Hello, it's going to be a fun media.

Welcome to the Tennis Mini.

A rap of the US Open coming up, King of the Court, Carlos Reign Supreme, Arena's Arena Sabolenka, stuns Anisimova and who can challenge the world number ones at AO twenty six.

That's ahead with me, Brett Thomas and a legend and Ossie Legend Todd Woodbridge.

Welcome, Todd.

Thanks.

Thanks.

Don't know about a legend, but you know, it's nice to be It's nice to be here to chat about what was a great tournament.

Yeah, I appreciate you are coming in straight after the men's final.

We'll get to in a moment.

But two great finals and we're seeing Arena Sablenka and Carlos Algarez absolutely at the top of their game, and the rest of the world has to catch up.

Yeah, they do.

It's been the USI listen, go back to step.

The US Open is always an intriguing tournament because it's the last major of the year.

Players are getting tired.

There's the last itch effort to do, you know, get some points and rankings.

There's always a lot on the line to make your year better or sometimes to save your year, and in the situation for somebody like Arena Saberlenka, this was about saving the year world number one, who's had two chances to win, hasn't quite got it done and had to kind of pull everything together under extreme pressure to maintain that mental focus to be able to get the job done.

And in the final she was pressed to the limit and she came through and that was really impressive.

Yeah, I mean, Amanda Anisimova so much power and given what had happened at Wimbledon, she came out swinging and she was down two love, then got it to three to two and at one stage it was eight to one in terms of winners in her favor, so the match was going to be decided on her racket.

Yeah, there were swings in roundabout, lots of momentum, and I thought, you know, Amanda bouncing back the way she did from what happened at wimbledem was unbelievable.

I think she can win a major moving forward.

Always had that to the runner up, but she's a legit contender.

I actually thought she was going to win the tournament.

I picked her even going into the final to win, despite what had happened at Wimbledon.

Yes, yes, because you could see the resilience was there.

There is a maturity that she brings to her tennis from life experiences, from what happened when she was young, bursting on the scene, losing her dad, understanding mentally she needed to get away from the game, found out she loved it, still came back and has cemented herself.

But she's such a good technical player.

But maybe even in the final though, there were some weaknesses that showed up.

A little lack of spin on the forehand and the second serve probably needs a little bit more work with some shape, and that's one of the things Saberlenka's really honed in on over the last couple of years.

And as I'm over for me, I thought, I thought was brilliant and in that match it could have got away from her.

That start was awful, and you can you imagine thinking I haven't thirteen games straight and Grand Slam finals and all sorts of stuff like that.

I thought she actually settled in well, which is another reason why Saberlenka to take that opening set with the momentum changes was a really good effort from her.

That back end adismo is going to make a lot of money from.

Yeah, it's so good.

Just this ability loaded up any corners available.

So some people have a trending shot.

Hers is equally as good when she redirects as to what is the safer one as well.

So yeah, and the forehand tod like just the way that she can hit people off the court, she's she's very dangerous.

Now the roof was shut.

There was a lot of rain in New York and now seemed to affect Anasamova on serve.

She was complaining to her box a little bit, and that maybe just rattled her a little bit.

Yeah, now that that's that's the one thing that you would look at and go, okay, I'm sure Saberlenka was looking up into the same roof.

She didn't seem to be bothered by that.

So you make you've got to make an adjustment, and you've got to not let that rattle you.

And probably that's a bit of nerves and a bit of looking outside for something to have an excuse in that moment when things weren't as good.

But I would go back and go, hey, technically, there's a big twist going on in the back here that's going to make it hard to get your timing right when you're a little bit up tight in a big match like that.

So that's what she will learn out of that.

And that's what I love about Seberlenka is how much she's learned through some very difficult losses and how every single time she has got better from a bad loss or from a meltdown or from whatever it is a big disappointment, and I think Amanda is doing that also.

She'll come out of this a better player.

You could see just warming up before the match, how relaxed Sebilenka is.

I mean, I reckon a bit of that there, to be honest with you, and then Anna Simova on the other hand, looks super nervous.

You think experience was the ultimate fact, one hundred percent, the experience of it.

The more finals you play in that space, the more you're comfortable with it.

You know, there's that whole walkout, you know, imagine, you know, there's a walkout in a normal match of of a big Grand Slam stadium, a Rod Labor Arena or Arthur Rash Stadium, But on a final, it's a different buzz, The locker room is different.

There's just the two of you, and you know they're warming up in the same space.

That's awkward.

I can't do.

Shall I do what I really want to do?

I don't want them to see.

You know?

Am I a bit stiff here?

Am I stretching a bit differently?

So many things can go on and through your head that don't happen in a quarter because there's other people mingling around.

There's a lot of other stuff happening.

It's just this magnified effect.

And I think for Amanda that obviously was a big issue at Wimbledon.

Slightly better here and if she can make some more she'll feel much more composed going into that match.

She seems like she's really hard on herself.

She was in tears after that and the way that she spoke, I didn't fight as hard as what I could have.

Do you think she was a bit too hard on herself.

Of course, every athlete is going to put themselves down.

That's what they do.

Very rarely do you come out of a loss, although I heard you know Sinner said I gave everything I had, but he will come out of that loss disappointed.

And I think for Amanda that's a normal reaction.

You put everything on the line, and you know, for her as an American, to win that tournament is going to change her life.

It'll take her to another level.

Her life's already changed in a positive way, but it would have gone to other levels, would have opened up a huge corporate opportunity, and it still will if she can back it up.

But you think about those things.

You're not human if you don't think about that at the time.

And how important was it for Sablenka to finish her year winning a Grand Slam, given what happened with Coco Goff at the French Open, just to change the feeling around her.

It was the most important win I think that she's had because things could have easily started to get away from her next year, also with what you know, with all of the chances, and I think you could see that poor out of her after it all, when even in the speech saying, people don't know how hard I've worked to get to hear and that's the truth, and you can see that.

And I think that tournament win now allows her to go on.

I think if she had lost, I don't think she would have gone on in twenty six to achieve I think she probably she least wins one maybe two next year as well, because her consistency of getting into the semis and the finals now is starting to equal those sort of moments of a serena.

She has got all those you know, probably not going to get all those wins, but consistency is so important, particularly in the women's game.

As she got a little bit tight there on the second set, She's serving at five to four nets and overhead and you thought.

Maybe this is a Simo always coming.

I mean, she was tightening up, But at that moment was the moment where she didn't lose the plot.

That's she did arms, didn't flail and start yelling at the box and all of those things.

She actually kept it together and kind of pulled.

You could see the effort to remain comp and so when it gets to the tiebreak, she didn't have a heightened sense of anxiety.

She just had the normal moment of being able to focus in on the tie break.

That for me was like the point of difference from what she had done earlier in the year and other big matches that she had lost.

She didn't she didn't let the moment get on top of us.

So, you know, whatever they were working on her and her team to be able to mentally get through that.

It worked, and that must be a huge relief and a pad on the back to yourself to go.

You know, I did that, and I thought that was probably a really key moment in watching her career.

And so dominant in tiebreaks this year or something like twenty to one, that must be in the back of her head like, well, you know, when I'm in this position, I've been able to win absolutely.

Yeah, you think you do think about that and you use it, by the way, and that's what she would be going.

You know, this is mine.

I'm better than the rest of them in these situations on those types of points.

But you know, I look to also her physicality and her movement and her strength and her power.

I mean, she as an athlete right now in the women's game is just right there.

It almost looks like she's sort of in the peak of her powers.

And you know anisim over at the other end of the court is ball strikings there.

And if she can start to match the physical capabilities that Arena brings, watch out, because she's she'll be dangerous.

And that's the next level, a level that I thought.

Now Missaka brought to this tournament the last few months.

You know, physically you can see the work that's been put into the body to change the shape, to get quicker, to get more power, and that's the next phase for Amanda.

Arena, one of the great celebrators.

She had the champagne boggles on.

What is it like you've won three doubles and three mixed doubles titles in New York Or is it like celebrating a Slam win in New York City must be a special?

It's it's New York's chaos, isn't it.

It's noise and it's big, And watching her do that, it's quit fun because you know it's stick over the walls and it's let the hair down.

We're going for it.

So, yeah, that's a new moment.

They don't normally do that type of moment at the US Open, So it was fun to watch.

I kind of like seeing the pictures of the stuff going back into the city and yeah, they're going out to the restaurant where you all go and how that celebration.

They're the pictures that really count when the team actually sort of let their hair down and whether you can actually sort of see they don't really want you to see that.

Yeah, you know, but we now get to see a bit out.

That's where the fun stuff happens.

I remember Patti rafter I wasn't there the night that he won the US Open, but you know, the Aussies went nuts that that night with.

Ties around their head and whatever else.

Yeah, there's some good pics of that.

It would have been an epic night.

Speaking of celebrating a men's victory, Carlos Alcarez king Carlos six Grand Slam title over the Annix Cinner wasn't quite as epic because the French opened.

But this is what the fans were hoping for.

Well yeah, I mean last three finals, and they've actually all been quite different.

The epic was in rolling Gaross, you know, coming back from match points down and you go, well, what happens to Sinner?

How does he bounce back after that?

You know?

Kenny, well he does.

He wins Wimbledon and he was too good at Wimbledon.

But ironically, when we get to the US Open, the tide had turned in terms of confidence technique, I think where they felt physically, particularly going into the final.

Carlos looks better, he'd had an easier run, and he'd had just this kind of look about him where at times he can lose concentration, he'll throw in a loose game or two, he might lose a set, but he always finds a way through his flare to be able to get through matches.

He was so tight in the way he was playing, so clinical and using his flare.

So that's trouble for the rest of the field, and that was what it looked like coming into the final.

Yannick was pushed in the semis.

He did a great job absorbing what was gire Aliasine threw at him, but I think that took a little bit of an edge off him.

And to his credit, I don't think he was one hundred percent fit.

I think he had a niggle in the stomach at least that we saw in the semi.

He didn't serve nearly as well as what he had been throughout the season, and Carlos was able to take advantage of that.

And then also Carlos is serving stay at Wimbledon, and the French he got away with it in Paris was not great.

It was good, but not to the level it was in New York.

In New York.

He had a slightly longer swing, was more fluid, and he was getting a lot more free points, had a lot more power in the final than what Yannick had.

And when you start to look at the differences in these matchups between the two, it's something as simple as that.

You know, there was six seven miles per hour more on the Alcoraz serve than there was on the sinner serve, and so therein lies a key difference in such an important match.

It's pretty scary when you think about it, though, because Carlos is only twenty two.

If he can get even more powerful, then who can keep up with him?

Good question, because the difference you have with these two like Yannik can keep up with him, no doubt about that.

But how long can you maintain those levels.

You've got to physically keep fit, you've got to keep mentally in tune and interested and fresh, and so you have to manage a lot of things to be able to play well.

Ultimately, I'd love to see a Carlos take a break now he should have eight weeks off.

He won't be able to.

But if he took eight weeks off, enjoyed his success of what's been an incredible season.

Then go into a good training block, come down to Australia, play some pre events which he's not done before, whether it be the United Cup or Adelaide or Brisbane or you know, have a proper plan about then attacking the one Grand Sam that he hasn't won before.

That would then tick that next box and have hill of won all four majors.

But that's going to take some planning, and that means everyone else is going to be after him and he's got to find a way to remain at top.

So there are so many variables about whether he can and what the others are going to do to try to beat him.

Yeah, pretty scary, but I think a lot of tennis fans in Melbourne are hoping that he can be at his best.

COO twenty six.

The rivalry between these two we've just come off the Big Three before that sampress agacy and then you know McEnroe and Borg.

It feels like it's just one generation immediately replaces the next one and these two will be going at it for the best part of the decade.

We hope.

So.

And then if you think back three or four years ago, is going to be struggling.

Who's going to fill the void?

They just won't be possible.

Well, hello, here we are, and they're playing I think, bigger and better tennis than even what the Big three and Andy and Stan were being able to deliver.

We're seeing incredible stuff and what that does.

There's those two and that rivalry, but don't forget that the rest of the field are getting better and following them.

You've got people like von Seca, who's going to get there, Runa who's not always as consistent but he can match.

The rivalry will be tested by others, but for the moment at least, yes, they're a level above.

And you know, I was looking at the stats.

Raffa and Roger played forty times in their career twenty four sixteen.

I think it was in the end to Rafa, but Roger won the last seven of eight.

These two are going to have these ebbs and flows and things are going to change, and that's the beauty of sport.

And trying to predict two wins, I don't know.

I would have thought that Carlos was going to win more Wimbledon's than Yannick yep and he's still in front.

But when they've played at Wimbledon twice, Yanick's beating him and you go, oh, I didn't expect that, But then you maybe thought Yannick might get him on the clay.

That hasn't happened.

So there's a lot to play out in this particular rivalry.

Yep, and Yannick's got a lot more to say about that.

It's a special time, no doubt.

Let's get to up stocks down.

This is across the whole tournament, and let's start with the player who you mentioned before, Naomi Osaka.

Is she back as a Grand Slam contempt?

Absolutely?

That was the best tennis she's played since she was winning majors.

She was instinctive, she was on the ball, in short in the court, making winners.

Her whole shot selection was so much better than what it's been since her comeback.

And the movement.

Wow, it was like she was anticipating where to be at the right times.

And so it looks like it's come back.

I think next year watch out for Naomi because where she was coming up, where she'd lost her ranking, She's coming up in some tough draws early and hadn't built that confidence.

Now she's back in the top echelon.

She's going to get easier draws, she's going to get into the tournament.

And I think for the first time she really believed actually that she could win that US Open.

It was a different look about her and I think that's great, really great for the women's game.

It was fun watching she jumps up ten places to fourteen in the world.

What about Felix Augeur Elier sim he said that title of the next big thing for a while.

Yeah, got to a semi final, takes a set off Onick Sinner.

Is he going to be the one who challenges those two?

Well, he's dangerous, no doubt about that.

And you know what we saw in the second set of his semi final.

He played at the level of those two, but he didn't sustain it and he fatigued.

So that's what he's got to go and do.

Now.

He's fit as anything, he's a specimen, but he's got to go and find a way to be able to play that level for longer.

And that's the key.

It's very hard to do.

But he'll be buoyed by that semi final because he could easily have fallen away.

He didn't play great in the quarter, but he got the job done and then he rose again.

Also, the best tennis I've ever seen him play was in that semi final that he lost.

He'd had successes before, but this was much better.

This is Felix back up where he was three and four years ago, and let's be honest, he fell away and he would have been questioning himself.

So that's a big tournament for him.

Okay, stocks up, stocks down on the mixed doubles.

Going back to the start of the tournament.

Stocks down, for me, the event worked, no doubt about that.

It was an exhibition event.

Though it's an invitational event, it's not open to the whole field.

It's not the US Open, it's not the title that I won.

It was an exo.

It was really good though.

It got eyeballs on it and it showcased it.

But there still needed to be a mixed doubles event for everybody else in the field to be able to play for an open event if you choose to play it.

So hopefully the USTA might use both next year.

Stocks down.

Retirements from the tournament, we saw quite a few of them.

Vondrosova, Can I have another stocks up quick?

Of course, that's Jokovic.

Oh yeah, love him or not, and you know he polarizes his fan base, no doubt, but you've got to love what the year he had, kudos for making four semi finals in a row.

Extraordinary effort and by far and away the third best player in the world.

If anything happens to one of those guys next year, maybe there's an injury and one loses early.

Well no, actually, man, he's the guy that still is there to win.

He's he's he beats Fritz comfortably.

He's number four in the world.

He might drop back a little bit because of making the final last year, but we've got to put that in perspective.

Oh absolutely.

I mean, any other player on the tour outside of Cinner and Alcarez would have killed to make the semis at every single.

Slate extraordinary and we go, oh, he's done.

He's not playing so good.

I'd like to have not played that year yet never right off a champion.

What about the retirements Vondrosova, Camille Meichek, Ben Shelton, high hopes for him and Draper as well.

Is there anything in that being the last slat?

Yeah, we opened here saying how difficult This tournament is for your coming off a long season and you're trying to hang on.

I mean, injuries come and go, we know that, but that's disappointing for them.

Now they've got time to rest up.

I think.

You hate seeing someone like Vondrasov who gets back when she's in great film.

She's really really good to watch because she brings variety to the women's game.

So hopefully we don't see that continue, but that that's the hard part about playing tennis that's in the game today to really physical.

A terrible tournament for Petty Crims.

We saw Camil Myerchik trying to hand his hat to a young fan.

Yeah, a Polish millionaire took it off him.

They tracked the millionaire down and the boy gave him a hat.

And then the brazenness of a fan trying to open up Youngixxentner's bag with a security guard right there.

Yeah, that's New York for you.

Watch out.

Anything can happen in New York.

Zip over your pockets.

And that was interesting viewing.

See back in the day, you wouldn't have had all those clips to be able to.

Catch all those people.

Yeah, yeah, it happened in my day I lost my beautiful Ebelle watch from a bag in my bag in my.

Locker in New York.

Yes, oh my lord.

Yeah.

It was the first expensive thing I'd bought for myself, and I'd had it in my little watch bag.

In my bag, ye, in my locker.

Yeah, And there was no way you were going to get that back.

Not as many cameras around back there, especially not in the locker.

No Danil Medvedev, just the one Grand Slam match that he won this year that was at the AO that he's now changed his coaching team.

Have we seen the best of Medvedev?

Or yeah?

More to come.

I think there's more to come, but I mean it has to be like changing the coaching staff is probably inevitable because he has to freshen up somehow.

I mean, he's funny to watch because you know, he loses the plot and that can be you know, like watching a training crash and we all sort of do that.

And he's important for the game because he's actually an intellect and a thinker out on court and he and he finds ways to break things down.

I think he's really important.

So I hope he does get back, but he's got to make some changes to the pressure that he seems to be putting on himself and the intensity of that because he's not making it easy on himself.

So someone that used to do that, I used to really try too hard.

He looks like he's trying too hard.

He has to sort of find a different way, I think to enjoy the competition, because at the moment when it's getting tight, he's not enjoying it.

But there's one other part, and that's probably the technical part of transitioning to the net and coming forward and volleying.

If he's going to get better again, that's where he's getting beaten a lot.

And so you can look at him at the back of the court the way he serves all that stuff.

But in the fore court, you know, he's probably a five out of ten, and for as good as he is, he should be a seven or eight.

Yeah, that's not going to get it done.

Let's hope a change of coach results in a change of fortune.

All right, Time to change ends here, Todd, come back and look ahead to AO twenty six.

Sounds good.

Welcome back everybody to tennis.

Mini form Majors for twenty twenty five are done.

So now took a head to the Australian Open for twenty twenty six.

Brett, Yeah, Todd, I feel like you've done that before.

Let me pose a question to you, because I think people want to hear what you think about this, not me, But who can actually challenge Yannick Sinner and Carlos Alcarez in the men's game.

Well, who can challenge them?

Novak challenges them in Albourne.

Course, Absolutely, He's just got to keep finding that resilience at his age to get back out on court.

Taylor Fritz playing the best tennis of his career.

He's had a really solid year.

Can he up the ante against these guys in the best of five to be able to do that?

What about Ben Shelton Yep.

Definitely you need the players that can dynamically bust through these guys.

So Ben's one of those.

With the way he serves and the way he hits his forehand.

He's got to tighten things up off the ground, not give a few free points here and there, but you know he can always serve his way deep into a set, so that's massively important.

I am a fan of like looking at someone like jal Fonseca he's still building for me, but yes, he is going to challenge these guys.

You know, can Alex do it in Australia, Well, we know he's just knocking on that door and he will make a breakthrough all the quarters that he's made.

I'd love to see him challenge those guys in Australia.

So I think there are plenty out there.

It's just a matter of them believing in themselves.

You know, let's put Zverev in that category too, made the final twenty twenty five.

So many of them, though, have to be able to lose the inhibitions and the safety of their own game of what has got them to a certain point and keep adding to their repertoire.

That's the difference with Sinner in a very short space of time in his young career, is that the improvements that he's kept making and the choices that he's made in building the team to be able to do that.

Darren taking Darren on, and Darren doesn't do the technical coaching.

He does the strategizing and the mindset and Simoni does the technical stuff.

They built this whole, you know, one percent of team I call the was a lot like what Novak's done, so the other guys you're going to start investing in that as well.

Yeah, big off season coming up for all of those players.

The women's game, we saw a different winner of each major, which is awesome.

Amanda Addisamova, given the pressure of playing in her home country when she comes to Australia, do you think some of that pressure will be off and maybe.

We'll see it at LEAs break through here?

Definitely, And I think this is a surface that will suit her really well.

Nice medium pace, hardcore, perfect for her timing.

But in the women's game, I would say personally, I think it's in the best shape coming into the AO for twenty twenty six, and I've seen it for many seasons because we were seeing such inconsistency.

There's only Eager that was prepared to step up and own the mantle.

Now we're seeing these matches of all others saying I'm back in on this.

There's Naomi, there's Amanda, there's Madison who wins it here.

Eager winning Wimbledon.

Never thought I would see her win on grass, and so even she's brought herself back into the top of the equation, even though she's peat number one in that spot for so long and then you throw Saberlannka in there.

I think it's quite wide open with the difference between the two in the men the women's broad I mean, it all makes for a great tournament because I think it builds drama that's unpredictable.

Yeah, absolutely, me and sabal Anka's women.

But there's just so many who could take her title.

And so much can change in an offseason as well.

Yeah, new coaches, you know, depending on their health and the changes that they make to their game.

Is that the most exciting thing about the first Slam of the year is seeing how people have changed their games and how they've developed over a summer.

There's that, and then also the freshness that they bring and sort of the spring in the step and a new positivity because sometimes we don't see that.

Sometimes we'll see, you know, a play if they can come with a break and a new sort of feeling that this is my year, that's what we often get in Australia.

We get the breakthroughs because of that.

It gets harder through the season as you've been on the road for longer, no matter even if you've only had a few weeks off.

Australia has this mindset for the players, new year, new me, and that really does make a difference.

And that's kind of why I'd like Carlos to get here earlier and prep a bit earlier than what he has because for him it's a new year, it's been a slow start and then he gets going.

I'd love to see him start the year at the same pace that he's just finished the US Open.

Yeah, it's the trophy that's missing from his cabinet.

Appreciate your company today, Minikick.

What a legend Todd would ridge.

He'll be back next year, as we hope.

On the tennis.

Mini.

Appreciate you joining us during the US Open and of course the Tennis.

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