“I think this is mostly about the big picture and the scheduleuling and being in the best possible prep for Roland Garos. I think um you know he's had injuries over the last few clay court seasons, hasn't he? I think a more serious one in 2024 that really was a worry. Um and he never played his best tennis really that clay court season and still ended up winning the French Open.”
“I love how underarm serves just really expose people, expose the pearl clutches. Like if you've got a problem with underarm serves, like you are the problem. Why are we still booing people for doing underarm serve? It's a binary sort. Brilliant.”
“Stephanos sitsass who as we covered on our uh tennis relived show for friends yesterday was one match away from world number one in 2023 years ago. He's now down to 78 in the live rankings. He's below Marco Treneliti. It's it's a it's a really sad state of affairs currently for sitass and it doesn't it doesn't feel like this is the kind of hitting rock bottom before the inevitable before the inevitable rise back to somewhere near the top.”
“And it it's buys, Katherine. It comes from the buys. You got you got you got a 32 draw and you give four players buys. So they only have to win one match as Coco Golf has done and they're in the quarterfinals. I just don't understand. I'm quite sure there is a big reason for that that I'm missing. and please please let me know, you know, answers on a postcard.”
“Sport is a means to an end for Saudi Arabian state. It is a to it's a sports washing tool and tennis is a means to an end within that. And on the most granular level, the WTA is a means to an end beyond that. Like they've they've bought themselves some legitimacy. They've bought themselves two years of PR of the all of the world's top female tennis players coming to Saudi Arabia and saying, well, I've had a good experience.”
“The thing that strikes me is those quotes in the in the piece from from Matt and Ava, uh, quoting a lot of the players talking about this in Charleston and in particular Poula talking about how she feels that WTA finals is so inferior over the last few years to the ATP finals from a marketing perspective and from a feel perspective and that is absolutely how it has come across. I just don't think a big event, the flagship event of the tour should be taken to a place without a already established level of support and fandom.”
“And the little thing they snuck in there is that Stan Winka is going to be getting a ceremony, which obviously means he's going to be getting a wild card because Yeah. Because it said a ceremony after his last match, you know. It wasn't just one that they were just going to do. I mean, can you imagine not giving him a wild card and then giving him a ceremony? No, they're not going to do that. They're going to give him a wild card.”
“Five-time Grand Slam doubles champion Jamie Murray has announced his retirement. Um, obviously his his career does deserve the fanfare of a retirement of an announcement and and the ending of it being acknowledged. I feel a bit unmoved by this because in my head Jamie Murray was very much already retired. I literally commentated with him earlier this year. Uh he's the tournament director of Queens. He has like 12 other jobs that aren't being a professional tennis player.”
“From the trailer it very much looks like it's all about Nadal the fighter and the and the gritty guy and like you don't want you don't want Nadal's tennis brain and the way he helped change the sport you know like with his with his top spin to be like erased from tennis history. I'm like I'm worried that like the Nadal narrative gets narrow and it just becomes about him as this tremendous hard worker and gritty competitor which he obviously was and is a standout feature who battled through injury and big rivals and all that sort of stuff.”
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