The Crown Club

Yes, Rennae talks about the New York Liberty again, but it's the last week (for the next year, anyway, let's hope). We shout out the great Ningbo final moments, the weird Six Kings event, as well as tackle... you guessed it, reader questions. 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Rene before we start, because I know you're gonna have
lots of cool celebrity stories.

Speaker 2 (00:14):
Oh yeah, okay, about.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
What you've done for the last couple of days. I
want to tell you that I just had just mirror
moments ago walking from the subway to this studio to
record this podcast episode with you. A massive star sighting.
Oh massive, F Murray Abraham. Who F Murray Abraham?

Speaker 2 (00:36):
Huge stuff people huge?

Speaker 1 (00:38):
Oh my god, I don't know who it is. Did
you ever see Ama Dais? Uh? Yeah, like one hundred
years he played Saliary. He was in Homeland. He's amazing.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Maybe in Homeland.

Speaker 1 (00:49):
He was in Homeland. He was he was in Homeland.
He was the the double agent for like three seasons.
He was like the fixer. That photo you'd not recognize.
I know straight away he's got kind of a famous friar. Anyway,
he's cool. I took it everything I had not to
announce F Mary Abraham and then just put my hand
up for a high five. Look he's right behind you.

(01:11):
American actor. Oh there he is stage and screen.

Speaker 2 (01:14):
Yeah, he's got the guy with the really bad.

Speaker 1 (01:17):
Like he's got an Academy Award, he's got a Tony
he's probably gone, you got mm hmmm, he probably got it.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
I'm gonna have to google that to see.

Speaker 1 (01:25):
Well, Amadis is a great movie if you want to.

Speaker 2 (01:29):
I saw it, But it was like in the eighties, mate, yeah, but.

Speaker 1 (01:31):
It's I grew up in a music of classical I
was a child musicians, so watching the biography of Mozart
was important.

Speaker 2 (01:38):
Anyways, get off the dude.

Speaker 1 (01:41):
Well, now I know we're going to be talking to you.

Speaker 2 (01:42):
So people know this is a common occurrence in New
York City. You just walking on the street and just
random light walk by Claire Danes one time in the
East Village and the West Village that one. You know,
it's it's multiple multiple.

Speaker 1 (01:55):
But Murray Abraham is very quid. Okay, all right, all right.

Speaker 2 (01:58):
So all right here we go. Hi everybody, and welcome
to the Renee Stubs Tennis Podcast. It is not you know,
e News Network. Okay, I want to turn it into.

Speaker 1 (02:08):
That f Maury Abraham or podcast.

Speaker 2 (02:10):
Or the WNBA. But let me start ladies and gentlemen,
people in between and all of those on the earth.
You know how big a fan I am of the
New York Liberty. You know how much of a fan.
I am now of the WNBA so much so that
I went to Vegas to watch the Liberty play when
they played against the Aces. I went to minni Appolis,

(02:33):
Minnesota to watch them play the Links. I saw that
shot from Sabrina Unescue go in the basket because I
was behind the basket down the other end, so I
saw that thing go in with five seconds to go.
Thought I was going to have a heart attack. Literally
could feel my heart, you know when it beats so
hard in your chest, you can feel it. You're like,

(02:54):
this is it going to stay in there?

Speaker 1 (02:56):
It did.

Speaker 2 (02:57):
And then the heartbreak of losing that game in Minneapolis,
and you know, the whole team. As you guys know,
I am very good friends with Sandy Brondelo, who's the
coach the team. She's an Aussie. We've known each other
since we were teenagers. So this is why I have
such a connection to the team. And then we all
flew back on I came back on the charter playing
with the team.

Speaker 1 (03:17):
Cool, did you Yeah?

Speaker 2 (03:19):
Well when we lost, So it wasn't a very cheerful flight.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Were they're good snacks on the flame.

Speaker 2 (03:24):
Good snacks, good food. The flight back from Vegas was
a lot more fun, sure, although it was very tiring.
We got back at two thirty in the morning. Let
me just say something about the WNBA. The amount of
games these players have played this year, including the Olympics,
has been out rageous. They get paid pittons. When I
say pittons, I'm saying pittons, like the top paid player

(03:46):
in the league is two hundred and fifty thousand dollars,
which is a lot of money to you know, the
regular folks. But for what they do and the amount
of fans they're playing in front of right now, it's crazy.
And they have opted out of their collective bargaining agreement early,
so hopefully they can get some stuff, you know, a
little bit more money in their pockets. But the amount
of games they play, the aggressiveness of basketball is just unbelievable.

(04:08):
And Caitlin, you have been transformed because your wife, Claire,
I gave my extra ticket to to the one of
my tickets to the game, and she has been a
Liberty fan forever, and she may she got you so
into it that you actually watched the whole game.

Speaker 1 (04:21):
I watched the whole game, and I'll tell you why,
because you were there Claire was there, most of my
friend group was there, Queen. I don't know every celebrity
was there. It was an important cultural moment. I don't
like basketball, It's not my thing, but I felt like
I needed to be a part of this large Also,
I'm on like eight text chains of people commenting and

(04:44):
I can't get off of it. So I thought, you
know what I'm gonna if I'm gonna watch one, And
keep in mind, I've been to a Liberty game. I
just didn't watch any basketball at that game. I just
chattered to whoever was in the seat next to me nightmare. Sure, yeah, same.
And when I'm watching tennis or a good thing, I
also hate when people talk through it.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
But why don't you be considerate to people that want
to watch basketball instead of sitting there on your phone chatting.

Speaker 1 (05:05):
Nobody who was sitting next to me was minding chatting,
but I did notice it was a rotating cast of characters,
so nobody wanted to chatter where the whole game like
I did. And then I was like, hey, that was fun.
Did we win? And Claire was like, you are kidding me.
You didn't even watch any and I said, you're right,
but this one I watched. I watched it from the
couch Peter and I watched the first quarter. It looked bad.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Oh god, it wasn't bad.

Speaker 1 (05:24):
It was it was pretty. It was foefal and I
feel like the feet was on their side.

Speaker 2 (05:32):
But you know why, and this is you know, I
have to say wonder Sykes was sitting behind me talk
about name dropping, and she kept yelling at me in
my ear. She was like, night the w NBA has
to suck it up. When ESPN wants it or when
the NBA want it, that's when it goes. But used
to recover. Okay, So they played five games of the
most unbelievably physical basketball. They're traveling back and forth. They

(05:55):
literally played a game on was it Friday night? Friday
night in Minute Minnesota. They get on a plane Saturday,
they played on Sunday. That's fucking unbelievably ridiculous. You know
why it was? They only scored like fifty points each
because they're all dying. It's like literally playing four tournament
tennis tournaments in a row and expecting a player to

(06:16):
be at their best on the fifth time. It's just
not happening. Like Breonna Stewart had no legs. Literally, At
one point, John Qwell Jones looked at the bench was like,
don't don't make me the center of this particular point,
because I am done. All these players are dead. You
know how many I think they scored between the two
of them. I know we're on a ramp with the WNBA,
but this is just my point about women's sports getting

(06:37):
screwed over, and they wonder why. They're like, oh, fuck,
they can't even score. But they can't score because none
of them have legs. It's like literally trying to play
tennis without your legs. It's impossible.

Speaker 1 (06:46):
That actually is very unsafe for that. Because I was wondering.
I even texted Claire. I was like, is this an
epic defensive battle that I just don't understand that they
played nobody to score.

Speaker 2 (06:56):
You can play a defense without your legs because you
were just like you down low, you're using your hands,
you're like being physical. But to shoot the basketball is
a whole different situation. That's you've got to use your legs,
You've got to be in the shot. So when we
started talking about it, and I'm talking about it with
experts like Sue Bird, Rebecca lober All, these people that
are my friends afterwards and they're like, what do you expect.

(07:17):
They don't have legs left, they can't make shots. I mean,
Brown and Stewart's three point shot looked like it was
a like a straight shot to the basket. It's like,
I think it's supposed to be like an arc into
the thing. And Sabrina Andescue made one three point of
the whole game. It's like those two teams are the
two best three point shooters in the league. They had

(07:37):
I think five or six the entire game. That is ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (07:43):
And I read that the next finals will be.

Speaker 2 (07:45):
Best of seven seven. Well you better, Cathy Engbert, you
better space those seven games out like you do with
the men. It's a joke.

Speaker 1 (07:52):
Well, we should come back to this when we get
to the subject of this podcast, which is Tannis Yep,
because the scheduling parallels do seem pretty obvious. Right by
the end of the season, by the end of the year,
which it is for both of the BNBA, congratulations to
the Liberty, but also the end of the season, or
at least nearing the end for tennis, this is a
time when everybody's hurt, everybody's pulling out everybody's got and.

Speaker 2 (08:15):
Look how many pullouts we had in tennis last weight.

Speaker 1 (08:17):
Everybody's decided to shut down their season early, you know,
and look, I don't blame them either. Like I'm seeing
on Instagram, like Osterburs it's some cool resort in Tunisia,
Caroline Garcia is, you know, hiking in the in some
island off the African coast.

Speaker 2 (08:33):
It's like, get them.

Speaker 1 (08:35):
Off the court and into nature and do one of
those Japanese nature baths and healed and restored so that
we can come back and watch good tennis next year,
because right now it's rough. It's kind of just like
who's the last man standing? You know, And I feel like,
for me, the lesson of this fall is, Yes, it's
cool to see Sablanca do really well in Asia. Yes,

(08:56):
it's cool because Chinwen Jung finally gets a home crowd. Yes,
it's cool. You know that we've got a few last
big moments, you know, including the Billy Jean and Davis Cup.
We're going to have our big RAFA send off next
month in Malaga. You'll be there for at least part
of it. But yeah, like, what what's what are we?
What are we trading off it seems like years of

(09:16):
these players' lives, if not like debilitating lifelong injuries. I mean,
it's not a new topic. We talked about it every year,
but it's just a reminder that it's not only tennis,
I guess, but also you know, if you want the
product to be really good, invest in the product, pay
them better, and make sure that they're healthy.

Speaker 2 (09:32):
Well, I mean, if you know, we go back to
the w for example, you know the investment that the
team of this Joe and Clarisa I put into Brooklyn,
bring them back from west Chester, playing them in Barclays
eighteen thousand people's record crowds. It's like when you're collecting
that money now that has to go to the players.
Just like in tennis, you know, the Grand Slams are

(09:53):
making so much money and there's not a fifty to
fifty split like it is in the NBA, which is
why they're so happy in the NBA. And so so
you know, hopefully we'll see what happens.

Speaker 1 (10:01):
Well they really should have and you know, look, we
have given the PTPA a lot of grief through the
years because it's been unclear what that they were setting
out to do. I have seen some strides made, and
I'm keeping an open mind because I know some of
the people who work there, and I would love to
see them, Like what's the downside of just saying like, yeah,
we're a union, We're going to basically go on strike

(10:24):
until we get bargaining power and split fifty to fifty
with the leagues or the tournaments, and then you know,
maybe look, they could force some change and get the
tournaments and the governing bodies to sit down and have
a little bit more unity if they're negotiating against one
unified player base. Like that works. Collective action works, and
I think if we see how happy some of the

(10:46):
players are in other leagues, not only about money, rules,
length of season. You know, if you want to have
a domestic violence policy, if you want to have a
parental leave policy, these are things that could be advocated
for that I know players on the player councils are doing.
But just go on through see what happens anything. It
kind of is and I would love to see that happen.
So PTPA have seen these guys make more and more

(11:08):
in Boulder and Boulder moves, which is great. Why not
make twenty twenty five of the year, like, nobody's showing
up down Under unless they have a collective bargaining agreement
making hold on. I mean, you can use one of
the sacrificial slams and nobody cares about like the Australian
kidd jazz.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
Kidding just Australia, do not at me, just kidding, But.

Speaker 1 (11:30):
I'm just saying, new year, new plan, new collective bargaining agreement.

Speaker 2 (11:34):
Why not now, Caitlin, I did throw out the tweet
today this morning.

Speaker 1 (11:38):
My favorite part of the day.

Speaker 2 (11:39):
I have to say that I am I think possibly
still hungover. It's been two days of celebration.

Speaker 1 (11:46):
I'm shocked here but here.

Speaker 2 (11:48):
I didn't make yesterday. We normally do our pot on Monday,
but I literally woke up at I think eleven thirty.

Speaker 1 (11:53):
I did have a moneting to bed at four this
morning with somebody and I said, I don't think Renee,
there's any chance Rene's joining us. I think she's still
hung up from now. We're still sleeping the friday, the
first celebration on Sunday. But I didn't realize you want
out with the team again.

Speaker 2 (12:05):
Last night, Yeah, last night, it was a more demure
one last night in the Soho House in Dumbo. We
were just all taking photos with the trophy with the
backdrop of the most amazing city in the world, and I.

Speaker 1 (12:15):
Thought you weren't supposed to take photos at the Soho House.
I guess they make an acception. It's the winning WNBA
team with the trope. When you got the WNB Trophy,
you can do whatever you want.

Speaker 2 (12:21):
You can, Yeah, you can. There's certain spots of your
life I see. So I did send out a tweet.
So we've got a lot of questions to get to
on this. I do want to throw out before we
get to the questions, congratulations to Arena Sablenka, who's gone
back up to number one in the world. There are
reasons I don't want to talk about it because there
is a question in the questions about that and blah

(12:42):
blah blah. So there's a lot of stuff that I
wanted to talk about, but actually a lot of people
have written the questions and so we are going to
get to that. I do want to say that six
Kings thing. I mean to watch Rafa finish that match.
It was great to see him play another match against
and all that sort of stuff, but it just felt weird.

(13:03):
I mean, listen, I'm going to tell you I didn't
watch a lot of tennis over the last week because
I was so caught up in my liberty, because they
are my liberty. So I did catch a little bit
of tennis, but not a lot of it because I
just felt I don't know that six kings thing, Like
who cares? I mean, Sinner won six million dollars, Like,
I mean he beat Outcraz in the final. He's a

(13:23):
better player on a bit of a faster court. Okay,
I could get into the reasons why, but do I
really care? No, I don't. I really don't care.

Speaker 1 (13:30):
Did you ts also have their thing?

Speaker 2 (13:32):
Yeah? I think they did. Obviously the women were playing
a tournament. So I do want to shout out to
our friend of the pod and just great human being,
Daria Cassagina had an incredible win over Mirror Andreva, and
it was a beautiful moment at the trophy presentation when Andreva,
who's still very young, is like losing and crying her
eyes out and so upset that she lost the match,

(13:52):
and Daria came over and gave her a big hug,
and it was a nice little moment on the stand
and Conchita Martinez is coaching Andreva, and I feel so
good for them. It's just like, it was such a nice,
great final and two really really nice girls.

Speaker 1 (14:05):
Yeah, and Andreva's game is great. She's so fun to watch.
I watched that match. I watched a little bit of
that tournament, and I caught some highlights here the men.
But like all exhibitions, I just can't care that much.
I'll look at the highlight.

Speaker 2 (14:16):
It's not an exhibition that was a five hundred ningo.

Speaker 1 (14:19):
No, no, no, sorry, I'm talking about the men. Like all exhibitions,
I can't care that.

Speaker 2 (14:22):
Much about them because it doesn't matter.

Speaker 1 (14:24):
I don't care about the Labor Cup. I don't care
about exhibitions all that much. You know, go get the bag, Sure,
I get it. Get your money.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
But it was a suitcase.

Speaker 1 (14:31):
It's a suitcase of money. But I was more focused
on the fact that Andreva looks like she's going to
be the real deal. And her match with Kasakina was
a great one. It's great to see Kasaka lifting a trophy.
She didn't have the best season this year, but obviously
she's capable of, you know, great things, and so yeah,
for me, it was more just I'll watch tennis, it's real,
and I'll pay attention occasionally to highlights. Although it was

(14:51):
fun seeing that Carlos Alcarez forehand cross court laser beam,
everyone thought like Nick curious was the only one who
could hit those. Carlos Alcarez can hit them and win
tennis matches. So and he likes tennis, although.

Speaker 2 (15:03):
Nick claims that you know he's coming back to win
a growing sae.

Speaker 1 (15:06):
Sure, okay, good luck, I'm all ready for that.

Speaker 2 (15:09):
Okay, So let's get to some of the questions to
run as sous flex who always writes to us Caitlin.

Speaker 1 (15:14):
I know someone who wants to get in top shape
for a tournament of Thanksgiving. Spoiler, it's me. What would
you recommend they do between now and then Thanksgiving is
essentially four weeks away? Yeah, what's a training block for
four weeks for a tournament look like?

Speaker 2 (15:30):
For you? Well, I think the most important thing is, honestly,
it's just go and do some sprints, you know, try
and get yourself in sort of aerobic shape so you
know you can last out there for a long time,
which is really important in tennis. But also, I love bandwork,
Like if you have a like a body band, like

(15:50):
a big one that you can even if you have
a friend who, like, even if you don't have you
can actually tie it to the net post. Or you
can sort of work on your quick explosive moves with
your legs. That's really important. And the old honestly, the
old line runs like you know, we used to do
these sort of like.

Speaker 1 (16:08):
Oh, the drills where you touch every line on the court.

Speaker 2 (16:10):
Touch every line on the court, like there's just nothing
like old school running around like that. Or if you
have a friend who and you have a bucket of balls,
like honestly, have them just move you from side to
side and then after fifteen a short ball come up,
hit it mid court. So you're getting used to playing
a long point and then being able to put the
ball away when you're tie it. That's why top players

(16:32):
it looks so easy because they do it a billion
times in.

Speaker 1 (16:34):
Practice, so they're fit.

Speaker 2 (16:36):
You know, if you can't go to the gym and
all that sort of stuff, there is ways of getting
in shape without having to go to the gym.

Speaker 1 (16:41):
My answer is going to be meldonium. I think it's
a perfect time to dose on some sort of legal
over the counter. You can get them on Amazon.

Speaker 2 (16:49):
Hurt Can you not please?

Speaker 1 (16:52):
It's not illegal.

Speaker 2 (16:52):
I no, it's not illegal, but it's a heart drug,
so you know we.

Speaker 1 (16:56):
I'm not doing it's not FDA approved.

Speaker 2 (16:58):
I'm doing a disclosure of I am not taking any
responsibility if anyone takes meldonium and you have.

Speaker 1 (17:03):
A heart attack. It's called a disclaimer. All right, do
you to steal? You're welcome. How did tennis players know
when to have food if they're waiting a tennis match
before them to finish in order of play, as they
can't predict when the match before will go on maximum sets,
especially as the tournament goes on. That is a good
question because if you're waiting for a match to go
wrap up and they just split and it's an hour

(17:27):
later plus than you thought originally, it's a nightmare.

Speaker 2 (17:31):
I have to say, you know, back to my liberty again.
On Sunday, I woke up a couple of times in
the middle of the night and just having mild panic attacks,
like what if they lose at home again? Oh my god,
this is going to be terrible, Like I can't I
had the feeling of how I felt when I played.

Speaker 1 (17:44):
Oh wow, you felt like you were going out there.

Speaker 2 (17:46):
I felt, and I think it was worse because I
didn't have any control, Like, at least as a player,
you have some control of this situation. But I woke
up in the morning and I could barely eat breakfast. Wow,
And I thought, oh my fucking god, I'm back to
actually feeling like I did when I played.

Speaker 1 (18:02):
Claire is also nervous, and I had rooted against the
Liberty for the game before because I really wanted her
and you to be able to see it at home.

Speaker 2 (18:08):
She's like, nobody actually wants that. Don't nobody wants to
You can get the win, you take it.

Speaker 1 (18:13):
Yeah, I want the most narrative.

Speaker 2 (18:16):
Away from losing. But I felt the same way. So
to answer your question, it's really hard on days of
matches because you are really physically don't feel good in
your stomach. And I don't know if anyone out there
can relate to this, but it's like if you have
a big test, or you have a big job interview,
or you know you've got to speak publicly and you're

(18:37):
nervous about it. Like, imagine how you feel and try
and fit food into your mouth. It's so hard.

Speaker 1 (18:41):
Is this why everyone's eating you know, like faster's yew,
low intensity banana kind of foods, because also you can
eat one every hour and that'd be too heavy.

Speaker 2 (18:50):
But well, that's why you can eat a banana on
the court because it just digests so easily. So, I
mean most of the time you try and have a
really good breakfast if you're playing late in the evening,
or you have a really good lunch. You know, it
just depends on when you play, and then you have
to do consider all the match in front of me
is now taken. Forever you try and get a snack
inside you. You see players with the bars or with the
sport gels and things like that. So it's just constantly

(19:12):
trying to keep your your system feeling good. And there's
nothing worse than being on the court and feeling a
little bit hungry, because what happens is then that your
blood sugar's dropping and you get more nervous. You don't
your muscles aren't firing the same, So that's why you
see players doing those little gel roles on the court.

Speaker 1 (19:25):
Well, the segues perfectly into the next question from Dnaaltes
Judith stealing the analyts essentially had the same question, which
is what do you eat? And obviously when doer you
get it? We addressed the when, but what easy to
digest that.

Speaker 2 (19:37):
I'll give you a funny. I did see Carlos Alcaraz
just pound down a cheeseburger at the French Open a
couple of years ago. And it was not before a match,
but it was like maybe the day after or the
day of practice, and I thought, oh man, what it
wouldn't be to be nineteen years of age again and
just one of them down, like.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
No big deal, burning ten thousand calories.

Speaker 2 (19:58):
Well, I do think it's the year he started cramping
against Novak, so he probably needs to changes interesting his
eating habits. But most of the time players will eat
pasta very plain maybe a little bit of tomato sauce,
not very much. They'll have it with butter, salt and
pepper and rice with you know, chicken, or it's very plain.
You know, Carbohydrates is very important, particularly the night before.

Speaker 1 (20:23):
It seems like the sushi is always popular.

Speaker 2 (20:26):
It's rice, it's carbs in the rice.

Speaker 1 (20:28):
When I've been into the player dining in some of
these tournaments, the sushi is like always a fast cutter
and Also, people are drinking a lot of smoothies.

Speaker 2 (20:34):
It's yeah, I mean, but the most important thing really
is carbohydrates, long, long day, night before day of just
something you can put in your stomach, because honestly, it's
really hard to eat when you're that nervous. I mean,
just everybody knows what that feels like when you're really
nervous and it's hard to eat. So simple speaking stomach,
I'm hungry.

Speaker 1 (20:52):
It's going to make it into the read the next one.

Speaker 2 (20:55):
I can't.

Speaker 1 (20:56):
Okay, I'll read it. Maggie says, please share your thoughts
about pumping money into events like six Kings Slam. Two
of those invited were not kings. By the way, I
guess we're talking about Runa and Medvedev. I feel like
Medvedev is a king. He has a slam nole whore of.

Speaker 2 (21:15):
Much we paid attention.

Speaker 1 (21:16):
Yeah, and the potential fifth Slam in South Arabia. I
can't get excited by Exos and I just didn't sit
right the last three of the Big Four. Their match
was played in Riod. I mean, listen, I don't like
Exos either, so I get why you don't care that much. Obviously,
we can't be bothered to know who played out of it.

(21:39):
But I also, you know, I get why players are
traveling around the world to get money and play tournaments
in front of people who want to pay them to
watch matches. I think for I'm sort of ignoring the
Saudi part of the question because I clearly I don't
I don't know what I think about it, honestly. But
I also think that there should be more Slams. I

(22:02):
think more as we have four, that's enough. I don't agree,
and I in fact think that either the Slams should
take a less vaunted position on the calendar, or we
should promote other tournaments. But I think we should have.

Speaker 2 (22:18):
No you have to have the special tournaments. It's the
same in golf.

Speaker 1 (22:22):
Well, you're not letting me finish my point. I think
if you make a schedule where there are ten tournaments,
they're all equally important, everyone has to play, they're all dual,
that's a better schedule. It's better, it's a better season.
It doesn't take anyway anything from any particular tournament. Look
at the the way f one does. It's it's you know, uh,
it's there's newer events where it's.

Speaker 2 (22:42):
In price every week one, correct.

Speaker 1 (22:46):
I'm not one match. No, I'm not saying I don't
know why I think I would say that. I think
I want ten tournaments total, all equally important, so that
there's not a too long of a schedule, and so
that it's also an important And I will point you
to the fact that for a long time the Australian
Open was not considered a Grand Slam, and it got promoted,
and so for me, okay, the Italian Open, the Canadian Open.

Speaker 2 (23:07):
The Central Asian Open was always a major, sure.

Speaker 1 (23:10):
But also so was the Canadian Open, and so was
the Italian Open.

Speaker 2 (23:13):
Which was why Margaret Court has like more right than.

Speaker 1 (23:16):
Serena correct, and she shouldn't because that was a tournament
that wasn't up on the level. So for me, it's
more about parody.

Speaker 2 (23:23):
Well, it was just people didn't go to it, So
technically they could have gone to it. They just chose
not to because they were playing like World Team Tennis,
because it was paying them ten times more money.

Speaker 1 (23:31):
That's why, which is actually sort of relevant to this question,
which is xos versus schedule. I think if you fix
the schedule, you'll still have players doing exhibitions, but actually
there'll be a lot healthier, happier, and less likely to
want to go grab the bag in a meaningless exhibition
if their schedule made sense and if people were guaranteed
to watch it and be involved in it. So I

(23:51):
actually think the whole schedule should have an overhaul.

Speaker 2 (23:54):
I think the schedule needs an overhaul. We've talked about that,
and I agree with you. But the importance of those
for majors makes tennis, makes those events so important to players,
Like I can just tell you right now, I want
to win. I wanted to win every tournament I played,
but the importance and the and the specialness of winning

(24:14):
a major is just it's second to none.

Speaker 1 (24:16):
But I also think that's generationally different. Like I think
if you were to ask Martina to radelover who has
the most tournament wins of anybody, if the majors were
more important than the tournaments, I don't know, Maybe she
said yes, Maybe she's she wouldn't. Maybe she say I
was actually focused on winning every single tournament I entered,
which is why I have the winningest record in all tournaments.

Speaker 2 (24:33):
I can tell you Martina will say, no, I'll choose
all my majors over all my tournaments.

Speaker 1 (24:37):
I think there should be ten majors, and I think
that they should be spread out geographically.

Speaker 2 (24:42):
No, Okay, let's agree to disagree, because that is just
absolutely stupid.

Speaker 1 (24:47):
Well, it's also just like things. I don't you you,
I mean you.

Speaker 2 (24:52):
Your issue is that you have a big you have
a pushback on the slams.

Speaker 1 (24:55):
No, it's not that. Actually, I like to say.

Speaker 2 (24:57):
On their control of the two are a little bit.

Speaker 1 (25:00):
I think that there's some administrative things that get lessened
if you loosen the power of you deconcentrate the power
in a few hands. But also, I'm not somebody who
thinks history is prologue. Like I've said this to you
many times. When you were like, they can't move the
French open to October, It's like, well they did, anybody correct?
But my point is anybody can do anything. It doesn't

(25:24):
matter anything. Chaos is a ladder. You can remake things
as you want to. And up until one hundred and
fifty years ago, we lived on a flat earth that
was controlled by divine blood. Right, we can do whatever
we want, and the tours should and can adapt to
the to the audience demands. Yes, history matters, and yes.

Speaker 2 (25:41):
The it all the time. The Grand Slams of now
moving to correct.

Speaker 1 (25:46):
But I would love for there to be a Grand
Slam in Asia. I would love for them to be
a Grand Slam in South America. I would love for
there to be a Grand Slam. It's gonna happen, probably
in our lifetimes in the Middle East. Like geographic diversity matters, there.

Speaker 2 (25:59):
Is a Grand Slam as it's called Oceania Australia.

Speaker 3 (26:03):
Sure, okay, all right, let's move on.

Speaker 1 (26:17):
You're going to get some blowback from every Asian person
who resents ocean fame.

Speaker 2 (26:23):
Sure, that's why we anyway, can't move on. Sometimes we've
got to agree to disagree, which is normal for US. Jordan asks,
if Andy Murray pivots to coaching, who do you think
would be a good fit for him? What elements, mate, thanks,
make for a good coach player dynamic?

Speaker 1 (26:41):
I love this question.

Speaker 2 (26:41):
All right, I'll answer this one a little bit, Andy Murray,
he would be great coaching anyone. This guy knows tennis
like the back of his hand. He knows emotion, and
I think it's really good. He's just pulling me a
glass of water in the middle of this.

Speaker 1 (26:58):
It's not to pour somebody else, firsity, hell nice, anyway,
You're welcome.

Speaker 2 (27:02):
Professional. He would be great coaching anyone female or male
because he just has a great tennis mind. He also
is a very was a very emotional player, and I
think that you know, he would be very empathetic to
a player's you know dis you know, tough times out
on the tennis schad. So I think he would help

(27:22):
anybody on tour. I don't have a particular player that
I think would be the biggest or best one because
that would just be weird. But I think anyone, and
I think that the what a good element is, and
I've talked about this before, is that a good coach
when you come in as a person with a certain personality,
Like I have a certain personality which is disagreeable with Caitlin. I.

(27:48):
I always know what my player's personality is, so I
don't want to change their personality at all. If they're quiet,
I understand that about them. If they're a little bit
nuts or a little bit like over the top, I
get that. Like my favorite saying to a player is
I don't take anything personally. So if I say something
to you and you snap back at me because you

(28:09):
know whatever, it's like, I don't want to hear that
right now. I don't take any of that personally. I say,
I don't take anything personally until you make it personal.
So someone says to me something that's personally attacking me, yeah,
we have a problem.

Speaker 1 (28:22):
Fair.

Speaker 2 (28:23):
So anything outside of that, it's understanding your player, understand
their strengths and weaknesses, but also understanding their personalities, which
is really important because you, if you want to get
the best out of something, eagerty on take is very
different to sabal Anka. You got to talk to sabal
Anca very differently to how you talk to Eger and
vice versa. In the men's game. You know, Sinner is
a very quiet guy. He needs guys like that around him.

(28:44):
If he has people that are too up, it's like
probably a little bit too much for him. So you've
got to understand that. That's very important.

Speaker 1 (28:50):
For What was also interesting for me knowing you as
you coached Plishkova a little bit with Bouchard obviously Serena
coaching Sam You really, I'm sure your fundamentals and what
they all needed to work on was you know, individualized
to the person. But you know you're you're not giving
a tremendously different set of advice about moving forward or
taking balls. It's more how you're adjusting your vibe. I

(29:12):
will answer the question to say, I think Andy has
a lot of wisdom. I would love to see his call,
the way he learned to channel his emotions and be calm,
and especially during that year that he won the ATP Finals,
he won the Wimbledon. I'm thinking what twenty sixteen, twenty
seventeen together, keep his shit together. I would love to
see him get ons a Wimbledon.

Speaker 2 (29:30):
Ooh ooh, good call.

Speaker 1 (29:32):
I want he win.

Speaker 2 (29:33):
About my stomach growling one.

Speaker 1 (29:35):
There's some granola persons. Why don't you drink the water?
Just PORTRAYO what a nice person I am. Next, Guert right,
that was a great answer for both of us. I
have to say, Okay, Steve Leonard, who runs operates sets
up the line calling system, would be different people at
each tournament. Hawkeye. It is an outsourced technology soon to
be replacing all human beings. Angela Fetchner, what do you

(29:57):
expect from the new partnership? Oh glad, I'm glad. Somebody
asked about Schmuantech and wim faceet Belgian coach to the
Stars a new coach player pairing, thank you Angela for
giving us an excuse to talk about whim and ego.
What do you make of that? Because that is news
since we last recorded and we even did a who
will whim coach next?

Speaker 2 (30:16):
Yeah? I mean are we surprised by this?

Speaker 1 (30:18):
This is this makes perfect sense.

Speaker 2 (30:20):
And again, this is not a slight on wim fa
set Okay, I want to get that straight. This is
not a slight on Patrick More.

Speaker 1 (30:26):
Did anybody think that?

Speaker 2 (30:27):
But the fact that these men just file up it
just makes me laugh.

Speaker 1 (30:33):
Wait, but okay, I'm not disagreeing with you, but I'm.

Speaker 2 (30:35):
Not saying fail like you failed. But we're getting fired
and then they get picked up in one week to
work with somebody else. It makes me laugh so much.

Speaker 1 (30:44):
Do you think it has to? I mean both of
them can say that they've coached Grant Slam winning, so maybe, yeah,
failing maybe it's not their word. But it is interesting
because when fired up, fired upwards, yes, fired up there
promoted despite uh of a excuse them with the former player.
One thing I think is really maybe plays into this

(31:06):
is people don't think of it as a firing because
everyone's so nice about it on social media like Renee.
Renee and Caitlin have decided to end their coaching partnership. Renee,
You've been a part of my the best parts of
my life. You've just been an incredible person in my ear.
And and secretly it's like, hey, we fucking hate each other.
I don't know, just like it didn't work.

Speaker 2 (31:25):
So everyone knows only for a certain amount of time
in the day. Do I hate Caitlin?

Speaker 1 (31:28):
Thank you, thank you for clarifying all the certain times.
But I do think like part of it is the
performance of how jovial and collegial these breakups are. It's actually, no,
you're getting.

Speaker 2 (31:39):
Fired, yeah, and we don't like I don't like you anymore.

Speaker 1 (31:41):
So your point is, how do these it's always the
same guys, and they always end up getting really great agents.

Speaker 2 (31:47):
They contact the agents, the agents contact their agents.

Speaker 1 (31:50):
It's like it might be well, maybe I'll put that
on the player and say, why aren't the players looking
more creatively outside of the same.

Speaker 2 (31:57):
Because these coaches have agents, and as soon as they're
about to get fired, and they know they're getting fired,
they're onto every other agent.

Speaker 1 (32:06):
Did Serena's agent come to you? No, she came to you, no,
because she was creative and she was like, oh I
need some molse.

Speaker 2 (32:12):
Well, actually, how it happened was I sent her a
text and said sorry about the match last night. I
was there. She's like yeah, and I was like, I
have some thoughts. This is what I wrote, and she said, great,
can you come to my practice tomorrow? And that's how
it started. But also I've had a twenty five year
relationship with serena longer actually, and I've always spoken to

(32:34):
her about a tennis The amount of text messages that
I sent her throughout her career before even worked with
her before the US Open is numerous, you know, even
little game plan she would ask me, you know, what
do you think about this? Or you know, I would
send her a text about stuff and you know, about
her attitude or the way she was acting or something,
you know, because I knew her so well, so we
had a built in relationship. But yeah, some of these coaches,

(32:57):
I mean, listen, what do I think about how it's
going to go? I think it'll go great because when
will come in with new ideas and new fresh he's
a little bit and not a little bit, he's a
lot more upbeat and a lot more positive than Thomas.
I felt Thomas was very dour, like oh my god,
Like you would walk into a room with him and
it was just like, oh, and I'm like, dude, you

(33:19):
gotta like make life better. I mean, you gotta find
some joy on the tennis court or working with Ego
or something, because Eager clearly when she's out on the court,
she gets very stressed and all the things you see
and you have to be able to monitor that and
be able. And that's where I think women coaches can
be better in those situations, like Martinez working with Mira Andrea.

(33:40):
But you can see Miraa Andreva. She's very demonstrative on
the court at times, she's young, all these things, but
you can see how much more confidence she's getting. Can
she controls, you know, not controls her, like understands what
she's seeing and can talk to her about it because
she played. So it's just like, I don't know, we'll see.
I think Eagle will probably do great and women will
look like a legend and there you go.

Speaker 1 (34:01):
I do think it's anyone who worked with Ego was
gonna it was gonna. Yeah, I mean, Ego's already incredibly good.
I do think it would be nice to see her
smiling more on the court, and I hope that the
positive box change will be for the better. Yep, Boris
asks if Rafford does well at Davis Cup famously he's
retiring at David's Cup and is healthy, what is the

(34:21):
possibility he plays, ao Boris.

Speaker 2 (34:23):
Zero point zero zero zero zero zero percent. Yeah, no,
I mean no, he's not playing. I mean he's barely
gonna make it. Yeah, I mean the only reason, thank god,
it's going to be his last match is going to
be in Spain. I just was like, Oh, this is
the this is the last match you're gonna play against
Novak here getting paid all this money, and I just
felt so So I'm glad he's doing it in Spain.

(34:46):
At least he'll get the send off, he'll be crying,
it'll all be. There was no tears in rear and
you're just like, he's like, give me my money and
I'm out of here. So I'm glad he's doing in Spain.
But you will not see him at the strain.

Speaker 1 (34:56):
Hard to imagine, all right, J Trepaner, but by I
suppose had your name right. As the year ends, in
the new Doubles Partnership's form. Can you talk a little
bit about how that process works to players to chat
amongst themselves to find new partners, Do agents get involved?
Do you sign up for a full year together or
a few months trial period? Thanks? Before you answer, I'm
going to say when I was in Junior's, one of
my favorite things is you just put your name next

(35:18):
to the draw. You'd say I was looking for a
doubles looking, yeah, looking basically.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
Actually, Caitlin, that still happened.

Speaker 1 (35:24):
But I love playing doubles so much that I played
all the time and I ended up being better at doubles.
And it was because I played doubles every single tournament.
I would make a lot of new friends.

Speaker 2 (35:31):
Just so you know, that actually happens on the tour.

Speaker 1 (35:33):
That's funny.

Speaker 2 (35:34):
Real people do write down on a sheet in the
WTA office X name ranking looking, So that actually does
happen still on the tour. Usually most of those players
are writing aren't as successful because it's very ready to
be looking, you know, if you're a good doubles player.
So I will tell you all of that question is
all of the above. There is like backchatter, there's friendships,

(35:58):
there's like agents maybe talking to that. There's coaches that
are talking to other coaches, and my players not doing
well with this plan, I think, you know, So there's
a lot of stuff. It's basically like dating. It's like
who's going to be honest, who's going to be truthful,
who's going to be faithful? Who is going to blame
their partner?

Speaker 1 (36:16):
Wow?

Speaker 2 (36:16):
Who is going to jump out of that partnership for first?
Who thinks that they're better than their partner and thinks
that they could do better with somebody else.

Speaker 1 (36:25):
Because all these things are all happen.

Speaker 2 (36:26):
Things are happening, all of them, and if you're not
having success week in and week out, you are always
constantly looking of blaming your partner.

Speaker 1 (36:33):
I can tell you what I think makes a successful marriage,
but I'm not sure what makes us successful doubles partner
same same thing, but it's probably the same thing, right,
Like communication, honesty, transparency, expectations, you know that kind of stuff.

Speaker 2 (36:45):
I mean, I remember, like Lisa Raymond and I before
we won our first Wimbledon, we didn't have a coach
with us at the time, and Lisa often had coaches
because she was doing so well on singles, but it's
very expensive to have a coach, so I had coaches
on and off. And we sat down with each other
before the tournament, and of course we didn't have a coach,
and we said to each other, what do we need
to work on? What do I need to work on,

(37:06):
and what do you need to work on? And we
were really honest with one Obviously, we were incredibly close personally,
so it was easier for oh, sometimes easier or harder
to have those conversations. But she said to me, you
got to be better with your second shot. So I
hit a good return and then they'd get the ball
back and then maybe I'd miss that next shot. And
Lisa was so much better at that than I was,
and so she's like, you need to work on that.

(37:27):
So I did like that whole week preparation for Wimblin.
That was my goal. My goal was not missed my
second shot or set my partner up, and with her
it was X and Y, and so I would tell
her and then we were really we kept each other
accountable and practice and we didn't want lose a set
that wimblelin when we want it. So it clearly worked.
But you've got to be really honest, but honestly. In doubles,
it's about personality. It's about what side you play on.

(37:48):
I was a backhand court player. Least it was a
fourhand court player. It worked well with us. So it's
a lot of things. But yeah, it's about being faithful
and being truthful.

Speaker 1 (37:57):
It's also amazing that everyone's kind of having very different ranking.
Doubles drama is really fun.

Speaker 2 (38:02):
Oh my, you have no idea. I could tell you
so many stories. Maybe one podcast will have of doubles
story podcast, just like blind Items, and I can tell
you my own stories in that. And I fucked up
one time. You know, stop playing with Kara Black. It's
a long story. Kara and knows his story. But I'll
get into them. Maybe maybe I'll get into it when
Lisa comes on the pot.

Speaker 1 (38:20):
Maybe we should do like a bonus episode behind a
pywall line has to like behind a scene. Oh yeah,
all right, this next one is for you because they
say you're a huge they're a huge fan. Next level, right,
it's hire a name, huge fan.

Speaker 2 (38:31):
Oh is that how they said it?

Speaker 1 (38:32):
Huge fan? Yeah? Can you share your thoughts?

Speaker 2 (38:36):
Is that your sexy voice?

Speaker 1 (38:38):
If this tour should combine and have a commissioner Big
four American Sports. Also, who would make a Greek commissioner
if you think there should be one.

Speaker 2 (38:46):
Sophie Goldschmidt.

Speaker 1 (38:47):
Yeah, Sophie got would be a good We're having dinner
with her to it.

Speaker 2 (38:49):
We are having dinner with tonight. Sophie is the CEO
of World of the US.

Speaker 1 (38:54):
Ski team was Ski and Snowboards, the Ski and Snowboard
previously World Surf League YEP.

Speaker 2 (39:00):
Previously worked for the WTA Rugby. Like all kinds of things,
Sophie Goldschmid is my I would dream to have Sophie
as the commissioner. And she listens to our podcast, so
she's smiling and laughing right now and also saying, fuck,
don't pull my nan out.

Speaker 1 (39:12):
I am busier, but you are right.

Speaker 2 (39:14):
We do need a full commissioner. We need the tourist
to join, and that's how we get collective bargaining and
how we get more money out of the slams.

Speaker 1 (39:22):
Yeah, that's it, that's it. You just need somebody competent.
Jay Rudd, what do you think about Sabby getting number
one without her or Eager playing a match? How does
that fit historically in the sport? It fits historically in
the sport all the time, people's rankings move all the time,
whether or not they lose. Sometimes they lose and they
still get promoted to number one. It has more to
do with how the weekly ranking system works. That also

(39:44):
is another way of saying congratulations to Arena Sbalanca forgetting
to number one, which she is right now.

Speaker 2 (39:49):
It's a twelvemonth rotation, right, So if I won a
tournament this week and I didn't play it, those points
drop off, and my opponent may have lost first round
of that tournament, and then that drops off because it's
basically just a twelve month rotation.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
An accumulation of points over twelve months that fluctuates. And
so for me, how do I feel about it? I
feel great because there is no doubt in my mind
that at there's a moment right now, Arena Sublink is
the best player in the world.

Speaker 2 (40:16):
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (40:16):
Absolutely, Sometimes it is weird being like, eh, is that correct?
But it also has to do with to your point,
who's defending what points?

Speaker 2 (40:23):
Yeah, we had Ego won the WT finals last year,
which is I believe two thousand points I think to win.
So you just had there's a great website. It's live
tennis scores. It lies tennis rankings, and you can see
where the points are dropping off, why they can move,
where they can move to where they're at in a
certain tournament, what that means to them. So there's lots

(40:44):
of good little information.

Speaker 1 (40:45):
Do you care about the rankings?

Speaker 2 (40:46):
No, I mean when you've been number one in the
world already, it's great to get back there. Arena is
happy to be back there, but it doesn't mean the
same as what it did when you What is important
is end of year world ranking for your bonuses.

Speaker 1 (40:59):
That's right, contract you're commercial. So yeah. From Peter, the
lovely Peter, who we know, an actual tennis question, how
do you and Kaitland see the current state of the tour?
What players are obviously amazing and the depth has improved greatly,
but what would you like to see as an improved
and added to make the product even stronger. Well, one
thing that has happened which I'm thrilled about, which some

(41:20):
people are mad about, is that there will be on
court coaching for both men and women next year.

Speaker 2 (41:25):
Okay, can we just laugh about that though the amount
of just vitriol and stuff. I mean, even John Mellman,
who I love Johnny. He was like, it sucks. I'm like, dude,
we've had it for like two years already, get over it,
like we And okay, here's my thing with coaching, and
that one thing is that it's tough for the lower
ranked players if you don't have a coach, So that

(41:45):
does hurt you. But if you've got a friend, they
can help you out as well and go and watch
you play. So there is an imbalance there. But you
know what it's always get You know, if we were
a top player, you get the practice call, it's up
for two hours, and a player ranked sixty gets it
for an hour. It just sucks. You know. You get
to hit on Arthur ash Stadium every time you play,
and so that when you go out and play a match,
it's like no big deal for you. Or if you

(42:06):
never practice on that court, you're like, oh fuck, this
court is big. It's like if you're successful and you're good,
everything happens for you. You get it's just easier. You get
more balls, you get more practice time, you get the
private car, it's all of it. You probably get a
private jet sent for you. So with this on court coaching,
it's like I have played, and I have coached, and

(42:27):
believe me when I tell you, even when it wasn't allowed,
everybody is coaching. Yeap, okay, I can do a little
tap of my write ear means serve to the forehand.
I'm like, you can do across your arm. So they're
hitting the ball cross court like. There are so many
ways to get around on court coaching that's not allowed.
And also there is only so much that you can

(42:47):
tell a player in twenty seconds, okay, And there's a
scene called paralysis by analysis, and so the more information
you're giving your players say look at you, like shut what.
So it's a very fine balance. I think it's fine
because it was happening anyway, so now we don't have
to worry about the stupid warnings. And also when Sam

(43:08):
was playing with the Chinese player, I would tell her
coach they need to do X and Y, and he
would yell it out.

Speaker 1 (43:15):
In Chinese and not be busted, of course.

Speaker 2 (43:17):
Not because the umpire doesn't understand what he's.

Speaker 1 (43:19):
Saying, unless you're in China, in which case you weren't
getting busted for coaching, that's.

Speaker 2 (43:22):
Right, Well, no, because the umpire is English speaking usually yeah,
so I would say, hey, Robert, say watch the down
the line and you go, you know, blah blah blah
in Chinese, and I'm like, yeah, thanks, great, and the
umpire was sort of looking and I was like, oh
what he said.

Speaker 1 (43:37):
My answer has always been more on court coaching. It
makes the product better. And I also love when they
make it up so players at home can understand what
is happening. The way that we can get inside into
football or inset into basketball by hearing what the coaching is,
what should they be doing, what aren't they doing, and
how can they improve and then you can watch it.
It's amazing.

Speaker 2 (43:55):
And to all commentators out there, no matter how good
your point of view is, when you're saying something on
the court, if the coach suddenly starts talking to the player,
shut up.

Speaker 1 (44:05):
That's agreed.

Speaker 2 (44:05):
I need to hear what they're saying. You're what you're
saying is nowhere near. It will never be as important
as what the coach is saying to the player or
the player is saying.

Speaker 1 (44:12):
To the coach, even if it's something dumb, that's more
insightful sometimes to be like, oh, well this guy has
nothing to say, right, Yeah, anyway, agreed, And then we've
already talked about consolidating the tours, making the schedule shorter
ten Grand Slams, which we both agree on. So is
that question Peter Oh, Peter trylock Karki says, can you
please cover this switch on WADA position number one due

(44:33):
to penalty on missing mandatory five hundred events. It sounds
like he's making the point or she's making the point
that where they're making the point that Arena Sabla like
ascended to number one because somebody missed a mandatory five hundred.
I don't care.

Speaker 2 (44:43):
It's the way it is.

Speaker 1 (44:44):
It's just the way it is. This is the schedule
and it's about defending points. Also, I don't think it's
that big of a deal to be candid.

Speaker 2 (44:50):
Neither Eagle or Arena care.

Speaker 1 (44:52):
I don't think they care about who's number one at
the end of the year, and they'll care about who
lists the trophies at the end of the week more
than this. BG. Do you think players who make it
deeper in to one tour should be allowed to buy
in round one? I'm not sure exactly what that means,
but what's your take on top ten players not allowed
to compete in more than one, two, two fifties. Okay,
so this question is about something called vulturing, where players

(45:13):
who are highly ranked are prevented from playing too many
smaller tournaments to a crew points, which seems like, on
the face of it, a good rule. EMM Navarro got
some flak because she was entering tournaments prior to when
she ascended to the heights she is ranked currently and
accused of vulturing points. I think she was entered into

(45:34):
Hong Kong, which happens in a week or two, and
the idea was she was sort of praying on players
ranked much lower than her to just accrue points. I
don't know if that's true. I don't think it's true.
But again, there's so much to nitpick about here. If
you had ten tournaments and they were all worth the same,
it wouldn't matter. But what do you think about that?

Speaker 2 (45:51):
Do you think it's bad or I mean, I have
various different thoughts on this. You know, it's nice when
you have a smaller tournament in a small city, you
know that doesn't get a lot of high powered tennis
players going. Then you get someone that is huge to
grow the sport a small town, so you know, a
small town in Brazil or wherever in China or in Europe,

(46:13):
if you've got a two fifty in Luxembourg or somewhere
like that, or you know, and you get these kids
that going to watch it and they get to see
a huge superstar. I think it's great for the growth
of the game. There is the other side of the
tournament putting a ton of money in. They want the
best players there. So there's you know, there's that juxtaposition
of you know, supporting the tour, supporting the tournaments, supporting

(46:34):
the cities. I don't know.

Speaker 1 (46:36):
I kind of think the tournaments should get the best
players they can.

Speaker 3 (46:39):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (46:39):
And if a player wants to play a tournament in
their hometown, you know, like Eager wants to play in Poland,
let her play. Fuck who cares? Yeah.

Speaker 1 (46:47):
Also, like maybe I'm Menaviarral really loves dim sum like
Hong Kong's awesome. I don't know why, and I wouldn't
anyone wouldn't want to go there.

Speaker 2 (46:54):
Who's Telescope and soup dumpling tonight?

Speaker 1 (46:56):
I's sir about that? Cha Loongbao? All right? Telescop asks
the same question about Ega and wim Faz that we
already cover that lorettas Caamura Faturos.

Speaker 2 (47:06):
Would you use because you were just in Italy.

Speaker 1 (47:08):
You just nailed that, Thank you? Would you explain more
clearly the twenty twenty five coaching rule. This is online
coaching and how it differs from what we're currently experiencing.
Doesn't this past season, it doesn't.

Speaker 2 (47:18):
It doesn't, So everyone losing their mind it it's been happening.

Speaker 1 (47:21):
This is definitely a renee question unless you want to
hear about the very competitive NCAA doubles that I experienced,
which is highly doubtful. Although I did once lose to
Alexander Stephens in I believe it was in like thirty
five minutes at national doubles. She was six ' five.
She was enormous and served like hundred fifty miles like
six well to me who's five to five. She felt
like a titan like John Kwell exactly. I wasn't getting

(47:45):
anything past her at the net either, Steph As Stephen
Kennedy says, who is the best player slash team that
you ever played in singles and doubles and you've played
against the Williams sisters, is that the answer?

Speaker 2 (47:56):
Yeah? Probably them at their best just because they serve
you off the court. But I was pretty competitive against them,
but they I beat them one time. Every other time
I did not win. But and they were also at
their peak powers in singles, you know when I was
playing them. And that's why I get annoyed when people
are like, you know, these players are pulling out in doubles,

(48:16):
and I'm like, shut up. None of the top players
play doubles anymore. You guys should be happy playing doubles only.
But I would say the Williams sisters, Jiji Fernandez and
Natasha's are Aba were two great doubles team. You know,
my Tina Navrilova and anyone. My Tina Hingus and Anyone
were probably the four or five or six doubles players
that I played against. It were always so fun and competitive.

(48:39):
And I would say in singles, I mean, I had
the great pleasure of playing stephie Graff on grass and
I almost beat her, did you yeah, because six four
in the third grass shitty grass in Birmingham, So it
was a nightmare for her to pass me. I was,
And plus I always hit with her and she was
my friend, so I was comfortable, like it wasn't like
I was against Steffi graff this, you know, m I

(49:00):
was like, she's my friend, right, and you practice so
you serve in my doubles with a you know, you know,
I was coming in on a back end like a
banshe and she couldn't pass me, so it was likely.
But I did still lose because she had a fuehand
past me on matt point.

Speaker 1 (49:11):
Cool.

Speaker 2 (49:12):
So yeah, I played her in singles. That's that's my greatest.

Speaker 1 (49:16):
That's a good answer, Yeah, AJP says. And we've touched
on this a little bit. Assuming Sadi Arabia is here
to stay, could they or should they make a positive
difference to the ATPWTA through proper investment rather than just
throwing millions away at exhibitions. What things could they do?
I'll take this because I have been loath to sort
of talk about the Saudia stuff because, like I said,
I'm still sort of thinking about what I think about it. Yes,

(49:36):
they're throwing exhibitions, as do many places around the world,
but also they are investing at the Satday Townel Federation
in young kids, especially young women, to try to get
parody among the genders. In twenty thirty five, among tennis
playing recreationally. So I don't think it's just what you see,
which is which is the six King Slam. I think

(49:57):
it's a lot of grassroots stuff because I'm at least historic,
not just Houdi Arabia, but the Emirates have spent a
ton of money on exhibitions and tournaments and they don't
have a local, homegrown star, so they're trying to address that.
The other thing I would say is, yeah, uh, there's
a lot of things that they could do, and I
would love to see, as Billy Jean King says about

(50:19):
Sadi Arabia specifically, let's see what engagement does.

Speaker 2 (50:23):
Yep.

Speaker 1 (50:24):
I'm gonna leave it at that, Okay, yep. Stephen Kennedy,
do pro players swing as fast on the second serve
as the first, just with more spin or is it
a myth thanks Renee like I think head racket speed.

Speaker 2 (50:37):
That's a great question. It's very different. So on a
first serve you're really snapping the wrist to get that
real flat pronation or speed on the serf, and then
the second one, I don't know. That's a really great
question to ask if it's the same speed like quickness
because you're brushing the side of it more on a
second serve. So the first serve you're really snapping it,

(50:58):
going fast flat, and on the second serve you're hitting
it more. From like seven pm. I always talk about
things on a clock, So seven pm over to like
five pm, you know what I mean. Like, so you're like,
it's like a smile, whereas the first serves like a
real straight line with the racketthead speed. But that's a

(51:19):
really great question. I'd say the speed is pretty similar
in a lot of way. It's just more you hit
and you cut the ball differently.

Speaker 1 (51:26):
Good answer, speed round because we only have a few
minutes left, Tim Kidd. Very similar to the commissioner question,
why can't someone like Roger become the president or CEO
of tennis or someone start to working on that role.
Tennis needs the leader for loads of different reasons, not
people pulling in different ways. Agree with you, Tim Kid,
I'm not sure where Roger wants the job, but certainly
somebody who knows how to negotiate commercial contracts and get

(51:48):
a bunch of people with opposing viewpoints in a room,
like someone we mentioned earlier. We won't say her name again,
but rewind it if you want to hear it, Uneven
Steven will share a pova get your Hall of Fame
vote Well, I don't have vote me neither, but would she.

Speaker 2 (52:02):
She gets me Listen. I got a lot of flak
for this years and years ago from her agent, Max Eisenbud,
and he has barely said two words to me since.
And I made this comment, and it's the reason why
we have a podcast, actually, because I did the podcast
with John Moore time and he asked me the question,
you know she's a Lock Hall of Fame, and I went, well,
I go, here's the bottom line. She is the first

(52:24):
player to be a Lock Hall of Famer that has
been credibly found guilty of taking a performance enhancing drug.
So I said, how the it? A sorry? How are
the Hall of Fame going to handle that? How are
they going to handle that? How are they going to
handle Simona Hallep who is also a Lock for the
Hall of Fame. Yep, they both had a suspension of

(52:46):
multiple years. How do you I mean, if I had
to vote her, I'd probably vote her in because what
she did was incredible in her career. But at the
same time, it's like, what's the precedent you're setting a
press in it now of putting. They didn't put what's
his name into the Baseball Hall of Fame, p Rose, McGuire, McGuire,

(53:07):
A Rod, all these guys that were, you know, lock
Hall of Famous in the Baseball and you know, for
betting on sports and all that sort of stuff. And
so I don't know, you know, what's the precedent you're
setting if you're saying, if you're gonna put Maria Sharup
over in that, you've gotta put Halip. Yeah, you gotta
put everyone else that comes behind that.

Speaker 1 (53:25):
Yeah, Yannick Center, But he didn't. He didn't have a suspension,
that's true. He hasn't been suspended.

Speaker 2 (53:29):
So if you've been suspended, yeah, I mean Martina Hingers
is in there, but hers was for cocaine. Remember that,
I do.

Speaker 1 (53:35):
I can't forget that, I know, but it's so cool
nobody can.

Speaker 2 (53:38):
But technically it's not a performance and it ends I'd
like to see someone playing on cocaine, but it's like,
so would I vote for her? Probably? But the question
is the the the Hall of Fame are going to
have to answer that question. Okay, So anyone that's been
done for pds can still be eligible for the Hall
of Fame. That's precedent.

Speaker 1 (53:56):
That's a good Is that a good off ramp? I
think it is no, But we have two more questions.
There's a theme that I'm going to kind of allow
us to sort of end on because a lot of
people want to know about off guard coaching. A lot
of people want to know about EGA and whim Fast,
A lot of people wanted to know why don't more
WTTA players. This is from mish higher female coaches. We

(54:17):
don't know, but we wish they would.

Speaker 2 (54:19):
My number is eight one three.

Speaker 1 (54:21):
Will hold Garuna figure out his game in twenty twenty five?
I certainly hope so. I love him now, I would
coach him, and I think he would be a very
credible Grand Slam winner, and I hope he gets there,
not next year. Give give Renee a call, Holger, She's
we're all ready for this.

Speaker 2 (54:43):
Eight one three.

Speaker 1 (54:44):
What is the hardest skill to learn in tennis? Says
Stalin Lobo.

Speaker 2 (54:49):
Oh, that's a well, it's a good question, but it's
really very subjective. Some people can hit back ends really
easily too hands, and some people can't hit a slice
to save their lives. You know, the surf can be
a little difficult for people. I think the fourhands probably
the easiest because that's where around's stronger. Volleys can be
very difficult. What I'm trying to tell you, my friends,

(55:10):
is that tennis is really hard.

Speaker 1 (55:11):
Tennis is really hard, really good at Do you think
it's between the years?

Speaker 2 (55:15):
No, it's technical, it's physical, it's everything, it's mental. Tennis
is the hardest sport in the world.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
It is the hardest place. It's so hard.

Speaker 2 (55:26):
But I will say this, Superbird thinks that she could
be a really good tennis player, a lot quicker than
I could be a really good basketball player. She's round,
and I was like, but but half the time I
think she's just just just push.

Speaker 1 (55:37):
But she's totally wrong. That's not even I mean, respectfully,
super Bird, why watching basketball like that's?

Speaker 2 (55:43):
Aa?

Speaker 1 (55:44):
I have so much respectful I do too, but it's
not anywhere near so physical.

Speaker 2 (55:49):
They wake up the next day.

Speaker 1 (55:50):
I don't care about basketball. But I am going to
last end with the last question. What do the liberty
celebrations look like? You already alluded to this. You talked
about the night I'll tell you her last night with
the SOHO husband, tell me how the actual Nate ended. Well,
then we will wrap it up and not talk about
the Liberty at least for the rest of the year. Deal.

Speaker 2 (56:08):
Oh yeah, okay. So it was a big celebration on
the court, obviously, with the streamers and everything, and then
we all went into this great room in the Barclay
Center that the size have kept open for the w
and bear. She said, we treat the VIP he's the
same for the Liberty as we do with the nets.
And they have a great beautiful room called the Crown Room,
which your wife has gone on to with me many times.

Speaker 1 (56:29):
She's into it.

Speaker 2 (56:31):
They serve carbone food in there. It's very special and
it's beautiful. And so they had everyone could go back
in there, and it was a big party. And then
at midnight they threw everyone out that wasn't supposed that
wasn't connected with the team somehow or family. You had
to have a certain other little wrist bander be in there,
and like Wonda Sykes didn't have one, and we got
a one, and you know, it was just it was

(56:52):
just a debauchery. I was just drinking and celebrating in there,
and the team came in Eventually I got a hug
from Sabrina. You nask you, and I hugged her, and
I didn't realize that she had all the champagne and
be all over herself, so when I hugged it, that
then was on me. So it was gross, but it
was just it was just a lot of fun. I

(57:13):
got home at three thirty ish in the morning. Credit
to the team who went to Good Morning America.

Speaker 1 (57:19):
That's going to say, didn't they have another learning.

Speaker 2 (57:21):
JJ John call Jones, who won the MVP of the
game of the series. She didn't sleep. She was in
the same outfit she was in prior to the game starting.
I was like, didn't you wear that before the game?
She goes yep, and I didn't go to sleep. So
they all went off. Sandy Brondelo, who is my very
good friend, didn't make it to GMA because she claims
that she was still drunk and spinning. So it was
I credit all the players were going there and doing

(57:42):
that for GMA. Robin Roberts was at the game and
is a huge fan. Of course played basketball herself in college.
Hum so it was it was a great fun and
we were all very hung over the next day. But
it was all worth it, and it was a great season,
and I do thank you all. I know you were
tennis fans and that's why you listen to this podcast,
but you also hopefully like me a little bit.

Speaker 1 (58:01):
I think it's the Keaitland fans actually that's keeping us afloat,
but it's.

Speaker 2 (58:03):
Probably But I know that you guys love us, and
we appreciate you listening to me waffle on about the WNBA,
and I hope in the end we can all support
women's sports, including tennis, including basketball, and those players, all
of them get what they deserve.

Speaker 1 (58:17):
All right, Well, thank you so much for your questions.
They are appreciated. They're fun. We didn't get to every
single one of them.

Speaker 2 (58:22):
Well the ones that I didn't get to I will
write you on Twitter.

Speaker 1 (58:24):
Or or they were repetitive. But we appreciate it. Keep
rating and we'll see you next week.

Speaker 2 (58:29):
We'll appreciate you, guys. It's getting to the end of
the season. We didn't even talk about who made the
wt finals, but we'll get.

Speaker 1 (58:34):
To that next week. Oh, that's a great topic for
next week.

Speaker 2 (58:36):
All right, see you then, bye, guys.

Speaker 1 (58:42):
Bill, you better pregnant eat something. Brock thick,