Iga Swiatek dominate once again in Doha, Jannik Sinner continue his seamless run of form so far in 2024 in Rotterdam, and Carlos Alcaraz beaten in the Golden Swing as Argentine Wildcard Diaz Acosta takes a surprise title.
The trio also ponder the current lack of one-handed backhands in the ATP Top 10, whether the Australian Open will boldly move the Ladies Final to a Sunday from 2026 and who’s going to be picking up the titles this week on tour.
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We also hear from Tennis Weekly producer Alina on her behind the scenes experience at the IEB+ Open in Argentina and Joel tests Chris and Kim to a battle of the men’s one-Slam wonders.
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Please take your seats quickly ladies and gentlemen thank you hello ladies and gentlemen welcome to tennis weekly with Joel Kim and Chris on today’s tour catch up yanx Sina takes the Rotterdam Crown eishi Tech three peats the Doha title and Tennis weekly reports from the golden Swing Kim Chris today is the 19th of February and we are here to catch up on the week in tennis at tennis weekly HQ well we’re not really catching up because tennis is still going on from last week due to the shocking weather yesterday in Delray Beach we’re having a Monday final there
So we can’t really look back on all the tennis but I am hoping by the time we talk about Delray Beach Maybe Taylor Fritz has won the title so is he is he winning are you just supporting he’s a set I think he’s a set set and three all
So I’m I’m hoping for the sake of the podcast and kind of absoluteness we do want to be able to catch up on last week even though last week is still happening right now I do feel sorry for the ticket holders from yesterday though because they didn’t get a refund even though the
The match was you know obviously rained off uh terrible weather out there and they’ve had to reschedule it for today um so yeah if anyone’s listening who was at the final um kind they get a good match though seeing of all the sort of hassle of know not being able to do it
Yesterday I would be remote working on Monday I think to uh to get down to that match it’s pretty pretty tasty final I think well would you be wearing a big hat to cover yourself just in case someone saw that you face face mask as well and’s on maybe strategically look
At where the TV cameras are and sit behind them perhaps boss isn’t listening to this Jo I have to say they might think oh are you going to use those tactics uh British tournament yes I’m going to fly over from London to Del Beach I hypothetical well talking of Del Beach
And um you know disguising yourself there was a lady on the court uh SE sitting down who did look like she was trying to cover her face there was a photo doing the rounds she looks a bit like she’s got a lampshade on her head she should be at work maybe that’s what
It was all about maybe that is but to me she she looks like it’s like like Darth Punk like type yes what was she doing there J well it it was quite interesting I mean Del re Beach they you know they have cars on the tennis court which I’m
I’m not a fan of Cu I think BMW is one of their sponsors but on the other side in the other Corner they’ve got some lounge chairs on the tennis court and these are basically your kind of VIP Hospitality seating literally on the tennis court at court level I don’t know
About you guys I just just when I saw this I was like yeah I was just like I’d just be worried if I’m going to get hit in the face with a racket yeah it’s a bit like a chal kind of level where you normally just get a you know fold up
Seat and sit inside but you sort of do that your peril of getting hit in the face by a big serve that booms you know wide um so I’m not sure it’s VIP in my book well I’ve got a question for you because this did go um do the rounds on
Twitter if you were in the BMW would you sit on the passenger side or the driver’s side cuz someone’s going to have to sit further away from the court so if you got a pair of tickets you’d say right sorry I’m taking the good side um and I think I mean I
Probably would take the good seat myself I would sit in the passenger side because there wouldn’t be a wheel in the way so would that’s actually true yeah you could have a picnic Le you got a cup holder it is very confusing because yeah they had um you could as fans you could
Have had the lounge chair seats or it does look like you could have had the BMW seat as well I think you’d go I think you’d go for the BMW seat over Comfort over a lounge chair maybe yeah are we massively overthinking this see
As none of us were in Del Beach uh and probably won’t be faced with this scenario um we were all work I would go for the BMW I would go for the BMW if I was allowed to have airon on I think oh that’s a really good show yeah yeah
Right well um I’m going to maybe just view it from from home from the Telly uh instead of going be and talking of tell actually there’s been quite a lot of tennis related things coming out on on the Telly of late and we’ve had some new news uh recently that Amazon Prime are
Going to be doing a documentary on Roger federa and his final 12 days as a professional tennis player uh we don’t have a title for the documentary or or too much information other than that it is going to be directed by um ASF kapadia who did the Senna documentary
The Amy wi housee documentary which are both uh you know very good I’ve seen both and you know I think they’re very highly rated um so yeah it’s going to be really interesting I think because it’s actually a home video that was created that was never designed for you know
Mass consumption viewing on Amazon Prime and um yeah it’s obviously got interviews with uh Rafer and the like and I think that’ll be quite an interesting watch so I don’t we don’t know more about it as of yet but one to watch will it cover that Hubert her
Catch that’s what I was thinking I don’t want to see the bagel which retirement La cup or are we talking his professional career on the court at Wimbledon maybe both I mean I’d love to see the handholding with Rafer again I know it was very quick though really
Wasn’t it but um I I just think it would be fascinating you can already see the way it’s sort of being set out as this like tennis great struggling you know for form and Coming to Terms the fact he won’t be playing so I think I mean I’ve
Seen a couple of his documentaries before and I thought they were brilliant and the fact that this wasn’t shot with with an agenda also makes me think that this could be really compelling bit more behind the scenes like very candid uh I think that’s kind of the selling point
Of it and maybe they’ll they’ll go on uh look at the uh I still find it quite random at the 11 Ellie ging came out and did a song on court for feder’s like final you know Harrah and it just yeah quite strange anyway um Chris what have
You been up to in the past week what’s been floating your boat well I haven’t been kind of pursuing the Arts at all or kind of really looking at anything that’s been happening on court I’ve been focusing on a topic we’ve talked about previously most recently in Madrid which
Is around birthday cakes of players um so we’re we’re back there again sorry listeners um but Alex dear had his birthday um and he looked very happy to have his birthday I think he went out for some celebrations with Katy Bolter and his family but then there is this
Picture that’s doing the rounds on um Twitter and it’s the mascot of the Rotterdam open presenting him with this cake and I’ve got to be honest this cake is a wild ride it I mean it’s like if I made a cake I think it’s like if if
We’re being honest and also the mascot is giving me complete nightmares just just just being there the mascot’s very jolly it’s like a happy face emoji and I think he’s actually really sweet the mascot it’s ten would you would you have a smiling face if you were delivering
That as the birthday cake I mean it just looks like an Absol the embarrassment on his face maybe it could be on the M singer it’s the next the character for next year Billy Jean King she’s already done it um so the ABN Amro open uh M singer
Contestant that a CL could there be an sner Dodge singer DD s mask Dancer episode of mascots on the ATP and WTA tours it now if anyone’s listen why not but going back to the cake itself I don’t think it would do well on the Great British B off they’ve just sort of
Shoved a load of like M&M’s on the top in a bit of a pile and it’s also just a picture of the mascot on the cake and I’ve never given a cake with my face on someone else which I think is a bit off to be honest oh I I think the mascot’s
Quite sweet um a ni idea an Emoji tennis ball head and yeah we’ll see him on the baringer next year maybe but um I have to say it doesn’t compare to the the cakes that Rand garos used to do for Rafa’s birthday with like the massive
Candles that would kind of Set Fire to the whole venue if it went a bit wrong like they really went to town with those cakes so maybe the Rotterdam need to um take a a leaf out of their book of cake making uh but let’s get on to the action
On court uh cake aside uh what let’s start in qar we had the Doha uh WTA 1000 event and E Shion has very comfortably come through this one without dropping a set she’s uh claimed this one yet again she’s got such a good record at this tournament uh 76 6-2 victory over Elena
Rebeca in the final to clinch her um well another wt8 1000 event uh Joel schion as the champion not a massive surprise in Doha this week fair to say she seems to love playing on this tennis court and in the final yes I think the the start wasn’t particularly great for
Her I think she went four 4-1 down against reaka I don’t think she was playing well with the the conditions because they were very windy at at times but as soon as she kind of adapted her game and you know really kind of focused on a new approach you know she she spoke
To her team as well Midway through that first set and uh it just sort of I think corrected her and although I think she came on the court maybe a little bit too chaotic a little bit kind of nervous and wasn’t executing the way that she would
Have wanted to by the end of the match it really was a lot better A lot more Flawless and Rebeca who’s been one of the form players of the the tour this season probably her sabalenka and Shion have shown some of the best tennis she didn’t really have an answer in that
Second set yeah and I mean shon’s won this title three times now um twice I think she’s done it without dropping a set so you know I I did feel that once she got over that that first set in the final that it was kind of oneway traffic
You know potentially um there was a bit of a weird moment though uh with Rebecca and her in that that first set she she whacked herself on the shin um had to kind of go off and get treatment do you think that was a pivotal moment cuz
That’s kind of when it started to turn she was a double break up at the time so it does make you think that the momentum did shift because she did have to stop play to receive treatment that momentum was stopped um also it did allow kind of
Eager to go and have a chat with her coaches um a little bit of a reset I think especially if the match is getting away from you that early on and your game plan isn’t working quite so well it does allow you to almost have a chat and
Figure out what you can try and do a bit differently to upset the Rhythm um in terms of the injury I mean hitting your shin is pretty unpleasant it didn’t seem to make too much of a difference in terms of her movement but again it’s very uncomfortable it can knock you off
It’s not something you’re expecting I mean there was a lot of blood it did bleed quite a lot so it’s not not the fun not a fun thing to deal with but in terms of where I think the match really did kind of shift uh it’s again it’s
This we keep talking about it but it’s that first serve percentage of rebeo where it’s just around 50% and it just doesn’t work if you’re not serving higher percentages than that because her big weapon is a serve it’s first strike tennis um and she wasn’t able to do that enough in that second
Set because she wasn’t making enough first serves and that second serve was being complet eaten up by eish on Tech with Rebecca only winning 38% of points behind it so it seemed like that first set would have decided the match most likely but if reaka had served a bit
Better you’d have to think that first set probably would have been hers I mean it really should have been I think she had I think she had one set point but it was there for the taking given the start that she had and she beat shch three
Times last year so she won all of their sort of head-to heads last season so you know you’ve got to think what’s different this time around the probably the serve um and also Shon on this court we know that she she clearly loves um playing on this court she’s had you know
Such good results in the past so it’s a final as well I think because her three matches last year against Rebeca were not in in finals and actually this was the first in their rivalry that has been in the final not counting any of their junior matchups so I think that might
Have something to do with it because Shion she’s such she’s got such an elite mindset particularly in the the big matches WTA 1000 in a final um and yeah it was just it was just too much in the end for for reaka yeah and just to note
Racha’s Shin it wasn’t deliberate it was an accidental kind of hit on the out anger or anything yeah wasn’t a sort of who whacked himself on the head and bled once um yeah I mean also semi-finalists we had uh kolina Pisha she’s she got to the semis but withdrew
Um but she’s continued her good run and form because obviously she she won a title uh the week before and then on the other side kind of on a different vein pav jenova reaching the the semis kind of out of the blue from from that
Section of the draw um but we know what she’s capable of when she does put her game together um and asara also getting to the quarters here so we know we’re seeing her maybe making a bit more inroads than we’ve seen previously um you know in the last kind of month or so
I mean just on that Kim do you think with nomio Saka the fact that she has made a quarterfinal at a WTA 1000 event are you now back on the kind of keep doing you these high events and not necessarily kind of dropping down and playing more kind of 250 level given the
Success she’s had I think Kim said to wait I thought you said drop down to 125 yeah he’s trying to prove his right um well I think if you look at the win she had she beat Garcia she beat Petra Mart she beat well she didn’t plays serenko serenu serenko actually
Withdrew so she she won two matches and then came up against pish and lost in two tight sets so I think obviously that’s the second time they’ve they’ve played this year um but I yeah no I think she should continue for a bit longer and if she’s if she really you
Know wants to be at the latter stages obviously she does but it’s just taking a bit of extra time to get there then I see no harm in perhaps yeah dropping dropping down a notch but I think you know it is still early days and I think
She’s you know this is the deepest she’s gone so far and um I’m sure with time results will come um she’s too good a player for them for them not to and perhaps she’ll do it at you know the most surprising event of all I think I randomly predicted her to win the
Olympics uh in the summer so we we’ll see clay again just on clay We repeat on Clay it’s all part of a very Grand uh larger plan she’s peing yeah on on the clay courts absolutely um so eus Shon wrapping up another title in Doha um
Let’s have a look at what happened in rdam apart from Alex dinor having his birthday cake we did have yanex sinner winning the title so another top seed winning uh this again was fairly comfortable for yanex sinner for most of the week uh he came up against the
Birthday boy in the final but came through 75 64 over deor so sinner is still unbeaten this season uh after winning the Australian Open he has come into His you know first tournament back and won um which he actually becomes the first man since Leon huitt to have won
His debut event as a new Grandam Champion Chris how impressed were you with yanic sinner this week in Rotterdam I think you always have questions after someone’s won a slam if they can back it up especially um with Carlos alcaraz um and the way that we did kind we made
Jokes about this as well that you know all the different tweets you see about we’re entering the C era the alcaras era all of that that came out last year and then after for the bin era I mean exactly like it it’s hard to do it’s
Hard to back it up and we’ve seen that from lots of players where they can reach a kind of a good level again but it doesn’t necessarily just keep going at that same trajectory so I was very very impressed with the way that he handled everything because I mean he
Played some pretty tough opponents in every round and apart from rage to kind of withdraw R um it’s a pretty decent level of opponent um especially on indoor surfaces um it can be a bit of a level if someone’s got a very good serve so he did come through pretty
Comfortably and I saw diar play at UTS the previous week and I thought he was playing some brilliant tennis and moving fantastically um and so I think that match is probably the one that you should take note of in terms of where his form level is at because obviously
Demar did take out um dimitrov and rublev on and Felix I know not Felix didn’t take take out fix I’m making that up to David Gan but he had a very um very good run so I think he’s playing very well and I think it’s good to see
Because we don’t want him to kind of fall off the wagon at all at this point yeah and Alex Mano you know stayed in both of those sets you know he he earned a break back in in both those sets but sin just then you know able to to kind
Of get the job done and take that break back and um and get the get the win that Felix match though we have to talk about it did you see rubler versus Felix o Alim three match points in a row for Felix and he still didn’t get it he’s
Having a tough year isn’t he well tough last 12 months really it’s hard to watch Joel what what do you think in terms of one 125 do they exist for yeah Felix should drop down not as arer I mean for Felix I just don’t think he’s had that
Winning feeling for so long and it makes getting over the finish line that much more difficult and particularly when you come up against someone as combative as Andrew rublev um it just feels like hard to put away right yeah a tough proposition made even tougher and uh it
Was yeah bit disappointing but um yeah I just say on Alex De Manor I think he’s he’s really really grown I love the aggression he’s brought to his game this season um I think before we just kind of spoke about him in terms of his coverage
And that being the thing that sort of marks him out from all the other kind of players on the tour but I think this season we’ve seen he’s added more to his game in terms of his kind of weight of shot as well I think it’s it’s a lot
More it’s a bit stronger but having said that against Yanik sinner it was just like regardless of what he threw at him Yanik sinner was it was just never going to come out on top even though it was fine margins it still felt comfortable for cner yeah we also had grigor dimitro
Getting into the semi so again his good runner form his good season is continuing and home favorite Talon Gore um was our other semi finers he um came through over hu herk and Huber herk yet more tie breaks every time I look at him on a score sheet it’s just tie break
After tie break I think he played five of six of his sets for tie breaks I mean he is like the new I don’t want to say he’s the new John Isner but very predictable score line of his sets isn’t that it’s just you know kind of crazy
But um but Yan going back to him he is now up to number three in the rankings um no Italian uh male player has has ever been as high as that so um that is fantastic uh well on sinner sure the Kat boys are very very happy I mean Chris
You spoke about how alarz is not having great form at the moment since you know since winning that grand Sam at Wimbledon do you think it’s a matter of time before Yanik sner replaces Carlos alarz at number two I think there’s a lot of points to defend coming up um and
Obviously we’ll talk about a bit later but the Argentina open points have obviously dropped off as well he’s got a final to back up in Rio so I do think that Yanik sinner is kind of centic himself as kind of the biggest rival to novat jovic um especially with that
Standout performance because if you look at it you know he he’s won the next tournament he’s played after the Australian Open and alcaraz is still searching for a title since then um in fact I’m not I can’t even recall if he’s made many finals recently at all either
I I can’t actually I can’t name one um so I think it’s clear that cner is definitely the form player but then I do think you have to think with Carlos alcarez we did not think him coming back last season having had the time off that
He would win his first title and then go and win Wimbledon um especially after that semi-final run where he kind of the nerves got to him um he was very much kind of in a in a state where his body just stopped working for him no one would have predicted necessarily that
He’ win that Wimbledon title so he is someone who does prove people wrong um because he does have that sort of unbelievable talent and experience level for someone of his age so I think hopefully he’s going to put it back together but the same time Yan you’d
Have to say he is the number two right now if not the number one well yeah we’ve seen more of him haven’t we than than jovic of late but I mean we’ll talk I mean alz is too good a player not not to kind of come come back strong but he
Didn’t have the best week did he in Buenos AES he didn’t get the win uh which we were maybe expecting he he did lose in the semi-finals which we’ll get onto it just a second let’s talk about the actual winner though because we had uh home Wild Card fundo Diaz aosta with
Uh 63 64 over Nicholas Jerry in the final uh so again another kind of surprise Champion out on the golden swing uh Diaz a Costa a player that not many people will know will have will have heard of this this is his first ATP title um but previously you know very um
Inexperienced I think really um on the court and not really um too much to go on other than the fact that he did play a very good match against Taylor Fritz at the Australian Open so perhaps that was a Hallmark of the form we would see
Um out at uh at the golden swing um what just quickly before we we we do have Alina you know to report back on her her week behind the scenes uh but but Chris what do you think of of Diaz aosta and winning this this tournament we we’ve
Seen another you know surprise kind of winner again I think a lot of the Italians didn’t bring um I say Italians what am I saying the Argentinian yeah I just was thinking of last week when Italian one used to be Argentinian but um no in terms of argentinians they do
Tend to not necessarily play their best at home and so this is a case where not necessarily the Italian we all thought would come through did end up coming through um and I mean he did show that he was the Italian to beat he had very comfortable wins over serend dulo and
Cora on his way to the title so he made the most of the opportunity so I think that’s the way I’d summarize it you don’t have to have much experience at this level and sometimes it helps because it means that you don’t don’t have those nerves and we’ve saw that
Last week in the quarter per final where it’s very hard when you haven’t had those opportunities um and you’re at the end of your career potentially to actually get the win on the tour that you’ve always wanted so he did he did get over the line I think for Jerry it
Probably was a case where these opportunities having beaten Carlos alarz don’t come as frequently and he was able to play more freely but I do think at 59 in the world having only won I think nine matches on the ATP Tour now um it feels a little bit um a little bit
Weighted wrong in that sense but at the same time he made the most of his moment let’s hear now from our producer Alina who was out in Buenos arees this week bringing us all the behind the scenes action from the event uh Chris caught up with Alina to hear about her experience
This week and hello Elina in Argentina you’ll be pleased to know I’ve been practicing I’m saying Buenas Tardes to you in Buenos Aras just listen to that Chris you actually got it right congrats if sounds like you’re so ready for the finals day the Spanish is right the vibe
Is Right everything is going right and things that are also going right you found the perfect position you’re in the right spot there you’re in a lovely commentary box I think I’m having probably the best view in the house right now just the waiting for the
Doubles finals to start here and has it been that sort of treatment all week has it been VIP treatment at the IB Argentina open to be honest the treatment has been like this all week many thanks to tenum team they’ve been so awesome and took us backstage we got
To actually see what’s happening and see the Players Lounge and pumped into some players as well that were quite in their element were they expecting you Elina they were not expecting me or the Press members to to be right up up in the locker room exactly while they’re taking
Their clay shoes off they were just like what are you doing here did you ask them any questions take the opportunity no I just I I I just waved to Jerry and that felt like very intrusive I was like hi sorry sorry to bother you it is um a
Rare opportunity you get very close to the players and players in very different sort of settings so last time we were talking DJ sets with duon leovic and has Carlos alcaraz made an appearance on the decks so far this week surprisingly not we didn’t see uh
Charlie as they call him uh here to to our surprise Charlie I was like who’s Charlie and it took me a second to figure out that that is his actually South American nickname so we haven’t seen DJ Charlie the entire week Charlie alcaras that doesn’t sound right does it
Vamos Charlie I feel like it feels like maybe we’re in um I don’t know we’re in the UK you know Charlie but unfortunately for Charlie he did get eliminated last night which was not in the script it was not what anyone predicted he was the number one seed he
Was the defending Champion the tournament headliner and alarz was knocked out in straight sets by Nicholas Jerry you were Courtside for that match what happened it was so unexpected it seemed like it took him a while to actually understand that things are not going his way and they’re not going to
Go his way and from um a match perspective it did feel like he wasn’t necessarily taking the chances like he normally did he didn’t convert as you would expect he was playing very defensively and I had to say kind of from you being Courtside was it that Jer
Had a fantastic game plan that got him through that match or was alarz maybe not playing his best we spoke with jari in press before and he did mention that it’s super important for him to be very focused in the match he showed up with with a strategy and he executed on it
Flawlessly he took his chance and there was a rare kind of show of frustration from Carlos alarz what happened there yeah it was right about the time where he figured that things are not going his well that the signs of frustration started to show and for me it was like
Really rare to see that kind of frustration from colors just throwing the racket of the Court towards his box it was really strange sight for him because the smiles were gone and we could see that he’s really getting super frustrated was that aimed at coach Juan Carlos Ferrero do you think you think
There’s trouble in parading that partnership oh gee I hope not I think he was just up in his head and threw it in the direction he could have the most space to but yeah it was quite a throw it was really hard to watch honestly and
I think a lot of people thought that maybe this wouldn’t be as competitive as it was you know he was playing against very on one leg and stumbled through that one were you surprised by this result in the end honestly everybody was uh by the end of the match the crowd was
Still standing almost like waiting for the third step to happen it was really surprising because nobody expected jar to to show so well especially after the match with Tomia but on the Argentinian subject we did have an all Argentinian semi-final and we have an Argentinian in the final yeah
I mean this is the Argentinian slam as I call it we had eight argentinians in the draw and we have one Argentinian in the final we have H fako diaza Costa he’s I think quite a talent and I will keep an eye on him going forward okay he’s a
Name for us to remember for those of our listeners who haven’t heard of him he’s 23 he has a career high ranking of 87 mostly he’s been playing on the Challenger circuit some of our listeners may be familiar with him because he did push Taylor Fritz to five sets at the
Australian Open and Elina something that we do every time we’re on tour we do Peak pit pleasant surprise and so that’s the best bit the worst bit and something that surprised you that you actually rather enjoyed but should we start with your Peak Gabriella sabatini was here
The queen herself the queen of Argentina yes and actually that’s how that’s how they call her here Lena oh really yes and I was like it’s the queen of tennis and they were like yeah laa is so yeah she looks incredible honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if she like just
Picked up a racket and like jump on the court and show the guy some moves she is in such tremendous form and she looks absolutely gorgeous clearly um she’s still got it she’s got it 100% And then we have a pleas pleasant surprise well no we have the pit we never want to
Finish on a pit okay let’s go with a pit oh that was a that’s a tough one because everything around here has been incredible but I believe that I wished camori had more words for me when I when I asked him h a question
As he had less words for me than sets he played let’s put it that way so it was a it was a less than three word answer yeah so that’s not exactly a generous answer in The Press Room can I push you what what did you ask him well I asked
Him about his tremendous form he had in melburn and whether he’s looking to bringing that into the clay season and we definitely like missed that in in the match he had and I wanted to know more quite Punchy hello yeah hello I was there for business where was your good
Play yeah yeah he was not super excited but to be fair he was not super excited over all he was really upset about his his match and the way he played and even the said he W he was not happy about it so overall yeah you maybe caught him in
A bad time so we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt there and then bring us home Elina with your pleasant surprise oh the pleasant surprise how can we forget the train Chris the Train the train tell our listeners this is you have to say it to believe we’ll post on
Our social channels but it really is extraordinary so on the short side of the Court there’s I think it’s like a inter city train that passes every 30 minutes but what I notice that it tends to pass on a player service all the time and while it passes it also honks at the
Crowd it becomes this whole thing and it’s literally on the top of the core yeah can you feel it shaking when it comes past you don’t feel it shaking because I’m I’m always Seated on the opposite side but you definitely hear it and it makes noise and it’s just like
There you you cannot miss it you do have to check this out because it’s a tennis court like no other but maybe one of the best views possible on a train could be going through that on your way through Argentina imagine passing being in that train passing uh on a night session I
Think that the view must be is that is that Carlos yeah is that Charlie Charlie Charlie’s there exactly well thank you so much for that very well done on the 3ps and the golden swing continues you will not be following it but you have been following it very very very closely
You’ve seen all of the tennis on display who have you got your eye on for the rest of the golden swing oh you know you got me there uh you know I know I know where this is going you know that I have my eyes on Thiago Montero um he is a
Brazilian player he is entering Rio I think he got a wild card is that correct he is and in the first round who is he playing he’s playing none other than Charlie alcara so who’s going to win that match oh that will be uh that’ll be
A tough call three sets let Hope for are you booking a flight I would I would go straight to Rio to see to see that encounter and Elena it’s time that we would say adios and huo buos SES it’s been wonderful following your updates from Argentina and we really hope you
Enjoy the final thank you so much Chris I will see you guys soon at probably a clay tennis tournament in a warm country somewhere and I will leave you with Chris Joel and Kim for the latest updates from the tour just on alcarez what do we think is going wrong there
Because I mean Nicholas Jarry that match that semi-final he should not be losing that really no he shouldn’t I really don’t think he should be and it’s it’s quite frustrating because it just feels like he’s getting he’s getting it wrong at the key moments and sometimes it
Comes very naturally to people but I mean he’s been losing to some pretty good players but players that you he wasn’t losing to this time last year he’s lost his invincibility it feels like I think a lot of players would see him in the draw and if you’re going to
Get a top four seed I think you’d rather play caros alarz right now than a medev or a sin or a jovic so I think in that match there too many unforced errors it’s not taking your chances in terms of break points he didn’t take all the
Chances he could have um and I think it’s allowing players to hit him off the court um and even someone like Medford Dev at the US Open who doesn’t traditionally hit people off the court and stands very far back was still able to hit alarz off the court there so do
You think he’s having that problem um at the moment because Jerry he has that power power and that ability and he he did bring it all together I think in that semifinal and alarz it doesn’t feel like at the moment he has really a game plan for someone who is a big hitter
From the back of the Court what does he do about it because he sort of goes into his shell a little bit and yeah he might hit one or two eye-catching winners but at the end of the day the result is a loss for him and I think you it’s not
Just this Jarry result I think there’s been a a few other defeats he’s had where it’s been a similar situation of that that power and sort of being a little bit powerless to do anything about it he’s not starting on the front foot and taking control of the match and
Playing on his terms and I think that makes it very difficult for you to come through and to come through easily it does remind me a little bit of when he won that US Open where all of his matches went to five sets because his serve wasn’t quite doing as well and
Maybe it’s a case I mean in this match his serve wasn’t getting the job done in the same way so if he doesn’t have that sort of really big weapon as you say he kind of relies on some of that shot making and that’s hard to do every
Single point in every single game that you play so I think it’s it’s a question that was going to put to you and maybe I’ll put to Kim he’s had a fantastic run with Juan caros forer we did talk about the fact there was that racket throw do
You think that maybe there should be some new blood introduced into the training camp some new differing opinions there not saying sa your coach but I am saying it’s not been the trajectory you’d have expected from what was expected to be the start of a
Fantastic run for him I think it’ be a bit r to yeah remove Ferrari from the setup they have a very very strong relationship you know bit bit father and son like and I think bringing someone else in it to consult would be useful that would probably be the way to go for
Now and if that also you know didn’t help then maybe you’d look well Tom Tom Hill’s free isn’t he further back Tom Hill is free he’s um no longer with sakar that that broke in the last week uh I mean Tony Nadal could perhaps consult just throwing that out there um
But yeah yeah I I would like to see them stay together I I really like their their kind of coaching Dynamic but you know at some point if if it doesn’t carry on working then he might have to accept that yeah Ferrero got me so far
Now it’s time to kind of spread my wings um so that could be a route to go down um before we go for a break let’s just quickly touch upon the Del Beach open uh the final has now finished Taylor Fritz has won 62 63 over Tommy Paul so Battle
Of The Americans has come out with Fritz coming through top SE was there anyone in the BMW though watching Courtside they actually drove off they were supporting Tommy Paul oh dear they took the uh the lady with the the funny sort of lampshade with them but um yeah Taylor Fritz is
The champion uh yeah he hasn’t dropped a single set at this event it’s been quite quite straightforward for him uh coming through against you know jiron hijikata Nuno boures uh to clinch this title finally after all of the delays uh Joel any thoughts on on the week for for
Fritz at the uh Del Ray Beach event yeah I think I mean he’s just building on a a very decent start to the season I mean he got to the quarterfinals in the Australian Open first event after that now champion in in Del re Beach I think
This will be very comfortable and very um you know familiar to him in terms of surroundings on an American hardcore and you know picking up a very decent win against Tommy Paul who’s been in some very good form over the last two weeks has made two finals won a title last
Week and um yeah it just shows I think with Fritz that he is playing some very good tennis at the moment probably in a similar vein to I think Alex dumor and um you he’ll be looking to kind of kick on from this and uh you know maybe go
Maybe you make the most of it and see how far he can go up the rankings because you say he’s he’s build he’s building on a decent start to the season and I’m kind of curious to know where it might take him well final result from
The week that’s gone uh just the British news in the Del Beach doubles final Julian cash of Great Britain with his American partner Robert Galloway won the doubles event um beating in the final Neil scopy fellow Brit and his partner Santiago Gonzalez so um that’s Julian cash and Robert gallery’s first ATP
Title together as a pair and yeah Julian cash don’t normally see him picking up titles on the ATP or uh in the doubles or you know so well done him um but let’s take a very quick break now uh we’ll be back in the second half to look at whether single-handed bands are
Disappearing from the men’s game should the Australian Open switch the ladies final to a Sunday and would also be looking at all the tennis to come this week including Dubai Rio and Doha so do not go Anywhere welcome back to the tennis weekly podcast now we’re going to move on to a bit of a par for the courts uh back and forth I think Joel you’ve got one designed for me and Chris this week I I’ve stored this up ever since the Australian Open so I’ve been very
Excited to let you’ve been very patient Joel to let this loose exactly exactly that it might not be completely relevant at this moment but we’re going to do it it might not be and I can’t give you more context because it probably gives some obvious answers away so just going
To get straight into it like a mysterious part of the Court not mysterious player well I’m going to talk about the fact that we talk about it all the time um you know one slam Wonders on the on the women’s circuit this is a very very very very popular topic I
Think on the tennis weekly podcast so naturally I’m going to ask you to name in this edition of PA of the courts one slam wanders in the open era on the male side and and there are 27 in total oh my goodness and there’s 11 since the year 2000 so there are some
Some good names in there that you and probably our listeners will be very familiar with some maybe unfamiliar names but yeah I’m looking for male one slam wonders in the open era oh gosh okay not sure my knowledge of one slam wonders from the 80s is going to be very
Good but I’m just I’m just going to go for the easy ones Kim today it’s one of those days it’s okay let’s do this who wants to go first I’ll go first why not okay first I mean I should I should have offered shouldn’t I um it’s fine uh
Don’t worry you go first gives me more time to think well I mean this could be very embarrassing but I think this is right and we just talked about him I’m for Juan Carlos Ferrero that is correct yes 2003 thought won twice uh Marin gillich correct yes 2014 US Open I mean
I’ve got to go for Dominic team then that is a correct answer us open in 2020 Juan Martin del Potro another winner at the US Open that is correct 2009 we might as well just complete the set with Andy rodic then correct yes Daniel meev very good Kim yes 2021 US Open
Equal scores at the moment gets a little bit tougher now um I’m going to go for someone who has talked about a lot I think uh Thomas Johansson I’m going to say that is a correct answer yes 2002 Australian Open uh I’ll say the most recent one yanic
Sinner I was I was waiting for someone to say that yes Yanik sin is a correct answer 2024 Australian Open I thought it was an unspoken rule Kim you know we were just going to leave that one the I was like wondering when did they did
They say this and I forget that but yeah Yanik sin is on the list maybe we both thought that we’d said it um I I think is under pressure here I think someone from Wimbledon I’m going to go for Richard k back correct that is a very good answer
I don’t know why I said that from the should have gone for the more obvious one 1996 yes Wimbledon Goran even isab it that’s what I should have gone for I was expecting you to go for Chris but that is correct yes Kim 2001 Wimbledon I still haven’t gotten over
Him beating Tim hemman in that semi-final but yes o this gets tricky now I I don’t think they won another one so I’m going to say Carlos Moyer that is a correct answer yes 1998 French Open so I keep forgetting who won this title because it was not the person that
I think was the favorite going into it but I think Gaston Galo he won the French Open before Rafa oh Kim that is a cracking answer yes Gast against Cora yeah very good 2004 2004 French Open I think coret also beat Tim hemman in the semi-finals as
Well I think he did he get there everyone there is one player there is one more player one male slam Wonder post 2000 that no one has got which you doing very very well on that front post 2000 goodness bling but there also a lot
Of names from the 70s ‘ 80s and ’90s um okay might might come back Roger fed I’m trying to think of of the 2000s I can’t think of anybody must be someone recent um I’m I’m going to go for Michael Chang very good correct answer 1989 French Open Kim the pressure is on
You so many of these I I think a 50/50 whether they won one or two I wonder if that other one post 2000 is is also at the French Open but I’ve just can’t think of if it’s a Spaniard you’d know yeah well I’m just thinking Wimbledon before
Federa um I’m gonna go for Michael Michael is a correct answer yes Wimbledon 199 this is tense this is getting tense this is a good good game still equal and still quite a few answers left on the board I think I’ve got two potentials uh I’m going to say the
Legend uh the most dreamed man in tennis I’m say it yanic Noah that is a very good guess and it’s a very good answer because it’s a correct answer 1983 rolong garos um Kim you need this to draw level with Chris I think she’s got it she’s looking I mean the only
Other players I think have won multiple um I’m just beused about this recent 2000 person um we do very badly at recent tennis we get talk about them on the Pod and we forget them Kim I’m going to have to pressure you for an answer any clues like I can’t give you
Any clues what about that Italian what Italian didn’t another Italian win a slam oh ilasi there we go that’s not famous Italian ilasi is an incorrect answer I think not gave up on that one I was think Philipus but he got to a final didn’t he but he
Didn’t win phusis any any other guesses any other anwers Peter cord Peter cord yeah very good 1998 Australian Open that was a backup and then my the only other one I had was Pat cash which I’m not very good very good y pack cash on the list 1987 wi who won in
The that 2000 well I’m going to get to that in a sec I’m just going to go through some of the answers he give me yes from the from the 70s you could have had Andre jimo um I think I’m hopefully I’m saying that right 1972 French Open Manuel orantes
1975 you were born then of course exactly Mark Edmonson 1976 Australian Open you’re just saying names Adriano panata that’s the one yeah they named the court after him Rosco Tanner Vitas gtis oh maybe that’s who I meant when I said sounds like a disease Brian teacher 1980 Australian Open not not too
Familiar with me I may might be familiar with our listeners um yes Yanick Noah Pat cash Andre Gomez 1990 French Open um Michael shtick uh a name you didn’t get Thomas muster oh French openopen 1995 and then yeah you said all you said all the others apart from one name
Richard kichk Peta cord Carlos moer Goran Ivanovich Thomas Johansson Juan Carlos Ferrero Andy rodic Gaston gdio Juan Martin del Potro Marin chillit Dominic team Daniel Mev Yanik Sinner and the player you did not mention 2002 French Open Champion oh was it the other Johanson or no no Albert Costa Alberto
Costa Albert Costa was the name I was wondering if is it Albert or Alberto I think it is actually just Albert but Albert I got Albert Costa written down so uh yes I don’t know that was tough but very good very good off the court there I thought that was very good very
Competitive let’s have a look well I mean listeners let us know how you did because did you get Costa and do you know who Brian teacher is let us know I’m gonna I’m gonna know after this episode gonna go look him up uh Tracy has got in touch with us on Twitter uh
For our mailbag this week Tracy thanks very much for getting in touch um I just read out what Tracy’s asked us hi tennis weekly with Stephanos sitp pass now out of the top 10 it means there are no single-handed backand at the very top of the men’s game why do you think that
This is so Tracy’s gone technical um but yeah it is true there is there is a very good graph um that does demonstrate the decline of single-handed banss over the years from well throughout the open era really and we do have zero in the top 10
At the moment on the men’s side um so Chris let’s come to you first why do you think this is do you miss the single-handed backand that’s a steady decline I I do miss it but at the same time from a technical perspective I do
Think that it makes sense that it is in decline because when you see just how big these rackets are just how much power and Top Spin you can get on the ball it does leave that single-handed back hand very much exposed and I think that’s probably the biggest reason
Because you can’t get the same amount of Top Spin and it’s very hard to deal with the Top Spin in the same way so we’ve seen this recently with like sit to pass on the return um he has to chip it back quite often because it’s very hard when
It bounces High to deal with it and the classic one that we’ve seen this time and time again was that that backhand was targeted relentlessly by Nadal especially in some of their early clashes and that actually led to the forehand breaking down at times but the
Backhand the height of the ball you can get especially on Clay does cause a lot of problems there so I think it’s a shot which does lend itself to the highlights real but the same time I do think that despite the fact you can do more with
The ball with a singlehander you are also under a lot more pressure with it yeah it feels like we we’re now in an era where power is more important than ever speed is more important than ever weight of shot is more important than ever and that just does not lend itself
I think to having a single-handed backand I am maybe a little bit surprised I think given as to say I feel like there’s a lasting Legacy of you know the single-handed back hands of like Roger federa I see rishard gase and and you know Dominic team as well Stan
Ainka and I do wonder you know kids watching those some of them got to be inspired to be like right I’m going to have a single-handed batam because when they are in full flight they look you know they look Majestic and they do look beautiful
Um we’ve got MTI Joel got MTI yeah and I mean we we did have maybe we might have in the future Dennis shapovalov as well who’s you know was maybe talked about as as getting into you know the top 10 but um yeah I just think from a kind of
Practical point of view the way the game has gone it’s just not a conductive environment to have a single-handed backhand in and I think copass is probably the most obvious example of that because we just you just feel like whenever he has a matchup against a very
You know top player they’re just going to Pepper his backhand side and inevitably at some point it’s going to break down yeah well it’s the first time in at rankings history that there isn’t one but like you said uh I’m sure it will only be a matter of time that we
Might get another one entering the top 10 but just yeah just very much the minority might be very soon yeah yeah the way he’s going um let’s have a look at the other thing that broke this week was that the Australian Open are considering switching the women’s final
To a Sunday from 2026 possibly um so they’d be doing a Switcheroo of the women’s and men’s final uh to having the men on the Saturday and the women on the Sunday um I think they’ve kind of sort of said that the rationale for this is that the men’s final obviously went
Super late uh people kind of had to work the next day so it kind of you know not as many people got to watch the finale of of C coming back against meev um so by switching it around you know Best of Both Worlds everyone gets to watch
Everything um in a general sense of course what do you make of this is that are they doing this for the right reason I that’s the thing I have I think it makes I mean it makes sense from a TV ratings point of view but and I and I I
I if it does happen I almost feel like just come out and say that as opposed to kind of maybe dressing it up as equality and want to actually we want to make the women’s match the main event cuz I think if you come out like that I
Think you know hearing kind of the stuff around the TV ratings it’s a little bit kind of like is it is it really or is it just kind of like you just want to maximize your audience um as much as possible yeah I I think I agree with
That in terms of if it is just because you know it runs shorter that’s not exactly a great advertisement for women’s tennis is it and let’s put it on a Sunday because people shut off earlier because they got work the next day exactly and that does kind of make you a
Bit concerned that the tournament will almost start packing up on the Saturday and maybe the women’s final won’t get the attention that it deserves I’m not saying it’s the warm-up act for the men’s final but it is still very much when the tournament has all eyes on it
Um and you wouldn’t want that to be at the detriment of the kind of faux equality in this sense that women wouldn’t get the same platform um or the same Spotlight that they have done previously I think it’s interesting concept I think it’s more interesting if
You swap it for a night match and you see what happens there um as opposed to you know having it in this way where we’re kind of pretending that this isn’t just because the Australian Open has a scheduling issue no I agree and let’s
Have a look uh we will have to see if they do do that or not at the moment it’s kind of just rumored so it’s not definite um let’s have a look at what’s happening this week we are out in the Middle East in Dubai for the WTA 1000
Event there so shonte will be looking to to do a B uh in the Middle East with uh claiming another title there what we do also have sabalenka the Australian Open Champion back in Action um that has already got underway sadly we have seen I think paa BSA uh
Retire it was sad did you see the Instagram story post she put up it was um she put up before the match and then yeah she had to retire after the first set in her first yeah not not great injury situation there at the moment and
Uh Cuda met and yka having a very odd score line today six you were salivating you were salivating at this result I honestly love these sorts of results because um I can actually give you an interesting sort of um highlight well interesting to some people maybe but um
The match was six love one six six love and it’s the first time that only six games have been dropped in a main draw at a WTA match since kava in Beijing against serenos so she’s got a habit of it if she’s going to she’s on or she’s
Off put it that way Bagel bread stick bagel I love it we’ll have to see if Shon Tech uh will be opening her Bakery not against stonean please no h uh we do also have the ATP 500 out in Rio Carlos alcaras will be hoping he goes a bit
Better there than he did in Buenos AES uh camori in action as well uh so this was the title that he he won last year wasn’t it Nori so be hoping for for better this week and we also have doar which is an ATP 250 Rafa is not playing
We had previously heard he might be coming back but he’s not um he’s still at home in meor uh but Andre rev is the top seed there with hatchin of the second seed Ugo and bur is the third seed maybe he’ll maybe uh you know he
Won a title last week didn’t he so Kim it’s now or never Andy Murray in this draw he has a qualifier in the first round Alexandre Müller he’s got an incredible record against Frenchman so it’s it’s got to happen it’s got to happen I’m praying I’m hoping I’ve got
Everything crossed yeah we hope he has a better result this week it’s not been great has it for for Andy recently uh finally Los Cabos uh also an ATP 250 out in Mexico Zev is top seeding there with sitz pass Roode and Alex deor in attendance so uh Jack Draper Jack Draper
Also in action the power Draper uh up against cockin AIS first round that could be quite interesting opener yeah could also face Evans in in round two so we’ll see yeah see how that goes but um yeah very very interesting stuff there uh listeners I hope you’ve enjoyed our
Latest episode of the tennis weekly podcast a quick reminder thank you to everyone who has filled in the tennis weekly survey over the last week or so we’ve really enjoyed reading some of the comments and getting some of the learnings the survey is still open the
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Buenos RS event and Reporting back for us on Charlie alarz and all things uh when RZ but listeners remember to subscribe to us stay up toate on all the action from the ATP and WTA tours we are on Apple podcast Spotify and all major podcasting platforms out there so if you
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Tennis weekly HQ so I hope you can join us for that but in the meantime it’s goodbye from Kim goodbye it’s goodbye from Chris goodbye and it’s goodbye from me we’ll see you again soon SE
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