This episode of the Renee Stubs Tennis podcast is brought to you by Lalo Tequila.

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All Right, all right, it's Tubsy.

Thanks for having me over Sunday night.

The tennis is over.

I just poured myself a ranch water that a little La Loo tequila, little Topo Chico, little lamb.

Very nice, not bad.

What was mine?

I'm making it?

Oh, thanks, appreciate it because it's been a wild nineteen days for me.

This is so long, not even like not even like two weeks, you know back in the day when we're like wolf, that's a that's a that's a that's a good two weeks of work.

No, no, nineteen days because of the first five days of qualies.

Which it's funny because a lot of people have texted me and they're like, man, do you need a break?

Like you gotta have you gotta be sleeping for days.

Go.

Actually the second week was kind of easy for me.

It's the first week that did me in totally.

I mean, honestly, on the Sunday of the first week, I was exhausted to the point that I didn't even see a third set of one of the best women's matches with Coco in her first or second round.

It was like one all on the third and I went to bed that's at like nine thirty in the morning because I could not keep my eyes open.

And that was literally because of the first week, with the qualities and with the mixed doubles and with the stars of Tonight or whatever it was at the Open.

It was just nuts that first week, and maybe I wasn't in sort of work mode yet.

Second week was obviously pretty tough, but the third week was just like piece of cake, no problem.

I actually feel fine.

This is it's weird.

On one hand, I'm very over tennis.

I'm like, oh god, I've got enough tennis for my life.

It's me from you.

On the other hand, I'm so happy because so many people cared about this tournament, so many people watch this tournament.

So many people famously came to this tournament, you know, from daehard fans, to a lot of new fans, to a lot of influencers, which we can sort.

Of also talk about.

But I have to say, like, this is our super Bowl, this is our biggest evend of the year.

It's not my favorite tournament of the year.

It's probably not yours.

Either, but it goes as the French we know, I mean yours is Wimbledon.

I get it, But.

Australia, no, Listen.

It's funny when I if I have to really think about it, it's like, what's your favorite Grand Slam?

I do say Wimbledon most of the time, only because I just it's just I don't know, there's something serene and surreal and amazing about Wimbledon.

Every time I walk through the gates.

It's like, I think, it's a different feeling when it's what's your favorite place to go to as opposed to what's your favorite thing to work?

Yeah?

Right, So there's, without a doubt my favorite tournament to work, even though I'm exhausted, is the US Open.

Like the energy from the crowd, the energy from you know, the work that we do at ESPN.

We're covering at World of Wall Wimbledon.

We're finished at eleven o'clock, right, I mean we could be going as we were at the US Open until midnight, one two am, right, So it's kind of like it's a little bit it's a different beast.

It's like a beast.

The US Open and just the crowd.

We're always around the people, you know, Wimbledon was sort of sequestered away from the crowds.

We're in our studios and we go from our studios basically to maybe one or two places to call matches.

But we're sort of not with the people, you know what I mean, we kind of like very quickly.

And then Australian Open again we're not really with the people.

Were sort of in the players area, and more so obviously the French we don't call it so the US Open.

I mean, I see I walk into people all the time there.

I was like we love you, nay, or thanks for this, or I love.

The podcast, like we hate your name.

Or you suck or what.

But it's like we're around people all the time.

The accessibility is right there.

Yeah, so it's like, I don't know, it just feels like it's I feel alive doing the US Open.

Yeah, it does feel like you were a little bit of an adrenaline junkie knowing you now for a decade and this is definitely the time and place if that's your thing, which is just like I feel for me.

It's like we launched an issue.

We have ten days of parties at the Seaport.

We had a bag with missed the Seaport man the tournament from a perspective of engaging with the community, giving people a free place to play on the Seaport, which was amazing, having amazing live podcasts like you and Peco, doing like Daniel Collins did with our friends at Tennis Insider.

You know, just Babaad had a party.

Carlos came, you interviewed him.

You can watch that exclusive interview on Tennis Channel.

Yes you can, and if you missed it, it is on Tennis.

Channel to walk and Talk pre haircut.

It's a walk and talk pre haircut and pre victory.

And I did see Carlos after the semi final win and I said to him, I looked at him.

You know you can't see this, but I'm doing my I'm looking at you thing.

And I looked at him and I go, I remember what you said.

Yeah, we're going to get a tattoo of the Brooklyn Bridge.

If he gets a tattoo of the Brooklyn Bridge because of your walk and talk that we did together with the Seaport.

He said, I promise, I remember what you told me, and I said, okay, well just think about that.

And so when he won yesterday, and listen, FYI, everybody knows how I feel about Yannick, Like there is no loser for me with those two, Like whoever wins between those two, I'm just happy for them.

I'm grateful for the runner up because they handle it so beautifully.

And yesterday was no different.

It looked to me that Yannick was a little I don't know.

He didn't have the fire, he didn't have the he didn't have the thing he had at Wembledon.

But we'll get to that later.

But I just have to say, Carlos Alcirez, I see you, and if I don't see a Brooklyn Bridge on you, I'm going to be highly disappointed in you.

And I did tell a couple of people around him last night that I expect to see that Brooklyn Bridge somewhere on him.

So one thing we should also talk about while we're talking about the aesthetics of Carlos alcraz And I think a lot of people don't know this, maybe who listened to the show, which is his buzz cut appeared because he had a haircut gone wrong.

His brother, his brother messed up the clippers.

Yeah, and he had to get an emergency haircut.

Now he is I don't think it was an emergency haircut.

I think he just said listen in Spanish, I don't know how to say this, but you fucked it up, so now just shave this shit off.

Okay, it seems like that's what happened.

And how do you say that in Spanish?

I own ah me murremra his wall of style.

That Hey, you go ahead, haven't that.

But those of you that speak Spanish, you're allowed to tweet to me and tell me how bad that.

Was or how great or how great it was.

So should we get into it?

The match is let's go uh starting with the men?

Yeah, no loser.

I thought the Felix Oje ali Asim storyline for me personally, not only because he is from my hometown of Montreal, but also because to me, this was the tournament where he reclaimed his swag.

We haven't seen in years from him in years.

Yeah, and he it was perisally close to taking Jarnick to five sets, and he showed tennis in that match.

That was something pretty spectacular.

Now one step back, you did hear me on the pot say that I thought Alex Dimnoir was going to make the semip and frankly he should have.

Ye.

He was up a set in a break, Yeah, he was up a mini break in the tie break he served for the fourth set.

I believe it was a fourth set.

He should have been in the semi finals.

So we just put that out there.

Alex, you let me down because I would have looked like a friggin legend because you hadn't won a quarter final.

So I'm a little disappointed in you.

But having said that, the way that Felix served, the way that he showed up on the fourhand side, on everything, he just he looked relaxed.

I think the thing that stopped him beating Yanick was the fact that he just didn't truly believe in himself.

And people say, well, what do you mean, But it's true.

It's like a subconscious I've talked about this on the pod all the time, subconscious conscious mind, and the conscious mind is like, yeah, I can win this match, and the subconscious mind's like, can you, Felix, can you really not really think so?

Yeah, yeah, yeah, you're not really as good as this guy.

I mean, even the pre match interview, he said, you know, someone brought up the fact that he had a winning record over Yanick.

He's like, well, you know, that was a lot of years ago.

Yeah, and it's just like, no, dude, you should be like, yeah, I do.

I do, and I'm his ass to reinforce it today.

And he's so nice that he's actually honest about being like, well, that was a couple of years ago before Yanick turned into like this ai project of a human being on the tennis squad and it never loses.

But that should have showed me a little insight into his brain going out to that court, and I was like, oh, man, if there was ever a time to bet the house, it would have been on that one.

That's right.

And I think one of the things that I was so pleased about in watching Felix beat Zverev, in beating Rubelev and then beating do you minure in the match prior, is that when he won those matches, it didn't look like he was surprised.

It didn't.

It wasn't a ferocious outpouring of emotion.

It was yes, I expect to be here, I expect to be performing this way.

I expect to be taking the initiative in these points and bringing the fight to the player.

And I think a lot of us who've watched him for a long time, especially his record on indoor hard courts, you know how comfortable he is in certain certain conditions, like that outsized record of being really comfortable in that space.

To me, it was exciting because it's sort of indicated that that confidence has now seeped into another surface, frankly one that's a lot more you know, there's a lot more outdoor hardcore matches than there are indoor hardcore matches.

And then yeah, but every major in a court now is like literally covered sort of semi by a roof true, there's not a lot of wind and conditions like this, and he should take a lot of confidence to get I hope.

We see this Felix for now, Yeah, for a while, because I think he's a top ten player.

I think he needs to be in the later stages of slams, and I think he needs to be comporting himself with confidence and maybe to your point about the pre match in or believing that this is only going to be, you know, another victory as opposed to something that he needs to kind of Couch.

A lot of people say that he's just too nice, and you know, you could say, Carlos and Yannik two of the nicest young men you could ever.

Meet, but they'll kill you.

But they want to win so badly and they truly believe in themselves.

That's what's the difference maker.

So anyway, Felix, get out there and really start believing yourself, because my god, your tennis is certainly it was outstand and standing.

Yeah, Novak Djokovic ran out of steam again semi finals, just got crushed by Carlos.

That wasn't a competitive match, not really.

No, Uh, there was a pat.

Of the second set Tabreak.

I feel like he just kind of was like, my legs are gone and I'm gonna.

At the start of the match, I just immediately saw a heavier ball from Carlos.

Immediately, it was immediately heavier, immediately, just on top of Novak, pushing him back from the baseline.

The legs.

The speed from Carlos was so evident to see.

Was is Novak still arguably the third fourth best player in the world.

Certainly, Yeah, he's.

Been everybody else, but when he plays against these guys and he's admitting it in press.

He's admitting that he just doesn't have quite the same legs and you know, endurance and all that sort of stuff against these young guys anymore.

And listen, the guy is still incredible thirty eight years of age.

But there was one point in the tie break and I was sitting next to Sam Query and the ESPN booth upstairs in our studio, and Carlos played an amazing point hit the drop shot, and then Novak hit a drop shot, and then Novak hit this beautiful lob over his head and it was incredible point that Novak won.

And go back and watch that tiebreak.

Novak won that point, and Sam looked at me and goes, I don't care.

And then I think, I believe Carlos lost his two service points after that to go five to four.

So I think it might have been five to one point four or five to two in the tiebreak, and Carlos one of his service points, and Sam Query looked at me and he goes, I don't care if he loses one or two of his service points here, it's over, because he literally after that point had no legs.

And Carlos could have played another five hours and you could see even though Novak won the point and he got the crowd involved and all that sort of stuff, you could tell that Carlos was like, so big deal, like I'm here for for Mara.

That's old.

And you know, eventually Carlos ended up winning that tie break and then that was over.

And so to me, and I said this on the coverage after the match was done, I feel like this Train Open.

I've said it over and over.

I feel like that's going to be his last major to play.

I don't think he wants to keep playing after that and have to go through you know, the French Open.

Clay's never been his Like, I mean, he's so good on every surface, but I can't see him beating these guys over five sets on clay and then to go to Wimbledon again.

It's just I feel like this Train Open would be a great way for him to finish his career.

It's where his Grand Slam total started.

We know the mercurial side of the Strain Open and what it's meant to him.

It's been love or hate and it's sort of like perfect for his career in a lot of ways.

But it's a place that he's dominated ten times, and I feel like he probably feels like that's the one place he can maybe get that next Slam.

If he didn't do it at Wimbledon this year, he's I don't think he's going to hang around another year for it because he got crushed by Yannick.

I think that he has incredible support in Australia and he played incredible last year being Carlos.

It was the only final Carlos didn't make at the Train Open, and so I think that he feels like he can I can bring that type of tennis again.

Maybe I have a shot, And if I don't, it's probably where he'll close the book.

But you know, look, I mean I'm only guessing.

Yeah, but I think I think it would be the place for him to go out because of just the history of the Train Open.

Yeah.

And I think one thing that I think about I've sort of shifted my view through the years where it's like it's not on me or us to say like, well they should retire.

It's like they can do whatever they want.

But I do think he does seem like the tape of person who would want to go out while he was still in a competitive form.

I don't see him being in Andy Murray, who's like content to just play tennis regardless of whether he's in a five.

Set battle and he was gone play challenges.

Andy feels like he would like be removed from the court only when dead, whereas Novak chok which I feel like he would like the pomp and circumstance of a farewell ceremony.

So I don't think.

It's crazy to think that he gives Craig Tiley, for example, a heads up and is like, hey, this is it for me, just so you know, and then gives the Australian open time to kind of like do what you know.

Yeah, I mean he's part of it for.

Rafa, which is make a big sort of moment happen, and I think, you know, the tennis crowd wants these moments.

Novak is a little bit of a divisive character for all the reasons we've talked through the years, but I also think that's part of his nature and he kind of likes that, And I think for that reason in the Australian would be a nice place thematically.

Certainly, Yeah, would be kind of like I don't know, I sort of like random not random It would be sort of awesome in some respects that the Strine Open did do a statue for him.

Yeah.

I mean a ten time Astraina champion deserves to have some kind of memorabilia that's on that because I don't think it well, I don't think we'll see ten time champion.

I think we could see a four or five, six time champion, maybe a Sinner or an al Karaz, But I don't know if we're going to have ten times.

I mean, that's just incredible.

We just have to hope that they make him a better statue than the French mide one.

Well, Rafa, that is truly one of the stupidest persons.

He did Suebirds because Sue Birds was awesome in Seattle recently, soet fly her down to Australia and just have her do it.

Yeah, the quality of your commemorative statue really varies.

The Althea one at THEOSO been really good.

The Rafa one at.

The French Open, it looks he so good and it's so good, you know, he's so good, He's so good.

Yeah, So you know, very quality can vary.

I do like that the French Open put his name on the cord and the thing with the yeah, that is amazing.

They made up for the bad statue.

But you know, Sodistra and put it out there, should really get yourself organized to maybe do something commemorative for Novak Jokovic, whatever it is, because he certainly deserves it.

But having said that, let's say about the final.

Yeah, the final.

Listen, every time they play, you want to have this epic, incredible five set drama, match points left and right.

I did laugh at the fact that when Carlos got match point, a couple of match points and I went back to deuce, I was like, it's a part of them that's going Wow.

I know exactly how Yanick feels now because exactly where Yanick was at the French Open.

And I said it yesterday and I'm surprised the commentators didn't say anything yesterday.

But at two sets to one, kind of kind of comfortable, you know, up five three, you know has you know, has an opportunity to close the match out in four sets by breaking serve.

I'm like, surely someone's going to bring up the fact that this is exactly where Janick Sinner was at the French I mean, nobody in their right mind would have thought Janick is not winning that French Open match.

I mean, if you'd said to me, if you'd paused it at a two sets to one, three five love forty, who wins?

I'm like, what do you mean?

Who wins?

Yannick wins.

He's got three match points, and not only that, he's gonna serve for the match.

Yeah, I've been serving so dominantly, which Carlos was yesterday.

I'm like, there's no way Yanick's losing.

Guess what.

Then Yannick wins the game.

It's five fur it.

Then Carlos gets two match points and I'm like and then it gets back to Juice.

And you're like, oh, Carlos wins.

I don't know if it was that point or the one that he won.

I can't remember to have to go back and look at it.

But Carlos smiles up to his players box so big, and I'm thinking, to myself, is the is he thinking about the French Open and what happened?

I actually remember that smile distinctly, and I remember thinking, Oh, he's calm, he's playful, he's not panicked, he knows.

Not trying to pretend it's not happening.

But also I don't even know, do you know what I mean?

Though, Like he's not I don't think.

He was thinking about it.

You do you think he was thinking about it?

A great question that when I do see him, I will ask him.

Yeah, I wonder it didn't look like it.

It looked like he was treating this as a brand new canvas upon which to pay something.

Kind of yeah, And I think and he did ats point, he was incredible, He was calm, call collected.

He played a Greek dewse point and that he had just an incredibly fast ease up the because.

He had not served well in that game and he was serving on.

But there was a difference maker in this match, yea, was the fact that Carlos's serve was so dominant and Yanix was not.

Now a lot of people have talked about it.

I'm not bringing this up out of just randomness.

We saw what happened in the semi finals.

He went off the court, he was definitely had something in his left side of his abdomen area.

Did he have an abstrain or some kind of issue going on there.

He definitely was not serving the way he normally does, so could have there have been an issue there.

We don't know, but his miles per hour had definitely dropped off considering all the previous matches, so there was obviously a little bit maybe something.

But Carlos's serving was outstanding.

So it was kind of funny that the game when he served, just like Yanick, he did not serve a good game to serve out the French open.

He was missing serves left and right.

Carlos same thing, couldn't get a first serve in the ga little wobbly was it was a little bit wobbly.

I mean Yanick kid that returned down the line to go back to juice.

It was like, because that was a bit of a woosy serve, that's right, and then gully he just steps up on match point and goes, now, fuck, this just goes for the serve that was working for him all night, which was that big wide serve to Yannick's backhand, And yeah, it was it was kind of like I do I this part of me thinks that he was thinking about the French and he probably thought, I don't want to get like Yanick did and get tired.

I got to go for it, and he did.

I think the smile indicated to me, whether he was thinking about it or not, that he was enjoying the moment and he was playing his tennis, and that really, to me, was the story of the match.

Maybe there was a little bit of a of a concern with the abdomen.

To me, it wasn't a classic match in the sense that they both played incredible.

It was a little bit, uh, it was a little bit up and down.

I think in that second set Carlos.

Was it was all over the place.

It was all over the place.

But the thing that I thought was the best takeaway from the match and the thing that I am actually the most excited about, not being a massive fan of Yennick Sinner's game style, that game style is a little less ain't subtractive, you know, And I think that that ai kind of a spot kind of commentary comes in because it's a it's very efficient, it's very beautiful.

I have no nothing bad about to say about the guy.

But you know, Carlos's appeal is so obvious.

It's so fun, it's so creative, it's so inventive.

That Spanish it's Spanish, right, it's emotional.

And you could say, well, he's Italian.

Well, he's he's very different.

He's yeah, he's definitely a teutonic kind of flavor.

But I think what I was so excited about is hearing him talk in the press conference after the match, Yannick Sinner said, one of the things that I need to work on is my predictability.

I was very predictable.

I played patterns.

Carlos didn't.

He was like, I didn't do the serv and valley, I didn't go to the drop shot.

I didn't give variety.

And I think that's something that I'm excited to see from him because one of them.

I mean, he's won multiple Grand.

Slams, and he can serve and volley.

He can and he's won.

Multiple Grand Slams not throwing the entire toolbox at his opponents because he hasn't had to, because he's so strong and controlled and measured and thoughtful from you know, from the ground and from his serve.

So for me, one thing that I think we get excited about these great rallies and these great rivalries is not only that these players push each other, but they add they force each other to add dimensionality to their games.

And I would love to see you ONIX cent Or Serve and Volley Moore.

I would love to see him, you know, take chances.

And I think that is an exciting prediction of Yeah, what might be in the next chapter here.

Well, I mean, listen, we've seen it through the years with Roger, Raff and Novak, is that they all realized that they needed to add things to their game to beat each other.

And you know, Mary, Joe Fernandez and all of us at the ESPN have also talked about the fact that these two are setting the bar for each other, that's only each other, like, yeah, they are so much better than everybody else.

And so you know, just like Rafa used to practice to beat Novak, just like he used to practice to beat Roger, And just like Roger had to improve his backhand because Rafa was taking advantage of it with the lefty fourhand, YadA YadA.

It's like these two are, now, how do I beat him?

It's not how do I beat everybody else?

How do I beat him?

Because if I beat him, I'm beating everybody else easily.

Yeah.

So, I mean I think about Andy Murray all the time, which is like imagine being the third best player, or in some cases the fourth best player in the world, beating everybody, going into every match with an advantage in terms of your work ethic and your game, and knowing that there's still three guys out there that have no problem with your game and you have to treat to give them.

Hey, that's why we give Andy did a lot of credit because he beat most of the time, he beat the best in the finals.

He beat Novak a couple of times in major finals.

He beat Roger be He beat Roger in the Olympic gold medal match.

Like, you know, that's the thing about Andy that you know, people like, what are you keep talking about?

It's not the Big four, it's a Big three.

Yeah, okay, the Big three won all of these titles.

But look who they beat in the final like eight or nine of those times, and it was Andy Murray.

But anyway, listen, it was it was.

There was great points, there was great parts of the match.

The one part of the which I know we want to talk about, you particularly want to talk about, is the reason and the fact that the match started like a fucking hour late because of some particular human being that decided to piss everybody off and come to the tennis.

So I'm going to put this.

In the words of a person on Twitter called Owen Costa Kanu is this person's handle saying pushing back the sort of an event that everybody wants to watch in order to accommodate somebody that nobody wants.

To be there sort of sums it up.

That's so perfect.

Everybody tunes in two pm expecting a final Yeah, about an hour before we get to.

Imagine what it was like for tv TV.

I mean, n hap dancing.

ESPN were literally filling for like forty minutes.

Dude, So friends of mine.

Kudos to Chris mckendrey, Yeah, Christmas Hendry and everyone.

I mean, let me tell you something.

They went to the tea.

People at home don't understand how hard it is to fill for forty minutes when you have no intention of doing that.

So you got to pull every video, you got to pull every interview, you got to pull every you know.

Thank god, ESPN does these great vignettes of like stories and shit.

They had to throw all of it against.

The wall unexpectedly with no word prep.

Whilch is like, and I thought they did an admirable job, but you could tell it was an unexpected snafu.

Also friends of mine, people who you know, maybe as an anniversary present.

I know two of my friends, uh one had bought tickets to the final for her husband.

They were like, cool, we spent how much?

Ungodly?

Some tell me I think their tickets were ten k each and can you imagine?

And she was like, we've been here for two hours.

The line is insane.

We're going to miss a chunk of the match because of this.

Yeah, people miss the again.

Yes, it's a little bit of a bougie problem to spend ten k on a ticket, but still the idea that you are accommodating somebody who again nobody wants to be there.

The crowd reaction was not mixed.

No one was happy to see this person.

There were thunderous booze every time that's been reported from people within the stadium, other journalists, et cetera.

To me again, I chose not to go to the tennis.

I didn't have to work that day because I didn't have to.

But you know, I'm under normal circumstances.

I may have gone out just to watch the match, because obviously I have the ability to go go and watch any match from my position at ESPN, but I was like, hell no.

And another thing is we all had to be there incredibly early just because of all the security, So we were told to be there like before nine point thirty a m.

I was like, I'm not doing that.

Oh that's it.

I'm going to sit on my name and watch these tennis totally and for me, look, Rolex invaded him.

We don't known the circumstances under which tariffs presumably business interests, because now we just live in an age of grift where everyone is just trying to.

I'm gonna lie.

I have a couple of Rolexes gifted to me, so I don't like to pretend I'm some bougie bitch.

Okay, I won one and now that almost as a present, and I feel sort of a little upset about it because I love my Rolexes.

The UH.

The fact that this tournament started by celebrating ALTHEA Gibson and ended with UH a fascist is not great.

It's not a great look.

I get that the USCA had Mccanklescaco tits.

I get that the USA had no control over who gets invited, especially if it's this suite that said sending out an email instructing people not to cover the booze is bush league.

Not only is its censorship, but also like I can get why you wouldn't want this to be the main focus of the tournament.

They barely barely glancingly covered this guy.

You're we're not going to say his name, but it can't be a conversation.

The people running media at the USTA are are in over their heads.

That's kind of where.

I'm I mean, listen, and I don't blame any of them.

Honestly, I don't blame the media side of it at all.

I'm not saying that because I work for ESPN.

You know, they're put between a rock and a hard place.

I don't know how difficult the answer or the question would have been posed of do we tell the President of the United States he cannot come?

I mean, how do you do that, Caitlin, Like I'm asking you as a journalist, like, I don't think you can.

I think they're put in between a rock and a hard place.

And I would suspect I don't know this.

I did not talk to Stacy, I did not talk to any of the USTA people about this, So I'm not telling you anything out of school or behind the scenes.

I would imagine it was a fucking nightmare for them.

And I'm sure when they got this request they were like, fuck no.

Now in a lot of us, listen, is it a great thing when the president decides to come.

It hadn't happened since Hilary, since Hillary Clinton.

That that was a Freudian slip.

It hasn't happened since Bill Clinton.

And I don't remember what that was like.

I what year was that.

I mean it would have been the nineties.

I mean I was obviously playing, but maybe I wasn't there anymore.

I don't know, But I don't remember what that was like to get into the stadium.

But I just you know, the amount of resources to put all that together, and then the poor people standing in lines for like two hours plus there were still people getting trying to get into the stadium.

At three fifty is when it all cleared.

I heard three fifty, So they missed an hour tennis.

I mean I would have been I would have been so pissed.

Yeah, well, thanks a lot.

Thanksully a lot, mctarco, m ankles, mctarco, tits and reason.

I say that it's because of my friends and again, I've had it, podcasts came.

I don't blame the tournament, no.

I think the tournament's comms department is, for a lot of reasons, in over their heads.

They don't know what they're doing.

You just think that you and I talked about this earlier, the email that went out that got leaked.

You're saying that it should have been probably more verbal.

But I think asking your networks to censor a news event is not a great look.

I think it's the right to do it.

I thought ESPN handled it correctly, which is acknowledging that this is happening and also not making the focus of the day this.

Other d They showed him twice and during anthem, that's right, and they showed him briefly in the third or fourth set.

Both times he got booed loudly.

You could hear not only in the stadium from what I've heard, but also clearly on TV.

And again, I just think the comms department, who they credentialed this year, who they didn't credential, they wouldn't let Andy Broddock's podcast do their own ads because they don't know how ads work.

They gave fifty extra credentials for influencers, which you know, just Yakes, you can't have that office be in Orlando and get Bush League talent to run it.

It's just it's a bad look and it's a bad part of what should be a world class organization.

Anyway, that's not I don't know any of that.

Behind the scenes, you do because you have to do this way, get credentialed, and I go work for ESPN and I'm a last eight club member, so yeah for me.

All right, So anyway, let's stalk by the women.

Let's talk about the women.

An incredible tournament.

My god, the two.

Semimen really carried the tennis.

The two semi finals were the.

Women really carried the tennis.

They did, And we've been very they have for a lot of they have, but we've been honest that the men have carried a couple of other tournaments of late, the women haven't been so great in the semis and finals.

But the matches at the women's were incredible.

I want to go back to Amanda Anasimova and her victory over Eagerson Tech.

Look, I picked to Eager win the tournament.

At the start of the tournament, I thought she was playing the best coming in playing so well in Cincinnati, obviously being incredibly confident after winning Wimbledon, and she's one that you was open before, so I thought, listen, she's gonna really push.

We talked about the possibility of Amanda and Eager playing in the quarters, and I was like, I'd be surprised if she could beat her after losing.

Oh and oh, I think that's just it's damaging most in your mind.

But my god, Amanda and a Samova way to go.

Now there's a little suspicion about, you know, the foot for Eager.

She was struggling a little bit with her foot.

I haven't heard much since, but having said that, wow, oh wow, when this kid leaves Wimbledon after not winning a game in the finals, is embarrassed, is just overwhelmed.

But the way she handled that speech, and she got so many new followers and fans because of the way she handled that loss.

Then on top of it, she comes out and plays on file in that match with all the pressure on her to get to that match.

Right, So everyone's yeah, she's one when you know, got to the finals and women, I'm playing all this now, she's coming to us sop and with a ton of pressure.

And I did every single one of her matches, and trust me, she was fighting herself emotionally every single match and then she turns up against Eager.

And just goes not today, not today, not today.

I love.

That was an incredible display by her to win that match against arguably the player that was hottest coming into the tournament.

Unbelievable.

Agree, I thought, she first of all, has the game to disrupt an eager obvious and to beat anybody, and to beat anybody if she's firing on all cylinders.

She has the game to beat anybody.

But would she be able to get herself together mentally?

And I was one of those new fans after the Wimbledon match and hearing her talk and hearing how thoughtful she was.

You know, I liked her story and I was excited to see her get to the finals of Queen's before that, Like, I'm not rooting against to men at an Easimova, but actually I thought the way she handled it was beautiful and really amazing and to me indicated like, oh, there's a well of like you know, humanity here, But would she be able to put it aside and make it count on the tennis court, Like, no way did I see this coming.

The other thing that I thought was amazing is in a very very high pressure moment the very next match against the Ameyosaka, who arguably was playing probably certainly the hottest coming in from from kind of out of well.

She made for Canada.

Yeah, knows how to win the US Open.

It's arguably her best slam.

She has something to prove stray and Open maybe, but those dazzled.

Things were taking all of the heat off of her being a bad sport in Canada, which I hate those little toys.

And now she apparently has like a million bajillion dollar deal.

Like the less said about that, the better, But like, that's a match, and that was a match that was arguably the best match of the women's tournament.

I thought I had the pleasure of being courtside for that match with ESPN, and there was part of me after the Sablanca Jess Pagoula match, which we will get to when we talk about SOUTHCA, but that was like damn.

You know, you always as a commentator, you're like, oh man, it's my match going to be shitty now, because you want to be involved in a great match sure, for not only the point of just like being involved in it, it's watching it.

I'm sitting in the court side.

I want to watch a great match, you know what I mean?

Because I feel like I get paid to watch tennis, so I want to watch great tennis.

So I'm like, damn, I hope this match is good.

It starts out, Amanda comes on the court.

You can tell she's nervous.

She gets down love too, like immediately, and I'm like, oh my god, this is not going to happen again, is it?

Because there has to be some part of it that goes am I going to lose O and O again?

And the only reason I say that is because her game is predicated on hitting winners.

And if all of a sudden she's a little bit off and the feed aren't moving like they weren't at Wimbledon, and she freezes a little bit, her ball is flying yea, and if it's not going in, it's not going in.

She's just rolled in.

So that needs a confident game.

That backhand.

She's not all in that thing, and that's going to be a winner.

It's going to be out.

And I was like, oh my god.

Then she got down love forty, and I was like, oh, oh my god, no, please God.

And also I'm thinking I'm going to sit here and have to commentate this match and want her so badly to compete, and she's going to get crushed again.

No, not tonight.

She gets down Love forty, comes back, wins the service game.

It's two to one.

Completely different match from that moment on now.

It was like a battle battle battle.

And if you were listening to my coverage at five six down in the second set, when she had opportunity after opportunity to close out the second set after breaking a couple of times at five six down when she has to serve to state in the match, I said on the coverage, I don't know what just happened.

She won the first point, and I said, she just relaxed.

I don't know what just happened.

But literally, her whole demeanor just changed.

She's got this, I'm in the zone.

Fuck this, not tonight.

I'm not going to get pissed anymore.

Because she was very demonstrative from time to time on her service games, and it was like she just said, Amanda, stopping a brat, stopping a whiner, and just play, and it was like all of a sudden, she wins the game.

I think to love at five six down, she wins the tie break like seven to one or seven to two.

Unbelievable.

Hitting in the ball was like she became Amanda and a Samova the great tennis player.

Unbelievable.

And then she never looked back.

Even when she had to serve out the match, she didn't.

She had a couple opportunities to close it out at five three on her serve and she didn't.

And you know, you could her disappointment in herself could have shown in that game, but she didn't allow it and she closed it out.

Unbelievable.

It was incredible match to watch.

The level was high.

I thought Naomi Osaka played it lights out.

She played well, she played really well.

No no, no shame in that performance at all.

And Anisimova, yeah, really like dug in and I thought, consolidated what she had, the statement she'd made against eager to me being able to compete through that was incredible.

Now looking ahead to the final, I thought she didn't fully show up.

Why she was nervous.

I get why maybe there was a little PTSD being in her second grandslame final the year, which is also like in and of itself, incredible.

A year ago she was playing qualifiers, qualifying, lost in colleies.

That's nuts lost.

This year she makes two Ransom finals.

Doing online classes this time last year.

Respect the hell out of the fact that in a year's time, what a difference we are seeing in this person.

She didn't fully show up for the funnel.

No, before we get to the final.

I do want to just backtrack to Sabolenka.

I did not pick Sabolenka to win this match.

In this tournament, she was not playing great coming into it was I was watching her in practice.

She was missing balls by twenty feet.

She was missing balls in the bottom of the net.

I spoke about it on air.

I was watching her practices.

She was not happy.

There was like and her game again is predicated on hitting winners.

And if you're not hitting winners and you're not confident and they're going out by twenty feet, it's hard to like reel it back in.

That's right.

And you know, we saw what happened to Coco Golf, which we didn't really even talk about, but you know, Coco's capitulation with the serv and the fourhand over I hope she takes the rest of the year off and works on that.

But you know, Sablenka did not look great and she had not won a big match this year, like when you really look at the big matches for her Finals of Australia, finals of the French Open, and she is the first to say she her emotions got the better of her, and yeah, I mean just she was not winning the big matches, winning a lot of matches and arguably the most consistent player on tour, but she was losing big matches.

And then to lose to Amanda Anisimova at this Wimbledon and the semifinals again like not, I mean Amanda played great, but not showing up when it really mattered.

Had had to start taking a dent on her.

And that's why I didn't pick her to win the tournament.

But pick against your own peril, because Sabolenka knows how to win at the US Open, and she loves There's something about this crowd and this court that sort of gets She's kind of like Novak.

It just fuels her to just want to be like to keep my shit together, and she talked about it, I had to keep my shit together, and she did because she could have flown off the handle in the semi and the final.

I want to give props to jess Beagouola to come back and make the semis, not get to the final again, but to make the semis and her effort to excuse me, that's just my TV going off, to actually get back to the US Open semifinals and play the way she did in that semi finals.

Yes, bloody amazing, she played great.

I just I hope if Jess ever listens to our podcast, I hope jess really starts thinking, just like Amanda, I can win these matches, like, don't have the subconscious overtake the conscious, Like the subconscious has to say I'm good enough.

Because there were there were shots and points that she missed right towards the end that if she makes it's a different outcome.

I mean, I think, to me, jessicagoula great tournament, phenomenal year.

As she twiteted she was the only person to beat Carlos out My god.

That Jessica Bogula is the funniest person on Twitter and she loses.

I love that.

I would like to see her kind of take a page at Yannic Center's book and say, okay, I am going to dimensionality to my game.

She can hit big roundies with everybody, which is amazing because she's not as big as most of that.

But her ball striking is so pure, her hand eye is bananas.

Yeah, and yeah.

How well she volleys, We know how well she plays doubles get better, but I think we can we can, like, and I think it's tied to the confidence thing, which is like, have the confidence in not only being able to back up a finals run this year with a really strong semi final showing, but also like, where are dimensionality components to your game that you can improve on?

And I think that unpredictability I think maybe would be helpful for her.

I think she's I know that she's probably working on that, because you can't not work with Mark Knowles and Mark Merkle and her two coaches and not work on that.

Mark Knowles in particular was like serve and volley and chips and slices and create, so I'm sure he's trying to get that involved in her game, but that takes a little bit of time.

Actually, somebody we didn't talk about is marketev Androsova.

I think if markettev Androsova, who played incredibly well the matches past, will remember that marketev Androssova has a Wimbledon TATA.

She looked as good this year at the US Open as she did in that Wimbledon tatl run to me her dismantling of Eleanor Rakina, who was playing very.

Good, Yeah, very good.

She was the hottest player in the tournament, serving unbelievable.

And marketev Androsova the serv and one just easy handling of the piece, an amazing court sense.

Played an entire tournament up until that practice court injury causes her to with drug and sabileca to me, she beats Sabaleka.

I think she must have had that injury before she went on the practice court, because when she did go down, her coach walked over to her and put his arm on her back.

Immediately they knew.

So she's obviously done something in the match against the Rebakina and then tried to give it a day and then come back and hit some balls and see how it felt and just couldn't.

It was obviously it was the knee.

I think it was her right knee from the looks of the bandage.

On her leg after.

But man, it's just like Carolina Mukhova, who also was hampered in her loss.

These two, you can not catch a break with the injury.

Liked, damn it, Come on tennis, God's give these two a break.

Vondrossova and Mokhova, these two Czech amazing women who have such beautiful variety in their game.

It's like they can't catch a break physically.

I don't know if it's I don't know if it's mental and it's affecting their body.

And it's just incredible to me because Vondrossova's win over Rabakkin it was such good tennis.

It was played so late because it was after another amazing match prior, and so it was quite late.

And then you know, for her not to step on the court was brutal, and I actually thought that was maybe going to hurt Sabalanca in a way, but it didn't because getting through that match against Jessica.

But you know, I just want to throw out just a big marquetta.

You know, let's go get back.

You're certainly because she can't catch a break.

Even once she won Wimbledon, she had to withdraw like a couple months later and didn't play forever, and then came back after that injury and hurt herself in Australia before the US train Open, and after playing well and getting to like the semis of Adelaide and then now this.

It's just like but if she doesn't pull out, I don't know that Seblink was a tournament.

I mean that, I think the entirety of the tournament changed when MURKIDEFN Drisberg had to pull out of that quarter.

Yeah, well, she would have certainly gone into it feeling very, very confident because Rebakian, as you said, was arguably the best player.

Going and I think Sebolenka's I think Sebolenka had her opportunity presented to her.

I think Jess Pagoula is a very formidable opponent, but not the toughest opponent you can face in a semi.

And I think in the in the final, her experience shot shot one through.

I mean, she had with great match.

I'll credit to her.

Obviously, Anisimova did not bring as much fate to hers as I think I think she would have.

She listen again, credit to her.

I want to see her in more finals, and I think these get better.

Like she said, the trending is in going the red direction.

I didn't like that.

She said that she felt like she didn't give herself, like she didn't fight enough, and I disagree with that.

I think, look, I think she handled it the best way she could at the time, and she's only going to learn from Wimbledon final and US Open final.

And if you look back on that match Caitlin in the final, the first game was massive, Okay, Anisimova had a bunch of break points.

I think she even had love foot thirty in that game.

She had a bunch of breakpoints in that game.

If she breaks and goes up one love, I think we have a completely different Amanda.

I think we have a completely different possible outcome.

Amanda has a winning record over Sabalanca.

She beat her previously at Wimbledon, so we know that she can be I know it's different in a semi to a final, but yeah, you might be right.

I think her breaking serve there is so big.

Instead, she us is the game and then goes down and loses her own service game and now it's love too.

And you don't tell me that Wembledon is not entering your mind.

There at Love two down sure, like in front of twenty thousand people that you know have paid maybe ten thousand dollars or a ticket to be there for you.

And thankfully it went to one, and then she actually got up three too, and she had her opportunities.

But I hope that Amanda walks away from this and goes okay, lessons learned.

Yeah, I'm not gonna I don't think she froze at the US Open.

She froze at Wemblen for sure.

A question.

She could literally pick up her feet.

She was that nervous US Open.

She had moments.

I think she wins the second set again, I think we also might have a different outcome.

Agree with albergoon nuts and she started to really see it, and maybe she would have had that same feeling she had against Naomi of fuck this, I'm not going to let it beat me today.

So maybe if it goes three, it's a different story.

But credit to Sablenca because she knew I cannot lose my shit like I did at the French like I did at Wimbledon, and I have to keep my shit together.

And she did and she did, and I think she really needed this one she was slamless and had lost.

As you said, all of the big matches.

Are we done talking about the women?

I just want a very brief reatown shout out.

We have a cover story on the incredible anniversary twenty years of the Wheelchair Tennis division.

We interviewed pretty much all of the who's who, and our cover boy is Tokito Ota, who at age nineteen, he is nineteen years old, has a golden career slam.

He now won yesterday in a epic epic finals against his doubles partner, down five match points, third set, tiebreak.

If you are not.

Watching wheelchair tennis, I'm telling you it is unbelievable.

Most of you would lose to these wheelchair athletes, no doubt I would probably lose to most of them.

It's certainly the men's singles finals, the squad, the juniors.

The USTA has done a phenomenal job actually leading on this and for those of us who are not paying ten dousand dollars a ticket for other ash but coming to leader stage as tournaments.

You can see juniors, you can see legends, you can see wheelchairs.

Go and cheer and watch tennis in all of its forums it's an unbelievably important part of the game.

Everyone can play tennis, and it's unbelievable and the joy that these people get watching and playing the sport of tennis is awesome.

And it's more on.

The edge of my seat watching the two Key Toyoda Fernandez final than I was watching either of the singles finals, which is not to say that they aren't.

Were all you did you call me?

I was like, this exciting thing, so my heart was raising.

It was kind of like the Wheelchaan Tannis men's doubles from Wimbledon a bunch of years ago, where it came down to like it was like sixteen fourteen in the match Top Rex something.

It was just unbelievable.

So yeah, so yeah, listen, we love tennis obviously, and it doesn't matter who plays it.

When you're hitting the ball over the net and in the court, it's exciting.

Shout out to all the juniors as well that that won their events.

I saw some great tennis with those.

My friend Wells Newman who got to the third round of Junior's keep an eye out for her on an American standpoint with the girls, and yeah, I mean, it's just a lot of fun just overall being at the US Open.

Shout out to all the competitors.

Three weeks.

The mixed doubles was a success.

I hope they tweak it a little bit.

I hope that they give the opportunity for a couple of other Grand Slam winners.

This is my thought.

The winners of the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the French Open get an automatic wildcard into the US Open, unless clearly they're the defending champions like Bavasori and Irani, who are going to get another wildcard, probably into the mixed doubles next year, as they should should.

But my thought process is if you've won a mixed title that year, you get automatically entered into the US Open.

A million dollars to the winner, a million dollars to the doubles champions as well.

God damn it, don't think Lisa Raima wasn't texting me going back in our day.

But anyway, huge success.

Yeah, unbelievable.

Well, one housekeeping item, A lot of you guys have noticed that we did a special issue with Melissa Cobe, who's an artist who did an amazing, amazing Lino type of althea Gibson that is only available at the New York City location, and don't get on me as to why.

Sometimes this is the only way we can bring you nice things is by creating exclusive deals.

And so if you want it, it is for sale at the Starbucks Reserve Road Street in the Meatpacking District.

To send somebody you know to mill you one if you don't live here, and really renee like, what a great three weeks again, I'm exhausted, you're exhausted.

I'm gonna enjoy this ranch water.

Thank you Lala Tequila for hooking it up.

And I guess I got one on my own now, I.

Mean, we'll guess.

We'll just see you in Asia.

We'll see you over the next couple of weeks and we'll bring you more tennis updates and everything.

But it was a joy.

It was a joy to bring it all

To you, and thanks and listening for us today, all right, thank you, Bye b