Sabalenka and Sinner Double the Sunshine; Adios, Miami

0:00Mr. Panko has no challenges remaining. Welcome to no challenges remaining live from the Miami Open on the Men's Final Sunday, which is being currently delayed by rain. We are sitting here in the rain to Manny Carial and to Manny Carial for those who don't know. It's the Guardian, the tennis correspondent and also NCR's, Stain and Sub-Saharan active correspondent. It doesn't feel like this era, how much rain we're getting right now. No, it does not. We'll see how this goes, but like when I arrived, it was sunny, it started raining, and then it seemed like it was slowing down, and then it's now raining really, really heavily. I mean, obviously by the time this comes out, everyone will know what happened, but we're waiting and we're waiting to see what happens. Yeah, we figured we would use this time as we let see what's coming. Let's see what's coming. Speaking of speaking of that, we just ran into Yannick Sinner or Cross Pass with him. I should say not of acknowledgement to Yannick Sinner. He said, hey. He said, yeah, sure. And he could see what's on his way out to start warming up for his match, when it might have happened, but then he quickly walked back inside,

1:01and now the rain is pouring harder than it has before. Let the rain come down as Hillary does my say. I am curious, let's, we'll get the men's second, but the women's Herman is wrapped at least, the women's singles tournament, which ended with Arena Savile like a completing the sun shine double, and it's not very sunny day, or she've completed yesterday when it's plenty sunny, beating Coco Gough in three sets, adding to her Indian Wells title. Obviously, you're starting to down note for her by losing the Australian Open Final. That's how you can act to grade her at this point, with how she's kind of tidal or bust, but two titles in a row. Savile Enca increases her hold on the number one ranking with this win. What do you make of Arena Savile Enca right now? And what was that match? Talk through that match. It was a good match. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It was a good match. Savile Enca, well, I guess I'll start with a match. Savile Enca started really well, dominating the baseline, even obviously the kind of playbook with Gough is to attack her forehand, but Gough was, sorry, Savile Enca was dominating, even like the ad-court back in the backhand rallies just hitting

2:02and double so cleanly using angles, playing smart aggressive tennis. But I think given their respective form, I think that's how a lot of people anticipated it would go, but I think Gough did a really good job of forcing herself into the match in the second set, really took, you know, served better, took, you know, hit her forehand, prayed down well through the whole set, was attacking it more, you know, using, you know, that the heavy spin was kind of getting up out of Savile Enca's hit zone and she kind of after kind of getting through her service games and, you know, keeping ahead, she took her opportunities at 5-4, you know, with a bit of scoreboard pressure on Savile Enca again. She, you know, attacked her forehand really well, but, and it said, you know, we've seen this play out, kind of in exactly the sequence in their previous matches, in big finals, in the US Open, 2023, and last year the French Open and both times, you know, after getting pulled back into a third set,

3:03Savile Enca panicked. This time, the first Gough's first service game of the third set, I mean, she was helped by Gough, a few double fourths in that service game, I won love to Savile Enca, but Savile Enca also stepped up, and clearly, like, was still very calm and still composed and didn't let kind of the mist seconds at face her. So, yeah, and that break was the decisive break in the end, and Savile Enca kind of held onto her serve really well until the end, and, yeah, just took care of her service games. I mean, overall, I thought a good match, a quality match, and I think it's been, I'm, it was kind of sealed up, another solid tournament in the women's game, like in the women's draw, I don't think a good memory of a corner was a good match as well in the quarters. So, yeah, good, good stuff, and so, like, for Savile Enca, I feel like I repeat this every single time we talk about her, but it just, like, blows my mind, her evolution, and how she's just gone from being kind of the, you know,

4:05the bullwashed, you know, the player who she would admit, didn't play with much thought, or any sort of, you know, guile, or anything, but doing anything, but wanting to back to just attack every bull, to be in this such a well-rounded, consistent player who has so much in her toolbox now, and understands how to use it. And, like, she's so good now, she's so good, and, you know, that this winning the Sunshine Double is kind of reflective of her. I think she's 23-1 in the year, and her only match she lost was a final of the Australian Open, where she was up to three love against River Keena. She won, so good, the set, so, yeah, Sunshine Double. No, Sunshine Double, yes. But, like, the set got one against her was the only set. She lost... At the tournament. At the tournament, and... But, go, I think, last year as well, I'm... By Miami. Yeah, by Miami in the last year. Yeah, that sounds plausible, yeah. She lost one of her final and straight sets last year. Yeah, but she's just... Yeah, it's... She's just playing, you know, at an incredible level, and replicating it.

5:05And I actually really enjoyed, like, the afterwards. She was asked, like, how do you keep this motivation? How do you keep, you know, just doing all you can to be as good as you can? And, you know, and not taking... The tournament, like, Miami for granted, when, you know, that bigger... You know, that even bigger tournaments on the horizon. Yeah. And she was like, well, I'm still so far away from the grapes. I want to take this as far as I can. Like, I'm... That's my motivation. I want to see how far I can go. And you can really see that. And so I'm talking a lot, but just like... It's just so impressive, and... And, you know, you asked her earlier in the week about kind of the contrast between her encore persona, you know, and just work with her work and how discipline and studia she is, and how much a great... Yeah, how much a great student she is, compared to, like, off the court where she's silly and fun, and, you know, extroverted. But it's... She's so good at... They're being good at them. There's such a... A caveat between... And I think she doesn't get...

6:05I think people sort of discount her... Her tennis brilliance, to use that word, because of a little bit of how goofy she is as a persona. Honestly, maybe the grunting in sort of shrieking every shot. I didn't mean to distract people, and if she was a quieter... Because it's on court, people may be appreciate the shots more. But... People will pay attention. Yeah, can see the evolution, can see what a complete player she is. She has a lot of different things in her game. She has just all power all the time, every, you know, shot is company with a primal yell of some kind. It's a lot of subtlety and a lot of variety and a lot of all-core play, to her tennis, to sound like a tennis. And... Yeah, and the sort of the big thing she'd been missing over the last few months was in finals. You know, it was getting to finals and rampaging through tournaments, and then the final would be a coin slip, right? So, maybe it's still a coin flip. And there were a couple of three set finals that just came up her way in the sunshine double. But the only way you get better at finals is making the finals and winning them, and she now has two points in her data set from Inewells. And Miami beating two of her main rivals in Rebecca and Golf in these finals that can help increase her confidence in this.

7:06So, you know, she can ask for a better month, certainly on court, off court, obviously. She got engaged as well. She got adopted by the Brazilians here, which was really amusing to me, because her fiancé, Georgia's is Brazilian, a Greek ancestry group in Brazil, I think. And so, all these Brazilians who bought tickets for Fonseca, were now making signs and making honorary passports and drivers licenses and stuff, for poster boards for several anchors, which I thought was cute. And she loves the attention. And she's really comfortable being famous and being in the spotlight so far. She's never been someone who's expressed any sort of weirdness about being number one, about being person on top of it, having high expectations, all these sorts of things that you see. And so, it is interesting to see in this real decade, I would say, that's been to previous, otherwise than her. It's really been defined by a lot of introverts, the top of women's tennis, talking about Naomi Osaka, talking about Ash Bharti, talking about Yishtiantec. We have someone who is super extroverted, and even Rebecca and I would put in the introvert category. We have someone who is super extroverted and super outgoing and super social and just loves this and loves the attention.

8:07And it's always exciting to be in front of a camera, or a microphone, or whatever it may be. And that sort of gives her her power. There's something about the extroversion things I was asking Zizu Bergs about this, actually. I wanted to note about ATP extroverts, about what it's like being extroverted in this sport. And he said, oh no, I'm actually very introverted. That's a comment. Like, I don't know you that well, Zizu, but I know you well enough to know that clearly, you gain a lot of energy and strength through being an extrovert and being social and being out in the spotlight and stuff. And I just think about people who aren't aware about being an extrovert. I think everyone likes to consider themselves and introvert on some low. They think it sounds deeper or something. But there are extroverts out there, and we can at least identify them as we go. And so, yeah. So I think Savilek is a remarkable presence. The next question for her, just to wrap up on her, is what she needs to do on clay. All right? She's never won a major on, I think, but her courts. All right, that has to be the goal for this year for her to win either the friendship and her Wimbledon. Yeah. Like, if she doesn't win either of those this year, it's kind of, it's hard to say, but kind of trading water. And also, then she might go major listen to the US Open again. Yeah. Which is what happened last year.

9:07So that would also create stress. But, yeah, we'll see how, let's see what's coming. Let's see what's coming. What do you think about her natural surface odds? I mean, her, like, she's showing what she's capable of on clay. Like, that's beyond doubt. At this point, she's won big titles. She's won, obviously, Madrid. I mean, it's not the same thing in altitude. But, like, she's really showing that she's a top clay quarter. And obviously beating Shiondek in the semi-final overall. Yeah. Last year was massive. And, like, again, like, as has been her issue, kind of, in so many of these finals, like, she just couldn't handle the moment. I know, so golf, black humor, being golf, you know, in the French Open Final last year, getting so many rules back, being so gritty, being such a great competitor, making life so tough for us. But, yeah, I do think, I mean, that, obviously, it's not entirely on her racket because of a pair like Shiondek, you know, what she's capable of at Roland Garros, if she, you know, bounces back. We'll get to her in a second. We'll get to her, yeah. But, yeah, I think, I definitely, like,

10:08just in terms of her level, I rate her chances more. I think she's a better clay quarter than she's a Glasgow player. I think she's still, like, I mean, she's still a good, Glasgow player. I mean, a lot of women in semi-final. But I do think, like, she doesn't enjoy the low bounce on grass as much as, you know, a clay which, you know, obviously, it's slower. And it means players can get, like, theoretically, get more, you know, different better against her. But she has time to set up her shots, and she can hit three most conditions. So, yeah. But, yeah, she's great. The thing about her is that she's great everywhere. I mean, she's been freaking serving and volleying. So, who knows what she's capable of at Wimbledon? Yeah, and I think she's reached the most sort of Savalanka versus the field, way of looking at tournaments going in this time. And then it's, yeah, just, if she's getting a meaningful edge in finals, that's been her Achilles heel. And as a previous, I have been free, no, major semis should have a long time to break through to her first major final. You know, even before that, she took a long time to make it her first quarter final, I believe. So, yeah, so we'll see what's coming. Here's this very useful centerism. Mention Yigashviantek.

11:08We did our last show after Shantyk had lost this tournament. But before she announced that she had split with Wimbledon, our coach, since fall of 2024, she joined her right after her positive test before she was announced, and he knew about that. And so, he was with her during a very top period of her career. They obviously had big success together for a stretch of summer 2025. Last year, Wimbledon, which was not expected, and then, and I actually make the final bot Humber, two to give her two best grass results. And then, winning since Nadi, cooled off after that, but they had one very good stretch together. Otherwise, it's been a disappointing stretch for Yigashviantek. Yigashviantek, outside of the top 10, or at least maybe 10th in the race last set checked through Miami. Now, where she wants to be, what we talked about on the last episode, what we thought the issues were, and we both sort of said it seems psychological, and there's a psychologist on her team, and maybe that would be the more obvious area to address. But what do you make of her dropping to set? I kind of might talk before I, or you dive in, and do whatever you want with this. I kind of feel there's a bit of a sort of last manit in First Man Out kind of thing, with him just being the most recent member

12:09of this team, and everyone else is more established, more core of the Yigashviantek team. They're all Polish besides him, and the tennis part of the team anyway. Yeah, what do you make of this move from Yigashviantek and her prospects for Clay and Resetting? We don't know who her new coach is going to be just yet. Yeah, I agree with you. Like, you know, what went after that, her lost her linear, and obviously how the difficult position she was in, if she wasn't wanting to make a big change, that was the obvious change, because, as you said, you know, he was the kind of the odd one out in a way, in the team, and the least established and everything. Within her team. Within her team, yes. Career-wise, the most established, yes. Yeah, within her team. But, I mean, firstly, it wasn't surprising at all. I think we're both anticipating it, and even in the broadcast we said it, I do think, like, I've been thinking about quite a lot, and whatever the part is forward, and whoever is around her, whoever she chooses to be around her,

13:10I mean, first of all, it has to be her choice. I think she's at a point where she's 24 years old. She's an adult. As she said in her mix-on, she has a lot of experience behind her now, and like, she's been around. So, whatever, you know, I feel like she's in a weird way at a bit of a crossroads in her career. Does that sound dramatic? No. I mean, she's in kind of a, you know, a crossroads, you know, this is tough. It's tough being up here in tennis, and this is another thing that's not going to be so good as these consistent results she's had in the majors, especially. She's made, like, 12 or the last 13s, like that. Major semis, at least. Semis are better. That's very, very hard, and Shantek has had much more oscillation in her recent career. She's made lots of public quarterfinals at her last couple of majors, which is not bad by any normal standards. I mean, even her tournaments this year before, losing an opening match to Lynette, she made quarterfinals at the previous events this year. That hardly screen, screen's flop, you know? No. Doesn't scream dry. Doesn't scream, you know, big issue.

14:10But she wants to be great. She wants to keep adding to her titles. You know, she used unmajor titles still ahead of Sabelanka. That's one thing. How about Sabelanka joining the greats? On paper, there are some metrics that don't put her in sort of totally immortal terrif. You know, she's still behind a lot of players, with four majors. She's still behind a lot of other players, like Sherry. Both of them. There's the next one. Yeah, both at five. Behind Minas Williams at seven. Hand in at seven. And there's her recent history. Yeah. I think it's five or six. There's other players who she can be catching up to. Shantai gives a head on that front, but has been hotter and colder since her dominance in 2022. Yeah. And so, yeah, I think this is a big moment for her. It's a big moment for her to pick the right person. I still think that, you know, she actually should win more French opens in her career. Right? Her clay greatness is very real. And she should be able to do things on clay that no one else can do. Sabelanka is a great hands player overall, but Shantai should have, at her best, I still think she should have an edge over her own. Yeah. Even if she lost less here, I think she can still do that. Yep. And so, yeah, I'm very curious who she picks,

15:10how they deal with her, and if that doesn't work, what comes next after that, because this does seem like sort of the easy solution. Right? Maybe not the wrong solution, but the easiest solution. And if there is this sort of more profound shake of the game, getting rid of some of the longer-term members of her team, we'll see if that happens. But for right now, let's see what she plugs and plays. And if also, I will say, Ega was very open when she, after she slowly Thomas Vittorowski, around September 2024, October, actually, October 2024, about exploring a non-polish coach. If there is a Polish coach who she would like, and that's fully valid, if there is something she's more comfortable with and being part of the team integrated, there are some good Polish coaches out there, David Sheldt. Ager Ivanska, actually, who was in this tournament? In Linesbos. In Linesbos, from the theory, that was an interesting visual. And, you know, Sanders, and Ega is currently working at Costa. There's Polish talent out there, for sure. It's not a barren field if for some reason. And I thought, listen, there's something wrong with that too. If she feels more comfortable with the Polish team, I don't think that's at all a concession to anything.

16:12And that's a reasonable thing and look at how many Spanish players and all Spanish teams are in their entire career. Yeah. But the thing is, what I was going to say is that, at this point, I don't know that the person is that important that there are good coaches I think Winforset is a very good coach, a proven coach. Really? And I think he had good ideas in terms of what he wanted, how he wanted her to play. But I do think in general, like the power forward for her is at, like at 24, she needs to start at 25 in a few months. She should start taking more ownership for her career. Do you think she's not? I think she can sometimes seem too differential to people around her. Well, I'm not just, you know, obviously people talk about her psychologist, but in general, like I don't know her, just the way she speaks about how her team kind of run things. Like, you know, her fitness trainer, then her coach, you know, I don't know. That's my sense anyway. Okay. And I'd like to see her. Well, I think the power forward is for her

17:13to take more control and for people around her to let her, if that makes sense. To just be an adult. Update on the course. We might hear this on the audio. Hopefully the audio has been OK on this episode, as we recorded from around the 50-yard line of the Dolphin Stadium here at Hard Rock. They have the dryers out on court blowing the cords. If you hear some blowing noises, hopefully in the distance in this audio, that's what's going on. So let's see what's coming in terms of the rain. I am not sure that it's going to be clear enough, but there at least having the optimism to start drying again. One more women's topic. If you want to cover that Coco Goss semi-final press conference. Oh, good. What do you want to say about this? So Celeste, I think we should just explain what happened. Sure. And what had happened was, so it was quite early in Goss press conference, a reporter, and I'll just say a reporter, you know, before that question, made a comment about Goss Hat. Goss had been speaking on tennis channel about her hat,

18:13and she talked about her, her, her, her, her, her, her, her, you know, early in the tournament. She doesn't usually wear hats. It's the first time. The baseball style hat. For the first time or, yeah, the first time in her career, she's done three matches. And she was kind of joking. It was with Chris Newbanks, obviously a very close friend of hers, about how she, you know, doesn't really like it. It's not her favorite look. She probably worked here. But she's like, I don't love it. Like, it's probably the last time I'm going to do it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. One and done. She was like joking that it would be like the, the one most kind of, you know, she was hoping she'd win the tournament, so we remembered like that. But yeah, and so the report. And she also said that, she also said, I think, meaningfully that she just hadn't had time to do her hair. Yeah. Part of the reason she's wearing this. Yeah, which is obviously where, you know, she's got her natural hair out. She, if you've seen, even in just a tennis context, the Williams says she was showing up wearing hats, you know, at different times. Yeah, that's something to trackable. Yeah, yeah. So yeah, the report I made a comment about. Basically, he agreed that he didn't like the, the hat, the look. He looked weird. You look weird?

19:13Yeah. And I think it was, like, I think it was an attempt at a joke. But it was just too overly familiar. And I think it, you know. You know, you're just kind of like negative and mean about how to hear it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And completely unnecessary. Yeah. Completely unnecessary. And when you, I didn't, you know, the kind of, the stigma and, you know, the kind of, say, microaggressions that black women get with regards to their hair. Like, there are a lot of layers to this. And why it really, I mean, I think. The sensitive topic. Yeah, it's a sensitive topic. And why it, I mean, it made me, you know, it was really cringe and, and, and she had every reason to feel, even though she didn't like, I would leave, you know, responsibility. She kind of nervously laughed during it. Yeah. And then you can sort of see her face reform a little bit after it. Yeah. And we were both sitting at the back of the road. We're not, like, we were quite far apart, but we immediately kind of exchanged, like, shocked glances. Yes. A bit horrified. And I also looked at the fairly shocked moderator as well,

20:14who is also a black woman. Yeah. And so, yeah. And, you know, I don't normally compliment you. I don't, you know. And you don't. No, no, no, no. You were very reluctant to compliment me on anything. Yeah. But I do think you, you, you, you, you handle that well. Because I was, you know, when, when that happened, I was thinking, after the press conference, I'd, I'd like to speak to her and, you know, you know, say something about it. And, and, and come, you know, whether it's complimenting her hair or something. But by you, I think it was good that you, you know, given her public that criticism, you can say, was of, of her, her choice of heart. Lopsided. I mean, they'll, they'll just kept on going on. But I think you did a good job of, of immediately kind of, you know, referencing it and complimenting her and saying, you know, it was just a look. I think you look nice. Yeah. And she does. You always, you know. She does it. She's a, she's a professional athlete who looks nice. She's a nice looking person. Like, there's nothing like controversial about it. I never thought she looked bad in the eyes. It never looks different.

21:14She also had said, like, it's a point, she's talking about during the week too. Like, it might not be good. It's good in photos, which is true. I think photographers, certainly, sometimes like, when players aren't wearing a hat or a visor, because their faces, easily, easily, easily shot. But, yeah, but anyway, it was just certain. And she, and when I said that, she was like, she, like, loosened up. You could see her, like, exhale and say, like, thank you. And, but yeah, and I think she also, like, I mean, she, like, it was a long extended laughter. I don't think you've ever seen her, like, just kind of burst into laughter, like that. And I think that was also a kind of a delayed reaction to the initial comment, which on the show was just like, what, you know, I'm sure she was. Yeah. And so, you said that. And then, I mean, the actual question was, you know, I was great to be asked about the ATP players. Larger Americans. I think some Americans have adopted this too. This thing that ATP players do of saying that if you lose somebody three times in a row, or if you beat someone three times in a row, a person who wins three times in a row gets that, quote, unquote, dad status, or daddy status. No, I won't. I have heard both. Stop, stop, stop, stop. So, so you said, like, guess that status?

22:15She immediately stops you. She's like, yeah, I was like, no, no, no. Save it, save it, save the words. Save the words. Like, daddy doesn't. Coco Gough made me say daddy at a press conference, which is great, which is great. And then her answer was great to that too. Yeah. She wants to say that we're dominatrix. I never imagined. Um, so those are both, so that was like a viral clip. Um, by the way, I put the exchange and then, and then that answer finishes. She's having a lot of fun. And then you, my microphone goes to you next, and you say, by the way, I agree with that. And she laughs again. Yeah, yeah. It was a nice moment. Yeah. I put it on my, by the way, my burgeoning Instagram, people want to follow. At Ben Rothenberg writes. I put this stuff. They're trying to do more Instagram stuff. Also, for video stuff, like, we generate so much content for these tours. Like, those moments were something. Yeah, yeah. My questions, like, I feel good about it. But yeah, I think people, you know, and there's, I have no, like, personal issue with, with the, like, the reporter in general, I have a, you know, cordial and pleasant, like, work in relationship in the press room, but whatever. But I think people need to be a lot more conscious of how you're speaking to, I mean, people in general,

23:15particularly when, you know, it's an older man speaking to a 22-year-old black woman, or a 22-year-old woman, then to your person. Like, I think there needs to be a bit, a lot more consideration, because I think that was, honestly, I thought that was really bad. And I think it also speaks to, so we talked about for it, in terms of press conference. We talked about this at the, apparently, I'll show you an open, around the political questions there. The press conference speaks, even if here, we're not putting everything on YouTube right away. There's tournament, there have been some pirate versions of press conferences, which make it out. But even here, like, the press conference becomes its own moment, right? Like, you're on the record at all times, so if you're holding the microphone, it becomes immediately on record. And this event didn't really seem to, to go viral beyond a couple hundred likes, whatever I got on Instagram, for the video, didn't roll up in a big way. But still, I thought it was, it's just a notable sort of, sort of, a moment. And her father, I think, I think he was scrolling, yes. The more he got, he pointed this out, he used to be out of this yesterday. Corrigoff, his father,

24:15did not speak very much publicly anymore. He's kind of, he's a very low profile, but he commented on that video, of my video of the press conference moment. He said, the audacity. Yeah. Yeah. So he was clearly not happy. So that clearly bothered the Gaussian, as it should, like, I mean, it was, again, like this sort of, like, this derogatory sort of mean, comment, it just was unnecessary. Yeah. And frankly, it reminds me of, like, the type of comments that, back in the day before, or time would have, the Williams system. The Williams system. Yeah. Yes, exactly. That is, you know, it's that kind of, I mean, macro, like, Russian even. Yeah. It was, it was a lot. It was a lot. The, the dryers, whether you're getting louder on court, hopefully, this is still okay, but the louder version of dryers are happening now. So hopefully, you all can still hear us. I think you can. Just atmosphere. Yeah. We are live here at the Miami of the Narrow Stadium. Let's briefly talk about the men. As these are the men are not finished. So we will add back in, let's sort of, like, the full rein out of this term, and we'll add back in a little clip of us talking about the men's final,

25:15how it shakes out. That will be, again, extended against the years you let's go. Let's talk about that side of the draw first. Let's talk about that side of the draw first. Let's talk about the semi-finals. Sorry, I made it to the final, excuse me, beating Arthur Fees in the semi-finals. Six-two, six-two. Very comfortable win for him. And then you would have been a really kind of dreamy run for Arthur Fees, beating the best match in the term, and I would say, in terms of high-stakes, throws at the end, winning over, probably Paul, after coming back, being out six-two in the third set, tie-break, saving four match points in a row, winning that match on the stadium court. We'll watch that with, that watch that was getting Nathan, who was in town, which was nice to see him here. And yeah, it thoughts on Arthur Fees, the son of French tennis, and his return, because he has returned to being a relevant in the conversation player, after being very much not that well, he was obviously off-door. Yeah. So I'll say, like the last time I spoke to him free, before he's in the middle of his injury, after the French open, was in Cincinnati,

26:16I wanted to interview him, do a feature on him, so we ended up chatting for quite a long time. And it was funny, like after the interview, afterwards I asked him, it was like, it was media day, like probably like four PM, and he had a practice scheduled, and I asked him, like, are you going to practice now? And he was like, I'm not sure. And the practice was scheduled, so I was like, huh. And then, within 10 hours, he was out of the tournament, out of Winston-Salem, and then, you know, it was clear that he was going to be out of the US open, and then he didn't play for another like five months. And it's been, it was eight months out in total, essentially, from the French open until February. There was a lot of kind of rumors and just discussion about how bad this back injury was, and a lot of just pessimism about whether he would, you know, particularly considering his, the way the physical nature of his game and the explosive nature of his game that he'd be able to, his body would survive it, basically. And so just seeing him, you know,

27:16the last two months now, I couldn't be more impressed, really, just, I mean, firstly, he's come back, like, he's, he used that time off to try and be better, and he's changed a lot. He's changed his service motion. It's now, like, a longer motion. He's changed his forehand. It's now more compact, so that he can absorb pace better, because it was, I mean, when he first came into his form, it was really big. He's, you know, he's, he's changed his movement, a lot. He's sliding on his back and side now, and he's, he's dropped a lot of weight. You know, in order to completely like to alleviate, you know, he was very muscular before to alleviate that kind of pressure on him. And he's hardly a twig now, so he's still got, he's still, you know, he's got to be more, he's on the upper, you know, top half of terms of tennis player muscularity. Yeah. I would say he's not no longer, yeah, as big and as thick as he was, but he's still, not a shrinking violet out there. Yeah, but he's, and he really, you know, it's today that he has come back, you know, playing great tennis, you know, first region, the final, then caught a fine on him in Wells,

28:17and his first Masters, 1,070 final here. I think he has the game to do, you know, clearly to be a top-down player and above, and to five and, and compete, and compete against the best players in the world, just both in terms of his weapons, his athleticism, you know, his forehands just enormous, as the discusses, his back ends really good as well. But also his mentality, and I think we saw that in the feast, sorry, in the Tommy Paul match, where he's down 26, he's having a horrible return in there. He had, he generated one break point in the time match, and that was match point. Yeah. And five-six and the third. Five-six and the third. But like when, so he was barely winning return points, he was that much. Yeah, when he was down 26, like he, he, he found, he dragged himself over the finish and like one, well, four, five points in a row from, from 26 down. Yeah, six points in a row. Six points in a row. Sorry, yeah. Good. And yeah, just, I think that really showed what he's capable of. I think that's, there's obviously, I mean, it's still early in his comeback.

29:17It's this, there's still a lot more, he needs to improve on that. He talked about how, you know, when, when, you know, when he's feeling good, mentally and physically, it's great, but when he isn't, that's, that's when things can unravel quickly. And, and in those big, there's three runs he had that happened, you know, against Alcoraz, against Zraven. Alcoraz, in the middle of finals, Zraven in New Wales, and then, the Hedger here, where he was just dismantled 6-2-6-3 by the Hedger. He, he, I mean, he's still 21, he has more to develop, but, honestly, it's, it's one to see a French tennis player who, just mentally, you know, I don't know, mentally, I'm leaving that match and you said, oh my god, a mentally strong French tennis player. Yeah. Basically, no, you know, it's, basically, that would suggest, it's totally fair. Yeah. It's not, normally, they're 4K, as they tend as people. So, maybe that the Master is 1,000 Final...... How did anybody supposed to do, none of the wins were shocking, but he took care of business because after

30:18beating Taylor Fritz, which was a big win, when Fritz, after Alcharez went out to the quarter, we talked about that on the last show, really opened up the top half of the draw, Fritz was the highest seed left at number six, and then once Flaherch could beat Fritz, it was very sort of sound-win, especially in 6-2 and the third. He was the highest seed left going into the quarter finals from the top half at number 21, right? Alcharez was an unexpected roster, Landa Loosa was in the quarter finals with him, that was when he should have, and then beating Feats was when he could have to. So Alcharez could do some very sort of business-like player, you know, got a lot of very solid fundamentals, not the flashiest player, not someone who I think has made, honestly, a big impression with fans of the public per se, which is an incredibly solid player, and a likeable person to add and talk to him, tongues, maybe once or twice before this term, but talking to him here, he's very, if you sit in his own way, he's very chatty, he's very clearly interested in tennis, and passionate about talking about it, so I just kind of liked him as a, you know, spending a little more time with him than I had before at this tournament, I've enjoyed him.

31:18And we'll see how it goes from the final, we'll go back with that, some pre-final thoughts on the end of the center while we're here, he's just rolling, right? That, yeah, was that Flaherch can say, I can't even, you know, I think it's Flaherch who consecutive sets coming into a final, a record in Masters 1000s. So yeah, he's playing great tennis, he's, he's, but yeah, I think, yeah, the scene has been, been rolling, I'm playing great tennis, I think the most impressive thing for me has been his serve, which is, you know, he seems to have, at least for the moments, has taken to another level, he's served brilliantly against Zerav in the semi-final, Zerav played great against him, was a great playing, you know, from the Australian Open, playing the aggressive tennis that he's been trying to play against the top players, but seeing us serve really well in the key moments, and then in the match, I think he went on a run of like 10 first serves in a row and just shot Zerav out on his service points, particularly in the 2nd set, so he's playing great and, yeah, he's on the verge of history and, yeah, we'll

32:24check back in. Yes, we'll check back in after he possibly went into zone, some trend up, we'll, we'll check expectable. We'll see. Let's see what's coming. And let's put the conclusion of that here, whatever happens. We're back. The Miami Open men's singles final has ended with, yeah, Xerna winning 6-4, 6-4 to complete his sunshine double. I should also mention, we had mentions before, because I hadn't finished before, Townsend and Siniac have also won a sunshine double here, winning both in the loose doubles, but some of the men, to many of what were your thoughts on this match, if any. My thoughts were, I mean, it was quite a routine win for Sino in the end. It's funny, the head should come into the final having not dropped his set, save all the nine break points, serve him brilliantly, backing up with his first right with his plus one shot really well, playing great, two games in, he lost his serve, he's dragged back down by the best returner in the world, and from there, it's tough, I think he actually bounced back really well, and he found real moments on his serve, he held his serve from

33:31that point on until 4-3, trying to take the first try, trying to attack, had some opportunities as well on Sino's serve, he had right after that first break, he had lost 40 on Sino's serve, and then in the second set, 4-3, lost 30 on Sino's serve, that lost 40 in the first set, unbelievable serve in from Sino's. Sino's been serving, this has been the best serving performances of Sino's career, and that kind of, the way he dug himself out of that low 40 hole was just demonstrated it, and then again, at 4-3 in the second set, to LeHeshka, Sino just, that down, even at that point in the game, he had a couple of errors, looked a bit shaky, but to me I just didn't have any doubt that he'd find a way through, you know? That's the thing, this match had no suspense, like it was good, and I think that LeHeshka did very admirably.

34:33Especially when you think of how I went for him at Roland Garros last year, we lost love on him too. Yeah, we've done 6 love, 5 love, so he didn't perform badly, but this is just a lot of love on him. By those standards, and those are crazy standards, hold anyone to, but I think that it's hard, we're still in a term, we're still allowed on here, but I think yeah, I think this is a match that's both heartening for LeHeshka that he could, you know, knock you blown off the court, and also disheartening for the field, but the gap is still this big, that we still have the streak continues, of whenever Okra and Sino both play a tournament, one of them wins, right? That streak was in jeopardy here, when Okra and Sino went out very early in the third round of this tournament, and now it's, it continues onward, and all the next play in Monte Carlo were presented with together, both of them, and I imagine the streak would continue there, I mean, so, and actually the other thing on their level, we just put it in the duopoly terms, is that Sino is now about 1500, a little bit over, or 1500 points behind Okra's and the rankings, and Okra's is defending the champion in Monte Carlo, also is defending a final in Barcelona, after that, neither of them played Madrid, and they both made the finals of Rome and Paris afterwards, and Okra's winning both of those finals, so Sino

35:36kind of has pole position for number one. This shit is on. Yeah, it's on, it should be good. Yeah. But on that, as you said, the duo played it's continued, but I mean, it's obviously that one of the kind of most interesting parts of this season is the fact that they've won every tournament, Sino and Okra have won every tournament, they've been, you know, they've played it, and one of them has played it, but they haven't played each other, with three months into the season, and they haven't played each other yet, after they, you know, they couldn't avoid each other, you know, at their tours in, in the second half of last year, so, but I mean, that also just goes to show how, how just difficult it is, to topple them, you know, if, even if one of them has a bad, bad week, even if one of them, you know, gets out played, even, is that going to happen twice, how often is that going to happen twice in a tournament, and how, and particularly how often is that going to happen twice in a best of five tournament, when it's even tougher, I think, to face them. So, in a weird way, this, like, the fact that they haven't faced each other, only further kind of reinforced their dominance over the tournament, in a different way.

36:39So, yeah, so, yeah, and that's how it's going to continue, right? I should say also, you know, it's funny, we talked about this, I think, earlier this year, since obviously started the year, by his ridiculously high standards, in, in, not as great form, semi-final to Djokovic, where he, I mean, he was struggling physically in a five-setter as, as much as of 38-year-old man, who's been around for 57 years, and then, of course, he lost in the quarter finals of, of though hotter, Yezilaheshka, and, sorry, Czech Republic, Czech Republic, Czech, you know. But, yeah, but obviously, you saw, like, after those two results, just two results, such as the most ample science, there was some, you know, it's, you know, it's, it's, it's, it's cloned, yeah, and it's too confusing for him. Yeah, well, this is a, you know, he is, despite what some of his rivals or opponents, like, yeah, you have one second might say, he's not a rival, he's a human, but it's going to

37:39be as high as his standard saw, there will be dips, same with Alcoras, we obviously lost in the third round here, but the season's long and it's no surprise at all that he's found his level and just been not just playing great tennis but being so dominant against everyone else, so yeah. Cinder Alcoras speed round for you. Will the two of them win all the remaining majors this year, all three are random majors? Yeah. Well, they both play tournament, neither from when at this year, where? When? Shanghai. Oh, okay. I'll say yes to the first one, I'll go earlier on the second, I'll say Cincinnati. Yeah, that's right, I was going to say like maybe like one trio, but I think at least one of them will skip it again, maybe both. Time will tell. Yeah. Alright, that was our insert. A couple other sort of notes notable that Taylor Fritz pulled out of Monte Carlo just been tracking this for a while, Taylor Fritz trying to play through injury a lot of this year.

38:40For push pull within his team, I think with him wanting to keep playing and his team wanting to pull back. Will had Monte Carlo, he's just been playing through knee tendinitis, various other injuries going on as well, and him just trying to tough it out, you know, I wrote this story for bounces during the first week or midway to the tournament about some of his switch comments about healing, being high tea, which I enjoyed, just sort of his own sort of interesting approach to, you know, often toxic masculinity and sports that he could have a different or a shoot, but this is I think a little bit adjacent to that, like him constantly wanted to push through, not wanting to rest, not wanting to show signs of what he does when he thinks he can play, even if it might be the easier thing to do long-term. But he's honest about saying it's hard, you know, the FOMO is real, if you're, if you're feel like you can play at all, feel on the sidelines and let people win, you know, points and prize money while you're not there, he's made a semi-final thing once before Monte Carlo, he doesn't want to sit out clay, even though grass is his best service and then hard courts after that. Yeah. So he's someone I've been tracking to see what's going on there, and either thoughts on the AKP before we do a very quick hit on the top 10, wrap up. Okay, so last thing I want to cover on this episode is just about one thing's been bubbling

39:44out of the surface here, we both are going to write about this in the future I think, about the ATP and WTA top 10 players doing a sort of campaign that's being orchestrated by the tours and by some PR and strategy consulting companies, we're working with them, about being more as spoken about getting more money from the majors, not just for prize money, but also for money for pension programs, for player welfare programs, and why the big tournament sort of pay equally into that as the tour events do, because they don't contribute to those sorts of ATP and WTA lead pension programs in the lake. What are your thoughts on this? And obviously it's been very interesting seeing the mix of this wide range of player articulativeness and willingness to cover this, certainly the lowest being actually, this in the center, say, no comment. I asked him about it. I asked him a question about it, he really answered, being in the program and then I said, are you optimistic about it? He said, I don't want to comment on that, and you really burst out laughing, I mean, I did, and I think he like, maybe because I was laughing as well, I think he realized

40:47that he probably couldn't answer that if he wanted to, but it doesn't help the cause to be no commenting when they're kind of very intentionally in this, like, let's get the word out about this movement phase of the project. Especially when it's being kind of just kind of touted and packaged as, you know, the top 10 players on both tours working together to push through this thing. And of course, was he great on it either? No, yeah, he didn't want to talk about it either. So yeah, and I mean, in general, I think that there are, you know, people tend to look at the top 10 players who are almost, all of them are filthy millionaires who are earning great, filthy millionaires, filthy millionaires, filthy millionaires, but by like, they're earning a lot of money, right? And so there's not a lot of sympathy towards any, you know, any sort of kind of movement that is based on wanting more money, but I think there are valid kind of qualms and concerns about Grand Stamps contributing more towards, you know, things like pay a welfare towards

41:52and contribute more of the finances and certainly having conversations, which I do, you know, it's been, it's been a year now. I think this started around Miami last year and it does seem like, at least if the representatives around the players from their perspective, the slams have just been delaying and haven't been willing to actually properly sit down and have like meaningful serious conversations about the issues that they put forward. So yeah, I think there are valid qualms, but at the same time, it's definitely, you know, it's less impressive when, you know, we hear about how this, this, this planet initiative yet. It works all of the players around it and then they don't back it up. And some did, obviously, like Jack Draper was very articulate about it, he was actually one of the better ones, Jessica Pagula obviously, well, no, he's very hands on with poor leadership stuff. So we'll see how it goes. I think we'll find out a couple of months, yeah, if there's been a meaningful increase

42:54from the French Open Wimbledon, which I'm not announcing, prize money, out of none, that's other contributions. And also, I think it comes down to Buntland, like how willing the players really are to desert a pressure, obviously the ultimate pressure for labor in the situation is to walk away, to not work. Will they be that motivated? I don't know, but in terms of increasing the, in terms of increasing the pressure right now, all they're doing is leaving emojis on social media videos, and I don't know that's going to get it done. I don't think they're either not. Let's see what's coming. Let's see what's coming. And at the end of this episode, we'll thank our backers. Just thank our Patreon backers. We think every episode for supporting ncrpatreon.com slash no challenges and raining. We thank them. Every show the ones who are at our slam champ level and above, and they are Sean Mulroy, Leah Williams, Mary Crillo, Yuma, James Hindle, Jonathan Weinbaum, Greg Rails, Timothy Liu, Antonio May Comber, and Sean Simeon, and our go backers, Pam Shriver, and J-O-D. Any final thoughts on the Miami open while we have you here? I think I'm just kind of repeating what we said in the previous, the previous, previous

43:56broadcast about, like I really enjoy the vibe here. I think, you know, I'm enjoying Miami. I think the, again, like the, the different people, the, just the variety of, you know, nationalities. How multicultural is it? Yeah, it's, it's, it's, it's, it's a, it's a different, like, audience to, to, to, many of the tennis events, including, including in the States, including, for example, in Indian Wells, but it needs, it needs a bit of venue. It just needs a bit of venue. I'm sorry. Yeah. I was talking to them today. I think there's some really interesting and useful things about this space, like how much, there's nowhere, no venue on tour as much indoor square footage as this tournament, and they, they can spread out a lot and have a lot of people, a lot of space. So, for me, the main stadium just doesn't cut it in terms of a place to watch tennis. That's not it. If they would, if they would build a secondary stadium out on the grounds, and, and have it be, you know, a 15,000 seat stadium, they could have some permanent footprint, or even

44:57grandstand, which has some permanent footprint in your round, they don't tear that fully down. If you build that out, I would just like for the tournament to stay out of the, the actual playing field of the stadium. I think that's just not a nice place to watch tennis on this land. I would just, well, okay, I think the state, if you're buying tickets to this tournament for 2027, I would highly highly recommend if you're buying stadium tickets to buy them on the temporary part. That's a pretty much temporary part, yeah. Sure, it's ugly, but it's a nice, it's a good place to watch tennis from in terms of fantasy. It's a nice, steep seat. Yeah, I was just up there, yeah. Yeah, it's good, but the, but the permanent football stadium part I would not recommend, honestly. No, but it's just, I mean, the whole thing, it's just so, it's such a contrast compared to the, the so many purpose builds, you know, stadium complexes on, on tour at Masses 1,000 level. Yeah. 2,000 level, particularly. Again, I'm, I'm just repeating myself, but particularly at this time when they're, they've all expanded and become bigger and are trying to position themselves as, as these massive events. Brian, did you go to new Paris indoors last year? No, I haven't been yet. Okay. For that, I might have similar issues. Yeah.

45:57Because it's in a rugby stadium. So the site lines might not be great either. Yeah. TBD. I'm going to probably go there this year. Yeah. Let's see what's coming. Let's see what's coming in honor of Yannick's dinner. Uh, and thank you. Thank you. Thank you.