Anyway.

Can you hear me?

Yes, I can.

I can hear you perfectly clear.

All right, Hi everybody, welcome to the Renee Stubs Tennis Podcast.

I am Renee Stubbs and it is time for me to introduce Andrea Petko Bitch, she's back.

She's on on the pod.

We love to hear it and see it.

Hi, Renee, you have a water stain behind your heads.

Well mate, we're not worried about the water staying because this is a podcast, it is not a visual podcast.

Okay, so you just need to not worry about that.

Just worried about the mold and your health.

Oh well, thanks buddy.

But I'm only going to be here for a short amount of time.

So we're.

Petco Washington d C is on right now.

Wmbledon has finished.

The grasses are overall under the hardcourt.

You are working for Tennis Channel, and can we just start with the story of the week with Venus Williams at forty five years of age winning her first round here.

That was amazing, That was really amazing.

Can you give me your total thoughts of this as somebody who played against Venus, I played against Venus, Like this is just incredible what we saw last night.

You called the match for Tennis Channel with Mark Petchi.

Just give me your overall thoughts about what you watched.

Yeah.

So, I think the first thing that I want to say is that I got It's hard for me to get goosebumps anymore.

I think you know that feeling when you start working for media.

You watch so many matches and you tell so many storylines that at one point you almost get desensitized to fun narratives and fun stories and special moments.

But when Venus walked out onto Stadium Court and Washington, DC, I had goose bumps all over my body.

The audience was so happy to see her.

It was so loud, she was beaming, And I think that's what makes me the happiest seeing her.

She looks so happy with her life and where she's at.

It just seems like she's at a very good place.

And that could be told in her tennis because I thought she was playing so much better than the last time I saw her.

Her service motion is simplified.

She goes straight up, she keeps the elbow nice and high, which wasn't the case in the last times that we've seen her play.

She hit nine aces, only two double faults second serve.

A few were slow, but not all of them.

There were a few and important moments that she really hit nicely.

And the forehand is short, a shorter take back on the forehand, So just overall a completely not revamped, but completely adjusted Venus Williams.

And it was just a pleasure to watch.

And you could tell with Peyton Sterns who was her opponent and who was on the other side.

I thought you could tell that she was in awe of the legend on the other court was playing, and before she shook her nerves, it was already a set and a breakdown.

And then she started playing a bit better.

But then Venus was and we talked about it off air a little bit.

Then Venus already had smelled the blood right she went out and she was like, I don't know where I stand, which is normal even for a champ like Venus, when you haven't played in almost I think.

Sixteen or sixteen months.

Sixteen months, Yeah, I think it's normal that even as a champion like Venus, you don't know where you stand.

And once, once she got going and once she felt that she could win, she went into this full champ's mind where she's just rolling over you.

And then it was really cute that she did get a little nervous in the end.

She had like five or six match points to close it out.

There was a double fault on one, and it just comes to show that even these champions and legends of the sport are human after all, and even they feel feel the sensations of a human being.

How did you watch the whole thing?

I agree, Like I have to say, you said that you've got goosebumps when she walked out and the crowd went crazy, and of course I was there.

I was right there at courtside when she walked out, and Andrew Crasny was standing next to me, who's the court announcer.

You've seen him many many times on all the Tennis channel and tournaments.

It was like he looked at me and goes, is there ever been a fiercer face when they walk onto the court than Venus and Serena Williams.

The way she just walked on the court with this like look of like determination and she didn't smile she walked out.

There was like, yeah, I'm not here for an exhibition.

I'm actually here to win, you know what I mean.

And it was really interesting to see that from her perspective, like she was coming out to actually play a match, not just like pretend to be there, you know what I mean.

And then I was a little worried at the start when she lost her first service game.

It wasn't a great game that she played, but I knew that the one thing about playing Peyton Peyton does not have a great serve, and her second serve in particular, is very, very vulnerable.

She double folded a lot of times yesterday because of that vulnerability.

And also I knew that Venus, no matter what the question was, could she move well enough right at forty five, not playing a lot of matches.

As you know, Petco, when you don't play a lot of matches, it's a movement that's sort of a little bit suspect because you sort of lose the way a player plays the point.

You sort of like forget the angles, you forget oh that's right, that normally they'll go there.

You sort of forget how to play tennis in a lot of sense, and that sounds weird.

Yes, you can hit the ball, but playing points is very different.

So I was a little concerned.

But then when I saw Peyton throw up just an absolute like low hanging fruit on the first point, a second serve and Venus just absolutely crushed the foehand winner, I was like, Okay, she's actually going to have a chance to not only win this match, but certainly get into it if she breaks serf.

Because then you saw her calm down, slow down.

She talked about that in the post match interview, how she was like, everything was really quick, I had to slow down, and that's what I saw.

I saw her take a big, deep breath after she broke serve and thought, oh, I can break her.

So if I can break her, if I can take my time and win my service games.

You could see that that's what gave her the impotence and the positivity that she could actually maybe hang in this match.

I don't know if she thought she could win at that point, but then, as you said, once she got ahead in that set, you're like, okay, because the matchup was great for her.

Somebody that didn't hit a big ball that really didn't make her move that much, and Venus was in control of the point, whether it be on the return or on her serf, and she served awesome yesterday, And that was also the question that we had to be asked, how was she going to serve right?

And as you already pointed out, clearly, she got a little nervous right towards the end, and we were all setting their courtside, and everyone was like, Okay, do you think she serves it out?

And I was like, I was unsure.

And the only reason I was unsure was because sometimes the second serve gets a little nervous.

But she hadn't won a match in two years.

It's not even the fact that she hadn't She hadn't won a match since twenty twenty three.

Okay, so her last match was twenty twenty four, but she hadn't won a match for over.

To her last So her last match that you won, we had a Dontanna's channel was against Veronica kudr Matova in twenty twenty three Cincinnati Open, So that was the last match she won.

So that's even more than sixteen months of not having played.

Yeah, that's two years of not winning a match.

And some people say, well, what's the difference between winning a match and playing a match?

Huge, because you forget almost how to win, and it almost becomes such a monumental thing to win the match.

It's hard to explain, but I could see it in her face a little bit in that last game.

But the serve on match point right into the body at like, you know, huge.

And one thing that she hasn't lost, my goodness, is the speed on her first serve.

I mean, she was popping down serves yesterday, so I knew when she got the rhythm on a serve and it was okay, and she wasn't double faulting.

And her forehand, as you said, was great yesterday.

Her groundstrokes I mean for her age and the fact that she hasn't played in so long, her movement was unbelievable.

Yeah.

Well, that's the thing with Venus always that even when so even when she was at her peak, people would say, oh, you just have to move her.

And that is such a confusing thing to say against Venus because maybe she's not as nimble as say Jasmine Paulini, but she has the longest levers of any player I have ever seen, and she gets to everything.

I played her, maybe not at her full fall prime, but I did play her between I want to say twenty fourteen or even early at twenty eleven and twenty seventeen a bunch of times and U and you know she yes, you have to move her.

I'm putting quotation marks around it because she has such long levers and you saw it yesterday.

She is one of the fiercest competitors out there.

She will stumble, she will stumble and hustle and get to every single ball and run for every single ball, and that in the end does make the call court feel small.

And yeah, no it was.

It was amazing to watch and could still see what kind of power and pay she she can produce and create and the only thing I wish I could have seen more, but it was clearly what you said.

The matchup was terrible for Peyton Stearns because she has that extreme grip on the forehand.

She prefers the clay courts and slower courts.

Washing the c traditionally plays quick.

Is it the same this year?

Very quick?

Shit?

It is?

Yes, yes, it looks very quick on TV and traditionally it was always one of the quicker hard courts.

So the first strike of Venus was already doing the damage and Peyton had to lift the ball and then Venus can go after it.

The only thing I wish I would have seen more and I think we will see in the next round is Venus at the net because that's one of my favorite things to watch, how she moves at the net and how she always moves forward and with the long arm so she gets to to bullies that seem impossible and it's really fun.

And also I want to say I'm very proud of myself for not butchering her name a single time because, as you know, Renee and my friend, for Germans, say a V and then a W is really hard, So Venus Williams is really hard to say for me, the same like West Village because we don't have this type of of how do you say sounds in German, so I had to focus so hard to say Venus Williams correctly.

And props to me in that regard for not butchering her name a single time.

Well, the thing that I always tell you is pretend the v's a W and the ws a V and then yeah, that's yes exactly that you just have to spell Venus's name with a W Venus or Williams, and then you'll name it every time.

No, that's so that's so funny.

Yeah, I think you know, for me, I don't think people understand what you're talking about.

In a lot of ways, if you haven't played her length, particularly on that n range where she's running for a ball, you're like, oh, she's in trouble, and she still gets to it.

And even last night there were a couple of times on her back end she would get over there and still make she had I would argue to say that Venus Williams has for me the best running, defensive, aggressive back end.

If that isn't even a thing, like when you think she's in trouble, she's still It's kind of like what Carlos Alcarez has done so well over the last couple of years.

And you think about you know, Yannik and Novak and the way that they hit that open stance back end.

I mean, Venus and Serena both basically brought that open stance sort of start making on the back end into play and we saw it so beautifully last night.

I have to talk a little bit about the post match interview, which was plastic Venus, like you and I talked about it.

You can ask Venus a certain question, but she goes into tangents like nobody else and the fact that I can honestly say this and people that listen to this podcast.

No.

I mean, I know my podcast with her was terrible sound because I did at her house and it's a long story, but I promise to everybody out there, I'll try and get venus again on my podcast.

But one of the things that we discussed on the I think it was on the podcast, was her talking about or maybe you'd just talked about her in general with me off off camera or off recording.

She talked about the insurance of the WTA, and as you know, pet Goo, the WTA insurance is actually amazing.

It's worldwide.

It gave us great coverage.

We didn't have to pay that much comparative to what we pay now all I pay now in the US, and so it's great coverage.

So we joked about it, like whenever I did the podcast, where she was like, girl, I gotta keep playing so I can stay on the medical insurance and I died when she said to me then, I was like, that's a good idea.

So don't announce your retirement, not for at least a year or two until they come after you and say listen, you got to keep playing or we got to take you off the insurance.

And so when she said it yesterday on in the postmatch interview, you couldn't see me because I was off camera, but I almost fell on the ground.

I was dying laughing because everyone's like, oh, that's so funny haha.

But I'm like, oh no, but it's serious because she really means it, because that's the second time she said it to me.

Now and Andrew Krasny again, he said, he posted on our Instagram she is the Cobra Slayer because she's back now she's got a least medical insurance again, so funny.

That is funny.

Yeah, that is funny.

Well, on the of insurances, So when I retired, I also got thrown off the insurance.

So I tried to get a private insurance in Germany.

So in Germany you can either go through the state or a private insurance.

And I think to go through the state you need to be employed.

Not sure, but anyway, so I was trying to get an insurance and nobody wanted me because an athlete is really hard to ensure because we have we come with a bunch of damage we come with a.

Bunch of damage.

As Vana said, I'm in the doctors a lot.

Yeah, exactly, exactly, Yeah, so I yeah, I had to hire somebody that like an an insurance agent who finally got me onto an insurance But yeah, that was that was really funny.

And she looked so happy.

But already before, like already in the doubles, I thought in the postmatch interview, in the doubles, in her press conference before the tournament started, she just seems to be very happy and at ease with where she's at and and play, and you can tell.

And that's why she's playing well.

And I think she has a good shot.

They're winning the next round too.

Make da Fresh doesn't play too fast, is more of a counterpuncher.

If Venus can get the first strike in as she did yesterday on these quick chords and it's fast out there, hey, I don't count her out at all.

I absolutely one hundred percent agree with you.

I mean, she got the you know, a perfect little draw there, as you said, somebody who's not going to strike the ball big and get her moving quickly, and she will dominate from the first shot, whether it be the return or the surf because she's serving huge sill and I think the improvement level on that is amazing.

But also at the same time, it's just a matter of physicality now, right, how is she going to back up playing the singles match yesterday?

It wasn't too it wasn't long, But it's it's people don't understand all the nerves that go along with it.

You push yourself a lot more in a match than you do on practice.

So I'm sure today she she has was out there practicing already today at like noon here in Washington.

She does have a doubles match still ahead of her as well, and so it's going to be just a matter of load and how she can handle that and then the physicality of it.

I think if she's if she's healthy, there's no question she can win the next round.

There's no doubt about that in my mind.

And if that's the case, she will play the winner of Rebarking and Mumbaco.

So you would think that Rebarkin will probably end up winning that match against the young Canadian, but you never know.

But wouldn't it be fun to see two Wimbledon champions going up against each other.

I mean, the tournament is beside themselves.

This is one of the great stories in sports right now, and what an honor it was to not only see her play, but obviously do the POSTMAK interview with her after knowing her since she was like twelve.

So for me, it was like a lot of fun, just your thoughts overall about what else is going on here in DC.

As I said, you were doing all the commentary Emma Radicanu who had a good win yesterday, And I have to say that level of tennis that she played yesterday was really really good.

I mean, her level has certainly improved over the last couple of months.

It's nice to see her playing at a great level.

And she now goes She beat cost Chuk who was a seventh seed, which is a really good win, but she now goes up against Osaka, so I'm sort of really looking forward to that matchup.

Yeah, me too.

I mean, Emma has been playing really well.

I want to say, actually since Mark Petchi came on her team in Miami.

I think they had their first talks in Indian Wells and then Miami Open was the first tournament when Mark Petchi went on.

They've been together now for a few months since the Miami Opened.

She's played great there.

She played fantastic in Wimbledon.

She had a really tough draw.

Remember she played Vondrusova in the second round.

She played somebody tough in thea.

Oh, she lost to Sabolnka, but yeah, I.

Don't know she played it.

She played a young wild card in the first round, but then she played Vondrusova in a second and then played Saballenka.

I had a couple of set points in that first set, so I really had a shot of at winning at least a set against the world number one.

So I think she's playing really well.

And that was a good win against Marta Costuk.

She had lost to her in Madrid in the altitude just earlier this year, so I think she looks She too, looks in a really good spot right now and has improved.

She's back on the line.

I thought US Opened she won because she was so much up on the baseline and taking the balls and her returns so early, and then in the years between, you could see her sometimes just being a bit too far behind the baseline.

And now she's right back on it, and in Washington, and she likes to play in Washington.

We've seen her play well there in the time, and what else.

I'm looking forward to seeing Taylor Fritz play today for the first time since his Wimbledon semi final.

Had a great run there.

He had some of the toughest first two rounds in Wimbledon, with Petchi Perica in the first round and then Gabrielle Diallo in the second.

And yeah, Diallo is now playing bench Shelton.

There will be some huge bomb serving there, so I think Washing for some reason, Yes it's early in the in the hard court season, but for some reason, every time washingt DC is on, I'm so looking forward.

It really is for me the kickoff for the hard court season on the American soil.

And I will say, I know I'm biased, but I will say I kind of enjoy watching the hard cut tennis again.

I really got into the grass.

I loved Wimbledon.

I thought the way Yannick played was amazing.

I'm still mesmerized by his performances and in the last three rounds against Shelton, Djokovic and then against Carlos in the final.

But I was very glad when I called my first match on hard courts again, and there was a bit more, you know, strategy, a bit more building and constructing of the point and so on and so forth.

Yeah, I agreed.

What will test the players this week is obviously the heat here in DC.

And have been here many times and you've played, you know, right now, the sun is really out and it is a hot day, and interesting enough, Riley Opelker as we speak, is up a set against Neil Medvedev, and I mean, Danil Medvedev has a lot of questions to be answered.

On the hardcot is no question it's his best surface.

But this is kind of like a bit of a nightmare matchup for him because you're playing against the guy.

It's not going to give you a lot of rhythm, which he loves.

So this will be a huge test for him.

If he gets out of this will give him a lot of confidence.

But if not, you've got to think that someone like Riley or Polk is going to be tough to beat on this court as well.

And you know Ben Shelton looked really good yesterday against Mackie McDonald.

He plays against as Diallo, who I just interviewed actually here at the courts, and a what a nice kid he is, So that'll be a really fun matchup.

But like you said, like this tournament, it gets great players that come and play here.

Mark Iron does an amazing job at this tournament.

It gets bigger and bigger of a year.

I think they're trying to build a new stadium at some point.

You know what's really funny about this tournament.

Dan Evans, which wanted a couple of years ago, he is into He's into the third round.

He plays against Mute who beat Muller Oh and one if you want to and he was up six oh four.

Oh oh.

Let me tell you something.

If you're a tennis fan, if you're a tennis fan and you want to see some fire, you want to see some interesting points, you want to see some hilarity on the tennis court, you have to come and watch Dan Evans playing route.

So if you live in the area of Washington, get your asses to that match.

It probably will not be on a major court because there's so many big names here.

But if there is a match to go and watch, please go and watch that match.

I mean, Dan Evans loves playing here in DC.

It's nice to see him doing well again here.

Yeah, I mean he played against Novak Djokovic and Wimbledon, he won his first round.

He had a rough, rough, rough go before the grass courts this year, but I thought in the first set against Novak he already he played well, he hit his slice really nicely, and now he's kind of getting the groove again.

He's won two matches here, so that definitely will be an amazing match.

I don't know if amazing in quality, but definitely amazing to watch and entertain.

And I will say I think I think Ben Shelton might win Washington d C.

Wow, well that's a big call.

I have to say.

I watched him play yesterday.

He's serving as if.

I mean, he's serving so big here and it bounces up so high.

But you know, look, it's going to be a test Againstiello.

They're both going to be serving well.

He's in the section with Caboli and Francis Tiaffo.

So if Tiafa wins tonight, and obviously Tiafo has amazing support in Washington d C, I would love.

To I would.

I would.

I would love to see Francis.

I know that he really wants to win this tournament and he's been close a few times but never really got the got his hands on the trophy, so I would love for Francis to get it in his hometown.

But for some reason, I thought, you know, the condition everyone we had on the Tennis channel to talk about Washington, everyone said, the conditions are very lively.

The ball is flying, you know, particularly coming from this Lessenger ball to a bit of a lighter tennis ball now with the hot weather.

I think you're right.

I think today could be a stumble for him with somebody that plays similar to him.

But if he gets through it, I can see him going all the way.

Ben Shelton, I'm talking about.

Well, so that you're predicting that he therefore will get through Taylor Fritz.

If Taylor wins through his matches, so you think that's a matchup, did you see him winning?

I think so.

I mean so the thing with Ben is if he plays well, I think he can beat anybody.

The reason I say that, I think is that I called his match with Janick Sinner in the quarters of Wimbledon, and there were just margins separating the two.

Ben was playing so well, and when he came up on the scene, I think we all saw the raw potential that he possesses.

But he was still kind of all over the place.

And I was thinking about this yesterday after he finished the match.

I think he's the player that has improved the most in the last two years from completely.

Raw to.

Like a professional, solid tennis player who I think soon will have major accomplishments.

I don't know why.

I just think the way he constructs the points and how he's gotten better athletically, I really see incredible improvements with him.

I agree with you with a majority of that.

The only thing that I have still a little bit of a question mark for is his backhand.

Now, the forehand is huge.

It is such a weapon, so you know, not even close to being it's so good, and he can vary it so much with the kick, and his kick service just out of this world.

But his backhand is questionable.

So when you're playing someone like a Taylor, Fritz Taylor is amazing at being able to exploit a weakness.

And because Taylor is so disciplined and his forehand cross court is going to help, he's going to really hurt against Ben.

And Ben is still makes really poor decisions, Like there were a couple of shots the other day against Macki or yesterday against Mackie that he would just rush a slice and try and run into the net and just make you know, what we would call as a coach, just not a good decision.

And so I still think there's decisions that he doesn't make that are great.

And against someone that is as disciplined and as good as Taylor, I think that that's the problem.

And Taylor can get the serve to his backhand.

I think Taylor is one of the best returners.

And also you think about the height of Taylor, Fritz.

When when Ben is kicking the serve to a Mackie McDonald, it's a nightmare.

To Taylor, it's not such a nightmare.

It's just hitting zone.

It's not so bad.

So listen, I don't disagree with you.

He has the weapons.

Kind of convinced me.

I think you're making some good points with Taylor.

Fritz.

I think I'm swaying to Taylor.

Now, okay, I'm easily influenceable.

I'm easily influenceable.

No, I think Taylor.

I called both of his first two matches and Wimbledon against Patchy Perry Khan Yallow and what he did there, he was on the line returning and just chipping his return, and I feel like if he can do something along the lines Obviously hardcorets are different, saying a lefty is different.

But if he can do something along the lines of a similar thing where he neutralizes the serve by chipping it, yeah, I think you convinced me.

But still maybe, like in the back of my mind, Ben is like a dark pause for some reason.

Yeah, well, listen, Ben's a darkhos all the time because his weapons are just so massive that anything can happen.

Cam Nori beat Mussetti yesterday in three yas was unbelievable.

I think he's actually going to be really hard to be.

He plays Nekashima, who played very well yesterday served He's served very very well yesterday out of a lot of trouble.

I think Alex de Mino is going to be a little sneaky as well.

Court is very very good for him.

So listen, the men's is packed, Medvedev is packed.

Medvedev is still hanging on there in the second center against Riley, will see.

I mean, overall, if Medvedev plays his best, this is the court that really suits him because he's done very well here in DC in the past.

But he's he's struggled this year, There's no question.

Lastly, I just want to finish with the women.

Pagoula this is a perfect court for her, but she plays against Leila Fernandez, which is not going to be easy.

An interesting matchup for me tonight is Sakari, Maria Sakari against Navarro.

That's going to be a real test for both of them because neither of them because Maria Sakari got a wild cud in here.

She's made the finals here before where she lost to Pagoula, and Emma Navarro is has not had a good year but had a decent Wimbledon.

So it's kind of like a who's going to come out with the confidence tonight?

I think that will be a big lesson for us on the women's side.

Yeah, definitely a huge Maybe maybe the ah well, Raducano Costuke was also huge, but maybe the two best players facing each other so soon, let's say, apart from cost Juke and Radocano in the tournament, I'm excited to see Jess and I'm very interested to see Jess Pagoula back because that Wimbledon loss was I think very frustrating for her.

I think that was the biggest We talked about it on air on German TV as well, and I know you guys talked about it, but we all agreed that that was the biggest surprise for us on the women's side, that Jess had lost so early.

And yes, Coccaretto played maybe the match of her life.

But it's going to be interesting to see how she bounces back from from a tough loss, whether she is going to take that as a motivation and maybe she has worked harder and comes back and really dominates this US Hardcore season because she remember, she has a lot of points to defend from last year she won Montreal or Toronto.

It was last year, and she played Cincinnati final and she played the US Open finals, so it could be nice to get some of those points off her back by playing well in Washington.

D see absolutely.

I think that the only thing is Cocciarecto plays very similar to Pagula up on the baseline, takes the ball early, does those like half volley almost things on the baseline, which Jess does so well against people, and usually Jess pushes you back.

But what's interesting is that Leila Fernandez is a very similar player as well.

She likes to stay up on the baseline, so it will be absolutely a test for Jess because that lefty serve will drag her off the court a little bit.

She doesn't have the best of reaches on return, so I think if she gets through this match comfortably against Leila Fernandez, that would be a good test for her.

Clearly, losing early at Wimbledon gave her a lot of time to prepare on hardcore, which is sometimes a good thing.

You think about Foco GoF losing so early at Weldon and then having the season of her life and then going on to win the US Open.

But look, for me, it'll be a test against against Fernandez, and then she'll play the winner of Kennon and Towns Taylor Townsend, so it only gets harder.

The court is fast, it suits her, but there are so many great players between Rebarkina.

Of course, the story of Venus Williams Clara Towson against Dole high today that two big servers and big hitters.

So I'm really looking forward to the top half of the drawer is certainly a lot more aggressive big hitters.

The bottom half is not quite the big hitters, but some amazing talent in this tournament, and I'm looking forward to the rest of the week.

It's been awesome having you back in the pod.

Let go, I missed you.

I missed you.

To see you soon.

Sorry I yawned at you, but I've been awake since three am, so I'm ready to go back to sleep at eleven am here in California.

Yeah, well, my friend, I know you're doing matches later on tonight, so good luck with that.

That's all I can say.

Hey, I'm just I'm just looking forward for not having to pronounce Venus Williams as a German again, you know, today at least not until at least not today.

But I said, just type her name W and then do it, do it the other way around, and you'll know it.

Yes, I love you, mate.

It's been great to have you on and seeing all of you guys next week.

Juice, juice, good day, my friends.

Great to see you here.

Thanks money.

Okay, there you go, all right?

Here he is here.

He is Gabriel Diallo.

Everybody say hi.

First of all, Gabriel, what's it like being in DC?

Have you played here before?

I should have looked that up before I started the conversation.

But have you played here before, and what are your thoughts about being in DC?

Yeah, no, it's my first time here in the in the Great Capital.

Funny, I ninkdove.

My parents actually is their favorite city.

They came multiple times.

My dad loves the history of Washington.

So yeah, no, first time, first time playing here, and so far has been treating me really well.

Fans I guess they really like Canadians, so it's good for me and yeah, looking forward to to keep on going.

Okay, so you won your first ATP title this year, but before we get to that, you actually went to college, and so why did you decide to go to college because we had I've had this conversation.

I had it with Loner ten yesterday and he went straight into the pros.

Well he did one semester I think in college.

But why did you decide that college was important for you to do?

Yeah?

I mean I think I was miles miles away from being ready to be a professional tennis player, just from a tennis standpoint and from a maturity standpoint.

I wasn't a highly sought.

Out junior, so it was it was kind of a no brainer for me and my family to go to college.

I'm I was fortunate enough to have an offer from Kentucky, and yeah, to get you know, step by step.

I really I never thought that I was gonna do like, Okay, I'm gonna do a year and a half and then go off.

In my mind, I was doing four years getting my degree and then you know, I can try for as long as I want.

And yeah, it's treated me really well.

I think that I matured a lot, gain a lot of match play, which is what we were looking for ultimately, and and yeah, overall, at the best decision probably I've ever made.

Yeah.

Great.

I often get asked by people, you know, what should should I get my kid to go to college?

Or should I go pro?

And I'm always like, if you're not mature enough or physically ready to go, en off, especially if with the guys, I think it's really important.

And college tennis is so competitive if you look at all the ATP players that have done really well in college and then gone on to have great careers on the tour.

So I think that was a terrific decision for you.

So let's get to your first ATP title.

What was that like for you?

The feeling you tell me.

Oh, yeah, it was I mean, as you can imagine, it was very special for me, but you know, not only for me, for my whole my family, and my coach, my strength coach, my physio, my agent, everyone around me.

I think it was a nice thing.

Definitely didn't expect it to come that fast and definitely not on the grass.

So yeah, I was super happy.

It's kind of felt surreal a little bit at the moment, but I didn't have really time to process because I had to play Queen's two days later.

But after winby, I really took the time to to appreciate and reflect on on on what we.

Were able to achieve throughout the grass.

Season, and really happy for it and motivates me for what's coming next.

Can you tell that to the people?

You win a title and then what happens immediately after that.

Well, champagne a little bit for sure.

In the locker room.

That's good to hear.

Definitely popped a bottle and spread it all over my coach and my strength coach.

I'm twenty three, he's old enough.

Even if I wasn't.

It wasn't a europe It's eight year old.

He's good.

He's good, all right, I'm good I'm good.

My coach wouldn't let me drink anyways, But I think that my my coach and my strength coach did most of the drinking because I had to play two days later.

But I think that.

I was after Queens, I had kind of a ten day break before my next event, so we went to a bar and we probably celebrated it.

But yeah, you don't have, like I said, don't have time to really process because you know, you got to find a flight to go to your next event, which is kind of the reality of tennis, but makes it beautiful in a way.

Yeah, I don't think people understand it.

You're win a title and then you you're literally all you're thinking about that ten hours later is I gotta play another match.

So it's not that easy.

It's really hard.

So take me.

Then you do go to Wimbledon.

What an incredible match that was against Taylor Fritz if you remember it was an incredible five set match that you played against him.

What did you learn from that?

And I mean interested to hear you.

You just said you didn't expect to win your first tile on grass.

Why is that with your type of game, with your type of serve, why wouldn't you think grass was your especially so a little bit about that and also about the match against Taylor.

Well, you know, yeah, I knew that overall it would definitely fit my my game style.

But I'm also aware.

That it's a it's a surface that requires such specificity that I wasn't exposed to in juniors, which I didn't play on grass.

So you didn't grow grow up in Australia, I think, yeah.

We didn't grow up you know being involved on grass.

Were more of indoor hard but what we don't have the weather seriously house grass anyways, it's gonna become eyes.

But yeah, I knew that for sure in the future I could play well, but I thought it was gonna it was gonna take me time to develop into that player.

But I mean we really I really.

Trusted into the process and uh, I think that's what made it possible for me to play really well on the surface.

And uh yeah, to go back to sort of match against Taylor, yeah it was.

I mean, first of all, it was just a very great full on my part to to be able to compete on those stages, uh, court one at Wimbledon, uh and then after the third when they.

Closed the roof.

It was it was pretty special.

Felt more like indoor harder than grass.

Actually, but no, it was.

It was a great match.

Definitely a heartbreaker at the end.

But you know, like I said, you take the time to reflect and kind of analyze, and you know, just like I said, be grateful that you were in this position.

And I learned a lot from that match about myself, about my tennis, specially playing against such.

A what what was that?

What did you learn?

I mean, first of all, learned that I have the physical uh capability to last for five sets against the best some of the best players in the world, and the tennis wise again, to back my game in big moments, try to come to it in there as much as I can, and it's.

Still going to require a lot of effort and work to get to there one day.

But really looking forward.

To that, what do you think you need to do, because obviously what Taylor did then after that getting to the semi finals and playing such a great tournament, he reached the finals of the US Open.

Does it give a play like you at twenty three?

And I really do think you'll probably get much better the older you get because of all the skills that you have.

What did you learn from that process?

And watching him therefore?

Does it give I mean, you tell me what you learn from that.

I don't on put boys in your mouth?

I think, yeah, just how the I mean the top guys.

I think what they do really well is they buy themselves in an important moment down break break cooiner, when they have a breakpoint, they buy themselves.

They play really aggressive with big margins.

But what I think is required to get to that level is just your base level overall weekend and week out has to be much higher than everybody else.

On a day where maybe they're not playing as good, they're still going to give themselves a chance to win the match, which is what I think I need to do.

Raise my base level, my minimal level.

And yeah, it's going to require still a lot of that for a lot of work and looking forward to it.

Does it give you the impotence to actually also think that, you know, with my game, with your weapons, that you could go really even a grand slam of particularly a slam that is a faster surface.

Yeah, I mean, of course, you know you can get really hotter for two weeks A goal or dream of mine will be to reach maybe the second week of any Slam realistically and make a deep run.

It's going to require, like I said, a lot of effort and behind the scenes.

But I do believe in myself.

I think my team believes in myself and me that I can achieve that.

So let's see.

Hopefully I say out ten more years to play and I can achieve that at least.

I mean, did you watch what happened last night?

Yeah?

Forty five.

You're twenty three, bro, you got a lot of decades left.

My friends, she didn't look forty five for me.

She looked more like twenty and twenty five.

Yeah, it's awesome to watch.

Take me back a little bit.

You actually were coached by Felix as your Ali seems.

Father for a little while.

What influence did he have on your career?

And also just knowing that Felix has had the career that he has as well, Like, do you guys still talk, what's the relationship like there with his father with Felix?

And is it nice to have this like camaraderie with the Canadian players and is it that.

Important to you?

Yeah?

Of course, I mean, yeah, we grew up.

I mean since I can remember nine or ten, I was already going to his dad's house to do training camps.

He was inviting a bunch of kids from Montreal to go up to Quebec and practice, and then eventually at sixteen, I moved there and trained there for three and a half years until I went to college.

So I have an amazing relationship with Felix.

I was actually back to this wedding in September, which unfortunately I don't know if I'll be able to attend, but I hope I.

Well, catsay out of the bag.

Felix is getting married in September.

I hope I'm not spoiling it.

But yes, he's playing the old but it's after that.

And yeah, no.

It was a huge, huge game changer for me, I think, and it stored a lot of discipline.

He was really demanding, which is what I needed at the time, and just having a high standard for yourself, which is something maybe I liked before going into training with him and then into college.

Just that self discipline, always being able to look yourself in the mirror and see what you could have done better, what you did good, And that's something that's now ingraining me.

I believe and is going to follow me for the rest of my career and for the rest of my life.

So you know, yix thin I just won and is dominating right now at grand slime level of course with Carlos al Choraz.

But you know, given his height, you're a very tall guy as well.

You're maybe a couple an initial too taller than than Yannick.

I don't know.

I'm six eight, I don't know.

Yeah, yeah, so he's like six probably four.

But you know, there's been a lot of success for the last couple of years with tall guys, right, how much do you think that seeing the John Disner's uh, you know, players like that doing well through the years, how much does that help you?

And do you do you look at the way that they play and start to try and model yourself up to that, because it's quite unique how tall you are.

Yeah, I mean, growing up can In I probably the best example I could have with Melos, that's true.

Yeah, and Lassk as well, who was more or less the same hight.

You know, there were great servers.

They always looked to take it to their opponent, looking for the foreign looking to come forward.

So growing up I had the perfect I had the perfect example.

Honestly, I didn't have to go and look elsewhere.

But I do believe that maybe I can do some things differently as well.

I think Melos to Serve is something that probably will never see again, so I have to find other ways where I can be a little bit better.

But yeah, I definitely definitely modeled my game after the big guys event.

Essentially is what I'm trying to do.

Come to the net as much as I can and try not to extend the rallies, and if I have to, I do believe that I have the athleticism to maintain the rally and play some defense.

If I have to.

And yeah, but like I said, growing up, I had the best example in Meal.

Well, you're too young to have seen me play, but my friends Serve and Valley, you're a person of my heart, my friend, so I get it.

I love it.

I love to say, especially with your life grouse feed out there, it's nice to see.

Speaking of big so those big players.

Ben Shelton, next opponent, Did you guys play at college?

Uh?

No, we never played in college.

I mean we played as.

School, but he played my teammate and I played one of his teamen, but we.

Never actually were you higher than him?

Were you one?

Or two?

Were you no?

He saw his first year I was hired, but then his second year he was playing one and I was playing too.

No two.

Okay, all right, so give me your thoughts on playing him and what you expect.

I know what to expect.

If you're sitting behind the court, make sure you either have a helmet on, or you're a catch a smith, or you're paying attention.

So what do we expect from that match?

I, like.

You said, you can expect the firepower for sure, fireworks.

I think it's going to be a should be an electric one, as that he's American playing here in America.

But like I said, as what you you trained for.

You trained to play for those those big matches, those those big stage and surely going to be a lot of fun and hopefully a lot of firepower.

All right, Well, thank every all on here to day off coming here.

I'm giving you a bit a live Dary'll have gone Tomorr look.

Forward to the match.

Thanks buddy, Thanks very king on that great