tara Djokovic.
Yeah, Oh yeah, get her on. Court Stefan Djokovic stuff.
It's not like a tennis player, but Tara Djokovic does.
Yeah. We'll have my Serbian tennis
friend Peter Megler weigh in on Leopard Tara as a Almond Serbian
name. Yeah, Peter, let us know in the
comments and we'll report back. So there's the big Four.
Do you have any thoughts on any of them as a dad or like who's
your favorite of the big four dads?
Oh, it's funny. I mean, I've never, I've never
seen Murray with his kids. You know, they don't really come
around a lot. Yeah.
So I mean, when you're sending it that many, I was kind of
shocked. And that doesn't mean he's a bad
dad because maybe he's like, I don't want these kids having to
schlep to, you know, all these tournaments or in the spotlight.
He's super normal. I was very surprised by how well
I responded to the doll being a dad.
Like, he seems to love that kid. I think the doll did something
smart. He had that kid at the end of
his career when he wasn't like sacrificing a whole bunch of
time with him. He seemed really into his kid.
I think Djokovic is actually a great dad, too.
When I see with this kid, you can tell he loves those kids.
Like he really, as much as you don't, people don't like
Djokovic when he sees himself as kid, he's super enthusiastic.
Better. I don't know, man.
Like there's always been, I mean, it's twins, you know,
there's something really weird there about the two twins and
the girls like a wife. It's very, it's so I mean, it's
probably IVF, right? Like, yeah, you know, but
there's something clinical about that marriage, that twin, that
big. Like, there's something uncanny
going on in that whole family situation.
You know, that seems not as heartwarming to me as when I saw
the dog walk out with his son or Jonkovic is cooling down on the
bike and his kid is running around.
It doesn't seem to be as like, I don't know, organically joyful?
I get that. It's interesting.
I mean, Novak and I even admitted this on the last
episode, which I'm still ashamed of.
But during his loss in the semis to to Sinner, I almost started
rooting for Novak because I was just like, whoa, he's getting
green. But but for Novak, you know, the
things that that he loves are country and family.
And so he is, he loves those kids and he's he's a good dad.
I mean, they're all, I'm sure they're all freaking amazing
dads. And honestly, even if they
weren't great dads, they're all worth well north of 100 million.
So I'd be happy to be their son, even if that dad was not very
good. So good.
Congratulations, someone else to do it.
Yeah, please. Money.
Money is money is a good parent. It's fine, all right.
Think about the rest of the tour.
So you mentioned Danielle Medvedev, who we all we, you and
I, are we in love with? He's a girl dad.
What is? Oh my God, he's with this little
girl. Oh, I love it.
That's when I really fell in love with Medvedev for the
second time. Just like, even when he has a
bad loss, he'll close an Instagram video of him like a
heavy ice cream or do he suddenly got a girly with a
stamp like playing with a doll or whatever, Like so you know,
he just it's so sweet. He he also really likes that
kitten. He likes his family a lot.
He likes to be with his family. It's so clear.
Yeah, And it's funny 'cause it's a little like, I don't know if
it's like watching Shrek learn how to be loving.
I don't immediately think of him as a great girl dad, but I think
that she, like, softened him in a weird way.
And like, his weirdness and cookiness is really, like,
balanced by this cherubic, adorable little.
Yeah. He, he posts her on Instagram
and she's just the cutest little nugget.
So yeah. Yeah.
Yeah, it's funny that it's real saying all these like how cute
they are with their kids. They're just like the mom I
said, like sitting in the audience watching with the kids
with Daniel Madden goes to give her an ice and we're like, oh,
it's so cute. Yeah, but it is really cute.
Well, that I mean, that's that. That's the, the weird, not
funny, but like funny in like the weird sense dichotomy here
where moms, they have to go on maternity leave for six months,
nine months, 12 months, come back.
Then even when they're on tour, that kid is going with them
breastfeeding or not breastfeeding, but like being
cared for and not. So the dads, it's like, yeah, I
stayed home with them for a couple weeks and now I'm back.
And then I I'll come out and I'll give them ice cream and I
am the best dad in the world. It's it's.
Exactly. And these two weirdos in America
are going to talk about. Me and like how much how great I
am well and we've got so another dad that I think is I I want to
highlight is GAIL Monfis, he and Svidolina.
What a dad. Yeah, daughter named Sky and
spelled SKAI, which is cool. And they don't post Sky's face
very much so I don't actually know if maybe she's not cute,
but I have a feeling she's cute. It's funny, this isn't Osakis.
Good Shai. Oh, let's see, we'll talk about
moms for one second. Yeah.
Shai God, look at that shy and sky.
It's. It's just me bringing the spell
into the ball boys again, because we got the Elon Nolai
and now we've got to say Sky. Yeah, No, there are Da Vinci
Code moments. Well, and I can't wait in in 17
years when Shy and Sky face off against each other in the
quarterfinals of Wimbledon. So because and actually that
leads to the next segment. It's called dad jeans.
That's GENES. Because everyone's been talking
about this massive generational wealth transfer that's going on
between like the boomers and the rest of generations.
But what about the generational transfer of tennis talent that's
going on? We're seeing former players,
former male players transferring it to their sons.
So we've got Peter Korda, Australian Open champion from
the 90s, and his son Sebastian Korda, who will know American,
who somehow still ranked in the top 30 even though he wins one
thing a year. Which I never see him, but he's
still ragged. 24 you. Know yeah, and he's just wearing
that same headband and he just kind of like he plays OK but
yeah, somehow I think I think he had a really good grass season
so he's either going to stay or tumble out starting right.
Now, and his sister's like the best golfer in the world.
What a family. I can't do golf.
I do not. I cannot.
It's it's not golf. No, this is a writer, not a
golfer. Yeah, yeah.
We also have Christian Rude. He's the father of Castro Rude.
And we've got people like Brian Shelton, who waited to 55 in the
world, and now he's Ben Shelton's dad, obviously Ben's
coach. Ben Shelton, by the way, just
cracked the top 10 for the first time, and not in that funny,
like, live rankings where he's going to fall back down like
he's going to be top 10 on Monday, which is, yeah, great.
Good for him. He's played well this this
tournament. I watched it like 2 matches.
But we're not. We're not talking about tennis.
No tennis talk on this tennis podcast, ma'am, Sorry.
No, it's great for him. And it's funny, 'cause you and
I, we had that conversation, 3 or 4 shows, He went like, who's
going to break to the top ten? And we were like, is it going to
be Musetti or Draper or Shelton? And now they've all made it into
the top 10. Yeah, clearly he lives.
The people who left the top ten are the likes of Rublev.
Sorry dude, Medvedev tumbled out and so it's all the Russians
they are rushing out of that top ten.
I'm curious though, who do we think is going to sire the next
Grand Slam champion? What former player is going to
create like the next winner? I'll just give you an example
because maybe I'm not asking the question in a very smart way,
but I was thinking someone who like had their career cut short,
like Delpo, like Juan Martin del Potro, he's got a kid.
I was just going to say, I was just going to say me and Juan
Martin del Potro are going to sign the next three on Slam
Champion, but you took it out of my mouth.
Well, I didn't have you in the mix, so that's that's a whole
another level. Juan Martin, sorry your wife is
going to have to chill. We're going to get this 48 year
old lady baby with you. Well, he started the tennis
Academy so that's that's definitely a thing.
I will be there for every one of his matches.
Oh, 100 percent, 100%. Well, I, I feel like Juan
Martine is going to like, he's like, I'll protect this baby's
wrists with everything I have in my life.
Like it's just like he's going to like, OK.
You forgot. You forgot the dad kid
combination. Leighton Hewitt.
Oh, Oh my God, his son is like kind of a doesn't.
He have a kid who's yeah, and he's good, like, and he's young
like, you know, it's like 4847. Yeah.
That that's when I bet him. What's his name like Suri
Cruise? What's his son's name?
I don't know. He got in trouble.
He practiced with Sinner, and then Curious went after him.
Remember that? Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
And like, Leighton was like, why are you going after my kid?
Yeah, yeah. Cruz Hewitt.
That's why I was thinking Siri Cruz.
Yeah. Cruz Hewitt.
You know I. Think it'll be, I think it might
be one of these players who are coaching like Moya or Juan
Carlos Ferraro, like somebody is out there, you know, coaching a
top player and has a kid who's like, hey, center, you know,
wanna hit with junior, Yeah. Oh, yeah, someone who's like
coaching them and like in the mix and someone who's like, hey,
Novak, come and hit with my kid. Hey, Serena, come hit with my
kid. Yeah, yeah, totally.
What about like a Tommy Hans Tommy?
Hans. Yeah.
Once Tommy cut that hair. Oh, just a dreamboat.
Good for Tommy. Yeah, Yeah.
All right. Well, we will see.
So hey, we're going to have to check in kind of every year or
so about hey, which dad has created the next Grand Slam
champ, but but we'll let you know.
We'll get back to you in 16 years or the next time Cruz
Hewitt qualifies for major. He's going to make a run.
He's like the he's like the Route Ikanu of 2029.
It's going to happen, yeah. Yeah.
And now we're going to move on to Major Dad, which was not only
a hilarious sitcom in the 90s and early 2000s, but also we're
going to talk about how some mothers, you know, they come
back as tops and they make deep runs.
They get to new levels of winning, and so do some dads.
So I want to talk about just dads who come back from having
kids, you know, that arduous paternity leave and they win
slams. And so we've got a couple of
examples. So Jimmy Connors, you know, we
never talk about Jimmy on this pod, but Jimmy Connors, what a
character. He won three grand slams after
becoming a dad. So that's that's pretty good.
But I feel like he also like chain smoked and had whiskey
like while playing so. Yeah, totally about.
He's like the Pete Rose of tennis.
He looks like Pete Rose too. Yeah.
You think she's a good dad to be
cons? Oh no, no, I'm just saying I
didn't. I'm not talking about whether
he's. A good dad to say.
Yeah, he did. He won three Grand Slams after
becoming a dad 'cause you know, the whole thing, Like on the
mom's side, everyone was holding their breath for Serena to win
one more fucking goddamn Grand Slam after becoming a mother,
and it never happened. But for Cloisters, she came back
and kind of cleaned up the trophy room.
So, you know, on the men's side. So we also have Agassi, who won
a couple of Australian Opens after having his first kid, and
then Novak won seventeen of his 24 grand slams after having his
first kid. Whoa, Talk about powering up
from being a daddy. Or I guess he just really didn't
want to change diapers. I don't know.
But he was just like, no, I'm locked in even more.
Leave me alone, Stefan. And, you know, And then like you
said before, yeah, Rafa, you know, he had a kid.
And then I don't know if his figure never bounced back, but
yeah, he never won another major after having a kid, you know
what about? Federer.
Federer never. No, not after having kids.
Oh, wait, no, sorry. That's so wrong.
He had his kids in 2009. Yeah, he won.
He won several. Sorry, that was that was my
mistake. What am I, ChatGPT?
Oh, here's the question. Who is going to be the next dad
to win a Grand Slam? Which which player?
They could have a kid right now. It could be like Mousetti
winning Wimbledon. I'm just curious, like what
Dad's going to win the Grand Slam next?
I mean, the obvious choices know that Bennington, Walker do.
You think he has a shot? Of all the dads, Yeah.
Like it's not, not of all the tennis players.
We have a very small playing field there.
I don't think GAIL Montes is winning a major.
Yeah, Musati for sure, but I don't think he's going to win.
What? I mean, he played really well
against Alcaraz. So yeah, I think there's a
pretty yeah, Musetti. Hey, outside chance to Fritz,
but no. Yeah, I was thinking about Fritz
for this. Brusetti is better than Fritz, I
think, in this particular challenge, yeah, he's surging.
Fritz isn't going to get better, you know, if he has what he is.
Lusetti's what's? What's Lusetti?
Like 20 or something? Yeah, I know.
Even though he's got so many kids, he's.
Yeah, he's very he's. Six kids.
Yeah, those Italians, they do it.
But does he not know how? Does he not know how babies are
made? Like stop having babies,
Musetti. Look, you know, the Pope was
like, no. And he's like, OK, Well, the
thing with Musetti, though, the thing that worries about about
Musetti is as much as I love A1 handed backhand, I don't love
his. And I think that he's never
going to be able to overpower a Sinner or a Alcaraz with that
one hander. He needs, he needs a clear path
like he needs one of them not to play or to get injured and then
have a good day, you know? Yeah, I don't think Fritz is
doing it, you know. I think if Fritz just locks in
his serve, like he can eek it out.
Like eek it out. Oh yeah, it's.
How about Stitzapas and Bedosa have a kid as you predicted, and
then he wins a major? I would love that 'cause then I
would, you know, we can have like all the predictions rolled
into one. But yeah, I mean, I think
they're going to have a kid any minute now.
It's it's, it is written in her Mris where she's just, her back
is just done. So yeah, yeah.
What about Medvedev though? Like is Medvedev cooked?
Is he done? Like he just lost today.
Right. You know he would be obvious
choice. I don't know how I missed that.
He was pretty good at Indian Wells, as we talked about,
right. He lost in the semis, but then
he lost in the first round of Miami and it's.
Been a slip and slide since then.
It's really. How old do we think Diaz?
Like 30? Oh.
I was going to say like 29, which is a huge difference.
I'm going to look it up. He's 20. 9 I mean, as we all
know without talking about tennis, there's a very
impressive tennis match played past weekend.
And the level of that match was not the level of any of the
people we're talking about by a very long shot.
Not that those two players could, will always play that
level, but I think they'll bring it for the most part in the
majors. So unless Carlos has a love
child out there, it's Djokovic. Yeah, who?
OK, this is complete speculation.
I'm not even sure if this is like a good question, but who's
going to have a kid first, Sinner or Alcaraz Sinner.
Interesting because of the Italian.
Have you ever heard of Alcaraz? No, Have you ever heard of
Alcaraz having a girlfriend? This is true.
He's just a party boy. He's just got back from Ibiza.
Yeah. I thought I first, I I heard he
likes Miami. Yeah, yeah.
And Sinner had Kellen Skya and he got somebody else.
Sinner's like a serial dater, very very posh and Prof I can
see Sinner having a young. Yeah, OK, OK, so with that mind,
yeah, with that in mind, I'm going to say that the next dad
who wins a Grand Slam is going to be Yannick Sinner.
So yeah, again. Where's he got to get married
then she's got to go Friday and check it in 10 years.
Yeah, exactly. Well, you know, we're, we'll
keep you posted, everybody. Like, I know we've got to like
we've got a lot of results that we'll be tracking outside of
just actual tennis. But that's the fun stuff.
And, you know, we're here to celebrate dads, even if they're
not a dad yet. So congratulations, Yonic
Center. You were the next dad.
Who's going to win? Dad watch.
OK. 2072. My favorite night at the Eagle
is Dad Watch OK and my favorite TV show.
In which we in which we watch Yonic Center become a father.
Well, I feel like he's not very eagle.
He's more like Akbar. But yes, yes, 100% OK.
No, he's so. He's so reho like some.
He's Reho. He's not Akbar.
He's like some boring Rio bougie.
He's Palm Springs. Yeah, I mean, he's basically
wears A kaftan out to the court anyway.
Did you see him? He showed up today at some
tournament or maybe Queens or something.
I saw him get out of a car or just like randomly on Instagram
or on TV on the Tennis Channel, and he was just wearing like a
head to toe light blue sweat suit.
It was like a Juicy Couture suit from, you know, 15 years ago.
I was. Like what are you like he's?
He's still Palm Springs. You're so right.
Yeah. Though, is it?
I'm sorry, but we get to be bother, let me tell you.
Is this a conversation in which if Yonic Sinner was a gay bar
with what he be, that's what we're discussing?
I think this is going on Instagram.
We need a vote of like, OK, which gay bar is Yonic Sinner?
Is he Akbar? Is he the eagle?
Is he, you know, Mickey's in West Hollywood or is he Palm
Springs? Yeah.
In the tropical in Palm Springs. Yes, I love the tropical.
So it will be. I vote that.
Try the ribs. If Yannick Sinner was a gay bar.
Yeah, yeah. Oh, and he would just call it
sinners. I would go to sinners.
Me too. Hello.
God, he's going to market
himself better. Yeah, seriously.
OK, Yannick, let's talk. We're on this.
Ivy's opening a gay bar while she's out in Indian Wells called
Sinners. OK, we are going to move on.
We got two more quick segments that we're just going to get
through. We're going to play a game.
And so this game is called Dad, Daddy or Dandy.
It's kind of like Mary Fuck Kill where I have I have put 69 men's
names into a randomizer, put 69 men into a randomizer, which
again is my favorite night at the Eagle.
And we're going to pull out three names and we're about to
decide is is he dad? Is he daddy or is he dandy?
So dad is like the nice guy, like hey, dad, Daddy is the hot
1, Like, oh, hey, daddy and dandy is well, you know, the one
with a little bit of flair. Maybe you know, the the Wendy
Williams side eye, like, oh, Are you sure?
So let's play Dad. The Yannick Center in a blue
sack suit. Exactly.
That's that's a little dandy. So all right, so I've got my
randomizer. Add it up and we're just gonna
see. And this is a full on like crap
shoot of 69 men. OK, so we've got yeah, Oh yeah,
it's called random.org and. I know what that is.
Yeah, totally. Yeah, yeah.
Oh, OK. We'll see how this goes.
OK. Don't know the first.
So we've got we've got Rafael Nadal, we've got Mats Vilander
and we've got Bjorn Borg. Which one is Dad, which one's
daddy, and which one's dandy? Three.
OK, OK. It's like marry, fuck, kill.
Who is this? Who so?
That's B Lander's dad. Yeah, nice guy.
Nadal, although I don't really care for it, is probably daddy.
Is there people out there who think that?
Yeah. Holberg is definitely dandy with
the East. Have the underwear line, the
short shorts, the style. Yeah, that one's great for me.
Yeah, I totally agree. I totally agree.
Yeah, I was thinking like, maybe, maybe Rafa was dandy, but
no, like when I think about Bjorg, he was always with like
the headbands and the style. Yeah, he's got his old fashioned
company too. He's an underwear company in
Europe. And no, he's, no, he's a style
icon. Borg.
Yeah, OK, that one was too easy. OK, we're going to randomize
again. We're going to randomize again.
OK, I don't like these. I'm going to randomize again.
Oh, OK, We've got Pete Sampras, Feliciano Lopez and Boris
Becker. OK, Felicio Lopez is daddy to
the Max. Oh, he's so Daddy.
Is so Daddy Stampris is dad, of course.
And you know who? Who was it?
So Becker is dandy. In fact, yeah, Becker is
stylish. I mean, not anymore.
There's no other way to do this. And just there, Yeah, No, I mean
Becker. Is.
Daddy Becker back in the day. Yeah, Lopez back her back in the
day, please. Yeah.
No, it's, it's, I mean, Lopez, that man.
We should only do them from back in the day.
We have to compare them a thoroughly peak.
Yeah, yeah. Well, hey, some people out there
love a a daddy like a, you know, man of a certain age.
So hey, like I look Feliciano Lopez today, yesterday and
tomorrow. And tomorrow, and on his
deathbed. On.
On in his grave. No, no.
OK. To Paul.
I went too far. Wait, he's somebody's father.
OK. Oh, I love this one.
We've got John McEnroe, Michael Chang, Roger Federer.
No. Oh, yes.
Well, Michael Chang is Dad, right?
Michael Chang, is dad OK? Yeah.
He gets not the other ones, no. OK.
John McEnroe. So Federer is daddy and McEnroe
is Dan? Is dandy.
See, I would have flipped them. Why is McEnroe dandy?
Because he's just kind of like a.
Because I'd rather have sex with Roger Federer.
This is fair, this. Is fair.
You can't argue with that one. No, the I I get, I don't know if
anybody watched McEnroe called the Zverev match, but Zverev
does not have 4 syllables in his last name.
He got Zverev. I was just like, can you stop?
Can you? It's just Zverev.
It's just your mouth can do that.
OK, We're going to do one more. Yeah, He can do this all day.
I know. Seriously.
Like, this is like, yeah, stay for like the two hours behind
the scenes. Yeah.
Oh, OK. 2:00 in the morning. Do we like this one?
OK, we've got James Blake, we've got Leighton Hewitt and we've
got Jim Courier. Your face is it all?
I know someone who hooked up with James Blake.
How was he? No, we don't.
We don't ask questions like that.
How was he? He gave him a blowjob.
Jane cut. So let's see, Jim Courier, I
can't do another one. I cannot do this one.
You can't do this one. OK, OK.
OK also, especially Layton Hewitt's a weird homophobe, so I
just can't put him in this one. All right, all right.
Oh, this one's easy. Probably Murat Saffen, John
Isner, Andy Murray. Look, I know.
I believe. Well, I mean.
His nurse got to be dad, I mean. Yeah, yeah, 'cause he's got no,
none of the other. Two pie sauce.
Yeah. OK, so we got Murray and we got.
Murat. What is it?
Murat Saffin. He's daddy, Daddy.
Yeah. Yes, and then Murray is dandy.
Andy Murray? Yeah, I guess he's a lesbian.
He's a lesbian, he's a fucking, he's a super driving, you know,
lady lovin lesbian. Yeah, yeah.
He's a lesbian. Yeah.
Oh, I love this game. Yeah, you're right.
I could play this. I could.
Like, because we got there's
literally 69 men and we got to touch them all, OK.
But we got to move on for for the sake of sanity and, you
know, to not get arrested. Yeah.
So that was Dad, Daddy or Dandy. Feel free to play at home as you
will, and we're going to finish the episode with the last
section. We're calling father figures.
It's a special bait TP just for Father's Day.
We're ranking the top dads. These can be active players on
tour. They can be former players,
coaches or maybe even just like a player with big dad energy.
We haven't talked that much about daddies who aren't actual
fathers, but I celebrate those guys every every episode.
So we've got our. Top 8 Catching up a dad.
He is a father. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
He's, you know, he's a. Little put him out there.
Sympathizer, but yeah, no, he's I get it, I.
Know. But were you the one who called
him Timo Hemsworth? Somebody did.
Or it's just like. It's done.
He's like, he's like kind of a Hemsworth, but not quite.
No. OK, so the top 8 and we will be
posting this to our Instagram and please let us know if you
agree or not. But we've got Patrick Marotta
glue. He's problematic, he's got
issues, but he is such a but but also like I don't know dads.
Dads aren't perfect. Dads have issues.
No, he's got such French dad energy, like he just gets to be
on there no matter what. He is just your prototypical
type of French dad Marotta glue. You're in.
Yeah, and I find him to be one of the most attractive men in
the world. That's me.
Yeah, he's he's getting older, but yes, more out of glue.
You can stay. More out of you can stay yes OK,
then we've got Juan Carlos Ferrero who is mostly because
he's like basically Carlos Alcarez's dad.
He's got that dad energy. I love his sort of like stoic
way of like he's raised Carlos. And the thing I loved, not many
things I loved. But when Carlos ran up into the
stands last weekend after winning and jumped into his arms
and just this joy and celebration, like, I was just
like that. Like, I want.
I'm like, I wish that was my dad, even though he's not his
father. It was just so beautiful.
And like, Juan Carlos, you are a father figure.
Some others we've talked about GAIL Monfis, his style and
swagger, like he's got aura, as the kids would say.
Then we've got Roger Federer we've talked about.
Then we've got the dad of of many, many, many generations of
tennis talent who I know you love, Brad Gilbert in the number
5 slot. Vote him off this island.
I mean, you know what a lot of his day because he dresses like
your embarrassing dad. Like she is a dad nightmare with
those hats in the sand. That's like your dad who came to
pick you up early the birthday party.
I don't know him. Like, stay away.
He's got embarrassing dad energy nailed down.
OK, That's a dad. Dad, like all he cares about is
like, what's the next pun? That's all I care about.
Like he like when when when Jessica Pagula came on the
stage, he was like, oh, what's your nickname?
Oh, you JPEG. He's obsessed with like, funny,
you know, witticisms. And and he was the dad to Agassi
Roddick and Coco all reaching, you know, Grand Slam finals and
winning grand slams. I mean, he's a great freaking
coach. So Brad Gilbert, you are a
daddy. And then rounding it out, Dad of
the year Jim Courier, who I don't think we talk about nearly
enough on this podcast. He's just he's really come into
himself as sort of like a dad presence in every major
tournament. He does great on quick
interviews. He's just great dead energy.
Then Annie Murray, who we love, favorite tennis lesbian.
And then Andre Agassi single handedly becoming dad to like
all of Las Vegas with his schools, with his tennis
academies, so much outreach. All these guys like their father
figures who are the dad bait teepee.
I think that's a pretty good list.
Yeah, I I like, I like the inclusion of Agassi and the
reason, yeah, I'm, I'm down with this.
And Brad Gilbert, a dad to us all, unfortunately.
He's, yeah, he's like the dad. He's the dad of, of the tennis
world. So.
All right. Amazing.
Well, hey, that is our show.
We didn't talk about any of the tournaments that are going on
right now except for here and there because hey, everyone's
over on grass. They're trying to figure out how
to not fall down when they're on grass, whatever grass is the
shortest season in tennis. We've got Wimbledon starting in
just two weeks. So we're going to be back in two
weeks with a preview show before the action starts, before the
champagne pops. We're going to have our always
spot on predictions. We're going to look at the hits
and misses of the tour. So.
So we'll see you then. Ivy, thank you so much for
spending pre Father's Day with me.
It's always a joy. Will you come back real soon?
Oh hell yes. We're getting to my favorite
part of the season, which is the summer swing.
So I'm coming all. Right.
Ivy Ivy's coming and so is everybody else.
So thanks everybody. Dads.
Sorry, these daddies. So yeah, happy Father's Day to
all the daddies out there, and we'll see you back real soon.
Thanks everybody. Bye.