Welcome to the tennis Mini a rap at the end of every round of the US Open.

Coming up, She's back, Naomi Osaka on the charge in New York, the Demon rises and Felix Augier, Eli sim lights up the night session with me, Brett Thomas and fresh from the US and AO Doubles finalist Luke Saville.

Welcome, Luke, Thank you, brag good to be here and definitely starting to heat up the second week of the US Open and some blockbuster matchups to come, really exciting.

And we'll talk about the round that was Round three, but you are fresh back from the US.

We had Daria on the last episode.

How's the jet lag on this Sunday morning in Australia.

Yeah, it's almost been a week since coming back and early mornings getting up, but yeah, putting the robe on and making a coffee in my home home coffee machine, so flicking the tennis on as well.

So I'm usually an early early riser.

But yeah, some jet lag.

Quick trip to the US just over a couple of weeks where I was doing some work with James McCabe who did pretty well and.

He played some doubles with him as well.

I did.

Yeah, Yeah, that got out, but it was more just to he hadn't played in a while.

Was his first event back after about three weeks of training, and just sort of thought to get some matches in for James, and yeah, I really enjoyed it with him.

I coached against one of my good mates, James Duckworth.

Second round of the quality, So that was an interesting one.

But nice for me to get to another Grand Slam and to sort of see the level and you know, the game is always evolving, and really enjoyed it, and to see Dasha there as well, and to explore New York.

It was a great couple of weeks.

Well, great to have you with us on the tennis Mini.

Let's get stuck into it.

Your match of the round for round three.

What caught your eye?

Yeah?

Mine was yesterday watching Taylor Townsend defeat Mirror and Dreva seven five six two, and very interesting one.

Taylor Townsend, the twenty nine year old obviously so well equipped in doubles, obviously world number one I believe, and just possesses that really aggressive game style and I really thought she brought that out in that singles match, really taking it to Andreva, rushing her sort of taking her second serve early, getting to the net, really just not playing the same point twice I felt, and just sort of displaying that variety that Taylor Townsend has.

Her ability has sort of come to net, steel volleys, take time away.

I thought was incredible.

So I think her draw opens up now and it's really just great to see her feeding off the crowd support.

Obviously on Arthurs Stadium.

Twenty nine year old, so sort of getting to the twilight but playing great tennis and also balancing that sort of singles and doubles I think is very very impressive because it's not easy physically to play both.

Do you think she's been fired up by what happened with Elena Ostapenko and now she's got She already had crowd support being this her home Slam, but do you think that's just given her that bit of an extra edge.

I don't think the altercation had much to do with it, but probably just the result, to be honest.

Beating Ostapenko and Osapenko in the second round and then Andreva in the third round, that's a brutal draw.

So she's done incredibly well there and I think she's one to watch it'll be interesting how she balances the singles and doubles throughout the second week of the Grand Slam.

I think that's always the challenge physically, but she can go deep in both.

I really don't see how, you know, she's very well balanced right now to go deep.

Mira Andreva only eighteen at the French also played a local hope.

What's it like when you're at another Slam or another event and you're playing someone who's at their home tournament and it feels like the crowd is completely against you.

Definitely not easy, and Mira Andreva, she's experiencing a lot of first right now.

I think we keep forgetting she's only eighteen years old, you know, sort of six in the world.

So she's an incredible tennis player, but she's coming into a lot of these Grand Slams, and you know she's being the hunted now, and you know she's her rise has been so rapid, and now she's playing on these massive courts with the crowds against her.

So look, she will she'll be better off for these experiences.

It's not easy to play on Arthur Ash with a whole crowd against you when you're eighteen, But I think, yeah, she was flustered in that match, There's no doubt about it.

She didn't handle it very well.

You know.

I think her coaching coach's box they are a little bit sort of flat that there's not much they could do to help her in that moment.

But they'll go away and she'll be better off.

And I see her being a multiple Grand Slam winner.

She's got the game.

I was watching a little bit bit of her play doubles today, so she's straight back up on the horse and a great doubles player as well, so she'll be fine, better off of the experience.

Yeah, long career ahead of her.

My match of the round, Unfortunately for an Australian perspective, Naomi Osaka de fitting Daria Kazakina six love, four to six.

She recovered the Aussie in the second and six to three.

Osaka won the first set in just over twenty minutes.

It's a deepest run at a major since winning the AO in twenty twenty one, and looks like Luke She's officially back Naomi Osaka.

One hundred percent.

I think that's she's just such a dangerous player, especially on the fast courts and conditions in New York City and it's great to see her back in the fourth round, so incredibly dangerous.

I wouldn't be surprised if she makes a really deep run here and been struggling for a few years, but full time Grand Slam winner, she knows how to play deep in slams in the second week of them especially, so definitely watch that space.

A pretty good run for Darik Kazakina playing for Australia now.

Watched a little bit of her play rack him over second round and that was a seven to five and the third long, long match, So good to see her back playing well.

But O'saka, I just felt like it's sort of on her rack at that match against Kazakina, and she obviously played very well to seal that in three sets.

Yeah, she's won nine out of her last ten.

Naomi Osaka and some signs here at the Canadian Masters are finalist there.

But great for Dasha that to lose the first set like that in about twenty minutes but then recover and win the second shows a lot of mental strength and resilience.

For sure, And I think that's the great thing about tennis and the scoring system is you know, after the first set, it's a new set, so you can definitely mentally reset.

And you know, Dasha, she's an amazing competitor.

I think that's probably her biggest strength.

Great competitor, really good mover, so incredibly steady on the court.

So not surprised that she hit back there and made that a real match.

So I think, you know she's well and truly inside that top twenty dasher and playing for Australia, and you can see the whole Ossie community, you know, really behind her.

She's a great girl.

Really enjoy her, my Dasher and her best of friends.

So my dash is thrilled that she's turned ozzy now and can't wait for her to sort of come to Melbourne end of the year and then to hang out.

We'll talk more about Naomio Sa.

She's got Coco Goff Blockbust a Round A sixteen match that's come up a little bit later on when we look ahead to the round to come.

But time now Luke for our segment, Stocks Up and Stocks down.

Wall Street.

Of course, the New York team roll with us there.

We'll start off with a match that just finished before we started recording Sunday in Australia Saturday of course in the US, and Felix Augur ali asim lit up the night session against to Alex Zaverev, his first time beating a top five opponent.

What a great win for the Canadian.

Huge and especially coming from a set down the number three seed and fifty one winners over the top five opponents, so incredible match.

And Felix, he's just so dangerous, is an incredible player, just probably hasn't quite put it all together before.

And look that might sound harsh, amazing player, but in slams at the highest level, you really need to put it together for a whole match and obviously multiple matches to make a deep run.

So I think he's one of those players when you talk about who can challenge, you know, the top two, I feel like someone like him Ken He has the game moves incredibly well, and you know, that's definitely a statement win beating sash As whereof so Andre Rublev next in the fourth round and then just looking ahead is a potential quarter final match up with our own Alex demon R.

So incredibly exciting there and I think that's definitely a draw where all sort of four opponents there can fancy themselves to make the semis.

Yeah, so let's talk about the Demon, who you know very well played a German opponent, Daniel Altmeyer, who was forced to retire.

He'd come through two five sets scraps one against Stefanos sits a pass so literally ran out of legs.

He had a thigh injury.

The German.

Yeah, yeah, I was watching a bit of that this morning, and you know, Daniel altmight won the first set, but he just always felt like if Demon can just sort of hang in there and make it tough, He's just so tough to beat over best of five sets.

It's just there's sort of no way around that, and especially the lower rate guys.

You know, I feel like in Alex's head, it's, you know, almost asking the question, you've got to play three hours maybe longer of your best tennis.

You've almost got to say red line.

We sort of say that in tennis terms, you've got a red line to beat me, and a lot of these guys it's just so tough to do that over five, especially in the heat.

So he really, you know, you just sort of locked down there, did it miss?

And alt My sort of started to run out of gas.

As you said, so great for Alex to get through that.

And you know, he's just he's almost a regular in these fourth round and quarterfinals now in Grand Slams, and I think all of Australia, including him, of course, and just hoping and wanting just that a little bit sort of deeper run from him.

But incredible player, putting himselves in great position almost slam after slam.

So I think this is a great opportunity for him.

He's made the quarters at all the Slams twice in New York.

Let's hope this is his year he gets to the real pointing in of the tournament, as Novak Djokovic has done many times before.

I'm not sure there's any history left for him to break, but he has broken one, and that was one hundred and ninety two Grand Slam hardcourt wins.

Went past Roger Federer.

At thirty eight.

He's the oldest man to reach the last sixteen in New York's and Jimmy Connor's way back in nineteen ninety one.

Didn't play any tennis before the US Open, coming in fresh dropped a set against Cameron Nori.

But he's just sort of slowly building and if you can call him a dangerous floater.

Novak Djokovic is a twenty four time Grand Slam winner, then he is won for Sinner and Alcarez.

For sure, and I think it's probably one of the few times he's come into the US Open with that being his first event, So definitely a change of sort of tactic there for him, and I think it could pay dividends because we know how long the season is and Yannick Sinner retired in the final of Cincinnati.

I think he's fine now as we're talking off air, but I think coming in fresh can definitely help Novak.

He knows how to play tennis, he knows how to conserve energy over two weeks during a Grand Slam.

So he's back in the fourth round.

Almost feels like every match he wins he's breaking a record sort so in the fourth round and as you said, a dangerous floater, which is quite funny to say, but he can't write him off.

It's that simple.

And I think if he gets to a semi to a quarter, he's just going to get better and he knows what to do to win these Grand Slams.

In the last two three matches of the tournament, So he's definitely someone to watch, no doubt.

Absolutely.

Okay.

Another stocks up for me is the internet and Camille Mychik, the Polish star had beaten Karen Katschinoff.

He's signing his autograph and taking self.

He's a young fan comes down with a ball to sign.

He was so taken by that he gave him a hat, his hat.

As he turned away, an older fan ripped the hat out of the young kid's hands and the internet's blown up.

My chick didn't see it at the time, caught up with it on social media and actually posted can you help me find this young fan?

And within an hour I think we might bring it up here that found him.

How good is this the power of technology?

Luken, There is the young fan his well deserved hat.

Yeah.

You can almost say what you want about social media, but there's definitely some positives about it, isn't there?

And that's that's great to see, to see that he's connected with a young fella and then giving him some stuff, giving him another hat.

So that's great to see.

Camille is a great guy.

He's had some injury setbacks, but to see him back in Grand Slams, it's no surprise to me.

He's just a class act, is an incredible player, great competitor.

So it's really nice to see that.

And yeah, we've got to we've got to find the thief as well.

Yeah, we do the joke around the thief in the night.

Okay, stocks up for me.

American women.

We don't have the budget to play the Lenny Kravitz song, but five American women Luke in the last sixteen Amanda ad A Samova the latest through just before we recorded eight years since that happened.

So we've got Jessica Bagoula, an Lee Taylor Townsend, we mentioned, Coco Goff and Amanda and A Samova just riding the hometown wave.

Yeah, it's I feel like they've been coming for a while now.

The American women that's with no Madison Keys as well, so thus so incredibly strong and I think that's great to see just coming in a wave.

And I think that's what Australia are sort of looking to do as well.

And even the start of the year when we had a few of our women just on the brink of top hundred, I think that was Kim especially is La tom Lanovitch, even maybe my joint and now they're all in there and pushing.

So I think that's the power of one or two sort of breaking in and then everyone's watching that.

I can do that as well, and it sort of creates a nice sort of flow on effect.

So it's great to see that sort of hunting in a park if you like.

And I think Australia we can definitely go in that direction as well.

Yeah, it sort of takes the pressure off each other.

It's not just one that we're focusing on.

Now there's or that Americans are focusing on.

Now there's five.

Let's get to stocks down, and I want to start with Stefano sits a Pass threatening to hit Daniel Lotmayer for an underarmed serve in their last match against each other.

Do you get frustrated when an opponent pulls out an under armed serve, which has been popularized by Nick Kurios.

You could go back to Michael Chang against Stefaniedberg, but Nick Kirios certainly has brought it back in vogue.

Does it frustrate you?

No, I'm fine with it.

I think anything goes and it's not against the rules.

Maybe some gainsman shit, but I mean I've done it before.

I think.

You know, if you go into the tactics of tennis, you know there's the courts are slower, the balls are slow, conditions are slow, and a lot of players are standing a long way back, so it's really tough to serve through them and get the ball pass them.

So to sort of counteract that is the underarm serve and drop it short and sort of force them to change their returning position a little bit and come up and make them watch for that serve.

So I think tactically there's a place for it.

If your opponent's going to stand on the back fence and make it really difficult for you to serve through them, then you hit the under arm.

So I've got no issue for it or with it, I should say.

And I think as long as you're not sort of changing your routine is kind of what I'll say in terms of if you bounce the ball for quite a while, let's say three or four bounces when you usually serve, and then the next one it's you sort of rush up to the line and then go bang and sort of catch them off guard, then I've probably got an issue with it.

Yep.

So it's it's that fine line.

He is probably what I'm trying to say.

Yeah, Emma Radicanu hadn't actually won around at the US Open since she won the tournament a few years ago.

She did that, but unfortunately went out in the third round to Alena Rebarkaner.

Yes, you know, obviously Rebuccana's incredible play and so dangerous on her day especially, but you know, I think Radakanu she had the Strain Open six to one, six love defeat de Swytek, which is also very difficult.

But I think all in all, she's had a great year, so I'll sort of pay her some compliments here as well.

She's you know, she was sort of struggling a little bit at the beginning of the year, but now I think she's up inside them at least the top fifty.

So she's doing really well, and sort of credit to her for sticking at it.

She was probably copying a little bit of criticism, taking a lot of wildcards and whatnot, but she's earned her way up there, and third round, third round of a Grand Slam still a pretty good run for her.

Yeah, and she keeps running into some of the best in the world.

The Grand Slam winners Fiontech, as you said, Australian Open and the French Open, and Sabolenka at Wimbledon as well, So she's losing to the top players in the world.

For sure, and she wasn't too far off that Wimbledon match as well, So I think she's I mean, she's clearly got the game to compete at the top level.

That goes without saying she's a Grand Slam winner, but I think she'd be very happy with our year.

Try and finish it strong in Asia to finish the year, and she'd be very happy.

I think she would have been close to one hundred starting the year, so she's a great year and a lot of pressure on her, so I think she's handling it reasonably well.

Now we mentioned the American women doing very well.

In terms of the American men, Tommy Paul playing as we record this, they do have Taylor Fritz through to the round of sixteen.

Ben Shelton though, won't be joining them, which is a shame because he is a real crowd favorite and summon on, I think that a lot of us enjoy watching.

For sure, the crowds.

In no doubt, I really thought he was going to have a very deep run.

So getting struck down via injuries very difficult for him, you know, in the third round, and felt like he was probably a really good chance to bet.

Adrian Manarino again a great, great player of our game and a veteran.

But Ben Shelton, he's definitely won for the future, you know, winning in Canada only a few weeks ago, and he's definitely one for the for the lights, you know, for the night sessions in New York City.

And disappointing to see that, but he's young, he's healthy, he'll rebound and he'll be one to watch for many years to come.

Yeah, just a shame it's not this year.

Was tracking down a ball to win the third set final point, won the point, but that's possibly where he hurt his shoulder.

So Ben Shelton, the lefty unfortunately out of New York.

All right, Time for a change of events here, Luke, and then we'll come back with a preview of the Round of sixteen.

It's the Tennis Mini and we've got on through the talking point for round three.

Moving ahead to the second week in New York, or third if you count the mixed doubles.

Brett what matchup.

Are you looking forward to them to the most beautifully done.

I think there's only one that we've really picked out, and that is Naomi Osaka Coco Goff.

Clearly, I think the match of the round three two in their head to heads favoring Coco GoF.

They've met twice at Grand Slam level twenty nineteen.

Can you believe the Coco Gough were just fifteen?

Anomeo Osaka won that, but then Coco got her at the AO in twenty twenty six, three sixty four.

Coco said they're not the best of friends.

Naomi's hoping there's a bit of support for her there as well, but that is going to be absolutely huge blockbuster for sure.

That's a huge one I need.

And even watching Coco Gough in her match the other night, she was actually reduced to tears at some stage because she was struggling.

I think on her second serve she had the in tennis terms, we caught the yips.

She was double folding quite a bit.

But I sort of turned that into a bit of a positive even just the sort of the way she rebounded, won that first set in a tiebreak, and then you know, sort of ran off with a second set.

I thought was an incredible display of composure, discipline, persistence, all those sort of character traits which she has.

So I thought she did a great job and just shows the champion she is, even being still so young.

So I think she did a great job.

And I think early in Grand Slams you're not gonna be playing your best at times, but just getting through those matches and then you know, I think she'll find that she would just play better and better after going through some difficult, difficult sort of matches early in the tournament.

It's interesting her first two matches were played at night, her third round where the pressure seemed to be on her.

Either tom Yanovitch was her first round match.

Her third round match was during the day against Magdalena Freck.

Now, you wonder if she requested that so she was out of the pressure of the night session because that was virtually flawless.

Her served seemed fairly good, So I wonder if that just took a little bit of the pressure off her.

Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised.

And Veckich was the match that I was watching, and pretty tough second round for Coco and for both women in fact, so I thought she did a great job to get out of that one.

And yeah, as you said, she played great third round.

I didn't see too much technically wrong with the serves.

You just lost a bit of feeling on it wasn't quite getting that shape on the second serve, which is so important.

So she's definitely one to watch.

And this fourth round match is a blockbuster.

Yeah, huge couple of Grand Slam champions going up against each other.

What's your match of the round of sixteen that you're looking forward to the The match that.

I'm looking forward to the most is Alex Demonar playing the qualifier Luca Reedy, And you know, I think is definitely a good opportunity for Alex.

Even if he is watching this, I think he's a realist, he understands that and sees that, and you know, as we're saying earlier in the show, it's a good opportunity.

The draw has opened up a little bit, has a good record against Felix and Andre Rublev, incredible players, but in the quarters of the Grand Slam, I think he'd probably take that.

And as I said earlier, just keeps putting himself in these positions to contend deep in slams and just hasn't quite gone further than what he would like.

But Jeseus he's not going down without a fight.

And Luca Reid he's got a big game.

He's played what is that, that's six matches now in New York City, so he's full of confidence.

Come through qualities is not easy.

Everyone can play inside the ranking of two hundred and forty in the world.

But I think a little bit like today with Daniel Oltmeyer, he's got to be tired ready.

So I think Alex's mentality is just going to be make him work.

Even if REDI can play a good first set, even first two sets, you know you've got to do that for three full sets, and I think Alex is going to make it really difficult.

He should be fresh physically, he's in the best shape of his life, playing credible tennis.

So I'm right behind him.

I think all of Australia is, and I can see him making a semi final and pushing deeper beyond that.

Very excited for Yeah, how is his body because we know that he's gotten this deep and a tournament before, only for his body to kind of let him down.

He looks like he's fairly fresh though.

Yeah, the Wimbledon was a difficult one, but I feel like, you know, his hip, he was struggling with that for quite a while, even after Wimbledon, for quite a few months, so it has led himself down.

But I think he's physically great.

I think it might have been earlier in the year when he won a match here in Australia and he's sort of hitting his legs and he was kind of saying, my legs are back, I've got my I've got my wheels.

So he relies so heavily on those.

Maybe the best mover in the game, so I think he's going to make it very difficult for Ready to get the ball past him, make it super physical just in general, and he's very desperate for a big run at a Grand Slam.

You know.

I think he's he's sort of been pretty outspoken on that.

The two guys at the top reasonably handy tennis players and tough to knock off, but Alex always goes out there with a great crack, has a crack, and I'm looking forward to see what he can produce, hopefully playing for a whole nother week.

Yeah, well, let's hope we're talking about Alex Demon or Deep in the next week with you as well.

Luke, appreciate you joining us today on the Tennis Mini.

Thanks, thanks, hav me cheers and we will be back on Monday in the US or Tuesday in Australia here on the Tennis Mini review at the end of each round of the US Open.

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