Hey guys, and welcome back to the channel.

Really excited to be joined by Cam and we're going to be breaking down the 2025 U.S.

Open for the men and the women.

Cam, how you doing?

Good, good yourself.

Yeah, I'm all good.

I'm all good.

We're talking about sleep schedules and how you're trying to get back to normality.

And with me, with two kids, it's just like, yeah, it is what it is, man.

Sleep when I can.

Sleep when?

I can.

Tennis is my kid and that's just takes up all my time.

Yeah, it's a it's a very needy kid all year round.

Well, schedule's packed.

Yep.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, it's crazy.

Well, U.S.

Open just finished last slam of the year and a couple of winners of course, with Alkaraz confirming that's him and Sinner will split the Slams yet again like they did in 2024.

So that's now 8 Slams won by 1 of Sinkaraz, as I like to call them, and Sabalenka that I'm lucky.

I think it would have been a bit crazy if she hadn't won a slam given her year and the results she's had.

And I'm making two slam finals at the Australian Open and Ron and Garris where she was, I think I don't think arguably, I think she was the favorite going into those matches and she would have been disappointed not to come out on top.

And then now this final against Amanda Nismova, someone who she had a losing head to head with, who was playing lights out tennis to get the win was a was a big in my opinion.

I think it's a it's a big moment in the year for her and probably something that she needed to gain some relief.

I think from what's been a pretty intense year, especially slam wise.

And for Carlos, he managed to get revenge over Yanick from that woman on final loss.

And now head to Lot of murmurings around Yanick talking about having to change his game and potentially lose some matches and by playing different style and which is quite interesting.

And and this moment saying, you know, she's happy to be in finals but wants to go one step further.

And she had a great tournament as well.

Actually.

We start off with the men.

Cam.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So what do you think of the final?

Of course, you would have watched it end to end.

What do you think of the level and from from Carlos and from Yannick and I guess the spectacle as a whole?

Yeah, no, I mean, like every match that these guys play is the biggest match of the season of it.

They've played, what, five times in four months?

And I mean, even though Cincinnati was a let down, the build up was still all the same.

You know, as soon as these guys meet, it's always going to be crazy.

Yeah.

I mean, Alcres was ridiculous.

Like, yeah, crushing 4 hands, his serve was crazy.

You know, it just was peak Alcarez, I think.

And yeah, he dropped the second set, but he only lost, but that was the only breaker serve he had for the entire day or against his serve.

It was just one sloppy game.

And Sinner didn't play bad.

It wasn't like he played too bad, but he didn't play like he did against Bublé called Mercedes.

I know that Alcrez is not going to let him play like that.

But yeah, I I don't remember Alcrez playing that good against anybody.

Like, I mean, maybe against someone who's 100, but not the guy that he just lost to in Wimbledon.

Like it was yeah, it was crazy.

Like, and and I think a lot of people have said over the past is like the only difference between Alcos and Sinner is that Alcos is not as consistently high level.

And Sinner has got that high level consistency, which we saw throughout, well, most of the tournament.

You know, they had moments here and there, but Alcos this time tournament for the first time, you know, dropping a set and like I said, just one break to lose that second set, he was flawless.

Yeah, he was really good.

And it it was a real stark contrast to 2022 when he won the US Open, his first title where he he just played epic long matches and had to like really grind through that tournament in the end as well, having to play four sets against Rudenau instead of pretty long four sets against Casper.

And this tournament, as you said, he barely got broken.

I think he was three times overall, once against Darderi, once against Carlos, sorry, once against Yanix or even and I've got the other time.

I don't.

Know Was it Novak?

Was it Novak?

Did Novak got a break?

Yeah, second set, he was down a break.

OK, Yeah, he was, wasn't he?

Yeah.

So once against Novak.

So that's three overall and I think the record is twice.

And that was Pete Sampras at Wimbledon.

So the fact that he was that close to Pete Sampras, who is regarded as one of the best servers of all time stories and he's just it's phenomenon.

He had an incredible serving Fortnite, I think it's fair to say, and that probably showed in the final.

I think, as you said, Yannick didn't play badly, but he didn't play as well as probably we were expecting him to play because he's regularly at around 80% of his level is like the minimum you'd think and didn't really feel like he was at that like 48% of first I was in is like really low for him.

He is Mr.

Consistent, like his whole game is based around high percentage plays, keeping it really simple and but essentially excelling in those very simple like doing the basics well essentially and doing it better than anyone else.

And that's what he did at Wimbledon.

He served a lot better than Carlos is more accurate spot serving wise.

And then actually, to be fair, at Wimbledon as well, he was utilized the drop shot quite well and came to the net, which is which is a good addition.

And he tried to do that in this one.

But it's hard when you're coming behind only 40% of your first serves.

So then start coming forward and come to the net a lot and you kind of limit the options that you have because Carlos is such a good return, as is Yannick.

But Carlos was making more first serves.

He was more accurate and the serve kind of ended up being quite a big factor in the end.

And I think Carlos's forehand was just on fire throughout the whole match and the first set.

I don't think I've like you were saying, I don't think I've seen him play at that level consistently for a whole match.

I feel like sometimes you'll see a set where he plays incredible at lights out tennis 9.5 out of 10 as like you know, tennis insights would say, and then it dropped to 7 the next set because his his level just dips and it's hard for him to sustain it for so long.

But this fine.

I felt like he was very consistently clinical, I think throughout the whole of it, apart from that one blip, as you mentioned in that second set, which was just he took his article for a second, but then he just like off that set was done.

He was like, OK, back into back into destruction mode.

I think Yannick was just probably thinking, well, what do I do?

And which is why it makes sense that it makes sense what he said after about having to change things because he probably just felt like the rack, sorry, the the match wasn't his racket at all.

And that's not a nice way to feel considering that, you know, he probably felt after the woman final that OK, I'm starting to come back here in the head to head and like this is a really good positive.

And then they said Carlos spent 15 days just studying that final in the attic after, which is just ridiculous.

I mean, talk about dedication.

And I was, I was impressed with the fact that he had a wherewithal, not just him and his, but his team as well.

And the tenants like you to think, OK, I've pretty much been able to get through everyone else on tour, but Yani's going to most likely be the person that played in the final if I make it that far.

So let me concentrate.

And it's clearly the conference he had as well.

I think someone in his team actually said after that U.S.

Open came to them before, before they closed the roof and said, Oh, you know, just to let you know that the roof is going to be closed.

And, and the team went to Carlos and said to him, oh, you know, like just to let you know, like the, the route's going to be closed.

Like are you OK with that, You know, or just kind of checking with him that, you know, he didn't have any reservations about it.

And he said, doesn't matter, I'm going to win anyway.

And, and apparently he's that's very unlike him.

Like he's normally quite, you know, because he's his general persona is quite humble and you know, actually who knows what will happen?

And it's very raffaresque, I think in that sense, his attitude.

But it's it's interesting that he said and it's interesting they had that.

You would have seen it on Instagram, on another social media platforms that when they were waiting because of the Trump delay, Carlos is super like dialed in, like, you know, doing his stretches everything.

And normally he said maybe he's laughing and jerking around a little bit.

Whereas Carlos had his, you know, the foam roller, he used to play baseball with it and playing tag with his with the coaches and stuff.

And it's like normally expect the other way round.

But Carter just super dialed in and he almost like channelled his inner Yannick to a degree like Terminator mode.

But that was, yeah, that was like crazy to watch.

Do you think the head, the head, like the rivalry, is in danger of becoming quite 1 sided?

Before the final, I would have said no because I mean the head there, it felt like it was a little misleading because there's so many matches where they've had Sinner could have won.

You know, there's I think like two or three that had match points.

You know, he could have he was up two sets of one inside and you know, in the French last year and and it felt like, well, I thought after Wimbledon, I thought, OK, now he's maybe he'll get a couple and then Cincinnati happened.

But I mean, I don't know if anyone, I don't think Elgro's counted that.

That's probably why he was so aggressive in the final, to make sure that no, no, no, that that was, you know, it was going to be my win anyway.

I just, you know, couldn't finish it.

But yeah, it's it now.

It's weird though, because if Elgro's plays like that against Sinner every time, then yeah, I don't know how soon he's going to get a couple back.

Unless again, we're I guess we're going to see if Elgro's does play that level for the entire, I mean, he doesn't really need to play like that for the rest of the season, But every time he plays Sina from now on, is that what he's going to bring?

Because then, yeah, like Sina has to go back to the drawing board, figure out what's going on when he just it's almost like Wimbledon.

He he figured it out and then Alka has changed it again.

And you know when, Oh, well, now I'm going to go up another level and you're like, OK, just when he thought he caught him and that's it.

And yeah, so I, I mean, it's 10/5 is already went, like I said, 7/1 in the last whatever two years is pretty crazy.

And now it's like, oh, now it's going to get even harder.

So it could blow out to, you know, to be a big difference.

And I mean, like talking about great rivalries, you know, I mean, Federer, Nadal kind of blew out for a little bit and then it didn't really, we never got close again.

But then there's other rivalries.

It does, you know, it blows out to, you know, 18, three and then it might just like close to the 1518 or whatever, you know, someone goes on a run.

So yeah, I think right now though, it's that rivalry is Elcras.

It's easy.

Like every time they play from now on.

I mean, maybe on a fast hardcore, indoor hardcore would be fun to see them play there.

Hopefully they play.

That's true in the ATB finals.

But yeah, I think it will be.

It's going to be tough for a Sinner if that's the Elcras he gets to play every time.

Yeah, no, I agree.

I think indoor hard courts would be an interesting one actually, as you said, because I feel like that's where Carlos hasn't won a unless I'm mistakenly hasn't won a big title anyway on.

In Rotterdam, but I think they're not as slowed it down.

Yeah.

Also, it's a 500, so and it's 500.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So yeah, it's not Paris, it's not a 2 Finals.

No offense, Rotterdam, please, please accept our media quotation for next year.

But but yeah, no, in all seriousness, I think it's just crazy because you mentioned earlier that with Carlos, he's got all the variety and Yannick is is more this, you know, there's a reason why he's been compared to Novak and maybe the older Novak.

He was very systematic in breaking people down and and you know, he would play very high percentage, but essentially a really elite level of tennis.

And now it's got to a point where Yannick's thinking, well, what I'm doing at the moment is not enough.

So what do I need to change to be Alcaraz?

But you almost think if he tries to become too much like Alcaraz from a variety aspect, then he actually loses a lot of his identity in how he plays.

Because the question is, can he?

Well, what I guess is he inherently just naturally as gifted, for example, with his hands, with the drop shots, with those types of things.

I'm not quite sure I would say no.

But where he has been able to topple our crisis being in like shot tolerance and and ball striking quality, just generally from both wings.

And now it's got to a point where he doesn't feel like he has the edge.

So I guess where does he make the gains?

And it's difficult to actually know where he does make them if Carlos plays like this, because you just feel like Carlos has so many options.

Yeah.

Like, how does it combat it?

So I know you used to coach a lot.

So what do you think?

Like, do you have?

Do you have an idea of how you adjust?

Well, yeah, that's, I mean, yeah, again, that's sort of like how the last, I guess 18 months has gone.

It's kind of been like, well, I get asked on stream all the time, you know how you know who's better?

And it's like, Oh, well, Elkaraz has got a higher ceiling because of all the all the he can do everything like there's nothing that he can't do and nothing that he can't do to a high level, you know, from serving volleying to drop shots to standing back and rallying, you know, and then just playing, you know, just your your basic shots too, right.

He's just got every shot.

He doesn't seem like he has a weakness, except that he gets a little distracted and maybe gets a little, you know, he gets a little too entertaining and tries to tries to do a little too much and like lose his focus.

But we didn't say that at this tournament.

And then, you know, cinema, but he's you know, there's a couple of things that's in a you know, these net games are it's good.

You know, it's it's solid, you know, but and you know, he served obviously let him down the final this year.

But yeah, it just always felt like Elquis had a higher ceiling.

So for Cine, I mean, he doesn't do much wrong Cinema, you know, it's not like someone like AI guess like a Medvedev who you can tell like, OK, well, this is what he's good at and this is what he's not good at.

And he's probably never going to get really good at this thing, you know, the net, I mean, coming to the net and doing, you know, drop shots and stuff.

So he's going to have to stay back and play that really well and hope for the other guy, whereas Cena doesn't have like an obvious weakness.

It's just that he's not got every shot like elk resident but nobody else.

Nobody has that.

So if he yeah, I'm hearing him say like, I need to go back and change my game.

It's like I thought he was maybe talking about when he when he plays Alcrez, but he didn't say.

I don't know if he said that exactly.

No, he didn't because he actually said that I might have to lose some match against other players, which means that he's thinking about essentially like wholesaling his not not like completely, I imagine, but making some big changes tactically and in his game to I guess gear towards Alcrez.

But he would have to, he would have to practice it before because I think the issue he was saying is that he he realized in the final that he had to try and adjust a little bit to combat what outcries was doing.

But because he didn't play that way at all throughout the rest of the tournament, he was like, he was really struggling to actually execute it.

Yeah, that makes sense.

Well, I mean, we did get a preview of the final of how somebody could push Sina, and we saw that with Shapavalov, and we were watching that match.

And I mean, Shapavalov has always been unpredictable doing, you know, he can do a lot of different things, but it's always about his consistency.

Not been able to consistently play at that level.

But we saw in the 1st and the 3rd set against Sinner that, you know, and we've seen it with Runner in the past against Sinner, you know, getting sets of him and struggle and troubling him.

And then Alcrez is just the best version of all those guys.

So, yeah, I mean, you make the final of, you know, every slam and you only lose the one guy, one with a championship point.

You could have, you know, you have two sets of love and the other one, he just played the best match against you ever.

So I don't know.

I don't think he has that if it if it happens, I don't know.

I mean, I don't think he needs to do too much like he doesn't need to change things.

I don't like if he's only losing Alcaraz.

It depends if Elcroz keeps this level as well.

If Elcroz keeps this level then he's definitely going to change things.

Otherwise he's not going to win against Elcroz.

But.

Yeah, Zach's probably thinking like next year I could play 4 Grand Slam finals against someone, then lose all four of them if he's not going like this, right?

Because they played three out before this year.

Exactly.

Yeah.

I mean, next year, Carlos, you would imagine he's going to do better at Australia.

That's the one Slam that he's struggled.

I don't think he's made it past the quarter finals.

I think I'm not mistaken, but you'd imagine given that if you were to play Novak again in Australia like this, he'd probably win given what we saw at the US Open.

So really, who can stop in maybe Zverev?

I mean, historically, maybe potentially, but it's looking more and more unlikely.

So they can potentially play a final in Australia.

And then Yanick's like, well, OK, what do I do here?

Because the US Open and Australia play quite similar now as well.

Yeah, I think speed wise.

So I guess Yanick's probably thinking exactly what Carlos was thinking after women and final, which is do I need to put in a block a.

Training.

Block to try and combat how I play Alcraz because but as you said, it's it's really difficult because like no one really.

I guess why it was easier for Alcraz to adjust is because there are a lot of players that play a similar style to Yannick but just not to the same degree like to the same level.

Whereas with Carlos, no one really plays like him.

They they everyone has something that he does, but his all round game, like the variety is very difficult.

Like no one really has that well roundedness and completeness to that degree anyway on tour.

So it's very difficult for Yanick to to think, OK, well, who can I watch?

He he needs to go back and I guess watch tape of Alcoraz.

But then like, I don't know, like how does he adjust to it?

Because I feel like with Yanick he was like quite clear.

Carlos was not overusing the drop shot against him, was going really hard into the forehand and he was having a lot of success in there.

He went a lot bigger on the forehand cross call and he gained success there obviously.

So a lot bigger.

And then for the back of the call he's a lot more patient, which which which showed.

But it's difficult like with Yannick as he said, what does he do?

Oh, Carlos used the backhand slice a lot more, which he didn't use at Wimbledon, probably should have.

And I said, I remember saying off and watching that final and thinking, why is he not using it?

Because it's one is grass as well.

And you know, Yannick likes it.

But it's interesting because I think actually I've been doing some work with tennis insights and there's the the leaderboard for the 52 week averages around like core shots.

So like shots that are just hit essentially with top spin or flat.

And Yannick actually leads that.

So he essentially hits with the least amount of variety than anyone on tour.

I think it's at 88%, which is pretty crazy to think about.

And let me just double check that it's definitely on tour, not top 10 because it could be a top ten.

And then I look very silly, but I think even if it is just a top ten, I mean, that's that's pretty telling, right?

Because so yeah, 52 week leaderboard for no, no, it is, it is for the IT is for the whole tour.

So he's at 88.3% ofteners.

Just below 87.4 Fritz is on there as well, which is not surprising at 8 and medley over at 10 because neither player really slices or uses angles a lot.

But essentially Yannick is and it's not just the fact that he doesn't slice and you use drop shorts and variety as well, but it's the fact that he doesn't use short angles.

Like he's very much like hits through the baseline and with a lot of pace.

And I think Carlos said after the final that he, not that Sinner is predictable because Sinner said, oh, no, it's too predictable.

But I guess Carlos is alluding to that.

But he said, oh, he's not really predictable.

But because I've played him now so many times and I've been watching him so much, I essentially could anticipate and picked up the patterns that Yannick likes.

And that I guess then does lead on to what Yannick was saying, but he was predictable.

And then he needs to try and add at least some sort of surprise element to his game, whether that means adding different shots, etcetera, or actually maybe it just means hitting, for example, with his forehand with more shape and spin and then hitting it flat.

So hitting shorter angles and like maybe utilizing that rather than thinking like I need to take a forehand slice, which is probably not, I'm not going to probably see for him, right?

I started playing like curious.

But yeah, I don't know, like it's an interesting one to see how that goes.

But yeah, hopefully it's not super 1 sided next year because I feel like that could only be really bad for tennis.

Yeah, I'm, I'm.

Hopeful slams like that would be crazy.

Well, yeah.

Well, I mean, that would be good for tennis if we we got a calendar Slam.

But I think, yeah, I really want to see them play ADB finals and if they can play the Davis Cup, I think.

But if they play at both of those, like kind of like what Djokovic Sina did back a couple of years ago and they had those three matches in two weeks or whatever it was, If we can get those two matches, that'll give us the biggest indicator because that's the only, you know, we know.

Well, you know Sinner on grass.

I mean, I guess he owns the head to It's.

4/2 or something isn't it?

Yeah, yeah, it's something.

Yeah, it's pretty one.

It's pretty 1 sided.

And then yeah, so then to see them, especially because it's in Italy.

So it's like, OK, if if Alcoz can go to a hostile environment and get him there as well on his, you know, worst surface, that would be really interesting because then it would then you would think, OK, well, now Sina really needs to figure out.

But you know, or it might be two.

He gets 2 back and then we kind of go into next year going, OK, well, Sina when the last two and then, you know, they're still Alcoz is still a problem, you know, but I don't know, it would be interesting if that we do get them playing at least once out of those tournaments.

That'd be awesome just to kind of, I mean, what what's probably going to happen now is we're not going to see them play until the French Open final.

But if we can get them to play at least one indoor match where it like feels like, oh, this is Sinner's thing.

It's in his country.

It's on his kind of surface.

That would be interesting to see how Elko's game stacks up then.

And that if he wins that, then you go, well, how does yeah, I mean, how does center beat him?

Then Maybe he doesn't beat him.

Unless Elko's having a bad day.

Yeah.

And I guess as you said, you made a good point about the grass had said, I guess then you think, OK, well, maybe he can do it on grass because like I guess with the fact that grass is a little bit quickest but slicker keeps lower.

But then you just think surely outcries would have realized after that.

You know, with the slice he utilizes the USO point, he's going to utilize it at Wimbledon.

That's going to neutralize a lot of Yannick's pace in the backhand wing backhand corner anyway, so.

I think people are, I don't think many people are mentioning that when he was playing him at Wimbledon.

Outrage is trying to win three in a row, you know, and that whole pressure of that, you know, having just played Sinner, you know, he I think he was probably the favorite going into that final, too.

Yeah.

You know, we think, oh, well, Sinner got him.

It's like, yeah.

But Alquiz had a lot to try and he was trying to achieve, you know, trying to do the, you know, the channel slam back-to-back.

You know, I was thinking he would have been the youngest player to do that.

Like it was a lot of lot on the line through Alquaz, you know, whereas going into the final of the US Open, it was more on Sinner to go, OK, well, can you do it again?

Win 3 in a year, right.

And win.

Yeah.

You know, and be like, you know, I know a lot of people were saying like, Oh well, if he wins the US Open, he's only been one point away from a calendar slam and blah, blah.

And you go, yeah, true.

You know, again.

Maybe that was, it was funny watching Sina like the first game or first two or three games, Algus came out and just went like the first point was just like, alright, this is what I'm doing.

And Sina just didn't.

I guess he wasn't, it looks like he wasn't expecting it.

Yeah, so I'm sure next time they play, as soon as not going to go, I'm going to wait to the third game till we play.

It's like, Nah, we're going to play first point and he's going to play his best centers in the first point like Elquis, didn't you know, against him.

Yeah, yeah.

No, Agreed.

Agreed.

It's also crazy that whenever we watch these types of matches, the first point tends to always be a Really, really impressive rally, which I don't know why, but just historically, whenever I used to watch matches, I didn't feel like that was the case.

But whenever I watch Djokovic, Djokovic versus Alkraz or Djokovic versus Sinner or Sinner versus Alkraz, any combination of those 3, I feel like the first point is always like a taster of this source to come.

And it's always something that really gets you salivating straight away, which is just crazy.

I think these guys are just so locked in.

It's just I guess they're so good returning wives as well that they straight away they're into the point and then it's like got to really work for it.

They don't have a huge amount of, you know, three points consistently anyway, no.

One's 7 and ace on the first point.

No one's ace.

It's a 20 shot rally.

Yeah, exactly, exactly.

So what do you think about Novak then?

I mentioned Novak and obviously semi finals throughout the whole year at slams, but not being able to get past the hurdle of Yanik or or Carlos now, which you know, a lot of people might have thought, well, OK, well he'd be him at the Australian Open.

So maybe at the US Open he can do it wasn't to be straight set losses to yeah, Yanik and Carlos at all the last three slams said afterwards, which is pretty similar to what he said.

To be fair, the woman in press conference when I was there that, you know, when he gets to this stage of the tournament, essentially, he's essentially paraphrase is gassing out because like physically he, he's feeling it and he doesn't feel like he can actually keep up with them in a best of five format.

And then he says something really interesting, which is, oh, I think maybe in a best of three format, which is, which is a bit strange because he's not really playing many best of three tournaments period.

So I, I don't know why that would be like a goal for him to try and beat them in the best of three.

But maybe it was just him taking some sort of consolation.

It was the aftermath of what just happened.

You're trying to find some positives.

Because I remember Wimbledon, he was just really deflated, like essentially saying, you know, no one looks after my body more than me on tour.

I'd like, you know, I'd, I'd challenge you to find anyone else who spends the amount of time looking after themselves, you know, on tour because, you know, I just, I've spent so much time throughout my whole career looking after myself.

But he says it's really frustrating that he he basically feels like the level is there.

But yeah, his physically his body is just not holding up and doing exactly, I guess what he would want it to do, especially at that stage of a slam.

And you almost wonder maybe he's was allude to the fact I like there's an interesting point because he's going up the rankings, but you almost wonder maybe if he were low down the rankings and he got like an Alcaraz or Sinner early on, could he catch them cold potentially.

And that might be easier because he'd be fresh as well.

So you always feel like if he gets a semi final and final, no offense to any of the other guys, I don't feel like he maybe has as much of an issue against what he does.

He definitely won't have as much of an issue.

Probably beats them.

But in the latter stages, like whoever it is, you know, outside of Sinner and Alcaraz, we saw against Fritz for example, and.

It's very of the French.

Yeah, exactly, exactly, yeah.

And these guys in their quote UN quote primes, right.

So I think for Sino and Alka, you almost feel like he's it might not be a bad thing if he because he's not playing many other tournaments anyway.

So probably wouldn't be a bad thing if he just lose some points and drops outside the you know, I guess top 20 and he would just the problem is he could obviously draw someone who's who's also a good player in the first couple of rounds, but then maybe that's what he needs to take the risk to potentially play them early doors and he'll have a better chance.

I don't know, like that's it's a really weird thing for me to say, but I just wonder whether that would actually be better for him at this stage of his career.

Because it just seems like, as we always say, far the time's undefeated.

And it just feels like physically as soon as he gets to the semi final stage, these guys.

Then we used to say all the time about Novak, but he would take your legs first.

First he takes your legs.

And now essentially Carlos and Yanik are doing that to him because he's an old man in tennis terms.

But yeah, what's what's your view on Novak and I guess his level this year and going forward and the the hunt I guess for 25?

Yeah, it's weird because it's like he loses to one of these guys and then all the, you know, you hear all the things like he should retire, you know, like why he just made 4 facts.

Slam sammies, anybody outside of El Crescent Centre who did that would have been like, that's my best year ever.

Like you give that to, you know, you give that to Fritz, anyone down the list, you go, that's a great year.

And look, you know, not to make excuses, but semi finals, Australian Open, he had to retire.

He wasn't 100% French Open.

Semi was probably his best.

He looked the best and he pushed in a pretty, you know, a couple of sets he pushed him.

I think he was, I don't know if he had a set point, if he was close to set point in one of those second or third set against Sinner on the clay, Wimbledon, he was his legs were gone.

And then the French Open, so the US Open, he comes up against like prime Alcaraz, right?

And it was funny because in the second set when he got that break, it felt like, you know, I think he had like, you know, he screamed to the crowd and everyone's going crazy and it felt like, oh, here we go.

OK, he's going to get the 2nd and we're going to figure it out.

And then Alcos breaks back and and gets it done in straight.

So he's still ahead of his verve and Fritz though.

So it's like, well, you got Sinner Alcoraz, you know, Alcorzino, wherever you want to put them in whatever order, Djokovic, and then you've got everybody else.

So it's like, well, if he was losing the guys that were outside the top ten, you'd go, you know, that's a shame.

But he's losing these two two guys, and we saw Wimbledon, how close Sina was to going out.

If Sina is going to start playing different and maybe he gets put in the same half and, you know, being #4 in the world, he doesn't have to, you know, play to the semis.

Maybe then, you know, if Sina decides to get a little creative and, you know, falls, maybe he does get to the final.

And then I mean, the Australian Open, I think Wimbledon, Australian Open, I think he said that his best chances, you know, But if, yeah, if Sina decides to get a little fancy in the first week and comes up against somebody he shouldn't, he should have been a little bit more conventional with and, and goes out and Djokovic goes to the final.

And Elkhra hasn't done well in Australia yet or as well as the other Slams yet.

And maybe there is a chance he could sneak one like that.

But again, he's he's still making it to those guys.

So it's like, it's so weird to be for him to like, he's yeah, running out, maybe running out of legs by the time he gets to them.

But yeah, I, I mean, yeah, I don't know.

I don't know if like, he's not that far away, but he is 38.

So it's like it was five years younger.

It would be awesome, right?

It would be awesome to see how that would work.

But he's still getting there.

So it's it's so weird to like, I was a little surprised that he didn't play besides the mixed double S didn't play anything between like he played three slams in a row and didn't play any warmups.

And I know he said like, I'm only focusing on slams, but like there was a lot of like little, little weird things that were happening to him in the first week.

He was having like medical timeouts for like like a shoulder thing and a neck problem and a back thing.

And it's like, that's probably just because he didn't play it.

And you know, it's just his body's like, what the hell, You know, we haven't played tennis for whatever, six weeks, 4 weeks.

So maybe how do you play Cincy or how do you play, you know, something else?

But before that, maybe it would have just like warmed his body into then the slams.

I know he, you know, I still think he's got a massive gas tank.

I don't think that's a big issue.

Like he's running out of gas.

You know, we say, oh, well, then again, he is running out of gas sometimes during matches unexpectedly.

But I don't know, it's it's a weird one.

He's got this weird balance where he's like, I'm going to play only the things that I want to win.

But how many people walk into a slam and just win it without any warm up tournaments?

When Cinder and Alcos played Cincinnati, you know, they, they had a warm up.

You know, Djokovic just and now he's not going to play for the rest of the year.

So he's going to go to the Australian Open, possibly with no warm up as well.

So I think he's playing one tournament besides an exhibition.

He's playing one tournament for the rest of the year or he's like locked into one tournament.

So it's weird.

It's it's so it's like I get why he's doing it, but I don't know if like if you look at like Federer, for example, the way he went about the end of his career and trying to like prioritize different slams and different moments of the, you know, season and whatever.

You know, he cut out the clay because he wanted to focus on Wimbledon because he knew that was his best chance.

Would he be better off doing that?

You know, not playing the tournaments that he goes, Oh, well, cinder and alcos are too good.

I'm not going to be a chance on this surface against them.

But going all in on like 4-1 more Wimbledon or 41 more Australian Open, Like maybe that, I don't know.

But it's, it's, it's interesting to see how he's going about it.

And it's weird that he's like, he was playing everything like 2 years ago and now he doesn't play anything and you're like, you see him once every three months.

It's weird.

But he's not that far away.

I don't think he's that far away from these guys.

But yeah, maybe if he does drop down and he plays him in a fourth round, maybe he gets a better, better shot.

I mean, maybe.

But then again, you, yeah, like you said, run the risk of playing someone else in the second round and who might just be as dangerous and might catch you, you know, off guard.

So yeah, it's it's a weird situation to see.

Yeah, he is weird.

And you make a good point about the schedule that with Federer, he used to, as you said, skip the claim and towards right at the end of his career.

He then made a return, I remember, but generally, but he he missed a lot of consecutive years because he just thought Rafa's going to win every year and Rafa did win pretty much every year.

And so he was right to probably skip it and prioritize.

But I guess with Novak, because he's always been such an awkward player and you know, people probably don't realise this if you haven't, depending on your age, I guess.

But if you're quite young, you would look at Novak and the Ron and Gareth Hart as he's one and think, oh, OK, yeah, like he was good, but he wasn't.

Or he isn't really going Clay, but actually go and watch last year's Olympic final against Alcaraz.

And then also, if he'd take Nadal out of the equation, who's the greatest clay quarter ever?

Novak would have won a lot of Roland Garris's.

And in my opinion, I think he's actually the second best clay quarter of all time, which is a pretty big call because a lot of people say beyond Porg, but he is damn good on clay.

Now at this stage of his career, though, at this age, how, given how physical clay is, is it really the right, you know, the right move?

I mean, I guess what would have been interesting and I wanted to see was him actually against outcries this year on clay after what happened in the Olympics last year.

We didn't, we haven't seen it.

And that to me would have been interesting to see like whether because somehow he obviously figured it out and you would think that clay would be the one surface actually he would struggle with the most against outcries, but it hasn't been the case.

So maybe he could have made something work there.

But obviously he got Yannick and Yannick just isn't a good match up for him period at the moment.

So I guess maybe he was thinking in his head, well, why would I skip clay when I just beat Alcaraz at the Olympics?

Yeah, fine.

Best of five, best of three, sorry, but still high pressure, high pressure match at Ronan Garros.

You know, Carlos was the French Open champion.

Why should I miss that?

And then he's thinking, well, Wimbledon, I've got a chance, obviously when there won there so many times.

I'm looking to make, make more history there.

the US Open, historically, he has struggled up quite a bit.

And it's been one of those weird slams where he has he's won it.

I think it's four times.

But it's it's been a slam that has like changed hands a lot until recently.

And.

No one's offended since.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, since Federal, which is like 2006 or something, wasn't it?

It was like crazy.

So.

Yeah, like 2008 I think.

2008 Yeah, yeah, yeah, 2008.

So I think he's probably thinking, well, just give myself the best possible chance and play all of them.

But then as you say, maybe it is worth him saying, well, OK, I don't want to play more than whatever 10 tournaments a year.

So why don't I just focus, like you were saying, on playing some more tournament before that specific slam, give myself the best possible chance to peak during that slam.

So I think what he's doing is relying on the fact of I've got the experience to work my way into form during a tournament, which more likely not is working for him, but isn't working enough.

Is is he really at the top top echelon of his game currently when he's facing Yanick and Carlos?

I mean, only he'll be able to tell you, but it's it sounds like he feels like he is in the presses, but I don't know.

I don't know, right?

It's difficult.

I wouldn't mind if he like like instead of doing what Federer did not play the clay like after Wimbledon, just don't play the American season and then come back and play like if he's going to go play 3 setters to try and get wins or, you know, over there trying.

I guess when I hear him say, you know, trying to get wins over these guys, maybe best of three.

It's just a psychological thing, right, To get them if they do play the same or I lost to this guy or I'm a better, you know, just to try and, you know, at least give them something to think about next time they play instead of being like, oh, I beat this guy three times in a row, four times in a row for whatever sin has or, you know, alcro's been like, Oh yeah, you know, beat this guy before.

I don't need to worry too much.

So, yeah, but I mean, because I know that he like he's one of his kids birthdays is during the US Open.

He talked about not being there for that.

And like, don't go to America, like finish the, you know, play Wimbledon, come back, you know, don't even you don't even ever go to Asia.

You come back in like, you know, come back, play Vienna and Paris and then, you know, try and get some wins over these these guys there and then start fresh in Australia.

Like it's just awkward that it's at the end of the like right there at the end of the season.

And yeah, you know, U.S.

Open has been, you know, up for grabs, but maybe that's going to change now, who knows, But I don't know.

It's just like, yeah, is he is he's like, what's the slam that he's not going to win?

Is he going to be the US Open or the French Open?

Right.

They're probably the two that like which ones he realistically not going to have a good chance at and, you know, worth not playing because it's like, oh, that's so and so's.

I don't know.

I mean, yeah, it would be.

It would be interesting how he does and he's.

You know, trying to figure it out as well, right.

He's, you know, he's like, oh, I played all the tennis and all the tournaments and now, you know, now I'm trying to work out what's worth playing or what's not worth playing.

And he's like, I'm going to play Slaves Davis Cup.

And he's realizing maybe I should play some other stuff too.

But it's like, what does he bring in and what does he get out?

Like, yeah, it's just because even like during Indian malls, Miami, he's not doing that great.

You know, as, as you know, he used to win Miami all the time, you know, and now even there he's, you know, not doing his best.

So yeah, it's it's weird.

It's it's going to be interesting next year will be interesting.

I think next year again, if he keeps making same as the slams where what he won't go anywhere.

Why would he leave?

That's the point if he loses these guys again.

Yeah, the same guys.

But yeah, yeah, my feeling is that he'll only start seriously considering retiring if he, like you said, starts losing to the guys outside of our Khrasnasinrat slams.

And that's when he'll think, OK, well, hold on now something's happening here because you know that that's when he starts thinking, well, I'm, I'm now starting to become really far off winning one.

I I think the, the thought behind some people saying why doesn't he retire is 1, because he's won everything, right.

So I guess the question is where is the motivation for him for him if he knows that realistically he's going to have to be at least one of Carlos and Anakin.

That's looking more and more unlikely given the fact that he's now 13.

He's getting older.

The gap is going to become bigger and bigger because these guys are going to get better and better.

He is unfortunate because of all the time, most likely going to get worse and worse because like, I mean, are we going to say that next year he's going to play better than this year like level wise at 39?

I mean, I don't think physically he will.

Maybe he tactically can change something.

I don't know.

Can he serve bigger, go bigger from the baseline?

Yeah, I guess he could.

But is it, is it going to have an effect?

I don't know.

I think that's the key as well.

Like, tactically, the difference between him and Federer, Yeah.

At this age, like, Federer was able to shorten points, serve Polly, serve big, you know, whereas Djokovic's game has always been rally, rally, rally, outlast the other guy, physicality, athleticism.

And if that doesn't work, then that was the result with Rafael last year, right?

He just kind of, Rafael didn't have that extra step and you're like, I just can't get to the ball and do his thing.

Whereas Federer didn't have that issue.

He was, yeah.

He was down one knee really, you know, towards the very end.

But like, but he still had those strategies were just there for him.

Yeah, agreed on no, yeah, I mean, I think Novak has them now, but it's not as natural as it was to Fed, right.

I think that's probably the the crux of the matter.

Like Novak has like the forehand has become so much more of a weapon.

Like he like in terms of winner hitting ability on that side, it's gone through the roof.

But like if we compare that to Federer, like Federer's full hand was always that, right?

Like it was always a massive weapon.

It was very natural for him to hit through it and be really attacking on it.

Novak can go through periods where it's just an absolute weapon and like really, really does hurt people.

But is that his most natural way of playing?

No.

And then his net game as well is so it's like much improved, no doubt.

Is he as natural volleyer as a Carlos or a Federer?

We'd say probably not.

And then we talk about serve and you know, he's he's worked so much on his serve and he's won.

He's such an incredible serve now.

He wins so many three points on it.

But again, he's as natural as say, like Federer serve.

And no, Federer throughout his whole career was winning three points on it.

Novak yeah, he's serving incredibly well, I think on tour, but I don't think it's enough to bridge the gap.

I think between that and everything else that he's struggling with, like from the back of the court, shot tolerance, the legs, the physicality of it.

And you know, Alcraz is Sinner.

They don't just have more legs than him.

They're now he and the more harder than him, they now especially Alcraz has got more variety than him.

And I think he's struggling to.

In the past it would have been easy.

He would have just thought, OK, well, hold on, I've got my legs.

So now I wanted to focus on this is exactly how do I manoeuvre this?

How do I grind them down?

But he just, he can't do that anymore.

So he has to be essentially at times almost probably feels like he's having to, despite him obviously making me changes to having to play out his combo zone a little bit.

He's done out of all the big three, I think he's made the most adjustments, which is a testament to him.

And that is probably why not just the adjustments, but his mentality.

That's why he's sitting at the top of of tennis, you know, and that's why he is the greatest of all time, because he's won everything now.

And I think unfortunately, though, when you get to the stage of your career, there's only so much you can do.

You just can't turn back the clock right, and turn back time.

And I think you just see at times when he was playing outcries, he just looks exasperated as if, what am I supposed to do?

He'll he'll get to a drop shot and he and you know, he'll feel physically like, Oh my God, I got to this.

What a get.

And then he'll get blobbed or he'll get passed and then he's like, OK, great.

Like, you know, he, he feels like he's an old man getting run around a lot of time and that's probably not great for him.

And that probably then seeps into frustrations post match as well.

So it's a difficult one.

I I I like you were saying, I don't think he should even play in wells in Miami.

Like what is the point?

From his perspective?

It's a hard court Masters event, like 2 of them, but leading into the clay court swing, like it's not really relevant.

And then maybe he does, like you said, maybe he plays like a Brisbane or something before the Australian Open and like prepares for that.

And then I don't know if Wimbledon, he actually plays Queens, for example, he plays Harlow and then he plays Wimbledon.

And yeah, I don't know, it'll be interesting to see if he plays the ATP Tour Finals because he's actually, his live ranking is 3, no?

He's dead in the press conferences.

I'm not playing it, but I'm I'm yet to say that he's OK.

You just never know.

He might get to the end of the year and go change my mind.

I'm going to play it now because if he wants to get that win over Alcresos, you know, you know, that might be a.

Yeah, I mean, he's talking about best of three, but in indoors against Alcoraz is not a bad shot, right?

He beat him there two years ago.

And it's interesting because last year he said, yeah, I'm not going to play it either.

And that was OK.

I I understood it.

But now at this stage, you think, why wouldn't you play it?

They're telling crowd love him.

He's he's he's really well received.

Intern is indoors.

It's a shorter tournament and I'm I'm surprised.

I mean, he's joined third.

I think with was rare.

They're joined on points in the race of train most likely.

I guess he'll qualify.

So yeah, I mean.

If he doesn't qualify, that means everybody behind him did really well and Alcos didn't win everything it going forward.

Exactly.

Before we move on to the women's on the men's, does anyone else you want to mention?

I mean, obviously we it's difficult because as you said, it is really at the moment Carlos Yannick know about below them and then everyone else.

But I guess maybe you want to talk a little bit about anyone that maybe disappoints you a little bit.

You'll be surprised and do as well as you thought, or actually surprise you in a positive way.

In a positive way, Felix for sure, like beating Demonor, Zverev, Rublev, making it, getting yourself Sinner like I didn't see that coming.

That was awesome.

I love that because I've been flying the flag for solo for FAA and just being like he's got every shot.

He's like he is as talented as these as these guys, but to see him do well, that was great.

And then to see him push Sinner because I thought he's he's gotten here and soon as he's going to chop him up the way that he was playing against Mercedes and Bubleake.

I thought Felix great run.

But then to get the second set and sort of, you know, have Sinner thinking about stuff.

I thought that was really interesting.

And hopefully he can maintain that because, you know, he has had a great end of seasons, you know, before where you know, he's won multiple titles in a row.

So hopefully it's not.

I mean it would be great to see him maybe ATV finals on the disappointing side.

I mean, not really, not anyone that I was like, oh man, I was a little disappointed that Fritz didn't didn't push no back more.

I know the head to head is really one side, but I feel like there was such a great chance because it was in America, Djokovic wasn't looking super good.

You know, Fritz is playing the best tennis of his career, arguably, you know, the last 12 months.

I was a little disappointed that he didn't like make Djokovic work a little more for it.

But again, I think he's just probably psyched out at this point, as most of those guys are when they play Djokovic still, you know.

So a little disappointed that Fritz didn't didn't.

I thought he could really beat Drakovic that you know, but I didn't pick him to beat Dropovich.

But I thought there's an opportunity there, but he just couldn't do it.

Other than that, not really.

I mean never ever losing first round, but that's sort of been a thing now.

Benjamin Bonzi's arch nemesis.

Yeah, he's actually.

Yeah, exactly.

Doesn't matter.

Not really Draper.

I mean, Draper not being able to play was disappointing because I think we lost that match.

What was it quarter final he was supposed to play against and Shelton and and Draper's injuries.

They were, they bummed me out because I was hoping for a Draper versus Cinna quarters and that was going to, I thought, oh, we get those matches, they're great right now.

But then both of them get hurt and now both of them one's not playing for the rest of the and the other one we don't know.

Winshelton's coming back, so yeah.

He won't he he won't be playing for the rest of the other thing.

I might.

No, I'm yeah, I don't think either.

He's, I mean, that's I think.

It'll be a race for the Australian Open, to be honest.

Yeah, for him, yeah, so, but yeah, so that that's the only disappointing.

I mean for players, player wise, not really.

Nothing really was.

They didn't feel like too many upsets except for the withdrawals.

Yeah, I think cats were rude.

Didn't he lose that second round to like Rydal?

I think it was, but I know he's.

Looking Bruna losing, it feels like Bruna, yeah.

Like we're like whenever we talk about, I mean, I don't think there's going to be big three at Sinker as in the rest.

But yeah, Bruna's name always gets mentioned, like, oh, he's going to be the third guy and what?

And then we get to Slams and he just can't get those couple of wins to play, at least play these guys.

You know, I was maybe a little disappointed that he couldn't just get a little bit further to make it, you know, to play another top team guy in a slam or something like that or get to a fourth round, you know?

Yeah, as soon as it becomes physical, I think it really struggles.

Like I mean, I know Strouffle's playing well, but yeah, like 5 sets and they were splitting the sets.

It was like 1 and then.

Djokovic chopped, chopped him up, didn't he?

What was the score, Djokovic?

Well, that's not going to happen.

Rooney is just struggling too much.

He's struggling too much against players that on paper you should be beating.

I think he's just yeah, Anyways, I think he he he to me is one of the most disappointing players because I feel the hunger is there to do something.

But I think just the way that he's going a battle with the coaching situation, the style of play is just that he's really struggling to find his identity and also know how to manage these matches and best of five.

And it's just, yeah, he needs to figure out pretty quickly if he wants to even be similar conversation for someone who's going to to make something happen at a slam at this point.

Because really can we can we honestly say that he's made any improvements or movements in the right direction in the last three years?

Well, he won Paris when in 2022 was it I think it was made the quarterfinals that year as well for Ronan Garros.

So now he is winning 2025 and I mean.

Bill Elkhurst on clay.

Yeah, he did in Barcelona.

You know how How?

Injured was he?

But then also what did he do after that, right?

What did he do about the French?

He lost.

I mean, he lost the Mercedes, to be fair, who had a really good play court swing.

But are you?

But then you also have to say, well, then I don't know, like if if you if you want to win one of these slams and you have to get through those types of players.

You know, Mercedes is not being talked about as winning a slam right now.

Bruno wants to be put in a similar conversation to Sinner and Alcaraz.

So, you know, here's what it is.

I mean, it's Rome.

He lost to Mate Madrid.

He lost to Cabola.

I mean, he doesn't walk over after the first set.

But yeah, hopefully he finds something.

I mean, the indoor swings coming up and he's had some decent results historically, so maybe he can do something.

But yeah, I think also, as you said, I think he needs to play these guys and that will probably give him more hunger and like and ability to understand what he's doing.

They've come up like it's been like 01 or one, like I think it was Cincinnati.

And I was like, oh, Runa, Sina semis, let's go.

And then he loses to Ant Man.

And I'm like, what?

I know that man played really well that week and he played well against Sina or even in the semis.

And I was like, we just can't get like Runa Sina was great in Australia.

And it was we saw Sina sweat and you're like, OK, yeah.

And then we saw the Barcelona match, even though our Chris wasn't his fittest, it was still like still a win.

But then when we get to the big show and he's like, I just can't consistently beat these, like play these guys.

Even if he lost them, I wouldn't care as long as he was getting a chance to play him.

Even playing Djokovic as a Slam, I'd take that ruin a Djokovic as a Slam.

But we don't even get that because he just he just loses the match before the match.

And you're like, like, you know, third round when he's, you know, fourth round's a good match and he loses a third round.

He just doesn't get to those matches that that I want to see him get to then because I think that he gets up for those matches.

Like when he gets to those guys, he's like, OK, now I'm going to show everybody what I can do.

But he doesn't get to that point.

He's losing on court 7 to quali and you're like, I want him to do it because I think he could be a pain and he could disrupt the Alcoa and the sinker as dominance a bit.

Because he just, I don't think he really it's he kind of has that kind of like, I guess Djokovic vibe when it was like Fidal, when he's kind of like he does have that like, you're OK, you guys are pretty good.

But also I've beaten both of you and I don't care if you're winning everything, I'm going to ruin it.

He doesn't like have that.

Like he doesn't put them on a pedestal like I guess my other players maybe do, which is part of it.

The part of the whole thing.

If you, I mean, look at the look at all the guys from the 90s that put Djokovic on a pedestal and then can't beat him, right?

So yeah, I just want Bruna to do something.

Yeah, yeah, I know I did, literally.

But that is my those are my thoughts.

Whenever I see him lose, I'm just like, come here, do something, come on, just do something.

Just make something.

It was first by.

Alcrez this week.

But then Alcrez pulled out of the Davis Cup.

So I was, I was looking so forward.

Oh yeah, it was going to be on clay.

I'm like, yes, rematch.

And then Alcrez went too crazy.

Too busy showing off his his bleach.

Yeah, exactly.

His his bleach.

He's here and went.

He's probably somewhere in New York right now.

He's probably partying right now somewhere in some club with his bleached hair with me.

But yeah, I mean, yeah, I'm with you, man.

I'm with you, with Rena, honestly, because I just feel it's going to happen at some point.

Surely it has to click.

But we'll see.

We'll see what happens with him.

I just, it's really tough to envisage it right now.

I think you just have to see him.

Yeah.

Make run.

OK.

Should we should be in touch with the women's?

Yep.

Let's touch on the women.

So look, I mean, we were talking about players not being able to meet, for example, with Runa and meeting Outcrowers or or Sina.

And actually one final on the women's side, at least from a Grand Slam point of view that we still haven't seen is Sablenko Srientek.

And this time over, of course, make sure of that with an incredible run being in the quarterfinals got revenge for her double bagel at the moment in the final.

I remember watching that woman thinking, Oh my gosh, Oh my watching.

But the way that she recovered and then beat she on second straight sets is just a real testament to her her mental strength because it's I don't think people understand how difficult that would be.

And if you I feel like if you don't play tennis maybe and you just watch it, you may not quite understand how difficult it would be to mentally get over that given that was her first grand SEM final.

And then not just Beach Fiantech a few weeks later, but then go on to make another final and put in a pretty good performance as well in the final.

But Sabalenka, of course, is the one who came out on top.

I mean, how impressed with you with Sabalenka?

Did you pick her as well?

I was pretty happy because I got my picks right this this tournament.

I picked Alcraz and Sabalenka so I had to go back in the comments and start taunting some of my subscribers about them telling me off for picking Sabalenka but but yeah, it is what it is.

I picked yeah, I picked Sabalenka and I picked a big Sinner yeah, I mean yeah, for Anissa MOBA.

I mean yeah, to go from double.

But The thing is, like I found that when I was watching that final, it was she just it was the playing the worst match you could play in the most important match of your life.

Like it was just that combination of like, all right, I need to play my best tennis because I may never make this final again.

And then you rock up and everything just goes wrong.

So when they played again in the quarters, I thought I didn't think that it was going to be that.

I didn't think it was going to be that big of a turn around.

Like all of a sudden she's now won six, you know, 6 whatever 3 and 4.

But yeah, I wasn't too like I think being in 1/4 final as well, less, you know, pressure being at home, you know, against fiance, less pressure.

You know, there was a lot of things in her favour and she could only get better, right?

She couldn't lose 6 love, 6 love again shortly.

So it was always going to be better, a better result and less, you know, maybe less nervous and that.

But yeah, she like, you know, she beat Sabalinka Wimbledon then lose the final.

So yeah, yeah.

Of the US So it's like, yeah, she was very impressive though, like back to XLM finals, crazy good.

She's done before in the world.

Australian Open's got to look good, right?

She's been good there before.

You know, she's done well there before.

It's always interesting though, because with these players it's always interesting to see like, OK, well now she's people are like going to pick her, right?

Whereas nobody picked her for Wimbledon and nobody, not many people were talking about her for the US Open either.

So now it's like, OK, well, now people are going to pick up for Australia.

So what's that going to do?

Is she going to be like, you know, be able to deal with the expectation of being like, Oh yeah, now everyone's thinking you're going to win.

And she's like, well, do I have to win?

Like, you know, can she deal with that?

Because a lot of there's a lot of players that become contenders and then they, you know, they just can't get through the second round or third round, right?

Yeah.

So yeah, yeah, yeah.

Yeah.

How no, so I was going to say like when you're talking about the slam forms expectations, and I was going to say like Paolini obviously made two consecutive ground cell forms last year and then she's had it pretty decently.

I mean, she's still like hovering around the the top of the rankings, but she obviously hasn't replicated that slams.

But I feel like the difference between her and Ismova is that and Ismova has got really big weapons.

So I feel like, you know, with Paolini, like she has to really fight hard, like in these matches, like it's it's a lot of real tenacious type match play like constantly, Whereas with a nista moment, she has weapons to kind of get her out of trouble and and win points quickly.

And she I think the one positive as well, like you were mentioning is that she beat Sabalenko Wimbledon.

She's now being she wants to get the US Open.

So she's racking up wins against the top players who are winning slams.

So then she can take that and think, well, hold on, like I'm, I'm not far off.

I just might be two of them in a row, but it's possible.

And in the final as well, like she had some chance in the final.

I know it's straight sets, but she had some chances in the final.

She was, yeah, she was a breakup in the 1st.

And yeah, like I think it was just, she managed the occasion a lot better.

But she's still pretty young.

I think she's 24.

And I actually remember speaking to a woman in Qualys last year, which is crazy to think about because she was playing more than qualifying.

She didn't even make, she didn't win the last round.

She lost.

Ive Elise, who's obviously now doing really well as well.

And I remember talking to her saying to me, you know, actually, yeah, it's great to be here.

Royal Hampton.

It was the first time she was at qualies at Wimbledon.

But actually, of course, I'd rather prefer to be in the main draw.

And I feel like that's where I belong.

And she clearly had, you know, understandably some confidence about her because of results in previous years as a teenager.

And now she's proving why she has that quite confidence about her as well.

So an incredible turn around.

And, you know, I hope, I hope she does pick up a slam at some point, whether it's this year, next year, whenever, because I think she's too good to play a not to.

And I think she's a little bit harsh on herself.

She said she didn't fight hard enough for it.

I thought she fought pretty hard in the final, but I think she was maybe just a little bit disappointed in knowing that she was playing in someone who she had a winning head to head with as well.

63 it was.

So I think for Savalenka, there was a lot of probably mental trauma from the woman and lost and then also the Grand Slams lost Grand Slam finals lost as well this year.

How do you think Savalenka handled it?

Because I thought that was a pretty gutsy performance.

Yeah, no, like, yeah, I couldn't imagine if she hadn't won that all, all the, and I was talking about that tournament before the final.

I'm like, Sapolingo loses this final and is number one in the world without winning a slam in the last 12 months.

People are going to question how she's #1 because I mean, yeah, she's made the finals, which is huge.

But when you see, you know, when people don't know how the rankings work so much and they're like, well, the number one player should have at least be holding something, you know, of, you know, not just a runner up trophy.

So I think like that to get that slam just kind of like, you know, nobody can question that she's number one.

You know, she's the US 7 champion.

Of course she's the best one on the planet.

You know, like, at least that kind of easy because it would have been devastating.

I think there was a stat like she lost to Americans at every slam this year.

So yeah.

And even, I mean, the match against Pagula was interesting.

I think that was probably Savolanka's best level.

Her final was good, but she, you know, served for the match, got broken at the end and in the second set recovered well.

But that Pagula match, I mean, Pagool was like really well.

And Sabalinka was the best that, I mean, one of the best matches might have played all year.

The level was huge.

So yeah, it was, it was good to see a win.

And like, I picked her, I picked her for so many Slams this year.

She's I picked her for Wimbledon.

I picked.

Her for the third one.

Strand opener.

Then I'm like, oh come on, come on, please.

Yeah.

And people would just like, stop picking her.

I'm.

Like, yeah, that's that's exactly what I got and that's why I had to go back and the comments and say, look, I was right, finally take it back.

But I actually got a comment saying, look, we know that Sablink is your favorite player, but it's not picking.

And I was like, she's not even my favorite player.

I just think that she's going to win.

Like, I don't know, like.

Picking the number one to win.

What's the It's just obvious, right?

It's meant to be obvious.

I mean, she's a defending champion, like she's she's definitely the best player on hardcore.

So yeah, yeah.

No, I think it's yeah, it's good to see.

I think it could have mentally broken her potentially as well.

She had lost it.

That would have been crazy because she would have sat down at the end of the year and thought, man, I should have won.

I should be sitting here with three slams.

That's what she would be thinking.

I'm sure I'm seeing it was 0 so which is which is not great, but it's great to see her yeah, get the win.

And I think mentally for her it was needed more than a nice moment.

I think for a nice moment it was Travis Ronte massive plus back-to-back slam finals and then knowing that she was not that far off in the final as well, put in a much better performance.

So she'll have the experience now and if she is in that position again, I'm sure she'll put in an even better showing potentially win it as well.

So.

I want to see her play golf.

I want to next year Savarlinka MOBA in a maybe in a final, but like maybe the semis or something next year.

I don't know what it is, if it's French Open, if it's whatever.

I think that like because she's obviously played Savarlinka Shrionte.

Yeah, beating them at slams.

OK, well, now, unless she's beating gothic slams in the fast, but being as like a top player playing golf in the would be interesting if golf can get that serve working in like you know, whenever it is in Australia or or whatever.

Ryan Garros, That would be fun.

I think that's that feels like could be interesting.

Yeah.

Especially because, yeah.

I mean, look how good Goff does against Sabalanka, right?

Yeah.

And you'd say that Anissimova has a lot of Sabalanka qualities.

Yeah.

She does it.

Could be a really interesting, interesting, interesting clash and probably not bad for Goff as well to get when we might see them play at the end of the year, you know, WTA Finals.

But I want to see them play the Slam.

I don't know.

I don't know which one.

I don't know.

Hopefully the semis or I mean, the final will be awesome.

But yeah, I feel like that.

That's the next match for me, for Indy, some over I want to see.

Yeah, it's interesting.

I guess the good thing about the WTA Tour as well is unlike the men's, you don't have to kind of wonder or guess how might play on a slam because they have best of three tournaments at slams and also other tours.

Whereas for the men, like, you know, Novak was saying I might be able to beat Yanik and Carlos the best of three, but then obviously it's best of five.

The slams just come it's very different.

And of course it's easier to beat Yanik and Carlos than the best of three because, you know, it's you have to play consistent level for three sets and these guys don't tend to drop off for three consecutive sets like that.

But yeah, on the women's side don't have that.

And the depth is is crazy on the women's.

You're talking about Pogula and we had a soccer as well.

I mean, what do you think about that as soccer?

Obviously Canadian Open final and then now I thought the level was really good.

She obviously beat goth who was struggling with a serve and she's been struggling with form since running girls anyway, but a really entertaining semi final against anisim over.

I think a lot of people think you'll get Osaka Sablenka final and that's because you know, wants to see Osaka back in the final.

Of course not because they didn't want to see Anisim over and obviously couldn't quite make it happen, but I thought her level was really good and I think there was a crazy start that said that every time she made it past the fourth round she got on to win it.

So unfortunately not to be this time and she couldn't keep up that record.

But surely she'll be in really good spirits as long as she's fit going into the Australian Open as well.

Thinking that, you know, like I could potentially win this because the level I think has been really high the last few months.

Yeah, and she just looks happier.

Like I think that's like, it's funny.

It's like I've watched almost every Osaka match this year and even last year when she got more toggle on and and she was just getting injured a lot and it was interesting to see how like I guess like I probably around like French Open, Wimbledon, whenever her more toggle split.

Was it, I don't know if it was just before the Canada or what was after Canada.

It was before Canada.

Right.

It was before, yeah.

Yeah.

And here it like just saying, like in the press conference, I was like disappointed she was that she was letting him down.

But then like as soon as she made the change, that all disappeared and she just went, well, I'm not letting anyone down now because I've got a different coach.

And you know, the whole like Serena, you know, oh, Serena's coach thing kind of just disappeared.

And the, the pressure that she put on herself just disappeared.

And then she started winning everything and just looking.

So I mean, she's having it looked like she was having way more fun at the US Open as well.

You know, through all the matches, even even when she was playing some of the matches and was loot like going down, you know, she was still fired up.

You know, she usually doesn't shout much.

She's not real.

She hasn't in the past.

She hasn't been very vocal in the past.

But then she felt like very intense in the Nissimova match where she was, you know, she was throwing fists and shouting and it was like it was cool.

It was good to see like she was fired up and, you know, like that doesn't.

Osaka is usually the quiet one who's kind of just like going about, you know, business.

And so, yeah, it was all like it was so good to see in her rankings.

Like she's almost back in the top 10 now.

And and now we're going to like, you know, the Asian swing where she's, I think she's done well in Beijing before.

She'll probably do well in Wuhan as well.

Like those courts will suit her.

And then I don't know how far away she is from the cut off for the the WTA Finals.

But I mean, that would be crazy if she got somehow qualified for that as well, because you put her in the mix.

I mean, she's got 4 slams, Stabling's got 4 slams, Shante's got 6.

I mean, she is, besides Venus, you know, those are the three most successful players, active players right at slams.

So yeah, it was awesome to see her do well.

It was good to see.

Like even though she lost in the Canadian final, it was good to see that she didn't sort of like weigh on a go.

Well, I made a big final.

I couldn't get it.

And then just like lost, lost, lost.

But yeah, it was it was awesome and she was back where she belonged.

I think that's where she at the start of the year she said something about, you know, not if, you know, she wasn't where she thought she would be, then she probably won't play much longer.

But I think now she's definitely going to continue because if she's making semi fines or slams and beating top ten players, you know, why would she hanging up if she's been and she's almost back in the top ten, like it's exactly where she should have been.

I picked her last year to make top ten.

I was to see you too early.

So then at the end of this year, maybe she might be able to, you know, be, you know, 12 or 11 in the world.

And then once we get to Australia, then that's when she hits the top 10 after that.

And and because she is a top ten player like we, she deserves to be there.

She is.

She is one of the top.

I mean, you can grab one of the players out of the top ten.

I wouldn't name any names, but you could probably.

Replace go on a card.

With someone in the top ten, I don't know who but.

No, no, go on call out.

I don't know.

I don't know who someone who's like 10 or 11.

I mean, I don't know, Zhang's in the top 10, but she hasn't played much.

So, I mean, you could put maybe put Osaka in there for Zhang this year.

Zhang's still very good, though.

But yeah.

Feel free to feel free to.

I don't.

Even know.

Who's in 10?

We're back in his 10.

Isn't she OK?

Maybe not.

We're back.

Yeah.

Rebecca is 10.

Yeah.

Yeah, but I mean, like I said, I could easily slot, like slot in there and you'd be like, well, yeah, you know, you would be like, she's taking someone's spot.

You're like, no, yeah, makes sense that she's there amongst all those players.

So good, Yeah.

Rebecca her hands.

Rebecca her fans don't hate to come.

He didn't mean it.

No, she deserves to be there too.

I mean, she's a number.

Of time I'm trying.

To I'm just trying to think, I don't know.

I mean, yeah, there's players that I that, yeah, I mean, there's a few players that haven't been playing well lately.

So it's not it's harsh to say that they don't deserve to be there right now, but because they played really well in the start of the year.

Yeah, that's true.

Trying to throw you under the bus car.

I'm sorry.

Almost got me.

You're like, he's over 10.

I was like.

Like I'm trying to think of like

who is between 5:00 and.

10 So between 5:00 and 10:00 is Andreva, Keys, Pegula, Paolini, Zhang and Rebecca.

Yeah, OK.

Zhang Zhang, then.

Like I mean, Zheng is she will drop out because she's obviously injured so.

Yeah, and if I'm soccer players tell you wouldn't think of anything because, yeah, whereas Andreva is, you know, Keys, you're like, I can't, you can't swap them out because they've been so good at the high level, consisting of winning big trophies, whereas Osaka hasn't got 1 yet, but this year.

But yeah, anyways, it's really coming down below if you're.

I'm saying it's soccer's the new one, number one I.

Don't think soccer will be back in that top 10.

No, I agree.

I think.

And also she had really horrible draws.

The majority of the slams since coming back and then this U.S.

Open, it was it was much better.

Still wasn't like really, really good.

But like she was obviously, as you said, yeah, she was seated so gave us some protection.

And then as she goes up the rank of certainly getting it better and better.

So yeah, she'll give herself more and more of a chance of going deep and then trying to do some damage towards the back end.

But yeah, I want to see an Osaka Savolenko.

But you're saying that you want to see an A swim of a golf.

I want to see Asaka and Savolenko and see that play.

That'll be quite interesting to see as well.

But she's moving so much better than she was when she first came back, understandably because she had a big layoff and gone through a big ordeal as well, of course after having a child.

But now she looks like she's like close to a physical peak and with a new coach who's obviously the issue on sex.

Ex ex former coach or former coach, Sorry.

Even so, he knows how to how to win matches strategically and tactically, I imagine, and she seems to be really happy, like smiling a lot on court, as you said.

So all things are pointing in the right direction.

So fingers crossed that she she does.

It would be an incredible story if she does win a slam in the comeback, and I hope she did does win one.

That's not to say that I'm she's my favorite player, but I'll just think in terms of storyline.

It'll be it'll be a really good, really good storyline and good for good for tennis, I think for the women's side for sure.

And it'll probably inspire a lot of other players as well who are having children as well.

Like, for example, Bentridge came back recently.

She's had some really good results.

She sees that she's thinking, well, hold on, I can do that too.

So yeah, I mean, really, really good on positive on the women's side, I think.

What do you think of there?

There are probably some disappointing, quote UN quote disappointing results for some players.

I mean, obviously Rebecca loss of Ondrewsfer, who then lost pretty comfortably after that and then rally can't really.

Yeah, she has to retire.

But I mean, yeah, so lost to her injury, lost love and love definitely.

She win a point.

That was a big show.

I mean, she's really struggled with injuries on Drews first.

So I do wonder how that would have played out.

But I guess given that Sablinka be at Cincinnati, you would think Sablinka got the win.

But probably a little bit of slice of fortune for Sablink because she's quite awkward for youth to play against.

But you know, Rebecca looked like she was potentially going to start making a run.

She lost in the semis to Cincinnati to Eager, but you almost feel like the the gap between her and Shfrante and Sabalink and has opened up because in the past I felt like she was really causing trouble.

For example, to Eager.

And now Eager has been beating up quite comfortably in straight sets and not really having an issue against her on fast hardcourts, which is probably quite alarming if you're Elena.

And then on the other side of the spectrum, we've got someone like Radhikanu, who has been struggling in the historically, but then after linking up with Francisco Royke has been improving her serve.

And obviously, Ander Petchi, that she did some good work.

She's been racking up some good wins, some good performances pushing Savalenka.

She lost obviously very comfortably to Rebecca now.

But once I get your thoughts on those two and like how you thought the US Open was and also what you think might happen with her moving forward.

Yeah, Roddy Carter was has been great.

You know, it's she gets such a bad rap like I'd I don't, I get it, but I don't get it.

It's yeah, she just, I don't know.

I don't know if it's just disappointed fans that she wasn't winning slams the second she won one.

But yeah, I she has such a bad rap.

She's had a great, she had surgery on I think, what 2 ankles and a wrist or two wrist and ankles, something like that and comes back and does basically does what what she what she should have done before winning the US Open and slowly, you know, get up the rankings and slowly tick the boxes, you know, and, and she's now doing that and it's great.

It's you know, she's making she's making those match ups where she's playing against those top ten players.

She's losing her, you know, she's pushing Saba, like when she's getting closer and closer and she's you know, she's playing three on tickle.

She's playing her back.

And it's like those are the if she's losing to those players, that's OK.

You know, at least she's getting to those matches, whereas before, before her injuries, she was definitely like or post U.S.

Open, she was losing second round of people that, you know, weren't even in the top 50.

Yeah.

So it's like, it's good to see that she's finally starting to get some credit for her for her tennis because, you know, she just gets I think she just gets such a bad rap for no reason.

I mean, she doesn't seem like a bad person.

So I don't know why she why people just constantly want to just like, no say that she's no good and she should quit.

But yeah, she was great.

And then, yeah, obviously Rebecca was having a great.

I was a little disappointed that Rebecca couldn't get through Von Jerusalem because I wanted to see her take on Sabalanka.

And it was great to see Von D win.

It was like, and I was disappointed to see her not play the next match.

But yeah, like Rebecca has been great.

I think having, and again, I know people are going to have opinions on it, but like having a coach that helps.

I think that you can tell and you could tell that she probably, maybe she knew something was going to happen, but you know something, you know that he was going to come back because she started playing well just before the announcement that he was allowed to come back and, and be in the box and she was playing really well.

I don't know if it was in Washington or I can't remember exactly when the announcement was made that his band was up and he's allowed to come to the come to the matches again.

But he's always been there, obviously in the background.

But once he's been back, it's been a huge difference.

And she looks, you know, like she did, you know, back in even like, you know, last Wimbledon when she was making the semis, you know, she just looks like she's playing so well.

And usually the summer year she's injured and she's not playing and she's barely making it through matches.

But now she seems fresh almost.

I don't know what it is.

Maybe it's because she didn't win, didn't do well as well as Wimbledon.

Yeah, I think, I think she said, she said she was struggling with, I think it was insomnia for a long period of time.

So that probably was why she was getting injured all the time because she was not recovering.

And then I think recently she's figured that out.

So I think that's that's obviously like a separate point to the coach aspect, but I think that's obviously helped with her like just with her health generally because she's not sleeping, then she's probably struggling to actually recover and actually be in physical like physically in good shape for the matches, I guess on tour.

Yeah, but yeah, like I think they both did well.

That whole section was so So when you think about it, you go, OK, Rodochondo lost a rod back and who lost to Vondrusa, who didn't get to play Sabolenko?

You go, what a crazy section of the draw.

Why are all these really good players playing each other so early?

It's like it was just crazy that that section and then Sabolenko got through and won.

You know, you go, OK, well, she didn't have to play all of them.

But that that section was just there in hindsight was just so, so weird.

Yeah, but I think the the women's toy is just so stacked the moment it's just, yeah, it is crazy to to watch, to be honest.

But yeah, I mean, a lot of really good matches and and players, but you just feel that so many different players that can be others on tour.

Whereas on the ATP side, like we were talking about, there's a clear, clear structure at the moment and like kind of hierarchy on the A to B side.

On the women's side, don't really have that as much.

And ego obviously didn't manage to back up the woman to win with the USF win.

I don't think she'll be too disappointed.

I think Ennis Mobile played some really, really good tennis.

Any any words on her?

Yeah, like, like, it's funny because like everything that I when I basically just repeated myself when I was about to watch that quarter final, what I said at the Wimbledon final, I'm like, and this movie can play like this.

She can do this.

You can do that.

She feels like struggles against these kind of players.

And then the final was like, nothing I said was even remotely, you know, close.

But then again, you know, she plays like Sabalanka, she plays like Ostapenko, all these players that she don't take struggles against on these sort of surfaces.

And then it does, you know, then it does click.

So I don't think, and I shouldn't seem like too disappointed by losing to.

I mean, yeah, she there was that like running she had in the press conference, which was just weird.

But I didn't, she didn't seem too disappointed by losing because I think she just realized, oh, yeah, this is what she she could have done.

She could have done that at Wimbledon.

And then I would have been in trouble.

But I want to, I mean, you know, maybe she felt like I got to got to because everything played twice, right?

So maybe she probably thought, oh, yeah, that's what, that's how good you are.

I'm glad I didn't have to play you at Wimbledon.

I'm glad I did a quarter final.

And then I'll, you know, I'll take the Grand Slam and you can have this one, right?

So, yeah.

But I think, and this is my, you know, fiance, I don't think the next match they play, she'll be taking lightly at all.

And I know that she did in the quarters.

But I think the next time they play, at least Beyoncé got somebody to think about and go, OK, well, yeah, that's that's what we that's the player we thought we'd get at Wimbledon.

So we did see her.

Now we've got to figure out, OK, how do we beat her now?

Because you know, it's it's and this survivor could be a problem for fiance very much in the future.

Like, you know, Sabalenka, like I said, Sabalenka even keys, you know, all these players that are look, got these powerful games and this survivor's on that list.

You know it's going to be fiance better be planning how to beat her as well because she's going to have to play her now.

Yeah, no, I agree.

I agree.

I think ego, I think off the woman.

And when she said, you know, the rest of the year is essentially like a free hit for her.

She doesn't feel like any pressure because by the end of the year she wins nothing.

She'll look back and say I had an incredible year because a woman wouldn't and I never thought I'd would end of my life.

So, you know, I think that's that's why she's been playing quite freely as well.

It's been good to see and yeah, that's probably why she wasn't super disappointed because I think she knew look on the fast hard courts and someone I can explain she's redlining and she's in hot form.

It's going to be really difficult and and it was.

So, you know, I think that's you can't win every single tournament and I'm sure she'll try and finish up strong this year, but it's been a really good year for her anyway.

She's made some really impressive games anyway, in certain other areas where a game of serve is looking a lot bigger, the forehand as well looks less awkward against big hitters.

Obviously still some work to be done there as well.

So yeah, I think all positives.

If you're an English Front Sect fan, you shouldn't really feel too bad about her season.

I think she's had a really good one.

I mean, yeah, it depends if you ask because if after a fair joke, but I don't know how many people were telling her to stop playing and ditch the coach.

And now, yeah, 2 weeks later she well three weeks later she was Wimbledon.

And it's like actually, no, everything's fine.

You have an agree you're doing well.

Yeah, it's funny how things can quickly turn around, eh?

Oh yeah, It's like, yeah, yeah.

Tennis is a short memory, so a lot of short.

I mean, Gough won the, you know, won the French, and then all of a sudden, you know, she wasn't doing as well.

And then now she's playing terrible and you're like, yeah, I guess, you know, But she didn't win the French, so she should be happy with that.

Yeah, I agree.

Someone who actually caused a few upsets that she as well who's on the American side is Taylor Townsend, who talks about Pagula, but she beat Ostapenko, Andreva and then against Krachikova, she had multiple match points and that was a heartbreaker.

I was actually really nothing against Krachikova, but she's won two slams before.

And I just thought for Taylor Townsend, she's 29 years old, She's got a, she's got a son who's, you know, probably a little bit older than my son.

And I was just thinking, you know, it's like an it's incredible home run for her, like to make it.

She's obviously had incredible success in double S, but in singles she just hasn't, hasn't quite worked for her.

She's now like worked really hard on her movement of physicality and she's like in her own words, like she feels like she's physically like a really good shape.

She's extremely talented, like really great hands on the net, big serve hitting from the back of the court, just like a a very intelligent player lefty as well.

So I think she she was really disappointed, of course, after losing to critique of her because she had match points and then you, you, you knew as soon as she lost that tiebreaker, that surely is going to be a real uphill battle to win the third set because mentally the toll it took on her after losing that.

But I wondered if you had any thoughts on how whether you watched any of her matches.

What do you think of a level?

Yeah, I watched the critique of a match, Yeah.

And I watched parts of what happened with Osipenko.

But yeah, yeah, she was.

It was disappointing.

It was disappointing because it would have been good to see a play.

I think she's playing Pagula in the fourth round.

Would have been a night match, would have been crazy crowds, all that stuff.

But yeah, And she, I think the way that she, you know, handled her first round and then all the stuff that came with that and then, you know, if she.

Yeah.

And then losing the critique of it was just like, I felt like, it was like, I know this.

That's not how it was supposed to finish.

It was supposed to finish you playing against Pgula and then you play this crazy match and maybe you go down, but, you know, it wasn't supposed to stop there.

It felt like it the, the, the story ended too quickly.

So, yeah, but I mean, she played, you know, she's number one in #1IN double SI think currently or was #1 in double S.

Yeah.

Go to the final there.

So yeah, I mean, she's so awkward to play it.

You know, she's being a lefty.

She's I mean, she's beaten hell up I think at the US Open before as well.

So like back in the late 2010.

So yeah, she obviously loves, loves playing at home.

But I mean, she's only 29.

I mean, you know, it's not like she's going to retire and you know, some players retire at 30, but doesn't seem like if she's, you know, she's already had a son, she's probably going to try and play as long as she can.

You know, I mean, I think as a rank had a similar path, right?

She had a had a kid sort of in a mid to late 20s and then still playing, right.

So yeah, she's got the game.

She's obviously awkward for players to play.

So yeah.

So it was good to see it was it was one of the definitely one.

I mean, it was one of the I guess the drama of it all at the start was a bit of a low light for them unless you're into the drama.

But then it kind of felt like, oh, this is OK now it's going to be like this historic run.

And and then it turned out she lost the match of the tournament, but one of the matches of the tournament or one of the most memorable matches of the tournament.

So yeah, it was Yeah, it was.

It was a strange, strange to see how she went, but I think she can be a threat.

Maybe not a threat to like the fiance Saval anchors, but definitely nobody would want to play her.

Yeah, yeah, I agree.

Definitely an awkward player to come up against for sure.

In terms of the other players on tour and I guess some of the upsets and players that surprised you with anyone, was there anyone that stood out?

I mean, Keys losing first round was wild to me.

Yeah.

What is how that, you know, starting Open champion and then couldn't get through the first round, which was disappointing.

Andreva, you know, I was she hasn't done much like she made the quarters of the French and lost.

She's the only player in the four in the in the semis that well in the quarters.

I guess that was like the upset when she lost to the French woman.

Busan, yeah.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

That's it.

Yeah.

So, yeah, so I was a little disappointed with her because it kind of felt like especially in her draw with Pagula there and and Pagula hadn't been playing super well.

I picked Pagula to lose first week and she obviously didn't.

And I picked him.

He said he'll lose first week and he.

Didn't either.

Yeah, I picked him to lose the para card first round actually.

Yeah, yeah.

I mean, yeah, but I was, I was tossing out between her Andreaver and Pagula.

I'm like, Pagua's got to defend the final.

She's got more pressure.

Maybe she'll, you know, she hasn't been playing great.

She was.

She wasn't playing well, Yeah.

Yeah, and Andreva just didn't really have anything to lose.

But then it worked out that yeah, that didn't go that way.

So, yeah, it was Andreva was a little disappointing.

You know, maybe she's, I mean, she has such a great March in February, March, she was so good and, you know, beating everybody and and making the, you know, winning one thousands and something.

Oh, here we go.

She hasn't really done anything since then, you know, so a little disappointed in how how she went.

But yeah, keys, keys.

It was weird because keys lost like on day 2 and then so much stuff was happening at the same time.

It just kind of is it like went under the radar.

Yeah.

All the all the Medvedev stuff and all this other stuff going on and you just kind of just forgot that she lost in the in like on day 2 or day one even, you know, and she would have been, I'm sure a few people's picks to win the whole thing because of the Australian Open.

So yeah, it's a little yeah, that was weird.

That was, I don't even know if it's disappointing because I didn't.

It just kind of happened and we all just everyone moved on so quickly because it was so, you know, it was, oh, that happened.

Oh wow.

OK, next.

Yeah, she hasn't really hit the same heights that she did.

Obviously she won the Australian Oprah and then she hasn't managed to sustain that level, I think anywhere near that right since then, probably because you have the aftermath where it's difficult to just suddenly pick yourself up and go again after such a a big victory.

But I think she's just you.

You do wonder whether maybe it was just a Fortnite where she really set fire and maybe that will be it and she maybe might not have a similar Fortnite, but she's got the game, which is can she find that type of level again?

I guess we'll see for Keys, but she's got, as you said, she's got a lot of weapons.

But the question is can she piece it together?

And I think like a Nissimova, I guess relatively similar type of player as well.

It's the question of can you piece it together And she's managed to do so.

Keys did at the start of the year.

Can they sustain it?

Can they do it year on year?

I guess we'll see.

And this moment seems like she can because she's on back-to-back finals and that's kind of obviously then you see, OK, there's a bit of more volume there, but we'll see because Keys is a very exciting player to watch.

And hopefully we see some more of her going deep against some of the top players because she's definitely an issue for those players if she does go the.

WTF finals are going to be wild if and it's not over in keys and Andrea all qualify and we're back.

And I mean like I looked at the WTF finals race and it's just like it's like it's great.

Like it it looks crazy what this line up could be.

So hopefully keys.

I mean, she kind of can qualify because she has a Grand Slam under her belt.

So you kind of have that rule.

But but yeah, maybe that's you know, maybe that's where she shows everyone why she won the Australian Open because she gets to play all those players again.

And but yeah, yeah, it was yeah, it was.

I don't know.

She's just kind of did she I don't know if she did she beach fiance or get a set.

She, you know, she got a bagel against fiance on clay as well, which I remember happening in wherever that was, Madrid or Rome, I think it was Madrid.

And that was another like, oh, wow, OK.

But yeah, I mean, when wouldn't she?

Can't remember doing much there.

I don't remember what she did at Wimbledon.

Is it Andreva?

No keys keys.

Yeah.

So yeah.

But.

Yeah, it's just, it just kind of, yeah, just she kind of just lost and it didn't really.

Yeah, she lost a sequel in the third round.

Wimbledon.

Oh, OK.

Yeah.

Yeah, anyways, but other than that, it wasn't really, I mean, it was, I think the women's tournament was I, I think the women's side of things as it has felt like for the most part of the year has been so consistently good.

Yeah.

You know, top players playing each other.

We didn't get, I mean, Wimbledon was the only tournament that I think out of the four that we had a lot of upsets in the first, you know, couple of days.

But this one, you know, we had all those top 10 clashes.

We had a lot of good, you know, we had a good, you know, a bunch of matches to in the tournament.

So yeah, so like overall, I think it was, it was, I mean, if you're not getting too many upstairs in the first couple of days and they're going to collide and we're going to get those great matches that we all want, so.

Yeah, for sure, yeah, 100%.

I feel like whenever the draw comes out for the women's, there's just so many ridiculous like first round match ups compared to the men's and then just working your way through it, just there's so many fifty 50s and ones that can be really dangerous.

So I feel they're really fun to even from my aspect to do previews for because you just you really have to think about it.

Whereas for the men's, sometimes, you know, you have outcrows against, you know, like an unseeded player and then unseeded players, you know, you have unseeded players on the women's side who are Grand Slam champions.

Yeah, it's just absolutely crazy.

So you, you, you will get those types of players.

And it's just, you know, they're they're dangerous.

But anyways, Cam, thanks so much for being on.

Appreciate it as always.

And we'll catch up soon as well.

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Well, I'd say every single day, at least multiple times a day.

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Feels like.

Everyday.

The live chat, Yeah.

Yeah, Exactly, exactly.

Well, the live streams are his child as well.

I'm sure that's that's that's really his children.

Well, my other people in the cheddar, we live tomorrow we'll be back again.

And again and again.

Thanks guys.

No worries.